Desperate Measures

by Michael Anderle

  Lanara was at the end of the table, poking data windows. It was impossible to tell if she was listening and didn’t care or not paying attention. If they needed her attention, they could yell at her until she listened.

  Raphael’s cheeks reddened, and he sat down slowly. “Ah, yes. You’re right, Agent Devereaux. We should get to it. Um, well, you see, I just wanted to go over how this is going to work. The multi-jumping, that is. That’s how we’re going to get to Alpha Centauri without flying for another three weeks.”

  Kant let out a sheepish chuckle and rubbed the back of his thick neck. “Not to be a total wuss, but this isn’t going to kill us, is it? I’d be kind of embarrassed if I got vaporized in hyperspace. That’s not the way I thought I’d go out, you know?”

  “Huh.” Raphael tilted his head. “I always figured that was exactly how I would die.” He waved a hand at the now-blinking Kant. “I can’t guarantee our safety at a hundred percent, but I’m confident enough that I’ll be on board.”

  “Yeah, but you just said…” Kant looked at Erik pleadingly.

  Erik inclined his head toward Raphael. “He’s a smart guy, and a lot of brilliant people worked on the drive. A lot of money and time went into it, and no one wants to waste it.” He nodded at Emma. “And we’ve got her. I’m sure they can figure it out together. They didn’t have much trouble getting us to the Hunter ship. I don’t think they’ll have much trouble getting us to Alpha Centauri.”

  Raphael cleared his throat and jabbed his PNIU and then a data window that popped up. An image of an HTP appeared. It looked like a massive gray ring in space.

  “I’ve been working on the calculations and calibrations as best I could without Emma,” Raphael began, “but the most straightforward version of this is that we’ll make a jump. The large distance will require recharge time since the best we can do right now is about a light-year between jumps. We hope to improve that in the future, but it’ll require more data, experiments, and refinement.” He gestured at the image. “The distances involved will also require additional navigational plotting time between jumps, but even taking it slowly and carefully with maximum recharge times, we’re only talking a day to get between here and Alpha Centauri. So, yeah, a lot faster than flying to the HTP.”

  “Damn.” Kant whistled loudly. “Too bad they can’t mass-produce these drives. We could spread across the galaxy like a flood.”

  Erik didn’t know if that was a good thing, but he didn’t have to worry about the far future of humanity. His job was stopping the conspiracy in the meantime.

  Emma smirked at Kant. “The drives aren’t the issue. They can’t mass-produce me as a navigation system, and without me, the drive is just an expensive way to kill people.”

  “Is there a reason we have to take it so slowly and carefully?” Jia asked. “Or is it just because you haven’t jumped this far before?”

  Raphael gestured at the HTP. “That’s part of it, but also, the Sol System has some unique properties that affect hyperspace tuning.”

  “Isn’t that why we have only the one HTP, and it’s so far out compared to other systems?” Jia asked. “That’s what I’ve read, anyway.”

  “I always thought that was to make it harder for invasions,” Erik offered. “Because all the races’ HTPs are based on Navigator tech, we didn’t want to end up giving them an easy two-way gate. Cut off comm and whatnot in case they take us by surprise. We blow the gate and make them commit to the sacrifice.”

  “I don’t know about that,” replied Raphael, “but I do know there are fundamental physics issues when it comes to Sol versus other systems. That was why colonization took off so quickly once we got out of the system. We realized it was going to be far easier to set up multiple HTPs that transferred farther than we’d expected at home. If that hadn’t been the case, I don’t know if we would have the modern UTC.”

  “Isn’t that strange?” Jia tapped a finger on her lips. “Why would it just be Sol?”

  Raphael shrugged. “It might not be. It’s not like we can get probes close enough to any other race’s homeworld to figure out how many HTPs they have.”

  “That could be it.” Jia leaned forward, her face alight with interest. “I wonder if it had something to do with the Hunter ship. Maybe they did something to the Solar System that made it harder for hyperspace travel.”

  “Excuse me.” Anne cleared her throat. “This is all fascinating, but it’s irrelevant, right? The important thing is Dr. Maras and Emma have to prep things, and we’ll make four jumps. If we don’t die, we’ll be in Alpha Centauri, and we’ll be able to proceed with the mission.”

  Raphael sighed and looked down, his face disappointed. “That’s accurate.”

  It might have been rude of Anne, but Erik couldn’t fault her logic. They weren’t there for Raphael and Jia to have a rousing physics discussion, which they could have later. The team had already lost time traveling to the base, and every day that passed gave the conspiracy more time to burrow into whatever dens they were in on Chiron or to escape the system entirely.

  A closer base for the Bifröst would have been helpful, but it also would have been dangerous. The conspiracy might not have Emma, but it wouldn’t be easy to reproduce the finely tuned working prototype jump drive either. Since the conspiracy could get their hands on alien tech, they might hit upon some other way of navigating that didn’t require Emma.

  Besides, Jia’s earlier point about communications was right. The conspiracy might have resources and influence, but multi-day if not week or month comm times meant Erik’s team had a good chance of getting ahead of them, even with a week’s delay between Earth and Penglai.

  Erik motioned to Emma. “Before you plot the jumps, you need to interface with the DD’s systems and see the latest intel concerning ship deployment and travel in Alpha Centauri. It’d be nice to jump straight to the planet, but we’re guaranteed to be spotted, which means not only do we risk someone coming for the ship, but we also give up our advantage of surprise on this mission. For all we know, the conspiracy might not think we can jump, let alone that far.”

  “Wouldn’t they know from what happened with the Hunter ship?” Anne asked.

  Jia shook her head. “We can’t be sure, and there’s no reason to gamble.”

  “Agreed.” Erik looked around. “I hope you are all looking forward to more darts in the future because I want Emma to drop us about five days from Chiron.”

  “Darts?” Raphael’s smile grew so broad it was infectious. “I love darts!”

  “Then let’s get Emma interfaced with the jumpship and the Argo docked and get the hell out of here.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  August 5, 2230, Alpha Centauri, approaching Chiron aboard the Argo

  “Landing permission confirmed,” Emma reported. “Transferring controls to you, Jia. Welcome to Chiron.”

  “Someday, I wonder if our false registration will trip us up,” Jia muttered, the slight discomfort over the lie countering the excitement of the landing.

  They might not be able to change everything about their ship, but they could offer a fake registration and identities. Port authorities didn’t confirm anything based on visual inspection, so it was surprisingly easy for someone to land on a planet illegally as long as they had a good engineer, a powerful AI, and the ID preparing the way.

  Jia would have preferred landing without subterfuge, but screaming to the world that they were there by taking no precautions to conceal their identity meant inviting the conspiracy to bomb them or ambush them with a small fleet when they left the planet.

  Her personal ethics were a minor consideration.

  Soon, all those worries fell away, and Jia couldn’t help the giddy grin on her face as she fired the thrusters to slow their descent as they passed through the upper atmosphere of Chiron.

  Compared to the rock- and dome-covered colonies of the Solar System, the expansive ocean reminded her of Earth, the bunched islands stretching across the planet like t
he stripes in their nickname.

  Earth was beautiful. Chiron was too in its own way.

  The Argo descended toward Lumiere, the colonial capital and the largest and oldest city on the planet. It was named after the commander of the first colonization effort, a brave group that had had to trust not only their arrival but also in the continued support of Earth.

  Without an HTP initially present in the system, they had no way of getting back home or even reliably communicating with Sol.

  Jia had a hard time imagining what that was like, but that had been the nature of travel throughout history. Different groups had boarded ships and traveled all over the Earth, with no easy way to communicate with those left behind.

  Dangerous one-way exploration was one of the latent chemicals in the blood of humanity.

  For all her desire to help protect the UTC and excitement with travel, Jia wasn’t like that. She didn’t want to disappear into the unknown void, unsure if she would ever see anyone she knew again. It didn’t sit well with her future plans.

  A huge number of contacts filled the Argo’s sensor display. The ship traffic reminded Jia of Neo SoCal flitter traffic. This was the difference between a nearly tame colony world and the longer-term projects like the frontier colonies or the newer Solar System colonies like Venus. If an alien species arrived, they might mistake Chiron for humanity’s homeworld.

  The Argo shook faintly, the motion unavoidable given their rapid descent to the spaceport below. Jia’s heart pounded out of excitement, not fear. She was performing her first landing at an extra-Solar System spaceport. The next time it might feel mundane, but for now, there was no way she would let Emma have control.

  There was only one first time.

  While most of the team was aboard the Argo, Raphael and Janessa had remained on the jumpship. The primitive AI wouldn’t allow them to do anything spectacular, and they couldn’t jump without Emma, but no one was comfortable leaving the ship empty, and Raphael had some work to do on the jump drive anyway.

  Emma had installed a few defensive routines that would allow them to fight if someone showed up. There was enough armament on the Bifröst to take out most smaller vessels with ease.

  Even without the jump drive, the ship could terrorize smaller colonies.

  Erik rested comfortably in a seat beside Jia, looking more bored than excited. There were no worries on that face about the jumpship or the mission. His manner was disappointing.

  “Not all of us have traveled all over the UTC,” she commented.

  Erik chuckled. “I thought you looked excited. Hey, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but I’m a little more experienced at this than you.”

  “Chiron is beautiful.” Jia waved a hand at the view. “More than I thought it would be.” Her hands stayed near the controls, and her primary attention was focused on the quickly changing graphs and numbers in the data windows surrounding her. “I’ve seen pictures of it, but seeing it in person and being close makes it different. More real.”

  “Every colony is beautiful in its own way.” Erik narrowed his eyes. “But somehow every colony is ugly in the same way. Maybe that’s what it means to be human.”

  Jia sighed. “I know we’re not here to sightsee, but we’ve been crammed aboard this ship for almost two weeks, not counting a couple of hours at Penglai. It’ll be nice to stretch our legs, even if it means getting shot at or a flitter chase or two.”

  Erik laughed. “In other words, our standard vacation? Say hello to Jia Lin, Chiron. She’ll take getting shot at as long as she doesn’t have to stay aboard a ship too long, so you won’t have to do much more to impress her.”

  “You know what I mean.” Jia smiled. “There are only so many dart games and training scenarios we can do. It gets monotonous. I know I’m not the Empress of Dynamism, but I do like some changes from day to day.” She frowned. “I hope I remembered to turn on the watering program for my flowers. Now I’m not sure.”

  She had not forgotten on any trip so far, but the nagging sense of doubt had lodged itself firmly in her mind and refused to leave. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like she could request they jump all the way back to Earth so she could take care of her plants.

  Erik’d had it right when he thought of bringing his trees along.

  “I’m sure you remembered.” Erik smiled. “As for the other thing, it’s only a problem because we’re using the nano-AR wrong.”

  Jia arched a brow. “Wrong? How are we using it wrong? The scenarios all seem realistic.”

  “That’s the problem.” Erik idly gestured around the cockpit. “The average rich yacht-owning bastard doesn’t have a room like that so they can practice taking down terrorists on long flights. They make fake vacation spots and other crap to take the edge off until they get somewhere real.”

  Jia pondered that for a moment before shaking her head. “The problem is I can never truly relax since I know it’s fake.”

  “A lot of people have that problem,” Erik suggested. “And I get it. Virtual reality and augmented reality aren’t a replacement for actual reality, and that might explain why anyone still bothers to live in the real world instead of spending all their time in VR or nano-AR rooms. I’m just saying it might be nice to use it for something other than training. It wouldn’t feel as monotonous then.”

  “You’re the one who always suggests training.” Jia frowned.

  “I know. Because when I first met you, you were a talented woman who was a good shot but had no experience on dangerous field ops or the relevant training, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t die, or you didn’t get killed. But we’ve been together for years now and have been training together for most of that time.” He scratched the side of his nose. “You’re pretty damned competent, and good at things like piloting I can’t even do. It’s not like we need to spend ninety percent of our time together training.”

  “We don’t do that,” Jia answered softly. “We go out to eat and watch sphere ball. We hang out. We, uh, creatively exercise at night.”

  “We do all that on Earth.” Erik shook his head. “We might have fun before bed here too, but we’re falling into a stricter pattern aboard the Argo than I used to inflict on my soldiers when I was in the Army.” He patted her shoulder. “I’m not blaming you. If anything, I’m blaming myself. I’ve been in revenge mode for so long that anything like real life has been shoved to the side for it.”

  Jia adjusted the Argo’s thrusters again, along with the angle of the ship. They were moving through another puffy cloud layer, but now the sprawling gray, black, and white buildings of Lumiere were visible on the feed, along with hordes of ships and flitters. The city might lack the population of Neo SoCal, but the smaller area made for surprising density and impressive clusters of towers.

  “I don’t mind training,” Jia offered. “We have an enemy to defeat, not just for the Knights Errant, but for the entire UTC. Once that’s over, we can relax.”

  Erik frowned. “You have a habit of tunnel vision.”

  “Says the man who's devoted his entire existence to this.” Jia scoffed. She slowed their descent even more and maneuvered the ship into an approach vector.

  “I know. I’ve made it worse for both of us. After this, we should just relax for a bit.”

  Jia gave him a dubious look. “I don’t know if the conspiracy will let us do that.”

  Erik grinned. “Then we’ll have to finish them off quickly.”

  Jia blinked. She’d been so focused on landing and Erik that she’d ignored the huge star hanging in the sky, far larger than the sun appeared from Earth.

  Twenty-first-century astronomers had been convinced that Chiron was tidally locked to Proxima Centauri, one of the three stars in the system, forever scorched on one side and dark on the opposite, but when the UTC’s probes had reached the system, they’d discovered that wasn’t true. Instead, they found a planet with a day-night cycle close to Earth’s.

  It had taken adjustment for the initial c
olonists, but it only reinforced in Jia’s mind that it wasn’t an accident.

  “You okay?” Erik asked, furrowing his brow.

  Jia smiled. “I was taking a moment for a little wonder. It’s something I haven’t done enough of on all our trips. It’s like you said, tunnel vision. I focus so much on the mission that I don’t pay attention to what I’m seeing.”

  She looked around before realizing she wasn’t going to see the other two stars in the system at the same time.

  “I’d say something, but like you pointed out, I’m worse.” Erik nodded toward the star. “It’s not that I’ve become numb to any of it. That’s part of what keeps me going. I’m here for revenge, but I’m also here to make sure these colonies end up better in the future, not just a yaoguai breeding pit, Tin Man factories, or a blasted Zitark playground. I don’t know if humanity is going to end up being better or worse in the future, but I do know we’ve got a better shot if we take down the conspiracy. For now, that’s enough.”

  Jia adjusted their course. The Argo’s flight path curved as she continued their descent, the tips of some of the towers now higher than the ship. Lumiere reminded her of other island cities she’d seen, but there was a slight reddish tint to the ocean surrounding the area that subtly reminded her she wasn’t on Earth.

  A stray thought tickled her, and she couldn’t stop the loud laughter that came out. Erik eyed her with surprise.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about the beauty and wonder of this place, and how we might end blowing something up here.” Jia’s smile contorted into a playful grin. “We continue to build the list of beautiful and exotic places where we’ve blown something up.”

  “We might not blow anything up,” suggested Erik.

  Jia stared at him for a moment. “How likely do you think that is.”

  “We might not blow anything up,” he repeated. “We might only shoot stuff.”

  Oh, yeah. He thought, We are possibly, no probably…no, let’s make it certainly going to blow stuff up.