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19

The transport shuttle pilot landed right inside the Hill Place mountain cavern. Clement was quickly out of the ship and sought out Colonel Lubrov, passing several thousand settlers who had pitched makeshift shelters inside the cavern. It was rough going for them, but he got no anger directed toward him for the situation, at least not to his face.

“Situation report, Colonel,” he said curtly once he had found Lubrov inside her command shelter. He may have been beaten, but he was still in command.

“All of the settlers are now inside the cavern, sir. Some of them have taken up residence inside the native structures in the village. Others, as you can see, have set up camp themselves.”

“Have you done a head count?”

She nodded. “Twenty-nine thousand four hundred seventy heads accounted for, sir, including every one of my twelve hundred Marines. I still have them stationed in the bunkers and on our defensive fortifications. They still have fight in them, sir.”

“Very good, Colonel, but the fact is that they’re sitting ducks out there. I have no idea if these walls will protect us from the kind of attack we’ll be facing, and I don’t want to sacrifice any of your Marines just for the sake of giving the Solar League a good fight before we all die. Recall all your troops and station them around the cavern, and do so immediately.” Again he glanced down at his watch. “We have a little over two hours before that fleet is in striking range of us. Get them all in here and let’s get set up defensively as best we can.”

“Yes, sir,” said Lubrov, but it was obvious again from her stern face that she didn’t agree with Clement’s decision not to fight. Clement noticed this and stopped to make one more comment.

“Colonel, I know this isn’t what you want, and as soldiers our instinct is to fight. But this is a situation where the best we can do now is defend the innocent. I hope you can understand that.”

She stiffened at what seemed to her to be a rebuke. “I do understand, sir, but I don’t have to like it.”

Clement smiled wryly at that, and at her resolve. “No, Colonel, you’re right you don’t have to like it. Carry on, Colonel Lubrov,” he said, and saluted her. She snapped off a salute back at him.

Just then, Yan came into the tent. “Clement, I think you’d better come see this,” she said, a grim look on her face. “It seems your friend Mary has jumped the gun.”

Clement was startled. “What do you mean?”

“I mean she’s already started the merging process with the AI, and from all indications, it’s not going well.”

Clement just nodded at Lubrov as he and Yan swiftly left the tent together. He turned to her as they walked. “Call Laura Pomeroy. I want a medically trained observer to see this.”

“Of course,” said Yan, switching on her com and contacting Pomeroy with her orders. They ran double-time from the village toward the command platform, a good half a kilometer away. Neither of them knew how to access the subterranean transport system, so that wasn’t an option. They quickly made their way through the village and up to the command platform and its wall of machines. Before they got close to the platform, Clement could see what was happening.

Mary was standing at the console, wires extending from the mechanism into her head and hands. Her hands were working frantically at lightning speeds over the holographic controls. Occasionally circuit displays would pop up and she would modify the components, shifting their composition and arrangement, like revising a schematic, and then just as quickly drop the circuits back into the console with a downward sweep of her hand.

Laura Pomeroy arrived then and took up a position to one side of Clement, with Yan on the other. A half dozen native technicians were attending to her, running scanners over her and reading outputs, then making changes to handheld equipment or using the devices that were attaching themselves to her body.

Clement sought out one of the natives to explain to him what was going on. A man named Letine was willing to speak with him. He had the look of the “awakened” natives, human in every way with the exception of his light amber skin color and white hair, which was cut short as Mary’s was.

“I was told she wouldn’t try this for another thirty minutes. When did this happen?”

Letine looked at him strangely, as if he was trying to understand his words. Finally he spoke. “I am . . . not that familiar with your language . . .” Then he hesitated, as if he was receiving a download of some kind. “She . . . could not wait. It was apparent that we would not be able to repair the defense system. The AI that the Makers left behind . . . did not seem to . . . remember . . . how to activate the system. Direct intervention was then required, and she chose to begin the process of Ascension,” he said, his use of the language getting better with each exchange.

“Ascension?” asked Yan.

Clement turned to her. “The merging of human and machine,” he said.

“She chose this path,” said Letine.

“I understand the process is not going well,” said Clement.

“There have been many complications. None of us has experience with this type of . . . transfiguration. The Machine is not yet accepting her.”

“Will it?”

“That is uncertain.”

“Is she conscious?”

Again Letine looked as if he was having trouble understanding Clement, then after a few moments a look of clarity came over his face. “She does not speak,” he said. “If the Ascension works, then she will speak.”

Clement wanted to explain that what he really wanted to know was if she felt any pain from the process, but he doubted Letine would understand. All they could do was stand by and watch her as the Machine took more and more control over her body.

Letine gave out orders in the natives’ language and the workers scrambled to complete their ordered tasks. Suddenly, Mary started twitching violently, pulling at the tubing and straining the connections the wires had into her body.

“She’s having a seizure,” said Pomeroy. She pulled out her medical kit and reached out to Mary as she fell away from the console, catching her before she fell to the floor. Pomeroy quickly scanned her body with her monitoring equipment, then reported. “Her body temperature is running very high. This process is proving very difficult for her. It is as likely as not that we may lose her.”

Letine and his people began to scramble, injecting her body with yet more fluids and other unknown technologies, most likely nanobots. When her body seemed to calm, Clement grabbed Letine by the elbow to ask him more questions.

“What just happened?” he demanded.

“The Machine is rejecting her. We must disconnect her before the rejection kills her.”

“Then do it, man!” demanded Clement. The technicians sprang into action, pulling wires from her body, sealing wounds as they disconnected her from the Machine. Pomeroy cradled Mary’s head in her lap.

“Laura?” asked Clement. She just shook her head in reply, uncertain if Mary would die.

“If we lose her, we lose our last chance of defending ourselves,” said Yan.

“Then we can’t lose her,” said Clement forcefully. Letine seemed to get the message and nodded as his people began working even more frantically on the young girl’s body. Pomeroy continued to pull out micro-fine fibers from her head, obviously connected to interface with her brain. Small beads of blood emerged as the wires were removed.

“Her body will not give up its life,” stated Letine. “If she does not surrender to the Machine soon, the Ascension will fail, and she will die.”

“If she dies, then we’re lost, completely lost,” said Clement. He went down on his haunches next to Mary and took her free hand in his.

Yan reached out to him, putting a supporting hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. “You couldn’t have known how this would play out. None of us could,” she said gently.

Clement released Mary and placed his hand over Yan’s and pulled it off of him as he stood again, but he would not meet her eyes. “I should’ve known. I’m the one who bears the responsibility. This mission, all these people, this is all on me. All the death, all the destruction . . .” He trailed off into silence.

“If you’re responsible then we’re all responsible.”

“Really?” he snapped. “I’m the one who convinced these people to come here, hell, even my own parents! I’m the one who put them in danger. I’m the one who asked for that girl’s help, and now she’s dying, and nothing you or anyone else can say will change that.” He looked down at the young woman who had probably sacrificed her life for them, her head cradled in Pomeroy’s arms, her breathing harsh and shallow. Slowly the technicians backed away from her, waiting for the inevitable.

Clement made a decision.

“Letine, can you bring up a display that shows us where the Solar League fleet is right now?” The man nodded and went to the nearest raised console where he waved his hands, trying to bring up displays as Mary had done. Only a handful of the circuits came up, and they were bland and mostly colorless.

“This looks worse than the system was before,” stated Yan. “More systems dark, less available. Even if we could influence it, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough left of this machine to help us.”

Clement could only nod. It seemed as if Mary’s attempt at the Ascension had damaged more systems within the Machine. After several tense moments Letine managed to bring up a real-time display over the planet.

The Solar League fleet was decelerating, but still on an attack vector. Undoubtedly their target was now the caverns and the abandoned Camp Alpha. “How long until they get here?” Clement asked. The native swept a hand over the display and indecipherable characters suddenly changed to minutes and seconds.

Just twenty-two minutes to go.

Clement turned to Yan. “Get the shuttle ready.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going up there to surrender, personally. They can blow me out of the sky if they want. This may be a completely futile gesture on my part, but I’d rather die up there, trying to save a few lives of the people I love than die down here if they use their nukes to turn this mountain into melted rock.”

Yan knew she couldn’t stop him. She also didn’t want to disobey what could be his last order to her. She used her com to call down to Colonel Lubrov and have her prep their single remaining military shuttle. “Five minutes,” she said to him when she got off the com.

Clement turned to Letine. “Once I leave you’d better get those cavern doors shut and get your people away from them. I don’t know if this place is hardened for atomic attacks or not, but even if it is you need to take as many precautions as you can.”

“I do not know what we can do. Only Mary, or the Maker machine, would know. Defense is not my function.”

“Well, my friend, it is now,” he said, and slapped him on the shoulder as he started to walk away.

“Clement!” called Yan from behind him, excited.

Clement turned around. Yan pointed at the floor, where Pomeroy still cradled Mary’s head in her hands. The was a purple light swirling on the floor, surrounding the outline of Mary’s body. Pomeroy gently laid her head down on the floor and backed away.

“What is that?” Yan asked.

Clement looked to Pomeroy, who shrugged. “I’m sure I have no idea, sir,” she said. Letine also shrugged, imitating her gesture.

The light now surrounded Mary’s prone form on the floor, and began to slowly pulsate, growing faster with each second. The deep purple nano-material oozed from the floor onto her body, and into the wounds where the wires had been. Her body began twitching again, but much less violently this time. They watched as the purple material covered her face and body completely, sparkling with gentle power and warmth. Then Clement had another sensation. This material is feeding her life, he thought. Seconds went by, and just as quickly as it had come, the lifegiving fluid receded back into its perfectly formed “floor.”

They all watched in astonishment as Mary’s eyes fluttered, and then opened.

She stared blankly forward without any hint of emotion or recognition of her surroundings. After a few seconds had passed, she rolled onto her side and slowly got to her feet. She moved off the platform spot where she had been reborn and took a few hesitant steps toward Clement. It was like watching a child learning to walk for the first time. After taking a few steps she stopped and looked down at her hand, flexing the fingers as if she was trying to determine how they worked. She looked up at Clement with ice blue eyes and attempted to speak.

“Admiral . . .” she said in a voice that was more mechanical than organic. She repeated the word twice more, and by the third time her voice approximated that of Mary’s. “You must take me with you on your shuttle,” she said.

Clement looked back and forth with Yan, then addressed Mary. “I was planning on going into space to surrender, or sacrifice myself in trying. Are you sure you want to go with me?”

She looked at him oddly for a second as if she was trying to analyze what he had just said. “I know what I am requesting, Admiral. We have very little time to quibble. Please come with me and I will try to explain the situation as we go.”

Clement nodded to her and then looked to Yan again. “You heard the lady. The two of us are going into space. I’m putting you in charge of everything down here. Don’t get killed,” he said.

“I won’t,” she replied, standing firm, “as long as you promise me that you won’t get killed either.”

“I have to go,” he said to her. And then, without really thinking about it, leaned in and kissed her on the lips, lingering for only a second. Yan was surprised at that.

Clement turned and they both watched as “Mary” started walking haltingly toward the subterranean transport station. Clement took off running after her, as her stride was growing stronger and more confident with each step. He caught up to her as they entered the station.

Once inside the tram, it quickly took off, humming along toward the village. Clement attempted to engage Mary in conversation. “Why are you coming into space with me? I only have a small shuttle and we’ll be facing off against an entire battle fleet, including that Earth Ark ship.”

“That will best be explained once we are on the shuttle. For now, I will try to explain to you about myself. As you may have guessed the Ascension process failed. I was unable to activate the planetary defense grid as it appears to be broken at the source.”

“Where is the source?” he asked.

“The third habitable planet, the one you call Camus. We must go there so that I can attempt the Ascension again.”

Clement looked at her incredulously. “Mary, the ship we have available cannot get to Camus. It has no LEAP drive or anything of that nature. To get past the Solar League fleet we’ll have to have a LEAP-capable ship, and none of the crews onboard the ships I have at Alphus have ever attempted a LEAP jump inside a solar system before. It could easily go wrong.”

“Your ship’s crew has made several in-system LEAP jumps, haven’t they?”

“Well, yes . . .”

“Then they must join us on the shuttle, there’s no time to waste.”

Clement jumped on his com then and got hold of Yan, telling her to round up the bridge crew of the late Beauregard and meet them at the shuttle. She acknowledged and cut the line. “This will take more time to round up my crew.”

“If what you say is true, then we must have them.”

With that, the small tram car arrived at the village, and they both hustled out and down to the waiting shuttle. He was having difficulty keeping up with Mary, who was running at a surprising pace while dancing through the crowd of civilians with effortless dexterity. Her control of her body seemed to be increasing with every passing second. Colonel Lubrov was waiting for him at the shuttle and saluted as he approached.

“No time to chat, Colonel. Once we’re out of the cavern get with the native man Letine and get the blast doors shut, and get our people as far inside the mountain as you can. If they hit this mountain with a nuke anything could happen. We don’t know how good the ground defenses are or even if they’ll be operating. Take every precaution you can.”

“And what about you, sir?” she protested.

“There’s nothing about me, Colonel. If I come back you’ll know we had a positive outcome. If I don’t then you’ll know the results of that as well. Captain Yan is in command until and unless I return. Understood?”

“Clearly, sir.”

With that he was gone, running into the shuttle.


It took another six minutes until the full Beauregard bridge crew (plus Nobli and Tech Reck) were aboard and strapped in. Yan waved at Clement from the ground as the shuttle rolled away toward an unknown fate.

Four minutes at maximum thrust and they were outside the atmosphere of Bellus and accelerating toward the incoming Solar League fleet. The shuttle’s onboard chronometer showed they had eleven minutes until the fleet reached targeting range on the camp. Any long-range attack would likely come with missiles, either conventional or nuclear. A more direct tactic would be to send landing craft, attack ships, and troops to the surface, unless, of course, their intent was simply to wipe out the Five Suns presence on Bellus. They would know very shortly.

Once the shuttle was on course for the rendezvous point, Clement went back to his crew and explained their first task. “You’ll have to call up the Antietam and walk their crew through the process of making a short-range LEAP jump. Once we rendezvous with them, we can transfer to the con and run the second jump on our own.”

“Are you insane?” said Nobli. “Two LEAP jumps in-system, one by an untrained crew?”

“Yeah!” chimed in Tech Reck.

“They won’t be untrained. They’ll have all of you to rely on. So start making plans, tie in your coms to the shuttle system and prepare to give detailed instructions to your counterparts. There’s absolutely no room for error on this.” There was general grumbling at the assignment, but no further objections.

Clement returned to the pilot’s nest, and Mary. “They have their assignments, but no understanding of how they will communicate. Because of the distances involved there will be a

four-minute delay in the instructions being transmitted.”

“I will explain. We have technology to make this possible. The Ascension may have failed, but I have gained a great deal of . . . functionality . . . even through the temporary merging with the Machine. For now, you must reduce your speed and bring the shuttle to a full stop in space within thirty-one seconds, Admiral.”

“Well, nothing like a bit of lead time.” Clement brought the shuttle to a full stop five hundred kilometers above the camp, right on time.

Mary extended her hand and spread her fingers as a three-dimensional holographic display popped up inside the pilot’s nest. She spun the display with the index finger of her left hand, moving it around to see the formation of the enemy fleet and their current position. A mixed group of six Solar League cruisers and destroyers (three each) were moving away from the main body of the attacking fleet and headed on a different course.

“Where are those ships going?” Clement asked.

“They’re heading for the planet you call Alphus,” said Mary. “I assume to take out the remaining ships that you have stationed there.”

“Those ships have orders to bug out for Kemmerine Station as soon as they detect that movement, which will likely be in about three minutes.”

“I suggest you cancel those orders, Admiral.”

“This shuttle doesn’t have a com system that strong. They’ll see those Solar League ships coming before I could countermand their existing orders.”

She said nothing to that, instead using her left hand to pull out a circuit display and place it in front of his face. “This system can communicate your orders in what you call ‘real time.’ It is already matched up to your fleet frequency.”

Clement looked at the transparent floating icon, which he supposed vaguely resembled a communications device, or at least a microphone. “How do I—”

She reached over again and tapped on the hologram with her finger. “It is now active, Admiral.”

He leaned slightly forward and spoke into the “microphone.” “This is Admiral Clement. I hereby countermand my previous orders to bug out and return to Kemmerine Station. Put as much distance between yourselves and the incoming enemy flotilla as you can. Keep the planet between you if you have to, but maintain your distance and stand by. Please acknowledge receipt of new orders.”

“They will not be able to acknowledge you, Admiral. Your ship’s communications systems are not strong enough to respond to your communication in time. I suggest you complete your orders and trust that you have trained those crews well enough that they will follow your commands.”

Clement looked at her as she continued spinning her display, moving circuits around, in and out, combining some components and splitting others apart. He “tapped” on the communications hologram again. “Belay acknowledgement of last orders. Proceed as instructed and stand by for further communications on this frequency.” He turned to Mary. “I have to contact the Antietam separately and let them know what’s coming.”

“I will link you directly with your vessel,” she said. Her hands played in the air for a few more seconds, and then she nodded at him. He tapped the microphone icon again and called the Antietam’s Captain Kagereki to explain the situation. Once completed, Mary linked in the Beauregard’s bridge crew with their counterparts and the process began.

Clement looked up at the chronometer. “Six minutes,” he said.

“We are in position for the rendezvous,” she said, continuing her manipulations.

He was uncomfortable just waiting for things to get done, and being passive, so he stuck his head into the crew cabin where Mika Ori, Massif, Pomeroy, Nobli and Tech Reck were all busy communicating with the crew of the Antietam. He felt like this was the longest of long shots.

He came back to his pilot’s couch and sat down with a sigh. Then, turning to Mary he said, “You told me you’d explain about the condition of the defense grid when we got up here. Well, now might be a good time for that explanation.”

She didn’t stop her manipulations of the circuit displays for a second while she responded to him. “I am still attempting to activate the planetary defense grid. I have not had time to analyze why the system-wide defense grid failed on the world you call Camus, but it did fail. If I am successful in the next”—she looked up at the clock—“five minutes, then perhaps we can avoid any losses to our people on the ground.”

“Our people?”

“Yours and mine, Admiral, or rather, yours and the Makers’ children.”

“I understand, Mary,” said Clement. “And you may call me Jared from now on. I find ‘admiral’ to be a bit too formal.”

“Agreed, Jared.”

“Am I distracting you from your task by asking you these questions?”

She actually shook her head, a very human gesture, while answering “No. I am fully capable of multitasking to complete this process.”

“What will happen if you get the local planetary defense grid activated?”

“The system will automatically evaluate any threats to the inner planets or to the people and will act accordingly. It should project a temporary defensive shield to protect the planet from attack, at least for a while. I am hoping that time will allow us to make the jump to Camus and fix the entire system from there. That system is located on the islands of the planet, but it is not operating correctly at this point. I must be able to repair it.”

“Will you attempt to undergo the Ascension again?” he asked, concerned.

“I must. Only this time I must not fail. Undergoing the ordeal once already has shown me where I have failed.”

“But if you’ve already failed once, how can it work a second time?”

“I did not allow the system to completely immerse me. My human instinct for survival was too strong. I am a young woman, Jared, with all the drives and urges any woman my age would have on your worlds. Love, sex, family. I now know that I must completely obliterate those feelings and impulses if I am to be one with the Machine.”

“That doesn’t sound like an easy task. Are you sure it’s what you want?”

She did not immediately answer. Then: “No other outcome is possible to protect Trinity’s children. You have very little faith in the Makers, Jared. And in me.”

“I’m a man who prefers certainty, Mary. I have thirty thousand people down on Bellus that are my responsibility, and I worry for them.”

She looked away from her work for a few seconds. “I have chosen with my free will to take responsibility for you and your people. I will protect them as if they were the Makers’ own. There are things I do not have time to explain using human language, but once we are past this current crisis, hopefully there will be time for you and me to discuss both the future of your people and of the Makers’ children, but now is not that time.”

He acknowledged the point with a nod. “How will we be able to discuss these things if you will become part of the Machine?”

“You are confused, Jared. I will not merely be part of the Machine; I am the Machine. The artificial intelligence that operated autonomously before will operate in union with me. What I know, the Machine will know, and vice versa. This is the beauty and perfection of the Makers’ design.”

Clement took in a deep breath at the depth of the sacrifice she was contemplating. “Well then, blessed be the Makers.”

“Blessed be the Makers,” she replied.


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