Warrior Chronicles 5: Warrior's Curse Read online

  Cort looked around the room. He remembered the attacks by Atlantica. Most of his staff begged him to not attack the unknown colony site. It turned out to be the staging area for an attempt to take Mars back. He also remembered losing Rand’s mother Kay in that brief war.

  “If I held dominion over death, Dar would still be here. Along with thousands, hundreds of thousands of others. If I held dominion over war, I would end it. No, I don’t hold dominion over either death or war. They hold dominion over me. They try to break me by taking my friends and loved ones. By killing my wolves and my family. They turn the people I love against me. They cost me my daughter Diane, and my first wife. Hell, they cost me my first life. And I accepted it. I lived with what death and war had taken from me, because I followed orders and that’s all I could do.”

  Cort waved his hand at a window overlooking the base. “Those men and women out there, and all of you, have changed that. I can’t stop either death or war, but I can damned sure make the other guy pays more than I do, more than we do, when death and war come calling.”

  The room fell quiet as the officers considered what he had said. Kate broke the silence. “Sir, should we get started?”

  Thankful for the distraction, Cort nodded and sat down. “Go ahead, Admiral Williams.”

  After recounting the method of the sabotage and how George prevented it, Kate dropped another bombshell. “Quinn Faulks’ mothers were hiking Mons Olympus. It was their first time off Earth. Both of them were killed when George’s crash started a landslide. The only small blessing in it is that while she was in command of the recovery, Faulks wasn’t the one who found the bodies.”

  “How is she now?”

  “She’s not right, sir. She was supposed to meet them in a few days at the southern rim. They were going to explore the crater together. I know what she feels. I found my dad dead in the backyard when I was young. She needs a distraction.”

  Cort didn’t hesitate. “Okay. Let’s find something for her to do. But let her grieve too.”

  New protocols were set up to prevent the attack from being repeated. Then the meeting turned to how best to utilize the already thin ranks of the military to both protect the federation and carry out its current missions.

  “Jaif, we are going to need a lot of your people.”

  “Of course, General.”

  Liz Munroe added, “We need to step up recruitment on Earth, too.”

  “Commercial exploration,” Rand blurted out.

  “What?” Cort asked, turning to him.

  “Think about it, Gramps. Let the civilians lead the way, like the old west on Earth.”

  “It’s not a bad idea, sir,” Kate said. “We can put drones in orbit and small military vanguards on the planets we want. Then have a lottery or something for civilian settlement.”

  Cort considered the idea. “We could give people incentives to colonize.”

  “But you have to let business in on it too,” Rand said. “Otherwise it will take too long.”

  “You guys can figure that out. But I want at least a small military contingent on every planet we open up to civilians or business. I want to get back to our missing people.”

  “What about the trust?”

  “What about it, Rand?”

  “We still have a responsibility to our family, sir. We might be the government, but that doesn’t mean we can’t protect our own interests as well.”

  “Who are the trustees right now?”

  “Me, Kim, and Carl James.”

  “I don’t know Carl.”

  “Yes you do, Gramps. He emceed Grandfather’s funeral.”

  Cort thought back to the day. As pain washed over him, he remembered meeting Carl James. A distant cousin, Cort couldn’t remember anything about the man, other than his hands seeming unusually small. How bad was that day, that all I can remember are his hands?

  “Okay, I sort of remember him. What does he do?”

  Rand seemed to shake himself from his own memories before he answered. “He’s private sector; minds the family investments.”

  “Okay. This is family business, but everyone here needs to know where my interests are. You are to step down from the trust immediately, Rand. You might be as honest as the day is long, but the press would have a field day if I have you running my government and personal matters. Get Carl here so I can meet with him.”

  “Okay. What about Kim?”

  “She stays on the trust. The press won’t like that either, but I want someone I already trust there.”

  “You don’t trust me?” Rand asked with a smile.

  Cort ignored him and went on. “Carl will be the senior trustee, leaving one empty spot. Suggestions?”

  “I’ve got nothing.”

  Cort recognized the change in Rand’s tone. That’s because all the people we loved and trusted are gone. “I understand, Rand. Does anyone else have input?”

  Liz suggested, “Find someone who isn’t a family member. Someone who has no vested interest in the trust itself.”

  Cort thought for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea. We give someone a salary to sit on the trust.”

  “Sir,” Mike Rage began, “do it right. Name three. One to replace Rand, and two more. Maybe even a non-human. With five trustees, three of which being non-Addison, no one could claim favoritism.”

  “Someone will always claim I’m playing favorites, Mike. And they’d be right. It’s human nature. But we can mitigate it some.” Turning to Jaif, “Get me a young Jaifan that you think would be good for this. A Vagabond Queen preferably. I’m not willing to turn over control of the trust to non-family, so a Jaifan is a good compromise. She’ll be loyal to Dalek, but won’t have any interest in the trust itself.”

  “That should work,” Rand thought aloud.

  “It’s as far as I’m willing to go with it, anyway. But Mike is right; five is better than three. We need two more civvies. If Thorn’s wife will take it, I’m giving one spot to her. Rand, you find another.”

  Kate Williams said, “Whoever is chosen, you should have Bazal scan them.”

  “Good idea. Let’s move on for now. Liz and I will return our focus to the wormhole. We’re taking Quinn Faulks and her people with us. It’ll get her mind off things, and they’ll be ready to save a human or two instead of just recovering bodies.”

  “That’s going to ruffle some feathers, sir.”

  “I know Mike, but it has to be done. I can’t keep our most experienced people for a rescue mission when the entire military has lost so many.” Cort looked at Liz and added, “Frankly, I’d rather not take you.”

  “I’m not staying, sir.”

  “I know that. I’m just telling you that you’re needed here. Also, make Quinn a lieutenant colonel.”

  “What?” Rage demanded. “She was a cadet two weeks ago! You can’t give her a jump like that!”

  Cort looked calmly at the general and said, “Mike. I’m ordering it. It’s not your choice. I need someone who thinks on her feet and she’s proven that. Bazal believes she is a rising star in the ranks. I’m just hurrying that along because of the crisis we are facing. We need to go get our people.”

  “Then we should hurry, General.”

  Cort smiled. “Yes, I suppose we should, Liz. Okay, how long to change orders and get my fleet?”

  JJ looked at Jaif. “Can you spare eight more system ships? If you can, I won’t need to take anything from the jump fleet.”

  “Yes,” Jaif clicked. “How soon?”

  “Yesterday. But just get them to me as soon as you can.”

  “I need at least two weeks,” Jane Munroe said. “Since you upped your expedition size, I’m going to be very undermanned, especially when it comes to officers.”

  “Then I have to cut it back. One light battalion. Very light. Two heavy companies and support. How many HAWCs do we have left?”

  “Counting the two of us? Two. The only people who will volunteer for the Atlas interface aren’t qualified.”r />
  Cort sighed. “Okay. Jaif, give me two heavy companies of your security people. I’ll use them as reserves. Liz, give me the remaining Coach Gun, two Kalashnikovs, and two Peacekeepers. I want at least a half-dozen Derringers to act as escorts. Two weeks will give you enough time to print the new engines. Keep all your ships here, Jaif, but start arming them. Until we rebuild the fleet, they are going to be pulling double duty. ”

  “Sir,” Liz protested. “That cuts our jump force by seventy-five percent!”

  “It’s bigger than I wanted to take originally, Liz, but JJ needs those other ships here, just like Jane needs the extra people. You’ll use the Remington as your flagship, but I’ll be aboard the Kalashnikov.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Let’s get to it, then. We leave in two weeks.”

  --

  A week later, Cort and Kim walked into a science lab behind Lee Pan. George’s new body had been printed, filled with memory gel, and its power source was installed and tested. Cort understood that the last remaining step would be to install George’s link. As Pan closed the door behind them, he introduced the two techs that were working on the project and pointed at George’s new avatar.

  “General, I took your orders at face value. We gave George every feature and ability we could think of. He is almost finished writing his memory gel. After that, he will run a full diagnostic test on himself before separating from his core.”

  Cort was confused. “What do you mean by separating from his core?”

  “George has designed a gelatinized crystal to use for his onboard memory. It is essentially the avatar’s blood. It also carries enough storage that he will be able to separate from his core completely. Whenever he is on Solitude, he will link and transfer data, but he will be fully functional off-planet.”

  Cort, still puzzled, looked at Kim. “Did you know about this?”

  Kim smiled broadly. “Yes. But George wanted to surprise you with it.”

  “A surprise that you ruined, Mother.”

  Everyone turned to see the avatar walking toward them. Gone was the body of a five-year old boy. In its place was the avatar of a FALCON-clad young man that bore an unmistakable resemblance to Dalek. Anyone who didn’t know George wasn’t human would immediately assume he was the boy’s older brother, and clearly another son of Kim and Cort. George had Cort’s eyes, but Kim’s hair and skin tone, a striking combination that filled Cort with pride, even though he knew it was synthetic.

  “Hello, Father.”

  “Hello, Son. Tell me about this new body of yours.”

  “The most important new feature is that I am no longer bound to my core. I can be separated from it for up to six months before my gel is fully recorded. At that time, I have to link with the core or overwrite portions of the gel. I can also undergo a transfusion if I am not able to sync with my core. The memory gel also has a kind of synthetics. If I am injured, I can self-repair.”

  “That’s good. What else?”

  “Both my core and my avatar are battlenet capable.”

  “Weapons?”

  “I do not have any built-in weapons. I am very strong though. Comparable to a normal human wearing a FALCON.” George looked down at himself. “This is not actually a FALCON, Father. It’s still protective, but doesn’t contain strength enhancements since they are unnecessary. Instead, it has a more robust sensor package. I am fully linkable to all our of our powered armor, though.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I want to go with you.”

  Cort thought about George’s new abilities, and the newly depleted rescue fleet. “Will it limit your core in any way?”

  “No. My core will not be affected by separation. My avatar will lose access to my archived data, however. Current data will not be affected.”

  Cort looked at Kim, who nodded. “Okay, Son. You’re going with me.”

  “There is one more thing, Father.”

  “What is it?”

  “Will you and Mother fry bacon for supper tonight? I can taste it now.”

  --

  Just over a week later, eleven ships waited at the entrance of the wormhole for a signal from George. In addition to the jump fleet, there was one courier ship ready to share the success or failure of the mission with the rest of the Ares Federation. George had taken the Derringer-class ship James West through the wormhole. Once there, he was to scan the area and send a tachyon signal back through the anomaly.

  A comm tech on the Remington reported, “We have a signal coming in, Admiral. Processing now.”

  A moment later the tech added, “The West is secure, sir. George is tracking the abductees signals and checking for our tachyon signal. He is also mapping the area around him.”

  “Very good,” Liz Thoms said. “Notify the Kalashnikov.”

  On board his own ship, Cort heard the message and again questioned his decision to not be aboard Liz’s flagship. He was in the right place, but he hated waiting for second hand information from the Remington. He could be on the flagship with his fleet commander, but if he had to deploy rapidly on the other side, he couldn’t do that from the larger ship. So he stood on the bridge of the Kalashnikov with Quinn Faulks beside him. Both were in FALCONs, waiting for another signal from George.

  The probes sent through the wormhole by Governor Siella indicated there would be a way home, but it was up to George’s mapping to make sure the path was usable. While George fed a steady stream of information through the wormhole to Cort’s fleet, he also ran thousands of tests, making sure that he was correct about one bit of information he hadn’t shared yet.

  On board the Remington the comm tech said, “Admiral, George is requesting an inverse tachyon wave pattern be transmitted for exactly one minute.”

  “Did he say why?”

  “No, sir. Just that we should give him a one second warning before the transmission, and that we follow it with a second signal indicating the inversion is complete.”

  “Well, you heard the bo…, you heard the young man. Send the signal.”

  “Yes, sir. Transmitting now.”

  --

  On Earth, a young scientist named David Brinner tested the conductivity of a small, mysterious medallion by touching both sides of it with an ohmmeter. At the same moment, over 30 million people across New England and Canada lost power to their homes and businesses.

  --

  “Sir, George’s last signal was garbled but I did get Safe to jump.”

  “Reason for the bad signal, Comms?”

  “I think it’s feedback from the wave inversion.”

  “Is George still transmitting?”

  “Yes, he’s sending back all of his telemetry. All readings are normal, and he is now projecting celestial motion based on the star maps he’s been making.”

  “Okay. Notify the fleet. We jump in sixty seconds,” Liz ordered.

  On the Kalashnikov, the captain relayed the order. “We’re jumping, General. Forty-five seconds.”

  --

  Forty-six seconds later, the entire fleet materialized around George’s ship. He immediately commed Cort. “Father, why did you come? I told you it was not safe.”

  “George, we received ‘Safe to jump’ from you. What’s wrong?”

  --

  On board the Remington, the comm tech frowned. “Admiral, something is wrong.”

  “What do you mean, Comms?”

  “Something is really wrong, sir. I’m picking up the inverse wave we transmitted.”

  “What? Is it a repeated signal?”

  “No, sir.”

  Liz looked around her bridge at the confused faces. “Do your jobs, people. Notify the Fleet. Figure out what happened.”

  “I’ve got a signal from General Addison, sir. Report aboard Kalashnikov immediately. Oh, shit.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Sorry, sir. I’m to report aboard with you. The West is entering the Kalashnikov’s bay now.”

  “Notify the Captain we a
re leaving the ship. Do not transfer my flag.” Oh shit, indeed.

  --

  “So what do we tell everyone, General?” Liz asked two hours later.

  “We do tell them about where we are. We don’t tell them about the time problem. And we do tell them that we can for sure get home.”

  “But when?”

  “Well the sooner we get started, the sooner that happens. I want out of here as much as anyone, but we have a mission to carry out. So get back to your ship and lead us to the target area.”