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Shift Zone, Mount Epratis, Dianis
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The entire ground contingent of Ready Reaction, IDB Margel Damansk, cleared the Mount Epratis shift zone in good order. Before the IDB had withdrawn from the Margel, of which Dianis was the principal planet, there had been over two thousand Ready Reaction agents to cover the thirteen solar systems that spanned six thousand light years. Now, there were four, not counting the crew of six, on board the IDB Shields.
“Bots up and orbiting,” called Sendrant over the team net.
Meridia, drawing tail-gunner position in their eenu-mounted team, liked the feel of the compact, forty-shot plasma pistol in its shoulder holster and the spare forty-shot energy packs in his vest, but he questioned Ivan’s designation of the intervention to Tivor as potentially hostile. Just because Achelous had gone off the grid was no reason to label Tivor potentially hostile to the IDB. Yes, Quorat had shot up Murali’s, the Marines had landed, and Ivan’s face was no longer welcomed in Wedgewood, but that was again no reason to assume that New Ungern would be hostile to them. But it was Ivan’s call, and because of it, the chief had invoked the ULUP exclusion, allowing them to pack plasma weaponry and don projectile-resistant armor beneath their period-specific in-country clothing. Chief must be feeling lonely with just the bots, drones, and Shields up there for cover, he thought. I suppose he’s right, but in the A-Brigade, we were always alone, out on the edge. He’d gotten used to the feeling.
“Have you checked on your job?” Ivan asked.
All the team members knew what the chief meant. Only one of the team had a specific duty assigned to them by the Matrincy. Meridia tapped his vambrace and brought up the preconfigured aural tracker for Outish. “Yes, chief, he and Lettern are still at the Crevice.” It had been a simple thing for Outish to connect to his aural-signature nullifier through his multi-func and disable it. Causing his aural signature to, again, be visible to aural scanning. Ivan had gone one step further and ordered Outish to expel it. The intern had, with some complaining, done so. The expel command caused the device, with an embedded aquamarine crystal, to detach itself from the lining of Outish’s stomach and evacuate through his bowels. It was Meridia’s responsibility to retrieve the evacuated device and return it to the chief.
“Have we assessed the origins of the Crevice yet?” asked Sergeant Horalznick.
“Good question,” said Meridia. He brought up the holo projector on his multi-func.
Horalznick pulled up. “Chief, have you seen this?” The team maneuvered their mounts around Meridia’s as he manipulated the display. All the while, the recon and defense bots circled above the team a hundred yards out, and one of the Shields’ three surveillance drones hovered on station five thousand feet overhead.
Horalznick pointed at the holograph. “Outish reported to Meridia that while he had been digging samples and exploring in that area, he heard from the locals about the Crevice, a natural opening deep into Mount Mars. So I had Jeremy dig through all the geographical records for Mount Mars and Wedgewood.” The team, except for Meridia, were all familiar with Jeremy, the AI for Achelous’ Civilization Monitoring teams. Ivan had gained funding to reinstall the archived AI on a Central Station server. It was a friendly face, albeit an avatar. It was good to have their old friend back. What they didn’t know, but Jeremy did, is just before Lights Out, Clienen had authorized Achelous to clone an instantiation or separate version of the AI. That copy now ran on a server in the repair bay. In a quirk of computer programming and what some feared as artificial intelligence attaining self-awareness, the two AIs communicated with each other but had not surrendered the existence of the other to their masters.
“Jeremy,” Horalznick called over the IDB Dianis CivMon net, the first time that comm net had been used since Lights Out.
“Yes, sergeant,” came Jeremy’s immediate response.
Ivan and Sendrant couldn’t help but smile. The team might have the only four Ready Reaction ground assets in six thousand light years, but the world wasn’t so lonely with Jeremy back in Central Station.
“Report your analysis of the geographical feature known as the Crevice on Mount Mars, north by northwest of the Tolkroft Mine.”
“Yes, sergeant. Given the recently uploaded scans by intern Outish, there is an eighty-eight percent probability that the Crevice is a sentient-made artifact. The first three hundred meters of the Crevice were excavated to appear as a natural fissure in the granite substrate of Mount Mars. Two specifics allude to the fissure as not natural. First, granite does not fracture in the manner of the Crevice. Second, the slope and direction of the Crevice violate the natural stress lines of the mountain’s magnetic field.”
“Hello, Jeremy.”
“Hello, chief.”
“It’s good to hear you again, Jeremy.”
“Thank you, chief. It’s good to be back.”
For Ivan, the trying days shifting back and forth between Dominicus and Dianis were almost worth hearing the AI’s familiar voice. Jeremy spoke with a Calinextra III accent. He acquired it from the original IDB CivMon team that had first transferred in from Calinextra eighty years ago to bootstrap the first Dianis contingent. “Explain the slope and direction of the Crevice.”
“Yes, chief. Given the information provided by intern Outish, principally his filing yesterday, of a Loch Norim Historical Registry claim on behalf of Chief Forushen, the axis of the Crevice, if projected beyond the terminus of the Crevice, precisely intersects with the center of the destroyed Loch Norim facility on the top of Mount Mars. Moreover, the Crevice tunnel rises in elevation an average of seven degrees over its thousand-meter distance. An easy incline for bipedal sentients.”
Ivan translated bipedal sentients, “Humans.” He looked at Meridia. “Did you know Outish was going to file a Loch Norim Historical registry claim?”
Meridia shook his head, surprised. “Uh, chief, he’s on the grid again.”
Ivan’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t bother to ask what else the intern had been doing on the Fednet Interconn.
“With regards, chief,” said Jeremy, “news of this latest validated Loch Norim site by Chief Achelous Forushen, who has four previous validated site registries to his credit, is causing substantial debate in the Loch Norim academic circles. Using my reinstated security clearances, I can tell you that Director Hor has thirteen requests in his queue from a list of media services to interview Chief Forushen on the find.”
The team members looked at each other, and Ivan summed it up for them when he said, “Shiren.”
“Yes, chief, I understand.”
Meridia grinned. Jeremy knew its Humans.
The AI went on, “I am following the debate in Loch Norim academic circles, and much of the message traffic is centered on the clause that intern Outish used to describe the status of the site.”
Oh, oh, thought Meridia. What did the kid say?
“And that was?” asked Ivan.
“That the surface installation was destroyed by an airburst missile attack followed by a bomb attack, but the attack failed to penetrate the underlying structure.”
Ivan’s eyes grew wide.
“Oh, heaven and spirits,” whistled Horalznick. “Is that true?”
The three of them pinned Meridia with accusing expressions.
“What? I can’t control what he says and who he says it to!” Meridia exclaimed. “You told me my job was to protect him, and here I am in Tivor!” Meridia held his hands up.
Sendrant was shaking his head. Then he looked to Ivan. “Chief, this may be our funding authorization to re-staff Dianis in force. Once the federation wakes up to an intact and potentially functional Loch Norim site on Dianis, all shit is going to break loose. The ULUP Board of Governance will demand we come back and come back now.”
“If Outish is right.” Ivan glared at Meridia.
“Chief!” Again, Meridia held up his hands.
Opening the Fednet Interconn news posts on his multi-func, Horalznick said, “Even if it is not intact, the assertion that the site was destroyed by an attack is probably sending shock waves through academia.” A posting caught his eye, and he read the headline, “Implication of Dianis findings are the Loch Norim were at war and that they lost.” He said, separate from the article, “This will add fresh support to those who say there is a greater evil in the galaxy, greater than the Turboii.”
Ivan just shook his head and kept shaking it.
Jeremy picked up on the chief’s consternation. “Chief, may I be of assistance?”
At a loss for what to say, Ivan sat on his eenu and looked to the looming peak of Mount Epratis. Unlike Mount Mars, the peak of Mount Epratis was bare of snow; it was an active volcano. No hidden Loch Norim sites there. “Yes, Jeremy. Let me know if you detect any Matrincy activity on the subject. I expect the director and maybe even the matriarch to be calling me on this.”
“Hey, chief?” it was a new voice on the CivMon net.
“Yes, sir, go ahead,” Ivan replied to Lieutenant Hearter.
“The recon bots have completed their survey of New Ungern, the new foundry, Marinda hall, and the Marinda gunpowder works. Mears is directing them into the city itself to do the facial recognition scans.”
“Yes, sir. Any hits so far?”
The team picked up on the hesitation in the lieutenant’s voice.
“No hits on either Marisa or Achelous. One of the recon bots, pinned to Boyd and his nanny, recorded this,” and Hearter played the recorded audio over the team net.
<child’s voice> “When Mama come back?” <silence> “Nanna? Papa? Papa come back today?”
<female voice> “Mama went to get Daddy. She’ll bring him back.”
<child’s voice> “When? When Mama and Papa come home?”
<female voice exasperated but patient> “I don’t know Boyd, but you know Mama. She will find Daddy and bring him home.”
There was silence on the team net.
Meridia asked, “So neither Achelous nor Marisa is at Marinda Hall or New Ungern?”
“Negative,” replied Hearter. “But I have some disturbing intel.”
“What?” asked Ivan.
“The aural scan picked up a ghost resonance of Agent Maxmun’s aural signature.”
An eenu shuffled, and a bird called from a tree.
They all knew the common cause of a ghost resonance. A deceased Human body gave off a shadow aural signature that diminished as the body’s mass decayed.
“How can that be?” Ivan asked. “Baryy has an aural dampener attached to his stomach lining. We know that from Outish.”
The voice over the CivMon net said, “I’m sorry, chief. The dampeners become inactive when either expelled or the host is deceased. As designed. So the body can be found. We did a thorough recon with the bots of the area with the ghost resonance. I’m Sending the vid of their findings.”
Ivan saw the image projected to his optical implant. He read the inscription and read it again and then again.
Ivan bent his head. “Atch. Atch. What have you done?”
Meridia watched the stark reaction of the three Ready Reaction agents to the image. He knew he should feel something but didn’t. He’d lost so many friends his emotional armor, or maybe scaring, was thick and impenetrable. Although, he could sympathize. The pain they felt caused his stomach to knot. He read the inscription on the image and willed himself to feel something.
The bot vid showed the House Marinda cemetery behind Marinda Hall, and the image centered on a newly cut tombstone. The inscription read:
Baryy Maxmun
293 – 332 Epis Exodi
Agent, IDB Dianis
Died In the Line of Service
Friend to all who knew him
Ivan willed himself to think, to plan objectively, without emotion. In the eighteen years he’d run Ready Reaction Dianis, he’d only lost two CivMon agents. Neither of them to hostile action. Again, he looked up at the lonely, barren peak of Mount Epratis, a huge cinder cone. He thought about life, love, and his friends. His struggles and successes marched across his mind’s eye in no real order. It was a long parade, the weight of it drawing him down. Amid the depression, he sought an anchor, a light. The barren peak was no help, so he turned to his three team members. The three he had alive. “Lieutenant, we will proceed to the site and confirm.” It was all he could think to say.
The team rode in silence to the main gate of Tivor. Horalznick eventually said, “You know, chief, it could be j a ruse. A trick to convince us Baryy is dead, to quit searching for him.”
Ivan saw the dim hope in the sergeant’s eyes. He looked away and focused on the long line at the gate, at the people seeking entrance to the city and the City Watch working the line. On the ramparts, instead of the usual City Watch, there were instead Tivor-liveried archers. Not militia, but regular army. “Shields, you there?”
“Aye,” came Mears’ immediate response.
“You seeing this?”
“I am.”
“Jeremy,” Ivan called to central station. “Inspect video feed. Analyze. I don’t remember this from before. I’ve been to these gates and rode right through.”
“Heightened state of security,” Jeremy immediately replied. “Personnel identified as City Watch are inquiring as to Nakish or Diunesis Antiquarian affiliations.”
Ivan frowned. “How can you tell?”
“Analysis of their lip movements and facial expressions. I suggest you reference your connections to Wedgewood to increase your prospects for entering the city.”
As they approached Marinda Hall with the ten Tivor cavalrymen as escorts or perhaps guards, Meridia saw work crews digging a trench outside the hall. The cavalry escort led them to the stables, where no less than twenty soldiers stood ready. They handed over their mounts, and Meridia casually asked one soldier who looked friendly enough, “They digging a moat?”
“Nah. Those are the foundations. They’re putting up a wall. A tall one.”
Ivan saw a badge he didn’t recognize and whispered over the IDB CivMon net, “Jeremy, analyze that heraldic. Provide running commentary, please. Something is wrong.”
“The badge is new to IDB files, chief. I’ve decoded its meaning. It appears to represent a House Marinda military unit.”
Shiren, thought Ivan, Marisa is arming up, but for what?
Meridia led the way up onto the veranda. Jeremy told him the man he faced was an ensign. The way the former Marine senior corporal sized up the ensign made the man squirm. Ivan caught the interaction, but the large double doors swung open, and a man came out. His weathered face bore deep crags along both cheeks. A small, snow-white goatee made the prominent chin more prominent; his grey eyes reflected decades in the wilderness.
Before Ivan could take the lead, Meridia said, “I’ve come from Wedgewood. Lettern and Outish are my friends, and I need to know what happened to Baryy.”
Eliot looked at the four mercs. The hall commander of the newly formed Marinda militia stood just to the side, ready to call his troops.
Ivan shouldered his way to the front and said, “I’m Ivan. A friend of Achelous. I run his mercenary guard when we are on caravan. Is he here? I need to speak with him?”
Eliot looked at each of the four mercs in turn, specifically at the handbolts on their hips. “A friend?” he stared at Ivan. “Are you certain?”
The ensign picked up on Eliot’s tone and stepped away. The ten or so guards arrayed around the veranda put their hands to their weapons. Lieutenant Hearter called over the IDB Dianis net, “Particle cannon charged, but I can’t get all of them.”
“I’m certain,” said Ivan. “I’ve fought with Atch, and Sedge, and Odgen. Atch is my friend, and he owes me his life multiple times over.”
The two men faced off. Two seasoned vets. Then Eliot said, “The mistress told me you might be coming.”
Ivan studied Eliot’s pupils. The man meant business.
“She has a message for you.”
Meridia, Horalznick, and Sendrant braced themselves. Mears held his finger over the firing key for the particle cannon.
“We will fight. Fight to the death. Neither she, Boyd, nor Achelous is leaving this planet. Nor will they be mind-wiped. Tivor is allied with the Doroman Timberkeeps. All the Timberkeep clans. Marisa, as special counsel to the aorolmin of Tivor, is under his protection, and that extends to the Timberkeep clans. You fight her, you fight me,” and Eliot pointed to the men around him, “and you fight them, Tivor, and all Timberkeeps.”
Eliot’s stare matched Ivan’s.
Neither man backed down.
Jeremy interjected into the tension, “Chief, he has more to say and is waiting for a specific reaction.”
“Eliot,” Meridia said, “We’re not mind-wiping, or arresting, or whatever. I already gave my word to Outy. I promised Lettern. I was with her when she stuck Quorat with the arrow. Outish is fine in Wedgewood, picking his mushrooms and gawking over some silly woodpecker. I need to know what happened to Baryy, Eliot. I know he is dead. If someone killed him, it is time for payback. I owe that to Outy and Lettern.”
The ensign stepped further away from Meridia.
Eliot took in Meridia’s measure.
Then Ivan said, nodding at Meridia, “He’s a cold-blooded killer. He’s faced the worst there is in the galaxy, and you can see who is standing here; it’s not them. Tell us what happened.”
Eliot gave a slight nod.
Eliot sat at the dining table. The Ready Reaction team sat in front and beside him. He’d recounted the bulk of the story when he said, “Baryy died there,” he pointed to the foyer, “hacked to death by Scarlet Saviors.”
Meridia listened. Ivan nodded to Sendrant, who stood.
“The maids have cleaned up,” offered Eliot, “the blood is gone.”
Ivan asked, “You know who we are?”
Eliot answered, “Aye, you’re Ancients.”
Ivan nodded. “Then it will be no surprise to you if we can do something you can’t?”
“Depends on what it is,” answered Eliot.
They waited for Sendrant to finish his work. When he came back, “Blood spatter tests are positive. There’s a lot of it, chief.” Sendrant sat heavily. He looked away. “DNA matches Baryy. Bastards.”
“I was in the kitchen,” Eliot indicated the door at the end of the hall, “me and the mistress. They had us barricaded. We bashed the door down,” and Eliot looked down at the finely finished table. “By then, it was too late.”
Meridia asked, “Sendrant, did you get other DNA?”
He nodded.
Meridia called, in the clear, on the CivMon net, “Jeremy, isolate DNA profiles and offer postulates.”
Eliot had no idea who Meridia was talking to or about what, but the rest of the team did.
When Meridia had his answer, he sat there calm, a flat gaze at Ivan.
“Where is Marisa now?” asked Horalznick.
Eliot explained the lady’s plans.
Finally, Ivan rose. “Can you take us to Baryy’s grave?”
Ivan knelt in front of the stone slab. The team members knelt beside him. He studied the stone from which the monument was cut, the grain, the color, and wished he were anywhere but there, then, and how. Atch, Atch, again, he struggled. What have you done? He leaned forward and rested his forehead against the cold stone. It chilled his skin. He pounded his head against the stone. Atch, Atch, why? Why Baryy?
He dug his hand into the fresh dirt. Closing the hand into a fist, he brought it to his chest. I’m sorry, Baryy. I’m so sorry. It was my job to be here, and I wasn’t. He shoved the handful of dirt into his pocket.
Walking back to the hall, Ivan called over the system net, “Shields, you there? This is Ivan.”
“Shields here, chief.”
“I need you to reposition the recon package here in Tivor to the Far Shore. We need to know what is going on out there.”
“We’ve been working on that problem, chief. Do you have a description of the ship? There are some two hundred ships with two or more masts in the possible sailing radius of where we think the Far Shore could be. This includes ships at dock or anchor.”
Ivan thought about it. He could get the ship description from Eliot. “Eliot said that Ogden Snowbirch is with Marisa. Do you have his—no, you probably don’t. Connect Jeremy to the net, please.”
“Jeremy online, chief. What can I do for you?”
“Do you have Ogden Snowbirch’s aural signature in the CivMon database?”
“We do.”
Ivan thought, for once, the Spirits grant a small favor. “Excellent. Pass it to the Shields. They will scan for him on the sea off of Isuelt. Shields, when you get a hit, deploy the bots to that ship. I need to know what Marisa is doing and what she knows. Right now, she is our best chance to find Achelous.”
