Worlds Away (32 page)
USSF
Warship
Liberty
:
Sol
System :
…he was back
in a physical state, on the
Liberty
.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, young man?” General
Gates asked in a growl, though he was quickly distracted when the connection to
the Sentinel fleet was lost. His communications array went silent. His
second-in-command tapped a few haptic symbols on his own console, and the main
casement on the bridge lit up with their current coordinates: they were in
orbit around Pluto.
Ignoring the general’s question, Alex quantized himself,
though not to avoid reprimand from the officers. Instead, he used his photonic
senses to cast out through the solar system, looking for signatures of the
Kulsat Risen.
When he found them, a wave of trepidation coursed through
him.
During the planning phase of their military action, the
Sentinels speculated that the Kulsat would send anywhere between a dozen and a
few hundred of their warships to Sol System.
Alex detected well over ten-thousand Risen, all in a
photonic state racing at near-light speeds toward Neptune.
A moment later, his astonishment at the sheer number of them
passed when he wondered why they would be heading to Sol System’s outermost
major planet. There wasn’t an occupied outpost there, only a few monitoring
stations orbiting the ice giant.
Then he realized the Kulsat wouldn’t know which of the
planets were populated with Solans, and which were barren of life. They would
have to fly from planet to planet until they found Earth, where they would
begin to look for the final component, wreaking destruction on any humans who
got in their way.
Elated, Alex returned to his physical form on the bridge of
the
Liberty
, and informed the general that there were over ten-thousand
Kulsat ships heading for Neptune.
“Its orbit is very close to Pluto’s right now,” he said
matter-of-factly. “It’s only about two-hundred million kilometers away. The
quantum drive can get us there in about twelve minutes.”
“What?” the general asked. “The ten-thousand Kulsat are
heading for Neptune?” He seemed to realize he was just repeating Alex. “What does
that mean?”
“They don’t know Earth is our primary world. They need to
drop out of photonic space to check each planet on their way in. I would
imagine they’d take a bit of time to scan each one before heading for the next.
We need to follow after them.”
“And just what do you imagine we can do if we get there before
they leave? One ship against ten thousand?” He spoke the number in a hoarse
voice.
“We’re going to send them a warning.”
“A warning?” the general asked, obviously not understanding
Alex’s intent.
“Not from us,” he said, “from Red Spot. We’ll get her to
alert them that the Sentinels have taken advantage of the situation and are
attacking their home world.”
“Ah,” the general said with a light nod.
Alex opened a communications line with Red Spot and outlined
his plan. The Kulsat agreed to help.
She added, “Once we have delivered the message, we must
leave before they scan your ship and decide that we practice a deception.”
“Understood,” Alex said. “The moment we arrive in Neptunian
space, you must be ready to broadcast the warning.”
Red Spot replied. “Understood, Your Grace.”
Alex gave General Gates a questioning look, and when he got
a nod of assent, he immediately quantized the crew and ship, and flew toward
the Kulsat armada.
Patrol
Ship :
Gliese
System :
Justine couldn’t
believe
what had happened. No one expected Alex to take off to Sol System
like that. The entire communications network of Sentinels was swarmed with
everyone trying to figure out what was going on and what to do.
Without Alex, there was no point going to Kulsat System.
They would be outnumbered five to one, and each of the Kulsat warships was
heavily armed, whereas the majority of the Sentinel ships were two-person scout
ships. It would be a slaughter.
Justine sat in the pilot’s chair of the small vessel the
Gliesan Councilor had loaned her. Though it was not designed to Sentinel
standards, it had enough Kinemetic armor to absorb one or two mining laser
shots. She knew her role in the invasion wasn’t so much for direct combat, but
to monitor Alex on the
Liberty
.
She had failed that mission even before she started.
A communications alert came through her console, and she
recognized the caller’s identification. It was Councilor Ijallanna. When she
opened the channel, she saw Yoatl and Michael in the casement frame.
“Envoy Turner,” the councilor said. “What happened?”
“I’m sorry, Councilor. When Alex heard that the Kulsat had
invaded Sol System, he went after them.”
“By himself? What does he hope to accomplish?”
“I’m not certain, Sir.” Justine addressed Michael. “Do you
think he’ll try to take them all on himself? That would be suicide.”
In the background, Michael looked gravely concerned. “There’s
only one way to find out. Someone has to go there and see what’s happening.”
Yoatl said, “Sol System has not been ratified as Emerged. No
one is officially permitted to travel there.”
Ah Tabai and Aliah had gone against protocol to take
Michael, Alex, Kenny and Yaxche back there. They had only done so because they
did not believe they would be detected by the Solans. Justine had learned that
the Committee of Sentinels were going to launch an investigation into their
actions, and they could possible expel the two from the organization for what
they’d done.
Now, with practically every Sentinel in the galaxy gathered
in one place, none of them would break protocol without explicit orders from
their leaders. That kind of political decision would not be made unilaterally.
It was up to Justine. She wasn’t a Sentinel, and the only
thing stopping her was her parole to the Gliesan government.
“Councilor Ijallanna…” she said.
“Of course,” he replied. “You are released from your bond.
Go. Find out what’s happening and return here immediately. We need to know.”
Before the councilor had finished speaking, Justine
quantized herself and her vessel, focusing her consciousness on the star
beacon, and initiating a connection directly to Sol System.
∞
The journey from Gliese to Sol System was instantaneous, and
when Justine materialized in her home system after months of being away, she
felt a kind of elation in returning.
Just as quickly, the feeling left her. The space around Pluto
was barren of any ships, conventional or quantum. In physical form, she could
only push her
sight
out a hundred-and-fifty kilometers, but in a
photonic state, she could extend her senses to detect other Kinemetic
signatures throughout the solar system, provided they weren’t hiding
themselves.
When she quantized herself and sent her senses out, she
gasped when she detected a mass of Kinemetic beings—the Kulsat!—heading
directly for her.
They were coming from the direction of Neptune.
Swallowing her panic, she realized that Alex must have
managed to get their attention somehow. Focusing, she saw that there was one
signature ahead of the pack by a narrow margin. It had to be Alex.
They were only half a minute of travel time from the star
beacon. Justine’s initial impulse was to launch herself through first and
return to Gliese with the news, but she willed herself to wait.
Sure enough, she detected the star beacon activating, and with
the ship’s sensors, saw that it was connecting with the Kulsat System. As she
guessed, Alex was leading them back there.
There was one big problem with that, she knew, and felt the
iron grip of panic. If Alex led them to Kulsat, he would be there by himself,
caught between the thousands of pursuers and the tens of thousands of warships
in the system. He would be on his own, and would not last long without help
from the Sentinels.
With the star beacon activated, Justine was helpless to do
anything until Alex and the Kulsat had passed through to the other solar system.
The moment they were gone, Justine activated the star beacon
once more, and went through it back to Gliese.
∞
Moments after arriving, she blasted the news out for
everyone to hear.
“Alex managed to lead the Kulsat back to their home system.
He’s there alone. We need to mobilize immediately.”
Hundreds of voices flooded the communications system until
the Sentinel commander sent out a squelch, silencing the chatter.
Once he had everyone’s attention, he sent out the order.
“Prepare to launch for the Kulsat system. First arrivals, once you are there,
find Alex’s signature and move in to protect him. Everyone else, be prepared
for heavy fire. Ready? Launch.”
Justine, barely able to get her breath, intended to go in
with the first wave—damn the protocol—but the moment she quantized with the
first few hundred Sentinels and oriented to the star beacon, she realized there
was something wrong.
The star beacon would not activate for the Kulsat System.
After repeated attempts, all she could do was return to
physical space.
Through her communications console, she heard the commander
issue a statement. “Sentinels, somehow the Kulsat have completely blocked their
star beacon. We are not able to penetrate it.”
Justine’s senses swam with the implications.
Alex was trapped in the Kulsat System with no hope of
rescue.
USSF
Warship
Liberty
:
Kulsat
System :
Everything seemed
to
happen at once.
Upon entering the Kulsat System, Alex and the
Liberty
returned to physical space.
The patrol ships guarding the star beacon detected their
presence and began to lock their weapons on the intruder.
Alex knew that he only had seconds before the Solan ship was
blasted out of existence, and he was on the verge of quantizing the ship again
with the intention of traveling deeper into enemy territory, but his
communications console streamed a message from Red Spot.
General Gates, obviously realizing where they were, was
shouting at him, but his words were lost on Alex.
The message. The secret that Red Spot knew, which no one
else seemed to know. There it was on his readout, but for the life of him, Alex
could not understand its meaning.
“The Kulsat did not fear the Grace only because of their
ability to nullify the Gift. The Kulsat feared the Grace because they could dismantle
the star beacons.”
In the span of a moment, Alex’s mind made several
connections.
The transformation into a Kinemat extended the natural
lifespan of the affected being by a factor of two or three.
The Kulsat’s natural life expectancy was about two or three
years, and a Risen’s average lifespan was five to six years.
The Kulsat System was on the farthest tip of one of the
spiral arms of the Milky Way, eighty-seven light-years from the nearest system.
Without a star beacon, it would take a Kulsat ship generations
to travel from their home system to their nearest neighbor.
The Kulsat System had no natural deposits of Kinemet. The
Risen would hoard whatever Kinemet they had.
The Kulsat Risen had become self-serving, egomaniacal beings
since the disappearance of the Grace. Perhaps in the future, they might evolve
and be willing to make that kind of sacrifice to reconnect with the galaxy, but
it was unlikely to happen for centuries.
If Alex nullified the Kulsat star beacon, he would cut them
off from the rest of the galaxy, and end their threat.
At the same time, that would insulate the Kulsat from the
other species of the galaxy, protecting them from any possible retribution—at
least for the next century or so.
He would save the galaxy from the Kulsat, and save the
Kulsat from the rest of the galaxy.
Given their nature, it was unlikely the Risen would squander
any Kinemet to create more Risen. Logic and foresight rarely entered into the
reasoning of power-mad beings.
“Release my ship, as you promised,” came the follow-up
message from Red Spot.
With how strong a personality Red Spot had, and with her
exposure to other cultures, it was possible that she might become a force for
revolution in the Kulsat System. If she were able to get her story out, perhaps
more of the native Kulsat would rebel against the Risen. For the first time in
a millennium, their culture would have a new purpose. Perhaps in a few
hundred—or thousand—years, the Kulsat might mature enough as a society to be
ready to rejoin the galaxy.
All these thoughts occurred to Alex in the span of a few
seconds.
He didn’t release Red Spot right then, however. In the midst
of the Kulsat patrols, she would be in danger. Also, he needed to be certain
the armada had returned to Kulsat space.
“The lead ship is firing—” General Gates began to say, but
Alex quantized the ship, and pushed the
Liberty
’s quantum engines to fly
at light speed for the duration of one second.
They were over three-hundred-thousand kilometers away from
the star beacon when Alex returned the ship to physical space. He reached out
to his console and disconnected Red Spot’s shuttle from the
Liberty
.
General Gates was red-faced. It was obvious he was not used
to being at the mercy of someone else’s decisions, especially one who still
looked like a teenager. “You will tell me, this instant, what is going on,” he
ordered.
Alex, making certain Red Spot’s shuttle was on its way safe
and sound, said, “I’m really sorry to do this to you and your crew, General,
but I have no other choice.”
For the last time, Alex quantized the
Liberty
. Very
soon, he sensed the arrival of the Kulsat armada. Aside from any possible
stragglers—mining ships in unpopulated solar systems—the vast majority of
Kulsat Risen were here.
Alex focused on the star beacon.
This time, he did not do it with the intention of flying the
quantum ship through it to another system.
This time, he pulled at the Kinemetic ‘thread’ connecting
the Kulsat star beacon with the galactic network. He knew, instinctively, he
could not have done that outside of the Kulsat System.
Without that ‘thread’, the tear in the fabric of the
universe repaired itself.
The Kulsat star beacon did not exist anymore.
Alex, along with the
Liberty
, were trapped within the
Kulsat system.