Ixan Legacy Box Set

by Scott Bartlett

  “Correct. I’ve co-opted your implant in order to communicate with you.”

  “Great job. The Union is monitoring my implant. You just blew your cover.”

  The robot cocked its oblong head to one side. “Again, your perceptions reliably mislead you. We have of course masked our interference from the woman responsible for surveilling you. Doing so posed us no challenge at all.”

  Bronson frowned. He didn’t remember the Progenitor that lived in the Javelin’s closet ever speaking with such arrogance and sarcasm. Am I talking to someone else, now? “You must have a presence nearby for us to be talking in real-time.”

  “Yes. We have a shuttle concealed on Imbros’ moon for the purpose of contacting you.”

  So there’s an actual Progenitor, sitting in this star system as we speak? That’s gutsy. “What do you want?”

  “You accuse us of failing to lift Darkstream to power. I am here to tell you that Darkstream’s dominance of this galaxy is all but assured.”

  “How?”

  “Sit.”

  Bronson returned to the bench and sat down.

  The Progenitor nodded, the front tip of its strange head bobbing toward the ground. “You must commit everything I say to memory, and follow my instructions to the letter. Listen well, Bronson. Engineering a galactic government’s self-destruction is a delicate business.”

  Chapter 11

  Getting Paid Again

  For now, Oneiri Team was still bunking in Tartarus Station’s Outer Wing, despite that the Union no longer had them under lock and key. The mech pilots had officially joined galactic society—for as long as it existed, anyway.

  Jake was making the rounds, informing everyone of their next moves. This station was ultimately a civilian installation, meaning everyone had separate sleeping chambers—a luxury for low-ranking military personnel, no matter how cramped they were. He’d left Andy for last, since Lisa normally bunked with him, and calling on them always involved an element of awkwardness. It did for Jake, anyway. He wondered how they both fit in that narrow bunk, for one thing.

  But his knock brought only Andy to the hatch, and the bunk was clearly visible from the entrance. It contained no Lisa.

  “Price,” Andy said. Joining Oneiri Team, which Jake had found himself in command of during the chaos back in Steele, hadn’t done much for Andy’s attitude toward him. He was pretty sure the guy only stayed on the team to keep an eye on Lisa, and he frequently made reference to the fact that he wasn’t even military to begin with. Everyone on Oneiri referred to Andy as a seaman, since the Darkstream military had used naval ranks across the board, but officially Jake was a seaman, too.

  “Where’s Lisa?” Jake asked.

  “Who wants to know?”

  “I asked the question, didn’t I?” Jake shot back, an edge creeping into his voice.

  “She went on a snack run.”

  “Right. Well, I came to tell you—”

  “About the big important meeting you found yourself at? President of the Union and all that? Hey, let me be the first to congratulate you, Fearless Leader. You’re well on your way to becoming a top-level desk jockey.”

  Nodding slowly, Jake said, “You got that out of your system, then?”

  “I guess we’ll find out.”

  “Cut the wisecracks until I get out what I came to tell you, Miller. Captain Vin Husher was at the meeting too, and after he found out who I was, he started pushing hard for me to come with him aboard the Vesta. And when he found out I piloted a mech—”

  “Wait. He gave a shit about who you were, independently of you piloting a giant alien mech?”

  “Yeah,” Jake said. “Trust me, I’m just as surprised as you are. Apparently the Progenitors know my name. An Ixan from the Second Galactic War, Teth, is one of their lapdogs, and getting access to me was one of his conditions during the negotiations the Union thought were a good idea.”

  Andy’s eyes were narrowed, and he was shaking his head in disbelief. “Teth is still around?”

  “You know who he is?”

  “I’ve read up on the second war with the Ixa, yeah.”

  “You’re just full of surprises, Andy. Anyway, I gotta admit, Husher impressed me during the meeting. He was throwing his weight around a lot, and getting results, too. I kind of get the impression he’s had to deal with a lot of bull up to this point, and he’s fed up with it. Can’t say I blame him. He started asking me about Oneiri, right there in front of the president and all those bureaucrats, not to mention the Quatro leader. And within a few minutes, he’d arranged for us to be folded into the marine battalion aboard his supercarrier.”

  “All right.”

  Jake blinked. “We get to join a military outfit, Andy. We’re getting paid again—that’ll be nice, won’t it? And we get to help fight this war.”

  “Did you remember to tell our new captain that the type of mech you pilot has a history of driving people insane?”

  A pounding began in Jake’s ears, and he fought to settle himself. “I have that under control, Miller. Husher doesn’t need to worry himself with something that isn’t an issue. The most important thing now is beating the Progenitors.”

  “Right. Listen, I think we both know that if Lisa wasn’t so gung-ho about all this, I’d have left with her long ago.”

  Jake shook his head, eyes narrowed. “And gone where? Do you not get that the galaxy’s in danger of getting wiped out?”

  “Yeah, but that’d take a few years at least, to wipe it all out. You know? And I’d say there’s a good chance they’ll leave little shit-speck backwater colonies alone. If we cozied up there, we’d probably be fine.” Andy grew a wistful smile, which made Jake want to punch him.

  Their assignment to the Vesta wasn’t the only thing Jake had come to talk over with Andy, and the conversation so far had convinced him even more that the next topic was a lost cause. Still, he didn’t like to abandon something he’d resolved to do, so he gritted his teeth and had at it.

  “Andy, have you noticed anything weird with Lisa, since we picked her up on the edge of the Steele System? Have you noticed her acting differently at all?”

  Andy’s smile turned venomous, then, which was all the confirmation Jake needed that this line of discussion was completely pointless. “Ah, I see what this is about,” Andy said, chuckling. “Yep. See, Lisa has been acting differently, Price. You know how? She’s finally acknowledged her feelings for me. I know you two were childhood buddies and all, but for Lisa, that’s as far as it went. For you, though—you always wanted a little more, didn’t you? Real sorry, buddy, honestly. Sorry things didn’t swing your way. But is this really the way you’re going to take out your frustrations? By asking me whether Lisa’s acting weird? Kind of pathetic, don’t you think?”

  Andy’s smile remained plastered on his face, and his eyes never left Jake’s. For Jake’s part, it was everything he could do to restrain himself, so that Andy didn’t end up on the floor.

  “Thank you for going over my concerns with me, Miller. Pack your things. We ship out tomorrow. And tell Lisa to do the same.”

  With that, Jake about-turned crisply and headed for his own chamber.

  Chapter 12

  Extremely Poor Taste

  Husher knew Ochrim spent most of his time in the lab these days, so he didn’t bother ringing the doorbell, using his com instead as he walked up the lane toward the Ixan’s house. “Ochrim, you decent?”

  “Decent? Oh. Yes.”

  “Wanna let me in, then?”

  “You’ll find the door unlocked.”

  “Thanks.”

  He let himself in, walked toward the rear of the cubic residence, and paused at the kitchen entrance, eyeing the fridge. It was usually well-stocked with beer, and he debated grabbing one, but thought better of it. He proceeded to the back room instead, where the floor panel had been left open to reveal the ladder stretching down into the ship. Now that subspace tech was known to more than just he and Ochrim, there was
n’t as much need for secrecy.

  “How do you like your new lab?” Husher asked as he stepped off the bottom rung. He’d ordered work started on expanding it before they’d left the Concord System, and in Hellebore he’d been able to outsource the rest of the job to a planetary contracting company.

  “Much more spacious,” the Ixan said. “And better company, too.” He nodded at an enormous, transparent tank that took up an entire wall. Inside it swam Ek and her six offspring. One of Ochrim’s main projects was to develop a method for Ek to once again walk freely, whether on land or a starship’s deck—without her body degrading from the harmful affects of zero-g, this time. He hoped to do the same for her children.

  Every other species injected themselves with Ocharium nanites, which then embedded within the body’s cells. The Ocharium attracted the fermion matrix in every starship’s deck, creating a perfect simulation of one g. But Fin cells rejected the Ocharium for some reason, and the years Ek had spent spacefaring had taken a nearly lethal toll on her.

  The tank featured an extension that projected toward the lab’s ceiling, which allowed the Fins to come up and speak with anyone in the lab. Having noticed Husher’s arrival, Ek did so now. “Greetings, Captain Husher.”

  “Hello, Ek. How are you making out?”

  “The tank is less spacious than the oceans of Klaxon. But we are grateful to have left that place, even so.” Ek’s six children regarded Husher solemnly through the shatterproof glass as their mother spoke.

  “I should think you are,” he murmured. Before the Vesta’s arrival, Ek and her family had been hunted for months by the Ixa, forced to cower in deep underwater caves and crevices to evade capture. Come to think of it, that was probably why the younger Fins seemed so wary around Ochrim, especially at first. They’d warmed up to him considerably since their arrival here, which was a testament to Husher’s idea that the best thing for interspecies relations was for the various species to simply spend more time around each other, rather than the oppressive, ineffectual policies so many in the Union tried to force on everyone.

  “Ek, I recently attended a meeting between the IU president and the leader of a new arrival to the galaxy—a species who call themselves the Quatro. Their government is called the Assembly of Elders, headed by the ‘Eldest.’ I was surprised by how well the two parties got along. What do you make of that?”

  “It is difficult for me to draw any solid conclusions based on a secondhand account, no matter how much detail you provide in that account. It is much better if I can observe behavior directly. Was the meeting recorded?”

  “If it was, I don’t have access to the vid.”

  “I see. Then, I can only offer the most superficial inferences, I am afraid. When two parties develop an instant rapport, it is often because each sees themselves reflected in the other. Sadly, I cannot offer more than that, Captain.”

  “I understand. Thank you, Ek.”

  “Will that be all? I can leave you and Ochrim to your conversing.”

  “That’s all for now.”

  With that, Ek swam down the tank’s extension to join her children in the main section.

  The Fins’ tank contained water from Klaxon’s oceans, which had the right chemical composition for them to remain healthy—it was very similar to that of their homeworld, Spire, to which the Gok had laid waste during the Second Galactic War. Husher had ordered two hundred thousand gallons of reserve water brought aboard as well, so that the tank could regularly be replenished with purified water. At the Fins’ request, he’d had the floor laid with algae-lined rocks, to mimic the Klaxon ocean floor as closely as possible. Ek was obviously determined not to distract from the war effort, and so it had taken some urging from Husher to tell him that she’d also enjoy some aquatic plants, as well as some furniture modified to accommodate Fins. He made that happen, too.

  He’d tried to do everything he could to make the Fins as comfortable as possible, but in the end, they were still living in a glorified aquarium. That was fine for a guppy, but for sentient beings it had to be torture.

  Subspace tech had to take precedence over all else, however, and Ochrim could only fit in work on a solution for the Fins around his work on improving the new tech—chiefly, trying to reduce its enormous energy demands so that bigger ships could enter subspace. Right now, they only had the ability to send a starfighter, which was a far cry from the immense carriers the Progenitors managed to make vanish on a whim.

  He knew the Ixan wasn’t getting much sleep, since he was just as concerned about the Fins’ welfare as Husher. Hopefully, a breakthrough would come soon. Husher wanted full-time access to Ek’s keen perception. Feeding her data secondhand like this paled in comparison to what he’d seen her do during the Second Galactic War.

  Ochrim was leaning against a steel table, looking resigned. Probably, he sensed that his labor was far from over. Husher felt a pang of real regret—he was sure there were even more whitened scales around the scientist’s eyes than the last time they’d spoken.

  He never would have expected to feel sympathy for the being responsible for hundreds of thousands of human deaths. The universe is a bizarre place. But since coming aboard the Vesta, Ochrim had proven himself to Husher, several times over. After Husher was stripped of command through political maneuvering by the Cybele city council and his old Nav officer, Ochrim had helped him, even though Husher had lost all his authority and influence. Indeed, the Ixan had helped him win that authority back.

  Through his actions alone, Ochrim had convinced Husher that everything he did was intended either to minimize pain or serve the greater good. As twisted as it seemed, the Ixan had even been convinced that killing hundreds of thousands of people would lead to the future with the least pain. That act had been the most radical expression of the Ixan’s ironclad philosophy, and while Husher would never condone it, he at least understood it, now.

  Those deaths also demonstrated the limits of such a philosophy: even Ochrim, who’d believed he had access to perfect knowledge via his AI father, had committed an unspeakable atrocity that didn’t even end up minimizing pain like he’d thought it would.

  “At the same meeting I mentioned, the President gave the go-ahead to start implementing subspace tech throughout the fleet,” Husher said. “We’re first: the Vesta is on her way back to Feverfew right now, to have a squadron of Pythons outfitted with spherical wormhole generators. I assume you know what that means.”

  “You’ll need me at the shipyards tomorrow.” The Ixan let a sigh escape his lips. “I wasn’t even aware we were underway.”

  “Seriously?” Husher let a sardonic smile take shape. “Sounds like someone’s falling behind on their narrownet reading.”

  The joke was in extremely poor taste, given how hard he knew Ochrim was working. But as he waved goodbye to Ek and started the climb back up the ladder, he still took pleasure in the Ixan’s bland reaction.

  The way Husher saw it, every supercarrier captain was entitled to the occasional tasteless joke.

  Chapter 13

  Technically Insubordinate

  Back in the Feverfew System, Husher quickly found himself once again in front of the special commission jointly convened by the IU and the IGF. Today, he would learn whether he was guilty of any punishable crimes, in light of his actions during the opening battles with the Progenitors.

  The commission’s chair, Ryn, looked even more severe than she had during the initial hearing. Her feathers stood at attention as she leaned over the elevated table, pinning Husher to his lonely seat with her stare. “There’s no use prolonging these proceedings,” she said. “None of us like how things have gone. When captains skirt both regulation and law and get rewarded for it, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth of everyone who sits on this special commission. Nevertheless, Captain Husher, you have been found guilty of insubordination and also of multiple being rights violations. Given that President Chiba has seen fit to pardon you, this is a symbolic measure at best, but nev
ertheless, we prefer sending a message over no action at all. How do you plead?”

  “I’m prepared to plead guilty to insubordination. It’s true that I acted against the IU’s wishes to conduct negotiations with the Progenitors, even though I did so because that line of action would only have hastened our destruction. My actions prevented Teth from gaining a foothold in the Concord System, and clearly the IU agrees with me on some level, since they now have a battle group stationed there to prevent him from attempting it again.” Those ships had arrived before Husher himself had left the system—during the weeks they’d waited in Concord while Ochrim developed a way to bring Ek aboard the Vesta. “But I was technically insubordinate, yes. As for the being rights violations, given they were leveled solely on the grounds of my failure to adhere to broken policies, I plead not guilty.”

  “Very well. Your pleas have been registered. I’ll also remind you that this commission’s findings will be made public, and are almost certain to be publicized all across the Union.”

  “I need no reminder,” Husher said. “I’ve been given leave to fight the enemy seeking to wipe us from the galaxy. Public opinion is irrelevant to that mission.”

  Ryn clacked her beak. “I think you’ll discover that assumption is thoroughly incorrect, Captain. You have been granted a pardon for now, but pardons can be revoked, especially when sufficient political pressure is brought to bear. Our society is in the process of ridding itself of men like you. You may think you’ve won your status back, but I can promise you, this reprieve will be temporary.”

  There were many things Husher wanted to say to that, but none that would do him any favors in the public eye. He stayed quiet and settled for returning the Winger’s gaze.

  But Ryn wasn’t finished. “Although it isn’t directly relevant to these proceedings, I would like to state for the record, and for your benefit, Captain, that your three marines who violated Human Nonattendance Day are all being dishonorably discharged from the Integrated Galactic Fleet.”