her, but he could do little to reassure her. “We’ll get through this, get help from Junior Lieutenant Kameri and his squads whenever you can, that’s what they’re assigned to you for.” He didn’t turn to watch the main botanical gallery door close behind him, though he could feel the rumbling it caused on the deck.
“I don’t like where this is going, Oz,” Laura said quietly. “What do you expect to happen out here?”
“We’re hiding in a very small nebula and there’s no telling how much backup those destroyers are bringing in.”
“But there’s no way they can find us from the outside. Even if they start patrolling within, we’ll probably see them before they see us.”
“That’s not the problem I’m preparing for. I’m thinking of what’s going to happen when we finally make a break for it. I’m not going to assume luck will be on our side, especially when those destroyers specialize in long range. We can come out where they never expect us to and still get several shots off before we’re clear.”
Laura nodded, knowing full well that Triton couldn’t handle much more damage. “So you’re planning for an all or nothing tactic. That’s reckless and you know it.”
“You’re right,” Oz agreed tersely.
“How are you planning on hedging your bets, Oz?” Jason asked calmly.
“I’m taking a page from your playbook. As soon as I get to the bridge I’m going to order everyone except for the civilians in the botanical section and essential crew to relocate to the captured raider vessels. Then I’m going to put all our pilots on alert.”
“Now I really don’t like where this is going,” Laura muttered.
Chapter 9
The creation cubicles used to house bare framework systems before they generated living tissue looked like collapsible coffins. It was something that irked Eve whenever she saw them, and over the past two weeks she’d seen many. She had quietly been working at improving the creativity level of the framework constructs, so they would be something more than basically skilled when they were finally deployed. As it was, they had plenty of people joining the Order of Eden Military, but war was coming, and possibly on two fronts. Her machines wouldn’t be able to fight for them, not completely, and their human forces may deplete too quickly to be replenished if things became truly heated. A better, thinking framework soldier, technician, and servant was needed.
The small team of workers Eve assigned to the task of setting up her experiment were busy opening the half height coffin, pulling each end of the thin walled black case so it could accommodate someone of average stature. The long top came open to reveal the bare framework.
It looked like a human skeleton made of dull grey metal. “They look so delicate,” Eve muttered.
Hampon looked at her with mild surprise from where he stood at her side. “I suppose. Perhaps I’ve known their true capabilities for too long to see them that way.”
“Perhaps,” she replied as she watched them place the synthetic bones inside an upright stasis tube. They drifted through the thick brown liquid, piling up at the bottom.
“How did you discover the details of Jacob Valance’s waking?”
“Everything you loaded into the Jacob model was recorded in Vindyne records. I’m copying the same medical, technological and combat knowledge databases into this framework using the same integration method to connect them to what’s left of Patrick’s memory.”
“That’s obvious, what I’m talking about is this.” Hampon projected the security footage of Jacob Valance waking up in the cargo bay of the Samson against the wall beside them. “How did we get footage from the Samson?”
“I don’t know, it was in the compressed archives.”
“There was no record of who put it there?”
“Only an automated entry number assigned to one of the archival management systems. I suspect it was sent to one of Regent Galactic’s data collection nodes while Wheeler had possession of the Triton.”
“Before he died. Yes, he did make his claim right before Valance turned the tables on him, so I suppose the Samson must have been aboard. I think it’s remarkable that you’re duplicating the conditions. Do you really think it’ll work with the memory modifications you’ve installed?”
“I imagined and recorded them myself. I’ve been observing Patrick from his perspective long enough to know how he would experience the substitutions I’ve put in place.”
“You’re implanting a tailored daydream you recorded as one of his memories? You are incredible.”
“I altered it slightly so he would feel that the memory was his own, but essentially, yes. The human mind is easy to master when you can play back entire thought processes and observe them from a distance.” Eve had to admit, she enjoyed having Hampon’s favour. He kept few secrets from what she could tell, and treated her exceptionally well. His trust in her, how she could surprise and amuse him were all factors in her warm feelings towards him. He, in turn, surprised her from time to time. His goals were not so different from her own; he too wanted a pure galaxy, and to protect it from all her enemies. His weakness was his appetite for power, but it was tempered by his need to play a part. He loved being the Child Prophet, the High Seat of the Order of Eden, and he had eliminated or distanced himself from all his contemporaries.
General Collins was dead, Gabriel Meunez was over two weeks away by high compression wormhole, and most of the old Vindyne Supervisory Board had been killed or imprisoned months before. Lister Hampon had seated her at his side, and as strange as it was, she felt needed, preferred.
Through the observation screen Eve could see that the scientists, some of whom had been working on the framework project for years, were sealing the stasis chamber. Another placed a box beside it and unlocked it.
They departed the room quickly and closed the door behind. The locked space had no windows, something that seemed even more apparent as the lights dimmed. “Begin,” Eve said aloud. It was an announcement, not a command. She had reached out with her mind and activated the framework resting in the bottom of the stasis chamber. There would be no errors, no additional variables, Eve was in complete control.
The framework bones went to work immediately, generating flesh, connecting with each other starting with the spinal column, then skull, hips, and so on until the muscle and raw elements of a man stood upright in the capsule. The system was doing what it was supposed to do, using the substances inside the stasis tube to speed up the generation of tissue, and in a quarter of the normal time the nude form of Patrick stood before them, very much alive, slowly breathing the stasis fluid.
“Second stage,” Eve announced quietly.
Two medics entered the room swiftly, one held an extraction tool for removing fluid from Patrick’s lungs, the other moved to the opposite side of the stasis tube and activated the release switch. The vessel opened at the bottom and stasis fluid surged forth, carrying Patrick with it to the floor.
With an easy efficiency one medic rolled Patrick onto his side while the other held the extraction pump up to his mouth. Stasis fluid spewed out of the pump as the subject gagged unconsciously. It was over in seconds, and the medics left as swiftly as they had entered, taking the coffin like box the framework had come in with them.
The young man laid there for long moments, rousing from the sleep induced by the stasis fluid. Eve watched hopefully, glancing at the video of Jacob Valance projected against the wall beside her. In the surveillance video Jacob was already on his feet, sorting through the things Alice Valent had left for him. The uncertain, hurt expression on his face was something she hadn’t noticed before. With a thought she deactivated the projection and hoped that she’d gotten the modified memories she’d implanted in Patrick just right.
Through the observation screen she saw him standing, looking around. To her surprise he didn’t question his situation aloud, didn’t try to open the door upon noticing it, and didn’t cry for help. Instead he went to the box.
He carefully opened it and recovered the shirt the original Patrick had left as an offering on the planet below. Next he inspected the book, at which he smiled, and finally the ring, which he put on.
He held the long, simple shirt in front of him for a moment before using it to wipe most of the stasis fluid off. He pulled it on and returned his attention to the book for a moment before looking up at the room around him.
“Phase three, clear the adjacent rooms, observation only please.” Eve turned and strode around the corner.
