Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) (5 page)

Cyrus grunted.

Jasper’s eyes began to shine.

By now, Cyrus knew the signs and concentrated on his mind shield. He felt a presence intruding in his thoughts. It was an oily sensation as if smothering his skin. He ignored the feeling as he strengthened his shield, pushing the presence out.

“Not bad,” Jasper said. “Try this.”

Cyrus winced as the mental stab hit, and a groan escaped his lips. He loathed making any noise as a concession to pain, but he refused to panic because of the stronger attack. Instead, he concentrated until sweat slicked his forehead. Stubbornly, he fought against the encroachment in his mind.

“Say hello to me,” Jasper said.

Without his willing it, Cyrus’s right hand shot up, and he waved to Jasper.

“Stand up when your betters enter the room,” Jasper said.

Cyrus almost stood, but he grinded his teeth together and his eyelids flickered. Sweat pooled on his face and a drip fell from his nose, then a second one.

“Bastard,” Cyrus muttered.

“You have the will, but you need newer techniques. Not that it would keep me out for long, but you’d do better than you are now.”

A third drop of sweat fell to the floor.

Jasper blinked, and his eyes returned to their normal color.

Gasping, partly slumping over, Cyrus felt the beginning of a pounding headache. This one was going to be bad, maybe the worst he’d ever had.

“Do you remember what we talked about last time?” Jasper asked.

Cyrus looked up. There were splotches in his vision. He had to concentrate in order to keep from vomiting. But there was no way he was going to show weakness before the telepath.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Don’t worry about the NKV recording our conversation,” Jasper said. “I’ve tampered with the equipment and with the monitors on duty. Everything you say here is between us.”

Cyrus could have asked Jasper why he’d just attacked him mentally, but the answer was obvious to the man from the slums. It had been a pecking order fight to show who was stronger. Jasper wanted him to know how freaking strong of a telepath he was. Cyrus had a much better inkling now, and he would tread lightly or he would try to kill this monster when the man’s guard was down.

“Do you want to stay a slave?” Jasper was asking.

“Of course not,” Cyrus said.

Jasper grinned. “I did figure you right that day. Kid, you’re a prize in so many ways. It’s too bad you have such a weak talent. Anyway, I can use you just the same.”

“
Use
me?”

“That’s a bad choice of words,” Jasper said. “We can help each other. Do you agree?”

“Sure.”

“You didn’t have to think about that a long time, did you?”

“Have you ever read Plutarch?”

“Who?” Jasper asked.

“He was a Roman historian who wrote about Spartacus.”

Jasper shook his head.

“Spartacus led a slave revolt against the Romans.”

“Ah,” Jasper said. “I begin to perceive your point. How interesting. The slum dweller has turned into a history reader. I’m sure the NKV have taken note of your reading material, but…”

Jasper turned away. He nodded, to himself, it seemed. Facing Cyrus, he said, “The inhibitor appears impossible to overcome. Well, the best surgeons could remove it, but we’re not going to get that chance. I’ve spoken with a clairvoyant who told me an interesting story. She said there might be a way to remove them, but we have to go far afield indeed to get it done. Are you interested?”

“Yes.”

“It could mean incredible danger to us.”

Cyrus shrugged.

“I’m not talking about petty dangers, but something worse than Level 40.”

“That’s supposed to scare me?”

Jasper glanced both ways before leaning toward him. He whispered, “It could involve aliens.”

“Illegal citizens?” Cyrus asked.

“No. Aliens: intelligent nonhumans.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t completely either,” Jasper said. “She was vague. That’s the nature of clairvoyants. In olden days, people called them ‘seers’ or ‘oracles.’ In any case, a Teleship is about to leave for a very long journey. You and I need to be on it.”

“Are you talking about the voyage to New Eden?” Cyrus asked.

“You’re a weak talent, so don’t get your hopes up. But in several weeks the authorities are going to choose the Specials to shift the Teleship. I plan to be one of the chosen. I might be able to push for you. On this voyage, you can be certain they’re going to ask for volunteers.”

“Why wouldn’t someone go?” Cyrus asked.

“Like I said, there’s possibly real danger to this journey. Apparently, you’ve studied history. Surely, you read about the cyborgs of one hundred years ago.”

Cyrus nodded.

“Would you go on the voyage if you thought you might run into cyborgs?” Jasper asked.

“If it means I can get rid of the inhibitor, yes.”

“Practice your mind shield and sharpen your TK. In several weeks, I’ll know more.”

“Your clairvoyant spoke about aliens,” Cyrus said. “Did she specifically mean cyborgs?”

“That’s a clever question,” Jasper said. “She doesn’t know whether the aliens are cyborgs or something else. Now save your questions for later. The monitors are changing guard and they’ll likely examine the damaged equipment. Remember, you agreed to help me. I’m going to hold you to that. So if you have any second thoughts, tell me now.”

Cyrus had plenty of second thoughts, but he said, “I stand by my word.”

Jasper smirked at him, nodded, and took his leave.

4

Nine days later, Cyrus entered the institute auditorium with twenty-seven other Specials. They put on plays in the auditorium, practiced making speeches here, and watched movies on Tuesday nights. There were three hundred padded seats. Cyrus had always wondered why they’d put in so many.

The twenty-seven Specials sat in the first three rows. In the back were the institute teachers, a few dignitaries, one of them being Jasper, and a dozen NKV agents. They’d come to hear one of the most famous men in the solar system.

Captain Nagasaki was going to tell them about the coming voyage to New Eden. He would lead the expedition to a star system two hundred and thirty light years away, the longest journey yet made by any human.

As the headmaster spoke to them from the podium, getting ready to introduce Captain Nagasaki, Cyrus thought about the voyage.

Several years ago, astronomers on Pluto had made an amazing discovery with the most powerful telescopes yet. Two hundred and thirty light years away was a star system named AS 412. According to the telescopes, it contained not one, but
two
Earth-like planets. Someone had coined the name “New Eden” for the system, and it stuck.

Premier Lang’s propagandists had gotten busy with the news. Cyrus had heard it said Lang wanted a symbol to unite humanity under his rule. What could be better than a grand adventure to excite the masses?

At New Eden, the propagandists said, mankind could start over in perfect harmony. Even better, anyone could go. People had to pitch in and do their part. If they did, they might win an emigrant ticket, leaving Old Sol to start afresh in New Eden. Teleship
Discovery
would lead the way and it would set down the first colony. These first colonists would enter stasis tubes, awaking once they reached New Eden. There, humanity would to do things right this time.

From what Cyrus had read, the project had electrified humanity. People from Neptune to Mercury filled out personal data forms, bought emigrant lottery tickets, and argued about the right form of government for this pristine environment. This wouldn’t be habitat living or underground dwelling, but new Earths, humanity-friendly worlds to fill.

“Let us warmly welcome Captain Nagasaki,” the headmaster said.

Cyrus clapped with the others, and he noticed the teachers in back clapping vigorously.

Captain Nagasaki strode onto stage and shook the headmaster’s hand. Nagasaki was short and slender, with silver hair under a trim cap. He wore the blue uniform of the Solar Space Service. A single Orion Star adorned his jacket. He’d won the star for leading the first voyage to Epsilon Eridani over thirty years ago and helping set up the colony base there.

After the Cyborg War, humanity had begun sending sleeper ships to the nearest star systems, beginning the expansion of man. There were outposts at Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, and Epsilon Eridani. The colonists lived in habitats circling each system’s planets as they float-mined the gas giants of deuterium. Before shift technology, that meant each colonist had been effectively cut off from the mother system. A visit by a replenishing ship every three to five years was the best any of them could hope for.

Like all interstellar voyages before discontinuity windows and Teleships, Nagasaki had made his famous trip the old-fashioned way, under the terrible constraints of Einsteinian physics. His sleeper ship
Argonaut
had accelerated at a constant one G the first leg of the journey up to near light speed. Then it coasted until the end of the trip and decelerated.

Epsilon Eridani was ten light years from Sol. Because of relativistic time dilation, the trip had only lasted five years for the captain and his crew. Nagasaki had spent several years at Epsilon Eridani as they’d constructed the
colony’s lone habitat. Then he’d returned to Sol to a hero’s welcome, twenty-some years after he’d left but only eleven years older.

Like the other Specials attending today’s meeting, Cyrus had read the man’s bio. Captain Nagasaki understood about privation, risks, and waiting. The man’s patience and self control was legendary—as was his iron will. It had made him the perfect candidate to lead a decade-long voyage.

From the podium, Captain Nagasaki eyed them. He seemed stern, perhaps a little remote. But what he possessed in abundance was gravity, presence, or personal force. He would lead the journey to New Eden. And it was said his vote had weight in choosing the right Specials.

He greeted them in a deep voice and spoke in a slow and measured manner. He talked about duty, about hardship and danger. Then he talked about Teleship
Discovery.

A holoimage appeared on stage behind the captain and Nagasaki spoke about the ship.

In many ways, the Teleship was like an old style battleship from the Cyborg War of over a hundred years ago. Combat ships had used particle shielding then, hundreds of meters of thick rock to withstand enemy lasers or nuclear-tipped missiles.
Discovery
didn’t have particle shielding, but looked like any meteor drifting in space, except the surface lacked mountains or valleys. The surface was uniform and made of asteroidal rock, with dust where a man could leave his boot prints if he walked upon it. Dotted on the surface were combat domes with collapsium armor. In the domes were laser cannons and missile sites, insuring the Teleship a fighting chance against any comers.

Far below the shielding minerals of the Teleship were gigantic AIs, the fusion engines, and acres of stasis tubes for the sleepers. Over fifty thousand individuals would journey to the New Eden system. Below stasis was the core structure of life support for
Discovery
’s crew: that would be 107 men and women.

Nagasaki paused, sipping from a glass of water. He put the glass away, eyed them anew, and gripped the sides of the podium.

“Let me explain something of my journey to Epsilon Eridani, as it dovetails into the primary reason for my visit with you today. Over thirty years ago, my sleeper ship
Argonaut
accelerated out of Sol at one G as it built up to near light speed. We call that ‘NLS.’ Believe me, the acceleration was the easiest part of the journey. The long coast was more tedious, the many years of weightlessness.”

Cyrus noticed the captain’s fingers tightening their grip on the podium. Nagasaki’s face had looked stern before. Now it appeared like flint.

“The long journey proved tedious, as I’ve said, but that was nothing compared to our growing fear of cyborgs. You have seen vids of them, horror shows. I happen to know more than most concerning cyborgs because I am the great-great grandson of Circe of Old Jupiter. You’ve certainly read the histories of that time. Circe destroyed the cyborgs’ proto-Teleship at the end of the Cyborg War.”

Nagasaki released the podium. “I’m not here to talk about the war, but its aftermath. The terrible truth of the Cyborg War that few people realize is that some cyborgs
must
have escaped the solar system. Circe destroyed a proto-Teleship, but there might have been a second and a third. We don’t know that, but it would be folly to believe it impossible. Even if the cyborgs lacked Teleships, surely some of them fled in NLS vessels.

“My crew and I in
Argonaut
didn’t know about proto-Teleships during our trip to Epsilon Eridani, but we became convinced that some cyborgs had survived the war. If that was true, we argued among ourselves, perhaps they had headed for the nearest star systems and begun to rebuild.

“I admit that the months of deceleration into Epsilon Eridani were the worst of my life. As we slowed, I launched five probes ahead of us. They found no sign of cyborgs. Even so, once
Argonaut
reached the system, we inched from place to place, searching, watching, and waiting for the terrible surprise that would inform us cyborgs attacked the ship.”

Nagasaki smiled. It looked strange on his remote face. “The wonder of the trip was that no cyborgs appeared. Yet I’ve asked myself many times since returning to Sol and finding these marvelous Teleships. What if the cyborgs had built a second proto-Teleship a hundred years ago? If they had, they might have escaped far from Sol, to rebuild in the stars, forging an invincible empire of machine-man melds.

“That brings me to a grim topic. I want each of you to consider this carefully. First, it is within the realm of the possible that cyborgs await us at AS 412. That is why
Discovery
goes armed.

“Now, some of you surely are saying to yourself, the astronomers on Pluto didn’t find any evidence of advanced civilization. No. They wouldn’t have because it is impossible. If the cyborgs fled Sol a hundred years ago and reached AS 412 in a Teleship soon thereafter, how could we know? The astronomers
used
telescopes
to search AS 412. Obviously, they saw images two hundred and thirty years old, because that’s how long light from there took to reach the solar system. We can’t launch probes to look for us, because probes only travel at NLS and would take over two hundred and thirty years to arrive. At best, the probes could beam a message back at light speed, adding another two hundred and thirty years. Therefore, to find out now—in the present—if cyborgs have used AS 412, we have to go in a Teleship and see for ourselves.