Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 7: Renegades

by Andrew Beery

  “You are marines. That means you are held to a higher standard than other soldiers. It is for this very reason that marines don’t like to be called… soldiers, instead we refer to ourselves as troop.” Lieutenant Stone paused to look at the assembly.

  “You have been given a rare privilege. You are among the first to receive engram training to make you proficient at a task that others… that soldiers… take years to learn. The fact that you have received this training is not what makes you superior to other men and women in the armed forces. It’s what you will do with these new skills.

  “You will go first where others fear to tread. You will go first where others cannot tread. You will go first because THAT is what marines do.”

  “HURRAH” Gunny Sergeant Ramirez barked.

  “HURRAH!” Thirty six voices echoed.

  “Outstanding!” Lieutenant Stone said. “Your engram training gives you an advantage but do not forget for a second that it comes with its own set of challenges. Each of you will initially respond to situations you encounter in the cockpit of your fighters in exactly the same way. That is understandable. You are accessing the same experiential memory in the form of those implanted engrams.”

  He paused to let that sink in before continuing.

  “But understand, that uniformity will make you predictable. A smart enemy will pick up on this. Starting today you will begin a series of flight maneuvering drills. I want you to go with your gut and begin to innovate beyond your training. Adapt and overcoming. It is in your blood.”

  Lieutenant Stone walked back to the raised podium that allowed him to see all the marines at once.

  “Gunny, have your marines report to the flight deck in fifteen minutes. We will be flying real scorpions against computer simulated targets. You will divide into two wings. The wing with the most confirmed kills and fewest deaths will receive an extra beer ration. That is all. Dismiss the men.”

  “You heard the Lieutenant. You have until 05:15 to report to the hanger. Use your vacation time wisely. DISSS… MISSED,” Gunny Sergeant Ramirez barked in a voice that was even louder than the Lieutenant’s.

  Chapter 17: Divided Loyalties

  Cat sat back in her command chair on the bridge of the GCP Yorktown. She could have worked in her office or even in the adjoining ready-room but she enjoyed being on the bridge… even if hers was not the primary command chair. The bridge was the heart of the ship. In her hand she held a datapad. It was slowly scrolling a series of notes that her staff felt needed her attention as well as updates from the various ships within her renegade taskforce. A new addition were status reports from the GCP High Orbital stations.

  Now that the fiction of a Hupenstanii based contagion had been exposed and the horror of the gene-drive modifications identified, the local GCP and Hupenstanii Council of Elders were working together for the first time in decades. A massive eradication program had been started that vaccinated the Hoppers against the artificial contagion and at the same time removed them as potential vectors for spreading it.

  Sadly the vaccine that was being used had been developed within the first few months of the quarantine. Because the BioOps team that was charged with testing the efficacy of the vaccine had its own Ashtoreth agenda, the initial test results had be falsified. Those tests showed the vaccine to be a complete and utter failure. Cat, on a hunch, had the initial research verified. The pathogen was easily eradicated and an effective vaccine existed to prevent reinfection.

  More critical was the tempering that had occurred to the general populations fundamental genetic makeup as a result of the gene-drive technology that had been employed. A Hupenstanii Medical Corps lead researcher, a female named Triska’nar, was actively developing a plan to address the situation. Cat had personally pledged those resources at her disposal to helping the Hupenstanii revert their genome to its pre-tampering configuration.

  Cat put down the data pad and yawned. She had been reading for hours and making small adjustments as she saw fit. She had just reviewed the Hupenstanii’s contribution to the High Orbital fighter wings. The scorpions needed to be modified to accommodate the larger Hupenstanii but the reconfigurations were easy enough to make, especially with the Yorktown’s fully functional Heshe nanites fabrication technology.

  Sadly, the Hupenstanii really could not take advantage of the newly developed engram teaching technology because the equipment Cat had been able to capture from the Ashtoreth sleeper cell was configured for humans. And while she had been able to duplicate it so that each of the ships her fleet now had access to the technology; no one had had the time to reconfigure it to work with the other member GCP member races.

  “Admiral!” Lieutenant Zimmerman said in an alarmed voice. “We have a fleet-wide class one coded message coming in from Fleet Admiral Imera.”

  “Decode and play it on the bridge speakers Ziggy. Ops recall the Captain to the bridge.”

  “Belay that Mister Thompson, I’m already here,” Ken Kirkland said as he walked out of the turbolift.

  “Message decoded. Playing now,” Lieutenant Zimmerman reported.

  The image of Senior Fleet Admiral Imera floated in front of the bridge’s main holographic projector. Cat had to admit he looked haggard. Surely this wasn’t a result of her activities. Commander Dickerson had assured her that no abnormal communication between the GCP personnel in the Hupenstanii sector and the Earth-based Central Operations Center had occurred. In fact because of the nature of the long standing blockade, limited communication was the norm.

  “Approximately four hours ago at 23:48 Earth Standard Time a message was received from an entity claiming to be a rouge Heshe Weapons platform known as WhimPy-101. This entity claimed to be in control of a monstrous weapons platform the size and scale of which has never been encountered. This platform has been identified as the weapon used to destroy the Mardarus home world as well as several other planets on its way to Earth. Over the next several hours we engaged the platform with our entire Earth Defense Force. That force was destroyed to the last ship. We are defenseless.

  “This rouge weapons platform is on a course that will cause it to pass between Earth and its moon. Based on our previous experience with this platform we can only assume the worst and are attempting an evacuation of Earth. We are calling on all ships with hyperjump capability to immediately make their way to the Terrain system to assist in the evacuation effort.”

  The image of Admiral Imera stepped closer to the holographic camera. “Please, we are desperate. We need your help. Senior Fleet Admiral Imera Out”

  The bridge of the GCP Yorktown was dead quiet. In the midst of the silence, Yorky sent a signal to Cat’s internal AI, Cal. Her AI in turn relayed a stored message from WhimPy-101. She listened without saying a word. The news was not good. If WhimPy was correct the GCP was facing an external threat it might not be able to handle… on top of the replicant threat from within that Cat had discovered.

  She stood and walked down to Ken’s command chair. “Ken I need you and senior staff from all ships in the Ready Room in five minutes. Those that cannot attend in person are to attend holographically.”

  “Aye Aye Admiral”

  ***

  “Admiral, I don’t buy it. It doesn’t fit with what we know of 101. There is no way he would attack Earth,” Commander First said from where he was seated at the conference table. Several of the others nodded. Captain Kirkland and Commodore Ruck were on his right. Lieutenant Stone and Admiral Kimbridge sat on his left. Captains Takei and Purohit along with their First Officers were present in avatar form across the table. Their holographic images flickering every now and then were the only clue they were not there in person. Admirals Faragon and Melbourne were on the planet’s surface overseeing the planetary recovery effort.

  Cat had just briefed the team about both the message from Admiral Imera as well as some of the information WhimPy-101 had shared with her regarding the Uruk Alpha Weapons Platform. The discussion had been going on for several minu
tes. There were not a lot of good options.

  “Perhaps Ben, but if WhimPy was damaged in his fight with the Alpha platform then he may not be functioning according to his normal protocols,” Ken said in response to his First Officer’s statement.

  Admiral Kimbridge shook her head. “I have to agree with Ben on this one, Ken. I cannot imagine a scenario in which a WhimPy could continue to function at any level and still not adhere to its primary programming. The Heshe simply put too many safeguards in place.”

  Commodore Ruck’s hologram leaned forward. “Still that platform took out a number of top-of-the-line starships and is threatening Earth. Admiral Imera must know that any attempt to evacuate the billions of people on the planet’s surface is doomed to fail… It would take years… if it were even possible.”

  “I suspect Imera is simply trying to save as many as he can knowing full well that he will be lucky to get a million off much less the 9.6 billion people currently on the planet.”

  Cat leaned back in her chair. “The solution is not to try and evacuate the planet. The solution is to eliminate the threat.”

  “How do we do that?” Captain Takei argued. “WhimPy wiped out every ship sent against it.”

  “I don’t think WhimPy-101 did,” Cat responded quietly. “I suspect the Alpha AI and WhimPy are fighting over control of that platform. WhimPy said that the Alpha utilizes an energy harvesting technology. It’s possible that Imera’s forces actually made the situation worse by supplying the Alpha with an energy source. WhimPy may have been fighting for control the entire time. If that’s true…”

  “Then we have a potential ally already on that platform… if we can figure out how to reach him,” Jason Ruck finished.

  Ben raised a tentative forward paw. “I hate to be the bad dog in the room but aren’t we expecting our Ashtoreth friends to be making a return?”

  Cat nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. We are going to split the taskforce. Our four ships won’t make an impact in evacuating Earth’s population but we can provide a significant benefit to the defense of the Hupenstanii system. I’m going to ask Commodore Ruck to take command of a piece of the taskforce… the Exeter, Mador and Relentless. You’ll be in charge of defending this system. I’m going to loan High Orbital One our MAC unit under Lieutenant Stone. His thirty six scorpion fighters will provide the station with the additional close-in support they need.”

  She looked at Jason for confirmation. He nodded.

  “Meanwhile our little surprises have been seeded thought out the system. If they jump within sixteen AU of the Hupenstanii or anywhere near the normal jump point they will be incapacitated.

  Meanwhile the Yorktown and I will head back to Sol and try to shut down, destroy or otherwise disable that Alpha platform.”

  ***

  Asdartu watched from the bridge of his command ship, the AE DorKra. Fourteen battle cruisers, each with its own wing of 86 fighters were preparing to launch for an engagement at the Hupenstanii home world. With this many ships and fighters his victory was assured. They would overwhelm the forces protecting that world and at the same time salvage his honor and reputation with his brother, the King.

  His adjunct approached cautiously. Adjuncts had a habit of not surviving until retirement around the royal family. The man was one of the Faragon replicants. They had been an early experiment in the development of human replicant line. Normally only one replicant of any given host was made. In this case, his people did not know if the bio-generation system that created the replicants was going to produce a viable human husk. As a result they created several spares. Sadly access to the target’s engrams was lost and the six husks matured without them. They looked like Admiral Faragon but they would never be able to replace him. The empire was not given to costly mistakes and so another use was found for these particular husks.

  “Sir, the fleet is provisioned and ready to head out.”

  “Very good.”

  Asdartu turned without saying another word and walked over to his command chair. The seat looked more like an ornately carved throne but that was in keeping with his family’s ostentatious proclivities.

  “Helm, make course for the fleet assembly point. Communications officer. Signal the fleet. We leave to salvage our honor within the hour.”

  “Aye Lord Captain,” both officers acknowledged in unison.

  The hum of power filled the large bridge. The twenty some personnel that staffed the bridge during combat operations busied themselves with final preparations and systems checks. Asdartu could hear the soft murmur of voices as his officers worked to make sure everything would be in order when the final command to engage the hyperfield drives was given.

  Asdartu was not concerned with their efficiency. No one rose from the ranks to serve on the bridge of a starship, especially not his starship, with proving their worth. Those that failed did not live to pass on their genes… and if they already had offspring? Well that was just more incentive not to fail.

  His First Officer, High Centurion Asktear, stood up from his station and approached his commander. He bowed slightly as he approached him.

  “My Lord and my Captain, the ship reports fully ready and operational.”

  “And the fleet?”

  “All are in place. You have but to give the order and our glory is at hand,” the man answered crisply.

  Chapter 18: Planet Killer…

  “Bring the cloak up, shields to maximum. Prepare ship for jump,” Captain Kirkland ordered. “Ziggy, give me ship wide.”

  “Channel open Captain.”

  “All hands we are jumping in sixty seconds. I don’t have to warn you we do not have a lot of experience with ad hoc jumps yet. If we get this wrong we may be incapacitated for a few minutes. Those will be minutes where we will be vulnerable should somebody take exception to our presence. Be sharp. Keep on your toes and batten down the hatches. Kirkland out.”

  “Coming up on jump point Captain,” Ben announced from his First Officer’s station.

  “Very good. Helm engage the jump drive at your discretion.”

  “Aye Aye Captain,” Lieutenant Mayweather acknowledged. “Jumping in three, two, one… Jump!”

  An undulating violet and crimson spiraling vortex formed in front of the GCP Yorktown. Once it had completely stabilized, the ship inched forward until the tip of the Yorktown touched the outer edge of the vortex. In a bright flash the ship was suddenly consumed by the swirling mass of energy only to reemerge some one thousand five hundred and fifty three light years distant.

  The sun that appeared in the forward viewscreen was a G-type yellow dwarf. It was brighter than about 85% of the others stars in the Milky Way. With a surface temperature of about 5500 degrees Celsius it was a G2V main sequence star. This meant it delivered, on average, about 1300 watts per square meter of energy to surfaces orbiting it at the distance of Earth.

  To Cat the star was beautiful. It was Sol. But it was not nearly as beautiful as the blue-green marble that appeared centered in the forward viewscreen. Shrouded in swirling bands of misty white clouds, Earth was a sight to behold.

  Cat had ordered the Yorktown to jump into the system in a near Earth orbit because she wanted to remind the crew what they were fighting for. It did not matter that to the powers-that-be in the Earth system that she and her crew were renegades. For the most part they were human. They were fighting for their home world.

  “Ziggy, hail Orbital One Operations. Let them know we are here to try and stop the Alpha weapons platform,” Cat ordered.

  “Aye Admiral, message sent… Ma’am, Senior Fleet Admiral Imera is requesting a visual.”

  “Put him on the main screen.”

  Immediately the holographic image of the older man appeared floating in front of the bridge. Cat stepped down from her seat to stand next to Captain Kirkland’s more centrally located command chair.

  Admiral Imera’s eyes went wide. “You’re dead.”

  “Cats have nine lives Admiral. Surel
y you know that by now,” Cat said with a wry grin.

  The man’s expression changed from surprise to suspicion. “WHAT are you playing at Catherine?” Admiral Imera barked. “Call off your monstrosity. Surely you gain nothing by destroying Earth!”

  Cat shook her head. “Admiral, you and I will likely never see eye-to-eye but I assure you that this is none of my doing. I’m here to help. Can we agree to put aside our differences for the duration of the emergency?”

  “We were contacted by your pet WhimPy. He warned us to leave the damn thing alone.”

  “I think you should have, Admiral. WhimPy-101 faced that thing when it was undamaged. He took out most of its offensive capabilities but was himself nearly destroyed in the process. What you faced was a heavily damaged Uruk weapons platform called Alpha… after WhimPy had a go at it… and even gravely damaged, it took out your fleet.”

  Imera looked at her coldly through the holographic display. “I almost believe you… but… you said ‘I’m here’… You are in the Sol system? You must be cloaked,” he reasoned out loud.

  “We are Admiral. We mean to approach the weapon’s platform covertly and board her.”

  “Don’t you think we tried that,” Admiral Imera said in an exasperated tone. “That thing destroyed everything we sent at it. It’s unstoppable. It’s a world killer.”

  “We think the platform harvests radiant energy,” Cat said. “We think you may have actually made the situation worse when you fired on it. If there is any good news it’s that the platform likely used most of the energy you fed it fighting your fleet.

  “The bad news is the closer the Alpha platform gets to the sun, the more energy it can harvest. Right now it’s collecting about 60 kilowatts per square meter near Jupiter. Once it gets to the Earth/Moon system that number will be closer 1500 kilowatts per square meter.”

  She paused to let that sink in.

  “We are attempting to contact WhimPy-101. His FTL links are down and we suspect he is barely functional. But, we also believe he is already working to gain control of the Alpha platform. The Yorktown is going to attempt to help him or, at a minimum, disable the platform from within the vessel.”