by Terry Mixon
And New York was only his first task. He also needed to get the mission back to the Volunteer World under way. Access to the other human colonies would be invaluable, and the only way to get to them was to have the addresses. As the Volunteers had lost their gate controller when the Asharim had attacked their camp, that meant taking the city away from the devolved Asharim and pulling the addresses from the gates themselves.
Hell, just capturing some of the murderous bastards and bringing them back to Earth would cement the facts of his world’s situation for everyone. No way could they fake live aliens.
Wouldn’t that be fun?
Chen ordered his men to remove the dead man from his office. The emissary from the official Chinese government had attempted to bully his way into removing Chen from control of the spaceport and had paid the ultimate price for his temerity.
From what Chen was hearing from his various contacts, both inside the Dragon and in the wider populace, this was far from the only flailing of the suddenly awakened communist government. Too bad for them that they’d awoken with a pillow already on their faces.
The Dragon had had centuries to place their people—heavy-worlder or not—into powerful positions throughout China. Panicked orders were acknowledged and then ignored across the great nation. Those not loyal to the Dragon in important posts were being purged. Those in less important roles would either obey their new masters or die.
Within an hour of that fool Queen’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Chen had consolidated his control over the Yucatán spaceport. As it had been an important stepping stone to operations in the United States, he’d had more than enough operatives loyal to him personally or to the Dragon to isolate and eliminate any challenge to his control.
The emissary he’d just choked to death had thought a few armed men and his pistol would intimidate the rogue ambassador he’d been sent to quell. That belief had proven a terminal mistake.
The leader of the armed retainers sent by the Dragon to bolster him closed the door once the offal was gone. “What are your next steps, my lord? With knowledge of the Dragon spreading, though no one knows our name, it is only a matter of time before the other nations of the world make common cause against us.”
Chen sniffed disdainfully. “Let them. Even before we show them the might of the Dragon, the Chinese military is the most powerful in the world. Better yet, it has long been under our direct control. There was no chaos, as the Dragon had always ruled the warriors.”
The man bowed slightly but spoke in a cautious voice. “All true, but a wolf can be brought low by enough dogs willing to die to see his blood.”
He started to chastise the man but stopped himself. That was simply the truth, no matter how unpalatable it was. Arrogance killed just as thoroughly as a bullet if allowed to fester. A cautious man would be certain to crush his enemies.
“Your words hold wisdom, and I thank you for them,” Chen said, inclining his head. “The larger plan is of course the Dragon’s to decide. If I have my way, I will deal with the United States first.”
The man nodded but said nothing. Though he owed the warrior no further information, Chen continued. “While we know of the base in New Zealand, the images we’ve seen show it to be ruined. The gates can be powered remotely, but the US has made certain we know that there is a small nuclear device there to prevent that. It would be little loss to them, as they have access to more gates, so I see no reason to attack them. Yet.
“There is also the inconvenient treaty we have to defend the Republic of Nauru. Clayton Rogers was the primary claimant of the base, and New Zealand has shrewdly chosen to honor that. If we attack that base, it is a direct affront to the treaty, and the rest of the world would see it as proof that we are a mad dog that must be put down.”
“Yet we have our ship on the way to Mars on a mission to do exactly the same thing there.”
Chen smiled. “Ah, but there is nuance. The base there was not claimed by the president of Nauru. Rather, by his son in the name of a private company. Taking that base is not a direct violation of the defense treaty.”
The other man inclined his head. “A fine distinction, indeed. Does the fact Nauru is now allied—no matter how unwillingly—with the United States negate it in some way?”
“Sadly, no. We had no reason to expect a rapprochement between the two when the government made the agreement. We didn’t even know that they had already found evidence and relics left behind by the rebels. If we had, I feel certain that the Dragon would have crushed Rogers then.”
The phone on his desk rang before the other man had a chance to respond. The warrior bowed and exited the room to give Chen the privacy he needed.
“Chen,” he said into the receiver. It was encrypted, of course.
“Ambassador Chen, this is Minister Fa. Are you secure?”
Fa Lao was a full member of the Dragon and had replaced the unfortunate Minister Wu during the coup.
“I am secure, Minister, as is the spaceport,” Chen said. “How may I assist you?”
“You need to get on your fastest plane and leave for New York at once.”
Chen felt both his eyebrows rise. “I have been declared persona non grata.”
“Not relevant. Your UN credentials are still valid, and you are now the Chinese ambassador to the UN. They will allow you to pass, and you must get there as soon as you are able. The son of Clayton Rogers is coming there in a ship made with the technology of the Masters and will be there within half an hour. You must meet with him.”
“I will leave at once. I have access to a hypersonic transport and may be able to meet that deadline. Even so, there is no guarantee that Harry Rogers will speak with me. We are sending a ship to take his base on Mars away, after all.”
“He will meet with you. In fact, he requested you by name when he called our embassy in Canada just a few minutes ago. He said the two of you had many things to discuss, including the ‘secret society of heavy-worlder descendants working behind the scenes in China.’”
That news was shocking and took Chen’s breath away for a moment. How could he have known? Did he capture one of the Dragon’s warriors in Washington, DC? Well, Chen imagined that was on the table to be discussed as well.
“I’ll leave immediately, Minister,” Chen said, rising to his feet. “Do you have any specific messages for Rogers from the Dragon?”
“Yes. Tell him that we will make him dearly regret crossing swords with us.”
“It will be as you order. To the strong, victory.”
Chen disconnected the call and strode from his office, calling for a car to take him to the airfield and for someone to have the hypersonic transport readied for immediate takeoff.
12
Jess watched Kevin McHugh make his modifications to the Asharim troop lander’s avionics, not even pretending she understood what he was doing. The hacker didn’t leave her in the dark, though. The man couldn’t seem to stop chattering on about what he was working on, even if some of the words and phrases made little sense to her.
“There,” he said with a tone of smug satisfaction. “That should do it.”
“You lost me about five minutes ago, and I’m an engineer,” she admitted. “Can you summarize and use less geek speak?”
“Sorry,” he said as he put the access panel back in place and sat in one of the handy acceleration couches. “This is comfortable. I may have to steal one for my ship if it doesn’t come with one.”
“Your ship?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t think I’ve heard this story.”
The hacker flushed a little. “You were in the healing device, and we had no way to get it off the ship without killing you. It had a slot for a power cube, and I just happened to have picked up one to look at earlier.
“The older Mr. Rogers said he didn’t mind and that I could have a whole damned ship if we got you out alive. I understand that probably isn’t happening, but I do like daydreaming.”
She considered the man
and nodded. “He gave you his word, and I’ll make it good at some point. What would you do with a ship? I assume you mean a small one like this or one of the other landers?”
“That’s what I thought he meant. No way I could do anything with a big ship. A small one I could examine and try to learn from. I can’t imagine any use in flying it around. That just seems crazy.”
“Humanity Unlimited pays its debts in full and on time. We’ll find you a ship that’s to your liking as soon as we can. That reminds me. Clayton also promised that guy in New Zealand a fast, red car for shooting down the CIA drone. What was his name?”
“Mick Bird,” Kevin said.
“That’s the guy. We’ll fix him up soon, too. Now, what did you do and how will it help us?”
Kevin leaned back in his couch. “I examined the big gate on the side of the station and cobbled together a controller that it will think comes from a bigger ship. These small craft are meant to use only the smaller gates, so the big one would normally ignore it. Not now.”
“And we know the gate address that Nathan and Kathleen Bennett used? Is the gate on the other end still there?”
He nodded. “It is. I’ve had the address for a while. I just couldn’t make the gate connect without an authenticated controller. With that fixed, we can go whenever you’re ready.”
“We’ll have to wait for a pilot,” she said. “With all the chaos right now, that might be an hour or two. We really need to train more of our people to use ships like this. We’ve gotten too used to relying on Black Jack McCarthy for the job.”
Then a chill ran down her spine. She had other buried skills inside her skull that the healing machine had implanted in her. Was flying one of these ships part of that? She didn’t exactly have an index of skills. She had to try each one to see if there were any surprises. Might as well check.
She rose to her feet and stepped into the pilot’s cubby, dropping into the right-hand seat, the one Black Jack told her was traditionally the pilot’s controls. A swipe of her hand brought the console to life, showing her a series of panels that meant nothing to her.
Only, after a moment, they did. It was as if a switch had clicked in her head and it all made sense. Not only the parts she could see, but she now knew how to get to other screens to accomplish what needed to be done to bring the ship fully online.
That was super creepy.
Kevin stuck his head in. “What are you doing?”
“Discovering that I know how to pilot this ship, courtesy of the learning machine or whatever it is,” she said grimly. “I get that this kind of thing is useful, but the idea that someone put something in my head makes me crazy mad.
“Not at you,” she hurried to add. “I know you were saving my life, and I’m so grateful. I blame the Asharim for making this possible. Maybe if I’d known what was coming and approved ahead of time, I’d feel differently.”
“I’d seriously give it a go if it gave me a pile of Asharim know-how,” the hacker said. “We’re behind the eight ball, and having some people in the know would be a boost. You should look at the machine and see what it tells you about itself.”
“I have,” she muttered. “The Asharim obviously didn’t want their minions to know everything, because there is no extra knowledge on how to work the machine. Its current settings are what they are.
“You’re right, though. We need to have more people use it. Harry, for one. You, Brenda, and maybe even Karl Krueger, just to show we’re really treating the US as a full partner. Others like Doctors Powell and Young. Maybe Doctor Crockett. Definitely Black Jack.”
The young man cleared his throat. “I saw what it did to Kathleen Bennett. That let me see that it did the same for you, though you were younger so maybe not many people have noticed. It’s a fountain of youth. That’s a bargaining point to recruit people with lots of experience.
“Imagine that as an incentive to a retired space engineer or something. Boom, down from eighty-five to twenty-five. Not even counting the knowledge they get, the healing and extra life would be worth them locking themselves in for a twenty-year or thirty-year contract. Same for curing cancer or other deadly diseases.”
“I’d be happy to use the healing without the knowledge implanting,” she said. “Not to get people locked in, but to prove some of the benefits of the tech. Keep the anti-aging stuff to yourself.”
“Will do,” he said quietly. “I’m sure we can figure out how to turn off the knowledge implanting and the age regeneration. It’s a matter of exploring the system and learning the interface.”
She nodded. “When we get back, I want you to get the full cycle. Hopefully, since you aren’t critically wounded or really old, it won’t take as long as I did. Then you can figure that machine out. Hell, maybe we’ll get lucky and find another one somewhere.”
With that, she rose to her feet. “We’re not going to find anything if we wait around. I’m going to do a preflight walk-around and then we’ll load up. It’s time to go see what the heavy-worlder planet looks like and decide if we’re making peace or war on one another.”
Harry was ready for trouble as soon as the assault lander hit the helicopter pad near the United Nations, and he wasn’t disappointed. A number of New York City police officers closed in on them.
He opened the wide hatch at the back of the lander and stepped down the ramp. He wasn’t armed, but his men were, and heavily so. If there was going to be trouble today, he’d deal with it, but he couldn’t allow these people to see him as weak.
“What the hell is this, pal?” one of the cops who boasted a lot of stripes on his sleeve asked. “And who the hell are you? This is a restricted pad, and you flew right through restricted airspace to get to it. Are you nuts?”
“My name is Harry Rogers and I’m here to provide some additional testimony about those aliens Secretary of State Queen dropped on you yesterday.”
The man frowned. “Rogers? Like the space guy? Aren’t you on Mars?”
“I was. Now I’m here, and I arrived in a ship built with alien technology. So, who do I see about getting in to talk? Or should I just grab all the reporters and have a gabfest on live television?”
A group of men and women in suits came rushing out of one of the doors in the UN building. One of them, a tall, swarthy-skinned man, raced in front of the pack and arrived huffing for breath.
“President Rogers, I’m Friederike Koppenhagen… with the office of the secretary general. She didn’t know about your… unexpected arrival until about ten minutes ago and… sent me to greet you.”
“Take a breath,” Harry advised with a smile. “No need to pass out.”
“It seems that I… might need to add more… cardio to my exercise plan.” The panting man turned toward the police officer. “It’s all right. President Rogers’s credentials are in order. He may pass.”
“Yeah?” the cop asked, looking less than impressed. “Maybe so, but his troops can’t. I’m not letting all these men with illegal weapons off this ship. Hell, I’m inclined to impound it for this damned stunt.”
“Good luck with that,” Harry said. “They can stay with the ship, but it isn’t going anywhere until I’m done. If you screw with it or my people, you’ll dearly wish that you hadn’t. This ship was designed to fight freaking aliens, and it would be damned embarrassing if you got a bunch of people killed trying to show me that you’re a big man.”
“Just let it stay and them too,” Koppenhagen said quickly. “It’s fine. We’ve had military helicopters land here before, and heads of state often come with armed retainers possessing weapons that would be illegal in New York City. All of this is cleared.”
The cop didn’t seem convinced but backed up a few steps and gestured for the rest of the police to form a perimeter. Harry watched his men relax just a fraction in response.
“Black Jack,” he said loud enough to be heard in the lander. “Keep an eye out for trouble. You and the men are authorized to use force in response to any attack or t
hreat of one. Your call on how lethal.”
“Copy that, boss,” the ex-marine said. “I want you to tag me every half hour, or I’m coming in after you.”
“Understood. Talk to you in thirty.” He motioned for two of his men—unarmed for the purpose—to heft the boxes they held and follow him in.
“There is no need for that,” the UN official said as they walked at a more sedate pace toward the building. “No one is going to attack you here.”
“Someone tried to kill me in Washington, DC, yesterday, in broad daylight, so I’m not convinced that you’re correct. People, I might add, with ties to the Asharim.”
The other man frowned. “I didn’t hear the secretary of state speak, but I reviewed the transcript. He was long on accusation and short on detail. I’m given to understand that he is also on his way here and expects to arrive shortly.”
“No need to wait for him,” Harry said with a smirk. “He can catch up as best he can if he’s late.”
“The secretary general would also like to speak with you. Preferably before you speak to anyone else.”
“I’ll talk with her,” he agreed, “but don’t fall into the trap of thinking this information won’t get out. Now that Queen dropped the bomb, I have no choice but to see that I get as much information as possible to the world. That can be through an address to the General Assembly or to a room packed full of reporters. Either is good for me.”
The UN official looked pained. “Secretary General Almen asks that you explain the situation to her first. We cannot compel you to keep any information to yourself, but we need to plan for what’s happening. There is already great unrest in many areas around the globe.”
Harry didn’t know much about Muwaffaq Almen other than her name, so he forced himself not to equate her with Queen. The UN was filled with blowhards, but perhaps a little courtesy might not be wasted.
He nodded. “I’ll explain the full situation to her and anyone she wants to have in the room. Then she can decide which group I speak to, the General Assembly or the reporters of the world. I’m not speaking to the Security Council, by the way. That would be a waste of everyone’s time.”