Alliance, page 1
AL:ICE
Alliance
By CW Lamb
I would like to thank all my readers for patiently waiting for this to be finished.
Copyright © 2020 by CW Lamb
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the Author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
First Edition
14 13 12 11 10 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover Design: www.art4artists.com.au
Contents
Character page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Author’s Notes
Character page
Sector Nu Tau Beta
AL:ICE – Artificial Life: Intelligent Computing Environment
Jake Thomas– USMC Capt. Divorced orphan, wise ass. Sarcastic.
Sara Sullivan– Oldest of 3 sisters. Jakes second in command. Mother of Amber and Jade
Bonnie Sullivan– Middle sis to Sara, quiet, reserved, mother to Julie
Becky Sullivan– Little sis to Sara
Linda Jones– Commander in Nevada, mother to Tracy
Kathy Jones– Linda’s sister, mother to Timothy
Sandy- Adopted mother to Padma and Jon
Abby – 10th cavalry Team leader
Brian – ALICE-3 Captain
Joseph – (just Joe) 10th Team leader
Jessie –Alaska Commander, mother of Ryan
James- Kola temp commander
Robert Jacobson – Bonnie’s husband, Jake’s Logistics Officer
Patti – Jake’s great, great, granddaughter
Jacob – Jake’s great, great, grandson
ALICE1 Nevada medical labs – goes by Alice
ALICE2 Texas ground vehicles – goes by Dallas
ALICE3 Georgia – goes by ALICE-9
ALICE4 Washington helicopter-rotary
ALICE5 Maine Medical Research – goes by Five
ALICE6 South Dakota weapons research –was Kola (now Dakota)
ALICE7 Alaska aviation research - Seven
ALICE8 Hawaii marine – bay is 2000 feet long and 600 feet wide. -Lanai
Kola- Now the ALICE controlling the Space Carrier
ALICE-3- Now ALICE in the Battleship
VF-84 Jolly Roger - Washington
VMFA -314 Black Knights - Texas
VMFA-112 Cowboys - Texas
VMFA-232 Red Devils - Nevada
VMFA-323 Death Rattlers - Alaska
1st Air Cavalry- South Dakota
BOOK 2---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hector -ALICE-4 second in command
Chris Wade – LA compound leader.
10th Cavalry – A and B troops, Special Forces on hovercycles
Wawobash – 6-legged canine, shipyard
Kortisht – 3 legged humanoids repulser and faster than light
Crustacea – lobster people, specialize in communications
Lanai Patrol/Transports – Steel hulled 500 feet long, 250 feet wide – 8 to 40-man crew
Cruiser - 384 feet in length and 284 feet in width- 30-man crew
Destroyer –200 feet long 75-80 feet wide, 20-man crew.
HeBak – NeHaw communications supervisor.
MeHak – head of the high council
Klinan – fourth treaty partner- artists – long angular people yellow with a .85 G planet
Netite – mercenary force for NeHaw – blue ape like
NeHaw – light atmosphere – short stocky gray. 1.2 G planet
BOOK 3---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chilterns AONB – between Oxford and London
Ju Huang – Chinese general
Ivan – Cossack
Nigel – London, Helen
Colonel Edwin Banks – SAS
Major Bo Chao – replaces Ju
Lance corporal Alicia Ramirez – died protecting Sandy
Gemma – brit engineer – Nigel’s daughter
Jerrold – brit engineer
Lieutenant Daniel Atkins
Jon and Padma – Las Vegas kids 7 & 5
BOOK 4---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General KaLob – leader of the NeHaw coup
Hannah – SAS trooper on Phantom
Phantom – spy ship with cloaking unit
Samantha Watts – Marine/Analyst (Sam) on Phantom
Private Grace Middleton – Southern girl
Isabella Connor – Kola captain
James – North Dakota commander, Alaska Bill’s son.
Chapter 1
General Jake Thomas sat astride his hovercycle as he scanned the valley below, his all encasing combat suit doing its best to dispel the beginnings of another hot desert day. Stopped on a hilltop high above the surrounding countryside, he had a commanding view of the Nevada desert landscape below. As he scanned the horizon, the clarity of the dry air never ceased to amaze him.
He could see for a hundred miles in all directions, the occasional dust trail against the clear blue sky betraying the moments of some remote person or persons. With horseback still the prevalent mode of transportation for a significant portion of the population, the sight before him was not unusual at all.
“What do you think?” Jake asked his companion, a smaller version of himself astride his own hovercycle.
“They don’t look very friendly,” was the short reply.
“That was my thought as well,” Jake responded with a nod and a smile.
Just a few miles away from where the pair had landed were almost a dozen armed men, all on horseback and moving at a relaxed pace. Jake noted there were two stragglers a bit behind the main group and he suspected they were acting as some form of a rear guard. He dialed up the magnification in his helmet and did a quick assessment of the entire group before deciding on a course of action.
When he was out riding like this, it was a regular occurrence for him to run across various small groups traveling from place to place. In most cases, it was families or groups of such like-minded people just looking for a better life as they headed west toward the coast. The men in this gaggle were not to be even remotely confused with those people.
By now, the group had spotted the two figures on the hilltop and halted their progress as they talked amongst themselves. Jake observed a pair of binoculars being passed from man to man and noted they didn’t seem too concerned as they sat there talking. After watching the group for a few minutes more to see if they gave him any indications of their intentions, he made up his mind on his own.
“Stay here and watch for trouble,” Jake said as he adjusted several settings on his hovercycle and then slowly rose into the air.
“Yes Sir,” came the soft reply.
Both Jake and his companion were in their standard issue protective suits, so Jake had little concern over either one of them being injured with a conventional weapon. That was part of his survey of this party, assessing the threat level of the visible weaponry visible. His conclusion was unless someone had a missile strapped to the underside of their horse, the two hovercycle riders were relatively safe.
Moving at an easy pace himself, Jake slowly maneuvered his hovercycle into a position about twenty feet in front of the riders and set down softly. He had done his best not to spook the riders’ horses, however, a couple of the mounts shuffled nervously on their feet as the riders worked to keep them calm. Climbing off his own ride and taking great care to telegraph his moves so as not to provoke the men, he stopped a few feet from the group.
“Morning,” Jake offered, his voice artificially replicated from inside his helmet.
“Morning,” one of the men replied in return.
“Nice ride you got there,” another commented, as all studied the hovercycle behind Jake.
“Thanks, it meets my needs. Where you boys headed?” Jake asked casually, trying not to sound confrontational.
“Not sure that’s any of your business?” the one Jake took to be the leader replied.
“Fair enough, just trying to help.”
“You some kinda local authority around here?” another man next to the leader asked Jake.
Jake considered the question for a moment. Between his combat suit and the hovercycle, it was more than obvious he wasn’t your typical drifter.
“Not really, but I do know those that are. I only stopped by to let you know there are some reports of a group making trouble in the area. You see anyone on your ride in?” Jake asked innocently.
“What kinda trouble?’ came the reply.
“Oh, you know, shaking down the locals, raiding, pillaging, and just making a general nuisance of themselves. Haven’t killed anyone yet, that I know of, so they haven’t crossed the point of no return. Well, all but one anyway.”
By now the entire group had formed a semicircle around where Jake stood. He noted the two stragglers had not joined up with the others, forcing a quick survey of the area on his heads-up display. Satisfied with what he saw, he returned his attention back to the riders.
“Point of no return?’ one asked before a dirty look from the leader shut him up.
“Oh, you know, it’s the difference between a bully and a murderer. One gets a second chance.”
Before another word was spoken, the one Jake pinned as the leader pulled a handgun from his belt and fired several rounds at Jake. All found their mark but failed to deliver the expected results. That wasn’t to say Jake didn’t feel the effects of the rounds, he was sure there would be a bruise there by tonight.
“So, you would be the one that killed the Tonopah man?” Jake asked, unphased by the action as he focused on the shooter.
Tonopah was nothing more than a water stop for travelers headed east-west to and from California and Utah. This group had wandered into the small town and quickly departed after taking supplies and shooting the proprietor when he objected. The killing had been an act of unnecessary violence.
“Get him!” The man shouted as he suddenly spurred his horse toward Jake, attempting to run him down.
The horse’s lunge surprised Jake, but he was still able to spin as the animal closed the short distance to his position. Rolling along the side of the horse as it passed, Jake grabbed the rider’s leg, pulling the boot from its stirrup and yanking hard, unseating the rider in the process. It was then an alarm sounded in Jake’s helmet, a proximity alert he had set before leaving his companion alone on the hilltop.
“Tim, can you hear me?” he asked as he watched two men leap at him from horseback.
“Yes, dad,” was the cautious response.
Tossing one man, as he flew through the air, Jake turned to find the other swinging at him with a rifle. Holding it by the barrel, the man was using it as a club.
“How close were you planning on letting those two behind you get?”
Not waiting for the response, Jake intercepted the butt stock with both hands, jerking the weapon free from its wielder and sending it flying at two more men still on horseback. The impact knocked them both from their saddles, while the remainder of the group backed their mounts away from the fighting to watch. Pulling his handgun from its holster, Jake fired off several rounds, hitting the ground next to the prone figures struggling to get up.
“Enough! Unless you all want to die, cut the crap.”
Emphasizing the point, he executed the program he had preset in the hovercycle. One of several he had worked out over the years, the craft quickly rose into the air at no more than twice his height and low enough to knock a man off his horse if he wasn’t careful. Nose down, the hovercraft quickly moved to a position just outside the farthest rider and began circling the group. Suddenly, both machine guns in the nose, let loose a burst that dug into the Earth and startled the horses, causing one rider to fall.
“OK!” Jake heard one man say as the all began dropping their weapons.
Motioning for everyone to dismount, Jake began to check the men still lying motionless on the ground. Satisfied none were dead, he stepped away from the group.
“Alice, please send in the pickup squad.”
“Already on their way,” came the simple reply.
----*----
LiMak was reviewing the duty logs of all Neutral Zone patrol ships from the last few kilocycles, trying to determine the source of the discrepancy in their data. Several of the sensors the NeHaw had placed all along the Neutral Zone, established with the Humans megacycles ago, kept alerting for trespass violations. However, when the NeHaw ships arrived at the location of the violations, there were no violators to be found, just empty space.
The boundary was created after the treaty has been established. It had been mined on the NeHaw side with inhibitors that prevented the use of FTL drives. Once activated by the offending vessels drive signatures, they would continue to operate until reset by the NeHaw military. With the inhibitors triggered, the offender would be required to travel a good distance on repulser power, taking several cycles to do so before they were outside the influence of the devices.
Once triggered, an all system alert would be sounded and the nearest patrol ship would be dispatched to confront the offender. While there had historically been very few incidents, and most of those identified as smugglers and not human combat vessels, each was treated with top priority.
Any NeHaw military vessel could reset the devices, thus removing the hold it placed on the offenders, however, that was the problem of late. With each recent alert, the responding NeHaw patrol craft arrived to find no ship trapped in the field. In every instance, there were no sensor readings revealing any non-NeHaw ship, just empty space.
This is what had drawn them to their current position in this sector. Upon their arrival, they became ensnared in the same trap, expecting to confront a Neutral Zone violator. Instead, they found the same empty space as reported by other ships’ Captains. LiMak was just about to order the inhibitors to be reset when his ship’s Pilot made an announcement.
“Sir, I see……. something,” the man announced.
“Can you be more specific?” LiMak replied, not surprised at the man’s lack of specificity.
In the megacycles since General KaLob’s ascending to power, the NeHaw military had undergone a significant restructuring. Field Commanders were now allowed far more discretion on both their decision making and actions with much less concern about the repercussions of those choices back home. The changes had proven remarkably successful overall, but the increase in crew morale was offset with a drop in the severe discipline of the old order. LiMak wasn’t sure it was missed by many In the lower ranks and even their Commanders.
“There, Sir. Something is masking the visible starlight,” the man said as he pointed out the bridge windows. As he spoke, he highlighted a particular part of space in the window using the optical overlay system.
Shifting his attention from the Pilot and onto the space outside the ship, he concentrated on the area of space the man had outlined. After staring out the bridge window for a few micro cycles, he suddenly noted a portion of the starfield he had been watching blank out completely.
“There!” he heard the Pilot exclaim, as the man had apparently seen what LiMak had witnessed.
“What do you see on the sensor displays?” LiMak asked his Tactical Officer as he continued to watch the stars slowly blink off and then on again as something passed between them and LiMak’s ship.
“The sensors do not indicate anything is there, Sir,” the Tactical Officer replied.
“Is it a new form of cloaking? Have the Humans created a new ship?” LiMak asked.
“Possibly Sir, but I don’t think it’s human. I am getting no readings at all, not even the trace emissions of repulser drives,” the Tactical Officer replied.
“Perform a wide spectrum scan of the area, including the invisible wavelengths. See if anything is reflecting off that ship?” LiMak asked his Science Officer.
“Yes, Sir,” was the reply.
“I have something…” the man replied hesitantly, after a brief pause.
“Explain,” he asked.
“I am not getting any reflections for the ship ahead, but what I can detect is a void in the area around it, Like a null field,” the man replied with pride.
“Can you get us any closer?” LiMak asked the ship’s Pilot.
“I can try Sir, but at this distance, it might take some time,” the man replied as he began working to get the ship moving.
“Reset the inhibitors,” LiMak commanded, removing the impediment to their jumping to close the distance.
As he watched, LiMak could see the disturbance in space grow, measured by the number of background stars disappearing from view, as if the ship was closing on them. Suddenly, there was a field of stars where there had once only been blackness.
“What just happened?” he asked aloud.
“It is gone, Sir,” the Tactical Officer reported as he continued to check his readings.
“What on Earth was that?” LiMak asked, using the latest NeHaw slang for a place no one would ever want to go.
