Leave it to life to keep things muddy.
You can trust Erebus Industries.
“The United Earth Colonial Authority. Meet your new master; still, I'll take whatever advantage we can get. The mandating of that protocol is going to save us a lot of man hours,” I said as we headed down the ramp.
They kept us under guard all the way to our quarters, and left sentries outside the door. We moved through the ship of first contact like ghosts. This place, the scene of so many victories and tragedies for me, seemed odd, like something had forever altered my connection to it.
“Seems almost spooky being here,” I remarked, as Jill packed away the things in her quarters. I traveled light, so my quarters were set aside for last.
“Yeah, I heard that.” Jill replied, packing away clothes and setting her spartan decorations and memories in boxes.
“Have you heard anything about what they are going to do with the ship?” I asked Jill, who was far more plugged in than I was. The UEA was content to let me administer the colonies, so I had busied myself with that as Jill coordinated the logistical end.
“Still up in the air, but most likely they will just move the new ambassador aboard. Rumors are that they might be appointing a military ambassador again,” Jill replied, and I lamented the step backward.
“Yeah that sends a clear message of peace to our allies,” I replied and Jill nodded in agreement of my sarcasm.
“Peace doesn’t seem the ultimate goal here. Have you seen the new Dominion Class ships?” she asked, finishing up with her clothes, before filling and sealing boxes.
“Yeah, no more Explorer Class or Challenger Class, the new efficient UEA for the 22nd century. I can’t believe they have streamlined that far. It seems specialization went out with the ring ships," I answered.
“To be honest, I’m surprised they waited this long. It makes sense from a position of paranoia and fear to have every ship in your fleet able to function as a warship,” Jill replied. The new ships folded the mission of the Explorer and Challenger class ships into one. They were packed with firepower, and were incredibly long range thanks to the new Higgs field matter annihilation system drivers, or HFMAS.
It didn’t take long to pack my quarters. I tended to be very low on stuff. I hadn’t even returned to Centioc One to salvage my shuttle after all these years. Some days, I liked to occupy myself with wondering if I had left the door open or shut and what that might say about me.
It’s the little weird thoughts that are sometimes the things that get you through the worst of times. It seemed now was no different, as I stood there, next to Jill with seven years on the Danube of life history and experience, trillions of miles covered and one of the most inglorious exits from office in existence.
Taking a brief mental inventory, I really needed to work on how I did my exits, but oftentimes, I didn’t make the choice to leave a place; it was always made for me, under unique circumstances.
Interesting.
“Am I interrupting anything?” Harper said. He had walked up behind us as we stood in the empty door, taking stock.
Jill yowled and I leaped forward. “Dammit Jon!” We each said in unison, to which, he gave a very satisfied grin.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to spook anyone, but there was the matter of that meeting,” he said, tapping his watch.
I shot Jill a conspiratorial look and then back to Jon. “Are your tracks covered?”
“Yep, I’m here on official business. Did you know that Captain Ndungu reports to my office? Normally I would leave it up to one of the majors I have running around, but I just really felt I needed to do her performance review myself this time,” he nodded happily, obviously pleased with himself.
“The pilot of my LRRC?” I said, wanting to make sure my bases were covered.
“Oh, he owes me a favor, and he’s good about things being off the books. Trust me, I got it handled,” Harper said. “Shall we?”
We made our way towards Harper’s shuttle. It was just your basic run of the mill transport. The kind that they used to ferry people back and forth between space stations or a quick run down to the planet. It was basic in its design and its features, and at least twenty years old.
It fit him perfectly. It also wouldn’t be out of place like my Omega-621.
“Attention ladies, welcome aboard the party boat. Next stop, the Zulfiqar. Former Sword of the First Fleet. Corvaldian embassy, and housewares on level five,” He announced, playfully.
“Let’s just get underway,” I replied, nervous. This had taken weeks to plan and sometimes Harper’s easy going nature set me further on edge.
“Aye Aye, ma’am,” he said with practiced military efficiency.
We launched and made it to the Zulfiqar without incident. We were just a basic run of the mill transport, going to one of a hundred destinations in Earth’s orbit. Soon I found myself in the hangar of the Corvaldian embassy greeting Etrana.
“Etrana finds this radiant! Etrana gleams with shiny excitement! Welcome Snow Dawkins! Welcome Jill! Welcome friends!” She trilled and bobbed from foot to foot excitedly.
“Permission to come aboard, captain?” I asked, honoring the tradition. Etrana stood proudly and beamed.
“Of course! Of course! Snow honors me!” Etrana replied, bowing. She had apparently learned more of Earth naval custom in her brief time in orbit.
“Has your government considered my request?” I said, pushing business.
“Yes yes! Etrana’s government will honor Snow’s request for asylum if Snow seeks it,” she said.
“It’s not going to come to that Boss,” Jill spoke up, encouraging me.
“Regardless of whether it does or not, I need to know what my options are,” I answered, and Jill nodded, understanding.
“Right this way! Come come!” Etrana carried enough joy for an entire division, and eagerly led us to the lift.
The journey to the conference room aboard the Zulfiqar was uneventful, but by the time we arrived, the butterflies danced in my stomach and the urge to run felt stronger and stronger. Upon entering, I noticed there was a secured communications request already pending.
Etrana accepted it and the draconic face of Darnack appeared on the screen.
“Greetings my friends!” he said. Darnack was broadcasting through the Link, and it had none of his ‘hiss’ when he spoke English.
“Hello, Darnack. It’s really good to hear you old friend. They’ve kind of had me off official channels the last few weeks,” I answered.
“Yes! Your UEA is most stubborn. They will not acquiesce to our government's demand that you be reinstated. They have decided it is solely an internal matter. It troubles the council,” he said, a slight growl to his words showing his frustration.
“They will not listen to the Corvaldians either. Most dim, not shiny!” Etrana added her voice to the protest.
“I doubt they are going to. This is going to be hard for you to understand, but the UEA no longer considers me a person. Same thing for Jill. We have no rights, no legal protections. Nothing is stopping them from executing every morphic on the planet except for the PR nightmare it would cause them.” I had made a career of making excuses for the UEA, but no longer.
“Don’t forget there are some good people, Snow. It’s not like it would just happen,” Harper replied, in his easy fair-handed way.
“One thing I do know is that you can’t rely on good people to avoid bad history,” Jill countered, in a rare display of pessimistic thought.
“Sure there’s good people, but that hasn’t kept the transgenics from vanishing off the face of the Earth. Have any made it to the relocation camps, Jill, or registered at all?” I asked.
Jill tapped at her clipboard tablet. “None. With all that’s been going on, I hadn’t even considered. Oh shit.”
I was convinced if she could have still turned pale, she would have in that moment.
“There’s been a lot of talk of midnight raids, from some of my connectio
ns in the Land Forces, everything off the books. It’s bad out there folks, especially considering that the morphics might just be the lucky ones here.” Harper let out his breath, his eyes haunted.
“There’s nothing we can do for them if that’s what’s happening. We have to focus on saving as many people as possible,” I replied, feeling helpless.
Darnack and Etrana watched in observant silence.
“We need to get on task,” I continued, and everyone nodded in agreement.
“I assume we are having this meeting because you both got my communique via Harper?” I asked. I had sent out a message through Harper’s backdoor channels to the Mendian and Corvaldian governments the day after they forced us to register for colonization.
“We did Shifted One,” Darnack said, and Etrana warbled her agreement.
“If the morphic colonies declare independence, can we rely on the Mendian and Corvaldian governments for non-military support and aide?” I asked, making it official. Jill was keeping notes. This was dangerous, but records at this early stage were important.
“Etrana’s government has stated the Corvaldians will recognize a morphic government. Snow also has asylum if Snow needs,” she clicked, something about her emphatic tones underscoring the sincerity of her words.
“The Mendian Council has met and also has agreed unanimously, to support the morphic government when it forms. However, there is something else the Shifted One of Earth must be made aware of,” Darnack said. His tone stole all victory from the moment.
“The Mendian Council has also made the decision to withdraw from the Treaty of Gates.” Jill dropped her tablet, and Harper whistled low.
“You are going to pull human gate access?” I said, shocked.
“We will not interfere with the alliance the humans have forged with the Corvaldians. Those Gates are the only ones that will remain active. Once the final morphic has left your planet, our council will announce its decision to your government and give them sixty of your days to withdraw your ships back to your space. We do not wish to strand your people far from home, but the Farthest Star Act, we feel is a violation of the treaty and it must be answered for.” In that moment, I could see the statesman in my friend, and the awful weight of responsibility he bore.
“That actually might make it easier,” Harper replied. “The United Earth Colonial Authority will have forces on the ground to keep you guys in check, and one magistrate ship in orbit, as well as control of the factory ships. Still, once you announce those gates are closing down, I assume they will all beat a path back home.”
“That would be ideal. Then we can set up our government without firing a shot,” Jill mused.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I replied.
“Snow, the Outer Rim Worlds are called the outer rim because they are over ninety light years from Earth. That’s one hundred years minimum travel before you see an invasion fleet. I don’t see the UEA having the tech to bother you guys for a long time without the Gates,” Harper added his two cents.
“I just don’t expect it to be that easy. Jon, you don’t even know what the orders of the magistrate ships are in such an occurrence,” I said, fearing the worst.
“Yeah, Snow but they aren’t super villains. I doubt the UEA has a ‘kill all morphics because the Gates close’ order; seriously Snow, I know you don’t trust anyone, but you have to stop looking for danger around every corner. Most people are interested in basic survival and comfort, that’s it,” Harper criticized my paranoia, chiding me.
“All I’m saying is that it seems like every time I give them the benefit of any doubt, I get burned, and I am not about to give them a benefit of the doubt when we are talking about around a million colonists,” I snapped, testily, massaging at my hurting brain with my forepaws. A wave of wooziness hit me.
"Replay section 3qw-55d-1a…" came a disembodied voice. I couldn’t move, I couldn't speak...
Wasn’t I just aboard the Zulfiqar? What was this…
There were rods sticking out from my vision, I felt restrained, but everything was at a distance.
“Replaying requested node,” I replied, without a seeming will of my own.
Another bright flash and then suddenly, I was on the floor, as my friends were standing around me.
“Boss that tears it, you are going to medical,” Jill said. I stood up on my own power, and felt a little better, but still shaky.
Then I vomited all over the floor.
You can't trust the doctors...
“Not going to trust a UEA doctor any more than I can throw him, especially now. All of that aside, I am way too busy.” I fell back to the normal bulwarks that provided the best defense for me. Paranoia, and work, feeling honestly justified at both.
“Yeah, because debilitating headaches are going to help you work,” Harper challenged, calling out the flaws in my logic.
You must complete your mission.
“They are only occasionally debilitating, and with all due respect, it’s my head, not yours. I’ll make sure to get checked out once I’m on the colony ship and not a moment before. I have to finish my mission!” I said, a bit more emphatically than I had meant to.
“Ok Boss, but you pass out like that again and all bets are off,” Jill replied, and I knew she meant it.
“Darnack, would it be possible to establish a Treaty of Gates with the morphic colonies? I’d like to at least continue the legacy. Hell, maybe in time we can set up some kind of morphic exchange through Corval, give people on Earth a way to follow the path and join the colonies?” I asked.
“That can all be worked out in time, Shifted One. I am sure the council will grant their approval,” Darnack said. “Our council welcomes the morphics as they seek to start their own world.”
“Thank you my friend,” I replied.
“It is an honor walking this journey with you Shifted One. Now, I must go. I hope that it is not long before we speak again,” Darnack said, and the feed cut.
“Snow seems depressed! Tell Etrana!” she chortled emphatically.
“I just miss this, miss working with you all, miss feeling like I’m doing something that matters,” I said, feeling ridiculous. I was doing something that mattered, I was moving an entire people.
Still… some days, that just didn’t feel like it was enough. It never really felt like it was enough.
Late into the night, that thought haunted me more than any other, that somehow it was never going to be enough, and now I had to worry about them all dying because of something I did or didn’t do.
They wondered why I got headaches. They wondered why I had lost two kilos, and was sleeping only three hours a day sometimes. Sleep had just become an excuse for nightmares, anyway, so I had come to recognize the insomnia as a blessing.
“Alright, that’s going to have to be it for the meeting. The office is going to wonder what happened to me,” Harper said, tapping the watch he wore on his right hand.
“Ok. Etrana, thank you for letting us use your ship. It’s the safest place for this,” I said. She had put her entire diplomatic career at risk to host us here. If this ever came out, it would forever impact the relations between the UEA and Corval Prime.
“Etrana found this most shiny! I… was... honored,” she chortled out. It was the first time she had ever used ‘I’.
“I was as well. You are learning much,” I praised, not trying to draw too much attention.
“Etrana is trying! Etrana learns!” she warbled and chirped happily; it was clear what pattern of speech was her default.
“Snow will come again soon? Yes, yes? Etrana…I… would like this,” she chirped again, making a conscious note of her words.
“You know, I don’t mind the way you speak,” I said. “Third person is fine with me.”
“I know this, but Etrana must practice to be a good negotiator for the humans. I… want to learn. Etrana wishes to do well!” she continued, committed to her task.
“If everyone shared that driv
e, the universe would be a better place,” I praised, my tone tinged with a bit of melancholy.
“Alright kids, bus is leaving,” Harper interjected, and with that, we headed back towards his shuttle.
Chapter 20
“I don’t know how we did it,” Jill said, looking over the manifest.
“You mean how we crammed 590,000 morphics on board two columns meant for half that? Well they don’t have much hallway space,” I replied bitterly. I really wished I was joking.
“Yeah Boss. The environmental systems are at capacity and they are running with half the supplies they need, but thanks to the Marauder, we can resupply through the Gates,” Jill said. She was working overtime trying to find reasons for optimism; as of late, I was growing more and more cynical.
“I still don’t like those tolerances on the Poseidon. She’s been throwing weird numbers in her power grid all week,” I said, grumbling, looking for the negative needle in the haystack. Ya know, because the 590,000 morphics in Column One and Two weren’t enough negative to deal with.
“All within tolerance,” she corrected, and she was right, if only just.
“Come on, Boss cheer up. You did it, you are helping save the morphics,” she coaxed, but for some reason, I just felt so detached from it all. Numb. The stress had really been getting to me.
Error in system CQX77b- Rerouting.
There was a strange taste of metal, and for a moment, my vision seemed to flash to black and white.
"Jill, I think I need..." My mind went blank, I couldn't think.
You don't need a doctor. You are fine.
"Boss? What do you need?" Jill asked, her ears down with worry.
"Me? Oh I'm fine, just lost my train of thought. You were saying?" I looked up at her, drawing a blank.
Jill knelt down, eyeing me worriedly before she reached over and straightened my new harness, the one Charlie had given me, long packed into storage. This one bore my new morphic identifier patch, an ugly red, yellow and black octagonal patch with the letters HEI emblazoned upon it, short for Human Equivalent Intelligence.
Rise of the Forgotten Page 13