Galaxy of War II Read online

“Or Boeraton is in agreement,” Trey said. “The more I think about this situation, the more convinced I am that he’s had it with Aeon.”

  Nolan nodded. “Are we still going to mount the phony operation at Valla Cappos with the Pentant Simtar forces?”

  “We have no choice,” Trey said. “I think it’s likely they won’t engage.”

  “You think we won’t run into Clan ships?” JJ asked.

  “No, I think we’ll only run into the deserter Clan ships. I think they’re hiding out there because of what’s going on in their zone.”

  “When’s the next meeting on that?” JJ asked.

  “Tomorrow morning, so I’ll have to cut it at about three of these martinis.”

  JJ laughed. “If I drink three of these, I won’t be up till noon tomorrow.”

  “The key is to eat,” Trey said. “Let’s order some food.”

  “I’ve taken enough of your time,” Nolan said. “I’ve got some things to work on.” He finished his drink. “See you soon.”

  “Thanks, Nolan,” Trey said. “I’d say don’t work to hard, but… I know you.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment, Captain Clarke.”

  “It was. Talk to you later.”

  Nolan left the bar.

  “He’s worried about his grandfather,” JJ said.

  “There will be a breakthrough on that situation soon.”

  JJ picked up her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

  They clinked glasses.

  ***

  Ecason backed away from his desk, staring at the scope output, rubbing his eyes. “Elizabeth?”

  Silence. He got up, walking to the front of the lab, Elizabeth sleeping in her chair. “Elizabeth.”

  She stirred, turning towards him. “You’re still at it?”

  “I got it working.”

  She sat up, eyeing him. “You need to sleep.”

  “We need to let XC22272 know.”

  “Let him know, and tell him we’re going to bed for a few hours. He’ll understand.”

  Ecason shrugged. “Okay, I’ll give it a try.” He went to the communicator and sent a message. XC22272 came back right away, telling him to sleep. Ecason sent a thank you message and left the machine.

  “Well?” Elizabeth asked.

  “You were right, he told me to sleep.”

  He shuffled into his room, getting undressed and climbing into bed. A few minutes later the door opened, footsteps approaching. Ecason turned, seeing Elizabeth, dropping her lab coat, taking off her clothes.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Getting into bed with you. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything.”

  “I’m okay, you don’t have to worry about me.”

  She finished undressing, slipping under the covers with him. “I’m not okay. I need some closeness. Go to sleep. I won’t bother you.”

  “All right,” he said.

  Ecason woke up several hours later, Elizabeth spooned against him, breathing softly. A strange peace came over him… the closest feeling to happiness he’d had since Janiza died. She stirred.

  “You’re awake already?” she asked, her eyes groggy.

  “I’ll drift off again soon,” he said. “Thank you, I didn’t know this would be so nice.”

  He rolled onto his back, Elizabeth giving him room to move, then laying back against him. “Go back to sleep.”

  Ecason tried, his mind already waking up, but the feeling of her seductive and comforting. He laid next to her, working out his next tasks for another couple hours. He finally got out of bed, careful not to disturb her, getting dressed and slipping into the lab. He called XC22272, who arrived in a few minutes.

  “Are you sure you slept enough?”

  Ecason smiled. “I did, thanks. Ready to try a message?”

  “Yes, I have the data. If we can make contact, XA27979 gave me a message to send.”

  “The comm unit is over here,” Ecason said, leading him to the device in the back portion of the lab. “You can load the message from your PA into this device.”

  “Nicely done,” XC22272 said, watching Ecason turn the unit on, it’s display lighting up. “Where’d you get the parts for this?”

  Ecason chuckled. “I took apart some lab equipment.”

  XC22272 smiled. “Now?”

  “Yeah, but we’ll get a readout of the message on the screen. Want me to go around the corner so I don’t see it?”

  “No, it’s okay for you to see it.” He dictated into his PA, the message appearing on the screen of the comm unit.

  They both took a moment to read it.

  Greetings. This is XA27979. You can see from the message ribbon that this is an official royal transmission. I am in the C1111-A main bunker.

  Our capitol planets have been taken over by an alien race from a neighboring universe. I will go into details on how this happened, but that is not the most important thing now. This alien race can enter the minds of human beings and take over, making them do their will. They currently control this planet and C1121-B, and have been jamming all but their own royal transmissions. We believe they might have spread to other capitol planets as well.

  The capitol planets need to remain under quarantine, but we have a test that will indicate if a human has been compromised. I would like to come to your planet with a delegation, to re-start our government. We will deal with the issues on the capitol planets as soon as governmental structure has been restored.

  We will leave for your planet in six hours’ time, and will send ahead our manifest, exact route, and code keys for entry. Please respond to this message as soon as possible. Thank you.

  “How do I send it?” XC22272 asked.

  “Push the send button on the screen.”

  XC22272 pushed it. An indicator appeared saying the message was sent. A moment later another indicator appeared, saying that the message had been received.

  “So now we wait,” Ecason said.

  Elizabeth emerged from Ecason’s room. “You’re up.”

  “Couldn’t get back to sleep,” he said. “We just sent the message.”

  “It worked?”

  Ecason laughed. “You don’t have to look so surprised.”

  XC22272 smiled. “XA27979 would like to meet both of you, if you are agreeable.”

  “We would be honored,” Ecason said.

  Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, we would.”

  The comm unit beeped.

  “What’s that?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Return message,” Ecason said. “Hit the button that says receive, then select PA and it will put the reply there for you.”

  XC22272 chuckled. He pushed the button, and selected PA. His PA lit up with a receive message. “Thanks so much, Ecason. We won’t forget this.”

  “You’re welcome,” Ecason said. “Let me know what else I can do.”

  “Thank you. I’ll get this to XA27979. Oh, but wait. I’ve got something for you guys.” He took a small comm device out of his pocket, handing it to Elizabeth.

  “Oh, excellent,” Elizabeth said. “This will get to the Central Authority Zone?”

  “It will, and you can encrypt. It’s the same device I was using to discuss production status with Prime Minister Aeon.”

  “Perfect,” Ecason said. “This will be helpful.”

  XC22272 nodded. “I’ll see you soon.”

  He left the lab.

  “Coffee,” Ecason said, walking to the machine. “Want some?”

  “Of course,” Elizabeth said, following him. She watched silently as he brewed her a cup, handing it over. Then he brewed himself a cup, and they went to their seats.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I invaded your space last night,” Elizabeth said.

  “I liked it,” Ecason said. “You were right, I needed it.”

  “So we can do that again?”

  Ecason nodded. “I’d like that.”

  She got up, going to him, putting her arms around his shoulder, kissing his fo
rehead. “You’re a good man, Ecason.”

  “Are you going to try Venera with that thing?”

  “After we’ve had our coffee,” she said, sitting back down.

  ***

  Vermillion sat in his office, going over schedules.

  Mr. Chairman.

  “Drake, hello. How are you?”

  Good. Phantom and Constitution are almost ready for trials. Phantom next week, Constitution the week after.

  Vermillion’s mouth dropped open. “That’s significantly ahead of schedule.”

  We’ve made some production breakthroughs. You know we always improve as production stabilizes.

  “True, but things are so crazy these days,” Vermillion said.

  You need to get Captain Clarke thinking about captains for these two ships.

  “I’ll pass that along. They’ll have crews on them like the Spitfire did, correct?”

  Yes, but they’ll be slightly smaller. We’ll need to rely more on automation.

  “We knew that was coming,” Vermillion said.

  It would be nice if we had more of the Overlords checked out.

  “There haven’t been any incidents for a while,” Vermillion said. “It might be time to start recruiting from allied planets. Pentant Simtar, for example.”

  I suggest you bring that up, but not until your first joint operation is finished. That’s coming up, is it not?

  “It is, but we put it on the back burner because of the probe issue.”

  I’ve reviewed the data on the exchange you had with the mines. We’ll turn those into a millstone around Aeon’s neck.

  “He might have figured out they won’t work.”

  He’s failing, you know. Mentally. Too much pressure on an already fragile mind.

  “In a certain way, that makes him even more dangerous. Did you see what he did yesterday?”

  The video of that execution. Good example of what I’m talking about.

  “Wounded animals can create a lot of death and destruction on the way down,” Vermillion said.

  Yes, we must manage our victory carefully to avoid a bloodbath. I’ve got to go.

  “Okay. I’ll get with Trey about the Captain question. Maybe we ought to bring Simone into that too.”

  She’s already made a suggestion to Trey, after he asked. It’s a good choice. I’ve looked into it.

  “Outstanding. Talk to you soon.”

  Vermillion leaned back in his seat. Maybe we’ll be okay.

  ***

  Simone was getting ready to go to the bridge when her PA beeped. It was Cyrus.

  “Good morning,” Cyrus said.

  “Cyrus, how are you?”

  “I’m fine. You’ve gotten another call to Animus. Do you know somebody named Venera?”

  Simone felt faint, sitting down on her bed. “She was on Magellan III.”

  “So you know her?”

  Simone smiled, tears in her eyes. “Yes, she’s one of my closest friends. Also an old friend of Chairman Vermillion. Is she on now?”

  “Yes, she’s standing by. I can patch her through to your video unit, or I can send her directly to your new ship.”

  “Patch her through first,” Simone said.

  “Okay, she’ll be on there in a few seconds.”

  “Thank you,” Simone said. She moved to her desk, sitting in front of the screen, which switched on, a woman’s face showing.

  “Simone! It’s so nice to see your face. You’re as beautiful as ever.”

  “Venera, I thought you were gone,” Simone said, not able to hold back her tears, Venera breaking down too. “What happened?”

  “I’ve got a lot to tell you,” Venera said.

  “I’ve got a lot to tell you too,” Simone replied. “You first.”

  “We were captured at Valla Cappos by Clan battleships, and forced to their capitol planet. We’re still there now.”

  “C1111-A? Are you a captive?”

  Venera shook her head. “We were. Now we’re friends. Guess who is with us?”

  Simone stared at the screen. “No clue.”

  “Ecason.”

  “He’s alive?”

  Venera nodded. “He is, but he’s been captive for a while. The Clan is in trouble. Have you heard about the plague?”

  “Just in the last couple days,” Simone said, “although it wasn’t more than a rumor.”

  “It’s true, Simone.”

  Simone sat silently for a moment, letting the ramifications roll over her, looking back up at Venera’s face, her short red hair and multitude of earrings shining back at her. “That’s what has caused the decline in the Clan Zone? A disease? Will it continue into the Free Zone and the Central Authority Zone… or has it already?”

  “It’s not a disease,” Venera said. “It’s an alien parasite, brought into our universe from the neighboring universe.”

  “Ecason. He figured it out. Oh no, he must feel terrible.”

  “He did everything right,” Venera said. “The Clan didn’t. They’ve been apologizing profusely.”

  “How bad is it?” Simone asked. “Is it a threat to our entire universe?”

  Venera shook her head. “Our environment is toxic to the parasites. They’ll eventually die out of they can’t get off the planets they’ve already infected.” Venera went on to tell Simone the whole story.

  “Wow. I’m so glad the Clan has cut off Aeon’s supply of Razors.”

  “I thought you’d be upset about that.”

  Simone laughed. “Now it’s time to tell you my story. Things have moved quickly in the Central Authority Zone. We’re in a civil war.”

  “It’s gotten worse,” Venera said. “We left because of Aeon’s overreaching. He was killing scientists.”

  “Aeon dissolved Congress and threw the members in prison. Now he’s invading ten worlds per day, although we’ve been able to make that very difficult for him.”

  “Last I heard the Overlords were providing security for Aeon’s government.”

  “I’m allied with the Samson Corporation,” Simone said. “And Pentant Simtar, and other worlds.”

  “You’re back with Vermillion?” Venera asked, smiling.

  “Not that way, but we’re working together, and we see each other often. I’m captain of the New Jersey’s sister ship. It’s called Spitfire.”

  “Wow. Who else is with you?”

  Private. Careful.

  Simone smirked. “Captain Trey Clarke is my commanding officer. Oh, and Ecason’s grandson Nolan is with us. You should tell him.”

  “How many ships do you have?”

  “That’s where we’re in trouble,” Simone said. “We’ve got what’s left of my Razors, and two New Jersey-class battleships, plus some smaller ships. Our advantage is the Samson Corporation’s technology. Aeon hasn’t been able to get past it, at least so far.”

  “The Clan royal family may ask for your help,” Venera said.

  “I’m sure we’d give that careful consideration,” Simone said. “I’ll send you my direct line data, and I need to pass this along to Captain Clarke and Chairman Vermillion.”

  “Okay, I’ll share with my side too,” Venera said.

  “Oh, I forgot about one thing. There are six Razor ships headed towards the Clan Zone. Aeon sent them, but we aren’t sure the leadership of that expedition is on Aeon’s side.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Stuart Cain is the captain of their lead ship,” Simone said.

  “I remember him,” Venera said. “He was nice.”

  “He tipped us off about Central Authority spies in Pentant Simtar’s Senate. Had he not done that, we’d be in a much different situation today.”

  “Interesting. I’d better warn the Clan about those ships.”

  “Yes, do that,” Simone said. “They’re still in their jump, in the Free Zone.”

  “Okay, talk to you soon,” Ve
nera said.

  The call ended.

  “Silver?”

  I know, meeting with Chairman Vermillion and Captain Clarke.

  “As soon as possible. I’ll go there in my flight suit.”

  { 17 }

  Manslaughter

  N olan was working in the New Jersey lab with JJ.

  “Okay, the tweak is finished. Want to test it?”

  JJ nodded, moving to the test set, running the test as Nolan watched the scope. “Almost there. Still a little unstable.”

  “Fine line,” JJ said, “between stability and fuel consumption.”

  “In this case we need to err on the safe side.”

  Can you chat with Simone for a moment?

  Of course.

  “What’s up?” JJ asked.

  “Simone wants to chat. I’ll take it in the locker room.”

  “No problem, I need a break anyway. Back in a half hour?”

  “Sure,” Nolan said, leaving the lab, taking off his lab coat in the locker room, then sitting on the bench, watching as JJ left.

  Okay, tell her I’m ready.

  She just flew into the small bay. Can you meet her there?

  On my way.

  Nolan left the locker room, walking towards the small bay, not far from the main lab. She entered just as Simone was done putting her uniform on over the nano suit.

  “Nolan, thanks so much for meeting me.”

  “Never a problem,” Nolan said. “What can I do for you?”

  “I just had a conversation with Venera.”

  “Venera? She was on Magellan III.”

  “Yes. She’s on C1111-A.”

  “My grandfather,” Nolan said, feeling himself choke up. “He’s not dead, is he?”

  “He’s alive, in the same bunker Venera is. I’m on my way to talk to Chairman Vermillion and Captain Clarke about it now, but I wanted you to know he’s okay.”

  “Are they captive?”

  “They were, but things have changed. I’ll let Ecason tell you about it, as soon as we can arrange a talk.”

  Nolan smiled, his eyes brimming with tears. “Thank you for telling me.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “I’ve got to head for the conference room. Stand by, you know how these meetings have a way of expanding.”