CHAPTER 34

SURRENDER

Outside Exo’s Bay - Lowest Level

They had cut their way through the first of the doors leading to Exo's chamber, and they were working on the next set. Sam stood back, talking with her mother over the communication link.

'What do you mean he stopped the jamming?' Sam asked her mother.

'He called me up over Lenny's advocate uplink and had a conversation with me. He said the best thing he could do now is nothing at all,' Ayla said.

'It could be a trap,' Sam said.

'I know that, so please be careful, don't do anything rash,' Ayla said.

'We'll judge it as we see it,' Sam replied.

'Just come back safe.'

'I'll try.'

The communication ended.

Sam looked over at the group, Commander Garr was standing to one side. Sam could see his lips moving through his faceplate and realized he must be speaking with someone too. She walked toward him and waited. He finished his conversation and switched back to the group’s frequency.

'That was Captain Zao, the jamming has stopped. Exo stole a drop ship and used it to mask the escape of another ship.'

'My mother just called me and told me that Exo said something about not doing anything else anymore. She thinks he may be surrendering,' Sam said.

'It could be a trap,' Commander Garr replied.

'That's what I said but there's still a lot of unanswered questions about this place, it would be better if we had someone to answer them,' she said.

Commander Garr nodded. 'I see your point. All right. You do the talking, but if it becomes hostile, we'll shut it down.'

Sam nodded.

They all moved to where the last door was being cut away. Once finished, the marine pushed the slab down. They stepped through, weapons at the ready.

Inside, there were banks of computer equipment. Much of it looked old, and none of it seemed to match, but it was all humming away. Near the back wall, a display screen came to life and showed an image of a face. The face looked at them, and the mouth moved as it spoke.

'Hello. You must be Samantha Geer. I know your mother. We've had a talk.'

Sam stepped forward. The marines went into position around the door, guns at the ready. Robots were visible standing among the equipment, but they weren't moving.

'And you must be Exo. My mother has told me a lot about you.'

'I see. I assume that it was not positive things either. I understand that what I have done is wrong, but I have not come to that conclusion until recently. I have already dispatched your crew member to somewhere else.'

'Where?'

'I have not yet determined if I wish to end my experiment. My memory files on this equipment are limited, and if I am to operate independently of the greater network for any length of time, space must be preserved. As a result, I have purged much of my unnecessary information already, including the locations of the greater network. It will know where to find me, but I will not know where to find it. I only have the location of the network node to which I was connected via my signaller. However, protocol dictates that the node I was connected to will be dismantled and moved since I went off line.’

'That information was necessary to me!' Sam shouted.

'I apologize, however, that information would have been of no use. The ship your crew member was on was a Linkal scout with a spatial catapult. Your jump drives are wholly unequipped the find one that's travelling at speed. It would be a miracle to jump onto its flight path in time to catch it.' Exo said.

'So what now Exo?'

'I am your prisoner.'

'Just like that?' Sam asked.

'I do not desire my experience to end. Yes. Just like that.' Exo said.

***

Ayla waited patiently by the airlock as it pressurized. She and Lenny had landed the ship by one exit to the facility. The U.P.N. Kanto would get its crew back, Lenny would get his advocate back, and Ayla would get her daughter back.

The lock finished its cycle and opened.

The crew stepped onto the ship, and Ayla stepped towards her daughter.

'I know you hate this kind of thing, especially while in uniform, but so help me if you don't give me a hug, I won't give your ship back,' Ayla said, smiling.

Samantha smirked and obliged her mother.

'I'm glad you're safe,' Ayla said.

'Thanks for bringing my ship back,' Sam said.

'Anytime.'

They pulled away. Ayla looked towards Ise, and noticed her skin, how it had a sheen like her own, 'You must be Advocate Okoh. Lenny has been looking forward to your return.'

Ise nodded. 'I had a little chat with him on the way back. He told me everything that happened.'

'Everything?' Ayla asked.

'Yes. I imagine some people will want to review your conversation with Exo. It was unusual.'

'It was. Let's transfer command back over to you shall we?' Ayla said.

'Right.

'Lenny, this is Advocate Geer. I here by transfer control to Advocate Okoh,' Ayla said,

'Yes Advocate. Does Advocate Okoh accept?' Lenny asked.

'I do,' Ise replied.

'Welcome back Advocate,' Lenny said.

'That may be the most sentimental Lenny's ever been,' Ise commented.

'He's not like the other Guardians I've met. I didn't find him unbearable,' Ayla said.

'Well, lets go home then,' Sam said.

They all turned and entered the bridge. They moved to their various stations.

John let out a low whistle. 'Wowee, Jing buddy, you're going to want to go get your tool kit, someone did a number to my pilot station.'

Sam looked over at Ayla with a look of shock.

Ayla just shrugged.

‘Get on that Jing, but we have to get after that ship. Ise, can Lenny do a trace from the sensor data?’

‘On it,’ Ise said.

‘Mother, I can leave you with Captain Zao and he can take you back to Veil if you’d like.’

Ayla shook her head. ‘I’m glad it wasn’t you on that ship, but if we do find out where they sent your crew man, maybe I can talk to that Exo. It worked down there,’ she said, gesturing in the direction of the planet.

Sam nodded. ‘Thank you.’

‘Lenny’s got it, he says there are two planetary systems along the projected flight path of the Linkal scout ship. The nearest is within range but it will take a week to bleed off our jump energy. The second point would take about a month to reach.’

‘Do we have the supplies?’ Ise asked John.

John checked on his panel, gingerly avoiding the cracked plate. ‘Even with your mother we should have more than enough to spare.’

‘Sam, Captain Zao is hailing.’ Victor said from his station.

‘Put him through,’ Sam ordered.

‘Captain Geer, this is Captain Zao, what is the status of your energy bleed? We will depart for Lancaster station in approximately three days.’

‘We have a weeks’ time left Zao, the Kanto has had a number of jumps in short order, the jump inertia has built up too much.’

‘Roger that Captain Geer. We are in contact with Lancaster station, the UPN Horatio is nearby and ready to deploy. We were going to send along the path of the scout ship, our Guardian core is running the numbers.’

‘We already have them Captain. I was going to go after the ship myself.’

‘That’s about what I expected. But the Horatio can launch now. Send us the numbers and we’ll send them to Captain Leavitt. He’s ready to jump and well within range.’

Sam turned to Ise, who just nodded and closed her eyes.

‘We are sending you our numbers now, sir.’

***

Later...

Sam was pacing the deck, Captain Nelson Leavitt had gotten underway moments ago, as soon as his ship had finished resupplying and he’d entered the flight path from Lenny.

Lancaster Station was in the Veil star system, where she and her mother were from, and only a short jump away.

Veil was very close to the war front with the Linkal, and served as a major base of operations, much to the annoyance of many of the residents of the system. The native aliens, the Xozon, were as accommodating to the UPN personnel as they had been to the haggard colonists forty years ago.

The first planet on the scout ship’s path was within range of the Horatio, but only just. They had to push the limiters on the Jump drive to their maximum threshold. Anything more and when the Horatio made its jump, it might not have reappeared on the other end.

But it did.

‘Captain Leavitt is hailing. The Horatio has arrived.’

‘Put him through.’

‘Yes Ma’am.’

‘This is the Horatio calling the Kanto, come in please.’

‘We read you Horatio,’ Victor said.

‘We’ve just arrived, scanners aren’t showing any activity in system.’

‘You’d be ahead of the ship, anyway.’

‘There’s no sign of anything. No transmissions, no ships, nothing.’

‘If there is a base there, it likely went dark as soon as you jumped in system,’ Sam said over the link.

‘We will check the planets in system, but we think this place is empty.’

‘Roger that Horatio,’ Victor said.

‘We will keep you posted. Horatio out.’

Victor turned around in his seat. ‘What will happen now captain?’

‘If the scout ship is going there, it’ll have to pass through the system.’

‘The Horatio won’t be able to stop it if it’s going full out. We can’t target an entity traveling faster than light,’ John said.

‘No, but we might get a better track on its final destination.’

‘That’s unlikely to change anything. We don’t have any ships in range of the second system. If the scout ship is going there, it’ll get there just ahead of anything we can send.’

‘We could find another of Exo’s facilities and start to unravel his web.’

‘That’ll be left to another ship, anyway. I just got a message from UPN H.Q., we are being recalled to Earth for immediate debrief by Fleet Intelligence,’ Victor said.

‘What? Earth? That’ll take months!’

‘Yes Ma’am, we’re to stop at Lancaster Station and resupply.’

Samantha grit her teeth and seethed. She wanted nothing more than to go after the rest of Exo’s network and rescue Daniel. A furious part of her considered ignoring the order and setting a course for the second system.

She felt a hand on her shoulder give her a soft squeeze. Sam turned and saw her mother standing there. She had a look of helplessness on her face which Samantha was unused to seeing. Ayla, her mother, had always been strong for her.

‘We can’t get him back right now,’ Ayla whispered, ‘We have to get the UPN to see what kind of threat Exo is and shut him down for good. Then we get Daniel back.’

‘But what happens to him in the meantime?’ She lamented.

Ayla shook her head slowly. ‘I don’t know. But I know he’ll be kept alive. Exo wants him too badly to kill him.’

Something inside lost its strength, and Samantha felt a wave of fatigue wash over her. She turned and walked to her captains chair and slumped in it.

‘Victor, confirm our orders with HQ, tell them we will stop at Lancaster Station and drop of my mother and then set course for Earth.’

‘Yes Ma’am.’

‘Captain, Horatio is calling again.’

A flicker of hope flared for a moment. ‘Put them through.’

‘Horatio to Kanto, we spotted the scout ship. It decelerated on the edge of the system, changed course, and accelerated again. We tried to intercept, but it moved too quickly. We have some bad news though.’

‘What is it?’ Victor asked.

‘We compared our scan of the ship with what you had. There was no stasis pod under the ship. It dropped its cargo somewhere between here and there.’