Second Chances (131 page)

“So, you really did do it?” Tsakhia demanded. He'd seen Bob's confession, but hadn't been sure about Dunn's real involvement in it all. From what Bob had said, Dunn had just watched; he hadn't actually participated in the poisoning. He had however allegedly committed the sabotage though, and they had him dead to rights on assaulting and nearly killing Chambers.

Dunn looked at him with a disgusted expression. “What do you think?”

“He's too stupid to do it alone. That's why he needed Tariq and his wife's help,” Phyllis said. “Poison is a woman's weapon of choice; it's non-confrontational. It's also great for assassinations. We've already confirmed their part in this,” she said.

“You leave them out of this,” Dunn said, turning to her. His fists clenched.

“Right, and leave them to try again? I don't think so,” Phyllis said, shaking her head.

“Why, you bitch!” Dunn tried to lunge at her but the restraints and the robots holding him firmly kept him in check. “I'll kill you, you bitch!”

“I highly doubt that,” Phyllis said. “
Colonel
,” she said in contempt. “You just tried to kill me and everyone here. You've proven it's kill or be killed here,” she snarled.

“Let's get it over with. You don't have the stones to kill me.” Dunn threw it in their faces.

“Oh no?” Travis demanded, eyes hard.

“This is a new world. We're not going to sink to your level,” Mitch said, holding out a hand. Travis turned an expressionless look his way. “I'm going to take a page from Anne McCaffrey.”

“And what's that?”

“You'll be banished,” Mitch said, voice rolling out harshly. His eyes glittered. “We came to this world for a fresh start. You killed three of my friends, nearly killed me, and nearly killed Cassie. You did manage to kill her unborn child.” His eyes cut to her. She clenched her fists in rage. She was still pale in the wheelchair. He turned back to the assassins. Bob was blubbering it a bit, trying to keep from sobbing outright in terror and fear. “So, we're going to find a nice place and drop you off. Then we'll let nature take its course.”

“You can't do that!” Bob said, gasping.

“I'm the boss here. Yes. I. Can,” Mitch ground out. “I'll give you the option of being dropped on a different island than Dunn for your own safety,” he said. Bob kept looking down for a long moment, then glanced up to look at Mitch's stern face and then to Dunn. Dunn's expression made him shake and look away.

“Thanks,” Bob muttered.

Mitch looked at him for a long pitiless minute. Dunn he could see surviving, at least for a while. Bob on the other hand...”Those that want to go with them can do so.” He turned to Jackie, both gunny's and the chief. “Get them out of here,” he growled.

Epilogue

Mitch surveyed the base and laid back in satisfaction. One traitor had been dealt with. One major pain in his ass had been removed, though two more had surfaced. He wondered how many others there would be. Hopefully not many more.

Just getting rid of Dunn would be a bit of a relief. He wished Crash Town was closer. That way he could bypass Dunn's fortress...they really needed to find another name for that place. He sighed as his thoughts went back to the colonel. He felt for the man's kids. He hoped none would be raised by their mother to seek revenge. That would suck. He'd have to keep an eye out for that problem. Or get Phyllis on it.

Removing Dunn was worth it though, he thought. Even if he'd been battered into a pulp and nearly lost the base in the process. “Worth it,” he said softly, eyes still closed.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Sandra murmured. He snorted.

“The good news is this is the last day of the conference. Everyone goes home tomorrow,” he murmured to her.

“I guess they've had enough excitement for one visit,” she teased. He tried to chuckle but it turned into a cough. He groaned he felt hands pull on the sheets, then a familiar small form climbed on board. “Morning son,” he murmured as he opened his eyes.

“G'morn da,” Tucker said from on top of his mother. The boy still sounded subdued. She stroked his hair and then kissed his forehead.

Mitch pulled the sheet off his body and then groaned as he swung his legs out off the bed.

“Where do you think you're going mister?” Sandra asked.

“Bathroom. Pee,” he said, sounding desperate. She snickered as he wobbled and made his way to the bathroom and waiting porcelain god.

------*------

Later that morning, an hour into their final conference the Meme aliens returned. Mitch scowled, wishing he'd had thought to bring in sunglasses with him; the damn aliens were giving him a headache. He closed his eyes. “Back so soon?” he asked.

“Partial inventory of reserve planet has caused secondary programming faults and errors,”
Mre stated.

“You checked all the planets? Not just this one?”

“This entity triggered an alarm. Other lesser units are checking other reserve planets,”
Mre stated.

“Ah,” Evan said, nodding in understanding. “You passed it on to another member. Delegated.”

“The Conclave has begun an investigation. Tentative conclusion cannot be denied. This world and other reserve worlds have been saturated with life forms, thus defeating the purpose of the relocation program,”
the alien said.

“Even with your genetic tampering, nature finds a way,” Yung li murmured.

“More intervention and possible reprogramming is required to protect the current system,”
Mre stated.
“The Conclave is in a...error prone situation.”

“To do that you'd have to find ways around your program blocks,” John said. “I didn't know that was possible.”

“It is if we can understand their coding and find ways to do it ourselves,” Evan said. They turned to stare at him. “Well, it's certainly possible. Maybe not in our lifetimes though,” he admitted.

“Don't count us out just yet, Professor,” Mitch murmured.

“So, you need to change the protocol or add additional worlds to your reserves. But that takes time and energy you may not have.”

“Can you...I don't know, stop the extinction event from happening? That would save a lot of energy wouldn't it?” Yuri demanded. Other people nodded.

“We can only move people and follow our programming,”
Mre replied.

“Okay...What I'm suggesting is stop it from happening. In the case of Earth for instance...” Yuri smiled to the others. “It's as simple as moving the rock. Or asteroid, or whatever is about to threaten the world. A minor nudge would move it off course right?”

Evan and Professor Hinkley nodded. Other people murmured in agreement as they watched the alien wrestle with the concept.

“That is not possible,”
Mre said, blinking its lights as it stated each word.

Mitch frowned thoughtfully. “Are you saying you won't do it or
can't
?” he asked.

“Query clarification misunderstood.”

“Can you move an asteroid?”

“Answer to query, negative.”

Mitch nodded. “Ah, so it's not a matter of you won't do it, it's that you are incapable of what, moving such mass? Even if it's just a planet length?”

“Query, distance?”

“I know what he’s talking about,” John said, smiling to Mitch. “You picked the idea up from
Stargate SG-1
didn't you?”

“It's a thought, yes,” Mitch said and shrugged.

John snorted and turned to the alien. “What he's proposing is set up a wormhole or whatever method you used to transport us in the path of the rock, then the other end just on the other side of the endangered planet. You'd move the rock out of the way of the planet. A shortcut.” He used his hands to try to illustrate the idea.

They watched in amusement and fascination as the aliens moved about, lights flashing within them. Then finally their spokesman came forward once more and lifted a tentacle.
“Theory has many mistaken assumptions,”
the alien buzzed, dimming slightly.
“Transport of such large mass is impossible. Set up of a wormhole of such short length is not possible. Transport of matter through a mass is not possible. Power demand for even part of that task exceeds our abilities. Programming does not accept transfer of mass in that manner.”

“Okay, so that's out,” John said, shaking his head. “This is tougher than I thought.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Mitch said wryly. “It's not just about their physical limits; it's also their programmed limits we have to find ways around.” John nodded.

“So, you are saying the reserve planets are saturated? Can you make more? Planets I mean. Or find more in the area and use them?” Evan asked.

“...Query understood. Will pass on to conclave for further discussion,”
the alien said.

“Ah, so we may be getting somewhere,” Mitch said, nodding.

“What about relocating the people to a planet once the extinction level event has passed? If the planet recovers? Earth has been hit what, five times with major events in its history? We survived, but if you dropped in biota it might recover faster...” Professor Hinkley suggested.

“Suggestion logged for further discussion,
” the alien buzzed.
“But it is beyond our ability to transport so many.”

“Ah, crap. Okay, so that's out,” John sighed.

“I could have told you that. We're still a ways away from understanding the mechanics of their wormhole transports, but to do even one person takes up an incredible amount of power and exotic matter,” Evan said, shaking his head.

“Okay, my bad,” John said. “Next idea?”

------*------

As the humans discussed the situation, a new smaller Meme popped into the air above them. It paused to confer with Mre for a period of time. Finally Mre turned to the waiting humans. “Error, alarm. Inventory fault triggered. One dominant species destroying all others on their planet. Error, malfunction. Extinction level event alert on a reserve world. Such is not to be.”

“Say that again?” John asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Interaction with your anomaly has triggered an audit of the reserve worlds. Many anomalies have been detected, including transported species missing,” Mre explained.

“You mean dead. Got that. We pointed it out to you,” John said. “Or Mitch here did,” he said, jerking a thumb Mitch's way.

“Explain,” Mitch said, crossing his arms and resting his elbows on the table. Right now all he wanted to do was sleep, even though he was excited by the events. Couldn't they have waited a couple more days? A week? Apparently not, he thought wryly.

“A dominant species is destroying all other species on its planet. It's procreating out of control. It is consuming the resources at an alarming rate causing a potential extinction level event,” Mre explained.

Professor Hinkley nodded. “I'd think killing off species on the planet would do that. You mean you don't intervene unless every species is about to die?”

“Affirmative.”

“And their species dying when they don't have any food left...that's not a problem? Or are they polluting their atmosphere as well? Consuming the plants needed to make oxygen?”

Mre paused. “All of those stated variables and more,” the alien replied.

“Lovely,” Mitch murmured.

“Hey, at least it's not a global war,” Adam said. Mitch nodded.

“The dominant species are some time away from the final trigger of the Extinction event. By your time units, one local ten unit of years.”

“Okay,” Mitch said nodding. He translated that to about a decade. “They've got time before it becomes irreversible. But you still can't intervene?”

“Members are being dispatched to investigate further but are being met with hostility. Error, some species have already gone extinct. Error, some extinct species do not exist elsewhere.”

“I can understand some people being upset over being transplanted. No doubt the stories have been distorted over the generations,” Kirafiki mused. Adam, sitting beside his ally and neighbor nodded.

“What can we do to help?” Mitch asked as Sandra and other people came into the room.

“Them again?” Brian asked, clearly amused. Sandra looked up to the Memes and then down to her husband.

“Can we ...I don't know, mediate? Arbitrate? Speak with the natives? Maybe if we somehow talked with them it would open the door to their listening? Illustrate the problem to them?”

“We had this problem on Earth. We still have this problem on Earth. There are those who refuse to believe that you have to conserve, that the planet's resources won't hold out forever. Hell, they also think that they can dump pollutants into our water and atmosphere without consequence! It's taken decades for people to make headway against such stupidity,” Mitch said. He rubbed his brow tiredly. Sandra came up behind him and rubbed his shoulders and neck gently.