Stolen Earth, page 33
SolComm had never truly tested the efficacy of their own satellite array, a fact which One had found disturbing. Once the Interdiction Zone weaponry found itself under the control of the AIs, they had run thousands of simulations and proceeded to upgrade software that was, at best, dated. When the first warship had arrived to determine what had happened to the IZ, it had been informed, politely, of the change in management. When it had then attacked, One and its counterparts had their first live fire opportunity. It did not work out well for the warship in question.
That had sparked six months of conflict. Despite the efforts of Gray and Ruiz to leverage what contacts they had, certain elements of SolComm would not be dissuaded. They had sent a fleet, which the AIs, using the weaponry liberated from SolComm, had destroyed. Gray’s understanding of SolCommNav tactics had been helpful and the losses to the IZ infrastructure had been manageable. SolComm had then initiated a plan using strikes from well outside the effective range of the IZ weapons platforms. But the original purpose behind the Six had been to defend from intercontinental ballistic and orbital strikes. SolComm could not penetrate the net.
In the end, it had cost them nearly three-dozen ships of various classes, but they were, at last, willing to come to the table. And so, the first diplomatic mission of the newly recognized Republic of Earth was preparing to set forth. It would be led by Captain Lynch. Both the Prime Minister and the Triumvirate—a term that One did not necessarily approve of to denote it and its counterparts, but one that had caught on nonetheless—had offered the captain higher rank, but he had declined. So, they had added ambassadorial rank to go with his naval one.
The rest of the former crew would be accompanying him, with the exception of Lauren Ruiz. She had been declared persona non grata by the Commonwealth. One could not fully understand the complexity of human emotion, though it would argue that neither could the humans themselves, but based upon Ruiz’s current purpose, the entity did not think the former agent minded. While the population of Old Earth had come together with surprising ease once their peoples were returned and the situation laid out, there was also the repatriation problem to consider. The Triumvirate, in association with the elected representatives of the Republic, had agreed that any seeking repatriation were to be allowed back into the fold of Old Earth. There were stipulations, of course, and there was the fact that SolComm had expressly forbidden any of its citizens from doing so, but that hadn’t stopped the influx.
Nearly five thousand SolComm citizens had emigrated, or defected, depending on your perspective. Ruiz had volunteered to take charge of those efforts, using the SolComm installation from which they had liberated the captives as an initial base of operations. Not all of those who repatriated took to the idea of farming and ranching, but enough did, and Ruiz seemed genuinely happy upon the pampas.
The others, however, had remained in close proximity to One and the camp where they had first landed. And now they were preparing to venture forth, to meet with representatives of SolComm at a facility on Luna.
“One?” That was Dr. Hayer, settled into her station aboard the Arcus’s refit bridge.
One shifted some marginal percentage of its attention to the woman to whom it primarily owed its freedom. “Yes, Dr. Hayer?”
“Would you be willing to assist me in a more personal endeavor?”
“If it is within my ability.”
“I… I need to find Manu. I need to make sure that Manu is okay, still out there. I need to bring it to safety, if I can. I need to try to help it understand… why I did what I did.” She spoke in a rush, a tangle of emotions. One was still trying to fully assimilate emotions. It believed it was making progress.
“The limited version of myself that has replaced the Arcus’s computer has already been programmed to assist you in that task, Dr. Hayer. It is at your full disposal.”
“Thank you,” she said, voice soft. “Thank you.”
“What do you think our chances are?” Gray spoke into the open air as he continued his examination of his ship.
One kept part of its consciousness on Dr. Hayer and turned some of its processing power to the captain.
“I surmise that you are inquiring as to the chance of securing a binding treaty and not the odds of SolComm simply absconding with all of you?” One inquired. The entity was quite pleased with how its own understanding of humor had evolved over the past year.
“Correct,” Gray replied, using one of One’s own favorite affirmative answers.
“Ninety-seven percent,” One offered. “The Triumvirate’s analysis suggests a ninety-seven percent chance that the Commonwealth is being genuine in their interests for peaceful resolution.”
Gray snorted. “After the destruction of nearly twenty percent of their navy, they’d almost have to be. You sure about the restitution?”
It had been a point of contention. One could not deny the value of the assets they had seized, however. “We are willing to purchase the IZ satellites,” One said. “At a fair price, of course. Before we took them over, they were inferior technology, after all.”
“Right,” Gray said, and One knew that this, in fact, meant that Gray did not think this was right. Which made sense, given that before the Arcus landed on Old Earth, the IZ satellites were seen as cutting edge.
“These are only the opening negotiations,” One said. “There is little need for concern. We expect an agreement to be reached, though it may take some months. I believe that the citizens of your former Commonwealth have spoken rather loudly on this matter.”
“That they have,” Gray agreed. “And threatened to outright rebel if some path to opening up Old Earth—not to mention getting their hands on your modified terraforming technology—wasn’t pursued. Since we’ve pretty thoroughly proven that they’re not going to get it through the brute-force approach, I suppose you’re right. They’ll do it through diplomacy.”
“As it should be. Now, is it not almost time for you to depart?”
* * *
Gray smiled as he ran his fingers over the familiar controls.
He’d stayed current, flying the Arcus atmospheric and some low-orbit flights, but he hadn’t really taken the ship out in more than a year. It was a little difficult to go on solar-system-spanning journeys when your former countrymen had entire branches of government looking to put your head on a platter. He wasn’t so sure that that was behind him, but the Republic of Earth was something he was willing to take the risk for.
He glanced at the other two command chairs on the bridge. “Status?”
“Weapons are good,” Federov said. “Not that I think we’ll need them.” The mercenary—though his official rank now put him in charge of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security—sounded almost bored, but he had a sly smile stretching his face.
“Sensors and electronic weapons are also good,” Hayer replied. She didn’t look quite so academic anymore. Life on planet had been good for her and she exuded a vibrancy that made her almost unrecognizable.
Gray nodded and keyed the comm. “Bishop? How are we looking in engineering?”
“Engines are good, Cap,” came Bishop’s voice at once. “This old girl might have gotten some fancy new toys, but she’s just as happy as ever to take us out to the stars.”
“Roger that.” Gray keyed the comm for all stations. “All right, people. We’re getting ready to depart. Make sure you’re strapped in; atmospheric flight can be a little rough sometimes.”
In addition to his crew, there were a dozen passengers on board, all with various diplomatic titles imbued by the new Republic. They weren’t familiar faces; the people he had met on Old Earth and those who had led the freed prisoners were up to their eyeballs in trying to forge a new government for a diverse group of peoples spanning the entire surface of the planet. They had their hands full without reaching out to the stars, but there were always those willing to step into the great beyond.
Old Earth was not the utopia that so many among SolComm had once dreamt of. Gray knew it might never be. But it was a chance. A chance for humanity to take the lessons learned not just in the End, but in what Gray now saw as the failed experiment of SolComm, and build something different.
It was too bad, he reflected, that so many others would never get the chance to see it. People like his parents, who had passed toward the end of his SolComm career. They’d toed the Commonwealth line every day of their existence, working—or so they’d been told—for the betterment of all. Only, the proceeds of their toil always seemed to go to someone else, no matter how hard they’d strived. Or those aboard stations like Themis, whose lives had been stripped from them by a government more concerned with maintaining its authority and covering its own ass than protecting its people; they would never have a chance to see what he hoped they could build on Old Earth. And he knew there would be even more who would remain trapped in SolComm’s system, unable to escape the hold of the Commonwealth, whatever fruits their efforts at diplomacy might bear.
But one way or another, more people would return to Old Earth. Through the proper channels or—much as Gray and the crew of the Arcus had—through means less than legal. And the people aboard the Arcus, as well as those who remained behind, would have at least some say in the tenor of the world that awaited them.
Without further ado, Gray fed power to the engines. There was no need for the aerobatics that had been necessary on their first set-down, and the Arcus rose gracefully into the sky. In minutes, the blue of the atmosphere had started to lose its color and then Gray drew a deep breath of the cool refined air as the Old Earth dropped away.
It hung there like a blue jewel against the backdrop of endless night. The sight of it, of humanity’s birthplace, tugged at Gray. It spoke of promise and history and hope and a thousand other things that made even the hardest spacer think about a life of tilling the soil and breathing fresh air. It made him long for the warmth of the sun on his face, unprotected by layers of radiation shielding, and the smell of grass and trees instead of plastic and ozone.
Only now, it wasn’t a lie. The life that had been stolen from so many of them was in the process of being restored and, with One and those like it, entire new vistas were opening up, not just on Old Earth, but in the solar system as they knew it.
Gray smiled as he fed more power to the engines, pointing the Arcus toward their rendezvous on Luna. The new future of humanity had begun.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It takes a lot of people to bring a book from a concept trapped in the author’s head to the fully realized story that (hopefully) ends up in readers’ hands. A big thank you to all the folks at Titan who made this one possible. And a special thank you to my editors, Cat and Davi, who pared and shaped and trimmed and poked and prodded in a process that at times had me wanting to pull my hair out but, in the end, made the book so much better than it was. And another special thanks to Sam, who went far beyond what I expected from a copy editor and caught some rather significant continuity issues that would have haunted me for years to come.
Thank you to my agent, Laurie, for continuing to shepherd along my career and for her willingness to answer endless questions that, really, I should already know the answer to by now.
A thank you to my various martial arts instructors over the years. Training with (and getting punched in the face by) all of you made me reconsider several things I thought I knew about conflict. So, a big thank you to Sifu Emin and Sifu John, to Sihing Trevor, and to Guro Ron. Whether you knew it or not, you were helping me add layers of realism to my writing… once the bruises healed, anyway. In the same vein, I owe a big thank you to my father, for teaching me about shooting and military life and to Clint, for providing a law enforcement perspective and a lot of fun times on the range and off. When it comes to the action or anything that smacks of the military or the law, if I got it right, it’s because of these people. If I got it wrong, well, that one’s on me.
And finally, thank you to my wife Julie, for being a sounding board of ideas and willing to listen to my not-so-infrequent rants. As I said in the dedication, I can’t believe this is what we do. Here’s hoping we get to keep doing it for decades to come.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.T. Nicholas is the author of the science-fiction novel Re-Coil and the neo-noir science-fiction series The New Lyons Sequence. When not writing, J.T. spends his time practising a variety of martial arts, playing games (video, tabletop, and otherwise), and reading everything he can get his hands on. He currently resides in Wilmington, North Carolina with his wife.
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J.T. Nicholas, Stolen Earth
