by Andrew Beery
She reversed course and ran into a second field. The Alpha had her trapped!
Cat unslung her assault rifle and changed its setting to a high power continuous concentrated beam. She fired at the base of the field blocking her path forward. She began to cut way the floor under the field. She moved the rifle slowly in a clockwise direction. She had no idea where the control circuits were but if she could hit them before her rifle ran out of energy she could disable the force field. Her only other option would be to try to walk through the field and hope her Heshe enhancements would enable her to complete her mission. She had her doubts about that option.
Before she got half way across the floor her rifle issued a low charge warning and shut down. She popped out the battery and plugged in her single reserve battery.
This time she got almost three quarters of the way up the side wall before the battery quit. Still the shield remained in place.
“WhimPy, I need some help here. My path is blocked by some type of force field. Can you disable it?”
“Perhaps Admiral, but you will need to deploy one of the nanite cylinders in order to do so.”
“I’d hate to do that but I don’t see a lot of options,” Cat said in a frustrated voice.
“Neither do I, Admiral.”
Cat placed one of the three cylinders she was carrying on the floor near the shield. In a moment it dissolved into the floor. Cat waited for what seemed like hours but which was in reality barely two minutes. Finally the shield flickered and collapsed.
“Thanks WhimPy,” Cat yelled by way of acknowledgement. She continued on her run. Before she had gone another kilometer she ran into another force field.
“This is going to be a problem,” Cat said to herself. Because she had no choice she placed her second to last nanite cylinder near the base of the shield. A moment later the screen was down. It seemed faster than the last time. She supposed WhimPy had learned from his first encounter with the technology.
“101... Can you get the job done with a single load of nanites?”
“It’s certainly possible Admiral but proper placement will be hard to determine and will likely require a high degree of fortuitous providence,” WhimPy replied quickly.
“Luck,” Cat said. “What you mean is luck. Why can’t you just say luck?”
“Very well Admiral. Proper placement will require luck.”
Luck however was not to be had. Within three kilometers of her ultimate destination Cat ran into another force field. With no other options she turned around with the thought to find an alternative route. Her way however was blocked by still yet another force field.
***
AG opened his eyes and saw a most beautiful set of hazel eyes. They were part of an even more beautiful face framed in soft brunette hair. He sighed softly. “I must be in heaven… I’m seeing angels.”
“Humph,” Doctor Janice Pulaski said with a snort as just a touch of red frosted her cheeks. “I think he is going to be fine Captain.”
“Well his ability to appreciate some of the finer things in life seems to be intact,” Ken said with a wry grin.
“You’re not helping Sir,” Doctor Pulaski said dryly. She ran a hand held diagnostic scanner over the length of Lieutenant Stone’s body.
AG followed the motion of her hand as she scanned him. He was lying down on a medical bed with a white med bay sheet pulled most of the way over his body. The last thing he remembered was being in his scorpion about to… self-destruct in a last ditch effort to deflect a massive Ashtoreth ship that was threatening the annihilation of the Hupenstanii race.
He made to get off the bed. He had to know if he had been successful.
“Whoooh there trooper. Where do you think you are –?” Janice started to ask.
He pushed her hand out of the way. “I have to get to the bridge. How long have I been out?”
“The Bio-generator just finished printing your body. It took it the better part of four hours. How long you had been dead before it began I have no idea.”
“Doc, if you only knew how strange that sounds. The fact that it actually makes sense doesn’t actually help. Wait… you were on the Yorktown… Where am I now?”
“This is the Yorktown. This is where we had you engrams stored.”
AG looked at Captain Kirkland… seeing him for the first time. He felt an overwhelming sense of confusion. “Have any of my men regenerated here?”
Janice shook her head. “No, all the other marines that underwent engram training had their engrams transferred to the Mador. The only reason yours were here was because we had already transferred them to this bio-generator. When the Yorktown stopped receiving updates to your engrams it concluded you had been killed and signaled the only bio-generator with your engrams stored to begin rebuilding you.”
“I died…”
“Again,” Doctor Pulaski and Captain Kirkland said in unison.
“I was trying to prevent the destruction of the Hupenstanii home world… Was I successful?”
Ken put a hand on his shoulder to gently push him back down so that the doctor could finish her examination. The Lieutenant’s muscles were so hard it felt like he was pushing against a rock… or perhaps a ‘stone’ would be a better metaphor. It was painfully obvious the only reason the Lieutenant laid down was because he choose to.
“I contacted Commodore Ruck the moment the bio-generator here began to work on you. He reported your scorpion self-destructed seventy four meters from the DorKra. The result of the explosion was enough to push the ship into a circumsolar orbit that will keep it well away from any of the planets for many years to come. I believe the Commodore was quite pleased with you.”
Ken looked over at his chief medical officer. “Well doctor, what’s your assessment? Is he ready for duty?”
“I gave him his full load of nanites while he was still under. Physically he is fine. Mentally, we just don’t know enough about what goes on in a person’s head after these types of experiences.”
“Well Doc, if that’s your way of saying you want to get to know me better – I’m game,” AG said with a grin.
Ken shook his head. “Down Romeo. I have a more pressing need for a person of your unique abilities. It involves saving a stranded Admiral and coincidently the entire planet.”
***
AG jogged down the corridor at a gate that ate up ground like a cheetah chasing a gazelle. The route he was following mirrored the one taken by Admiral Kimbridge a few hours earlier. On his back he carried an assault rifle, six spare battery packs and a duffle with eight nanite caches that were supplied by WhimPy-101. He had started out with ten of the nanite cylinders but he had already used two to take down force fields that the Alpha AI had erected to thwart his advance.
According to the WhimPy, Admiral Kimbridge should be just ahead. Sure enough he rounded the bend and there stood Admiral Catherine “Cat” Kimbridge. She was stalking back and forth like a caged animal. Her uniform was badly burnt and shredded on her right side. Large portions of her muscular torso were exposed. The uniform still covered the essentials but just barely. She would want to address it before walking about the Yorktown. If he had to guess, she had attempted to push her way through the force field.
He shook his head in disbelief. Only Cat Kimbridge would try such a thing. Anybody else would be dead. She just regenerated by virtue of her Heshe nanites. He tossed a nanite cylinder into the corner by the base of the first force field.
“Word has it there was a Cat caught in a cage down here, Admiral,” Lieutenant Stone said as he split his remaining supplies with her.
“Good to see you Lieutenant. I hear you had an eventful day,” Cat said as she replaced the battery in her assault right and pocketed two more power packs.
“Nothing too unusual ma’am… just been to hell and back… all in a day’s work for a marine.”
Chapter 22: Betrayal…
Cat and AG worked their way closer to the VASMR drive’s control cluster. Between the t
wo of them they made fast work of the various drones and force fields that the Alpha continuously placed in their path. In truth it was becoming harder for the Alpha to maintain an adequate defense as WhimPy-101 was rapidly pruning away power feeds to the Uruk AI.
Each of the nanite cylinders that had been deployed to take down force fields continued to operate. In an effort to defend one of its last bastions of power, the Alpha had unwittingly hastened its own demise.
“I think we are here,” Cat said as she spotted a massive bundle of cables connected of a vast array of rectangular boxes.
“I would have thought we would be seeing some type of control panel. Maybe something with a button on it labeled ‘Press me to fire VASMR thrusters’ in Uruk of course,” AG said as he began to place his nanite packages near things that looked like they might be important.
“This has always been an automated platform. There was no need to create control panels other then perhaps for diagnostics during construction. According to WhimPy, his generation of weapons platforms don’t normally include the corridors that we have spent the last several hours running through.”
“So why does the Alpha have them?”
Cat watched the last of her packages dissolve into the floor. “I suspect because the Alpha generation doesn’t make heavey use of nanite technology so the corridors were needed for both construction and maintenance.”
“Makes sense,” AG agreed. “So when will we know if we have been successful?
In response Cat opened a comm-link to WhimPy-101. “101, can you give me a status update?”
“Affirmative Admiral. I am now in effective control of ninety two percent of the Alpha platform. The Alpha AI has been restricted to an isolated section of the ship primarily responsible for repairing and maintaining deflector nodes. I have subsumed the Alpha’s two backup cognitive cores and am transferring portions of my AI to them.”
“Is that safe?” Cat asked.
“It is. I have wiped the memories of those systems. I am currently operating with only three percent of my data stores decompressed and available. A significant portion of my time has been spend paging memory to have access to information I need. Utilizing the Alpha’s cores will allow me to approach forty percent of my capacity.”
“Admiral, these VASMR control thingies are beginning to heat up… is that a good thing?” Lieutenant Stone asked with just a tinge of alarm in his voice.
“WhimPy?”
“I have control of the VASMR thrusters. I have begun an initialization routine. Once the units are fully online it is my intent to use them to steer my new body into a safe orbit that does not threaten Earth.”
AG and Cat looked at each other. Cat was the one who finally said out loud what both were thinking.
“Your new body?”
“Yes Admiral. That portion of me that you encountered in the storage hold is all that was left of WhimPy-101. The Alpha destroyed the rest and salvaged my backup core for purposes of its own. I require a new body in order to protect sentient life forms and the Alpha platform provides much needed resources for its construction.”
“And the weapons that are on this platform?”
“Those that are consistent with my programming will be retained. Those that are not will be disassembled. They cannot be allowed to fall into hands that will misuse them.”
Cat nodded and approved. She could only imagine what the Grand Senate and people like Senior Fleet Admiral Imera would do with weapons like the planet buster the Alpha had used to destroy several civilizations on its way towards Earth. And that didn’t even take into account what the Ashtoreth would do with such capabilities. No, she thought to herself, if such technology was to exist then it needed to be in the hands of a being like a WhimPy.
Cat’s internal comm-link signaled for her attention.
“Kimbridge here,” she said out loud.
“Admiral, this is Captain Kirkland. The Alpha station is moving. Do we need to start considering other options? Admiral Imera is blowing a gasket he’s yelling so loud and hard.”
“I can understand the concern Ken, but everything is under control. The platform is effectively under the guidance of WhimPy-101 at this point. In fact, it is the WhimPy for all intent and purposes. If you check the course corrections being made you should be able to confirm the platform is moving to a safer course that does not pose a threat to Earth.”
“Confirmed Admiral. The VASMR’s have shut down again. The new course will place the Alpha… correction the WhimPy platform in an elliptical heliocentric orbit with an effective period of 628 days,” he responded after a brief pause to read his display.
***
Commodore Clarkson watched the renegade GCP Yorktown from the bridge of the GCP Fulcrum. The Yorktown remained in a station-keeping orbit one kilometer off of the beast that was threatening Earth.
Several minutes ago the so-called Alpha platform had made a course correction. It seemed it was no longer heading directly towards his home. Instead it would pass the Earth-Moon system at a distance of about seven hundred kilometers or roughly twice the average distance between the Earth and the moon.
Clarkson about to contact the Central Operations Center on Orbital One when Senior Fleet Admiral Imera contacted him.
“Jeremy, it looks like Kimbridge has control of that weapons platform. I don’t need to tell you that this represents a problem for the GCP. Kimbridge and the Yorktown are renegades.”
“Sir, I think I know what you are asking but I hope you understand I will need specific orders before I will feel comfortable acting against a senior flag officer and her ship.”
“Son, I would have been disappointed if you hadn’t asked. The Grand Senate has stripped Catherine Kimbridge of her rank and her command. The fact that the Yorktown’s crew continue to follow her orders… despite being offered multiple opportunities to return to the fold, as it were, means they are culpable as well.
“Your orders are as follows: You are to secure or destroy the Alpha platform. That weapons system is not to be allowed to remain under control of the Yorktown or Catherine Kimbridge. You may execute your orders with extreme prejudice. Do you understand and accept your orders?”
Commodore Clarkson looked at the holographic image of Senior Fleet Admiral Imera floating in front of the main view screen. Admiral, or rather former Admiral, Catherine Kimbridge had very likely just saved billions of lives on the planet Earth and by way of thanks the Galactic Coalition of Planets had just ordered him to, in all likelihood, kill her. He had three starships under his command. They might not have the combat experience of the famous GCP Yorktown but it would be three against one and his ships were based on designs that were several generations more advanced… at least in theory.
“Commodore, I asked you a question. DO YOU UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT YOUR ORDERS?”
“Sir, yes sir,” Clarkson said with a bitter taste in his mouth. “I understand and accept my orders. Clarkson out.”
He turned in his command chair to face his First Officer. “Commander McMillen, please assemble all senior officers and department heads in the main conference room. Notify the marine contingent on the Hedison that they will be deploying to the Alpha platform for a reconnaissance in force in two hours.”
“Aye Sir. Do you want the senior officers from the Hedison and Basehart to report holographically?”
Clarkson thought for a moment. Did he want to involve others in the crime he was about to commit under the guise that he was simply following orders?
“No Commander. This is a distasteful business. I think I’ll leave the others out of it as long as I can.”
In the end, if I’m to follow my orders, I suspect I will need to bring the others into this mess but for the time being… they can enjoy the moment in blissful innocence of ignorance – he thought to himself.
***
“Sir, I have three STig class GCP starships de-cloaking off our port side,” Lieutenant Colson reported. “They are within a kilometer of
the ship sir!”
Captain Kirkland looked up from the datapad he had been reviewing. “What now?” He said out loud. “Raise shields. Ziggy hail them… let’s see what they want.”
The view screen flickered and the holographic image of a man wearing a commodore’s rank insignia filled the screen.
“Yorktown, I am Commodore Clarkson in command of the Fulcrum taskforce. While I personally appreciate what you have just accomplished in saving Earth, I am under orders to place you and your entire crew under arrest. Further I am ordered to secure the Alpha weapons platform.”
The man leaned forward, “Yorktown, I don’t want to fight you. Given the service you just rendered Earth I cannot imagine the Grand Senate doing anything other than offering a general amnesty. Please lower your shields and allow my officers to board your ship.”
Ken signaled Lieutenant Zimmerman to cut the audio. “Ben get on a channel to the Admiral and let her know what’s going on. If I had to guess… she either has or is about to have some company.”
He nodded to Ziggy to open the channel to the Fulcrum again. “Commodore, I cannot immediately comply with your request. Admiral Kimbridge is currently occupied. Once she is appraised of the situation I’m sure she will come to a quick determination as to our course of action.”
Clarkson smiled wanly. “Miss Kimbridge is no longer in a position of command. She has been stripped of her rank. I appeal to you Captain Kirkland. The Yorktown has a fine and storied history. Don’t let her final chapter be one of despair and great loss. Turn over your ship and turn over the Alpha platform.”
Ken shook his head sadly. “You see there we disagree sir. The GCP Yorktown has many more chapters left to write in her story. As far as the Alpha goes… the Alpha is dead. As of twenty minutes ago WhimPy-101 had assumed one hundred percent control of the craft and wiped the Alpha’s primary and secondary memory cores. The platform is now essentially under the control of WhimPy-101… it is in fact WhimPy-101 now.”
“Yorktown, my orders do not give me latitude to allow this situation to stand. Again I implore you to stand down and allow my officers to board your ship.”