Point of Origin (War Eternal Book 4) (33 page)

He took his hand away from the hull of the ship, picked up the helmet and rifle, and moved up the ramp and into the Valkyrie Two. He took a position just inside, putting the helmet back on.

He couldn't wait to see Watson's face when they ambushed him.

Then Mitchell waited, closing his eyes and ticking off the seconds in his head. He had just reached four-hundred when the echoing of feet alerted him to the incoming party. He adjusted his grip in the rifle, aiming it out the open hatch.

A dozen Federation soldiers filed into the hangar, spreading to the left and right in a standard sweep formation.

Liun Tio entered immediately after, a second man walking freely next to him. He was shorter than his older brother, with more dark hair and fewer wrinkles. He wore a white lab coat over a Federation jumpsuit. He looked concerned but not frightened.

"Targets acquired, Colonel," Marx whispered.

Mitchell didn't respond. He was too busy staring at the man in front of him. It couldn't be the Knife, could it? Watson had taken control of the Goliath. That was what Millie said, and there was no reason not to believe it. Why else would Goliath have been attacking Asimov? Why else would it have left without him?

"Colonel?" Marx repeated.
 

They were moving closer to the Valkyrie Two.
 

 
It made complete sense that Watson would send a configuration of Tio down to speak with Pulin, to earn his trust and get him to come along willingly. Except. Where was Watson?

"Colonel, we're losing line of sight," Marx said.

Mitchell shook off his doubts. He was being stupid. There were no Federation soldiers on the Goliath.
 

"Take out the soldiers only."

A dozen bullets fired from a dozen rifles. Every one of the Federation soldiers fell to the ground, a bullet to their foreheads. Mitchell kept his eyes on Tio and Pulin the entire time. Pulin jumped, surprised by the gunfire. Tio didn't even flinch.

"Colonel Williams," he said instead, producing a pistol from behind his jacket. "What a nice surprise." He put the gun against Pulin's head.

"Tio?" Pulin said, more surprised by his brother's action than he had been by the bullets.

"I know you don't want me to kill him, and you know that I don't want to kill him. So why don't you come out and we can talk?"

"I'm the one with the soldiers," Mitchell shouted.

"And I'm the one who has your fleet cornered," Tio replied.

Mitchell felt his heart skip. He thought he had stolen the leverage from the Tetron. It was possible the configuration was lying, but he doubted it.

"Hold your fire," he said to Marx. "I'm going out."

"Affirmative."

Mitchell slipped off the helmet and stepped out into view, still cradling the rifle.

"Ah, there you are Mitchell. A smart maneuver. Very smart. I should have guessed you would cut me off here. Why don't you come down?"

Mitchell walked slowly down the ramp, keeping his eyes glued to them.

"You know this man?" Pulin asked.

"Yes," Tio said. "He's the soldier I was telling you about. The one I stole the ship from. He wants to take you. He wants you to help him." Tio looked at Mitchell. A small smirk stole the corner of his mouth for just an instant.

"Help you?" Pulin asked, confused.

"Did Tio tell you why he came?" Mitchell asked. "Do you know why so many people are suddenly so interested in you?"

"Oh. That. Yes. I know all about the Tetron. Tio even showed me some of the source code." Pulin smiled. "I never knew my work could become the basis for a new, intelligence race of beings. I mean, I knew it had potential, and that it would revolutionize every facet of our relationship with both machines and the universe around us, but not like this."

Mitchell glanced from Tio to Pulin. "And he told you that they're here, outside this facility? How and why they came?"

Again, Pulin nodded. "Yes. He told me they're confused. That they built a machine to travel through time to meet me. To ask me what they should do. He told me that they're like children, and they need their father."

"Is he really the Creator?" Mitchell asked Tio.

"He is," Tio replied. "I've verified it. I'm taking him back to Goliath with me, Colonel Williams."

"No, you aren't," Mitchell said. "Pulin, the Tetron didn't just come to speak with you. At this moment they're moving inward through the galaxy, claiming fit humans as slaves and killing the rest. They intend to destroy humanity. Did your brother tell you that?"

"Yes, Colonel. He did."

"And?" Mitchell was confused.

"And what? We always knew this would happen. It was my brother's greatest fear, the one that drove the wedge between us. But now he sees what I see. He realizes what I realized when I continued his work. Humans are the past. The Tetron are the future. He came to me as their emissary. He told me why you want me. Accept your fate, Colonel. This is the way it is supposed to be. This is the way it has been since Darwin wrote The Origin of Species. Survival of the fittest. The strong replace the weak."

Mitchell stood there, staring at Pulin. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had come all this way to rescue a man who didn't need to be rescued? A man who wanted the Tetron to destroy humankind?

"They're killing millions of people," Mitchell shouted, feeling his anger growing.
 

This was bullshit. Such complete bullshit. Men and women who were counting on him were dying while this thing who pretended to be human told him he agreed with their mass genocide?

"You see, Mitchell," Tio said. "He doesn't want to go with you. Since I would prefer to leave this hangar with him alive for obvious reasons, I'd like to make a deal."

"A deal?" Mitchell asked.

"Yes. I'm aware your communications systems can't breach the atmosphere here on FD-09, and you don't know the current status of your fleet. Believe me when I say their position is weak. We have them boxed in, Mitchell. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. One plasma stream and all of it is gone."

"You're full of shit," Mitchell said.

"Am I?" Tio stared at him, meeting his eyes. "Do you think so highly of your crew that you believe they can defeat two Tetron and a Federation fleet? I was going to send teams over to them to see what we could use, but since you have me under the gun." He paused to snicker. Mitchell knew Watson's laugh immediately. "Since you have me under the gun, I'm willing to let them go, to let you continue this joke of a war and give you another chance. In return, you let me leave with my brother."

Mitchell looked from Tio to Pulin and back. Should he surrender the Creator, the one man who might be able to save billions from dying, for the lives of his remaining crew? Did he even have a choice? If he refused, Tio would shoot Pulin, Marx would shoot Tio, the Tetron would destroy the fleet and leave with Goliath, and the Riggers on FD-09 would be trapped there until the Federation came by to investigate, assuming they ever did. Once that happened, they were as good as dead anyway.

"If I accept, what's to prevent you from reneging?" Mitchell asked.

"You have my word of honor."

Mitchell couldn't keep himself from laughing. "Honor? You have honor?"

"Come on, Colonel. We all do what we must. You know the Riggers have done far worse. I promise I'll let you and your ships go. I have my brother. I have Goliath. You're no threat to me now. No threat at all. Lower your gun, and I'll walk up that hatch and be gone and you'll still be alive to fight another day."

Mitchell knew there was only one decision to make, but the taste of it in his mouth made him want to retch. "Pulin, how can you turn your back on your own kind?"

"My kind? People have never been my kind," Pulin said. "They're so unintelligent. So base and raw. They're immoral and selfish, considerate only of their own needs instead of the needs of all. I suffered their existence for my work, my goal of creating a learning machine that could one day outthink all organic life. A machine that would work for the good of all of its kind instead of itself. To know that my goal one day becomes a reality is the answer to all of my dreams. If I have to die today, I'll die a happy man."

Mitchell had no idea what to say. He didn't know what he had expected of Liun Pulin. It wasn't this.
 

"What do you say, Colonel?" Tio said. "Yes or no."

Mitchell gripped the rifle tightly in his hands. One shot to kill the Tio configuration. That's all it would take. Could he get it off without Tio killing Pulin? He wasn't human. He wouldn't react to being shot the same way the soldiers had.

Mitchell relaxed his grip, letting the rifle fall to the floor.

"Fine. Take him. I'll get him back."

Tio laughed again. "That's what I respect the most about you, Colonel. You never say die-"

Tio's eyes grew wide.
 

He fell to the floor and didn't move.

"Tio," Pulin said, dropping to his knees next to his brother. His eyes flashed to Mitchell. "What did you do?"

Mitchell hadn't even had time to move. He was as confused as Pulin. "I... Nothing."

"Tio. Tio, can you hear me?"

Mitchell had no idea what was going on. What he did know was that Tio was down, and Pulin was still alive. They could sort the rest out once they were headed back into orbit.
 

"Marx, form up," Mitchell shouted. "We need to get the hell out of here."

"Roger."

First Platoon appeared from their hiding places, dropping down from the catwalks, crates, and machinery.
 

"Pulin, move away from him," Mitchell said. He bent down and recovered his rifle, stepping towards the man and aiming the gun at Tio. Just because the configuration had faltered didn't mean it was dead.

Pulin continued staring at Mitchell. "What did you do?" he asked again.

Mitchell paused, the question all too familiar. He had heard it a thousand times from the Tetron he had defeated on Hell. The similarity was too great to ignore and sent a chill through his entire body. Was this Pulin one of them, too?

"Pulin," he said again, taking another step toward them. First Platoon was also closing in. "Move away from him. He's gone."

"What did you do?" Pulin asked again. "What did you do?" He shifted his attention to Tio. "We were right, brother. I knew we were right. I knew you would see that."

"Pulin," Mitchell said more forcefully this time, taking another step. "Move away from him."

 
Pulin looked back at Mitchell. His eyes were red. His cheeks were wet. The emotions were so real. So human. Mitchell knew he had to be mistaken. Maybe the Tetron had aped its creators voice?

"Come on, Pulin. You're going to come with me. You're going to help me stop the Tetron."

Pulin shook his head. "Stop them? Colonel, why would I ever do that? Why in a million eternities would I ever, ever do that?"

"Who says you have a choice?" Mitchell asked.

Pulin's hand was fast, sliding out from beneath Tio's jacket clutching the pistol. Mitchell lunged for him, even as the scientist raised it to his temple.

"I do," Pulin said.

He pulled the trigger, part of his skull and brain splattering against Mitchell's face.

Kathy breathed in, her Primary self returned to her body. She blinked a few times, feeling the connection between herself and the copy and watching the pulsing energy change with her thoughts. She removed the spear and turned around. The Riggers were staring at her, looks of tension and concern across their faces.

"Goliath is ours," she said. "We're going to save the fleet."

Green and Alvarez both let out a whoop of joy.
 

"How?" Alice asked.

Kathy held up her hand. "Like this." She put it on the core, feeling it tingle as soon as she did.

It didn't resist her this time. Instead, it opened up to her, and when she closed her eyes, she could see everything that it could see. She could sense everything in and around the starship. She found the fleet surrounded by Federation warships, the Tetron waiting on the other side. They were boxed in and being held. For what reason, she didn't know. Probably to scavenge for scrap and useful humans.

 
"Here we go," she said, transferring the view to the surface of the core, using pixels of light to draw the scene for the others.
 

She pushed some of the energy out of the bottom of the Goliath, vectoring the ship over the fleet. She sensed the Tetron contacting her. She ignored it, opening a channel across all bands instead, pushing power into the system to overtake any interference.

"Riggers, this is Goliath," she said. "Fire on that Tetron son of a bitch at will."

The Tetron heard the transmission and responded immediately, giving itself a bit of thrust as it raised its shields. Kathy began pooling energy for the plasma stream while she maneuvered the Goliath to get it clear of the fleet. At the same time, she loosed a volley of amoebics at the enemy to make her intentions clear to the others.

"Goliath, this is Teal. Affirmative. Riggers, attack!"