Where We Go One, We Go All

by Robert Boren

  “It’s an AI, you moron,” the other man said. “Illegal as hell, you know.”

  “Butch, why’d he shake himself to death?” Vermillion asked.

  This is an educated guess. They’ve altered the adrenal glands, probably so the natural output control is disabled. The bionic Clan parts take that over. When the Variant Three Nanos destroyed those devices, there was no output control. He got an adrenalin overdose.

  “Well, that does tend to make it difficult to defect from the Clan, or from Simone’s forces,” Nolan said.

  “We’ll talk,” Renner said.

  The other man went wild, grabbing Renner through the bars, yanking him by the neck, tearing open his throat at the Adam’s apple, blood spurting everywhere. I fired the Variant Three Nanos at him and his dead comrades, the sole survivor shaking himself to death like Frakes.

  “Well, that’s that,” I said. “Butch, can you verify that the Clan parts are inactive?”

  Yes, they’re damaged beyond repair, but it might be worthwhile to have Doctor Hazelton remove the parts from the bodies. They will make good evidence, for one thing.

  “He’s right,” Vermillion said. “Let’s do that.”

  I just notified her. Ah, she already got back to me, asking if she can do it in sick bay where all her equipment is.

  “Tell her yes,” I said. “Also ask Deacon to send over a few men in cleanup suits. They can carry this baggage over to sick bay.

  “You’ve got a little blood on your left cheek, Trey,” JJ said, “and a little in your hair too.”

  “I’ll go cleanse,” I said.

  Deacon walked over, looking into the brig. “My, that end cell is a mess. I’ll have my men mop it up after we’ve taken the bodies to Doctor Hazelton.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “You’ve got blood on you, Cappy.”

  “I know, I’m going for a cleanse now. I’ll let Haney tell you what happened.”

  “We’ll go back to the bridge,” Vermillion said. “See you after you’re clean.”

  Everybody left, JJ and I heading for our stateroom.

  “Wonder what’s next?” JJ asked as we walked.

  “Hopefully nothing for a while. At least we’ve got that problem eliminated.”

  “You were going to kill them either way.”

  “Of course,” I said as we got to our door. “Would you really want them anywhere near the New Jersey? Or Amberis, for that matter?”

  “Oh, trust me, I shed no tears for those cretins. At least they drove the violence themselves. That’s easier.”

  I stripped my clothes off and took off the Nano suit. “I almost lost it when Butch said oops.”

  “You’re bad.”

  I grinned at her, then got into the cleansing unit. We were on our way back to the bridge after ten minutes.

  “Ah, there you are,” Vermillion said as we walked on the bridge. “Feel better?”

  “Yeah. Anything happen while we were gone?”

  “You were only gone about ten minutes,” Nolan said.

  I laughed. “That’s long enough for almost anything to happen these days.”

  Izzy shook her head. “Sad but true. At least we’re rid of those guys.”

  “We have proof that Simone’s people had Clan hardware in them,” Tim said. “We ought to broadcast that all over the Central Authority Zone.”

  “We might,” Vermillion said, “but we need to be careful how we do it, and I’m not sure it will help us more than it hurts us.”

  “You want to discuss it with Drake, I’ll bet,” JJ said.

  “How’d you guess,” Vermillion said. “How long till we’re back at Amberis?”

  “Four hours,” Nolan said.

  “It can wait until then.”

  We were all tired, the conversation dying down. Vermillion went to the stateroom he was using.

  “Glad he’s back to normal,” JJ whispered to me.

  I nodded. “Got anything to do?”

  “Not really. Thought I’d review some more documentation about the Clan.”

  “That’s what I’m doing,” I said.

  “We all should be doing that,” Nolan said.

  The rest of the jump was quiet, and we were pulled back onto the New Jersey by the tractor beam as soon as we arrived. JJ and I were on our way towards the Zephyrus ramp when Doctor Hazelton caught us.

  “I’ve got the parts, Captain.” She handed me a small box.

  I pushed the button on the side, the top opening, tiny bits of metal sitting in the bottom. “Wow, smaller than I thought. Could you see the damage from the Nanos?”

  “Yes, but not with the naked eye. Those Nanos go in and cause short-circuits. You can see the burn marks from the shorts in the electron microscope. Very impressive technology.”

  “We were told in the training that Variant Three Nanos cause short circuits,” JJ said. “Wonder what turning up the power does to completely destroy them?”

  On the low setting, we use a small number of Nanos, and they shut down as soon as the device quits working. At the max setting, we flood the device with Nanos, and they attack all at once, damaging every electronic connection they can find and supplying their own power if the device isn’t running anymore to find the rest.

  “Is that who I think it is?” Doctor Hazelton asked.

  I nodded.

  Hello, Doctor Hazelton. I’m quite impressed with the work you’ve done on the Neanderthal.

  “Thank you, sir. Coming from you that’s quite a compliment.”

  Don’t be silly. Job well done. Captain, after you get settled, go to Chairman Vermillion’s office and we’ll have a chat.

  “Sounds good,” I said. “We won’t be long.”

  He was gone after he quit talking.

  I chuckled. “It’s his way, I guess. See you later, Doctor. Thanks for bringing these to me.”

  “You’re welcome, Captain. See you soon.”

  { 4 }

  Attack or Not?

  J J and I walked into Vermillion’s conference room. Nolan, Andrea, Sondra, and Cyrus were already there.

  “Captain Clarke, welcome home,” Andrea said.

  I smiled, handing the box of Clan parts to the Chairman. “Doctor Hazelton gave these to me when we were leaving the Zephyrus.”

  Vermillion opened the box and peered inside. “Interesting. Smaller than I expected.”

  JJ snickered. “That’s what we thought too.”

  Move that to a video camera so I can take a closer look.

  Vermillion carried it to the work station at the end of the room, holding the open box in front of the camera lens. “See it clearly?”

  Yes, thank you. Very interesting. We probably can’t show them as evidence without having a lot to answer for.

  “I was thinking the same thing when Doctor Hazelton mentioned what she could see under a microscope,” I said. “There’s evidence of the Variant Three Nanos on the hardware.”

  Realistically I don’t think making this public would make much difference anyway. Many people knew what Hitler was doing to the Jews in Germany. There was evidence all over the place. It took outside force to stop it.

  “You’re not comparing the people of the Central Authority to people in Nazi Germany, I hope,” Sondra said.

  I’m not saying the people of the Central Authority are evil. I’m just saying that the leadership will continue on the path they have chosen until they are forced to stop. I don’t think every citizen of Germany was a monster either, for the same reason.

  “Let’s get on with it,” Vermillion said. “We’ve got a lot to do in the next several days. We’ll have to coordinate well.”

  “Tac said they’re ready for us to pick up fuel and drop off the additional storage containers any time,” Nolan said.

  Good, that’s job one.

  “Any more problems with the war down there?” JJ asked.

&
nbsp; “Tac is hearing that Frankoris and Katharis are on the verge of a truce,” Nolan said.

  “Really?” I asked. “What drove that?”

  “Katharis knows they can’t beat the Gerkan on the high seas, and the Gerkan were bought off, which made Frankoris willing to sign a deal. It’s good news.”

  “I’ll bet your uncle is relieved,” JJ said.

  “He is,” Nolan said.

  “What else have we learned since we’ve been in the jump?” I asked.

  The Prime Minister was shown on video giving a speech on Devonia Axxiom. He’s not dead, but he’s not answering questions about the summit.

  “How about the other summit attendees?” I asked.

  Still nothing on them, and the Central Authority is crafting a cover story.

  “I’ll just bet they are,” Cyrus said. “What BS are they trying to spread?

  They’re blaming the kidnappings on a radical off-shoot of the Overlords. They’re not acknowledging that we rescued our chairman, either.

  Cyrus shook his head. “With all the cameras on Devonia Axxiom, there’s got to be video of the action on the roof of their building.”

  Devonia Axxiom is not the free society it once was, I’m afraid. They’re still blaming the big explosion on the Samson Corporation, of course. They haven’t mentioned that it was one of our facilities.

  Vermillion chuckled. “That would be a little embarrassing.”

  “What about the HPDR and the Senate?” Sondra asked. “Aren’t they a little suspicious?”

  I can’t believe they aren’t, but they’re no more free than the citizens at this point. People are still disappearing, although the citizens are pushing back. I think that’s mainly due to the obvious coverup of the Magellan III disaster.

  “Let’s focus,” I said. “First we use the Zephyrus to make the fuel and container transfers. Is there anything else we’re doing before the Zephyrus takes off for the Clan Zone?”

  “Clan Zone?” Sondra asked, her eyes wide.

  “Oops, I guess they don’t know yet,” I said. “Sorry.”

  “That’s part of the reason for this meeting,” Vermillion said. He took a moment to tell Cyrus, Sondra, and Andrea about our plans.

  “You guys are taking a huge risk, and with our Captain too,” Sondra said. “Sure there’s no other way?”

  “If anybody has a better idea, now’s the time to suggest it,” I said.

  “What happened to the natural wormhole idea?” Cyrus asked.

  “There’s no way the Clan could attack us if they don’t have wormhole projection technology at their disposal,” Nolan said.

  “They do have that,” Sondra said. “We sold it to them.”

  We can track our drives. They won’t help them, even if the self-destruct doesn’t work anymore.

  “What can you do in the Clan Zone that you can’t do here?” Andrea asked.

  “We can go to one of their space docks cloaked and wait for one of their battle cruisers to take off,” I said.

  Exactly. We just have to be around when they leave. That’s how I captured the profile of the Razor ships.

  “What if they see you?” Andrea asked.

  “Then we jump away,” JJ said. “We have both the cloaking device and Nolan’s module. They won’t be able to follow us.”

  “We hope,” Andrea said.

  “We’ve also got the gold plating,” Nolan said. “That affords some additional protection.”

  “How long will it take to jump to the Clan Zone?” Cyrus asked.

  “Just over a month,” Nolan said, “give or take a few days.”

  “Is that just to the border, or to the place we need to be?” Cyrus asked.

  “C1111-A,” Nolan said. “Their capitol planet, and the home of one of their largest Clan Starfleet space docks.”

  “Oh, yeah, they use alpha-numeric coding for their planets, just like their ships,” Sondra said. “So boring.”

  “They don’t put much stock in the niceties of life,” Nolan said.

  They are purpose driven, but don’t forget that their culture has a rich tradition. I like their music, and other aspects of their art.

  “They pick their artists by genetic data at birth and force them into what they are best at given that data,” Nolan said. “When you’re doing that, I don’t call it art. It’s more like slavery.”

  They use genetics to channel their people into all pursuits. We don’t like it, but they’ve made it work over the years. Their concept of life is different than ours. Don’t forget how much we learned from them about human longevity. They helped us get to the three-hundred-year average that we have today.

  “That’s true,” Vermillion said. “That’s why they moved to the bionic eyes originally. They couldn’t solve the aging of eye tissue. People were going blind half-way through their lives.”

  “Why didn’t we have the same problem?” Sondra asked.

  We were late to the party with longevity. We have other ways to solve that problem.

  “Mynox Seven,” Nolan said. “I have to use it. Works wonders.”

  “How old are you, Nolan?” JJ asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “I just turned two hundred and five last month.”

  “But why are they still using the bionic eyes now?” Sondra asked. “Surely they have access to the same medical technology we have, or better.”

  It became a tradition, and they do see better than we do with those implants. Much better.

  “Not as good as Barney, though,” I said.

  Yes, Neanderthals see better up to about age sixty. Then they start to lose their ability, just like humans used to. Most of them die by age ninety or so, you know.

  “Unless we intervene with our medical technology,” Nolan said. “I’ve heard of them living close to two hundred with the right care.”

  “We’re getting too far off the subject,” I said. “Let’s refocus. We can jump to C1111A in around a month–so that means we’ll be gone for a good solid two months, assuming nothing goes wrong.”

  “Correct,” Nolan said.

  “And how long will our fuel last, assuming we stop by Boroclize and pick up the rest of the ore from that mover?”

  “I’ve got to do some more detailed calculations on that,” JJ said. “I’ve got Emerald working on it now.”

  I’m already done with that.

  Now look who’s being a show-off.

  Quiet, Junior. We have more than enough fuel, even if we only finish refining the ore we have on board now, assuming we don’t get into any big fights.

  “Assume we might get into some big fights,” I said.

  If you think that might happen, we should go get that ore. You might want to bounce the chance we have of getting into fights with the Clan in their zone against survivability estimates.

  Nolan chuckled. “So you’re saying the time and fuel it takes to go to Boroclize might not be worthwhile if analysis shows we’ll be destroyed in a fight.”

  I’m including the risk that someone discovers us if we go back to Boroclize. There is risk there.

  “All right, Emerald and Butch, work together to give us a good analysis on this,” I said. “Then we’ll discuss it further.”

  I could go faster without Butch

  Getting to the wrong answer more quickly doesn’t help us.

  I shook my head as JJ snickered. “Humor me. I want both of you working at it, and I want both of you looking at it from your own points of view. I want all bases covered. When you’re done, I want this entire team to go over the data as well. We have the luxury of time for this task, and I’m going to take it.”

  I agree with that.

  “Me too,” Vermillion said. “What else?”

  “What happens while we’re gone?” JJ asked.

  “I’ll be taking the Trista
r to Zenthonia,” Vermillion said, “to push the next New Jersey-class ship through production. I’ll also visit the other plants, but Zenthonia is where the most urgent action is.”

  “Hey, what about the flight suits?” Nolan asked. “Are we taking them with us on the Zephyrus?”

  “Take the ones that are on that ship, yes,” Vermillion said. “I want the Tristar to keep the ones they have as well.”

  We’ll need a Zephyrus class ship to re-supply the Pacific Research Center. Since the Zephyrus will be gone, we’ll need to use the Monitor or one of the other ships that comes off the line before the delivery is needed.

  “Shoot, I didn’t think about that,” I said. “We need to get somebody up to speed on the modifications Deacon made to haul fuel.”

  “That will be Deacon’s priority until the Zephyrus has to leave,” Vermillion said.

  We anticipated that and are already adjusting the next set of ships. Perhaps the Monitor isn’t the right choice. We’ll retrofit her eventually, but it doesn’t have to be right away.

  “I think we should do it anyway,” Vermillion said. “Captain Clarke, do you have something more important for Deacon to do before the trip?”

  “Nope,” I said, “and I agree with you. Anything can happen on the production floor, and the Pacific Research Center is important.”

  Fine, I can live with that.

  “What else?” I asked.

  “What about the mess we have with the Central Authority?” Andrea asked. “Are we just going to hide and hope they don’t find us?”

  “That’s what my time will be spent on before I take off for Zenthonia,” Vermillion said. “Not that I think there’s anything we can do right away.”

  Plan strategy, but I’d rather have us hide out until we get past this Clan mission. We discussed a couple of options earlier. Pursue those, but take no action until we’ve talked.

  “Yes sir,” Vermillion said, looking uncomfortable.

  Thanks. Sorry to put my foot down, but we can’t fight two battles at the same time. We’re in a weakened state with Captain Clarke and his crew gone. Our focus has to be spacecraft production and keeping out of trouble. We’ll talk about it later.

  He’s gone.

  Vermillion chuckled. “Okay. You’ve all had a long day. Let’s break for dinner and we’ll chat more tomorrow.”