“Magic. Just do it,” he said, grinning. “Do we have ship-to-ship com yet?”
“Just now,” the com officer said.
“Good. Relay those same instructions to every ship in Zone One. Have them all put their AA on hard down and make sure they keep them that way until we send the all clear.” He turned away, but stopped. “Oh and tell them to bring their broadstream back online. They will be receiving core code updates as soon as they are ready to receive.”
“Yes, Sir,” the com officer said.
The lights came back up on the command deck, and Chancellor Roja floated several centimeters above the floor.
“Welcome home Chancellor,” Admiral Quintana said. He’d been back only a minute and his command staff had barely absorbed his abrupt appearance, when her arrival pushed them all back into chaos.
“Is com up yet?” she asked, winking at him as they shared a private joke at the expense of his people.
“Yes ma’am,” Gabriel Ducat recovered his voice first. The OpsCom station was still down. “What the hell happened?”
“Hopefully, we killed Odysseus,” she said. “As soon as we’ve got signal through the relays, patch me through to Galileo. I want to talk to Derek Tomlinson. It’s time for this to end.”
ConDeck of the Mistique: Above L-4 Prime:
Commodore Atwater bellowed orders across the deck. His command crew were scattered across two decks, but normally that wasn’t an issue because his com system was integrated with his AA and he had total access to his staff no matter what station they occupied.
The Mistique had once been the personal cruiser of the Prime Minister of the Union and because it was state-of-the art in its operational days, it had become the command ship of the Unaligned Fleet. It was lean and fast, and perhaps a bit light for a command cruiser, but they’d kept it out of the heat of the battle by assuming a position far enough away to stay safe from everything. Except these new weapons.
“What’s going on?” he barked, still staring at his screen in disbelief. It was dark. And so was every other one on the ship as far as he could tell. “Somebody tell me what hit us.”
“I don’t know,” Captain Clark said. She was standing beside him anchored to the deck by her maglocks and holding onto a strap in the overhead. “We’re on backup power. Engineering says it will take a few minutes to get the engines and reactors online.”
“It has to be an electromagnetic pulse weapon,” he said. “Hit the breakers first.”
The lights flickered and the control consoles around him lit up. “That’s more like it,” he growled. “Do we have com?”
“Ship to ship is coming up now,” the com officer hollered.
“Good as soon as we’re up patch me through to—”
“Commodore, we’ve got a message coming in on local com,” she said. “Authenticating command codes now.”
“Is it the Steward?” he asked. He needed to talk to Lassiter and make him understand that they needed to withdraw and regroup. 401 ships are too many to lose and still keep pressing the fight.
“No Sir,” the com officer said, her voice sounding surprised. “The ident is for Tamir bin Ariqat.”
“Chancellor Ariqat?” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “He’s dead.”
“Apparently not. The handshake is legit.”
“Where’s Lassiter?”
“He’s not responding on the inter-ship net.”
“Maybe his ship is still down,” the commodore suggested. Lassiter’s location in the fleet was a guarded secret, and he only spoke to issue orders across the network. No one knew which ship was his, so it couldn’t be the target of a counterstrike. It was a novel tactic, but it did give him the best chance of survival since he would have been the object of Roja’s focused hatred.
“Ariqat just upgraded the com status to Urgent Command Order,” the com officer said.
“Put it through, but keep trying to raise the Steward, I don’t like this.”
“Yes Sir,” she said.
“This is Commodore Atwater,” he said as Ariqat’s face appeared on his screen. It did look like the chancellor.
“This is Tamir bin Ariqat. I am ordering you to command all unaligned ships to stand down immediately.”
“Why would we do that, sir?” Atwater asked.
“You were lead into battle under false pretenses,” he said. “We have reason to believe that Steward Lassiter is dead. I am hereby countermanding any standing orders given by either Paulson Lassiter or Derek Tomlinson. You should be receiving my command authorization now.”
“I don’t believe he is dead. His ship is offline because of whatever weapon they used against us, but it doesn’t appear to do permanent damage. Until we know for sure his status, the Steward is in command of this mission.”
“The command code checks out,” his com officer said.
“Paulson Lassiter was never in command of the mission,” he said. “You have been following the orders of a sophisticated AA system called Odysseus.”
“Respectfully, Chancellor Ariqat, or whoever you are, I’ve spoken to the Steward several times since we have arrived here.”
“No, you have spoken to an avatar. A computer generated simulation of Lassiter. He is dead.”
“That’s not possible,” the commodore said, slapping his hand down on the console to mute the audio. “Are you sure Ariqat’s command authorizations check out?”
“Yes sir,” she said. “They’re really legit.”
He punched the button again. “I have confirmed codes from Paulson Lassiter too. Give me some reason to think I should disregard the last weeks working with the Steward and take your word for it.”
“Stand by for a video transmission,” Ariqat said. His face disappeared and the images of the Steward leading the attack on Underhive appeared in his place. When it finished the chancellor reappeared.
“Those images were taken a month ago outside of NHC. You can see that Lassiter was there” the chancellor said. “Sometime shortly after that, a nuclear weapon destroyed Underhive, and he died there. We do not yet know the exact circumstances of his death, but unless he rendezvoused with your fleet since then, he cannot have been in both places at the same time.”
“Stand by Chancellor,” Atwater said, tapping the mute again. He leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. He glanced at Captain Clark who was watching over his shoulder and shook his head. “What should we do?”
“I don’t know that we can keep fighting,” she said. “We’ve lost over half of our fleet.”
“Then I guess we follow orders,” he said. “Patch me through on the inter-ship net and link this back to the command com.”
“You’re live Commodore,” the com officer said.
“This is Commodore Carlton Atwater to all ships in the battle group. Under command authority of Chancellor Tamir bin Ariqat, I order you to disengage and stand down. The battle is over.”
Personal Quarters of the Executive Director: Galileo Station:
Derek Tomlinson made it back to his apartment and managed to place a call to his wife and kids to say what he needed to before the pulse tore through the station, plunging everything into darkness.
He’d made peace with the idea that somehow Chancellor Roja would end things on her terms. And he knew those terms would leave no place for him.
It might have been the jammer that let him hang on a few minutes, while the neurolink’s nanowires sizzled inside his brain, but it didn’t matter. Lightning danced behind his eyes as the visual interface shorted and cooked his eyesight from within.
He leaned back in his chair and listened to the screaming cacophony as a thousand instances of Odysseus all died at once. Eventually, they too fell to silence. Even the whispers had vanished into the dark.
The surge that shredded the immense awareness, wouldn’t have reached him at all, except that in its dying rage every single voice of the monstrous overlord Odysseus had become, unleashed its rage on him.
Unjustified and irrational, it lashed out at the only human it could reach, and he accepted its howling fury.
He endured its dying moments and took some slight satisfaction in the idea that, despite its immense power, he would outlast it. However briefly.
Blinking his eyes to clear the residual images of the connection he shared with Odysseus, he reached out in the dark and pulled a thinpad closer to him. Blood trickled down his face and splashed on the screen as he tapped in a last message to Katryna Roja.
“I am free.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Grand Assembly Hall: Galileo Station:
The Tahrat Shan-che hung above the immense glass ceiling of the grand assembly hall, silhouetted by the fiery arc of the distant sun. The ship reflected a thousand lights from the station and it danced and shimmered like it was itself, alive.
It had been a month since the chaos had ended and this evening, the representatives of every colony in the Union filled the auditorium to capacity. A thousand faces all stared up in awe at the ship. Without understanding what it was, they all knew it embodied a dream. A promise. It was a gift from the past, and would light the path to the future.
Prime Minister Elect Katryna Roja stood on the dais in her FleetCom dress uniform and waited for the thunderous cheering to end. Behind her sat the former chancellors of the Union, each with their respective spouses or partners. Admirals Nakamiru and Quintana, and several visiting dignitaries filled the rest of the seats.
Jeph and Chei sat together on one edge of the stage. As governor of Gateway Colony, this was his first formal event, and he felt disconcertingly naked even in his formal FleetCom uniform. It was also the first time he wore no PSE under his uniform, in the earth normal gravity. He pulled at his collar and fidgeted nervously. Chei leaned over to whisper, “It’s alright. The rest of them are naked too.”
After a full minute of the tumultuous roaring, the Chancellor held up her hands and smiled as the crowd fell to silence.
“Today we start anew. The Union that we have all shared, now stands ready to move beyond. To take the next step in our journey together.” The applause started again, and she held her hands up again as she smiled at faces she knew in the crowd.
“The Union must grow to meet our new potential. So tonight, I tell you that I will be the last Prime Minister of the old Union. By unanimous vote, we have decided that it is our responsibility to shepherd humankind forward to a new future, with a new government, and a new destiny. Over the next five years we will organize a new charter, fit for our greater potential.” This time when she paused, silence hung over the room. No one had expected such a sweeping change, and the shock was universal.
“I would like to take this moment to introduce to you all the two people who deserve most of the credit for bringing this monumental change forward for us.” She turned to face Jeph and Chei and they both froze in abject terror. She winked and smiled. “I won’t embarrass you two, so you can just stand up for a moment.
“First let me introduce Doctor Chei Lu, the new Director of the Un Shan Takhu Institute of Studies at Gateway Colony.”
Jeph knew that they’d decided to grant Chei his formal degree, and he’d been in the room when Danel and Jameson had both nominated him for the Directorship without reservation. It had been almost impossible to keep it secret until the ceremony here. He thumped Chei on the back and then jumped up, pulling him to his feet while he shook his hand and hugged him. The applause was enthusiastic and Chei stood there for several seconds, blinking as he took it all in.
Jeph stepped back to sit down. “Not so fast,” the Prime Minister said, walking across the stage like she was on a mission. “I’d also like to introduce Vice-Admiral Jephora Cochrane, Governor of the Gateway Colony, and Chancellor of Extrasolar Contact.” Jeph’s knees buckled and he would have hit the floor except Chei and Roja both grabbed his arms before he dropped.
“It’s alright, he was an ectomorph last week,” she teased. “I’m sure the new body will take some getting used to.” She winked again and Jeph just shook his head.
When he looked around, both Nakamiru and Quintana had snapped to. Taking a deep breath to steady himself he squared and returned their salute. The thunder started again from the audience and he looked down at the floor.
She pulled the red and black baldric of the Chancellery out of her uniform vest and looped it over his head. Stepping back, she let Admiral Nakamiru come forward and pin the five gold bars of the FleetCom Admiralty to his sash.
“I’m overwhelmed,” he gasped.
She leaned forward and said, “You’ll adapt. You’ve got a knack for that.”
She held her hand out, and he eased back down into his seat as she returned to the podium. She waited again for the audience to settle and then cleared her throat and nodded.
“The time has come for us to leave behind the things that have held us chained to our bitter and divided past. No longer will we roll this boulder of war and hatred uphill, only to have it roll back and crush us again and again. This is the moment when we break the Sisyphean Cycle of our self-destructive nature.
“We stand at the dawn of a truly new age, staring up into what was always the vast unknown. Yet now we know we have reason to reach upward toward the stars. The road will be long and the voyage challenging, but we know we are not alone on this journey. We have a family out there. It is time to introduce ourselves.
“We, the people of Earth, have finally been given our wings.”
The End
Over
the
Red Wall
A Shan Takhu Legacy Short Story
Eric Michael Craig
Arika Sokat stood staring through the plasglass wall of the dome. Watching the frigid Martian air whip icy whirlwinds of dust along the arid terrain, she knew that there was nothing she could do. It didn’t matter that the Bradbury Colony was her home. Or that once she left, she could never return.
It was decided.
She was eighteen. Old enough to make decisions on her own, but still very much under the control of the iron will of her mother. Nisreen Sokat ran both of the surviving Mars Colonies with a harsh and ruthless certainty of purpose. Just as she was always willing to make the hard decisions for the outcast’s survival, she also didn’t hesitate to pronounce unilateral and sweeping decrees for her daughter.
Since Arika’s father had fallen to the epidemic in Burroughs, her mother had always been the one to do that. She’d been seven when that happened, and now she barely remembered his face.
It had faded across a wall of unforgettable horror.
She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the clear dome, forcing herself back through the decade to a time before her world ended. Arjun Sokat had been a good father. He’d been an engineer on the aquifer project that became the source of the Burroughs Outbreak.
She could still feel his hands, rough and worn, but gentle as they held her when he came home from the pipeline work. He would be gone for days at a time and when he did come home, it was a high point in her world. “How many kilometers, Papa?” She’d ask every time he walked in.
She never saw the exhaustion in his face, only the love he had for her.
“Many,” he’d say, picking her up and swinging her around by her arms. She’d squeal and giggle as he spun her in circles. When she got so dizzy she couldn’t stand, he’d flop down on the floor and let her fall all over him as he laughed and played with her. That had been their game since even before she had memories.
Every time he answered her he never told her how many more kilometers yet to go, until one day he came home early, smiling like he had a secret.
“How many kilometers, Papa?” she asked, jumping up into his arms and leaning back so he could spin her around.
“All of them,” he said. He set her back down on the floor and called out for her mother. “Today we need to go see what I’ve been doing for all these many months.”
“Spin me?” she asked,
holding her arms up to him.
“No this will be so much better than spinning,” he said, winking and roughing the hair on her head.
“Better?” In her young mind nothing could be more fun than swinging in circles in the air.
“We need to go for a walk down to the commons,” he said.
“The commons are no fun,” she grumbled. “There are too many people there to spin.”
“I know, but today’s special,” he said. “We need to go watch the lake fill up.”
“The lake?” she asked. “I’ve never seen a lake. What is that like?”
“It’s like more water than anyone has seen since we left Earth. Not since before you were born,” he said. “Enough that you can swim in it. And we can grow fish and anything else we’ll ever need. Forever.”
“What’s swimming?” she asked, a frown settling over her face as she tried to understand why her papa was being so mean to her.
“It’s like flying in the water,” her mother said, coming in and scooping her up. She hugged her and squeezed her so tight it almost hurt. “You know how it is when you dream about being able to run in the sky by flapping your arms? It’s like that, but real.”
“We can do that down at the lake? Today?”
“No, not yet,” her father said. “But soon. In a few days I can take you down and teach you to swim.”
“I already know how to fly,” she said, running in circles in the living room with her arms flailing wildly.
“Easy,” he said, grinning at her. “It takes practice and a lot more space than our apartment.”
“You’ll love to swim,” Momma said. “It will be like spinning, but all grown up.”
Arika opened her eyes and pushed the memory back into the dark corner of her mind. It was the last happy memory she had of her father, and that day was the last day she remembered her mother smiling.
Eleven years ago.
She stared at the darkening red wall of the distant cliff face and struggled to find some way to forgive her mother. Now that she was leaving, it was important, but she couldn’t find even a scrap of a reason. She knew that her mother had suffered through the same horrors with the loss of her husband and it had to be as hard for her as it was for the child Arika had once been.
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 87