War on a Thousand Fronts Read online

  “Well, looks like we’ll be continuing our conversation after all,” a voice said from the central passageway, followed by the appearance of President Arthur.

  Larson was on his heels, the two remnant-controlled humans striding forward as if they had no reason to fear Corsia and Eve whatsoever.

  Which was probably true.

  “I don’t think we’ll get very far with a chat,” Corsia replied, as the IPE Marines closed on either side, reaching the dropped weapons and kicking them aside before two soldiers in heavy armor reached Corsia and Eve, and clamped thick bands around their arms.

  “No?” Arthur said as he stopped in front of Corsia. “I think that our conversation will happen whether you want it to or not. I don’t know why you’re walking around in that meat-suit, Admiral Corsia, but now that I know what you are, I’ll subsume you just as easily as if you had been an organic.”

  “Give it your best shot,” Corsia challenged, ready to trigger a death cycle in her mind, should she be at risk of giving up any of the ISF’s secrets.

  A sidelong glance from Eve told Corsia that she was ready follow suit. Before either of them could speak further, Arthur reached forward and grasped Eve’s head, clamping down hard.

  Eve began to scream, her eyes bulging from their sockets, as Corsia struggled to free herself, sending nano into the soldier behind her, fighting with the enemy’s armor’s control systems.

  “None of that,” Larson said as he strode toward Corsia, his hand outstretched toward her.

  His palm was centimeters from Corsia’s forehead, when she saw the secretary’s eyes look over her shoulder and widen in surprise.

  Corsia twisted and looked behind herself to see…something that made no sense.

  The NSAI node, and the equipment behind it, was disintegrating—solid objects turning into streams of particulate matter, and flowing through the ship, toward the hull.

  Then more of the bulkhead began to dissolve, and Corsia could see starlight shining through the clouds of dust. In the midst of that cloud, a silhouetted human figure was moving through space toward the ship.

  As the person grew closer, Corsia could see that they were wearing light armor, the suit’s jets propelling them toward the IPE cruiser.

  Upon closer inspection, Corsia saw that something was wrong with their head…it seemed diaphanous. Then the tableau made sense—sort of. The human woman drawing near wasn’t wearing a helmet, and her hair was flowing out behind her in the vacuum of space.

  That was when Corsia made out the approaching rescuer’s features.

  Tanis.

  * * * * *

  The hull of the IPE cruiser was a web of molecular and atomic bonds, their matrices a simple puzzle that Tangel solved and undid, drawing the energy from the bonds into herself as needed, while letting much of the power that lay between the atoms bleed off into space around her. Photons bled off into the darkness along with other high-energy waveforms, as solid matter degenerated into more basic components.

  Then she was through the hull, and the internals of the ship began to come apart before her. She disassembled components of the forward sensor array, then the NSAI node that had sent the telling, momentary ping out into space, alerting her to the location of Corsia and Eve.

  There they are! she thought triumphantly, as the passageway came into view.

  With a thought, she extended the ship’s grav shields to keep the atmosphere within the IPE cruiser, despite the gaping hole in its hull.

  It wouldn’t do to kill her people during their rescue.

  Her eyes lit upon the man touching Eve’s head, and she saw that there was a remnant within him, its tendrils reaching into Eve’s mind.

  No, Tangel thought.

  With a flick of her hand—the part of it outside normal space-time—she separated the molecules in the human hand touching the Marine, then grasped the tendril the remnant had extended, yanking the entire remnant out of the person it had been inhabiting.

  The remnant curled in upon itself, forming a ball of light, and Tangel formed a weave of energy around it, holding the remnant in place while she reached for the one in the other man.

  It fought her, but she pulled it free, too, and placed it within its own cage.

  As the two humans who had been under the enemy’s sway collapsed, she infiltrated the armor of the soldiers holding Corsia and Eve, using them to free the women, and then directed them to stand aside.

  A moment later, she eased through the grav field, and settled onto the deck next to Corsia.

  “You called?” Tangel asked with a smirk.

  Corsia’s mouth worked for a moment, as though the AI had forgotten how to operate the organic body she currently inhabited.

  “Well, I was about to,” she finally managed to say.

  Eve was tottering on her feet, and Corsia grabbed her and eased her to the deck.

  Tangel glanced at the two men before her—President Arthur and Secretary Larson, from the data Terrance had given her. Both wobbled, and the president half rose, then fell back, putting a hand against the bulkhead while muttering incoherently.

  All around them, the enemy soldiers were standing dumbfounded, then one leveled his weapon at Tangel, shouting, “Stand down!”

  “Brave,” Tangel said with a laugh, and threaded a tendril of herself toward the weapon, causing it to dissolve in the soldier’s hands. “I believe that it is all of you who should stand down.”

  She proceeded to ignore the enemy soldiers and walked toward the IPE’s president.

  “Arthur. Are you OK?”

  The man’s gaze lifted from the deck to meet Tangel’s, and she gave him an encouraging smile.

  “Welcome back,” she said softly.

  “What? How?” he asked, his voice beleaguered.

  “It’s going to take a bit to explain. Can you have your soldiers stand down? We need to get medical attention for our people, and then we can talk.”

  The president nodded numbly and sent a command to his soldiers, who slowly lowered their weapons.

  “Good.” Tangel smiled before turning to Eve. “Let me see to your shoulder.”

  She reached out with her extradimensional limbs, assisting the soldier’s mednano in healing her body, and then reformed her armor over her shoulder.

  Eve’s eyes were round circles of awe as she stared at Tangel, and Corsia’s weren’t much narrower.

  the AI said in a hushed mental tone.

 

  Corsia nodded, her motions slow and deliberate.

 

  TAKE A MIRACLE

  STELLAR DATE: 09.06.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Ark Facility, Planet HH1

  REGION: Hidey Hole System, Large Magellanic Cloud

  The Marines and the High Guard leapt into motion, firing at barely perceptible movement all around the room’s perimeter. Shots struck foes, and Sera saw ten-legged mech frames shimmer into view.

  Judging by their size, there had to be a hundred of the things lining the walls. She unslung her rifle, firing at a shimmering form atop a console, when something hit her in the back, knocking her to the ground.

  It was at that moment that Sera realized the deca-mechs were falling from the overhead as well.

  Her wrists were pinned to the floor, and she struggled to free them, twisting and kicking at her invisible foes. She managed to get her left arm free, and she drew her lightwand, slashing wildly, watching robotic limbs fall around her. She struggled to her feet, to see only Fara and one of her High Guard still fighting—every other member of the team was trapped under a writhing mass of deca-mechs.

  A slow clap came from the entrance of the room.

  “Well done…you.”

  Sera turned to see the speaker, and came face to face with herself.

  No…not exactly myself.
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br />   Walking into the room, wearing light armor, but with the helmet off, was a version of herself—one with organic skin, short, dark hair, and utterly boring fashion sense.

  Sera didn’t know the last to be true, but given the pedestrian haircut, she was certain that the pawn version of herself that her mother had made was utterly boring in every way.

  Jen commented.

  The robotic attackers throughout the room disabled their stealth systems as the Airthan Sera entered, and Sera saw that there were easily two hundred of the machines. She had to admit that it was impressive so many had been able to hide—at least so long as they were still.

  “You can put the lightwand away,” the other Sera said. “I’m not going to attack you. I have no need to. You’ll do as I say, or your people here will die. Horribly.”

  Sera tried to reach out to Pearson’s team, but the comm signal didn’t make a connection.

  Jen informed Sera.

  Sera said as she turned to see Jason struggling beneath a dozen of the deca-mechs. A little further was Valerie, laying utterly still. She tried to reach out to both, but even in the room, the signal was blocked.

  Sera glanced at her lightwand and disabled its blade, but didn’t let go of the hilt. “What do you want, Evil Sera?” she asked.

  Her doppelganger snorted. “I’m the evil one? You’re the Sera whose lover killed our father, the one who has red skin, and is leading a rebellion. Stars, I even heard you were a demon at a party not long ago. Pretty sure that if this is a battle between good and evil, you’re on the wrong side.”

  Sera chuckled; her doppelganger had her at a disadvantage. “I suppose I might be ‘Bad Sera’,” she admitted. “But that’s just skin deep. Given what Airtha has likely done to you, you’re probably rotten to the core. If you even have a core. You’re probably not much more than her sock puppet.”

  Her clone’s eyes widened a millimeter at the words, but then narrowed once more. “Well, either way, you’ve done what I wanted—what mother wanted. Gained access to the archives here.”

  Sera glanced at Fara, who was pinned down two meters to Sera’s left. The shadowtron was still slung over the AI’s back—though trapped beneath a pair of deca-mechs. She knew getting to that weapon was key. She had no doubt that a remnant was in control of the Airthan Sera.

  “What? You couldn’t access it yourself?” Sera asked with a wicked grin. “Can’t light up your own facility?”

  “I didn’t have the tokens.”

  Jen commented privately.

  Sera replied. She chuckled aloud, then said, “Sounds like an excuse.”

  She suddenly remembered that her hard-Link cable was still connected to the console; the cord ran from her hip—not visible to her doppelganger, who was weaving her way through the mechs that had formed a wall around Sera.

  She drew a steadying breath, then hooked her foot under the console’s leg. Once secure, Sera sent a command to reverse the room’s a-grav systems, switching up for down.

  A second later, Sera was hanging from the console by her foot, and each member of her team was now atop the deca-mechs. With a flick of her wrist, she activated her lightwand and flung it at the window at the end of the room, the blade slicing a long gash in the plas before burning a hole through and falling out into the planet’s empty core.

  Jen commented.

  Sera replied as she shifted gravity in the room by seventy degrees, turning the roof into a steep slope.

  Deca-mechs tumbled over one another, a dozen slamming into the damaged window, cracking it and falling away over the brink.

  “Shit!” Jason swore as he began to slide toward the opening, along with Fara and two of the ISF Marines. The others were scrambling over the enemy, shooting some, slashing others.

  The Airthan Sera cried out and lunged toward Jason, grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward a console.

  The deca-mechs had not re-engaged their stealth systems, but the Marines and High Guard had. The battle re-engaged, with the humans gaining the upper hand while more and more of the deca-mechs tumbled toward the end of the room, falling toward the planet’s core.

  Jason was grappling with the Airthan Sera, who Sera realized had been trying to save him, while, nearby, Fara had managed to leap to the deck-now-overhead, and was clinging to a console.

  “I like to fly and all, but can you flip this back!?” Jason cried out as he drove a fist into Airthan Sera’s face, sending her sprawling, just as a deca-mech grabbed his leg, pulling him down.

  A few more seconds, Sera thought, as another dozen mechs slid out of the room.

  Then she snapped the failsafe ES field into place, and flipped the gravity around once more.

  The room devolved into a final spate of utter chaos as the High Guard and Marines fired on the enemy, several even tossing burn sticks at a few clusters of mechs, the acrid smoke from thermite fires filling the air.

  Then something struck Sera, and she turned to see her Airthan counterpart holding a deca-mech’s severed limb, hauling it back for another swing at her head.

  Sera threw her left arm up in a block, then grabbed the mech-limb and yanked it away, only to have her doppelganger pivot and deliver a kick to Sera’s wrist.

  She hadn’t pulled her armor back over her hand after the bio-samples, and she lost her grip on the limb, taking a step back as the other Sera—a primal scream tearing past her lips—charged toward her and knocked her to the ground, pulling her hard-Link cable free.

  Losing sight of the general melee, Sera drove a fist up into her other self, catching her under the chin and snapping her head back, only to receive a flurry of blows to her stomach for her trouble.

  A fistfight in armor was patently ridiculous, and Sera cast about, looking around for a fallen weapon, when the other Sera was pulled off her and flung across the room.

  She saw both Jason and Flaherty standing over her, each man extending a hand.

  “You’re the good one, right?” Jason asked aloud as they pulled her up.

  “Funny. Thanks for the save.”

  All around them, the enemy mechs had all fallen still, though most appeared to be undamaged.

  “Took a few minutes to worm my way in,” Fara explained as she approached. “Their NSAI cores were too hard to hack, but as it turns out, their limb actuators use a system I’m familiar with, and I was able to fake limb-control commands once I got nano on them.”

  “Nicely done,” Valerie rasped from behind Sera, and the president turned to see the major applying biofoam to a wound in her upper chest. “Damn thing missed my heart by a few centimeters.”

  Gunny and one of the High Guard soldiers had Evil Sera pinned against the wall, and the Marine was applying a LockIt to her armor.

  Sera approached her Airthan counterpart, watching the rage simmer in the other woman’s eyes.

  “I guess you weren’t quite clever enough,” Sera told her. “Should have waited for me to disconnect from the hard-Link before you made your grand entrance.”

  “You’ll never get away,” the doppelganger said. “I sent out a signal. We have stealthed ships that will be here in less than an hour.”

  Julia said over the combat net.

  Pearson asked as he reconnected to the combat net.

  Valerie replied.

  planet.> Fara announced.

  “Then we’d better find out what secrets this place has, and get the hell out of here,” Sera said as she turned back to the console and reconnected her hard-Link.

 

 

  “That was one heck of a gamble,” Jason said as he approached. “Coulda dropped half of us out there.”

  “Your armor has a-grav and thrusters,” Sera gestured to Jason’s gear. “You probably would have been OK. Could have aimed for one of those biomes down there.”

  “Real reassuring,” Jason said, a smirk on his lips.

  “Well, I would have turned the ES field on before you fell out. Promise.”

  “Somehow your glib tone makes me feel less certain.”

  “Sorry, I get snarky when I’m—wait…”

  Jason cocked his head to the side. “You get snarky when you wait?”

  “Uh, no…I mean I found something. Something weird.”

  “This whole place is weird,” Valerie said from a few meters away, where she was driving a lightwand through the central core of a deca-mech.

  “Well, this is weirder…maybe. There’s a vault at the back of this room.”

  As Sera spoke, she activated the vault’s doors, and a section of the rear wall swung away, revealing a stasis pod resting vertically in a narrow alcove. The surface of the pod was opaque, not revealing the occupant.

  “Huh…I wonder who that—” Jason began to say, then stopped short as Sera activated the wake sequence. “Well, I guess we’ll find out.”

  The pod registered a successful termination of its stasis field, and Sera disconnected her hard-Link, stepping over the disabled mechs as she walked toward it.

  She was still a few paces away when the cover slid open, and she gasped.

  “Father?”

  The man in the stasis pod was a spitting image of Jeffrey Tomlinson. He had the raven hair, the sharp eyes, and angular features, but he looked subtly different at the same time. His lips were more generous, his eyes a touch kinder.