Выбрать главу

Some of the Old Ones decided to leave. We’d seen life as a so-called Immortal. We wanted the thrill of living again. Of not having enough time. The euphoria of danger.

We don’t know who prevailed among the Immortals, whether the Old Ones or Ryler Kane. We left the society in 2441. You, my son, were born a year later. I do not expect you to understand our choices. We made them when even by your standards we were young and giddy.

We . . . like millions others were thrilled at the idea of ever-lasting life. We were young pups.

We still believe we made the right decision to leave the Society and live one final life. Perhaps people should have the freedom to choose for themselves. Perhaps it wasn’t anyone else’s right to determine that the Lazarus Society couldn’t choose the path they did. But they did and thus the Existential War.

The war had only one positive outcome. It united Earth. History has shown us they still had great struggles, and all wasn’t fixed overnight.

But from that unification, the United Star Systems was born.

The comm buzzed. “Commander, Zane here. Remember that little side project I’ve been working on? I have something I think you’ll want to see.

***

Aaron stepped onto the bridge to find Zane hunched over his console. The scientist looked up. “Commander, take a look.”

Aaron saw the console displaying a swirling image of the wormhole and some other graphs he couldn’t make sense of.

“I did it, Commander.”

Aaron gave him a puzzled look.

“I’ve found a way to transmit a secure comm burst on the gravity waves through the wormhole. It’s open and it’s stable now. I can’t take all the credit…” He shrugged sheepishly. “I had some help from Avery these past two days.”

“I can’t tell you, Zane. You’ve just saved us. Shepherd has no idea what to expect from this side. And I have a feeling we’re going to need some help getting through. This is . . . you might have just saved us all.”

Zane was smiling ear to ear. If he’d felt unappreciated during his time aboard, he was sure to feel like the hero now.

“Herman, I want you to send this message immediately.” Aaron flipped it to the scientist’s console from his handheld.

As Aaron walked away, he was sure his message puzzled the scientist.

Sir, we’ll be there soon. Bring the pain.

***

Lee made his way to the medbay. Sergeant Dawes had taken a nasty blow to the face from an ORA rifle-wielding goon. When last he saw him, the sergeant’s cheekbones protruded.

Doctor Tanner was leaning over Dawes.

“Not giving you any trouble is he, Doctor?”

Tanner looked around.

“Not at all,” he said. “I even asked him if he wanted to keep the bone-sticking-out-look, you know how you soldiering folks like your scars.”

Dawes laughed.

“Your Maxy boy here has quite the wit, Lieutenant,” he said. “He must be a marine doctor.”

“Indeed,” Lee said.

Lee leaned in to see the wound. The bone had been repaired. The doctor was just sealing the flesh around it now.

“You’re lucky,” Doctor Tanner said. “This would have left you looking uglier than the Commander. Fortunately for you, modern medicine can fix that.”

Lee shook his head. “I wonder if the Commander’s ears itch frequently when it comes to you, Doctor Tanner.”

The doctor looked up and grinned. A menacing tooth-baring grin.

“If his ears really itched when people spoke about him, he’d have scratched them off by now.”

Dawes interjected. “When can I get back to my duties, Maxy-boy?”

“Soon. Even if just because I can’t stand you calling me that all the time. What are you in a hurry to do, anyway? Stick your little gun out a ship window and shoot it at the enemy? It’s the space ship boy’s show from here.”

The marine looked thrilled. “There’re windows I can stick my gun out of?”

Lee stifled a laugh. He had to admit. Dawes had really grown on him. A kindred spirit.

Doctor Tanner fixed Dawes with a stone-cold glare. “Still waiting to hear what you need to get on duty to do.”

“Well,” Dawes said. “I think the Commander likes having me on the bridge, standing there looking all royal and all. I’m moral support.”

The doctor laughed. “The ship already has a mascot. Me. I’m the useless crewman on the bridge in times of battle. There’s only room for me.”

Dawes leaned back looking thoughtful. “You know, once I had a cat named Maxy-boy. You remind me of him—miserable wretch that little feline.”

The irate physician rolled his eyes. “A cat . . . I remind you of a cat. What happened to this cat?”

“Disappeared one day, never came back.”

The doctor dropped his medscanner. “Hmmph,” he said. “I can’t imagine why…”

 

 

 

 

Chapter 33 – Wounds

 

“You can’t take on the ORA yourself” – Avery Alvarez

 

Phoenix

 

Aaron walked Vee down to the hangar deck. Auxiliary craft from Endeavor made several round trips to deliver tungsten rounds for the railguns and some havoc missiles while both ships’ fabricators worked double time to produce more.

The last craft was unloading and would take Vee back to Endeavor.

Endeavor’s crew had suffered psychologically more than anything else. Their ORA captors had supplied them with enough water and sustenance to keep them alive, and nothing more.

During the three days warping back to the wormhole, they stopped periodically to conduct logistics and transfer Endeavor’s crew aboard Phoenix, where they rested the entire time under Max’s care. He’d let Max do his thing and care for them. Garrett spent most of his time assisting Endeavor’s engineers. Some of Endeavor’s crew were cleared for duty and returned to operate their starship before they reached the wormhole.

So far, he’d only discussed the contents of his mother’s letter with Vee.

“So is it safe,” Aaron asked, “to assume Ben James and this other character are so-called Immortals? It fits for James since he seems to be everywhere. Seems he’s taken his immortal status a little too far. He’s just throwing around copies of himself everywhere. What about this other one? You said you recognized his voice from the ORA ship which attacked beyond the wormhole on our side.”

Vee visibly shivered at the mention of the unknown man. “It sounded like him. He might just be another one like James, another clone. Except this one was . . . well he was evil. You could see it in his eyes. The contempt. The hatred. I mean . . . even the Baridian Empire wanted to subjugate us, not annihilate us. These ORA, or these Immortals you mentioned have their minds set on exterminating Earth’s descendants.”

Aaron looked over the sealed containers carrying the railgun munitions. “They aren’t annihilating anyone or anything.”

Vee regarded him a long moment. As though a memory triggered him.

“You didn’t see him, Aaron. I’d take a thousand Ben James over the man any day. Ben more wants to convert people to his beliefs. The other one just wants us gone. Two competing ideologies within—if that helps.”

“It might be something we can exploit later. From what you’ve mentioned of his interest in Phoenix and our dark matter technology, they weren’t prepared for such resistance. Shepherd did good keeping it off the books until the Battle of Atlas Prime. Ben James and none of his copies got wind of it before then.”