by Ken Lozito
Connor looked at Noah and then noticed Allison.
“It’s good to see you, sir,” Allison said, moving to stand next to Noah.
“You as well, Dr. Blake,” Connor replied and then looked at Noah. “I need a status update from you.”
Before the Vemus attack, Noah had thought of Connor as a friend—albeit a friend who tolerated very little in the way of nonsense—but after their encounter with the Vemus, Noah had noticed his friend becoming increasingly bitter as time went on. He understood why, but he missed the old Connor just the same.
Noah brought up another window on the holoscreen. “I have it right here. I’ve sent all I found to Sanctuary.”
“I’m aware of that, but you were supposed to be looking for more information about the power requirements,” Connor said.
“The colossus cannon was theoretical to begin with. I’m not even sure they actually built it back on Earth . . .” Noah’s voice trailed off when Connor speared a look at him.
“Let me guess. You’re still mining those video logs,” Connor said.
Noah looked away guiltily. “There’s good information in there. Things we can use.”
“The only thing in those recordings is how the people of Earth were defeated by the Vemus. Wilkinson found plans for an atmospheric weapon, but we haven’t been able to produce the power required,” Connor said.
Noah felt a flush warm his face. He’d spent a lot of time watching those videos. At first, he’d convinced himself it was just curiosity, but now he couldn’t stop thinking about them. Some of them were horrifying, but he found comfort in knowing there were others who had faced what the colony was now facing.
“Noah,” Connor called. “All those people are dead. They can’t help us, but you can.”
“I’m doing my best, sir,” Noah replied.
“I know, and I need more from you. I want you to go to Sanctuary and see it for yourself,” Connor said.
“I’m not sure I can help them. There are plenty of engineers there who are trying to adapt the power station from the alien city to use with the colossus cannon,” Noah said.
“Do I need to make it an order?”
Noah glared at the screen. He wanted Kara with him. She was on the lunar base and the Vemus could attack at any moment. “No,” he said and sighed.
Connor’s gaze softened. “Thank you,” he said.
“Sir, I have a request I’d like to run by you. It will only take a minute,” Allison said.
“Make it quick,” Connor replied.
“We’ve been studying the data about the Vemus and its origins, but in order to figure out how it will affect us here on this planet, we need samples. Living samples, that is,” Allison said.
Connor frowned. “We’ve provided living samples to the research laboratory at the lunar base.”
Allison shook her head. “That was the remnant virus. What we’re looking for is the parasite. They work together. All the samples contain only the dead virus.”
“What is it you’re asking for? I won’t authorize any of the samples to be brought down to the planet surface,” Connor said.
Allison shook her head. “No, that’s not what I’m asking. We have a team on the lunar base. They’ve been requesting permission to try and gather live samples from the larger pieces of wreckage of the Vemus ships in the debris fields before they get too far away.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea—”
“Sir, this is as important as any weapon system we currently have. Perhaps even more so. This thing spread like wildfire across Earth and we’re not sure if the same thing is going to happen here on New Earth,” Allison said.
Connor pressed his lips together in thought. “Explain it to me then, but keep it brief. I have to give a report to the colonial congress about our readiness status.”
“I’ll be brief. We’re different because we’ve been living on this planet and making it our home, and it’s changed us. Our immune system is different because we’ve been exposed to this planet. There are mammals of a sort here. We’ve sent samples of parasites and viruses we’ve collected to the lab station on the lunar base, but we can’t see how they’ll interact with the Vemus unless we have live samples to work with,” Allison said.
“I thought you’ve been running simulations,” Connor said.
“We have, but they’ll only get us so far. What we could learn from a live sample is whether some kind of organism here would make us resistant to the Vemus. The data from Dr. Stone that was found on the Vemus ship said the Vemus exclusively targeted humans after Earth scientists failed to find a cure. We suspect that the scientists were trying to modify it so it wouldn’t target humans, but, instead, it had the opposite effect,” Allison said.
Connor glanced over at someone who was speaking to him off-screen for a moment. “That’s a hell of a theory, Blake.”
“It’s the only one that makes any sense. We know there are viruses on Earth that can rewrite their DNA, but the Vemus represents a much more complex system than a simple parasite and virus pair. This is our chance to gain a better understanding of what we’re dealing with,” Allison said.
“Okay, you convinced me. I’ll authorize a scouting mission. Send me the team leader you want on the mission, and we’ll make it happen,” Connor said.
“Thank you, sir,” Allison said, sounding relieved.
Connor shifted his gaze to Noah. “There will be a transport going to Sanctuary tomorrow morning and I want you on it. Gates out.”
The comlink closed and Noah stared at the blank screen for a few seconds before looking away. He rested his hands on his hips.
“He seemed kind of harsh toward you,” Allison said.
Noah shrugged. “They’ve placed the survival of the colony in his hands. How would you be?”
Allison pursed her lips in thought. “All this wasn’t real to me until two months ago. Earth and everything about it seemed so far away.”
“Trust me, it’s real,” Noah said. He powered off the holoscreens he’d been working from. “I’m worried about him.”
“What do you mean?” Allison asked.
“Some of the things we found in the data cache were for Connor specifically. There was at least one video log,” Noah said.
Allison’s eyes widened. “Oh god.”
“I have no idea what was in the video log or who it was from. The only thing I do know is that after I sent it to Connor, something seemed to break inside him. At first I thought it was because of everyone we’d lost, but this seems different,” Noah said.
“Have you told anyone about this?”
“Who would I tell? I’m not sure what good it would do. If it’s personal, then shouldn’t it remain personal?” Noah asked.
Allison gave him a look that somehow made him feel foolish. “He’s grieving, and whatever was on that video log certainly didn’t help. Why didn’t you look at it before you sent it to him?”
“It wasn’t meant for me,” Noah said.
Allison arched an eyebrow.
“Fine, I couldn’t access it to see what it was. So I sent it to him.”
“There must be someone he can talk to about this,” Allison said.
The first people Noah thought of were Wil Reisman and Kasey Douglass, but they were both dead. “Diaz might be able to help.”
“Maybe. What about that archaeologist, Dr. Bishop?” Allison said.
“Lenora! I’m not sure whether that would help at all. They’re not exactly on speaking terms,” Noah said.
“I’d try to talk to him, but I don’t think he’d listen to me. Frankly, I’m surprised he agreed to my request,” Allison said.
Noah nodded, thinking the same thing. Should he contact Lenora and see if she would speak to Connor?
“I have to go,” Allison said.
Noah frowned. “You never did tell me what you came to me for.”
“Oh, I got what I wanted. I was going to ask if you’d found more information about the
Vemus and then I was going to run my request to Connor by you to see if you thought he’d listen,” Allison said.
“Glad I could help,” Noah said.
Allison left him, and Noah glanced around the room. There were glowing holoscreens active, with several teams of two or three people working together.
Noah brought up a smaller, personal holoscreen and sighed. He really wanted to talk to Kara, but there were comms restrictions to the lunar base. He pressed his lips together, then sat down in a chair nearby. The holoscreen sank down with him. He sent a comlink out, which was immediately answered. He’d almost hoped it wouldn’t be.
“Hello, Lenora. Do you have a few minutes to talk? I need your advice about something. It’s about Connor.”
3
Connor stepped off the personnel carrier onto the landing pad on the roof of the congressional building. His security detail followed him, and Connor glanced over at the rooftops of the tall buildings nearby. Rail-cannons were mounted on them for Sierra’s defense. CDF soldiers were stationed throughout the city and were on alert. With the imminent threat of invasion, some people were reluctant to leave their homes, but a familiar face met him at the rooftop entrance to the building.
“Major Quinn. I was expecting to encounter a different Quinn before the meeting,” Connor said.
“She’s already inside, so you’re stuck with me, sir,” Sean answered.
They went inside and entered the stairwell.
“Not a huge group of people in the congressional committee, but they’re all expecting you to give them an update on the state of our defenses,” Sean said.
“They want much more than that,” Connor said and quickened his pace.
They left the stairwell and quickly made their way through the building to the main hall. Sean stopped just outside the meeting room. “Director Mallory wanted me to inform you that Parish is part of the committee,” Sean said.
Connor’s chest tightened. Stanton Parish had tried to have Connor killed before the Vemus attacked them, but he couldn’t prove it. Connor and Tobias had managed to remove Parish from the office of governor, but they couldn’t be completely rid of him. Like it or not, Parish was an elected official, but he was unfit to deal with the current threat to the colony. There had been a push from Parish’s supporters for him to remain in an advisory role on the defense committee, and in the interest of a smooth transition of power, Tobias had agreed. Connor hated the man. Parish had reallocated resources away from the defense of the colony and denied multiple requests to finish the defensive projects they’d begun, and the result was that the CDF had had to face their enemy at half their fighting capacity. Too many lives had been lost due to the actions of Stanton Parish. Removing Parish from office seemed like a slap on the wrists compared to all the CDF soldiers who had died defending New Earth.
“Alright, I’ve been informed,” Connor replied.
Sean eyed him for a moment and then opened the door. The interior chambers were mostly empty except for the committee that sat at the meeting table. Defense of the colony was everyone’s priority now that the Vemus had finally shown up.
Tobias Quinn was speaking, and Connor went to the empty seat next to Frank Mallory. Sean stood off to the side. Sitting across from Connor was Dr. Ashley Quinn, who had retained her post as chief of staff for all things medical in the colony. She regarded Connor knowingly. He knew that, being the gifted doctor she was, she could just glance at him and know he hadn’t been taking care of himself. Connor looked away and glanced around at the others on the committee. Like himself, they were all lacking sleep and working long hours. Thanks to Connor’s implants, he only needed two hours’ sleep. It had taken the scientists here years to reverse-engineer Connor’s NA Alliance military-grade implants that had been cutting edge when the Ark left Earth space. The CDF, given the nature of their work, were given top priority for the new implants. Colonial scientists had managed to improve on the design so that a person was less likely to reject them, but they were in short supply, and they could only outfit about five percent of the colony, or fifteen thousand people.
More than one committee member shifted their focus to Connor while Tobias was speaking. Many of them had doubted Earth had been lost, thanks to the efforts of Stanton Parish. Now they looked to Connor to protect them, and the fact that he couldn’t weighed heavily on him.
“I’ve asked General Gates to come to this meeting to provide a status update on our readiness for the Vemus threat,” Tobias said.
“Excuse me, Governor, I’d like to raise a question for General Gates that I believe those of us on this committee would like to hear his opinion on.”
“Dr. Mendoza, why don’t we hold all questions until General Gates has provided his update,” Tobias said.
Connor looked at the woman who had spoken. She was tall, even when seated, and had long features. Her bony shoulders drew up toward her ears, giving her the appearance of a hawk’s wings right before it was about to fly. Dr. Gabriela Mendoza was a staunch supporter of Parish and had been his scientific advisor.
“What is it you’d like to know?” Connor asked the astrophysicist.
“The Vemus signal you discovered during the battle two months ago—has it been detected since the battle?” Dr. Mendoza asked.
“No, it has not,” Connor answered.
“Are you certain, then, that the Vemus have another attack force coming here?”
“Yes, I am,” Connor said and addressed the rest of the committee. “You’ve all read the reports from that attack. The source of the signal was away from the attack force and we have no idea where it was actually coming from. The signal went dark after the attack.”
“Isn’t it possible that the source of the signal could have been from one of the ships that was destroyed?” Dr. Mendoza asked.
Connor shook his head and reminded himself that they were scared. “Look, we’ve been down this road before. You doubted the attack was coming in the first place and that didn’t work out so well. Now you’re wondering: if there is another attack force out there, why haven’t they come yet?”
There were several head-bobs around the conference table.
“I don’t have a good answer for you. I just know they’re out there. The fact of the matter is the Vemus learned as much about us as we did about them during our encounter. They quickly adapted their tactics during our battle with them. We know from the data cache taken from one of their ships that when the Vemus left Earth, they had a massive fleet of ships—more than what we’ve faced. Our engineers believe the Vemus signal was coming from outside this star system. That’s all we know. We’ve scanned the area where we thought the signal was coming from and haven’t detected anything, but it could be that we don’t have the ability to detect them with our scanners. What I believe is that the second Vemus attack force changed their tactics and will enter this star system from a different point of entry,” Connor said.
“Why?” Dr. Mendoza asked.
“Because we’re dangerous. We’ve proven that much. They’ll be cautious on their second attempt, but make no mistake; they’re coming here because this is where we are.”
“We can’t possibly scan all vectors of the sky,” Dr. Mendoza said.
“You’re right, we can’t. We’re doing the best we can. It’s been two months since the attack. Every hour we get is a gift. More time to prepare. The Vemus aren’t going to blunder into the star system again. Every able-bodied person is going to be called upon to fight, and it still might not be enough. Our orbital defenses aren’t going to be able to stop another attack force like what we faced before,” Connor said.
“What do you need then?” Dr. Mendoza asked.
“Five more years and the full effort of the colony to build our own fleet of ships and orbital defenses. That’s what I need, but it won’t be what we’ll get. We’ll be lucky if we get another five days,” Connor said.
There were several gasps.
“What the general is saying
,” Mallory said, speaking up for the first time since Connor entered the room, “is that there’s no way we can know when the Vemus will attack again. It could be at any moment. We have bunkers set up and we’ve been identifying archaeological sites that could be used as shelters,” Mallory said and inclined his head toward Connor.
“Yes, we’ve done all that,” Connor said. “The fact of the matter is that when the Vemus attack us, we’re not going to be able to stop them in space. There’s a high probability that an invasion force will land on this planet.”
There was a long silence in the meeting room. If the Vemus were able to land an attack force, they could also spread themselves to mammalian life on New Earth.
Stanton Parish cleared his throat, and Connor swung his powerful gaze at the man.
“What about the colossus cannon?” Parish asked.
“We’re reviewing the schematics for it,” Connor said.
“But with all the resources being devoted to Sanctuary—”
“As I said before, we’re reviewing the schematics for it,” Connor said. Not wishing to disclose the current status of the cannon, he looked over at the other committee members. “We’re doing everything we can, and it still might not be enough.”
Many of the committee members focused on the area in front of them. They’d wanted Connor to come in here and give them hope, but there very well might not be any hope for them to survive. He instinctually believed the Vemus attack was imminent, but even he was at a loss as to what they were waiting for, and the anticipation of attack was wearing away at all of them.
“We still don’t know why they’re coming,” Dr. Mendoza said.
“That’s not entirely accurate,” a man said, and Connor’s internal heads-up display showed that the man’s name was Dr. Fritz Kramer.
“We know from the data cache and the video logs that the Vemus spread themselves across mammalian life on Earth. This is unprecedented in any organism that has come before. The Vemus started infecting sea mammals—whales and dolphins—before it started spreading on land,” Dr. Kramer said.