Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (30 page)

“Okay, so I play along for now, what is to stop me from calling you in the second you are off my ship?”  He asked.

Thad tilted his head towards the bounty hunter’s chest, “See the scar?”  He waited as Riffrost’s eyes went wide looking at a long scar running down his chest.  “That is what we are going to call insurance.  If we don’t check in every hour on the hour,” Thad paused for effect.  “Well, you go boom.”

Shocked, he recoiled back as if Thad was a snake, “You put a fucking bomb in me?”

“It is not a fucking bomb, but a very ordinary bomb, which will suffice to vaporize most of your upper body.  If you are really good you will find the instructions on how to safely remove it, when you get paid.”  Thad smiled grimly as he left the room.

Back on the bridge Eve asked Thad, “So did Riffrost buy it?”

“Hook, line, and sinker,” Thad said.

Fiona who was not in on this part of the plan asked, “What are you two talking about?”

Eve answered, “Thad told him that we implanted a bomb in his chest and if he didn’t play nice it was bye, bye time.”

“So
, did you really put a bomb in his chest?”  Freya wanted to know.

Thad smiled, “Nope.  We didn’
t want to chance Riffrost trying to remove a bomb and accidently setting it off, so Eve just created a convincing scar.”

The rest of the trip to Nova Texas was uneventful.  Riffrost kept to himself and did as he was told while
the twins took the time to learn about the planet they were headed for.  “Pearl darling, would you put something together for us on Nova Texas?  Oh, and keep it simple, I don’t care how many miles around it is, just the important facts please,” Freya asked Pearl.

“Just a
moment while I compile the facts for you,” was the answer she received.

Freya turned to Fiona, “You okay
, you look a little sick?”

“I haven’
t been feeling well lately,” she said as she looked around to make sure they were alone.  “I’m late.”

“What?  Are you sure?”  Freya was surprised and excited at the same time. 

“I’m sure, I’m pregnant Freya!”  She said as she took her sister’s hands.

“Wow that’s awesome
! Have you told Thad yet?”

“No
, I’m not sure now is the right time,” she replied

“How far along are you?”  Freya
asked.

“Three weeks,” Fiona seemed depressed by the news.

“Oh honey, it will be okay.  We will finish this business with Thad, then we can go back home, and have a baby, or should I say make babies.  After all, you’re now ahead of me.  I guess I need to go hunt that man of ours down and make him do his duty!”  The sisters laughed and hugged.

Pearl was ready with the presentation, “
Nova-Texas is the Bread Basket of the Federation. Alone among the highly industrialized worlds of the Rep-Com, Nova Texas’ economy is almost wholly based on agriculture. The main products produced on Nova Texas are beef and dairy products. 

Nova-Texas is a huge, low density planet with a su
rface area approximately three times that of Earth Prime. Due to its low density, the terraformers were able to adjust the surface gravity to .98 of Earth Standard. Tectonically stable, it is a world of vast plains surrounded by low eroded mountains.  Aside from a few large fresh water lakes there is only one sizable body of water, the Belt Sea that cuts the landmass of the planet into two unequal hemispheres, the Great Northland and the Southern Farms.

The southern contin
ent has been set aside for the raising of crops. Across the endless, grassy, plains of the northern continent roam vast herds of genetically modified cattle called Beaves, that range on the grasslands every day.  The cattle keep the grass down, and much of the manure that is produced is sold throughout the Federation, where it is considered one of the best organic fertilizers available. 

Life on Nova-Texas is complicated by the planet
’s extremely slow rotation.  Each full day on Nova-Texas is equivalent to 1.6 earth years. On the dayside of the planet, the great plains are covered with thick, lush grass; the hills and low mountains are covered with thick forests. The rivers run deep, full of marine life, as they wind their way across the plains to the great Belt Sea.

The night side of the planet is a frozen
Hell of snow and ice.  The great rivers freeze solid. Pressure from the expanding ice creates great mounds of broken ice along the pressure ridges. The frozen rivers gouge up the river bottom and pile along the banks forming natural levees. Even the great Belt Sea freezes over. All life migrates or goes dormant as the night winter falls on the land.

In the twilight areas between light and dark, prow
l the Garoos, Saber Tooth Dire Wolves and the great Snow Yetis; indigenous life forms who have adapted well to the presence of humans and their tasty Beaves. The cycle of life on Nova Texas is inexorably bound to the long hot days and frozen nights.

The only
permanently located settlement on the planet is the great underground mining city of Percival, located beneath the slopes of Red Star Mountain near the planet’s North Pole.”  Pearl projected a 3-D hologram of the planet for them to see.  “Nova Texas has several major cities built on special rails that encompass the planet.  They are always moving, following the sun.  ”

Fiona interrupted Pearl with her comment, “I would hate to be the guy
who had to pick up all that poo.”

Pearl stopped for a second then continued, “The process is mostly automated with human controllers.  Most people who live on Nova Texas do not do manual work.  Due to the advanced
automation, there are relatively few human jobs.  Most of those who do work are employed by some of the corporate headquarters located there for tax reasons, like the Red Star mining corporation for example.”  The 3D model was zooming over the surface of the planet showing cites on the rails, and cows, lots of cows. “Because the cities are always in the sun many older folks have retired there.”

Thad
walked into the room, “Yep it’s the new Florida, some of the cities like Sunrise, which is the first city in the line of them, is almost entirely made of retirees.  That is, aside from the crews who smooth the road bed and lay the tracks the cities roll on.”

Freya smiled to hear his voice, “I guess t
hey call it Sunrise because it’s near the sunrise all the time?”

Pearl answered, “That is correct, and the last city is called,”

Fiona spoke, “Let me guess, Sunset?”

“Twilight because
it is so close to the sunset and is always twilight there.”  Pearl spoke with a bit of snip to her voice.

Freya leaned into Thad, “I’m finding Pearl a little creepy to listen to
, and she’s a little bitchy if you ask me.”

“I heard that Freya
,” Pearl said.

“Sorry, but it’
s true” she said.

“I will have you know it is a byproduct of the former owner of the AI brain I am now occupying
. There were many, let’s call them negative, connections that will take a while to reprogram, so I am sorry if I come across as you say, bitchy.  I am working on it, so deal with it!”  Pearl said as she snapped off the hologram.

“See
what I mean?”  Freya said.

“Yeah, I do
, but she did say she was working on it.  For now I think you should just ask Eve for anything else and leave Pearl to fix those little quirks,” Thad said.

They arrived in New Dallas at one
a.m. local time, not that it mattered much. It was not as if they had the cover of darkness to hide.  However, the ship they had acquired from Riffrost had a stealth cloak so they used it to mask their approach to the city.  On board, Thad was suiting up in his body armor. This was the same suit he had modified, with a few gadgets courtesy of Doc Hammer. 

Freya was helping him get into the armor.  It was the first time he had worn it since
the fight with the Ralnai.  She was trying to zip up the back when she said, “Damn it, I think you’ve put on a few pounds since you last wore this thing.”

“You think it
was that fine Untor cooking? That’s what has done it to me.”  Thad replied.

She slapped his ass, “And I thought it was just because so were so happily married.”

He spun around, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her close, “I am very happily married.”  He kissed her deeply, “But Untor food is fantastically fattening.”

“You ass,” she laughed then kissed him again.  “Maybe if you lay down on the floor, I can step on you and get the zipper up.”

Thad remembered something about the suit, “Wait,” he pushed a button on the suit’s arm control.  The suit relaxed enough that she was able to zip it up.  Then he pushed the button and it became skintight again.

“Cool, I could use underwear
like that,” Freya said as she pressed her hands to her stomach.

“You are
so silly.  You are perfect the way you are, like a goddess.”  Thad hugged and kissed her again. 

“Ah, men are so easy to please.”  Freya returned his kisses.

Fiona entered the room, “Hey!  There better be some of those for me before you run off to storm the castle.”

Thad pulled Fiona close, hugged
her, and kissed her, “I always have enough for both my goddesses.”

They laughed at him.  “What?”  He asked standing there
, hands up in the air. 

“Okay, here is the plan
. You will drop me off on the roof and I will infiltrate the building. I will get as much intel as I can, and then I’ll call you to come pick me up, okay?” 

Eve joined them
, handing him a chip, “Here, this will help.  Just plug it into any network computer and I will be able to get in remotely.”

Thad took the chip, “Thanks,” he hugged her.

“You come back to us in one piece!  You got it Mr.?”  Fiona said with hands on her hips.

“One piece, check!”  Thad said.  He kissed both of his wives again then kissed Eve on the check.  “Wish me luck.”

Eve pulled the ship into a hover above the roof. The air lock door opened and Thad jumped out.  Landing cat-like on the roof, he took a quick look around and found his entry point at a door, which led to the roof.  It was locked, but that was not a problem. He pressed the button on his arm control pad.  There was a split second of disorientation as everything went fuzzy then black and then back into focus. To Thad everything looked translucent, with a slight double image, however anyone watching he looked as if he had faded away, leaving nothing other than a faint ghost of an image.  He walked forward and passed right through the door.  At first he felt a small amount of drag and the familiar sensation of walking through Jello.

On the other side, he pushed the button
once more and again things went fuzzy and black before going back to normal. 
So far so good
,
time to press on
.  Thad made his way down the stairs to the floor where the bomb had gone off.  Since then, the floor had been repaired and remodeled.

He looked around for a few minutes until he found Thorne
’s office.  As expected, it was locked and by the looks of it, quite a tight security system was in place.  Again, Thad activated the phase device and walked through the wall.  Once inside he was able to plug in Eve’s chip, “Eve you there?”

He heard her voice in his head courtesy of the communications chip, “I’m here honey.”

“You’re in.  Do what you do best, and if you can manage it, I would like access to this terminal please,” he said.

“No problem
, just give me a second.  Their security is pretty good, but like most AI’s or security programs or humans, for that matter, if you attack another part of the system they all go running to stop the intrusion and forget about the back door.”

“So I take it you are hitting their system somewhere else then?”  He sat down in the chair making a mental note of the brand of chair. 
Trust Thorne to have the best.
  It was a very comfortable chair. 

“Oh yes
, as soon as you jumped out I started a brute force attack on their main frame.  I made it look like some poorly written spy program was trying to hack them.  They fell for it, like a mouse to cheese on a trap.”  He smiled even though she could not see him.  “There you go hon, you have full access now.  Wow!  This guy Thorne is one incredibly bad man.  Take a look at this file.”

On screen, a file named
Project Phanes opened up for him to read.  This was it, the file he had come for, and it had everything about the program that created him.  These were the people who made him a killer.  As he read, he became more and more horrified at what he was reading.  The information in the file revealed he had no mother or father, just donated genetic material.  Born a test tube baby, genetically engineered and grown in a lab, he had been trained from birth to be the perfect weapon.  He was the sixth child of one hundred in his batch.  He was horrified to see that only twenty-five of the original one hundred had lived to adulthood.  The other seventy-five were killed in training, some in accidents, or killed by the hands of their own brothers or sisters.