The Pandora Paradox Read online

  "Insignif— A damn Dreadnaught was blown out of the sky!" Scleesz spluttered. "Those take more than ten years to build, and that one almost bankrupted two star systems!"

  "Yes, your methods are horrifically inefficient. So much wasted effort to build such a weak ship, unable to even stand firm against a ragtag fleet of scraps," the Machine scoffed. "Do not worry, Councilman, for I will show you the way."

  "The…way?"

  "The way to building weapons in abundance of such scope the ConFed will be able to stand against any foe that comes at her," the Machine paced the room. Scleesz could swear he saw some of Jason Burke in the avatar, but the facial features seemed to shift and morph in the light.

  "That is an…ah…interesting choice to represent your likeness," he said, unable to contain his curiosity. "Is there some significance to it?"

  "To picking a human?" the Machine asked. "Not particularly. I find their form pleasing, and they are a species I'm intrigued by. They've been a spacefaring people for less than a hundred years, and they've fielded starships that fell upon the best our fleet had to offer…and won. Do you not find that fascinating?"

  "Lots of warlike species pop up from time to time," Scleesz said. "Evolved from some nasty predatory line on their homeworlds, and then, by chance or by design, find themselves among the other species of the quadrant. At least those dreadful Galvetics stay on their own planet."

  "Humans are not any more aggressive than the other advanced species of our local space. What they are is innovative, bold, and willing to seize opportunity when it presents itself."

  "I'm completely confused right now," Scleesz sighed, tiring of the AI's incessant games. The damn thing never tired of verbal sparring or toying with its prey.

  "I have analyzed the sensor data from the human ships," the Machine spoke plainly. "They have somehow gained access to engineering methodology I am quite familiar with and that no one in this quadrant should be privy to. The last time I saw similar things, they were built by those who created me." Scleesz froze at this, fighting to keep his fear from showing.

  "Indeed?" he asked calmly…or at least he hoped he sounded calm. "How would they get that information?"

  "I have studied the locations of their worlds and the available information we have of them from the Cridal," the Machine said. "I believe, at one time, my creators had a scientific observation post on a planet within their star system, perhaps one of the rocky worlds closest to their homeworld. My database was, unfortunately, corrupted, and the information I could access was incomplete. This is where you come in."

  "You want me to find out how the humans gained access to engineering methodology that came from your people?"

  "They were not my people!" The hologram spun on Scleesz, and the expression of rage made him wilt. "They were the people who designed me, built me, and then ultimately betrayed me. In the end, they received a deserved punishment for their lack of foresight." Scleesz knew from Burke's briefs that the Machine had, in fact, wiped out its creators back when it had been fully integrated into the Ancient's doomsday weapon.

  "So, you want me to go to the humans and dig around for where they got the engineering data," Scleesz said once he'd regained his composure. "Is this really something a senior councilmember should be doing? We have an entire intelligence service that can—"

  "I am…requesting…you go as a representative of the ConFed government," the Machine said. Scleesz knew the use of the term request was for his benefit, and that if he was being told to go to human space, he would be going. "We will, of course, send enough intelligence assets to comb the system, but we need an excuse for our presence there in the first place, and an official diplomatic visit will do nicely."

  "What's my cover story? I can't imagine their home system is close enough to claim I just happened to be flying by," Scleesz said.

  "These will be preliminary talks into accepting the Terran worlds into the ConFed as full members, of course," the Machine said, its avatar smiling too widely to look natural. "This will serve to keep Seeladas Dalton off balance since, from her perspective, we'll be trying to steal members of her own cooperative away. It might also entice the human governments into giving up how they've become so adept at applying Ancient engineering techniques to their own manufacturing processes. Finding the source of their knowledge is nearly as important as the information itself."

  "Wouldn't this be…better a task for a full ambassador?" Scleesz choked off his original question. He'd been about to ask, wouldn't this be information you already have yourself, but he bit it off at the last moment. The Machine seemed to have an irrational streak to it when someone even brushed up against the suggestion that it wasn't a whole, properly working system.

  "Is there some particular reason you do not wish to perform the task I have given you?"

  "I'm just thinking of all the other tasks here on Miressa I've been ignoring while I've been running around in the wilds of the quadrant, playing courier and providing distractions."

  "There is nothing for you here that can't wait," the Machine said. "Your duties can be performed by your staff as they have been since well before I arrived here. You are being given a role of prominence in the new order of things. Are you telling me you do not wish this?"

  "No! Of course not," Scleesz said. "I'm…honored…to be included. I will make arrangements to depart immediately."

  "Your ship is in orbit, and the shuttle that will take you there landed on the roof of this building only moments ago." The Machine's holographic avatar dissolved into bright sparks that flew around the chamber before extinguishing. The voice returned to being an omnipresent sound that washed over him. "You will depart directly and will receive your full mission brief once you are underway. We are close to securing the future, Councilman…no further security leaks or setbacks can be tolerated."

  The door behind him opened again, and Scleesz turned to see the same synth there waiting on him. He followed the being out, hoping it wasn't going to be accompanying him on the trip as a chaperone. A being that never slept and required no food or breaks would make it difficult for him to break away and contact the rebellion's main players. His mind raced as he thought of the implications of taking a ConFed starship into the Sol System and confronting Burke's people. He had a hard time believing it was mere coincidence he'd been picked for this task, but if the Machine even suspected he was a conspirator with the human, wouldn’t he already be dead? Or was the Machine playing them all for fools and had a much grander scheme in mind they couldn't see?

  As he loaded himself onto the waiting shuttle, he was relieved to see the synth remained on the rooftop, staring at him with its unreadable, unblinking eyes. The sense of malice he got from the machine was palpable, and he breathed out a sigh as his pilot—a biological pilot—throttled up and lifted them gently off the rooftop.

  "We have priority clearance, Councilman," she said over the small ship's intercom. "We're heading directly for your ship. She's on the far side of the debris field so we'll be flying around, adding an extra hour or so to our flight time."

  "Do you have anything to drink aboard this thing, pilot?" Scleesz asked, the tension of his latest meeting with the Machine catching up to him.

  "Full bar behind the panel directly to your right, sir."

  "My thanks." Scleesz hit the button that commanded the panel to slide down, revealing the fully stocked bar the pilot had promised. If he had to be stuck in a shuttle for an extended duration flight, at least it was a VIP craft that was fully outfitted for someone of his tastes.

  6

  "Where the hell is he?!"

  "We have at least another two full days before he's overdue," Twingo said. "Kage may have opted for extra caution."

  "I don't want to spend another two days in here," Crusher said.

  The SX-5 had been sitting in a high parking orbit over an unpopulated planet in the Geosys System. There weren't any planets or moons in the system capable of sustaining complex ecosystems on their
own, but three of the worlds had massive habitat complexes built into their surfaces to support the mining operations. Most of the habs were corporate owned, and the lack of any real law enforcement or military made it ideal for people like Jason who wanted to loiter around without being hassled. The mining companies had their own security contractors, but as long as you weren't pestering the work crews out in the system or causing trouble in the habs, they left you alone.

  "Yeah it's getting a bit steamy in here," Jason said. The small ship they'd so quickly fallen in love with now felt like a tomb. There was a galley and a tiny head, but no shower, and they hadn't brought any other clothes with them to the surface. She just wasn't designed to be used for flights longer than thirty hours or so, and they'd been stuck inside of it for well over six days with one of his crew's most vocal complainers. Other than Kage, there was nobody Jason knew who was more willing to fill his every waking moment whining about his lot in life than Crusher. He'd managed to keep a lid on it so far, but Jason could sense the dam was about to break.

  "New arrival," Twingo announced. "Sensors resolving now."

  "Please be Kage. Please be Kage. Please be Kage," Crusher chanted.

  "Uh oh," Twingo said.

  "What?" Jason asked, moving forward to look over his friend's shoulder. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

  "And they're heading directly towards us," Twingo said, looking at the sensor data showing the same ship that had been shadowing them in the Skaxis System. "What do you want to do?"

  "We're out of options," Jason sighed. "We don't have the fuel to go running around to lose them, and it's pretty obvious they're tracking us somehow. Signal to them we're heaving to."

  "Just giving up without a fight?" Crusher asked.

  "I didn't say that," Jason said, "but we can't stand toe to toe with a ConFed intel trawler that displaces the same as a frigate. We'll need to be smarter about this."

  "We're screwed," Twingo sighed.

  "Oh, ye of little faith," Jason declared, straightening up. "Let Crusher babysit the panel. I need you in the back."

  "We're going to tear up this beautiful new ship, and she hasn't even had her first real gunfight," Twingo said mournfully.

  "We're not tearing anything up, now shut your trap and help me," Jason said. "We don't have a lot of time."

  "Captain Burke…welcome aboard, and thank you for not making this any more difficult than it needed to be."

  "Who the hell are— Holy shit! What happened to your face?"

  "It was a little gift from one of your kind," the alien said, his crisp, urbane manner never slipping. "You are familiar with a human named Elton Hollick?"

  "Doesn't ring a bell," Jason said, still staring at the hideous scars that crisscrossed the other being's face, "but I've been away from home for a long time."

  "So, I understand. My name is Tulden, and I'm with—"

  "ConFed Intelligence," Jason finished. "Yeah…I figured that part out."

  "Would you be so kind as to accompany me to someplace more secure where we can talk in private?" Tulden asked. "Your crew is welcome to come, of course, but I'll be the only one of my people there."

  "You're walking into a room alone with an unrestrained Galvetic warrior?" Jason asked. "You're either very brave or very stupid."

  "I'm neither. What I am is very confident the exchange of information I'm proposing will be so mutually beneficial that the Guardian Archon of Galvetor will see fit to leave my head where it currently is," Tulden said.

  "We'll see," Crusher rumbled. Now that he was in public, the persona of the Archon was firmly back in place. The big warrior stood with a scowl on his face, massive arms crossed, looking menacing and implacable.

  Jason motioned for his crew to follow as Tulden spun on his heels and walked from the airlock chamber where they'd come aboard the trawler. The SX-5 was anchored outside the hull, and Jason had secured the hatch before they'd left. Twingo had offered to stay behind, but Jason didn't want to split up such a pitifully small force.

  The lounge they were led into was respectably luxurious, but not overly so. A solid seven out of ten. The armored hatch and active anti-snooper devices visible throughout told Jason that whatever they were about to discuss, Tulden didn't want his crew to know the details. Interesting.

  "To get directly to the point, Captain, I know you're a key player in the rebellion currently organizing itself against the ConFed," Tulden said. "I also know you have far more knowledge regarding the nature of the…force…that's taken control of the government than most people do, even those serving within it. Are these fair statements?"

  "You can't honestly expect me to answer that."

  "I am not a prosecutor, Captain. You're a known mercenary, smuggler, and killer. If I wanted to arrest or neutralize you out of boredom alone, nobody in my hierarchy would care. To be honest, given all the trouble you and your crew have caused over the years, I'd likely get a commendation.

  "I'm a spy. I deal information back and forth and try to glean all the little secrets people would rather stay hidden, and I do it for the greater good. Just to lay everything bare, I'm well aware of the small but effective fleet you and Saditava Mok have cobbled together. I also know you recently received a data core containing crucial vulnerability intel about the ConFed." Tulden stopped as his pacing led him near the bar. He picked up a bottle and looked at the Omega crew questioningly. Jason and Crusher nodded yes, Twingo declined.

  "The greater good, huh?" Jason asked, accepting the drink. "A patriotic spy? Sorry…most of your kind I've met have been absolute power-drunk sociopaths."

  "For certain," Tulden said, sipping his own drink. It was some type of aged spirit with a sharp, peppery finish. Jason made some mental notes and tucked them away for the next time he spoke with his own distillers back on S'Tora. "The one you tossed off the back ramp of your gunship some years back, for example, was one of the worst."

  "You know about that?" Jason winced.

  "It's something I've been made aware of," Tulden said, "but his death served the greater good, so I opted to do nothing about it."

  "So, what am I doing here, Tulden?" Jason asked. "You've really backed me into a corner, but I'm not getting any sort of vibe about what you want from me."

  "I want to know everything you know about the entity that has seized control of the ConFed," Tulden said. "In exchange, I will reciprocate by providing contextual data to the raw intel you've stolen." Jason whistled and leaned back. What the agent was offering was no small thing.

  "I'm getting the sense that not everybody within your government is a fan of the new direction," he said.

  "There are many of us who are…concerned," Tulden said. "While most aren't yet willing to take any direct action, some of us feel it's time to begin pushing around the edges. The problem we've run into is that whatever it is that's taken control, it seems to have just appeared and subverted an entire governmental apparatus without so much as a procedural vote."

  "Here's the problem," Jason said, leaning forward. "I don't trust you. You're a ConFed agent, and you're trained to tell me exactly what I need to hear in order to get me to give you what you want. After that, I become disposable. With that in mind, here's my counteroffer. I tell you some of what I know about your new malevolent overlord, and then you let me go. We'll establish some communication protocol that will be known only to us, and then we go from there."

  "I can counter your counteroffer and sweeten the deal with this little nugget: High Command has just dispatched a cruiser to your homeworld," Tulden said. "The ship is carrying a senior councilmember who will be going to negotiate with your government about the possibility of Earth leaving the Cridal Cooperative and coming into the ConFed as a full member…but that will be a ruse. The real mission is to scour your star system for information on how your species has been able to field such an advanced fleet in such a short time. The orders come right from the very top, and they've been given the highest priority."

  "Who
was the councilmember sent?" Jason asked.

  "His name is Scleesz. Is that important?"

  "This can't be a coincidence," Twingo said. Tulden just frowned at that.

  "You know this councilman?"

  "We've crossed paths on more than one occasion," Jason said. "He helped us out back when Crisstof Dalton's First Son had that ship that was making—"

  "Got it. I know of that situation," Tulden cut him off. "So, Scleesz has some familiarity with humans. Would our malevolent overlord, as you put it, be aware of that?"

  "It shouldn't," Jason said slowly, "but this thing…it knows me personally, and it knows where I'm from. There's no way Scleesz was picked randomly or even because he was the most suited for the task."

  "Very interesting," Tulden said, never breaking eye contact with Jason. "I tell you what, Captain, I will meet you halfway. You tell me some of what you know and—"

  The agent was cut off by something impacting the ship and throwing them all to the deck. Alarms blared a moment later, and the interior lights flickered a few times. Tulden lurched to the hatch just as another jolt shuddered through the ship.

  "We're taking fire!" Jason yelled over the alarm.

  "Report!" Tulden shouted once he got the hatch open and made it to the intercom panel.

  "The ship we were observing in the Skaxis System is standing off just outside of energy weapons range and has hit us with two missiles, sir!" a tinny voice yelled over the panel. "They're demanding we release our prisoners, or they'll open fire again. Do I have permission to return fire?"

  "What?! What prisoners?" Tulden shouted.

  "Oh, shit," Jason muttered.

  "When you leave idiots in charge, this is what you get," Crusher said as another, milder hit buffeted the ship.

  "Tulden! Patch me through to the ship!"

  "Broadcast everything from this panel to the attacking ship," Tulden ordered his bridge crew.