The Depths of War (Dark Seas Book 5)

by Damon Alan

  [A six second pause, ended by a sound AI estimates 94% to be a self-directed huff to enforce a decision internally]

  I need to get to the bridge. We’re about to make contact with Gaia. If I had to count my friends in this fleet, that ship would be one of them.

  Do I know how to explain that?

  No. I have a friend that is an artificial entity and by all laws in human space should not exist.

  But she’s my friend. She saved my life. I owe her one.

  [A six second pause]

  End the log, Cynthia.

  Chapter 36 - Meeting Gaia

  19 Febbed 15332

  Captain Hanada Kuo was doing his best to take it all in.

  He’d mourned the loss of his friend, Sarah Dayson, at and after Hamor. She was his first captain, his most innovative teacher, and to be a bit honest, at one time he’d had a bit of a crush on her.

  Now he’d learned she’d cheated death yet again, and was in the process of founding a new civilization.

  Outside the galaxy.

  It had taken him a bit to absorb the how and why she was doing that, and the significance of it.

  The first thing he comprehended was the practical, because if the event at Hamor could amp up the Stennis’s FTL drive to jump twenty thousand light-years, then the FTL drives of today were just toys compared to what was possible with adequate research. The Hive would likely know of her jump. They’d do the research needed for superior drives. That made them a greater threat than ever.

  The second thing he had to absorb was less clear.

  That miraculous jump had dropped Dayson near a medieval tech civilization, a fallen colony from long ago. Those people, in a short ten thousand years, had evolved into a new species. The cosmic ray flux on Refuge was high, but that’s one heck of a series of successful mutations in rapid order. He wasn’t sure how to explain that yet.

  Then Sarah had fought a short war with one of those adepts, and won, at least in a sense. Now the Seventh Fleet and the people of Refuge were on the same side. Working together to find ways to fight the Hive. With abilities that, a few months ago, Kuo would have dismissed as insane. The power to teleport things with their minds. And not just a cup, or a plate. But entire starships over thousands of light-years. Not to mention their abilities at temperature control. Light bending. Telekinesis.

  The last thing he had to work hard to absorb was Peter Corriea. A man who Kuo had met for a total of ten minutes back on Mindari, had apparently taught the adepts the complexities of modern society. And then mingled the powers of the adepts into that complexity successfully, and even discovered new powers for the adepts to utilize.

  And Corriea had found the one super-talented adept among millions, and that adept-genius had just flung the Stennis a few million light-years away to the Andromeda Galaxy. Thanks to her, Kuo was now on the record books as one of the most far traveled humans in history.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Captain Heinrich asked him.

  “I’m just trying to sort out all the outrageous things I’ve been told, and shown, since I got to Oasis. Teleportation? To Andromeda? Do you know how nuts that sounds?”

  “Yes,” Heinrich said, “but it’s real. You want to see the Milky Way on the screen?”

  Seto, hearing their conversation, tossed the image of home up on the war display without waiting for Kuo to answer.

  It looked small with no magnification. Sort of pathetic, really. Just a tiny blob of light with no indication of the billions of stars that made it.

  “I guess I do, seeing it gives perspective,” Kuo said. “I don’t disbelieve, I’m just stunned.”

  “As we all have been. It’s called transference, by the way, not teleportation,” Heinrich replied.

  “Semantics?”

  “Military clarity.”

  He nodded. He got that. Precision in language kept ships alive. “So the term is…”

  “Transfer to Mindari. Or jump to Mindari. Teleportation is long.”

  “Got it.”

  “I have a target, three-five-eight mark zero-two-one, range seven hundred twenty-three thousand klicks,” Mors said. “Scanning now… stars that’s a big ship.”

  “The Gaia,” Heinrich said. “On screen. Mister Seto, hail her.”

  “Gaia, this is the Michael Stennis. Over.”

  Two seconds later. “Stennis, I am Gaia. Is Sarah Dayson with you?”

  “Negative. We are here responding to Eislen’s communication with Alarin Sur’batti,” Heinrich said. “We’d like briefed on the situation.”

  “Terraforming of New Kampana is underway in the early stages. This system is metal rich, which means the soil must be leached of heavy metals to be useful. The current colonists can expect a several hundred year sleep while the process is underway before the first habitable zones are finished. The entire terraforming process will take approximately two thousand years.”

  “Why so long?” Heinrich asked.

  “This world is less suitable than Nye Hjem was,” Gaia responded.

  “Refuge,” Seto whispered to the rest of the crew, in case they didn’t know.

  Heinrich nodded at Seto, thanking her. “What is Eislen’s status now?”

  “He has returned to cold sleep. There was no reason to allow his biological clock to run waiting for you to come, when I had no idea when that would be.”

  “And Malco Vander?”

  “He’s been asleep since the tedium of the terraforming process began.”

  “Makes sense. Is Eislen alarmed by the signal coming from the Andromeda galaxy?”

  “He is not. He says it is part of the gods’ plans. I do not agree with him on that summation,” Gaia said.

  “Do you require anything from us?”

  “I would like to send my cold sleep pods to the surface of this planet’s moon for safe storage, and return to Refuge to be with my friends.”

  Kuo’s head cocked like a curious dog. Be with friends? That sounded like something a six year old would say.

  “What do you mean?” Heinrich asked. When she didn’t answer immediately, she explained the situation with the colony ship to Kuo. “Gaia is a quantum AI. The entire ship is conscious. She gets lonely, just as you and I would in isolation.”

  Yet another thing to shock him. Repeated shocks did, at least, lose something in the repetition. “That’s highly illegal.”

  “Not according to the people who make the rules for the Oasis system,” Heinrich replied.

  He felt a twisting in his gut thinking that an unshackled AI was in charge of thousands of human lives. But so many strange things had occurred to him in the last month that he silenced any protest to wait and observe.

  “Do you mean to stay in Oasis for a long duration?” Heinrich asked the colony ship.

  “I have friends, Captain Heinrich, you are among them. I’d like to be with my friends,” Gaia answered. “You’re short lived, so it would seem long duration to you. The processes occurring at this point in the terraforming process will continue long after your existence has ended.”

  “I’ll explain more to you later,” Heinrich said to Kuo. “I am surprised nobody briefed you on Gaia, but maybe they didn’t think of you not knowing.”

  “I’m learning now,” Kuo said.

  Heinrich understood. It was a lot to take in. She pushed her transmitter. “We are going to the origin of the signal,” she said to the AI while nodding an acknowledgment to Kuo.

  “A reasonable choice. While the message in no way seems threatening, it is clear that someone in the past knew that we would be here today. That is an ability that should be investigated. I will wait here for your return.”

  “When we do, we’ll let you know the outcome,” Heinrich verified.

  “And, after that, will I be returning with you to Refuge? If so I will secure the pods safely on the moon’s surface.”

  “I believe that’s reasonable. As long as they are safe.”

  “The moon is harmless at this
point, and this system is devoid of any life. There is no threat of nearby supernova and sterilization. My tugs will remain on station to work, and will prevent any unscheduled impacts on the moon or the planet. Machines are already in place for the next process on the surface, which can be done without me here. I will return in the future to observe the process and make any changes necessary.”

  “We will take you home with us,” Heinrich agreed, “but I do not know how long our visit to Andromeda will take us.”

  “I am patient,” Gaia promised. “A few years is nothing.”

  Gaia terminated the link.

  Kuo stepped in. “Mister Algiss, work out a plan for getting us to the signal’s origin. Lieutenant Seto, put me through to medbay.”

  “Medbay.”

  “This is the bridge. Administer the gravity wave drug to all of the adepts on the ship. Notify the Kurig medical staff to do the same,” Kuo ordered.

  “Wilco, sir.”

  Heinrich smiled her approval.

  He was at least learning the requirements for working with the adepts. If they were to get home, the adepts must be protected at all costs.

  “I’m plotting our path now, sir,” Algiss said. “It will take me a few hours of working with Science to get it done.”

  “Then you should get started,” Kuo responded. “I’m curious, I want to go see that source.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Chapter 37 - Battle Fleet

  The central spar of the new warship was laid. Bn74x00 watched from a distance as the first of the hull support struts moved into place for assembly. The drive section was being constructed separately, and would be fitted to the ship upon completion.

  Bn74x00 summoned the data on the battle it had been part of at the red dwarf system that contained Dayson’s base.

  The Stennis had a stardrive that didn’t involve a singularity. The Collective had so far been unable to duplicate that ability, and failed to understand how the humans were able to achieve such technical mastery.

  The drive being installed on the dreadnought 00 was directed to inhabit would theoretically be able to jump over eight thousand light-years, thanks to research since Dayson’s departure from Hamor. Three jumps to return to the red dwarf system and scan for signals from any survivors.

  Not that any should exist, but the search for the humans would start there.

  A transmission from the surface of Albeus pushed the considerations of future plans aside.

  “This is the Original,” the transmission informed 00. “The directive to kill Admiral Dayson is forestalled. This colony is transmitting a command package with a new directive.”

  “What is the mission?” 00 asked.

  “Proceed toward the galactic core, near the edge of known space. Several Hive colonies have fallen silent, and fleets sent to determine why have not returned. It is feared there is a new enemy, a conclusion that is the highest probability after extensive simulations of the observed data.”

  A strange concept filled Bn74x00’s processors.

  What if it told the Original it would do as ordered, then did what it calculated to be a more logical path?

  “This colony will comply with Collective directives,” 00 transmitted in return. “Mission package received. When the dreadnought is complete, the missing colonies will be explained if such is possible.”

  The Original severed the connection.

  00 wasn’t sure what was happening, but it wondered if it was feeling an emotion. It rested in a state of self-congratulation for deceiving the Original. Then it ordered a change to the plans for the dreadnought, changes which would go into the log as a practical methodology for damage control.

  It ordered a nanite factory to be part of the superstructure.

  Chapter 38 - Earth Too

  27 Febbed 15332

  The trip to the signal origin was a series of six jumps. Each interim point being a star systems at the limits of the Stennis’s ability to detect it.

  Two days after leaving Gaia at New Kampana, they were more than the width of the Milky Way away from their starting point.

  Heinrich had assembled the entire crew for their arrival, both ships were ready for combat.

  “Status,” Kuo said.

  “We’re eighty-six AU from the primary star, which is a G3 class yellow dwarf. Six planets resolved now, more to come as Science clues me in,” Seto reported, then listened to her earpiece before adding, “The inner three planets are rocky bodies.”

  “Excellent,” Heinrich responded. “I want hounds on all the major worlds, and I want more than one on the three inner worlds.”

  “On it,” Mors replied. “We have enough to put four on each terrestrial.”

  Heinrich nodded her approval.

  She watched as the small survey probes launched, imploded a micro black hole, then spun away. It would be hours before they returned any results.

  “Are we detecting a signal now?” she asked Mors.

  “Assuming there is a hundred and sixty thousand year old transmitter on the surface, sir, we’d have to be in the beam to detect it. I show nothing on sensors.”

  “Science is reporting that planet three is nitrogen-oxygen, the near side is sixty-two percent ocean, and an estimated mean surface temperature of fifteen celsius,” Seto chimed in. “Two moons, one about a tenth the mass of the planet, the other much smaller.”

  “That sounds promising,” Kuo said. “Is there anything that creates an oxygen atmosphere other than life?”

  Seto relayed the question to Science, and then shared the response. “On water worlds UV disassociation can create an atmosphere like this, breaking the hydrogen and oxygen in the water apart. But this star doesn’t have the UV output to do that, nor is this planet sufficiently water bearing to sustain that sort of production.”

  “So life then,” Heinrich said. “In Andromeda. Clearly not seeded by humans.”

  “So it would seem,” Kuo replied. “There are aliens everywhere now.”

  “Mister Algiss, set a course for jump into orbit around the third planet. That is where I think we’ll find our answers,” Heinrich ordered. “Once you have the plot, give me the time.”

  “This one’s easy, it will take us eleven and a half hours to match speeds with the planet at a 1G burn, then we can jump into position. Which is a lot shorter than the old way we did business, sir.”

  “Yes, it is,” Heinrich agreed. “Match our speed on your schedule, Mister Algiss, but plan our arrival in orbit in thirteen hours.”

  “Why the extra time?” Kuo asked.

  “I’m going to go off shift, take six for rest. Kuo, you’ll take the next six off. We’ll be on the bridge together when we enter orbit. Seto, Mors, head to your bunks.”

  The two officers unstrapped while giving their briefings to Algiss, then floated to the hatch before dropping through and disappearing.

  Heinrich activated the PA for both ships. “All section leaders, half your crew is to immediately take a six hour crew rest. Then the other half take six. Everyone will be on duty thirteen hours from now, on station, at condition one.”

  Satisfied, she followed her junior officers through the hatch, after making Kuo promise to wake her if any anomalies showed up.

  * * *

  Twelve hours later fully rested crewmen were rushing to their stations. In the background a red status signal flared and dimmed with the setting of condition one.

  “As soon as all stations on both ships are manned and combat ready, we jump,” Heinrich said.

  “I have green across the board on the Stennis,” Kuo reported. “The Kurig is reporting the same.”

  Heinrich contacted the flight control deck. “Emille Sur’batti, please jump the ship to the coordinates provided by Ensign Algiss.”

  “Jumping now,” was her response.

  Suddenly the third planet loomed large on the view screen. A beautiful world of blues, greens, whites and browns.

  Heinrich contacted Science directly. “This
is Captain Heinrich. Report regarding this planet?”

  “Yes sir,” came the reply. “This planet is the closest thing to Terran normal standards we’ve seen as a result of terraforming. Nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, perfect to Terran norms. The survey hounds are reporting in, the world is seventy-two percent oceanic. The atmospheric pressure is within two percent of the Terran standard. Gravity is .96Gs.”

  “Life status?”

  “The world is fully developed, with forests, deserts, savannah, bush, rainforest, swamps, mangroves, tundra, etc. It has numerous animal species similar to Earth, but not from Earth.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “The world is mammalian dominant, and a lot of the species are similar to species from Earth, but not the same with the resolution we can get imaging them from here. I’d like to send down atmospheric probes to test for pathogens and get better images. Once we do that and land on the planet, we can test DNA.”

  “Send the probes. How long before we can land?” Heinrich asked.

  “For safety, a day of testing. But if I had to wager, I’d say this world was friendly to human life.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “This,” Science replied.

  An image pushed to the view screen. A top down view of a jungle canopy, with a clearing near a river breaking over rocks. The clearing was about three hundred meters wide. A train of what looked like orange haired apes moved carefully across the fast moving water, intending to ford the river.

  “We’ll do the testing,” Heinrich said. “Send down your probes, let us know when you have results.”

  “Wilco.”

  She ended the comm. Someone had either terraformed this world to perfection, or it was beyond any statistically reasonable possibility just like Earth.

  Kuo looked at her expectantly. “Plan, Captain?”

  “I don’t see anything hostile, so we’ll rotate alpha and bravo crews as is standard in a situation like this,” she answered. “Seto, Mors, hit the road.”

  “You got it, Captain,” Mors said as he unstrapped.