“I’ve started something.”
“What?”
“A revolution.” With that, Ricket turned back to the console and entered one more set of commands.
The display above him changed—specifically, something on Halimar’s neighboring planet. The blue vector line from its south pole sub-station out to the mirror array, and then out to deep space, disappeared. Then the icon representing both the sub-station itself as well as its corresponding mirror array out in space disappeared. Several moments passed before the icons returned. The blue vector line reappeared from the sub-station to the mirror array, but it no longer extended out to space. A new vector line connected the mirror array to another planet on the far side of the solar system—to that planet’s south pole sub-station. Moments later, that sub-station icon went dark.
“The process has begun. The wormhole has collapsed. The Craing can no longer travel to the far reaches of the universe.”
Jason stared at Ricket in disbelief. What he’d just accomplished would change the lives of millions, perhaps billions across the universe. For those on Earth it meant no less than their survival.
“Captain, within five minutes, this facility will be destroyed,” Ricket said.
“Let these people know they need to evacuate—get far away from the sub-station.”
Ricket spoke to one of the lab workers. In a frenzy, he turned to his other coworkers. Someone activated another alarm. Mayhem broke out on the other side of the glass wall. Only the security hover drones remained at their posts. Jason checked the display again. Three sub-stations had been destroyed.
“We need to get out of here, fast.” Jason noticed new phase-shift coordinates had been entered into his HUD.
“We are all set, Captain,” Ricket said.
“One question. What’s happening with the Emperor’s Guard? Jason asked.
“I no longer detect them within this star system, sir.”
“Damn! So they made it out before the wormhole closed down?”
Ricket didn’t answer right away. “Yes, I believe so, Captain. In all probability, they will reach Earth within the next day or two.”
Chapter 26
They’d phase-shifted five hundred feet from the side of an old barn. Five Craing battle cruisers now hovered in the air. Four were on the ground. The sub-station’s alarm klaxon howled in the distance as Jason answered an incoming hail.
“Go for Captain.”
He saw a large wooden door slide open. Rizzo peeked out and waved, “We’re inside here, Cap.”
Jason, Orion, Billy and Ricket ran. Halfway to the barn, ten miles across the open field, an intense white light engulfed the sub-station. Their helmet visor-shields compensated for the intensity of the flash. The ground beneath their feet shook violently. They watched spellbound; within several moments nothing remained of the distant facility. Like a blast furnace, the heat wave that followed seeped through Jason’s less-than-perfect condition battle suit. HUD readings spiked, then returned to normal.
The small Craing cargo ship took up most of the open space of the barn. Jason found Dira attending to Traveler. Rustling Leaves, the other and last of the surviving rhino warriors on the team, sat upon something similar to a bale of hay. Dira had removed her battle helmet, and her hair was moist with perspiration. Both of Traveler’s legs had been elevated, and she was in the process of cleaning the wounds. They both looked up at Jason’s approach. He knelt down next to them.
“How’s your patient?” Jason asked, giving Dira a quick smile and gesturing to Traveler.
“He’s hanging in there. Without nanites, I’m forced to use old-fashioned medicine to fight off some pretty aggressive infections. My guess, those arrows were tipped with poison.”
Irritated, Jason said, “We’ll have an opportunity to speak with Wik-ma again. I’m betting he has an antidote for that poison.”
“I’m sorry, Traveler, Stands in Storm did not make it. He died in battle. A brave warrior to the end.”
“That is good, Captain. Stands in Storm was a friend, but he lacked real skill with the heavy hammer. I’m surprised he survived this long. I will miss him, but now things will change.”
“How so?”
“He was my brother. I am obliged to take his wife and child on as my own.”
“Well, I’m sorry for your loss—but happy for your gain as well,” Jason said, not real sure he was offering the right sentiment.
Traveler propped himself up on his elbows, a curious expression blossomed on his deeply creased face. “I look forward to breeding with her. Yes, thank you, Captain Reynolds—this is a good day.”
Dira and Jason exchanged glances. She bit her lip to keep from smiling.
“You’ll need to prepare him to move. This place is on the verge of anarchy—best if we’re not around,” Jason said, noticing that Gaddy was standing close by.
“What you do? We hear reports, but cannot believe it true. Tell me now what you do.”
“We did what we came here to do.”
“No trick talk. Is it true?”
“Is what true?” Jason asked, getting back to his feet.
“Emperor Reechet has evoked, is that the word? Evoked? He has evoked Ramp-Lim.”
“If that means he’s freed the people of the Craing worlds, yeah, he probably did.”
“You do not say this so casually. There has never been a Ramp-Lim. Thousands of years, never a Ramp-Lim!” Gaddy seemed on the verge of an all-out rampage.
“I thought this would be a good thing, no? Isn’t this what you wanted?” Jason asked.
“A good thing? A good thing? You ask such a stupid question as this?” Gaddy replied, looking around to the others as if Jason was a total idiot.
“This is best thing to ever happen to Craing people!” Gaddy was smiling now. “Our ancient teachings, written thousands of years ago, spoke of this day. Ramp-Lim means
beginning of the end
. Nothing will ever be the same here among the Craing.”
Moving fast, she took two quick steps and leapt into Jason’s arms. She kissed him square on the lips, brought her face away and looked into his eyes. “I thank Emperor Reechet, and I thank you, Captain Reynolds.” She jumped down and scurried off into her ship without looking back. Jason saw Dira in his peripheral vision, her hand back up to her mouth. “Don’t even say anything.” he said, and headed off to look for Ricket.
Jason was having a difficult time keeping his mind off of his family and the plight of
The
Lilly.
In all probability, Mollie and Nan were fine. Pirates were a nasty bunch no matter how you looked at it, but in most cases they could be reasoned with. Or paid off. He needed to get back there, as soon as humanly possible.
Ricket was talking to the three Craing dissidents. Seated before him like grade school students, each had questions. Ricket spoke softly and gave them his full attention. Again, Jason wondered if Ricket was making a choice. He was Craing. They needed a leader—was he blind to that?
“Cap, there’s no way we can make a move with those battle cruisers hovering overhead,” Billy said, standing next to Orion and peeking out the barn door.
Jason joined them, took a look up at the sky and nodded. “Guess we’ve kicked the hornet’s nest, huh?”
Jason noticed Orion had Stand in Storm’s wider belt slung over her shoulder.
“I grabbed it after he fell. It’s a little beat up, but I thought it might come in handy.” Orion handed Stands in Storm’s phase-shift belt, along with his wristband control unit, over to Jason.
“Good thinking, Gunny.” Jason looked for Ricket and found him at his side.
How does he do that?
“Any way we can make use of this? Perhaps jury rig
the ship?” Jason asked, holding up the belt.
Ricket took the belt and the control unit. “Depends on whether I can interface to the ship’s power control unit.” He looked at it for a moment, shrugged, then scurried off in the direction of the ship.
“Guess I’ll see if I can give him a hand,” Jason said. “Let me know if anything changes out there. I have a feeling we’ll need to move out of here soon.”
Jason found Ricket talking to Gaddy. She had come up with some tools, and they were accessing the main drive beneath a floor panel at the rear section of the ship. When she got up to leave, Jason sat down in her place.
“This might work,” Ricket said, angling his head deeper into the compartment. Jason found what looked to be a flashlight in the box of tools and handed it over to him. Ricket pulled his head back out and concentrated on the belt, stripping the backing off the clasp casing.
“Don’t you need wires or cables?”
“No, it won’t be necessary to hardwire anything. Even this old ship uses wireless interface modules. It’s more a matter of interfacing frequencies and data rates. And as long as the belt’s circuitry is making contact with the ship’s power storage unit, similar to a battery, the proximity alone will drive the belt’s phase-shift capabilities. This should work surprisingly well,” Ricket said.
Jason wanted to take advantage of this alone-time to speak with Ricket. In light of what had happened—and what was going to happen on his home worlds here—he wanted to clear the air.
“You mean a lot to these people. What you started … They’ll need help,” Jason said.
Ricket brought his attention away from the belt and looked at Jason. “Are you asking me if I’m staying?” he asked, somewhat perplexed.
“Well, yeah … These are your people. This was your home. I just assumed— ”
“Captain, this body—this quasi-mechanical organic construct—is not the Emperor Reechet or even the Scientist Reechet they believe me to be. That being died well before your grandfather discovered me beneath the scrapyard. But even if I were still that being, the last thing the people of the Craing worlds need is another emperor. With your society’s faults, and there are many, your democratic process achieves things that this society has just now begun to hope for. The Craing people are aware of Earth. They have been for a long time. Now, the seeds of freedom are taking root here as well. Glenn and the other overlords … Gaddy and the other dissidents—they will be the future of Craing. As for me …?”
Jason continued to watch the mechanical-alien cyborg talk. Small, intricate, mechanical devices beneath his near-transparent skin were constantly moving, always at work doing a thousand different things all at once. But Ricket was far more than the accumulation of sophisticated parts. Ricket, seeming to contemplate his next words, began to speak again.
“I was destined to spend an eternity beneath rock and soil. Aware just enough of my surroundings to be miserable, but incapacitated enough not to be able to move. I’ve yet to discover the events that led to me being here, but it was the worst hell one could possibly imagine, Captain. When your father unearthed
The Lilly
and reactivated me, I was reborn. Right then and there I dedicated my life, my new life, to your father, and now you, my brother. Wherever that takes us.”
Jason didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to respond. Both Gaddy and Dira were standing at the ship’s open hatch, emotion evident in both their faces.
The barn began to rumble; several planks fell from above.
“We’ve got a battle cruiser landing right outside!” Billy yelled out. “They know we’re in here.”
“How long do you need to finish up, Ricket?” Jason asked, running over to the door and peering out.
“I am done here. I just need to interface to the controls up front. We’ll have the capability for three mile phase-shifts with ten minute recharge times,” Ricket said, scurrying to the front of the ship.
“We’re leaving, everyone. NOW! Dira, get Rustling Leaves to help move Traveler onto the ship.”
Jason heard more sounds from outside. Too many Craing soldiers to count were rushing down the warship’s gangway.
Chapter 27
Everyone was on board, with the exception of Jason and Billy, who had been exchanging fire with the Craing. Temporarily held back, the Craing foot soldiers had taken cover wherever possible.
“They’re on the move, Cap,” Billy yelled, his voice getting lost in the loud whirl of both the Craing Cruiser outside, as well as their own small ship. In the distance, multiple ships were landing, while others lifted off into the air. With the destruction of the Loop, Jason surmised chaos had replaced order.
“Two more ships inbound, coming fast,” Billy said. Jason put on his helmet and watched as his HUD came alive with activity.
“Looks like another Craing warship and something else,” Billy said.
Jason saw it coming in low from the horizon. It was a smaller light cruiser, about half the size of
The Gordita
, he estimated. What he hadn’t figured on was that it would be firing its weapons. The distant
thud thud thud
vibrated up through the soles of his boots.
“What the hell are they shooting at? They’re not shooting at us.” Billy asked.
“No, they’re not—”
The light cruiser and a smaller vessel running alongside it were both firing their
weapons—
not in their direction, but at the Craing battle cruiser on the ground. Taken by surprise, the large cruiser’s shields had not been raised and the subsequent explosions were catastrophic. The barn swayed, and one of the rafters above fell, just missing their ship. The attacking cruiser circled twice, then sped off. The smaller accompanying ship headed directly for the barn.
“Now I remember where I saw that little ship,” Jason said, as if he’d just tasted something unpleasant. The sleek little vessel continued to fire on the Craing foot soldiers. Within moments they were all dead. The ship landed close to the barn. Jason and Billy watched as the ship powered down and a small gangway extended. A moment later, Brian Reynolds emerged, waved, and ran across the field to the barn doors.
“Didn’t expect to run into you here. That’s quite an entrance,” Jason said.
“How’d you get here? Wouldn’t have believed it possible you’re being here on Halimar,” Brian said, ducking inside.
“We can talk about that later. What’s going on, Craing fighting Craing? What’s that about?”
Brian acknowledged Billy with a nod. “Yeah, well, seems things have changed around here. Thanks to you. Emperor Reechet—Ricket—proclaiming Ramp-Lim, that’s what. Thirteen billion Craing have been given their freedom, their independence. The military is fractured. Half have aligned themselves with the populace and the other half don’t acknowledge Ramp-Lim. High Priest Lom, you remember him, he’s proclaimed himself interim emperor. You’re witnessing a revolution.”