Warrior Chronicles 5: Warrior's Curse Read online

  “Yes, General.”

  Cort stared at JJ’s image in the video conference. “I’m going to leave you now so I can talk to my wife about this before one or more of you messages her, if you haven’t already. You know what I want, so get my gear and people in place.”

  Cort was in a flight on his way back to the isthmus retreat when his comm activated.

  “Ares here.”

  “General, it’s Jade Jones. Do you have a moment?”

  Admiral Jade Jones was the most capable administrator in the Ares Federation. Cort’s problem with her was that she tried too often to ‘administrate’ him. She went so far as to enlist Kimberly when she thought he was going too far. “What is it, JJ?”

  Not one to beat around the bush, the admiral said, “Your last comment was directed at me.”

  “Yes it was. Do you have a comment about it?”

  JJ sighed. “Can I be frank, Cort?”

  Cort was getting angry just hearing her voice. Since the middle of the Tapon war, he had come to realize that his senior staff was using Kim to influence his decisions. He couldn’t be mad at his wife, because she was just being herself, but he was becoming more and more unhappy with the interference from his generals and admirals. Maybe it was time to get it all out in the open. “Please do, Admiral.”

  “You’re being stupid. You should send others to handle this.”

  “Or you’ll tell on me, JJ?”

  “You are not a sergeant anymore. You are the leader of the most powerful fighting force in this part of the galaxy. You have millions of people who do your bidding. And every one of them does so willingly. You need to figure out that you are the arm that wields the spear now, not its point.”

  “I never asked to be the leader you are talking about, Jade. In fact, I never asked for any of this. I just wanted to be left alone.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have come to our time. From what I know, you were pretty alone back then. You didn’t need to come here at all. You were alone on a mountain and living your life fishing in a lake and playing with your little dog. If you didn’t want this, you shouldn’t have signed on for it.”

  “I signed on to escape that world, not found an empire in this one.”

  “Sure. If you want to believe that, you go right ahead. I think the gods brought you here for a reason.”

  Cort realized he had never talked to Jade about religion. He himself had given up on any kind of god centuries before. Cort and Kimberly had spent enough time together that he knew she felt the same way, but he’d never asked anyone else. He figured what people believed was their business as long they didn’t use those beliefs to hurt others.

  “What does that have to do with you using Kimberly to control me?”

  “It has nothing to do with it, Cort. It’s a separate topic altogether. Because we’ve never used Kim to control you.”

  “Bullshit, JJ! I know you use my wife to get your way. Some of you have even admitted to it.” Cort’s voice got so loud the flight pilot could hear him. “Godsdammit! How do you even have the fucking nerve to lie to me about it? Are you that fucking stupid?”

  Cort heard JJ take a deep breath. Softly, she said, “We don’t use her to control your decisions. We use her to control your temper. Jones out.”

  --

  “How long do you think you will be gone, baby? If there is a way back.”

  “I don’t know. The wormhole itself is over a year away. I don’t know how far beyond it we’ll have to go. But we’ll be gone at least two years.” Cort looked at Kimberly across the room. She had tears in her eyes, but she was holding it together. He put down a flex pad and stepped closer to her. “If we don’t have a way back, I won’t go. But if we get that signal, I have to. You know that.”

  Kim turned and looked out the window. Rain was falling outside. It wasn’t a bad storm, but it had been over the isthmus the entire day, so the river below them was moving faster and its banks were higher.

  “You’ve never been gone that long, baby. It’s odd. I can accept knowing you are going into battle, but you’ll be gone so long. It’s not fair to the boys.” She turned back to Cort and stepped into his arms. “It’s not fair to me.”

  The tears finally began to roll down her cheeks and her voice was muffled by in his chest. “We could go with you.”

  “If it were just you and Dalek, I might be okay with that. But George’s avatar can’t function that far from his core. We’ll be able to talk every day, at least until we enter the wormhole. That will have to be enough.”

  “Do you even have a way to get through it yet?”

  “No, but Pan has a year to work on it. If he can’t figure out a way, I’ll wait there awhile, then come home.”

  “Promise me you will come home.”

  “Kim, part of me won’t leave,” Cort bent down to kiss her.

  That night, after Kim was asleep, Cort went to his study. He sipped on rye and held Dar’s wedding ring in his hand. Watching the gold band sparkle in the distant flashes of lightning, he was lost in thought when George walked in.

  “Am I disturbing you, Father?”

  Cort looked up to see the boy framed in the doorway. “No. Come in. I was hoping to talk to you.”

  George walked in and sat on the ottoman in front of Cort. “Why did you want to speak to me?”

  “I’m sure you know I will be leaving soon.”

  “Yes, I have seen the messages on the datanet. I hope it is all right that I have seen them.”

  “Yes. I expected you would. George, I know I told you that you could choose what you do, but I have something I need from you.”

  “Yes, Father?”

  “Protect your mother and brother while I am gone. They both see you as a boy, but I know better. Will you do that for me?”

  “Of course,” George said, standing in front of Cort. “So long as it is within my power, no harm will come to them.”

  “Thank you. I have removed all of the codes which could deactivate your avatar or disconnect you from the datanet. No one can shut you down. Not even me.” As he said this, Cort handed Dar’s ring to the boy. “When we built the satellite defense networks around Earth, Mars, Heroc’s World, and Solitude, I put in a master code. Only Dar and I have it.”

  Cort remembered that Dar was gone. “Had it. We didn’t want to risk a telepath like Bazal learning the code, so we never memorized it, but had it engraved inside our wedding rings. Don’t get me wrong, I trust Bazal completely, and you can too. But there might be other telepathic species out there. If there are, they might not be friendly. The code will also give you control of any ship in our fleet, including H’uuman ships.”

  George smiled sadly as he looked from the ring to Cort. “How did you manage that?”

  “H’uum and I worked together to put trusted people in the right positions.”

  “So H’uum knows about the code?”

  “Yes, but he doesn’t know its import. When Heroc was alive, she ordered him to cooperate with me about it.”

  “Does Bazal know?”

  “Only H’uum, and now you. Dar and I went to great lengths to ensure it remained secret.”

  “Not even Mother then.”

  “Correct.” Taking a deep breath, Cort went on. “George, you now have the ability to completely control the defensive networks for all of our major planets. As new planets connect to the ‘net, you will have control over them as well. You are more powerful than I am, George. More importantly, you are the only person I trust our family’s safety to.”

  “What are my parameters?”

  “Don’t interfere with normal politics. Let others deal with that stuff. Use the code if there is a direct threat that others aren’t dealing with. And use it if there is a threat to our family that others aren’t dealing with.”

  “Priorities?”

  Cort didn’t have to ask what George meant. “The three of you. Your mother is obviously the most important to me, but I won’t choose between the three o
f you. You mean as much to me as Dalek does, and without you, they won’t be safe.”

  George put the ring in his pocket. “Yes, sir. Thank you for trusting me. I will modify it to fit my hand.”

  “You are the only person I completely trust with their lives, George.”

  Cort remembered that the boy had come to see him. “What did you want to talk to me about? Or did you just want company?”

  “Both, actually. I have something to talk to you about, but I also like your company. I have come to enjoy talking to others. So when you are all asleep, I am lonely.”

  “Have you tried talking to people on other worlds?”

  “I was not sure if that was allowed.”

  “Of course it is allowed. You are free. So what did you want to talk to me about?”

  “I would like a ship to experiment with.”

  Cort raised his eyebrows. “A ship? What kind of experiment?”

  “I need a ship of any size with a Jonah Construct engine. I have been working on a modified design that may be of use to us. Especially now.”

  “Do you want to work on your own, or would like help from Liz Thoms?”

  “I don’t mind sharing the work, but I don’t want to be a bother to her. I don’t believe she can add to the science, but I have come to respect collaborative ingenuity.”

  Cort was puzzled. “Collaborative ingenuity? What is that?”

  “I don’t believe I can define it properly. I suppose it is something akin to brainstorming or teamwork. Do you understand?”

  “I think so. Two heads are better than one, or maybe a different set of eyes.”

  George thought for a moment and said, “Yes. That is it.”

  “How will it help us, if it works?”

  “Hopefully, it will bring you home sooner, Father.”

  “Just a moment, George.” Cort reached up to touch his comm. “Ares to Admiral Liz Thoms.” A moment later he said, “Liz, how soon can you be at the isthmus on Solitude?”

  “I can be there in two days unless it’s an emergency, General. If that’s the case I can be there tomorrow morning, your time.”

  Cort turned to the avatar. “George, are you confident you can do this?”

  Without hesitation, George answered, “Yes, Father.”

  “Liz, be here in the morning and bring a Derringer-class scout ship with you. George has a suggested engine modification that might be important to us. I’ll have him send you some reading material for the trip. Ares out.”

  Turning to George, Cort said, “As I recall, Liz Thoms loves bacon. We are going to need to make extra.”

  --

  One of the reasons Cort had moved to Mars a decade before was to rescue Rand Gaines, who had been unjustly imprisoned for killing a man who was trying to rape Rand’s mother, Kay. That man had also raped Liz Thoms when she was twelve. When she came of age, Liz immediately enlisted in the navy of the fledgling Ares Federation. Her family disowned her after she enlisted in the military of the man who had killed her brother and uncle, making the Ares Navy her only family. It was a tense moment on the bridge of the Remington when Cort found out that she was related to two of the first men he had killed in this time, but the woman was a dedicated professional and her abilities propelled her through naval ranks quickly, The death of her predecessor led Cort and Jade Jones to promote Liz to her current position, Rear Admiral and Director of Fleet Development.

  Cort had spent his time preparing his Table of Organization and Equipment for the upcoming mission. The TOE would determine both his ability to make war and his ability to rescue the missing humans if they found them. Liz and George had spent their time building a new ship. Over dinner one night, George had told Cort that their work would revolutionize space travel.

  Cort watched them approach his office. The woman Cort still thought too young to be an admiral, by the standards of his time anyway, was animated and clearly excited. George still hadn’t mastered excitement, except on a child’s level, so he would only show that emotion around those closest to him. Liz was not in that circle, but Cort hoped she soon would be. They had been working for five weeks and Cort had seen very little of Liz. George still made himself available for Dalek and was home anytime the human boy was available, but his core was working with Liz constantly. She had even set up a small sleeping surface near a console. They definitely worked well together, it was likely the two would become friends. Regardless, it was clear from Liz’s demeanor that they had made progress.

  Cort was pleased. H’uum’s ships were already halfway to the black hole, and he wanted to get his own ships en route as soon as possible. In just over three more weeks another group of humans would disappear. Lee Pan had told him the next event would be twelve weeks later. Cort knew he couldn’t stop the event three weeks away, but he wanted to prevent the following one. If George’s plan worked, he would be able to. Looking at his son walking with Liz, he smiled, swiveled his chair back around and waited for them to enter the building.

  When they were in his office and had exchanged greetings, Cort asked about the engine modifications. “Now that you’ve had time to work on it, what do you think of George’s idea, Liz? Do you still think it will work?”

  “Have you looked at it, sir?”

  “Nope. You know the physics is way over my head,” Cort smiled. “George says he can do it, so I assume he can. That’s why I called you.”

  Liz was confused. “Called me? What did you call me, sir?”

  “Sorry, it’s an old term. I mean I commed you. That used to be a ‘phone call.’ When he told me he could do it, I commed you.”

  Liz smiled at Cort’s ancient terminology. “Ah. Well, I cannot check all of George’s math, because a good portion of it is beyond current mathematics. It is beyond even theoretical mathematics. But what I can check, I have. Since we lost the Nill core, we no longer need the transition chamber of the Jonah drive. By replacing it with George’s exotic cannon design, we can alter the shape of the warp bubble. By making it more elliptical, we are able to achieve rapid matter attenuation. The bubble becomes monochromatic and …”

  Cort smiled and held his hand up. “Liz, I just told you the physics is over my head. Speak slowly, enunciate, and dumb it down. Dumb it down a lot.”

  “I am sorry, sir.” She thought for a moment and began again. “Okay, currently we use a near-spherical warp bubble to push our ships through space time, like firing a ballistic round through water. But if we don’t constantly recharge the bubble, space time resists us sufficiently to slow us down. We can only recharge it so quickly. Do you follow me so far?”

  “Space time resists our warp bubbles.”

  “Exactly. George’s math indicates that we can actually stretch that bubble. Using a PSR cannon, we can push the bubble’s boundary forward to the target locus and then shrink the bubble, pulling the ship forward to its destination. Still with me?”

  Cort nodded. “Like a rubber band. We stretch it and let go. The back edge catches up with the leading edge, bringing the ship with it. But what is a PSR?”

  “Correct. They are Perlmutter Schmidt Reiss particles. So named because the three physicists from your time are credited with the discovery of dark energy. George has a different name for them, but we have agreed to use human terminology for the sake of simplicity.”

  “Okay, you flex warp parabola to change the shape of the warp field, and control its size by how much dark energy PSRs you fire into it.”

  Liz nodded.

  “How fast can we go then? Can we compare with H’uuman speed?”

  “Sir, you have the concept, but I think you are missing something. We will take the ship out of our space time, then move and reappear in our space time. We will reappear at the same moment. In fact, for a moment so brief it is immeasurable, we will in both places at once.”

  Cort realized the implication. “So you are saying we have instantaneous jumps. As in Nill core transition speed?”

  Liz smiled. “Exactly, sir.
We will be able to jump through space again. There are some limitations. For instance we have to reappear in reasonably empty space. If we don’t, pretty much anything near our emergent locus will be destroyed.”