“I’m passing my orders to Stephanie now,” Jake said.
“What’s in the Schengal System?” Minh-Chu asked.
“Someone we should meet up with if we’re going to find out the major routes around here. It’s a good place to test our switching transponder system and a few other things too.”
“Sounds interesting,” Minh-Chu said.
“I hear it’s one of the strangest worlds in the sector,” Jake replied. “But the good news is that it’s a Visi planet.”
“Another mega-corp?” Minh asked.
“Nope, one of the more interesting races in this sector. Humans aren’t much better than rim weasels to them, but they like our commerce system. Captain Berkovitz has given them my name, so we’ll be good to land there and do some business while we look for a good mark. It’s a neutral port, should be interesting.”
“The Order doesn’t have a big presence there?” Minh asked.
Jake started walking towards the Warlord. Technicians were removing the vacuum sealer from the middle of the hull. It was coming down like a heavy tarpaulin bandage from the gleaming grey metal. “They do, but they’re only allowed to have so many ships in the area. The Visi don’t care much for religion, and they have the firepower to make the Order think twice about invading. They use void bombs.”
“Ah, that’ll keep anyone in line,” Minh-Chu said.
One of the Warlord’s main gangways started lowering slowly, the twenty one centimetres of armour becaming visible as it passed down in front of them. “Clear!” shouted a technician who looked around before hitting a release that let the heavy ramp drop with a thunderous impact.
Jake started walking up the gangway and was confronted by the technician, an older woman with light grey eyes. “Sorry about that, Sir, the lowering mechanism can’t handle the full weight of the armour so we have to drop the gangway or it’ll rip apart.”
“Plan on fixing that?” Jake asked.
“Aye, the very next thing on my list,” she replied. “Parts are being machined now.”
“Good, carry on.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said, walking towards the machine shop at the rear of the hangar.
“I’m glad I’m coming,” Minh said.
Jake couldn’t help but linger on the thought of leaving Ayan so soon. She was an amazing woman, and could take care of herself, but she just lost a long time friend. Laura was a friend to him as well, the first of the First Light crew he'd met. “I only wish we could spend more time here before we get this started. There’s a hole in our ranks.”
Minh shook his head sympathetically. “I wish I knew her better. Laura always seemed…” he thought for a moment and sighed. “Jason must be hurting. If I knew him better or had more time...”
“Oz plans on getting him up on the Triton. I think that’ll be good for him,” Jake said. He looked over his shoulder at the busy hangar. He could see the nature of the work changing, from building to preparing for departure. “I wish Ayan wasn’t right about this,” he said. “We need to start bringing the goods in, and it begins with this ship.”
“How long until another ship is ready?” Minh-Chu asked.
“We thought it would be at least three weeks, but that’s before we got the Triton back. Oz was going to captain the next one.”
“Was there a crew assigned?”
“Just the repair and refit crew. I was going to leave the operational crew up to Oz. Now I have to find another captain,” Jake said. “Agameg maybe, but I’ll probably have to fight Oz for him when we get back.”
“He’s aboard for this trip?” Minh asked.
“Thankfully. But if we don’t leave soon, I’m sure Oz will try to take him and Finn. Maybe it’s good that we’re leaving." Jake looked at the inside of the main hold and shook his head. The only thing that was in finished condition was the deck. The Warlord was still the same throughout most of the ship; it wouldn’t be an easy voyage. “Get someone to pick up Ashley. We need her down here,” Jake said.
“I have two pilots available on the Triton. We’ll have her down here in fifteen,” Minh replied.
“Good. Let’s break and get to work. We’ll meet in the Mast Room in an hour and a half.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Minh-Chu replied.
Chapter 34
The Victory Machine’s Long Shadow
Alaka, the largest of the nafalli, joined the protective detail surrounding Ayan right before they lifted off. She didn’t protest, but had a feeling that one of her personal guards was trading half her protective detail for one of the greatest warriors they had. It was a silent compromise; they were only trying to keep her safe, but it was still irritating.
They passed three sky scrapers, all smoking thickly as an active firefight continued within. The flashes from gunfire could be seen through windows that weren’t smoking, and there were even shots fired between buildings. “Gangs,” Liam Grady said. “They’re fighting for control over sections of the city. They’re the new landlords now that most of the owners have been moved out of the solar system.”
“There won’t be much left if they keep that up,” Victor said.
“According to the Stellarnet, that’s just where the fighting is. Whoever wins will have control of a whole district of Port Rush.”
“The Carthans should send a platoon in. That would clear things up.”
“They’re too busy fighting off rioters,” Liam said, pointing down towards the Port Rush General Hospital. “It took hundreds of soldiers to take that building back, now they’re holding it. No one knows why.”
Ayan looked down at the building and the three levels of streets wrapped around it. There were thousands of protestors, some of them fought with soldiers through the windows of the building, throwing Molotov cocktails and firing small arms. “Why?” she found herself asking.
“Some of them are probably gang members, others are former Confederates who refused to leave and they’re protesting the reassignment of property, and there are probably some Nihilists in there for good measure.”
“Nihilists?” Jenny asked.
“They believe that, since all life in the universe is going to end eventually anyway, that morality and life itself are meaningless. They’ve picked up a few members since the Holocaust Virus started making a mess of things,” Liam replied. “They remind me of the anarchist movement of old, only less creative.”
“Wasteful thinking,” Alaka said. He was in full armour. It was a suit made from vacsuit material and enough machined plating to cover a starfighter. The design of the helmet made his long, narrowing snout look exaggerated, since it had extra space for his mouth to open and close.
“You couldn’t be more right,” Liam replied.
The shuttle swept down onto the rooftop and landed on a general purpose pad. Ayan was glad to get out of the ship; it felt like all attention was on her, and she liked that less and less. The whole half-squad and her guards started to stand up. “I need the regulars to stay back. Liam, Jenny, and Vince, you’re with me,” Ayan ordered.
Alaka was through the door first, ducking down so he could fit. He’d left the starfighter class beam weapon he normally kept slung across his back behind, but it was obvious that he was going to accompany her whether she liked it or not. A long fingered, gentle hand, or paw, she was never sure, was offered as she was about to take the three steps down from the shuttle. She accepted to be kind.
When Vincent, Jenny, and Liam were out of the shuttle, Alaka disappeared, cloaking right in front of the Carthan soldiers. They’d know he was there, but never be sure where. It was an excellent security tactic.
“He’s going to stay like that for your entire visit?” asked a smiling officer. His uniform was formal: a loose fitting white shirt under a dark blue long jacket.
“I can never be sure,” Ayan replied. “Let’s get through this quickly. I have more important things to do, I’m sure.”
“Yes Ma’am, this way,” replied the Officer, caught off guard
. He led them to the roof lift and they were in the bowels of the old hospital building in seconds.
The marred white and blue halls of the fourteenth floor of the hospital seemed to stretch on forever. From the dust and disrepair, Ayan could only assume that no one had used the floor for a fair amount of time. A few rooms were filled with the remains of defeated medical robots and androids, one of which seemed to stare at her with a violet eye as she passed. The female machine's face was frozen in a hateful expression that reminded her of the androids she'd met on Pandem. She turned her thoughts to more pressing matters.
“Why were you called here, Ayan?” asked Liam Grady.
“I don’t know. The message was rated as red level, their highest priority, sent by the Fleet Warden herself. I’m assuming this is about the Triton,” Ayan replied.
Ayan was relieved when Jenny asked, “Why do they call her Fleet Warden?”
“Over half the Carthan military are criminals serving a sentence,” Liam answered. “The inmates volunteer for service instead of execution or close confinement.”
“Close confinement?”
“Carthan prisons are housed in orbital stations where they keep inmates in life support holds,” Liam replied.
“Like penal cryogenics?” asked Alaka, stepping out of a side room.
Ayan had read about it and decided not to spare her companions the details. “They age normally in space large enough to turn your head. Life support systems prevent atrophy, remove waste, and take care of everything else while the inmates are punished with neural projections of what it’s like to be a victim. After that sentence is completed they begin direct manipulation therapy.”
“You mean they remap parts of their brain?” asked Jenny.
Ayan nodded. “Soldiers and specialists in the military are remapped as well, but not to the same degree. They just make sure they don’t have any rebellious notions or rough edges left before they enter boot camp. Carthans make Freeground Academy look like a day spa.”
Soldiers in dark brown plated armour and angular helmets stood guard in front of the main reception area. They surrounded a woman Ayan had seen on the Stellarnet news several times: Fleet Warden Kimberly Harrison. Her brown and blue coat was pristine, chained together with fine silver links down the front. Compared to her mother, Ayan didn't find the woman intimidating, but she held an equivalent rank. She should be intimidated, or nervous. If there was anyone who could change the situation she and her people found themselves in with a single decision for better or worse, it was Fleet Warden Harrison. "Commander Rice, thank you for coming so quickly."
"You can call me Ayan, Fleet Warden."
"Thank you," Fleet Warden Harrison replied with a cool smile. "I wish we weren't pressed for time, but the reality of this situation is dire. I will be as clear and as brief as I can."
Ayan listened as the highest ranking commander she'd ever met from the Carthan Fleet passed on everything she knew about the stranger and his Victory Machine. The cadence of the Warden as she relayed the information didn't allow for interruption or questions. When she came to the end, she asked: "Do you know a man named Roman from Pandem? Our records indicate that he was a Sergeant in the Mount Elbrus police force."
"He was one of the resistance leaders there. Several of my officers fought Holocaust Virus infected machines with him while they were trapped on that world. Why do you ask?"
"We have been able to determine that he was the keeper of a reliquary, the centrepiece of which was the Victory Machine. When the reliquary was put at risk, he took the Victory Machine from its containment and began travelling. We don't know where he's been, or who he's been transmitting information to, not for sure. The one thing he's been insisting on since we found him on the Triton is that he be allowed to see you. That's why, when we listened in on his connection with the Victory Machine, he opened a crush gate here. At least, that's my theory. He may have missed his mark when he tried to connect with you on the Triton, but he managed to find the nearest medical facility to you. We ask that you speak to him, discover what it is that he's trying to tell you."
"You'll be listening in?" Ayan asked warily.
"Of course. He's giving us information about the future and for some reason he's placed you right in the middle of the grand design, if there is such a thing."
"I'll speak to him, but how can you be sure that listening in won't provoke him to disappear again?" Ayan asked.
"We can't, but this information is too important to pass up," Fleet Warden Harrison insisted. "This happens our way or he dies without seeing you."
"What kind of exposure am I looking at?"
"None. We've left his suit sealed. I don't like making the same mistake twice."
Ayan looked over her shoulder to Alaka, who nodded once, slowly. Her hood sealed and the horizontal slats banded across the entire surface glowed momentarily as the energy shield systems tested themselves. “Let’s see what he has to say,” Ayan said to Liam.
“I’m sorry, only Ayan was requested,” the Fleet Warden stated. “I don’t want to add factors to this situation.”
“I’ll wait here then,” Liam said with a bow.
“I’ll be back soon," Ayan stated.
After a long decontamination cycle in a large red and yellow striped airlock, Ayan entered the intensive care room. The man on the table wasn't the Roman she'd come to know months before on Mount Elbrus. He had lost weight, and the face she saw though his worn visor was wasted. With gnashing teeth, he writhed slowly on the hospital bed. She couldn't imagine the kind of agony that would break a person like Roman down.
Ayan was halfway across the room when he noticed her and the pain in his expression eased into a smile. "Been a while," he rasped. "You're looking good." A shaking hand rose up off the mattress.
It was clasped in hers. She looked into his visor, no matter how much she hated seeing him suffer. It exposed a belief she secretly held about her predecessor. No matter how many people told her that she'd passed gracefully and painlessly out of life, Ayan never believed them. When she pictured the passing of the first Ayan, it always looked more like what she was seeing: isolation and pain. "I'll be honest; you've looked better," she chuckled, shaking a tear loose.
"Hey, no tears for me. I'm a man about to complete his mission.”
"No thanks to our Carthan friends out there," Ayan added.
"They're just trying to protect the city," he managed before a weak coughing fit.
"Is there anything I can do?" Ayan asked after he recovered a little.
Roman's leg twitched and his voice was strained as another wave of pain seized him. "I have a message for you, what you do with it is up to you. Remember, this machine will only present you with information. It might present it as advice, but it's still just information."
"I'm sorry, I can't make the same sacrifice you have," Ayan said, real fear making an appearance at the thought of being poisoned by temporal radiation.
"You don't have to. I'm going to be your relay. Open your mind."
Ayan closed her eyes and did her best to clear her head.
* * *
A wave of vertigo forced Ayan’s eyes to snap open to discover that she was standing on wasted ground. The wrecks of countless ships surrounded her. The edge of Kambis blocked out part of the bright sky, bathing the ship graveyard in yellow-red light.
"Hello, Sister," said her previous incarnation as she stepped out from behind the wall of an old shelter. She was wearing an older Freeground vacsuit with the hood up, her hair concealed by a tighter cap beneath.
"Are you Roman?"
"I'm a representation of the records of the Ayan who came before you. The Victory Machine is using my personality and image because I reflect the grief and general mindset that you’re experiencing right now. It's the quickest way to get the point across."
"And Roman?"
"He's relaying everything. I’d explain the technology, but there’s not much point. You’ll figure it out if it’s im
portant later. You’re lucky, this hasn’t happened in decades.”
Ayan considered the area they were in for a moment. The waste and destruction was old. Signs of small and medium scale weaponry were everywhere. The port wasn’t attacked from orbit, but assaulted from the air and ground. The reek of rotting bodies and toxic contamination burned in her nostrils. The corpses were out of sight, but all around her. Ships and shelters had become tombs and mausoleums. Ayan regarded the image of her predecessor. "This is Tamber. When?"
"Nine years on. The fighting continues fitfully. We’re near the site of a rebel hold that was just razed. In a few hours, you'll be able to see the fires on Kambis.”
"Most of these ships look much older, like they’ve been wasting here for years since their destruction. When did that happen?"
"About two days from your time. This is me being generous," the gaunt Ayan said with a smirk. "Here's something you can fight against, the kind of thing the Victory Machine was made to predict.”
"So there's an attack coming. How large? Is it the Order?”
“Yes. The Order of Eden has completely taken over Regent Galactic, and they've sent their resource harvesting ship - the Leviathan - along with a sizeable fleet towards Kambis. Everything the Carthans need to know about the Leviathan is in the Triton's logs."
"I'm a pivotal figure in a battle of this scale?" Ayan asked.
"Only if you take a moment to realize something very important about yourself," the former Ayan said flatly.
"Preventing this can't come down to just me, there's so much destruction here," Ayan replied.
"This future history came to pass because you were killed before you had a chance to become involved here. You were making too much of an effort to avoid mourning all the people you’ve lost. You got involved with the Carthan fleet, let them put you and most of your crew aboard the Triton before it was ready. It, you, and most of your people were killed before you could make the least bit of a difference.”
"So I have to stay on Tamber with my people," Ayan replied, looking away from her wasted predecessor.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework Page 30