With the message written, I made my way to the ship's bridge and made myself comfortable in the captain’s chair, and read it one last time.
This was a moment I had been dreading. How do I explain all of this? There was a part of me desperate for them to understand, but would they?
All I could do was hope as I checked over the message one last time.
While Snow has fallen, upon the stone. Seek the sword once driven there, and you will find me.
It was time to find out. The message sent.
A reply came back within fifteen minutes.
One hour out. Wait. -JH
He was true to his predictions. The sensors alerted me to a shuttle on an intercept trajectory. I stayed, curled up in the chair on the bridge and waited. It was a long walk from the shuttle bay, and that was time I needed.
I cut the lights to the bridge. I did not want them to see the differences between me and my predecessor at first. For at least a short time, I had to trade on her good will, and so I waited, like a ghost as the shuttle glided into the bay.
Extending my awareness beyond my onboard, I tapped directly into the ship's surveillance feeds, and accessed the ship-wide com system.
The door to the shuttle slid open, and four UEA marines each took up a defensive position at a corner of the shuttle, and then moved out while Harper himself took up kneeling position at the entrance. Scanning the bay for hostiles.
“I assure you there is no threat,” I said, over the ship-wide com.
The sound of bolts clicked home on UEA energy rifles, as the charged cells filled the shuttle bay.
“Given the fact that I have control of the ship’s weapons and could have atomized your shuttle on approach, and the fact that I could easily decompress your shuttle bay, I’d say that I’ve shown ample reasons for at least the benefit of the doubt.”
“You’re bluffing, the Excalibur is my ship. What do you know about Dawkins?” Harper replied from the entrance.
I cut off the lights and sealed the open doors of the shuttle bay remotely. General quarters sounded and then lapsed into silence.
"Tell me again how I'm bluffing?” I asked calmly, just to demonstrate a point.
“Alright! Enough!” he answered, his tone nervous. I immediately raised the lights, and Harper motioned his men to stand down.
“As to what I know about Dawkins, I was Dawkins, after a fashion. You will find me on the bridge. I understand if you want to bring your detail, but have the courtesy to leave them outside so we can talk. I think I’ve shown you sufficient good will for you to return a bit.”
“I agree to your terms,” Harper replied, but instead of ordering his detail to follow, he ordered them to remain on point at the shuttle.
That was curious.
Jon sauntered through his ship like a man on a Sunday stroll. He let his hand drift over bulkheads as he strolled through the corridors. It was clear; this was his home.
"You need to understand a few things before you get up here,” I said over the com.
“For one, I am not the person you knew, but she is a part of me. What was done, was done against her will, over a period of years which is something I am still coming to understand in my current iteration. That being said, I have memories of you. I know you, as Dawkins did. This experience may well be unsettling, prepare yourself.”
Twenty minutes ticked by, and finally, the door of the bridge slid open. Harper clicked on a flashlight, holding it at shoulder level and scanned across the quiet bridge. The captain's chair faced away from the entrance, and so he did not yet see me.
“Thank you for coming,” I said. It was as good a way as any to begin.
“I had a place in my schedule. I wasn’t doing anything this afternoon, so why not investigate the disappearance and presumed death of one of my closest friends. I mean, ya know, it’s a hobby.” He always did use sarcasm to hide when he was hurting.
He had his sidearm drawn, I could see that on the external feed; he maneuvered around the captain’s chair in a quick-arcing motion and had me in point blank range.
“That’s my seat,” he reported simply.
“That’s hardly necessary,” I replied, and remained calm.
“You have full command of a UEA warship, I think I’ll decide what's necessary,” Harper snapped back.
“Not the engines. Seriously Jon, you go to all the trouble of having her retrofitted, but you leave the original engines in place, why?” I challenged, briefly changing the subject.
This took him by surprise and he almost lowered his weapon.
“What else would you like to talk about before you give me the benefit of the doubt that I requested? Should we talk about Charlie’s funeral? You rescuing Snow at the battle of Alpha Epsilon? How about the secret surveillance you were running for her on Earth First and the Paladins?” The pistol lowered, objective achieved.
“Snow? How? I don’t understand?” The questions spilled out of him involuntarily.
“The result of a fateful decision to keep living, and being the six year pet project of a megalomaniacal sociopath,” I replied, doing my best to sum it all up. “I hate to confirm your worst fears, but they are essentially true. For all intents and purposes, Snow Dawkins died almost two months ago. I am the continuation of her legacy and the inheritor of her memories. Everything she was makes up a part of me.”
“What about the rest of you?” Harper challenged, sitting down heavily in the XO’s seat.
“A longer story than you probably have time for.” At my words, he let out a long sigh, and depressed a button on a mic attached to his chest.
“Stand down. Situation is secure, no reason to be alarmed. Smoke em if you got em boys,” he ordered, releasing his com switch.
“You got a name?” Harper asked simply.
“Key,” I replied, having settled on it a few days prior.
“That’s unique,” he replied.
“Thank you, I find it has special meaning to my situation.”
“Key it is then. So , care to unlock why you called me here?” That was Jon, always going for the easy joke.
I took the next ten minutes and twenty-nine seconds updating him on the last few days. The stolen shuttle occupying one of the shuttle bays, and my encounter with Erebus.
“You definitely aren’t Snow Dawkins. She would have chewed off her left paw before she let the LRRC go,” Harper commented.
“It was a necessary sacrifice, or so I thought,” I replied.
“Sounds like nothing’s gone like you planned,” Harper observed.
“For better and worse. Existence is new to me, and I’m adjusting as I can. Case in point, the data I stole, I haven’t accessed it very deeply. After the last time, I want to be quite a bit more careful before trying that again,” I reported honestly.
“Well that sounds wise,” Jon answered back.
“Every time I’ve failed, I failed because I was alone. In five weeks of life, I’ve managed to get myself captured or almost killed far too many times for the ratios to look good. Most of Dawkins’ success came because she relied on other people, but I don’t have people anymore. I just have the memories of her community, and the fact that she is a part of me. It is my hope that will be enough for at least a beginning…”
“People change, Key. Not always in ways we like or want. You didn’t kill me, that’s a plus. I see echoes of her in you,” Harper replied. “It’s actually kinda eerie.”
“Boo,” I answered back simply. “It’s not that easy Jon, you and I both know that. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“No it isn’t. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you this is magically ok and everything can go off like nothing happened. It’s pretty obvious something seismic has occurred here, and it’s clear not even you fully understand it. That being said, friendships are built on trust, risk and mutual interest. We have a mutual interest, and you've shown trust and took a great risk in bringing me here,” Harper paused, as if in thought before contin
uing. “Not to mention, taking my seat.”
I hopped down, and brought up the lights, letting him see me fully.
He whistled. “I see you’ve been doing some redecorating.”
“To put it lightly,” I answered back simply.
“So what are you now?” He asked. It seemed rude, but it was an honest question.
“Me.” It was the only answer I had. I wasn’t exactly a hare, I wasn’t exactly anything but me.
“When I dropped Snow off, hallucinating and critical with the Lethine, I had no idea it would come to this,” Jon said, running a hand through his hair. His voice was tinged with guilt.
“It was literally this or death. What would you have done?” The choice was too perfectly binary for it to be clean.
“Let’s hope to God I never have to find out,” he shot back quickly and then looked down at the floor.
“You shouldn’t feel guilty. It’s an honest answer.” My words seemed to carry no effect. The memories from Dawkins showed me it should be easy, but somehow it wasn’t.
I thought back to the Leap, and how it doomed the LRRC. Delicate calculations, just barely out of tolerance and the damage that could be done. This situation felt similar, tweaking fields and ranges and hoping that I somehow survived all of this.
Pop! The LRRC blinked out of awareness in the memory of the simulation and brought me back to the moment at hand.
“You still with me?” Harper asked.
“Yeah, just a brief moment of deja vu.”
“You know, we have a problem.” His easy manner belied any tension, yet something ominous hung at the edges of his words.
“We have lots of problems,” I answered back, this was no time to get choosy.
“No, something more immediate. You won’t be able to stay here; the Excalibur is being reactivated to lead a fourth fleet.” This got my full attention.
The UEA had divided its operations between three fleets since they had built enough to do so. The First was dedicated to the defense of Earth and her territories. The Second, commanded once by Harper aboard this very ship, was there for rapid response, and the Third served as backup and utility. There was no need to activate the reserves, unless the UEA was preparing for war.
“The orders came across my desk three days ago. Next week, she’s going to be swarming with marines and engineers,” Harper reported, he was showing trust; this was obviously deeply classified information.
“Four fleets. Still, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the Mendians and the greater council. What do they hope to accomplish?” I asked, pushing back. The Mendians had the numbers; any aggressive action by the humans would be a quick and sudden suicide.
“Five fleets. They are reactivating the Hammerhead, and a few of the Generation One Sharks that are still space-worthy, but no attack orders. Don’t get me wrong, we are mobilizing, but no one knows for what,” Harper continued.
“This doesn’t make any sense. The Gate network is being shut down. The only route open will be to Corval, a non-military power.” There was a clear piece of the puzzle missing, and it gnawed at me.
“First things first though. You can’t be here when they show up in a few days and start shaking her down. Are we good here?” Harper asked, focusing on the situation at hand.
“Mainly I’ve by staying aboard Alpha-889. We are only on the bridge for the benefit of this meeting.” I didn’t need the starship as a base; I needed it as a box to hide under. Keeping my presence minimal ensured I could make a quick exit if need be.
“How hot is she?” Harper asked.
“Very. It’s a production model, but still, its registry lists it as an experimental and testing vehicle. UEA orbital was expecting it to make a quick trip into orbit and back to the Lab,” I replied.
“We’ve got them flooding into the UEA by the hundreds right now. In twenty years, never seen Christmas come early like this, but that should make it easy to flip a few entries on a few spreadsheets,” Harper said.
“You sound like you’ve done this before,” I pushed, with just the barest hint of accusation to my tone.
“I admit nothing. Scout ships fall off the back of trucks all the time. It’s called shrinkage,” Harper replied with a devilish grin.
“I bet you suck at poker,” I challenged.
“I’m a career man, Key. Any time you want to test that theory, be my guest.”
Connection. We both laughed at each other, and the madness of the situation we found ourselves in.
He rose, and snapped the strap across his holstered pistol, fully securing it.
“Let’s head to your ship. I need to get those numbers,” Harper said, turning towards the exit.
“I sent them to your shuttle two minutes ago.” He stopped, and looked at me, astonished.
“I aspire towards efficiency,” I continued.
“O-k,” Harper replied, still showing signs of surprise. “Well then, would you mind escorting me to my shuttle? I think it’s time I introduced our mystery guest,” Harper replied, cryptically.
Chapter 29
I hopped. Harper sauntered. We made a curious pair aboard a deactivated UEA Starship.
This concept of a mystery guest was quietly driving me insane. At least the defensive posture of the marines on arrival made sense now.
“You are certain you don’t wish tell me?” I challenged, worried I was annoying him.
“It’s impressive when you think about it,” Harper remarked, casually, both addressing and ignoring my question.
“What’s that?”
“You’ve asked me that same question three times, in such a way that it was different every time. My answer remains unchanged… No, it would spoil the surprise,” he whistled and moved further down the corridor and punched the button for the lift.
I huffed, annoyed.
“I’m trained to resist interrogation, ya know. I’m divorced,” Harper offered, dead pan, and walked on to the lift. “Coming?”
A pang of fear seized me. I could be walking into a trap. It made me hesitate. My paws trembled. Quickly, I went over the data I had, and forced myself to relax.
There was no reason to suspect he would betray me. I hopped onto the lift, trusting fully in my predecessor’s memories.
We descended in silence, as I checked once, then again my connection to the Excalibur and her critical systems. Just in case.
“Level one, housewares, pet supplies, parking,” Harper called out. The joke was lost on me, but he seemed amused, which seemed the point of much of his humor. Tapping the top of the frame gently, he stepped out and made his way to a small room opposite the shuttle bay. I recognized it from the ship's schematics as a small security office and staging area.
The room was empty; he stepped up, began to go through the sequence of unlocking and opening the door, but he was rather slow, so I did it remotely.
“Thanks.” He looked down at me, perhaps slightly annoyed.
“Want to make sure we keep the number of people that’s seen you down, so going to ask you to wait here. No reason for the grunts to know,” Jon explained, and I nodded, agreeing with his logic.
Harper left. If it was a trap, it was a bad one. This room was built for the security officers on the ship, and was the main fortification point before the shuttle bay.
Watching from the camera feeds, Harper entered; the men saluted and he quickly ordered them back to ease. Leaning against one side of the entrance of the shuttle, I could tell he was having a conversation with whomever may be aboard.
A figure emerged from the shuttle, a morphic black cat.
It was Jill. Dozens of emotions I only half understood churned within me like a bubbling cauldron as she made her way across the distance, devoid of her normal grace. She was obviously in a hurry, and her tail twitched erratically.
I was still drafting a plan as to what to say when the doors of the small security office slid opened and Jill burst in.
“Boss, I’ve been worried sick…
Holy shit,” she replied, her easy southern accent rising to a point of tension.
“It was my hope that he would have prepared you better,” I offered.
Jill just nodded, obviously in shock and thudded down heavily in one of the non-descript, lowest bidder chairs bolted into the wall.
“Not convinced there’s any right way for this,” she answered back. The initial shock was wearing a bit, though its effects obviously lingered. Harper strolled back in, and sat next to Jill, offering his hand for support.
She gripped it, tightly, retractable claws slightly extending with the tension of her grip.
This was going to be hard for her; she had already lost Jim, but for the second time that day, I went over it all again. Crisis, death, rebirth, failure and then, it largely ended the same way. We were all numb, hurt and betrayed, by these events, and we sat, staring at one another, for a moment, letting it wash over us, in the hopes that the wave would pull back out to sea.
It was a vain hope, in many ways. Waves inevitably retreat, but their effects change the shorelines of continents. Just like these events, nothing they touched remained the same.
Helplessness. I felt shell shocked and set adrift, desperate for what I could do, but there was nothing in my past to prepare me for this. No, there was nothing to be gained from looking back in this situation.
I stopped thinking of what I lost, and started thinking of what I had, and an idea sparked.
“Jill?” I asked, breaking the silence of the room; she looked up and focused on me, slowly. “Yeah?”
“I have something I would like to give you. Will you trust me, at least, for a little while?” I proffered, extending an olive branch.
“I can try,” she replied with characteristic honesty. “What do you want to do?” Her tail twitched, curiosity obviously piqued.
Harper watched with marked interest from his perch.
“You’re familiar with the Link,” I declared more than asked, knowing she was, while she nodded in confirmation.
“I’d like to use that to give you something. I promise you, it will do you no harm.” The offer had become cryptic, and I worried I had poisoned the well.
Rise of the Forgotten Page 18