Worlds Away (29 page)

“Yes, Sire. That other ship is maintaining its distance. It
doesn’t look like it’s attacking.”

“If it changes position, let me know. Otherwise, ignore it.
We don’t know if they are the Kulsat or another race.”

Everything was happening far too fast for Justine to figure
out what was going on. She needed more information. Coalition? Solan Empire
Space Force? Emperor Yin? What had happened in the years since she left Sol
System?

She watched for the next several minutes as the crew
desperately tried to repair their vessel.

In a panicked voice, one of the helmsmen called out. “Sire,
the sensor indicates the star beacon is activating. We have no way of knowing
if it is the aggressor returning, or the Coalition.”

Waving his hand dismissively, Chow Yin said, “It doesn’t
matter who it is. Prep the torpedoes. Fire both a conventional and a Kinemetic
warhead the instant any ship rematerializes.”

Justine felt a moment of panic. She didn’t know who the
Coalition was, but if they were opposing Yin, then they had to be the good
guys. She highly doubted the Kulsat would return to Centauri; now that the Sol
System beacon was revealed to them, they would be able to head there from any
point in the galaxy.

The general said, “They should be arriving in five seconds.
Three … two—”

With a thought, Justine shifted to normal space.

“Stop!” she yelled.

She expected Chow Yin and the officers would be surprised at
her unexpected appearance, at the very least. The moment she became a physical
being, however, the general pivoted toward her. He had a phase pistol in his
hand, and fired without hesitation.

The only thing that saved Justine was that she was close
enough to Chow Yin that the general aim was off to avoid hitting his Emperor.

Outraged, Justine quantized him.

Chow Yin’s reaction was a fraction slower than his officer’s,
but much more effective. He tapped a control on the console on the arm of his computer
and activated a Kinemetic damper.

The entire bridge became a null zone for the Kinemetic
energy.

When Klaus had used the damping technology on Justine on
Venus, she’d been in physical form. The effect was that she’d been unable to
shift into light, or use the energy.

The general, already in a photonic state, suffered a much
different effect.

Without Justine’s Kinemetic link to guide the reversal, the photons
became physical, but they did not realign with the general’s original form.

A mass of flesh appeared in midair, hung there for a moment,
and then fell to the deck in a bloody pile. Justine gagged and looked away
before she threw up.

Ignoring the dead general, Chow Yin barked an order to the
nearest other crew member on the bridge. “You, put a gun on Major Turner. If
she moves, kill her.”

The man drew a gun and pointed it at Justine. She put her
hands up.

Chow Yin pointed to another officer and yelled, “You! Get
over there and fire those damned torpedoes.”

Justine looked up at the holo casement on the front wall.
Another ship had entered Centauri space, and its architecture was familiar. It
looked like one of the U.S. Space Corps’ warships.

Just as the crewman raced to the general’s station and
launched the torpedoes, the U.S. warship opened fire, spraying Chow Yin’s
vessel with thousands of projectiles that ripped through the already damaged
hull and breached the inner compartments. On the screens, the two torpedoes
exploded halfway between the two ships.

The blowback rocked Chow Yin’s warship. Alarm klaxons
sounded. The ship was venting atmosphere.

The helmsman called out, “Sire, we must abandon ship.”

“The hell you say! We can send repair crews to patch those
holes. Launch more torpedoes. Their countermeasures can’t possibly stop all of
them. Blow them out of space. Damn it!” he yelled, and pressed a control on his
console. “I’ll do it myself.”

The U.S. warship launched a torpedo of its own; it wasn’t
weaponized Kinemet, but it carried enough of a conventional blast that the
force knocked everyone on the bridge back. Chow Yin started to tip over, and
the self-styled Emperor fought to keep his balance.

Some of the electrical systems were going offline because of
the widespread damage. To Justine’s amazement, one of those systems had been
powering the Kinemetic damper. Her power came back to her in an abrupt rush,
and she didn’t waste a moment.

She quantized everyone on the bridge.

∞

The U.S. ship was launching another volley of projectiles.
In a panic, Justine raced for the communications console and looked for the
radio controls. From her days at NASA, she remembered which emergency channels
the military used during conflicts, and hoped they had not changed protocol.

“U.S. vessel, this is Major Justine Turner aboard the enemy
ship. I have secured the bridge. Cease fire. Cease fire. I repeat: I have
secured the enemy bridge.” She tried two more channels before she received a
reply.

“Major Turner, this is General Gates. Verify your identity.”

“Recall code: seven-alpha-seven-five-five-alpha.”

“Verified.”

Justine breathed a sigh of relief. “Welcome to Centauri, General.”

“It was quite the welcome,” the general said wryly. “What is
your status, Major?”

“Chow Yin and the bridge officers are quantized. The ship
itself is badly damaged; it may not be salvageable. There are at least a dozen
wounded, several dead.”

The general said, “If you have access to the internal
communications, inform the crew to surrender and prepare to be boarded.”

“Understood, General.” Before Justine complied with the
orders, she asked, “Do you mind if I ask, who is the Kinemat on your ship?”

“I’ll let you talk to them yourself,” the general said.

“Them?”

A moment later, a very familiar voice came over the speaker.
“Justine,” Alex said, “I have so much to tell you.”

“You’re all right,” Justine said, feeling the weight of
worry lift from her heart. Then she asked, “Wait a minute. You’re a full
Kinemat?”

“Sort of,” Alex said. “It’s a long story.”

Justine shook her head in wonder, even though no one could
see her. “You’re going to have to give me the condensed version. We have another
problem. Moments before you arrived, Chow Yin was engaged in battle with a
Kulsat warship, and he managed to wound it enough that it retreated.”

The general came back on the radio. “Are we expecting it to
return with reinforcements?”

“No, General, it’s much worse: The Kulsat armada has at
least a hundred-thousand warships. They are now aware of Sol System, and their standard
response will be to send an invasion fleet there and destroy everything and
everyone they consider a threat. I’m afraid they are not open to negotiation.
How many Kinemats do we have?”

“Counting Alex and you,” the general said, “Four.”

Four?
Justine wondered.

She could hear the apprehension in his voice when the general
asked, “Do we have any allies who will intervene?”

“The situation is dire,” Justine said. “The Kulsat are the
dominating force in the galaxy. The Collection of Worlds cannot stand up to
them. And even if they could, they hold to an ancient law which prevents them
from interfering. I’m afraid we’re on our own, General.”

“We’re almost to you, Justine. We’ll secure the enemy ship
and transfer the prisoners.”

“Don’t forget the Kinemet,” she said. “There are several
kilotons here.”

“Right. Then we can go into a thorough debriefing.”

∞

Alex and Michael were waiting in a large conference room
just off the bridge, and Justine could barely contain her emotions. It had been
less than two months since she’d seen them, but it felt like a lifetime.

Standing up and throwing his arms around Justine, Alex said,
“You gave us all a scare. We thought the worst.”

“I’m alive,” she said, and gave him a wide smile. “I’m so
glad all of you are all right.”

“Thanks to Ah Tabai and Aliah,” Alex said, and then formally
introduced everyone to each other. Aliah excused herself to contact Naila
aboard the
Fainne
and give them an update.

Justine shook hands with the Gliesan of Mayan descent. “I’ve
been spending quite a bit of time with Yoatl.”

Ah Tabai raised his brows and formed a guilty smile. “I’m
sure he’ll have a few choice words for me when I get back.”

Justine narrowed her eyes at Alex. She could sense the
change in him. “You have to tell me how you managed to complete the Kinemetic conversion.
It’s not something anyone else in the Collection has been able to do.”

“You won’t believe it,” Alex said, smiling.

“Try me.” Then Justine said, “Better yet, start from the
beginning.”

They all sat down at the conference table.

Alex told his story, beginning from the moment Justine had
been abducted by the Kulsat mining ship. He updated her on the political
upheaval in Sol System, Chow Yin’s Emperorship, and the research into rediscovering
Klaus’s process.

Michael took over the story then, explaining about the
ancient tale of Yaxche’s friend, Patli. When she heard this, Justine quickly
filled them in on what she knew about it, confirming that it had happened as it
was told to them.

“It was touch and go,” Michael said after describing his
research on the alien body they found, and how the Grace’s DNA was infused with
molecules of altered Kinemet.

“While they brought me into space quickly enough to stop me
from dying, we got word to a double-agent in Chow Yin’s organization—he managed
to inject Alex with Kinemet before a conversion trial. Of course,” he said,
glancing at Ah Tabai, “apparently that wasn’t the actual reason Alex entered
the state of Grace.”

Justine put her hand on Alex. “However it happened, I’m glad
you are altered. According to what I learned, those who fail the conversion
process have a shorter life expectancy. You don’t have to worry about that, now.
Quite the opposite, in fact.”

Alex said, “I have many questions for you. Like how you
survived the Kulsat ship.”

Justine let out a humorless laugh, and she told them what
had happened to her, about the Kulsat and how Red Spot saved her from Three
Crescents. Then she described her rescue by Naila and Fairamai, the journey to
Gliese, and the events leading up to her residency and political appointment as
Envoy of Sol System.

Partway through her story, General Gates entered the room. He’d
been busy overseeing the transfer of prisoners from Chow Yin’s ship, and
directing his crew to effect repairs. He sat at the conference table and
listened in.

“Political envoy, huh?” the general said when Justine
finished. “It’s too bad you can’t use your influence to rouse the Collection.”

“I got the process started, but it could take a while before
they give Sol System ‘Emerged’ status.”

“So what do we do, just sit here while our solar system is
destroyed?” he asked, his tone more exasperated than accusatory.

“Maybe not.” All through Alex’s story, Justine had a nagging
thought in the back of her mind. To Alex, she said, “Red Spot’s advice might
still stand. She said we could make the Kulsat surrender to us if we found the final
component first.”

“How?” Alex asked.

Justine gave him a quizzical look. “Are you up for an
experiment?”

“Sure. What are you thinking?”

“Back when we were chased out of Sol System—by Chow Yin,
apparently—he launched a torpedo with weaponized Kinemet. I was able to ignite
it before it reached us.”

Alex nodded. “I did that earlier, when Chow Yin tried to
destroy Qin Station.” His face grew dark. “I couldn’t stop his second attack,
however.”

“I wonder if you, having the full powers of the Grace, have
something more than that, concerning the Kinemet.”

“You want me to blow up every Kulsat ship with Kinemet on
it?” Alex asked, his face pale. “Even if I could, I don’t think I would.”

“No,” Justine said, shaking her head. “But there’s something
about the way Red Spot talked about the Grace that led me to believe they had
an ability that inspired even more awe.”

“More than setting off a Kinemetic explosion a
thousand-times more powerful than any atomic bomb?” Michael asked.

Justine turned to the general. “Do you have a small quantity
of Kinemet we could use?”

He nodded and spoke into his communicator.

While they waited, Justine described the techniques she had
learned from Red Spot: how to hide her photonic essence while in a state of light,
and how to resist being quantized. To test it out, Alex quantized himself, and
a moment later, Justine was unable to sense his presence. A few moments later,
he reappeared in physical form. She tried to quantize him, and couldn’t.

“Very interesting,” Alex said. “I can see how these techniques
came in handy, letting you get close to Chow Yin.”

“I think there might be an extension of these techniques
that only someone who is fused with Kinemet can perform.”

“How do you mean?” Alex asked, and looked up as a lieutenant
entered the room with a container holding a milligram of Kinemet.

“If someone threatens you with force, a natural reaction is
to either defend yourself or go on the offensive. However, if you know someone
has the power to take your power away, render you useless, you can neither
defend yourself, nor fight. Perhaps this is what the Kulsat fear the most,
being at the complete mercy of every other race in the galaxy.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Alex,” Justine said, “I’m not sure how you would go about
it, but can you try to nullify the radiation from that sample?”

“Nullify?”

The general cleared his throat. “That gram of Kinemet
represents a considerable amount of money.”

“It’ll be worth it,” Justine said, then turned to Alex. “If
you can make Kinemet inert, you might be able to disable any Kulsat ship.”