"What the . . . ?" She had no words, and she wavered in front of the dining chair.
"Oh. I figured you'd already know," Ahmi said. "Sit down, child, before you fall down and hurt yourself. I just can't understand why they wouldn't tell you at your age."
"Who, who are you?" Dee didn't understand at all what was going on. Her mind spun wildly, trying to grasp at an explanation that made sense, but there wasn't one she could wrap her mind around. Why did Elle Ahmi look just like her mother, Sehera Moore?
"Why, I'm your grandmother, of course."
Chapter 19
July 1, 2394 AD
Ross 128, Arcadia Orbital QMT Facility
Friday, 3:13 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
"Goddamned déjà vu all over again, hey, Tommy?" Corporal Danny Bates told the gunnery sergeant. Tommy didn't think it was ha-ha funny. He thought it was funny in that "Oh shit" kind of way. They had yet to meet any human forces the entire time they had been on the surface. On the other hand, the resistance from the autosnipers and AA cannons had been a real pain in the ass.
"Yeah, Danny, if you consider there ain't nobody here, anywhere. At least last time Top and the colonel got to let go some rounds," Tommy told his longtime friend. The fact that they had met no resistance at the hangar entrance, or the corridor leading inward to the inner rings of the facility, or finally to the elevator leading up into the QMT control room, or anywhere, was just goddamned eerie. It was too goddamned eerie, and it gave Tommy the skin-crawls.
"LT? We got nothing up here. We found what should be the control room, but there is nothing here at all." Suez checked his suit's sensors again, and the only movement they could detect was each other and the occasional automated janitor bots.
"Gunny, just hold tight. The Madira is dropping in some engineers. Place a beacon on the ground and back off," Second Lieutenant Nelms ordered him. "I'll be up in a few minutes, when Willingham and I finish sweeping the lower decks. Top and the colonel are on their way up now."
"Roger that, sir." Tommy motioned to PFC Howser. "Drop a QMT locator, Howser."
"Roger that, Gunny." She pulled a QMT beacon out of a compartment on the side of her e-suit, popped the safety, and dropped it on the floor. The beacon flashed a red light on and off once about every two seconds. They all backed away and stood at ready.
The blinking red light flashed to green, and then a bright flash of light filled the room briefly. There was a sound of crackling and sizzling like that of bacon frying in a skillet. The next thing the marines knew, there were three Navy chief warrant officers standing in front of them.
"Gunny," the lead warrant officer, a CWO-4, nodded to Suez and then turned to his men and started jabbering about finding the membrane ripple controller and the wavefunction transfer initiator. The three men scanned every inch of the control room and then began pulling panels off of circuit boxes and searching through drawers and cabinets.
"Chief, if you need any extra muscle, just ask. Otherwise, we'll be over here standing guard," Tommy offered the technical specialists.
"Thanks, Gunny. I was hoping we'd have better luck, but this control room looks like it hasn't been used in months. You should see the one back at the Oort." The chief turned back to one of the men that had plugged a hardwire universal data port cable into one of the panel computer's readouts. The other end of the wire was in a box on his shoulder. "Anything?"
"You're right. This control room hasn't been used in months," the tech expert replied. "This room was locked out. Hell, as far as I can tell the entire facility has been locked out. It's being controlled from somewhere else."
"Somewhere else?" the CWO-4 asked.
"Looks like there is a QM wireless between the initiators and the planet below."
"Any idea where?"
"Yep. Got it."
"All right, pack it up then," the chief ordered the other two. They both unplugged themselves from various panels and stowed their gear in packs. "Madira, away party ready to return. Snap-back beacon is on."
"Good day, Gunny." The CWO-4 smiled and vanished in a flash of light.
"What the fuck was that all about?" Bates asked.
"Damned if I know," Suez replied. "You'd think they'd at least have waited for the colonel to get here."
"So what now, Gunny?" PFC Howser asked him.
"We wait for the colonel and see what our orders are. I'd say for now, pop your lids and relax." Tommy twisted his helmet off and tethered it over his shoulder.
"CO! CDC!"
"Go CDC!"
"Sir, we've got a massive buildup across the EM bands. There's a QMT coming in."
"Roger that, CDC. Stay on top of it," Rear Admiral Jefferson said over the intercom to the Combat Direction Center commander. "XO?"
"Should be the Lincoln, the Roosevelt, and the Jefferson. It's time for them, sir," BG Chekov answered the admiral.
"STO, is it them?"
"Can't tell yet, Admiral. Hold on, sir." The STO tapped at his console and listened to his AIC briefly and then replied. "Aye, sir. I'm getting their squawk, sir."
"Good. The party was getting a little lonely." RADM Jefferson shifted the view of the main screen to the port side where the QMT throw forward had exited. In the middle of the viewscreen were three U.S. supercarriers. Wallace sent them all a greeting via DTM.
"CO, I've got the report back from the tech team that teleported down to the facility control room," the STO said without looking up from his station.
"Let me hear it, STO."
"Aye, sir. The facility is completely automated from somewhere on the planet's surface. There appears to be no possible method for overriding the lock-out codes. However, the location of the planetside control room was determined as the coordinates I'm sending you now, sir, along with the rest of their report." The STO paused for a breath.
"So we don't have to read a goddamned report, Monte, why don't you tell us where it is?" the XO snapped.
"Uh, yes, XO. I overlaid the coordinates on a topographical map of the planet. It is in the governor's mansion, sir," Captain Monte Freeman answered.
"Well then." The XO grinned. "Looks like we need to send some folks to visit the capital of this fine colony, Admiral."
"I couldn't agree with you more, XO. Get everybody off that rock, and let's get us a battleplan figured out five minutes ago. I want to hit that region in fifteen minutes." The admiral thought about his next move. They had to have control of the facility in order to get home. Their orders were to stop the secession by taking the government of the planet anyway. This way they got to kill two birds with one stone. "Start QMTing the personnel up and get the Starhawks out there bringing in the tanks. Let's just leave the fighter squadrons out. They can cover our approach in to the planet. Luckily for us, we only have to go straight down."
"Roger that, Admiral." The XO nodded in agreement. "Ground Boss, you heard the admiral. Get our tanks in here A-S-fucking-A-P."
"Yes, sir."