Gabriel's Redemption (18 page)

“Proof? What proof?” Vanheel said, his voice wavering.

“A vid showing the extraction of part of one of your aliens’ brains, where the dew is produced from. Genetic testing that proves dew is manufactured on this planet. Manifests over the past six years showing regular shipments of chemicals being sent to known drug distributors on Earth. Should I go on?” He glared down at Zack. “You’re killing one of the last indigenous species left on this planet to produce a highly addictive drug. So like I said, you have some explaining to do.”

Zack and Vanheel looked at each other, Zack shaking his head slowly. “They have this all wrong,” he said. Turning back to Gabriel, he said, “We’re not producing dew, and we’re certainly not killing the native species. In fact, we’re saving them from extinction.”

Behind Gabriel, Takahashi spoke up. “Uh sir, if I may?”

Gabriel replied without turning. “Go ahead, Ensign.”

“Sir, the tests on the alien’s body just finished, and I’m getting some, uh, extraordinary results.”

“Body?” Zack snapped. “You killed one of my people?” he demanded.

“Your alien sentry was killed during our entry. Your five others are alive and secured.” He paused, looking down at Zack. “You armed them, you gave us no choice. Two of your people fired first.”

Zack turned to Vanheel with a look of anguish. “What happened to defense only?” he asked quietly.

Vanheel shrugged sadly. “I don’t know what to say. We really haven’t prepared for this type of situation.”

Zack pointed at Gabriel. “
You
are the only one here killing the native species,” he said, is voice dripping with anger. “No choice, you say.”

Takahashi interrupted. “Sir, I think you’ll want to hear this.”

Gabriel turned. “Cripes. Spit it out, Ensign.”

“Well, I’m not really sure how to frame this, but…” Takahashi paused, gathering himself. “They’re not really aliens, sir. They’re human, at least mostly.”

Almost as one, the soldiers in the room took in a sharp breath, and the tension ratcheted up noticeably.
 

Sowers was the first to break the sudden silence. “You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me,” he said, the disbelief in his voice evident even over the helmet speaker.

“Not at all,” Zack said. “That’s why we’re here, trying to save a world of our relatives that’s dying out. Does your
evidence
show you that?”

Gabriel rocked back on his heels, mouth ajar. A small part of his brain flashed in anger at Sabra for her unnecessary shot, but a larger part of it was trying to figure out what MacFarland’s reasoning was for withholding this information.

“You say you have evidence of us killing this species,” Zack continued. “Let me show you evidence of what we’re really doing here.”
 

Zack reached out to take Gabriel’s arm. As his hand made contact with the surface of the Otero Battlesuit, Gabriel’s neuretics lit up with data. The contact between Zack and the suit set off a deeply-encrypted passcode, and a storage folder Gabriel remembered as the secure file Gesselli had implanted before they left Earth popped open.

“
Hello, Commander,
” Gesselli’s voice said, her image appearing in Gabriel’s Mindseye. “
This is the file I mentioned to you earlier. It’s been keyed to launch when you make contact with your brother - sorry for keeping that part of the mission from you. Now that you’ve safely reached your objective, I can fill you in on all of the information.
” Her image smirked as she had in Gabriel’s original briefing. “
Suffice it to say you haven’t been given all the details of why MacFarland sent you out there. Oh, and you’re also in grave danger.
”

Chapter 21

Gabriel held up a hand to his brother. “Hold on, I’m receiving some data.” He sent a quick burst to his team to have them stand by, and he allowed Gesselli’s file to run.

“
Commander, you and your team have been sent to Poliahu under false pretenses. I’m in a tough position, as I work directly for Admiral MacFarland and I’d have a difficult time getting any authorities here to listen. He’s extremely well-connected in Toronto and has loyal people in a lot of different positions. Therefore I can only give you what I know in this file and hope you and your team can act upon it. Perhaps you’ll be able to clean this up.
”

The image shifted to the original vid of the alien operation he had seen in his NAF briefing. Gesselli continued. “
This vid was faked specifically to stir up your emotions. MacFarland’s psych people thought with your history on Eden, you’d have a soft spot for unnecessary cruelty. After the briefing, I’m inclined to agree.
”

The image changed again, now showing the genetic testing and shipping manifest evidence. “
These too are fakes, created to cover his ass in the unlikely event the mission was compromised.
” The voice paused for a few seconds. “
I’m ashamed to say I’m the one who put these together, but I had no choice. And I honestly didn’t suspect how far this would go.
”

Again the image changed, back to Gesselli’s face. “
I don’t know the real reason behind why he sent you there. He wants something on that planet, I just can’t find out what it is, but I do suspect his ultimate goal. He’s been in contact with some shady characters in the SAR government, and I believe he has ambitions to use their backing to effect a coup here in Toronto.
” She took a deep breath, looking off-camera for a second. “
You and your team are being set up. There is another team on the way, coming to cover any evidence of MacFarland’s involvement, and to frame you as the fall guys. You and your team will be killed, and evidence will be planted to show you went rogue and wiped out the colony.
” She gave a rueful smile. “
That’s why he chose you, because you have a history that is easy to fit this into. No one would be surprised if you went off-reservation and did something like this.
”

The image changed to a ship, what appeared to be a cargo freighter. “
Some very bad people are right behind you, and they won’t be concerned with unnecessary cruelty. I was only able find out what ship they are on, I don’t know exactly when they will be arriving. They were scheduled to depart Mars about a day behind you, but nothing’s on the record, so I can’t confirm it.
” The voice paused, and dropped an octave. “
Just please, watch your back.
”

The data file ended and collapsed back into the hidden storage folder. Gabriel shook his head as if to clear it, and turned to St. Laurent next to him. “Chief, I think we all need to have a talk, most quick.” Turning back to Zack, he said, “I just received some very interesting news. Let me brief my team for a few minutes, then I want you to show me what you’re really doing here.”

Zack nodded. “Okay, but in the meantime, why don’t you send one of your people down to our medlab to take a look at the Polis themselves, just to reassure you they’re safe. They’re very special in a lot of ways, and I think they may be why your government sent you to take over.”

“Something tells me it’s not exactly my government that sent us,” Gabriel replied. “Takahashi,” he called over his shoulder. “You and your gear head out, back the way we came, to Medical. I’ll link you in on the briefing.”

“Aye aye sir,” Takahashi replied, turning for the exit.
 

“It’s Doctor Philby Gilchrist,” Zack called to him. “I’ll let him know you’re on the way.”

“Thanks,” Gabriel said. Looking back at the rest of his team, who were still covering the colony workers with stunners, he called out, “Huddle up, and let these people back to their stations.”

Ten minutes later, Gabriel’s team was firing questions at him rapid-fire.

“What did Takahashi mean, human?”

“So we’re not sanctioned for this mission?”

“Is Sabra on the hook for that shot now?”

“Who’s coming after us?”

“At ease, everyone,” Gabriel said. His team had removed their combat helmets, clipping them to their belts, and powered down the camo and weapons. They were standing around the center platform of the Operations center. The techs had all returned to their stations, idle conversation passing back and forth, with quick glances being shot back to the soldiers. Zack was talking with Vanheel in hushed tones near a vacant workstation.

“That’s all the information I have,” Gabriel said, closing the briefing. A rotating three-dimensional image of a cargo ship remained projected above the holotable’s surface. “I’m going to talk to Zack, er, the chairman, and find out what defenses they may have before this clean up team arrives.”

St. Laurent looked at Gabriel. “Commander, you didn’t mention you had a brother. This must be a shock.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I haven’t seen or heard from him in nine years or so. And then, to walk into a situation like this and see him?” He gave a wan smile. “Just caught me off guard, that’s all.”

Sowers punched him in the shoulder, his armored fist clanging off the carbotanium. “Sorry he got all the looks, Commander. And
you’re
the younger brother?”

Gabriel waved his pulse rifled arm in his direction. “Don’t push it, Petty Officer.” Although now that Sowers had brought up Zack’s appearance, he had noticed his brother looked younger and more fit than nine years ago.
Couldn’t be the sunny weather,
he thought.

Jimenez spoke up. “Sir, is that what I think it is?” he asked, pointing to a device sitting on the edge of a nearby workstation.

Gabriel’s gaze followed the soldier’s gesture and saw the missing LoRanSS probe lying on its side, wiring sticking out from its bottom. “So it is, Arturo. Looks like we found what happened to the last Larry.”

“If I may? I have some autonomous sentry experience, although I’ve never worked with this model, and it’s got onboard laser capability. Maybe I can take a peek at that, hack into it and reprogram the others outside to serve as point defense?”

Gabriel pursed his lips. “Good idea,” he said. “Mister Chairman,” he called over his shoulder. “Can you let one of my men look at that probe there?”

Zack turned from his conversation. “Of course, although Vanheel says it’s good and dead. One of my people was injured by it earlier, and his friend really tore it apart in a fit of rage.” He tapped Vanheel on the shoulder. “Go give him a hand, Pim.”

Vanheel walked over to the workstation. Jimenez met him there, and the two of them began poking and prodding at the probe, conversing in low tones.

“In the meantime, why don’t I show you what we’ve been doing here the past five years?” Zack said as he walked over to the group.

“Fine idea,” Gabriel replied. “I’m about ready to get clued in. Just not used to being left in the dark so long.”

Zack stood at a workstation and tapped a few keys, and the largest of the wallscreens in the Operations center came to life. “We call them
Polis
after the planet, but they’re a very distant cousin of ours, and surprisingly intelligent. The problem for them is, their planet is dying.”

The brothers were standing at one of the workstations in the Operations center, viewing images of the colony.
 

“This is what we’re doing,” said Zack. “Saving the native species is why we struggle every day with the climate, the remoteness, the difficulty in obtaining supplies.”

One of the images showed a snow-covered mountain; a dark smudge stood out on one face surrounded by several large mining machines.
 

“Here, for example,” Zack continued. “We’re tunneling into this mountain, three miles from here, boring it out to create spaces for them to live. We’ve been mining the ores we’re pulling out of there and shipping them back to Earth. It’s our source of income for the corporation, and we’re reinvesting every dollar back into these projects.”
 

Gabriel pursed his lips, still taken a bit aback by the entire situation. A lot had hit him all at once, and within the past hour he had gone from a black mission to take out a drug production facility, to finding his brother in charge of a species reclamation project.

“Tell me about them,” he said.

Zack tapped a few keys, changing the screen to show one of the natives. “The actual species has been determined to be a variant of
homo habilis
. We’ve given them the scientific name of
homo glacies
, or man of ice.”
 

The image rotating on the screen was slightly different from the images MacFarland had showed him, which he now knew to be fakes. The actual creature was much closer to a lightly-furred chimpanzee or gorilla, with human-like arms and legs, splayed fingers and toes with opposable thumbs, and a protruding brow.

“They are semi-sentient,” Zack said. “We’ve been able to establish rudimentary communication with them, both hand and verbal to some extent, as well as teach them to use modern tools. Some have picked up Standard English quite well. As a matter of fact, many of them are helping us create their new underground homes.”

“Hold on,” Gabriel interrupted, feeling his head start to spin. “How did humans, or semi-humans, end up on this planet, so far away from Earth?”

“We don’t know exactly, but our scientists have speculated that they are descended from the same seed, so to speak, that fell to both our planets millions of years ago. Through normal evolution, humans came to be on Earth, and
homo glacies
came to be here.” Zack said. “In a few million years, who knows? If we can save them and sustain their planet, they may end up being human themselves. Or perhaps humans will move closer to being Polis,” he said with a smile.

Gabriel shook his head. “How the hell did they evolve on this frozen rock?” he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards the main door. “I wouldn’t even want to ski here, let alone live.”

“Were you briefed on the asteroid collision?” Zack asked.

Gabriel nodded, remembering Gesselli’s presentation. “Right, makes sense.”
 

“Poliahu was a temperate planet a couple hundred years ago, oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, oceans, rivers, plants and animals. After the collision and the orbit shift, the Polis were the only land-based animal life that were intelligent enough to survive.” Zack took a deep breath. “But, we’ve only been able to locate a few thousand across the planet, and we estimate they numbered in the tens of millions before the climate change.”