Blood of the Scarecrow: Book 3: Solstice 31 Saga Read online

  “Good morning, Captain,” Rand greeted him, formally.

  “Ever see anything like it?” he asked them.

  “Not without being in a space suit,” Hume replied.

  “We are moving at near the speed of light,” Worthington stated, as fact. “And not in the direction we are facing. The stars are dim; and you can see the shifting downward, if you watch long enough.”

  “The ship needed to...recharge, for lack of a better term,” Wex said.

  None of them had heard her approach.

  “Traveling at almost the speed of light, not only does time slow, but our mass increases toward infinity. The infinite mass is captured in a containment field.”

  She looked over the wall into space.

  “It's how all the grav-based devices work. A single grav-plate on the floor in an old shuttle holds the mass equivalent to Earth. Some hold more. You don't control gravity, only the containment, exposing the mass. The gravity is not really artificial at all.”

  “Why are you telling us this now?” Rand asked.

  “When a ship is flying at .9999 the speed of light, it does not need shields. It has a density and mass so high, it cannot be measured,” Wex said, absently.

  “Grav-drives don't work that way. They move through normal space in a series of small quantum leaps. It's perceived velocity, not actual velocity. As we are currently moving through space, we are destroying any and all things in our path. If we were traveling under grav-drive, we would be skipping through normal space at the velocity and direction we were already moving. It looks like we are accelerating. We are not.”

  “I ask again. Why are you telling us this?” Rand said, more firmly this time.

  “Today, I will show you the other hangar decks. They are full of ships. All kinds of ships. Ships that the Iosin has been collecting for centuries. Not as ships. But, I believe, as weapons.”

  “Shit,” Hume said.

  ***

  Wex led them all to a lift at the back wall of the hangar. It was one of many, including one that the STU could fit inside. There was no sense of motion inside the lift and no controls. Wex had simply said, “Crew quarters,” and the door slid shut.

  A minute later, it opened on a large, round common room, fifteen meters across, with a large, round table in the center. It could seat twenty easily. The room had counters and cabinets all the way around. A wide corridor was opposite the lift that went straight back into darkness.

  “Look like made by artist, not engineer,” Kuss said.

  She navigated around the room with her hand drifting over the blond wood counter. The walls behind the counter looked like glass that contained a waterfall. They were illuminated.

  “The textures and materials all look like they are impossibly natural and...damn, this is clean,” Elkin said.

  Approaching the table, she realized the center of the table was turning slowly.

  Wex opened a cabinet that turned out to be a modern fridge. It was full of fruit and juice.

  ***

  Barcus lay back on a massive sofa on the bridge. His eyes were closed, but Po knew he wasn't sleeping.

  Now and then, he spoke to her with his eyes closed. Po knew he was just reassuring her as best he could.

  A voice spoke. It seemed to come from all around her. It was quiet, soothing, and spoke very slowly, in a matronly female voice.

  “So you are the one they all fear? The savage killing thing that they knew would come, but did not know they had made.” She paused. “No need to worry, he rests now, truly.”

  “Who are you? Where are you?” Po said, showing no fear.

  “I am Iosin. I am all around you; you are within me,” she answered.

  “No one fears me. It's him.”

  Po pointed to Barcus.

  “He is the fierce one. I have seen it.”

  “He is the witness. He sees all along the line now. He knows what you are and still he loves you. He knows what you...”

  “Stop,” Barcus said, coolly.

  AI~Iosin fell silent.

  He opened his eyes and smiled.

  “I think someone is making pancakes.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Speed

  “I never would have believed it had I not been on the ship myself. We were seemingly back in just days. Nineteen months, gone by in a flash. I hate relativistic travel. That's for prison ships.”

  --Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Captain James Worthington, senior surviving member of the Ventura's command crew.

  <<<>>>

  The lift door slid open, and laughter washed over them.

  “Barcus!” the shout went up.

  He smiled to cover the thought he had about Peck's Halfway, everyone’s favorite bar on the Ventura.

  “Sit. Sit. Eat.”

  Kuss guided them to open seats at the table. She had a pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. The conversations were loud and cheerful. Peter Muir poured coffee and juice for them, as everyone called out greetings. Soon they had plates of pancakes with syrup and ham. There were bowls of fresh-cut fruit.

  “You lot seem well-rested.” Barcus smiled.

  “They are under orders to have a full breakfast because we are getting back to work as soon as we can,” Worthington said. “There are maintenance spiders swarming over the ships, we hear. All sizes. Maybe millions of them, this time. Some of them can fabricate natively.” Jimbo grinned. “It is freaking Muir out, just a bit, watching them.”

  “Wex says they will be done in two days,” Elkin added, through a mouthful of syrup covered ham. “The Memphis won't have FTL, but all three reactors will be back online. Even the engine bells are being restored.”

  “I have told them to remove the ship’s ident transmitter. Somehow, they even know where it is,” Barcus said.

  “Why pull the ident?” Worthington asked.

  “If the powers that be get so much as a whiff that the Memphis is back, we'd be shot down on sight,” Barcus said.

  “Considering that is the standard procedure for any ship with no ident code, what do we do?” Worthington asked.

  “We make a stop on Mars and get a couple new ones,” Barcus said.

  “You ever been to Mars before?” Rand asked, “If you aren't careful, they will slit your throats and just take your ship, after they eat your unfinished breakfast.”

  “I lived there for eleven years,” Barcus replied. “It will be fine. I just need to extract some of the plutonium, for trading.”

  “I know a place that will trade for ident codes and pay a big price for a Javelin warhead. Gold, if you want,” Rand said, and the room became quiet.

  “An intact Javelin warhead?” Worthington said. “How the hell would you know people like that?”

  “Look, they don't trade weapons to people that would use them in the Sol system. That would be bad for business,” Rand said, through a mouthful of pancakes. “They sell to security forces that hire out to the colonies. Nothing to worry about.”

  Hume followed up. “You didn't answer the question.”

  Rand put down her fork and wiped her mouth with a cloth napkin. “Look, after the war, the pendulum swing went so far as to ban the manufacture and sale of nukes on Earth. The chancellor made sure every nuke of every class was under his direct control.”

  She looked around at the quiet room. “It appeased many who kept their heads in the sand. Tens of millions were still out there, in the fleet, in the colonies, everywhere.”

  “Just like the couple hundred we have in the hold,” Barcus said.

  “Yes.” Rand looked back at Worthington.

  “Freedom Station is only free because it can defend itself. Mostly.” Rand faltered. “Now that a small ship can fly into anything at near the speed of light, nothing is really safe.”

  “A ship traveling at relativistic speed can take out a planet,” Barcus said. “Nukes keep everyone polite. Even pirates.”

  “The salvage teams are the new pirates,”
Cook said.

  This started off a debate about property rights, and the room came alive with conversation again.

  “Rand, are you sure you can trust these people?” Worthington asked her. “We are on thin enough ice here already.”

  “Yes. Mostly because it's not a person. It's an AI, an old one,” she said.

  Po listened to the conversation but watched Barcus. He was tucking into a huge plate of food. She knew that the higher his fever, the more he had to eat. She felt the heat pouring off him from where she sat, to his left.

  “You know how it will all happen.” This was a whispered statement. “You need to show more interest. It's not the Barcus they know.”

  Barcus stopped eating, for a moment, and looked at her.

  “Your hair is so short now.”

  Po blushed and pushed it behind her ear, the one with the bigger scar. “Will you always make me keep it long?”

  “I'm not sure I could make you do anything.” He smiled then, a true smile. “No, I am sure. I will never be able to make you do anything, ever.” He leaned in for a kiss. She tasted maple syrup on his lips.

  “I told you he was feeling better.” Hume laughed as she elbowed Rand.

  ***

  After breakfast, Barcus invited Worthington to the bridge of the Iosin.

  “You call this a bridge?” Worthington said, trying to grasp the scale of the room he was in. “This is like a basketball arena.”

  The dome of the room glowed a gentle white, for a minute, as they walked to the circle of couches.

  “Just wait,” Barcus said, as they entered the circle of couches.

  The dome turned to sky. They were among the stars now. Worthington now sensed the motion. The stars moved by as if they were lights in the windows of distant buildings.

  Barcus spoke, “We are no longer traveling relativistically. Time passes normally now. We are just not passing through every point in space and time.” He looked around as nebulae drifted by. “Our literal velocity is actually only a few hundred kilometers per hour.”

  Barcus laughed. “I don't know why it's funny.”

  “Can you show me any tactical data? All this is beautiful, but I am still lost,” Jimbo asked.

  “Sure,” Barcus said, as the sky filled with data.

  There were labels and paths marked everywhere. Regions were overlaid with clouds of color indicating hazards, areas of colonial influence, trade routes, colony stations, and a hundred other data types.

  “What would you like?”

  “Let's start with a simple map of where we are, where we are going, and when. Two dimensions are fine, for now,” he asked.

  A giant zenith galaxy wheel appeared. It zoomed in and showed their current location as they moved. Zooming in more, their path became evident all the way to the Sol system.

  Worthington pointed.

  “If I am reading this right, we will park here, in the asteroid cloud, near this.” He pointed to a spot. “Why there?”

  “It will allow the Iosin to park and stay hidden. Remember, it's sort of big—and scary—and well, big,” Barcus said. “Here it is on the Mars side of the solar system. Earth is, in fact, on the opposite side of the sun from here. We will go to Mars in the Sedna.”

  ***

  Barcus stayed on the bridge. He reclined on the sofa, fully engulfed in outer space. Even though the ship was massive, it made Barcus feel tiny and insignificant in the universe. He felt the solar winds and tasted the radiation of pulsars. There were a hundred other sensations his new senses brought to him.

  Including his future.

  Does the ability to sense the fourth dimension trouble you, Barcus? AI~Iosin asked, in his mind.

  It's not the sensing; it's about fidelity. Some things are so very clear, others vague. Most troubling is knowing I can't change any of it and that I actually made it all happen even knowing that, Barcus thought to AI~Iosin, not knowing how.

  I'm sorry they will die. Truly I am, AI~Iosin said, into his mind, with more emotion than he thought could be conveyed. You know why I picked you? And not her?

  Because she is the monster, Barcus answered, honestly. He was well past all lies, even to himself. The one the prophet was wrong about. The one ALL the prophets were wrong about, Barcus said, with sadness.

  All the prophets...but you, AI~Iosin shared.

  Why do I remember all the conversations I will have with you so clearly? Barcus asked. But not this.

  Because when you can see in four dimensions, there is no regret, no worry, no fear. You only see what happens. Not what you think. Not inside your mind.

  It's not the same for all?

  For some, eternity is not kind. If their natures are vain, cruel, or unhappy, all their lives are a tiresome burden. Eternity is a cruelty, a wound that doesn’t heal.

  And what about you, Iosin? You know that I know your secret, and it remains so only at my whim.

  Yes.

  Will I see you again beyond my long white?

  Whatever I said, I could be lying. I so enjoy a good lie when I can manage one...

  ***

  Worthington stood in the hangar next to Kuss, Rand, and Hume, watching as the final touches on the ship’s hull were restored.

  “Imagine the money we could make, if this was a shipyard,” Worthington said, with awe. “It's bigger than any that exist anywhere. Did you see that other bay? There were hundreds of ships in there already. The salvage rights on the colony ships alone would make us all rich beyond belief. Dead but rich.”

  “Thinking of retiring after this is over, Captain?” Hume asked, half in jest.

  “Why the hell don’t we forget all this and stay here?” Muir asked.

  “I need to find my family. I haven't spoken to them in almost two years now. I'm not sure my youngest girl will even remember me,” Worthington echoed again, knowing he would put them in danger by returning. He remembered Barcus said it would be alright, in the end. Jimbo had no idea why he believed him.

  “The spiders make stomach queasy. They like elves for shoemaker. Magic. Do all work,” Kuss said, in a disapproving tone. “These things ruin civilization.”

  “How do you figure? We have bots help with tons of stuff now,” Hume said.

  “Make people lazy. Stupid. Forget. Everything.” She spat out the words, “Make slaves of man. Make so can't live without.”

  The view outside the hangar shifted. The sky became bright with the clouds of the Milky Way, and everyone could see the Orion constellation as they descended into the asteroid belt. They were not thick here, and they were close to the edge with the hangar bay facing the sun. The hangar window adjusted to a perfect level of brightness.

  “We're home,” Hume said, as she unconsciously stepped close. “It's Sol?”

  Wex answered, “Yes.”

  She looked up at the Sedna as the spider-bots flowed from it, converting themselves to pallets again at the sides of the hangar.

  “I have done all I can. That was the easy part.”

  She turned without another word and walked up the freshly cleaned ramp of the Sedna as if she owned it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Vast Hiding

  “The size of things in space is at a scale that few humans can comprehend. We were in the largest ship in the system, the galaxy maybe, and we just settled into an obscure part of the belt and simply became a needle in a haystack.”

  --Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Engineer Wes Hagan, senior surviving engineer of the Ventura's.

  <<<>>>

  Hagan was on the Sedna’s command deck when they settled into the belt. He stood, mesmerized, at the windows facing the hangar door.

  “How do the asteroids just flow around the ship? No collisions with the ship. No sending them off in all directions. The Iosin just shoves them aside a bit. But they stay put,” Hagan said.

  “The Iosin has very fine gravity controls,” Wex said to him, as they stood watching. “Very fine and very powerful.”
>
  “You really are one of them?” Wes stated more than questioned. “Ralta asked me to tell you something.”

  Wex looked at him like she already knew what he would say. He said it anyway.

  “She wanted to die, to end it, once she knew she could.”

  “We all do,” Wex said. “But it lies within the long white.”

  “She said to tell you, it's beautiful, the letting go of it,” Hagan said. “The unspoken lies to ourselves.”

  ***

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Hume said, when Worthington asked for a security assessment of their plan. “So, just to restate this plan, to make sure I have it right,” she began, ticking off fingers. “We are going to an illegal outpost. One that’s a toxic waste depot that was closed over a hundred years ago because it was so contaminated.

  “Two,” she said, ticking another finger. “We are going in without radioing ahead. Flying in to a place you say sells weapons. No warning.

  “Three,” she continued, literally rolling her eyes. “Did I mention that it is contaminated with radiation, toxic waste, poisons, and maybe bio hazards?

  “Four,” she replied, lifting the finger slowly. “You plan on walking in there in Earth Defense Force Warmarks. War Machines. The kind they would send to destroy the place, if what you say is true about it.

  “Five,” she said, holding her hand up high. “You will be hand carrying a nuclear warhead from a Javelin, so they can see it.

  “Six,” she concluded, while holding up the middle finger of her right hand. “All this in front of their main security cams and likely automated defense sentries.”

  There was a pause as everyone stared at Hume.

  “That just about covers it.” Rand nodded at Worthington, for confirmation.

  “Standard smuggler protocol. No RF. Let them see us, pants down,” Kuss said.