The Meridian Ascent (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 3)
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
“Richard Phillips has led such a life that he absolutely nails the science aspect of this new sci-fi classic [Immune (Book Two of The Rho Agenda)] and yet also gets the action and the political aspects exactly right as well. Speaking as an old sci-fi writer myself, I know how hard it is to do what Phillips has done . . . I’ve read Immune to its brilliant and completely satisfying end—but only because this new writer is so skillful and this storyline is so inventive and moving that I don’t want to miss a chapter of it . . . as good as any science fiction being written today.”
—Orson Scott Card
Also by Richard Phillips
The Rho Agenda
The Second Ship
Immune
Wormhole
The Rho Agenda Inception
Once Dead
Dead Wrong
Dead Shift
The Rho Agenda Assimilation
The Kasari Nexus
The Altreian Enigma
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2017 by Richard Phillips
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by 47North, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and 47North are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503935280
ISBN-10: 1503935280
Cover design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant
I dedicate this novel to my lovely wife, Carol, who has been my best friend and companion for thirty-six years.
CONTENTS
MAP
CHAPTER 1 FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
CHAPTER 2 FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
CHAPTER 3 SMYTHE FORTRESS, NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 4 MERIDIAN ASCENT, DEEP SPACE
CHAPTER 5 PARTHIAN, QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 6 FRIENDSHIP ASSIMILATION CENTER, NORTH KOREA
CHAPTER 7 MERIDIAN ASCENT, SCION SPACE
CHAPTER 8 ORTHEI, SCION
CHAPTER 9 PARTHIAN, QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 10 MERIDIAN ASCENT, DEEP SPACE
CHAPTER 11 MERIDIAN ASCENT, DEEP SPACE
CHAPTER 12 SMYTHE FORTRESS, NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 13 SMYTHE FORTRESS, NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 14 FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
CHAPTER 15 KALASASAYA TEMPLE, BOLIVIA
CHAPTER 16 PARTHIAN, QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 17 MERIDIAN ASCENT
CHAPTER 18 LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS
CHAPTER 19 PARTHIAN, QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 20 SMYTHE FORTRESS, NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 21 MERIDIAN ASCENT, MOON
CHAPTER 22 PARTHIAN, QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 23 LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
CHAPTER 24 MERIDIAN ASCENT
CHAPTER 25 NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 26 FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
CHAPTER 27 QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 28 QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 29 THE HAGUE
CHAPTER 30 MERIDIAN ASCENT
CHAPTER 31 QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
CHAPTER 32 NEW ZEALAND
CHAPTER 33 THE HAGUE
CHAPTER 34 MERIDIAN ASCENT, BRILLIAN-2
CHAPTER 35 ALTREIAN SYSTEM, AQ37Z
CHAPTER 36 THE HAGUE
CHAPTER 37 MOSCOW
CHAPTER 38 MERIDIAN ASCENT
CHAPTER 39 MERIDIAN ASCENT
CHAPTER 40 QUOL
CHAPTER 41 BRILLIAN-2
CHAPTER 42 MERIDIAN ASCENT
CHAPTER 43 EARTH
EPILOGUE NEW ZEALAND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
5 January
Alexandr Prokorov, wearing his dark-gray suit and black oxfords, stared down from the observation platform at the enormous array of machinery that would soon power up the Friendship Gate. He smiled, an expression he rarely bothered to show. Not that he was calm. Far from it. His nerves were so alive that sparks felt like they could fly from his fingertips at any moment. The seconds ticked off in slow motion, making each minute an hour.
In a way, the power surge that had thrown this gateway project behind schedule all those months ago had been fortuitous. It had allowed Dr. Lana Fitzpatrick to add a group of scientists from the United States to the team led by Dr. John Guo. Together they had come up with enhancements to the original design of the gateway that had been constructed in these man-made tunnels and cavernous rooms, far beneath the frozen North Korean countryside.
His thoughts shifted to the Smythe attack that had destroyed the sister gateway northeast of Frankfurt. It had been a costly but necessary sacrifice, the reason that Prokorov and the leadership of the United Federation of Nation States had made that project so visible to the public. And as he had intended, the Frankfurt Gateway had focused the Smythes’ and the rest of the world’s attention far away from this secret facility.
He turned to look at the inverted horseshoe within which the wormhole would form. This would mark the second time that the device was triggered. Last week’s activation had been a brief one, just long enough to broadcast a message containing the gateway synchronization codes and the accompanying stasis field modulation codes. Together these would provide the Kasari the means to link their own gateway to this one, locking down the far end of the wormhole and allowing Prokorov’s delegation to welcome their alien would-be benefactors to Earth.
A warning sound blared, followed by Dr. Guo’s amplified voice. “Sixty seconds until stasis field generator power ramp.”
The cavern lighting shifted from white to amber, and Prokorov felt his hands grip the elevated platform’s steel railing. All his planning was finally about to yield fruit. This world was tearing itself apart, despite the efforts of the UFNS. It needed the guidance and wisdom that only an alien species that had worked through these primitive problems in its own distant past could provide. And this time, the Smythes would not be present to screw things up.
The ten-second countdown to stasis field generator power-up blared from the loudspeaker. When the count reached zero, a low hum arose and the stasis field shimmered to life, covering the wormhole gateway opening with a semitransparent blue glow. The color wasn’t necessary other than to provide the observers visible evidence of the gateway’s presence and dimensions.
Unlike the original Stephenson Gateway, this portal needed only a single stasis field to protect those inside the cavern from the vacuum on the far side once the gateway activated. The field would also provide a barrier against the different atmospheric composition and pressure from the Kasari world once the two wormhole devices successfully linked. The stasis field modulation codes that this team had provided would enable the Kasari and their equipment to pass through the gateway while ensuring that the waiting human scientists continued to breathe.
“Ten seconds until wormhole activation,” Guo’s voice announced.
As the new countdown proceeded, Prokorov swallowed hard. The presidents of the four UFNS member nations should be here, standing beside him. However, citing security concerns, all four had demurred. This confirmation that th
e federation’s leadership consisted of a group of cowards embarrassed Prokorov, but he would stand in for them. On his orders, no security or military personnel were allowed anywhere inside this warren of tunnels and vast underground bunkers. He would take no chances that this welcoming could be misconstrued as threatening to humanity’s benefactors.
Fifty feet below the steel grating upon which Prokorov stood, the gateway activated. For a seemingly endless stretch of tense moments, its interior showed a moving star field. Then, like an old television acquiring a distant signal, the image changed and clarified.
Prokorov didn’t notice the gasp that escaped his lips as a four-armed alien stepped through the shimmering stasis field, accompanied by eleven hairy, black spider creatures. The spiders spread out, making their way rapidly past the scientists and engineers in a military maneuver that reminded Prokorov of Spetsnaz commandos clearing a room. They moved among the equipment efficiently and fast, stationing three of their number at the tunnel opening, which formed the only entrance or exit to the cavern.
Others scaled the steel scaffolding that surrounded the towering matter disrupter, which powered the stasis field generator and gateway. As one of the spiders paused to study him, the pungent scent of ammonia caused Prokorov to wrinkle his nose. Then the creature turned and climbed back down the steel scaffolding, giving the minister of federation security no further notice.
Apparently satisfied, the four-armed leader of the group turned back toward the gateway and signaled. Then, as hundreds of alien beings filed through the opening, escorted by hovering military vehicles, Prokorov shook himself from his paralysis and stepped into the elevator cage that would carry him down to the cavern floor.
It was time to officially welcome the Kasari Collective to Earth.
CHAPTER 2
FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
15 January
Kasari group commander Drolaag looked around his rapidly emerging Earth-based headquarters in satisfaction. The humans’ representative, Prokorov, had selected an exceptional location for the wormhole gateway. The vast underground chambers and connecting passages had been built some time ago, designed for transport and storage of large quantities of military equipment. All of that had been cleared out before building the gateway.
Now it would serve as the Kasari base of operations and house the first of many assimilation centers. And Prokorov had volunteered to undergo the Kasari nanobot infusion that made him the second earthling member of the collective. The first had been a human female with the Earth name of Jennifer Smythe whom the collective had assimilated on the distant planet Scion, but she had somehow extracted her consciousness from the hive-mind.
That knowledge was worrisome but wasn’t Drolaag’s assigned worry.
Turning his thoughts back to the ongoing work at the facility, the first priority had been securing this base of operations. The installation of stasis field generators had been a significant step in that direction. Now, with the delivery of seven of the small fast-attack spacecraft and a battery of disrupter cannons, his engineers could erect a Kasari gateway, replacing the more modestly scaled human-built gateway.
Another group of Kasari engineers was working at top speed to finish the assimilation center that would perform mass injections of the nanobot serum, capable of processing several thousand humans every Earth day. Currently, only a few hundred of the leaders of the United Federation of Nation States had been treated. But very soon, the assimilation of the Federation Security Service military forces would begin. Prokorov had proven himself very efficient at setting up the process while maintaining the illusion that the troop movements were part of the ongoing wartime operations against UFNS enemies.
As Drolaag watched the stream of Kasari soldiers and equipment making its way into the cavern, he savored the thought that he was already ahead of schedule. Assuming his group kept up the pace, he would soon have enough of the UFNS military assimilated to announce the UFNS-Kasari alliance to the entire planet.
To these primitive cultures, “alliance” was a more acceptable term than “assimilation.”
President Ted Benton stood at the centermost of the three Oval Office windows behind his desk, looking out at the leafless branches of the large tree just outside. Dark-gray clouds hung low over the White House grounds, almost but not yet a freezing fog.
His gaze drifted down to the long, narrow table beneath the center window, focusing on the pictures of his wife, Cindy, and his two sons. The oldest, James, had just graduated from Harvard Law School. The last of the three framed photographs showed a slim Army Ranger in his dress uniform, the ribbons that graced the left side of his chest a testament to his bravery. That bravery had put Jeffrey into a lonely plot in Arlington Cemetery.
The endless damned wars against the Islamic Alliance and their surrogates had taken his son, along with hundreds of thousands of other young men and women. That and the ongoing rebellion by the Native People’s Alliance and the Safe Earth resistance movement had led him, and the majority of the American people, to the conclusion that Earth needed outside help and guidance.
As he pondered the rejuvenating power of the nanobots that coursed through his veins, he knew that welcoming the Kasari Collective to Earth had been the correct decision. He felt the cortical array that connected his brain to the hive-mind release a stream of endorphins that soothed his mind, delivering gentle reassurance.
Once more, he lifted his eyes to the dreary sight outside the window, shifting his vision into the infrared that let him peer farther through the mist. Halfway around the world, the elite soldiers of the Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment were now receiving the same wondrous infusion that President Benton had benefited from last week. Soon, the entire armed forces of the UFNS member nations would become the supersoldiers they were meant to be. Millions of them.
After that, the need for secrecy would come to an end. As thousands of additional assimilation centers came online around the globe, the acquiescent portions of the civilian populations of the United States, the New Soviet Union, Europe, and the East Asian People’s Alliance would also join the collective.
President Benton turned and sat down at his desk, a slow smile spreading across his patrician features. Then the real work of defeating the resistance would begin.
CHAPTER 3
SMYTHE FORTRESS, NEW ZEALAND
16 January
Wearing black jeans and a maroon pullover top, Janet Alexandra Price had her long dark hair pinned in its customary twist with her signature hair-needle. The decorative etchings along the needle’s six-inch length performed two useful functions: they made the surface just rough enough to keep the needle in place and gave her a good grip when she put it to other uses. She left the underground command center and walked down a wide passage toward the central conference room where this morning’s status update would take place. Months had passed since she’d fired a weapon at a living target, but she felt naked without the Glock on her hip.
The quality of the air in this facility, a mile below the surface, was a testament to the filtered-ventilation and humidity-control systems. But the pace of ongoing construction sent a thrumming vibration through the titanium-reinforced walls and imparted a faint metallic taste to the rear of her tongue. For the thousandth time, she felt the weight of all those tons of rock above pressing down on her shoulders. Perhaps this afternoon she would find time for a trip to the surface and a ten-mile run beneath New Zealand’s warm January sun.
She turned the corner, stepped up to the door, and waited as it processed her biometric information. When the entrance whisked open, she stepped inside, pleased to see that all the others were already present. Taking her seat at the head of the conference table, she looked around. Heather and Mark Smythe, along with Janet’s son, Rob, sat at the right side of the table while Jamal Glover, Dr. Eileen Wu, and Dr. Denise Jennings occupied the left.
Janet was having a difficult time adjusting to her boy’s demand that she call him Rob instead o
f Robby. At eleven, he looked seventeen. Janet knew that was partially due to the trauma he’d endured over the last eighteen months. Life-and-death struggles tended to age a person, but Rob’s alien augmentations had amplified that effect.
She had left the fourth of the Altreian crew members’ headsets within her baby’s reach, and he had grabbed it, accidentally sliding the device onto his temples as he attempted to mouth the two beaded ends. The fact that the headset had altered him was her fault. The fact that Mark, Jen, and Heather had put on the other headsets and been altered in good ways gave her hope that Rob’s augmentations would be advantageous to him as well. And they had been. Even the alien AI named Eos who’d invaded his brain through the headset had further enhanced him.
But Rob’s accelerated maturation scared the crap out of Janet. And these last few months, his aging had gotten faster. Would it slow down once he reached his physical peak? Or would he be an old man by the time he was thirty? One more worry to add to Janet’s pile.
Janet forced her thoughts back to the present.
Technically, Janet didn’t need this meeting to receive updates on the project’s status. She could have received intel from the facility’s neural network. But she liked to look into her people’s faces as they briefed her and hear the inflection in their voices. She hadn’t asked for this leadership position, but now that she had it, she found that she enjoyed the work.
Janet noticed Heather drawing on a piece of paper, with a far-off look in her eyes.
“Heather, what’s that you’re doodling?”
Heather looked up and spun the piece of paper to Janet. It was a mathematical equation that Janet didn’t recognize.
“I was thinking about the new matter disrupter-synthesizers we have the robots building,” Heather said. “Apparently, I subconsciously scribbled the equation that forms the basis for Dr. Stephenson’s theory. Each type of matter is a wave packet composed of a particular set of frequencies.”