Forge of War (Jack of Harts) (46 page)

“Yes,” Aneerin whispered, bringing a hand up to rub his jaw.  “Most unfortunate that revelation is.”  He nodded as if deep in thought.  “We will have to go deeper then.”

Hal’s face seemed to tighten.  “Of course,” he said without protest though.

Aneerin pulled in a deep breath and set his jaw.  “Go ten percent deeper and look out for storms.”

Hal swallowed, placed his hands behind his back, and nodded.  The ship dove down further, the intermittent bangs becoming a steady thrum of gravity slamming against the ship.

“Is this safe?” Charles asked, a shade of worry in his voice.

“Absolutely not,” Aneerin answered, though his tone didn’t reveal even a hint of nerves.

“If this is not safe for a
Peloran
ship, what about the rest of
them
?” Charles asked, waving a hand at the Terran warships in the
Guardian Light’s
wake.

Peloran pulled in a deep breath before answering.  “With the upgrades we performed on them, they should be able to follow us.”

“Should?”

Aneerin smiled.  “It is best to find out if they will break now,
before
we have traveled far, rather than later when we are attempting to penetrate the Hyades Cluster.”

Jack shivered at the idea of testing the new systems like this.

Aneerin nodded towards Hal and chairs appeared in the middle of the observation deck, courtesy of the hard light projectors in the walls.  Aneerin and Hal sat down in the ones with their backs to hyperspace and waved for the Cowboys to sit.  His face took on a speculative look.  “Do you know why we’re here right now?” he asked with a matching smile.

Jack and the others exchanged confused looks, and Jack poked his chair to make certain it was as solid as it looked before sitting down.  He finished with a long look at Betty, who just smiled back at him as if she knew exactly what was going on.  He blinked and frowned at her for a second, before shaking his head and returning his gaze to Aneerin.

“Do you mean the metaphysical question of why we exist?” Jack asked with a wry smile.  “Or why we are at this spot at this moment in time?”

Aneerin smiled at him.  “I think I understand the first question.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose.  “Care to share the secrets?”

“Perhaps later,” Aneerin answered with an amused wink.

“You said something about battle,” Charles interjected.

Aneerin nodded towards him.  “Correct.  The important question of course is
who
will we fight?”

Charles, Jack, and Jay exchanged confused looks.  Their cybers of course just smiled.  Jack sighed and rubbed his forehead.  They were being tested.  He hated tests.  He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs.

Aneerin aimed a raised eyebrow at him.  “Jack?  Can you tell me your interpretation of The War in the Outer Colonies?”

Jack frowned, glanced at a smiling Betty, and rolled his eyes.  Reluctantly, he gathered his thoughts, ran his mind over the reports he’d read over the last month, and quickly checked his conclusions again.  “You know we’re not on the Pentagon’s preferred mailer list,” he commented.

“I know,” Aneerin answered, with an understanding smile.

Jack grimaced, shook his head, and sighed.  “Well, from what I’ve read, there’s a lot of wailing and very little gnashing of teeth going on out there.”

Aneerin gave him a questioning look, and Jack had the pleasure of actually, for once, catching the older man off guard with something.  And that pleasure made him a bit more verbose.

Jack sighed.  “Nobody has enough ships out there to really push any fight, so they’re doing more sparring over position than anything else,” he explained.  “Avoiding big fights if they can.  Really, no commander wants to be responsible for losing the war out there, so they’re not trying to win it.  They’re waiting for the big fleets near Earth to decide the matter.”

Aneerin smiled.  “Good summation.  So they’re irrelevant to The War?”

Jack almost answered in agreement, but something stopped him.  He blinked, and looked at Betty with a frown.  She gave him a pleased smile.  He turned back to Aneerin, a mystified look on his face.  He didn’t know why, but they would be important.  “No.”

Aneerin chuckled.  “Can you explain that?”

Jack shook his head and smiled.  “Absolutely not.”

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “Honesty.  And instincts.”  He turned to Charles and Jay.  “Either of you?”

Charles smiled.  “The Outer Colonies can not influence who wins The War, unless our casualties are so catastrophic that there
are
no winners of course.  But they will almost certainly have the numbers to influence the
Peace
that follows.”

Aneerin gave him a quizzical stare.  “So you assume there will be a peace?”

Charles nodded.  “No war can last forever.  Sooner or later, one of us will win and one of us will lose and there will be ‘peace in our time’ for a time.”

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “Your analysis is in accord with mine.  Do you believe the same thing of the Inner Colonies?”

Charles frowned.  “Mostly, yes, though there are some exceptions that could turn The War.”

Jay cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.  “I have noted a difference in how the Chinese fleets near Earth have fought compared to those in the Colonies,” he rumbled.

Aneerin smiled and nodded for the larger man to continue.

“The Chinese commanders near Earth thought they could beat us so they tried to destroy our fleets.” Jay grunted then, with a rather pleased smile.  “They failed.  The commanders in the Inner Colonies have avoided any major Alliance fleets and focused on easy targets, where they know there is no one to defend.”

Charles nodded in agreement.  “The last report we received of any strike was two weeks ago.  They have been silent since word of our victory here reached them.”

“Indeed,” Aneerin noted in a solemn tone.  “So what do you think they intend now?”

Jack frowned and scratched his neck as an idea came to mind.  He examined it against everything he knew, looked at it from all sides in his mind for any hole, and grunted as he could find nothing wrong with it.  It felt right.  “They’re coming here,” he whispered.

Aneerin cocked his head to the side.  “What makes you say that?”

Jack shrugged.  “I don’t know.”  Then lightning struck and his eyes opened wide at the message from his subconscious finally got through.  “Wait.  Yosemite.  That was just the
first
step to taking our fleets out of action,” he said with more intensity than he meant to.

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “Yes.  I agree.  So where?”

Jack frowned and glanced around the observation deck.  He caught a shift in Hal’s demeanor and his eyebrows rose.  He glanced at Betty, wondering if she’d caught it too.  She inclined her head marginally, showing she had.  Jack smiled at Aneerin.  “Well, I think
he’s
about to tell us.”

Aneerin smiled.  “That is cheating, Jack.”

Jack spread his hands out wide.  “Just making use of every piece on the field of battle,” he said with a wink.

Aneerin shook his head.  “So now we are at battle with one another?”

“Every time we speak, it’s a battle of wits,” Jack said, once again with more intensity than he’d planned.

Aneerin bowed his head.  “Touché,” he whispered before turning to look Hal.  “You have news?”

Hal nodded.  “The scouts are detecting movement.”

Aneerin turned back to Jack.  “New Washington?”

Jack considered the Peloran for a moment before answering.  It felt right.  “It
is
a good target.”  Then the realization hit and he looked out at hyperspace.  “And
that’s
why we went so deep.  They saw us leave.  The coast is clear, isn’t it?  So they think?”

“Indeed,” Aneerin answered, approval in his tone.  “Indeed.”  He turned back to Hal and nodded.  “Bring us around.”

Hal nodded.  “Changing course now.”

The ship groaned as it came around, and Jack could swear he felt it battering its way through the gravitic storm around them with renewed determination.  He shook his head in amazement.  While he’d been fighting a battle of wits with Aneerin, the older man had been fighting one with an enemy none of them could even see.

And now it was time to see how the cards dealt out.

Jack looked out onto hyperspace through the transparent hull of the
Guardian Light’s
observation deck.  Gravity ripped and twisted around them, dim red waves slamming into the battleship hard enough that a steady thrumming set his teeth on edge.  The battleship’s deflection grid plowed through the darkness, a red wake of disturbed gravity fanning out behind them.

Jack turned to see the rest of the task force, fifty-one destroyers, cruisers, and light carriers, displayed in all their holographic glory on the walls of the observation deck.  They followed in the wake of the
Guardian Light
, riding the waves of gravity broken by the battleship’s relentless charge.  Man wasn’t meant to fly this deep in hyperspace.  Hell, man wasn’t meant to be in
hyperspace
at all, but they were too deep when the gravity waves were all red over a
blackness
so much darker than any black he’d ever imagined.

Jack swallowed carefully, not wanting to disrupt any of Hal’s attention.

“Charles, I need the Cowboys ahead of the task force.  Surface, relay what is there, and engage if you need to at your discretion.”

“How the frak are we supposed to launch in
that
?” Jack asked waving a hand at the red bow wave ahead of them.

Aneerin chuckled.  “Your fighters are better than you think.”

Jack gave him a disbelieving look.

“But we will rise to a more
standard
operating depth before launching,” Aneerin added with a wry smile.

“Thank you,” Jack returned, his voice betraying relief.

“So we are going to be the diversion?” Jay rumbled.

“Yes.  And I believe a test,” Aneerin answered with a pointed look at Jack.

Charles and Jay followed his gaze and Jack sighed.  “For all of the new recruits?”

“Indeed,” Aneerin answered with a nod and a knowing smile.

Jack returned the smile with interest.  “And unless we detour to play wack-a-Wang along the way, that’ll be it before Hyades?”

“Exactly.  Though I can think of no Chinese targets along the way as important as Hyades,” Aneerin returned and nodded towards the rear of the ship.  “Do you believe them ready?”

Jack looked at Charles, the question written on his face.  Charles smiled and cleared his throat.  “All of the Cowboys are veterans, new and old alike,” he supplied and stepped up to stand next to Aneerin.  “Every single one has fought and lived.  I only worry how we will fight as a group.  That said, we are at least as prepared as when we first deployed.  Not counting for technology or numbers, I think the Cowboys back there are a match for the Cowboys who fought at Fort Wichita.”

“Agreed,” Aneerin whispered.  “You have chosen well, I think.”  Aneerin paused to take in a long breath, and Jack could seem him studying the deep red waves of hyperspace intently.  Finally Aneerin nodded and turned, his face determined.  “It is time.”

Charles echoed Aneerin’s action and nodded to Jack and Jay.  “We should return to Cowboy Country now,” he ordered and began to walk out.

“Jack,” Aneerin said, waving for him to stay.  “You can take the next lift.”

Charles and Jay paused for a moment, until Aneerin waved them on.  They looked at Jack and he shrugged, letting them know they were free to go.  They answered with smiles and stepped into the lift, Dorothy and Winona nodding at him as they followed their partners.

Aneerin cleared his throat and Jack turned back to him.  He scanned the older man, wondering what he was thinking.  “You are looking to do something that we do not do,” Aneerin began in a stern voice.  “Do you know why?”

Jack looked between Aneerin and Hal.  “Yes.  I know why the
cybers
decided not to do it.”

Aneerin smiled, catching Jack’s pointed tone.  “Good.  But I would like to know why you wish to do this.”

Jack glanced at Betty and Jasmine, who gave him reassuring smiles, before turning back to Aneerin with a nod.  “OK.”

Aneerin look at him in approval.  “Good.  Can you tell me in one sentence?”

Jack said the first thing that came to mind.  “I don’t want to leave Samantha.”  He considered his feelings for any evidence that he’d been untrue, but his eyes opened wide as he realized that there really wasn’t anything else.

Aneerin’s expression softened.  “Women.”  He shook his head.  “They always make us do things we did not think we would do.”

Jack turned his head slightly and scanned Aneerin carefully.  “You sound like you’ve had experience.”

“Oh, yes,” Aneerin whispered with a smile.

Jack felt a smirk come over his face at the idea.  “And next you’re going to tell me there are little Aneerins running around?”

Aneerin sighed and nodded slowly.  “Yes,” he whispered.  “There are.”

Jack considered that for a moment and glanced at Betty.  She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he was thinking.  He smiled and turned back to Aneerin.  “I’m sorry, but I just don’t how the Peloran do things.  Are you all test tube babies or do you…” he trailed off, trying to figure out how to say it without being rude.

Aneerin smiled.  “We have families, much like your people.”

Jack nodded slowly.  “Did you choose the girl?  Or girls?  Or did your family choose?”

Aneerin stared at him for several seconds before answering.  “Arranged marriages are not our custom,” he finally answered with a sigh.  “And yes, I will always love them,” he added, answering the question Jack had been about to ask.

Jack scratched his jaw with a thumb and glanced at Betty again.  This time she smiled and inclined her head, recognizing where he was going.  He turned back to Aneerin.  “Would you do anything in your power to stay with them?”

Aneerin sighed and shook his head.  “Would
you
?  Do
anything
to stay with all the girls you’ve loved?” he asked with a pointed look at the rank insignia on Jack’s uniform.

Jack’s cheek twitched at the hard question.  He brought a hand up to touch the rank insignia.  He shook his head, very slowly.  “I made an oath,” he whispered.  “I won’t break it.”  He turned a hard gaze back on Aneerin.  “But I’d do anything
else
.”

Aneerin’s expression turned thoughtful, and he and Hal exchanged a conversation of looks.  “Some of those you love are dead.  Some are alive.  Who would you rather be with?”

Jack smiled.  “Why choose?” he asked with a wink.

Aneerin sighed and just
looked
at him with the thousand-meter stare of a true veteran of war.

Jack lowered his eyes, unable to meet the gaze.  He turned back to Betty and she returned his look with an understanding one.  He cleared and sighed.  There were real important reasons he didn’t tell people about the dreams.  They wouldn’t understand. “It’s like a piece of me died when Yosemite fell,” Jack whispered instead.  “That a part of me
is
with them.”

“There is more to it than that,” Aneerin said in a tone of voice that suggested he had no doubt at all he was right.

Jack pursed his lips and looked at Betty.

Betty crossed her arms over her duty uniform and gave him that reassuring smile she did so well.  And then she tilted her head towards Aneerin, inviting him to continue.

Jack frowned, not really wanting to do what she seemed to be suggesting.  He turned to Jasmine for support with a look that was probably a lot more pleading than he’d meant it to be.

Jasmine just shook her head and waved a hand towards the Peloran, indicting that he really had no choice if he wanted to go through with it.

Jack sighed in defeat and looked back to the older man.  “I have dreams.”

Aneerin nodded and brought a hand up to rub his chin in interest.  “Dreams can be rewarding.  Assuming you can navigate them of course.”

“That’s the trick isn’t it?” Jack said with a wince.

“Indeed.”  Aneerin turned to look out on the red waves of hyperspace.  “What do you dream?”

Jack took a long breath, pushed away his last reason not to answer, and let it back out.  “I dream of a beach, on a lake, with a bonfire, and a party with everybody I love.”

Aneerin raised an eyebrow in interest.  “Everybody?  Alive and dead?”

Jack nodded.

Aneerin pursed his lips as he considered Jack’s words.  “So that is your heaven?”

Jack almost said yes, but then his last conversation with Samantha came back to mind.  He brought a hand up to touch the necklace she’d hung around his neck.  “
One
of them,” he finally whispered.

Aneerin’s smile turned knowing and the Peloran nodded slowly.  “Have you ever felt the wish to stay?”

Jack’s eyes flicked up to meet the older man’s gaze.  “Every night,” he said with complete honesty.

Aneerin nodded again.  “What brings you back?”

Jack glanced at Betty.

Aneerin followed his eyes and smiled.  “Ah.  Of course.  Women,” he finished, as if that explained everything.  “And the
other
heaven?” he asked with a shrewd smile.  “Or is that plural?”

Jack cleared his throat, and looked out on hyperspace to give himself time to think.  “I’ve left people behind.  People I could have stayed with if I hadn’t done this,” he noted with a tug on his uniform.  “But then,” he whispered with a look towards Betty and Jasmine, and shrugged.  “I didn’t make it for the right reasons, but I made the right the
choice
.  I can make a difference out here, in a way I’ve never done before,” he whispered with more sincerity than he’d expected.

Aneerin nodded in approval.  “And yet?”

Jack let out a long breath and shook his heat.  “And yet I wish I didn’t have to leave.  But I have to.”  Then he turned to Aneerin with a steady gaze.  “But I
don’t
.  There
is
another option.  And
you
have the ability to make it
happen
.”

“Yes,” Aneerin whispered and turned his back on Jack.  “I do.  And I understand.  Do
you
?”

Jack blinked at the odd question.  He thought he had, but Aneerin’s tone suggested something different.  And he had the sudden feeling that he really didn’t.  “What
should
I understand?” he asked.

Aneerin turned back to him with an approving smile.  “That is a
very
good question to ask, Jack.  You will never age.”

Jack spread his arms out wide and cocked his head to the side.  “Hello.  Ageless.  I kinda don’t do that already.”

Aneerin pursed his lips and just stared at Jack until Jack cleared his throat.  “As I was saying,” Aneerin finally began again.  “You will never age.  You will never die.  Even if you do die, your cyber will live on.  He will see your loved ones grow old and die, your children and your grand children will age before him.  Even if you die in battle, he will go on, for as long as there is a Cybernetic race, unless he chooses to shut down. 
Him
.  Not
you
.  He will be new life, not simply a way for you to be in two places at once.  Do you understand this, Jack?” Aneerin finished in a hard tone.

Jack swallowed and pulled in a long breath as the question rebounded through him.  “I…” he started, but had to shake his head.  “I thought I did,” he finally whispered.

Aneerin raised a single eyebrow at him, inviting Jack to continue.

Jack sighed.  “Yosemite.  Mother.  Father.  A lot of girls I…well…I knew I’d never grow old with them, but I thought I would have centuries with them.”  He cleared his throat.  “I…didn’t.”

Aneerin pursed his lips.  “I am sorry for your losses.”

Jack let out a long breath and aimed a long look at Betty.  She cocked her head to the side and smiled.  He looked back to Aneerin.  “I…I don’t want to keep leaving people.”  He shied away from saying names, and swallowed hard.  “Look, I don’t know if I can make any of it right.  But I can’t walk away from this.”  He tugged his uniform again.  “And I don’t think…well…I don’t think I’d be worth much if I did.”  He shook his head and looked at Betty and Jasmine with a slow smile.

“But cybers can be anywhere they want.”  Jack turned back to Aneerin with a determined look.  “I know you have good reasons for not doing this.  I actually did some research on it.”  He shrugged with a wry grin, and felt something click into place in his mind.  He pulled in a breath, and plunged in.  “But you’ve had two
millennia
to perfect your technology since then.  Now my reasons to want this are way different than those who…failed back then.  And I think
you
have good reasons to want to test it, or you wouldn’t be talking to me right now about it.”

Aneerin glanced at Betty and gave a slow nod.  “Yes.  You are right.”  He turned to Hal and Jack caught the edge of the conversation of glances and movements.

Jack felt the lift open behind him and Aneerin turned back with a smile.