by M. R. Forbes
He wasn’t quite sure how his life had become so complicated so quickly. He decided that when it was over, whatever the outcome, if he was still alive and Edenrise was still standing, he was going to retire here. He would spend every morning looking east to the sunrise, and every night looking west to the sunset, and all the time between appreciative of the fresh air, the blue ocean, and the pure pleasure of being alive.
“Time to go, Colonel Stacker,” Ebion said, sooner than he was expecting.
Had it been ten minutes already?
He reminded himself that his wife had died for the mission he was about to embark on. It was that important to her, and so it had become that important to him. He was resolved to see it through.
And then?
He was resolved to do whatever it took to protect his new home.
Chapter 15
Ebion guided Nathan back down to the lobby of the building. There were more people there now than there had been the night before. They were mostly older men, dressed in clothes woven from new thread, mainly pinstriped suits in dark colors. He didn’t know what their function in the city was, but they stopped what they were doing to watch him pass, their wrinkled faces tilted slightly in an effort to look down on him.
“Who were those people?” he asked once they were clear of the building.
A car was waiting to take them to the Liberator’s base, back near the research facility. It was black and long, with dark tinted glass and a deep red interior which had either maintained its condition over the centuries, or more likely had been replaced.
“You saw them at the party last night,” Ebion replied, sliding into the car beside him. Someone on the street closed the door. “Tinker’s advisors and politicians. They help run the city. You don’t remember them?”
“I don’t remember much about last night besides the sphere. I don’t think they like me.”
“They’re too high on themselves to realize the Liberators are the ones running things. Tinker puts up with them so he doesn’t have to handle the details. He prefers his lab. But they think you’re the competition, so they hold their noses up at you to make themselves feel better.”
Nathan smiled. “I like that perspective. It’s very human, for a machine.”
“Better than very machine for a human,” she said.
Nathan looked over at her. She noticed and glanced at him, smiling. She seems to react to all of his looks with smiles. But then, that’s what artificial companions did, wasn’t it?
The ride only lasted a few minutes, the traffic in the street clearing the way for them as they traveled north to the piers. The vehicle stopped on one of the long, concrete docks, and Ebion slid across the seat and opened the door, climbing out. He joined her a moment later.
“I thought the Liberator base was back there?” he said, pointing further inland.
“The main base is,” she said. “This mission is top secret. Only you, me, General Stacker, and Tinker know about it.”
“Why keep it so quiet? Is Tinker expecting trouble?”
“The more valuable a thing is to him, the closer he holds it to his chest. He’s been betrayed before. Edenrise was almost destroyed once because of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“It happened a long time ago, when Edenrise still relied on walls for protection, instead of the shield. Ancient history.” She pointed to a ramp leading up into one of the old Naval vessels. “They’re waiting for us.”
Nathan followed her to the ramp and up into the ship. They entered a large cargo hold, which reminded him of the hold on the other Navy ship where he had nearly caught up to Hayden. This one was bigger. Much bigger. It was also nearly empty save for a few open crates and some random debris.
“They must already be on the deck,” Ebion said.
“Are we the only ones here?” Nathan asked.
She nodded. “We use a few of the ships to store supplies. This one, CVN-78, is an aircraft carrier. It was used as living space while the city was undergoing reconstruction after the shields went up.”
“An aircraft carrier?” Nathan said. “Where are the aircraft?”
“Most of them were moved to other locations during the war and used against the trife. Many of them crashed when their pilots succumbed to the trife sickness, before anyone knew the creatures were carrying a disease. The few that remained were stripped for parts. Jet fighters are of limited use in this theater.”
She led him through the cavernous hold, through a hatch into a passageway and from the passageway to a ladder leading to the main deck. They emerged back outside onto a long, flat expanse. The Pulse was resting a hundred meters away, its loading ramp extended. James and Tinker were standing at the base of it, talking.
Ebion brought him over to them. There was a stiff wind blowing across the deck, coming in from the ocean. Nathan could smell the salt and brine, and his skin pebbled from the chill in the air.
He loved it.
“Colonel Stacker reporting for duty, sir,” he said as he reached the two men, coming to attention ahead of them.
James smiled at his formality. “At ease, Colonel.”
“Thank you, Ebion,” Tinker said. “Please wait for me by the lift.”
“Of course, sir,” Ebion replied.
“I’ve already loaded our equipment into the Pulse,” James said. “We’re ready to go.”
“You should have brought me over earlier,” Nathan said. “I could have helped.”
Tinker laughed. “You are a Stacker, aren’t you? Shot down, chased, nearly killed. Just learned that we’re fucking pissants compared to some of the other intelligent life out there. And you still don’t want any time off.”
“No, sir,” Nathan said. “Not until the war is over, sir.”
Tinker liked that answer. So did James.
“I told you, sir,” he said to Tinker.
“You were right to bring him in instead of killing him,” Tinker agreed. He rolled over to Nathan, putting out his hand. Nathan took it and shook. “Good luck, Colonel. Good hunting. Call in as soon as you have something.”
“Yes, sir,” Nathan and James said in unison.
“That’s my boys,” Tinker said.
Then he started rolling away, over to the edge of the deck where Ebion was standing. She waved when Nathan looked at her, and he found himself waving back. He caught himself. She was a machine. A robot. He was treating her like a person.
“You like her?” James said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Who? Ebion?”
“No, Doc. Yes, Nathan. Ebion.”
“She’s programmed to be a companion, right? I’m not used to that kind of robot.”
“Tinker’s AI is damned convincing, I know. There's no reason to be ashamed. You’ve been through a lot, and he did make her quite attractive.”
“It’s not that,” Nathan said. “It’s the way she speaks. It’s feels so familiar. Am I crazy for thinking that?”
“I don’t know,” James said. “I’ve never put much energy in love. Maybe that’s crazy.”
“What about Doc?”
“There’s a big leap between love and sex.”
“She loves you.”
“I know.”
“You don’t love her?”
“No. I’m married to the mission, Nathan. It has to come first for me.”
Ebion and Tinker had climbed onto the lift and were sinking out of view. Nathan glanced back at her. What was he thinking, anyway?
“You ready to do this, brother?” James said.
Nathan nodded. “Yeah.”
He followed James up the ramp and into the Pulse. He hit the control pad to close the ramp and continued up and around to the bridge, taking the pilot’s seat while James went to the captain’s chair. It took a few minutes to run through the startup sequence, and then the Pulse came to life.
“Tinker put the coordinates of the old military base into the nav system,” James said. “We go in, we find the site�
�s mainframe, we pull it out and bring it back to Tinker for forensics. With any luck, he can recover enough of the data to get a general idea where they moved the artifact.”
“Roger that. I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Why haven’t you been out to the Nevada site already? Why wait to have the key before gathering the intel on the door?”
“The trials were more important. Tinker wanted me in the northeast, working on that. Now that the trials are over, I’m freed up to take on this mission. He won’t send anyone else to do it.”
“Ebion said he has some trust issues.”
“You would too if your brother was plotting to assassinate you and hand everything you had built over to the Trust.”
“They betrayed him, and he’s still working with them?”
“Was working with them. I told you he hates the Trust, and he has good reason to. But he cares about his mission. His destiny. After he stamped out his brother’s mini-rebellion, he made peace with the Trust because he needed what they could provide. Now that we’re here, he’ll have his chance to get back at them for their treachery.”
Nathan glanced back. “What does that mean?”
James smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Nathan. We have our priorities; Tinker has his.”
Nathan turned back to the displays. He engaged the throttle, the starship vibrating slightly as it started to rise from the aircraft carrier’s deck. He rotated it toward the spire, which was rising into the clouds a few kilometers away.
He adjusted the vector, the starship rising and accelerating toward the tall spike, the launch pattern painted on the primary display.
Don’t worry about it, Nathan.
Statements like that always made him worry more, and this was no exception.
Chapter 16
The Pulse slipped up past the top of the spire, breaking free of Edenrise’s perimeter and the launch path provided to its central computer. Nathan kept it in its spiraling ascent for a few more seconds before straightening out.
“Take a steep ascent into space,” James said.
“You want to go into space? According to the system, our target is thirty-nine hundred kilometers. We can make it faster if we don’t go as high.”
“Understood,” James said. “That’s our ground target. We have other targets to handle first.”
“Other targets? Everything orbiting the planet is dead.”
“Not everything, Nathan. The CSF has low power micro-satellites monitoring everything that gets too high off the planet’s surface. They watch the traffic moving to and from the planet. The Trust disables the transmitters when they drop their ships in so local Space Force outposts don’t know they’re around, but we don’t have that luxury.”
“You’re saying we’re going to be spotted?”
“Affirmative. The CSF will pick us up as soon as we clear six klicks. It’s unavoidable. I don’t know how they’re going to react. We haven’t been in this situation before.”
“But you know how to locate the satellites?”
“The ones we care about, yes. We have access to their transmission keys. Once they start sending they’ll light up like a firefight at midnight. We can pinpoint their location and take them out.”
“What if the CSF sends starfighters?”
“They don’t keep fighters on Earth. What would be the point? The system is intended to track their own ships. Our appearance will be an anomaly they’ll want to check out. If they launch an interceptor it’ll probably be a dropship like the Pulse, but it’s more likely they’ll try to communicate first.”
“And we tell them what?”
“Nothing. We maintain radio silence. Once the satellites are out they’ll lose track of us.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Relax, Nathan. Tinker has this all planned out. We were originally going to make the trip on the ground, but everything kind of fell into place. We have a ship. We have a pilot. It’s the kind of stuff that makes me wonder if Tinker’s visions aren’t just some old man’s wish fulfillment after all.”
“You really think he’s some kind of prophet?”
“I didn’t say that. If I believed that I wouldn’t have asked you to help me deal with him if the need arises. But the way things are developing, I’m hoping we won’t have to follow through. Steep ascent, Colonel.”
Nathan focused on the display, adjusting the dropship’s vector into a sharper climb. He felt the weight of his body being pulled back into the seat as he aimed the front of the ship to the sky and increased the power to the reactor. The ship shook slightly as it passed through some turbulence, smoothing out and continuing to ascend.
“You’re the reason the two of us are here,” James continued. “You’re the reason we’re riding a starship to the site, instead of trying to take an overland route past the trife and who knows what else. You’re the reason I’m not doing this alone. There has to be something to that, doesn’t there? God. Fate. Karma. Or whatever you want to call it.”
“Coincidence?” Nathan offered.
James laughed. “Fuck you, Nate.”
Nathan smiled. The Pulse was rising higher and higher, and as the sky began to darken ahead of them, one of the secondary displays changed over to a forward view, with three red dots lit up against it, spread equidistantly from one another.
“There they are,” James said. “We’ve been made, Colonel.”
The Pulse continued streaking upward. Nathan altered the trajectory slightly, directing the ship toward the first of the dots. He activated the weapons system, beginning to divert power to the plasma cannons mounted on either side of the fuselage.
“The sats are tiny,” James said. “One bolt each should take them out.”
A small LED on the control panel started flashing. Nathan glanced back at James again. “They’re calling us, just like you said.”
“Unidentified starship. This is Centurion Space Force Pacific Northwest. Do you copy?”
The voice cut onto the bridge.
“Ignore it,” James said.
“Unidentified starship. This is Centurion Space Force Pacific Northwest. Do you copy?”
“How many outposts does the Space Force have here?” Nathan asked.
“At least three that we know. Pacific Northwest handles North America. Costa Rica handles South America. There’s also a CSF UK. I don’t know how far their zone of control reaches.”
“I still can’t get over the fact that Proxima’s been watching Earth this whole time and they’re doing nothing to help. They’ve got boots on the ground here, and they’re letting the trife run rampant.”
“The outposts are mainly scientific. They’ve had the same directives since the war started. The same directives Tinker has been following. They just took a different approach.”
“A virus to kill the trife, and monsters to fight monsters?”
“Exactly. Add in the No Contact Protocol, and hardly anybody knows they exist.”
“Just like the people on Proxima don’t know Earth is under siege?”
“Yup.”
“Unidentified starship. This is Centurion Space Force Pacific Northwest. Do you copy?”
Nathan was approaching the thermosphere, the starship pushing into the outer layer of atmosphere in its approach into space. He was on target with the first of the micro-satellites, guns ready to fire as soon as they broke out into space.
“Unidentified starship. This is Centurion Space Force Pacific Northwest. Identify yourselves.”
The voice was more forceful that time. Not that any amount of force would get Nathan to respond.
“We’re almost on the first satellite,” he announced nearly a minute later.
“Take the shot whenever you’re ready, Relentless,” James replied.
They rose another five kilometers from the surface of the planet. To think, they were doing what the ATs had sent the trife to stop them from doing. To think the Centurions did it every fuc
king day. It left him to wonder:
Why hadn’t the Asteroid Tossers ever come back?
He shifted the vector on the starship just slightly. Then he took his shot. A red bolt of superheated gas launched out of the left cannon, a single round that speared through the target and continued out into space.
The dot vanished from the grid.
“One down,” James said.
Nathan eased off on the throttle, firing the retrorockets to slow them down, the vectoring thrusters to change their path. The Pulse rolled and turned, flipping smoothly to the side, the artificial gravity keeping their feet down and heads up regardless of the way the vessel rotated.
He got to the second satellite in front of them and lined up the shot. Another red bolt fired from the right cannon this time, streaking across space and reducing the micro-satellite to slag.
Centurion Space Force Pacific Northwest had gone silent. They had stopped trying to talk the moment he had taken the first shot. Because they had lost contact? Or because they had lost them on their sensors?
“Two down,” Nathan said.
It was almost a straight line from there to the third. He could have fired the plasma cannon from their current position, but he decided to wait until they got closer.
“Easy does it,” James said behind him.
Nathan kept the Pulse on target, approaching the satellite. Like James had said, it was too small to see, but the ship’s computer swore it was there, and Nathan had no reason not to believe it.
He gave it another few seconds. His middle finger rested on the trigger to fire the left cannon.
He noticed the display on his right start flashing red. He looked over, finding a small red reticle painted around a target coming up from the planet’s surface. The computer added a label to the object a moment later, once it had a chance to guess its identity.
ARROW CLASS DROPSHIP.
“Shit,” Nathan said, clenching his teeth. “General, we’ve got company.”
Chapter 17