Warrior Chronicles 5: Warrior's Curse (15 page)

“Then we should hurry, General.”

Cort smiled. “Yes, I suppose we should, Liz. Okay, how long to change orders and get my fleet?”

JJ looked at Jaif. “Can you spare eight more system ships? If you can, I won’t need to take anything from the jump fleet.”

“Yes,” Jaif clicked. “How soon?”

“Yesterday. But just get them to me as soon as you can.”

“I need at least two weeks,” Jane Munroe said. “Since you upped your expedition size, I’m going to be very undermanned, especially when it comes to officers.”

“Then I have to cut it back. One light battalion. Very light. Two heavy companies and support. How many HAWCs do we have left?”

“Counting the two of us? Two. The only people who will volunteer for the Atlas interface aren’t qualified.”

Cort sighed. “Okay. Jaif, give me two heavy companies of your security people. I’ll use them as reserves. Liz, give me the remaining
Coach Gun
, two
Kalashnikovs,
and two
Peacekeepers.
I want at least a half-dozen
Derringers
to act as escorts. Two weeks will give you enough time to print the new engines. Keep all your ships here, Jaif, but start arming them. Until we rebuild the fleet, they are going to be pulling double duty. ”

“Sir,” Liz protested. “That cuts our jump force by seventy-five percent!”

“It’s bigger than I wanted to take originally, Liz, but JJ needs those other ships here, just like Jane needs the extra people. You’ll use the
Remington
as your flagship, but I’ll be aboard the
Kalashnikov.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Let’s get to it, then. We leave in two weeks.”

--

A week later, Cort and Kim walked into a science lab behind Lee Pan. George’s new body had been printed, filled with memory gel, and its power source was installed and tested. Cort understood that the last remaining step would be to install George’s link. As Pan closed the door behind them, he introduced the two techs that were working on the project and pointed at George’s new avatar.

“General, I took your orders at face value. We gave George every feature and ability we could think of. He is almost finished writing his memory gel. After that, he will run a full diagnostic test on himself before separating from his core.”

Cort was confused. “What do you mean by
separating from his core
?”

“George has designed a gelatinized crystal to use for his onboard memory. It is essentially the avatar’s blood. It also carries enough storage that he will be able to separate from his core completely. Whenever he is on Solitude, he will link and transfer data, but he will be fully functional off-planet.”

Cort, still puzzled, looked at Kim. “Did you know about this?”

Kim smiled broadly. “Yes. But George wanted to surprise you with it.”

“A surprise that you ruined, Mother.”

Everyone turned to see the avatar walking toward them. Gone was the body of a five-year old boy. In its place was the avatar of a FALCON-clad young man that bore an unmistakable resemblance to Dalek. Anyone who didn’t know George wasn’t human would immediately assume he was the boy’s older brother, and clearly another son of Kim and Cort. George had Cort’s eyes, but Kim’s hair and skin tone, a striking combination that filled Cort with pride, even though he knew it was synthetic.

“Hello, Father.”

“Hello, Son. Tell me about this new body of yours.”

“The most important new feature is that I am no longer bound to my core. I can be separated from it for up to six months before my gel is fully recorded. At that time, I have to link with the core or overwrite portions of the gel. I can also undergo a transfusion if I am not able to sync with my core. The memory gel also has a kind of synthetics. If I am injured, I can self-repair.”

“That’s good. What else?”

“Both my core and my avatar are battlenet capable.”

“Weapons?”

“I do not have any built-in weapons. I am very strong though. Comparable to a normal human wearing a FALCON.” George looked down at himself. “This is not actually a FALCON, Father. It’s still protective, but doesn’t contain strength enhancements since they are unnecessary. Instead, it has a more robust sensor package. I am fully linkable to all our of our powered armor, though.”

“Anything else?”

“I want to go with you.”

Cort thought about George’s new abilities, and the newly depleted rescue fleet. “Will it limit your core in any way?”

“No. My core will not be affected by separation. My avatar will lose access to my archived data, however. Current data will not be affected.”

Cort looked at Kim, who nodded. “Okay, Son. You’re going with me.”

“There is one more thing, Father.”

“What is it?”

“Will you and Mother fry bacon for supper tonight? I can taste it now.”

--

Just over a week later, eleven ships waited at the entrance of the wormhole for a signal from George. In addition to the jump fleet, there was one courier ship ready to share the success or failure of the mission with the rest of the Ares Federation. George had taken the Derringer-class ship
James West
through the wormhole. Once there, he was to scan the area and send a tachyon signal back through the anomaly.

A comm tech on the
Remington
reported, “We have a signal coming in, Admiral. Processing now.”

A moment later the tech added, “The
West
is secure, sir. George is tracking the abductees signals and checking for our tachyon signal. He is also mapping the area around him.”

“Very good,” Liz Thoms said. “Notify the
Kalashnikov.
”

On board his own ship, Cort heard the message and again questioned his decision to not be aboard Liz’s flagship. He was in the right place, but he hated waiting for second hand information from the
Remington
. He could be on the flagship with his fleet commander, but if he had to deploy rapidly on the other side, he couldn’t do that from the larger ship. So he stood on the bridge of the
Kalashnikov
with Quinn Faulks beside him. Both were in FALCONs, waiting for another signal from George.

The probes sent through the wormhole by Governor Siella indicated there would be a way home, but it was up to George’s mapping to make sure the path was usable. While George fed a steady stream of information through the wormhole to Cort’s fleet, he also ran thousands of tests, making sure that he was correct about one bit of information he hadn’t shared yet.

On board the Remington the comm tech said, “Admiral, George is requesting an inverse tachyon wave pattern be transmitted for exactly one minute.”

“Did he say why?”

“No, sir. Just that we should give him a one second warning before the transmission, and that we follow it with a second signal indicating the inversion is complete.”

“Well, you heard the bo…, you heard the young man. Send the signal.”

“Yes, sir. Transmitting now.”

--

On Earth, a young scientist named David Brinner tested the conductivity of a small, mysterious medallion by touching both sides of it with an ohmmeter. At the same moment, over 30 million people across New England and Canada lost power to their homes and businesses.

--

“Sir, George’s last signal was garbled but I did get
Safe to jump.
”

“Reason for the bad signal, Comms?”

“I think it’s feedback from the wave inversion.”

“Is George still transmitting?”

“Yes, he’s sending back all of his telemetry. All readings are normal, and he is now projecting celestial motion based on the star maps he’s been making.”

“Okay. Notify the fleet. We jump in sixty seconds,” Liz ordered.

On the
Kalashnikov
, the captain relayed the order. “We’re jumping, General. Forty-five seconds.”

--

Forty-six seconds later, the entire fleet materialized around George’s ship. He immediately commed Cort. “Father, why did you come? I told you it was not safe.”

“George, we received ‘Safe to jump’ from you. What’s wrong?”

--

On board the Remington, the comm tech frowned. “Admiral, something is wrong.”

“What do you mean, Comms?”

“Something is really wrong, sir. I’m picking up the inverse wave we transmitted.”

“What? Is it a repeated signal?”

“No, sir.”

Liz looked around her bridge at the confused faces. “Do your jobs, people. Notify the Fleet. Figure out what happened.”

“I’ve got a signal from General Addison, sir.
Report aboard
Kalashnikov
immediately
. Oh, shit.”

“What did you say?”

“Sorry, sir. I’m to report aboard with you. The
West
is entering the
Kalashnikov
’s bay now.”

“Notify the Captain we are leaving the ship. Do not transfer my flag.”
Oh shit, indeed.

--

“So what do we tell everyone, General?” Liz asked two hours later.

“We do tell them about where we are. We don’t tell them about the time problem. And we do tell them that we can for sure get home.”

“But when?”

“Well the sooner we get started, the sooner that happens. I want out of here as much as anyone, but we have a mission to carry out. So get back to your ship and lead us to the target area.”

“Yes, sir.”

“There’s one more thing, Liz.” Cort looked at the comm officer. “I’m not going to order you not to tell anyone because I know it wouldn’t work. There is always scuttlebutt, and everyone you talk to for the remainder of the mission will question you about this.”

“Sir, I won’t say a word. I understand how important this is.”

“I can’t take that chance, Ensign. So I have to take action.”

“Sir…” The ensign began.

“Don’t worry, Ensign, I’m not going to space you. You are taking the
West.
You will hold position here and relay signals. Inform our people on the other side what has happened, and keep station on the wormhole. If anyone shows up, let us know, and hide. If you have to, run. But keep both sides of the wormhole apprised of what’s happening.”

The junior officer was obviously relieved. “Yes sir.”

Liz added, “But let me be clear Ensign. If you disclose anything to anyone on this side,
I
will space you.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll have a message for my wife that is to be sent before anything else,” Cort said. “You’ll get it by the time we leave.”

“Yes, sir.”

--

“Hey honey. I’ve got good news and horrible news,” Cort began. Kim was watching the message almost two months later. “We’ve made it and George knows exactly where our people are. We’re going to get them now.”