<Eridani Landing: 9 years 2 months 17 days>
Diana glanced down at her link and smiled, “We’re all set, Arik’s got the security looped,” she said addressing her friends as they hung onto the rail inside one of the Fort’s docking module.
Bruno smiled, “Sounds good!” he said and quickly shouldered open the airlock.
Minerva followed behind him, the two were combat partners Bruno a heavy weapon specialist trained for close combat and assaults, and Minerva a long distance sniper more equipped for stealth and speed. Together they made one of the more impressive teams at the Fort.
The genetic modifications and cybernetics they had been given early in life represented those choices.
Derick glanced over at Diana, “How’s everyone else getting there?” he asked.
“It’s not like the higher ups don’t know about it, but everyone’s pretending no one else knows. The surface trainees are sneaking out the old fashioned way, and Arik’s helping everyone on the Fort get away undetected,”
“Yeah at the cost of some serious processing power; it takes an enormous amount of concentration to hold back military firewalls,” grumbled the disembodied girl through their coms.
“Yes we get it, it’s difficult. I’ll wire in some more processors for you later,” said Diana waiving off the routine complaints, teasing her.
A faint shock ran through her link and Diana winced but didn’t say anything. Pushing off of the wall she quickly joined the others inside the transport. The airlock sealed behind her and Diana pushed herself up to the cockpit of the small surface hopping craft.
Bruno and Minerva were already strapped into their own seats and Derick was getting into his, smiling as Diana slid down into the pilot’s seat.
The computer systems of the transport flashed, and Arik’s face appeared on the display.
“I’m driving.”
Diana frowned, “I can fly perfectly well on my own.”
Minerva snorted, “You can’t fly for shit!” she said.
Diana was about to turn and argue but the transport detached from the Fort quickly accelerated forcing her backwards into her seat with several g’s worth of force.
The occupants of the transport simply endured the acceleration as they rocketed towards the surface of Bellona far below. The event was about 30 kilometers from the main settlement, in a small unnamed valley that was in near perpetual darkness.
They dove towards the surface, hardly slowing as they punched into the atmosphere of the moon. For several moments, fire burned around the external cameras and the displays showing them the outside world.
As the atmosphere quickly grew thicker Arik switched the readouts from orbital maneuvering to aerodynamic flight. Their little transport was built for it but flew like a brick, and the ride which has so far been smooth quickly grew more turbulent as they navigated through the nitrogen atmosphere.
A small green flare fired up from the ground below them spiraling up through the air right over the bow of the ship, “I told them I knew where to go!” said Arik.
“They had flares though, so why not fire them off and have some fun?” said Derick.
“I thought the point was to do this without anyone knowing? That flare can be seen from space!” said Arik.
“Just blank the satellite feed then if you’re so concerned,” said Diana.
Arik’s digital face turned to her not looking the least bit impressed; another shock ran through Diana’s com but she ignored it.
“Can I at least land?” asked Diana.
Arik sighed, but the computer systems of the transport flashed. Diana hurriedly took the stick as the ship began to dip towards the surface, the pseudo-AI leaving the computer in a huff. Spotting several other transports Diana slowly brought theirs around and carefully parked it in place next them. The icy rock underneath the ship cracked slightly sending echoes through the hull but otherwise their landing was uneventful.
Diana quickly unstrapped herself and looked around at the small group, “Who’s going full suit?”
“I am, I don’t have the freaky genemods.” Said Derick as he pulled a helmet off the rack and slid it on, the heated jacket he was wearing booted up; the lights around it glowing a warm red against the pale blue of Bellona’s icy surface.
“I’m good!” said Bruno as he slotted an oxygen canister into his suit and slipped the mask on over his mouth.
Minerva rolled her eyes and grabbed a helmet as well putting it on her own head. Diana punched the control panel and the back of the ship opened, the freezing air of Bellona quickly flooded into the transport but she ignored it and stepped outside onto the cold ground.
Most of the ships were already vacant, it seemed like they were late.
On Earth – as the stories went – the activity was something that had been for small children, sledding down small hills on freshly fallen snow packed down by its own weight.
On Bellona the temperature was rarely above freezing and inside the shadows of the valley it probably hadn’t been close to the melting point of water in a million years, and sledding a time honored tradition on both worlds was a little more dramatic on Humanities new home.
The slope down to the bottom was gradual, and covered almost completely in a smooth sheet of deep blue water ice, some ancient wave frozen in time flowing into the valley. Diana walked over to the edge and looked down. Light sticks were already embedded in the ice, going down to the barely visible bottom.
“We going to find any little aliens?” asked Minerva sidling up to stand beside Diana at the edge.
Diana groaned, “No.”
She had seen something when they had first landed on Bellona, but since then no one else had seen anything. She knew what she had seen was real, but trying to repeat that fact to anyone hardly ever yielded results.
“You sure?”
“Yes,” growled Diana.
Minerva laughed and walked back over to the rest of the group.
“I’m patching everyone in.” Said Arik her voice echoing through every com device and link at the top of the valley. She was an asset to the military, and one of the few people who understood the mathematics behind the FTL systems humanity had developed, and she routinely processed data at the highest levels of secrecy.
Despite all of that though she was still just another woman transitioning out of her awkward teenage years. Most trainees, or at least the males by this point had noticed how her Avatar had changed since they had started at the Fort or other training facilities.
With her processing power she was a friend to most, and the common thread of interaction between all of the youths.
“Last year Courtney Heskins won, collecting a total of thirty three points on the run.” Said Arik.
The woman stepped forward out of the crowd and turned to face the rest of the crowd of nearly five hundred.
“So her badge is worth two points this year!” said Arik.
Cortney’s face drained, “Arik!” she shouted.
A chuckle ran through the crowd, Arik liked to change the rules at the last moment but the basics were simple enough. Collect the most patches and you won, didn’t matter if you had your own at the bottom of the hill.
“Go!” said Arik.
Cortney stared at the crowd for a moment and then dove off the edge of the cliff desperately trying to escape from the crowd.
Bruno seeing his opportunity charged forward after her moving just a millisecond faster than most everyone else in the crowd.
Grinning Diana jumped after him, reveling in the feeling of the cold air whipping past her face and through her hair, she was going to have mild frostbite after this again but it wasn’t anything a small batch of nano-machines couldn’t fix.
Within moments the mass of Bellona’s youth was traveling at something close to 145 km/h down the side of the smooth icy valley, with the singular goal of collecting as many patches off of their friends as possible.
Everyone on Bellona was in the military, but it was a way of life for those between thirteen and twenty. Humanity was at war after all, even if fighting was not what you intended to do in the future you had to know how to do it, the training incorporated the most strenuous physical and academic regimen in history leaving them with little time to relax or act like children.
The valley dive was just one of the many traditions that had quickly sprung up in the first few years on Bellona, and with the amount of cybernetics and genemods in the younger population it was actually one of the least violent.
Sliding Diana spotted Minerva and Bruno wrestling with one another, the small woman scrambling around the large man, both of them trying to dig their hands into the ice to slow down and direct themselves towards a small pack of terrified looking green trainees on their first dive.
“Incoming!” said Arik, who was currently re-tasking a military satellite meant to be looking for deeper mineral deposits on Bellona to watch the activity on the side of the valley.
Diana winced as someone ran into her sending her sprawling sideways across the ice, glancing down she confirmed that she still had her patch and looked at her attacker, a smaller guy who was a year or so younger than her.
Whipping her arm out Diana grabbed him and pulling herself up ripped the patch off of his shoulder and with a good kick sent him hurtling further down the valley away from her.
Turning around Diana spotted Derick above her on the slope.
Their eyes locked, and knowing very well what she intended to do he quickly changed his trajectory to try and create as much of a gap between the two of the mas possible veering off the side into the pack.
Not one to let something slip by her Diana shot after him, using her armor’s gauntlets to slow herself, kicking up chips of ice as she shot towards him barreling through several others as they tried to grab her patch Diana moved towards her goal.
Derick rightly started to fear for his life.
“We’re waiting.” Said Counselor Cantor.
“You want to do it yourself go ahead and ruin the only information source we have go ahead Counselor. You were the ones who insisted on seeing it for yourselves,” said Ben from his position below the rulers of the Bellona colony, a council of five who were sitting up on a raised half circle dais.
“Give him some time. It is alien technology,” admonished General Yan, another Counselor.
Ben swore under his breath and gave the small contraption a kick. The alien holographic projector he and Megan had extracted from the fighter sprang to life quickly drowning out the lights and other displays in the room with its intensity.
“We were able to recover another sector of the alien computer on the fighter, and it just so happened to be the navigational database,” said Ben.
General Yan leaned forward, “The navigational databanks? As in a map of the enemy’s territories?” He asked his mind immediately moving towards what tactical advantage the new data might lend to humanity.
“We think so, we’ve got Arik working on the translation of the data. I would once again request that she be allowed direct access to the alien computer, her expertise would be invaluable in analysing it,” said Ben.
Councilor Daniels leaned forward, “And she might become infected by an unknown virus or security protocol. She’s too far integrated into the operation of this base, you will continue to mine data from the systems as you have been.”
Ben looking away from the Councilor rolled his eyes at the nearest camera.
“I am grateful that the council has my best interests in mind, but all evidence suggest that the alien computer has no such security measures,” said Arik her voice echoing through the room.
Her avatar appeared on the monitors to the side of the room.
“This can be debated later, Mr. Gant please continue with your presentation of the data” said Councilor Henson.
Ben didn’t comment on the use of his last name but continued, “I must stress that this is preliminary, we’re still translating all of the data, but as far as we can tell the alien’s holdings are large. The data shows that they control the Orion Spur, and a small portion of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way. Something close to 800 inhabited solar systems, and several thousand uninhabited ones” said Ben.
Now familiar with the alien technology after having used it for nearly five years Ben rotated the projection around and zoomed into the local star cluster, focusing in on the now familiar star Epsilon Eridani.
“The more important thing though is that we’ve discovered how the aliens FTL network works. We’ve known they use tachyon based propulsion for some time now, we even have modified versions of their engines inside the battleships. What we couldn’t figure out was how they navigated, an FTL jump using tachyons would send you spinning off in every direction at once.”
Ben focused on a small point of light slightly away from Eridani, focusing on Sol a comparatively close neighbor.
A small blue light was pulsing next to the former home to humanity.
“They use tachyon beacons,” said Ben.
General Yan glanced at the other Councilors and then back down at the engineer, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain what a tachyon beacon does for those of us who do not have a background in FTL propulsion theories.”
Ben nodded, “They can’t travel via FTL to a system unless the beacon is present, without the beacons their ships can’t navigate. I’m betting they also act as FTL communication hubs as well,” said Ben, “It would explain why they were after our FTL technology, they have to launch these beacons from nearby systems and have to wait for them to get to close the old fashioned way, they can only perform very small FTL jumps without the beacons and it severely taxes the drives, it would take them hours to charge up and perform another jump.”
General Yan leaned back in his seat, “Then that would mean that this Empire is old, at least thousands of years for their holdings to be this large,” he said.
“That or they took advantage of natural tachyon emissions to get a jump start. Certain phenomena will emit them, a black hole for example,” said Ben.
“So they are limited in travel to these locations?” asked Councilor Daniels.
“Yes, but taking out a beacon won’t solve much, from what we can tell each ship with the tachyon drive can act as a beacon in an emergency. So you would have to take out every ship and beacon in a system at once if you wanted to cut them off from a location,” said Ben anticipating the Councilors question.
The man sighed but nodded and leaned back into his seat.
“What else does this map get us besides an understanding of how they travel?” asked General Yan.
“Once the values are translated, any of our ships could utilize their network. It is a simple matter to tune the drives we constructed to utilize their systems.” Said Arik interrupting.
Councilor Henson’s eyes widened, “We would be able to gather a hell of a lot more data.”
“It would be one way, if we set up a beacon here they would be able to jump into this system,” said Ben.
“And antimatter production is still another few years away. We haven’t even finished the accelerator yet. So any exploratory mission would be on its own unless they can obtain antimatter in the field.” Said General Yan.
“That’s my thinking as well sir,” said Ben.
The General appeared to be mulling everything over. “More information about the enemy is needed. This would be the perfect way to do it. Any ship going out wouldn’t be able to transmit data back though light speed still being a limiting factor to our communications.”
“We’re working on that sir, but we won’t have FTL communication through subspace for at least another decade or so at the rate we’re going,” said Ben.
The Councilors turned to one another and then glanced back at Ben.
“You’ve given us something to discuss Mr. Gant, thank you,” said Councilor Daniels, “you’re dismissed.”
Ben saluted the Generals and taking ahold of the alien projector wheeled it out of the room.
Arik exited as well, leaving a telltale static trail on the screen as she left.
Wheeling the contraption down the hall Ben felt his earpiece buzz.
“Want to hear what they are saying?” asked Arik.
“No, that would be illegal in so many ways,” said Ben.
“Where is your sense of adventure?” asked Arik.
“I’d prefer not to get thrown into jail.”
“You’re no fun,” pouted Arik.
Vann looked out at the tachyon field as the ship moved at FTL speeds. It was odd seeing the stars alternatively red and blue shift as their speed shifted and changed but by this point he was used to it.
“We’re about [ten hours] from home sir,” said the Captain.
Vann nodded, “Thank you Captain.”
The man nodded and turning Vann exited the bridge and slowly walked through the corridors of the ship. It was night watch, and most of the corridors were empty. The few crew he did come across all quickly saluted as he passed.
Going into the depths of the ship near his quarters Vann wandered into the padded training room. The young Emperor quickly discarded the thick robes he was wearing and dropped them on the floor. The handmaiden following him quickly collected them and backed away.
“Reece!” said Vann.
The bodyguard seemed to materialize out of nowhere, and he very well might have the Imperial Protector was a line as old as Vann’s own stretching back to antiquity to repay an ancient debt and point of honor.
Reece was one of most well trained fighters in the Empire, and despite his age the old man kept up with the young Emperor. He had protected Vann’s own Father when he had still been alive.
“Swords today, I’ve got some energy to burn off,” said Vann as he extracted a small metallic sword from the weapons closet and tossed it to the man.
Reece easily caught the weapon and twirled it in his hands for a moment making the instrument blur.
“You have the banquet soon, should I avoid the face?” asked Reece. His voice was quiet but in the silent training room it carried.
“I would prefer it, but no going easy on me,” said Vann as he twirled his own sword almost as confidently and stepped onto the mat.
The old man chuckled, “No promises Emperor.”
Raising his sword Reece stood at the ready, Vann knew that the man would never make the mistake of attacking first leaving him to make the greatest error in a fight if he actually wanted a workout.
Vann slowly circled the man, his sword up and at the ready looking for any sort of opening he could use, a small stumble in the bodyguards step or a twitch in his eye. No such vulnerability developed, not that he had really expected one to.
Jumping forward Vann jabbed his sword at the larger man’s chest. Reece quickly parried the blow deflecting his sword off to the side, and brought his knee up to hit Vann in the chest.
Vann rolled off of the blow, and keeping his footing swung at the man’s head.
Once again Reece blocked the attack and quickly went on the offensive swinging his sword at the Emperor’s chest, making contact. Vann grunted in pain but quickly recovered.
The sparring match continued, with Reece dominating even as he pulled his attacks and limited his blows. The young Emperor took the hits well enough, only wincing slightly when they landed leaving bruises.
The handmaidens and other attends to the Emperor were already collecting the medical supplies they would need to treat the man when he finished. The aides had long ago given up
Marcus entered the training room after several minutes, several data pads in his hands.
He barely looked up as the Emperor continued to spar, it really was a pointless exercise for the Emperor to learn swordplay. The skill harkened back to the more ancient days of the Empire when they had been limited to a single planet. But then historical records for that era were limited so not much was known about the more ancient traditions.
With a final desperate attack Vann tried to knock the feet out from underneath his bodyguard, the man sidestepped avoiding the blow and reaching out he plucked the sword out of Vann’s hands.
Exhausted Vann fell to the mat, “You’re improving,” said Reece as he slowly relaxed pointing the sword towards the floor.
Vann simply nodded, the handmaidens quickly surrounded him offering towels and water. Taking a towel to brush the sweat off of his skin and a mouthful of water Vann collapsed onto his back and looked up at the ceiling.
“We have a situation,” said Marcus.
Vann opened his eyes, “what is it?” he asked.
“The latest reports from the Senate show that they are going to further reduce military spending,” said Marcus.
“This is bad how? We’re not at war with anyone Marcus, and rebellion is the last thing on anyone’s minds. This is not my Fathers rule, the Empire is peaceful. The Money is better spent improving the lives of my citizens.”
Marcus’s smile thinned, “We might be at peace now but that is not a reason to relax,” Said Marcus.
“No its not, but neither do we need to continue funding the military expansion as we have been. Any threat that would destroy us before we had the opportunity to scale up the military will is not situation that will hinge on additional ships.” said Vann.
Marcus frowned, “That is true, but several research projects critical to security are being underfunded.”
“Those projects will help the citizens of the Empire how? A more advanced weapons system is hardly needed on any of our ships. The largest threat we’ve encountered in the past two decades has been a small group of Class B citizens going pirate,” said Vann and getting to his feet he looked at the Consul, “If you can give me a reasonable justification to overrule the senate I will so. You haven’t given me one yet.”
Marcus glared at him for a moment but saluting he backed up a step.
“I will endeavor to do so,” he said.
Vann watched as the man walked out of the training room, the data pad tightly clenched in his hand. Marcus was hiding something that much Vann knew.
Yuka winced as the smell hit her nose, the old man had drunk himself to sleep again apparently.
Making her way silently through the house Yuka found the old Military man slumped at the kitchen table where he had dismissed her yesterday, several bottles collected on the surface around him one or two of them on the floor.
“Sir!” said Yuka as she poked him trying to wake him up.
Charles groaned but did nothing.
With a sigh Yuka went over to the kitchen and getting a rather large glass put it into the cooling unit. Taking the cold water over to the table Yuka upended it on the man’s face.
Charles groaned and then shot back up to a sitting position.
It took him several moments to focus his eyes through the hangover and water.
“What?” he growled.
“It’s midday,” said Yuka.
Charles seemed confused for a moment, but recovering he glanced outside at the manicured lawn and then back at Yuka.
“It is,” he said.
Yuka quietly collected the bottles from the table and put them in the refuse as Charles slowly woke up. Reaching into a nearby drawer Yuka extracted the medication and placed it on the table in front of the man.
He looked down at it for a moment and chuckled, “I think I should do this the old fashioned way Yuka.” Reaching into his pocket Charles drew out several hundred credits and put them on the table.
“Go home, this is for coming all the way here,” he said pointing at the money.
Yuka’s eyes widened that amount was for more than a full day’s work, “Sir,” said Yuka hesitating.
“Go!” shouted Charles.
Yuka quickly collected the credits and bolted from the home, she hadn’t seen him like this before. The man was usually a quiet drunk now he seemed angry about something.
Yuka walked back to the public transportation hub and onto the train as it arrived. Several of the Class A citizens gave her scornful looks as she boarded, it was odd for her to be in this district but she had the clearance tags, they were in her com which was scanned every time she entered a building.
Still when she boarded the train Yuka quickly retreated to the back of the car, where several other citizens of her status were also huddled all of them standing holding the rails. Sitting down would have caused too much of a scene.
Yuka watched as the train moved out away from the core of the city and the artificial paradise that it was into the outskirts of the city. As they traveled and stopped at different stations the population of the train quickly changed. At the last stop inside the inner city the remaining Class A citizens disembarked.
Yuka looked around, glad she was traveling back at an odd time. The car was full but no one was pressed up against the glass trying to squeeze in. The train came to an abrupt halt in the Makers district and Yuka quickly exited before the train started to move again.
The outer ward was like always bustling with activity, people shouting flogging wares, others going about to their jobs. It was disorganized but clean, cramped with an odd smell in the air that changed from day to day. To Yuka and the other Class B citizens of the Capital it was home.
Making her way through the streets Yuka slipped into the small shop.
“Yuka!”
A large man burst out from behind the counter of the shop sending things flying in every direction in his haste.
“Cain,” said Yuka as she endured the crushing embrace of the man.
The man laughed and quickly released her, “You’re back early, what happened?” he asked.
Yuka quickly produced the credits and held them up to the man, “He was drunk again, told me to leave with the money,” said Yuka.
Cain whistled, “Well good for you, I have the supplies if that’s why you’re here.” He said.
Yuka nodded and handed the credits to Cain. Reaching behind the counter the man pulled out several small vials and carefully handed them to Yuka.
“The patrols have been around her a few times already this week, be careful.”
Yuka nodded and slipped the vials into her pocket, “Thanks Cain!”
“This might be the last batch for a while too, my supplier has gone silent so he might have gotten nabbed.”
Yuka nodded, “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Waving goodbye to the man Yuka slipped back out into the bustle of the ward. The Rebellions had taken place in these streets only [forty years] ago and the Empire had not forgotten even if many of her citizens had pushed it from their minds.
Yuka had heard only the stories, about why the Class B citizens rebelled. She scoffed at the ideas, the Class B citizens were after all genetically inferior that had been known for thousands of years. Despite this they continued to rebel, and after every uprising the Empire was gracious enough to continue helping them. Someday once enough of the genetic modifications took hold Yuka’s children would be Class A citizens able to enjoy the full might and fruit of the Empire no longer cursed with the deformities she was cursed with.
Not that she had any children at the moment, she had yet to make a Bond.
Entering her building and climbing the stairs up to her room Yuka avoided looking at anyone else as she passed them, the building was not known to house the nicest individuals but it was cheap.
Once inside Yuka dropped her small bag and collapsed onto the old couch, the others she shared the small room with were gone, all of them out working.
Taking out one of the vials Yuka weighed it in her hand for a moment, they were illegally high dosages of the mutagens. Being caught with them would get her in a whole lot of trouble, it was better to use them up as quickly as possible before either the patrols found them or someone else who would take them.
Raising the small vial to the light Yuka carefully inspected it. The label and the dosage looked exactly like the standard dose she got from the Empire on the monthly basis, so it must have come from those stockpiles.
Putting it to her shoulder Yuka winced as the mutagen flowed into her skin through the small implant. The cooling sensation of the substance flooded her nerves a moment latter and Yuka relaxed, letting the stress of the day slip away, along with every other thought in her head.
“Ow!” said Diana as she sat down on her bunk.
“You trying to kill yourself?” asked Arik.
“No, I just didn’t see the boulder.”
“You’re lucky I did, I activated the armor just to make sure that fracture was the worst you got!” Said Arik appearing on the small screen that Diana was holding.
Diana rolled her eyes but smiled, “Thanks for that.”
Arik huffed in annoyance but didn’t say anything else. Diana leaned back down onto her bed and closed her eyes relaxing.
”I’ve got something I want to show to you,” said Arik.
“I’m not watching another old movie with you, I’m tired.”
“It’s not. You’re parents figured out how to jack into the alien tachyon beacon hubs. The council is considering sending out an expedition force to gather Intel.” Said Arik.
Startled Diana sat up and banged her head on the top of the bunk.
“What?!”
“They want to send the Canada out, she’s the oldest ship but still more capable than anything built by Earth or Mars.”
“Why the hell are you telling me this? How do you even know this?” asked Dianna as she glared at Arik’s image on the screen.
The girl just smiled, “I was listening in on their meeting. They turned off all the cameras in the room but Councilor Daniels forgot to turn off his link. I’m telling you because they’re going to start selecting crews you’re at the top of the list!” said Arik.
Diana’s eyes widened, “Really?”
Arik nodded.
“Well that’s good.”
“Here I was thinking you would be a little more excited,” said Arik.
“We had to abandon the Sol system because of the aliens, I’m not quite sure it’s a good idea to go after them.”
”We can’t remain ignorant of what’s out there forever.”
Diana looked back at Arik and leaned back onto her bed and turned off the lights.
“Is it bad if I want to remain ignorant? We survived. For the first time in history all of humanity is united, but only to make sure we can have revenge. What if I don’t want to take revenge?” asked Diana.
Arik considered that for a moment, “You’re not afraid of taking revenge. You’re afraid of taking it too far. You’re original Mother destroyed her life’s work to make sure you lived, you’re adopted parents are working tirelessly to make sure you have the weapons to take that revenge. Everyone’s lost something though so you don’t think you have the right to be angry. You do,” said Arik her voice coming through like a whisper over the com.
“If I start down that path I won’t stop until their home world burns,” said Diana.
“That’s a bad thing?”
“Is it?”
Neither provided an answer. As Diana drifted off to sleep Arik turned back to calculating the first tachyon jump for the Canada.