Mission Origin View (Final Days Trilogy) (38 page)

The rebel doctor arrived with a medical kit
, and Gideon ordered Joseph to escort her to the women and children aboard the ship.

“
Lieutenant, would you, Doctor Qasim, and your gunnery sergeant like to come with me and get some food?” Vaniah asked. He paused and added, “I’m curious how you accomplished your mission, Lieutenant.”

“
I am a little hungry,” Dr. Qasim said as she rubbed her stomach.

“
That sounds good. Thank you,” Gideon answered and then transmitted over the platoon channel. “Tidwell, give me an hourly update on repairs.”

Tidwell chimed an acknowledgment.

They followed Vaniah into a nearby building. The building had a standard air lock entrance, which Gideon now assumed all buildings on the planet had. As soon as they were inside the main building, they took off their helmets. The air was cool and clean, and they could smell food. Tables and chairs took up most of the room’s space.

“
This is our cooking and dining facility. Please have a seat, and I’ll have some food and coffee brought out,” Vaniah said as he motioned for them to have a seat. Then he disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes later with drinks and food.

Gideon and Xia drank several cups of coffee as they watched
Dr. Qasim eat as though she hadn’t eaten in days. Vaniah spoke with Gideon and Xia as Qasim ate and asked questions about what was happening on Earth and the other colony planets; he hadn’t had any real information since the last war with the United States several years ago.

Gideon told him several countries
on Earth, including the United States, were at war and many colony planets were warring for one reason or another. They then talked about Mission Origin View and what the marines had been assigned to do as part of the mission. The conversation eventually led Gideon and Xia to state they both thought their time would be better spent on one of the many United States battlefronts.

Eventually,
Gideon asked Vaniah about himself, and Vaniah told him his story. Vaniah had once been a model czar citizen, but the United States had recruited him to be an intelligence agent during the last days of the last war with the United States. Czar soldiers had caught and killed his wife, kids, mother, and father as they were trying to get out of the city where they lived. The American military forces commander transmitted a warning message that all civilians should leave before an attack. The Council of Czars stopped the exodus by killing their own people as a warning to other citizens to stay where they were. They hoped to use them as human shields so the American commander wouldn’t attack and kill civilians. Since then, Vaniah had done all he could to overthrow the
Council of Czars
.

Finally
Vaniah asked, “By the way, how were you able to rescue Doctor Qasim and survive?”

“
To tell you the truth, Vaniah, we’d be dead if it wasn’t for Michael’s help,” Gideon answered. Then he finished his fourth cup of coffee.

“
What’re you talking about?” Vaniah asked with a puzzled look. “Michael and his unit were killed on their way to rendezvous with you.”

“
No, you’re wrong. Michael met us; he used the challenge countersign, so he must’ve survived the ambush. He did mention he didn’t have any men to help us and said we didn’t need them,” Gideon answered. He paused and then said, “Personally, I think the man is insane!”

“
I’m sure Michael was killed,” Vaniah said. “Describe Michael for me.”

“
He’s a big man, probably six foot four, weighs over two hundred pounds, has dark hair and a beard. He used a weapon shaped like a sword,” Gideon answered, paused, and then asked, “By the way, what type of weapon is the sword? I’d sure like to get a few of those or at least the specs.”

Vaniah
still looked confused and answered, “Lieutenant, I assure you Michael didn’t meet you, or at least not the Michael I know. My operative was a woman: blonde hair, five foot four inches. Her code name, Michael, was intentionally used as a way to secure her identity. I have no idea who assisted you.”

Confused
, Gideon said, “Okay, so there must’ve been some type of mix-up on our contact. I’d still like to know more about the advanced weapons your rebels are using.”

“
You saw the most advanced weapons we have when we surrounded your ship earlier. I was hoping you’d have a few extra weapons you could give us before you leave,” Vaniah said.

Gideon thought for a second and said,
“Gunny, pull up the combat video we recorded on the hill outside the political prisoner camp and play it for Vaniah.”

Xia used his Anna interface
to call up the video and requested that a view of the combat be shown from the various perspectives of the marines. Xia placed his helmet in the center of the table they were sitting at and requested the videos be projected by his helmet’s external hologram display. A few seconds later the combat video began playing.

Vaniah
, Gideon, Xia, and Dr. Qasim watched as the recording showed Michael pull his environmental suit helmet off and toss it away, showing what he looked like.
He then reached his right hand
behind his head and pulled his weapon out, holding it over his head. It began emitting a bright white light, and thousands of needle-diameter-size light beams erupted from the sword.

The hologram then
switched to another series of video segments. They showed Michael again holding his sword over his head. A bolt of lightning from the storm struck the sword, and the light of the sword intensified into a bubble of power that slowly began to grow until it exploded outwardly.

Vaniah
looked stunned by what he had seen.

“
Here’s another recording I believe came from the same weapon,” Gideon said. He told his Anna, “Anna, send the video recording of the destruction of the fifteen czar aircraft to Gunny’s Anna and play it.” A second later the display showed a recording from
Bernice’s
rear cameras. A transparent white bubble quickly engulfed and blurred the view of a nuclear mushroom cloud. Then it exploded with a blinding light that generated another shock wave. The onlookers watched as the shock wave expanded from the explosion and the mushroom cloud disappeared. Anna then showed the shock wave as it approached and destroyed the czar aircraft.

“
Vaniah, there’s no reason to hide the fact you have some advanced weapons. We’ve seen them in action. I’m confident that if you were to contact the United States government and agree to share your weapons technology, they’d send a naval fleet here to assist you in taking Leonis from czar control,” Gideon said.

“
Lieutenant, I assure you the rebel forces on Leonis don’t have the weapons technology you just showed me and the individual who helped you wasn’t a rebel,” Vaniah said with a firm yet honest expression on his face, and added, “I’d also like to know who helped you and also obtain the weapon technology.”

“
Doctor Qasim, do you have any idea of the weapon system and who might be using it?” Vaniah asked.

“
I know the Council of Czars invests a lot into weapons development like the clouds of intelligent machines that were used against us, but I’ve never heard of anything like the sword,” Qasim answered. She finished her fifth cup of juice and added, “It could be a weapons development scientist that helped develop the weapon and went rogue.”

“
If that’s the case, I hope he’ll contact the rebel forces,” Vaniah said.

“
If I were you, I wouldn’t wait. I’d try and contact him as soon as you can,” Gideon suggested.

“
Any ideas on how to contact him?” Vaniah asked.

“
He seems to have compromised your security communications system as demonstrated by the way he knew when and where and what to say when he met us; I’d just transmit an encrypted request for him to meet with you,” Gideon said.

“
Not a bad idea, Lieutenant. I think I’ll try that,” Vaniah said.

Rebel Base, Equator, Planet Leonis

1132—February 28, 2372

Vaniah
gave Gideon and Xia a tour of the rebel base while Dr. Qasim slept on a couch in the dining facility. Vaniah asked Gideon and Xia to please make any suggestions on what the rebels could to do to strengthen their defenses of the base.

As they were touring the communications center, Anna sp
oke to Gideon. “Gideon, Sergeant Tidwell wishes to speak to you.”

“
Put him on,” Gideon said.

“
Sir, I’ve got some good news and some bad news,” Tidwell said.

“
Let’s have it,” Gideon said.

“
The good news is we found the problem. There’s a crack in the hydraulic cylinder that deploys and retracts the front landing gear. The bad news is we can’t fix it. The backup cylinder is also cracked, and both have to be replaced. Also, the manual retraction and deployment system was removed on this newer model because it was deemed that it was no longer needed,” Tidwell said. He paused and added, “I wish I had the senior engineer here that decided the manual system wasn’t needed. I’d use him for target practice.”

“
Do we have the equipment to replace the hydraulic cylinder if we had one?” Gideon asked.

“
I’m sure we can improvise and use the tools we have on board,” Tidwell responded.

“
Stand by, Tidwell,” Gideon said.

Gideon
turned toward Vaniah and asked, “Vaniah, are your VTOLs operational?”

“
One is operation, and the others are being cannibalized for parts,” Vaniah answered.

“
We need a front landing gear hydraulic cylinder to repair our ship. Can we get one from you?” Gideon asked.

“
Sure, Lieutenant, if we haven’t already used them all,” Vaniah said.

“
Anna,” Gideon asked, “could we repair
Bernice
with a cylinder from one of the old VTOLs the rebels have?”

“
Sorry, Gideon. The part isn’t compatible,” Anna answered and then added, “Petty Officer Sipes would like to speak to you.”

“
Tell him I’m busy, Anna.” Gideon said with a hint of annoyance.

“
Gideon, I really think you should talk to him. He might have the solution to
Bernice’s
landing gear problem and get us back to the
Stephen Hawking
,” Anna said in a calm voice.

“
Put him on and transmit it over the platoon channel,” Gideon told Anna.

“
Sir, Sergeant Kindle told me about the landing gear problem. I think I know how we can close the landing gear doors,” Joseph said.

“
And how do we do that, Sipes, with the landing gear locked in the deployed mode?” Gideon said.

“
Well, sir, why don’t we just remove the landing gear and close the bay doors?” Joseph asked.

Gideon
thought for a second, and the simple idea made sense. They could use a maintenance jack from the rebels to support
Bernice
, remove the gear, close the doors, and take off. They wouldn’t really need the gear to land on the
Stephen
Hawking
.

“
Tidwell, can we do that?” Gideon transmitted.

“
Yes, sir! I should’ve thought of it myself,” he responded.

“
Get on it!” Gideon ordered.

Rebel Base, Equator, Planet Leonis

1632
—February 28, 2372

“
Sir?” Tidwell transmitted.

“
Go ahead, Sergeant,” Gideon said from the rebel base’s small armory.

“
We removed the landing gear, and closed the bay doors. The ship’s AI reports no problems and confirms the landing gear bay is sealed. We can leave anytime, sir,” Tidwell said.

“
Good job, Tidwell,” Gideon said, and turned to Vaniah. “Vaniah, we’ve completed repairs, and we’re ready to leave.”

“
We could use anything you can spare before you leave,” Vaniah said with an expression of hope.

“
Gunny, give the rebels all the spare weapons, armor, explosives, grenades, and medical supplies we have on
Bernice
. They need ‘em more than we do,” Gideon ordered.

“
Yes, sir,” Xia answered reluctantly and headed to
Bernice
to retrieve the supplies.

“
Thank you, Lieutenant,” Vaniah said. “I’ll have some of my men help your marines unload those supplies.” Vaniah then transmitted over a private channel the order to have some men assist Xia.

“
The only thing I ask in return is that you share any information about the weapon used by the individual who helped us rescue the doctor,” Gideon said.