“Right! One of the toughest soldiers I know.”

  It registered with me he’d said soldier, not woman, and he was right. I had a reputation for being invincible, but Bayou was fucking bad-ass resilient as fuck.

  “She’ll be okay, man. Just keep thinking positive thoughts,” I said, reaching the door.

  “Oh, something else, Kovach.”

  I stopped and eyed the man. “Someone has been stirring up the crew. Says we’ve all been lying to them and shit.”

  “It’s the military dude, nothing travels faster than rumors in the service.”

  “That’s just it, it’s not from within. From that damn civilian.”

  I had to quickly list the civilians aboard. “Xero, Carol, Voss?” Shit, there were dozens I didn’t even know the names for.

  “No, the blonde chick from the Texas drop. Came up with Red-7.”

  “No fucking way, I thought she wasn’t speaking,” I said.

  He went for the handle to open the hatch for us. “Well, she is now, and you might want to handle it before it goes any further.”

  “I want to know what went on out there.”

  Xero and Packer sat across from me in the captain’s ready room. Both looked at each other a bit dumbfounded.

  Ada had briefed me on a conflicting set of reports on the oddly designated TDF mission. “I went out and picked them up,” Packer said a bit too defensively. “That was my only role in the mission.”

  “Bayou and I did the planning. The timing and trajectories were complicated, so I had to run a number of simulations right up until the launch,” Xero added.

  “Then what?”

  She eyed me for a second. “Me and the kid were running for our lives. That damn monster was after us. After that, they confined me to quarters until well after the mission was over and the threat eliminated.”

  That all jived with what Ada had pieced together, but that wasn’t the story.

  “Sir, can I ask why you don’t just talk to Hauk and the big Marine? They were the ones out there.”

  “Bayou gave them orders to keep it quiet.” I said. “Hauk won’t disobey it, I haven’t had time to ask Koog yet, but something else went down, and I want to know if we are still under threat.”

  The two of them made eye contact again.

  “What?”

  “Just…” Packer began, “Bayou left strict instruction that every shift we run battle drills. You know, training simulations in the ship’s systems to better know how to use the vessel more effectively.”

  That seemed like Deb. Probably something she wanted to do from day one, but yeah, the timing seemed suspicious.

  “Ada…sorry, Belle, I said talking to the ships own AI. Please pull up the duty roster for Lieutenant Riggs’ last shift.”

  The large holodisplay showed the bridge crew. We’d been running a skeleton staff, so there were only eight names on the list, most of whom I didn’t even know.

  “Captain Packer—find these people and have them come see me now. Wake them up if you have to. I have the con.”

  He nodded and left.

  “What’s got you so on edge, Kovach?”

  Leaning back, I eyed the unfamiliar space. “I don’t know, Xero, trying to unravel all this shit. How to keep us alive, who was behind the Last Days attacks, what can we do to wipe out the monsters taking over the planet and is there any other way to save more survivors down there.”

  She pursed her lips and ran a hand through her close-cropped hair. I could see she was considering whether to say something or not.

  “Spill it,” I said. “Whatever it is, just put it out there.”

  She shook her head. “That’s just it, Joe, I don’t have much more of an idea than you. Just a hell of a lot of things that don’t seem to add up correctly.”

  I considered everything I knew about this woman… person. She was exceedingly bright, genius level, and apparently one of the best hackers on the planet, but she enjoyed casting herself as a puzzle solver. This one, I knew, was probably already keeping her up nights.

  “Tell me what you have… and your best guesses.”

  She nodded, “It will be esoteric, though.”

  “Go on,” I urged gently.

  “Joe, have you considered how far we have come as a species in the last 100 years?”

  “No,” I answered truthfully. The question was not something I’d expected. “I mean, I guess we have, but is that relevant to what’s going on?”

  “Maybe. I think it is, in fact.”

  She took the black data cube out of her pocket and set in on the table. It spun on its axis for a second before stopping, its many polished facets glittering in the room’s light.

  “You cracked it?”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No…well, partially. I now can confirm that it is a data storage device.”

  “But it’s related to what you were saying. That we’ve achieved too much too quickly or something?” I asked hopefully.

  “Yes, well maybe. Let me just say what my thoughts are, and then we can discuss it. Right now, it is just a feeling, hell, just a guess would be more accurate, but it feels right. Like you, I trust my instincts, and particularly when I’m working on something like this, it helps.”

  I leaned back and nodded for her to go on.

  “Humans have been good at making breakthroughs throughout history. Going from hunter-gatherers to farmers who domesticated livestock. Edison’s first light bulb to unleashing an atomic bomb was only sixty years. Likewise, the Wright brothers’ first flight to landing on the moon was sixty-six years. That was all before the information age at the turn of the century. Computers and the Internet revolutionized every industry from medicine, to design, to engineering. Then, almost overnight, we shifted much of our species focus to biology. First, improving our healthcare with a better understanding of nutrition and our food supplies by hybridizing more productive or beneficial crops, to gene therapies to treat chronic diseases. Then, bio-manufacturing took off and with it, gene editing to create virtually new forms of life. We can now assemble our food molecule by molecule. We are living in an almost self-sustaining spaceship in high orbit.”

  She could see that she was losing me. I was following what she was saying, I just couldn’t see it leading anywhere useful.

  “I know, it’s a little difficult to lay it out just yet, but this is the gist of it. Humans are capable of some seriously profound leaps of logic and innovation. They seem to come at regular intervals in fact, but they are always evolutionary steps from where we were to where we are. Scientists build on the work of others. You don’t get from Kitty Hawk to Tranquility Base without a lot of other flying vessels in between.”

  “But you are seeing something that doesn’t fit this pattern,” I guessed.

  She nodded and tapped the cube. “What’s on here may not be as significant as ‘how’ it is on here.” She then explained to me the somewhat baffling Virex-C programming language. “It shouldn’t exist. Neither should the repulser engines on the TriCraft, the Furies, or you.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, Joe, only a few of the enhancements Hammer Industries used on you have any actual scientific lineage. I could go on, several fairly common technologies as well, but mainly the things we are just finding out about.”

  “So, a few fully formed futuristic technologies leads to someone wanting to destroy the world?” I wasn’t buying into large parts of her narrative.

  She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s the case. Not the complete picture at least. Don’t get me wrong, this group, or whomever you are chasing, pushed the buttons to make it happen, but I’m not convinced they knew what the hell they were doing.”

  I thought back to Carson’s recorded conversation with the Van Gogh avatar. “How can you know that?”

  “Because none of them seem suicidal. They all believed they had an endgame, probably money or power or both. If they had a specific containment protocol in mind to limit the destruction—it failed or is in the process of failing. From what the clues suggest, there will be no happy ending for this war. If we.” She stopped suddenly to correct herself. “If you can’t stop it, it’s game-over for humans.” She pocketed the cube again. “Joe, in my opinion, the Earth is being terraformed. All human life will be cleansed. The age of man is over.”

  I thought about the pregnant Furie, and a cold chill went up my back. They didn’t know what they were creating.

  “What?” she asked, obviously seeing my expression.

  “There was a series of labs in the Ranier facility. They were even called terraforming labs. I assumed they were for technologies Hammer would use to transform other planets, like Mars.”

  She offered a grim smile. “They probably thought they were building something like that. Just like I am quite sure Doctor Reichert thought he was doing the world a favor in the augmentation he performed on you. Only a few probably ever knew that all this was going to be directed at our own planet.”

  “Assuming you’re right, and even the masterminds behind this were nothing more than useful idiots, what are we dealing with? Are the gods just fucking with us for fun and games? Who is behind it?”

  She stood as Packer came in with the first of the crewman I’d asked to see. “That is the real question, Kovach.” She tossed the little black cube up and caught it. “I’ll find us those answers. You just keep us in the fight.”

  CHAPTER

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  The bridge crew interviews revealed little new information, if I am being honest, but the prior conversation with Xero was weighing on me. During the TDF mission, as it was tagged, I learned that Bayou launched and later recalled multiple ship-killer missiles. The GR-12 warhead was not a light duty weapon; the launch had been deliberate. What was baffling was, according to the weapons officer that day, the weapon was launched after Hauk and Koog had successfully detonated the I-8 Penetrator and presumably destroyed their target.

  That was not a surprise to me. Ada had already informed the launch of the GR-12s, but the timing was new. Maybe she launched it just as a backup in case the other ship wasn’t completely destroyed. I filed that one away to unpack later. The bigger revelation came from the comms officer. He said there was no radio traffic during or after the encounter. I knew from the logs Belle had pulled up that a call had come in, she just couldn’t tell me from where. The logs had been tampered with.

  The last crewman left, and I sat there staring at the door.

  “They were lying,” Ada said.

  I knew that. I didn’t need Ada’s biometric analysis. My own bullshit detector was going off. “Yes, but why?”

  “They are loyal to her, Kovach. Even though you are nominally in charge while aboard, Riggs has firmly established herself as their captain.”

  “So, where do we go from here? Bayou is still out. Hauk isn’t talking.”

  “Corporal Coughlan,” she offered.

  “Hmm… Koog, yeah. He might not want to say what went on out there, but he knows something.”

  I returned bridge command back to Packer and left to go find the big Marine. He and I needed to come to terms on this issue today.

  “Holy fuck!” I whispered. That was my initial thought, and ten minutes later, I decided it was still the perfectly appropriate response.

  The mess hall was an angry beehive of conversations. Bishop and Jenkins were both there trying to look disinterested, but I knew my guys. They were ready for whatever came next. We’d made eye contact but nothing more. This was obviously one of those delicate situations that amassing a strategic hardpoint with a battletested group of RDTs might not offer the best optics.

  The blonde woman had transformed from a traumatized victim to a fire-breathing asshole.

  “The monster, the Furie was pregnant. The damn things are breeding. They don’t want to tell us any of that do they? Who knows how many of those things are onboard with us?” She said.

  My eyes were shooting lasers into Koog, who was meekly sitting beside the blonde woman standing in the center of the room. If the giant soldier could have made himself smaller, he would have done so. There was no other source that intel could have come from. Several of the others began yelling as well. Proving my Eighth Rule of Battle: ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’

  “Okay, who left the bag of idiots open?” I borrowed dad’s line. Admittedly, it was not ne my best opening statements . I moved sideways through the increasingly hostile crowd toward the woman who seemed to be occupying the virtual high-ground of the mess hall.

  “She is not the enemy,” Ada whispered. I muted my AI.

  “Do you deny it?” she yelled. “Tell us, it’s not true. We are all still in danger, aren’t we?” Spittle flew out of her mouth as she ranted.

  “Karen, sit the fuck down.”

  She looked confused, “My name isn’t…”

  I forcibly cut her off by not so gently pushing her shoulder down toward the seat beside Koog.

  “Don’t give a fuck!” I answered sharply. “And yes, you are all in danger, we all are. Not sure if you peeked outside lately, but we’re in a cold vacuum in a ship we barely know how to operate floating above a world where humans are quickly becoming extinct.”

  I moved my hand from the woman to the Marine’s shoulder. I felt him tense at my touch. “This is a ship of war. Some of us are doing everything we can to keep you safe. Some, a lot more than others. Many have given their very lives so you can stand here and spout your fucking bullshit.” I squeezed the hard muscle of Koog’s neck before walking further down the row of men and woman. The kid had done a hell of a lot, and I wanted him to know that had bought him my thanks and my respect. But letting this bitch know the details and then not keeping her quiet, well, that was unforgivable… even for a Marine. I’d been back aboard less than a day, and I was ready to jump out an airlock. I began to wonder if Deb might have injured herself just to get away from the whining.

  “This ship is a fucking lifeboat. We are trying to keep us all alive the best way we can. If you aren’t helping us do that, then you are a liability.” I turned and faced the ‘Karen’ again. “Am I making myself clear?”

  “You brought a witch on board,” the blonde said.

  Fuck me! I quickly ran through the top ten most creative ways I could think of to end this bitch. The intel on the WitchWalker hadn’t come from Koog, he didn’t even know it. That means we had several security leaks.

  “They know how to control the monsters. We think they helped create them,” she bellowed.

  “Koog, muzzle her before I do it.”

  The girl had spirit, had to give her that. Unfortunately, it was a negative spirit and had the potential to poison everyone on the ship.

  The corporal tried to shush her, but she ignored him. I could tell she was spinning up for another round ov verbal abuse. Whatever she’d been saving her voice for was coming out next. And all at once, I was thinking how much I’d prefer it was my dad having this conversation with her as I was about to go off the rails. My hand clenched and unclenched. Even with Ada on silent I could feel her trying to tell me this was not the enemy. If so, My AI would have been wrong.

  “Is that true?” she started up again. “Why would you do something so stupid?”

  With my eyes, I motioned for my two men to spread out. Sumo had also entered and was guarding the door. If this thing went kinetic, I wanted my players in the right spot to wreak havoc.

  “All civilians out, now.”

  The blonde girl was the only one I knew of, but two men stood up and headed for the door. The blonde didn’t move.

  “Get out on your own, or we will do so forcibly. This is a military vessel, do as I say.”

  “And you have no business being in charge of it, do you?” she yelled.

  “Chelsea, please,” Koog said, now physically dragging her toward the door.

  So that was her name. Nope, she would forever be Karen to me.

  “Halo, help the lady out and secure the room,” I ordered.

  To his credit, Halo was not rough with her but quickly separated the woman from the Marine and had her outside and down the corridor, although we could all hear her complaints trailing behind them. A minute later, he returned and resealed the hatch.

  Shit, this is why I wasn’t an officer… not a real one. I hated talking to large groups. At least sixty pairs of eyes were focused on me. The few murmured conversations died out as I turned to take in the entire room.

  “We are soldiers.”

  I let the words hang there.

  “Not Marines, not Space Force, not Army. Not officers, SpecOps, or Specialists. We are just soldiers now. One group of trained military professionals who have to work together if we have any chance of staying alive.”

  “We aren’t soldiers,” one of the SEs said from near the back. “I’m a procurement officer… a grocery clerk.”

  Most of the group laughed.

  “You were a PO, but now you’re a soldier,” I said flatly. It was time to get these people’s attention. “Listen, we don’t even know what all we are up against. But we have to assume it’s up to us to decide whether humanity survives…or not.”

  I moved to the edge of the table and sat down on the corner. “We all lost people down there, and I am sorry about that. We can’t go unfuck ourselves from the last three months. All we can do is face what comes next.” I hesitated a minute trying to determine how much of the rest to say.

  “The civilian wasn’t wrong. I did determine that the monster was pregnant. That may also be part of why it was so hard to fucking kill. Also…I did bring up a woman on the last trip who is now in our brig. She has taken no hostile action toward us, but like the corpse of the Furie, I want her examined. Anything we can learn about what we are up against can help us. Maybe…just maybe, in time, we can take back some of what was ours. Just keep in mind, we have to be united here. We are soldiers, we do what has to be done. If I am right, we will add more survivors, more civilians, so yeah… likely a few more Karens.”