“You’re sure he was telling the truth?”
She nodded. “I was doing his brain scan when I asked so I could measure his reaction.”
“And what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Sit and wait?”
“That’s one option,” she said. “I think it’s likely that whatever eventually happens, we’ll be in the middle of it, unless we figure out how to get out of here.”
“That’s true,” he said. He ground his eyes with the backs of his knuckles as he chewed on what she’d said. His brain hurt. “So is there anything else I need to know?”
“You absolutely need to understand that whatever you decide, I will back you from here on without question.”
FleetCom Lunar L-2 Shipyard: Lunar Lagrange Two:
Jaxton Quintana was sitting at his desk above the massive operations center of the L-2 Shipyard. This was his real office, and where he’d spent almost the entirety of his last several weeks. Virtually without sleep. He kept the com chatter at a low level in the background, but it connected him to the pulse of FleetCom even if he didn’t listen to the specifics. The rise and fall of the voices let him know that business was still running as close to normal as possible.
“Lunarside ALC just tapped out,” a voice rose above the noise and he spun to face the window that looked out over the control floor.
“Outbound ALC is down too,” another controller said.
“Yah, spacedock control spiked and is clamped down. Screens say the AA is rebooting,” a third voice said.
“Switching to manual approach protocols,” the first voice said.
He tapped into his comlink as he punched off the chatter through his office system. “Quintana to OpsCom. Are you saying we’ve lost all three ALC?”
“Yes sir,” he said. “We’ve also got ship transponders dropping off all across Zone One traffic.”
“Kill the broadstream. NOW!” the admiral roared. This wasn’t a one off hack on a single system. This had to be the front end of something much bigger.
“But we’re only seeing limited—”
“Just do it! We’re under attack,” Quintana said. “Shut it down or we’ll be losing The Boss too.” If the main AA that ran the station went down, it would be days to get it rebooted.
“Aye, sir,” he said.
The lights blinked. Once. Then they flickered and stayed off. He turned and glanced at his desk and read a single word that lingered on the screen before it faded with the lights.
Odysseus.
Executive Council Situation Room: Galileo Station: Lunar Lagrange One:
“As much as I don’t want to admit this I think we’ve been backing the wrong team,” Prime Minister Ambrose said from the end of the conference table.
“I understand your concern,” Lassiter said, “but I think you may be a bit premature in your assessment of the situation. I’d advise that we not move preemptively here.”
She turned to face the Steward and glared. “I know you’ve been talking to Tomlinson too, so you know how far across the line he’s gotten. Do not try to defend him or I’ll have you removed.”
“Excuse me?” he said, managing to look both shocked and outraged at the same time. “I am the elected representative of the unaligned populace. You have no authority—”
“Hold your tongue Paulson,” she hissed, reaching out to take a thinpad from a man seated in the outer row of chairs surrounding the table. He was the Legal Advisor to the Office of the Prime Minister and although he never attended a normal session, everyone knew who he was. His presence indicated that this was far from the realm of normal. “This is a legal opinion that says I do have the right to expel you from a meeting if your presence is disruptive. Do not think I won’t do it.”
She flung the pad in his direction and it skidded to a halt in front of him. He didn’t move to read it, but he did close his mouth. Abruptly.
“I may not have the power to remove you from your office, but I can bar you from meetings. If you speak one more word in defense of Derek Tomlinson’s treasonous actions before I am done, I will send you packing,” she said, tapping an icon on her screen and waiting as two armed guards came in and took up positions beside the door. She nodded at them and added, “Is that crystal clear to you?”
He glanced toward the door nodding. He pushed himself away from the table and back into his chair. The glare on his face matched her intensity, without a sign of hesitation.
She cleared her throat and looked squarely at Tana Drake. “Now as I was saying, I think I am not alone in my belief that Derek Tomlinson has overstepped the authority of his position as Special Investigator and as a member of the chancellery.”
“I’m not familiar with what’s going on here,” the WellCartel Chancellor said, looking at the faces around her. “But I’m obviously in the minority.”
“Perhaps regarding the incident that precipitated this meeting,” the Prime Minister said. “I understand however, that you were involved in helping with the investigation into Arun Markhas’ murder?”
“I’m familiar with it,” Tana said. “Edison Wentworth asked me to do some toxicological work for him before he retired.” Her comlink chirped and Tana sat it on the table, glancing at the screen and gasping. She blinked several times and stood up.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” she said, spinning and launching toward the door fast enough to leave everyone stunned to silence.
Earthside Docking Control: Galileo Station: Lunar Lagrange One:
Assandi Nisano normally had little to do as a Docking Approach Controller. It meant nothing that she worked the busiest terminal in the Union because there were twelve other controllers on duty and the AA-hybrid ran everything. She spent her time comchatting with her brother, or watching tri-vid on her thinpad. The blinking icon warning her of a problem went unnoticed until the floor manager rapped on her console and interrupted.
She looked up and glared at him. “Automatic Docking Control is down,” he said.
“What?”
“We’re on manual approach protocol,” he said, tossing her a headset.
“Dafuq is going on?”
“Dono, but you’ve got Deepstar Avalon about a hundred meters from hard lock.” He pointed at the proximity radar screen and nodded. “Get on it.”
Hanging the headset over her ear, she punched in to the com. “Deepstar Avalon, advise that you need to observe manual approach. ADC is down. Confirm?”
She looked up at the proximity radar image as the screen flickered and shut off. “Deepstar Avalon do you copy?”
“Fragging warn them off,” he barked. “They were still hot.”
“I’ve got no com,” she said, tapping her com toggle repeatedly and shaking her head. “I hope they’re paying attention out there.”
Thunder, followed by the sound of shearing metal and roaring wind answered that question seconds later.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Jakob Waltz: Orbiting L-4 Prime:
“Fifty-four days,” Jeph said, sitting down at the end of the galley table.
“Until what?” Danel asked.
“Until the war arrives on our doorstep.”
“What war?” Anju asked.
“Three multicruisers, three ice haulers and the Armstrong. Plus all the ugly that’s chasing them,” he said.
“What the hell are you talking about,” Danel asked.
“We got an update from Roja,” he said. “The Union government has come unglued.”
“That’s been going on for a while,” he said.
“It’s worse than it was,” Jeph said. “Chancellor Tomlinson made a play to consolidate power, and he ordered an ambush on two multicruisers that FleetCom was sending to back us up. They pulled in at Saturn to resupply and it turned into a full-blown shootout.”
“Nojo?” Kiro asked.
Jeph nodded. “It looks like a civil war is breaking out.”
“This couldn’t have been because of my reporting in, could it?” Anju as
ked, sitting back in her seat and covering her mouth.
“I doubt it,” he said. “They went at it before you made the call. That doesn’t mean we aren’t why it started. Remember, she was making all kinds of unbelievable accusations about a weapons lab being here.”
“Also fleet of invisible ships. No?” Rocky said.
“And none of those look to be the reality of what we’ve found,” Jeph said.
“Do we really know what’s down there?” Danel said. “We’ve got wild-assed theories, but that doesn’t mean we’ve got our facts straight yet either.”
“Agreed,” Jeph said, holding up a finger to cut off Anju before she could jump in with both feet. He nodded at her. “I think you’re right, but I want to know for sure. Unfortunately, I think we can’t afford to wait for them to get here to find out. If they’re bent on war and shooting at each other, there’s nothing that says she’ll make it this far. If she does, she’s likely to be running hell bent and dragging ugly behind her. We need to be able to get out of the line of fire and that means unless we can get down there and turn off whatever magic is keeping us trapped, we’re sitting slugs.”
“Nu wath ahn Tacra Un?” Ian asked, shaking his head. “You inside Tacra Un cata … under?”
“I think he’s asking if you are going inside the … Tacra Un down there,” Anju translated.
He nodded. “Yes. I wath ahn cata. I shada che Shan Takhu. Ahn … help?”
“He said he wants to go inside down there. He speaks, less than, Shan Takhu? Maybe that means, a little, Shan Takhu?”
Ian nodded at her. “Yes.”
“Shan Takhu is the language?” Jeph asked “You understand him?”
“Some. He’s remembering more of our language, but I’ve picked up some of his in the process. And I think Shan Takhu is the name of the people that built this place, so it might be their language.”
“So we’ve decided it’s aliens?” Danel said, shooting a skeptical eyebrow in Jeph’s direction.
He looked at Anju and nodded. “You care to explain why you were sent here?”
“I was recruited by an organization that believed there was a small, but not zero, chance we’d find an Extrasolar Intelligence out here,” she said.
“Dafuq?” Seva said, her eyes flashing with anger. “You knew all along?”
“No, she didn’t,” Jeph said, holding up his hand and making it clear that she needed to back off. “All she knew was that someone had enough suspicions to send her.”
“Which leaves us where?” Danel asked, his face showing he was more than a little inclined to agree with Seva, but he kept his tone level despite how he might have felt.
“We need to go and look around,” Jeph said. “Hopefully, there will be an off switch for the quicksand and we can get out of here before the shitstorm hits.”
“How do we know it’s not full of bug-things down there?” Seva said.
“Shan Takhu trana wath. Un ahn oola,” Ian said.
“I think he’s saying the Shan Takhu are not inside. They are outside?” Anju said.
He nodded, waving his arm in a big sweep that included the universe in general. “Outside. Gone.”
“I don’t know if we should just take his word for it,” Cori said.
“I didn’t see anything that looked remotely alive down there,” Chei said, speaking up for the first time. He still looked like he was trying to process what he’d experienced.
“Could be automated outpost,” Rocky said. “Would explain no defensive response.”
“Maybe they’re monitoring us to make sure this crazy ass bunch of apes doesn’t get out of the zoo,” Kiro said. “True beans, we’ve been nuttier than a poundcake lately.”
“Nojo,” Seva said. “Could be we’re about to get the shock collar treatment?”
“Look, we’re pissing blind here,” Jeph said. “I don’t think we’ve got any choice. No matter what, we’ve got to at least try to figure out how to shut down the quicksand.”
“It’s a huge risk,” Anju said. “Just because Chei didn’t get bit by an alien microbe doesn’t mean they aren’t down there.”
“Ian’s been here for eleven years and he’s still alive,” Chei said.
“Yah, but his brain’s addled,” Alyx said. “Nothing personal Ian.” She winked at him.
He smiled sadly, but he shrugged it off. “Ian ahn fear. Shan Takhu trana nu.”
“He is the same as fear. They are not the same as you,” Anju translated. “Ahn means understand too?”
He nodded.
“You’re saying that you understand our fears, because they’re not like us,” the captain said. “I don’t see any other options.”
“There is a lot to be afraid of down there,” Anju said, the haunted expression flashing across her face so fast that only Jeph caught it. “But I agree. We have to do it”
“Truth in that.” Seva nodded. “We’re on our own, but nojo it’d be bad to frag it up.”
Armstrong: Outbound at 2.7 AU: En Route to L-4 Trojan Cluster:
Katryna and the admiral ate their meals together and sometimes Captain Jeffers joined them, but often she had to beg off at the last minute. Running a ship as massive as the Armstrong, frequently had her chasing problems.
Today however, she asked if it was too late to join them. She arrived with the serving autobot and followed it through the door, carrying a small stack of thinpads under her arm. Her face broadcast there was something eating at her and it was much more than a casual ship problem. She crash-landed into the third chair and anchored her pads to the table beside her plate.
The admiral glanced at the chancellor and frowned. “An issue?” he asked after several seconds of silence.
“Things are coming unhinged down-system,” she said.
“We knew that already,” the chancellor said.
“Not like this,” Jeffers said. “There’s a problem on the broadstream. Nobody’s getting a free pass.”
“System wide?”
“Exactly.” She nodded, handing each of them a thinpad. “FleetCom systems were protected, because whatever it is, tripped our blackwall lockout protocols, but we’ve got ships and facilities dropping off the net everywhere.”
“So we are under attack,” the admiral said. “We expected that.”
“No. Not just us, everybody. Civil and private AA are going down too,” she said.
“That makes no sense,” the chancellor said. “Why would they hammer themselves?”
“Agreed,” Jeffers said, shrugging. “There’ve been some severe incidents too. Several thousand people were killed when a Deepstar passenger liner destroyed most of the Galileo Earthside docks.”
Katryna gasped, covering her mouth. She’d been through that part of the station hundreds of times. The Homeworld sat above the docks along one of the primary spokes. It had to be gone too.
“One of the cargo space elevators failed and dropped a medical payload from forty kilometers. That one took out the entire Atlantic Platform like a missile strike. A lot of people died there too.”
Nakamiru reached out and gave Katryna’s hand a gentle squeeze. He also knew the Galileo hit would have taken out a lot more than just the docks. Many of the FleetCartel Chancellery personnel lived in the Earthward spin section. “So it’s hitting everything?” he asked.
“Everything with a Gensix AI and above and all AA hybrids regardless of type.
“But you say it hasn’t affected our assets?” The chancellor asked.
“No ma’am,” she said. “Our lockout protocols appear to have stopped it. As long as our people maintain a hard blackwall on the broadstream, we should be able to keep control once the system resets have completed. We won’t know for a day on most systems and some of them will be longer.”
“What about the L-2 Shipyard?” the admiral asked.
“The Boss at L-2 went down before they realized it was a full on attack, and being a Ten-Gen AA it’ll take most of a week to stand back up. Admiral Q
uintana says they restored critical systems by shunting everything over to smaller AI computers, but in the short term, they’re crippled. He’s got the Kitty Hawk and the Defiant covering the shipyard until they get backup. They’ve completed the upgrades on both, so he’s confident they’re safe, for now.”
“How far has this spread?” he asked.
The captain nodded at the thinpads. “That’s the latest updates, but so far it’s only affected Zone One. Once you get outside the earth-moon system, the Twin Cities, Ceres Alpha, and Vesta are the only other major computer nodes. There’s not much infrastructure in the deep-system except for a few scattered labs with fancy hardware. Most FleetCom assets are operating inside the belt or down-system. We do have five multicruisers in the Jupiter Gap but there shouldn’t be much else out here that’s above the target threshold. Other than our fleet.”
“The Armstrong’s AA is a tenth generation unit isn’t it?” Katryna asked.
“Yes ma’am,” Jeffers said. “Galileo Main and L-2 Shipyard are the only other Ten-Gen in operation anywhere in the Union. But we’re running dark, so our broadstream is offline. I ordered extra security on the narrowband com channels to detect foreign code elements. So far, it hasn’t hit us.”
“So everything down-system is offline?” the admiral asked.
“FleetCom systems are down until they can reinitialize, but apparently a lot of the civil infrastructure is already coming back up.”
“How is that possible?”
“Whatever is doing this isn’t rebooting the systems, it’s rewriting them,” she said. “It’s a takeover of computer assets and not destruction. Galileo Approach Control was only down for under a minute.”
“The wrong minute,” the chancellor said through clenched teeth.
“Unfortunately that’s true, but it came back up quickly. The authorization control codes were overwritten, so nobody has access to the core system. But it went back to work doing its job. It just answers to a different boss now.”
Borehole Site: Surface of L-4 Prime:
Rocky led the first party to set up a base camp. There was a lot more involved in getting set up so they could safely get inside the structure than simply going down and through the wall. They needed a staging area and a lot of hardware on the surface before they could enter the alien airlock. Anchoring a workpod to the ice about twenty meters from the opening, they spread a thermal blanket around it, and set up an array of sensors. Once that was finished, they used the pod’s winch to create a makeshift elevator to the bottom of the borehole.
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 33