Inherited War 1: Retribution (22 page)

39

“Cole, snap out of it.”  The harsh words were accompanied by a sudden slap to his face.  Cole was up in an instant
, head swimming, trying to figure out what was going on.

“What the hell happened?”  He asked not sure if he had said it out loud or only thought it.

“Unfortunate timing is what happened.  You are moving faster than I thought you would to be perfectly honest.  The Twin Worlders, while boon companions, are unlocking things in your memory before you are ready.  You are currently unconscious and being transported back to your ship.  It was just too soon.”  He muttered quietly to himself lost in thought.

Cole felt a little better and got to his feet.  “I don’t get it
. What happened too soon?  I thought that was the point of programming the knowledge into me, so I could remember the things you people used to know?”

Coles ancestor, Jarrod,
walked forward and placed both his hands on either side of Cole’s face.  He peered intently into Cole’s eyes for a time before snorting and letting him go.  “The problem is that your brain had only just recently finished the change that Dr. Sky had forced on it.  It was finally used to the new chemicals and synapse brought about by that change.  Unfortunately it did not have the time to finish the final program that was organizing the information stored in your genes.  The word combination, location and in the presence of a bonded pair of Twin Worlders unlocked some of that information.  Your brain nearly tore itself apart trying to dredge up the required information.  I had to intervene and shut down your conscious mind.  So to the others you just suddenly went limp and probably started to bleed from your ears.”  He started to pace restlessly back and forth.  “Your body and mind will require some rest for a while until your brain sorts things out.”

Cole reached out and stopped Jarrod
mid pace.  “Can I trust the Twin Worlders?  Were they that great of allies to you?”  Cole let him go and stared at Jarrod.

“Yes, undeniably a definite yes.
  Next to the Nixa they were loyal allies and friends for many thousands of years.  They are an important part of the plan in place to aid you and your mission.  They are strong, stalwart and very capable warriors and spies.  You would be very foolish indeed to go to war without them on your side.”  Jarrod closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. “We have arrived at your ship and the Doctor is putting you in the med bay.  I have to go now so you can process the information they unlocked.  We will see each other again soon, have no fear and I can explain more then.  Good bye.”  He slowly faded from sight. 

Cole looked around the emptiness of his mind and tried to bring forth the information.  He didn’t have any luck and quickly gave up.  He hoped he was at least going to wake up
soon, his mind was a pretty boring place without Jarrod to talk to.  Suddenly his mind felt like it split in two.  He fell to the ground clutching his head in his hands and shrieking his voice horse.  The pain fled as fast as it had come and Cole looked up sharply, knowledge gleamed in his eyes.

40

“The problem I have found with the way my ancestors programmed humanity to remember their knowledge is that it is extremely hard to unlock.  It requires three Major components.  First, you have to be in the right place.  Second, you have to be with the right people.  Third, they have to say the right things to get the process started.  There are some things that just seem to randomly come to the surface at times, I just never paid attention to them before.   Now when I think back on it I find myself realizing that I knew some things I shouldn’t.  I was always horrible at math and science in High School.  I sat down today and wrote out the mathematical calculations for using gravity collectors.  I understood everything I wrote out. I think I will sit down and rifle through my brain for a bit and see what other knowledge is lurking around in there.”

Cole awoke to the sound of arguing.  He kept his eyes closed and listened in on the argument.  “How many times can I tell you the same thing?  Nowhere in our instructions did it say that the descendant would be harmed by the releasing of the information.  In fact, it is required that we give the test to all we think could be the ones.  He was supposed to hear the words and respond with the knowledge, not pass out and go comatose.”  That sounded like Thalo talking and the response was defiantly Sky.

“He is our last hope and if you damaged him in any way I can’t repair
, you and I are going to have a problem.”

Cole cracked his eyes open and glanced around.  They were back on the ship and in the med bay, Cole was strapped
onto the table in the middle of the room and Sky apparently had every device in the med bay hooked up to him.  His nanites were reporting that he had suffered a mild seizure before his brain had shut down.  No permanent damage but he would have a head ache for a while.  “It is no longer a theory, when the Pures discovered your two worlds they studied them and the people on them for almost two hundred years before they made public contact.  They proved one of the hardest theories they had ever postulated by proving that quantum separation existed and could be harnessed.  Quantum Separation states that when the universe came into existence every piece of matter created had an exact counterpart and the two pieces of matter would always be linked ignoring space and time as barriers.  They had thought the theory improvable due to the vast size of the universe and the low odds of finding a set of matching material.  Until they found the Twin Worlds that is.  It is the one place they had found so far that had the paired matter in the same area.  They studied the effect of the separation for two centuries and discovered that bringing the matter together in the form of sentient beings, created something greater than the two individuals.”  He took a breath before continuing.

“
After revealing themselves to your people and helping them create a bonding ritual to bring the two individuals together, they started to search the planet and match other nonliving matter to their duplicate matter.  Using this matter, they made the first point to point communicators that time and space did not affect.  Because the matter is linked and ignores the distance between them, they were perfect for galaxy wide communications in real time.  That is why it’s not a theory but fact.”

Sky was staring at him speechless
, Thalo began to clap.  “Bravo, you are the one we have been waiting for.  I hope I did not cause you to much undue stress with my little test, but as I told the good doctor there, it was necessary.”  They both moved closer to Cole.

“Apparently it was a matter of bad timing on your part.  My brain is still sorting the information the Pures stored in my DNA and you activated some of the information before I was ready, my brain went into overdrive trying to find the specific info your code was looking for.”  Cole reached out and grabbed Sky’s hand.  “Really, I’m okay.  The nanites repaired the physical damage and my brain protected itself by rebooting and sorting the information before waking me back up.”  Cole sat up and instantly regretted doing so.  He let out a soft moan and dropped his head into his hands.  “I could use something for this headache though.”

Sky grabbed something out of the drawer and pressed it to the back of Cole’s head. 
“Mild pain killer that should help with the headache.”  She walked around and sat down next to Cole.  “I am sorry for how I reacted towards you Thalo.”

“I always refuse an apology from a beautiful wom
an who has done nothing to merit apologizing, you were just worried about your commander and it’s completely understandable.”  Thalo responded with a regal bow.  “I am a little hurt that the commander went to such great lengths to avoid listening to my story though.  Oh well, another time perhaps.”

“I know everything that happened up until the Purge War
.  What I need to know is what happened next and why are you calling me commander?”

“How disappointing
, I was looking forward to that part of the story.  Life goes on I guess and so do I.  After the Purge War was started by the Esii and Roche, we, along with the Nixa and a few other races did what we could to help the Pures fight back.  We were all ill prepared for a war at the time so we started by trying to buy time for our forces to build up some kind of response to the threat.  They had been preparing longer and were pushing us too hard.  The part that you know, is that the Pures finally told the allied races to get distance between themselves in hopes the Esii and the Roche would leave them alone.  At that point, the Pures went from trying to fight to trying to survive.  We were recruited to find the worlds that the Pures would use to ensure their survival.  We found the ten sites in the galaxy they needed, to preserve their future.  We were also entrusted with the knowledge of some of the code phrases that would unlock the knowledge hidden in you.  We were sworn to aide your return to the galaxy.  As a people, we owe you our lives.  Near the end of the war the Esii were shifting their focus from your people to their allies.  The Pures, knowing that if they didn’t do something to help, knew that the Esii would destroy the allied races and take control of the galaxy.  They finished their preparations on the colony worlds and systems, and massed their fleet for a final attack.  All remaining Pures in the galaxy came together for an all out attack on the Esii home world, an attack they knew would fail.  It failed in one sense because the Pures lost every one of their ships and disappeared from the galaxy at that point, but it also succeeded.”  At this point in his tale Thalo placed his hand on his chest and hung his head for a moment in silence.

“The Pures succeeded in drawing the
Majority of Esii and Roche fleets to the Esii home world for one final battle of epic proportions.  They lost but in that sacrifice they destroyed almost ninety percent of the traitors combined fleet, rendering them impotent as a future power in the galaxy.  With help from some of the allied races, the Twin Worlds were cleansed of the taint the Esii had brought to our worlds.  For that sacrifice we call you commander and our people will follow you to the ends of the universe if need be to repay that debt.  So all that is left now is to travel to your colony to pick up more humans, to man the Pures ships and bring war to our enemies.”

“You didn’t tell him?”  Cole asked quietly.

“No, I didn’t even think to.”  Sky responded.

“I am afraid that you
’re looking at one of the last two humans in the known galaxy, my world was destroyed by the Esii after they found out what the Admiral of Sector One was up to.”  Cole spent the next few minutes telling the story of his capture, the medical alterations to his body and brain, his escape and the discovery of his planets destruction.  As Cole told his story he kept a close eye on the Twin Worlder.  He watched as the beings’ hopes of carrying the long lost war to the Esii crumbled and when he reached the end of his story he could tell the Twin Worlder was at a loss for words.

“That is what brought us to this place.  I need to find allies that will help us take revenge and shove it down the Esii’s thro
at.  I need allies that are not affiliated with any world’s government.  Allies that are willing to follow me to wherever that ship out there is parked, to destroy it and give us a fighting chance of getting other worlds to join our cause.  I will not jeopardize other worlds, if we lose to the kind of attack the Esii can do with that ship.  Are you and Jeth willing to go that far with me?  Do you have the courage to restart this war?  Will you take it as far as you can take it?”  Cole looked at Thalo waiting for his response.  Thalo stiffened his spine and stood ramrod straight.  He held his head high and slammed his fist to his chest.

“I will follow you to the gates of hell itself and be glad of it the whole way.”
  He walked forward and grabbed Cole’s outstretched hand in his own.

From just outside the doorway in the hall
, Cole heard Jeth’s response.  “If I could fit through the damn door I would shake your hand too and if I spoke like him I would say something poetic as well.  Since I can’t do either I’ll just say count me in and salute you from here.”  Cole chuckled a bit at that and responded.

“That’s good enough for me
, Jeth.  I had hoped you would be a matching set.  Now, on to other business.  Hal, you there old buddy?”  Cole asked.

“Yes, I guess I should call you commander to
o now that you have three whole people to command.”  Hal’s response came over the intercom.

“Can you explain to these gentlemen about how the ship works and what needs to be
done to them to allow them to interface with it?  I also want you to start searching the database for the other eight possible locations that Thalo mentioned in his story.  We may have more humans in the galaxy than we thought.”  Cole got to his feet, his head already feeling better.  “Stay and talk with Hal a while Thalo, Sky will stay here to help explain what Hal glosses over.  I need some food and a shower to make me feel normal again.”  As Cole got up, Thalo saluted him again and Sky gave his hand a quick squeeze before he departed the med bay for his room.  Jeth finally got to shake Cole’s hand as he exited the room and Cole realized that they may want to upgrade to one of the bigger ships if they would be getting more of the large Worlders in their crew.  He staggered down the hallway and up to his cabin where he ordered up some food and drink.  He sat down with his meal and half heartedly began to eat.

The galaxy was a messed up place and however indirectly
, Cole’s ancestors were partly responsible.  In his mind that made him partly responsible.  His people sacrificed themselves to give the rest of the galaxy a fighting chance at some kind of a life not under the dominating rule of the Esii.  He was proud of them for that but he knew now he had to finish what they had started thousands of years ago.  Now, after hearing the stories and reading all he could on the histories in the ship’s data banks, Cole had the sneaking feeling that something, or someone, had been or still was, behind the Purge War and recent attack on Earth.  That problem would have to wait, the Esii and their ship had to be dealt with first.  He was slowly building his crew but he still needed the location and he hoped that the Worlders had some insights into that problem as well.