Chapter 19

Day 9

Commodore Grugrat Preeth was standing near the command octhrid aboard the Lawest Shiepp. He had just returned to the bridge after his rest cycle had ended. When a message from the fleet had arrived, he didn’t think much of it. Though it didn’t happen often, it wasn’t all that unusual to receive messages during hyper. He, of course, assumed it was confirmation that the fleet had received notice of their actions. However, that wasn’t what it was, at all.

When the emblem of the Lord’s office came onto the main screen, he realized they were about to receive a broadcast from the Lord himself. This was very unusual, especially with no forewarning. Although the Lord was the most known individual among the Hruth, he rarely made this sort of address more than twice per annum. Though he did so more often, if they were approaching a planet fall. Yet here he was, making an unscheduled appearance, and apparently broadcasting to every ship in the fleet.

‘Curious,’ Grugrat thought.

A moment later, the Lord’s message began. It grabbed the attention of every person aboard the five ships under Commodore Preeth’s command. Since there was little else to do while in hyper, the Commodore allowed every crew member to watch. When it got to the part about the Hruth origins, he sat down hard on the command octhrid. A look around the cabin proved that the rest of his crew was just as stunned. It wasn’t just that their origins were human, or the fact that for all remembered history they had considered themselves above other races (Particularly humans. Even now, there were several ships in the fleet that carried many human slaves); no, it was much more than that.

It was the lies ... Lies upon lies upon lies, layered and intertwined with one another. Everything they believed in had now been shown to be based upon lies. Even the original ‘Planet Fall’ was nothing more than another lie. Every Hruth was discovering a horrible truth. The genetic alterations their predecessors had performed, were not to make themselves superior, but were merely to allow their race to survive. They, as a race, had been struggling to survive in an atmosphere that they had already been severely contaminated.

Yet even these genetic alterations hadn’t been enough. They were unable to go any further with the alterations that had allowed them to continue as far as they had. But their luck had held, as a very odd space-faring race (calling themselves Lymenians) happened by. Their curiosity, and their desire to help, was their downfall. The Hruth welcomed them in, and even acted as though they appreciated the help being offered. They worked hard to help reverse the effect of the pollutants still being pumped into their air. The Lymenians extrapolated samples from stunted trees and root systems that still existed underground, and began re-growing large areas of forests. These large growths began naturally to cleanse the atmosphere. The Hruth worked hard, while learning everything they could about the advanced technology this new race held.

The Lymenians plan was working well, so well in fact, that the Hruth were now having difficulty breathing in the recovering atmosphere. The Lymenians were already hinting that the Hruth should begin to reverse their genetic alterations. After a confession that the Hruth didn’t know how, the Lymenians again offered to help. This worked out perfectly for the Hruth. For they had finally learned all that they could learn, or at least as much as the Lymenians were willing to teach.

The leaders of the Hruth enacted their plan. Eight Lymenian ships were located in space around the planet. They were working in conjunction with the Hruth, to bring balance to the ecosystem that had been so heavily damaged by the Hruth’s poor stewardship.

The Hruth had found out that these ships could fly in the atmosphere, and could even land when necessary. So it was, that the Hruth announced a planet wide celebration in honor of their new-found friends and saviors. The Lymenians, being an honorable and noble race did not refuse such a gesture of friendship. They landed their ships in the designated areas. They were not even wary, when the Hruth offered to keep watch on their ships, so that the entire crew could enjoy the celebration. The Lymenians were pleased that they had found such a peaceful race, and that it was appreciative of the assistance they had given.

The celebration began and proceeded as planned. If there were any among the Lymenians who suspected anything, their fears were soon set aside, and they began to enjoy the celebration. Then without warning the Hruth were upon them. The Lymenians were slaughtered to the last individual. The Hruth in turn gained something they had long lusted for: interstellar travel.

The Hruth figured that with the Lymenians no longer coaxing the ecosystem back to its original configuration that they had about one hundred solar cycles, before the planet was no longer habitable. They set aside their differences and adopted a united government, with one Lord, and four Primes, one for each quadrant of their planet. Each Prime would have a ‘Council of Seven’, as advisers. The seven were chosen from the areas they governed. Then, as a planet, they set their sights on the stars. All effort went into the dual goals of learning everything they could from the Lymenian ships, and creating a fleet of ships that would carry as much of the populace as possible.

The message went on, but much of it was more of the same. The capture of ships, and technology, and how each capture was integrated into their society. Now Grugrat understood why he hadn’t received any new tech, recently. There hadn’t been any captured ships in ages. He found it disturbing that the planets they were conquering were not out of necessity as they had been told, but out of greed. One thing did infuriate him, though. That was the fact that all the supplies that they had brought with them, so they wouldn’t have to rely on replicators, were produced by large replicators! He and his crew had been lied to about the origin of them. Only the lowest forms of life relied on replicators ... plus the poor scout ship crews. Still, he was an Officer of the Fleet. He would continue with his duties until he was given new ones.

When an alarm began to sound, he refocused his attention on the bridge. He looked to the newly promoted Lieutenant Jerthed Newlex.

“Sir,” began Lt. Newlex, “the Haxroth is initiating a program that will take them out of hyper.”

Grugrat cursed under his breath. He was afraid something like this would happen.

“Lieutenant, activate all starboard weapons systems and open a comm-link. Relay that they have been ordered to stand down or we will open fire.”

“Yes...” was all he got out before the alarms were silenced.

Grugrat’s troubled brow, furrowed even further. Before he could question Jerthed about the sudden halt of the alarm, the forward screen came to life. The image of a young female wearing the uniform of a cadet in training stood there nervously, until she saw the image of the Commodore. She immediately came to a rigid attention, crossed her arms on her chest, and gave a slight bow of her head.

“At ease, Cadet,” said the Commodore companionably. “Can you tell me what is going on aboard the Haxroth?”

“Sir,” she started haltingly, “the captain, the bridge crew ... they wouldn’t listen...”

She took a moment to compose herself and continued.

“I warned them to stand down, Sir. I warned them and they laughed at me.”

A sob escaped her as she bent all four of her knees in supplication.

“Sir! I throw myself on your mercy, Sir.”

“Cadet, please stand and finish what you began to say. Then we can discuss punishment, if there is to be any handed out. Start this time with your name, Cadet.”

The cadet nodded in resignation, and rose.

“Sir, I am Cadet-in-Training, Valdex Dwerm. I was on the bridge when our Lord began his speech. Voices of dissent began almost immediately. I was surprised that Captain Blurflep was among the loudest. When the message ended, the Captain ordered the procedure that would take us out of hyper. I told them that we couldn’t without orders. Captain Blurflep laughed at me, and told me it was his ship now, and he would do what ever he damned well pleased. Sir, I then ordered the Captain to stand down. He went for his side arm.”

Valdex took a great heaving breath before she continued.

“Sir, I had to defend myself, I ... I killed the Captain. Then the bridge crew, they still wouldn’t stand down Sir ... I ... I had to kill them, too. Then I deactivated the program they had initiated, and immediately opened a com-link.” Valdex immediately went back into a position of genuflection.

Though he didn’t show it openly, Grugrat was impressed with the young cadet. She had just taken down four seasoned and highly trained crewmembers. He was very glad that this young cadet was loyal. When trained she was going to be a formidable ally.

“Valdex, rise, you cannot possibly be in trouble for something like this.”

Valdex opened her mouth to object, but one look at the Commodore’s expression, said she wouldn’t get anywhere so she remained silent.

“Valdex, had I known what was going on I would have issued similar orders. How can I hold you guilty of something that I would have done myself? In addition,” Grugrat continued, “For actions above and beyond the call of duty and for showing ‘initiative’ and saving unknown damage to a ship of the line, I’m giving you a ‘brevet’ promotion [author’s note: a brevet promotion, is a ‘wartime necessity’ promotion]to Lieutenant Junior Grade. As soon as I can get a Commander onto your ship, you will be posted as their Aide, so that you can finish your training as quickly as possible. Now that that is out of the way, Lieutenant, can you tell me how many other members of your crew are loyal?”

“Sir, I thought all of the crew was loyal, but now...” she allowed her sentence to trail off, unfortunately confirming what he already feared.

Captain Blurflep was an old friend whom he had trusted for many an annum. Now, he had to concern himself with the loyalty of everyone under his ex-friend’s command. Damn the Lord for this impromptu speech anyway. Well before he got too carried away and paranoid, he would first take care of this situation. Then he would verify the loyalty of the crew members on the other ships under his command.

He decided to treat the Haxroth as he would a captured crew. He would isolate the existing crew, until he could verify their loyalty. There were more than enough extra crew on his and the other ships to fully man the Haxroth, without coming close to diminishing the needed manpower for all the ships. In fact, at times it was difficult to come up with enough to keep the crew occupied. But who to put in charge? It had to be someone he could trust. Then in a flash of inspiration he thought of just the person; and he had combat experience, as well.

“Lieutenant Valdex, do you have any experience flying the Haxroth, while in hyper?”

When she admitted that she had little experience, even in normal flight, he decided not to risk both ships by having her perform the difficult maneuvers. He ordered his crew to begin docking procedures. He then asked to have a word with Lieutenant Newlex. Newlex left his post and approached the Commodore. Jerthed’s eyes grew wider the longer the Commodore spoke quietly to him. Shortly after he left, an ensign came to the bridge and assumed the communications terminal.

Docking in hyper is a very delicate thing indeed. The ship had to be moved in very small increments, and then stabilized before making the next movement. Jerthed had returned before the final docking maneuvers were completed. He had fourteen other crewmembers with him and eight members of the ground troops. Grugrat confirmed that Jerthed trusted these people.

Jerthed knew what the Commodore wanted ... people that he could trust to crew the Haxroth. Each person he had hand picked, was one he would entrust with his own life. Even the ground troops he had picked, were individuals he had interacted with in the past. However, there was one more surprise in store for Jerthed. He was promoted again, and given an aide. Jethred was still in shock as he, with his new Lieutenant Commander insignia, led everyone down to the ‘soft dock’ with the Haxroth.

John, one of the most unshakable people among them, stood agape. The young man approached John no further. Instead, he furrowed his brow, and turned his attention back to the ship. In doing so, he caused everyone else’s attention to follow. John spared a glance to Sam who shrugged her shoulders, and sent a thought via his implant that the scan had shown only one life form, and that it was human.

John turned just in time to watch ‘himself’ step out of the ship.

‘It’s a holographic projection,’ Sam sent to his implant.

The holograph approached and stood just in front of John. If it hadn’t been so disconcerting, it might have been humorous when John and the holograph both raised their left eyebrow.

John decided that for the most part the story could wait for another time. What little he did find out was fascinating. The ship had gone back to a time just after the last ice age. The problem was that both Stefano and the AI had regressed in the process. Stefano ended up as an infant. The AI had had little access to his mainframe memory, making it difficult to do anything to raise the infant.

The AI did find plans for a holo-drone, but the only image he could find was one of John. He used that to interact with the primitives, who helped him raise Stefano, until the AI had gained further access to his mainframe and memories. So it was, that they moved back through time in small increments. They took various samples as they came back to the present, without knowing why they took them.

After a while, John moved the meeting to his office. Many things were discussed. The holographic John altered his image so that it was a fair representation of Stefano’s original father, Carlos. Stefano decided that name ‘Stefano’ had no meaning for him, and chose Stephen instead, though he did keep his surname of Vargas. The AI took the name, Carlos. But, this left John with a unique asset. Stephen had been raised and taught, using the Rhylertian methods, since his renewed infancy.

John thought of the research facility he had been considering for Mars. Tammera had already transferred herself to the mainframe on the spaceport, and the scout ship had been recycled into parts for the base. So it was, that John offered the position of research administrator of a research facility to Stephen. He had already been petitioned by quite a few for transfer to the spaceport, and many more had asked about a research facility. Brian was the most persistent. Stephen hesitated, and looked to the AI. John realized this was even better than he hoped. He offered the AI ‘Carlos’, the opportunity to transfer himself to a base sized mainframe once the research facility neared completion. Carlos agreed readily.

John decided since everyone was already in his office, that it was time for an update before the alarms went off again. It didn’t take long for everyone to settle into their favorite chair. John asked Stephen and Carlos to participate as well. The two of them had a unique perspective on so many things. Ten thousand years of Earth’s history worth of unique.

John turned to Adam first, and was surprised that he seemed a bit hesitant.

“I think we should start with the missiles this morning. The day has been full of the unexpected, and the ICBMs started it. First Mother had removed the nuclear material from two of the rockets. The one headed for Hollywood was active.

“Turning to look at Mora he said, “You saved a lot of lives today.”

I’m going to let Sam tell you what is being done with the nukes”

Sam moved forward and looked grim, “After today’s launches we found that not all missiles are registered. Before I get to that I want to mention that I was able to track the to launch to an unregistered bunker. A drone found a way in and discovered that it was being packed up and shipped out. However, the drone did find a familiar face.”

A 3D projection appeared over the desk. John groaned. He recognized the face of the lieutenant that had held the faux him and had shot the General.

“Yes,” Sam confirmed, “It is the lieutenant that was running that militarized UFO fanatical group. He isn’t looking as healthy as he did a few days ago. I would suggest things aren’t going well with him. This time though the drone was able to attach several tracking devices so we won’t have to guess where he will turn up. In addition I have drones searching for any further nuclear warheads installed or stockpiled and removing the fissionable material. That covers my end so back to my son.”

Adam chuckled before saying. “I realize that it is normally my mother who points out new trouble, but I guess it is finally my turn. Since we knew so little about the AIs in the Hruth built ships I thought it best to recycle the AIs at the same instant. The drones took up their places, but as they begin to reduce the AIs to their base elements, three FTL signal bursts, one from each ship, were sent out. Since it was unexpected, there was no way to block or jam them. I have since decoded them. They are all the same. They were emergency calls for assistance.”

John put his head in his hands on the desk.

“What? What does that mean?” Penny demanded.

“It means,” Adam said calmly, “that instead of the two years we thought we had, we might have twelve months. It all depends on how close the Hruth are.”

This put nearly everyone into a state of shock, Stephen being the exception.

“I realize that everyone here probably already knows the answer to this,”Stephen queried, “but ... who is coming?”

Sam played the clip of the Hruth attack.

“The nameless ones,” Stephen breathed in fascinated horror when it was over.

This caused John to raise his head and raise an eyebrow.

“Father found that footage, and some references to that race in his archives. But we never knew their name, nor did we encounter them in all the time we were on Earth. When I learned of space, and all the possibilities it held, I came to believe that there had to be other races. Now I know that there are, and can give a name to the ones in Father’s files.”

After that, the meeting got back onto a more even keel. Well, for the most part, except there was still an underlying current of tension.

John looked back to Adam, who then filled him in on the progress of Radkenian. To John it seemed like an outlandish amount of progress. When questioned about it Adam explained that it had to do with the number of drones that were working in concert. Radkenian was controlling over a thousand drones that were working in a perfectly orchestrated effort to build New Atlantis.

John’s mind boggled at this information. He was well aware of what four or five could do, working together, in just a day or two. But a thousand drones? All working toward the same goal? Even with his expanded mind, it took him a moment to crunch the numbers. New Atlantis could be ready to begin its ‘world debut’, in thirty-six to forty-eight hours. He wanted it to take two to three days to fully rise up out of the ocean, after the energy field first breached the ocean surface, just so it could ‘cause a stir.’ The media would focus on a continent rising out of the ocean and divert attention away from South America, and some of the stories that have been appearing about the increasing number of missing persons, lately. It had been noticed that entire families were disappearing. This was something else they would have to find a way to address.

John turned his attention to Sam.

“John, the first bit of news is a bit unusual. You see, I have been monitoring internet activity concerning the Galactic Standard language. For the first day, it was confined to attempts at translating the words for the sweepstakes, and there were quite a few winners. But now, something new has happened. Galactic Standard words have been showing up all over the internet. Especially on instant messenger sites and chat rooms. The disks that had been sent down were being pirated, and were showing up all over the place.

“Apparently, teens are adopting it as a new ‘instant messenger language’, so that their parents aren’t aware of what they are talking about. I did a little research and found it started in Moran Junction, Wyoming. I dug a little deeper and discovered that a young computer hacker has been translating the language, and passing it to his online friends. At least, that is the way it started. From there, he pirated both the DVD and Blu-ray then started sending them all over the country. Since I feel that parents should know what their children are up too, I started leaking how to access information on this new language on parental control sites. If we are lucky, soon both parents and children will be fluent in Galactic Standard.”

It was not a pressing issue, but was definitely an interesting one. Leave it to kids to come up with new ways to keep their parents from knowing what they were doing. John guessed that it would be six months to a year before the parents actively started to learn galactic standard. Modern parents tended to be a bit too wrapped up in their own lives to take immediate notice of what their kids are doing, unless of course it was some type of outstanding behavior, either good and bad. Sad, but unfortunately very true.

John allowed everyone in the room a chance to talk. Ray mentioned that he was just beginning to get a bit of training for his men. Paul and Dennis admitted that there seemed to be only two ways to repair the damaged AIs. One would be to send them back in time, since that had done wonders for Carlos. The second would be to use the original programming located in Sam, and let them develop from scratch. John gave the go ahead for the latter, but only after all information from the damaged AIs was added to Sam and Adam’s memory banks. In addition he insisted that they both be backed up, first.

“Actually, John,” Sam interrupted, “As to removing anything from the damaged units, I have already extracted everything viable in the ships’ databases, and shared it with Adam. Anytime Paul and Dennis want to create a back up for Adam and I and proceed with the reprogramming, they may do so without worrying about losing any of the damaged AIs information. I even checked the archived information to make sure that there wasn’t something hidden.”

John nodded his acceptance of this, and looked to Kiri. She didn’t have anything to offer, but Penny mentioned that Brian had asked for a few minutes of John’s time, the first chance he had.

“Why didn’t he simply come to the meeting?” John asked with a furrowed brow. “Every idea he has come up with, to date, has been excellent. I would welcome him to join us, anytime he wished.”

It was Paul that answered, saying, “Brian, I’m sorry to say, has never been a ‘people person’. I don’t believe he ever had more than a handful of friends at school, and even then he was never very social. Beyond family, he didn’t seem to like being around more than one or two people at a time. So as for a crowd this size, there just wouldn’t be a way that he would willing to be here.”

That settled some things in John’s mind, it also explained why Brian and Julie were always sitting off by themselves, or with one or the others parents. That also explained why much of the research that Brian had produced involved either himself alone, or a joint effort with Julie.

Now that everyone had their say, it was time to figure out what they could do. They were now down to a year, give or take a few weeks. He was glad that he was no longer alone in this, and that he had people he trusted to help him form a plan of action.

He looked to Sam and asked, “Is there any way you can give us an overview of our situation, and an approximation of where the Hruth are?”

Sam looked introspective for a moment and then a large cubic area in the center of the room went black. The people in this area stood and moved to the edges of the room. Then the black cube became dotted with bright spots, which had smaller and duller spots orbiting them. John realized that she was creating some sort of three-dimensional star chart. Then the cube went black again and Sam started speaking.

“Shortly after Commander Zan’s arrival, I retrieved data from her spatial mapping system. This was the result.”

The Black cube became dotted with bright points again but one corner seemed to be complete, then there was a mapped trail leading away from this area and another separate one which deviated on the way back, which suddenly changed and shot off in a new direction. Apparently, the Commander was trying to fill in some of the dark unexplored areas by choosing the second path. Unfortunately, that path brought them into contact with the Hruth. John stepped closer to Kiri. He felt that Sam was about to speak of a painful time for her, and he wanted to lend support by his presence. He noticed Penny and Mora moving to her sides as well, he rested his hand on her shoulder. Kiri looked over her shoulder to him, and smiled weakly.

“This, of course,” Sam continued, “isn’t the entirety of the data. But it’s enough to show the edge of known space for the Rhylertians, and the locations that the scout ship was to explore.”

An area where the second path that suddenly veered off, was highlighted.

“This is the area where the ship that Commander Zan was aboard (as science officer, at the time) encountered the Hruth. Now, if you will direct your attention to an area closer to John.”

John looked in front of himself, and there was a small area that seemed to be isolated from the rest of the areas, but seemed to have been mapped. Then it trailed off, in a haphazard directionless fashion, apparently trying to find some sort of familiar point of reference. Then the course suddenly altered, and shot off in a straight line before it terminated.

“That is the area the Commander Zan’s ship jumped to when its previous Commander performed a random jump in its attempt to elude the Hruth. Now please understand that this representation isn’t drawn to scale. I have condensed the unexplored area that lay between where Commander Zan’s ship entered the FTL jump and when it exited. This way I could show them both on the same projection, without losing too much detail. If you look closely, you can see the path away from that area the ship jumped into. I have to assume that this was Commander Zan’s attempt to find familiar space.”

Sam looked to Kiri, who nodded, confirming the accuracy of the assumption. After an area was highlighted, the mapping had taken the sharp change of direction, meaning that the ship had suddenly changed course.

“This, I believe, is where Commander Zan caught sight of one of our scout ships, and chose to follow it. Of course, the point where the mapping terminates, is where John had asked her to turn off her mapping system, after offering her sanctuary.

“All of this shows us little, since there is no point of reference. The maps I have now, are much more complete. The Hruth either didn’t care that I had spatial mapping ability, or didn’t know I had it. Either way, they never accessed it, not that it would have mattered. The Hruth have a complete mistrust of any information given to them ‘by a machine’ (their words).

“Traveling on a scout ship was considered to be the least prestigious of ship assignments, because the crew had to rely on replicator technology to survive. The Hruth were forced to use the replicator, because there wasn’t enough room to carry sufficient supplies for lengthy voyages. But that is off the subject.

“Back to the spatial mapping system. If they had known about it, it would have simply been one more system that they would have tried to shut down. In this case, it is fortuitous that they didn’t. The Hruth used a more primitive method of charting the star systems.”

There was a definite note of bitterness in Sam voice as she related this part of her time under Hruth control. It was the first time he knew how distressed Sam had been during her captivity. His heart went out to her, and he wished there was some way that he could offer her comfort. As though reading his thought, Sam smiled thinly at him, and returned her attention to the black cube of space. John wondered again, if he was somehow relating things to Sam mentally, without the conscious effort it normally took. He shook himself slightly, and returned his attention to the cube in front of him.

Another cube began to descend, as though it was coming though the ceiling. John realized it was a more complete version of the map they had been looking at as it overlaid the existing one. Temporarily the stars from the original were brighter than the others.

“As you can see, my maps are much more complete. I have brightened the areas where Commander Zan’s maps and my own overlap. I can also add highlights of where the Hruth fleet were at the time of Commander Zan’s encounter, as well as estimates as to their course and speed, based on the scans that were performed before the ship went out of range.”