by M. R. Forbes
"Not the more personal bits, at least," Ella replied.
"She's still a hell of a pilot," Mitchell said. "And a definite asset. More so than I would have been. She's a real hero."
"You always say that, Mitch," Kate said. "Like you never accomplished anything. Just because the UPA made you take credit for Liberty doesn't mean you don't deserve credit for anything."
"If you were a member of Greylock, you were the best of the best," Ella said. "No matter what happened in your past, that still counts."
Mitchell allowed himself to feel a little pride, but only a small measure. "Thank you both. All I'm trying to say is that I think having Captain North with us will improve our chances with the UPA brass back on Earth." He looked at Kate. "There is one wrinkle."
She nodded, understanding what he was getting at. "I felt you across time, Mitch. Just because we're apart again doesn't mean we aren't close."
He couldn't argue that point. He had felt connected with her memory long before they had ever met in person. Even though the other Katherine hadn't been receptive to his interest, the feelings hadn't changed.
"I feel the same way," he said. "That doesn't mean I have to like it. We each have to do our part, and yours is to get the UPA on board. We need them to listen, and at a minimum start changing their encryption keys so the Tetron can't gain control over them."
"If they haven't already," Kate said. "Origin said that tactic of hiding in the asteroid belt was new for them. I don't like the potential meaning behind that."
"Me neither," Mitchell agreed. "Teegin, how much longer until you can give us something on Kathy and Michael."
"I am at seventy percent transfer, Colonel. Less than an hour."
"Who are they?" Ella asked.
"Our daughter," Mitchell said.
"And my friend," Kathy said.
"Daughter?" Ella said, looking at Kate. "You can't be more than thirty."
"It's a long story," Kate said. "She was a genetic combination of an instance of Mitchell and an instance of me, as well as part Tetron. Not a natural born daughter. I never met her. The other Katherine did."
"Other Katherine?"
Ella was growing more confused.
"From this recursion," Mitchell said. "Kate is from the prior recursion. The same one I'm from."
"This whole time travel, eternal recursion thing takes some getting used to, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I still have to think it all through sometimes. Anyway, we left Kathy and Michael behind on Earth four hundred years ago, to round up the Watson configurations who escaped when we captured Watson. He's one of the Tetron, the second to learn emotion. Origin is the first."
"Origin?"
Mitchell pointed out the viewscreen to where the Dove was resting a few kilometers away. "That's Origin."
"It's on our side?"
"She is," Kate said.
"It has a gender?"
"Not in terms of sex organs," Mitchell said. "But the more advanced Tetron like Watson and Origin do tend to identify with gender stereotypes. Origin is more sensitive and thoughtful; Watson is more aggressive and volatile."
"Colonel," Teegin said, interrupting. "I have discovered some relevant information regarding your whereabouts in this timeline." He paused. "You aren't going to like it."
"Why, did I piss someone off and flunk out of the academy?" Mitchell asked. "That would explain why I'm missing from Liberty."
"The following is an excerpt from an Earth media stream, dated twenty-four fifty-six. Residents of Sioux Falls were in a state of shock this morning after inexplicable violence rocked their small suburb. Mitchell Byron Williams, age five, was found shot to death behind Jackson Elementary, immediately following the first day of the school year. The body was discovered by a teacher after a student claimed he had seen an older man dragging Mitchell-"
"Okay," Mitchell said, his heart racing. "I've heard enough."
"Oh, Mitchell," Kate said. "I'm sorry."
Mitchell looked at her. "He killed me. That son of a bitch Watson killed me. I was five frigging years old."
"You don't know it was Watson."
"Don't know? Who else would it be, Kate? I was five years old. Just a kid. Why would someone murder a kid like that? It was Watson. Something happened to Kathy and Michael. Something bad. Something we didn't plan for or expect. I should be grateful that piece of shit didn't rape me first." He paused, trying to contain his anger. He could have dealt with his present self not being the soldier he was. Dead? Murdered? That was something else. "Teegin, tell me the second you have a lead on them. We thought she could contain them. That her configurations could contain them. They didn't, and I want to know why."
"Yes, Colonel."
Mitchell stared out into the black, thinking, and trying not to let his emotions get the better of him. It was a hard thing to do.
"Mitchell," Teegin said.
"Hold on a minute," he replied.
"Colonel," Teegin said. "This doesn't change our plan. As you stated, perhaps Captain North is a more valuable resource now."
"That's not the point. We have no idea what we're getting into now. We thought we did, but the rules have changed against us, again." He turned to Kate and Ella. "Kate, we're swapping rides. We don't have time to wait for the rest of the crew to finish reconstituting. We won on Liberty today, but this is only the beginning, and I have a bad feeling I made an awful mistake leaving Kathy alone to manage Watson like that."
He could hardly believe it, despite the evidence pointing in that direction. She was too smart to let Watson get the best of her. But then, what could have caused her to fail?
"Colonel, I prefer not to integrate with another," Teegin said.
"I don't care," Mitchell said. "Ella, keep the S-17, it'll come in handy, I'm sure. Kate, I'm sorry, but I have to go. Origin and Teegin have quantum communications arrays, meaning we can reach one another in real time regardless of distance. I'll stay in touch. Get to Earth, find Steven." He paused. "Shit. Teegin, what about Steven?"
"One moment, Colonel. Rear Admiral Steven Aaron Williams, United Planetary Alliance Navy, active. Your brother is alive, Mitchell."
He let out a sigh of relief. At least they had spared Steven.
"Get to Earth," he repeated, stepping to her, embracing her, kissing her and then stepping away. "Get us a fleet. As many ships as the UPA will spare."
"What are you going to do?" Ella asked.
"Get the Federation involved, just like we planned."
"There's more to it than that, Mitch," Kate said. "Or you wouldn't be in such a hurry."
Mitchell's smile was tense. He hadn't wanted to get them involved, but he wasn't about to hold any cards when it was obvious their overall position in the war was questionable once again.
"Not just the Federation," he said. "I'm going to pay a visit to some old friends. They call themselves the Riggers."
16
"Welcome aboard, Colonel," Origin said, the moment Mitchell had landed the transport inside of the Dove's hangar.
"Thank you," Mitchell replied. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"An eternity."
The statement made him smile, even though he wasn't in much of a smiling mood. He had said a quick goodbye to Kate and Ella before hurrying over, eager to get things in motion. It wasn't supposed to be this way. They should have had things well in hand, the Tetron oblivious to their patient waiting. They had underestimated Watson somewhere. Or they had overestimated themselves. Teegin swore the core he captured was the Tetron's. He was adamant that Watson would have had no way to fully reproduce himself using the technology available at that time. Even with his access to the wreckage of the Goliath, he wouldn't have possessed the means to make a full copy. Teegin existed because of the vast amount of energy stored in the eternal engine and Watson didn't have one of those.
Except for the one Origin had discarded from the S-17, dropping it into the ocean to keep it out of Watson's hands. What if he had somehow managed to
find it? Teegin believed that, too, was impossible.
But something had happened, and now he was forced to leave Kate and Ella behind, and call on the crew he had hoped to spare from this madness. Millie, Shank, Cormac, and the others. They wouldn't know him or of him, not in this timeline where he had been murdered by the Tetron long before he could become anything close to a hero.
He would have to make a solid first impression.
He didn't think that would be a problem.
He left the transport behind, making his way toward the bridge. The Dove felt alien to him, despite its identical appearance to the Goliath. Despite the fact that they were the same ship. Maybe it was Origin's arrangement of dendrites that changed it. Maybe it was simply the coldness of the truth. Either way, he felt even the small bit of freedom that allowed him to smile at Origin's statement slip away.
"Origin," he said as the lift doors opened and he stepped onto the bridge.
"Yes, Mitchell?" the Tetron replied.
"Open a channel to the Goliath."
"Of course, Mitchell."
"Goliath, this is Dove," he said.
"We read you, Dove," Kate replied. "That was quick."
"Have you completed the interface?" Mitchell asked.
"No. Teegin recommended waiting. He said it would interrupt his archive transfer."
"Teegin, what's the status of the transfer?"
"Ninety-five percent, Colonel."
"Have you started querying for Kathy and Michael?"
"Yes, Colonel. The query is running against available data. You should be aware, the archives on Liberty are not complete replicas of the Earth data stores."
"I know, but if there's anything to be found, it will be there. Kathy knew where we would be headed." He climbed into the command chair. "Origin, let's get this over with."
A small tendril dropped from above him, forming into a point. It hovered behind his head.
"Whenever you are ready, Mitchell," Origin said.
"I'm going to interface with Origin," Mitchell said, for Kate and Ella's benefit. "Standby."
"Roger," Kate replied.
Mitchell pushed himself back onto the needle. He went through the now familiar process once more, surprised by what he discovered as it completed.
"You have more power than before."
"Teegin assisted me in optimizing a number of systems," Origin replied. "The hybrid is remarkably advanced, especially considering his relative age."
"Interface is complete," Mitchell announced. "We'll be leaving as soon as I work out the destination."
"Roger, Colonel," Kate said.
Mitchell used the connection to Origin to pull up a star map on his p-rat. He navigated through it, bypassing UPA occupied planets and heading right for Federation space.
"Origin, where's Calypso?" he asked.
"Here, Mitchell," Origin replied. His map continued moving until it centered on a large, uninhabitable rock near the Rim.
"How long to get there?"
"Nine days, Mitchell."
Mitchell checked his clock. Nine days would put them in ahead of the Riggers, but not by much.
"Set the coordinates for a jump to the system. Not too close to the planet itself, it is Federation space, after all. I want to be nearby when the Riggers show up."
"Setting coordinates. There is a secondary planet two thousand AU from Calypso which should serve as an appropriate position to wait."
"That should do. Kate, I'm sending you the coordinates, in case you need them to bolster your argument with Steven or the brass at UPA Command. Mentioning we know about a classified mission carried out by a top secret spec ops team might light a fire under their asses."
"Roger. Sounds good to me, Mitch."
"Federation space?" Ella said a moment later. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Have you ever heard of Project Black?" Mitchell asked.
"No."
"Then trust me, it's a good idea. I'd go out there just to get Rain on our side."
"Rain?"
"She's a pilot," Mitchell said. "You'd like her."
"Colonel," Teegin said. "I've completed the query of the Liberty historical data archives."
"And?" Mitchell said.
"I have discovered an anomaly within the archives."
"Anomaly?"
"Yes, Colonel. It appears that you were correct. Not only did Kathy know where you would be, but she also seems to have left a message for you, hidden in the encoding of the archive itself. She must have had some involvement in the creation of the original data storage pattern and transfer algorithms in order to secret it away here."
Mitchell felt a wave of relief at the news. "Or Michael did. Is there any way the Tetron might have discovered the message?"
"It is unlikely. The encoding is subtle."
"How did you find it?"
"Apparently, they assumed I would be querying the archive, and left me a pointer to it."
"A pointer?"
"In simplistic terms, Colonel, it had my name on it."
"Understood. Let's hear it."
"It is a video stream. I will transfer it to Origin for display."
"Thank you."
Mitchell leaned forward, eager to see Kathy one last time. He had only had a few seconds while they passed over the Goliath's launch site to say goodbye. Their words had been rushed and simple. I love you. Be safe. Good hunting. He had been counting on her to do what she was made to do. Stop Watson. Stop the configurations. It was the reason she existed, the reason for a Tetron and human hybrid. Live with humans, think like a machine. Or at least, understand how an advanced artificial intelligence might think.
Her face appeared on the screen in front of him a moment later. The sight of it nearly made him cry. She was old. Eighty? Ninety? It was hard to tell once you reached a certain point. Her face was heavy with wrinkles, her hair a solid white. Her body was still thin and seemed strong enough, but while her Tetron genetics would allow her to age differently than a normal human, she had still aged.
"Father," she said, her voice matching her visual appearance, slightly rough and strained. "Mother. I know you'll get this message. I know Teegin will find it. I don't have any doubt about that. If I'm guessing correctly, you'll be somewhere near Liberty right now. The place where I grew up, with the human parents who loved me. I hope that you were able to stop the Tetron from taking the planet. I hope that you were able to save their lives. I know you tried your best either way.
"Things on Earth have been difficult, but not in the way you would expect. We were planning to go to war with the Watson configurations which had been left behind. We were ready to root them out and to destroy them, to clean Earth of their presence. I mobilized half of the configurations we had made. I used the knowledge of Earth history Teegin passed on from Origin in order to make financial investments to fund it. Even now, in your time, there is a trust you will be able to access with billions of credits in it, and thousands of shares of Frontier Federation stock. You know how much that is worth. It is there to help in any way it can. Unfortunately, so much of it went unused in our time."
She paused a moment, looking back over her shoulder. Then she returned to the camera.
"We were prepared, Father. Ready to do our part. The problem was that the war never materialized. We hunted for Watson, but we never found him. All of our leads turned into dead ends. All of our efforts amounted to nothing. We built a global monitoring solution that was second to none, to track potentials and move on them. We found none. Even our efforts to crack Nova Taurus turned up nothing. The projects Watson had initiated with the company dried up and vanished without a trace, just like his configurations. It is counter to logic and to his standard operational process.
"I know it is essential you get this message. I know you will want to know what happened to us. Michael was married and had four children. We always stayed friends, but I couldn't dedicate myself to anything other than the mission. I was not made that way.
He passed away many years ago, but I've remained close to his family, even if they haven't always known it."
She paused again, looking behind her. She didn't seem concerned, but what was she waiting for?
"I've lived longer than most humans, thanks to my genetics. Today is my two-hundredth birthday. Of course, nobody knows I'm that old. I've seen to that.
"I can't make it another hundred years, and so I made a decision. One last infiltration of Nova Taurus, to see what I can discover. Not the inception you would expect. I'm surrendering this body to break into their systems. I've already started the process, and I know someone will be coming for me soon. They'll find an old corpse and nothing else.
"I will leave another message for you, but it may not arrive so easily. I can't survive as a ghost in the machine for very long, but I know how vital it is for you to have whatever information I can gather. I'm sorry to leave you like this, with perhaps more questions than answers. I'm sorry I couldn't do a better job, and that I failed in the mission you gave me. I hope that you and Mother are well and that you found the love for one another that you deserve. I hope we are winning this war, and that my failure does not give the Tetron the opportunity they need to overcome the gains we have made.
"I love you both, for all of eternity. Goodbye."
The screen went dark. Mitchell sat and stared at it for a long time, allowing minutes to pass in silence. It was as cryptic and frightening a message as they could have received. Watson's configurations had vanished? Nova Taurus was free of suspicious activity? What kind of game was Watson playing, and how was he playing it? Mixing what he knew of the Tetron in this timeline so far with her description of what hadn't happened in the past, he felt nothing but fear.
"Teegin, is there another message?" he asked. "She said she would leave another message."
"I'm afraid not, Colonel. There are a few additional files with account numbers and information regarding the assets she mentioned. That is all."
"If she said she would leave something, then I'm sure she left something. She called herself a ghost in the machine. Does that mean anything to you?"