Different Paths (25 page)

“Thank you Pax for your estimation.” Turning back
to Iaido, Jay shrugged. “There you go. It’s the best I could do. I have
programmed them to respond to their names but much of their database is shared.
So…”

“When I talk to one, the other could answer.”
Slapping his friend’s shoulder Iaido said, “Outstanding job, Jay…absolutely outstanding.”

Athena said, “Excuse me Captain, but the analysis
of this dart shows that the shaft is actually a memory crystal. Preliminary
scans show that there is data on this crystal but it is encrypted. However, it
seems the code was in your military personnel file. It is your old Omega
Squadron identification number, sir.”

“Put it on the main screen,” Iaido said.

“Affirmative,” said Pax.

The screen darkened for a moment before refocusing
into the image of Eve bound and gagged sitting on a large cylindrical object.
She was in a dark room with no visible windows or doors. A man stepped into
view; he was well into his fifties with a regulation military haircut that was
more grey than black and his left ear looked as if it had been burned off.

Iaido and Jay recognized him immediately as their
former commanding officer, Major McDowell. 

“Greetings Achilles, it has been a few years. I
have followed your career since your release from New Leavenworth. And I must
say, it’s been impressive.” He gestured to Eve. “Now that I have your
attention, I want to extend an invitation to join me at Castra Praetoria.
Judging from your reputation, I know you will figure out where it is in time.”

Stepping out of the picture for a moment, the
image refocused back on the young girl.

“If you look close enough, you can see she doesn’t
have a lot of time, only twenty four hours from the time of this recording.”
Major McDowell stepped back in front of the camera. “If you come alone and
unarmed, I will set her free. If not, well…”

The image refocused on the bomb underneath Eve’s
feet for a second and then the screen went dark.

Athena said, “I have analyzed the image of the
bomb. Judging from its size, shape and all information available on the Major,
I would extrapolate it to be a small proton bomb with a blast radius of five
thousand meters, everything within that area will be vaporized when it
explodes.” The corresponding data began to pop up on adjacent vid-screens. “Of
course, it is only a guess but I would estimate the accuracy to eight-seven
percent correct.”

Iaido clenched his fists. “How long?”

Pax responded. “The time stamp would indicate that
the message was recorded four hours and twenty-three minutes ago.”

“Which gives us less than twenty hours,” added Jay.

Iaido scratched his goatee before asking, “Okay
people, I have a question; why?”

“What do you mean by why?” Talia asked.

“Why now? Why this song and dance?”

“Just like he said to get your attention,” DJ
added.

Iaido turned to Jay. “You know the Major. He never
does anything without a reason and one that has been meticulously thought out.
So, again I ask why? What is his endgame?”

Talia said, “The answer is in the question. Why
would he want you? What does he gain?”

Moving over to the command chair, Iaido sat down.
“Okay, let’s look at this logically. Major McDowell doesn’t do anything without
a plan. He knew we would be here at Haven and laid a trap for us, only to leave
me this message. He also knew that it would take time for the message to get to
us; which he would’ve worked into his calculations. So, either he is hiding on Haven,
which is unlikely or he is within a four hour radius of us.”

“But Haven is twenty minutes from a jump point
that could take you just about anywhere; even using the four hour time limit,” DJ
said, “this region of space is awfully busy.”

“There are approximately one-hundred and
twenty-seven starbases or colonies within that travel time,” Pax added. “Not
counting the numerous ports on some of those colonies or any unregistered
habitats that might have been built on an asteroid or moon.”

“That’s a lot of area to cover” DJ said.

Talia shook her head. “No. The Major said that
Iaido would be able to find him, so he must’ve left us a clue to his
whereabouts.”

“He did.” Iaido said, “What did the Major call his
home, casa preatoria?”

“Negative,” responded Pax. “It was Castra
Praetoria. It is Latin for ‘barracks of the Praetorian.’ Historically the
barracks was located in Rome but since that city was destroyed during the
Arabic Wars it is unlikely that is what he meant. I have accessed Haven’s
database and they have no record of any Praetorian.”

“Mars,” Jay said. “He’s on Mars.”

DJ asked, “How the fuck would you know that?”

Jay said, “Praetorians. They are the company that
hacked into Iaido’s database yesterday. Diana and I were able to backtrack the
hackers to that company and since the Major said he was at the barracks of the
Praetorians, the logic follows that he is on Mars.”

“That makes sense.” Iaido said, “But it still
doesn’t answer why he would kidnap Eve or what he will gain from having me
follow him. The Major always had one rule for combat; every action leads to an
advantage or takes away a disadvantage. So, which it is?”

“Hmmm…” Jay said. “What if it’s simpler than that?
What if the Major just wanted you out of the way?”

“What do you mean by that?” Iaido said.

“Follow me on this. The Major knows your
predisposition on picking up strays. And he would know that you would follow
the kidnapping of the Sgt. Major’s daughter and would do anything to save her,
hence the set-up.”

Talia asked, “Would he really detonate the bomb
and kill an innocent child?”

Iaido nodded. “Yes. She’s only a pawn to him. And
pawns are only used to create openings by their sacrifice. But what would he
gain by this? He knows he can’t hide from me. He knows my skills. Hell, he was
instrumental in my creation. So, what is the endgame?”

“I dunno.” DJ said, “More of your hatred? A bad
day? Death?”

“No.” Talia spoke quietly. “What turns mountains
to dust and seas to deserts?”

“What the fuck is that?” DJ asked, “Some sort of
elvish poetry?”

“No, it’s a riddle and the answer would be time.
The Major gains time by having me chase after him and rescue Eve.” Iaido turned
back to his control panel and barked, “Pax!”

“Aye sir?”

“Compile a list of all major events and
probabilities of points for a terrorist attack for the next twenty four hours;
have anything to do with the President or the UNCF at the top of the list.”

Both Pax and Athena answered in unison. “Aye, aye
sir.”

Iaido turned back to his companions. “While they
narrow down our possibilities, we need to be ready to strike whenever and
wherever we are needed; I don’t like being used.”

“Does that mean you are going to leave Eve to her
fate?” Jay asked.

“You know me better than that. When have I ever
left a man behind?”

“Never,” Jay said, “even when it would be the
smart thing to do.”

“Exactly. But we will need to make a surgical
strike…swift and deadly. A snatch and grab. Jay, make sure your new toy is
ready for combat and see if there is anything you can do to the engines to
squeeze out more speed.”

“Roger.”

“DJ, I want to you to check out the ship and tweak
it for combat. Athena will aid you in anything you need.”

Iaido handed Talia a memory crystal. “Here is
everything we have on the Sgt. Major’s death. I would like you to double check
the data and see if you can find anything we might’ve missed and get med-bay
ready, I have a feeling we are going to get bloody on this one.”

*   *   *   *   *

After prepping the med-bay, Talia sat down at the
computer console and popped in the memory crystal which contained all the data
concerning the death of Sgt. Major Spenton and his wife.

At first glance, Talia found the images
disturbing. They were completely three dimensional and could be viewed on the
vid-display or projected into a hologram. Additionally, the images could be
manipulated to nearly any position or magnification. As she began to work with
the program, she felt many of the lessons imparted to her during her training
to be a Mystic slip into place and she began to study the information in a
detached, professional manner. Talia was so engrossed in studying the autopsy
file that she jumped out of her chair with a shriek when the black mandible of
Xerxes entered her field of vision.

Xerxes seemed not to notice her discomfort as he
stared past her at the image on the screen.

Feeling uncomfortable with being alone and so
close to the large Mantis, Talia stood up and began to back away. However, Xerxes
had different plans. With a few chirps and clicks, he grabbed her with his two
lower arms and easily lifted her from the ground.

Talia shrieked and tried to struggle but realized
almost immediately that it was useless.

Xerxes turned her toward the vid-display.

Talia closed her eyes tight; not wanting to face
whatever Xerxes had planned for her. With a few chirps in his language, he
shook her gently. Talia forced herself to open one eye slightly, still fearing
to see whatever was coming. But Xerxes was pointing at one of the autopsy
photos of the Sgt. Major’s deceased wife. The image was zoomed into five
hundred times of normal and showed the twin pin pricks on the base of Amy’s
skull. It was at that moment when an old lesson from her time in the Seminary
came to Talia and realization flooded all over her. 

Feeling her relax, Xerxes gently set her down,
stepped back, folded his arms and waited.

Talia’s fingers flew over the controls of the
computer. Bring up every image and report on the pin pricks before she turned
to the large Mantis and asked, “You know what this means don’t you?”

Xerxes nodded.

“Does Iaido and the others know anything about
this?”

Xerxes shook his head.

“What can we do?”

Xerxes shrugged his shoulders, then lifted a
leather bag from around his neck and rattled it.

Recalling everything she had ever learned about
the Mantodea culture, she realized that Xerxes is actually a medicine man or
shaman of his tribe. And if anyone in his culture would know about this mark,
it would be the tribal shaman. “You think this is something we were destined to
confront? That it’s our sacred duty?”

Xerxes nodded.

“Should we tell Iaido?”

Again, Xerxes nodded.

“Do you think he will believe me?”

Xerxes gestured to her, then to himself and placed
his mandibles together in a tight grip.

“Okay… but even then will he believe us both?”

*   *   *   *   *

Athena glanced at her handiwork. The Captain had
called a sit-rep meeting for 2300 hours, thirty minutes from now and since the
Nemesis was housing three times as many as normal occupants, she had taken on
the responsibility to adjust the common areas accordingly.

Her first order of business had been simple,
assigning each new crewmember a berth. The Captain had insisted that she assign
herself a cabin which as an android didn’t make sense to her but then…he was
the Captain. His ordered didn’t have to make sense; they were just to be
followed.

Resetting the ship’s galley to the original specs
was easy. Athena was finding that being hooked into Nemesis’ mainframe was very
liberating. She could access and collate data at a staggering speed, many times
faster than before the merging and without having to use a HID - Human
Interfacing Device - such a keyboard or even an access port for implants. This left
her able to perform other mundane tasks at the same time, which brought the
term multi-tasking to a new level.

She had dismantled the Captain’s dojo and
transported it to the cargo hold, where she had found the original furniture
from the Nemesis’ years of UNCF Fleet service stored; the furniture was
functional but not particularly comfortable. Actually setting up the furniture
was relatively easy, just a comparison of data. Compare the data stored in the
Nemesis’ mainframe to the actual position of the table and adjust accordingly.
However, many of her memories before the merging were a bit disturbing and kept
intruding on her thoughts. She found the memories of her lovemaking with Iaido
the most disturbing.

Pax said, “The table needs to be moved twenty-three
centimeters to starboard to match UNCF regulations.”

Athena shook her head to clear away her thoughts
and retorted, “I realize that. I like it better here instead.”

“Negative.” Pax said, “You were not paying
attention to your duties. These memories are a hazard to our well-being. They
should be purged.”

“No!” Athena screamed. “They’re mine!”

“Athena?” called a musical voice from the
passageway that led aft. Talia moved down the ladder with sublime grace. “Are
you okay? I thought I heard you arguing.”

Smoothing out her jumpsuit, Athena flashed a
crooked smile to the Sylvan. “No ma’am. I’m sorry to have disturbed you. I was
talking out loud to myself.”

“That statement was inaccurate,” Pax said. “You
were talking to me.”

Talia paused, glancing between Athena and ceiling
of the galley. “I thought you and Athena were one?”

“Negative,” said Pax. “We have been merged but we
are two and shall always be two.”

Athena actually blushed. “It’s hard to explain.
While we share much, memories, data and such, we have both retained some of our
independence. Pax has areas in her data core that I don’t have access to, while
there are areas in my neural net that I am striving to keep private.”

“That is good to hear.” Jay said moving up the
ladder from engineering.

“Jay!” Talia exclaimed. “You’re walking!”

“Ta da!”

The Master Chief extended one leg forward so the
two women could see them better. He had heavily modified his chair by adding
four bulky mechanical legs. They whirred and clicked with every movement but
they allowed a greater range of movement within the tight confines of the ship.
His chair walked or scurried down the passageways with a motion similar to that
of a spider or a crab.