Bei charged down the hallway of the infirmary deck, relieved that no one blocked his path to Nell's room. The plush carpet muffled his footfalls and children beamed at him from the framed LCDs hanging on the beige walls. Two minutes to get from the docking bay to the infirmary, yet he knew he was too late.
Nell had already been taken.
Thanks to the friction from the artificial gravity, Bei slowed down enough to make the hard turn into sick bay.
A five man security team faced him. For a second, their rifle barrels aimed at his heart before pointing them at the deck.
"At ease." Bei focused on the black clad body at their feet. While a part of him remembered that Nell had been wearing nothing, reason couldn't temper the panic infusing Bei. He broke through the ring of uniformed security men, ignored the empty, rumpled bed and glanced down. "Where is she?"
Arms and legs twitching, Doc flopped on the ground. "The bastard infiltrated my interface and locked me out of my own body. Fortunately, a diag ran soon afterward or, God knows, how long I'd be out of commission."
Bei flinched. The stranger had achieved the Holy Grail of terrorists and anti-government nutjobs everywhere. He'd disabled a Syn-En without firing a single weapon. Without their cerebral interfaces, Syn-Ens couldn't control their limbs, let alone complete a mission. Unlike Nell, the fiend knew how to use the interface to his advantage. But could it also be turned against him?
Bei opened a secure channel in the WA, patted the digital Dobermans on the head then issued a fleet wide alert. This is Admiral York to the fleet. Security Alert Alpha. I repeat, Security Alert Alpha. This is not a drill .
Surprise rippled through the WA before individual firewalls slammed into place.
Bei didn't know if the firewalls offered anything more than an illusion of protection, but it was the best they could do. He needed more intell on the stranger, especially on his hardware. Once cyberspace fell silent, Bei limited access to encrypted communications among his senior officers and entered the WA. Thanks to the citizens' technophobia, moving in cyberspace was a lot like walking in tar. He swore upon discovering there were no security cameras in the corridors or rooms but quickly found the list of medical personnel who had attended him and Nell when they'd been brought aboard and accessed their memory files.
Every encounter dealing with the stranger's arrival had been erased.
There would be no face to go with their enemy. Hell, they didn't even have a name. Bei returned his attention to the sick bay.
Doc wrapped his hand around the metal support of the bed and struggled to sit up. "I'm sorry, Admiral. All I could do was watch him take her."
"Understood." Bei ignored the stab of anger and held out his hand to Doc. They were on a spaceship. Where did the stranger plan to take Nell? Unless? Her stasis pod had been programmed to create an exit far from the end of the wormhole and head for the fourth planet from the sun. Bei's emotions rattled his control. The son-of-a-bitch wanted to get Nell to Terra Dos. But why? All the Syn-En were headed there. Bei gritted his teeth. First, they needed to find their enemy. Hell, with Doc out of commission, they didn't even know what the man looked like and no one would take a dream clip as evidence. "Did you record him grabbing Nell?"
"Aye." The doctor grasped Bei's wrist with both hands and pulled himself to his feet. He swayed a bit before collapsing onto the bed. Recovering from a cerebral lockdown made those first steps with enhanced arms and legs awkward, painful and slow. "As soon as I gain access to my memories, I'll send the image."
The security team shifted, restless in their failure. The hum of their charged particle rifles competed with the swish of the extra armor padding their uniforms.
After glancing at the others, a dark-skinned man stepped forward. The patch on his breast pocket designated him as Algiers. Determination shone from his brown eyes. "We'll make a sweep of this floor, Admiral. We will find Nell Stafford."
Bei gave his assent for the search and they marched out. Who was Nell really? Was she the woman who'd shared his quarters these last three weeks, and had her cerebral interface helped her seduce him? How much control did it have over her? That was the question. Hell, Bei didn't care. The son-of-a-bitch might have Nell, but that arrangement was only temporary. Bei wouldn't give up his mate without a fight. Using the WA, he entered the America's CIC and accessed the com to search for Nell's DNA signature. All of her medical files were empty. Without those files, the sensors couldn't find her and neither could Bei and his men.
Damn the bastard.
Bei clenched his fists. He couldn't afford to wait until the man messed up in order to catch him. God only knew what he was doing to Nell. The thought of her at the stranger's mercy was a never-ending scream inside Bei's head. He opened a priority channel to his Chief of Security. "Scan the ship of the dead for any unknown DNA trace and get it back to me ASAP."
"Aye, Admiral." Chief Rome's blond avatar melted from the CIC.
A high-pitched shriek in the com system brought Bei's attention back to the sick bay. What tripped the alarm?
Algiers' ebony face flashed in the open doorway seconds before his hulking body tumbled into the room and crashed to a stop against Bei's abandoned bed. Just as he aimed his rifle, his fellow security officers dashed inside the room, weapons at the ready, covering the entire space in search of the enemy.
Red tinged Doc's dusky skin. "Sorry about the alarm. With my reset, the WA thinks I'm an intruder and keeps knocking me out."
Bei squeezed the doctor's shoulder. "Just get us the data without injuring yourself."
With Doc's explanation of the false alarm, Algiers unfolded his crouched frame and adjusted the targeting control on his weapon. "The chief just sent the bastard's DNA signature. Do you want him dead or mostly dead?"
Bei took a deep breath. He wanted the pleasure of killing the son-of-a-bitch, but every second the man remained at large increased the risk to Bei's crew, not to mention the new inductees. The children on board had no defense against violence. Bei's personal attachment to Nell was clouding his judgment, impairing his ability to command. Using emergency protocols, Bei cordoned off his emotions. He'd vowed to lead the Fleet to Terra Dos.
Thanks to the United Earth Nations' genocide campaign, the survival of the entire Syn-En race depended on him. He hoped Nell understood. His duty must come first.
Doc's eyes were black. Sweat glistened on his upper lip. "Got it."
A picture of a man materialized on the com screen. Bei recognized the flat nose, high cheekbones and tan skin from his shared dream with Nell. No, not dream, a false memory designed to? Bei shook his head. He didn't know what the dreams did yet. But he would. Nell counted on him to save her.
Algiers cleared his throat. "Orders, Admiral?"
"Track the bastard, but do not engage." The order left a foul taste in Bei's mouth.
Confusion and anger warred in the security officer's eyes. "Sir?"
Bei felt their condemnation as clearly as if the WA was still open. Syn-En didn't surrender one of their own. And every one of his men considered Nell a Syn-En. The knowledge warmed Bei even as he denied his emotions power over his thoughts. "You have your orders."
The five man security detail shuffled toward the door.
Spasms shook Doc's legs. "He won't hurt her."
"No." Bei clung to the thought for a moment. But given the thirteen corpses on Starflight 1, he doubted the stranger would extend the courtesy to the security staff. Bei couldn't risk a firefight or depressurizing even part of the America. Too many children were aboard.
Bei would seek his revenge once his feet touched down on their new home world, when there was no chance of collateral damage to innocents. Until then, Bei needed a way to neutralize the man's power.
Using hand signals, Algiers motioned for two of his men to turn right then led the others left.
Bei tapped into the CIC. Because of the citizen's phobia of technology, he had to momentarily merge his consciousness with his avatar's. After a flickering on and of
f, the com screen displayed a two dimensional schematic of the starcruiser. A green triangle appeared in the lower deck of the far wing of the arrow-shaped America. With a few clicks of the keyboard, Bei identified another biomass almost on top of the enemy's. Tagging the new signature as Nell, Bei considered the significance of the signal's overlap. Were they walking close together or was one carrying the other?
Bei felt as if he'd been sucker-punched. Why was the man carrying Nell? Had he hurt her already? Had she resisted going with him, forcing him to render her unconscious?
"He didn't kill me." Doc's teeth locked together as a grand mal seizure traveled up his body. Red warning lights flashed on the diag screen above his bed.
Knowing the misfires were part of Doc's reboot, Bei ignored the alarms and kept searching for meaning in the stranger's actions. The man hadn't wanted to challenge the Syn-En directly, but he'd murdered Burkina and her band of mutineers. Was it because Bei and the Syn-En wanted the traitors dead? Did he hope to gain favor through homicide?
A chill washed down Bei's spine. For the man to know of the expendability of Faso and company, he must have entered the ship's mainframe. How long had the son-of-a-bitch been in the CIC? Given that he had a cerebral interface, he wouldn't need long to download information, especially on Syn-En battle tactics.
Rescuing Nell wouldn't be easy when the enemy could anticipate Bei's every move. While he relished the challenge, he would have to discard the Vade Mecum and its battle-tested techniques. Of course, the task might be easier if he had an ally in the enemy's camp. Bei walked to the side of Doc's bed and waited until his body relaxed. "Were you able to disable Nell's interface?"
"Can't." Sweat matted Doc's black hair at his temples. "It has grown leads directly into her brain stem. Just probing it stopped her lungs and heart."
Bei massaged his throbbing temples as fear and anger raged against their containment. If Doc couldn't remove Nell's implant, then she could become a threat anytime an enemy hijacked her frequency. Bei sighed, groping for a means to mitigate the danger. One thing replayed over in his mind, abandoning Nell was out of the question. But to let her live among them? "How many times did she die when you went after her interface?"
Doc grimaced. "Twice."
Bei resisted the urge to slam his fist through the wall. The emotions dampener wasn't doing its job. What else could go wrong? "How long will she be unconscious?"
Doc's eyes drifted closed. More and more of his vital signs leveled off in the normal range. "I gave her enough drugs to keep her out for two hours. But if the bastard can access her cerebral interface, he may be able to bring her out earlier. Not something I'd advise."
"Admiral." Chief Rome's voice came over the com system second's before his face filled half of the screen. "Starflight 2 is powering engines. Security sweep is reporting sealed bulkheads between them and the shuttle."
Striding back to the com by the door, Bei checked the America's schematic and overlaid it with the life signs near the docking bay. Twelve unconscious Syn-Ens were piled in a heap just outside of the airlock to the Starflight's docking bay. Nell and the man's heat signatures registered inside the shuttle. One was in the pilot seat.
The com screen blanked then a tickertape of words scrolled across the bottom of the screen. "Recall your men, Admiral or your ship will face fatal errors and the civilians and little children will suffer."
Bei gripped the com's keyboard and folded it in half, shattering the molded plastic. Keys pinged across the polished floor. The homicidal son-on-a-bitch was in the system again. Checking the CIC, Bei found the Dobermans collapsed under the assault of a swarm of rocket-shaped viruses. "You getting this, Chief?"
"Yes." Chief Rome's avatar opened a first aid kit inside cyberspace. Disembodied mouths flew out of the white box and gulped the viruses attacking the dogs.
The lights in sick bay dimmed, and another message flashed on the com screen. "Call off the tin soldiers or their deaths will be on your head."
Bei's gut clenched. The stranger held the advantage, but only for now. "Tell your men to stand down, Chief."
"Roger that. Stand down, men." On the com's vid screen, Chief Rome worried the cleft in his chin.
Bei switched his attention to the schematic. Algiers and his security team were forcing their way to the airlock. Starflight 2's engines registered full power. Bei sent the order to release the docking clamps, before the bastard decided to rip a strip of hull off the America to prove his superiority.
Chief Rome's green eyes narrowed and a muscle ticked in his square jaw. "Acknowledge the order, Lieutenant Algiers."
The blue colored blips of the five men team paused two bulkheads away from the pile of disabled Syn-Ens. "Aye, Sir. Standing down."
Chief Rome ran his fingers through his short blond crew cut. "Starflight 2 is away."
"Trajectory?" Bei asked as the sick bay's door opened and two medics hustled over to Doc.
Chief frowned, then the ship's schematic changed into a chart of the solar system. A dashed line extrapolated from the enemy's current position, passed six planets and their moons to forecast an end on the fourth planet from the sun. "Terra Dos."
The knowledge settled uneasily inside Bei with a familiar itching between his shoulder blades. The man made no attempt to mask his destination, which meant only one thing. Traps waited in the millions of kilometers between the Syn-En fleet and Terra Dos.
"All ships cut engines." Entering cyberspace, Bei made his way to CIC. The Dobermans limped, but kept vigil despite the holes in their pixilated bodies. Telemetry reported all ships had complied with his orders, but the fleet still hurtled toward Terra Dos at eight thousand kilometers per second. Bei withdrew from the WA, choosing to send his orders through the com. "Emergency staff meeting in five minutes."
Chief Rome's image disappeared from the screen, leaving only his verbal acknowledgement. "I've secured the conference room on deck three. Commander Keyes is implementing a new encryption program so we'll be able to include the fleet officers."
Bei consulted the schematic. More of his men had gathered outside Starflight 2's abandoned airlock. Not putting it past the bastard to sabotage the sensors, Bei ran a second diagnostic on the hull doors to confirm they were sealed and maintaining pressure. "Security Team you have a green light to retrieve the downed crewmen from the airlock. Sick bay prepare for incoming."
"Aye, sir." From behind Bei, Doc cleared his throat. "We'll check for viruses before bringing them online."
Bei cleared the com's screen then headed for the door. "Join us in the conference room when you've finished."
"Aye, sir." Doc's voice followed Bei into the hallway.
Cradling his rifle, Chief Rome pushed away from the beige wall, and joined the trek to the elevator at the end of the corridor.
Bei swore under his breath. He didn't want company at the moment, but short of locking the other man's armor, he couldn't find a way out of the escort. "Say what's on your mind, Chief."
"Letting her go was the right choice."
The right choice. Bei shook his head. He'd made the only choice. He hoped Nell didn't suffer for it. Clasping his hands behind his back, he checked the clock in the WA, counting down Nell and the bastard's arrival at Terra Dos. One hour thirty-seven minutes. The Syn-En fleet would be longer in coming, especially if they had to overcome traps.
Rome slanted Bei a look. "Of course, we're not going to let the bastard have her for good. We're just going to pick the battlefield."
A fight involved action. Unless the Syn-En found a way around the bastard's codes, Bei and his strike force would end up statues on the field of engagement. There had to be a way. He sent his command code to the elevator, arranging for it to open so neither of them had to break stride to enter.
"Nell's a smart woman. She knows we'll come for her." Rome leaned against the mirrored wall of the lift as the doors closed.
Bei pressed the three button and the lift glided smoothly up. How could they circumven
t technology, when the Syn-En were more machine than man? Boost the defender programs and virus watches? Hadn't made a bit of difference the last time. So where did that leave him, besides ready to rip off someone's head? Bei pressed the speaker button on the panel. "Doc, figure out how the bastard sent his code to decommission you, the crew, and Faso."
"Aye, Admiral," Doc acknowledged. "I'll have someone bring me the head of the traitor. Oh and sir, every one of the comatose crewmen has been infected with viruses, Trojans and spybots. I, uh, apparently let them loose when I uploaded my memories of the attack."
"Understood." Releasing the button, Bei rocked back on his heels. The transmission would be heard by everyone on the ship. Already, he felt a stirring in cyberspace as his men began to hunt the renegade code and eliminate it. The clever son-of-a-bitch had attacked on two fronts, and tried to turn Bei against his own men. That would not happen.
Rome fiddled with the power switch of his energy rifle, switching it from stun to kill then back again.
The door opened. The overhead lights reflected off the corrugated metal wainscoting and lightened the burgundy paint. More children beamed from the LCDs adorning the wall at regular intervals. Bei moved forward.
Rome delayed their exit by setting his hand on Bei's arm. "Admiral, if you're going to do anything stupid?"
Bei smiled before stepping onto the tan carpeted hallway. Leave it to his cohort to ask to go along on a suicide mission. Then again, Bei also knew the chief was a bit nuts. "I'll be sure to invite you along."
"If this is about rescuing Nell, sign me up." Shang'hai rounded the corner. A braid of white fiber optic cables trailed from her short pink hair down her back. She looped her arm through Bei's as she fell into step. "I don't want to miss the fun."
Bearing to the left at the fork in the hallway, Bei spied the faux mahogany panels. His heart beat an irregular tempo before his interface compensated. Once his executive officers heard his news would they still be set on rescuing Nell, or would they demand her termination?
Without betraying his thoughts, he followed Shang'hai and the Chief into the conference room, and then stopped under the arched entrance. A border of carved rosettes topped the six foot tall paneling. Bei ran his hand over the gleaming, polished surface. Real cherry wood.
Chief Rome nudged Bei. "Check out the floor. If that's not quarried marble from the European Consortium, I'll eat my fingers."
Bei glanced down. Black and gold veins infused the glossy white squares. Quarrying marble had been outlawed in 2083. Obviously, the Supreme Council considered themselves above such trifles as the law. "I think your fingers are safe."
Bei inhaled a steadying breath and detected a hint of leather. His attention focused on the padded, high back chairs and their dark brown upholstery. His fingers sunk into the supple material as he pulled out the chair at the head of the long, oval table. Genuine cowhide, another forbidden luxury. His hands shook with anger. Once this mess was settled, Bei would send pictures of these accommodations back to all of Earth's news networks and the backdoor codes to all the Council's private files. Since the citizens viewed the Syn-En as little more than machines, it was apt revenge to turn their trusted machines against them.
Commander Keyes's curly brown hair bounced as she finished running cables to the block of LCDs at the end of the table and caught Bei's eye. "Just one last check and we'll be ready."
"Admiral." Amazon Petersburg, captain of the America, walked into the conference room. When she held out her hand, the cuffs of her sky blue air support uniform rode up her thin arms to expose the coppery skin of her wrists. "Nice to have you aboard. On behalf of the fleet, I want you to know we stand ready to retrieve Nell Stafford."
"Thank you." Bei shook her hand before gesturing to the seat on his left. If those who had never met Nell offered their lives for her, how would they feel once they met her, heard her laugh or saw her smile? He set his palms on the wooden conference table to steady them.
XO Penig quickly entered and lowered himself into the seat on Bei's right. Smoothing the fringe of white hair circling his pink scalp, he smiled. "Whatever it takes, we'll get her back."
Bei nodded and motioned for the America's remaining three officers to sit, then watched Shang'hai and Commander Keyes take the remaining two chairs. The bank of screens filling the wall at the end of the rectangular room flashed blue then subdivided into quadrants, each filled with the executive staff of the fleet ships.
"Whatever it takes, Admiral," each officer vowed as he or she signed on with their rank and name.
Chief Rome boosted himself onto the granite countertop of the wet bar to the right of the table. "The civilians are screaming for blood. They want Nell back."
Bei stared at the five people in the room before facing the camera lens rising from the center of the oval table. "As you know, we've been infiltrated by this man. Since we don't know his name, I'll call him Bastard."
Ignoring the keyboard tucked under the mahogany tabletop, Bei entered the WA and retrieved the image from Doc's memory clip. The spherical holographic projector dropped from a cubbyhole in the ceiling and displayed the man in three dimensions in the middle of the table.
"Bastard has a neural interface and is capable of overcoming our firewalls to incapacitate us. He's killed before." Bei brought up the crime scene photos from the Starflight 1. The decomposition exaggerated the violence done to the twelve corpses. Revulsion rippled through his men, transforming to anger when the display of Faso's remains appeared.
XO Penig leaned closer to the hologram. His frown cut deep grooves alongside his mouth. "Didn't they display heads on poles during the Dark Ages as a warning to others?"
Bei watched the faces of his men as they digested Bastard's message. He relaxed when resolve settled over their features. The warning had turned into a challenge-one no Syn-En would back down from. Too bad, Bastard had his own allies. "Chief, perhaps you'd like to update us on your investigation."
Chief Rome slid off the wet bar and paced the space behind Bei. The camera tracked his movements. "From what we've discovered, Bastard doesn't have any synthetic enhancements. Or if he does, they're biologically based. It's important to note that none of his victims had defensive wounds. That includes Faso."
Bei allowed the silence to stretch as each digested the new information. From the chief's facts to Bei's deductions was a big leap. Would his men take it? He couldn't blame them if they didn't. All he had to back up his theory was gut instinct. If only Bastard hadn't erased Doc's scan of Nell's brain.
If onlys never won the war. Bei drummed his fingers on the tabletop. It was equally unlikely that his 'proof' would either. "I have reason to believe that Nell and this man were supposed to be paired together."
Chief stopped pacing. Shock flashed in his eyes. "But she's here to save us."
"I believe she's here to save whoever is on that planet." Bei brought up the image of Terra Dos, now a small black dot against the yellow halo of the system's sun. Next, he split the hologram and selected the appropriate image from Nell's and his shared dream. While waiting for the file's registration to be noticed, Bei allowed his officers' astonishment to wash over him.
On his left, Captain Petersburg leaned forward. Her black eyes focused on the backward joints of the projected humanoids. "Isn't that a dream file?"
"It is." Bei increased the size of the numeric stamp so everyone could see it had once belonged to him.
Chief Rome crossed his arms and snorted. "You've been dreaming of ET when you've had Nell in your arms."
Bei felt the doubts creep into the WA. Did his men think he'd lost his mind? Hell, maybe he had. Opening his cerebral protocols for those assembled, he dared them to find the flaw in his logic.
"They're not exactly dreams." Clearing away the image of the alien, Bei brought up the chart of his brain activity matching the time stamp of ET's image. The graphs of his alpha and delta waves lay far outside the norm. "I'm being fed information through my cerebral inter
face. Or more accurately, I think the information was meant for Nell, but I picked up on it."
XO Penig leaned back in his chair and rested his chin on his steepled fingers. "Do you have anything else to support this?"
"No." Bei relaxed his features, knowing any show of emotion would erode his support even further. One by one, he met and held the gazes of those at the table. He recognized their fear and disbelief and felt the echo of their need to believe in Nell. Yet, he could not allow them to dismiss the evidence before them. Their lives depended on it.
The doors to the conference room snicked open. Grimacing, Doc strode to the chief's side at the wet bar. "Sorry for the delay, but I have evidence supporting the admiral's theory. While scanning Nell, I discovered more than just her cranium had been modified. Her reproductive system has begun to release eggs. There are thirty-two haploid chromosomes in each one. She's a breeder, and it's not of humans."
Bei felt his insides knot. A breeder. Someone designed to seduce. Could Nell's cerebral interface have seduced him, fed him codes much like the Bastard's, only this time designed to get Bei to mate with Nell? Memories of their weeks together unfolded in his mind. How much of it was real and how much programmed? Bei gripped the wood table so hard, splinters fanned under his fingers. Could Nell be programmed to fall in love with Bastard?
Strands of genetic material twirled above the conference table. Two merged into the familiar double helix. "From here, I built a probable phenotypic expression of Nell's altered progeny. It wasn't until I saw the admiral's dream that the predicted image made sense."
The image of a backward jointed, double thumbed humanoid whirled above the table. The picture from Bei's dream had a ninety-nine percent probability of matching the DNA's expression.
Chief Rome picked up his rifle and set the switch to kill. "What's wrong with their legs?"
"The joints are reversed, probably giving them superior strength, perhaps in response to a stronger native gravity." Doc made the humanoid depiction crouch then spring. "Their strength would be comparable to ours on Earth."
Chief Rome whistled through the gap in his front teeth.
Damn. Bei flexed his synthetic limbs. How much of that strength did Bastard possess?
Penig tugged on his ear. "You know, I've always wanted to meet ET."
Captain Petersburg flashed her white teeth. "Do you think we should tack a 'please' to our demand to give us Nell or else?"
Bei relaxed as his men slipped into gallows humor. Although they had to know they faced a formidable force, none considered backing down.
Shang'hai laughed. "Hell, given that we're moving in with ET, I think it's only polite that we show our manners."
Chief Rome snorted while flashing his energy rifle and knife. "Would they be the ones born in steel, plasma or projectiles?"
Bei waited until the laughing tapered off. He hated to ruin their good mood, but they were nearing the eleventh planet in the system. "We need to consider that Bastard's flight has triggered a defensive net. His obvious destination doesn't make sense unless he believes only they will arrive."
Chief Rome grimaced and propped a hip against the wet bar. "Shit."
Captain Petersburg tucked her black hair behind her ear. "We've no probes left."
"Shang'hai and Keyes get with Doc and figure a way around Bastard's cerebral blitz." Bei nodded. He'd already accessed all available stores and knew exactly what was at his disposal. He also knew that the fleet needed to reach Terra Dos soon, if any of them were to survive. "As for the fleet, we're going to do this the hard way. Nebula ships will guard our flanks. The Starflights and Orions will protect the America. Beagles will take point, sweeping every planet, asteroid and moon between us and our new home."
After confirming their orders, the executive staff signed off and the block of LCDs went black.
Bei displayed the fleet's telemetry through the holographic projector. Two dart-like Beagle ships broke away from the pack aiming for the tenth planet. "Radio contact every minute, Alpha Beagles. I want to know if ET laid out the welcome mat or crossfire."
The Vade Mecum contains all the battle tactics
known to man.
Only the technology used to implement them will change.
Syn-En Vade Mecum
Chapter Eighteen