by M. R. Forbes
"What has?" Ella asked.
"The invasion." He closed the secondary overlay and looked up.
The haulers he had passed on his way in were partially visible from the surface, and now he could see faint flashes and bursts near them. Explosions. Attacks. The Tetron knew Ella was trying to get away and was trying to stop her. Was this what it had been like when he fled the planet? Was he only minutes ahead of the attack?
He watched his overlay, a pair of red marks appearing ahead of him. UPA mechs. The CAP-NN had identified that they were swiveling their ordnance his way and had warned him of the threat.
"Hold on," he said, untucking the arms and legs.
A stream of missiles streaked away from the mechs, racing toward them. He reversed thrust, rolled the fighter, and added lift from the feet. The automated defense systems began firing, striking the missiles from the air as a few zoomed past, missing the target in his defensive maneuvering. The weapons were smart enough to turn themselves around and come back, but he had cleared the rest of the field by then, and the lasers burned them out before they could strike.
Mitchell fired amoebics from the launcher, targeting the mech's legs. The rounds hit squarely, the explosions knocking the machines to the ground.
"This is going to get ugly, fast," he said. "We need to hurry."
He added forward thrust, pushing the S-17 into the city, navigating through the web of tall buildings. The police fired on him with small arms as he passed, leaving the shields to create a starfield of blue specks as the energy burned them away. He reached the hotel, climbing vertically and then coming down on the rooftop once more.
"Here," Mitchell said, removing his helmet and handing it to Ella. "I have a wireless link to the CAP-NN on this fighter, but you can fly her with this."
She took the helmet, no fear in her reaction. "Where are you going?"
"To talk to a warlord. Don't let them kill you. If you need to run, there's a ship waiting. The coordinates are in the system. Jump out to it and tell them what happened."
"Jump? This thing has a hyperspace engine?"
"Yup. Custom." He smiled and then jumped down to the rooftop.
He wondered briefly if he was doing the right thing. Maybe she was the hero of this recursion, but his experience in this war spanned nearly thirty years. Then again, he was the only one who could get through to the Knife, and they needed him, too.
He ran to the maintenance access for the lift, breaking open the lock and hooking himself onto the ladder there. He glanced back at the S-17, turning gently on its feet as she got the hang of the controls. The fighter's CAP-NN was more advanced than anything she had likely experienced.
Then he started climbing down, rung by rung in the center of the lift cluster. The numbers were painted at intervals along the way, and he stopped when he got to Tio's floor. While the original Knife's consciousness had been integrated with Teegin, there was value to allying with the current Knife. The units under his command were immune to Tetron control, and there was still hope that they could talk some sense into his brother. And, if there were any problems with the virus as Teegin had created it, he would be an invaluable resource for guidance.
He opened the small exit hatch out into the lift shaft proper, finding the sealed door across an eight-foot gap. He looked down, finding the lift was already at the bottom of the shaft. He moved back into the maintenance shaft, climbed up one floor, and tapped the call button, summoning the lift to him. When it arrived, he went back down and opened the hatch again. He tapped another control and a thin platform extended, allowing him to get below the lift where the repulsor unit was located. It would have made the lift easy to fix had it been broken. Instead, he used the platform to reach the sealed door. He leaned against one side of it, putting his strength into shifting it and convincing the sensors that it should open. It took a few seconds of straining, but then it slid aside, leaving him room for entry.
He stepped out into the hallway, almost getting a rifle butt to the face as one of Tio's guards tried to hit him. He ducked below it, crouching and getting a quick punch in on the guard's ribs, before sidestepping a counter attack. He brought his foot up, hitting the same spot again, and then grabbed the guard's arm and used his momentum to pull him into the wall. The guard hit hard, stunned just long enough for Mitchell to punch him in the temple and knock him down.
"Sorry about that," he said as he leaned over and picked up the guard's rifle.
He headed down the hallway and around the corner. There were guards outside Tio's room, but he had expected that. He wasn't going to kill them. Instead, he dropped the rifle and turned the corner, walking toward them with his hands up and out.
The first guard saw him, pointing his weapon at him. "Who the hell are you?"
"I need to talk to your boss."
"I said, who the hell are you?"
"Li'un Tio. The Knife. I know he's in there, and I need to talk to him. It's about what's happening to the city."
The two guards looked at one another. The second one disappeared inside.
"I left your man by the lift with a bit of a headache," Mitchell said. "He didn't give me a choice."
The guard smirked. "What's happening out there?"
"An invasion of the worst kind," Mitchell replied.
The second guard returned. He said something to the first, and they lowered their weapons, waving Mitchell in.
"Good choice," he said, walking past them.
He had been in Tio's penthouse before. It was large and open and impressive, and had a great view of the city below. As Mitchell entered, he could see smoke beginning to rise at the outskirts as the invasion picked up momentum.
"You know what's happening down there?" a man by the window asked. He turned as Mitchell approached.
"Yes."
"And you know who I am?" The Knife said.
"Yes."
"How?"
"I'm from a past future. My name is Colonel Mitchell Williams."
"You were in that monstrosity of a design that flew past my window?"
Mitchell smiled. "Yes. Tio, we don't have a lot of time to waste. The Tetron are already here."
He put up his hand. "I move at my own pace, Colonel Williams," he said. "Tell me more about this past future."
Mitchell had forgotten that Tio could be difficult at times. He was used to being in control, and he wouldn't relinquish it easily.
"An artificial intelligence created by your brother creates a machine to move forward through the recursion of time and space, in order to enslave humankind to help them fight an enemy they can't figure out how to defeat. What you're looking at is the beginning of it. That's the short version. If you want the details, I need you to do what I say."
Tio looked back at him. "And you have control of this machine?"
"The eternal engine. Two of them, actually. I'll show it to you, once you're off Liberty."
"You want me to leave?"
"You don't want to leave?"
"I came here for a reason. I'm not eager to abandon it. You may have beaten my guards to get in here, but I don't know who you are, or why I should believe you."
"Look outside. You don't believe that?"
"It could be a coup, funded by the Federation. I'm willing to discuss my position with the new government of the planet if so."
"This isn't a coup, Tio."
"So you've said. It is interesting that you know who I am and where to find me, but I need more proof than that. Social engineering is a powerful weapon in the right hands."
"I know about your daughter. I know she's sick."
Tio's expression changed immediately. "How?"
"I told you how. Some things have changed in this loop, but some things haven't. There's a war coming. A war against artificial intelligence. A war you have been fighting for years, even if you didn't know it. We're going to need your help."
Tio was thoughtful. He turned back to the window to watch events unfold.
"I
have to go," Mitchell said. "You need to decide."
"I'll decide at my own pace, Colonel."
"They're going to shut down the spaceport. No ships in or out."
He glanced back at Mitchell. "Then I suppose you should hope I decide sooner rather than later."
Mitchell was tempted to grab the Knife himself. He would never make it back out alive, and the S-17 only had room for two.
"Fine. Have it your way. We can talk again after you realize I'm telling you the truth, assuming you get off the planet alive."
"How would I find you?" Tio asked.
"Don't worry. I'll find you. I know where Asimov is."
Tio didn't turn around again, but Mitchell could tell by the Knife's posture that he had gotten through. He bowed slightly towards the Knife's back and then turned on his heel and left.
12
Ella was still on the rooftop when he returned, though there was a smoldering wreck of a drone resting nearby. She waved at him as he ran over to the fighter and climbed in.
"This belongs to you," she said, offering him the helmet.
He took it and put it on, sliding down into the cockpit and closing the canopy.
"How was your date?" she asked.
"It could have gone better. I knew he's a stubborn son of a bitch, but refusing to leave the planet before things go to hell?"
He wondered why he was surprised. There was a reason Tio had still been on Liberty after the Tetron attack.
"You still owe me an explanation," Ella said. "I'm going to be court-martialed for disappearing like this."
"There isn't anyone on the planet to court-martial you."
Mitchell lifted the S-17 from the rooftop, hitting the main thrusters. The fighter slid smoothly from the rooftop, and he tucked the appendages and adjusted his vectors, sending it straight up. His p-rat was picking up all kinds of activity on the ground, and it started making warning sounds in his ears as a few of the mechs began firing on him.
He took evasive action, rolling the fighter over and jerking it back and forth. The dampeners stole some of the g's, but they were still tight maneuvers that would have blacked out a lot of pilots.
Not Ella. She laughed in the back seat of the craft. "Nice flying, Colonel. You should have been assigned to Greylock."
Why hadn't he been? It was a question he still needed to ask of Teegin.
"Thanks. We still have a bigger mess to get through up there."
They were rocketing higher and higher, and the ships in orbit above them were becoming more visible. The military frigates were pounding the cargo haulers and traders, turning them into derelicts with little resistance. Only a few of the Rim travelers had any kind of weaponry, but it was pitiful compared to military grade armor and armament.
"I don't understand this," Ella said, her mood souring. "Why is the military attacking civilians?"
"They aren't," Mitchell replied. "Not on their own."
"We have to do something."
"We will. I need to reach my ship."
"If the enemy can hijack the neural interface, how come you aren't affected?"
"Different access keys," he said. "With more advanced encryption. We'll get yours updated as soon as possible."
They reached the mesosphere, pushing through it and continuing into space. The fighter's shields remained a nearly solid web of blue as it caught wayward debris, burning it away or pushing it aside. Mitchell was tempted to help the unarmed transports the military ships were firing on, knowing that the amoebics were more than enough to destroy them. That was only a bandage, and a poor one. He needed a more permanent solution.
"Why me?" Ella asked.
Mitchell froze. It was the question he had asked himself a million times since all of this had started. A question he still had trouble accepting the answer to.
"Because you're the best we've got," he said, the words heavy in his mouth. Not because he didn't believe them about her. Because he didn't believe them about himself.
"I blew up one Federation dreadnought with a design flaw. That doesn't make me the next coming."
"No. But you're a leader, and that's what we need."
"Bullshit."
"I don't have all the answers, El. Most of the time, I only have more questions. We have to do this." He stopped speaking before the next sentence came out.
"You were going to tell me the universe depends on it, weren't you?" she said.
"Sort of."
Then they were through the orbital soup, leaving Liberty and the destruction behind. Mitchell navigated through his p-rat, prepping the FTL engine.
"The best hyperspace engine I know of is too big to fit in something this size. Especially with the weird half-mech configuration you have going on. You shouldn't even have room for power in this thing. And don't say it's custom again. I want a real answer."
"Okay. I'll give you the truth, just like I gave it to Tio. I'm from a past future, and the tech on this bird was created by an artificial intelligence that's hundreds of thousands of years older than we are. That same intelligence is here, now, in this time and space, because they both hate us, and they need us to fight in another war for them. In the timeline I come from, you and I were wingmates and lovers. You were killed in the Battle for Liberty when you slammed your fighter into the dreadnought to destroy it. I was set up as the Hero, and that eventually led me here. There's a lot more in between point A and B, but it takes hours to explain it, and we don't have hours right now."
He turned his head to look back at her.
"We were lovers?" she asked. "I can see how that could be. The rest of it? That's going to take a little time."
"Time is the one luxury we don't have, but I think this next part will help."
He triggered the engine, sending the S-17 into hyperspace. It blinked out of the universe, and then fell back into it a few seconds later. The Goliath was a few thousand kilometers ahead of them, massive in spite of the distance.
Ella didn't say anything. He had managed to render her speechless at the sight of the Tetron-infused starship.
"Teegin," Mitchell said.
"I am here, Colonel."
"Things have changed."
"Some have, yes. I tried to tell you before you left."
"I have Captain North with me."
"The most logical action, given the circumstances."
"What's the status of the data download?"
"I only got a portion of the archives before the Tetron blocked access."
"We need to do something about that."
"Yes."
Mitchell switched channels. "Kate, are you there?"
"I'm here, Mitch. I'm glad you made it back safe."
"Me, too." He switched to the general channel. "In my recursion, that Tetron bastard made itself a nice home on Liberty before deciding to destroy it instead of letting me save it. Things are different now. We need to find it, and we need to shut it down."
"Yes, sir," Kate said.
"Yes, Colonel," Teegin and Origin said.
"Teegin, is the virus ready?"
"It is as efficient as I can make it without a real world case."
"We have a subject."
"We don't dare risk transmitting the Watson consciousness, Colonel. We will only have one opportunity to infect as many Tetron as we can before the others learn to defend against it."
"But the virus should still work?"
"To a lesser extent, yes, Colonel."
"Then let's see what kind of job you did while I was sleeping. Do you know where the Tetron is approaching from?"
"The signal is difficult to pinpoint, but between the Dove and the Goliath, we should be able to locate it."
"Good. We'll be there in one minute."
Mitchell closed the channel, adding more thrust. They were closing in on the Goliath, the structure looming ahead of them.
"I believe you," Ella said, her eyes big as she looked up at the ship.
"Which part?"
"All of
it. And anything you add later."
"In that case, Captain, welcome to the war."
13
The Goliath dropped out of hyperspace, still and silent in the depths of the black. A moment later, the Dove joined it, appearing on the port side far enough away that she was little more than a shimmering blue speck.
They were a good distance out from Liberty, with a long stretch of mostly open galaxy and a pair of moons separating them from the planet, which appeared as only a brighter burst of light across the vastness.
"Anything?" Mitchell asked in silence, using his direct connection to speak to Teegin.
"Scanning," Teegin replied.
Mitchell glanced over at Ella. She was standing beside the command chair, examining the space around the Goliath. She had accepted her fate pretty easily, and since making the decision had been fully on board. No questions, no hesitation. She had always been like that.
"Origin?" Mitchell asked, sending the communication across to the other Tetron.
"No sign of it," Origin replied. "There is a large asteroid belt above you. Perhaps it is sitting inside?"
"Hiding? Why would it? It has to know nothing in this timeline can match it."
"Unless it knows you are here, Colonel," Teegin said. "We do not yet know the fallout of Watson's configurations remaining on Earth. Perhaps they communicated with the Tetron somehow, and warned them to be cautious?"
"If that were true, wouldn't they have attacked a little sooner?"
"They could not attack before they arrived in this timeline. Other than that, this is sooner. The full assault on Liberty did not occur for another three days in the prior recursion."
"You're telling me Watson is still frigging things up for us?"
"It is possible."
"Damn it. What happened to Kathy?"
"It is unknown."
"Okay. Kate, keep scanning this area. Teegin and I will go check out the asteroid belt."
"Roger," Kate said.
"Colonel," Ella said. "You don't need to do that. I can take the fighter through the belt and report back."
"Are you sure you're up for it?" he asked.