Talosian Chronicles 1: Olympus (32 page)

A young woman, roughly eighteen years old in appearance, and wearing a dress uniform with the rank tabs of Major, took form on the stage next to Ian. She had a dark, Mediterranean complexion, with long, flowing brown hair. She was very beautiful, and except for the uniform, looked more like a Persian Princess than a ship’s avatar.

“Thank you, Commander. Full AI access has been restored, resuming all suspended processes. I am, once again, ready to assist my crew-mates,” Star said, in a feminine voice and smiling happily.

Both Ian and Star had to wait for the end of the loud applause. Star smiled brightly and blushed at a few ‘wolf-whistles” and ‘cat-calls’ given over her new appearance. Ian would have jumped on whomever had insulted his friend like that, but since Star seemed to enjoy it, he didn’t do anything but join in with the applause for the ‘young woman’.

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“G
reat! Now I’ve got the hots for the ship’s AI! I swear Ian is trying to drive me crazy sometimes,” Cindy said to Beth who was sitting next to her.

“I don’t know; she had the whole ‘daddy thing’ going for her when she was Oly,” Beth teased.

“Eww!” Cindy said in mock horror as the two women continued to clap.

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I
an smiled at the crowd as the applause started dying down. “Members of the crew will notice that Star is wearing the rank of ‘major’. That rank is official, she has it to match her new job as Electronic Warfare and Counter-Measures Specialist. Now, these naval ceremonies where never intended to be long, drawn-out affairs; they liked the party afterward too much. So now that we got the important stuff taken care of, let’s get to the good part!”

Once again the crowd stood and applauded as Ian, with Star on his arm, led her off the stage, and over to where his and Jenny’s wives were sitting. Jenny had followed them smiling like it was Christmas.

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O
nce they reached a sufficient altitude for the shuttle’s sensors to be affective, Ty had the computer create a hologram of the situation on the table in the lounge for his team.

The scan showed Allison’s car traveling down Nevada route 376, just north of Kingston, Nevada. Ty had the computer tag her with a blue aura. Less than five hundred feet behind her was another vehicle Ty tagged with a red aura.

“Okay, we can see you now, Ally. The prick is that car directly behind you?” Ty asked.

The relief in her voice was clear in her response. “Yeah, as far as I can see, we’re the only two cars out here.”

“There are other cars, but they’re still a ways away from you. We’ll be coming up on you from the south, but we’re cloaked so you shouldn’t see us,” Ty told the scared woman.

“Thank you Ty, and everyone. Just knowing you’re close makes me feel a whole lot better,” Allison said.

“You can thank us in person in a few minutes. In a quarter mile, there will be a dirt road on the right. I want you to try to wait until the last minute to make the turn. Once he figures out that you’re on to him, he’ll do his best to get you to pull over, or run you off the road. Do you think you can do that, Ally?” Ty asked.

“Probably, but that’s not the way it’s going to happen, Ty,” Allison said as Sam pointed to the red car.

“He’s accelerating; he’s making his move on her!”

“Get set-up, Ty we’ll be there! Soon!” Allison said quickly.

“Go-go-go!” Ty ordered as his team ran for their jobs.

Sam and Joel were out the back door with the rhino’s and into the night as the two battling cars careened onto the dirt road. Lee and Ty were standing at the open rear cargo door as the shuttle settled to the ground several hundred feet up the road.

“The drone’s attached to the bad guy’s car, and it’s starting its scans,” Sam reported. “ETA to ship fifteen seconds.”

“We’re ready here. Ally, you should be able to see the ship with your contacts; just drive right into the hold.” Ty replied.

“I see it, here I come!” Allison replied. Seconds later she flew past Ty and Lee, and Lee activated the front of the containment field.

Just as the car entered the containment zone, the security drone started an explosion alarm, and detached itself from the car. It made it out just before the last wall of the field snapped on.

“Get back!” Ty yelled as both he and Lee jumped away from the containment zone.

Looking back, Ty saw the man’s head explode just before the car followed suit. They must have used something like white phosphorus because the flash was very bright. The field reported the heat to be over two thousand degrees for a few moments before slowly beginning to cool off. When it also reported extremely high radiation levels, Ty paled.

The maintenance drone from the ship came out and slowly entered the field. It dematerialized everything inside the field. It slowly began the job of replacing everything it had just destroyed, but without the highly lethal radiation.

Ty and his crew had been extremely lucky that they’d used a containment field in the attempt to capture the creep. If they’d used only a tangle field, they would all be dead, and a good portion of the surrounding area would be radioactive.

While the drone was working, Ty, his team, and Allison sat in the lounge having a snack and winding down from the close call. Ty composed a report for Ian with the help of Allison and the team, with the data from all the sensors, they got a good picture of what had happened.

The drone finished the small clean up job about the same time Ty sent the report to the ship, so they took off for Talos.

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I
an led Beth over to George Myers, and introduced them. “Mr. Myers, Beth is also the ship’s doctor. She can help you with that shrapnel in your leg, and even perform a little magic to make you younger.”

George kissed the pretty, young woman’s hand while Ian had been talking. “You’re a doctor? You look like you’re barely out of high school!”

“Before she leads you off to the medbay, George. If you were physically able, would you be willing to take charge of my gun and missile crews?” Ian interjected.

“I’d love to, Commander. This is a beautiful ship. Of course I’d have to talk to my wife, and make arrangements for my retirement checks,” George said.

“Your wife didn’t come with you?” Beth asked.

“No, she wanted to stay for the Barbeque. Don’t get me wrong, she was as excited as everyone else, but since she’s never been in the military, she didn’t think she’d have understood most of what she’d seen,” George explained.

Ian smiled at the man. “George how about I give her a call, and personally ask her to join you up here? The job offer is real. Our doctrine allows sailors and pilots to have their families on board with them.”

“That might be a little overwhelming for her, sir. I think I should go down on tonight’s shuttle and bring her up on the return flight. I can explain some more during the flight,” George said. “If it’s okay with you sir, I’ll try to get some rest, then report to medbay in the morning.”

“Actually, you can rest in the guest quarters when you get back, considering it’ll be very early morning when the shuttle makes it back here, take your time, and when you come to medbay tomorrow afternoon, you can bring your wife too,” Beth suggested. Even if you decide not to take the job, we can still make sure you are both healthy and have extended life spans.”

“Okay, I’m starting to melt down here. Let me go get Tawny, then you can explain that to both of us at the same time,” George replied.

Ian smiled and nodded. “I’ll see you later, George.”

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I
an had already implanted two of the three security risks when he found Zeb Gabriel closely examining a hornet.

“Do you know how fighter craft are built, Mr. Gabriel?” Ian asked as he approached.

“Not really, no. But that doesn’t stop the curiosity. You know I’m going to call the authorities as soon as I get back don’t you?” he said.

“No, you won’t.
*You will not share this secret with anyone not of our community, nor will you through inaction or inversion allow anyone not of our group to know of any of this.*
” Ian said, implanting the prohibition. “If you were to actually get someone to listen to you, and take you seriously, I would have everyone that wanted to, off the planet, and safely away from any government ‘investigators’ before you could blink twice. I would still do what I have sworn to do, and you would be branded as a liar and fool. No one would ever take you seriously again.”

“How do you know I’m not a government spy, snuck into your compound to find out what you were really up to?” Gabriel asked.

“If you actually were, you’d find yourself outside of Albuquerque with a dizzy head, and wondering how you got there, and who exactly you were,” Ian replied. “Mr. Gabriel, there are some seriously horrible weapons that can be manufactured from this technology. I cannot, and will not, allow it to fall into the hands of any terran authority.”

“I don’t believe that an eighteen year old pagan boy is qualified to make that decision. I mean no offence to you, Mr. Williams, I just don’t believe your old enough to make these kinds of decisions without God’s guidance. Besides, you already told me that you would never use force to stop someone from revealing this secret. I honestly believe that you spoke the truth, and that you believe you are doing the right thing. But like you said, there are some horrible weapons here. I would feel much better if someone more qualified was handling them,” Gabriel said. “You really should repent, son. I’m truly afraid for you.”

Ian smirked. “Mr. Gabriel, I already warned you about the religion thing. I’ll let it slide for now, but I have no interest in your God. I’m very satisfied with my own beliefs, and feel no need to change at this time. Please enjoy the rest of the party. When you return to Earth, if you no longer wish to be a part of our community, then you are free to leave. However if you decide to stay, you must agree to live by our laws. I also spoke to Elias about your request for a church. We’ll be happy to build one for you, but since there are only three families in the community that would like a church, I’m afraid it’ll have to wait for a bit. You should be able to meet in your home until we can get it built for you, but if more Christians join us, please feel free to request the use of the community center. Good evening.” Ian bowed slightly as he left the man standing alone looking thoughtful.

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“T
y, I just finished your report. Since you’re not pulling your hair out with worry, I don’t think you understand the significance of what you saw last night,” Ian said. “You’ve answered the scariest question we had.”

“Sir? I don’t understand; what question would that be?” Ty replied.

“Ty, the analysis from all the instruments says that was a small anti-matter detonation. How many places on Earth can build such a device?” Ian asked.

“I’d heard that the bright boys were playing with some pretty big firecrackers out here, but I didn’t know they were anti-matter!” Ty said, then groaned. “No one terrestrial could build such a small, controlled device. I just thought it was a type of ‘dirty bomb’ like the terrorists have been threatening. That means that the guy following Allison was...”

“...Working for the enemy. There is no way he could have been a Caldarian, they’re not even remotely human looking, and none of them would ever allow themselves to be made to look like one of us. No, that had to be a modified human of some kind. Again, pointing to extra-terrestrial origins. You’re really going to have to start watching the fence,” Ian said.

“Well, I do have suspicions we’re being watched, but I can’t prove it yet. Other than what I mentioned before, we sure haven’t caught anyone doing it. If they are, they’re staying far enough away that we can’t detect them, or they’re using a cloaking generator. We also have to take into account that our eastern border is within spitting distance of White Sands,” Ty said. “If they have control over White Sands, they’d have to be deeply rooted in our intel community.”

Ian bit his lower lip before speaking. “I think our priority for now should be to get the ship back into space. If you think of anything you might remotely need, get it. If you get attacked your team and a wing of half-trained kids is all the protection those people have.”

“Sir, might I suggest that we just take a lower profile for a bit? Last night happened far too fast for that guy to get a signal off, so they can’t know what happened to him. We’ll quietly beef up security and add a couple more hidden weapons systems. But really sir, we have the shield, and a bunch of the guys here have been learning to handle a pulse rifle.

“You do what you need to do. We’ll be fine down here. I doubt they’ll stage the size of assault it would take to get through our defenses. Granted, we’ll be fully exposed, but so will they. They can’t have that many combat assets in the system or you would have detected them already. Take your time and get the ship off the moon safely.”

“I knew your joining us was a good idea. Thank you, Ty,” Ian smiled at the man.

Ty grinned back. “Just doing our job, sir. I should mention that a lot of these eggheads down here are really looking forward to moving up to Selene. So you might have to keep the ship close to the moon until they are able to defend themselves.”

“Selene? They’ve named the base already?” Ian asked.

“No, they’ve taken to calling the moon by the name they gave it; Selene,” Ty replied. “I told you they were anxious.”

“Obviously!” Ian chuckled. “Okay, we’ll get back to work. Let me know if there’s anything you need from up here.”

“Will-do, sir. Anders out.”

That interview did put Ian more at ease. Yes, now they had proof that the enemy was here, Ty had been right: Talos did have the tools to defend itself against attack. It would take a full scale assault with off-world weapons to breach the shield.

There had been no message sent by the target of last night’s excursion. So the enemy couldn’t know, for sure, what had killed him. As long as anything involving Talosian tech stayed below the surface, nothing could be learned by observation either.