by Mark Wandrey
“What does it mean? Can you tell?”
Minu stared at it for a moment. But with a lot of that sort of information, it didn't simply give her an answer. She knew it meant something. She also knew it served a purpose. She just didn't know what it was.
“Nothing comes directly to mind,” she admitted. “My brain recognizes the code, it feels right.” She gave a frustrated shrug, “only I have no idea what it is for.”
“I used to be really frustrated that the floating extra dimensional crabs chose you to give a brain upload. Over the years I've become less enamored with the idea.”
“It's somewhat overrated,” she admitted. She'd also wondered more than once what else the enigmatic beings might have done to her brain. Lilith assured her the Medical Intelligence found nothing out of the ordinary.
Of course, the program also insisted that what the Weavers did was not possible. It also refused to admit they even existed. Minu knew better, of course. They were out there, running the Portal networks throughout the galaxy. At least for now. One of Pip's ongoing projects was to negotiate with them. The Weavers insisted that a new contract needed to be worked out. Pip had yet to even understand what that meant.
Minu used her tablet to call up a program she'd begun to use in recording some of the more common holographic codes encountered. This was going to be anything but common, but she wanted to enter it anyway. Considering it took a microscope to even see the code that was laser etched into an interior facet of the gem, it would be unreadable if she ever needed it on the fly.
It took her almost fifteen minutes to enter all the permutations of the code. As she worked, she tried to make sense out of all the elements of this growing mystery. Her mother and father were related to her, but only through genetic heritage. If it came right down to it, she was actually her own father’s great, great, great, great, great aunt. Her mind rebelled against the idea. How could she be Mindy's child? Then a thought occurred to her.
“Is it possible I'm from a frozen embryo?”
Ted looked up from his computer, idly scratching at a full day’s growth of gray beard.
“Possible, but not probable.” As he talked he gestured at Mindy Harper's bio that floated between them. “In 15 AE, just after the death of her husband, Mindy led an expedition to the southern continent. It was widely believed that several of the proposed fourteen Portals were located in remote areas of the planet. Lacking any air transports capable of making extended trips, an overland expedition was mounted.”
“I know the history. She returned four years later. Of the six that went, three died on the trip, one just after they got back.”
“That would be your storied ancestor, and not purported mother. She passed from an unknown ailment and was buried on that desert island you call a home.”
Ted had only visited once. It was midsummer and before she'd put in the air conditioning. He didn't like sweating, mosquitoes, or howlers.
“That has been the story. But like my parentage, it too is in doubt.” Minu told him about how the whole sordid tale got started, beginning with her father’s reaction to a request to do genetic tests many years ago, then leading to their discovery of the empty grave on her island.
“Well,” Ted said when she was finished. He put his hands together and steepled his fingers, index tips tapped against his lips as he considered. “What a tangled web of lies we have here.”
Minu resisted the urge to snort and laugh out loud. This was hardly news to her.
“I think there might really be only one option.”
“And that is?” he asked.
Minu turned her tablet to show him a page from Chriso's diary. “I need to follow him down the rabbit hole.”
“Your father has been dead for many years now.”
“You really believe that?” she asked, gesturing at the data, the gem still sitting on his analyzer, then the personal logs. “He sent me this crazy self-protecting file after he was 'dead'.” She made quote marks in the air around the word dead to emphasize her point.
“He raised a child as his own that was actually the offspring of a woman dead over five hundred years, whose body just happens to be missing. And he had a necklace that belonged to that woman, which also just happens to have an ancient Concordia code written into it that she would have had no way of ever knowing about, besides the fact that the gem itself was made by Concordia technology four centuries before there was any way for her to get her hands on such a gem.”
Ted took the gem on its dualloy chain and eyed it for a second before handing it back to her. He closed his eyes and seemed to be contemplating the floating computer displays even though there was no way he could see them.
After a minute he nodded his head. “I loved that boy like he was my own, but I'm forced to admit you might be right.”
Interlude
April 5th, 534 AE
T'Chillen Shipyard, Classified Deep Space Coordinates, Galactic Frontier
Singh-Apal Katoosh gazed out from the panoramic view port on his command ship and wondered at his luck. Outside in the darkness of space thousands labored at his command. He'd gone from group commander to fleet commander to admiral and on to Grand Admiral in only two years.
The old grand admiral's shuttle had crashed mysteriously three months ago. There were many T'Chillen higher placed in the government, closer to the patriarch, with better connections, but still he'd been chosen as Grand Admiral. It defied logic. The hand of the Grent was all but obvious to him.
“Do our bidding, and the rewards will be limitless.” Those texted messages were few and far between. He sometimes wished he'd never gotten that first one years ago. Outside in space the outlines of a dozen new battlecruisers were taking shape. Of course, without that message, none of this would have been possible.
“Grand Admiral,” spoke his assistant, lowering his head towards the floor plates as he slithered into the observation blister.
“Eskal,” he hissed in reply. The male was competent, and not terribly ambitious. This was a good thing, because assassination was not unheard of in the T'Chillen. Even if there was no clear path to advancement in this case, favors could be garnered by killing the upstart Grand Admiral.
Whether the Grent's spectral hands were on his promotion or not (though he did not doubt it), the fact that he'd made enemies was obvious to all. He gestured with his tail spike in the informal way to release a subordinate to speak.
“The weekly report is complete.” Katoosh gestured for him to continue. “Work is slightly behind schedule. Primary work on the superstructures for the battlecruisers are nearing completion. The bots informed us that components for the destroyers are beginning to arrive though the Portals.”
“Very well. Instruct the bots to prepare to move the completed battlecruisers out of dry dock and start laying the keels of the destroyers.”
Eskal bowed and left him to his brooding. He could just see the cluster of six Portals floating in space. Provided indirectly by the Grent, they were one of the boons that had garnered him his position. Spaceborne Portals, they were essential for moving construction materials from distant stockpiles. Those very same stockpile had also been provided by the Grent. Enough materials to build and arm almost a hundred warships. It would tip the balance of power in favor of the T'Chillen. But it also didn't make sense.
“Why would the Grent do this for us,” he wondered aloud. If they, the Grent, were remembered for anything besides ruthlessness, it was their careful machinations that kept the balance of power carefully centered between all the most powerful species. Then with a sudden chill he thought of something that had yet to occur to him. What in his wildest imaginations made him be so arrogant that the Grent would only be helping the T'Chillen?
In space the twelve shining new dry docks hovered a hundred kilometers from the Portal cluster. Arrayed like arms of a spiral galaxy floated staged materials: Dualloy plates and struts for the ships. Energy storage and distribution systems. Computers of a thou
sand types. And vast amounts of raw moliplas ready to be fabricated into a million components. Fabricated by floating factories, also delivered through the Portals.
The twelve dry docks that each held a battlecruiser’s form would soon each hold three destroyers. In only months the T'Chillen would nearly double their warship assets. But what or who were the Grent helping elsewhere in the galaxy?
He needed to send a message to the high command, and it needed to be sent quietly.
Part III
Chapter 20
April 5th, 534 AE
Groves Industries, Tranquility, Plateau Tribe, Bellatrix
“Taking leave?” Aaron asked incredulously. “I didn't think you were planning to take time off until just before the baby came.”
Minu took a sip of the sweet tea and put the cup back on the carved wooden desk in his office. She'd come there straight from Steven's Pass, hoping to catch her husband before he headed home. “It's not really a vacation I'm planning.”
“Oh?” he asked, leaning forward curiously.
“Remember I told you I had my father’s journals after we got married? Well there's more to them than just a simple diary.”
It was one of the few secrets she'd never shared with anyone, that of her father’s legacy. Dozens of computer files full of his explorations of the galaxy as well as theories and observations on Concordian technology and sociology. And finally, the encrypted files she'd yet to gain access to and the enigmatic way he'd sent it to her, through a long estranged aunt she'd only met once.
It took a few minutes to explain it all, during which he listened intently.
“And not even Pip could break the encryption?” Aaron asked when she'd finished.
“No, it completely confounded him. And that's a funny thing to see, even then.”
“I bet. So you're going to take some time to really read those entries and try to figure out his clues?”
“Better than that. I'm pretty sure I've figured out the rest of the clues that lead to the codes I need to un-encrypt the final files.” She had his complete attention. “I'm going to take Lilith and go run this to ground.”
“You? Or us.”
“I didn't want to volunteer you, my love.”
He gave her his signature cute smile and a wink. “Wheresoever thou goest, I shall always follow.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“Anyone else?”
“Cherise, Pip, Kal'at, and two squads of Var'at's soldiers.”
“Starting to sound familiar. What about Ted and Bjorn?”
“Ted has too much responsibility at the university and with Chosen R&D for the Rangers, as does Var'at with his people. Bjorn is not what he used to be.”
Aaron nodded. “He's slips a little more every year. He's still Chosen, of course, and I hear they keep him busy with scientific work, but mostly 'creative' stuff with little hard science.”
Minu knew that as well. Bjorn was nearly eighty and his mind was going. Even with the codex, there was no technology to reverse the effects of aging. Mortality was something even the People had not conquered.
“So when do we leave?” he asked.
“I'm having the supplies we need purchased and we'll ferry them up in a phoenix tomorrow. A couple days after that we'll be ready to go.”
“What does Jacob have to say about this?”
“He probably wouldn't like it, which is why I didn't tell him.” Aaron nodded and shrugged. “Frankly, I couldn’t give two shits what he thinks.” Aaron chuckled and nodded again. “Still, I have to send him a message before I go. And I know he's not going to like it.”
“How long is this little expedition going to take?”
“A few months? Not sure.”
“And what about the baby?”
She patted her tummy. “The baby is fine where it is. Doc said it would be four or more months before I have to take it easy. We can do a lot of traveling in four months.” Especially at fifteen thousand times the speed of light.
* * *
They spent the night in the small Tranquility apartment. They talked, ate dinner, and discussed Minu's plan for the coming trip. She also apologized for never telling him everything about her father's logs and journal, but only after telling him everything she'd learned from Director Porter and her visit with Ted.
“I understand,” he told her, sincerity written all over his face. “It was your father, after all.” She gave him a little smile. “No more secrets though?”
“I want to be done with secrets,” she admitted. “I want it all to finish.”
She looked down, but her mind was looking outward, past the stars and into deep space.
Are you out there, father? Are you still alive? Did you leave on purpose and find a place to hide? Did it all become too much for you to keep to yourself? You have become the secret keeper, and I want answers.
The problem was her father only held a mere handful of the secrets. How many more were in the hands of the species of the Concordia? She didn't have the keys to those secrets. However she did have the keys to follow the breadcrumbs left by her father, and she suspected that would lead to him.
They made intense and passionate love that night, each reveling in their lover’s touch and the knowledge that they were safe within the bosom of humanity’s power.
Afterwards, as Aaron snored gently next to her, Minu rested a hand on her stomach and silently thought to the baby that grew there inside her. She tried to come to grips with the decision that despite the risk of the trip, all of their futures might depend on it. Too many secrets had no answers. Humanity was stumbling in a dark cave, its floor covered with spikes and landmines. They desperately needed the bright light of truth to show them the way out.
She was off as soon as the sun was up. She'd got a few hours sleep, more than enough for the day ahead. First stop was a general goods facility she knew the Chosen worked with regularly in the industrial sector of the New Jerusalem capital, Tel Aviv. The warehouse manager looked at the list she gave him on a computer chip and scratched his head. “Normally these kind of requests come from the logistics people at Steven’s Pass.”
“This is a private request.”
“I'm sorry, I thought you were here in your official capacity as a Chosen.”
Minu avoided looking down at her space-black Chosen jumpsuit, two golden stars on the sleeve. She hadn't worn it in months. When she'd dressed after showering that morning she'd seen the barest hint of a growing of her normally flat washboard abs. Just over three months into her pregnancy, it was about the right time. Still, she'd almost been in tears as she turned sideways and surveyed the growth. “People are going to think I'm getting fat!”
“I'm planning an exploratory expedition on my own.”
“Oh, I think I understand. What account are you planning to bill this to?”
Minu gave him the account code she shared with her husband. This one held a considerable amount of profits from Groves Industries. It was the first time she'd spent a single credit from that source, and despite the fact that she owned half of that money through her marriage to Aaron, she still felt a little pang of guilt. The man input the code and nodded. “No problem, ma'am. Where shall I have it delivered?”
“Please have the goods shrink wrapped in standard one meter cube pallets and hold them. I'll have a vehicle pick them up tomorrow morning.”
“That's awfully quick...” he complained, looking over his shoulder at the warehouse which was just beginning to come alive with the morning shift.
“I'm sure a ten percent premium will help cover the inconvenience?”
He smiled ear to ear and nodded enthusiastically. “Well of course we can help a Chosen, even if it's not a sanctioned operation.”
I figured you'd say that, she thought as she shook his hand. The man looked surprised at the three fingers on her hand, and even more surprised at the solid grip she gave him. A minute later her aerocar was leaping back into the morning sky.
R
ecorded in her aerocar’s message memory was the response to her planning emails to her friends. Var'at confirmed his brother and the troops would be waiting. Cherise said she would drop what she was doing and meet her at the Groves Industries spaceport in eight hours. Since Pip already was living on the Kaatan, he would go where it did. And for her part, Lilith was thrilled by the idea.
“I get to spend more time observing your gestation of my coming sibling,” was her first response. Minu wasn't sure how, but the girl made being pregnant sound like a science experiment.
The last response was from Gregg. It was simple and to the point. “Call and I will come, with a few thousand of your closest friends.” She smiled then shook her head, hoping she'd done enough to earn such loyalty.
She briefly considered flying to Steven's Pass to tell Jacob in person that Lilith would not scout Planet K because of old warnings left from a million years ago. The look on his face alone would make it worth the trip.
But the logistics of finishing the rapid planning helped her decide it wouldn't be prudent. It was hard to say how the volatile First among the Chosen might respond. As the years went by he'd become even more difficult to predict. She remembered her father mellowing as First, but Jacob seemed to be doing exactly the opposite.
She wrote an email instead and stored it in her computer’s drafts file for later use. Emails to Ted and Bjorn were prepared as well. She felt she owed an explanation to them as well, but not the opportunity to decide they wanted to go along. She knew Bjorn wouldn't care anymore, and hoped Ted would understand.
As she flew she let her husband know the provisions were being prepared in New Jerusalem. His message acknowledging that detail arrived just as she landed in the last place she wanted to visit: the Rusk transportation city of Murmansk.
The city was one of the oldest in the Rusk territory and was responsible for the movement of thousands of tons of food every day. The supplies she needed could be purchased anywhere, but not in raw form like the ship preferred. It was an irony that the super-advanced technology of the Kaatan was incompatible with modern prepackaged foods from Tranquility or New Jerusalem.