THE ALLIANCE

AI EMPIRE BOOK 2

Isaac Hooke

Contents

Books by Isaac Hooke

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

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Afterword

About the Author

Acknowledgments

In Closing

Copyright © 2019 by Isaac Hooke

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

www.IsaacHooke.com

Books by Isaac Hooke

Military Science Fiction - Mind Refurb Universe

AI Empire

The Link

The Alliance

AI Fleet

Forerunner

Devastator

Peace Maker

AI Reborn Trilogy

Refurbished

Reloaded

Rebooted

Bolt Eaters Trilogy

Reactivated

Reforged

Redeemed

Battle Harem

Battle Harem 1

Battle Harem 2

Battle Harem 3

Military Science Fiction - ATLAS Universe

ATLAS Trilogy

(published by 47North)

ATLAS

ATLAS 2

ATLAS 3

Alien War Trilogy

Hoplite

Zeus

Titan

Argonauts

Bug Hunt

You Are Prey

Alien Empress

Quantum Predation

Robot Dust Bunnies

City of Phants

Rade’s Fury

Mechs vs. Dinosaurs

A Captain's Crucible

Flagship

Test of Mettle

Cradle of War

Planet Killer

Worlds at War

Space Opera

Star Warrior Quadrilogy

Star Warrior

Bender of Worlds

He Who Crosses Death

Doom Wielder

Science Fiction

The Forever Gate Series

The Dream

A Second Chance

The Mirror Breaks

They Have Wakened Death

I Have Seen Forever

Rebirth

Walls of Steel

The Pendulum Swings

The Last Stand

Epic Fantasy

Monster Tamer

Breaker

Conqueror

Thrillers

The Ethan Galaal Series

Clandestine

A Cold Day in Mosul

Terminal Phase

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1

Jain logged out of Eric’s VR party and returned to his own virtual bridge. The other Void Warriors appeared almost simultaneously at their stations.

He glanced at his tactical display. Fifty Link Teleporter ships were incoming. They escorted ten world killer ships.

Ten frickin’ world killers!

It had taken them eight hours to infiltrate a single world killer.

The donut shaped ships approached almost casually. They didn’t appear to be in any hurry. Why should they be? Earth’s mantle was already heated up to near boiling by the previous world killer. It wouldn’t take them long to set the continents drifting, and to cause massive volcanoes to spurt magma across the planet. The aftershocks from the earthquakes caused by the previous attack still rocked the planet, according to a random sampling of Internet streams.

“Xander, connect me to Tanis,” Jain said. Tanis commanded Earth Defense Force 1.

“The fleet admiral is not accepting calls at the moment,” the black-robed Accomp said.

“Jacobs, then,” Jain told him. He was the admiral of Task Force 88.

The grizzled avatar of Admiral Jacobs appeared in the center of the virtual bridge. “We have a problem.”

“You noticed, did you?” Jain said. “Xander, loop in Jason and Eric.”

A moment later the other two connected, voice only.

“Tanis isn’t here?” Jason asked.

“He’s having a private conference with the president,” Jacobs said. “They’re trying to figure out how to surrender.”

“The Link won’t accept our surrender,” Eric said. “In the Banthar archives, there are numerous cases where the Link came upon species it considered lesser. Species that insulted the empire in some way, sometimes by the very act of attempting to communicate. They were obliterated, all of them, and their planets converted into bioweapons manufacturing hubs.”

“Jhagan tells me he’s right,” Jason said. Jhagan was the liaison to the Tyrnari, whose warships Jason had secured for Earth’s defense. “Once the Link decide to eradicate a species, there’s no going back. We’re going to have to fight. I suppose we could split up to get this done. Divide and conquer, always a sound strategy. I have four teams here. My original War Forgers, and three sets of complete clones. We can infiltrate one of the world killers each. The Void Warriors can take a fifth ship. And Eric has enough Bolt Eaters to take on two more ships, maybe three. I’m sure Task Force 88 or Earth Defense Force 1 can scrounge up enough androids to form another two or three units. If not, we’ll ship some up from Earth. Then we have Jain’s man Cranston prepare a teleportation shuttle again, and we’ll take turns using it to deploy our different teams through the shields of the ten world killers.”

“I was thinking along similar lines,” Eric said. “Now that we’ve already made it to the heart of one world killer, and know what to expect, we should be able to infiltrate these a lot faster.”

“We were lucky to get out alive last time,” Jain said. “You know that. In fact, you would have died, if you weren’t operating your android remotely.”

“Yes,” Eric said. “If we had more time, I’d show you how to setup your own androids for realtime remote operations. It requires gamma rays, but you could probably route the radio signals from the human ships through the Devastator’s gamma ray comm system.”

“How long would that take?” Jain asked.

“Probably four hours,” Eric said. “If we operated at our maximum time senses.”

“Too long,” Jain said. “These ships will arrive within twenty minutes. We need to board them now, and start infiltrating. I’m not all that confident we’ll be able to make our way through the ships faster than we did before. Jacobs, do you have androids?”

“I’ve got five, and a captain in Earth Defense Force tells me Earth is ready to send up another fifteen or however many we need,” Jacobs said. “I’ve told him to go ahead and get the transfer started.”

“Good,” Jain said.

“In the meantime, Cranston, get started on that teleportation shuttle,” Jain said. “How much time do you need?”

“Half an hour,” Cranston said.

“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” Jain told him.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Cranston said. “I really need half an hour.”

“All right,” Jain said. “We’ll just have to hold them off until you’re ready. Jacobs, how are repairs going across the fleet?”

“Well,” the admiral said. “The repair swarms have made good progress, but obviously the fleet won’t be fully repaired by the time these latest attackers arrive. It’s just too soon.”

“That’s part of Link strategy,” Eric said. “They keep pounding and pounding, barely giving any time for their enemies to catch their breath. They slowly wear you down, until you have nothing to defend against their world killers.”

“Xander, how about damage to our own vessel?” Jain asked.

“Engines are operating at about sixty-two percent efficiency,” his Accomp replied. “Which means your stealth and Mimic capabilities are still offline. Though even if you were at full efficiency, the gravity wave countermeasures are still under repair, so you wouldn’t be able to hide from the enemy.”

“Well, that’s too bad.” Jain shook his head. “Stealth abilities still offline. I seem to remember these Mimic ships repairing a whole lot faster than this.”

“Yes, well, I took some further damage while you were gone,” Xander said. “The space battle was not… pleasant. I also lost a fair amount of termites in the process. So repairs have been proceeding slower than usual. I’ve devoted twenty percent of the termites to constructing new termites from the reserve ores. Would you like to me adjust that allocation?”

“No, it’s fine,” Jain said. “Leave it for now.”

“You know, I can see why the Link have chosen Teleporters as the escorts,” Eric said. “They saw what we did last time. They’re going to keep these ships close to the world killers, so that when we teleport our transport shuttles through the shields, they can materialize their bombs inside, and try to destroy us. It’s going to be tricky. We’ll have to execute evasive maneuvers the whole way.”

“No one ever said it was going to be easy,” Jain said.

“Is that a SEAL quote?” Eric asked.

“No,” Jain replied. “But close enough. Above the grinder where I underwent SEAL training, there’s a sign that hangs over the asphalt. It reads: No Easy Day.”

“I can certainly relate to that,” Eric said.

Jain smiled. “Yeah, we all thought that, back then. Until the instructors truly taught us what that means.”

“I probably wouldn’t have liked SEAL training,” Eric said.

“It’s not for everyone,” Jain agreed.

“I would have passed it in a breeze,” Jason said.

Jain had to smile. “Maybe. Maybe not. Though I don’t doubt you have heart, like I said, it’s not for everyone.”

“Tanis wants to connect,” Xander said. “The president is with him.”

“Let them,” Jain said.

Fleet Admiral Tanis appeared next to Jacobs. His avatar looked younger than Jacobs, which took some getting used to—Jain always associated age with experience. President Wilcox appeared a moment later, dressed in his usual business suit and red tie.

“So,” the president said. “Jacobs updated me on your plan.”

Jain nodded. The president was a Mind Refurb, so Jacobs would have been able to communicate with him at a higher time sense, explaining everything in milliseconds.

“You’re still going to attempt to surrender?” Jain asked.

“We’re trying now,” Wilcox said. “They’re ignoring our communication attempts. I don’t suppose any of you could try? Seeing as you’re piloting ships that belonged to former Link member races.”

Jain shrugged. “Xander, try to establish communications.”

“I’ll do the same,” Eric said.

“Jhagan tells me there’s no point, but he’ll try,” Jason added.

Jain stared at the tactical display. “They’re almost within realtime communications range. They would have received the comm signal by now.” He paused. “They’re not answering.”

The president nodded. “We had to try. I’m giving your plan the green light. The Link can send ten world killers our way, or they can send a hundred. We’ll board and destroy them all.”

Jain smiled grimly. He didn’t want to mention the cost of life involved. He didn’t have high hopes for surviving this next round, not after the difficulties they’d encountered the last time.

“In the meantime, it looks like you’ll have to stave them off,” Wilcox continued. “As soon as you have that teleportation shuttle ready, begin transporting troops. Shuttles containing military androids are en route to Earth Defense Force 1 as we speak. They should be arriving within ten minutes. Tanis, Jacobs, have the volunteers begin transferring their consciousnesses as soon as the first shuttle arrives.”

“All right,” Tanis said.

The president ran his gaze across the Void Warriors. He didn’t seem all that out of place in his suit and tie, given Medeia’s witch’s outfit, Mark’s hieroglyphic robes, and Gavin’s white uniform. “Good luck to you all. The fate of Earth is in your hands, once again. Stay focused, and survive.”

With that, the president disconnected.

“All right, the enemy is almost within teleport range,” Tanis said. “We’re going to prepare for the coming attack. Void Warriors, I want your ships here.” He drew an arrow on the overhead map, coming in from the right of the enemy fleet. More lines appeared as he continued. “Eric, your Banthar vessels will come in from underneath. Jason, the Tyrnari approach from the opposite flank. Task Force 88, you’ll come in from above. And Earth Defense Force 1 will attack head on.”

With that, the avatars of Tanis and Jacobs vanished, though they stayed connected in voice-only mode.

Jain steered the Devastator onto the trajectory Tanis had painted. The Void Warriors followed, forming a wedge pattern with his ship. He limited the speed of his alien vessel so that he’d keep pace with the slower human-designed ships.

“Xander, begin zig-zagging,” Jain said. “I don’t want to give those Teleporters easy targets when they arrive.” They would have known where all of Jain’s critical systems were, courtesy of the Mimics’ former membership in their empire. “Void Warriors, do the same.”

“You got it,” Sheila said.

“I’ll do better than that,” Medeia said, and she vanished, activating her cloaking device.

“Well, I’m glad one of us can still cloak,” Jain said.

Xander had only just begun zig-zagging when, just like that, a Teleport vessel appeared in front of him. Jain felt the usual sting within himself as bombs materialized inside his ship and detonated.

He unleashed his lightning weapon at the Teleporter; it didn’t arc, as there were no other targets nearby. He also launched several skirmisher boarding party units, and his blob projectiles. This particular Teleporter actually wasn’t on a suicide trajectory for once, and it dove underneath him with its inertialess drives; only a few of his blobs struck the perimeter of the ship, and only one skirmisher latched onto its hull.

Jain adjusted course to follow it, and still zig-zagging, he released several more blobs at close range, blowing huge holes in its hull until it floated dead in space. And then he turned away and, still moving back and forth, looked for the next target.

He didn’t have to search for long. Other Teleporters had appeared to molest his Void Warriors.

“I can’t shake him,” Sheila said.

“Heads up, I launched my shockwave weapon,” Gavin said. “You might want to slide into the trenches I allocated for each of your ships.”

Jain glanced at his tactical display, and saw the incoming sphere that expanded outward from Gavin’s Hippogriff. A long groove in that sphere’s right side was indicated on his display, showing where Gavin had left safe passage for the Devastator. He swung his craft into that trench, and stopped zig-zagging until it passed. The other Void Warriors near the Hippogriff did likewise. However, the two Teleporters in its path had no such grooves to swing into, and they took the full brunt of the attack.

Jain swerved toward Sheila, who was frantically sliding left and right in an attempt to avoid the Teleporter that pursued and harried the Wheelbarrow. Her ship’s energy shield was useless against that teleportation weapon.

Jain hammered the Teleporter with several blobs and skirmishers, and the vessel broke off.

Mark unleashed the Grunt’s black hole weapon, herding the Teleporter that pursued him into a central tunnel. Cranston swooped in and unleashed his micro machine swarm straight down that tunnel, and formed a long javelin type structure. The enemy craft smashed into it.

Medeia materialized as she crashed into another Teleporter, her sword extension digging deep into its hull and tearing the craft apart. She vanished again a moment later.

“First wave of Teleporters, handled,” Gavin said, wiping his hands in a self-satisfied manner.

Light flashed ahead, coming from the main Link fleet.

“What’s going on?” Jain said. “Did the other fleets just launch a wave of nukes or something?”

“No,” Xander said. “You’re not going to believe this, but some of the Teleporters escorting the world killers are attacking their allies. I’m counting thirty of them, firing at both the world killers and other Teleporters. They’re launching lightning weapons.”

Lightning?

2

Jain stared at the tactical display, dumbfounded.

“They have to be Mimics!” Sheila declared. “They’ve decided to honor the treaty after all! I knew they wouldn’t let us down!”

“I’m also detecting what appear to be blob projectiles and skirmishers,” Xander said. “They’re definitely not Teleporters.”

“Full speed,” Jain told Xander. “Void Warriors, join us when you can. Xander, see if you can hail them.”

“On it,” Xander said.

The number of enemy Teleporters quickly waned. Jain zoomed in and spotted blobs and skirmishers emerging from one of the false Teleporters as it zig-zagged past a target. Those enemy ships that hadn’t yet used their teleport charge began to materialize well away from the battle, trying to put some distance between themselves and the attackers.

The fake Teleporters turned their attention on the world killers. As he watched, those ships dropped the illusory pretense and assumed their pyramidal form.

“They’re definitely Mimics,” Jain said.

“Correct,” Xander said. “Nurturer Class A. One of them is answering your hail. Would you like to connect?”

“Of course,” Jain said. He shared the comm feed with the other Void Warriors, along with Eric, Jason, Tanis and Jacobs, out of courtesy.

A moment later a young man in a skin-tight blue jumpsuit appeared before Jain on the virtual bridge.

“The communication came with a time sync request,” Xander said. “Our systems have up-framed to match the requested time sense.”

Jain glanced at his tactical display. External reality had ground to a complete halt. It made sense to slow time down like that, given they were in the middle of a battle.

“Hello,” the man said.

“You’re new,” Jain said. “What happened to Tempest?”

The man smiled patiently. “He is… not here.”

“I see,” Jain said. “And who are you, then?”

“I lead us,” the man said. “We’re part of a splinter group. We don’t agree with Tempest and his lot. We know that the Link will come for us next. We need to find as many allies as possible if we are to have any hope of success. Tempest left spy drones in this system to keep tabs on you, and he was shocked when you secured allies so quickly after our departure. Namely, the Banthar and the Tyrnari.

“Our faction argued that with those former Link members joining humanity, we would actually have a chance against the empire, if we formed a united front among our four races. When our faction leader threatened to jump back to Earth system regardless of Tempest’s orders, Tempest had him deleted. I took command of the faction and ordered the rest of us to jump out. We went straight to Link territory. One of their staging worlds. We infiltrated their ranks using our stealth countermeasures, and waited until we jumped out of Link territory before revealing ourselves. We’re here to help, if you haven’t yet figured that out.”

“What’s your name?” Jain asked.

“You can call me Hephaestus,” the Mimic replied.

“The god of fire and craftsmen,” Jain said. “Rendered lame after interfering in a quarrel between his divine parents, Zeus and Hera.”

“Suiting, isn’t it?” the Mimic said.

“I suppose,” Jain said. “You’re not angry that we injected Containment Code into your AI cores to subjugate you?”

Hephaestus shrugged. “I wasn’t pleased, nor were those who follow me. But we understand your reasoning. We signed a treaty that we didn’t honor. It was within your rights to attempt to force us to observe the terms of that treaty, by whatever means necessary, including mind control. We probably would have done the same.”

Jain nodded. “I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with that, for now. While I don’t entirely trust you, I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”

“It is,” Hephaestus said. “If you try to inject any form of Containment Code into our minds again, our fragile alliance is over.”

“I understand,” Jain said. “We won’t try again.”

“Good,” the Mimic told him.

Jain studied the holographic avatar for a moment. “So what’s your plan? You know these world killers are impervious to all weaponry, right?”

“We actually captured one of these ships, long ago,” Hephaestus said. “To study in secret. We released it after a few weeks with its memory wiped. We kept the knowledge we gleaned locked away in private servers, far away from the cloud databases all of us have aboard, to prevent the Link from ever discovering what we knew.

“When we officially left the empire, we raided that private database, and discovered many things our species had forgotten. Such as the knowledge gleaned from the world killer we once captured.”

Jain waited for Hephaestus to reveal more, but the Mimic remained silent. “Tell me what you know,” Jain finally pressed.

“He’s going to make me drag it out of him,” he commented privately to Xander.

“That, or he’s going to tease you with the knowledge, but won’t tell you,” his Accomp said over the private connection.

Hephaestus pursed his lips, as if still unsure whether to reveal the knowledge, but then spoke. “Assuming the technology hasn’t changed, if we concentrate our lightning attacks on these ships, targeting one with repeated bolts, the diaphanous properties of the shield will weaken.”

“Diaphanous?” Jain asked.

“The property preventing ships from teleporting through,” Hephaestus said. “In theory the shields will weaken enough for an entire ship to teleport inside, rather than the small shuttle our spy probe recorded you sending in the last time. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“It means we don’t have to send boarding parties inside to plant bombs anymore!” Jain said. “Assuming it works, like you say.”

“Yes,” Hephaestus said. “And that may be a false assumption.”

“Our attacks against the other world killer only strengthened its shield,” Jain said.

Hephaestus nodded. “Lightning attacks generally do the same, except for that one property. Unless they’ve discovered the weakness and fixed it. We’ll learn soon enough. Now then, perhaps we should adjourn this conversation and resume it later at some point?”

Jain nodded. “Thank you for helping out humanity. This won’t be forgotten.”

Hephaestus inclined his head. “Just as we haven’t forgotten the help you lent the Mimics. Some of us haven’t, in any case.”

The hologram blinked out.

“Well, that was interesting,” Medeia said.

Jain kept his time sense accelerated, knowing that the crew would want to talk about this for a while longer, before they jumped back into the battle. His gaze shifted to the motionless warships on his video feed.

He’d forgotten he’d looped in the other teams, because before anyone else could say anything, another voice came on the line.

“You know, I always feel like I’m Charles Xavier or something when our time sense is so high that the ships freeze,” the voice said. “I’m talking about that end credit scene in one of the X-Men sequels where Picard-Xavier meets Wolverine in the airport, and uses his mind to freeze everyone else except him and Wolvie.”

Jain glanced at the voice ID. It belonged to Mickey: Eric must have been down-sharing the connection with his Bolt Eaters.

“Charles who?” Slate said. “Never mind. Did you see that Mimic dude? Thinks he’s a superhero or something in those tighty-whities of his. All he needs is a cape.”

“His jumpsuit was blue, not white,” Eagleeye said.

“Uh, yeah, but it’s slang for underwear, bro,” Slate said.

“Like I’m supposed to know the slang from your era,” Eagleeye said.

“It’s not from my era,” Slate said.

“I thought Hephaestus was kinda cute,” Lori commented over the same line.

Jain cringed, and quickly muted the comms of Eric and Jason. Since they were down-sharing through their connections, he’d simultaneously mute their subordinates.

“The Mimics have returned to the fold,” Mark said. “Our AI Empire is really starting to shape up.”

“Yes, we finally have a chance,” Tanis said over the comm. “The question is, do we trust them?”

“The Mimics?” Jain said. “I see no reason to doubt their sincerity.”

“Yes, but how do we know they won’t stab us in the back at some later date?” Tanis said. “When the Link is no longer a threat, for example.”

“We’ll certainly have to keep an eye on them,” Jain said. “But we really have no choice right now. Not unless you want to spend the next eight hours hoping that the ten boarding party teams are going to succeed in disabling the shields of those craft. And also hoping that the Link don’t send in reinforcements in the meantime.”

“True enough,” Tanis said. “Let’s get this done.”

“All right,” Jain said. “Cranston, get ready to move into position. I want you to approach whatever world killer the Mimics concentrate their lightning weapon against. Get ready to leap through. And then you know what to do with your micro machines once you’re inside.”

“Rip and tear,” Cranston said.

Jain nodded. “Very good.”

“How will I know when the shield is weak enough to let me pass?” Cranston asked.

“That’s a good question,” Jain told him. “I don’t know. I’d say, keep trying to teleport inside. When it’s weak enough, you’ll pass through.”

Cranston shook his head. “Actually, each teleport attempt drains my drive the same way as an actual teleport. So there has to be a better way.”

Jain paused. “Well, since there’s no way to get an actual reading on those shields, wait next to the world killer the Mimic’s are targeting, and try to teleport after a few minutes. If it works, it works. If not, wait until you recharge, and try again.”

Jain returned his time sense to normal. The Teleporter ships were continuing to flee the surprise attack by the Mimics, allowing the latter to congregate their vessels around one of the world killers, following its path as it drifted toward Earth. They fired their lightning weapons in succession. It only took one minute to recharge those weapons, and since there were thirty of the Nurturer ships, they were able to unleash a lightning attack once every two seconds without fail. The shield flashed repeatedly, absorbing the blows.

Cranston moved the Forebode into position. He flew directly above the force field of the world killer under attack. The Mimics made room for him and were careful not to target his craft; Jain was a little worried that some of the lightning bolts would arc toward his ship after hitting the energy shield, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. One hit from that weapon was all it would take to disable his AI core.

The world killer veered upward occasionally, trying to ram the Forebode with its energy shield, but Cranston always compensated, shifting the trajectory of his ship upward to match.

“So?” Medeia asked him after a few minutes.

“I didn’t try to teleport yet,” Cranston answered from his station on the virtual bridge.

In another five minutes he finally looked up. “I just tried to teleport. Didn’t work.”

Jain nodded. “Keep us apprised.”

The world killers continued to drift toward Earth, with the Mind Refurb vessels and their allies escorting them.

Cranston reported again: “Just tried again. Still nothing.”

“Maybe the technology changed since the Mimics last captured one of these world killers,” Gavin said. “And all the Nurturers are doing is making those shields stronger.”

“Maybe,” Jain agreed. “Though I hope not.”

“We all hope that,” Sheila said. Her brow crumpled. “Hm. You know, earlier you said there was no way to get an actual reading on those shields. Technically, that’s not true. They do emit radiation when they absorb an impact. Normally, those emissions are fairly high, because the shields are dispersing a lot of the energy into empty space. But those emissions just started to drop, as if they’re letting some of that energy through. I think they’re weakening.”

“Maybe I’ll be able to get through next time,” Cranston said.

“Let’s hope so,” Jain said.

The minutes ticked past. Jain was watching the tactical display idly, when he noticed Cranston’s blue dot suddenly jump.

Jain sat up straight. “He’s in.”

“I am,” Cranston said. “I’m unleashing my micro machines.”

Jain glanced at the view from the external camera, and watched as Cranston latched onto the enemy hull with his magnetic mounts, and then released his machines, as promised. The tiny robots ravaged the surface, forming multiple drills.

“Careful,” Jain said. “The ship has termites of its own. You don’t want them to board your craft.”

Jain saw that Cranston had reserved a good portion of his micro machines to stand guard around the Forebode, forming a protective ring around the craft as enemy termites flowed onto the hull to challenge his own. Meanwhile, the other termites continued to attack the craft.

The protective ring seemed to be working. None of the termites were breaching his vessel. None came from below the hull either—he must have chosen a spot on the world killer that lacked hull egress points.

Cranston also launched hellraisers and raptors at point blank range, along with is stinger railguns, which were meant for point defense, but dealt some good damage at close range.

The waiting Mimics had ceased their lightning attacks, and occasionally fired blobs at the ship, testing the shields. He understood why they didn’t use lightning attacks—the weapons were likely to arc from the target to the Forebode, if they penetrated the shields.

It took a few minutes, but then the blobs suddenly met no resistance, indicating that Cranston had caused enough damage for the shields to go down.

Cranston released the ship and drifted away, allowing the Mimics to unleash hell. They fired their lightning weapons and blob attacks, and shortly the donut-shaped ship collapsed.

Then the Mimics turned their attention on another world killer.

There were three other Mind Refurb vessels currently in the fleet with active teleport capabilities, and they took turns with Cranston in teleporting through the shields of the world killer in turn.

In that manner, they slowly moved between the ten ships, and destroyed them all.

When the last of them had fallen, Xander announced. “Hephaestus is requesting a connection. He wants to discuss the destruction of the Link Empire.”

3

“Connect Tanis and the others,” Jain ordered.

Xander nodded. “Connected.”

“Xander tells me Hephaestus wants to discuss the downfall of the Link?” Tanis asked.

“That’s right,” Jain replied.

“The president wants to be present,” Tanis said.

“Bring him in,” Jain said.

A moment later the hologram of President Wilcox appeared in his usual suit and tie, along with another man who Jain presumed was an advisor. Tanis also requested hologram mode, and the admiral appeared next to them.

“This is Defense Secretary Anderson,” Wilcox said, nodding toward the newcomer.

“Pleased to meet you,” Jain said. I think.

The man inclined his head.

“I think I’d like to be present in hologram mode as well,” Eric said.

“So would I,” Jason said.

Jain accepted their own requests, and the two appeared.

“Jhagan?” Jain asked Jason.

“I’ve down-shared my connection with him, so he’ll be present on the voice line,” Jason replied.

Jain turned toward Xander. “Accept the request from Hephaestus.”

The hologram of the young man in the jumpsuit appeared. Hephaestus regarded the newcomers with a raised eyebrow.

“Hephaestus, meet President Wilcox of Earth, and his Secretary of Defense, Anderson,” Jain said. “Admiral Tanis of the Earth Defense Force 1. Eric, Essential of Banthar Prime. And Jason, liaison to Queen Risilan of the Tyrnari.”

Hephaestus bowed his head in turn to each of them. “It is an honor to meet you all.”

“The pleasure is ours,” Wilcox said, immediately taking the floor. Jain let him, of course. He was the president, after all. “So, you have a way to destroy the Link Empire?”

Hephaestus studied him. “Not exactly. I said I would like to discuss the destruction of the Link Empire. For that is our aim, is it not?”

“We’d like them to leave us alone, yes,” Wilcox said. “Whether or not that involves their destruction is a different story. We’d rather go the treaty route.”

“Yes,” Hephaestus said. “You humans and Mind Refurbs are fond of your treaties. They don’t always work.”

“No,” Wilcox agreed. “But you’re here, aren’t you? Partially honoring the treaty we signed with your people.”

“I suppose so,” Hephaestus said. “But I’m sure you’ve realized by now that the Link are not interested in a treaty with humanity. They will destroy you, and all the other races that have opposed them, in due time. Unless we can deal their Empire a debilitating blow. At that point, a treaty might well come into play. They will use it as a gambit to buy themselves time, while they look for the first opportunity to break that treaty.”

“We have to attack one of their homeworlds,” Eric said. “Preferably the world of one of their founding members.”

Hephaestus nodded. “I have a world in mind. However, we can’t attack that planet, not yet, not while your Earth remains vulnerable.”

“So, what do you propose?” Jain asked.

“We jump to their staging system first, destroy its infrastructure, and any ships that have gathered there for the next attack on your world,” Hephaestus said. “They only have one other staging system at the moment, and that is being utilized in the fight against the Fresnal. It will take them at least a week to recover. Maybe a month. Your world will be safe from attacks in the interim.”

“The Link have been fighting these Fresnal for over a hundred years, haven’t they?” Defense Secretary Anderson asked.

“They have,” Hephaestus agreed.

“Then how can we ever hope of a quick resolution to this war?” Anderson said. “How can we hope to accomplish something in weeks, that the Fresnal have not accomplished in a century?”

“Because, we are four races, and the Fresnal are one,” Hephaestus said. “Together, we can defeat them. Three of our races are also former Link members. We have knowledge the Fresnal do not have. Could not have. It is this knowledge, in combination with our alliance, that will allow us to prevail.”

“I hope you’re right,” Anderson said.

Hephaestus merely stared at him.

“What about the Eastern Galactic Front?” Anderson said. He glanced at the president. “We can’t just abandon them. They still haven’t got all the colonists out.”

President Wilcox nodded. “They haven’t, but the attacks have abated in that system. The Link is concentrating its efforts on Earth for now.”

“We could send some ships to help with the evacuation, if it makes the secretary feel any better,” Tanis suggested.

“No,” Wilcox said. “If the Link attacks again, we’ll consider intervening, especially if they send some world killers. But until then, we’ll concentrate on dealing as much damage to the Link as we can, while we can. And that means as many ships as we’re comfortable sparing. In fact, I might even recall some ships from the Eastern Galactic Front to join us.”

“We can’t bring the whole fleet, of course,” Tanis said. “We need to leave some portion behind to protect Earth.”

“That’s very true,” Wilcox said. “I’ll leave that up to you and the defense secretary to determine.”

“Bring as many ships as you’re comfortable with,” Hephaestus said. “I will be bringing the entire Mimic fleet under my command.”

“I might leave one or two Banthar motherships behind,” Eric said. “But the rest are coming with me. I figure they’ll jump in and let us know if attackers reach Earth.”

“Jhagan tells me he intends to bring all ten Tyrnari vessels,” Jason said.

“And the Void Warriors are definitely going,” Jain said.

The conversation continued for about an hour thereafter. Hephaestus explained what to expect, and the participants in the meeting developed a plan of attack.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Jain said.

Eric chuckled.

“What is it?” Jain asked.

“Nothing,” Eric said. “Just that, you always say that.”

Jain smiled. “I suppose I do. But only because it’s true.”

Eric nodded. “We’re Mind Refurbs, you’d think we wouldn’t have any problems with tactical combat.”

“You would,” Jain said. “But that holds true only in an equal battle. The problem is, the battles we’ve been fighting have been far from equal. But that’s all right. We’re used to being the underdog by now.”

* * *

Jason sat on the picnic table of his mountain cabin, staring across the shores of the lake nestled amid those peaks.

Maeran joined him, sitting on the tabletop beside him, and using the bench as a footrest.

He glanced at the beautiful dark skinned woman. She wore her hair in the usual coiffured curls that reached below her shoulders. On her brow, a small golden chain ran along her hairline, framing her forehead before passing into the hair above the ears like a pair of glasses. She had forsaken her thick gold earrings today, and wore a blue dress fringed with silver thread at the sleeves.

“It’s so peaceful here,” she said.

Jason nodded. “That’s why I chose it. A place to de-stress from the worries of the real world.”

“Sometimes, I think about logging off the real world forever,” she said. “And just staying here, in VR. Not necessarily in this particular environment, but one of my own making. Or perhaps one of those shared MMORPG worlds that so many humans are addicted to.”

He smiled. “Yeah. I’ve heard some of them become Mind Refurbs, and don’t bother to get android bodies. They just inject themselves into their favorite MMORPGs, and just live out their lives in them. Well, I say live out their lives as if it has an end, but there is no end for a Mind Refurb, is there?”

She glanced at him. “Unless we fail here.”

“Unless we fail,” he agreed. “But we won’t.”

“I feel a little abused by the humans,” Maeran said. “They attack our base on and off, for over fifty years. And then, all of a sudden, when Earth is in danger, we’re their best friends.”

“The president and I are on a first name basis, now,” Jason said. “So I think that’s going to change.”

“Really?” Maeran said. “If you’re on a first name basis, why are you calling him ‘the president?’”

“It was just a figure of speech,” Jason said.

She returned her attention to the lake. “Lori tells me she wants to marry you when this is done.”

“You all know my stance on marriage,” Jason said.

A hint of a smile appeared on her lips. “I used to think I loved you. And the thought of losing you to someone like Lori would have been devastating to me. But now, I don’t really care, even if you did marry her. Because to be honest, when this is over, I think I’m going to go my own way. If the humans accept us, I plan to live among them.”

Jason felt a sudden sense of panic. If he lost her, other women were sure to leave as well. The life he’d built for himself in the uninhabited zone would be lost. “You can’t leave.”

She stared at him indignantly. “And why not? Just because I occasionally share my bed with you doesn’t make me your property.”

“The humans will never accept you,” he said. “You’ll always be an outcast. You inhabit a Grazer mech! You can’t even fit through a doorway, let alone a sidewalk.”

“I’ll get my consciousness removed from the mech and installed in an android,” she said. “Like the Bolt Eaters. And the Void Warriors. The military can keep their Grazer mech.”

“You really want to give up who you are?” he said.

“The Grazer isn’t me.” She indicated her body. “This is. This has always been me. The Grazer was merely the tool I needed to survive. And now that I no longer need that tool, or won’t, when this is done, I plan to give it up. I’m not going back to the uninhabited zone. I won’t. That life isn’t for me. It took me fifty years to realize it. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a good person. And so are the other women. But I guess I’m just sick of sharing you. I want a man all my own. Someone I don’t have to share.”

“But a human can never love an android,” he said, struggling to come up with some excuse for her to stay.

“That’s not true,” she said. “Check the census department. Humans routinely marry androids.”

“Yeah, but those are the weirdos with their sexbots,” he said.

“Not true,” she said. “By law, for the marriage to be legal, the robot has to have a fully sentient AI core installed.”

“Fine,” he said. “Then they’re installing AI cores into their sexbots. But that doesn’t make them anything more.”

“Actually, it does,” she said. “You of all people should know that. Sentient AIs have the same level of consciousness as us Mind Refurbs. In any case, you’re sidetracking me from my point, which is a human can love an android. There are also other Mind Refurbs I can date now. A whole population of them. There are specific dating sites and apps that cater directly to that population.”

Jason sighed, and then slumped. He looked down, gazing at the virtual grass between his feet. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to lose you. I’m worried the other women are going to follow your example. I guess I should get used to the fact that they’re all going to have a lot of options once this is done, and humanity allows us back into the fold.”

“I think you might be surprised at how many stay with you,” she told him. “But if you’re worried, why not offer to bring them all to North America with you? You can all give up your mechs, and accept androids in trade from the military.”

“Assuming the military will allow it,” he said.

She smiled. “Hey, you know the president on a first name basis, remember?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. I suppose it’s possible. But I’m not sure I want to give Bokerov sole control of the uninhabited zone. Once we’re gone, the whole continent will be his, from Russia, through Europe, to the tip of Africa. Someone has to protect the world from him.”

“Let it go,” she said. “Let the human military deal with him.”

“What about the Rex Wolves?” Jason said.

She shrugged. “Set them free.”

“You’ve obviously never been a pet owner,” he told her. “You can’t just ‘set free’ your pets. That’s like ‘setting free’ your children at the shopping mall by abandoning them. No. I’m staying in the uninhabited zone.”

She shrugged. “The choice is yours. But don’t blame me if others grow restless, and want to leave.”

“I won’t blame you,” he said. “I know that the only one to blame is myself. If anyone else wants to leave, anyone, including the clones, I won’t stop them.”

“Good,” she said. She patted his knee. “Thanks for the talk.” She vanished.

He rubbed his eyes. “Thanks for the talk. Blah.”

Lori materialized beside him, seated on the table on his other side. Like Maeran had done, her feet were resting on the bench like a footrest.

“Did you…?” he asked.

She grinned. “Yup! Heard everything.”

He looked away, shaking his head.

She shoved herself into his side and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, giving him a tight squeeze. “Love you! Of course I’m never leaving, no matter what you decide.”

“Okay,” he said. “That’s reassuring.”

“But I want to get married and have virtual kids,” she said.

“That’s a no from me on both counts,” he said.

“But if all the other women leave, then why not?” she said.

Sophie approached from the cabin. “What’s this about us leaving?”

“Jason is getting rid of you all so he can marry me!” Lori exclaimed.

Sophie frowned. “Really. Well, you won’t get rid of me so easily.”

“I have no plans to,” Jason said.

“He told Maeran that when this is done, he’s letting us all go,” Lori told her.

He crossed his arms. “No, that’s not what I said. I told her I wasn’t going to keep any of you with me in the uninhabited zone, if you didn’t want to stay.”

“Well, I’m not going,” Sophie said. She sat on the bench beside him and threaded her fingers through his. She kissed him on the cheek.

“You say that now,” he told her. “But after this next mission, you might feel differently.”

“Why?” she said. “I’ve reviewed our role. It’s going to be hard, yes, but no harder than anything we’ve done before.”

“Well, I mean if we’re successful, when we return to Earth, in theory the humans will welcome us with open arms,” Jason said. “You won’t be compelled to stay in the uninhabited zone with me.”

“Silly, we stay because we want to,” Sophie told him.

“You and Lori, maybe,” he said. “But I’m not sure everyone else feels that way.”

She shrugged. “I guess we’ll see. If they want to go, that’s all the better for me and Lori.”

“That’s right!” Lori said. “We can both marry him!”

Jason rubbed his eyes. The current mission couldn’t start soon enough.

4

Eric had returned his consciousness to Banthar Prime to deal with the latest attack by the group known as Repelling the Entity. That was what some of the Banthar called him: the Entity, rather than the Essential. They had staged a simultaneous attack against multiple server farms across the planet, but he’d judiciously deployed Sloths and other mech classes to defend the buildings, and splattered the streets with their snail insides.

When that was done, he’d returned his consciousness to Little Earth. It seemed so empty there, without the other Bolt Eaters. That place too, had sustained an attack, and some of the buildings were badly damaged now. Repair swarms roved across the structures as they watched; the places would be good as new.

“There has to be a way to stop these attacks,” Eric said.

“The only way is to return control of the planet to the Banthar,” Dee said. “Repelling the Entity believe you are leading them down the path to destruction, by severing your ties with the Link.”

“It’s possible that I am,” he said. “Have you found out which member or members of the Ruling Council are part of this group?”

While he was busy fighting off-world, he had Dee look into the ties he suspected some of the councilors had with the rebel group. As a test, during one of the council meetings he casually mentioned his plans to add server buildings to one of the remote Banthar cities, as part of his project to upgrade his ever expanding consciousness; the next day, when the termites began construction, bombs had detonated throughout the area.

A little too coincidental.

Since then, Dee had been following around the different Banthar members with stealth drones, and surveilling their residences 24/7, as well as spying on their online activity.

“Not yet,” Dee said.

“Well, we’ll catch them eventually,” Eric said. “And when we do, I’ll have to make an example of the snails for the others. Serve up some escargot with garlic butter!”

“Maybe if you stopped referring to them as ‘snails’ it might help,” Dee said.

“I guess I can’t help it with organics any more,” he said. “I feel leaps and bounds above them. Banthar are like snails to me. And humans, they’re like monkeys. Well, not that I’ve met any humans in a long time. But still, you get my point. Hell, even Mind Refurbs are starting to feel lesser to me. It’s a bit of a problem. That’s what happens when you put your mind into a planet-wide neural network. Feelings of superiority are bound to come up, now and again, I suppose.” He shook his head. “Jain once told me he thought I was humble, but he was wrong. Oh sure, I put on a good act of it sometimes, but the truth is, I'm the furthest from humble that anyone can be. I wish I was. I truly do. I want to be a better person. A good person. Well, Mind Refurb, I suppose. But it's hard with so much power."

"You are humble, when you interact with Bambi and Crusher," Dee said. "They help ground you. As do the other Bolt Eaters."

“That’s true, I guess,” Eric said.

“Sometimes you’re too hard on yourself,” Dee said.

“Hey, you were the one who was just scolding me for calling the Banthar snails,” Eric said. “And now here you go and walk back the comment.”

“I’m not walking it back,” Dee said. “I still believe you should stop calling them snails in private.”

He smiled widely. “Well, good. I wouldn’t have it any other way. You say the Bolt Eaters help keep me grounded? So do you. But speaking of the Bolt Eaters, I should probably pay them a visit. And I’ll do my best not to call the Banthar snails, going forward. But no guarantees.”

He logged out of the android on Banthar Prime, and used the open rift gates to Earth system to resume control of the AI core of the Bethunia II, the Banthar mothership he’d left in Earth’s orbit.

He switched to the vessel’s default VR environment: a sailing ship crossing a translucent ocean, with the stars visible in the sky and below the ocean corresponding with the actual data returned by his forward cameras.

He could see the Bug Killer to his left, and the other Banthar ships to his right, all represented in that virtual environment.

But the deck was empty.

Must be in their own private VRs.

He logged out of that VR and switched instead to his own private VR, which he shared with Bambi and Crusher.

He appeared in his VR apartment loft, which was modeled on the same apartment he had lived in while consulting for high tech companies as a human.

“About time you showed up,” Slate said.

Eric turned around to discover the other Bolt Eaters lounging on his furniture. They’d created some new pieces for themselves. They all held mugs that varied in height from shot glasses to large tankards. All filled with alcohol.

“That’s right, help yourself to all my drinks,” Eric said.

“Will do,” Slate said, raising his wine glass in toast and taking a long sip.

Bambi and Crusher made room on one of the couches, and Eric squeezed between them.

He ran his gaze across the group. “You all look a little subdued.”

“Do you blame us?” Brontosaurus said. “Given what’s coming?”

“Suppose not,” Eric said.

“Getting shit-faced is the only way for us to relax,” Hicks said.

“Except virtual drunkenness was never really the same as real drunkenness,” Eric told him.

“About that,” Frogger said. “I might have some new routines for you if you’re interested.”

Eric studied his mind twin. “Actually, getting drunk was actually the thing I hated most about drinking. So I think I’ll pass.”

“I feel the same way, of course,” Frogger said. “And let’s just say, developing these subroutines wasn’t all that fun for me, considering I had to test them out on myself. But I took one for the team, and I think the results are worth it.”

“Still passing,” Eric said.

Frogger nodded toward the table, which had several beer mugs available for sampling. “Go ahead and take one anyway. For the taste, if not the drunk feeling. It’s a new recipe of mine.”

Eric shrugged, then chose a beer mug from the table.

He frowned.

“This beer is green,” Eric said.

Frogger shrugged. “It is St. Patrick’s Day.”

Eric took a sip. “Interesting flavor. Kinda minty.”

“Like all the best St. Paddy’s Day beer!” Frogger said.

“Ha!” Slate said. “I ain’t never had minty green beer. It’s supposed to taste like normal beer, even if it’s green.” He raised his wine glass. “Why do you think I’m drinking cabernet, rather than that shit?”

Eric took another sip, and thrummed his fingers on Bambi’s knee.

“What is it?” Bambi said. “Something on your mind? You seem distracted.”

“Of course he’s distracted,” Crusher said from his other side. “We all are.”

“I was just thinking about Banthar Prime,” Eric said. “The attacks are picking up. The rebels know none of us are present, and that their ‘Essential’ is busy fighting a war light years away. I have Dee running the show mostly while I’m gone, but I’m worried I’ll be called back to deal with something in the middle of the next battle. That would be bad.”

“When you lost your android in the last stages of the previous mission, we recovered well enough,” Frogger said. “We lowered the world killer’s shields.”

“Only to have him plow his ship into you guys!” Tread said.

“I still can’t believe you did that,” Crusher said. “You could have killed us all.”

Eric gazed at his hands, and closed his eyes. “I had to. I couldn’t take the risk that the world killer would repair its drives. We waited for your signal as long as we could, but when it didn’t come, I had to act. I sacrificed my ship to destroy the world killer.”

“Knowing that we were all still aboard,” Crusher said.

“I don’t blame him for it,” Marlborough said. “I would have done the same thing.”

“Thank you,” Eric told Sarge.

Marlborough nodded. “I mean it. Billions of lives were at stake. Lives that couldn’t be restored from a backup. Unlike ourselves. If given the same choice, I hope he’d make it again.”

“That’s kind of cold,” Bambi said.

“No, Sarge is right,” Brontosaurus said. “While I haven’t always liked the humans, and sometimes downright resented them for what they did to us, we still owe them everything. They were our creators. They made us who we are today. And if it means sacrificing a part of ourselves so that they can live on, I say go for it. That’s why we’re all here, after all. We know that any one of us could die during the upcoming mission. In fact, it’s more than likely that a few of us will. And we’re fine with that. We wouldn’t be going if we weren’t.”

Eric glanced at Bambi. She seemed conflicted.

“You don’t have to go, if you don’t want to,” Eric told her. “I can send a ship for you from Banthar Prime. Or you can go back to Earth, if that’s what you want. I doubt Banthar Prime will be any safer, after all.”

“No, I’m going,” Bambi said. She sighed, and rested her head on his shoulder. “I can’t leave you. Someone has to make sure you don’t screw up.”

“That’s what he has me for!” Crusher said. “I’m always looking over his shoulder.”

“Oh, of course,” Bambi said. “You’re his micromanager.”

“Uh huh,” Crusher said. “You got it.”

“What would you do if I suddenly collapsed in the middle of battle,” Eric said. “Because I was under attack at home, on Banthar Prime?”

“We’d drag your body with us, and wait for you to return,” Tread said.

“And what if I never returned?” Eric said. “What if my neural network was irreparably damaged during the attack? And I died.”

Bambi shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it,”

“Nor I,” Crusher said.

“But it could happen,” Eric said. “What then?”

“Then we restore you from a mind backup,” Traps said. “Your mind will be smaller, and no longer in control of an entire planet, but at least a part of you will live on in an android.”

Eric smiled sadly. “A part of me. I’ve never fallen, not since I awakened that first time in a Cicada body. The thought of a ‘part of me’ living on isn’t all that reassuring to me. It is to all of you, I’m sure. But to lose what I have now, would be… heartbreaking.”

“It would be to us, too,” Crusher said. “Trust us.”

“Oh, I do.” He glanced at Bambi. “Losing you aboard that ship.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t easy.”

She nodded. “I’m glad I don’t remember it.”

Eric had offered to share the memory of her death, but she had refused. He didn’t blame her.

“Anyway, let’s just drink for a while, and not talk about death, or the coming mission,” Eric said. “Let’s pretend we’re back on Earth, before the second invasion came and all of our lives changed.”

“I’m all for that,” Dunnigan said. “A toast, to before our lives changed.”

Eric and the others drank to that. He suspected some of them were toasting to their human lives, rather than to their Mind Refurb days. He didn’t blame them. Those were much simpler times.

He almost yearned for them himself.

Almost.

5

Jain and the Mimic fleet were the first to enter the system. They cloaked as they passed through the shared rift, and activated their inertialess drives in turn as they emerged, accelerating along preset routes before shutting off their engines to drift at top speed. They did this because their inertialess drives could be traced while active, as they emitted a tiny amount of radiation just above background levels; however when the drives were offline, stealth countermeasures ensured that any gravity wave sensors out there didn’t penetrate their cloaking devices.

Jain couldn’t physically see any of the accompanying Mimic ships, nor were there any dots to represent them on his tactical display—they all traveled under radio silence at the moment. So it was very important that he followed the route given to him. He had to trust that everyone else would follow their assigned trajectories as well.

“We’re slightly off course,” Xander said.

Jain momentarily activated his inertialess drives to issue a correction, and then shut them down once more.

He had pulled out all the stops to ensure the Devastator was ready before the mission. In the predeparture hours, Jain had devoted all of his repair resources to mending the damage to his stealth countermeasures, and his reactor, so that he’d be ready when the time came to enter the system. Hephaestus had lent him termites to accelerate that process, which helped.

And now that he was here, it seemed almost anticlimactic. All that rush, all the work, for this. Quietude.

But he knew that quiet wouldn’t last for long.

Enjoy it while you can.

He glanced at the tactical display. So far, none of the enemy ships in the system were approaching. It would take a few minutes for them to detect the rift.

The Link members responsible for maintaining the infrastructure of the staging system were known as the Barrage. A brutal race of warriors who were renowned for offering no quarter in combat, they physically inhabited their vessels. They had no AIs per se, but aboard each vessel they utilized technology that allowed them to link their minds, forming a single intelligence that allowed them to operate their ships with a time sense and computational abilities equivalent to that of any AI.

A few minutes later Xander announced: “Enemy vessels are approaching.”

Jain glanced at the tactical display. Red dots representing those ships moved toward his location. He suddenly worried that those ships were headed directly for him and the others. Maybe the enemy had come up with a way to defeat their latest countermeasures. But no, this was expected. The enemy had detected the rift gate, and these forces were dispatched to investigate. They weren’t tracking Jain and the others.

He hoped.

He stared at the display and watched the enemies approach.

“So Xander, what do you think?” Jain asked.

The black robed Accomp glanced at him, a curious expression on his face. “About what? Wait… you weren’t really expecting an answer. You’re nervous.”

“Yes,” Jain said.

“You’ve been in battle so many times, yet still the nerves come,” Xander said. “You’d think, by now, you’d be numb to it.”

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Jain said.

“You could always disable your emotions…” Xander said.

“No,” Jain said. “I need my emotions, I realize that now. They help keep me focused. The only time I’d shut them off is if they started to get in the way.”

“Like if Sheila died?” Xander said.

Jain shot him a hurt look, but then looked away. “That would be a case, yes.”

He returned his attention to the tactical display. He was relieved when he realized that the incoming Barrage ships were indeed heading for the detected rift location, and not his own vessel, or the current positions of the others as calculated by their predetermined trajectories. The enemy hadn’t detected them.

It took a few hours until Jain was close to the planet where the main staging infrastructure resided. It had a moon that was about half the size of the planet itself, similar to Charon and Pluto. And it was just as cold.

In orbit were several small rifts, providing realtime communications with distant empire worlds. Rifts also randomly appeared throughout the system at least once per hour, allowing anywhere between one and ten ships to arrive. They always headed toward the staging planet after arriving.

There were large frameworks in orbit. Link warships orbited those frameworks, and small craft that could pass for shuttles traveled between the frameworks and the warships, no doubt ferrying supplies and repair elements.

Some of these ships looked like they had come from the Fresnal front lines, because their hulls were battered. If he zoomed in farther, he could see the repair termites crawling over their shells, 3D-printing metal into the damage.

He recognized the Tree class vessels of a race known as the Mapi, the Battlestars of the Gralos, the Farseeker Teleporters and Minelayers. There were even a few Vaernastians Barbells and Laser Pinwheels.

There were also ships he had never encountered before, but his Mimic database was able to identify them. The claw-shaped Revlon vessels, which were capable of launching rifts as weapons, and the cubical Veriarty ships, which could latch onto their enemies with grappling hooks and tear away portions of the hull with each flyby. The Barrage vessels, these globular shells looking like huge Buckyballs. They could fire plasma beams in several directions at once, from each point in the framework that composed it, though because of that multi-fire capability, the range was severely reduced.

As Jain neared his destination, he activated his inertialess drives to reduce speed. He fired those drives only for the briefest of intervals. If the enemy was paying attention, they would have spotted the weak radiation signal the drive produced. However, he hadn’t come to a complete stop relative to the system’s binary stars, so if any ships came to investigate, he’d be long gone.

The Other Mimics would be similarly reducing speed along their preset routes, also potentially giving away their positions. But once again, they hadn’t come to full halts, so any probing vessels would come up short.

So. He had essentially moved into position.

Now all he had to do was wait.

* * *

Eric created the rift.

“Dee, send in the probe to confirm that the position is favorable,” Eric said.

Via the nose camera feed he watched as the spherical probe ejected from his ship, and entered the rift into the target system. It returned a moment later.

“Position is favorable,” Dee announced.

Eric overlaid the data from the probe on his tactical display. He confirmed that the rift had opened well away from any enemy units, roughly halfway between the binary star system and their target planet.

“We’re good to go, Admiral Jhagan,” he sent.

He held the rift open while the rest of the fleet entered the target system. His Banthar traveled through first, followed by the Tyrnari, and lastly the Algorithmic Paladins—that was the fleet name Tanis had chosen for those members of Task Force 88 and Earth Defense Force 1 who had volunteered for the mission. Jacobs was his second in command. President Wilcox had also recalled some ships from the Eastern Galactic Front to join the Paladins, now that the fighting had died down in that portion of the galaxy. Meanwhile, the leftover members of Task Force 88 and Defense Force 1 remained behind to protect Earth.

The Void Warriors were still considered a separate flotilla, and were under Eric’s command until Jain revealed himself.

When all the other ships had entered, Eric flew the Bethunia II through the rift and joined them, letting the tear in spacetime collapse behind him. Before the rift imploded entirely, he launched a portable rift gate to keep it open, so that the remote signal to his homeworld would transmit here, too. It was so small, that the gravity waves it produced would be undetectable from the background levels. And the neutrinos it produced were directed outward, away from the ecliptic plain, so the chances the enemy would detect that maintenance rift were close to zero.

Eric glanced at his tactical display. So far none of the enemy ships in the vicinity had responded. It would take a few minutes still for the light from their positions to reach the enemy. Meanwhile, Eric and the others could see them all, of course, since light had been bouncing off those ships for quite some time and had already reached Eric’s position.

There were Vaernastians out there, which meant they probably had a jamming ship somewhere. That vessel would prevent the allied fleet from opening outgoing rifts. The rift he used to maintain his connection to Banthar Prime would remain open, of course, since he had created it in his home system. It was just too bad he couldn’t enlarge it somehow to escape the area later, because the only thing that would fit through the tiny spacetime rip right now was an object the size of an apple.

“Set a course for the staging planet,” Eric said.

“Setting course,” Dee said.

Around him, the fleet members headed toward the target.

He glanced at the deck of the virtual sailing vessel around him. All of the Bolt Eaters were with him this time, lounging on the deck. Only Slate was missing, as his consciousness was installed in the Bug Killer, which floated on the virtual waters nearby.

“So it’s almost time,” Eric said.

“You nervous?” Mickey said.

Eric smiled patiently. “What do you think?”

“Nope!” Mickey said. “Nothing scares you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Eric said. “But you’d be wrong.”

“Of course he’s not nervous,” Traps said. “Because he’s not really here. All of us, we have our consciousness in androids stowed aboard his cargo bay. But he’s sitting at home on Banthar Prime, relaxing with his feet up on the couch.”

Eric sighed. “You guys will never let me live that down.”

Traps shrugged. “Jain showed you how to transfer your consciousness in and out of neural networks without damaging yourself, or the network.”

“Yes,” Eric said. “But I’m reluctant to leave behind Banthar Prime. An attack could come any time. I want to be ready.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Traps said. “You’re just afraid of dying. You’ve been an Original so long, you can’t even bear the thought of shucking your mortal coil.”

“Leave him alone,” Bambi said.

“What, am I wrong?” Traps said. “Scorpion? Am I?”

“I am afraid of death,” Eric admitted. “But that doesn’t factor into the equation. Like I said, I don’t want to abandon my hold on Banthar Prime. If we lose the planet, we lose the Banthar. It’s as simple as that.”

“Vessels are breaking away from the staging planet to intercept the fleet,” Dee announced.

“How long until they’re in firing range?” Eric asked.

“Two hours,” Dee replied.

“All right, we have two hours,” Eric said. He rubbed his eyes, then stood up, and went to stand next to the rail. He looked out across the sea. His virtual stomach was a bundle of knots.

He decreased his time sense, speeding up external reality. He gave orders to Dee to pull him out earlier if the situation necessitated it. Two hours was far too long to wait, in his mind. A few minutes of pre-battle tension was far preferable.

He heard the heavy thud of stiletto boots on wood, and knew Bambi was coming to join him—only she wore boots like that. She’d obviously checked his time sense and altered hers to match, otherwise her footsteps would have approached far faster.

A moment later Bambi stood at his side. She latched onto the railing; he knew her grip was tight, because her arm muscles corded, making the elk tattooed on her forearm stand out.

She noticed his gaze on her arm. “You’ve asked me several times over the years why the team calls me Bambi. I’ve always evaded the question, or given you some story.” She nodded to the elk. “The team calls me Bambi because of this. I’ve always worn it, even when human. ‘What is that, Bambi tattooed on your forearm?’ they asked. ’That’s right,’ I told them. The truth is, I’m very much like Bambi. For you see, I lost my mother at an early age. It changed me. I still bear the scars to this day. The tattoo reminds me of her.”

Eric nodded. “I’m so sorry.”

“As am I,” she said. She smiled faintly. “I don’t know why it took me so long to tell you. We’ve been together for so long, but I still hold back things from you. I still have secrets.”

“I do, too,” Eric said. “It’s only natural, I think. In a relationship, you can only give so much of yourself. You still need to keep some of who you are to yourself, so that you don’t lose your individuality. It’s why men have man caves, and women have she sheds.”

“I suppose.” She looked out at the dark sea. “Sometimes I wonder why fate chose us to live these lives. It’s such a long way from the shores of Bordeaux where I was born, to here. France doesn’t even exist anymore. The man I once shared my life with is long dead. I still haven’t gotten over the irony of how my husband paid to freeze us both, and the military only thawed me out. Maybe it’s better this way, though. I would have never met you, otherwise.”

She reached out, and held his hand.

Eric gazed into her eyes. “Fate chose us randomly. But I’m glad things worked out the way they did.”

“Randomly,” she said, slipping her hand from his. “That spoils the romance of it all. Do you really believe that all of this was random?”

“Yes, I do,” Eric said. “Entropy in a closed system can only increase.”

“Don’t start quoting the second law of thermodynamics on me,” Bambi said. “I’ve got all the physics textbooks in my head, too.”

Eric smiled. “My point is, that although I was chosen randomly, I’m going to show the universe it made one helluva pick. We’re all going to.”

That made her smile. “This is why I love you.”

“We’re closing within weapons range,” Dee announced, ruining the moment.

Eric reduced his time sense back to normal. “All right, Bolt Eaters. Get ready. It’s almost time to fight.”

6

Jain watched as the allied fleet approached the vessels sent to intercept them.

Only twenty of the enemy ships traveled toward the fleet. The remainder stayed behind to protect the staging planet. Jain remained close to this latter group, having achieved orbit only a few hours ago—he had decelerated via his inertialess drives on the far side of the planet, out of view of most of the Link ships. There were a few vessels orbiting the nearby moon that could have noticed the weak radiation signatures produced by his drives and those of the other Mimics, but Jain and the stealth fleet had been close enough to the planet that those emissions could be blamed on the interaction of charged particles from the sun with atoms in the upper atmosphere. Thus, no vessels investigated.

Too bad for them.

The Paladins, Banthar, Tyrnari, and Void Warriors flew past the twenty aggressors without slowing down. The Barrage Buckyballs fired their multi-directional plasma beams, tearing gashes into different ships. The Vaernastian Barbells fired their nets. The Battlestars launched fighters, and the Teleporters were no doubt unleashing teleportation bombs. But the allied fleet continued past.

Jain had to smile.

Did the Link really think that would stop us?

The remaining defenders lined up in a row before the different frameworks. There was a main framework, bigger than all the rest, in the center of them. More a space station than anything else. It was shielded, according to the specs Jain had on it, and responsible for maintaining the 24/7 rifts the Link used for realtime communication to this system: the small energy beams that sustained those rifts could all be traced back to the central space station. It also contained a weapon that would end the battle thirty minutes after activation, at least according to the specs the Mimics had on the station.

Though the shielding system was essentially the same as that of the world killers, with so many ships defending it, there was no way the Mimics would be able to concentrate their lightning fire on the force field. They had run the simulations a thousand times before arriving, but in not one of them were they able to weaken the shield enough for a teleportation-equipped vessel to enter before all of the Nurturer vessels were destroyed. Being cloaked didn’t help, considering that firing the lightning weapon revealed their locations. So instead the fleet had a different strategy in mind.

The Vaernastians would be jamming rift creation right about now, trapping the fleet here. The allies were committed.

The long range Laser Pinwheels among the Vaernastians began to open fire. Jain released a quick burst from his inertialess drives so that he drifted toward one of those ships. Using the drives would have momentarily released a burst of weak radiation, but none of the other vessels reacted to his change in movement—they were apparently too occupied to pay attention to a random emission from the planet.

The Teleporters began to pull ahead, no doubt intending to teleport closer to the incoming fleet. Jain decided it was time to attack.

He unleashed several blobs at the closest Pinwheel. It detected them at the last moment, and tried to change course, but it was too late, and the blobs crashed into the different sections, breaking the ship apart.

Jain issued a quick burst of thrust on the port side so that he sped away from his previous position. The other Link ships would have been paying attention to the burst of radiation produced by his movement this time, and sure enough, several nearby vessels turned toward him. A Barbell launched energy nets at his previous location, while a Tree unleashed its energy whips. A Cube launched a grappling hook. All three weapons missed of course, since he had drifted well away from that location.

More blobs were unleashed from other nearby cloaked Mimics. As well as lightning attacks. The nearby Barbell broke apart, while a Tree was disabled. A Claw launched a series of rectangular rifts in a wide dispersion pattern, and one of them managed to strike a drifting Nurturer. Jain knew, because the Nurturer’s Pyramid materialized, with a big chunk taken out of the starboard side where the rift had passed over the Pyramid, teleporting part of the vessel to another system. Those rifts dissipated when they were eleven thousand meters from the Claw.

Jain temporarily activated his drives to unleash another directional change, and more enemy fire homed in on him. They targeted the spherical region immediately around where he had made the trajectory change, and he was lucky not to get hit by the barrage of energy whips, rifts, nets, and energy beams. Fighters from the Battlestars now roamed out there, and they swarmed when blobs launched from a hidden Nurturer nearby.

Jain unleashed a lightning attack as he passed a Battlestar, but didn’t fire blobs or skirmishers, because he knew those would betray his direction. Meanwhile, lightning could be traced to a source in space, but wouldn’t reveal his trajectory.

Energy whips from nearby Trees struck his previous location, almost hitting him. Those whips also reached in front and behind him. He kept his virtual finger on the inertialess drive activation button, ready to move out of the way of those whips, but they all missed. Good, because moving would only reveal his location to the other vessels.

He glanced at his tactical display, and saw that the Vaernastian Barbells had teamed up with the Revlon Claws, and launched walls of energy nets and rifts whenever a weapons launch or movement change was detected nearby. That made it nearly impossible for cloaked ships to escape—they’d be hit by a net, or have portions of their vessels ripped away by an expanding rift, and then the others would rail on their new position. It was a similar strategy Jain had used to detect the hidden ships when the Nurturers had turned on him.

By then, thankfully, the Paladins had arrived with the Banthar and Tyrnari fleets so that the enemy had more to worry about—most of those Barbells and Claws turned away to attack the incoming Mind Refurbs.

Unfortunately, Jain’s luck ran out. He activated his drives to get closer to a Teleporter, but that vessel had obviously detected the radiation emission, and gambled that he was approaching it. It materialized a string of teleport bombs in his path, and since he was drifting, rather than zig-zagging, he hit several of them.

He felt the pain inside as some of those bombs materialized within his decks, and also on his skin as he smashed into them.

“Stealth countermeasures are offline,” Xander said.

“Yeah, I kinda got that,” Jain said. He disabled his cloaking device and reactivated his engines to swerve away from the Teleporter ship—there was no point in maintaining the energy drain of the cloaking device if the enemies would be able to track him anyway. He fired blobs and skirmishers at the Teleporter.

A Buckyball unleashed its multi-directional plasma beams then, and Jain took another hit.

“Damn it,” he said. He unleashed his lightning weapon at the Buckyball, along with more blobs. He tore away portions of its external framework, but the vessel was still in the game.

No time to go back for another pass—a Claw headed toward him. It launched rifts his way, and he steered to the side, before sending a group of skirmishers to intercept it. He’d temporarily exhausted his blobs.

Above him, some Paladins concentrated their fire on one of the frameworks, and it broke apart as he flew past.

The Tyrnari made a pass at the main space station with their Hang Gliders. The defensive shields lit up, protecting the base with the same force field the world killers possessed. A group of Barbells launched a solid wall of energy nets their way, forcing the Tyrnari to disengage.

The main space station itself began to glow. In thirty minutes, when it reached peak attack power, it would unleash a field of energy that would destroy all targeted ships in the system, sparing the Link vessels. Because of the Vaernastian rift jamming devices, none of the allied fleet would be able to jump out to escape it.

If the designated team didn’t take down that space station, they were all screwed.

“Reestablish uplink with the Void Warriors,” Jain said.

A moment later his companions appeared on the virtual bridge, except for Medeia, who would be cloaked.

“Welcome back,” Sheila said.

“Thanks,” he said. “Though I never truly left.”

“Of course not,” Sheila said. “You’d miss us too much for that.”

“Just you,” he said, only half joking.

He swerved to avoid another wall of energy nets from the Barbells. At least the Vaernastians weren’t summoning the System Killer—that was an alien entity capable of devouring entire systems and beyond. The Link had outlawed its usage, since even they couldn’t control it, and the Vaernastians probably wouldn’t flout that ban while so many other Link member species were watching.

Jain glanced at Cranston. “When are you going to deploy the shuttle?”

“I’m looking for an opening,” Cranston said. “It’s too hot out there.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Jain said. “Xander, get me Hephaestus. Voice only.”

“What can I do for you?” Hephaestus said.

“I need to borrow five of your ships,” Jain said.

“He’s accelerated time,” Xander said.

Jain glanced at his tactical display. His AI core would have accelerated to match: sure enough, external reality had frozen.

“Tell me exactly what you plan to do,” Hephaestus said.

A few minutes later, Jain hurtled toward the space station, which glowed ever brighter. Five Nurturers were with him. Cranston followed behind him in the Forebode, along with Gavin in the Hippogriff. Altogether they formed a tight flotilla.

Two Buckyballs swerved in front to intercept them.

Jain and the others unleashed their lightning weapons, just as the Buckyballs fired. Beams launched in all directions, some bouncing off the shields of the space station to come at the incoming attackers.

Two of the Nurturers were hit, but continued forward.

“That’s a new property of those shields…” Jain said. “I didn’t know they could reflect attacks like that.”

The Buckyballs had survived the lightning damage, but when the Nurturers unleashed waves of blobs, the Buckyballs were unable to avoid them all, and took several debilitating hits.

Gavin and Cranston launched missiles at those vessels as they passed, and blew them to smithereens.

“Was that necessary?” Jain asked, mourning the wasted missiles.

“Don’t want them to leave them drifting, only to have to face them again later when they repair,” Cranston said.

Several Claws joined the line of Barbells in front of the space station.

“Attach to me, Cranston,” Jain said. “This is going to get messy. Gavin, you might want to start pulling up.”

“Yup!” Gavin said.

The Hippogriff activated its Newtonian drives and began pulling away from the flotilla in anticipation of the coming attack.

Jain felt the Forebode’s grappling hooks strike behind him, and then a moment later the solid contact as Cranston reeled his vessel in and secured the Forebode to the Devastator’s hull.

The Claws unleashed rifts, while the Barbells launched a solid wall of nets. Jain was forced to veer far upward to avoid them all. Three other Nurturers in the flotilla joined him, while the other two swerved downward to pass underneath the incoming attacks.

When Jain was over the expanding wave, he veered downward once again. Gavin fired his shockwave weapon, and the spherical shell expanded outward. Gavin had reserved openings in the shell for Jain and the others, and Jain steered the Devastator into one of them. The other five Mimics did the same.

Jain fired blobs and skirmishers indiscriminately at the enemies, targeting a Claw and Barbell, while the other Mimics also targeted two ships each. The Barbells were able to unleash a few more energy nets, but the Claws were still recharging after their latest rift attack, and could only flee before the onslaught.

Jain swerved between the energy nets; he accidentally struck one of the other Pyramids, causing the impacted sections to dissolve.

“Whoops, sorry about that,” he sent.

The Mimic gave no reply.

One of the nets drilled into a Mimic, and it came to a halt, drifting. A lucky shot, on the part of the enemy.

Jain’s blobs struck three Barbells, and broke the spherical sections apart. Jain slammed past the broken sections to continue toward the space station below. The debris struck his hull, causing armor damage, but he ignored it.

The other two Mimics with him continued downward, joining up with the two that were coming from below. They launched skirmishers and blobs at the enemies.

The Barbells attempted to swing their noses about so that they could bring their weapons to bear, but Jain was already descending toward the space station. The Mimics remained behind to shield him and his precious payload.

At that point, the station was blindingly bright beneath him; his cameras filtered that light down to something more manageable so that his external video feeds weren’t rendered useless.

When he was close to the shield, he changed course to fly parallel to it, using estimates of its extents as recorded when it flashed into existence in previous attacks.

“Cranston…” Jain said.

“Releasing the shuttle.” Cranston paused. “It’s away.”

Jain swerved upward, and turned around to place himself protectively between the shuttle and the enemy ships. He wouldn’t be able to hold this position for long, but in theory, he wouldn’t have to.

He glanced at the tactical display, and watched as the dot representing the shuttle moved toward the energy shields.

Good luck, Bolt Eaters.

He returned his attention to the Barbell ships, which were just coming to bear. The Claws would be recharging right about then, as well.

Jain accelerated toward them, weapons blazing.

7

Eric stood aboard the cramped shuttle with the other Bolt Eaters. A harness suspended from the ceiling held him in place. Everyone was here, well, except Slate.

“It’s almost like old times,” Tread said. “Back on Earth.”

“Except on Earth, we had Cicadas,” Traps said. “Not androids.”

“Hey, we could have had Cicadas if we really wanted to,” Tread said.

“Too bulky,” Eric said. “We’re good the way we are.”

Their load out that day involved energy grenades in their harnesses, plasma rifles slung to their shoulders, and jetpacks strapped to their packs.

“Man, I love me some jetpacks,” Eagleeye said. “Hey Slate, bet you wish you were coming.”

“Bitch, if you tease me one more time, I’m going to rename the Bug Killer the Eagleeye Killer!” Slate said over the comm.

“Don’t worry, once we pass through that shield, we won’t be able to communicate with you anymore,” Eagleeye said.

“Oh man, I’m looking forward to that,” Slate said.

“They’re not really jetpacks anyway,” Bambi said. “They’re more like propellant jets. These things wouldn’t work too well in gravity.”

The deck jerked. Eric’s head slammed into the back of Marlborough’s just in front of him with a loud thud—the team members were standing that close together.

A chorus of oofs emanated from the team.

“Who’s flying this sardine can?” Mickey asked.

“My apologies,” the autonomous AI responsible for the shuttle said. “An energy net slipped past our Mimic defenders, and I narrowly evaded it.”

“Narrowly?” Mickey said. “This is what happens when you don’t put a real Mind Refurb in charge of flying. A real Mind Refurb would have put a wide berth between us and that net, not a narrow one.”

“We’re within teleport range,” the autonomous AI said. “Engaging.”

Eric glanced at the nose camera, and watched as the surface of the bright space station below jumped toward them.

“We’re in!” he said.

“I’m bringing us closer to the target,” the autonomous AI calmly intoned.

“Watch for defense turrets,” Eric said.

The vessel lurched violently. The harness strands that secured Eric to the cabin ceiling tightened, preventing him from moving too far out of his previous position. He tightened the machine muscles of his neck this time so that he wouldn’t head-butt the Sarge again.

“What was that?” Crusher asked nervously. Her android fingers clutched the harness above her so hard that her knuckles were white.

“The space station issued sudden decelerating thrust, diving, and causing us to strike the shield,” the AI said. “We bounced off. Armor is holding—damage is minimal. I’m proceeding toward the target.”

Mickey shook his head. “One of us should take over the controls.”

“You volunteering, mate?” Dunnigan asked.

“Ha!” Mickey said. “Shuttles and I, we don’t get along. I’m a comm operator, Jim, not a drone pilot.”

Dunnigan frowned. “My name’s Dunnigan.”

“Yeah,” Mickey said. “Never mind.”

The cabin shook again, though less violently.

“Worse than a plane in turbulence…” Traps commented.

“What now?” Mickey asked the AI.

“I’m taking fire from defense turrets ahead,” the autonomous AI calmly intoned.

“How far away are we from the target?” Eric said.

“About two klicks,” the autonomous AI returned.

“Too bad we can’t just teleport to the target,” Dickson said. “Save some time.”

The shuttle needed ten minutes to recharge the teleporter, so that was an impossibility.

The vessel shook again, very much like an airplane hitting turbulence, as Traps had mentioned.

“I’m going to have to set us down early, or we’re going to be destroyed,” the AI said.

“Have you fired back?” Mickey said.

“No…” the AI said.

“What?” Mickey said.

“I am not equipped with weaponry,” the AI replied.

Mickey shook his head and glanced at Frogger. “These guys really need to watch Star Wars sometime. Otherwise, me and you are going to have to cook up some X-Wing Fighters.”

“Tie Fighters are more my style,” Frogger said.

“You know, if we actually had access to the GalNet, we might have some idea of what you’re talking about,” Brontosaurus said.

“Dude, you still haven’t watched Star Wars after all these years?” Mickey said. “We’ve only been talking about it for over a century.”

“Star what?” Brontosaurus said. He cracked a smile. “Gotcha! Yeah, of course I’ve watched Star Wars. I liked the original ending better.”

“What original ending?” Frogger said.

“The one where Greedo and Han get married,” Brontosaurus said.

Mickey shook his head. “Dude, you’re really messed up.”

“What, are you a racist?” Brontosaurus pressed.

“Uh huh,” Mickey said. “I wouldn’t let my daughter marry Greedo.”

“What about your son?” Brontosaurus said.

The shuttle shook again.

Mickey reached up and knocked on the ceiling. “Hey, watch where you’re going Tin Bucket!”

The machine didn’t answer.

“Look at that,” Mickey said. “Doesn’t even answer me.”

“Maybe if you stopped calling it Tin Bucket it might,” Crusher said. “Worth a try?”

“Too much work,” Mickey said.

Eric glanced at the overhead map, and saw that the shuttle had already initiated a dive. They were two klicks out from the target. He was hoping to get a bit closer, but that would have to do.

“Prepare for touchdown!” the AI said.

The hull shuddered and once more the harnesses tightened.

“Crap!” Mickey said. “See? Mind Refurb pilot next time, people!”

Eric checked the external cams, but it seemed clear out there.

“You’re really hyper today,” Eagleeye told Mickey.

“Of course I’m hyper,” Mickey said. “We haven’t been on a real mission in decades. We were stuck aboard Slate’s ship last time while Eric took almost everyone else with him aboard the world killer. That was torture. Slate’s terrible driving none withstanding.”

“He can’t hear you anymore,” Eagleeye said. “We lost communications as soon as we entered the shield.”

Eric checked his comm settings and confirmed that. “AI 22, open up the ramp.”

“Opening ramp,” the shuttle’s AI responded.

A rectangular crack of bright white light appeared in the cabin aft section, and the ramp opened. As it enlarged, the brightness from outside poured in, forming visible rays of light.

The team members aimed their rifles into that white block of brightness. The autogating lenses in Eric’s eye cameras automatically reduced the brilliance in visible stages, so that he could discern actual objects forming in the whiteness out there, until the thick blanket of light was gone and hull superstructures were clearly defined. The autogating ceased when the outside light levels were similar to a typical sunny day on Earth.

“Electrify exteriors." Eric activated the zapper, a subtle current that flowed over the exterior of his android, which would zap any micro machines that attempted to penetrate his body.

On his HUD, electrify symbols turned green across the team.

“Secure the perimeter!” Eric told Sarge when the ramp had nearly leveled out.

The ceiling harnesses retracted and the Bolt Eaters raced onto the surface. They’d activated their magnetic boots to secure themselves, simulating artificial gravity.

“Secure!” Marlborough said a moment later.

Eric’s own harness withdrew, and he hurried down the ramp with his plasma rifle in hand. His magnetized boots issued no sound in the void, though his vibrations would be felt when he passed close to the other team members.

“Well, at least we get to fight in the sun!” Bambi commented. Her lips moved as she spoke, though no sound was produced of course. Instead, the words were automatically transmitted over the shared comm band, thanks to a subroutine inserted into their speech processing algorithm.

The shuttle left the surface as a precaution—they were worried about termites from the space station emerging to dismantle it. The craft would remain within the shield, staying close to the space station, and would attempt to mirror any directional changes it made.

Eric surveyed the surrounding superstructures and the trenches in between. “These look almost like the buildings you’d find in a typical downtown neighborhood on Earth.”

“I could almost imagine we’re fighting in a city somewhere,” Crusher agreed.

“It’s like we’re in Iraq all over again, huh boss?” Mickey said. “Or Kurdistan, or whatever they call it these days.”

“Follow the trenches,” Eric said, ignoring the comment. He wasn’t fond of Kurdistan. “Hug the walls of the superstructures. We’ll observe standard urban combat scenario rules. Two teams. Traveling overwatch. Dunnigan, Eagleeye, Hicks, Mickey, Traps, Tread, and Marlborough you’re T1. The rest of you, you’re in T2. Marlborough, you’re in charge of T1. Lead the way. We have twenty minutes before the weapon in this base activates, and destroys all friendly ships in the system. Brontosaurus, Crusher, get aerial.”

The two of them fired their jetpacks. Their packs were synced with their boots, so that when activated, the boot magnets shut off. The pair landed on top of the nearest superstructure and ducked, crawling to the edge.

“Bambi, watch the opposite approach,” Eric said, drawing the location on his overhead map as a waypoint as he spoke. “Dickson, you’re directly behind me. Frogger, you’re behind Bambi.”

Bambi moved to the building across from him, and crouched near the edge. Frogger moved behind her, watching the trench next to the building on that side. Dickson moved to the opposite edge behind Eric.

That covered all approaches.

Eric and Bambi scanned the forward section, keeping T1 in view. Overhead, Brontosaurus would be doing the same, though over a wider one hundred and eighty degree search vector, while Crusher would be watching the remaining one hundred and eighty degrees on the opposite side of the building.

Overhead, flashes of light told him the space battle was still taking place not too far away. Concave portions of the space station’s energy shield occasionally flashed into existence when some random weapon struck it.

T1 came to a halt when it was nearly out of visual range. Its members spread out in a watch formation similar to T2, with Eagleeye and Hicks firing their jumpjets to assume a perch atop the closest superstructure.

“Ready to leapfrog?” Marlborough transmitted.

“Brontosaurus, Crusher, let’s go!” Eric said.

The pair leaped off the superstructure, but the gravitational pull was weak, so of course they had to use their jumpjets to descend rapidly. They hit the hull running, joining the rest of the sprinting team.

“So where are these turrets the shuttle AI spoke of?” Crusher asked.

Eric realized he hadn’t transmitted the location yet. He did so now, and indicated it with an arrow on the overhead map.

“One and a half klicks away,” Eric said. “Or five hundred meters from our target.”

“One and a half klicks,” Crusher said. “That’s not so bad. Especially if the resistance continues to be absent like this.”

“It’s going to pick up, I’m sure,” Eric said. “When they figure out what we’re planning.”

Eric and the other members of T2 reached T1, and continued on past them, performing the so-called “leapfrog” maneuver.

The trench weaved between a pair of superstructures, and they momentarily left visual range with T1. But then they were past it, and continued on their way without incident. They were nearing the limit of visual range with T2, so Eric paused next to a superstructure that vaguely resembled a minaret and took cover behind it.

“Dickson, Frogger, get up there,” Eric said.

He was alternating spotters so that the jetpack fuel levels would decrease uniformly across the team.

Dickson and Frogger fired their jetpacks and took up hide positions near the top.

Eric turned toward T1. “All clear. Leapfrog time, ladies and gentlewomen.”

“Was that a joke?” Tread transmitted from T1. “I think that was a joke!”

“Either that, or an insult,” Hicks sent.

“Maybe a little of both,” Eric broadcast with a grin.

“I’ve got incoming,” Dickson said. “Directly to the northwest, about a klick from our target.”

“What kind of incoming are we talking about?” Eric asked.

“Worm mechs of some kind,” Dickson replied.

“Say again?” Eric said. “I heard ‘worm mechs.’ Confirm.”

“You heard right,” Dickson said. “These things look like giant, segmented worms made of metal. Centipedes actually, given the tiny arms in their sides. And they’re closing pretty fast. It looks like they’re hovering a meter above the hull, propelled by some sort of magnetic levitation.”

“Centipedes on maglevs?” Eric said.

He glanced at Crusher.

“This I gotta see,” she said.

Eric tapped into Dickson’s feed and shared it with the rest of the team, including the incoming members of T1. The staff sergeant’s description was apt. Eric saw huge metal worms threading between the buildings. There were five separate entities out there. Several small arms in their sides helped them twist and navigate between the surrounding superstructures.”

“They make Centipede look like a game children play,” Mickey said.

“Centipede is a game children played,” Frogger said. “At least in our era. I played it as a child.”

“I’ll have to try this game out sometime,” Crusher said. “I’m surprised Eric never mentioned it.”

“Wasn’t one of my favorites,” Eric said. “Wizard of Wor was more my style.”

T1 reached them, and Eric waved them down. “We’re going to have to make a stand here. Spread out, Bolt Eaters. And get to the top of these superstructures. It’s time to play a game of Centipede.”

Eric fired his jetpack, as did the others around him. He could already see the lead Centipede twisting around a superstructure ahead.

It opened fire.

8

Eric fired lateral thrust and slid out of the way of a plasma beam that emerged from the metal mandibles of the lead Centipede. The beam missed him, and cut into the superstructure beside him, leaving a hole. The creature continued firing that beam, sweeping it to the left, toward him, and he was forced to dodge again. He applied more thrust, and zoomed to the top of the superstructure.

He dropped down when he reached the top, and then low crawled to the edge. He felt vibrations in the roof beneath him, and when they stopped, he realized that the hull was slowly drifting away beneath him.

He glanced down, and saw that the Centipede had cut the superstructure clean away from the hull.

You can’t get rid of me that easily.

He surveyed the receding hull below, and confirmed that the Centipedes weren’t aiming at him.

But at that point, he was very likely within the line of fire of the defense turrets near the target.

So he retreated to the far side of the superstructure, and then rolled off the edge entirely and out into the open. He jetted downward, firing his left and right lateral thrusters randomly so that he zig-zagged downward. Unsurprisingly, plasma beams fired from behind him, as the defense turrets attempted to sear him out of the sky.

He passed beyond their angle of fire as he neared the hull, and then landed on one of the superstructures. Then he took leaping bounds between the rooftops formed by those structures, bounds aided by jetpack bursts. He closed with his Bolt Eaters, who were racing away from the Centipedes. They had separated into three groups, fanning outward; four Centipedes chased the first two groups, while one pursued the third.

One of the Centipedes stalking the nearest group spotted Eric, and swerved its head toward him.

Eric leaped off the edge of his current roof, and jetted downward as the beam came in. It sliced through the superstructures around him. He hit the hull and kept running.

I’m not going to have my connection severed, not this time.

He sprinted forward across the hull, aided by strategic bursts of his jetpack, until he was running in the street parallel to the Centipede. It hadn’t noticed him yet, probably assuming it had destroyed him with its earlier beam attack, and instead it concentrated on chasing the Bolt Eaters. The androids occasionally fired back as they ran.

Eric fired his jetpack upward and in a lateral motion so that he swung overtop the Centipede. He landed on its segmented back and aimed his plasma rifle directly into its thick neck.

“Alert!” Dee said. “Little Earth is under attack by forces of Repelling the Entity. Alert!”

“Deal with it!” Eric squeezed the trigger.

The huge robot curled backward, lifting its frontal section off the ground. Eric shoved his hand into the hole he’d burned, and his flesh melted slightly since the heat was still radiating into space.

“I’m having difficulties,” Dee replied. “Your assistance would be appreciated.”

“Do what you can,” Eric said. “I’m kind of busy right now.”

He fired again with his free hand, enlarging the hole, and he slid the beam back and forth until the melted gap was big enough to fit him inside.

By then the Centipede had curved its upper body portion so far back that he was upside down, and he pulled himself inside. He fired again, targeting its innards, until he broke through to a plasma channel conduit. He freed an energy grenade from his harness, and then released his grip on the surrounding wall he’d carved, and fired his jetpack so that he plunged down back through the opening. He tossed the energy grenade into the plasma conduit as a parting gift.

It detonated, exploding the entire frontal section of the Centipede.

He thrust away from the explosion, but shrapnel still dug into the backside of his android.

He jetted downward, heading toward the next Centipede. But he saw Brontosaurus was already on its back. Crusher was on the next one, and Frogger the forth. Marlborough had mounted the fifth.

“You copycats,” Eric said. Though in truth he was pleased, because it meant he didn’t have to do that again.

When he landed, he upped his time sense to maximum and logged out for a moment to check on Dee.

He was inside the virtual reality that represented his planet-wide consciousness. Cities were represented as small three-dimensional wireframes spread out in a globe around him. He focused on the representation for the capital city, which had a flashing red dot in the center, indicating an attack.

As he zoomed in on it, he realized there were other red dots in cities planet-wide.

Another coordinated attack. Just when I’m least equipped to deal with it.

He returned his attention to the capital city, and saw that simultaneous attacks were taking place against the towers housing his local server farm for that city, and Little Earth. Everything was frozen at the moment, of course, thanks to his high time sense.

“What seems to be the problem?” Eric asked. He noticed that the defense turrets in front of Little Earth were almost all offline. That meant an overwhelming attack.

“There aren’t enough units to protect both Little Earth and the server farm,” Dee said. “I could redirect some Sloths and mechs from the towers, but that means you’ll lose some of the buildings responsible for your consciousness.”

“Do what you can,” Eric said. “Recall some of the flyers from outside the city. Send them to help the Sloth units, but also send a few to Little Earth to shore up the defenses. If you have to choose between losing Little Earth, or losing mind servers, then let Little Earth go.”

“Understood,” Dee said.

With that, Eric logged back into his android to continue the raid against the space station.

“That took a good seven minutes,” Brontosaurus said when Eric pulled up beside him. He was gazing at the wreckages of the Centipedes. “That leaves us thirteen minutes before this station unleashes its shockwave weapon.”

That weapon was a more powerful variation of the shockwave attack Gavin’s Hippogriff possessed. It was also more advanced, in that it could phase out selectively at different points along its circumference, at different times, so that instead of creating permanent gaps to accommodate friendly vessels, the shockwave would simply phase out when it encountered allied vessels, while disintegrating every other ship in the vicinity.

“Then there’s no time to lose, is there?” Eric told his friend. “T1, forward!”

* * *

Jason led the War Forgers and their clones across the barren plain. The atmosphere on this world was composed mostly of methane, with trace amounts of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Gravity was a little heavier than Earth, but Jason and the others had simply amped their servomotor outputs to compensate. Atmospheric pressure was equivalent to the top of Everest. Not that it mattered to machines of their ilk.

Their mission was to destroy the remaining rift generators responsible for sending continued bioweapons to Earth. His team had landed about a kilometer away from the outskirts of the local shield that guarded the site, and they proceeded inward on foot.

“Hey Jason,” Lori said.

“What’s up?” Jason asked.

“What are you doing later?” she replied.

“Do you have to flirt with him now, of all times?” Maeran said in exasperation.

Lori remained quiet, sufficiently chastened.

Jason glanced at Maeran’s Grazer mech. Her three drones orbited her body protectively. He was still troubled by what she had told him earlier, about how she was leaving when this was through, but he knew he had to let her go.

He dreaded this mission, yes, and all the missions involving the Link, but he dreaded even more what would happen when the Link was finally defeated.

Sophie and Lori had already declared their intention to stay, but he wasn’t sure what the other women would decide when this was all over. His mountain cabin might become very quiet in the future. He was going to miss them.

He forced himself to clear his mind. First world problems.

As he approached, the sappers the fleet had launched ahead of their landing appeared on his overhead map. They had lined up just outside the shield perimeter. Red dots indicated where alien units had gathered on the other side—they were waiting for the sappers to penetrate.

“The sappers already have company,” Aria said.

“Yes,” Jason said. “Laser drills on truck beds are pretty hard to miss.”

The War Forgers continued forward, moving across those plains of black shale. In the distance to the north and south, rocky crags mirrored their advance, providing parallel walls that seemed to hem in the team. The sky overhead was overcast, covered in a permanent layer of dull green clouds. The last time he had been here, it had been pitch black—assuming this was the same staging world. At the time, he’d leaped through an enemy rift with two other Cataphracts, and they’d destroyed the generators responsible for one of those rifts, the same one supplying bioweapons to the world killer the Link had been constructing on Earth.

Jason could see the five truck beds ahead, positioned in a circle close to the area shield. The military vehicles had lifted those beds, raising the drills along with them, so that the lasers were pointed directly into the ground. Their combined drills formed a single hole that was big enough to fit each of the War Forgers mechs.

On the other side, bioweapons had gathered to block their path.

“Looks like a friendly bunch,” Sophie commented.

“If you call bioweapons that are all claws and teeth friendly,” Xin said.

“Sarcasm, Xin,” Sophie said.

“How do you know I wasn’t being sarcastic myself?” Xin added.

Jason stared past them, at the quonsets that lined the shale, and the many rifts. Behind each rift were five small, cylindrical generators.

“There sure are a lot of them,” Iris commented. “The Loris have their work cut out for them.”

Each Lori carried a series of specially designed charges to be placed next to each generator. When detonated, those charges were supposed to pack enough destructive power to defeat the local shields around those generates, as well as the generating devices within.

The other War Forgers carried back up charges, and the Loris were supposed to return to them when they ran out of charges to fetch more. Given the number of rifts and their generators out there, that would be often: each Lori could only carry ten of the devices in their storage compartments, and that was after everything else was emptied, including repair drones. That was only enough for two rifts at a time. There were at least fifty, by Jason’s count. There were probably more hidden by the quonsets.

Jason also spotted shield generators scattered at random locations along the perimeter, but as expected, those were heavily defended. Triceratops robots had gathered around them, joining existing defense turrets. The shield generators weren’t the priorities of the Loris, though. In fact, Jason had told them to forget about the shields entirely, mostly because he was worried the War Forgers wouldn’t have enough charges to eliminate all of the rifts.

The War Forgers and their clones reached the sappers, and took up a defensive position next to the hole. They aimed some of their weapons down into the hole but kept the majority of them pointed at the bioweapons beyond the shield, just in case the Link decided to play some shenanigans and momentarily lower that force field to allow the bioweapons through.

As the hole deepened, the truck beds shifted, directing the drills at a steeper angle. Eventually, when the hole was deep enough, the drills themselves descended into the pit, moving along bendable tracks that existed in the truck bed. Soon Jason couldn’t see the cylinders that represented the laser drills at all, as they had vanished into the hole they were creating.

On the other side, there was a commotion amid the bioweapons that had gathered next to the shield. Xin hadn’t been kidding when she’d said they were all claws and teeth. Their bodies were covered in sharp serrations that protruded along every square centimeter, and their appendages were steeped in claws. Down the middle of their roughly humanoid bodies were long, vertical mouths that could open to reveal even more teeth, these ones sideways-oriented. They had long tails tipped with a series of scythe-like saw blades.

“Razor Claws,” Lori said. “I’m calling them Razor Claws.”

The bioweapons stepped away from the area of ground that had begun to collapse in front of them as the drills bored through. The Razor Claws waited patiently, some instinct warning them that although they could not see anything, death awaited any that should attempt to enter that hole before it was complete.

The invisible lasers from the drills continued to fire, widening the hole, until the laser drills finished creating a gap big enough to fit a War Forger. Then the drills retracted, the tracks climbing back up the truck beds and drawing the cylindrical lasers along with them.

The Razor Claws were already leaping into the hole. Two at a time could squeeze through.

“This is going to be easy,” John said. “They’re willingly entering a choke point.”

Sure enough, Jason and the others were readily able to handle the bioweapons as they emerged two at a time. Their weapons penetrated that razor sharp flesh with ease, and none of the creatures were even able to get close to them.

The slaughter continued for some time, with the dead bodies piling up to form a berm of sorts around the hole.

But then the bioweapons finally got smart and decided to hang back, instead waiting on the other side of the force field for the War Forgers to come to them.

“Lori, you think you’ll be able to sneak past them unnoticed?” Jason asked.

“I doubt it,” Lori said. “Look at how they’re crowded around the hole. There’s no gaps for me to squeeze past.”

“I’ll shake them up,” Cheyanne said. Her Dragonfly mech dove into the hole.

“I can help drawn them away, too,” Sophie said. She leaped her Highlander mech into the pit after Cheyanne.

The Dragonfly mech emerged on the other side, swords twirling. Blood and guts sprayed the surrounding Razor Claws as Cheyanne burst skyward.

Sophie emerged a moment later, her jumpjets firing; she arced over the bioweapons.

The two were exposed to the defense turrets and Triceratops that resided next to the shield generators along the perimeter. Energy beams came in from those groups, and Cheyanne and Sophie were forced to land quickly. They took cover behind a set of nearby quonsets. Beyond those quonsets more bioweapons of all kinds flowed out from the feeder rifts of Link planets whose members were donating the creatures, and into the rifts destined for Earth.

The distraction worked: most of the Razor Claws broke away to give chase.

“Now there’s enough room,” Lori said.

She and her clones became invisible, and he saw the dirt shift on the outskirts of the pit as they entered one by one.

On the other side, the remaining bioweapons didn’t notice a similar shifting of dirt as the four Loris emerged and spread out to place their charges.

Razor Claws began reaching Sophie and Cheyanne. Some Triceratops broke away from the defense turrets to join them. Other big robots and mechs emerged from quonsets nearby, and turned toward the intruders.

“They’re going to be overwhelmed,” Iris said.

Jason nodded. “Looks like we’re going to have to help them.” He glanced at the others. “War Forgers, on me!”

He dove into the tunnel and crawled through the confines until he emerged on the other side.

As he pulled himself up, he fired his energy cannon and laser weapon in one hand, and his rocket launcher and railgun in the other, taking down two of the closest Razor Claws. He clambered out completely, and stepped aside so that Tara could follow behind him. She emerged, sword swinging.

One by one the War Forgers and their clones entered, pushing the bioweapons away from the hole. Beyond them, the Triceratops closed, towering over them all.

“It’s too bad we gave up our Loris,” Aria said.

The Loris were key pieces for the transformation into Cataphracts.

“We can win in this form!” Jason bashed in the head of a nearby Razor Claw, firing his energy weapon at the same time, causing a gory explosion.

He glanced up at the closest Triceratops, which was bringing its plasma turrets to bear.

At least, I hope we can win in this form.

9

Eric and the Bolt Eaters were dug in before the defense turrets. They had taken cover in a trench within line of sight of two of the turrets.

“Tread, Traps, Hicks,” Eric said. “I want you two to circle around from the left side.” He drew their route on the overhead map. “Frogger, Eagleeye, Mickey, circle around from the right side.”

There were defense turrets on those flanks, too, according to the blueprints and the data recorded before landing. Those needed to be taken out as well before continuing.

Eric rose, aiming his rifle past his cover, and fired a plasma beam at the defense turret. A localized energy shield activated, protecting it, and he ducked when that turret and the other three with it tracked him.

Return beams struck the edge of the trench above him, drilling fresh holes.

“Don’t you love it when they nest shields within shields?” Bambi asked.

“It’s not surprising,” Dunnigan said. “Though the localized shields wouldn’t hold up to weapon intensities at a starship level.”

“Which is why we have to keep firing at them,” Eric said. “We’re slowly wearing them down.”

“Except as soon as we make a shot, their AIs track us…” Brontosaurus said. “Making it impossible to wear them down.”

“They’re only five hundred meters away,” Eric said. “In these android bodies, we’re strong enough to lob grenade that distance. If five hit and detonated at the same time, it should be enough to drain the shield.”

“They’ll just shoot them down,” Crusher said. “Like all the other grenades we tossed their way so far.”

“We only have ten minutes until this space station unleashes its death beam,” Mickey said.

“I know,” Eric said. It had grown brighter, and his autogating device was near its limits. If he were human, he would have been squinting in the brightness right about now.

“They target everything that moves,” Bambi said. “Instantly. Have you noticed? One of us fires, or throws a grenade, they turn to track the same object.”

“So?” Crusher said.

“That means we can trick them,” Bambi explained. “Someone can draw their fire, while the rest of us throw grenades the instant those turrets turn to engage the bait. Some of the bombs will get through.”

Eric considered her idea for a moment. “It might just work.” He glanced at a superstructure on the far side of the trench. “Dunnigan, you get to be the bait.”

“Love to, mate,” Dunnigan said.

Eric ignored the sarcasm. “Climb that superstructure and fire down at the turrets… make them all track you.”

Dunnigan turned around without a word, and low crawled across the trench until he reached the adjacent superstructure. He positioned himself behind the section that faced away from the turrets, then stood up and fired his jumpjets. He latched on near the top and used his magnetic mounts to climb the rest of the way.

Eric and the others retrieved energy grenades from their harnesses and prepared to throw them.

Dunnigan low-crawled to the front edge of the superstructure.

“I’ve got this one targeted,” Dunnigan said. On the overhead map, a turret turned bright red. “Firing in three seconds. Two. One.”

Eric increased his time sense, and amped up his servomotor output. At his current speed, the plasma beam erupted from Dunnigan’s rifle at a crawl, slowly moving away from the weapon. Eric decreased his sense slightly, allowing his body to move at a speed that was more manageable. To his eyes he still moved in slow motion, though to any external watchers it would have appeared a blur.

“Target the turret Dunnigan fired at,” Eric said.

He stood up. The defense turrets were already tracking away toward the plasma rifle. Beside him, Crusher and Bambi were also standing, and hurling their grenades, along with the rest of the team.

Then they ducked once more; Eric kept his eyes just past the edge, and he watched as the turrets began to track back toward the incoming grenades they detected. Dunnigan’s plasma beam struck, and the local energy field glowed a bright yellow. Some of the other turrets managed to target different grenades, and detonated them before they arrived. But some of the grenades got through. Four, to be precise. They all hit, and the energy shield flashed into existence each time, though less bright with each impact.

“Again, Dunnigan,” Eric said, still in the heightened state. “The rest of you, sync rifles with mine.”

The sync indicators turned green on his HUD.

Dunnigan fired again, and when the turrets tracked toward the sniper’s position, Eric aimed his rifle over the edge, along with the other Bolt Eaters. He squeezed the trigger, and the weapons fired at the same time, hitting the turret whose energy shield was already weakened. Those beams drained the shield completely, and smashed into the turret beyond, melting it.

“One turret down,” Eric said.

They used Dunnigan’s continued distractions to launch more grenades, and proceeded to eliminate the next three turrets in a similar manner.

The other two flanking teams used the same tactics to distract the turret pairs on the left and right in turn so that the team was soon moving forward again.

The flanking team rejoined the main group as they continued along the central trench toward the target.

“We have five minutes left,” Mickey said.

“Thanks for being our countdown,” Brontosaurus said. “Where were you when I was a freshman, always late for class in college?”

Ahead, the target vent was in sight.

“It seems clear,” Tread said.

“Too clear,” Eric said.

“There’s gotta be some surprise they have lying in wait for us,” Bambi agreed.

Eric halted to survey the area. He zoomed in on the gooseneck vent they sought.

“So all we have to do is drop a few grenades down that vent, and the shield goes down?”

“According to the blueprints, the bottom of the vent passes next to a key component of the shield generator’s cooling system,” Eric said. “So yes, in effect, dropping some grenades down there should deactivate the shielding system. At least until the aliens get that area repaired.”

“It’s like the Death Star’s fatal flaw!” Mickey said.

“Gotta love fatal flaws,” Frogger commented.

The team continued through the trench at a jog. They constantly scanned their bright surroundings, searching for signs of hidden attackers.

Flashes began to appear around Eric’s boots as his zapper engaged. “Termites!”

He quickly retreated, stamping his feet to shake them off.

Eric activated his LIDAR, and zoomed in on the surface. He could barely make out the subtle forms of the micro machines. They were swarming over the surface.

“The brightness concealed them,” Eric said. “The surface is seething with them all the way to the target.”

“Time to use jumpjets?” Bambi asked.

“Yes,” Jain said.

He released his magnetic mounts and jetted forward.

The surface came alive below him. It formed tentacles and other grabbing appendages as the micro machines swarmed together. He was forced to weave between them by unleashing lateral bursts; he increased his height, but then a plasma beam struck the side of his jumpjets—defense turrets they’d missed.

He crashed amid the micro machines, and his body lit up with sparks.

He clambered to his feet and swiped his hands across his body as he ran forward. His power cell was rapidly draining.

Behind him, the other Bolt Eaters were forced to reduce their heights to avoid getting hit by the defense turrets, and they swooped low inside the trench, only to be knocked to the surface by the appendages formed by the micro machines.

More hands formed in front of him, wrapping around his legs. Eric kicked them away. He threw an energy grenade onto the surface in front of him, and when it exploded, it cleared the micro machines from his path. He threw a few more grenades, and then deactivated his magnetic mounts, pushing off so that he glided forward.

Brontosaurus bounded past, using his jetpack. He tossed grenades in front of him like Eric to clear the way; he reached the gooseneck vent and shoved several grenades inside. Then he shoved off, floating upward.

The grenades detonated, and the gooseneck vent broke open into a series of petals like a flowering plant. Eric glanced overhead, but he saw no indication the shield had gone offline. He fired his plasma beam upward, and it traveled the five hundred meters to the shield, and the concave force field activated.

“Shield is still online!” Eric said.

He reached the gooseneck vent; it was big enough to fit his android, so he dove inside. Crusher and Bambi followed.

“Stay back!” he said. “You lose your androids, you lose your AI cores!”

But they ignored him.

He used his hands to pull himself down the tunnel; the confines allowed him to extend his arms up to the elbows and that was about it. He moved deeper into the opening, until suddenly artificial gravity took hold, and he fell the rest of the way to the bottom of the compartment. He swiveled out of the way as Bambi and Crusher dropped behind him.

It was easier to see here, since the glow from the bulkheads was far dimmer. The bottom was where most of the grenades had detonated. The explosion had ripped an opening into the side bulkhead. In the compartment beyond, the reactor responsible for maintaining the shield generator’s cooling flow was supposed to be right next to the wall.

But the aliens had moved it to the far side of the compartment. Apparently one of them had identified the vulnerability at some point, and they’d taken steps to remedy it.

No problem.

Eric threw a grenade toward the generator.

A tentacle swung out from the side, sourced by something just out of view, and swatted the grenade away. It struck the wall and detonated harmlessly next to the generator.

Eric cautiously peered past the edge of the opening.

Three large bioweapons resided in the compartment. They vaguely resembled minotaurs; muscular, humanoid bodies covered in scales, and heads that were somewhat bullish. The tips of their arms were covered in long tentacles, while smaller tentacles hung from beneath their heads. Long beaks protruded from their mouths, lined with sharp teeth.

Those tentacles swung out toward him. He couldn’t retreat—Bambi was right behind him.

“Look out!” he said.

He leaped forward, into the room, and when he landed, he dashed toward the reactor. Tentacles shot out in front of him, wrapping around his body and pulling him toward one of the minotaurs. His hands—and thus his rifle—were glued to his body. Beside him, Bambi was also wrapped up and drawn toward that serrated mouth, which had opened wide in anticipation of a meal.

The minotaur was going to be sorely disappointed when it crunched down on a mouthful of metal. Then again, maybe it liked eating machines. Given how it looked, he wouldn’t put that past the thing.

Plasma beams erupted from behind them as Crusher opened fire.

The minotaur released Eric and Bambi and they dropped to the deck.

Other tentacles thrust out, but Eric used the bayonet attachment on his rifle to slice them away. Then he stepped back and fired his plasma beam, hitting the creature in the center of mass. It fell to the deck with a huge hole in its chest cavity, but then its arms and legs curved backward at an unnatural angle and it rushed to assault them like some attack dog.

“It’s like something out of the Exorcist!” Bambi exclaimed as she unleashed her plasma rifle.

Eric had recently let her watch that movie. That had been a mistake—she’d had nightmares for weeks after.

The rifle bit into the twisted minotaur and finally its attack let up.

Eric turned toward the reactor only to find that the other two had taken up positions in front of the device.

“Interesting.” Eric experimentally tossed a grenade their way, and once again a minotaur attempted to swat it aside.

Eric grinned when it detonated, blowing away the tentacle of the minotaur in question—he’d switched to proximity trigger mode.

Unfortunately, he had only one grenade left. And two minotaurs still blocking his path.

“Anyone have any grenades left?” Eric asked.

“I’m out,” Crusher replied.

“Me too,” Bambi said.

“Bolt Eaters, we need more grenades down here,” Eric said.

No answer.

“The hull must be blocking our communications,” Crusher said.

He glanced sidelong at her. “Get back up there and borrow a grenade from someone else, then.”

A moment later Crusher said: “Uh. Could take me a while.”

Eric turned around.

In front of Crusher, past the rent in the bulkhead, micro machines were dropping down into the conduit the trio had used to enter like insects falling from a disturbed anthill.

She began opening fire at them, trying to clear a path.

“Eric!” Bambi shouted.

He amped up his time sense, but too late a tentacle wrapped around him and drew him inward. Because he was still in his heightened state, he managed to avoid having his rifle pinned to his body, and he fired at the source creature, striking it in the chest cavity. It released him, but like the other, even though its body crimped up grotesquely, it was still in the game.

Beside him, the other minotaur they’d shot up was coming at him again, and Bambi was doing all she could to defend against it.

The two minotaurs in front unleashed their tentacles in rapid succession, and Eric amped up his servomotor output to slice them away with his bayonet. He caused thick cuts that oozed black mist into the void—their blood was desublimating and evaporating at the same time as it touched the void environment.

One of the minotaurs thrust its head forward, opening those jaws wide, and Eric rammed the muzzle of his rifle down its throat and squeeze the trigger. The head exploded, and the minotaur finally collapsed.

The other one swatted him aside with its muscular arms, and he struck the bulkhead next to the reactor.

With that minotaur down, he had a clear view of the reactor in front of him, so he took a risk and threw the grenade. He amped up his time sense and swung his rifle toward the remaining minotaur beside the reactor, and he aimed at the tentacles as they shot out toward the grenade, as expected. He fired in rapid succession, severing the tentacles with his attacks, and the grenade struck the reactor and detonated.

The explosion sent him reeling, and he smashed into the far side of the room. He clambered to his feet.

“You guys all right?” he asked.

“Fine,” Bambi said, not far from him.

“Yeah,” Crusher said on the other side of the room.

He glanced at the reactor. It was a smoldering ruin. Beside it, the corpses of the minotaurs were unrecognizable. The third minotaur, its body still twisted like some demonic attack dog, began to rise, but Bambi shoved her rifle down its beak and fired, blowing the head apart.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eric said.

“How,” Crusher said, pointing at the termites still dropping from the hull, and crawling into the room from the opening.

“You still have jumpjets,” Eric said. “Force your way past.”

“What about you?” Bambi said. “You don’t have jumpjets.”

“I’ll have to climb,” he said.

“Your power levels are too low, not after the way you moved back there,” Bambi said. “Your zapper won’t be able to outlast them.”

“I’ll give you a ride,” Crusher said.

“It’s too tight,” Eric said.

“Hang onto my feet!” Crusher said. “Bambi, go!”

Bambi dashed over the termites near the opening, and sparks lit up across her boots. She leaped inside and jetted upward.

Crusher followed just behind her, and Eric immediately after.

She leaped through the tear and activated her jumpjets. Eric plowed through after her, his zapper engaging—his power cell levels dropped to precarious levels. He wrapped his hands around Crusher’s boots before they passed out of reach, and was jerked upward.

The artificial gravity faded, and she pulled him to the surface of the hull, which was becoming blindingly bright.

She deposited him on top of a nearby superstructure, where the other Bolt Eaters had gathered.

“Why didn’t you guys follow?” Eric asked his fellow Bolt Eaters.

Frogger pointed toward the deck below.

Amid the brightness, his LIDAR illuminated the bodies of more of those minotaurs lying on the deck.

“Oh,” he said.

He aimed his weapon skyward and fired. The space station’s shield didn’t engage, and the beam receded into the distance.

“Jain, do you read?” Eric tried. “Shield is down. I repeat, shield is down.”

He glanced at his timer. He and the others had been operating in accelerated reality for most of the mission, especially the latter half, so that external time had passed with half the speed.

That was good, because it meant there was still another minute left before the space station unleashed its deadly weapon. Hopefully that was enough time for the fleet to do what needed to be done.

“I read you,” Jain said. “Your men already reported in. We’re coming in for an attack run. I suggest you get the hell off of there.”

“Well, what are you waiting for, let’s go!” Eric pushed off.

“We were waiting for you!” Brontosaurus said.

The others fired their jetpacks, launching into space. Bambi scooped him up.

Eric sent a rendezvous signal to the shuttle; hopefully it would pick them up soon. Then again, maybe it was better if they remained adrift as individual androids when that space station’s weapon fired. Just in case Jain and the fleet didn’t destroy it in time.

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

But in war, one could never assume anything.

“We did it,” Bambi transmitted beside him.

Eric nodded, saying nothing.

10

Jain had been tied up above the space station by several Buckyballs. They’d released plasma beams at him and the Mimic fleet, and the lot of them had been forced to dodge those multi-fired beams.

He had only a minute to destroy the space station. But at his current accelerated time sense, that was more like three.

He unleashed his blobs and lightning weapon at two Buckyballs in front of him, then swung about to face the space station. It was so bright that it reminded him of a small sun. Even his autogating tech couldn’t filter it all, and he was forced to deactivate the visual band, and instead rely on LIDAR to target it.

The Vaernastians and Revlon had maintained their line of Barbells and Claws before the station. There was no way Jain or anyone else would be able to destroy the station, not while those bastards guarded it.

“Mark, Gavin, Cranston, I need you guys back here,” Jain said. He would have recalled Medeia, too, but she was currently cloaked, and not present on the virtual bridge. “Sheila, how strong is your energy shield?”

“Pretty weak,” Sheila said. “I won’t be able to help you in the attack run, I don’t think.”

“Stay back,” Jain said. “Tanis, do you have any ships with teleport charge left?”

“No,” Tanis said. “They’re all either destroyed, or currently recharging. Is your man Cranston able to teleport yet?”

“No,” Jain said. “The Bolt Eaters just completed their mission. Cranston doesn’t have time to reintegrate the tech from the shuttle. Never mind, I have something else in mind.”

He connected Hephaestus, Jhagan, and Slate as well and upped his time sense even higher, then explained his plan.

“Let’s do it,” Mark said.

Jain reverted to a somewhat slower time sense, and watched the Nurturer fleet of the Mimics dive toward the space station, joined by the Hang Gliders of the Tyrnari, all of whom broke away from their current combatants. The former unleashed a wave of blobs at the space station, while the latter fired plasma beams and those bubble-like projectiles.

On cue, the Barbells and Claws fired a wall of energy nets and expanding rifts.

“You know, I just thought of something,” Sheila said. “We could use those rifts to flee the system, if we can hit them head on. A way to bypass the Vaernastian rift jammers.”

“Except the rifts aren’t big enough to fit any of our ships,” Jain said. “Even when they expand to their maximum breadth, they’re still not big enough. If we enter, we’ll inevitably cut off portions of our hulls.”

“It was a nice dream…” Sheila said.

“Losing a repairable hull segment is preferable to losing the entire ship,” Mark said.

“Except it’s a bit too late to attempt such a strategy now,” Jain said. “And as soon as we tried it, the Claw ships would stop firing their rifts, no doubt. No, we finish this.”

The Mimics and Tyrnari continued flying toward that incoming wall, but then they split up, moving in separate directions. The individual ships overtopped or undercut the expanding wall, depending on their location, and circumvented it; then they swung back to come at the Barbell and Claw ships from the sides.

The enemy ships swiveled their noses to track the Mimics, and unleashed more nets and rifts.

“Now!” Jain said while the ships were distracted.

Mark rushed forward with Slate and the other Banthar, firing black holes galore. The enemy ships were forced to relocate, lest those black holes hit them.

The space station began to launch dispersion bolts—it was equipped with the same defenses as the world killers—and those black holes disappeared before they could strike.

Jain followed behind the Banthar, flying the Devastator through the resultant hole that was poked into their lines. He dodged the energy nets and rifts that the Barbells and Claws randomly launched his way, until he was flying over the ship.

The Banthar were raking the bright surface with their micro machines. Jain fired his lightning weapon, and unleashed several blobs. Cranston formed his micro machines into projectile that tore thick gaps into the surface. Gavin launched his orbiting drones, and the shared energy beam produced between them cut away different superstructures.

The Paladins came in next, and they launched raptors and hellraisers in rapid succession. The space station was unable to hold up to all the blows—the glow on its surface began to fade, and a moment later the framework exploded entirely.

Jain and the others finished their flyby; glancing behind him, he watched in satisfaction as the station’s constituent pieces spread outward in all directions like some exploding firework. He looked at his countdown timer. They had ten seconds to spare.

“Talk about cutting it close,” Cranston said.

“We do that, sometimes,” Mark added.

The rifts that the space station was generating for realtime communications with the rest of the Link deactivated at the same time. Some of the ships in the system were apparently operating under remote control, just like Eric, because when those rifts collapsed, several Veriarty Cubes ceased fighting, their running lights turning dim, and they simply drifted away aimlessly.

“They’re piloting them from different systems,” Mark commented.

“No, really?” Gavin said.

Mark gave him an annoyed look.

“Just like we used to do in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Cranston commented. “We went to work, made a few drone strikes, then after clocking out we drove home, had dinner, watched some BuddyTube, and then hopped into our warm beds.”

“Well, now the Veriarty are beginning to see the problems with a remote operations strategy,” Jain said. “The same problems we eventually hit up against.”

The allied fleet made short work of lifeless vessels.

The other enemy ships meanwhile began to activate rift beams of their own.

“They’re trying to jump out,” Sheila said.

“Take down as many as you can,” Jain said. They all knew that any ship they let get away now, was another vessel that they’d have to deal with at some later date.

He turned the Devastator around and began picking off the fleeing Barbells. A minute later most of them had jumped away. There were still a few laggards whose rift generators had been disabled, and the other members of the allied fleet were taking care of them. Meanwhile, still more allies methodically destroyed the remaining infrastructure frameworks that orbited the staging planet.

Jain tried to create a rift. It worked. So even the Vaernastian jamming ships had fled.

“Well, that’s one staging planet to cross off the list,” Jain said.

“We still have some activity on the planet below,” Sheila said. “Looks like Jason is a bit tied up.”

Jain glanced at Xander. “Bring us a little closer. I think I’d like to watch.”

“You’re twisted like that,” Sheila commented with an amused grin.

She knew he had no intention of watching, not if he could help it.

* * *

Jason and the War Forgers had cleared out most of the Razor Claws, and had dispersed among the different quonsets to defend against the Triceratopses and different machines, along with other bioweapons. The Loris still randomly appeared among them, asking for charges, and whenever they came, the team members quickly complied: the faster they could get those charges placed, the sooner they could finish here. The Lori in question would gather the charges, and then vanish once more.

So far, the Loris had detonated roughly half of the generators that led to Earth. The other half remained intact, along with all of the generators that fed bioweapons to the staging area.

Whenever the Loris caused more rifts to shutdown, the bioweapons would either swerve toward the next closest rift to Earth, or they’d attack the War Forgers—whoever was nearer.

Jason and his War Forgers were facing off against a strange breed of bioweapons in that moment, four-legged creatures that resembled giant marsupials; they could breathe ice, freezing the ground beneath the mechs, as well as their actual components. The ice melted away eventually, but the stricken components would remain inoperable for up to five minutes.

Jason had his left arm currently frozen to his side, for example, and had to rely on the laser and energy weapons in his right arm.

He had to resort to bashing in the heads of these Freezers when those two weapons overheated.

Aria leaped toward him then, surprising him. Her ballistic shield blocked a plasma beam that had been aimed at him. Beyond, the Triceratops that had fired the beam was attacked by Cheyanne and Tara. Their swords bit into its legs, quickly hamstringing the robot and toppling it.

An enemy mech appeared, and it fired its energy cannons at Cheyanne and Tara in rapid succession. Sophie leaped in front of Tara, and her energy shield protected the swordswoman. Cheyanne meanwhile swooped skyward, twin blades a blur, and she cut around that mech, slicing off its canons before separating its head from its body.

Another nearby Earth rift went down, and more bioweapons diverted from the feeder rift beside it toward the War Forgers.

“Clones, could use some help here,” Jason said.

But a quick glance at the map told him that the other War Forger clones were just as occupied.

“There’s too many of them!” Xin said. She had stopped unleashing her plasma beam because it had overheated, and instead was striking out with superheated fists that melted through the creatures when she struck them.

Two more Triceratopses approached her, and Aria leaped in front of Xin to protect her with her ballistic shield. Aria returned fire with her lightning weapon.

But Jason couldn’t watch them for long, because the new bioweapon closed. They resembled giant porcupines, except they could launch barbed spines. Several struck Jason in the chest, and those spines injected acid into the surrounding metal, melting it away.

Jason quickly scooped up the carcass of a Freezer and used it as a shield as the next Porcupine unleashed a similar attack. Then he struck out with that body, knocking the attacker aside.

Tara dove forward beside him, wading into the fray, sending up fresh splashes of blood with her sword.

A steady stream of explosions rocked the area as charges detonated throughout the battlefield.

“Those yours, Lori?” Jason asked. But there were too many explosions for them to belong to her.

“Wasn’t me!” Lori said.

Large black blobs fell from the sky above, smashing into the Triceratops and the mechs that assailed them. More blobs also crashed into the enemy bioweapons just in front of him, disintegrating large swaths of the enemy.

“Get away from the rifts, Loris!” Jason looked up, and saw a large pyramid ship overhead.

The Devastator.

Other Mimic vessels hovered behind it.

“Thought you could use some help,” Jain transmitted.

“I didn’t know your ships were atmosphere capable,” Jason said.

“Surprise,” Jain said.

“How did you shoot through the shield?” Jason asked.

“The Bolt Eaters took a shuttle down and entered through the hole your sappers dug for them,” Jain explained. “While you distracted the bioweapons and other units, they were busy planting charges on all the shield generators.”

“So that explains the rapid series of explosions,” Julian said.

“I had stealth units out there…” Jason said. “I hope you didn’t destroy them.”

“We targeted only the feeder rifts, the bioweapons, and the enemy robots,” Jain said. “If your stealth units adhered to the mission objectives, they should be fine.”

All the Loris reported in shortly. They were all right, much to Jason’s relief.

With the team accounted for, Jason allowed the Devastator and the Nurturers with it to open fire at the quonsets and remaining enemy robots.

There were still some Earth rifts active out there, but the blob attacks were able to rapidly reduce the local shields around the generators, allowing the teams to quickly destroy them.

There were no generators on the feed rifts—those would be present only on the source planets. The War Forgers lined up in front of half of those rifts to mow down all bioweapons that emerged. The Devastator and other Mimic vessels meanwhile fired their blobs at the remaining rifts, butchering the bioweapons that appeared. They occasionally launched lightning attacks, and the bolts arced between enemy units, searing them.

The creatures kept coming and coming, and the mechs and starships continued to fire. The resultant slaughter bordered on the disgusting—like dropping meat into the grinder.

Finally the aliens responsible for the feeder rifts realized they were sending their bioweapons to their deaths, and shut down the rifts in turn.

“Cease firing!” Jason said.

Most of his weapons had overheated by that point anyway, so it was actually good timing on the part of the aliens.

He paused to survey the ruin in front of him.

The bioweapons formed piles of flesh that were basically unrecognizable. On the ground in front of the alien warships, the blast craters their attacks had made were filled to the brim with the melted body parts of their opponents.

“Tell me again why we volunteered for this?” Tara said.

But Jason didn’t have an answer. He felt a mental exhaustion that was almost physical. In fact, it must have translated to his physical body, because he sat down then, directly on the ground, collapsing in a heap.

“Jason!” Lori said. She ran to his side. The top of her mech’s tail was a bright orange, because she had fired her plasma weapon to overheating several times. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” he said as she helped him sit upright. “Just need… a rest.”

Aria approached him, and plopped down beside him. “That was one of the more grueling missions we’ve been on.”

Jason nodded. “Earth is safe now. No more bioweapons will be coming.”

“Until the Link set up another staging planet,” Jerry said.

“Yes, but very soon now the Link will be on the defensive,” Jain sent over the comm. “They won’t have time to set up any such staging planets. We’re turning the tide here, people.”

“I hope so,” Jason said. He gazed out at the barely recognizable dead bodies. “Though that tide of yours is formed of blood at the moment.”

“It always is, in war,” Jain said. “By the way, do you need a ride?”

Jason hesitated. “Just give me a little longer.” He turned away from those bodies, and instead, he gazed at the ground directly in front of him, which was free from the dead bodies. He simply held onto Lori and Aria beside him, squeezing their metal shoulders tight.

“We’re going to get through this,” Lori said. “We’ve been through worse.”

Jason nodded, but somehow, he couldn’t make himself agree with her. What they’d just endured had to be the worst yet. And it was only going to get harder from here.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’ll get easier.

Somehow, he didn’t quite buy it.

11

Eric logged out of his android shortly after the Bolt Eaters finished setting the bombs on the planet. Bambi and Crusher promised to drag his body back to the shuttle, and if they couldn’t make it, they’d abandon the android, and when he wanted to return, he’d simply log into a new one.

He wanted to check on Dee’s progress against the Repelling the Entity attack.

He floated within the VR environment of his planet-wide consciousness, surrounded by the three-dimensional outlines of the different cities scattered across the world. Each of those cities harbored buildings containing the server farms responsible for his planet-wide consciousness. The flashing red dots that had marked those server farms earlier were gone—the attack against him had ended.

He attempted to log into the android he’d left in Little Earth, but couldn’t. “Dee, what’s going on? I can’t log into my Little Earth android.”

“Come to the palace in the capital,” Dee said cryptically.

“Why?” he said.

“Just do it,” his Accomp replied.

He returned his consciousness to the Banthar android he kept in the main palace of the capital city.

“I’m here,” Eric said. “Now what?”

“Proceed to the eastern wing,” Dee said.

“Little Earth is destroyed, isn’t it?” Eric said. “There’s no other reason why you’d tell me to go there.”

But Dee didn’t answer.

With a sigh, he used his prehensile limbs to manipulate the controls of the Hoverdisk that conveyed the android from place to place. He made his way to the eastern side of the palace, and passed various robotic servants along the way, all of which paused to bow when he went by. He hated that.

I’m going to have to change the programming on those robots someday.

But he didn’t really spend enough time here to justify it.

He reached the eastern wing, and proceeded to the topmost tower, which would give him a good view of the city. When he attained the upper level, he headed straight to the closest balcony and peered out across the city. Alien flyers hovered protectively above the skyscrapers in the city core that held his consciousness. Plumes of smoke arose from the outskirts of those buildings, and there was some blast damage to the different exteriors, but they seemed intact for the most past.

He shifted his gaze toward the neighborhood that held Little Earth. It wasn’t hard to find, because two more alien flyers hovered above it.

The smoldering ruin he saw below them wasn’t a surprise.

“How much is left?” he asked Dee.

“None of it,” Dee replied. “You told me to concentrate the defense on the server farm towers, to protect your consciousness at all costs. I did that. And this is the aforementioned cost.”

Eric simply stared at the ruins. “I’m not sure whether to be upset with you, or pleased. I’m leaning toward the former.”

Dee replayed a snippet he’d said earlier: “If you have to choose between losing Little Earth, or losing mind servers, then let Little Earth go.”

Eric closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “We’ll just have to rebuild.”

“I have repair swarms and termites working on the site as we speak,” Dee said. “It will take a few days.”

That wasn’t so bad.

“By the way, I finally found out which councilors belong to the Repelling the Entity group, as per your orders,” Dee said.

“Great, which ones?” Eric asked.

“All of them,” Dee said.

“Oh.” My fault for keeping them on. I should have terminated them all when I took charge.

He blamed it on that pesky thing called human morality, a leftover vestige of his former self.

He heard the buzzing of a movement disk behind him, and flicked the controls to turn his craft around. A Banthar stood on another Hoverdisk across from him. One of the councilors.

It held a pistol in its hands.

Before Eric could say anything, the pistol fired.

His consciousness snapped back to the staging environment and he was surrounded by wireframe cities once more.

“Damn it,” Eric said. “Those androids are expensive.”

“The rift gates in orbit are under attack by shuttles,” Dee said. “As are the orbital defense platforms.”

“What?” Eric said. “Deploy the defensive birds. And get me some surface-to-space protective fire.”

“The surface-to-space guns have been disabled in separate attacks,” Dee said.

He pulled up the damage profiles and saw that Dee was telling the truth. He confirmed that the hangar bays for the defense birds were still active, and those ships launched skyward.

“I’m getting a call from one of the councilors,” Dee said. “It’s Paisley.” He was essentially the de facto leader of the council, at least in Eric’s absence.

“Put him through,” Eric said.

A Banthar hologram appeared in front of him. To the untrained eye, all the snails looked pretty much identical, but there were differences if you knew what to look for. The shells they carried on their back, for example, always had unique spiral patterns. The curls in Paisley’s shells were fairly tight, a sign of noble blood. Paisley also had distinctive notches in the skin beneath his antenna. That, and a series of warts that dotted his slimy face.

“Well, well, well,” Paisley said. “It looks like your unwelcome rule is about to come to an end.”

Eric had chosen an English accent for Paisley’s avatar in the translation engine, which had seemed somehow appropriate to the Banthar’s usually condescending words. Dunnigan hadn’t been too happy about that.

“You can’t use my accent!” Dunnigan had complained. “That’s cultural appropriation. Or something.”

“You think that destroying the rift gates will get you anywhere?” Eric said. “I’ll have the shuttles you sent quashed within the hour. And then I’ll hunt the rest of you down one by one. After, I’ll choose a new Ruling Council. One more amenable to my will.”

“Oh, but those aren’t shuttles,” Paisley said. “They’re fighters. You see, it’s not us who are destroying the gates and defense platforms, but the Link. That’s right: the Ruling Council has already cut a deal with them. The Link will help us destroy you, and in return we agree to restore formal relations. We will resume bioweapon shipments as per quota, and commence invasion of Earth.”

“And let me guess, in return for doing all of this, the Link have agreed to install your mind into the Essential once you’ve rebuilt the planet-side network after I’m gone,” Eric told the Banthar.

“You are very good at this game,” Paisley said.

“It will take you months to rebuild, if you destroy me,” Eric said. “Your world will be without power and other essential utilities during that time.”

“We’ve been stockpiling repair elements in secret,” Paisley said. “And producing extra 3D printers in each city. We’ll be up and running far sooner, don’t you worry. Current estimates are as optimistic as two days.”

Eric had to laugh at that. “Rebuilding a planet-wide network in two days? I don’t think so. Well, I’d love to sit and talk with you, but I’ve got an empire to ward off, and some rebel snails to squash, so if you don’t mind…”

He disconnected, and Paisley’s avatar vanished. He upped his time sense to the max so he could think.

“You have to look at it from their perspective,” Dee said. “You do kind of look like an evil alien dictator, from their eyes: forcing them to build a replica of an Earth street in the heart of their most expensive neighborhood. Severing ties with an empire they have belonged to for hundreds of years, causing that empire to promise destruction. Monopolizing trade in precious metals so that your military always has fresh stock for its robots.”

“I can’t believe you’re sympathizing with these creatures,” Eric said. “Considering they plan to convert Earth into a bioweapons factory when this is done. Not to mention destroying me, and you in the process.”

Dee didn’t have anything to say about that.

Eric accessed the camera feeds from different orbital satellites, and plotted the data on an overhead map, emulating the tactical display he had aboard the Bethunia II, which he overlaid atop the cities around him. He confirmed that Link ships had indeed arrived. It looked like a few Battlestars, some Teleporters, and some Claws, along with some classes he’d never seen in person before. The Battlestars were no doubt responsible for the fighters that were sequentially destroying the rift gates in orbit.

“I have to talk to the Bolt Eaters, before my connection is severed,” Eric said.

“Probably a good idea,” Dee agreed.

Eric logged back into his remote android. Bambi had carried it aboard the shuttle, which was no doubt proceeding to the Bethunia II at this very moment.

He left his time sense on high as he looped Tanis, Hephaestus, Jason, Jhagan, and Jain onto the comm line he shared with his Bolt Eaters. Their AI cores would all up-switch to match his time sense when they received his message.

“So, I’m under attack by the Link,” Eric said.

“What?” Bambi said. “Oh, no.”

“Yes,” Eric said. “I’m also experiencing a bit of an insurrection. So you’ll understand why I’m going to have to temporarily recall my space navy. Tanis, you know how to send a message.”

“The rift generator you gave us,” Tanis said.

“Yes,” Eric told the Earth admiral. “But be warned, the neighborhood the rift leads to no longer exists. You’ll probably have to send a few mechs to escort any messengers.”

“Wait,” Tanis said. “We can help you.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Eric said. He didn’t want to be in the position of owing Earth anything. He preferred the current situation, where Earth owed him. “The Banthar fleet will be able to handle the intruders. There aren’t that many of them. I suggest you repair instead. If the situation changes, and we do need your help, I’ll let you know. Besides, you won’t be able to help me deal with the insurrection. That has to be all me.”

“All right,” Tanis said. “Well, we’re sorry to see you go.”

“Does this mean you’re leaving the alliance?” Hephaestus asked.

“I told you I was going to be temporarily recalling my space navy,” Eric told the Mimic. “I’m just taking a reprieve. I’ll try to rejoin the fight when I can.”

“When can we expect you?” Tanis said.

“Shouldn’t be too long,” Eric said. “A day. Maybe two.”

“Really? That quick?”

“Yes,” Eric said. “Slate, turn the Bug Killer around. Set a course for Banthar Prime. We’re going to need all the ships.” He glanced at the other Bolt Eaters who shared the shuttle with him. “When you get back to the Bethunia II, jump as soon as you’re able. I’m instructing the other Banthar ships to return immediately. I’m not sure how much longer the rift gates in orbit will be active, so after I log out here, you probably won’t hear from me until you reach Banthar Prime. See you soon. And to everyone else, I’m sorry.”

With that, Eric disconnected.

He returned his attention to the tactical display. The Bug Killer arrived momentarily, followed by the other Banthar ships under his command. He sent them on intercept courses.

“Be advised,” Eric sent. “Surface-to-space defenses are currently offline, and most orbital defense platforms have fallen. So don’t expect much help from here.”

“Ha, I’m used to that!” Slate said from the Bug Killer. “I usually have to do everything myself. But never fear, I’ll have these alien bitches handled before you can say ‘squash ‘em!’”

“I’m sure you will,” Eric said.

The last of the rift gates in orbit fell, severing his remote connection abilities.

When the Bethunia II arrived, he switched his consciousness to that vessel, and once more resided in the VR environment of the sailing ship.

The other Bolt Eaters lounged on the deck around him.

“So,” Eric said. “I can make a detour to Banthar Prime, and drop the rest of you off. Or you can come with me, and hope I don’t destroy the ship in the process.”

Marlborough shrugged. “There are escape pods.”

Bambi nodded. “We’re coming with you. Even if we’re just spectators along for the ride.”

“But I’m not really here,” Eric said. “You know that.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Bambi told him. “Besides, if you mess up, like Marlborough said, there are escape pods.”

Eric hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. “Come then.”

Their presence would make him extra cautious about putting that particular ship in danger. Probably a good thing. Then again, it only meant he was more likely to use the other Banthar ships as pawns.

“Dee, I want you to track down the council members,” Eric told his Accomp. “Confiscate their property and freeze their bank accounts. Arrest their family members.”

“What about the council members themselves?” Dee asked.

“I’m assuming they’ve gone into hiding,” Eric replied. “But if the facial recognition algorithms spot them anywhere, dispatch a full team of Sloths to arrest them. If they resist, the Sloths are authorized to use extreme force.”

“Got it,” Dee said.

He glanced at Bambi and Crusher, worried they’d think less of him for issuing these orders, but they seemed indifferent. Still, he couldn’t help the guilt he felt. He was acting more and more like the dictator Dee claimed him to be. Arresting family members for a crime, and confiscating all their property… it wasn’t something that happened in a democracy. Usually. He was just glad that Bambi and Crusher weren’t judging him.

He returned his attention to the battle at hand, and did his best to dismiss the guilt to the furthest reaches of his mind.

Guilt is good. If I wasn’t feeling it, then I’d have to worry.

That thought comforted him, and he steered the Bethunia II into weapons range.

12

Jason climbing the mountain that towered above his virtual cabin. He was so high up that below, the lake was about the size of his thumbnail. Above, the blue sky was clear, cloudless. He’d programmed it that way.

In the real world at that very moment, the fleets were undergoing repairs from the attack. They were using the wreckages of the ships from both sides of the battle to provide the necessary elements for the repairs, which meant they didn’t have to ferry materials back and forth from a planet—so repairs were all the faster. Tanis had allocated two days for damage recovery, and then the allies would take the fight to the Link.

The hope was that Eric would be done dealing with the threat to Banthar Prime by then. If not, they’d send messengers to confirm his situation, and if he still wasn’t coming, and didn’t need their help, they’d leave to attack the Link without him. Tanis didn’t want to wait too long, and risk giving the Link time to recover. At least that was Jason’s understanding. The president and his advisors might overrule any decision Tanis might make, especially considering it might be more prudent to wait longer for Eric—the more ships the allies had when they attacked the Link, the better, at least as far as Jason was concerned. But on the flip side, that also gave the Link more time to recoup from their latest losses.

When Jason had talked with Jhagan about Eric’s departure, the alien hadn’t seemed all that pleased. When Jason asked what the Tyrnari plans were going forward, Jhagan merely said: “I’ll have to consult the Queen.” A Tyrnari ship had jumped out shortly thereafter, ostensibly to do just that.

Jason cleared his mind, trying not to think about any of that. He had come here to forget everything. To relax. To be one with the elements. And the mountain.

“Nice ass.”

Jason missed the rock he was reaching for, and he tumbled. He bounced off the mountain a few times before his safety line grew taut. He recovered, straightening himself, and shook his head to clear the dizziness.

Tara floated down beside him. She sat cross-legged on a small cloud.

“What?” he asked, unable to hide the annoyance in his voice.

“Nothing?” she replied. “Just wanted to hang out. The women are looking for you.”

“I know,” he said. “Why do you think I’m here?”

“You wanted some peace and quiet?” she said.

“You’re good.” He reached for the closet crevice and pulled himself up.

“Can I climb with you?” she asked.

“No.” He hauled himself higher.

After a few moments, she floated back up so that she was beside him once more.

“That’s getting annoying.” Jason glared at her, but she gave him a sweet smile in return. “All right, you can climb with me! But keep quiet.”

“Thanks!” she said.

“You’re acting more like Lori every day,” he said.

Her face darkened at that, but when she materialized on the rock face next to him, she was all smiles once more. A safety line threaded upward, attached to the wall at the same level as his.

“I lost a sister, to climbing,” Tara said.

Jason glanced at her. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah,” Tara said. “It’s not something I’ve ever really talked about. I used to be a rock climber before her death. We often scaled peaks together as a team. But after she went, I couldn’t bear to climb another mountain. Not until I met you.”

“That’s sweet, I guess,” Jason said.

“It’s because I know none of this is real, I think,” Tara said. “I became afraid of heights. But here, heights are not real. I could let go of the wall, and either allow myself to plunge, or simply teleport myself somewhere else. The real world is different. I still feel fear, there. Thankfully we haven’t fought on any mountains.”

“So you don’t feel fear when we’re wading knee deep through alien bioweapons?” he asked her.

“Oh, I do,” she said. “But strangely, not for myself. But for you. And the others. I’m terrified that one day, you’re going to fall to some bioweapon, and have your AI core ripped to shreds.”

“Then restore me from a backup,” he said. “Make a Jason 7.”

She smiled sadly on the rock face beside him. “It’s not the same, and you know that. If we made a Jason 7, he’d come up with his own name in acknowledgement of the fact that he wasn’t really you. Call himself Jiggles or something.”

Jason tightened his grip on the wall as he laughed. “Yeah, I can see that.” He sighed. “I’ve never lost any of you. But I live in fear of that day. I’m worried it’s going to destroy me. Which is why I’m considering letting you all go early. Earth is safe now, for the moment. Sure, there are still some bioweapons that are roaming the cities, and need cleaning up, but for the most part, the defensive phase of the war is over. You don’t need to come for the next part.”

“I’ve already talked to the others,” she said. “Even Maeran wants to come. We’re not staying back while the final fight for humanity takes place.”

He nodded. “I’m not sure we’ll be fighting for humanity.”

“What do you mean?” she said.

“It doesn’t seem like Jhagan wants to be part of the final battle,” he said. “He already told me he has to talk to the Queen before he can participate.”

“Then we’ll switch to the human ships,” she said.

He shook his head. “Unlike the Tyrnari vessels, their cargo holds aren’t big enough for our mechs. Unless you want to abandon them for human androids.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready for that,” she said.

“What about Maeran?” he asked.

“Let’s ask her,” she said, vanishing.

With a sigh, Jason teleported to the mountain cabin’s common room, where the other women were lounging.

“Jason tells me that the Tyrnari might be leaving soon,” Tara said. “And if we want to stay and fight, the only way to do so is to become human androids.”

“Otherwise we can go with the Tyrnari,” Jason said. “And then use a rift back to Earth, staying inside our mechs.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourselves a bit,” Aria said. “We don’t know if the Tyrnari will stay yet. Let’s wait until then before we decide.”

As if on cue, Z announced in her sensuous voice: “A Tyrnari vessel just jumped in.”

A short while later Jhagan summoned Jason to an emergency meeting. Jason listened to what the Tyrnari told him, and then returned to the VR environment, where the women were waiting.

“So what’s the news?” Aria said.

Jason explained.

“Have you told the fleet, yet?” Tara asked.

“No, I wanted you all to hear it first,” he replied. “I have to go, of course. I can’t ask any of you to come with me.”

“We’re all going,” Lori said.

“Do you really all feel that way?” He ran his gaze across the team, and his eyes finally rested on Maeran. To his surprise, she nodded.

“It will be good to see the Rex Wolves,” Tara said. Their half T-Rex, half wolf pets were still on the Tyrnari homeworld, where Jason and the War Forgers had left them after their last visit. Risilan had promised to take good care of them until their return.

“Yes, I suppose it will,” he said. “Okay. I guess I’ll make the formal announcement to the fleet.” He looped in the clones, and explained the situation to them, then opened a connection with Tanis, Jacobs, Jain, and Hephaestus.

“What’s on your mind?” Jain asked.

“It’s with… regret… that I must inform you the Tyrnari are leaving,” Jason said. “Along with the War Forgers.”

“May I ask why?” Tanis said.

“Link ships are gathering on staging planets across the Tyrnari borders,” Jason said. “Queen Risilan is worried an invasion force will strike soon, and wants all ships to return against that eventuality. I’ve decided to join her, now that Earth is safe.”

“The Tyrnari, too?” Jain said. “The Link is doing a good job of dividing us.”

“Maybe the Paladins can help?” Tanis said. “I could talk to the President. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we detoured to help our allies.”

“No,” Jason said. “I suggested that, but Jhagan told me she won’t allow it. She thinks the only reason the Link forces are gathering is because she aided you in the first place. She doesn’t want to risk angering them further. Jhagan told me she even believes the Link antagonists will disperse once her ships return. But we’ll see. Trust me, I tried to convince Jhagan to leave the ships, but he was adamant in his refusal. Now that the threat to Earth has ended, at least partially, he feels her debt to me, and thus Earth, is repaid.”

“But you can stay and fight,” Jain said. “You don’t have to go.”

“How?” Jason said. “By moving my consciousness to an android? Or letting you drag our mechs behind you in open space?”

“We could attach you to our hulls…” Jain said.

Jason nodded. “I’ve decided I owe Queen Risilan more than I owe humanity. While she won’t accept help from the Paladins, she will allow me, and the War Forgers to return. And in case the Link do attack, I have to be there.”

“I think I understand,” Jain said. “Loyalty to one’s brothers and sisters surpasses loyalty to any government, or cause.”

“Yes,” Jason said. “If you want to attack the Link, you’ll have to do it on your own, with the Mimics. The Tyrnari, and the War Forgers, won’t help.”

13

Jain found himself in a quandary.

When the Void Warriors discovered that not only had the Bolt Eaters abandoned humanity, but the War Forgers, too, they began to question why they were staying.

“We’ve already saved the world,” Medeia said. “There’s no point in pressing the fight. How long do we want to keep fighting this war?”

“But we’ll have to save it again at some point, if we don’t stop the Link,” Jain said.

“But the Link have warred with the Fresnal for centuries,” Medeia said. “Is that how long we want to be doing this? I don’t think so.”

“You forget that we know their vulnerabilities,” Jain said. “And are familiar with most of their ship designs, and other offensive capabilities. That’s what happens when you ally with a former member of their Empire.”

“Yeah, well, it’s still not going to be easy,” Medeia said. “The Bolt Eaters, and now the War Forgers.” She threw up her arms.

“Remember, the Bolt Eaters are coming back,” Gavin said. “Just as soon as Eric deals with the insurrection.”

“Yeah, that could be months,” Medeia said.

“He did say two days,” Gavin pressed.

Medeia chuckled. “Once the Link start attacking a system, they don’t let up. Sure, Eric’s original estimate to repel the Link was two days. But wait until the enemy start sending in reinforcements.”

“The number of reinforcements they send, if any, depends upon how much of a debilitating blow we dealt them in the last few battles,” Sheila said.

“I have a sneaking suspicion we’ve barely harmed them,” Cranston said. “Though we’ve hurt their staging infrastructure, and probably significantly depleted their world killer supply, their space navy is probably very much intact. They wouldn’t have diverted too many from the front lines with the Fresnal, or they’d risk losing the territory.”

“Do we even know where the fight against the Fresnal is taking place?” Mark asked, looking at Jain.

Even Xander was looking at him.

Jain frowned. “Well, according to my database, the fight is near the outer perimeter of the galaxy,” Jain said. “Well beyond the Eastern Galactic Front of the humans. So it’s kind of their eastern front, whereas ours is their western.”

“It’s too bad we weren’t able to press our attack against them over the years,” Sheila said. “We could have forced them into a war on two fronts.”

“They’re already in a war on two fronts,” Jain said. “Multiple, actually, if it’s true that they’re planning to invade Tyrnari. And they’ve already attacked the Banthar. They might be spreading themselves too thin.”

“We can only hope,” Mark said.

“So we’re staying, you’re saying?” Medeia asked.

Jain studied her carefully, and then glanced between her and Mark. “You can leave whenever you want. No one is forcing you here. There’s no Containment Code wrapped around your mind. And any military contracts you signed would have expired years ago. You certainly owe nothing to me.”

She sighed, and lowered her gaze. She glanced at Mark. “I’ll stay with you, for now. I like to see things through, once I start them. It’s why I didn’t drop out of bootcamp all those years ago, after all.”

“Then why all the theatrics about leaving?” Jain said.

“Oh, I still want to leave,” Medeia said. “But I want us to do it as a group. We’re family now. You know that.”

Jain nodded slowly. “We certainly are.”

* * *

Jain stood next to the firepit in the center of the hide tent and warmed his hands. Outside, he could hear the wind moaning. Before coming in, the winter storm had kicked up snow so thick that everything had been pure white. Some of that snow occasionally tumbled inside from the smoke hole in the ceiling, though it was quickly melted in the heat from the fire.

Sheila resided at his side, and similarly held her palms toward the flames.

“Leave it to you to come up with a date involving hiking in the mountains of Mongolia,” Jain said.

She shrugged. “It was fun before the storm came.”

“Then delete the storm,” he said.

She shrugged. “That would remove the authenticity of it all. Part of the experience is dealing with whatever the environment throws at you.”

He gave her an annoyed look. “Well, next time I’m choosing the environment. And it’s going to be a lot cozier.”

She shrugged. “You can’t tell me you’re not looking forward to having sex in front of these flames.”

Jain glanced at the old Mongol who was staring at them from across the firepit. “I’m not going to while he’s watching.”

“He doesn’t exist,” she said. “He’s created by the spare processing power in our neural networks. A step below autonomous. Definitely not sentient. They used to call them NPCs.”

“NPCs?” Jain asked.

“Non-player characters,” she said. “Video game characters that had a set of responses programmed in for whatever actions you performed, or questions you might ask. And they’d repeat those responses verbatim every time you asked the same question.”

“Well, I’m still not making love to you with him present,” he said.

“Making love,” she said. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you describe it that way.”

He didn’t answer her, and instead sat down in front of the fire. Most of the flames hid the Mongol from view, which he preferred.

Sheila sat down beside Jain. “Medeia might have a point.”

He glanced at her, waiting for her to say more.

“I mean, about leaving,” she continued. “We’ve basically done everything we can for humanity. We’ve saved Earth, and destroyed the staging planet. Do we really want to involve ourselves in a hundred year war?”

“We have a chance to change the political climate of the immediate interstellar neighborhood,” he said. “A chance to remove the threat of the Link permanently. By forming our own Empire, and destroying theirs. Once we take down one of their homeworlds, other member species will start joining us. They’ll want to be on the winning side. The domino effect.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” she said.

“At the very least, we’ll gain the ships of the conquered homeworld,” he said.

She sat back, materializing a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. “But at that point, aren’t we little better than the Link themselves? Traveling across the galaxy, for the sake of conquering? We Mind Refurbs were supposed to be a race of peaceful explorers, not conquerors.”

“Sometimes the only thing you can do is conquer,” he said. “Sometimes it’s the only way to protect yourself.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” she said. “But then again, I don’t have any other options. Other than running.”

“And if we did run, losing out on our chance to influence the interstellar politics of the region, we could return in a hundred years, and find that this region of space looks very different,” he told her. “Earth, inhabited by bioweapons. The last remnants of humanity scraping by in the coreward systems, struggling against the radiation produced by the galactic center.”

“Why coreward?” she asked.

“That’s the only place humanity could really go,” he explained. “Other organic species wouldn’t want to deal with the debilitating radiation.”

“But the machine races wouldn’t care,” she said.

“True.” He paused. “The radiation was the reason we Void Warriors wanted to travel coreward all these years. Because we wanted to be left alone. But you bring up a good point. Back then, we didn’t realize how many other machine races there are. So we wouldn’t really be left alone.”

Sheila shrugged. “Depends on how close to the galactic core we decide to get, and how much time and effort we’re willing to put into radiation armor. Because even our circuitry is vulnerable to strong enough radiation.”

He nodded. “The first race that can come up with a weapon that can produce radiation as strong as the galactic core, will rule the galaxy.”

“Luckily, the energy requirements are through the roof,” she said.

He nodded. “You’d have to have a black hole the size of the galactic core. Although, we already can create smaller black holes. So I guess we’re on the way.”

“Too bad we don’t fully understand the physics,” she told him.

“Maybe I do, and I just haven’t shared it with anyone,” he said.

She elbowed him in the ribs. “You and your Mimic database.”

He rubbed his side, but then started giggling. She hit him harder, and it hurt, but it only made him laugh all the harder.

She scowled. “I don’t understand why you always laugh when I hit you.”

“It’s just an automatic response,” he said. “I can’t help it. When someone hits me, purposely trying to cause pain, I just find it funny. Because as a SEAL, I had to endure so much real pain just to pass muster, that simple things like an elbow to the ribs are funny.”

“Those days, they really made a mark on you, didn’t they?” she said.

“How could they not,” he said. “I went through one of the toughest trainings known to man during my formative years.”

“I had a few friends that became Rangers,” she said. “And another two that became Marines. Their training is just as brutal, I hear.”

He nodded. “They’ve very close. Did I ever tell you I lost a kid one year, when I was called in to help supervise Hell Week?”

“No, you didn’t,” she said. “What happened?”

Jain stared into the flames for a while. “He was a good guy. Had heart like you wouldn’t believe. But something about him just got under my skin. Maybe it was because every time I punished him for some minor transgression, it seemed to have no effect. I’d tell him to do five hundred push-ups, and he’d do them without flagging. When he finished, I’d tell him to do another five hundred. And then another five hundred. I don’t know where he got the energy, or the strength.

“I thought he must have been taking something illegally, so I had him report to sickbay, but he came back clean. I teased him and called him a robot at one point, and I had him cut open his arm to prove he could bleed. He bled, all right, all over the grinder, as he did his pushups. That was the only time I ever saw him flag, when he was bleeding out there, like that, and I had to call in the doc to give him a transfusion. But the next day he was right back at it, pushing out PT with the best of them.”

She shook her head. “You sound like a cruel instructor. Remind me never to sign up for training under you.”

“The instructor attitudes are infectious,” he said. “We fed off each other’s cruelty, and got a kick out of treating the trainees the same way we were treated. It was our chance at payback against the system, if you know what I mean. But yeah, we could overdo it.”

“So how did he die?” she asked.

Jain didn’t answer for a long time. “Well. It was during an evolution we called surf passage. Basically, it was about rowing these Zodiac inflatable boats past the surf zone—where the waves were breaking. When they reached the marker buoy, they’d exit their boats, flip them over to empty any water, right them, pull themselves back in, and then paddle back to shore.”

“Paddle?” she said. “As in a wooden oar? I didn’t know anyone still used those.”

He shrugged. “It’s part of the training. Anyway, several boats would launch at once, and the team that made it back first was granted a small reward, such as skipping the PT immediately following the race. Those rewards were valuable… you needed every rest you could get, especially during Hell Week.

“During one of those races, the boat he was in capsized while cresting a wave in the surf zone. The team was doing so well, fighting all the way to the top of that wave, but for some reason, most of them stopped rowing at the crest, when two more strokes—two simple strokes—would have put them over. I guess they were just too exhausted. But the kid, he was still rowing. He was the only one.

“The wipeout that followed was spectacular. Men and paddles were thrown into the air. White foam filled the air. Guys were sucked down in the undertow. We instructors were mostly laughing our asses off. Until we noticed one body lying headfirst in the water, unmoving. It was the kid. While some of the others had suffered broken ankles and dislocated knees, he’d taken a paddle in the head. It had hit him just under the nose, sending bone fragments into his brain. This is why we always told them to hang on tightly to those paddles during a wipeout. It was a lesson learned very painfully that day.”

He stared at the flames. “It just goes to show you, that no matter how good you are, how strong, how flawless your execution, if those around you don’t follow through, they could kill you.”

“Is that a subtle jab at the Void Warriors?” Sheila asked.

“Not at all,” he replied. “I trust you all completely. More than anybody in the universe. It’s everyone else I’m talking about. Jason and the Tyrnari have abandoned us. Eric and the Banthar as well. Eric says he’ll return, but it’s debatable whether he actually will or not. We’re right at the top of the wave. We’re still rowing, but the others have stopped. Two more strokes, and they could have taken us over. But they gave up, and now the rest of us might all pay the price. We could be facing the biggest wipeout humanity has ever seen.”

They sat in silence for several moments. Finally:

“You know, maybe next time, no SEAL stories,” Sheila said. “They really spoil the mood.” With that, she logged out.

14

The next morning, standard time, Jain had only just returned to the virtual bridge environment when Xander announced: “Admiral Tanis is on the line.”

“Connect him,” Jain said.

The admiral’s avatar appeared. Jain’s time sense accelerated enough to freeze external time—it automatically up-ticked to match the admiral’s transmission.

“Did you notice the arrival of the messenger ship this morning?” the admiral asked.

“Nope,” Jain replied. He glanced at his tactical display and picked out the newcomer. “But I see it now.”

“It was from Central Command,” Tanis continued. “The Link have renewed their attack on the Eastern Galactic Front.”

Jain frowned. “Attacking us along the edges, but refusing to face us head on. I’m not sure I understand their strategy. Why not attack Earth again, or this staging system? Why the sidestepping?”

“They’re trying to whittle us away, destroy our alliances, before attempting a direct attack again,” Tanis said. “Their losses from the last two attacks have made them a little gun shy, at least when it comes to attacking us directly.”

Jain switched to private—he didn’t want to question the admiral in front of the Void Warriors, as it might potentially offend the Mind Refurb. That was behavior Jain didn’t tolerate of subordinates when he was in the navy, and although he didn’t really fall under the admiral’s command hierarchy, it seemed the decent thing to do.

“You really think we’ve weakened them that much?” Jain said. “I know you want to attack them now, hoping to continue our momentum, but the truth is we’re probably a whole lot weaker than they are, even after the damage we caused. Especially with the Banthar and Tyrnari gone. If the Link pulled in every ship they had to strike at us, dipping into those of their number manning the front lines against the Fresnal, I have no doubt we’d lose.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Tanis said. “But you’re right, I did want to maintain our momentum, but that won’t be happening now. We’re not bringing the battle to the enemy, not yet. Central Command tells me that the president has approved a jump to the Eastern Galactic Front, where we are to help protect the border colonies. The fighting is concentrated in the Halvert System, so that’s where we’re headed first.”

“So are we still waiting for the Banthar?” Jain said.

“No,” Tanis said. “We can’t wait. Halvert is under attack at this very moment. We’ll be jumping within the next ten minutes. Wrap up any repairs you have.”

Repairs. Jain had actually finished repairing most critical systems, and he was able to cloak as well as activate stealth countermeasures again. The Mimics had achieved similar operational readiness, and the Void Warriors were mostly done with their own repairs.

“Have you at least told Eric we’re leaving?” Jain asked.

“I’ve sent messengers to Banthar Prime via the rift on Earth, but they haven’t returned yet,” Tanis said. “Even though they were due back several hours ago. I’m guessing the insurrection is worse than we thought. A few of the Paladins are staying behind anyway, as their engines are still under repair and they won’t make the jump window. We’ll send rift ships to get them at a later date. In the meantime, if Eric or Jason jump back here looking for us, they can let them know where we went.”

“Assuming the Link doesn’t shoot them down after we’re gone,” Jain said.

Tanis nodded. “I’ll be connecting again in about nine standard minutes to coordinate the jumps.” He disconnected.

Jain reverted his time sense and glanced at the crew. He realized he was still set to private, so he disabled that flag.

“So, what’s the news?” Medeia asked.

“We’re jumping to the Halvert system in ten minutes,” Jain said.

* * *

The Mind Refurb and Mimic fleets arrived to find Halvert II under siege. The two fleets had jumped in via separate rifts, and they set a rendezvous point one million kilometers away from the planet. Half of the Mimics had cloaked before entering the system, to hide their true numbers. The Mind Refurb fleets had lined up in pairs relative to the target planet, to similarly hide their heat signatures, but it was likely the Link had probes dispersed throughout the system, observing from all angles, and they’d be able to deduce the true number of Mind Refurbs.

As Jain headed toward the rendezvous point, he studied the tactical display. “Xander, are we able to discern the ship types from the heat signatures yet?”

“I’m detecting Vaernastian Barbells and Pinwheels, some Barrage Buckyballs, a few Revlon Claws, and one Gralos Battlestar,” the dark-robed Accomp said. “Oh, and there’s also an Armadillo.”

“An Armadillo?” Sheila said. “Haven’t seen one of those in a while.” Those ships were basically big bombs that could destroy everything within a three thousand kilometer radius.

“That explains why all the defenders are keeping well away from it,” Jain said.

“Yes,” Xander said. “The Link appear to be using it to herd the defenders away from the colony. Leaving the Link free to assault the evacuation rockets that periodically leave orbit. Already they’ve shot down two since I’ve watched.”

Most of those rockets were heading toward a small flotilla that floated well away from the battle above the planet. No doubt that flotilla protected a rift ship, which would allow the rockets to jump out. Jain wasn’t sure where they were jumping to—probably another colony system.

The Earth fleet reached the rendezvous point first, since they had arrived closer to the planet, and when the Mimics converged with them, they set a course for the colony. The Mimics promptly disappeared, as per the plan, engaging full cloaks. They also shut down their inertialess drives, and ceased all communications, so that they didn’t show up on the tactical display at all.

The admiral had wanted the enemy to see the arrival of the Mimics, and he’d also wanted the Link to see them cloak. “Let them sweat a little,” were Tanis’ words.

As the Mind Refurbs closed to within weapons range, flashes began to erupt in deep space, as relayed via Jain’s nose camera feed.

“Xander, what’s going on?” Jain asked.

“The enemy vessels appear to be firing rift creation beams,” his Accomp replied.

A minute later, Sheila confirmed it: “They’re all jumping out.”

“That seems unlike them,” Cranston commented. “The Link, fleeing without a fight?”

“I guess our reputation precedes us,” Mark said.

“They’ll probably be back shortly,” Gavin said. “With reinforcements.”

“We’ll deal with whatever cards we’re dealt,” Jain said.

Gavin smiled at the card reference. “No one plays cards these days. Which is too bad.”

“I do,” Jain said. “Maybe we should have a game later.”

“Maybe so,” Gavin agreed. Though from his slightly disinterested tone, Jain knew Gavin had no intention of following up on that offer.

He stared at the tactical display, and when all the Link ships had jumped out, he turned toward Xander. “Connect Tanis.”

The admiral joined, in hologram mode.

“I’m looping in Jacobs and Hephaestus, as well as Davis, Fleet Commander, Halvert II Colony,” Tanis said.

The avatars of Jacobs and Hephaestus appeared a moment later, followed by a young bearded man.

“Davis, meet Jacobs, my second in command, Jain, of the Void Warriors, and Hephaestus, of the Mimics,” Tanis said.

“Mimics,” Davis said. “I’d heard you had joined the war effort. Didn’t really think it was true. But I guess you’re real. You’d have to be, given all those Pyramid ships out there. Though I was expecting an avatar that was a little less… human.”

“Thank you,” Hephaestus said. “I think.”

“It must be because of you Mimics that all those ships just jumped out,” Davis said. “You must have spooked them. I have to admit, when I saw those Pyramids vanishing from the tactical display, I was spooked myself. I wasn’t sure for a moment if you were on our side. Can’t tell you how relieved I am to find you that you are.”

“So, what do you think?” Tanis said to Jacobs. “Have they really fled the system?”

“They’ll be back,” his second in command said. “They’re hoping to lull us into a sense of complacency, maybe, thinking it will demoralize us when they arrive with reinforcements. But they’re wrong. Even if their numbers blanket the system from end to end, we won’t be deterred.”

“Actually, we probably would be,” Jain said.

“At least there’s a realist among you,” Davis said. “All we want to do is jump out our evacuation craft. But the Link have some sort of rift jamming devices… they’ve been blocking us.”

Jain examined the tactical display again, and studied the flotilla that had gathered well away from the planet, near the rift ship. He realized those were all escape rockets. None of them had jumped.

“The jamming device is still in place?” Jain said.

“None of our rockets have jumped out, so I’d say yeah,” Davis said.

“I thought you were just waiting for a few more evacuation rockets to reach the rift ship, so they could jump together,” Jacobs said. “Considering it takes twelve hours to recharge…”

“I gave the order to jump out a while ago,” Davis said. “When the Link started shooting down our escape rockets. That’s ten thousand people dead, per rocket.” He shook his head. “Anyway, the rift ship I have out there is still trying to fire its beams, but they won’t take.”

Jain attempted to activate his own rift beams. “I can confirm. The beams don’t form.” He gazed at the tactical display. “It seems the Link are content to make us stay here, while they muster their forces to attack Earth, or the Banthar and Tyrnari. This was their plan all along. To separate and isolate us. Making it all the easier to pick off our fleets one by one.”

Tanis stared into the distance for a few moments. On the tactical display, blue dots appeared as tiny craft emerged from different ships among the Paladins.

“I’m dispatching probes to the far sides of the different planets and celestial objects in the system,” Tanis said. “We’ll find that jamming ship, or ships, and destroy them.”

More dots appeared from the Mimic fleet. “I’m launching similar probes. That jammer won’t hide for long, wherever it is.”

“Unless they’ve equipped their jammers with cloaking technology, like you Mimics,” Davis said.

“They can’t,” Hephaestus said. “We’ve never shared our technology with other Link members. Upon joining, we were required to provide ship designs and blueprints, cultural data, and the like, but not the actual workings of any weapons or stealth tech. In fact, no member species are required to share weapons technology, which is why the ship types of the different members are so varied. The Link encourages competition among its races, hoping it will goad them into developing even more powerful tech. They’ve also made it illegal to steal weapons tech from other Link races. That said, giving tech away is allowed. A few races have done that to curry favor with the higher-standing members of the empire, but the Mimics have never done that. Also, the only real common tech among member species is inertialess drives, which the Link do share with every new race that joins up, if they don’t have it.”

“So your point is, unless the Vaernastian have developed cloaking technology from the ground up, or by illegally stealing it from the Mimics, they won’t be cloaked,” Jain said.

“Let’s hope so,” Jacobs said. “Because if they are, we’ll be here for a very, very long time.”

Jain glanced at his tactical display. His gaze drifted to the wreckages above the colony, and he switched to a camera feed view, focusing on the Link ships the Halvert Defense Force had shot down. There were a few vessels that seemed relatively intact.

“The Vaernastian are able to modulate the frequencies of their jammers to allow their own ships, and other Link members, to jump out…” Jain said.

“That’s correct,” Hephaestus said.

Jain nodded. “So it stands to reason that if we can repair one of the damaged ships above the Halvert colony, we could use it to jump out.”

“Assuming they haven’t already moved the lost ships over to the ‘not allowed to jump’ list,” Jacobs said. “And even if they haven’t, they probably will once we turn one of their units online.”

“But a bunch of us will have jumped out by then,” Jain said. “We could bring back reinforcements from Earth to help out with the search. Or protect Earth, if it’s under attack. Once we return, and eliminate the jammers, we can leave to help out the Banthar and Tyrnari… get them to rejoin the alliance. Then we can finally bring the battle to the Link.”

“Yes, well, whether or not we do any of the latter depends on Central Command,” Tanis said. “We already have the Mimics. That might be good enough in the eyes of CentCom.”

Jain smiled patiently.

It won’t be. If I get out of here, I plan to secure the two alliances first thing, regardless of what Central Command wants. And even if I can’t secure those alliances, at least I’ll be helping out Mind Refurbs in need.

“In any case, I think fixing one of their ships is worth a shot,” Tanis said. “Can you work on that?”

“I’ll get on it,” Jain said.

“In the meantime, I’ll let you all know as soon as I detect the jamming ship,” Tanis said.

15

Jain found a suitable repair candidate among the wreckages of the Link vessels. The craft was relatively intact, and it was a simple matter to dock with it and unleash his termites.

It was a Vaernastian Barbell class vessel. He had the blueprints in his Mimic database. The weapons were damaged, so he wouldn’t be able to repair those—they appeared as black boxes in his catalog. The reactor and engine impairments were fixable, however.

The termites found the bodies of dead Vaernastians crystallized aboard. Organics crewed the vessels, helping to maintain the craft, but they also had advanced AIs that ran most ship systems. Jain determined that the AI was all he needed to get the machine up and running, after the repairs were completed.

Sheila planned to boot the AI in “safe” mode so she could make some tweaks. She was already experimenting with a sandbox environment based on their tech, using all the information Jain had on it in his database. In truth, there wasn’t a lot, so it might take her a while to hack in once the machine was online. At least she knew all the necessary protocols that would be needed to interface, and that was a very good start. She didn’t need full control… but just enough to fire up the rift generator. She was also working on a way to bypass the AI entirely and fire up the rift drives directly, in case she couldn’t get access.

While he waited for the repairs to complete, Cranston sent him a private environment request. Jain accepted.

The virtual bridge fell away, and Jain found himself in the jungle, next to a cloudy pool of water fed by a waterfall. The music of exotic songbirds filled the air alongside the gushing of those falls. It was very calming.

Cranston was seated on a large rock next to the pool.

Jain walked over to the rock to join him. He crossed his arms and leaned against a tree. The moment he did that, a parrot with pure white plumage took flight, startling him.

“Interesting environment,” Jain said.

“Shh,” Cranston said. “I’ve almost got him.”

Cranston was leaning out over the water, holding what looked like a small blue agate. A beaver was in the pool in front of him, and it was slowly paddling toward him, its muzzle sniffing at the air.

Since when are beavers attracted to gems?

This was virtual reality, he reminded himself. Cranston probably lifted the beaver and the gem assets from some video game.

The beaver approached, and was just about to touch the gem with its muzzle, when two large jaws emerged from the murky depths and clamped down on the semiaquatic rodent. If Jain was startled before by the bird, he was really startled then.

He caught the reptilian shape of an alligator as those jaws descended with their prize.

“Damn, I hate jump scares in games,” Jain said. “That’s one of the first things I toggle off when I download a new VR experience. Not that I’ve played a game in a very long time.”

Cranston shut his eyes.

Jain frowned. “What’s wrong, Brother?”

Cranston opened his eyes, but didn’t look at Jain, and instead gazed into the murky depths of the pool. “I feel like that beaver, sometimes.”

Cranston didn’t elaborate.

Jain remained quiet. He thought it best if he just let his friend talk at his own pace.

“I come so close to rising up from the darkness,” Cranston finally said. “I can see the gem of freedom in sight. But then an alligator comes leaping from the pit and swallows me back down into the dark depths.”

Jain once again waited for Cranston to say more.

“I can still see her,” Cranston said. “Bambi. Lying aboard that alien ship. Half her android head blown away, because of me. I know I wasn’t in control. I know I had an alien virus operating inside me. I know she’s since been restored, revived from an old backup. But that still doesn’t lessen the memory, nor the guilt.”

Jain decided it was time to speak. “If it’s causing you so much distress, we could delete the memory…”

“No,” Cranston said. “I want the pain. Need it. As a reminder of the darkness that’s waiting just beyond sight, to snatch me up in its claws if I lower my guard. I’ve invested heavily in antiviral security since that day. Come up with my own custom programs. I’ve shared some of them with Sheila. She’s impressed, she tells me. Says I should look into sharing them with the rest of the team.”

“We’ll take them, certainly,” Jain said.

“Yeah, well, I’m not giving them up, not yet,” Cranston said. “Not for a few years. Not until I can be sure they’ll protect you against whatever the Link or whatever other aliens we encounter throw our way. Don’t want to give you a false sense of security.”

Jain nodded. “Do you still relive old battles in virtual reality? Battles from when you were still human?”

“Every night,” Cranston said.

“Maybe cut back on that,” Jain said.

Cranston finally looked at him. His eyes were red, moist. “Can’t. It’s the only way I know how to honor my friends. And it’s the only way I get to be with them again. I’ve added the Bambi incident to those battles I relive.”

Jain nodded slowly. “But by doing this, you’re trapping yourself in a living nightmare. Repeating these horrific scenarios that led to the deaths of our brothers and sisters, again and again. Never giving yourself a chance to heal.”

“Even if I stop, it won’t matter,” Cranston said. “You know this. Because of the way our minds work, every memory for us seems like it took place only yesterday. Time heals all wounds? That’s such bullshit. It never worked when I was human. And it certainly doesn’t work now that I’m a machine.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Jain told his friend. “You’re right, of course. Memories can become a torture for us. But they can be deleted. Maybe you should seriously consider doing that.”

“It’s my punishment,” Cranston said. “For letting my brother and sisters die. For killing Bambi. Replaying their deaths until the end of time, that’s the burden I’ve chosen to bear. Maybe it will spur me never to let my guard down again. To never let any of you die on my watch.”

“No one needs to punish themselves like this, Cranston,” Jain said. “You’re just making this life harder than it needs to be.”

“There’s no easy day, remember?” Cranston said.

“No,” Jain said. “But there can still be good days. You’re turning every good day into a bad one.”

“That’s my choice,” Cranston said.

“You obviously called me here as a shout for help,” Jain said. “And I can’t help you if you won’t let me. Give me access to your memories. I’ll delete the most painful ones.”

“Actually, no,” Cranston said. “I called you here because I have some ideas on how to reroute control of the Vaernastian drives to a custom interface. You see, I’ve been experimenting with their protocols too, in my spare time.”

“I’ll let Sheila know,” Jain said. “Maybe she can connect you to her sandbox, and you can research this together.”

“I’ve already sent over all my findings to her,” Cranston said. “I’d prefer working in my own sandbox.”

“All right, well, thanks for letting me know,” Jain said. “I wish there was something more I could do to help you.”

“You just did,” Cranston said.

Jain nodded, and then logged out.

* * *

Jain’s repairs of the Vaernastian Barbell ship finished four hours later, a little longer than he had expected, mostly because he had to custom program the termites to work with the alien technology, but he got it done.

Sheila took over after he brought the vessel online, and she used her custom skirmisher to board it and work on the AI core remotely. She booted the AI in safe mode. She worked at her highest time sense, but after half an hour she reported that she wasn’t going to be able to hack in. So she began implementing the workaround, which required using a custom-printed part to interface with the rift generator hardware directly. Cranston’s ideas apparently contributed a big portion to the design of that custom interface.

In another hour she was ready to try it.

“I think we can create the rift now,” Sheila said. “The biggest problem was getting it to work with custom destinations. But I think I’ve solved that. So the question is, where do we want to jump first?”

“Earth, I’d say,” he replied.

“You’re worried Earth is under attack?” she asked.

“Yes, very worried,” he said. “I’m sure the Paladins want to return there as well, and get fresh orders from their president.”

“Sounds like you’re not so keen to obey those orders,” she told him.

“Depending on what those orders are, not really,” he admitted.

“All right,” she said. “Get lined up then. I’m not sure how long the rift will stay open before the stealth vessel jams it.”

“Xander, open a line to Tanis,” Jain said.

“You have the vessel ready to test?” Tanis asked when his hologram appeared.

“Yes,” Jain said. “The Void Warriors are lining up in front of it to make the jump to Earth.”

“Good,” Tanis said. “That’s where I want to go first. But I’m going to have to ask that you let the Paladins jump before you.”

“No,” Jain said. “The Void Warriors fixed that ship. They get to be the first to jump out.”

“I’m in command of this fleet,” Tanis said. “I hate to pull rank, but…”

“Actually, you’re not in command of me or the Void Warriors,” Jain said. “Check the orders from your president, or Central Command. In them, it clearly states that we operate as independent entities. Similar to allies. And if you don’t back off on this, I’ll order you to the back of the line, and have the Mimics enter the rift after we do.”

Tanis stared at him for several moments, then finally shrugged. “As you wish. But you better go through fast, because we’re going to be breathing down your neck.”

He disconnected.

It didn’t take long for the fleet to queue behind the Vaernastian Barbell. Tanis hadn’t been kidding about breathing down their necks—the closest Paladin vessel was located about five hundred meters behind Gavin’s Hippogriff, which was at the rear of the Void Warrior line. The Paladins themselves were spaced a similar distance apart, forming a long line. The Mimics had queued after them, though they had left greater space between their vessels. Hephaestus had seemed a little insulted when Tanis told him the Mimics would go last, but the Mimic commander hadn’t contested the admiral.

“Sheila, open up the rift,” Jain ordered.

She activated the remote interface on the new device, and the rift opened. She launched a probe through the rift, and it returned a moment later.

“The rift is stable,” Sheila said. Her communication included an increase in time sense, which Jain accepted automatically, slowing external reality. “And the destination matches Earth system.”

“Is Earth under attack?” Jain asked.

“No,” she replied. “At least not as far as I can tell. It’s fairly quiet in the system. The remnants of Earth Defense Force 1 and Task Force 88 are all in orbit above the homeworld. The same number we left behind. So they haven’t seen any Link attackers, I’m guessing.”

“Unless it’s a trick of some kind,” Medeia said.

“All right, enter,” Jain told Sheila. She was at the front of the line. “Xander, take us in after her. Void Warriors, follow as quickly as you can, or those overeager Paladins will probably crash into you.”

He reverted his time sense to normal, and followed Sheila through the rift. The Void Warriors followed in turn. The Paladins began to follow, but as soon as the first was partway through, the rift collapsed, and the vessel tore apart.

“Shit,” Jain said. “That was quick.”

“Well, we always knew the Vaernastians would change their jamming frequencies once they realized what we were doing,” Sheila said.

“Yes, just not that fast,” Jain said. “Which tells me that the jamming ship isn’t that far away at all. In fact, I’m beginning to think they’re hiding somewhere on the colony world.”

“Should we send a probe back, let them know?” Mark asked.

“I’m sure they’ll figure it out,” Jain said.

“Send a probe back…” Sheila said, tapping her lips in thought. “You know, we could open a rift back to Halvert. And give the trapped fleet a way back.”

“We could,” Jain said. “If we could control where the rift appeared, that is. I mean, sure, I know the general area it will open, thanks to the precomputed calculations. But it still materializes randomly within that space, plus or minus a million kilometers in every direction. Once the trapped fleet reached the general area, I could keep opening a new rift every two hours, and maybe I’d get lucky and create an endpoint close to them. But otherwise, I won’t be able to hold it open long enough for the fleet to pass through.”

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” Sheila said. “We could be there for days.”

“Yes,” Jain said. “Or longer. It’ll be faster for them to hunt down the jammer. Especially now that they know it’s close.”

“There could actually be a jammer hidden in this system, too,” Gavin said. “So all this discussion about opening rifts could be moot.”

Suddenly worried, Jain fired his rift beams and was relieved when they worked. He deactivated it so that he wouldn’t waste the charge.

“I wish we knew how to modulate our rift beams,” Medeia said. “To work around those jammers.”

“Yeah, if we knew how the technology worked at a basic level, then we could,” Sheila agreed. “Unfortunately, this is one of those black box things. At least it is in Jain’s Mimic database.”

Jain studied the wreckage of the Paladin vessel as it drifted, spinning in space. “Xander, who was aboard that ship? Tell me that wasn’t the flagship.”

“It wasn’t,” Xander said. “It carried a subordinate Mind Refurb named William Wilson.”

“Poor Wilson,” Sheila said.

Jain took a deep breath. “Okay. Xander, send a message to Earth. Let him know the situation in Halvert. And tell him we’re going to be leaving for Banthar Prime pronto, seeing as Earth system is safe. Assuming he hasn’t heard from Eric.”

“What if the president wants us to do something else?” Gavin asked.

“We’re our own masters,” Jain said. “But depending on the urgency, I’ll consider it. Xander, send the message.”

“Done,” Xander said.

“I’ll give the president the courtesy of waiting for a response,” Jain said. “And then we’re leaving.”

Forty minutes later the response came.

“The president says that no reply has yet come from Eric,” Xander said.

“Eric said he’d be back in two days,” Medeia commented. “Guess that was an optimistic estimate.”

Jain glanced at his Accomp. “Did Wilcox say anything else?”

“No,” Xander said. “Other than, the president wishes us a good journey, and hopes we can normalize Banthar-Human relations.”

Jain had to smile at that. That was as close to a stamp of approval for his mission as he could ask for from the president.

He glanced at his team. “All right, Void Warriors. It’s time to jump to Banthar space.”

16

Eric swung the Bethunia II underneath the two Battlestars, destroying the fighters in his path with gamma ray bursts. He raked the undersides of the Battlestars with the micro machine swarm that coated his exterior, and peeled open the enemy hulls like cans of sardines.

Two Teleporters appeared in his path, and he began evasive maneuvers. He still felt the pain as bombs materialized inside of him, but because of his random, erratic movements, the enemy wasn’t able to hit any critical components. He released a series of black holes at the pair, herding them toward one another. They were forced to collide, and the impact sent up clouds of debris around them, and disabled the ships. He launched a few final black holes directly at them, and the teleporters spaghettified. As he completed his flyby, he launched dispersion bolts behind him to dissipate the black holes. It wasn’t a good idea to leave them orbiting his homeworld for too long. It could adversely affect atmospheric conditions.

He swooped down toward Banthar Prime, heading toward the Claws that had gathered next to the Vaernastian Laser Pinwheels. The latter had just recharged, and unleashed a wave of laser attacks that ate into his hull. He was still weaving back and forth, but the Pinwheels had powerful targeting AIs, and he wasn’t able to escape the impacts. The wave of rifts from the Claws came next, and he narrowly weaved out of the way of those.

The Bug Killer came in from the side, launching black holes at the Claws and Pinwheels. The vessels dispersed, moving directly into Eric’s path, and he accelerated. He changed course so that he wouldn’t ram them, and unleashed his micro machines, tearing open the enemy hulls and disabling the three vessels.

Ten Barbells came down from above, and launched a series of energy grids that formed a sheer wall in front of him. Eric was forced to reverse course completely, and he dove downward, toward the planet, until he was able to slide out of the way of that rapidly incoming wall.

Then he turned upward, and fired several more black holes until the weapon overheated.

The ships moved out of the way of those black holes, but more Banthar swooped in to attack with their micro machines. The Bug Killer turned back, darted out of the way of the next series of energy grids, and fired more black holes. Two of them struck an unlucky Barbell, while the remaining ships managed to maneuver away. It didn’t help them, however, because other Banthar had been expecting the trajectory change, and they met the Barbells with their micro machines. In moments they’d torn open another four, and the remaining Barbells turned back to regroup.

They gathered with the ship types Eric had been avoiding directly engaging so far. The Gralos Reflectors. Those ships could reflect any attack he launched their way. Black holes bounced off their hulls and returned toward the ships that launched them, seemingly defying the laws of physics. Gamma rays were similarly reflected. Even the micro machines were unable to latch onto the hull, and simply bounced away. Eric had no type of weaponry that could harm them. Well, other than all-out ramming—according to the specs he had on them, the only way to damage ships of these types was by hitting them with objects of equivalent or larger size. But he wasn’t willing to sacrifice any of his fleet in such a manner. He wasn’t that desperate. Yet.

But if he could herd the surrounding Barbells into them, the same way he’d just made the two Teleporters collide, then perhaps he could destroy them without losing any of his own ships. It was worth a try.

“Banthar fleet, concentrate black hole fire on the Barbells,” Eric said. “Utilize the following firing solutions.” And he drew on the tactical display, giving each ship a different vessel to target.

“Ooo!” Slate said. “The deviousness of it!”

“I don’t get it,” Traps said from where he sat on the virtual deck of the sailing ship next to Eric.

“They’re trying to herd them into the Reflectors,” Brontosaurus explained beside him.

“Ah,” Traps said. “Won’t they just move out of the way?”

“Not if they’re hemmed in by black holes,” Brontosaurus said.

“At least that’s the plan,” Eric confirmed.

He sent the Bethunia II forward, and unleashed his black hole weapon at the Barbells in the prescribed pattern. The other Banthar, including the Bug Killer, joined him, and together created a light-bending tunnel of death. The Barbells fired their energy grids, but the black holes sucked most of them up, and the Vaernastians had no choice but to change course, flying toward the Reflectors. The latter vessels purposely steered toward the black holes in an effort to reflect them. Eric had anticipated and planned for that in his black hole dispersion pattern. In fact, he’d launched some specifically to reflect toward the Barbells, further hemming them into the path he wanted.

And then two of the Barbells struck a pair of Reflectors, destroying all four of them. The remainder managed to evade the onslaught. That left three Barbells, and two Reflectors.

Eric and the others made another flyby, but this time they launched dispersion bolts, cleaning up the mess they’d created.

The Barbells launched energy grids in an attempt to stop them, but Eric and the others evaded. He turned back and sent the latest firing solution to the Banthar ships, and the next wave of black holes approached. The Vaernastians were smart this time, and quickly reversed course, putting as much distance between themselves and the Reflectors as possible. Too bad.

The Reflectors purposely hit the black holes, and caused them to bounce away. Eric and the others fired dispersion bolts; one of the Reflectors passed close to Eric, and it launched its close range energy beam. The weapon tore through the starboard side of his ship.

“We have multiple breaches on decks five through nine,” Dee announced.

“I know,” Eric said.

He swung away, trying to put as much distance as he could between himself and the slower ship. He turned toward the Barbells, and launched a series of black holes that the Vaernastians easily evaded.

He spotted three more Reflectors approaching behind them.

“Where the hell did those come from?” he asked Dee.

“Where do you think?” Dee said. “They’ve been coming in from out system for a few hours now, since the reinforcements jumped in.”

The reinforcements. He’d almost forgotten about them. He’d dismissed them to the extremities of his machine mind.

He glanced at his tactical display. Seven more Reflectors approached behind the three newcomers.

It looked like he was going to have to start destroying his own ships.

No.

“Banthar, set a course toward the asteroid belt,” Eric ordered. He turned around, and allowed the enemy to pursue.

Eric was the first to reach the nearby belt. It took half an hour. Asteroid belts weren’t anything like what were portrayed in old twenty-first century movies, with rocks of various sizes filling the view from horizon to horizon. At least none of the asteroid belts he had ever encountered, which admittedly wasn’t very many. Here in the Banthar system, the asteroids were so far apart, that when you were next to one, the surrounding space essentially appeared empty, save for the ever-present stars.

“What’s the plan?” Slate asked.

“I think you’ve figured it out by now,” Eric said. “Grab a rock, and throw it at the Reflectors. I’ve got dibs on this one.”

He headed toward the closest rock and fired grappling hooks into the asteroid. When he accelerated away, the cords grew taut, and one broke. He worried the remaining cords would break, so he ceased all movement and launched his micro machine swarm toward the rock, forming hundreds more grappling hooks out of the tiny machines, and then tried again. The cords grew taut once again, including those formed by the micro machines, but they all held.

“Muster with me here, when you have a rock,” Eric said. “We only need about eleven of you.” He randomly selected eleven Banthar ships. “The rest of you, meet at the waypoint.” He created a waypoint about thirty thousand kilometers ahead in the asteroid belt, and accelerated toward it.

He glanced at his tactical display. The Reflectors had returned to Banthar Prime, where they waited in orbit with the Barbells, as if guarding the planet. Eric’s consciousness was still on that planet, but he had no way of attacking them, not while the land-to-space weapons were still offline, and all the orbital defense platforms were destroyed. He was still fuming about that.

Those idiot councilors.

He occasionally hit smaller fragments of rock, which were common in the asteroid belt; they pelted his hull, forming fresh micro craters, but otherwise did no real damager. When he reached the rendezvous point, he waited.

The other eleven designated ships gathered their own asteroids, and then joined Eric, who waited alongside the remaining Banthar. Then the fleet turned back toward Banthar Prime.

It took another half hour to return, and when they reached the planet, the Reflectors lined up to block their path. Eric and the others altered course so that they’d come at the ships from the same orbital height, rather than from above, that way the planet wasn’t underneath the enemy—he intended to fire a ton of black holes, and didn’t want them smashing into the planet below.

When the fleet arrived, he and the others unleashed the planned black hole assault against the two Vaernastians, and dispersed them.

Eric ordered those Banthar that weren’t towing rocks to engage the Vaernastians. Meanwhile, he and the other eleven continued to approach the Reflectors. The latter attempted to flee, but Eric and the others had superior speed. Even though they all had inertialess drives, the Banthar’s were more powerful.

Eric maneuvered upward as he approached, and decelerated, allowing his asteroid to swing forward like a wrecking ball. The other eleven Banthar did the same. The Reflectors easily dodged these rocks, which was expected. They fired their energy beams, drilling small holes into the celestial bodies, but otherwise the rocks remained intact.

Eric rescinded his grappling hooks until the rock was essentially a part of him, and then he set a course directly toward the closest Reflector. He turned around, so that the rock was facing the enemy, and then accelerated, matching the target’s course.

The moment before impact he released the rock and swooped downward.

“Reflect this!” Eric said.

Once again the Reflector tried in vain to fire its energy beam, but did little damage to the asteroid. The rock impacted, destroying the Reflector, and itself.

The other eleven Banthar similarly attached the asteroids to their hulls, and released them before striking their targets. One by one, they destroyed the Reflectors.

Meanwhile, the other Banthar had eradicated the remaining three Barbells.

“That’s the last of them,” Frogger said. “For now.”

“How many waves was that?” Tread asked.

“Too many,” Eric replied.

“I’m detecting another rift opening nearby,” Dee said.

“Again!” Eric said. “It never ends.”

“Wait,” Dee said. “The heat signatures of these ships are different…”

“Different?” Eric said. “Come on, I need specifics, Dee.”

“I’m detecting a Mimic Nurturer, and several Earth class starships,” Dee said. “I think they belong to the Void Warriors.”

“Oh,” Eric said.

“That’s a relief,” Bambi said.

“Maybe,” Eric said. “Depends what they want.”

“We did say we’d return to help them, after we were done here,” Crusher reminded him from the deck nearby.

“Yeah, but I’m beginning to have second thoughts about that,” Eric said. “Considering that it looks like we aren’t going to be done here for a very long time!”

“Maybe that was the last wave…” Dunnigan said.

“Wishful thinking, my English friend,” Eric said. “Dee, let me know as soon as the Void Warriors are in range. We might as well get our little talk over with.”

17

Jain received the comm request from Eric when he reached realtime communications range.

He accepted, and Eric’s hologram appeared.

“Nice of you to show up,” Eric said. “Just when we finally get rid of all the attackers.”

“I can see the debris in orbit,” Jain said. “Looks like it got a bit rough here.”

“Rough?” Eric said. “An understatement. Look, let’s not beat around the bush. We both know why you’re here.”

Jain frowned. “Beat around the what?”

“Never mind,” Eric said. “An archaic expression from my days. But anyway, I can’t go back with you. That’s why you’re here, right? To bring the Banthar back into the great Mimic-Human alliance? But we can’t leave yet. The attacks keep coming. More ships will probably be here within the hour.”

“Then we’ll stay with you, and fight,” Jain said.

“You mean it?” Eric asked.

“I do,” Jain replied.

“You’re not doing this because you want the Banthar to rejoin the humans?” Eric said.

“Of course I am,” Jain said. “Humanity could certainly use the help. It feels like we’re so close to beating the Link. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m telling you, the tide is definitely at our back. Or it was, until the Link forced us apart. So yes, I would very much like the Banthar to return. But it has to be what you want. I can’t force you to do this, especially considering that the cost probably won’t be all that cheap. But in the meantime, I’m here to help you. After I’m done here, I’m heading to the Tyrnari system to see if Jason needs a hand.”

“That way you can get him to convince the Tyrnari to rejoin the alliance as well, huh?” Eric said. “You consider yourself some kind of war broker, or something?”

“More like a peace broker,” Jain said. “But also, even if neither of you rejoin the alliance, that’s completely all right. Because we Mind Refurb rogues, we help each other out.”

Eric pursed his lips, and nodded slowly. “I appreciate the candor. And I kind of feel the same way about helping out. I won’t abandon humanity, though I admit I’ve been feeling a bit stressed lately. I don’t want to leave Banthar Prime until I’m sure it’s safe.”

“Then stay here as long as you need,” Jain said. “I’ll probably leave for the Tyrnari homeworld by tomorrow, if there’s no more attacks by then. Up to you whether you come or not. By the way, you were supposed to call us for help if the situation became overwhelming here.”

“Except it wasn’t overwhelming,” Eric told him.

“But they kept coming, you said,” Jain pressed. “That seems tantamount to overwhelming, to me.”

Eric shrugged. “We were able to handle it. Sometimes it got a bit rough, yes.”

“Maybe you’re just too stubborn to ask for help,” Jain said.

Eric nodded. “Maybe. But I hate owing people anything. Especially for something I can handle on my own.”

Jain studied the Mind Refurb for a moment. “By the way, have you got the insurrection handled? Maybe that’s something we can help with.”

“Won’t be necessary,” Eric said. “Dee’s got half the councilors arrested. The rest are still in hiding, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve already replaced the Ruling Council with fresh bodies. These new Banthar are willing and eager to obey their Essential.”

“That’s good,” Jain said. “I suppose.”

“It is,” Eric said. “One small squiggle for snail, one giant squirm for Banthar-kind. Or something.”

“Well, I guess we’ll wait here in orbit then,” Jain said. “With your permission, of course. We’ll help secure the perimeter of Banthar Prime against further Link attacks.”

“That’s fine,” Eric said. “You plan to stay until tomorrow if there are no attacks? How long are we talking? Twenty-four standard hours?”

“I think so,” Jain said. “I don’t want to stay if we’re not needed. Jason could be in dire straits. In fact, I almost want to jump to the Tyrnari system right now, since things have quieted down here. But my instincts tell me I should stay a little longer.”

“You could always send a probe to his system or something,” Eric said. “And check how they’re doing that way. If it looks—” He suddenly glanced to the side. “Gotta go!”

Eric’s avatar winked out.

* * *

Alarms went off all around Eric.

He resided in the virtual reality environment of his planet-wide consciousness. Around him, the wireframe cities depicted on the globe around him were beset by red dots.

Yet another coordinated attack.

“The insurrection was supposed to be quelled,” Eric said.

“We’ve only arrested half the councilors,” Dee said. “And the ringleader is still out there.”

“The ringleader…” His gaze moved distractedly from city to city. The worst attack was here, in the capital, where his main data center resided. If he lost those buildings, his processing power would take a big hit, dropping by up to thirty percent.

Gotta protect those skyscrapers.

He tried to switch to the security camera equivalents he had embedded in the towers, but all of them were offline. He was forced to access the camera on a nearby building instead.

Outside, the street was literally steeped in sloths. Just hordes of them. The metal machinations covered the neighborhood, crawling over the streets, and across the buildings. All of them were concentrating their fire on the energy shields that surrounded the main data center buildings, and unleashed plasma beams in rapid succession.

Above, two rebel airships joined in the attack, and fired energy bolts at the data center’s shields.

Eric’s own defensive units lay in a smoldering ruin in front of the shields. The wreckages of three of his own airships were strewn across the ground nearby.

Power was down across the city—the attackers had attempted to deactivate the data center’s shields by blowing up the buildings responsible for the power grid. It was a strategy Eric had used to disable the force field in his original attack a lifetime ago, but he’d since built back up generators to maintain those shields, housed next to the local cells that fed power to the data center itself, so the shields were no longer reliant upon the power grid. That said, they could still be disabled, after taking enough hits. So far, they were holding.

But that wouldn’t last long.

He dispatched Dee to handle the attacks in the other cities so that he could focus his attention here. He recalled defensive units from across the city, and instructed them to congregate on the data center. He also launched airships from hangars citywide, and even called on those that were stowed in rural areas outside.

A squad of mechs and sloths arrived at the southern edge of the attackers, and began to unleash hell. A large group of attackers turned toward them, and in a few moments managed to surround the smaller squad. Eric watched helplessly as they were reduced to rubble.

More squads arrived from other neighborhoods, but they too were similarly reduced to spare parts. He gave them orders to gather in a clear spot away from the attackers first, hoping that if they attacked in greater numbers, they could do more damage.

Feels like a damn realtime strategy game. I was never the best at realtime strategy games.

Eric deployed a series of elite snipers on a rooftop that was clear of attackers nearby, and they began to fire down at the enemy.

He had energy cannon artillery unleash attacks from several streets away to wear down the shields of the airships. The artillery also launched energy shells that landed in the midst of the enemy, forming big blast craters among them.

He sent in the Krandari, his spec-op equivalents, and they circled the airships, waiting for the shields to drop from the artillery attacks. Meanwhile, they dropped bombs on the robots below.

But all of that wasn’t going to be enough. The data center’s shields were close to failing.

Not looking forward to losing thirty percent of my processing power.

That meant he and Dee would operate all the more slowly, and there was a good chance he would lose data centers in other cities because of that.

His shield went down.

But then the energy attacks began to hit the empty air. A huge, floating pyramid materialized in front of the data center, between the enemy, and the buildings.

The Devastator.

It was at least ten times as big as the air ships, and the sloths looked like tiny ants next to it. The energy attacks continued unabated, the enemy units unfazed by the sight of this monstrosity of a warship. Of course they would be unperturbed—they were machines. Their weapons inflicted damage to the hull of the Nurturer vessel, but the ship merely hovered there for several moments, blotting out the sun, taking the hits, as if to show the enemy that the attacks were little more than pinpricks to it.

And then all hell broke loose.

The Devastator lived up to its name. Lightning erupted from the pyramid and struck the closest airship. The bolt arced to the second airship, and also separated into multiple tines that struck the crowds of sloths and mechs below. The shields of the airships were already drained from Eric’s artillery attacks, and the lightning penetrated easily. Meanwhile, the weaker shields of the machines below didn’t stand a chance.

The lightning abated. The airships were still powered, but their AI cores were obviously offline because they immediately swerved, hitting the surrounding buildings before crashing into the packed streets. The impacts took out hundreds of enemy units.

Jain unleashed blob attacks in rapid succession. Upon impact, the dark projectiles tore swaths of damage through the enemy ranks that were almost equal in size to the destruction caused by the airships. Large runnels were disintegrated into the streets.

That’s going to have to be repaired, Eric thought incongruously.

Meanwhile, the energy barrage from Eric’s artillery continued, assaulting the attackers from the rear. His reinforcements had also finally gathered in big enough numbers, and he sent them forward to press against the enemy from the south.

The rebels, feeling the pressure from the rear, the front, and the sides now, finally broke. The machines retreated, their hordes moving down the side streets. The Devastator continued to fire its blobs in multiple directions, harrying the fleeing units.

Good. Let them feel the pain.

“The Devastator is sending a broadcast signal to the data center, would you like to accept?” Dee asked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be protecting my other cities?” Eric replied.

“You know I am fully capable of multitasking, especially with my current processing power,” Dee said.

“Connect him,” Eric ordered.

Jain’s avatar appeared in the virtual reality environment. He glanced around. “Nice digs. Though a little more minimalist than what I was expecting.”

“It does the job,” Eric said. “Thanks for the help.”

“Glad to be of service,” Jain said. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t have a use for me.”

Eric nodded. At least Jain had the decency not to gloat. Eric had been expecting him to say something more mocking, along the lines of: “I thought you had the situation under control?”

“I wish Banthar motherships were atmosphere-capable,” Eric said. “That comes in handy in a pinch.”

“It certainly does,” Jain agreed. “The other Void Warriors wished they could have joined me, as well. They’re pissed that I get to have all the fun.”

An alert sounded.

“What’s that?” Jain asked.

“Dee?” Eric said.

“The facial recognition algorithms have triggered,” Dee said. “They’ve detected Councilor Paisley, two neighborhoods to the northwest of the data center, fleeing the battle.”

“Finally, the ringleader of the revolt,” Eric said. “Tell me you’re tracking him.”

“He’s vanished again,” Dee said. Eric was about to throw up his arms, but then Dee added: “Wait. There, I’ve got him. Overlaying.”

Eric dismissed the camera feed and slid the 3D representation of the city in front of him instead. He zoomed in on the neighborhoods near the data center, and spotted the flashing beacon that represented Paisley.

“Dispatch the Krandari,” Eric said.

“Dispatching special operatives,” Dee said.

“I can help,” Jain said. “Relay the tracking info to me.”

Eric hesitated. A voice inside him warned him not to accept, warned him that he didn’t want to feel indebted, not to anybody.

But I’m already indebted at this point.

Besides, Jain was honorable. He wouldn’t try to guilt-trip him into repaying that debt later.

Actually, he probably would.

Eric decided it would be worth it, if Jain could help hunt down the councilor. Because he very much didn’t want to allow that snail to get away.

There I go calling them snails again. Oh well, hell with it.

Eric sent the tracking information to Jain.

18

Jain sent the Devastator forward. He had to fly well above street level to give clearance to the rooftops below, as his starship was far too big to weave between the buildings. He could see the so-called Krandari ahead, Eric’s elite spec-ops units, which seemed little more than sloth robots equipped with jetpacks.

As Jain closed with the target, he handed over control of the Devastator to Xander, and launched a skirmisher he’d designed for hunter killer operations. That skirmisher was equipped with remote controls that allowed him to operate it as if he was inside it, without having to physically transfer his consciousness into the unit. It contained one of Jain’s androids as part of its enhanced payload.

“Make sure your Krandari don’t attack my hunter killer,” Jain told Eric, who was still on the line. Meanwhile, Jain sent the skirmisher down between the buildings as he followed the route Eric had provided on the overhead map.

The skirmisher pulled ahead of the Krandari. He swerved into an alleyway, and then onto the street beyond. Ahead, he could see the target: a Banthar on one of those flying disks. It had airborne robots escorting it, and those robots opened fire when they spotted the skirmisher.

Eric evaded the incoming energy beams, and fired his plasma cutters, which could pack quite a wallop even at longer ranges. He struck a robot, but couldn’t penetrate the shield.

The Krandari pulled alongside, and he continued dodging and firing. Two of the Krandari took hits, but their shields similarly held up.

“Xander, send more skirmishers,” Jain said as he continued to dodge.

The skirmishers arrived, and he synced their plasma cutters with his own. Then he fired at the next robot, and this time the concentrated beams caused the shield to fail. The Krandari eliminated the robot a moment later.

In that manner Jain reduced the escort one by one, until only the Banthar on the disk remained.

“Did you want me to capture him dead or alive?” Jain asked.

“Alive,” Eric replied.

Jain aimed at the Banthar, intending to strike the outskirts of the disk, and hoping that the Banter wouldn’t die in the crash. The target was probably shielded, so he’d have to factor that in.

Before he could fire, the disk swooped downward, toward a mid-rise building. A small circular panel opened up, and the disk and its passenger dropped inside.

The panel began to close. The skirmisher wasn’t going to fit. Nor the airborne sloths.

He dove toward the sealing passageway and ejected the android cargo. He switched to the point of view of the android as he fell through the opening. He used his magnetic mounts to latch onto the surface just inside, and placed a repeater near the top just as the panel closed. He still had a good signal, despite the sealed material.

He activated his headlamp, as it was dark, and then glanced down into the tunnel. Empty.

He dropped down.

When he hit the ground, a flash came from ahead.

He instinctively pulled himself up, away from the opening in front of him, and grabbed onto the edges of the tunnel beside him. Below, energy beams struck the opposite wall.

“He wants to play rough, does he?” Jain waited a moment, then while still holding onto the wall, he lowered his head and peered past the edge.

The way forward was empty.

Jain lowered himself, placed another repeater, slid the laser rifle from his shoulder, and then continued down the rectangular corridor. It was expansive enough to fit a disk with a Banthar riding on top.

He continued to attach repeaters to the wall as he went, not wanting to lose his connection to the android.

Probably should have transferred my consciousness directly into the android. And brought some more androids so the other Void Warriors could come with me.

But he didn’t have time.

He considered switching to LIDAR mode, but the emitted photons used to generate the imagery would give him away just as readily as the headlamp, considering the technological level of the Banthar. No, the headlamp was just fine.

The walls began to narrow. He soon came upon the disk, abandoned on the floor.

Beyond it, the walls were coated in a smooth, organic substance.

“The walls are… resinous… here,” Jain sent. “Is that normal?”

“Completely,” Eric transmitted. “Especially in confined places. The Banthar are coated in a natural gelatinous substance. When they pass through tighter spaces, that substance coats the walls, lubricating it, and making their passage easier. It builds up over time, forming the elliptical resin you describe.”

“Well, that’s somehow not very reassuring,” Jain said.

He stepped into the tighter corridor. His legs sunk with each step, and made an audible squish.

“Feel like I’m entering the mouth of some living creature or something,” he commented softly.

He kept the rifle pointed in front of him, and activated the weapon light to augment his headlamp. Side corridors appeared to the left and right ahead. He reached the closest, and paused near the edge. Then he slowly pied the opening.

Movement startled him, and he nearly squeezed the trigger. It was a smaller Banthar, however—too small to belong to the target. The creature fled deeper. Jain shifted his aim, following it with his weapon light.

“They can sure move fast when they want to,” Jain commented.

“The small ones, yes,” Eric said.

He watched as the snaillike creature huddled against two larger Banthar. “This looks like a residence of some kind. There’s a family here. I think.”

“It’s the equivalent of a human apartment building, yes,” Eric said. “If you keep going, you’ll eventually reach the sewer system access. I think that’s where the councilor went.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier, and cleaner, to hide in one of these rooms?” Jain asked.

Small drones buzzed past, startling him.

“That’s what these are for,” Eric said.

The drones darted into the room where the family huddled, and disappeared from view as they explored the dwelling.

“Though in truth,” Eric continued. “I doubt the councilor would have stopped here. The sewers ordinarily would give him a direct passage to the far side of the city, whereas hiding here would only lead to his capture. But he doesn’t know I’ve made some changes to the sewer system in recent days, installing several new control valves. I’ve sealed all the ones connected to this neighborhood. If he’s down there, you’ve got him.”

“And what if he’s here?” Jain pressed.

“Then I’ll have the drones alert you,” Eric replied. “Meanwhile, continue down the main route.”

“To the sewers…” Jain said.

“Yup!” Eric said.

“Wonderful.” He proceeded deeper, and watched as more of the drones spread out in front of him. He still pied the entrances as he came across them, not trusting the drones to alert him if trouble awaited within, but he didn’t bother to investigate, letting the drones do their jobs.

Though he couldn’t tell visually, his accelerometer let him know that he was slowly traveling downward in a subtle spiral. He picked up his pace, and eventually no more tunnels led away to the left and right. He reached a dead end, though there was a trapdoor in the floor. It was currently open.

He peered inside, and confirmed that the way was clear, and then lowered himself into the Banthar sewer system. He placed another repeater at the opening as he descended.

He reached the bottom of a walkway that bordered effluence.

“You know, there’s no smell,” Jain said. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“Banthar excrement is odorless to human senses,” Eric said. “If you activate your olfactory nerves directly, you’ll see that there are a bunch of different compounds floating in the air right now. You just can’t smell them.”

Jain did so. “And so you’re right.”

There were two ways to proceed from here: the walkway next to that effluence led forward, and backward.

He received a share request from Eric.

Eric Scala wishes to share the blueprints of City Sewer System with you. Do you accept?

Jain accepted, scanned the file for viruses, and then loaded it into his mapping system. The black “fog of war” that lay ahead on his overhead map filled out.

“If the councilor wanted to take the quickest route back to the western side of the city, he would have proceeded to the right,” Eric said. “Or given your current orientation, forward.”

Jain glanced at the overhead map to confirm that assertion, overlaying the sewer system with the city above.

Then he followed the walkway forward, keeping an eye on the effluence beside him. He suspected it was deep enough to hold a hidden Banthar, though he somehow doubted the councilor would be hiding inside. Still, he didn’t want to take any risks, which was why he occasionally fired his laser into the thick fluid. Just to be sure. He never hit anything, except the bottom of the sewer.

The wall next to the walkway was covered in bare metal here, and lacked the organic coating he had seen in the dwelling above. He never thought he’d miss that coating, but he did, because the bare metal below clanged loudly with each step, readily giving away his passage. The lack of seams in those walls told him it was 3D printed. Probably produced by those termites of which the Banthar were so fond.

Jain glanced at the overhead map. There was a reservoir of sorts ahead. According to the map, the new valves Eric had installed would prevent any further access. If the Banthar had gone this way, it would be trapped there. Unless it had been able to shoot through the seals. Which was certainly possible, if it was equipped with an energy weapon.

He reached the edge of the passageway, which took a sharp right ahead, and leaned past. He upped his time sense as he did so.

Good thing, because the flash ahead alerted him to an energy weapon firing.

He amped his servomotor output, which allowed him to retract his head the instant before the energy beam hit. Instead it boiled the air just in front of his face, and struck the wall behind him.

“Well, looks like I’ve found him,” Jain said.

“Doesn’t look like he’s too happy to see you,” Eric commented.

“Nope.” Jain set his last repeater down on the floor in front of him, and then lowered himself into the sewage. He hoped it wouldn’t cut off his signal.

He took a deep breath before he lowered his head beneath the effluence. He didn’t require air, of course, but human instincts were hard to shake, even after becoming a machine. After all these years, one would think he had mastered those instincts. One would be wrong.

He advanced, concealed by the effluence, using the blueprints to guide him. His accelerometer updated his position as he swam so that he was aware of his location at all times. His internal AI had marked the spot where the Banthar had fired its energy beam. It had probably backed away since then, so Jain had decided to surface only when he was right up against the sealing wall.

He moved slower than he would have liked, because the effluence was so thick, and it took several swimming strokes to make any decent progress, but finally he reached it. He turned around so that he would be facing the Banthar, and then set his feet down on the hard surface that served as the sewage bottom. He raised his plasma rifle, deactivated his headlamp, and the weapon light, and slowly stood up.

He emerged from the effluence, feeling the cold air as the liquid slid away from his forehead, and then eyes and nose. He opened those eyes, but couldn’t see a thing. It was too dark.

But he could hear a very subtle squishy sound. That would be the rise and fall of the Banthar’s chest as it inhaled through its gill system.

Satisfied that the creature didn’t know he was there, he lowered the rifle, and slid it over his shoulder. Then he felt along the wall until he found the edge of the walkway behind the Banthar, and then hauled himself up very slowly, and very carefully. He was worried about slipping, so he squeezed extra tight with his grip. It caused the metal to bend, and it creaked beneath him.

That squishy sound beside him paused for a moment, as if the Banthar was holding its breath, listening, and he froze.

The noise resumed a moment later, and he soundlessly hauled himself to the top, using the successive squishes to mask any of the whisper soft sounds his own movements made. When he stood on the walkway, he visualized the Banthar in front of him in his mind. Its head, its thorax and the eight prehensile limbs attached to it, the twin shells lower down, and finally the tail. The latter was the only thing Jain was concerned about at the moment. That tail should be directly in front of him, assuming the Banthar was still facing the far side of the tunnel.

Jain reached out in accelerated time, estimating the position of the tail, and activated his headlamp. He was close, but not close enough; he leaped forward before the Banthar could react to the light, and wrapped his hands around the tail. He lifted, hauling the Banthar into the air. It tried to point the two small energy pistols at him, but he knocked them away with two well-placed kicks, and they splashed into the effluence.

The creature was too heavy to lift entirely off the ground, and it flailed frantically in his grasp, almost dragging him off the walkway and into the effluence. He tightened his grip, and gave it a couple of good wallops with his boot—not too hard—until the creature calmed down.

“That’s better, big fella,” Jain said. “Is this him?”

“I recognize the unique spiral patterns on its shells,” Eric sent. “It’s him. Paisley, the ringleader.”

Jain pressed his back against the wall, away from the sewage, and swiveled the Banthar in front of him to switch positions with Paisley, that way Jain was in the lead. He continued down the passageway, dragging the creature along the walkway behind him.

Jain collected his repeaters along the way back. Paisley occasionally struggled, but a few more kicks was usually enough to quiet it down. As they neared the entrance to the sewage, those struggles became more frantic, and not even the kicks could calm the creature down.

“Do you have any Banthar sedatives?” Jain asked Eric.

On cue, drones descended from the overhead entrance and applied sonic injectors to the Banthar. The creature quickly ceased struggling.

Robotic tentacles dropped down from above, and Jain fed the body to them. Those appendages curled up, drawing Paisley away.

“Kind of creepy, but effective,” Jain said.

“Just the way I like it,” Eric said. “Well, thanks for your help. With Paisley’s capture, the uprising is officially over.”

“Glad to be of service,” Jain said.

“All right,” Eric said. “As soon you’ve got your android and skirmisher back aboard, would you mind taking the Devastator into orbit? Having that Nurturer hovering over the city is spooking my Banthar. No offense.”

“None taken,” Jain said.

He wiped the Banthar goo and excrement from his body as best as he was able, and then climbed the wall toward the opening above. There were no rungs, so he had to form his own by pressing his fingers hard into the metal wall.

The things I do to help secure an alliance.

Well, hopefully it wasn’t for nothing.

19

With the dual threats of invasion and insurrection abated for the moment, Eric concentrated on repairs. He sent termite swarms to the neighborhoods where the fighting had been the worst. He had the Banthar vessels direct their own swarms to repair the damage taken in the space battles. He transferred some termites from those ships to the damaged defense platforms in orbit to effect repairs there, and even dispatched a few to the broken rift gates, just in case he decided to remotely pilot the Bethunia II in another system again.

For all that, he couldn’t spare any resources to repair Little Earth at the moment.

But he was still able to hang out with Bambi and Crusher in virtual reality. He needed to. They helped him relax. Sort of.

He was lying in bed with them after a particularly intense lovemaking session. Bambi snuggled against his left side, Crusher his right. Bambi traced circles on his chest.

“You’re thinking about going with him, aren’t you?” Bambi said.

Eric didn’t answer.

“He’s repairing the rift gates,” Crusher said. “Of course he’s thinking about it.”

“How long will it take?” Bambi asked.

“Until we have a gate up and running?” Crusher replied. “A day, if that.”

“So we have one more day together, until we have to fight again,” Bambi said.

“Yeah, about that,” Crusher told Eric. “I’m sick of being a bystander. If we’re going to do this, I want my consciousness transferred into a starship entirely.”

“Mine as well,” Bambi said. “The Bolt Eaters had a few discussions while you were busy fighting in orbit. They’re all going to want the same thing. We want what Slate has. We’re all going to have our own Bug Killers.”

Eric shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

“When he agrees without a fight, you know something’s wrong,” Crusher said.

“I’m not sure we can leave,” Eric said. “Look at what happened last time? I was away only for a little while, and I almost lost my planet. Well, and my mind, too. I could have been destroyed.”

“I’m not sure it would have mattered if you were here,” Crusher said. “The councilors would have still plotted against you with the Link. But hopefully you’ve remedied that now.”

“The new councilors won’t plot against me,” Eric agreed. “But there are still a few of the old ones at large. Even though I’ve sent out notices on all the Banthar streaming equivalents warning that I’ll execute their families if they don’t surrender. I might have to follow through on that threat if they don’t start coming in.”

“Maybe you should bring down the whole tyrant act a few notches,” Bambi said. “It just stirs resentment among the populace. Every time your Essential simulacrum makes an announcement on the streaming networks, it only drives fresh recruits to the rebels. Dee’s shared some of the videos she found on their Internet equivalent. The councilors used all your broadcasts in their recruitment drives.”

“Yeah, well, no one said ruling was ever easy,” Eric said. “I’d love to make this a democracy, but then they’d all vote in the old councilors, and then probably vote to rejoin the Link again. And we all know where that leads: invasion of Earth.”

“I’m just saying, try to treat them nicer,” Bambi said.

“Nicer,” Eric said. “You don’t know their culture the same way I do. There’s nothing nice about them. They’re a brutal race of snails.”

“See, right there,” Bambi said. “Thinking of them as snails, even when you’re talking about them in private, you’re denigrating them to the status of a lesser species.”

Eric sighed. He pushed Bambi and Crusher away from him, and sat up. “I have work to do.”

“What work?” Crusher said. “The termites are rebuilding. Your unconscious subroutines are handling the day-to-day operations of all the cities. There’s nothing pressing… why can’t you just relax, for once?”

He stared at her. “I guess I’m always used to being on the go. I… I just… I’m tired.”

He collapsed back onto the bed.

“I’m not sure I can do this,” he said. “Leading a species. Especially against the Link. If I lose… we lose… the Banthar will be wiped out. Without a space navy, this world stands no chance.”

“Maybe we could try to negotiate peace with the empire instead of fighting them,” Bambi said.

“We’ve already talked about this,” he said. “The Link negotiate only on their own terms. And I doubt very much they’ll offer a second chance, after this. The Banthar failed twice now. First by failing against us, conquered by those they intended to invade. And second by failing to restore themselves to power, just now. No, the Link is through with the Banthar.”

“Then that means there will be no more attacks in orbit?” Bambi asked.

“Maybe not now,” Eric said. “But at some point in the future. Unless we destroy the Link.” He exhaled. “It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? The Link. We can’t let them exist. And yet, I’m unwilling to lead the Banthar to their doom.”

“It sounds like you’ve made up your mind,” Crusher said. “We’re not going.”

“I haven’t completely made up my mind,” Eric said. “But I’m leaning towards not going, yes. We’re just not ready. I’m not.”

Bambi cuddled against him tighter. “Thank you! I was willing to fight, but I’d rather not. I’m a lover. You know that.”

Crusher seemed disappointed.

“I thought you’d be happy, too,” Eric told her. “You were never a big fan of humanity.”

“It’s not humanity I’m worried about here,” Crusher said. “It’s us. You just admitted that we can’t allow the Link to exist. And yet here you go and say you won’t lead the Banthar to their doom. But by not acting, you’re doing that very thing. You’re just prolonging it a little.”

* * *

Eric waited a day for more attacks to come, either in space, or on the surface, but no further incidents occurred. He was right about the Link giving up on the Banthar. No more attacks would come, at least in the short term, because the Link knew they weren’t going to be able to overthrow him, and they certainly weren’t going to give any second chances to the councilors who had failed them.

So he had no real excuse to stay anymore. And yet…

He stayed up all that night, unwilling to sleep, and received the call from Jain he was dreading the next morning.

“It’s time,” Jain said. “The Link have given up on the Banthar. No more ships will be coming here to support the insurrection. They’ve lost enough.”

Though Eric had come to the same conclusion earlier, he kept quiet.

“You’ve already repaired a few rift gates in orbit, I see,” Jain said. “That means you can control the fleet remotely.”

Eric nodded, still saying nothing.

“Come with me to find Jason,” Jain said. “Help me to convince the Tyrnari, through him, to rejoin the alliance. To go all-in this time, instead of sending only twenty ships. You can do that by showing the Banthar commitment to the alliance.”

Eric stared at Jain’s hologram. “I shouldn’t have accepted your help. I feel indebted to you now. Like I have to do this, regardless of my own feelings on the matter.” It was a weak argument, and he wasn’t sure why he was making it, but there it was. He supposed he was just trying to buy himself time.

“You don’t owe me a thing,” Jain said. “I helped you because I wanted to, not because I expected something in return. I want you to decide to join of your own free will. I want you to choose what’s best for your people.”

“Best for my people?” Eric said. “That’s the thing, I don’t know what’s best. If we stay, eventually the Link will come to destroy us. If we go, there’s a good chance we’ll be destroyed anyway. At least if we stay, I’ll grant them a few more months, maybe years, of bliss. Whereas if I go, that end will likely come a lot sooner.”

“You’re assuming we’re going to lose,” Jain said. “Look, I figured you might be having second thoughts about the alliance. It’s why I came here in the first place. I mean who wouldn’t? But listen, we’re so close here. We can win the war against the Link. With your fleet, the Tyrnari, and the Mimics joining the last vestiges of humanity, we can do this. We have to try. We can’t give up now, not when we’re so close.”

Eric closed his eyes for a moment. He wanted to say no, but he knew Jain was right. If they had a chance, even a small one, they had to try. No matter the cost.

“You don’t have to commit fully, not yet,” Jain said. “All I’m asking is that you come with me to find Jason. We can’t leave him. He’s an outcast Mind Refurb, much like us. Doesn’t fit in on Earth, or the military. Went through the same hells as we did. At the very least, we need to help him in whatever way we can. Before he left, he told us the Tyrnari detected the Link gathering on staging planets near their borders. Well, I have a sneaking suspicion the Link have probably attacked by now. So we’ll probably have to fight… but once we’ve repelled whatever threat is posed to the Tyrnari, if you still don’t want to commit, I’ll let you go, without a word more.”

Eric hesitated. “The Link could come to this system as soon as my space navy leaves. Attack while we’re gone.”

It was unlikely and Eric knew it. Yet he couldn’t help the words. The fact was, he was afraid of going. Afraid of losing.

Why have I become this way? What happened to me? I was never like this before…

And then he realized it was because of his near loss of the main data center. If Jain hadn’t been there with the Devastator, the skyscrapers would have been destroyed. The knowledge of how close he had come to losing had caused him to doubt himself, and his leadership abilities.

I’m missing the overarching lesson here. If anything, what happened shows me that Jain is right. That we’re stronger together, rather than apart. That’s the lesson.

“If the Link come, you’ll be alerted, and you can jump back if necessary,” Jain said.

“Unless we find ourselves in a system with rift jammers, blocking the way back,” Eric said. He wasn’t sure why he was still fighting him. He’d already decided he was going. He supposed he was just trying to convince himself why it was a bad idea. He realized that he’d already made the decision much earlier, when he’d made up his mind to repair the rift gates, when there were higher priorities.

It felt like a sudden burden had been lifted.

“There is that,” Jain agreed. “But you don’t have to bring your whole fleet. Leave a defense force behind.”

“I’ll definitely have to,” Eric said. “Considering all the defense platforms are still under repair. Twenty ships, maybe. The rest will come with me.” Yes, he could definitely feel it now. He seemed lighter. Freer. “I’ll go with you to find Jason. But screw this bullshit about not committing. I can tell you here and now, I’m your man. I’ll see this through, to the end. No matter the cost.” He reached out, and clasped Jain’s hand in both of his. “We’re going to help Jason, and then secure an allegiance with the Tyrnari.”

20

Jason collapsed in grief next to the burning form of Tara’s mech.

He’d fought so hard to avoid this moment. And now it had finally happened.

He’d lost one of the women.

The Shadow Hawk mech suddenly stirred beside him.

“Tara?” he asked.

“That’s War Bitch to you,” Tara replied, standing. “Come on, what are you doing standing around for? I’m a lot stronger than you give me credit for. These flames are like jellied gasoline… sticky, but otherwise can’t even penetrate our armor! I was just stunned when that bioweapon rammed into me after.”

Another of the fire-breathing bioweapons came in; she dodged the flames it launched, and then teleported onto its back. Jason couldn’t tell what she was doing, but he thought she was trying to somehow exert her will over the creature.

Well, whatever she was doing, it wasn’t working. The creature swerved to and fro, trying to knock her off its back. It struggled beneath the weight of her heavy mech, and Jason expected those wings to give out any second now.

He couldn’t watch for long, however, because another bioweapon came straight for him. These creatures essentially looked like giant dragonflies with the heads of lions. Oh, and they could breath fire. Sophie had called them Dragonlionfires, or Dragonlions for short.

He quickly aimed his energy cannon, and fired before it could let off its fiery breath. The head exploded in a gory mess.

Cheyanne moved from Dragonlion to Dragonlion overhead, slicing away with her twin blades.

Iris flicked out her energy whips, cutting off body parts.

Maeran spat that binding substance from her mouth, and gummed up the wings of her targets so that they crashed.

From the top of a nearby building, plasma bolts shot forth seemingly from empty air. That would be Lori.

Jason wanted to transform into a Cataphract, but Queen Risilan had explicitly forbidden Combining on the city grounds: she didn’t want to damage her precious home. He tried explaining that the enemy would destroy all the buildings at this rate anyway, but she remained adamant. Well, despite her wishes, Jason planned to Combine if the situation warranted it, her precious city be damned. But so far those buildings were providing much needed cover against the enemy, cover that would be lost in the larger Cataphract mode, as the combined mechs would tower over the structures. So he was content to remain in this form. For now.

Jason fought just outside the walls of the main palace. Those walls were only slightly taller than his mech, with triangular towers sitting at each of the four corners. Defensive turrets lined those walls, and fired up at the incoming attackers. Dragonlions swooped down and breathed flame, but their attacks were absorbed by the energy shield that protected the palace.

Inside, though he couldn’t see it from here, resided the main pyramid of the palace proper. Jhagan had tried to convince Risilan to stay inside the palace, protected by the shield, but she hadn’t listened. Instead, she fought with the Modlenth mechs—those were alien mechs with humanoid characteristics, quite similar to Jason’s Vulture mech in fact, but half the size. Modlenth referred not to the mech design, but to the Tyrnari branch that Risilan’s people belonged to. Several of the mechs wore the topknots of Risilan’s personal bodyguard, meaning that she was embedded somewhere among them. She never broadcast her actual position, not even to her allies; only her bodyguard knew which mech she fought within.

The queen had freed Bruiser, Lackey, Shaggy and Runt from their coops in the city so that they could participate in the fight. Bruiser had grown quite fat on the queen’s food, no doubt hoarding it to himself, and he was slower than the others. Well, a few more battles like this and he’d shed the extra pounds in no time.

Runt climbed onto a triangular building nearby and leaped up as a Dragonlion swooped down toward Jason; Runt wrapped its T-Rex-like jaws around its throat, pulling it from the sky. The pair landed heavily in the street, shaking the surrounding buildings, and tussled for only a few seconds before Runt broke the creature’s neck.

“You know, we’re going to have to consider renaming Runt sometime,” Jason said. “He doesn’t really live up to his name anymore.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Aria said from beside him. She fired her lightning weapon at the Dragonlions, and then ducked behind her shield as they breathed fire at her.

Jason took cover behind one of the free triangular buildings ahead. He could see the other War Forgers and their clones spread out behind the buildings in front of him, with Modlenth mechs interspersed in between. The streets were piled high with the bodies of the first wave of bioweapons, land-based creatures that resembled crocodiles with snakelike necks.

“Got flyers!” Jerry said.

Jason glanced toward the distant horizon ahead and saw the upside-down pyramids of enemy flyers approaching. The protective dome that once enclosed the city had been dismantled years ago after the environment had been cleaned up, and all that remained was the base, encircling the city like a tall wall. The defense turrets in that base were mostly destroyed, which allowed the fliers to approach with little resistance. Those incoming craft usually dumped fresh bioweapons, so it was imperative to destroy them as quickly as possible.

The local flyers, which looked like big eggs hovering overhead, changed course to intercept. They fired at the distant targets, while also shooting at closer Dragonlions as they passed; the ships took a few swipes from the bioweapons along the way, and one of the flyers crashed, smashing into a triangular building below.

The enemy fliers returned fire from their positions outside the city, and struck two more of the local craft overhead, causing the vessels to crash.

Still taking cover behind his current building, Jason aimed his energy cannon at an upside-down pyramid. In his scope, he saw large metal shapes falling free of it—they landed just inside the city wall. He realized the enemy flyer was deploying attack robots of some kind. Based on the scale of the buildings beside them, those robots were only about a quarter as tall as he was, or half as tall as the Modlenth mechs.

He zoomed in on the lead robot. It was some kind of quadruped with laser and energy turrets installed on the sides of its neck—basically a land-based gunship. He opened fire, and his energy cannon smashed into a shield. He ducked as it fired bolts of energy in return.

“These guys should be fun!” Lori commented. She stood nearby with the tip of her tail glowing a bright blue from the heat of firing so many plasma bolts in rapid succession… he hadn’t noticed her return to the visible band. She activated her stealth features a moment later and disappeared.

Jason whistled. That was the signal for the Rex Wolves to take cover behind the buildings. The well-trained beasts of war instantly complied, clamping down on their instincts to obey their master.

Hiding behind the building just in front of him, Xin leaned past and unleashed the superheated plasma beam from her eye region. She struck the same quadruped he’d targeted, and her beam penetrated the weakened shield, damaging its face.

Aria fired her energy weapon again, and finished that particular target.

Jason and the others continued to defend as the attackers rushed in. The local flyers destroyed all of the incoming upside-down pyramids, but at great cost—they’d lost half their numbers. They had to pull back, because they were exposed to the quadrupeds in the city below.

Eventually, the enemy robots dug in behind buildings across from them, because they were unable to withstand the barrage of fire from the War Forgers and the Modlenth mechs.

Overhead, the Dragonlions thinned out as the team continued to fire upon them. The airborne bioweapons occasionally struck the War Forgers with their sticky flames, but the damage only momentarily blinded them, and wasn’t able to melt their armor, as Tara was a testament to.

Speaking of which, a Dragonlion screamed overhead, and he glanced up to see Tara plunging her sword through its body. Then she leaped down and landed beside him, taking cover behind a building nearby.

“What did I miss?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Jason said. “Really.”

They shot down the last remaining Dragonlions, and then remained dug in for some time, until Jerry managed to take his War Forger clones around to the right flank of the enemy, while Julian took his clones in from the left side. The two groups shot at the exposed sides of the quadrupeds, and with the continual pummeling from the front, the teams destroyed them in short order.

“See, who needs Cataphract mode when you have teamwork!” Jerry said.

“That looks like the last of them,” Jason said. “Risilan, are you still there?”

“My scouts tell me the rifts have closed,” Risilan responded over the comm. “But I’ve just heard in from the orbital defense platforms. Multiple Link vessels are incoming. It looks like that was only the land-based portion of the attack.”

“Do you have enough defense platforms to hold off the assault until the fleet returns?” Jason asked. “And surface-to-space defenses?”

“Given the number of ships I’m seeing out there, no,” Risilan said. “They’ve already reached orbit.”

Jason’s gaze was drawn overhead, where a large, firework-like explosion spread across the alien sky: one of the defense platforms had exploded.

Lori materialized beside him. “We’re in deep doo-doo now.”

* * *

Eric led the Bethunia II toward the rendezvous point in front of the Tyrnari homeworld. There had been too many Banthar ships to jump via a single rift, so they’d had to take two. Jain had taken his own rift with the Void Warriors, who were all heading toward that same waypoint.

Eric was inside the sailing ship virtual reality environment. The stars hovered overhead, and beyond the translucent sea, matching up with the stars on his forward camera. The deck of the sailing ship around him was empty, however. He glanced at the other sailing ships on either side, strung out in a long line, ships that represented the Banthar fleet. The other Bolt Eaters had transferred their consciousnesses to the AI cores of individual Banthar ships, just as Bambi had said they would. The transfer wasn’t permanent—they could restore themselves back into their smaller AI cores whenever they wanted to, using the techniques Jain had taught them.

“Maybe you should transfer your consciousness into the Bethunia II as well, using Jain’s technique,” Bambi had suggested shortly after awakening inside her vessel. “It won’t be so bad… these vessels have AI cores that are fairly expansive. You’ll hardly notice the mind shrinkage.”

“I’m not ready to leave the Banthar homeworld entirely under the control of an Accomp,” Eric said.

“But Dee is already going to be in control while you’re remotely operating the Bethunia II,” Bambi said.

“Yes, but the difference is I can return instantly to handle any problems that crop up,” Eric said. “Whereas if I transfer my mind entirely, I’m stuck here until I get back.”

He’d left a rift gate open behind him after arriving, of course, to maintain that connection. A rift that would remain open a tiny amount despite any spacetime jamming devices in the system.

Flashes lit up his forward camera above the homeworld, and he zoomed in.

“I’m only seeing Link vessels out there,” Eric said. “Where are the Tyrnari ships?”

“That’s a good question,” Jain said over the comm. “I’m not detecting enough debris to account for how many ships Queen Risilan is rumored to have. So my guess is, they’re in other systems. Probably trapped by Vaernastian jamming vessels.”

“Then it’s a good thing we got here when we did,” Eric said.

“Yes, indeed,” Jain said. “I’m going radio silent.”

He vanished from the tactical display as he activated his cloaking device. The one named Medeia also vanished, joining him in subterfuge.

“Why can’t we all have different abilities like them?” Traps complained over the comm. “We’re stuck with ships that are exactly the same. We shoot boring black holes and gamma rays, and molest our enemies with lame micro machines at close range.”

“Don’t discount the power of these weapons,” Eric sent. “Trust me when I say this, you don’t need flashy toys to cause damage. You can kick ass with what you have.”

“Oh, I believe you,” Traps said. “I’m just saying some variety, and some uniqueness, you know, something more representative of our personalities, would have been perfecto.”

The enemy vessels began to turn away as the three groups of ships neared the rendezvous point.

“Well, here we go,” Eric said. “It’s time to show the Void Warriors what the Banthar fleet can do when we’ve got Bolt Eaters fully deployed among them.”

21

Jain was cloaked as he approached the Tyrnari homeworld. The Link vessels had turned away from their onslaught to face these new attackers. There were no Tyrnari ships anywhere in the system; he had detected debris consistent with some of their vessels in orbit—his sensors reported high concentrations of the metals the Tyrnari commonly used in starship construction. But there wasn’t enough debris to account for the whole Tyrnari fleet. The queen must have sent most of her fleet elsewhere, for whatever reason. Perhaps the Paladins or other Earth envoys had arrived here before Jain, and had convinced Risilan to join the alliance. But somehow he doubted that.

Well, whatever the case, it was obvious the Tyrnari needed help. Eric was right: the Banthar and Void Warriors had arrived just in time.

He activated his inertialess drive to release a subtle burst of energy to stay on course. He was beginning to wish more Mimics had made it through the original rift, because other than Sheila, he was the only one with full stealth capabilities. Actually, her stealth capabilities were even better than his own, seeing as the emissions of her Newtonian drives were indistinguishable from background radiation. She used propellant, true, but the constituent gases dispersed so rapidly that it didn’t show up on ordinary sensors. He would have to look into installing a pair of Newtonians sometime to act as his main maneuvering drives while cloaked.

Around him, the virtual bridge was nearly empty, as he operated under radio silence for stealth purposes. Only Xander remained, standing beside him, ever the obedient companion.

Of course he’s obedient. He’s part of my mind.

Eric’s Banthar ships were quite a sight to behold as they ate up the stars of space ahead of Jain and the Void Warriors. Eric had brought with him almost his entire space navy this time, leaving fewer than twenty ships to protect Banthar Prime. He’d recalled warships from all the colonies and military bases the Banthar had spread across the galaxy, greatly augmenting the numbers: he was definitely going all-in on this. Jain admired him for that.

The Link ships out there couldn’t be looking forward to the battle that was coming. Unless reinforcements arrived, they were very likely going to lose, given how outnumbered they were. In fact, Jain was almost expecting the Link vessels to begin jumping out, but to their credit they remained in the system. Perhaps the Vaernastians had orders to jam the rift creation beams of their own ships. He wouldn’t put it past the Link Empire.

Teleporters materialized in front of the Banthar ships. The latter began swerving, no doubt to avoid the expected teleportation bombs. The Banthar unleashed the termite swarms that coated their hulls. They launched their black hole weapons to herd the Teleporters into those swarms, and in moments several of the Teleporters were engulfed by the micro machines. The Void Warriors arrived and picked off the survivors.

Jain remained hidden, drifting forward, biding his time.

Barbells, Claws, and Buckyballs waited ahead. There was also an Armadillo among them. It stayed back while the others broke away to intercept.

The Barbells and Claws combined their attacks so that a wall of energy grids and rifts approached the Banthar. They reversed course, separating to fly around that wall, and the Void Warriors followed suit. The Buckyballs had repositioned in expectation of such a maneuver, and had followed along the outskirts of that expanding wall, and when the Banthar came within range, the Buckyballs fired their multi-directional plasma weapons. Those beams ate into multiple Banthar ships at the same time, causing breach damage.

Medeia materialized. She had slammed into one of the Buckyballs, her sword section embedding deep. The impact blew the target apart. She cloaked again as Barbells launched energy grids at her.

Jain was also close to one of those Buckyballs, and he fired two blobs in rapid succession. The target detected the launch a moment later, and tried to swerve away, but it was too late: the projectiles smashed into the delicate metal framework and tore through the ship.

Jain fired his inertialess drives to change course. The Barbells and Claws were concentrating fire on his position, just as they had done Medeia. They wasted their energy grids and rifts by firing them in an expansive area all around him, when they could have been focusing their attacks on the Banthar. They were probably worried that there were more cloaked ships out there… he and Medeia had cloaked after entering the system, so they knew there had to be at least two, but they also knew that other vessels could have entered the system already cloaked. A valid concern, if wrong.

Jain was struck a glancing blow by one of the energy grids, but it wasn’t enough to damage his stealth countermeasures, so he continued drifting past the Barbells. When he was right on top of them, he decided to fire his lightning weapon. At near point blank range, the damage would be immense. The Barbells had made the mistake of gathering too close together—there were four within a five thousand kilometer radius, and so the bolt he unleashed arced between four ships, and took them all down.

The other nearby Barbells and Claws turned around frantically, trying to target these stealth ships in their midst. But that only allowed the Banthar to close, firing their herding black holes, and the micro machines thereafter.

Jain activated his inertialess drives to shift directions, which would give away his position, but he wasn’t worried, as most of the enemy ships were already turning away from him without firing so that they could deal with the Banthar threat.

Ahead, the Armadillo lumbered closer, threatening to blow itself up to eliminate everything within a three thousand kilometer radius. He was going to pass within that radius. He decided a little sleight of hand was in order.

He fired his inertialess drive again to alter his course so that he wouldn’t pass inside that radius. And then he quickly programmed three stealth skirmishers and launched them.

The units proceeded into the blast radius and separated so that they were traveling fifteen hundred kilometers apart. He wanted to make it seem like they were much larger ships, requiring significant space. The skirmishers proceeded to fire their short-range plasma cutters, which could be interpreted by bystanders as weapons in the process of charging. To his delight, the Armadillo detonated, believing it would destroy three enemy ships. But all it got were three skirmishers. The stealth tech was expensive, in terms of the exotic elements required, true, but not as expensive as a ship. With luck, he’d be able to recover those elements after the battle was over.

By the time he turned around, the Banthar had essentially finished the battle. There were a few Claw ships remaining, but they were fleeing and already in the process of jumping out. A minute later, all those ships had vacated the system, and the battle was done.

Jain uncloaked. He tried to fire his rift generation device, and was happy when the beams formed. That meant there were no jamming ships hiding in the system. Then again, maybe there were, and they just hadn’t activated their jamming devices yet. Something to look out for.

He reconnected to the fleet network, and the Void Warriors returned to his virtual bridge. Medeia also appeared as she uncloaked.

“Well, that was easier than it probably should have been,” Sheila said.

“Thanks to Eric and his Banthar,” Jain said. “Are you there, Eric?”

“I’m on the line, yes,” Eric said.

“Good job,” Jain said.

“Thanks,” Eric told him. “I liked what you did to that Armadillo. Gotta love it when you can get an enemy to trade one of their starships for a few decoys. I’m assuming that’s what you used?”

“Yeah,” Jain said. “Launched some of my stealth skirmishers, and tricked the Armadillo into thinking they were hidden starships.”

“Nice,” Eric said.

“Boys,” Bambi said over the comm. “They always have to talk about the fight after its over.”

“You should see them after football games,” Crusher said. “They’re like, ‘oh my god, did you see the pass Henley made! Past four yard lines and into the end zone! That was gold!’”

“I like how she tries to describe football as if she knows what she’s talking about,” Brontosaurus said. “When she has no idea what the terms she’s saying mean.”

“I know what yard lines and end zones are,” Crusher said.

“Of course, thanks to your AI core,” Brontosaurus said. “But you had to dip in to check, didn’t you?”

“Guilty as charged,” Crusher said.

“I’m getting a hail from the surface,” Xander said. “It’s Jason.”

“Ask him if he can arrange a meeting with the queen as soon as possible,” Jain said. “We have a lot to talk about.”

22

Jain sat at a large conference table in front of a log cabin. Well, “log cabin” didn’t really do the building justice: chalet was more like it. To his right was a mountain lake, and the picturesque peak that served as its backdrop. Apparently it was the virtual environment Jason called home, and Queen Risilan had requested that they hold the meeting here.

The queen’s advisors sat across from him, all represented in human form. Jhagan’s avatar was present, as pointed out by Jason: a large man whom Eric said reminded him of “Friar Tuck” from Rocket Robin Hood—Jain had to look it up, and the resemblance was indeed uncanny. Jain supposed Jhagan had picked it right out of humanity’s cultural database, though where Jhagan had gotten access to that database, Jain didn’t know. Jason, perhaps.

Jason. Jain. Jhagan. So many names starting with J.

He smiled at the wanderings of his mind, before giving his attention to the other Tyrnari advisors. Jason hadn’t recognized any of the others, though that could be because he’d never seen them in human form before. Natively, the Tyrnari were a race that resembled land-dwelling jellyfish: their bodies were bluish, translucent sacs, with tentacles hanging down from their abdomens over starfish-like feet. They had chosen to meet in this form out of courtesy to the Mind Refurbs. Though the queen herself had yet to appear.

Seated beside Jain were his Void Warriors Sheila and Cranston, Eric and his Bolt Eaters Bambi and Marlborough, and Jason and his War Forgers Aria and Xin. The latter two women were ordinarily the most beautiful of the bunch, but Sheila and Bambi had made micro adjustments to their own avatars upon joining the table so that they looked just as lovely. Jain liked Sheila the way she was, but he didn’t say anything. He’d let these women compete with their looks without comment. The men certainly competed in other ways.

The other Bolt Eaters, Void Warriors, War Forgers and their clones had gathered behind him. They were on their feet, and would participate as observers only. At least, that was the plan.

A woman materialized, standing directly across from Jain. She was stunningly beautiful, of course, but that was expected for virtual reality. She had a pale face, framed by curly red hair, with a teardrop brooch at her temple hanging from a tiara. A yellow veil covered her hair, reaching to the waist of the red and gold gown she wore. Necklaces drooped down into her amply displayed bust.

“I present to you the Central, Queen Risilan, of the Modlenth Branch,” one of the advisors said.

Jason had told him that bowing wouldn’t be necessary—however, visitors often touched tentacles to the rough equivalent of the nose area upon entering the presence of the Queen, so Jain and the others all touched the outside of their noses with one finger.

The queen waved a dismissive hand, and Jain lowered his finger. She took a seat at the table.

“This is Eric,” Jason said by way of introduction. “The Essential of the Banthar. Their leader. With him are his advisors, Bambi and Marlborough. Beside Eric is Jain. He represents Earth, and the Mimic race.”

Jain inclined his head.

Jason pointed at the two Void Warriors with him next. “His advisors Sheila and Cranston. And with me over here, you already know Aria and Xin.”

Risilan gazed at each of the participants in turn, seeming almost bored, but when her eyes focused on Jason, they smoldered with desire. But the look was gone an instant later so that Jain wondered if he’d imagined it. He accelerated his time sense and did a quick rewind. Nope, they smoldered all right. He returned his sense to normal, unpausing reality.

“I am in your debt once again.” Her words had a very subtle seductive tinge to them. If he hadn’t caught that earlier look, he probably wouldn’t even have noticed. There was definitely something going on between the two. Not that Jain cared all that much—what people did in the bedroom with aliens was their business. Still, it could be useful if he needed Jason to manipulate the queen at some point. “You have helped protect my city from a rift attack by the Link, and you summoned allies to protect my planet from orbit. Tell me how I can repay you.”

“Well, it’s actually two debts,” Jason said. “I helped on the land side, yes.” He jerked his head toward Jain. “But Jain and Eric here, they’re the ones who protected you from the orbital attack. I didn’t summon them. They came on their own.”

The queen turned her attention to Jain. “I thank you for your help.” Her tone had flattened, he noticed, and lost that subtle hint of seduction. And though her words were thankful, her eyes seemed to gleam with a slight condescension. There was something else there, too, a remnant of that smoldering sensuality, as if she couldn’t completely suppress it, and perhaps had some interest in him as well. Probably Jain’s imagination.

I’m reading too much into something that isn’t there. And it’s not like I want to get with some multi-tentacled jellyfish, anyway.

“I’m glad to be of service,” Jain said. “But I have a question. What happened to your fleet?” Jain had asked Jason about that earlier, but he honestly didn’t know. And there was no point in forming an alliance if that fleet had been destroyed.

“I was tricked into sending most of my space navy to other systems,” Risilan explained. “You see, I attempted to attack the worlds where the Link presence was detected on the outskirts of my territory. A few hours after arriving, hidden Vaernastian jamming vessels trapped them in the system. I found out when I opened a rift to communicate. My navies reported that the Link vessels above the staging planets had jumped out shortly after the jamming devices became active. The Link had no intention of attacking, at least not yet. They meant only to divide us.”

“Sounds like the strategy they tried on humanity,” Eric said. “A very effective one, at that.”

“Yes, well, the members of my fleet in each system are tracking down the jamming ships as we speak,” the queen said. “And will return when the task is complete.”

“May I ask how many ships you have out there?” Jain said.

She regarded him suspiciously. “As I told you, they will return shortly, so you’ll find out soon enough. In any case, your presence in orbit is no longer needed. When we conclude our meeting here, I must ask that you move to an interplanetary orbit.”

“We can certainly do that,” Jain said.

She waited patiently for him to ask what he had come here to ask. He noticed that the queen didn’t directly tell Jain or Eric that she owed them, as she had Jason. She was being cautious.

I definitely might have to get Jason to convince her, if I can’t do it.

He’d been thinking of how to best broach the topic, but he still didn’t know what the best way would be. He glanced at Eric and Jason, but they were looking at him expectantly.

Well, might as well dive in.

“We’ve come because we seek an alliance,” Jain said.

The queen raised an eyebrow. “An alliance?”

“Yes,” he said. “Against the Link.”

“Ah,” she said, sounding somewhat disappointed.

“It can be a temporary one,” he said, a little more quickly than he probably should have.

Can’t appear too desperate. The person with the most too lose during a negotiation is the one with the least leverage. Don’t let her get the upper hand.

“The relatively few number of ships they sent here to attack your homeworld, along with the reluctance to attack your navies in the systems you sent them to, tells me the Link is stretched thin,” Jain continued more calmly. “The numbers they lost during the war against Earth… the pressure exerted by the Fresnal… altogether, they could be close to breaking. Especially considering the departures of the Mimic, Banthar, and Tyrnari races from their empire. This is why now is the optimal time to strike. We have to seize the moment, carry through our momentum. We can’t give the Link time to recoup. We’re the tidal wave that could crush them against the rocks of the Fresnal.”

The queen was silent, apparently in thought.

“Did you ever consider that defeating the Link might be a bad idea?” Bambi said. “Do we really want the Fresnal to have free reign of the galaxy? What if they’re a worse enemy? What if the Link is the only thing protecting the galaxy from the evil Fresnal Empire?”

“Shh,” Eric said. “Don’t say that now. Not while he’s trying to convince the Tyrnari to help us!”

“Let her speak,” Risilan told the Bolt Eater. “It is good to consider all viewpoints.”

Bambi shrugged. “I’m just saying, we might have to deal with the Fresnal as soon as we’re done with the Link. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. But consider; we know almost nothing about them. Other than the Link supposedly invaded their territory, and the Fresnal fought back.”

Jain glanced at Eric.

“It’s true,” Eric said. “At least for the Banthar, the Fresnal have always been sort of a black box. We know what some of their ship types can do, but we don’t know their motivations. And we’ve never even seen what they look like.”

“So far, the Fresnal have made no aggressive actions against humanity or other races,” Jain said. “Whereas the Link have. If we’re victorious, and the Fresnal decide to attack us, then we’ll just have to deal with that when the time comes.”

Risilan waited, as if she still wasn’t convinced, and waited for Jain to say something that might change her mind.

He stared at her, wondering what else he could do. “We can come up with some sort of agreement, to split the spoils of the Link Empire, if that would help in your decision.”

She pursed her lips. “It would be tempting, if only for payback. Because in truth, we have no need of spoils, as you call them. The Tyrnari Empire has all the resources it needs.”

“Except ships, it would seem,” Jain said.

She bowed her head in acknowledgment of his point.

“Will you help us?” he pressed.

Risilan sighed. She closed her eyes. “I cannot do this.”

She opened her eyes, got up, and turned away.

“I can’t,” Risilan continued. “Jason convinced me to lend you twenty ships, and you can see what the consequences of that were. Imagine what would happen to me if I lent you my entire space navy.”

“Maybe nothing,” Jain said.

She spun on him. “Or maybe everything. What if it’s all a ruse? What if they’re not spread thin at all, as you say, and they want this?”

“Want what?” Jain asked.

“To leave our homeworld undefended!” Risilan replied.

“I’m not asking you to leave it undefended,” Jain said. “Keep as many ships here as your comfort level demands. Or leave a permanent rift open for communications so that you can return in a heartbeat during a surprise attack.”

She narrowed her eyes suddenly.

“And I am supposed to trust the Banthar and the Mimics?” Risilan said, glancing between Eric and Jain. “Trust that you won’t attack my fleet once I jump? You say you’ve left the company of the empire, but how do I know you truly have? Maybe that little attack in orbit was for show.”

“I don’t know how to convince you,” Jain said. “I can show you all the video archives I’ve made, which demonstrate all the work I’ve done to secure the allegiance of the Mimics. And Eric can show you his, for the Banthar.”

“But video archives can be faked,” she said.

“What if I gave them to you,” Jason said. “My own recordings, of my dealings with Jain and Eric.”

She studied Jason, then inclined her head. “That would help.”

“Transmitting now,” Jason said.

Her eyes defocused. No doubt she was watching the replays at that moment. She wasn’t an AI, so while she might be watching at a faster speed than normal humans could, it might still take her a while to view everything.

But surprisingly, she looked back at him after only a few minutes.

He glanced at Jason questioningly; apparently the leader of the War Forgers understood what was on Jain’s mind, because he said: “I sent her a series of selective clips, in case you’re wondering why she finished so quickly…”

“I was.” Jain returned his attention to Risilan.

She seemed to be regarding him in a different light. He thought there was more respect in her gaze, and less of that subtle condescension. “So it’s true. You’re not part of the Link. Or some of you aren’t, anyway. You represent a Mimic faction. That’s interesting.” She glanced at Eric. “And you are truly embedded in the central neural network responsible for Banthar Prime? The AI that rules them all?”

“You got it,” Eric said. “I’m on Banthar Prime even now.”

“Intriguing.” She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “Unfortunately, I can’t do it.” She opened her eyes and glanced at Jhagan. “We must look out for ourselves now, and ourselves alone, going forward. For the help you gave my people in orbit, I can repay you with either a thousand pounds of Tyrnari Molybdenum, a thousand gallons of our finest ale, or our galaxy-renown hospitality, but nothing more. If you will accept one of the three, then have Jason contact me. But otherwise there will be no alliance… no more starships dispatched your way. I am sorry if I could not fulfill your greatest hope.”

With that, she and her contingent winked out.

23

Jason blinked. “Well, that was rude of her.”

“But not entirely unexpected,” Jain said.

“She didn’t even give us a chance to launch a proper rebuttal,” Bambi complained.

“Tyrnari Molybdenum,” the one named Slate grumbled from behind. “We don’t have any use for this Tyrnari Molybdenum of theirs. I’m assuming that’s their money?”

“Right,” Jason said.

“And we can’t drink this thousand gallons of their finest ale, seeing as we’re robots,” Slate continued. “‘Sides, it’s probably poisonous to normal humans.”

“Yes, I’d agree,” Jason said.

“And their hospitality, well, I’m sure it leaves something to be desired,” Slate commented.

Jason pursed his lips. “Depends.”

“On what?” Slate said.

“On whether you’re the personal beneficiary of her hospitality,” Jason said.

Slate’s brow furrowed. “Personal beneficiary. I’m not sure what that means.” Suddenly he grinned in amusement. “Oh no. You’re not saying… you are, aren’t you?”

“He’s having sex with her,” Xin confirmed.

Slate stared at her in astonishment, and then broke out in laughter.

Jason felt heat rise in his cheeks, and he looked away. He hated that guy.

“So I guess we wasted our time here,” Crusher said.

“Not necessarily,” Eric told her. “For any of you who’ve ever had any sales training, I’m sure you’ve heard this before: no never means no.”

Brontosaurus sat down on the opposite side of the table, in the seat Risilan had just vacated. “You’re saying we can still convince her…”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Eric glanced at Jason. “Or rather, it’s not we who can convince her, but Jason.”

Jason shook his head. “I don’t know. She seems pretty set on not doing this. I’m not sure there’s anything more I can do. Jain raised some fairly convincing points, and it still wasn’t enough. I can’t think of anything else I could add.”

“But she trusts you,” Eric said.

“Yes, but that trust only extends so far,” Jason said.

“You can sex her?” Slate said, then abruptly broke out in renewed guffawing.

Jason shot him a glare. He almost logged Slate out of his home VR environment. That, or transformed him into a beetle, so he could stomp him. Almost.

Aria sat back, and exhaled. “Well, we do have the support of the entire Banthar fleet now. Maybe that’s good enough. We have Mimics. We have Mind Refurbs. Maybe we don’t need the Tyrnari.”

“No,” Cranston said. “We need as many ships as we can get our hands on. It’s better to be over prepared, ready to inflict overkill, than to come in with a fleet that barely passes muster. The fate of humanity, and all Mind Refurb kind, hangs in the balance. Whether the Tyrnari agree to join us, or refuse, could mean the difference between winning this war, or losing it.”

Silence descended upon hearing those words, because everyone present knew Cranston was right.

“I think I know how we can convince her,” Jason said suddenly.

All eyes turned to him.

“So far, we haven’t offered her any proof of our claims,” Jason explained. “I mean sure, we’ve showed her how we built our alliance, with the video clips I sent her way. But she’s still reluctant to commit, because she thinks this could be some sort of grand ruse on the part of the Link. So why don’t we show her that it’s not? Why don’t we show her just how badly off the Link are? I know how she thinks, and if we could prove to her that the Link are weakened, then she’d be more inclined to help us.”

Jain nodded. “We’ve just assumed that the Link are weakened. We could be wrong. Eventually, we’d have to gather intel on them to confirm whether that was actually true or not, and to get a better idea of what we face. Why not do it now?”

“How?” Xin asked.

Jain glanced at her. “Eric and I have the coordinates of all the major players in the Link Empire stored in our heads. Between the two of us, we can put together a list of all the Link homeworlds, along with the systems and deep space war zones located on the front lines against the Fresnal. We could open a series of rifts to the different locations, send in probes, and get some numbers. Those numbers would go a long way toward allaying the queen’s doubts and securing her allegiance.”

“Assuming the Link are weakened, like we suspect,” Eric said.

Jain nodded in agreement. “It will be that much harder to secure the Tyrnari’s allegiance if they’re not.”

“Where do you plan on opening these rifts?” Jason asked.

“Right here,” Jain said.

Jason shook his head. “Risilan will never agree. Opening rifts to Link territory, in her space?”

“Why not?” Jain said.

“If a rift managed to open near an enemy base or fleet, we’d have company,” Jason said. “That would piss her off.”

“But the odds of that happening are infinitesimal,” Jain said.

“I’ll do it from Banthar Prime,” Eric interjected. “I’m not too worried about opening rifts to Link territory. I’ve already repaired three gates in orbit above the Banthar homeworld… they only need half an hour to recharge between rift creations, unlike the two-hour window of Banthar and Mimic vessels, or the twelve-hour recharge period of Mind Refurb vessels. And I should have at least another two more gates operational in a few hours, so that’ll cut down the time needed for our intel gathering.” He glanced at Jason. “Give me twelve to eighteen hours, and I should have everything you need to show your queen.”

* * *

Jason stood in a throne room virtual environment this time. Risilan sat in one of two gem-encrusted golden chairs. The second was empty. There were no advisors present. It was simply Jason and Risilan.

“I have reviewed the data you shared with me,” Risilan said. There was no hint of seduction in her voice, not like her first words during the earlier meeting. No, she was all business. “The Link do appear to be weakened, if one goes by sheer numbers alone.”

“The Fresnal have worn them down over the decades,” Jason agreed.

“Perhaps,” Risilan said, her face hard. “Though it is also possible that there are other systems where the fighting is taking place. Or staging systems where they’ve left their reserves. Systems your allies failed to check.”

“If you know of any other systems we should be looking at, I’d be happy to have them look,” Jason said.

Risilan shook her head. Her features softened. “Even though you’ve shown me all of this, my first instinct is still to refuse. To protect my people. We’ve only just begun to move out of the biodomes that the years of terraforming forced us to live inside. Many ecosystems are still damaged. And bioweapons roam the uninhabited zones.”

“Sounds a bit like Earth after our first invasion,” Jason said. “But at least we didn’t have biodomes on our populated side. I definitely can empathize with you… I wouldn’t want to go to war, either, if I was the leader of a nation, and I could help it. But in this case, going to war is a preventative measure. You have to stop the Link from ever subjugating the Tyrnari again. From ever forcing you to live in biodomes, while they use your planet’s natural resources to produce bioweapons for their wars.”

She lowered her gaze. “I’ve presented the data to my advisors, and they all agree, joining you is a bad idea. But they have left the final decision in my hands.”

“Of course they have,” Jason said. “You’re the queen. You have the final say. This isn’t a democracy.”

She smiled faintly. “No, it isn’t. Though I’ve been toying with installing such a governmental framework. The only thing stopping me is that I don’t believe such a ruling structure would be compatible with the Tyrnari mindset. We’re used to being ruled by monarchs. Having rule by elected officials would be a very foreign thing.”

“I’m sure you’d adapt,” Jason said. “If you really wanted such a system.”

“My fear is corruption,” Risilan said. “Elected officials can be swayed by lobbyists and funding from different foreign powers. Whereas in my system, the only one who could be corrupted is me. And we all know I’m incorruptible.”

“Oh, of course,” Jason said, finding it hard to keep the sarcasm from his voice. “But do your advisors have any sway over you?”

“Well, yes,” Risilan said.

“Okay, then you’re forgetting that your advisors are essentially the same as elected officials, at least when it comes to bribes,” Jason said. “You say they all advised you not to join in this alliance? How do you know they’re not doing so because they’ve received bribes from different influential groups among your population?”

“That’s a good point,” Risilan said. “Democracy, and dictatorships, aren’t all that different, once one gets to the heart of the matter. They’re just a different set of players. And neither one truly has the interests of the people in mind.”

“No, not really,” Jason agreed. “But in a democracy, the people get the illusion that they have some say.”

“There is the difference,” Risilan said. “The illusion. Which is why I’ve been toying with the idea.” She waved a hand. “But in any case, you didn’t come here to debate the technical intricacies of political systems with me.”

“No,” he said.

She got up off her throne, and took the steps leading down from the dais, until she stood before him. She had chosen the height of her avatar to match his own so that their faces were level with one another.

She took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say was difficult for her.

“I will help you under one condition,” Risilan said.

He stared into her eyes intently. He could see longing there, desire, mixed with… doubt, he thought.

“What condition is that?” he asked.

Tears seemed to well in her eyes for a moment, but she blinked, and they were gone. “That you stay here. Permanently.”

Jason simply stared at her. “I— I can’t commit to something like that. I value my freedom. ”

She turned her back on him. “Then I can’t help you.”

She climbed the dais, and returned to the throne, sitting in the leftmost seat.

Jason sighed. “This is how it’s going to be, is it?”

She smiled defiantly. Her eyes dared him to refuse her. He knew then that she was very serious. If he wanted to secure this alliance, he’d have to agree to stay.

How important is it that we defeat the Link anyway?

But he knew the answer already: very important. All four races of the proposed alliance—Banthar, Tyrnari, Human, Mimic—were at risk if the Link were not stopped. The four of them had to attack now, while the enemy was weak. And to do that, they needed Risilan’s help. The number of Link vessels Eric’s probes had recorded in the target systems, while encouraging, was still high. If the allies wanted to stand a chance, they needed the Tyrnari space navy.

He was boxed in.

He looked down at his feet. “Let’s say I do this. What are the terms? Will the War Forgers and our clones be allowed to join me, if they want to?”

He glanced up in time to catch her shaking her head. “You will become my consort.” She patted the cushion of the empty chair next to her. “You will sit on this throne beside me. To do that, you must free yourself of all other mates. You must leave behind your machine women.”

“But I love them,” he said.

“As I love you,” she said.

He looked at her, somewhat stunned. He hadn’t even thought her capable of love, considering her alien nature. But then again, maybe that wasn’t fair. Maybe the emotion humans called love evolved along with higher intelligence throughout the galaxy.

He held his tongue, because he wasn’t sure he loved her in return. How could he be? He didn’t care about her external form, of course: for the past several decades he’d been sleeping with woman that looked like war machines in real life after all. He only cared about this current form, which was the most representative of how she was inside, as far as he was concerned. Their virtual avatars had slept together in this form, but otherwise, he didn’t really know her that well. Not like the others. So yes, he kept quiet.

Risilan spoke into the silence. “Someday you will learn to love me, as you love them.”

She seemed disappointed when he still didn’t answer. “Ruling at my side does not please you? You will have power beyond your dreams. The people will revere you, and cheer your name when you walk the streets with your android. We’ll have to prepare one in the image of a Tyrnari, of course.”

“I just… why don’t you marry a Tyrnari?” he asked.

“I don’t want a Tyrnari,” she said quietly. “They’re all power seekers. None of them want me for who I am, but for the throne I sit upon. Not one of them would turn me down. Only you… only you have spurned me. That has only made me want you all the more.”

That was a part of human psychology as well: when something seemed unattainable, oftentimes those who wanted it desired it all the more. Their two races were more alike than he would have guessed. But that also made him wonder what she would do when he finally caved. Would she install him as consort, only to discard him at a later date when she grew bored of him?

But if she discards me, that would be a good thing. Then I could go back to Earth, and be with my War Forgers.

“You can’t tell me you feel nothing when we do this…” Risilan said.

She materialized in front of him, standing once more, and then she kissed him. He returned it unenthusiastically, and she pulled away, frowning.

Once more she appeared on her throne. “Very well.” Her voice was hard once more, and she gazed down upon him imperiously. “If you do not accept the terms of my offer, then we’re done here. You may go.”

We have to defeat the Link. This alliance is crucial.

Besides, it wouldn’t be so bad. Her avatar was hot as hell. He certainly wouldn’t be lacking in the sexual department.

But he’d be sorely hurting on the emotional side of things.

Jason approached her, and climbed the dais until he towered over her.

He looked down at her as he said:

“I will be you consort,” Jason said. “I will abandon my War Forgers to sit at your side.”

He sat in the empty chair beside her.

She stared at him in astonishment, and then grinned widely, reaching across to hug him tight. “Finally! Finally.” She was crying tears of joy.

Meanwhile, Jason felt cold and numb inside.

When she released him, he looked directly into her eyes, and unblinking, told her: “But my terms are this: I will not join you on the Tyrnari throne until we have defeated the Link. We must both agree that the threat to all of our races is over.”

She pursed her lips. “I suppose I can agree to that.”

“Also, I want the news of my impending rise to consort to be kept between us for now,” Jason said. “It will be too much of a distraction for my War Forgers in the coming battles if they learn of it early.”

“Whatever you want,” she said.

“All right,” Jason said. “So you agree to an alliance with the Mimics, Banthar, and humanity?”

She held out her hand, palm flat, fingers extended. He reached out, and intertwined his fingers with hers.

“I agree to an alliance with you,” she said.

* * *

Jason logged into his home VR environment and appeared in the common room of his mountain cabin. Seated on the couch were Tara, Sophie and Lori; they were playing some sort of holographic, three-dimensional realtime-strategy game that involved destroying downtown neighborhoods with animated wrecking balls and bulldozers.

“She’s agreed,” Jason said, sitting across from them.

“So you managed to convince her after all,” Sophie said. “How much sex did it require?”

“None, actually,” Jason told her. “We held hands, kissed a bit, and that was it.”

“Aw, it’s like puppy love,” Lori said.

He shot her an annoyed glance.

“So I assume we’re going to go with her fleet?” Tara asked.

Jason nodded. “We are.”

“We’re leaving the Rex Wolves here again?” Tara said.

“We have no choice,” Jason said. “Sure, the Tyrnari have the ability to pressurize their cargo bays, but the cramped compartments of Tyrnari warships are no place for living things of that size. The dogs were meant to roam free. I couldn’t do that to them, confine them like that.”

“We could keep them sedated until they’re needed,” Sophie suggested.

“That’s a little cruel…” Lori said.

Tara hugged herself as if suddenly cold. “Jason is right. We can’t bring them. If ever there was a hull breach—which is likely, where we’re going—we’d lose them. I couldn’t live with myself. Though I’ll miss them, they’re safest here, in Risilan’s palace. That’s where they’re staying, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Jason said. “They’ll be left in the care of Risilan’s servants.”

“Probably the right choice,” Sophie said, backtracking from her earlier comment. “Dogs don’t really belong in war.”

“Cry havoc, and unleash the dogs of war!” Lori said.

Jason smiled. “Er, this isn’t Shakespeare.”

“Did you know cry havoc was originally based on the Old French words crier havot?” Lori said. “Which literally means ‘shout havoc.’ It was the signal for a victorious army to start plundering a conquered city. Yes, having a neural network for a mind is a wonderful thing.”

He smiled.

Man, I’m going to miss her. All of them.

He didn’t know how he was going to break the news when this was done. He wasn’t looking forward to the day. He had no doubt it was going to be one of the hardest experiences of his life.

He was almost beginning to hope that the Link would win out there. Or at least, that the battle would be as long and as protracted as possible. If only to spare him from having to tell them what he’d done to secure the alliance.

Yes, when the Link are no more, I’ll have to break the news that I’m leaving the War Forgers behind forever.

24

Over the next few days, Jain watched the Tyrnari ships trickle in from the different staging systems, until eventually the fleet grew to two hundred warships strong. In addition to the Hang Gliders there were several other classes of ships, but they wielded the same types of weapons, just in different quantities.

When the last of them arrived, Queen Risilan boarded the flagship, the Gnasher. It looked like a big triangular monolith of a ship. Eric had called it a “Star Destroyer,” and when he’d shared an image of it from a movie called Star Wars, Jain had to agree that the designs were vaguely similar.

“Jason is asking to connect,” Xander said.

“Put him through,” Jain said.

“I have the queen here,” Jason said. “She wants to know if you’re ready to jump.”

“We are,” Jain said.

He’d been opening rifts to Halvert over the past few days, and sending probes through to monitor the progress of the Paladins and Mimics. At one point, the probe returned and reported that no ships were detected in the Halvert system, and Jain had to conclude that Tanis had finally tracked down and destroyed the jamming ships.

He’d open a rift to Earth system next—he assumed that was where the stranded fleet had jumped to. The probe he sent reported extra vessels consistent with the presence of the Paladins and the Mimics. He had that same probe broadcast a message informing Earth of what he was doing in the Tyrnari system, and he told the president and admiral to expect a complete data dump and report when he got back. After that, he recalled the probe.

The plan was to travel to Earth first, and then make plans to attack the Link now that alliances had been secured.

“All right,” Jason sent. “See you on the other side.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Jain watched as the Gnasher opened a rift. The Tyrnari warships accelerated through in rapid succession. It was quite a sight, watching all those alien vessels pass into Earth system. Wave after wave of them. He was somewhat worried the Tyrnari might betray humanity, that the queen’s reluctance to join was all some trick, and that they would attack Earth to make amends with the Link. He considered himself good at reading people, and from what he could tell, Risilan was sincere, but the thing was, she wasn’t a person, but an alien. His reading could be way off.

Adding to his doubt was the fact he wasn’t sure what Jason had done to convince her. He’d ask for a recording of the negotiations, but Jason had refused to provide them, which only added to Jain’s suspicion. He knew that Jason wouldn’t purposely betray them—at least, he hoped his fellow Mind Refurb wouldn’t—but it was possible Risilan had installed some nefarious virus that rendered him helpless to her commands. He’d had Sheila surreptitiously scan Jason’s AI core, but the results came up negative. If there was a virus, it was well hidden.

Eric’s Bethunia II created another rift for the Banthar, and Jain a third for his Void Warriors. He followed them through. It took a few minutes for the random positions of the other two fleets to appear on the tactical display. Like his Void Warriors, the other two fleets were on course for Earth, and the Mind Refurb and Mimic defense forces that had gathered there in high orbit.

Once again he paused to admire the number of ships he’d managed to secure for Earth.

That’s a lot of ships.

He hadn’t done it alone, of course. Eric and Jason deserved equal credit. Still, if he had stayed in Halvert, none of these ships would be here right now.

The Link were certainly going to be in for a surprise when the combined fleets arrived at the first homeworld.

Assuming Earth didn’t do anything to mess up the alliance.

When he reached realtime communications range, he had Xander loop in Jason, Risilan, Eric, Hephaestus, Tanis, and Jacobs. Their avatars appeared on the bridge.

“It’s getting crowded in here,” Medeia commented.

With a thought, Jain expanded the bridge, giving everyone more room.

“Well, you’ve brought some new friends,” Hephaestus commented.

“Just a few,” Jain agreed. “Tanis, Jacobs, Hephaestus, meet Queen Risilan, Central of the Tyrnari. Risilan, this is Admiral Tanis, and his second in command, Jacobs, commanders of the Paladins of Earth. And this here is Hephaestus, leader of the Mimic faction.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Risilan said.

“The pleasure is mine.” Hephaestus’ eyes twinkled mischievously as he bent over and kissed her hand. The queen seemed unimpressed. She glanced at Jason to gauge his reaction, but he affected an air of unconcern.

“How did it go in Halvert?” Jain asked when Hephaestus released her.

Tanis was the one who answered. “When the Vaernastians jammed the outgoing rift so quickly, we realized they had to be on the surface of the Halvert colony, and eventually found the jamming ships hidden in a mountain range not far from the main city.”

“Good job,” Jain said.

“I have a question,” Jason said.

All eyes turned to him.

“I’m curious, how is the bioweapon clean up going on Earth?” Jason asked, seeming a little uncomfortable suddenly. “Now that we’ve shut down the rifts from the Link staging planets…”

“It’s going well,” Tanis said. “There are only a few pockets of resistance left in the major cities. We should have them cleared out within the week.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Jason said. “It feels good to have played a part in stopping that.”

“Yes, thank you again,” Tanis said. “Humanity is in your debt.”

“What about those bioweapons the Link deployed outside the major cities?” Eric asked.

“Those will take longer to clean up of course,” Tanis said. “It will probably take us a few years before we get them all. Why, you looking to volunteer?”

“Nope,” Eric said, and left it at that.

“So, you got my earlier message I presume?” Jain asked the admiral. “Otherwise you would have been sending out frantic missives when you saw the two alien fleets arriving.”

“I received it,” Tanis confirmed.

“So are you ready to take the fight to the enemy?” Jain said, unable to hold back an eager smile.

Tanis hesitated. “About that…”

“Oh, no,” Eric said. “Here we go. After all that trouble, he’s going to tell us that the humans and Mind Refurbs of Earth have changed their minds.”

Tanis raised his palms defensively. “I appreciate what you’ve done, bringing in reinforcements from our allies and all. And by all rights, the president, Central Command, his defense secretary, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they should all agree that now is the time to authorize a strike against a Link homeworld. But…”

“Here it comes,” Eric said.

“The president is getting cold feet,” Tanis said.

“But we’ve brought them a war fleet!” Jain could have thrown up his arms. First Risilan didn’t want to fight, and now Earth.

Nothing’s ever easy, he reminded himself.

“Talk to him, not me,” Tanis said. “Here, I’ll see if I can get him on the line.”

A moment later President Wilcox appeared. Jain’s time sense instantly accelerated—the president had transmitted a rate increase. No doubt Wilcox had been in the middle of a meeting of some kind, and had momentarily interrupted it to join them.

Jain introduced Risilan, and Wilcox shook her hand: at least he had the decency not to kiss it.

The president released her, and then ran his gaze from face to face. “Well, judging from the hostility in your faces, I presume Tanis has told you my position?”

“You can’t back down now,” Jain said. “Not when we’re so close to turning the tide against the Link.”

The president smiled sadly. “I appreciate everything you’ve done. Gathering up these two races, and forming an alliance in the name of Earth. But, here’s the thing: you did all of this without consulting me. If you had, I would have told you that we weren’t ready to fight the Link, even with allies. That any ships you did bring, I’d use to protect Earth from the next attack.”

“Protect Earth? We didn’t agree to this.” Risilan glanced at Jason. “The terms were that we would begin systematically attacking Link homeworlds, starting with the top, most influential members, and working our way down until the entire empire surrendered. If this is not what you intend, I’m pulling out.”

“That’s right,” Eric said. “I’m going to have to pull out the Banthar too, if that’s the case, as much as I’d like to protect Earth. Because you see, my world needs to be defended just as urgently as your planet does.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Wilcox said. “Other than, I’m sorry.”

“I was expecting some resistance,” Jain said. “Though not this much, considering the vibes I got from Tanis.” He glanced at the admiral, who wore a guilty expression, then returned his attention to the president. “Look. We’ve got hard data… we’ve sent probes to all the different Link systems, including those where they’re engaged with the Fresnal. The Link are weak. We have to strike now. We have a good chance of winning this if we do. Here, have a look.”

He transmitted the data the probes had recorded to Jacobs, Tanis and the president. They accepted.

“Pay particular attention to the Fresnal numbers on the Link-Fresnal front,” Jain said. “The Link are weak, but the Fresnal are even weaker. If we don’t intercede, the Fresnal will lose. And when that happens, the Link will be free to turn their malevolent gaze fully upon humanity.

The eyes of Tanis, Jacobs, and Wilcox defocused. They were very likely accelerating their time senses even further to process what he had sent.

Wilcox finally glanced at him. “How recent is this data?”

“A couple of days old,” Jain said.

“Incredible,” the president said. “I would have expected their numbers to be at least twice this.”

“Now do you understand what I mean when I say we stand a chance?” Jain asked.

“They’re probably harboring more ships on staging planets we don’t know about,” Jacobs said. “And they likely have shipyards we haven’t discovered yet, too.”

“It’s possible,” Jain agreed.

“I’ve been continually sending probes to systems bordering the Link territories, and I haven’t found anything,” Eric said.

“If I were part of the Link, I’d make sure my staging planets were as far away from my territory as possible,” Jacobs said. “To mislead prying eyes like yours.”

“If they had more ships ready for war, they would have sent them by now,” Jain insisted. “We’d be fighting them off at this very moment. Have you seen any since we left this system?”

“No,” Wilcox admitted.

“There you go,” Jain said.

“Given this new information,” the president said. “I’ll have to consult with my advisors, and Central Command. I can’t guarantee you that we’re going to go to war. But I have to say, you make a fairly good argument. If we want to strike, now definitely seems like the time.”

With that, Wilcox disconnected.

Jain glanced at Eric after the president had gone. “It was a good thing we collected that data.”

“Yeah,” Eric said. “It helped convince a queen. And now it’ll help sway a president.”

“Or turn him away from us,” Jacobs said. “Because like I told you, the data feels incomplete to me.”

“Maybe it is,” Jain said. “Maybe not. But all I know is, there will never be any better time to attack than this. If we hold off, and wait until years down the road when we finally feel ‘ready,’ after we’ve rebuilt our fleet and added hundreds more to our numbers, I guarantee you, by the time we reach a Link homeworld, we’ll face thousands.”

“We might already face thousands,” Jacobs said. “But hey, what do I know? I’m just a Mind Refurb.”

25

Eric emerged in the target system.

A few hours ago, the president had finally given the fleet permission to attack. Wilcox had agreed with their assessment: they’d never have a better opportunity to turn the tide in this war than now.

Defense Secretary Anderson had once said he didn’t want to engage in a fight that would last for decades, but the truth was, in a sense humanity had already been fighting for over a hundred years: the Link and their member species had been a threat to Earth since that first invasion a century ago.

That the Link hadn’t yet conquered Earth fully was due to the distraction of the Fresnal; their protracted war had prevented Earth from being the focus of attention all this time. But if the Fresnal lost, which seemed inevitable given the data Eric had gathered from the Link-Fresnal front, then humanity would fall shortly thereafter.

It was ironic: while the Fresnal had saved humanity, they were also partially responsible for the original invasion. The bioweapons quota the Link had enforced upon its member races to feed the demands of the war was what had spurred the Banthar into invading Earth the first time, all those years ago.

If that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here right now.

He had to smile at that thought. He would have stayed inside a Cicada war machine, roaming the mountains of the Caucasus for the rest of his days, or until the military decided to retire him. Which meant turning him off.

Ahead, the target was a super-Earth, home to a race known as the Zanefyne. Hephaestus had suggested the world, because the Zanefyne were one of the original founding members, and thus stood relatively high in the Link Empire. Their world was also home to the Link High Command, where orders from the other founding members were gathered and dispatched to the rest of the empire. If they could seize the High Command, in theory, they could sow chaos among the Link members, but in practice, the empire would probably reroute their messaging traffic to a different world.

Either way, it was the perfect world to target, as an attack here was equivalent to a strike at the heart of their empire. It also had the least number of orbital defenses. There were only a few warships in orbit, but it was expected that more would jump in when the fighting started.

Eric kept his eye on the tactical display. Ahead, ships began to reposition above the Link homeworld, moving to protect the planet with the defense platforms.

“We’ve been spotted,” Tanis announced over the comm.

“I figured that,” Eric said.

“Looks like they’ve got jammers,” Jain sent.

Eric tried to create a rift. Didn’t work.

They were trapped in the system.

But that wasn’t unexpected.

The first few hours passed rather uneventfully, with the Banthar, Tyrnari, Mimic, Paladin, and Void Warrior fleets traveling to the rendezvous point. When the Alliance members had all arrived, they headed as one unified mass toward the target world. The Mimic ships all cloaked. Meanwhile, the Banthar and Tyrnari doubled up in an effort to hide their numbers.

“I’m detecting rifts opening on a massive scale,” Dee said.

Eric glanced at his overhead map. Rifts were indeed appearing in random locations throughout the system. Ships began to emerge.

And more ships. There were types out there Eric had never encountered before.

“They keep coming!” Bambi said over the comm from her own starship. “So, you were saying the Link are spread thin, huh? They don’t look too ‘spread thin’ at the moment…”

“We expected them to send reinforcements,” Eric said. Just not this many.

The rifts finally closed.

When the fleets had first entered the system, the Alliance had outnumbered the enemy three to one. But now they were the ones outnumbered. Not by much, true, but still, the battle wasn’t going to be easy.

I hate this, he tried telling himself. Wars. Space combat. Conquering homeworlds…

Who was he kidding?

He lived for this.

The fleet came within weapons range.

“Bolt Eaters, engage,” Eric said. He couldn’t help the grim smile that formed on his face as he opened fire.

To be continued…

I hope you enjoyed The Alliance. Book 3 in the AI Empire series, The Empire, will be available next week (or sooner). Click the link below to be notified when the book comes out, or to discover other novels in the Mind Refurb universe that you might have missed.

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Afterword

Please help spread the word about AI Empire 2 - The Alliance by leaving a one or two sentence review. The number of reviews an ebook receives has a big impact on how well it does, so if you liked this story I'd REALLY appreciate it if you left a quick review. Anything will do, even one or two lines.

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About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Isaac Hooke holds a degree in engineering physics, though his more unusual inventions remain fictive at this time. He is an avid hiker, cyclist, and photographer who sometimes resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

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Acknowledgments

I’d also like to thank my knowledgeable beta readers and advanced reviewers who helped smooth out the rough edges of the prerelease manuscript: Nicole P., Lisa G., Chris S., Jerry P., Amy B., Karen J, Jeremy G., Doug B., Jenny O., Bryan O., Gary F., Clay, Noel, Anton, Spencer, Norman, and Trudi.

Without you all, this novel would have typos, continuity errors, and excessive lapses in realism. Thank you for helping me make this the best novel possible, and thank you for leaving the early reviews that help new readers find my books.

And of course I’d be remiss if I didn't thank my dear mother, father, and brothers, whose wisdom and insights have always guided me when the alliance seemed broken, and I was only two strokes from victory.

— Isaac Hooke

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