Inherited War 1: Retribution (5 page)

“I am sorry Doctor.” 
Cole finally said after a few moments of silence.  “That would be a truly horrible thing to lose like that.”

“Never
apologize Cole.  If it hadn’t been for your people, who knows what, if anything, would have become of my people.  You personally have nothing to be sorry for.  You…well, you may just be more than you think you are.”

After a few moments
Cole asked “Okay, on to a lighter subject.  As far as Earth scientists are concerned nothing can go faster than light.  So how do we seem to be moving around so fast and what the hell are we running from?”

“As to the last, I don’t know why we are jumping all over the place but you may be right about us running.
The first is an easy enough answer but you will have to find an engineer to explain the details.  A starship, as opposed to a space ship, is capable of interstellar movement.  It has a power source that harnesses the most abundant form of energy in the galaxy.  Gravity.  It super concentrates gravity and sends it to the engines where it is converted into thrust which distorts space and time enough that a ship can move between two points many times faster than the speed of light.  The bigger the gravity collectors and engines, the faster a ship can travel.  But for every hour of gravity transit the collectors have to rest for the same amount of time.  The energy collected can also be sent to the standard engines allowing for normal space movement.    As for the math and science on how it works, like I said you would have to ask an engineer.”

“If I may?”
Cole said.  “Can you tell me why you’re here?”

“
My greatest triumph was my downfall.”  She hung her head for a few moments.

“It’s okay.” 
Cole said.  “If it is too personal and you don’t want to talk about it I understand.”

“No
, no, it’s okay, just hard.” She replied.  “I developed the bacterial protocols I used to alter you.  And when this organization found out, they took me from my hospital to this ship, and abducted my mother, father, and siblings, to hold as a guarantee to my good behavior and cooperation.”  She choked back a sob.  “It’s my fault, I have ruined my life, your life and my family’s life-if they are even still alive.  All because I had to try something new.  It was going to revolutionize our heath care system.  We had conquered most, if not all, disease but this would allow us to regrow limbs and organs in our own bodies.  Improve our brain function and open new vistas of thought.  I was wrong.  It was a curse that destroyed everything I loved.”  She broke down into rolling sobs of tears and hid her head behind crossed arms.

Cole
got up and slowly moved across the deck to her, he stopped and thought for a moment before sitting down and putting his arms around her.  He let her cry like that for a while before he whispered into her ear. 

Silence reigned for a few moments while Dr. Sky composed herself,
Cole shifted himself around so his back was against the wall but kept his arm around Sky’s shoulders.  Sky curled up into his side and rested her head on his shoulder.  “You would think I would be a little stronger after so many years of this.”  She said quietly.   She wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands and took a shuddering deep breath.  Cole remained quiet giving her time to organize her thoughts sensing that she would begin again when she was ready.  She cleared her throat, “That’s how I came to be here working on this project and I know that these are the type of beings who do not leave witnesses behind.  So I have to assume that my family was killed the moment they had me onboard this ship.”

“
There is always hope,” said Cole.  “Have you ever thought that possibly they have them locked up somewhere in case they needed them again?  You’re a smart lady and they would probably assume that you might figure out they wouldn’t want witnesses hanging around, but that if you did figure it out they would need to produce them alive and well to force you to continue. Convoluted I know, but possibly true and that means that maybe somewhere they are being held prisoner still alive and waiting to be rescued.”

“
That’s a nice fiction Cole but I can’t delude myself into believing it.  Besides I have to focus on the here and now, and hope that if they are alive they will someday be free.  Now for something I feel I need to tell you.  Part of the process you underwent radically changed your brainwaves and brain chemistry.  You may not be feeling one hundred percent yourself at times.  It is a temporary condition that should only last until your brain gets everything sorted out.  One of the main side effects is that the part of the brain that controls inhibitions may not be fully working.  Your judgment capabilities very well may also be impaired for a while.”

C
ole laughed out loud.  “Now I know why I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut.  I am not normally such a smart ass, especially with people who are holding me prisoner.” Cole shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh well, I’ll take that as an even trade for the new body.  Well not completely new, but much improved.  I am also enjoying a confidence in myself which is new for me.  Overall I guess there could be a bigger downside than a smart mouth or increased risk taking.”

“Just be careful
, please, around the Captain and his crew.  You are not in the right frame of mind yet to understand what could be a dangerous situation here on the ship, and the wrong reaction on your part could get you killed.”

“Well if you remember where you guys just picked me up
, I’m not that afraid to die, just less reluctant now.  I am not scared of death, I am more pissed off at being kidnapped and taken away from the only home I have known.  So I may just hang around a bit to kick the crap outta these guys.  Then go home to revisit some of the assholes in my former life and see what they think of the new improved Cole.  Seriously though, I am glad you guys did stop me from dying and I plan to use the rest of my life, however long it may be, better than the first nineteen years of my existence.  It is weird if you think about it, I am happy to be alive in my better body but pissed that they did this to me.  Oh well, chalk it up to a scrambled brain I guess.  Now is there anything else of vital importance I should know?”

“There
are a few things you need to keep in mind.”  She said.  “For the next few weeks you need to continue to exercise your body as much as possible to maintain a high level of fitness.  It is necessary to strengthen the muscles and joints the bacteria built.  I know it’s hard in here but keep doing the exercises you have been, and figure out a way to do some endurance things too, to build up your cardiovascular system.  It may be hard but you need to work your brain as well.  Your body changed a lot but your entire brain was rewired.  I will try to convince the Captain to at least give you something to write with and on, to help with this.  Just doing math problems in your head or solving puzzles in your brain will go a long way to helping you get sorted out and everything up and running.”  She turned slightly enough so that she could look up at his face.  “I don’t know what is coming but you need to try to be at one hundred percent if you want to have the best chance of surviving it.”

“I am
definitely planning on surviving and you are too Doc.  I am gonna make damn sure of that fact.  There are too many people who have to pay for what they put us both through.  I want to be there looking them in the eye when their bill comes due.  Besides you never know, we may get unexpected help in all of this.”  Cole leaned down and put his mouth next to her ear and whispered. “Have faith doctor, things are not always what they seem.”

“I am afraid there will be no help for you two.” 
Captain Feng’s voice came out of the door speaker.  “You are quite alone in this and will do exactly as you are told.  Now both of you get up, place your hands behind your backs and face the wall.”  Cole got up and held his hand out to Dr. Sky, helping her to her feet.  They both turned towards the bulkhead and placed their hands together in the small of their backs.  They heard the door slide open and the guards come in.  In seconds they were both in manacles and turned back around.  “Very clever Doctor, forging that bit of sound.  I didn’t think you had it in you to bluff your way in here through my guards.  No matter, it aided neither of you and saved me some explaining.  So now be good prisoners and come with me to the bridge, we are almost at our final destination.”

Feng left in the lead
, followed by Cole and Dr. Sky, and trailed by the two guards.  They turned down the companionway headed toward the lifts.  An elevator and another hallway later they found themselves at the door leading to what Cole assumed was the bridge, where their procession came to a halt.  The Captain turned around, drew what resembled a pistol, pointed it at Cole’s head and said.  “Just so there are no mistakes, I have absolutely ZERO problems with killing you human if you so much as make any threatening moves.  If I see so much as a twitch toward an active console I will kill you in an instant.  And since you will be dead, then the good Doctor gets to spend another twenty years in this ship with me finding and preparing another human to suit my needs.  Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,
Captain.”  Replied Cole.  

“Good, now I have prepared a place for you to sit.  Once we go in
, my men will take and secure you in place, until we need you.  You will keep quiet or you will be made to be quiet.”  At that Feng moved to the door and hit the release, the door slid up and he entered the bridge.  The guards grabbed Cole by his arms and hauled him into the room to a chair that looked freshly welded to the floor.  They undid his manacles and placed his arms in the restraints built into the chair, and his feet into matching restraints on the chair’s legs.  After Cole shifted enough to get as comfortable as possible he took a look around the bridge.  It was no Enterprise Bridge that was for sure, more like the new Battlestar Galactica.  The lighting was subdued making it semi dark.  The consoles were packed in tight, leaving little room except for where the Captain and Dr. Sky were standing.  This was just a small piece of open deck around the command chair.  He could see holographic tables displaying a beautifully rendered, and very detailed, schematic of the ship they were on.  There were about a dozen beings on duty right now but they hardly made a sound.  There was also a very nervous feeling in the air, mixed with a sense of dread.  There was, what Cole thought of as his dream TV, hanging on the wall to the front.  It had to be twelve feet wide by ten feet tall and had an image better than the best plasma he had seen on Earth.  Granted, all it showed at the moment was the warped light effect of faster than light travel.  But it was still awesome as far as he was concerned.  Cole found he had to struggle to keep his mouth shut, damn side effects.  He tried to keep in mind the Doc’s warning about lack of self-control and the Captain’s warning of forced silence.  That did the trick.

“
Captain, we are approaching drop out point in sixty seconds……forty….twenty….ten…. grav limit reached dropping out to normal space now,” said one of the crew.  The hum that prevailed over the ship when it was running FTL slowly decreased then fell away.  The stars resolved themselves on the big screen to the front, with one star in particular glowing brighter than the rest.  A bright red to be precise.  “Translation from warped space to normal successful Captain.  Engaging standard drives heading to local primary at half speed.  ETA thirty minutes to edge of system.  Forty five till we hit the coordinates obtained from the Admiral’s files.”

“Good work navigation
. Sensors, I want full sweeps with active and passive detectors.  Nothing is too small not to be noticed and scanned, do you understand?  Good now I ….” At that moment the ship suddenly went dark.  Not just lights out but pitch black, nothing working, dark.  “What just happened?”   The Captain Roared.  “Whoever let this happen, I will have your head. Someone get emergency lighting up NOW.”

The big monitor suddenly came to life while the rest of the bridge remained dark.  “Ahh there you are
Captain I have been waiting a long time for you.  I was hoping you would have gotten here sooner.”  There was someone on the screen that Cole didn’t recognize but obviously the Captain did.  Because he was frozen in place with a look of incredulity on his face.  “Now, now Captain don’t be so shocked. I was off planet when the attack happened and like you, I chose to keep a low profile and not use any funds or resources that could be traced to me.  Unfortunately, I have been stuck on my yacht since that day and was woefully unprepared for an extended trip.  If you would please send some crew down to the airlock and prepare for my arrival, I would much appreciate it.”  With that the screen went dark.  The power suddenly came back on all over the ship.

Quiet fell on the deck
for a few seconds.  “Do as he ordered, send a party to,” he looked at a tactical plot and grumbled, “both airlocks. He is stealthed, so I don’t know which one he’ll be at.  Remove these two,” he pointed at Cole and Sky, “from the bridge.  Put them into the forward holding cell with two guards on the door inside and two outside, and place men at the ends of the hallway.  I will be awaiting the Admiral’s pleasure in my cabin.”

9

The door slid open and in walked someone Feng thought had been dead until about twenty minutes ago.  “Admiral Nasser Sir, what an unexpected surprise.  We had feared you were caught in the attack and had died.  We had used all resources available to attempt to find out what had happened, but were unable to.”  Feng said with a salute.

“I understand completely
Captain, and I must apologize myself for hitting you with the override code. I wasn’t sure that you were still in command here and had to make sure it wasn’t a trap for me,” the Admiral said as he walked inside the Captain’s cabin.  “I, of course, will remain in my own ship tethered to this one but I require some supplies to be transferred over immediately, and some crew as well.  As our food supplies dwindled I had to regrettably sacrifice certain nonessential personnel.  So I require a few replacements.  Now as to our current status, I have been out of the loop for a while and would like to have an update to our progress on the human and any information regarding the status on our overall organization’s handling of the attack.  Start, I think, with the organization and save the human for last.”

“As you know
Sir, Sector 1’s capitol planet took a huge hit.  One hundred percent loss of life on the surface and up to one hundred feet below ground.  All orbital infrastructure and all buildings and personnel on all five moons were also destroyed.  Some reports from ships who had time to flee the attack reported seeing Esii insertion ships head planet side before the attack started.  The Roche started the attack on the orbitals and moons giving the Esii the time they needed to get whatever they were there looking for.   Shortly after they hit high orbit of the planet, the Roche started bombardment of the surface while the Esii shot down any ships trying to flee the surface of the planet.  They left a message behind Sir.  Warning off all who work with humans or their technology, so I assumed that the attack was directed against you and the organization, so I took necessary steps to avoid notice.  They must have hit the organization in multiple places because none of my emergency contacts have returned my messages or made contact.  Sir, as far as I know we may be all that is left.  I have avoided drawing funds from any of our accounts and have been jumping a few times everyday to avoid any pursuit.  I’m afraid that’s all the information I have on your business Sir. We were unfortunately also unable to resupply for the fear that using my accounts could be traced to the organization, we too are getting low on general supplies at this moment but should be able to do what we came to do, before we run out or have to ration.”  They locked stares for a moment before the Captain turned away and started bringing up reports and accounts for the Admiral to look at on his comp screen.

The
Admiral leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands under his chin.  The Admiral lost himself in thought for a few moments.  “Do you have anything to drink Captain, preferably something with alcohol? I could use a drink after that news. Hmm, this is bad Captain but not a total loss.  I have assets that would have gone undiscovered and have faith that some of my operatives escaped whatever fate the Esii and Roche had planned for them.  Now onto the reason why we are here.  To be more frank how exactly did you find the coordinates that led you to this empty bit of space around a dead star Captain?  The only place on board this ship that had them, was in my locked personal files.”  Feng got up and poured the Admiral a drink, from the only bottle of liquor Feng kept on board-for just this occasion.

“I had no choice
Sir, to continue with the mission I had to know where you had planned on taking the human.  I knew you had personal files on board and if they would be anywhere they would be there.  The tech team you provided me was good enough to get that information for me, Sir.”  He looked the Admiral straight in his eyes and said, “Besides I knew if you had survived you would have come here not knowing where I was.”  It was a huge lie and the first he had ever told the Admiral, but there was no way he was going to tell the Admiral that he had let the Pure Strains AI loose in his ship.  The Admiral had been quite clear on that point years ago saying it would be better to destroy the ship and start over from scratch than allow it to gain access anywhere outside the AI core.  This ship had too many ancient systems for the AI to access and infect to be allowed outside.  If the Admiral found out about it, his life wouldn’t be worth spit.  He was glad he stressed that point to the tech team while they were working with the AI to crack the files.  This would all be over soon anyway, he hoped, so what did it matter.  The AI was locked up safely in the core and there should be no traces in the files to indicate it had been there.  Feng was thorough and he knew not to truly believe someone was dead until he saw a body.  So he had made sure that there were no traces of anyone but the techies to be found in those files. 

The
Admiral took a sip of the fiery liquid he had forgotten he was holding.  “I was not aware the team I had assigned you was that good, to have gotten in my files so quickly.  I obviously was not paying them enough.  Moving forward to the future.  How is our pet human doing?”  He took a longer pull from the glass in his hand.

“He is
, in fact, ready to go and we were just about to enter the system and head toward the facility they’re in when you made your presence known.  Dr. Sky has finished all her work and we tested the human with the short range probe device you gave us.  He was able to take full control of the probe and even to a lesser extent get a feel for the probe itself.  He said he could sense the intense cold and pressure the probe was under but also knew that it was operating well within its tolerances. Contact lasted for less than three seconds.  He had gotten a clear image of this ship, a feel for the probe and did the probe’s job of mapping the stars.  Though he didn’t know about that one because after he came back and we downloaded the information on the probe, we found the readings he unknowingly took with the probe.  The readings were of a much higher quality than we could have produced from our own sensors.”  Feng leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk.  “The Doctor says he still has some recovery to do, but I think he is able to go forward with operation. I was just about to start explaining to him what his job will be, and how we had installed a safeguard to ensure his cooperation.”

“I am glad you carried on in my absence
Captain, but I will be taking over from here.  I have decided to make a change in my plans.  Load my yacht with enough supplies for yourself and a skeleton crew.  Collect all the physical credits you and the crew have on hand, and I will add to it from my own pocket.  Send the techies and a maintenance crew over to alter the yachts ID markings, transponder and engine signature.  Once you have finished those repairs you will go to the Archones system and make contact with an old friend of mine to resupply and recruit some new Merc teams.   You will use funds I have stashed there to buy a transport and crew, then you will bring the Mercs and our supplies back out here, by which time I plan on having control of enough Pure Strain tech that the Esii and Roche will rue the day they attacked me.  We will stay on the edge of this system until you are ready to leave Captain.  Do we have an understanding of your mission Captain?”

“Yes
Sir, I understand.” 

The
Admiral tossed back the last of the alcohol in his glass and said, “Good, now let me finally meet the linchpin of our plan.”

The guards removed
Cole from the chair, had his arms behind his back, and manacles on, in no time.  They shoved him towards the door and Dr. Sky fell in step next to him.  They left the bridge through the same door that they had come in, but were going away from the lifts down the hall to a room that turned out to be a ten by ten cell.  At least it had a bench and cot in it, Cole thought. He wasn’t alone anymore either, the Captain must have been rattled to place him and the doc in the same cell.  “Wow I guess that was unexpected.”  He said.  “Do you know who that guy was, Doc?”

“Please Cole, just call me Sky. I don’t feel much like a doctor these days.  To answer your question, no I don’t know who that was but it had to be someone that outranked Feng. And if I read him right, Feng had also thought that he was dead.  I think I heard him call him Admiral at one point, but that couldn’t be possible because the only ones who use the title Admiral are the Sector Patrol Navy.  So why would someone that basically calls the shots in a whole sector, need to run a shadowy criminal organization.  This doesn’t make any sense.”  She shook her head than sat on the bench.  Cole joined her there.

“What was that guy anyway
?” He asked her.  “He almost kind of looked human. “

“He is an Archon from the Archo
nes system, it is one of the older systems in the galaxy.  They were one of the few races that forced contact with the Pure Humans.  They had limited space flight at the time of contact.  Mainly only within their own system, though they were trying to break the light speed boundary.  They also had very advanced communications tech because they supposedly started picking up human signals.  They broadcast their own message back to the humans on a deep space station doing research in the area.  Archons chaffed at the rules humanity imposed on them, before allowing them to learn the tech they needed to break the light barrier.  So after the purge they asserted themselves into positions of power in the core sectors and created the Sector Patrol Navy or SPN for short.  They are highly intelligent and resourceful beings who thrive in commerce and scientific studies.”

“Sounds like this guy might be in charge of this whole operation to me.”  He said.  “
Now the question is, why he is out here now?  And is this good or bad?”  Sky had no answer for him.  Cole got up to explore his limited surroundings.  While Sky lifted her legs up and hugged them to her chest.  Cole found a panel which responded to his touch, not like the probe had, but it did turn on.  “Hey what’s this?”  He wondered aloud. 

“What’s what?”
Asked Sky. 

“There is a panel over here but I can’t read the writing.”
  Said Cole.

“Oh that’s probably the refresher station controls.” She replied. 

“Like in a shower or bath refresher station?” Cole said as he hit the first button.  A section of the wall slid down, revealing a four by four shower hidden in the wall.  Cole was funky, he had to be with as much as he had sweated during his work outs, and the fact he’d had the same skin suit on for a long time.  “Finally a shower and I can’t get my goddamn clothes off.”  He cursed as he looked longingly into the shower.

“Here
,” said Sky “use my bonding tab to get yours off.  I agree that you could use a shower.”   She said with a smile.  “Just place it anywhere on the skin and hit the front of it, it will break the bond of the second skin from your actual skin.”  She plucked the little metal tab off the shoulder of her suit and tossed it to Cole.  He caught it and slapped it onto his chest.  He smacked the tab and felt the second skin pull away from him slightly.  He grabbed it around the neckline and pealed it off himself.  God the stuff felt like some kind of semi solid gel now and kind of pooled at his feet.

“Wow
, check me out.”  Cole said as he flexed his newly revealed muscles.  “I’m freaking ripped.”  He turned back toward Sky and said, “Hey you’re not looking, why you looking away?”

At that point Sky reminded him of what she had explained to him earlier.  “Remember your inhibitions are gone and your decision making ability is impaired.  You are naked and don’t care
.  It’s best if you just take a quick shower and get re-dressed so as not to embarrass yourself.  When you are in total control again, you might find this moment in time uncomfortable to remember.”  She kept herself turned away from him.  “Place your second skin on the floor of the shower and it will clean itself as you wash.”

Cole
realized there must be something to what she was saying because he had no embarrassment at all and normally he would never have taken his clothes off in front of a woman like this.  “Umm, yea, I’ll do just that.” So he turned, stepped into the shower, and spent the next few minutes scrubbing the last few weeks of sweat and stink off his body.  When he was done he stepped out and looked around.  Sky then said.  “Put the second skin back on, then hit the tab again.”

“But
it and I are still soaked.”

“Just do it
Cole.  We don’t know how long till they remember we’re in here together and come in here to move us again. And I’m sure you are not supposed to be out of your clothes for fear of you touching anything you could control.”  He did as she had asked.  He pulled the gooey feeling sopping wet suit on over his wet skin and hit the metal tab.  Surprisingly, it heated up and within moments was bone dry along with Cole. 
Neat,
he thought to himself, at least he had accomplished one of his short term goals by getting clean.  He felt much better for it too.  He pulled Sky’s tab off his chest and tossed it to her.  “Here you go Doc, thanks,” he said.  “I can turn away if you want a shower.” But she was already asleep on the bed.  Cole hit the button on the panel to close the door to the shower then moved over and sat on the bench.  He watched Sky sleep for a while before leaning back and closing his own eyes.  Sleep didn’t come fast and it didn’t last long.

A quarter of an hour after
Cole fell asleep, the door whirred open waking him up.  A pair of guards waited on the outside.  “Get up and hands behind your backs,” they grunted.  Cole shook Sky awake.  They both stood and turned around with their hands, again, placed in the middle of their backs.  Soon they were marching down the corridor again, but went past the door to the bridge.  They went down to the other end of the hall by the lift, and stopped at the door Cole had noticed earlier when they had first come up.  Guard 1 hit the door chime.  After a few moments, the door opened and the guards pushed them inside closing the door behind them.  Cole and Sky stood next to each other waiting for someone to speak.  The Archon Admiral Nasser was standing behind the desk in the middle of the room with his back to them.  The room stayed silent.  Finally the Archon turned around.  “Welcome to my command, allow me to introduce myself. I am Admiral Passen Nasser formally of Sector 1 Fleet command.”