Chapter 24
Carson Blake
He awoke to the computer going ballistic.
Practically falling from his seat, he shook himself awake, then commanded the computer to tell him what the hell was going on.
"Priority one message from the Academy," the computer noted in an electronic tone, "there has been a Level Four incident."
Carson blinked back his surprise. Level Four? What was that?? Alien incursion?
It took a while to remember what it was, because, in all his years at the Academy, it had never come up.
The Academy was part of the United Galactic Coalition, and the United Galactic Coalition was by far the most powerful force in all of the galaxy. It commanded almost 60 percent of the solar systems of the Milky Way, and there were very few entities that dared disturb it. Made up of over 90 different races, the United Galactic Coalition had been peaceful for over 100 years. Yes, there were the occasional wars with various alien races and empires, and yes, there was always a persistent problem with terrorists and pirates, but for an alien race to attack Earth? To attack the Academy?
He couldn't believe the computer. So he jumped to his feet and rushed over to the nearest computer panel. Typing in several codes, in a flash, the enormous viewscreen before him lit up with the face of Admiral Forest.
"Priority one message received," the computer told him in a bored voice.
"Admiral," he shouted, "what's going on down there? My computer just told me you're suffering an alien incursion. What the hell?" He wasn't exactly being eloquent, but how could he be in a situation like this?
The Admiral's expression was drawn, and her eyes were even more hooded with fatigue, but she didn't look as if she were currently engaged in an epic battle with an alien empire. She just looked??shocked.
Yes, that's it, shocked.
Carson rocked back on his feet, waiting for her to reply.
"I don't know how to??begin," she brought a hand up and scratched at her throat, the move distracted and completely unlike her.
"Admiral?" His eyes drew wide in reaction to her clear and unmistakable confusion.
She shook her head. "We have had an incident. Cadet Nida Harper has escaped."
"Escaped?" he repeated the word as if he couldn't understand it.
"That??thing??the entity - whatever is infecting her implant - it was far, far more powerful than we accounted for. It infected our computer systems. It locked us out. Somehow it controlled her body. We don't know how. It broke out of the hospital and played havoc with our systems. It somehow initiated an Endgame Maneuver," the Admiral shook her head as she spoke as if she couldn't even believe her own words.
And if Admiral Forest couldn't believe what she was saying, what hope did Carson have?
Because what she was saying, was impossible. "Endgame Maneuver?" He repeated, completely dumbstruck.
He expected her to shake her head, and explain she'd just been joking. But she didn't. "The entity managed to have every single person in the Academy compound transported out of it. No matter where they were and no matter who they were."
Carson jerked back as if he'd been struck.
He had never, ever actually seen an Endgame Maneuver. Because he'd never had cause to.
The Academy had multiple strategies to deal with various scenarios. Ranging from the likely, right down to the apocalyptic. And an Endgame Maneuver was what you did when all else was lost. If the Academy compound itself was ever compromised, the computer system would eke out every scrap of power from every single generator and use it to transport all Academy members off the premises.
It was what you would do if an alien army were assaulting the compound. It was what you would do if a powerful weapon was about to destroy the city.
And yet, according to Admiral Forest, Cadet Nida had just performed one. Or, if not Nida, then whatever infested her implant, as the Admiral had put it.
Carson stood there for god knows how long, staring up at the picture of Admiral Forest, waiting for her to tell him how this all made sense.
She didn't, though. She simply stared back at him, his own fear reflected in her contorted, sorrowful, deeply confused expression.
"Admiral," he said through a croaky voice, "how??" he trailed off.
"The entity, as we are now calling it, is far more powerful than we guessed. It can travel through material. From concrete to metal to reinforced nano fibers, it doesn't matter. And it can infect systems. It can imbue them with power. That's what it did. It managed to infect our computer cores, and it triggered the Endgame Maneuver, transporting every single soul off the premises. Then, as far as we can tell, it took Nida to the space docks and stole a ship. According to the Earth's security satellites, it left almost half an hour ago. We had no hope of stopping it; we only made it back to the compound five minutes ago."
Carson didn't know what to do, so he found himself turning around, heading over to the captain's seat, and sitting slowly. It was that or falling down.
When he faced the Admiral again, she finally appeared to have controlled her expression. She stared at him with thin-lipped anger. "I can't believe we underestimated it."
It.
The entity, as they were now calling the blue energy that had infected Nida's implant.
"This is?" the Admiral said, but she didn't finish her sentence; instead, she squeezed her eyes shut. Carson could see from the skin stretching tight around her eyelids just how pronounced and pressured the move was.
"Have you sent ships after her?"
The Admiral finally opened her eyes, and it was to shoot him an extremely terse look. "Of course we have. But you, quite possibly, are closest. Your vessel is equipped with a specialized relativity drive that will enable it to get there faster than anything we already have on her tail. I am ordering you around."
"What are her last known coordinates?" Carson asked through a choked breath.
"We do not know. The Earth security satellites tracked her out of the atmosphere, but that's it. Beyond that, we have lost all record of her. It is reasonable to assume that the entity has somehow shielded her vessel from detection."
That was a very hard statement to swallow.
Not only was this entity a terribly amorphous and ill-defined force, but how exactly could it snap its immaterial fingers and hide an entire cruiser from sight?
The Admiral appeared to realize just how strange her statement had been, and she shook her head. "We know nothing about what is going on here, nothing. It doesn't make sense. I know that," she said through gritted teeth, making each one of her words akin to a snake's hiss. "But we may never find out if we let that vessel escape. Our priority is to capture it."
"And Cadet Harper?" He found himself asking, his voice little more than a light whisper.
"Our priority is the entity. We need to capture it, study it, and find out just how much of a threat it is," the Admiral snapped, answering his question without answering it.
Carson wanted to say something in Nida's defense, but it was useless.
She was no longer anyone's priority, as harsh as that sounded. If the Admiral was telling the truth, and she had no reason not to be, then this situation had just become perilously dangerous.
He sat back hard in his chair, forcing his shoulders as far into the yielding leather as they would go.
The Admiral considered him with a tightly closed mouth and a brow smoothed with worry. "Fix this," she suddenly commanded. "You have my permission to do what you need to, to fix this."
He straightened. "Admiral?"
"You are the head of the Force, Lieutenant Carson Blake, and right now, I'm giving you a blank check to get this sorted. Alright, not a blank check," she clarified, "but I am extending your powers and upgrading your authority. I have a feeling that there will be no easy solution to this, and I doubt throwing torpedoes and plasma blasts its way can solve anything. This is going to take tact, diplomacy, and investigation. So, Lieutenant, I repeat my order: fix this."
It was unlike any order he had ever received. There were no clear operational parameters. There was simply the amorphous fact that the Admiral was asking him to fix what was wrong. Which was particularly hard considering the sheer number of things that had stuffed up here.
But he understood the gist of her request.
"Though we are sending the entire Fifth and Twelfth fleets to intercept that stolen cruiser, I doubt their efforts will come to much. We haven't yet tapped the abilities of this entity, and to be honest, I don't want to provoke it any further. If it could infiltrate our computer system and initiate an Endgame Maneuver without any authority from the Council, then I shudder to think of what else it is capable of. It can clearly manipulate technology at a distance, and it can also protect itself. When the Cadet broke out of the hospital, a security team tried to force her back. According to their reports, though they shot at her, no bullet landed. Some kind of force sent every object that neared her spinning around as if trapped in a vortex," the Admiral's explanation was choppy, and she paused for breath after almost every word, but once she was done, she turned her pleading, but still commanding gaze, back onto Carson. "Do what you have to, Lieutenant. Try to intercept that ship, but if it doesn't work, head back to Remus 12. If that's what you think is best. You're closer to this situation than I am. I'm relying on you, so is the rest of the Academy."
Wow, so no pressure, then? A rebellious part of Carson's mind thought.
Then he shook his head and really pondered what the Admiral had just told him.
He was on his own here.
"We don't have time to send you reinforcements, and you certainly can't return to Earth. You need to use the Farsight to its utmost potential. Figure out what's going on," she repeated.
Figure out what's going on?
Him?
He didn't deserve this task.
He'd failed already, after all.
He'd suspected there was something wrong with Cadet Nida for the past several days, and yet he hadn't had the intelligence to do anything about it. Though he realized he was being slightly unfair to himself, considering how often he'd tried to look in on her, it didn't matter.
He should have tried harder.
He could have prevented this.
"We will be in contact. You will have the full resources of the Academy and the United Galactic Coalition Army. This must be contained," the Admiral said one last time.
He nodded his head. As he stood up to salute, the Admiral ended the call without a goodbye.
That left him in silence. There was nothing to distract him save for the constant, dull hum of the ship's engines.
Without hesitation, he strode over to the navigational panel and checked his course.
Though he could have sought out the locations of the Fifth and Twelfth fleets, and navigated his ship to rendezvous with them, he didn't.
As the Admiral had already said, nobody knew where Nida's ship was. Somehow, it had dropped out of sensor range. Which meant it had already left the solar system, or that, indeed, the entity had some way of hiding an entire vessel from the very sophisticated sensor net of Earth.
Clutching a hand onto his chin as he tried to think this problem through, it took a long time for Carson to decide what to do next.
He would head to Remus 12.
That was the only strategy that made any sense. Yes, the Admiral had ordered him to try to track down Nida's ship, but she'd also extended his authority and essentially given him the power to choose what he would do next.
And this was what he would do.
He would return to that planet, he would find his scanner, and he would finally ascertain exactly what had happened to Cadet Nida Harper all those days ago.
Though it was good to have a plan, this time it offered him no resolve. Because this time he truly understood there was no room for failure, and worse than that, he couldn't afford to waste even a nanosecond of his time.
With Nida in a stolen ship infected by god knows what, the United Galactic Coalition was relying on him.
With that heavy thought, he briefly closed his eyes and then sat down roughly in his seat.
He waited.
But this time he didn't fall asleep.
He sat there, and he thought, and he planned, and he pleaded with the universe for things to turn out right.