Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two

by Jennsen, G. S.

  “This is an outrage! I have a right to notice and a defense!”

  The other MP succumbed to the peer pressure and joined his colleague at Foster’s side. “Sir, please come quietly or we’ll have to place you in restraints.”

  Liam sneered malignantly. “Yes, Foster. Think of the morale of your men and women. It wouldn’t do for them to see you being dragged through the halls like a common criminal, now would it?”

  Foster snarled at him ineffectually but acquiesced to the MPs urging him toward the door. As he passed, Liam clasped him on the shoulder.

  Foster shrunk away, but it didn’t matter. The purpose of the gesture was to place a small nanoweave on his uniform, one which scrambled the man’s outgoing comms so long as the jacket remained in a five meter vicinity, ensuring they never reached their intended audience. The garment would stay close to Foster for long enough, Liam hoped.

  After they departed he roamed around the office, counting down the seconds until Foster would be far enough away to not trouble him further. When his mental timer hit zero he pivoted and headed back out, waving to the stunned secretary on his way by. “You’re dismissed. Go home for the day.”

  He allowed no one to distract him on this traversal of the Command Building and was out the back door and headed to the hangar in less than thirty seconds.

  Despite being surrounded by meadows, the sprawling hangar complex did present an impressive sight. The paint had barely dried it was so new; it made the forty-year-old complex on Deucali look regrettably drab by comparison.

  It was also a hotbed of activity, with soldiers bustling around hauling in gear and supplies and foodstuffs and mechanics effecting repairs. Most of NW Command had been recalled in anticipation of shipping out east. The Second Crux War was over and there were aliens to fight.

  The chaos was going to aid him, though the notion of Solovy throwing the entire Earth Alliance military at a bunch of aliens irritated him greatly. He shuddered to think of how the Southwestern Headquarters was surely being stripped bare and left a ghost town. Were he back on Deucali he’d put a stop to it, but there were more important matters at stake now.

  Five cruisers were docked end-to-end along the far left side of the hangar. The Akagi hung at the front of the line. But first things first. He sent a message to the captain of the Yeltsin and began making his way down the long double-row of frigates.

  The XO of the Yeltsin was reviewing stocking reports with the master sergeant beneath the hull. He caught Liam’s approach out of the corner of his eye and snapped a salute, which Liam returned.

  “General O’Connell, it’s an honor to see you again. I didn’t realize you were on-base.”

  “Good to see you, too, Major.” Major Peltski had been stationed on Deucali four years earlier, doing a two-year stint in Space Logistics. He was a competent officer and Liam had gotten along with him as well as he was capable of getting along with anyone. More importantly, Peltski was a follower. He could carry out even difficult orders with efficiency and skill but displayed little in the way of initiative or ambition.

  “Peltski, I’m here with good news. Your captain received a reassignment as XO of the Brandenburg. You’re receiving a field promotion to Lt. Commander. The Yeltsin is yours.”

  “Sir, I…I don’t know what to say. Thank you, sir.”

  The other key facet of his plan was very simple, and the most basic of all rules in the military: subordinate officers did not question the orders of generals. It had been true for millennia and was no less true today.

  “You deserve it, Lt. Commander. When will you be ready to ship out?”

  “Another hour, hour and a half tops.”

  “Excellent.” He leaned in and lowered his voice. “I’m here on top secret orders from the Prime Minister and EASC Board. I need the Yeltsin to accompany the Akagi on a secret mission. You’ll receive the details once we’re spaceborne.”

  Peltski regarded him solemnly. “I understand, sir. It will be an honor to serve with you.”

  “I appreciate it. Now if you’ll excuse me, much to do and little time to do it in. Make sure you are out of dock by 1430.”

  He pivoted and continued down the row, grimacing from the effort being so hideously cordial for such a length of time and from the thought of having to do it a second time in mere minutes.

  Liam barreled up the ramp to the Akagi. The captain of the Chinook had been dispatched to the third cruiser and a sympathetic XO, Major Charlton, similarly promoted. Now for the final step in this initial phase.

  He was met at the hatch by a female officer, though it didn’t appear intentionally so. The woman was traversing the hall and spun in apparent shock at finding a general in the entryway.

  “Name and rank, Marine.”

  “Captain Brooklyn Harper, 1st NW MSO Platoon, on loan to the Akagi, sir.”

  He reminded himself to be polite. Those serving on the ship would be under his command in tense circumstances, and it was best to not actively encourage disloyalty or disobedience. “Captain Harper, can you show me to the Commodore?”

  He saw her mouth twitch, though she quickly squelched it. Special Forces types weren’t generally accustomed to being relegated to escort duty, but that was not his problem. “Yes, sir. Follow me.”

  Commodore Tinibu met him at the door to the CO office, clearly having been alerted to Liam’s approach—presumably by Harper. His salute was grudging. “General, welcome to the Akagi. We’re busy getting ready to ship out, but what can I do for you?”

  “I’m commandeering this ship for a special mission. You can go see General Foster about a reassignment.”

  “Excuse me? Sir? We ship out in half an hour. It’s rather late to be changing mission parameters now. What is this mission regarding?”

  “The details are above your pay grade, Commodore. Now, as you said, we are shipping out in half an hour. So if you’ll excuse me, I have a ship to captain.” With that he brushed past Tinibu and headed for the bridge.

  Tinibu would ping Foster. Receiving no response, he would head to the Command Building. No one would know where Foster had gone or why he couldn’t be reached.

  Liam would be in space long before anyone began to suspect something might be awry.

  As Fionava’s sun receded in the edge-to-edge viewport and the blackness of space took its place, Liam retired to the CO office. Though there had been rampant confusion among the officers on board, the departure itself was executed with a minimum of drama.

  He drew in a readying breath and requested Peltski and Charlton on holo.

  His expression was properly grave as he addressed them. “Gentlemen, I’m now able to fill you in on our mission. The Second Crux War isn’t as over as the media and official public statements may have led you to believe. The Prime Minister and the EASC Board have determined it is necessary to teach the Federation a lesson, one which will make them think twice about attacking us in the future.”

  “But sir, I thought a peace treaty was signed?”

  “It was, more or less, but our mission has nonetheless been approved at the highest levels. These actions are extremely clandestine. We will run dark, with no communications allowed beyond our three ships. Spies are everywhere, and if word leaks out too early then Seneca will be alerted to our plans. We can’t allow that to happen. Therefore, I’m implementing a full communications blackout beyond a four megameter radius, effective as of now.

  “Our first target will be the Federation colony of New Cairo. Set a course.”

  62

  SIYANE

  UNCHARTED SPACE

  * * *

  “YOU’RE INSANE.”

  “It’ll work.”

  “Which does not alter the fact that you are insane.”

  Alex gave him her most beguiling smile. “You said that wasn’t a problem. In fact, you said it was one reason you thought I was, and I quote, ‘kind of amazing.’”

  “I did. And I meant it. But the fact still remains.”

&nbs
p; “Look. The rules of this place are the same as those in our galaxy. The laws of physics will hold.”

  “And the portal itself?”

  She worried at her lower lip. He didn’t give a damn what she said, the issue concerned her as well. “The portal, whatever it really is, shouldn’t be a problem. Since it’s our portal we don’t have to worry about the shift in axes. And if it is a problem, it’ll be a blip. Even if it knocks us out of superluminal, by the time it happens we’ll be parsecs away. Far enough.”

  He found he was on his knees before her once more, and he didn’t care. Still, his chest tightened when she lowered herself from her chair to meet him as an equal.

  “You realize we could die, simply by going through.”

  She groaned as her forehead dropped to rest on his. “You’re seriously pulling out that line again? We’ll be fine. Promise.”

  “I believe you.” He kissed her softly and let her go.

  She climbed back in her chair, ran a hand down her hair, straightened her shoulders…and activated the sLume drive.

  They were lined up for a straight shot through the portal. An army of ships approached from behind them and more waited on the other side.

  At speeds such as this there was no margin for error. Mere meters off and the warp bubble would graze the ring and they would be dead, though at least they’d probably take out the portal with them.

  Their speed was so great they had no perception of traversing the portal or warping past the alien ships which lay in wait for them. But eventually they had traveled long enough to be either well outside the center of Metis or have missed the portal altogether and be somewhere else.

  Eyes wide, she disengaged the sLume drive and engaged the impulse engine so they wouldn’t be a sitting target. As soon as the stars solidified around them she was a flurry of movement, checking readings and location.

  Abruptly she sank back in her chair in winded laughter.

  “We’re okay?”

  The laughter devolved into full-on giggles as she gazed over at him. “Holy shit, I can’t believe that actually worked.”

  “What? You insisted it was a sure thing!”

  “Are you kidding? I was terrified. I had no idea if it would work. I mean, I thought it would work—it should have worked—but it’s not like anyone’s ever done something like this before.”

  They both stood at the same time, meeting in the middle of the cockpit.

  He chuckled against her lips. “God I love you, woman.”

  “Good. Want to go save the galaxy?”

  “Hell, yes. Where to first?”

  “First we send a message. Someone needs to be told what we’ve done and quickly.”

  “True. I’m not sure—”

  “Hold on. Messages are pouring in, which means my little trick on the comm system worked.” She laughed in amusement. “What do you know, she did remember….”

  At his questioning stare she projected an aural. “It’s one of a hundred or so messages from her, but this one was marked ‘super-incredibly-seriously-urgent.’”

  Alex,

  You remember that project we did—well, you did—at university on quantum field interference? Well something similar is how the aliens are screwing up the exanet. Shield your comm unit; we’re shielding all of ours as fast as we can manage.

  God I hope you’re alive.

  — Kennedy

  “I’m dying to find out what else is happening, but first to reply. Then we need to keep moving.”

  Ken,

  Way ahead of you. Also alive. We obliterated their superdreadnought factory. Reinforcements will NOT be arriving anytime soon. Tell my mother. Tell someone. More later.

  — Alex

  He only vaguely noted when she sent the reply off, for his own messages were flowing into his head one after another in rapid succession. Like Alex there were many things he wanted to know, but one particular thing above all. Call him selfish…

  …he exhaled as a surge of relief and adrenaline rushed through his veins. He sank against the half-wall and closed his eyes.

  “You’ve been cleared?”

  He must have been grinning. He reopened his eyes and doubled-down on the grin. “We both have. We’ll still be hunted by a fleet of alien ships and a horde of human traitors but we aren’t fugitives wanted for terrorism and murder.”

  She wound her arms around his waist. “This is a start.”

  “It is. Let’s go finish it.”

  63

  EARTH

  EASC HEADQUARTERS

  * * *

  DEVON JERKED AWAKE.

  Wha…ah shit, he’d fallen asleep sitting at his cubbyhole desk. He checked the time. Nearly midnight. “Emily’s gonna kill me….”

  He unglued his right cheek from the desk and sank back in his chair, rubbing at blurry eyes. Ever since Annie had been cleared for full operation he’d been working almost nonstop.

  The bureaucrats were hyper-paranoid she was going to “get out” and kill them all—as opposed to the aliens who were already out and currently killing them all. They insisted on doubled and in some cases tripled security protocols. Protocols which were interfering with her logic subroutines and slowing down her analyses, which simply would not do.

  Aliens were spreading across settled space and leaders needed hard information yesterday. The orders had come from the highest whatever: make her more secure, while also making her faster.

  Right. Got it. No problem.

  Emily was going to kill him. The alien attacks had her nervous. Skittish. She possessed a creative mind and an artist’s view of the world. It made her a crafty hacker because she viewed problems from a different perspective, and also a beautiful painter, but an artist’s view of the world was not always rooted entirely in logic. She was frightened. He got that.

  He stood and stretched, and only then realized what had awoken him. A message from Annie blinked in his vision. The priority coding vibration had jolted him out of his slumber.

  Errors are occurring in the communications network on Fionava.

  He opened a direct channel to her. “Annie, what kind of problems?”

  Messages and data are becoming garbled, cut off before completion, or not being sent or received at all.

  “It can’t be the aliens, can it? No way are they all the way over at Fionava?”

  Negative. The errors do not match the interference seen in the vicinity of alien ships.

  “Good. Talk to me. What’s your analysis?”

  Early investigation suggests an 87.6% likelihood a virus has infected the central communications network at the Regional Headquarters. Errors of varying severity are being introduced into the system at a multiplicative rate.

  “Can it get out? Is it in danger of infecting our communications here?”

  Unlikely. The corruption appears to be occurring at the Fionava node, whether it be incoming or outbound data.

  “Well that’s good. Still, pass a recommendation to Security to implement a firewall around Fionava. I’ll tell Tech to try to talk to Comms at the base on Fionava and figure out what’s up. Continue analyzing the network and see if you can identify the root problem, but don’t divert resources from determining where the aliens are going to kill us next.”

  Was that a joke?

  Annie retained mountains of data on human history, behaviors, conventions and mannerisms. Her internalization of the data showed itself sporadically and often at unexpected times, but more frequently every day. “Gallows humor. I mean, technically it is a more or less accurate statement of your directives.”

  Ah. I see. Though an alien offensive does not guarantee with 100% certainty the death of all humans.

  “Optimism—I like it.”

  Thank you. Instructions implemented.

  “Thanks, Annie. I need to go home for a few hours, but I’ll let Brigadier Hervé know about the problem. She’s in some super-secret meeting right now so it may be a few hours before she can issue you any new dir
ectives.”

  His voice dropped to a mumble as he ran a hand through disheveled hair. It was probably shooting in every direction like he was some loon. “Emily is going to kill me….”

  “What do you mean, they’re not attacking?”

  Rychen forwarded the images he was receiving to Vancouver and Cavare, and a few seconds later they materialized in a long row above the conference table. “I mean they’re not attacking. Eight Metigen superdreadnoughts are in high orbit above Pyxis. They arrived half an hour ago yet are making no move to launch an assault on the colony. Their orbit is, I’m sure quite deliberately, a single megameter outside the range of Pyxis’ small defense array.”

  Prime Minister Brennon’s gaze ran across those present. “This is new behavior, correct?”

  “Certainly it—”

  Marshal Gianno finished conferring with a colleague and returned to her seat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m now getting reports of similar behavior above Brython and Nystad.”

  Miriam looked up sharply at that.

  She was situated in the largest conference room Logistics offered, simply because it was the only room large enough to accommodate so many holos. She had been reviewing the most recent data from ANNIE with Brigadier Hervé; they were considering—considering—allowing ANNIE and STAN to talk to each other. The firewalls and security protocols required to engineer such a conversation were going to be a nightmare to implement, which was one reason Hervé had been invited to the meeting.

  On the various holos were the combined civilian and military leadership of the Earth Alliance and Senecan Federation. The only person of note absent was General Foster, who was a no-show for unknown reasons.

  The meeting had been in session for over two hours, but a number of the finer details had begun to be hammered out for their next steps. It was difficult going at first as disparate leadership styles and procedures and pecking orders had stumbled over one another and tension lingered among those who had been trying to kill each other mere days ago. But eventually the common threat had risen to dominate lesser concerns.