Trail of Evil - eARC (23 page)

“Rackman, the visual?”

“Almost there, Penzington. Keep your shirt on,” Rackman said.

Any luck on that visual, Allison?
she thought.

Yes, I have had DeathRay move one of the Archangels into a position that I have given them and the pilot is pointing the mecha’s telescope per my specs. If the light incident on the exterior penthouse windows will allow, we might be able to zoom in on the room. Imagery is coming up in a couple of seconds.

Good work, Allison.
Her DTM view turned into imagery data. A video screen floated out in front of her with real-time optical imagery on it.

Zoom in on it and get me facial views.

Done.

Nancy watched the image self-adjust and a clearing algorithm removed fuzzy edges and made it sharp. There were a few glares and the occasional glint from the window that got ahead of the software but Allison quickly cleaned it all up.

The man was definitely her target. He had close-cropped black hair and boring features. It was him. The female voice was presently turned and looking out a window on the opposite wall.

“I have been feeding your people technology, strategies, plans, and more for two centuries. Once you were able to communicate with me in real-time I did what I could. There is little more I can do for now. Please consider the evacuation strategy.”

“Not unless it is a last resort. An absolute last resort!” The woman shouted and pounded her fist against the window. The spike in the audio algorithm caused by her fist hitting the pane hurt Nancy’s head and made her skin crawl. She shook her head and blinked her eyes from the pain.

Put an amplitude impulse filter on this thing, will you,
she thought.

Sorry about that.

“Very well. It is your choice to choose extinction. I have always suspected this is the path you would take. But at some point don’t you think you should give the rest of your people a chance to decide?”

“A target, Copernicus. Not civilian. Military.”

Copernicus laughed again. “To the Chiata there really is no difference. You should consider what you are planning here, Sienna. Please let us find a way to evacuate your people while there is still time.”

“How much time?”

“The Expanse usually moves quickly. While they do not have quantum membrane teleportation, thank goodness, they do have something similar to your hyperspace vortex jaunt propulsion that allows them to expand their borders at about seventy-five light-years per year. Their newest world closest to you is Alpha Lyncis, which is about two-hundred and three light-years distance from Sol. I would guess they will be here at your world in two years. They always start from the outer worlds and work their way in. Though with your technologies, it shouldn’t take them long at each of your worlds. I would guess no more than a few months before they venture inward to the subsequent world. In less than five years they will be at Earth. If you are very clever and as mighty as you think you are, maybe you can stall their expansion wave another year or so. You must start to evacuate now.”

“We will do that if we have to. For now, give me some intel on them and a place to strike while we can. We don’t have to defeat them at first, we just need to draw in some allies.”

“Penzington, I’ve got the target in my scope. You should have the imagery DTM now,” Rackman told her. Nancy brought it up beside the other imagery in her mind. Rackman was looking at a completely different angle than the mecha sensors were. He was looking right through the window that the woman was staring out of, but he was focused on the male target.

“Rackman, put the female in your crosshairs now.”

“Roger that.”

“I’m downloading to you now the nearest Chiata settlements and outposts that might be of interest to you. These are smaller settlements and exploration outposts and will not hold the full might of the Chiata Expanse’s forces. You will have little chance against them I fear.” Copernicus hesitated briefly and then said deadpan. “My dearest Sienna, I can only wish you good luck.”

“Got her in my sights,” the SEAL said over the net.

Then Nancy heard a sizzling through the audio and there was a flash of light in the room. As the lightning settled away the visual view cleared. The lady in the penthouse continued to stare out the window with a grimace of anger on her face. Nancy had no doubt who she was looking at.

Ninety-nine percent image correlation with President Sienna Madira,
Allison said.

No shit. I got that several seconds ago. We have to get the hell out of here now. Connect me to Jack AIC direct!

You are connected.

Jack! Emergency snap-back to the
Madira
immediately! Everybody get out of here now!

Chapter 33

December 3, 2406 AD

61 Ursae Majoris

27 Light-years from the Sol System

Saturday, 4:41 PM, Expeditionary Mission Standard Time

The inside of the
Madira II
aft hangar bay was a flurry of action, but it was a routine one. Supply ships continued to pour in from Sol space and the occasional mecha would take off or land on routine patrols. Every now and then an AEM or a droptank would QMT in. The AEMs would pound off toward the gear locker and the droptanks would walk themselves to their predetermined hangar space. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

The flash of light around Nancy subsided and the buzzing and crackling stopped as she appeared on the hangar floor in the personnel emergency QMT safe zone. Her armored suit buzzed in a half of a second after her and fell limp next to her. The two security officers on watch for the area looked up sharply.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” one of the guards asked her. Nancy knew it was standard protocol. “Is there something wrong with your suit?”

“I’m fine. Thank you. Suit is fine too. Could you have it put in a locker for me? I’ll get it later.” Nancy turned toward the hangar bulkhead walking path and as fast as she could made her way toward the elevator. Rackman and then several of the AEMs popped into reality nearby. The security officer pacrd her.

“Uh, yes ma’am. We’d be glad to,” the security officer said nervously. Nancy knew that she couldn’t order soldiers around since she was a civilian. On the other side of that coin was the fact that she was very closely tied to the general’s family and to DeathRay. Most people always wanted to help her.

“Mrs. Penzington?” Gunny Suez raised his visor. “What gives, ma’am?”

“This is above all our paygrades, Top. Sorry I can’t explain further.”

“I understand ma’am. Is there anything I can do for you?” Top asked as Lieutenant Colonel Jones and First Sergeant Howser QMTed in next to him.

“Not at the moment, Tommy. Thank you though. If you’ll excuse me I have to see the general.” Nancy turned and continued to walk.

“Rackman, what you saw was classified at the highest level. You are not to share it with anybody until the general can debrief us. I know I’m not your commanding officer or anything, but DeathRay will confirm these orders. Are we good on this?”

“No worries, ma’am. This ain’t my first rodeo, mate.” Nancy could see what Dee liked in him.

“Great, thank you, Lieutenant.” Nancy said.

Allison, where is General Moore?

The Moores are in their quarters. It is night cycle here. They are in bed.

Patch me through and let me know as soon as Jack and Dee land. No, better yet, just have them report to wherever I am with the Moores at the time.

Understood. You have an audio channel with the general.

“General Moore, this is Nancy Penzington.”

“Yes, Nancy? Is your team back already?” Moore asked. He sounded as if he’d just woken up and wasn’t completely to his senses yet. He rarely sounded that way.

“Well, sir, we need to speak immediately, and in a secure private location. And by ‘we’ I mean you and Mrs. Moore, sir.” She said.

“Very well then, meet us in the captain’s lounge,” Moore said. “Can this wait ten minutes or is it ship is about to explode immediate?”

“Uh, well, sir. I don’t think ten minutes will matter.”

“Okay then, we’ll see you in ten minutes. Moore out.”

“DeathRay to Penzington?”

“Go Boland.” Nancy switched channels immediately.

“What gives? Where’s the emergency? Are you okay?” DeathRay sounded nervous.

“I’m fine, Jack. But, as soon as you land, get Dee and go to the captain’s lounge. Can’t talk until we get there,” Nancy said. The elevator opened and she stepped out onto the bridge deck. The captain’s lounge was to the port side of the bridge entrance and only a few doors down from the Moore’s quarters.

Alexander hadn’t said a word throughout the entire briefing and replay of the audio and visual data from Nancy’s encounter. At first he wasn’t quite sure what to think and believe, but there was no denying what he was seeing and hearing right in front of him.

“But she killed herself.” Sehera almost whispered. “How can this be? We were there she did it right in front of us.”

“The continent city we were in was filled with repeated faces,” Nancy said. “Look here at the images. We can only assume they are clones of some type.”

The images popped into everyone’s virtual DTM view. All three Moore’s, DeathRay, and Nancy were looking at hundreds of images of clones. There were repeated images that could have been the same person except that they were wearing different clothes and in different locations at the same time.

“There are one hundred and three faces as far as we could tell, sir,” Nancy added. “Uh, not counting Sienna Madira and Copernicus.”

“Wait a minute. I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Alexander said. “Abby, do a cross reference of these images with images of the 91st Tharsis Recon Battalion Armored Environment Suit Marines and display the results for everybody here.”

Twenty-nine of the images matched with the faces of his old squad, and matched exactly. That explained what Madira was doing with the blood samples the doctor had found in the med bay of the ship. That also meant that Madira herself had likely been on this ship.

“What does this mean, Daddy?” Dee asked. Alexander was glad she chose not to call him “general.” He smiled at his daughter. She was still in her flight armor skins. It amazed him how much she looked just like her grandmother.

“It means that Elle Ahmi collected the DNA of my squad while she was torturing them. And it means that she then cloned them and some other people for whatever purpose.” Moore said.

“It makes perfect sense!” DeathRay actually snapped his fingers. Moore looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Jack?”

“Sir, sorry, uh, well it does make perfect sense,” DeathRay explained. “When Nancy and I found the ships so far from Earth we couldn’t imagine how people could handle such long trips in space. I mean, it would have taken them many tens of years to get out this far with that old propulsion technology. And how much food and water and air scrubbers would they need to make it? The logistics of that seem almost impossible.”

“Of course,” Nancy nodded in agreement. Moore kept silent and listened. “You’re right on target, flyboy.”

“You see, sir,” Jack continued, “you could send a ship full of blood and all you’d have to do is keep it cold. Once it arrived at the destination just thaw it out and start growing clones.”

“Is it possible that the Madira out there is a clone or that Elle Ahmi had been a clone of her?” Dee asked.

“No way to know.” Nancy answered. “But this one at 61 UM is certainly acting like the Elle Ahmi that I encountered.”

Moore sat and listened at the speculations being thrown about by his family. They really didn’t have any solid evidence to go on. But Alexander wasn’t so sure that it mattered. The big elephant in the room wasn’t Madira. It was this alien threat. He needed to steer the conversation toward that and get some thoughts on it. He turned and looked at his wife who had been quiet the entire time. She looked pale.

“Sehera, are you okay?” he asked her softly and gripped her hand underneath the conference room table.

“I’m okay. She’s alive. That is her. I know it, Alexander.” Moore could tell his wife was fighting back a mix of anger, sadness, guilt, and joy all at once. Her eyes were watery and her jaw was clenched. He had hoped they’d made peace with that part of their past but somehow it kept coming back like a recurring nightmare.

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Moore said. Then he stretched and leaned back in his chair. He was going to need some stims to stay awake for a few days.

Abby, bring up our path and the colonies on the star map I briefed the President with.

Roger that, sir.

A star map with all of the human colonies and outposts marked popped up. He tapped 61 Ursae Majoris with his finger and it turned red. Then he grabbed it and expanded it to see the system now that the recon team had images of it.

“Three planets, many moons, an approximation of tens of billions of, well, people of sorts, some kind of QMT transceiver system built by an alien, and a long-dead former president discussing a pending alien invasion.” Moore paused briefly. “They will be at Earth in five or so years if we can’t stop them out here. What does all of this mean?”

“What had looked like a wall wasn’t really a wall at all,” Deanna mumbled to herself. “She was never trying to separate from the union. She was trying to save it!”

“Dee?” Alexander looked at his daughter. She was talking to her AIC and had the thousand-yard stare while she mumbled. “You have something to share with us?”

“Yes! I get it now.” Dee said to Nancy. “I had a vision when I died.”

“What?” Sehera gasped. “Dee! You need to talk to us about these things.”

Alexander bit his tongue and let her finish.

“Well, I did talk to Davy, uh, Lieutenant Rackman—” Sehera gasped and Alexander raised his eyebrows. He didn’t like that.

“Relax, I didn’t tell him any of the gory details. Besides, he suggested I had PTSD and should talk to a professional,” Dee explained as she held up both hands palms out in an attempt to calm their response. Alexander decided to remain calm for now. If he had to, he’d go kick a certain SEAL’s ass later.

“Did you seek help, Dee? Did you talk to the doctor?” Sehera asked.

“I don’t have PTSD, Mother. But I did talk to a professional problem solver and observer. I spoke with Nancy.” Dee grinned at the spy. Alexander was glad she kept their dirty laundry in the family.

“Any way,” Dee changed the subject back to her vision. “It was very strange. My grandmother came to me—or rather it was a jumbled bunch of memories of her and everybody else all at once. I thought I was going nuts or that there was some real message from her from beyond. Nancy and I double-checked for any strange communication signals or hacks. There were none. Whatever this was came from my mind alone.” Dee paused and Alexander could tell she wanted to express this very succinctly. So, he continued to listen without interruption.

“Keep going,” Nancy encouraged her.

“Well, Nancy and I have talked about it and I think it is my mind figuring something out unconsciously or subconsciously. And I know what it is now. At least part of it.” Dee explained. “Elle Ahmi, the Seppy wars, even the Martian Desert Campaigns and the Exodus, it was all a wall that wasn’t there! A smokescreen for her true purpose.”

“Plans within plans within plans,” Alexander added. “I heard her say this as Elle Ahmi on Mars.”

“She said it all the time, Alexander,” Sehera added.

“All of it,” Dee continued. “All of it was to create a war machine. Whenever that alien contacted her AIC, he must have told her that an invasion was coming. He somehow convinced her she was humanity’s only hope. And I have a feeling he didn’t get the reaction he was hoping for.”

“Mother would never just run away, not unless it was part of a bigger plan. She has been driving all of these wars all this time to prepare us for something even more horrible?”

“This explains something else too, Daddy,” Dee added.

“What’s that?” Alexander asked

“This ‘auction zone’ explains why we’ve never found or been contacted by aliens before. It’s clear now that we’re not alone in the galaxy.”

“Sweetheart, I think you are absolutely on the right track here. But we need more than speculation about all of this. We need answers and I can’t think of but one place to get them.” Alexander stood up and rolled his neck from right to left and then popped his back. “We’ve been sitting at this damned outpost too long anyway.”

“Alexander?” Sehera asked.

Abby, sound an all hands, announcement,
he thought.
And open the channel.

Done, sir.

The bosun’s pipe sounded and the automated audio message played.

“All hands, all hands, stand by for a message from the Captain.”

You are on sir.
Abigail told him in his mind.

“All hands, this is General Moore. Prepare to move out within the next four hours to a new target location. I want battle stations ready and manned. This is not a drill.”

Cut the feed, Abby.

Done, sir.

“Deanna,” Alexander turned to his daughter. “Go get cleaned up dear, I’m taking you to see your grandmother.”