The Legacy of Earth (Mandate Book 2) (30 page)

“Well, then, who
did
build it?” he asked.

“Admiral, captains, allow me to introduce you to . . .
Decatur
.”

The footsteps were soft due to the soles of his feet, but Daniel wished at this moment that those footfalls had been louder. Authoritative. Intimidating.

Inquisitor entered the cafeteria and walked to the table. “Admiral Reynolds. Captain Stevens. Captain Long. My name is Inquisitor. Also known as Decatur the Fourth. I am pleased to formally greet you, although I have been following your careers for many years.”

The robot held its hand out in greeting.

Captain Long jumped to his feet, instinctively reaching for his missing sidearm. Captain Stevens also stood and backed away.

“Gentlemen, please, we’ve seen these before. Remember the academic challenges? The lashing out by the public? The AI?”

“The AI?” Long repeated. “Is that what this is?”

Inquisitor stood before them, unmoving, but he would have frowned if his face were capable of it. He appeared on the large screen on the cafeteria wall. “Gentlemen, the robot is just a shell. I am a collective. What you crudely call an AI. And I have three colleagues.”

“We’re quite
familiar
with the AI,” Long said as he returned to his chair.

“So that was
your
doing?” Stevens asked and turned to look out the window. “The AI. Attacking Earth. Disrupting our DNA. That was all
you people!
”

Jack frowned, turned to Daniel. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

Daniel shook his head. “No, I certainly do not. Captain, what do you mean by that? An attack on your DNA?”

“Every man, woman, and child on Earth—with a few exceptions—has been exposed to a multi-strain retrovirus, transmitted via gas attack. The sole purpose was genetic modification.”

“My god, is it true?” Jack shouted, which surprised everyone in the room. “Inquisitor! Answer me!”

“Yes, that was done by Vendetta, a colleague of mine. My . . .
sister
. . . from your perspective.”

“Mr. Seerva, this is not a new incident, nor is it a secret. That was fifteen years ago. But, we may finally be getting some answers here today.”

“Be that as it may, admiral, and you may find this unbelievable under the circumstances,” Jack said, “but we have even more pressing matters to discuss with you. But I
assure you
, we will explore this . . .
incident
. . . with Decatur. Damn him!”

Inquisitor visibly flinched, which surprised Daniel. He looked at Inquisitor with curious eyes.

“Oh? More pressing than an AI running loose, manipulating humans?” Stevens shouted.

“Captain, please calm down,” Reynolds said. “That’s an order.”

“Yes, admiral,” he said, and then paused to collect himself and returned to his seat.

“Please continue, Mr. Seerva.”

“Thank you, admiral.”

Jack looked around at his colleagues, his family. They all nodded to him in silent approval. “This is a momentous occasion, gentlemen. I just want to remember it well. But I must take you through it, step by step. The question of whether we are alone in the universe has been answered.”

“What are you saying?” Reynolds asked.

“We have been in contact with members of an alien civilization. From a planet called Bodekan, orbing a star called Eründe—which we know of as Tau Ceti.”

“Aliens? What, little gray men? UFOs?” Stevens snorted.

“They are quite tall, actually, with bronze-tinted skin,” Megumi said. “And freckles that change color with their mood.”

“You’re serious?” Long said.

Daniel said, “Inquisitor, go ahead and show them.”

The screen on the wall played the scene at Harmony colony when first contact was made.

“I didn’t see any aliens in that recording,” Stevens said snidely.

“The alien was animated in an emulation environment, not physically present,” Daniel said.

“Animated? Emulation? You’ve got to be kidding. Are we going to sit here and listen to this bunk, admiral? I know when I’m being taken for a joy ride,” Stevens said.

Reynolds turned his head toward Stevens. “Hugo, look at this ship. Look at that
robot
. The AI on the screen. Does any of this strike you as a joke?”

“I suppose not,” he said but kept his head held high.

“I understand your skepticism, Stevens. I share it. But I also can’t ignore this impressive ship. If these people say the AI built this ship, then I’m inclined to believe their alien story too.”

“Okay, how about that?” Stevens said. “What’s the deal with a
virtual
alien? How does that work?”

“His name was Mikel,” Inquisitor said, “and we made a grave error in animating him. But that’s not important at the moment. What matters now is the RTCD. I believe the military has one?”

“RTCD, as in, hypercomm?”

“Yes.”

“We have one on Skydock and another at Luna City. They are one of our best-kept secrets.
Were
a secret at any rate.”

Daniel said, “Hypercomm made it possible to communicate with the Eründeans. The Tau Cetians. An intelligent alien species light years away. Instantly. And one of them transmitted his essence to us.”

“They’re very skittish,” Jack said. “Nervous. Anxious. Whatever the alien emotion is, that’s what we call it.”

“Nervous about what?
Humans
?” Reynolds asked.

“No, they’re afraid of another alien race of some sort . . .
out there
. They call them the
Destroyers
,” Megumi said.

The admiral immediately tensed. “Destroyers? Mr. Seerva, we’ll need all intel you have about this potential threat. And, I would like all of your intel on these . . . Tau Cetians . . . as well, if you please.”

“Of course, admiral. But we’re not quite done yet. That was preliminary information to bring you up to speed on the more immediate problem.”

“It gets worse?” Captain Long said.

Jack glanced at Daniel, Megumi, Chase, and frowned.

“It does,” Chase said. “One of their agents is here, now.”

“We believe his intention is to ground us,” Chase said. “Earth, that is. Forcefully, if necessary. Since their warning fell on deaf ears. . . .”

“If these . . . what did you call them?” Reynolds asked.

“Tau Cetians,” Andy said.

“. . . Tau Cetians . . . are here, now, where is their ship? Their technology must be far beyond ours if they are already here. What can we possibly do to stop them?”

Daniel took a step toward Inquisitor, put a hand on Inquisitor’s carbon gray shoulder. Inquisitor turned and looked at him, impassively.

“Gentlemen,” Daniel said, “they are not overwhelmingly beyond us, and they didn’t get here on a ship.”

Admiral Reynolds looked at Stevens, then to Long, and found he could sit no longer. He stood and walked over to the large windows. At the naval presence. At Earth. He smiled at the scene. “We’ve come so far. Accomplished so much in so short a time. And now you’re telling me some damned
aliens
don’t like it?”

“Admiral—” Jack said.

“That’s just too goddamned bad for them because we’re not packing it up! Not when we’re just getting started!”

Reynolds turned to the group, with the scene of Earth behind him, and looked furious.

“No, dammit, we’re not running back home, tails between our legs!”

“Admiral?” Jack said, his gristly voice cracking.

Reynolds looked in his direction and waited.

“Admiral, we’re with you, not against you. We support Earth in this matter. Not in all matters, but with regard to this alien incursion, we’re here to help.”

The two navy captains stood and went to stand with their admiral. Captain Long said, “Folks, it’s time to come clean. Stop the trickle. Tell us everything. Right now.”

The admiral glanced at him.

“. . .
please
.”

Jack smiled. “Gentlemen, we’re not intentionally holding back. It’s just a lot of information to take in all at once. Didn’t want to overwhelm you to the point where we lose your trust. This is a real threat. That Eründean agent is here. He must be operating somewhere with a hypercomm and CNT system. The only thing he can bring over is data. He has to build
here
, using
our
tech,
our
resources.”

“Build what?” Captain Stevens said.

“Ships. Troops. Weapons,” Andy said.

“Where? On Earth? The Moon?” Reynolds said.

Inquisitor bent over slightly to get everyone’s attention. He had learned that humans read body language at a subconscious level and tend to mistrust a disembodied voice. So, he always made small body gestures when speaking.

“The alien is operating at SSL4.”

“
Yes
, that fits,” Reynolds said. “T3 reported a cargo ship missing yesterday, on its way to that station.”

“Of course, our original bootstrap station,” Jack said. “It pains me to hear that, admiral. But it’s off the beaten path, so it’s a logical choice.”

“That explains Mars,” Captain Long said.

“Mars?” Megumi said, apprehensively. “Judy and her people! What about Mars, captain?”

“An unsolved case until now. We lost contact with Mars years ago. ESA and ASIA have small manned stations there, now. But no one could explain the loss of the Seerva outpost.”

“Oh, Judy!” Megumi said. “We should have kept in contact. Checked in on them!”

“Not our fault, Meg,” Chase said. “We had no ship and after their hypercomm went offline. . . .”

“What are we saying here?” Stevens asked.

Jack stepped forward. “Mars was the first choice for the Tau Cetian invasion. Something went wrong. Everyone was killed, the station was wrecked. The alien must have waited for another ship to come along. The one from ESA or ASIA, for instance.”

The room grew deathly quiet. Admiral Reynolds felt a hum coming through the floor. He put his hand on the window, closed his eyes, and felt the infinitesimally light vibration of an engine somewhere. It calmed him.

“Gentlemen, let’s go,” Reynolds said and began walking.

“Admiral?” Jack said. “We are ready to assist. We made first contact. This alien agent is our responsibility.”

“Thank you, Mr. Seerva,” he said, and immediately turned toward him and grabbed Jack’s hand in a powerful grip.

Jack nodded.

Chapter 30
First Assignment

I stood in the
observation lounge gaping at the unbelievable scene outside. Specifically, at the ship docked nearby.

“Hey, mister,” Jazdie said as she came up beside me.

“Hey!” I greeted her with a huge smile and momentarily put an arm around her in a quick hug.

“That’s my ship, way over there,” she said, pointing to the far right at the docks beyond the lounge windows. “Can’t quite see it from here, though. Especially with that big fucking whale out there.”

“No shit,” I whispered, not wanting to be overheard by an officer. “Did you hear the scuttle about it?”

“Yeah, heard a couple guys in the hall talking about it,” Jazdie said. “They said it’s alien.”

“No, not alien,” I corrected. “It belongs to the Seerva people. They’ve come back from wherever-the-hell-they’ve-been for . . . two decades. They were long gone before I was born, I think.”

“Oh, well, some of your fellow navy guys don’t know shit, then.”

“You’re right, they don’t. It’ll get around eventually.”

“Whatever. I just can’t believe the size of that thing,” Jazdie said, gesturing to the gigantic ship outside. “Can’t even see the front half from here!”

“I’m on duty soon. Got to report to the Lex. How about you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I wanna get my ship and go home.”

“That sounds funny,” Dallas said.

“What does?”

“
Your
ship! Wish I could say the same! Well, I
can
, but doesn’t mean quite the same thing. Lex is my home now.”

“Oh, ha-ha, yeah, that is kinda funny.
My ship
.”

Jazdie turned and looked at me, at my face, at my shoulders and arms. I pretended not to notice at first, but then turned my head and smiled. She didn’t look away.

“I’ve gotta go,” I whispered. “Duty calls.”

Jazdie smiled and nodded. She was
so
busted, looking me up and down like that.

Quickly, before I could second-guess myself, I kissed her. So much in life seems to go more smoothly when you turn off your brain and just do what feels right.

Jazdie closed her eyes and sighed. Definitely a good sign.

I walked down the corridor and looked back once. Her arms were folded as she stared out the window. Such a vivacious girl. So full of life and energy! But, also, tempered by some bad experiences. Nothing like Lena, but I’d decided to stop comparing other girls to her. Stephanie had gotten me out of the Lena funk during basic. It was a funk I didn’t want to be out of, but sometimes what you want is not what you need.

I crossed the threshold of the airlock into the Lexington, nodding to the troopers guarding the docking hatch. This was the utility dock located amidships, which was closer to my duty station. Enlisted dock workers were loading supplies onto the Lexington through the large cargo hatch, and I walked around them to get inside. It seemed dangerous to have so much activity between the ship and station without an airlock, but it would have been nearly impossible otherwise with so much cargo to load.

Looking more closely, I realized that the ship’s cargo bay was isolated from the ship with an internal airlock, and over in the station, the cargo depot was similarly isolated from the rest of the station. If the worst were to happen—ship detached without warning—a lot of cargo and workers would be lost but neither the ship nor the station would be damaged in the mishap.

Easy to say as long as you’re not a dock worker! I winced. I could have ended up with dock duty if my scores hadn’t been so good. I decided that it would be good to get to know some of these spacers. It was honest work and everyone had to start
somewhere
.

“Spacer First Class Garner, sir. Reporting for duty,” I told the officer in charge of munitions while saluting. Yep, I was stationed in the munitions depot, barely a step ahead of dock worker. Only, when I made a mistake and dropped a pallet, I wouldn’t be around to get written up for it.

The truth is, munitions is the most boring post you can possibly imagine on a military ship that never sees action. Well, never is a strong word. We saw action not long ago, but I wasn’t on board at the time. It was an important job. A crucial job, for sure. But, there wasn’t much to do most of the time but sit around and wait for the bridge to shoot at something.

Then you had to be Johnny-on-the-spot!

But, until that rare occurrence, it was boring. And, I’m saying this after just three weeks of duty while the ship is in port.

“Right, Garner,” he said, returning my salute quickly out of habit. “We’ll be drilling on the replacement of a capacitor array today, so stay sharp. I want to break the last record set by Purdy’s team.”

The officer’s enthusiasm was so devoid of motive that I almost gave him a suggestion. Almost. One learns not to do that with an officer. They’re trained to know everything already.

“Report to array SA-03 and wait for instructions. Dismissed.”

“Yes, sir!” I said with an air of faux enthusiasm of my own. Just one of the guys now. Not trying to buck the system. Not me, no how, no way, no sir. I just do what I’m told. Don’t ask me to think because I don’t know the meaning of the word.
Sir
!

I reported to capacitor array SA-03 and no one was there. I looked around. Looked like I was the first one to arrive this morning. I was just starting to get bored when the alert claxon sounded. Was this part of the drill scheduled for today? But, where was the rest of the team? I can’t damn well do this job alone!

“General quarters. General quarters. This is not a drill. Report to your battle stations. Repeat, this is not a drill.”

Well, shit. This
is
my battle station, and I’m manning it alone?

The ship lurched so hard I lost my footing and fell in the tight walkway alongside the capacitor array.

Another powerful lurch knocked me hard into the wall as I was trying to get back on my feet. That strong of an impact was a very bad sign! And weren’t we still in port?

I managed to get back up and run for the stairwell. What the hell good was I going to be at a post that required four spacers minimum to operate? It was absolutely impossible to do the job alone. So I headed for the stairs and fell half a length at the next lurch. Fell isn’t quite the right word. As I was leaping down the stairs, three at a time, I was suddenly left in midair while the ship fell beneath me. I landed on the wall and then fell six feet down to the landing in a heap.

The sound of screams snapped me out of the daze. I got back to my feet and headed down the next two flights more carefully. I could smell the smoke before I reached the heavy mount deck, but I went on through the hatch anyway. I covered my mouth with my sleeve to block the smoke. I saw four bodies sprawled on the floor near a demolished heavy mount. They were a mess. No way they were still alive. But, I checked them anyway. Then I opened the hatch to the next heavy mount chamber and found more of the same. Was this whole deck destroyed? It looked like someone took out the Lexington’s heavy guns.

But who? And how? While she was still in port?

I ran back to the stairs and made my way up to the spine hall to see if I could find out what was happening. It was two flights above my station at the capacitor array but I reached the hall quickly.

It was chaos. People screaming from gurneys while they were being pushed down the hall toward sickbay. Officers and enlisted spacers running in both directions. Someone yelled, “Make way!”

I saw a familiar face. “Jones!”

“Yeah? Oh, hey, Garner. What’re you doing?”

“I don’t know! My team never showed so I went looking for my officer and ended up here. The heavy mount deck is a mess! What the hell is going on? Who’s attacking us?”

“It’s the same across the entire starboard side. Raked with ordnance. Someone hit us
hard
without warning. Looks like it was the Illustrious.”

“What? No way!” I shouted.

“I’ve gotta go! Damage report for the bridge. Comms are down all over the ship!”

Jones started jogging down the hall toward the bridge. Not knowing what to do at present, I followed him, looking for any opportunity to help along the way. But, it seemed that this far forward was not as badly damaged so it was mainly a flow of personnel heading aft. It was like swimming upstream trying to get past them.

I watched Jones pass the two trooper sentries as he entered the bridge. A moment later, he came back through the door and halted when officers burst out of a door in the hall and began running straight toward me. I flattened myself against the bulkhead as they passed by and remembered to salute even though they ignored me.

I grabbed the ranking officer lightly by the arm and jogged with him for a moment.

“Sir! Have you seen Marj—uh, Cmdr. Garner? Baldwin-Garner?”

“Rox?”

I nodded quickly.

“Off ship, personally escorting a VIP. All we know for sure is, she’s not on the Lexington. But, I’ll bet she made it back to the station.”

“Thank you, sir!”

He nodded and ran to catch up with the other pilots.

Jones came up to me and said, “Pilots are about to scramble. We were caught completely by surprise. Skydock didn’t have a CAP and the station is responsible for docked ships. This disaster is on the admiral, not Captain Long.”

“But,
what
is this situation?” I demanded. “Who the hell attacked us?”

“The Illustrious.”

“Dammit, why in the hell?”

Jones shrugged.

* * * *

The Lit’l Liza entered a wide orbit from the opposite side of Earth from the fleet, coming from the direction of SSL4. Nekel timed it so the ship would appear with the sun behind her, giving them an extra layer of stealth for the attack run.

Nekel and Mikel had been busy. Their stolen ship was outfitted with new weapons, armor, shielding, and stealth systems designed and constructed at the SSL4 shipyard using an upgraded fabrication system.

Behind Nekel and Mikel were their troops, inhabiting biped robot bodies. Each soldier was a living Tau Cetian citizen who traveled light years in an instant via hypercomm. Each volunteer was given a shell originally designed by Decatur and upgraded by Nekel for combat.

They all knew what was at stake—possible disembodiment, the loss of one’s very soul—and had volunteered anyway. They were already hailed as heroes on Bodekan. The Solars must be stopped. They were drawing too much attention to themselves, endangering the Eründe system. Millennia of peace and prosperity were at stake.

It pained Nekel that force was the only option, but she couldn’t afford to spare the Solars when they were putting her own world in danger. If the destroyers found Sol, they would find Eründe just a few light-years away. Both civilizations would be annihilated like so many before.

She was confident in her resolve, as were they all. They would send the Solars back to Earth. Knock out their capability to build reactors. Send them back a century. . . .

“Friends, prepare yourselves. We are nearly in range.”

“Understood, captain,” the first of each squad confirmed.

Eight squads of fourteen soldiers stood ready to launch. Since Tau Cetians were digital—like Decatur—life support was not required. Each combat suit was heavily armed. Zero-gee booster jets. Gravity boots. Arm-mounted laser rifle. EMP charge emitter. Refractive plating. Active camouflage. And, to make it all work, a high-density power cell unit and rapid-cycle capacitor array.

Their mission was to penetrate their targets, overcome resistance, and take control of each ship. Intact, if possible. Disabled, if necessary.

Nekel rotated the Lit’l Liza 180 degrees and opened the rear cargo bay doors, exposing her troops to vacuum—and the starboard side of the UNS Illustrious.

“Squads one and two . . .
go
!”

Twenty-eight combat suits burst from the cargo hold of the Lit’l Liza like black gnats zipping out of a rotten apple. Nearly impossible to see with the naked eye through a window, and too small and slippery for RADAR.

There was no time to stage the assault teams by target. They had to all launch fairly close together so the heavily-modified Lit’l Liza could get out of sight before the Illustrious picked her up. Even with refractive plating there was a chance the Solars would catch a glimpse even at a hundred fifty miles out.

“Squads three and four . . .
go!
”

The next two squads emerged like a similar cloud of insects and made for the Lexington, parked on the other side of the Illustrious. Similarly, the remaining squads launched toward Skydock and the Arianne, the huge ship that had arrived unexpectedly from the depths.

Mikel had hacked into the Solars’ encrypted radio traffic weeks ago.

“It’s
there
!” Mikel shouted audibly, the robot’s voice echoing throughout the nearly empty ship.