Scions of Humanity - A Metaphysical Space Opera Adventure (Aeon 14 Read online

  Jen said.

  Sera shook her head in dismay at how casually she’d walked into danger.

  Jason replied.

  The beam streaked out again, splashing against the column Sera was hiding behind, but this time, it was emanating from a different position only eighty meters away.

 

  Two more beams hit the post, and Jen gave a rueful laugh.

  Sera drew her sidearm, a small-capacity coilgun, and sent her nanocloud toward the firing locations, hoping to get a look at what was shooting at them.

  Next to her, Jason had unslung his rifle, using his HUD to sight while he held it around his cover. He drew a deep breath, let it out, and fired.

  Sparks showered across the ground only fifty meters away.

  she said, finally getting eyes on the attackers with her nano swarm.

  he demurred.

  Sera snorted.

 

  Jen said, her voice deadpan.

  Sera only took a moment to look over the drones—she hoped they were drones—before leaning around the pillar and firing at one of them. Her coilgun barked in the thin atmosphere, and the kinetic pellet slammed into one of the bots, tearing two of its ten legs off one side.

  An explosion flared on her left, and another of the bots disappeared from her HUD. She took another shot at the one she’d hit, surprised to see it had closed another ten meters even after suffering damage. This time, she hit it straight on, cracking its armor and dropping the machine to the ground.

  She and Jason picked off their final targets a few seconds later, and the passage went quiet.

  Jason said as he stepped into the open, waiting a second to see if any beamfire came his way before approaching the closest enemy.

  Jen confirmed before they arrived.

  Sera nudged one of the bots with her foot.

  Jen admonished.

 

  Jason glanced at her, then walked to the next bot.

  Sera did her best not to sound like she was whining.

  <‘Fun’ being nearly getting blown away by ancient security systems?> Jen asked.

  Jason snorted.

  The AI sent a disapproving look over the Link, but didn’t say anything further.

  Sera said.

  Jen advised.

  Sera tapped into the feed as she and Jason leapfrogged their way toward the end of the passage, looking over their destination with one eye while watching her surroundings with the other.

  A dozen passages like the one they were in emptied into the central space, which was roughly circular and filled with more of the mushroom trees. Pillars stood at each of the entrances, three of them still giving off EM. In the center of the space was a vertical shaft, as yet unplumbed by the nanoprobes, but easily a kilometer deep.

  Sera mused as they reached the last support column and stared at the obelisk twenty meters away, a dim light glowing on its face a few meters above the ground.

  Jason said.

  Jen replied.

  Sera spun in the direction Jen indicated, her gaze settling on a drone like the others, only much, much larger. It was crouched in an alcove between the passages that spidered out from the central atrium.

  Jen said.

  Jason walked toward the thing, weapon held ready.

  Sera teased.

 

  Sera let out a soft curse and followed after, tossing another of her lights into the air to get a better look.

  she whispered, gazing up at the seven-meter-tall creature.

  It was similar in shape to the attack drones: a two-segment body with six limbs on the rear segment and four on the front. The front segment was nearly upright, its limbs held out like arms.

  A small ‘head’ was atop the front segment, though it didn’t have any openings, only a few long antennae of some sort.

  Jason said.

  Sera said, nodding in the direction of the shaft.

  She spun to face Jason.

  He winked, eyes crinkling from a half smile.

  Sera stuck out her tongue.

 

  Sera turned and walked to the edge of the precipice, gazing down into the darkness.

  Jen advised.

  Jason replied.

  Sera stood in silence for a long minute, staring down into the depths, wondering what secrets the darkness concealed.

  Jason said.

  Sera said with a soft laugh.

  She held out her arm and released another swarm of microdrones and a fresh cloud of nano.

  Jen said.

  “Shit!” Sera laughed in the confines of her helmet.

  Leaving Jason to watch the growing view of the shaft, she walked over to the small obelisk. The light was still glowing two thirds of the way up the oval, which appeared to be made of crystal and covered in a thin layer of dust. Without a second thought, Sera reached up and brushed the dust off.

  Jen scolded as an electric tingle spread across Sera’s hand.

  Sera looked her hand over, examining the thin flow-armor layer providing additional protection. It was intact, and registered no breach, be it nano, electrical, or chemical.

 

  She turned back to the statue in the alcove, looking over the figure again. There were things that looked l
ike eyes, but nothing that struck her as resembling ears.

  Jen considered,

  Sera suggested.

  Jen grunted with reserved acceptance.

  Sera returned to the pillar.

  She began to examine the obelisk more carefully, looking for any sort of access port, but the smooth surface was entirely unbroken except for the light-emitting oval crystal.

  Jen said.

  Jason said a moment later, waving Sera over.

  The map of the shaft—which had started out as nothing more than a smooth-sided hole into the moon, now showed multiple tunnels branching off. The first was three hundred meters down, and at the probes’ current depth, there were dozens every twenty to thirty meters.

  he said.

  Sera nodded, her shoulders heaving in a silent sigh.

  Jen said.

  CHAPTER 15 - MIRA

  STELLAR DATE: 12.30.8959 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: OASS Inquiry, 157AU from system primary

  REGION: Regina System, Outer Alliance

  “I’ve got something,” Brock said, eyes darting up to meet Mira’s. “Two blips, a hundred klicks apart.”

  “Ship?” she asked.

  The ensign shrugged. “Either that or an asteroid that can turn.”

  “Or it’s two ships,” Janice suggested.

  Mira placed a plot on the holotank, layering it over the Inquiry’s own vector.

  They were over five light seconds from the artifact, the span between increasing with every second. She’d expected them to be in the clear by now, but it was also possible the enemy had known they were there all along and were just getting assets in place to engage the OASF corvette.

  Shit…we should have moved away as soon as we realized what we were looking at. But noooo, I just had to get more data.

  “Another blip!” Brock announced, a third red pinpoint appearing on the holo.

  “One and three have to be the same ship.” Janice rose and walked to the holotank, a blue line linking the two dots as she spoke. “It’s on a direct intercept with us. Twenty-seven minutes.”

  “Which means two is a second ship,” Mira said, doing her best to hide the worry gnawing at her.

  “Right.” Janice drew a line from that marker to the first ship’s intercept point. “Safe to assume they’ll hit us at the same time.”

  “Bold move to go right for the throat with the OASF.” Brock’s tone held a hint of bravado that Mira knew was covering for concern. “Not even a warning that we’re in private space.”

  “That still may come,” the commander said. “If I were them, I wouldn’t give it till they have us just where they want us.”

  Emma glanced up from her console. “When would that be?”

  “When we have no choice but to comply or be destroyed.”

  The bridge crew shared a few silent looks, no one responding, because no one knew what to say.

  Mira called down to Aqua.

 

 

  The engineer sent back a mental sigh.

 

 

  Mira sent an acknowledgment before reaching out to Greg.

 

 

 

  Mira laughed.

 

  She laughed again, but refrained from commenting on her father’s reputation. The man she grew up with was far different than the image he portrayed to the world. It was a fascinating dichotomy, and one she was glad he managed to maintain so well.

 

 

 

  Mira disconnected after Greg’s acknowledgment, bringing up the three ships’ vectors on her console, running through a variety of projected outcomes.

  “What do you think the chances are that they have a lock on us?” she asked aloud.

  “Poor,” Brock responded first.

  Janice looked up from the holotank and nodded. “I agree. We’re dark, drifting, and have been for some time. The only reason they know where we’re going to be is because we haven’t changed course in over an hour.”

  “Emma, thoughts on this plot?” Mira placed a new vector on the holotank.

  “Brings us a few degrees to starboard. I can do that with a low grav-drive nudge.” She glanced up at Mira. “What are you thinking?”

  “Well, I imagine our friends will pick up on it at some point, but hopefully not until we’ve made most of the shift. At our mid-point, we drop mines and key them to our pursuers’ routes. If we’re lucky, they won’t shift until after that point and we can catch them at a disadvantage.”

  Janice nodded, her head bobbing slowly. “That can work. I like it. So far as I can tell, those two ships aren’t running grav shields right now, so we should be able to get at least one limpet on them.”

  “That’s the hope,” Mira replied.

  “Should we seed missiles as well?” Brock asked. “Hit them from behind?”

  Mira had considered and dismissed that option. “We don’t know how many ships we’re dealing with out here, and it’s still an AU until we get past this dark matter clump and can transition.”

  “Rather strategic of them, isn’t it?” Janice asked. “Placing this relic here.”

  “Maybe it’s always been orbiting Regina with this dark matter blob,” Brock suggested. “Keep it safe from people jumping right up to it.”

  Mira shrugged. “Who’s to say? Seems unlikely that it remained in a stable orbit with dark matter for that long.”

  “Could have been online even after its owners left or died,” Emma suggested. “Never know.”

  “Let’s focus on the issue at hand,” Mira said. “We’ll be in firing range in twenty-two minutes, and the closest transition point is thirty-two away. As soon as we engage the enemy, I want the AP nozzle spooled and max thrust from this ship. We’re not staying here any longer than we have to.”

  Aqua called up.

  the commander asked.

 
/>
  Mira’s lips formed a circle.

 

  The commander chuckled, remembering the problems they had with overloaded conduit on the last ship she’d served aboard.

 

 

  Mira turned her attention back to the main holo, noting that the enemy ships had not yet picked up on the Inquiry’s vector shift. “Looks like we’re on target for our limpet drop.” She turned to Janice. “Do you want to do the honors?”

  “Certainly, Commander. Greg has eight in the hopper. Four for each target?”

  Mira nodded. “Yeah, let’s do that. Should be enough for one to hit hull.”

  “I’ll set them to start squawking when next they pick up an OASF signal so salvage can grab them after they take the artifact.”

  “You seem sure that’ll happen,” Emma commented.

  The commander couldn’t help but chuckle. “Do you really think either of our fathers will rest until this thing is in government hands? They hauled our people halfway across the galaxy…some corporate raiders aren’t going to do them in.”

  Brock snorted. “Yeah. There’s no way things are going to go the way these people want.”

  “So long as we get the word out,” Janice cautioned.

  Mira heaved a sigh. “Yeah, all riding on a little drone. Which, by the way, just left the airlock.”

  “Good luck, little guy,” Emma whispered. “Don’t get blown up.”

  Brock laughed, and Janice shook her head before giving Mira a pointed look.

  she cautioned the AI.