Pederson
“Two minutes,” the pilot said.
“Put on your helmets.” Pederson donned his own and looked at his team. They had spent too long in the cramped cabin of the stealth ship, and they were eager to move. Pederson touched the lighting controls, plunging the cabin into darkness, save for a faint light so his team’s eyes could adjust.
“Activate your stealth suits,” Pederson said. A relatively new technology, the suits could bend electromagnetic and quasi-particle energy, but movement created detectable distortions that made wearers somewhat vulnerable to detection. However, the suits could deceive whatever technology the Borregans could possibly bring to bear. As far as Pederson knew, the stealth ship, equipped with the same technology, had remained hidden as it moved to land on the surface. However, the suit’s biggest problem was excessive power use; Pederson and his team had to use them sparingly.
“We’re down,” the pilot said.
Pederson touched the door control and exited the ship. A map appeared in the corner of his helmet HUD. He knelt in the grass and waited for his team to assemble. Borrega had no moon, so the night was very dark.
The team circled Pederson and crouched. He heard the stealth ship rise and then streak into the night, the whine of its engines fading to nothing. He waited for several minutes, listening to the sounds of the night. “All right,” he whispered, “deactivate your suits and activate your night vision.”
He looked at the map on the HUD. The ship had placed them about ten kilometers from the outskirts of the city of Basq. Judging from naval intelligence files, they were in a region of farms and small settlements; his night vision revealed they crouched in a field or pasture. If they moved quickly, they could cover the distance to the city during the night.
His greatest desire was to lob the missile at the Shah’s Palace from orbit, but Robert McFinn had made it very clear he wanted Pederson to keep his son safe.
God save me from the McFinns.
He motioned for his team to follow and moved into the trees.
Pederson ducked into the ditch just as a vicious spray of blaster fire struck the edge of the road.
“I thought the Borregan Security Forces had primitive weaponry,” Antonovich said. The man was prone next to Pederson, both of them soaked with ditch water
“I guess we were misinformed.” Pederson tapped his communicator. “Where are you, Giles?”
“Trapped on the other side of the road against this fucking stone wall,” Giles replied over the communicator. ‘They’ve got pretty accurate fire; those fuckers must have night vision.”
Antonovich raised his head slightly, but ducked to avoid another volley of blaster fire. “We’ve got to take out that APC.”
“How much juice do you guys have left?” Pederson asked
“Two or three more bursts of stealth,” Giles said. “That’s it.”
Shit! “We’re going to need that power when we get into the city.” They had used much of their stealth suits’ power avoiding an even larger patrol. Pederson peeked above the edge of the road. “They’ve trapped us here and are waiting for reinforcements.”
An hour before dawn, a patrol discovered Pederson and his team half-a-klick from the edge of the city. The agents had killed the soldiers on foot, but the APC had arrived moments later, the mounted weapon suppressing them with blaster fire. Pederson’s team had lost two men, their bodies still sprawled on the road.
“We’ve got unfriendlies closing,” another of Pederson’s team said. “A hundred meters down the road.”
“Each of you ready a plasma grenade,” Pederson ordered his team. Though the explosion would attract more attention, they had no choice. “Giles? You attract fire and we’ll toss. Ready? Go!”
The APC opened up when Giles and his team fired on the APC. Pederson and his team stood and threw their bombs as hard as they could. A few moments later, the APC erupted into a pink and red fireball.
“Go!” Pederson scrambled out of the ditch and sprinted across the road; his team followed. Bolts struck the road around his feet, and he leapt into the ditch.
“Giles is gone,” one of the agents said.
Goddammit! He looked his men and counted eight. “Follow me. Keep low and move down the ditch.”
Robert McFinn, you’re going to pay for this.
McFinn
“We got almost everything we wanted,” Arrington said. “They didn’t bargain at all; they had nothing to back it up.” She and McFinn stood on the balcony of her apartments, overlooking the Palace gardens lit up against the night. Each held a glass of sparkling wine.
“Then why are you so morose?” McFinn asked. “They’ve admitted fault for the Anuvi Incident, and I know we were the cause of that. They’ve promised fair reparations for the recent raids committed by the Reactionaries as well as their actions on Borrega. They are willing to discuss recompense for the Naati War and the Great Sophont War. The Naati War! That happened over a hundred and forty-five years ago!”
“Don’t you see?” Arrington said. She set down her wine glass on the railing “They’re desperate, driven by fear.”
“Good! Remember the Great Sophont War? Historians have calculated that if we had just kept fighting for a few years more the entire Hegemony would have collapsed. They’re right to fear us.” McFinn drank some wine.
“You still don’t understand. They fear the Reactionaries more than they fear us. I could smell it on him when I asked, but Fangrik just wouldn’t say why. Remember what Noga said? The Reactionaries are here on Borrega, digging, looking for something. I think Fangrik fears what they’ll find, this enemy of the Harbingers.”
“Look, we did what we set out to do. We’ve saved lives, and Borrega has been peacefully brought within the Union. The Consul will not order the Navy to take Borrega by force, and we’ve cemented an alliance with a hated enemy. If this alliance leads to peace with all the Naati, you’ll have carved out your place in history.”
“Is that all you care about?” Arrington asked.
McFinn, surprised by the question, stepped back as Arrington scowled at him. “Of course not …”
She slapped him on the shoulder. “Well done, Captain McFinn! Attaché to the great Frances Arrington, who brought the Naati to heel. What’s next? Politics? You have a great contact, by the way. Her Majesty was very impressed with your knowledge of diplomacy.”
“Your Excellency …”
“The great Captain McFinn, scourge of the Naati in the Anuvi system. Her Majesty wanted you here as a threat of consequence, remember. Well, it’s obvious the only consequence they fear is a faction of their own. We’ve done nothing here, Captain, except make an alliance with a broken and defeated race.”
McFinn just looked at her; her face was red, her mouth set in a snarl.
She leaned on the balcony rail and looked at the gardens. “The true power in the Naati Hegemony is the Reactionaries.” She pounded the rail, knocking her wine glass off. It tumbled into the greenery below. “Good grief, the whole lot of them should have been contained and forced to fight it out.” She looked at him. “That was the original plan, wasn’t it? We would just go in and mop up? The only reason we were sent to make this alliance was our own politics, so Her Majesty could parade this so-called victory in front of her enemies in the Union.” She looked back out over the gardens. “We’re going to pay with our lives for it.”
McFinn set down his wine glass, bowed, and exited the apartments. Exhausted, he returned to his apartments and climbed into bed.
Just before he fell asleep, McFinn thought he heard blaster fire in the distance, followed by an explosion.
I’m dreaming already.
McFinn woke. The door to the balcony in his bedroom was open. The breeze blew the curtains inward, and he saw the faint morning light. He lay there for a few moments, thinking about what Arrington had said.
His eye caught some movement near the window and he sat up. “What the fuck?”
A shadow
seemed to move toward the bed, and before he could get on his feet, McFinn found himself pinned, something like a hand over his mouth.
“Greetings, McFinn the younger,” a voice hissed. “Your father sends his love.”
He felt a sharp pain in his arm, and his world became darkness.
Gavanus
“They sense our weakness,” Fangrik said
The two of them, accompanied by their escort, ran the route back to the Spoor Follower in the early morning light. Gavanus felt glorious, his strong limbs pumping as he coursed along the road. A few humans popped their heads up over the walls on either side to get a look, and Gavanus snarled at them in victory. He knew the alliance with the Hominin Union would bring the Reactionaries back to the Council. “You’ve done it! You’ve saved the Hegemony! You kept control of our present territories, and the Union agreed not to interfere in our internal affairs. Once the Reactionaries are defeated, you will be hailed a hero of the Naati race. Most important, you have been proven correct.”
“We have agreed to nothing more than a breath of air,” Fangrik said. “We are caught between Human treachery and Reactionary heresy, and I’ll be surprised if we live through it.”
At that moment, a powerful force knocked all the Naati off their feet. Gavanus sprawled onto the pavement, skinning his knees and elbows. Debris rained down all around them. He shook his head, ears ringing, and looked up.
“Maldar!”
A great cloud rose above the city, blue, pink, and yellow in the morning light.
Fangrik got back to his feet and called to the escort. “We need to get back to the Spoor Follower. Now!” He bent and grabbed Gavanus by the arm. “So which was that, Gavanus of the Jureen: Human treachery or Reactionary heresy?”
Cortez
Cortez emerged from the lift on to the command deck, his senior officers in tow. Before leaving the Eiding Forward Deployment area, Fleet Admiral Gao had offered Cortez a position in the vanguard of the Battle Fleet, as reward for excellent results during exercises.
Cortez had accepted, the pride surging in what was left of his heart.
The Task Force had then flown to the outer reaches of an unnamed system ten light years from Borrega. Here they waited in formation
“Incoming message from the Selaphiel,” one of the command crew said.
The image of Admiral Gao appeared over the sitrep table. “The Consul’s Fleet has arrived, and Supreme Admiral Marie-Élise Singh Coroillon des Destillières has graced us with her presence. Stand by for Her Majesty’s transmission.” The Admiral’s image disappeared.
Interesting.
A holographic image of the Consul of the Hominin Union appeared above the sitrep table. She wore a gold, gem-encrusted crown. Her curly dark hair fell onto the sumptuous purple and fur-lined cloak covering her shoulders. Golden mail glinted from underneath the cloak. She sat on a throne, the seal of the Hominin Union above her head. She held a golden scepter in one hand and a golden orb, the globe of Earth, in the other. Her face looked pale and cold, but her green eyes sparkled.
“Two hundred and fifty one years ago our ancestor, Jules Xavier Caroillon des Destillières, assisted the great Admiral von Kármán in leading Humanity to victory over the Great Enemy, the Enemy that had for almost a century tried to enslave us. Forty-eight years later, Jules Xavier’s grandson, Émile Gabriel, led the remnants of United Earth to victory against the Transhumans, machines Humanity had created to defeat the Great Enemy, machines that turned against us in genocidal fury. A paragon of virtue and justice, Émile looked at the far-flung worlds of the Hominin diaspora and wept. After the dissolution of United Earth, these worlds warred upon each other or descended into barbarism. The Great Enemy’s former slave races toiled in darkness and desperation. Driven by compassion, Émile wrote the Reunification and Reconciliation Act. Its purpose was to unite all Hominin worlds and the victims of the Great Enemy into one entity. Only then would Humanity be safe from threats like the Snirr and the Transhumans. This was a great task, not possible to complete within his lifetime, but his successors united most Hominins under the banner of our Union. There was finally a light of freedom, justice and prosperity for Hominins and the downtrodden species in this part of the Galaxy.”
“But the Hominin races are still fractured. There are a few worlds where they still live in darkness. Borrega is one such world, located in the Naati Neutral Zone, isolated since before the Union’s inception, and a victim of Naati treachery. For decades a small band of freedom fighters has fought for independence from the ruling Shah and his Naati masters. Too long has this injustice stained the conscience of the Union. Our representative, Her Excellency Frances Arrington, Senator for Phoenix, while negotiating a peace, was killed in a horrific terrorist act meant to cow us into submission ...”
Some of the crew on the command deck cried out, but Cortez remained calm.
“... but we declare to the entire galaxy, Humanity will not be intimidated. The light of Humanity will not be snuffed out, and just as Humanity survived against the onslaught of the Great Enemy, Humanity will prevail against any race that wishes to subjugate us with terror and ignorance. We are the Imperator of the Hominin Union; we will defend all of Humanity and the Hominin races, not just those worlds illuminated by the light of our Union.”
“Towards this end, we dispatch this great task force to Borrega, to aid the rebels in their struggle and claim the world of Borrega for the Union. You are the Sword of Justice in our hand, the Light-bringer of civilization. You are graced by God to free the Borregan peoples from the Naati menace.”
Though the expression on Cortez’ mask was fixed, he smiled on the inside. “It’s on.”
Part IV: A Test of Sovereignty
L’Etat, c’est moi
Louis XIV
Beckenbaur
“Holy shit!” Beckenbaur looked up from his console at the reams of data displayed on the Trieste’s HUD. “This isn’t just Cerilia IV’s location; it looks like the Exploration Service’s file on the whole system!”
“Can you give me some context here, Doctor?” Talbot asked.
“Dr. Batista discovered many species on Cerilia IV were either created or modified by the Harbingers. She determined the location of the Anuvi Artifact by analyzing the DNA of one particular species.”
“What?” Heather asked.
“That’s why I need your help, Heather. Cerilia is the key to this whole mystery. The Harbingers encoded the locations of their artifacts in the DNA of species on Cerilia.” He held up his pockcomp. “And I have the only template to translate that information.”
Heather grabbed the pockcomp and summoned a holographic image. “It just looks like a DNA sequencer to me.”
“Batista programmed it to translate DNA information into galactic coordinates.”
“Based on what?”
“I don’t know; I couldn’t find out. But as soon as we got back to Von Kármán Station in ‘33, I copied Batista’s files and erased all of it before the GID locked everything up. I am the only one with all of her research.”
“Why didn’t you say something during the trial?” Bandele asked. “That was proof I didn’t order the Bering into the Neutral Zone!”
The guilt rose so fast that Beckenbaur almost vomited. “I’m sorry, Bandele, but I couldn’t reveal what I knew. They would have thrown me in prison with you, and there would be no chance we could find the truth.” He approached Bandele and put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s why I came to get you.”
“So we need to get to the surface of Cerilia IV?” Talbot asked.
Beckenbaur sat at the console again. “If the Bering’s mission at Anuvi was successful, Batista was next going to analyze the DNA of this species.” Beckenbaur tapped a few keys and the image of a flying creature appeared. “She believed the DNA contained the coordinates for what she called ‘The Ark.’”
“The Ark?” Talbot asked.
“She didn’t say what it meant, beyond the biblical reference, of
course.” He sat and tapped at the console. “This file is not as complete as I thought. There is no DNA data from any of the species on Cerilia IV. So, yes, Captain, we’ll need to land on Cerilia IV, find an individual of this species, and take a sample.”
“Great. Any information on the blockading fleet?”
“None that I can see.”
“Let me take a look.” Talbot tapped a few keys on her console and a map of the system appeared. Ten worlds, including three gas giants in the outer system, orbited a class G main sequence dwarf star. The map zoomed to the fourth planet. “It looks like there’s an orbital station around Cerilia IV itself ...” The map zoomed outward, “... and a QBD relay in the outer system …” then in to the innermost gas giant “… and a surface station here, on one of this gas giant’s moons.” The image zoomed into a bird’s eye view of a station on the edge of a large crater. A cursor appeared around the surface station and data appeared beside it. “They’re studying this moon for some reason. It looks like an exploration scout vessel is attached to the station.” The image of a spacecraft appeared. “The Molly Mae? She looks about the same size as the Trieste.”
Talbot smiled and looked at Beckenbaur. “We’re going to do this a little different this time.”
“Invoke a dampening field,” Talbot said.
The Trieste had emerged from hyperspace on the far side of the blue gas giant, masking their arrival. The HUD displayed the Trieste’s progress as the ship decelerated and flew toward around the planet.
The computer had already displayed a gray schematic of the gas-giant and its moons based on the information about the Cerilia system Beckenbaur purchased from the Nano Mob. Over the next several minutes, the image of the gas giant and its moons lit up with color, and data appeared beside each object, as the computer matched the information from the Trieste’s passive scans to the known data.
The Borrega Test Page 30