AMP Armageddon (17 page)

I spoke. "How did the Duke know we were here?"

Frig pulled up the image of space where the rest of our fleet sat at the ready. "The Defiant fleet, Sir. Those ships do not have the same shielding. The sodium skins on those vessels can be detected by the Duke’s sensors."

I continued, "What about the Duke? How did he know where the
Rogers
was while we were sitting beside the Grid?"

Frig pursed his lips before responding. "Sir, you invited Ashley aboard. She can be tracked. The Duke was probably waiting for just such a misstep on our part."

I sighed. "Great, so this is because of me."

Frig shook his head. "No, Sir. This is because of the Duke and the Duke alone. He only took that opportunity to rub your nose in it, Sir. With or without that, he was prepared to sweep our people away and into a new battle."

I replied, "I suppose you are right. And until we can get back onto that complex, he has us cornered. And, I’m not going down there to the surface; that would be suicide for our people, complete control for the Duke."

Frig nodded. "I believe you are correct, Sir. For the moment, we have few choices."

I stood and paced back and forth on the bridge. "How about this: our goal for the moment is to postpone this war for at least twenty-seven hours. How about we start to send down the Colonel’s men from the Defiant fleet one by one, draw it out as much as we can. I’m sure they would volunteer to go and fight side by side with our people. We can tell the Duke we are having to persuade them to do it and that it takes time. We’ll start trickling them down to the surface."

Frig replied, "That may buy us some time. However, the Duke can become impatient, so we should expect it to only work for just so long. It will, however, offer us an opportunity to come up with an alternate plan. And that gives merit to an otherwise unworkable solution."

I continued my pacing. "Too bad we can’t take a Human with us and jump back to Earth. That massive fleet would be more than a match for the Durians. But, we can’t take a Human without the Duke knowing what we are doing."

Frig thought for a moment and responded, "I have an idea, Sir. What if we sweep a Human up onto this ship and put them in stasis?"

I replied, "In stasis—how would you propose that we do that? We don’t have a stasis chamber."

Frig pointed. "We do, Sir. Just down the hall. Sarah Rogers had a stasis chamber on the Defender for her long journeys between galaxies. When you ordered the bots to build a larger ship using the technology on the
Swift
and the Defender, they added that feature as a standard option. The Defender only had a single stasis chamber, so the bots only added a single chamber here on the
Rogers
."

I shrugged. "So, what does a chamber do for us?"

Frig smiled. "It makes the Human inside invisible to the Duke’s sensors. They will remain cryogenically frozen in stasis once the chamber is powered up. A frozen Human will not emit bio-signals, Mr. Grange. The Duke will not be able to follow them so long as they remain frozen."

I walked over and placed my hand on Frig’s shoulder. "I have a Human in mind. She might balk at being the volunteer for this, but this is something I need. Get a fix on Ashley and prepare to sweep her aboard for a stay in that chamber. We then jump back to Earth and enlist the help of our Human clone brethren. They can check her DNA without thawing her out. Make it happen, Frig. I will go prep the chamber."

Frig replied, "I will take the
Rogers
down to the planet’s surface, Sir. We should be able to move her into that chamber without the Duke seeing her move off of the planet."

I walked into the room containing the stasis chamber. A quick scan of the Help system in my HUD told of its ease of operation. A person only needed lie back in the chamber while a single button was pressed. The chamber would seal and the cryo-process would begin. Fifteen seconds would have Ashley safely frozen for our journey.

As I stood waiting patiently, a portal swept by in the open area of the room, and Ashley was left standing in front of me.

I spoke. "We need to move quickly. I need you to trust me on this. Lie back in this chamber. We need your help to turn the tables of the coming battle to our favor."

Ashley looked around the room as I coaxed her gently towards the stasis chamber.

Ashley stopped my efforts. "Regardless of what has or hasn’t happened between us of late, Don, I want you to know that I do trust you. And for whatever reason, a reason that I can’t yet understand, I seem to be fond of you. You stay on my mind."

I nodded as I helped her into the chamber. As she lay back, I leaned in and gave her a soft but lingering kiss on the lips.

As I pulled away, I offered a gentle smile and pressed the button to start the chamber.

I spoke. "Dream of us, for both of us."

The chamber sealed, and within seconds Ashley was nearing the frozen temperature where she would remain until such time as her bio-signature could be removed or the Duke was defeated. I felt no guilt in having selected her as our volunteer.

I walked back onto the bridge. "She’s tucked away."

I opened a comm to the Colonel. "Colonel, we have an issue with the ships you are on. The Duke can follow them, so we need to set them aside. We also need to buy some time. So, we are going to volunteer you and your men to go down to the surface to fight alongside the others. I know
volunteer
isn’t the correct term, but it is essentially what we need you to do."

The Colonel replied, "We will do as you ask, Mr. Grange. It would be nice to have a reason. Volunteers like to know why they are going."

I nodded. "Colonel, we want you to start slowly transferring Marines from your ship, and we need you to stretch that process out for about thirty hours or more. We need to delay the fight that the Duke is about to unleash on our people for as long as we can. Trickle them out, Colonel, in batches. Make it seem like you are having to convince them to go. And Colonel, if we want a shot at surviving this ordeal, we need that time. So, try to be as convincing as you can if the Duke calls on you. I’m sending you the Duke’s general hail frequency. He will likely contact you first for a progress report."

The Colonel replied, "We’ll do our best, Mr. Grange. Go do what you need to do."

I turned back to Frig. "I’m going to clue in the Duke that we are joining the fight. After that, get us back to Earth as soon as possible."

Our journey only took minutes with the powerful generators on the
Rogers
. We jumped through the final portal and pulled to a stop just outside of Earth’s location. Frig broadcast the coded signal, and several minutes later, the ships of Earth began to appear.

As the panels of Earth began to show, I gave Frig the go-ahead to take us down to the surface. The
Rogers
hovered above the grassy quad just in front of the grand building.

I spoke. "I’m going to go in. Can you sweep the stasis pod onto the floor of that lobby? We can have the guy do a test of her DNA from there."

As I began to stand, a thought occurred to me. "Hey, Frig. Why is it that if we touch the edge of a portal, we will freeze, and yet you can have it sweep around you, obviously touching the ground, and yet there is no reaction?"

Frig replied, "There is much we do not understand about the portals, Sir. One of the oddities is that when a wormhole is in motion, the edge does not transfer the cold depths of space to whatever it touches. Should the portal remain stationary, any item in contact with it will immediately freeze. The strange exception to that seems to be air, which does not seem to make significant enough contact as it passes over and around the portal edge."

I nodded. "So, sweeps are good. I’ll keep that in mind."

Frig sent the commands to sweep the stasis chamber from its location to the floor of the building lobby. A portal then opened just in front of us on the bridge.

Frig gestured for me to move through it. "Just step up and over the edge, Sir. This one is not in motion."

As I stepped through, I turned back. "Hey, isn’t this planet moving and this galaxy moving? Why is that not a sweep?"

Frig replied, "Sir, the sweep is only relative to the portal starting and ending points. If they are synchronized, such as they are here, the edge becomes dangerous. If one point is moving relative to the other, it becomes a sweep."

As we stood in the lobby of the great white building, an elevator once again descended from a lofty height. The same young clone who had come out to see us before walked easily out onto the lobby floor.

I raised my hand. "Remember us?"

The young man nodded. "I do; you are the only visitors to this world in over a thousand years."

I pointed towards the stasis chamber. "We brought a Human with us this time. She is in stasis, and we cannot bring her out at this time, which I will gladly explain if you would give me the time."

The young man pulled out a scanning device and swept it up and down the side of the stasis chamber.

I spoke as he scanned. "She and all the other Humans have a bio-marker that allows them to be tracked. That is how they were taken from here in the first place. We have her in stasis so that the marker cannot be tracked."

The young man spoke softly into a small device on his forearm. Two large bots emerged and walked the floor of the lobby to our location.

The young man spoke. "I can see that the DNA-lengthening process is well under way. We have a process by which we can accelerate the change, even while she is in the stasis chamber. If you would like us to proceed, we can move forward with the necessary preparations."

I replied, "How long will that take?"

The man replied, "She is already in an advanced stage. A conversion time of twelve to twenty-four hours should suffice."

Frig grabbed my arm. "Sir, if her DNA is accelerated, she may not be able to recover her memories."

I spoke. "Look, Sir. We have almost a billion and a half Humans out there who are about to get slaughtered. All we are looking for is some assistance. Can you bring out the fleet and help us?"

The man nodded. "We can. But we must receive those commands from someone who is designated as a Human. This woman has been designated as such."

I replied, "Even if you change her DNA?"

The man again nodded. "She has a Human designation; that cannot be changed or reverted."

I gestured with my hand. "Well, time is of the essence. Please take her and perform whatever procedure you need. All those lives I just mentioned are dependent on us returning with help."

As the bots carried the stasis chamber off, the man gestured towards the elevator. "Please, join me in the lounge. Tell me about the Human troubles. My name is John Tellison. That was, at least, the name that my pairing had."

I walked with John as I replied, "Your pairing?"

John smiled as he stopped and gestured for us to board the elevator. "Yes, John Tellison was the Human I was cloned from. I am a Virt, or virtual. We had three years in which our memories were shared, including the campaigns against the Ogle."

As the elevator began to rise, I spoke. "You were here during the final days before the Humans were swept away?"

John replied, "Yes, as I stated, I was the Virt of John Tellison for three years before the Humans were taken. Our connection was broken at that time."

I nodded. "How did you become a Virt?"

John looked out across the city as the elevator continued upwards. "I was grown in a lab here on Earth until my body reached a maturity equal to my Human counterpart. I am, was, physically identical to John Tellison at the time we were paired."

Frig spoke. "What was this pairing you are referring to?"

I replied, "These chips we have in our necks, the QE comm—the Virts were tied to their hosts through them. Implants in both allowed the original to see, hear, feel, and smell everything that the Virt did. The Humans were able to sit back in safety as the Virts went out to do battle, fully under their control. When the Humans were swept away by the Duke, the QE links between them were broken. The Virts were left here with Sarah Rogers. She took them and secured the galaxy from any other hostiles before she left to look for us."

Frig looked at me. "This was in the Defender files?"

I nodded. "It was in Sarah Rogers’s personal diaries. I read through them when I had time to kill."

John spoke. "He is correct. We cleansed the galaxy of species who were bent on the domination of others. When Sarah left on her search, we all went into stasis, waiting for Humans to return."

I raised my hand. "Wait. What? You have been in stasis for seven hundred years?"

John replied, "Yes."

I continued, "How many of you are there?"

John looked at me. "We are 2.5 billion strong. If Humans are in need, we are here for their command."

I spoke. "The fleet out there. How many of you can it carry?"

John replied, "All of us. There are approximately five hundred greeting hosts, such as myself, scattered around the planet."

I pointed up. "We counted close to one hundred thousand ships parked up there. You are saying that you can fit 2.5 billion people on them?"

John nodded. "yes and no. The welcoming fleet is the larger part of the AMP navy. When counting manned fighters, which are interplanetary as well, there are just over two hundred thousand ships."

I looked over at Frig with my eyes wide. "I like these guys!"

Frig spoke. "What kind of transit capabilities do your ships possess? Are the BHDs the only means of propulsion?"

John again shook his head. "Sixteen mega-transport ships in the fleet are equipped with jump drives as well. The standard fleet is loaded into the transports, which have the ability to jump as much as eight million light-years per hop."

I spoke. "How long does it take to make a jump?"

John replied, "Jumps can be made every seven seconds."

The elevator stopped, and we stepped out into a room stocked with leather couches of green and yellow color. "Please, have a seat and relax."

I sat and continued with my questions. "If you have jump drives, why did Sarah Rogers not make use of them in her searches?"

John sat on a couch opposite me. "We had not yet developed that technology when she left on her journey. One of our sister species, the Nickarians, developed the jump technology and shared it with us."

I turned to Frig. "When Ashley comes back, we need to get this fleet and get back to the war. At eight million light-years per hop, we can jump straight there!"

I spoke. "Who else beside you and the Nickarians has this jump technology?"

John replied, "We have not shared this technology. The Nickarians built a single large vessel, boarded all of their citizens, and set out to travel the stars. We have had no communication with them since their departure more than five hundred years ago."

We talked through the afternoon and into the evening. The observation lounge that we occupied had a wall of windows that looked to the west. The sunset over the Earth landscape was filled with oranges and pinks that soon turned into a deep red before fading. The air surrounding the city was clear, offering visibility out to eighty kilometers.

I turned to Frig. "I could get used to that."

Frig replied, "I remember sunsets on Gambrel from my childhood that sometimes offered a similar view of nature’s beauty. They are some of the few fond memories I have of my world."

I smiled. "At least you had a world to grow up in. The only sunsets I’ve seen were on the handful of worlds I have been to when a Messenger or when fighting these wars. I saw a few from in orbit around Jarhead, but never from the ground. Other than sunsets, I bet this world has many natural wonders."

John nodded. "The Earth has many wonders. Some are recreations of the originals, as war with ourselves and war with others caused severe damage. Many are lost for eternity."

I replied as I looked out through the windows, "Looking at it from here, it looks like war is the furthest thing possible from happening at this place. Very peaceful and very tranquil."

John smiled. "Our automated system serves to keep everything in order now. Centuries without war have brought the planet to this sustainable level of cycles of growth and death. Other than these cities, the Human footprint has been greatly reduced. Natural growth has been allowed to return to many areas that were once occupied by man. With the advent of the BGS suit, farms became more of a curiosity than a necessity. Flying taxis ended the need for roads, and cheap, plentiful energy ended the need for many dams and power plants, and for the wires that delivered power to our communities. Manufacturing was automated, with much of that taken off world."

I nodded. "Almost sounds like a utopia. I wonder how long it would last once you brought people back, though. We can oftentimes be quite messy and inefficient, and just about all we’ve known for the last millennium is war."

Frig replied, "With such a solid base here, Humans would be free to explore the galaxies, knowing that they had a home to return to if so desired. Imagine the wonders that are out there to be discovered and explored, Sir. A scientist or adventurer could experience an entire lifetime of doing what they love most."

I looked over at John. "How much longer on Ashley’s conversion?"

John replied, "I am expecting results at any time."

Several minutes later, the elevator departed for a lower floor. When it returned and the door opened, Ashley stepped out into the lounge as I stood.

I spoke. "I thought she was still going to be in stasis?"

John replied, "Once the bio-signal was determined to be gone, we felt the need for keeping her in stasis had passed. Gentlemen, I would like to introduce Ashley Elizabeth, Supreme Commander of the forces of the Alliance of Major Planets."

Ashley smiled. "That is quite the title, John. And thank you for the introduction."

I tilted my head slightly to the side. "Supreme Commander?"

Ashley replied, "As the first and only Human to return, I have been given complete control of the AMP forces. I have already ordered all fighting vessels to be loaded onto the mega-transports. We are taking a fight back to the Duke."

I raised my hand. "How are you feeling? Is everything OK?"

Ashley nodded. "I feel good, Don. Stronger, more alert. It’s strange; those memories that have been suppressed by the Duke—I feel as though I can almost access them."

I replied, "Please let me know if you can. It is something that I very much would like to see happen."

Ashley smiled. "I will do my best."

Frig spoke. "John, how long before the transports are ready?"

John replied, "The transports will be ready to jump in approximately eighteen minutes."

Frig held up his hand. "The Duke was able to detect the active sodium skin of Sarah Rogers’s Defender, and of the ships we adapted from that. We have a new coating that masks that detection. Do the ships in the AMP fleet have a similar detection issue?"

John replied, "The AMP fleet has been tested by all known methods of detection. The coating on your ship is a good start to the improvements we have made since Sarah Rogers’s departure. As you can see, Miss Elizabeth has a new BGS suit. It has the same enhancements as the ships of the fleet. If you would care to follow me, we can change out your suits as well. I believe you will find the enhancements to both power and weapons desirable updates."

We followed John down to the fourth floor. We were escorted into a lab for a quick scan and then into private rooms for the removal of our old BGS suits. After a wash down and inspection by helper bots, we were each given a new BGS suit that was of a brilliant white color. I slipped the suit on and was surprised by its initial fit. The bot offering me assistance then plugged a tube into an external port, and the bio-gel began to flow. The warm, funky feeling that the gel offered soon brought a smile to my face.

When I emerged from the private room, Frig was already waiting in the lab. "Sir, this is remarkable. They were able to adapt the changes I had made to the bio-gel in only a few minutes’ time. This suit feels, well, remarkable, Sir."

I replied, "I have already been making my way through the menus on the HUD. It seems they managed to get rid of a few of the quirks in the old ones. Whoa, take a look at the specs on the coil gun; that is insane!"

Frig flipped through several of the menus. "Interesting, Sir. The ion blaster is now a powerful particle beam instead. And the active skin—it can absorb nearly three times the energy as before. The responsiveness of the HUD seems to have improved as well."