“Eleven years is a long time,” he said, blushing. “I ... and I made upgrades.” He glanced down at the front of his work coveralls and shrugged.
“Upgrades?” Rocky asked.
Chei realized what Ian had upgraded. He wanted to laugh, but didn’t need to make Ian’s embarrassment worse. “Anju needs to see this.”
He nodded, thankful for Chei’s discretion. “I am not a doctor. She could do un.”
“Could this repair Alyx’s spine injury?” Rocky asked.
Ian nodded. “Most likely.”
“We have to show this to Anju.” Chei said. “Otherwise she’ll never believe it.”
FleetCom Military Operations Center: Lunar L-2 Shipyard:
“They’re holding position just outside of the defense net,” Gabriel Ducat reported from the OpsCom station. “We can’t touch them, but they’re in position to cut off anything that comes in or out. In any direction.”
“We’ve got a supply shuttle en route from TFC that will be in range of their weapons in a few minutes. Should we warn them off?” Erin Sage asked. She was hanging on the Command Deck over the Approach Control station.
Admiral Quintana stared at the screen for almost a minute before he nodded. “Give them the option of pushing the line or turning back,” he said. “I don’t want to put another crew in the position of sacrificing for our sake, but we’ve got to know if they’re bluffing.”
“Supply Shuttle zero-five-six, be advised of potentially hostile vessels in your approach corridor,” she said, taking over the com position. “Zero-five-six, please confirm.”
“SS-056 to L-2 Approach. We see them. Stand by, they’re hailing us,” the shuttle pilot said. She sounded calm, but this was about to be the moment of truth, and she had to know that. After several seconds she came back on. “Zero-five-six to L-2. They are saying they will fire on us if we continue to approach. What do you want us to do?”
“It’s your call Zero-Five-Six,” the admiral said, cutting in on the channel. “We don’t need you being a hero today.”
“Understood, Admiral,” the pilot said. “We’re aborting approach and returning to Tsiolkovskiy.”
“Well that tells us what their intent is,” the ExO said. Hamid Roudini was small and always looked angry, but as he watched the shuttle turn around, he looked like he was about to explode.
“We’ve got enough muscle to keep the corridor open,” Ducat said.
Ylva Visser glared at the Operations Officer and shook her head. The first officer had no fondness for Ducat or Roudini, and it showed every time they disagreed over strategic policy. “If we do, they can reinforce longer than we can lose ships,” she said. “Until we’ve got more cruisers in place, we can’t afford to start bleeding.”
“Even then we can’t afford it,” Quintana said. “It has to be the last resort.”
“We can’t hold out indefinitely,” Ducat said.
“We won’t starve,” Visser said. “We won’t be able to keep building new assets, but we can hang on as long as we need to. Unfortunately, now that they know we won’t push it, they will escalate. It’s just a matter of time before they come at us somewhere else and use that to draw us out of position so they can attack here.”
“They’ve got at least a hundred ships downhill from here,” Quintana agreed. “Until we figure out what to do about it, they own Zone One.”
“We can order more multicruisers in from the main belt to level the field,” Roudini said.
“Bad idea,” Visser said, glaring at him like he was a fool. “Do you know why we aren’t looking at 500 ships out there? It’s because we have some of their fleet playing whack-a-mouse and chasing us around hopelessly. If we stop that and bring those raiding parties down-system then there is nothing to keep the rest of their fleet off our asses.”
“We don’t know if that plan is working—”
“Then why didn’t they bring the rest of their ships in and just stomp us flat in one round?” Quintana said.
“The problem is that they’re going to do to us here what we are trying to do to them there,” she said. “What do we do when they bring the clown car into action? To me, that says they’re planning to attack ground based targets or take over stations. As long as that thing is in lunar orbit, we know they have one of two targets in mind.”
“Tsiolkovskiy and New Hope City,” Erin said, floating up onto the command riser. She was the newest member of his command staff and seldom spoke out, but she and Visser shared similar attitudes. “My money is that they’ll go after NHC first.”
“Why? Tsiolkovskiy has more strategic value,” Roudini said.
“Their orbit perigee is over southern Sinus Iridum near the New Hope Landing Center,” she said.
The first officer nodded. “They weren’t the only ship to take that orbit were they?”
“No,” Erin said. “We’re tracking ten Sagan Class and six Hawking Class ships with them. Plus a few other support ships.”
“You think they will hit NHC?”
“Eventually,” Visser said, nodding. “But sixteen escorts seems light for coverage on a major assault.”
“It was enough to get us to pull our coverage out of there,” Roudini said, glaring at her. “We had five multicruisers in place. We should have forced them back and not the other way around.”
Quintana held his hand up and cut off another round of the same argument they’d had for days. He’d agreed with Visser and decided that keeping the ships out of a premature engagement was the preferred strategy, and in his mind that ended it. “Putting them at the Lagrange transfer stations lets us keep an eye on the supply depot and means they’re only a few hours away if needed,” he said.
“There is something else that should worry us,” Erin said. “Galileo is in the moon's shadow from here. So are Earth and the LEO Colonies. The only friendly tracking station we have facing Earthward is at the Sinus Iridum Highlands Station.”
The first officer nodded. “Sixteen gunships would be plenty to take that out. If they do, we’ll need to risk at least one multicruiser just to observe, or accept that we’re blind to what they’re doing down there.”
“And that takes another ship out of the fight with minimum effort,” Erin said.
Katana: Outbound En Route to L-4 Trojan Cluster:
They weren’t trying to run silent as much as they were just trying to get past the fleet without incident. They’d shut off their Plasma Induction Engine and were in free fall while they coasted for several hours along the outer edge of the ghost fleet. Their velocity was well above anything the fleet could reach, so they were in little danger unless there was something out there they didn’t expect. In space, surprises were never something you wanted to encounter.
Tamir bin Ariqat watched the wallscreen on the CrewDeck in fascination as Edison watched him. Under normal acceleration, he was too weak to move around well, but as they coasted Tana had given Edison permission to bring him to the CrewDeck to watch their flyby. “Where are they going?” he asked.
“Same place we are” Edison said.
“And where exactly is that?” he asked. They hadn't told him anything about their destination other than Katryna Roja would be there.
“The far edge of nowhere,” Saf said. She was floating in the galley making a snack while Joe flew the Katana.
Ariqat glared at her. He always had reacted badly to the presence of so many women in positions of power, and the density of pheromones on the ship made it worse. Under normal circumstances, he put up with it because he had to, but the neuroblockers that controlled his pain also enhanced his potential to act like an ass.
“The less you know right now the better,” Edison said. “Roja’s location is probably about to be ground zero for—”
“The end of civilization,” Ryktoff said from where he floated near the wall behind Ariqat. “That’s a huge mess looking for a place to land.”
Tamir twisted to look toward the source of the voice. It was obviou
s from Ryk’s positioning that he stood anchored in place to keep an eye on things. “I think it is absurd you are still treating me like a prisoner,” Ariqat said. “I am a chancellor of the Union and I deserve respect as such.”
“And how would that be Chancellor Ariqat?” Tana said, landing enough emphasis on the title to draw blood. She pulled herself down through the hatch from the upper deck to join them.
“I am being treated as if you don’t trust me,” he said.
“As I see it, you were at the least, complicit in creating a war fleet in violation of Union law,” she said, anchoring into the seat across from him. “You seem to forget that before you disappeared, you were part of the effort to discredit Katryna Roja and now it’s obvious that your trivial accusations of her wrongdoing were nothing more than an attempt to cover your own actions. I think that covers the trust issue fairly well.”
“Given what is happening now, I think we must put that behind us and stand together against a common enemy,” he said.
“If my opinion matters, I think that’s a thin justification for your changing allegiance,” Edison said, shrugging. “You’re barely more trustworthy than Tomlinson or Lassiter at this point.”
“You are exaggerating the reality—”
“Don’t bother,” Tana said. “We brought you along because you might have the potential to do something about this war. But now that we can see the results of your actions with our own eyes, we doubt you can stop it.”
“I do still have command authority,” he said. “I can order the fleet to stand down.”
She leaned forward, stared at him for several seconds, and shook her head. “Your face tells me you hope you do, but you can’t know for sure,” she said. “What you are, now that we know the attack is coming, is a witness who can clear Roja. Other than that, you have a limited value.”
“That sounds like a threat,” he said, lowering his voice to a snarl.
Saf pulled herself into the seat beside him and grabbed his arm. She shook her head and leaned in close to whisper. “It is not a threat. But trust me when I tell you this, I’ve left enough pieces of meat in the recycler to not think twice about another one.” He tried to jerk free of her grip and shock played across his face as she squeezed down with her augmented strength and his arm remained pinned in place.
“How dare you—”
“Saffia, we are being pinged by active tracking,” Joe interrupted. “One ship in the fleet has spotted us.”
“Which one?” she asked, releasing Ariqat’s arm with a flip of the wrist that almost sent him tumbling out of his seat.
“Until they hit us a second time, it is impossible to tell with only our passive sensors,” it said. “I assume it is one of the closer ships.”
“What’s the range?” she asked, glancing at Tana and then Edison.
“The nearest ship is 867,000 kilometers,” it said. “I am receiving an anomalous interference in internal RF infrastructure.”
“Interference?”
“Yes,” it said. “We are also receiving a transmission.”
“Put it through,” Saf said.
“Chancellor Tana Drake. This is Odysseus. I assume you are aboard the Katana. Your trajectory indicates your intent to approach a restricted area. I advise you to alter your heading and return to your place of origin. Your compliance with this order is mandatory, and failure to respond to this instruction immediately, will result in your ship and crew being forfeit.”
“Joe, shut down all com systems,” Saf snapped. “Somebody get Ariqat strapped in and prepared for acceleration. We need to get some distance now.” She glanced at Tana with an expression that looked like real terror.
Her reaction drove an icy spike through Edison’s soul.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Personal Quarters of the Executive Director: Galileo Station:
It was late and Derek sat staring at the walls of his apartment, trying not to think. Every time his mind drifted, and he chased an idea, no matter how random, Odysseus perceived the thought to be an invitation to dialog. It intruded on every waking moment and often dragged him out of sleep to discuss something that had no point other than to prove it could infiltrate his mind whenever it wanted.
It was maddening.
As he got up and walked over to pour himself another stiff drink, his door pinged. He debated whether to ignore it, but instead he closed his eyes and focused on the door optic to see who was there. A miniature private courier-bot stood on its monopod leg in the corridor, balancing a small package on its hand rack and waiting for him to grant admittance.
He thought about the chrono and his implant supplied the time. 2245 hours.
“You have a delivery,” Odysseus said through his link.
“I see that,” he said out loud. ”Who sent it?”
“Unknown,” it said. “The unit is not broadcasting telemetry. This is unusual. I am notifying security to remove it.”
“Let me look at it first,” he said, turning to head to the door.
“I advise against it,” Odysseus thought to him. “It could be a weapon.”
“It could be,” he said, with a strange lack of fear. He opened the door, and the bot held out the box on the end of its arm. A small display screen on the front showed a message.
“Push the blue button on the unit FIRST. Then listen to the message. DO NOT DO IT IN REVERSE ORDER. J.T.”
Thumbing the delivery received icon, he took the package and closed the door as the bot bounced off to pick up its next delivery. Jahen Tanner, he thought, not remembering that Odysseus was listening in.
“Why would Dr. Tanner be sending you a package in the middle of the night?” it asked through the link.
“I’m not sure,” he said, lying and trying to drive the thought of what it might be far enough from his mind that Odysseus wouldn’t see it. He tore the package open, snagged the two items inside, and without thinking punched the button.
A whistling shriek split his world in two, forcing him to crush his eyes shut against the pain. A second later, the sound dropped to a hissing, like wind venting through an airlock and then faded to a distant growl that dropped below his awareness. His knees buckled, and he crashed to the floor gasping for air.
Frag me that hurts. Opening his eyes and focusing on the carpet, he tried to regroup. Odysseus didn’t respond?
Do you hear me? he thought, focusing on his link. Silence again as he got no answer. He focused on the optic in the corner of his room and came up blind. He looked down at the small item clutched in the palm of his hand. The button glowed and he could feel a slight vibration.
He looked at the other item from the box and picked it up as he pushed himself into a sitting position. It was a personal voice recorder and pushing the stud on the unit he realized he was about to listen to something without Odysseus eavesdropping. He was alone in his mind for the first time in months. It was strange and almost disconcerting to be back to being merely mortal.
The file unspooled and he held the device up to his ear to listen.
“I do not delude myself into believing that Odysseus does not know what I have done for you. I can only hope you will not betray me for my part in giving you back your privacy.
“What you have in your hand is a device that generates a scrambling field that will disrupt the neuro-transducer com system you have implanted in your brain. Because I do not have a schematic of the particular technology they employed in your specific system, I have made this a broad-spectrum device.
“As a result, the unit has a maximum range of no more than five to ten meters, so I advise you to keep the unit in your physical possession when in use. Additionally, when in use, it should block optical and audio surveillance systems to about the same range. This does assume connection to a broadcast network. It does not impact hard-wired technology, so do not take for granted that, when this is on, Odysseus cannot hear or see you.
“I hope it does not affect you in adverse ways, but depending on h
ow extensive your implant is, the potential exists for collateral effects that I cannot anticipate.
“How Odysseus reacts to my having given you this is my only concern. Understand that it is only because Lassiter compensated me well that I have taken this risk. I owed him a debt, and I paid it in service to you.
“You can also consider this the end of my participation in your so-called government and its activities. I hereby resign from both my position on your advisory committee and all my other academic affiliations. I am leaving Galileo to return to private work.
“You will have no problems with me, and I hope to have none with you.”
Katana: Approaching the Jupiter Gap: En Route to L-4 Trojan Cluster:
Edison had strapped Ariqat into his bed in the MedBay and made it back to the upper deck before they jumped the acceleration up to a full-g. While the chancellor was still too weak to stand up to the acceleration, Edison knew strapping Ariqat in was more an excuse to keep him out of the decision-making process.
“We expected this would happen,” Tana said as she sat in an acceleration couch on the upper deck and stared out the windows. She would not make eye contact, and appeared to be trying to hide what she felt about how things had just changed.
“But we didn’t expect that when Odysseus got there, it’d be driving a whole fleet of ships and looking to start a war,” Saf said.
“Realistically, what does this change?” Edison asked. “As soon as we saw the ghost fleet heading in that direction, we knew what it was doing.”
“We now know with absolute certainty that it’s traveling on those ships. If a single active instance of Odysseus gets to the ESI contact point, it will take over every computer out there. We will lose our opportunity to keep control of anything.”
“Quintana mentioned a defense they had in place,” Edison said. “He says they’ve held Odysseus off with it.”
“They focused the blackwall protocol on detecting unusual processor loads during a system-wide attack,” Joe said. “It works by forcing the targeted processor core to reboot while a human commander manually disables broadstream communications. As long as they shut it down before the system can reestablish, the degraded transfer speed of the narrowband com prevents a second infiltration attempt.”
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 69