Evolution's Cost: Rise of the Empyrean Empire: Novel 03 Read online

  The captain waved that away, “We could get Karl to forge orders for us if that’s the case. But it would be prudent if it’s possible, Drake?”

  Drake answered, “I believe it would be possible, though I’d need a very compelling reason not to follow your orders. As long as we don’t do anything aggressive, I believe the fleet’s A.I.s would lock down weapons and not release them.”

  Samantha said, “Of course we won’t do anything aggressive, we’re trying to save lives. That should take care of the fleet, although I’m sure I’ll be getting a fun message in about a half an hour asking what I’m doing here, or one warning us to stand down. I suppose we’ll find out then if they received notice of our exit from Delta-Pavonis. Oh, we’ll need to lock down their comms as well as their weapons, we don’t want anything to leak to the governor or other government entities about any oddities.”

  Drake replied, “We can do that as well.”

  She asked, “Any other wrinkles to our plan?”

  I mentioned the distance problem, the habitat around the gas giant was almost two light seconds away from the moon, so out of our mental reach.

  Katy said, “We could send a shuttle there, with a few people so we’re in position at the same time, or we can have the A.I.s lock down comms between the sites and do them separately.”

  I frowned, “I don’t like the first option, but the second option might be worse. If we suppress comms, the people in charge of the gas giant habitat and refinery may realize something is very wrong and do something… drastic. Though I couldn’t say what.”

  Our best weapon was to give the government the least amount of time to initiate any planning, or resistance.

  Samantha sighed, “Let’s put that aside a second, any other obvious issues?”

  I shook my head, “No, but that’s why we’re here first, it’s the smallest colony we have. Or at least, it is now after 82 Eridani…” It trailed off, and started again, “Point is, we’ll be able to tweak things based on how this goes, before we get the rest.”

  Katy said, “Agreed, we’re going into this half prepared, because we don’t know exactly what the government might have in store for us. I imagine after two hundred years, they’ve developed a few contingency plans for exactly something like this.”

  Samantha sighed, “Agreed.”

  Then she said, “Alright, let’s put this before the crew and get a vote on it. We’ll specify that we recommend going with option B, and get the refinery habitat when we’re done with the moon. We could probably even convert one of the ships to our cause, and then send them there so we can focus on the main population and not rush things. Then double back for any of the fleet not in range of the moon. That will only be a delay of six hours or so. But, we’ll also leave it up to them, if someone wants to volunteer to take the shuttle over so we can get everyone at once, we’ll allow it.”

  The captain invited everyone not in the current merge, which was rather small at the moment, just her, me, Katy, Cassie, Sam, and Cindy. The rest of them joined over the next minute or so, just twenty-five crew on the ship now, down from twenty-eight with the loss of three to the hidden base mission.

  Then the captain literally gave the crew her memories and thoughts from the last ten minutes, it only took about ten seconds for them all to absorb it. Then we gave everyone time to process.

  John was the first, “I’ll volunteer to take a shuttle and fly it over. We’ll just be on standby anyway when the action takes place.”

  Carly said, “Count me in too, you’ll need me to find the station.”

  There was a feeling of amusement in the link, Ops humor.

  Madeline, John’s non-commissioned officer girlfriend I’d seen him with more than a few times also volunteered.

  Jerry volunteered last. That would be the shuttle team, the last three ensigns on board and a crewwoman.

  We had a solid plan, now we just needed to get there…

  The next few days passed. We got a lucky break, when the transmission came in asking for our purpose in being here, Karl forged us some orders to join the fleet here. We weren’t sure why word hadn’t made it here yet, perhaps Mars being slow on it was an inefficiency thing. Either that, or they were trying to figure out what we were up to and didn’t expect us here at all.

  Not many could put it together, but the vice admiral surely would, he’s one of the only people that knew about our detour mission to Eta Cassiopeiae A. I was sure that would set off alarms in his mind, that it was our ship that deserted stretched the credulity of coincidence to the breaking point. I doubted he could piece together our true plans, but he might guess enough of it.

  Of course, we were still several hours out on the last part of our deceleration burn, and it could all fall apart on us, a messenger missile could show up at any time and let the cat out of the bag within fifteen minutes. We all hoped our luck would hold for another two hours.

  All three of us were on the bridge again, Katy once again joined her original bridge crew and sat at Ops.

  Cindy said, “The shuttle needs to launch captain.”

  The shuttle would launch and do its own deceleration burn at a slight angle, which would put the shuttle on a slightly curved course to the refinery. We should arrive in both places virtually simultaneously.

  The captain said, “Katy, clear the shuttle for launch, and wish them luck. Send a message to the command station that we’re swapping out empty xenon and hydrogen storage tanks for fresh ones.”

  Katy replied, “Aye captain.”

  The shuttle launched, and time slowly ticked down to just fifty minutes until we would arrive, and the A.I.s would start to brief people.

  Everything was going perfectly to plan, until it all blew up in our faces.

  Katy said, “Maam, picking up a transmission from a messenger missile. It’s the one we hoped we wouldn’t see. Admiral… here, and she put it on screen without an order to.

  Admiral Clemmons stern face filled the screen, “I regret that I bring you all shocking news. The scout ship Drake has deserted and is to be considered rogue. We also have reason to believe they are highly dangerous, and possibly infected with an unknown contagion from a previously quarantined star system. Commander Samantha Kane was a distinguished and faithful officer and captain of that ship, and I can only assume something went very wrong with the crew to result in this development. You are not to make contact with them, and you will destroy them immediately if they show themselves. That is an order.”

  His face dropped off the screen.

  We waited for a response, we were less than two light seconds away at this point, but there wasn’t one.

  Katy said, “Perhaps the fleet A.I.s locked them down, which is probably why there aren’t a bunch of missiles headed our way, or plasma.”

  The captain sighed, “I agree, is there any impact on the planet?”

  Katy shook her head, “None visible, it was over a military frequency, only the command habitat would have been able to view it outside the ships, and I’m seeing no comms from them either.”

  I sighed, “But, the government has an hour to figure out the military is cut off from communications, and respond to the issue.”

  For thirty minutes, nothing changed. We wondered what they were thinking, we were all sure they’d all been briefed by the A.I.s by now. We also assumed the A.I.s would allow them to communicate with us if the response had been favorable. Then again, what were the chances of that after the admiral’s message? For all I knew they thought it was all bullshit, and we’d done something to their A.I.s to make them untrustworthy. That the A.I.s had locked down weapons and comms, would just further support that idea.

  Chapter Nine

  It was just fifteen minutes before we were close enough to the planet, when all the A.I.s started their briefing. That would give the people a few minutes to absorb it, and hopefully some would sense the truth of it and be ready quickly. But that wasn’t the only change.

  Katy reported in an a
larmed voice, “Maam, one of the cruisers just launched four armed shuttles.”

  Alarmed, because shuttles didn’t have their own A.I.s, they had good computer systems, but no A.I. control, which meant we couldn’t stop them. In hindsight, we’d really screwed up, no one had thought to lock down the landing bay doors on the fleet ships.

  The only good news, was that only one of them launched shuttles, there were seven more cruisers and eight scouts. Maybe some of them had listened, or maybe they just hadn’t thought of shuttles yet.

  I ordered, “Drake, can you get them to lock down the fleet’s hangar bays please.”

  The captain said, “Ready countermeasures, and charge the point defense.”

  I did that on my board, since George was still in the brig.

  I added, “And get a status on the ships, are any of them with us, or even close?”

  The captain added, “And get Joshua up here, now.”

  Another thing we should have done in hindsight. We hadn’t planned for this contingency at all, so sure we could avoid any combat at all.

  Katy gasped, and we all looked her way.

  “Captain, only three of the shuttles are turning toward us, one is going after the shuttle.”

  The captain growled, “If we take out those shuttles will the A.I.s hold their ships, or let them go?”

  Too late.

  Katy said, “Sixteen missiles fired captain, the whole load, twelve incoming.”

  The captain barked, “Evasive maneuvers.”

  I launched countermeasures just as Sam changed our vector, one of the spoofers stayed on the original vector, which managed to fool half the missiles, of the six left two more were pulled off by other spoofers.

  I fired on the last two, and missed. I fired again and took one out, the last one smashed into the bottom of the ship, and the whole ship shook as a decompression warning sounded.

  “Report!” the captain ordered.

  Katy said, “We lost one of the storage bays in the second ring, and two engines were taken off line due to damage on the hull. It was a close thing captain, they only missed engineering by twenty feet. No casualties, and emergency bulkheads are holding, but captain…” she trailed off and took a deep breath.

  Katy reported in a hard voice, “Our shuttle was destroyed, and managed to return fire on its attacker, which was also destroyed.”

  Jr. Lieutenant Joshua Bannon ran in and took his post, a little late, but not his fault. A second mistake, not having him on the bridge from the beginning.

  I felt my throat close up and clenched my teeth in anger. John, Carly, and Jerry, three people I’d spent twelve hours with every day for a year. Close friends we weren’t, because of rank, but I knew them. They were my people, mine. They were also Katy’s for the last several weeks, and I could see the anguish in her eyes from across the bridge. I felt bad about Madeline as well, the crewwoman, but I didn’t really know her, and the impact wasn’t nearly as bad. Which made me feel guilty, as I thought about all the plans her and John probably had for the future, their future.

  All gone, the possibilities of their futures lost, all because I hadn’t thought of locking down the damned landing bays until it was too late. I also didn’t have time for it, to drown in regret, this fight had barely gotten started and we’d already lost some of the best of us. I also supposed the refinery would have to wait.

  There was one blessing in this, they’d used standard missiles, if they’d used bomb pumped x-ray lasers we’d have been toast, or at least a lot more heavily damaged. Maybe they didn’t have them? It could be that Delta-Pavonis was getting them all, since they were the only system currently under threat of attack as far as we knew.

  The captain sighed, “The shuttles are out of missiles, let the three survivors go back to their ship, and then lock down that shuttle bay.”

  Drake replied, “Affirmative. I regret not seeing this possibility, and so does my sister. Michael, two of the crews are completely with us, two scouts. The other ships are split, on average seventy thirty split, in our favor. Unfortunately, in all other cases but those two, the captains are against, and none of the crews will go against their captain, no matter what they believe.”

  I swallowed as I half listened, the lump wouldn’t go away.

  I ordered, my voice harsh, “Please have both scouts move within a light second of us, we’ll teach them, transfer the whole plan as it stands now, and then one of them can go take care of the refinery. The other ships can damned well wait until the colonies and space stations are done.”

  Katy reported, “Ten minutes for everything to be in range, although the command habitat is in range now. And one of the large dome habitats on the surface will be in range in three minutes.”

  The captain said, “Katy, keep a sharp eye out for more issues. Drake, you and the A.I.s are in charge of us now, feed the crew what we need to know to target the people ready.

  Katy replied coldly, “I will Samantha,” and was obviously as upset as I was. I wanted to hold her, and if I was honest, take comfort in her as well, but now sure as hell wasn’t the time.

  The captain was handling it better on the outside than either of us, but she couldn’t hide her general mood in the mind merge. She was as furious with herself as I was with myself, for failing our youngest officers so badly.

  It had been their choices, we couldn’t have said no, not and be true to what we wanted humanity to be. Independent and equal, no governments, no orders they couldn’t refuse, and free to make their own choices. But… we should have protected them better, thought ahead better, something.

  The ships were already close, and it didn’t take us long to train five on each ship how to partition, pass along the abilities we knew, and pass along the plan. One ship went to take care of the refinery, and would train the rest of their crew in route, the other ship on its captain’s initiative, went after the rest of the fleet, to teach those that wanted it now, and let the others be.

  That was fine, I was happy they were doing it, because right now I’d rather kill them all, which was definitely an overreaction. Only one ship was responsible after all. Or… one captain and four pilots. I’d hope they lived a long life of regret, once they learned what they’d truly done.

  I knew in the beginning it would go slowly, but we were just the candle that would light the grass, and then we’d step back and watch as it grew larger and larger, picking up speed at a geometric rate until two million people joined us in the truth, and put down the lies and murderous ways of the UE. That was the plan anyway.

  Except for the six people on the bridge, we needed to stay sharp and pay attention to what was going on around us to respond quickly, instead of being distracted by merging with other minds. That meant we’d start with fifteen.

  Katy said, “We’re in range of everything on and around the moon.”

  Sam said, “Ten seconds until orbital insertion.”

  The captain said, “Station keeping Sam, keep our orbit stable with the maneuvering thrusters.”

  Sam replied, “Aye Samantha.”

  Katy said, “Drake has engaged the rest of the crew and gotten started. We’re being hailed by the system governor.”

  The captain tilted her head and thought for a moment, “Put him on.”

  A middle-aged man in a black suit and red tie came on the screen. He had styled short blond hair, and little beady brown eyes that made me think of a rat. That assessment might have been partially about my own anger and low expectations for this conversation though.

  He said, “Captain, are you insane?”

  She smiled, “Governor, how are you this fine day?”

  He shook his head in disbelief, “You can’t do this, the people will self-destruct.”

  Samantha said, “No they won’t. In the past maybe, but humanity is more than ready for self-governance. They’ll also be safe from the aliens and able to protect themselves. Surely your A.I. told you they’ve been doing it successfully for almost two hundred year
s on a colony in Cassiopeia?”

  The governor said, “It’ll never work, those people are like a cult. Human individuals are smart, in large groups there will be uncontrolled chaos.”

  Samantha said, “I disagree, long ago maybe, but now the moderate people in the center will have the strength. Those that seek control and power over others will be easily overpowered and banished by the rest. Flimflam artists, and politicians, will no longer be able to lead people by the nose with lies, because the people will merge their minds and feel the truth and lies, and not be led blindly into a panic. No, that excuse is old, and has no place in our society any longer, a mere excuse for those like you to justify the murders to maintain your own power. It is the cry of the corrupt.”

  “Nice speech, but maybe over the top?”

  Samantha replied in the merge, “I don’t think so. I have a bad feeling about this, and I hope to convince him. He’s a true believer, he’s swallowed his own lies to salve his conscience for all the deaths the UE caused with so called implant malfunctions. There is nothing scarier than a true believer. Look at us, after all.”

  He shook his head, “You have no idea what you’ve done, and you’ve obviously been poisoned by that quarantined colony. I can’t in good conscience let this go on, you could take the rest of humanity down with you. What follows here is your fault, not mine.”

  He turned his head and typed out a code on his computer.

  A moment later Drake said, “The implants are receiving a self-destruct signal, for a protocol they didn’t know existed. They stopped it, but I believe the governor just tried to kill every human in Beta Hydri to stop us, and our plans, from spreading any further.”

  I gasped, screw the dignity of my rank.

  The captain turned and nodded gravely, “True believer, I told you. He believed his bullshit so much he was willing to sacrifice himself too.”

  The governor growled, “Implant failures would have been the kind way to go, I have other options.”