Sol (The Silver Ships Book 5) (7 page)

Haraken pilots eased their travelers into the open bays. The doors remained open for their exit, which would soon follow. The fighters settled to the deck, hatches opened, and troopers poured out. Each wore an environment suit and was armed with stun gun and plasma rifle, such was the level of distrust of the Earthers, especially that of the UE militia.

The SADEs, each descending from a separate traveler, checked for electronic weapon emplacements and pronounced their bays clear.

The enormous Haraken carriers and the mass of strange ships surrounding their station, compounded by word that no ship was being allowed in or out of the station, finally convinced every person aboard the station to heed the Harakens’ warnings. Not a single life was lost as the travelers landed.

When Tatia received the all clear from multiple sources, she let her irritated president up from his seat. Troopers were the first to pass through the airlocks accompanied by a SADE, if one was with them, and they ran reconnaissance, while the SADEs checked air quality and searched for contaminants, chemical and biological.

Julien sent,

Once troopers and passengers had exited their craft, the traveler pilots eased out of the station’s bays and joined the circling fighters to maintain the perimeter.

The SADEs had downloaded maps from the station’s control banks and shared them to eliminate the Harakens wandering aimlessly through an unfamiliar station.

Tatia sent on open comm,

The SADEs calculated the curvature of the outer ring and the maximum distance between individuals before they would lose sight of one another due to the curvature. Multiplying by three, Tatia had come up with the minimum number of troopers she voted to take. Alex had objected to what he saw as an invasion, but those supporting Tatia, which was just about everyone else on Alex’s staff, had their way. The SADEs and the twins had demurred from expressing an opinion, preferring to maintain positions of neutrality.

The troopers gained the station’s main deck with its wide but empty corridor. They glanced about them, and it didn’t matter whether they were Méridien or New Terran in origin, they all had the same thoughts. The corridor, despite its spacious size, was in a sad state of disrepair. Refuse, here and there, was tucked along its edges, surfacing was peeling from the overhead and upper bulkheads above the shops, and every few meters signs of moisture accumulation could be seen. From the shops and sleep quarters, the faces of the fearful and the curious peeked out.

Alex and Renée were surrounded by a mass of bodies. Tatia walked directly in front of Alex, acting as a shield, and the twins, Étienne and Alain, flanked Renée. Z, wearing his Cedric Broussard avatar, an immense New Terran design that rivaled Alex’s mass and was armed in multiple ways, walked closely beside Alex.

The group was packed so closely together that Alex grew irritated at being bumped and jostled every time a noise was heard. Several times, the group froze so quickly that Alex bumped into Tatia’s broad bottom. On the third occasion, Renée intervened before Alex’s temper got the better of him.

Renée sent to Alex and Tatia,

Tatia glanced back at Alex and recognized the signs of a president ready to explode. Tatia sent to her group,

Implants seamlessly calculated distance by way of signal strength, and the troopers spread out away from their principals. A young girl, watching from her father’s shop window, opened her mouth in an “oh,” reminded of a flower blooming in a time-compression vid.

Tatia moved farther forward, but the twins stayed in position. Alex could accept that, but he eyed Z, in his Cedric avatar, who still hugged his side.

Z deadpanned in response to Alex’s stare, which broke Alex into a fit of laughter, requiring he brace a hand on Cedric’s enormous shoulder.

Alex sent to Z as he caught his breath.

Z replied.

Alex sent,

Z considered that for a few ticks, and the concept crystallized for him — an arbitrary relationship; no mathematical definition. He had participated in the idea without realizing it. His booming laughter echoed Alex’s previous fit, and it froze the protection detail. No one had ever heard Z laugh in this manner, but it ended as abruptly as it had begun, when his protection algorithms resumed priority. The face of Cedric immediately smoothed, and his eyes resumed tracking the surroundings.

Renée sent to Alex. It was one of those rare moments when Renée knew by Alex’s expression that she had said something that troubled him. she sent.

Alex sent back.

Renée slipped her hands into Alex’s and briefly laid her head against his arm. Around them the protection detail was on high alert with tension running deep, but Alex and Renée were a lifetime away, imagining their end and the SADEs living on without them.

Julien signaled,

Julien’s team was the last to report to Tatia, but then his group had the farthest to walk from their traveler to reach their target. Tatia and her extended detail had only just reached the militia’s doors on the opposite side from Julien. The Harakens hadn’t encountered any opposition to their landing. It could be suggested that a strange human race that could destroy a UE battleship was to be feared.

Alex caught Tatia’s glance and said to her, “Why are you looking at me, Admiral? I presume you and the SADEs have concocted some method of neutralizing the militia. If you’re waiting for my permission, you have it.”

Tatia grinned and nodded, signaling Julien and Z to proceed. The SADEs, each on their side, faced the massive doors that the militia had installed for their protection and attacked the militia’s control systems through the comms system, which were interconnected with bay, dock, and station door controls as well as the militia’s data systems.

Z located an operation’s database for the militia’s weapons maintenance, downloading the specification manuals and schematics. The files detailed their stunstiks and pellet air-compression rifles, used for crowd control, and Z shared his prizes with Julien.

Julien stripped the weapons schematics apart, including the ammunition, searching for weak points. He located one in a small chip that activated the firing mechanism on both weapons and passed his observations to Z. The two SADEs designed a nanites program with an extremely short lifespan to prevent interference with any other such chips that might be on board the station.

Z signaled his three associates, and the troopers stripped off their heavy packs, none as heavy as the 230-kilo pack Z carried, which to his Cedric avatar was inconsequential.

Alex and company watched in amusement while Z squatted on the deck and began assembling his machine.

“It’s a miniature GEN machine,” Renée exclaimed.

“Precisely, Ser,” Z acknowledged.

The GEN machines were originally designed by Julien to help the New Terrans elevate their technological capabilities in order to produce the materials needed to repair the Méridien starship, the
Rêveur
, recovered by Alex. The products produced by the GEN machines marked the beginning of the crossover of Méridien technology to Alex’s people, the New Terrans.

Z finished his machine’s setup, added the newly designed program, loaded the machine with a pouch of generic nanites, and then sat absolutely still while he waited. As the time began to extend, Alex sat down beside Z to wait, and Tatia allowed the troopers to take a break, all but three, who were ordered to stand watch. She didn’t consider communicating to the twins. The escorts would do what they considered best to protect their principals regardless of what she requested.

At 1.4 hours later, a soft chime sounded and Z extracted a small canister from the GEN machine, loading its contents into what resembled a plasma rifle, which was connected to a compressed air canister.

Alex sent. A moment later, he heard from Julien instead.

Alex linked Tatia and Z to his comm with Julien.

Z stepped up to the heavy door and activated his rifle. Rather than a short blast of plasma, a focused tip of constant energy soon cut a small hole through the heavy metal door. Z pulled back his rifle, yanked off the tip, and dropped it. When the plasma tip hit the deck, it sizzled, evaporating in a puddle of condensation. Several troopers winced at the thought of touching the extremely hot tip bare-handed.

Z sprayed a small canister of nitrogen on the hole, cooling it. Then, inserting a different tip on the rifle’s open bore, Z pressed the barrel back into the hole. The group heard the sound of compressed air releasing as Z emptied his nanites canister. A countdown clock appeared in their implants, and Z pulled back his rifle, plugged the hole with a sealant compound, and began packing up his equipment.

Alex took Renée by the hand and walked over to a clean and dry portion of the corridor’s bulkhead. He sat down, leaning against an upright, and Renée snuggled up next to him. Within several moments, both of them were fast asleep. Tatia and the twins regarded their two principals and smiled, shaking their heads.

When Alex’s implant clocking app chimed the end of Z’s countdown, he signaled Renée, and the two of them regained their feet. Alex asked.

both SADEs returned.

Alex sent to the two teams on either side of the militia’s doors. When the people around Alex hesitated, looking to Tatia for confirmation, the team received a thundering that reverberated through their implants and their minds, and every trooper jumped to obey.

Tatia offered Alex a cocked eyebrow.

The twins shared grins, enjoying the opportunity to experience the power of Alex’s twin implants. Having been with Alex when he first received his implant, adopting it at the incredulous rate he did, the twins had witnessed greater and greater demonstrations of his implant capabilities with the passage of time. On one such occasion, Alex had mentally manipulated the fingers of two crew members via their implants to pull the triggers on e-switches simultaneously, allowing the
Rêveur
to exceed its drive restrictions and escape from certain destruction from the dark travelers rapidly closing in on the liner.

Alex sent, Alex waited until he had received every affirmation, noting the twins failed to reply. At least they had holstered their stun guns, but they edged close to Alex and Renée.

After hearing the Haraken president’s announcement, Major Lindling ordered his troops back to the militia’s headquarters and ordered the doors sealed on every deck level. He assembled his people in the large open space on the main corridor deck. The space was intended for administrative use, but it now housed the militia’s staging area and the armaments lockers. Every trooper was armed with a stunstik and a crowd-control rifle, but on the major’s orders the troops had removed their helmets. Expecting their enemy to come at them from two different directions, the rigid helmets, which were connected to the shoulder and chest armor, would have restricted the troopers’ views.

Major Lindling was ranting, swearing up a storm at his superiors, the Tribunal, and anyone else he could call to mind. Over the years, he had made multiple requests for heavier weaponry but had always been refused. The excuse was always that he and his people faced little danger.
How wrong they were,
the major thought for the umpteenth time in the last three hours.

When a point in one of the corridor doors began turning a bright red and a small hole appeared in its center, Major Lindling ordered his people into defensive positions. They had unhooked desks and other furniture from the deck and piled it high. The hole wasn’t enlarged, and after nothing more happened, everyone relaxed and the major went back to fuming.

“What’s with the hole?” Lieutenant Morris whispered to Captain Yun. Idona Station had been her first posting, and now she had thoughts that it might be her last.

“Doesn’t make much sense, Lieutenant,” Captain Yun whispered back. “They have an air hole. They could gas us at any time.”