Resurrection (The Inherited War) (11 page)

There was stunned silence for a split second before the crowd erupted into the loudest cheering yet.  Calling for silence again Sky continued.  “I ask that you take this evening as your night to celebrate your hero’s return.  Tomorrow we prepare for war.”  Chaos erupted as the massed Worlders surged forward.  They were all shouting to volunteer to fight for her.  It took local security thirty minutes to get the rowdy crowd back away from the dais and quiet so she could continue.  “Recruitment information has been posted on both of your worlds’ nets, any who want to volunteer should use the application attached to the information.  Thank you and enjoy the party.”

If anyone else had planned to speak at the ceremony, their turn was lost as the crowd again surged forward and attempted to storm the stage.  None of the Worlders had harm on their minds, they just wanted to meet and speak with the heroes of Nixa.  Security kept a corridor clear through the assembly grounds for the group to move off to the official governmental party.

“Thalo, give my apologies to your leaders.  I am not in any kind of mood to celebrate.  I am going to return to the ship and prepare for tomorrow.”  She had to scream at the top of her lungs to be heard over the noisy crowd.

Thalo didn’t even try and respond he just shook his head yes and followed the guards off the field.   Sky signaled for her detachment of guards and followed them back to her shuttle.  She took off a few moments later and returned to the Justice. 

The next few days were a flurry of activity for Sky and the other members of the original crew.  The first of the Worlders to arrive for duty were the doctors.  A mix of geneticists, MD’s and surgeons all reported for duty the day after their arrival. Sky instructed the geneticists on the use of the nanotech and how they needed to be programmed specifically for their intended hosts.  She performed the first few procedures on the Doctors then let them try on their fellow MD’s.  Once each of them had done the
procedure a few times and had bonded with the ships she split them into groups and sent them to the other ships to train the Doctors assigned to those ships.

In all total they would be outfitting nearly twenty thousand Worlders with nanites and human made Second Skin.  Each ship would get a crew of one thousand and the other fifteen thousand would be the landing party.   Sky aided Jeth with the logistics and planning.  Jeth still estimated a month until they would be ready to deploy the fleet to combat.  The ground troops would be pulled from existing Worlder infantry and united so they would be ready to deploy immediately.  The ships’ crews were another matter.

It would take time to get them integrated into working with the ships.  The tech was new for them but they had a solid core of Worlders to train them.  Sky was about as happy as she could be with the speed and enthusiasm of the Worlders.

~

Sky stomped down the hallway.  Irritated was a mild way of describing her mood, extremely angry was more like it.  She stopped at the door she was looking for and pounded on it mercilessly.  “Damn it Thalo, open this door.”  She continued pounding until, finally it opened.  She thrust the data chip she was holding into the startled Worlders face.  “What exactly is this?  You have to be kidding, we can’t do it this way.”

“Slow down Sky, take a breath will ya.”  Thalo snatched the data out of her hand before she attacked him with it.  “What's wrong with my plan?  I thought it was a good one.”  He stepped into his cabin and held out his hand inviting her in.  “Please take a seat and let’s discuss this like sane, rational beings.”

Sky stormed into his cabin and threw herself into a chair.  “Trust me I am more than rational.  Now what makes you think I will let you use my sister in this way to get the information we need on the Kin?  Find another way.”

“Hold on a second.  The only part of that plan that was mine was where to go to get the information.  Once Snow got a hold of it she added the details of how to do it.  We looked at it every way and this one has the best chance of working.  The only other way I see to get the info we need is Hal, but since he is still down for the count this becomes our only option.”  He sat across from her and looked her dead in the eye.  “So next time you feel like waking someone up and storming around their room, make sure you got the right someone.”  He leaned back, crossed his arms and watched her fume.

“Damn that girl, what is she thinking?”  Sky got to her feet and headed for the door.  “Be ready to go once that ship your people are getting for us gets here.  No more wasting time.”  Sky walked back to her own room to wait.  She arrived and threw herself into the bed.  She wasn’t about to start any problems with her sister before such an important mission, if this was how she wanted to do it then fine.  Snow would have to live or die with the consequences.  An hour later the bridge reported that their new starship was in route from the planet and would be ready to depart in thirty minutes.

Sky accessed the ships intercom and called her sister.  “I’m here Sky,” she responded to the comm chime.

“Get your things and get ready.  Our ride is on the way,” was all she said.

“We are going with my plan?”  Snow asked tentatively.

“Yes, so be ready,” Sky responded and cut the connection.  She got up and walked over to her Second Skin platform.  She released the Skin currently over her body and let it drain back into the ship.  She stood naked on the platform for a few minutes before she started entering in the specs for her new suit.  She waited as the newly reprogrammed Skin crawled its way back up her body and covered her from feet to neck.  There was no reason to activate the helmet function yet.  She looked at herself in a full length mirror.  She turned from side to side and inspected herself.  She had never frowned when looking at herself in the mirror before, she did now.  Sighing, she grabbed the few things she thought she would need for the mission and started the long walk to the docking bay.

She tried her best to ignore the strange looks the crew was giving her as she walked by.  Shooting any of the Worlders who looked too long a nasty glare she made her way into the docking bay just as the ship was landing.  Sky stopped and took it in.  Ship was a too nice of word to describe what just landed and died in her hanger.  She felt someone come to a stop next to her.

“Well, well.  My people came through it seems.  She is a beauty, isn’t she?”  He gave Sky a once over and started to open his mouth to comment.

“If you say one word.  One word.”  She held one finger up in front of his face. “I will put you out the nearest airlock.”  She leaned close to him and whispered as she saw her sister approaching.  “One word.”

“Looks like we’re ready to go,” Snow said cheerily.  “Hey, great disguise Sky.  With a helmet on it won’t even look like you.  Wow, is that our ship?  Let’s get aboard.”  Snow was positively bubbling with excitement as she headed towards the obviously derelict freighter.

Sky grabbed Thalo by the arm as he attempted to walk by.  “Is that thing even safe?”  She asked him skeptically.

“If there is one thing my people know how to do, it’s get in and out of places without being noticed.  Though the ship looks ready to fall apart, I guarantee it is solidly built under the junk.  We need to look the part of down on their luck smugglers.  That ship screams hard times.  It will get us from point A to point B with no problems.  Now as you’re so keen to point out, we need to get going and stop wasting time.”  He pulled his arm from her grasp and followed Snow into the freighter.  Sky squared her shoulders and walked into the ship.  They got settled and met on the bridge.

“I have been spoiled,” Thalo remarked, “I miss the human ships.  These old controls are a pain.”

“Stop whining and get us on the move.”  Sky said as she sat down in the copilot’s chair.  Snow took the navigator’s seat and watched as Thalo brought the ships systems online.  It took all of five minutes to prep the ship for takeoff and another hour or so to reach the minimum distance to activate their gravity collectors and engage their warp engines.  The trip would take almost a full day to make with the antiquated engines.  While in warped space, the three friends went over and over the plan.  They worked it until they all had it memorized.  They worked on contingencies and alternate approaches.  Finally running out of what-ifs to agonize over, they all settled in to wait.  Thalo got the signal from the Nava Computer and brought the ship out of warp space and got its grav collectors spun up and recharging the engines.

He engaged the normal space engines and adjusted their course.  He pointed them at a giant Nebula off to their left and opened the engines up.  There were no systems in this sector of space.  No life sustaining suns that warmed hospitable planets.  There was only one thing here besides the Nebula.  The Pitt.  Sky had never wanted to return here, let alone with her baby sister.

CHAPTER 10

Approximately 20,000 years ago

The Kin have proven their worth, time and again.  They are boon companions and keep the morale up in a losing war.  We have successfully pushed the Esii back and regained the momentum we need to finish our plans. 

All our sites are on schedule and should be completed on time.  Yet we are still pressed.  I am more convinced than ever that the Esii are receiving outside help.  As I study their weapons and technological upgrades, I am forced to admit that they are beyond all previous reports of the Esii. Someone somewhere is aiding them. 

I have been pouring over our data bases, looking for any clue as to who it might be.  No race of beings we have encountered before could be responsible. I understand that the galaxy is a very large place but I fail to see how we missed a race that rivals ours in technology.  And why they chose to aid the Esii against us.

I will continue to use what limited resources I have at my disposal to investigate this mysterious outside influence.  In the meantime, I have started planning for our final attack on the Esii.  I feel the time is drawing near for us to finish what they started.  I plan on leaving their race impotent to cause any further mischief in the galaxy.  At least for the foreseeable future. 

~

He awoke to the sound of his mother calling his name.

“Cole, sweetheart.  It’s time for breakfast.”  The voice of his mom drifted up from the first story of their house.  Cole rubbed the sleep from his eyes and swung his feet over the edge of his bed.

“Coming mom,” he shouted from his bed.  He stretched and hopped off his bed.  He stopped as a weird feeling passed through his body.  He leaned back against his bed as a wave of confusion knocked him of balance.  He held his head in his hands and closed his eyes until the sensation passed. 

He opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror on his wall.  He was all of four feet tall and had a head full of downy soft blonde hair.  He looked around his room and took it all in.  His bed was covered in new looking Star Wars sheets and he had posters all over his walls from the movies.  He had a bookcase full of puffy looking kid’s books and shelves full of toys.  His carpet was soft and warm on his naked feet.  He scrunched his toes up in the deep material and enjoyed the feel.  Then he tried to think of what he had done the day before.  He couldn’t come up with any memories.  He knew what his parents looked like and the rest of his house, but nothing else.

A powerful feeling of not really caring about his past took a hold of his small being.  Cole shrugged and grabbed the transformers bathrobe off the end of his bed.  It was red with Optimus Prime’s face all over it.  He felt warm and safe in it and seemed to have always felt that way.  He buried his feet in his overstuffed slippers and headed to his door.  He looked at the picture hanging next to the door as he got close.  It was of him sitting between two adults.  His mom and dad.  They were both holding him and had big smiles on their face.

He stopped and stared at that picture.  Something wasn’t right.  He almost grabbed a hold of that train of thought before it seemed to be snatched away and his five year old mind wandered off to some new subject.

“Cole, honey your pancakes are getting cold.  Hurry up.”  Again his Mom’s voice floated up the stairs to hurry him to breakfast.  He grabbed his door handle and swung the door open.  He looked down the hallway lined with various family photos and other such treasured mementoes.  He felt a powerful aversion to turn his head away from them and continue on down the stairs.  He ran down them, taking the steps two at a time.  He hit the living room floor at a sprint and turned the corner to the kitchen.  He knew he had to have done this a million times but for some reason it seemed new to him.

His feet slipped a little on the linoleum floor of the kitchen but he caught his balance and finished by vaulting up onto his stool at the counter.  He executed the move perfectly as he must have done a million times before, but again it had a feeling of newness.  He looked around the kitchen and stopped on his mom.  She smiled sweetly at him as she flipped a piping hot pancake. There was already a stack with melting butter and maple syrup on a plate in front of him.  Next to that was a napkin and a giant glass of orange juice.  He felt a hand drop down onto his shoulder and he jumped a little.  The suddenness of the movement distracted him and his feeling of something being out of place flashed in his young mind.