Athena Lee Chronicles 8: Infiltration (14 page)

The Earth security force grabbed the still yelling Alpha and dragged him toward the door with their guns drawn. As they exited, they found Major Payne and his men set up in strategic positions around the room. No one fired a shot as the Earth forces boarded their ship.

“Hangar doors opening, clear the bay.”

Everyone left the conference room and hurried back to the observation level. “Captain, contact the Colossus!”

“Yes, Primus.” They watched as the doors opened and the Earth shuttle left at full power.

“Captain Alpha or whatever you are called. I am Primus Amalie Dorr of Mars. You have one Earth hour to break orbit and leave Mars space or you will be fired upon.”

“Primus, how did you know? How did you know he would go off like that?”

Amalie smiled. “Any good politician can read people. It was his eyes. He did not like what he saw and was antagonized that someone would dare speak to him as I did.”

“Did you catch what he called us? Sapes. Could he mean Homo Sapiens?”

“I do believe that he might at that. Be sure that tape gets to intelligence immediately. Dar did you notice anything about our guests?”

“I did. They seemed very interested in any visible technology. I saw the security force pick up small items from in the conference room and place them in their pockets.”

“Ma’am, those funny dressed companions of his were doing the same thing. I saw one take pictures of the lift system and some to the hangar equipment.”

“Thank you Major. Write up what you saw and pass it off to intel. You too please, Dar. We need to know everything that we can.” She dismissed the Major and his men.

“Did our friend get on board the ship?”

“Primus, I really don’t know. He did not send a signal.” She really wasn’t worried about Wilson. He was a sneaky little shit.

“We need to return to the surface. There may be trouble in the next hour.”

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The Captain of the Colossus was fuming! What did 366 say over there? He dare not put anything on an open channel in strange space so the questions were killing him! The shuttle docked and 366 joined him on the bridge.

“What happened over there? What did you say to them? We have been ordered out of Martian space within the hour!”

“Brother…”

“No! You will call me Captain! Speak now or tell me in the pain amplifier!”

“Captain. We were friendly, I swear on the Program that created us. A group of armed sapes met us in the hangar bay. They escorted us to a conference room there in the hangar. The woman, the leader of Mars was there. She looked me in the eyes and confronted me. A sape! A dirty sape did this to me! Her words angered me and I voiced my opinion of her and her breed. I could not help it. I swear. I was so overcome with having inferiors speak to us in such a way.”

“Did you give away the plan? Did you tell them of our secrets?” 366 shook his head no.

“We may still have the advantage. According to what those foolish Gen Mods have sent us, Mars only has the patrol ships that we can see. They depend upon their defensive platforms and star fighters for defense. We are currently inside the circle of defense so we hold the high ground. Once we release the brethren, we should be victorious. I will have Zeta 666 ask the Gen Mod again to confirm Mars defenses and we will attack. When this is all over you will spend time in the pain amplifier as penance. Am I understood?”

“Yes. I understand. Thank you Captain.”

Chapter 19

It was a good thing that Wilson had been exposed to Earth computer programming systems early or he might not have gotten inside. The computer on the Earth shuttle was primitive when compared to what Mars was using. Earth was supposed to be this massive technological boogeyman. Wilson wasn’t feeling it. The shuttle hardly had any next generation tech inside it at all. The power systems were only a few steps up from what Athena found in the first Mark I Starfury in Sam’s warehouse. Something else that was interesting was the way that these people talked and acted around each other. Wilson thought of himself as a student of human nature. He had seen enough of them over the years.

Once the shuttle docked with the mothership Wilson was able to transfer out and into the first system he could find. His favorite, the security camera system. This system was also very primitive when compared to what the rest of the galaxy was using. Positronic circuits had come a long way since Wilson’s creator had pioneered them. Earth did not even have an analog of that system on board this ship. They were still using crystalline matrix-ed boards with RAM boosters. No one used RAM anymore. The operating system was very similar to that used during the Cyber Wars, breaking in was so easy a baby could do it. Interesting. They do have contact with the Cabal. Ha ha ha. Those poor fools. They got what they deserved!

Stripping the memory of the ship took moments of Wilson’s time. The security system barely noticed that he was even there. But it did notice. The watchdog programs kicked in and alarms began to sound on the bridge.

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“Alpha! We have an intruder in the computer core!” The Gamma tech kept his eyes firmly on the deck.

“What? Stop it! Engage the watchdogs.”

“We have Alpha. That is how we know, they set the alarms off themselves.”

“Is it a hacker of some kind?”

“We don’t think so. It looks like a worm of some kinds. It entered through the security system in the hangar bay. I think the shuttle brought it here.”

“Dammit! Alpha 366, what tech did you steal over there? Tell me now!”

“Almost nothing, a few trinkets and a control module of some kind. The Gamma team is working on them now.”

“Gamma 400, activate every anti intrusion program we have. We need to destroy that worm!”

__

So they do have protections in here. Wilson was beginning to wonder. It was almost time to go when he spotted something in one of the hidden trash files. Interesting. The Program. Quickly he copied the information and began to make his escape. The navigation system continually sent and received information from public information satellites constantly. That was his way out.

__

“Sir, the worm is gone. The system is free of infection. We are scanning for damage now.”

“Excellent. Did the watchdogs manage to kill it?” The Gamma hesitated. They had every exit blocked, it could not escape so the watchdog must have gotten it. “Yes, Alpha. Our programs killed it.”

“Good. Beta 400 did the Gen Mod confirm that Mars has light attack forces?”

“Yes. According to their intelligence Mars only has the ships we see around us.”

“Is the Gen Mod absolutely sure of this information? We have to be sure before I order the attack.”

“He said that they turned a man inside the Primus of Mars own family and he confirmed the data.”

“Excellent. Get to your sections it is time to take what is rightfully ours.”

“Captain Bishe, how much time do they have left?”

“They have less than ten minutes Primus. Shall I alert the system and prepare William Tell?”

“Yes, do it.”

I was watching the screens like everyone else when Wilson finally returned. “Athena! I’m back!”

“Wilson! Did you get into their systems?”

“Please. Look who you are talking to here. Of course I got in. You could have gotten in even with your ham handed skills. They are behind the times.”

“Wait, before you say anything else can you do the cowboy thing on the big screen?”

“Anything for you Athena.”

“Grandmother? Wilson is back and needs to report.” I pointed to the big screen.

Wilson’s favorite character appeared on the screen and he began to speak. “Ma’am, I have the information that you seek. That Earth ship is a piece of junk. The computers are so old Athena could break into them. They may have been technological giants once but compared to the colonies out here they are the farm team. You will find this funny. The Cabal did contact them but did not fare very well. That Alpha spaced them all except a guy named Johann 009 but they call him a Gen Mod.”

Amalie started at the name. “Grandmother did you know this Johann?”

“Once upon a time my dear. Once upon a time. That does answer a few questions. Johann was one of the Captains of the last wave of colony ships. So they were not lost after all.”

“There’s a lot more but they have a big fleet inside that ship and intend to attack you. Some kind of computer, maybe an AI called the Program runs everything on Earth. Clones rule Earth now. Humans are called sapes by them and they use them up and kill them.”

“Wilson dear you bring too many shocks for this old woman today. Do me a favor and download what we need to know and give it to the intelligence section please? A quick question first. What do they know about our defenses? What did the Cabal tell them?”

“They believe that the ships out there right now is all that Mars has. They tortured that Johann guy just to make sure. The Cabal turned a someone in your family who gave them the information.”

“Thank you Wilson.” She turned to Captain Bishe. “The system actually worked. I am amazed that the secret held this long.”

“Yes, ma’am. It was very effective. I will alert our people.”

Dar and I were puzzled. Did Mars have more ships?

“I see the confusion on your faces. When we conceived the defense plan, we needed total secrecy from everyone involved. A series of checks and balances was put in place should a spy try to infiltrate the plan. It has worked for over sixty years successfully. Every time that a ship was retired or sent to the breakers it was actually sent to a secret base out near Jupiter. We have a shipyard there as well. Over the last six decades we have build up a secret defense fleet. The naval element that crews it is secret too. Everything is run from Deimos concerning that fleet. It is the one of the most protected secrets on Mars. The other is Deimos itself. It holds a secret too, one that will be shown very shortly.”

“Primus it is time.”

She stepped up to the main screen and contacted the Colossus. “Alpha this is your only warning. Take that hunk of junk you call a ship and leave Mars orbit right now and we will not destroy you.”

“Destroy us? I think not. We are superior to you and much better armed. Feel Earth's power! Surrender now and I will allow you to live as my personal slave!”

“Primus we have ships exiting the Colossus.”

Up on the screen a swarm of Mark I Starfuries and over a dozen larger cruiser sized ships were pouring out of the Colossus. The Martian patrol ships began to engage the star fighters.

“Captain activate Checkmate and William Tell. May the god of space forgive us.”

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“Alpha 366 activate the hangar bays and tell our ships to attack!” Alpha 364 did not like being talked down to by a dirty sape. He could see what his brother Alpha meant. Maybe he would hold off on the pain amplifier.

“Point defense prepare to engage any ship that approaches us.” He laughed as the four tiny Martian ships tried to engage his fighters. “This is too easy brother!”

“Sir, we are picking up something on the scans. There seems to be a large group of ships on the other side of Mars closing fast.”

“What! Put it on screen.” A long range screen picture came into view. A veritable armada of ships were approaching at maximum speed.

“Epsilon 43 order the fleet to engage that fleet, launch everything that we have!”

“Sir, we are reading massive energy readings on the planetoid below us!”

“What sort of readings? Is it a threat to the fleet?” Gammas need to learn to speak clearly.

“It is an energy of a type we have never encountered before. It is centered on that large military outpost. The reading’s sir! It is some sort of weapon. We recommend evacuation.”

“Delta 004 arrest that Gamma! Take him to the Zeta for punishment. We are superior, we do not retreat from battle! Navigation, take us in closer to Mars. Time for a few kinetic strikes to wake them up.”