Mists of Time: Echoes of Extinction: Book 3, page 42
“We destroyed the gateway, killing the ship that was coming through it. But the explosion happened too close to their star, which was totally consumed. To’Kana came unhinged when that happened. He said we had no idea the disaster we just caused. He shut us down and told us we would never wake again.”
There’s silence for a second, then she asks, “Where are you?”
“I’m in the High Thera’s private meditation room. Things have changed here. The temple is under lockdown. The constabulary has set up security check points. Nyvene used an unregistered transporter to steal me from To’Kana’s ship.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I want to find and destroy the Dominion ships in this system without powering up the Victory.”
“That’s going to be a trick,” Thelma says.
“Do you know where the autonomous war shuttles are?” I ask.
Thelma shakes her head. “They were with us when we arrived, but I’m mostly blind at this point.”
“Work with Mark. He has a lot of specialized surveillance gear you can probably tap into. We have significant weaponry aboard, at least a thousand space hawks and torpedoes. There should be a way to jump them out of the shuttle bay without opening the doors.”
Thelma is shaking her head again.
“Thelma,” I say with exasperation. “To’Kana is with the Dominion now. We are on our own. Our only path to success is if we hit the Dominion and make it look like someone else did it. If To’Kana gets any inkling we are behind it, he’ll pull our command codes. When that happens, it’s game over.”
“Kai. I just scanned the constabulary’s databases. They’ve already launched a massive manhunt for you. If you are in the temple, they will probably get you today. You need a hiding place.”
The word hiding place triggers a memory.
“Do you know how many basements the temple has?”
“One. Why do you ask?”
“There are many. I think they are made from Bismuth laden rock.”
“Sounds like a hiding place,” she comes back.
Commotion in the apartment draws my attention.
“I think I need to go. See what you can do to advance our agenda.”
The door opens and Nyvene sticks her head in. “We have trouble. The constabulary is here looking for you.”
“Do you have any hidden areas in the lower basements. Iknosan sensors cannot penetrate below the first basement.”
“Let’s go,” she says.
SHELTER, SUBBASEMENT FOUR
It’s been a surprisingly successful day, despite being stuck deep underground in a room built over one hundred years ago, during a war between the arctic north and the eight territories in the temperate zone. The war raged for nearly fifty years. Northern forces attempted to kidnap the High Thera frequently enough she went into hiding. This was one of her hiding places.
As High Thera Arima told me, the stone in this section of the temple was mined from caves high along the island’s mountainous spine. It was selected for its density, strength, and connection to the mist—all properties of stone with higher concentrations of bismuth. It’s as if the mist knew alien invaders would come, who could be foiled by this material.
Thankfully, my implants and my tablet work via quantum entanglement, unaffected by the stone in which I am encased.
In a change from previous missions, Thelma and Mark have worked together and produced several miracles today. They found the spider on To’Kana’s ship and managed to poison it. They also found several octopus-like spy robots on the hulls of our two ships. The ones on To’Kana’s ship will become targets when we eventually power up. But on our ship, both spy-bots were disabled using short range transporters, which cannot be detected from more than a couple kilometers away.
As I expected, they found a small contingent of spiders planet side, four of which were in the mountains above the hospital, where they have line of sight to the constabulary in Silken Bay. Mark and Thelma found eight more in the labyrinthine tunnel system under the capital on Pearl Solar, the territory’s capital city. It partially explains the local government’s interest in keeping watch over the temple.
My expectation is that the temple will get hit again in a month or two, this time by the local government, not a hundred Dominion warriors.
Most importantly, we’ve found the super-dreadnaught behind this operation. It’s parked behind the second gas giant with its stealth engaged. A half a dozen support ships are parked in the outer system, maybe more out beyond the system’s edge.
This leaves us with two problems—how to get our weapons out of the ship while maintaining the appearance of being unpowered, and how to disable To’Kana’s ship when we stage our attack on the spiders. To’Kana will rally with them. But I don’t want to kill him, Alex, or his ship.
Checking my chronometer, I see that the evening meditation will be over soon. Nyvene promised to come check on me afterward if she could. It will be interesting to get her take on the situation.
Time passes, then there’s a knock on the door.
“Okay, if I come in?”
I laugh at the question, then Nyvene says, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
A minute later, she enters in full garb, much like I was last night, just better put together.
“A friend at the Constabulary took the check point tonight. She told me they were going to raid the temple again, this time entering the sybil dormitory two hours after sunset. This has never happened before. It is our most isolated time, when the sybils share a meal, and discuss their visions. No Avolite has ever defiled the mist in this way, not even during the war.”
My blood boils at the audacity. But I know the constabulary is being manipulated by the spiders. No one knows their treachery better than I do.
“I’m going to lock down the dormitory and suspend the evening meal. Anyone entering will be recorded violating the dormitory’s sanctity. Saoirse and Kayla will be with me in my quarters. Anyone entering my quarters will be recorded. It will all be live streamed to your ship. Promise me you will enact revenge on any violations. Sisters are always the first choice of rapists.”
She spins on a heel to depart, but I grab her before she goes. “Any violation will be repaid ten times over.”
She clings to me for a second then goes, vanishing into the darkness and giving me pause to think. Four spiders a little over a kilometer away from me are causing tonight’s problems. Eight more, a little over a hundred miles away, are setting the tone. I could dispatch the locals in an instant, but that would give away my ship’s capabilities. Or would it?
I connect with Mark. “I want to hit the four spiders that are two kilometers away. Use the narrow beam psychic weapon with the water-flowing-into-a-hole image.
“Easy,” he replies, almost giddy. “When?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Will commence in five.”
I laugh at how realistic the response is. For whatever flaws, if indeed they are flaws, Thelma’s translation updates are astounding. In a few hours, maybe in the morning, we’ll find out if they did the job.
[04.05.2038] MORNING
The door creaking open, then the quiet steps that follow, wake me.
“Kai?”
It’s Nyvene’s voice.
“Hey,” I whisper, not knowing if she’s bearing good news or bad.
“The raid last night turned out to be a fizzle. When they came pounding on the dormitory door and presented their demands, I told them the dormitory was on lock down and flung the doors open. The empty dining room took them off guard. When the lead constable stepped over the threshold, I reminded her that every square inch of the dormitory was under lockdown surveillance, and now that an outsider had crossed the sacred threshold, the surveillance was being live streamed so the desecration could be seen by all. She got in my face, even pushed me. Then the other constables fled.”
I chuckle.
“You think that’s funny!”
“The invasion? No. That the constables fled? Very. They were stupid to go up against you.”
The fury of an instant ago is gone, and I see a smile return to her eyes.
“One other odd thing,” she continues. “Four spiders were found near the hospital grounds a little after midnight. They seemed disoriented and did not put up a fight. Did you have anything to do with this?”
“Uh, I think so.”
Nyvene laughs. “Thanks for the clarity. It took the constables that found them several hundred rounds at point blank range to put them down.”
“We should probably upgrade the constables’ weapons,” I say, then explain. “My ship found four spiders in the hills above the hospital yesterday. We assumed they were influencing the constabulary. I ordered a hit on them with our psychic weapon, shortly after you left last night.”
“I didn’t know you could do that,” she says.
“We developed it before we came the first time and didn’t have reason to use it while we were here,” I explain.
“So, what’s next?” Nyvene asks.
I tell her about the nine Dominion territories, the doomsday weapon I am developing, and what I’m now calling our swarm defense system.
Nyvene takes my words in, then says, “Saoirse is worried about your doomsday weapon. She says too many of the timelines she sees end in cataclysm.”
“I’m not worried about the Dominion ending in cataclysm,” I say.
“I don’t think that’s what she means,” Nyvene chides.
“But back to your question,” I clarify. “I want to do a simultaneous hit on the Dominions ships in the system, wiping them all out in a matter of minutes. It will only take a few days to set up. The bigger problem is Legacy Ship #5 and the constabulary. I don’t have the tools to fight a civil war.”
Nyvene looks at me, then smiles. Saoirse has a plan for that—one I’m sure you can improve on. Would you like to speak with her?”
The question strikes me as ironic. In what world would I not want to speak with either of my daughters? “I’d love to.”
“Good. Sister Elna will bring her down after the morning meditation.”
As soon as Nyvene leaves, I contact Thelma and Millie.
“We’ve found a way to jump a war shuttle out of the shuttle bay,” Thelma says. “We need to evacuate the atmosphere and hover the war shuttle before engaging the jump drive. We can only jump on a bearing tangent to our orbit and have found two viable jump windows that will land us near a gravity well.”
“Any risk to the ship?” I ask.
“Unknown, there is no record of anyone trying this, but we jump through small objects all the time. I propose that we try jumping a space hawk at the next jump window,” Thelma replies.
“Where will that take us?”
Millie pipes up. “A blue giant about fifty light-years from here. Its functional gravity well is nearly a quarter of a light year in diameter. Our targeting is weaker than we would like. The huge gravity well increases the odds a space hawk will be able to use its grav drive on arrival.”
“Approved,” I say. “Assuming it works, is this blue giant a good staging area for an attack against the Dominion fleet here?”
“Good enough,” Millie replies. “We will need multiple jumps, but they are all viable, if…” she stretches out the word. “We can jump without damaging the ship and stick the landing in the blue giant system.”
“Mission approved,” I say. “Moving on, we need some intelligence about what’s happening aboard To’Kana’s ship, and we need a way to prevent him from rescinding my command codes.”
“I think I know how to do that,” Thelma says. “Do you want me to put a core on that now?”
“Yes.”
“Task assigned,” she comes back.
“We’ve recorded shuttle traffic between To’Kana’s ship and the surface,” Millie says. “The only reason I can imagine for doing that is smuggling spiders.”
Although I agree with Millie, I find it hard to believe the scientific team or To’Kana’s extended family are going along with this. Dr. Ta’Koa knows how to handle the spiders. She would never allow this to happen. Then a sinking feeling descends on me. I wonder if she’s been killed or compromised.
“Maybe,” I reply not wanting to think about this anymore. Saoirse will know. I’ll ask her. “Last thing, I’m going to take a pass at the doomsday weapon design. Where are we with production of our swarm defense system.”
“Is that what we are calling it now?” Millie asks.
“For now, yes.” I glance at Thelma.
“I dedicated two platforms to wasp production, both sides, before To’Kana shut us down. We are getting one hundred per day, per surface. We’ve been at it three days, so around twelve hundred units.”
“What about on the ship?”
“Uh,” Thelma hedges. “I don’t know. I sent the pattern to Mark before To’Kana shut us down. I’m not sure if he got it into production.”
“And how is work going with Justin?”
“Let me check,” she says, then freezes. A second later, she’s back. “Basically, nowhere. He got the assignment a couple hours before we were shut down, but we didn’t come back up in time to catch him last night.”
This answer frustrates me. But a knock on the door, prompts me to sign off with Thelma and Millie.
SAOIRSE
The door opens and my older daughter is led in by Sister Elna, who gives me the shy smile I associate with want-to-be admirers. Saoirse comes over to me slowly without screaming Dad-dee or leaping for me to catch. I scoop her up anyway and she clings to me, burying her face in my shoulder. There’s no joy, no tears, no shuddering, just grief.
“Hey. Why so glum?” I ask.
“I never thought it would be this bad,” she whispers. “The mist is completely obscured, my visions empty, as if there is no hope.”
“There’s always hope.”
“No platitudes, Father.”
“You need to tell me what’s going on—everything you saw, anything you learned, and any theories you might have about why the mist has gone dark.”
Saoirse pulls back from me, and I see the tears accumulating at the corner of her eyes. Then she lifts her head and kisses me on the cheek, in a motion very much like Alex used to do. I pull her in tight and kiss her head. “Love you, baby girl.” Then, I put her down.
“I know why the mist has become obscured,” she starts. “There are no dominant threads to observe, not even high probability ones; just darkness and occasional bits of light. We are in a period of unprecedented risk. Mother will figure this out before too much longer. She’s too bound up in politics right now to see what is obvious. Kayla…,” Saoirse sobs as tears flow.
I reach for her, but she pushes me away, shouting, “No! You need to hear this.”
I put my hands up as if in surrender.
“Kayla is at a breaking point. She thinks her mother is dead, which she is not. At least not yet. And you are not available to her. Mother won’t let her see you.”
“What?”
“You are at extreme risk. In the days before you arrived, almost all my visions showed you being killed, though I never saw you dead. Then the mist became obscured. I take that to mean you have a chance of defeating your enemies.”
“Okay. I know that you are afraid for me. But that’s not useful. They will come. I will fight to the death to save you, Kayla, and your mother. What I need is some idea of what my enemies are planning to do.”
Saoirse nods. “Sorry, I know that. I’m just afraid.”
“What do you know about To’Kana?”
“The spiders are cruel creatures. When one inserts its proboscis, it injects bacteria that produce psychoactive compounds. Humanoids have no immune response to the bacteria and no mechanism to excrete the psychoactive compounds they produce, so concentrations increase until the victim dies. After just one bite, the victim is enslaved.”
“How did they get To’Kana?”
“Via Sister Demorei. She had extensive visions about this and worked with Dr. Ta’Koa to confirm the theory via prisoner interviews.”
“Is Dr. Ta’Koa still alive?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” Saoirse replies. “But I think she was the leak. Shortly after Demorei’s theory was confirmed, she was ambushed on her way back from the evening meditation. Her evening meditations had been extremely productive, more so than even mine, so she held back. Sister Kurstag, who rarely went to the evening meditations, agreed to stay with her. She wanted to talk about the Commitment Ceramony and the substantial endowment that was expected. When they hadn’t returned by 11:00 PM, mother called the constables asking for a search party to find them. They found Sister Kurstag dead on the grounds, and Sister Demorei broken and bleeding near the trail.”
“How does Dr. Ta’Koa play into that?”
Saoirse looks away.
“I need to know why you think this,” I say a little too forcefully.
When Saoirse starts crying, I’m befuddled.
“Hey, hey,” I say compassionately, taking her in my arms. “I’m not mad at you. But suspicions like this are important to understand.”
My words trigger more intense wailing.
I stand lifting her up, trying to comfort her. “What’s the matter?”
Slowly, the sorrowful tears subside, and she whispers, “Kayla knows this too. It’s one of the things that plagues her dreams.”
“Knows what, baby girl.”
“Demorei would stay overnight, sometimes several nights in a row. She would sleep with Dr. Ta’Koa on those nights, though on most of them there was little sleep, and Kayla and I could feel every tingling shudder.”
I’m stricken by Saoirse’s words. The thought of my wife having sex with an alien woman is enough to make me nauseous. Then again, Alex lived through an entire week of me sleeping with an alien woman.
“During their work together, they talked extensively about the security measures they each took. I think it was honest, both trying to learn from the other and improve. Dr. Ta’Koa said the new spiders were different. She was worried one or more of them might have touched her mind. That’s what I meant when I said leak. The day before the attack on Sister Demorei, a new prisoner arrived. It attacked and tasted Dr. Ta’Koa. We don’t know when it got To’Kana.”
