The Meridian Ascent (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 3) Page 4

  He let the neural net amplify the imagery of the first six micro-drones outside his ship. One second the tiny things were there, and the next, they were gone. The flying sensors didn’t have enough power to stay in subspace for very long. They didn’t need to. A subspace bubble would form around each micro-drone that would briefly accelerate it toward the target. That bubble would last just long enough to get the drone there before dying.

  Each micro-drone would emerge with the exact normal-space momentum vector it had before entering subspace, one matching its target on Scion.

  When the neural net delivered the first six subspace video streams into his mind, Raul gasped. As he had previously observed using the worm-fiber viewers, this Eadric city by the lake was filled with gleaming high-rise buildings, each adorned with stunning balconies, none of which had safety rails. And soaring onto or off those balconies were the closest things to angels he could imagine.

  They were beautiful. If not for the huge wings that sprouted from behind their shoulder blades, they looked almost human—although a bit slimmer and taller—with fine feathers where humans had hair. They wore shimmering skintight uniforms that seemed designed to reduce drag.

  Lovely plazas and parks separated the buildings. There were no roads. Vehicular traffic traveled through the air, albeit at a much higher rate of speed and along different routes than the flying wingestrians. The aerial thoroughfares for high-speed aircars formed public transit routes. That the heavenly Eadric people would sacrifice their love of beauty to become a part of the Kasari Collective had always mystified the hell out of Raul.

  The drones separated, dividing the city below into sextants, each heading toward its own search sector. The ones that held Raul’s primary interest were the drones targeted for the Kasari assimilation center. This was the most likely location for the planetary master router that connected the assimilated minds on Scion to the hive-mind on other Kasari worlds.

  As would be expected, given their lack of subspace technology, communication between the Kasari cortical arrays was limited by the speed of light. The only thing that made communication among the collective possible was the fact that wormhole gateways eliminated the distance between the stars. And once the Kasari had assimilated a planet, they erected wormhole gateways on any other habitable worlds within that system to remove the communications lag between planets.

  Video feeds from two more sets of micro-drones blossomed in his mind, and he assigned these to Jennifer and Dgarra, respectively, leaving VJ to focus on making sure that the Meridian remained undiscovered by any of the Kasari attack ships. Discovery this far outside the Scion system was unlikely, but Raul didn’t want to take a chance.

  No. He would do this the right way, the way that would keep his ship and crew safe. Even if it cost them some extra time.

  Six hours after they had deployed the last of the drones within Orthei, the sound of VJ’s voice brought Jennifer’s head around.

  “Found it.”

  But it was the meaning behind those words that elevated Jennifer’s heart rate.

  “Is the hive-mind router in the wormhole gateway facility?” Raul asked.

  “No,” said VJ, “but it’s nearby. One of the drones pinned its location to a large rack of equipment inside a communications and computing hub, just north of the Orthei assimilation facility.”

  Jennifer felt Dgarra’s mind access the tactical map.

  “That’s bad,” said Dgarra. “There’s not enough room inside the building to accommodate this ship.”

  “What’s the closest spot where we can land?” asked Raul.

  “I can bring us out of subspace in the park a hundred yards north of the communications hub,” said VJ, “but we’re going to knock down some trees and attract a lot of attention.”

  Jennifer pulled up the drone footage of the central router. As she examined the video and encrypted Kasari data emanating from the device, she saw that VJ was probably correct about this being the primary router that connected the high volume of mental traffic to and from a sister router on the far side of the Kasari wormhole gateway. Confirming her deduction, an analysis of the data from the two drones inside the gateway facility showed the same wireless communications stream passing in and out through the wormhole.

  Unfortunately, the drones had not been able to pin down the exact location of the central router within the conglomeration of computing systems. That meant that VJ couldn’t perform a remote subspace hack of the router. For VJ to insert her virus, the crew would have to find the router and manually attach the small SRT device that would provide a subspace link to the ship’s neural net.

  VJ frowned. “I won’t be able to project myself to the router from that distance.”

  “I’ll go in,” said Jennifer. “Computer expertise is one of my Altreian augmentations. My SRT headset will keep my mind connected to our neural net.”

  “I will accompany you,” said Dgarra.

  Jennifer felt gratitude flood her mind.

  “Thanks,” she said, keeping her cool. “I’ll need you covering my back while I search for the hive’s central router.”

  “Even with our new personal stasis field generators,” said Dgarra, “we are going to need a distraction to make the run to that computer center.”

  Raul nodded. “I’m sure VJ can take care of that.”

  “Count on it,” she said.

  The smile that lit VJ’s face gave it a soft glow. Even Jennifer had to admit that she was beautiful.

  “Gear up,” said Raul. “Things are about to get unpleasant.”

  Although Dgarra was no longer a general fighting for the Koranthian Empire, the feel of the nano-engineered war-blade strapped to the side of his stasis shield backpack sent a shiver of anticipation up his spine. The tingle spread up his thick neck and to his twin crown-bones. That black blade would soon taste the blood of his Kasari enemies.

  He glanced over at Jennifer. The fact that she chose to wear the colors of House Dgarra was the greatest compliment she could have given him. The way her black-and-purple uniform followed the slender curves of her body brought forth a familiar longing. Compared to the female Koranthian warriors he had known, she looked frail. But long experience fighting alongside her had shown Dgarra that her fragile appearance was highly deceptive.

  Jennifer was quick and strong, as deadly in battle as any Koranthian. And despite the protectiveness that the sight of her generated within him, this Earth woman could take care of herself. Still, today she would need his protection if she was to focus on the difficult tasks ahead.

  Dgarra watched as Jennifer shrugged into the backpack that held her stasis shield, its super-capacitor power supply, and her emergency air supply. The thing weighed considerably more than she did, but she gave no sign that its bulk bothered her.

  Jennifer drew her own war-blade, examined it, and then returned it to its sheath. As she turned her attention to the pulsed laser at her side, Dgarra completed his own combat-weapons check. That task complete, he turned his back to her and allowed Jennifer to double-check the stasis shield strapped to his back, a service that he repeated for her.

  “We are ready,” he said, feeling the head rush that accompanied impending combat.

  Her flashing brown eyes met his. “Let’s do this.”

  Then, as two stasis cradles draped their standing bodies, the Meridian warped into subspace.

  Inside the wormhole gateway facility, Commander Shalegha watched the mental imagery from the nearby assimilation center. The last of a thousand Eadric worked their way through the assimilation booths, the final large rebel group to be forcibly processed into the collective. There were still a few hidden Eadric rebels, but for all practical purposes, today would complete the assimilation of the most prominent species on Scion.

  Reaching down with her lower two hands to grasp the arms of her command chair, she rose to her feet and stretched her muscular body to its full height. Suddenly, the rumble of thunder rattled the building. Not thunde
r. That had been a supersonic overpressure wave.

  For several long moments, she struggled to understand the imagery that the hive-mind fed her through her cortical nanobot array. A blast in one of the nearby nature open spaces that the Eadric loved had leveled trees and damaged the facades of the surrounding skyscrapers, killing dozens who had been near the source of the overpressure wave.

  There was no sign of what had caused all the damage, but Shalegha knew what was happening. The rogue starship had emerged from subspace at the center of the devastation and cloaked itself. That probably meant that an attack on the wormhole gate was imminent.

  Shalegha initiated the order that recalled the nearest of the Kasari fast-attack ships, refining her instructions to limit the use of weaponry to high-energy beams only. The use of larger disrupter or vortex weaponry in the highly confined area would destroy the gateway, the assimilation center, the central computing complex, and the Kasari group headquarters on Scion.

  That done, she initiated an order to the local Kasari rapid reaction force. They would deploy in defense of these four critical facilities while they awaited the arrival of off-world reinforcements. But above all else, these forces would refrain from damaging the protected assets with their fire, even if that meant suffering an increased number of combat casualties.

  Shalegha settled back into her command chair and brought up a complete set of tactical overlays. From the pattern of the damage done by the supersonic overpressure wave, the neural network computed the outline of the cloaked ship. This was almost immediately confirmed by the laser pulses from the first of the rapid reaction force to arrive. The beams scattered from the ship’s stasis shielding in a spectacular visual array.

  Very soon now, she would have the two things that she most wanted—the smoking hulk of the stolen Kasari world ship and the dead bodies of its rogue crew. With that pleasant thought, Shalegha released a flow of endorphins that took her into a state of alert and delightful numbness.

  This pleasure was just one more thing that made an immortal life worth living.

  CHAPTER 8

  ORTHEI, SCION

  MA Day 71

  The Meridian emerged from subspace, coming to rest on the ground in the targeted park in Orthei with a shudder. Jennifer had to admit that VJ’s pilotage was steadily improving. Considering that VJ was a young artificially intelligent being, this shouldn’t have been surprising. But Jennifer knew that VJ didn’t want to be an AI. Virtual Jennifer wanted to be a real woman, a goal beyond even her rapidly improving capabilities.

  But through VJ’s marvelous manipulation of the stasis field, she had even given her hologram the feel of a physical woman. Somehow, she had managed to give her form the softness and texture of real skin. Jennifer knew this because she had accidentally bumped into the AI, the surprise of the impact causing her to fall. But VJ had caught her with virtual skin that felt warm to the touch.

  Jennifer knew that VJ could manage her magic only within the range of the Meridian’s stasis field generator, but she had to admit that the feat was pretty damn impressive.

  Turning her thoughts back to the task at hand, Jennifer drew her war-blade and waited alongside Dgarra for the ship’s ramp to open. Although it would seem that arming herself with a laser pistol would have made more sense than the double-edged sword, the interior of the communications center consisted of tightly spaced computer racks separated by narrow access ways. Destroying that equipment with laser blasts defeated the entire purpose for being here.

  The stasis field generator in her backpack could operate in one of three modes. It could provide a small stasis field bubble around her whole body or just around her head. In either of these cases, the generator would turn on her emergency air supply.

  The remaining method of operation for the stasis field generator involved creating a virtual shield projected outward from her left forearm, allowing Jennifer to use her weapons while maintaining a reasonable capability to deflect incoming attacks. She didn’t need to access the neural net or look at Dgarra to know that he had also drawn his war-blade. Her telepathic link to the Koranthian supplied that information and more.

  With a hiss of equalizing air pressure, the ramp lowered and the two of them leaped to the ground. Outside the starship, the once-beautiful Eadric park was a mess, trees and plants knocked down or stripped of foliage. VJ had landed the Meridian with its bow facing south, toward the targeted communications hub. Jennifer and Dgarra sprinted in that direction.

  Thirty yards above them and off to either side, the projected cloaking and stasis shield shimmered like a holographic curtain. It would hide her and Dgarra’s movements until they were almost to the building. But those last few yards, the two would be visible to anyone watching. They would have to cross that open space fast.

  Since they couldn’t risk blasting open the door with disrupter weapons for fear of damaging the communications gear and computing systems inside the building, they would have to rely on VJ to slice it open with a projected arm of the ship’s stasis field. That capability and the increased strength of the shielding were two of the upgrades the crew had installed during the last two weeks in deep space.

  When Jennifer burst into the open, she heard the sizzle of beam weaponry impinging on the starship’s shielding. Someone high up and to her right attempted to target the two of them but failed to adjust his aim before they darted through the opening where VJ had just carved an entryway.

  Without pausing, Jennifer ducked to her left, leaving the central passage and moving out of the line of sight of a half-dozen Eadric communications engineers. Another ten paces along, she turned right, her shoulders brushing the tightly bundled electronics that filled the metal racks. Although she knew that Dgarra would have to take a wider avenue, he knew precisely where she was going. The ship’s neural net dumped the same maps through their SRT headsets and into their minds.

  As she approached the central communications array, Jennifer ducked beneath a laser pulse that sprayed molten metal from the equipment behind her. Her spinning war-blade splattered the computing systems that rose on either side of her with red and sent the four-armed Kasari soldier’s thick head ricocheting down the aisle. From somewhere to her right, Eadric screams rose and then died, the moans echoing off the ten-foot-high ceiling to whine through the electronics like fleeing spirits.

  She rounded another tight corner and halted as a wave of dread drained away her adrenaline-fueled battle lust. In this cluster, the tightly packed computing systems within which the primary router was housed numbered in the hundreds. Even with her enhanced speed and other Altreian augmentations, she needed a significant part of an hour to examine them all.

  Assuming a statistically average amount of luck, it would take twenty minutes to find what she was searching for. They had planned to fight their way inside as Raul, VJ, and the Meridian made themselves the focus of the counterattack. VJ had estimated that the ship’s enhanced shielding could hold up for ten minutes under Kasari firepower.

  Damn it, Jennifer Smythe. Stop thinking and get your ass in gear.

  She gritted her teeth. Then another Jack Gregory memory replayed itself in her brain. He’d stood before them in his Bolivian hacienda, his curly brown hair framing a face with eyes that burned with unnatural brightness, and uttered the line that she remembered.

  “This world will try to beat you down. Only laughter can counteract that. Laughter is ammunition. Resupply often.”

  How long had it been since she had laughed out loud? Although this moment was in no way right, she threw back her head and released all her frustration in gut-deep laughter. And as the sound drowned out all others, a renewed sense of confidence filled her.

  Screw it. Whatever it took, she would get this job done.

  Half a room away, a blood-soaked Dgarra looked up from the bodies that lay strewn around him. And as he listened, the joyous sound that echoed through this crowded space pulled his lips into a smile. Here was a warrior soul mate for whom he woul
d willingly sacrifice his life.

  Of course, as he had once heard Jennifer say, that was not exactly Plan A.

  As VJ watched Jennifer and Dgarra approach the spot where they would have to sprint from beneath the protective stasis and cloaking fields, the AI projected her virtual body outside the Meridian. She coalesced at the northern edge of the stasis field, dressed in the sheer black-and-purple uniform that Raul liked and Jennifer hated. With her short blond hair spiked like leaping flames, she stepped beyond the cloaking field. The time for her distraction had come.

  She raised her right hand toward the curved building that housed the wormhole gateway. Her mind manipulated the stasis field, focusing its power along a narrow line that she projected outward in a glittering crystalline blade that extended a hundred yards in front of her. Wielding it like an artist using a fine-lined pencil, just as she’d done to carve an entryway into the communications hub, she sliced through the gateway facility’s outer wall to reveal the inner support struts.

  Immediately, every weapon in the area focused their beams and projectiles on the AI, bathing her form in a fireball that crawled around the shielding that gave substance to her body. VJ analyzed the power drain that her projection and these attacks placed on the ship’s primary stasis field generator. That depletion was made worse by the angles of the shields that scattered the reflected energy away from the buildings her crew needed to remain intact. The rest of the park and the unprotected buildings to the southwest weren’t so lucky.

  After taking another five steps forward, VJ stopped, made another slice at the gateway building, and smiled. She had their full attention.

  Shalegha leaped from her command chair, screaming at her subordinate commanders as she ordered them to all weapon stations with line of sight to this new target.