Relict Legacy

  EARTH FORCE

  - Book two -

  SHEMER KUZNITS

  Relict Legacy, Earth Force, book two

  A self-published book by Shemer Kuznits

  Copyright © 2019

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENT

  I’d like to thank my wife for her continued support and my two young kids who provide constant inspiration.

  I’d also like to thank all the beta readers and proofreaders who have helped in the making of this book: JD Williams, Chris Bridgeman, Yoav Golde, Jeremy Diaz, Jason Davis, Ben Evans, and Josh Spinney.

  As with all my books to date, a special thanks to my good friend Gaddy Weisman, who has had a hand in everything I publish, and to Hanan Cohen & Nadav Marx - two other friends who are also my dedicated alpha readers.

  And lastly, a giant big THANK YOU to all my followers and patrons over at Patreon, for their continued support and encouragement. Your belief in me is the primary reason I’ve reached a point where I’m publishing my fifth book.

  -Shemer Kuznits

  Table of Contents

  1 - Tentative Unity

  2 - Hammerhead Station

  3 - Patsy

  4 - Tourists

  5 - Archives

  6 - Into the Field

  7 - Altercation

  8 - Joyride

  9 - Serk

  10 - Boarding Pass

  11 - Restructuring

  12 - Trimmings

  13 - Syndicate

  14 - Mission

  15 - Grotula3

  16 - Scientific Exploration

  17 - Discoveries

  18 - Closing Deals

  19 - Home Sweet Home

  20 Hunting, of Course

  21 - Unexpected Guests

  22 - Diplomatic Immunity

  23 - Uprising

  24 - Big Game Hunt

  25 - Epilogue

  26 - Character sheets & specs

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  1 - Tentative Unity

  The ship slowly drifted away from the space station. Unity’s shining new armor gleamed in the sunlight.

  Nori stepped onto the bridge where her friends were already waiting. The tall, lithe Navigator was clad in an alien-made white armor with golden stripes. Her seat grew up from the floor behind her, snugly forming around her body. She tapped at the light console that appeared before her and scanned through her many holo-monitors. “All systems are green on my end,” she reported. “Chief?”

  Bulco, a large, thick-muscled black man, chuckled in his own seat. “Chief, eh? I like that one, Captain. Hull integrity is back to a hundred percent. Life support is fully restored. The damn station robots even fixed the ruptured power conduits and repainted the bulkheads. And the new asteroid cannon has just come online. We’re good to go on my end.” He flashed a grin to the dark-haired woman next to him. “Science Officer?”

  Lana smiled widely. “Ooh, I like that job description. Sensors are online and still crappy as ever. Over.”

  Bulco winced. “There’s no need to say ‘over’,” he said with a pained tone. “We’re not using walkie-talkies here.”

  Nori glanced at Nathan’s pod. The young Technomancer had disappeared into it and hadn’t come out yet. “What is he up to?” she asked with a frown. “He’s been in there for hours.”

  “I’m sure he’s doing something super important that will help our mission,” Lana said.

  “He’s alright,” the Engineer added. “He’s just turned a little weird since he bonded with the ship. Well, weirder.”

  “I’m good, by the way,” Cattie, their newest crew member and gun specialist, declared from her seat farther toward the back of the bridge. “Just in case you were wondering.”

  “Alright, setting course for the moon,” Nori said with a chuckle, and she started entering commands on her console.

  “Can anyone please tell me why we're flying over there instead of heading directly to that Hammerhead place?” Cattie asked. “I thought we were going there to look for whoever sent the ships that infused the Earth.”

  “We found an interesting anomaly while we were on the moon,” the Navigator explained. “We want to check it out before we head to Hammerhead station.”

  “Yeah.” The Sharpshooter rolled her eyes. “I got that much, but no one explained what sort of anomaly it was.”

  “We don’t really know,” Lana confessed. “We detected a strong energy signature coming from a meteor that’s half-buried on the surface. According to our alien merchant friend, Alzigo, the sample we brought back was ordinary.”

  “Okay ...” Cattie said slowly. “So we’re thinking … what? That there’s something inside that gives off that energy signature?”

  “Exactly. Worth checking out, don’t you think?” The Expert smiled at her. “Also, if we could find a rich aluminum deposit while we’re out there, it would be a good idea to mine some of it. Apparently, the stuff is worth a lot at Hammerhead station. It would also be a good test of Unity’s mining capabilities.”

  “Hell,” the Sharpshooter said. “If it’s aluminum you want, why not just swoop down to Earth, find an abandoned factory, and take their stash? It's not like anyone’s going to miss it. What do you say, Captain?”

  Nori looked at Lana. “She has a point.”

  The dark-haired woman winced. “I guess I just didn’t think of that. Stupid of me. I mean, it’s not even likely I could detect mineable deposits with our ship’s current sensors.”

  “I know where we can get the stuff,” Bulco said. “There’s an industrial strip not far from Diamond’s shelter. There are steel mills there, and I bet we can score an aluminum container or two if we look carefully enough.”

  “Alright, that settles it then. I’m taking us back down,” Nori said. Holographic controls appeared out of thin air, wrapping around her fingers, and the Navigator slowly turned the ship toward the planet’s atmosphere.

  Cattie sighed at the sight of the Earth getting bigger on their main viewscreen. “It’s like we never left.”

  ***

  It was well past midnight by the time they were done. They’d located a large open yard filled with aluminum parts meant for recycling and, using their anti-grav carrier, they had filled one of the empty containers inside the cargo hold with several tons of the stuff.

  Bulco yawned loudly once they were airborne again. “I’m not sure I’m up for a mining mission on the moon right now, Captain.”

  “Don’t worry,” Nori said as she concentrated, guiding the ship back outside Earth’s atmosphere. “You’ll have plenty of time to rest along the way.”

  Lana frowned. “Aren’t we going to use our newly installed null tunnel drive to get there quicker?”

  The Navigator shook her head. “We can’t. That thing is meant for interstellar travel. It’s not meant to be used inside a star system. We’ll have to rely on our thrusters for that.”

  Lana’s face fell. “Bummer.”

  “I don’t mind getting a bit of shut-eye myself,” Cattie said, stifling a yawn. “I’m beat.”

  Nori nodded. “Course is set. We’ll arrive in roughly six hours so everyone can get a good night’s rest while we’re en route.”

  “Wait, since the new asteroid cannon has just finished building, shouldn’t we start a new upgrade project in the meantime?” Lara asked. The Expert tapped her console, and their cargo manifest appeared on the main viewscreen.

  ● 10 tons Trinium

  ● 31 tons Balatium

  ● 40 kg Mithril

  ● 22 tons Aluminum

  ● 1 Personal cargo container

  Nori frowned. “What’s that cargo container?”

  “It’s the one Alzigo asked us to transport to a friend of his at Hammerhead.” Lana paused to take in her friends’ bewildered expression. “Didn’t I mention it before?”

  “No, girl, you didn’t,” Bulco said. “How much did he pay us for this delivery?”

  “Err ...” Lana shifted uncomfortably. “He asked for a favor. It didn’t feel right to say no after everything he’s done for us.”

  “Like charging us a daily interest on our loan?” the large man crossed his arms. “He's a real humanitarian that one.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Nori smiled at Lana. “It’s fine. Alzigo came through for us. Just next time, check with us first, OK?”

  “Sure,” the dark-haired woman agreed immediately.

  “What’s in it?” the Engineer asked.

  “He just said it’s some personal items.”

  “Right. Let’s hope he doesn’t have us smuggling illegal stuff for him,” Bulco said. “Would be a real shame to be tossed into jail for breaking alien customs rules.”

  “So, ahem, about the upgrade …” Lana said, trying to shift the focus of the conversation.

  “What are our options?” Cattie asked.

  Lana ran her hands over her console and the lines on the viewscreen changed. “So this is what we can choose with the resources we currently have.”

  Mining

  Grapplers (level 1): Trinium, 1500Kg

  Configuration

  Restructuring (level 1): Trinium, —based on size—

  Integral Storage Capac
itors (level 5): Trinium, 8 Ton

  “What are Integral Storage Capacitors?” Cattie asked.

  Lana looked at her console at a loss, then she turned to the pod on her left. “Nathan, time to wake up. I could use your help over here.”

  The visor covering the young man’s face became transparent, revealing his smiling face. He nodded at Lana, then he closed his eyes in concentration. The words on the viewscreen changed.

  Integral Storage Capacitors:

  Uses the ship’s internal cavities and unused space as dynamically shifting storage space. Substantially increases available resource storage as well as streamlines the incoming flow of resources.

  Bulco furrowed his brow. “It almost sounds like it’s going to give Unity a digestive system.”

  “That would also exhaust the majority of our Trinium supply,” Nori pointed out. “I don’t think there’s a need for the grappling hook just yet, but we definitely need better facilities. I think we should use restructuring to add some rooms.”

  “I call science lab!” Lana said quickly.

  “Kitchen,” Cattie quickly followed.

  “We need an armory first,” Nori said with a tone of finality, throwing a quick glance at the Engineer. After their fight with the alien scout, which the large man killed with his bare hands, she felt the need to restrict access to the more dangerous forms of alien weapons they had stumbled across. She turned to look at the Technomancer. “Can you make it happen?”

  Nathan nodded and closed his eyes.

  A schematic of the ship appeared on the viewscreen. A highlighted section appeared inside the cargo hold, taking up about a sixth of the space. The Trinium cost was one ton.

  “Hmm, if we build it there it will eat into the cargo hold’s storage space,” Lana pointed out.

  Nori nodded. “And we’re going to need that to transport stuff back to Earth. Nathan, can you think of another option?”

  “Yes,” the young man said simply. Though he seemed to have overcome the trauma of seeing his parents torn up by the Warped, he still wasn’t one for many words.

  The ship’s schematic changed to show it from the side. The middle of the ship expanded upward as if it was inflating. When it was done, there was an entire extra floor above, spanning the full extent of the ship’s body. There was enough space for a dozen armories.

  “That would be a nice idea,” Nori said, “but it costs twelve tons of Trinium and six tons of Balatium, and that doesn’t even factor in the armory cost. We can’t afford that.”

  “There’s definitely enough space there for private rooms, though,” Cattie remarked.

  “And a science lab,” Lana said.

  “And a proper workshop,” Bulco added.

  “So everyone thinks we should wait until we have the resources for an extra floor?” Nori asked.

  “Storage Capacitors first,” Nathan spoke up suddenly, drawing their gazes. “More resources. Quicker that way.”

  Nori looked at the surprised faces around her. They were still adjusting to the Technomancer’s sudden ability to speak. She smiled at the young man. “I think that settles that. Anyone opposed?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Then the decision is made,” Nori concluded. “Go ahead, Nathan.”

  The Technomancer nodded and concentrated again. The viewscreen flickered, displaying a new message.

  Integral Storage Capacitors upgrade: 0%

  The bulkheads started emitting groaning noises as they stretched.

  “Great,” Bulco said dryly. “Another sleepless night inside a warping, shrieking ship.”

  “The noise is a mere side effect of internal plates shifting,” a cool, pleasant female voice answered. “Be assured, it is harmless.”

  Everyone, save Nathan, jumped to their feet in alarm.

  “Who said that?” Bulco demanded, raising his fist threateningly with his mechanical Puncher at the ready.

  Nori was holding the Talon. Her formidable alien pistol emitted low yellow light as her eyes scanned over the bridge.

  “It was I,” the soft voice spoke again. A narrow pylon grew up from the floor. As it reached waist level, its top opened and a glowing, half-translucent holographic ball emerged from it.

  Nathan chuckled softly as the others looked in amazement at the display.

  Lana glanced at him. “Nathan, what’s going on?”

  “Crew, meet Unity,” he said with a small smile. “She can talk now.”

  “My soulmate is correct,” the glowing ball of energy pulsed gently as it spoke. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance. Incidentally, estimated time to complete the upgrade is 48 hours—due to the delicate internal changes required.”

  “Holy shit,” Bulco said, his eyes wide. “You’re just messing with us kid, right?”

  Nathan’s smile broadened, and he shook his head. “Unity has had a soul since we bonded. Now, she has a mind as well.”

  Nori slowly holstered her weapon and looked at the Technomancer. “How is that possible?

  “My soulmate has gifted me with an essence core,” the ball of energy pulsed. “The highly concentrated, pure Tec-base component was enough to facilitate full cognitive status.”

  “Soulmate?” Lana asked.

  “The essence core?” Bulco frowned.

  “Cognitive what now?” Cattie tilted her head.

  Nori stared at the young man. “Care to explain?”

  He shifted uncomfortably. “I knew Unity was more than just a senseless machine. Since we forged our bond, she kept talking to me. Not in words but with intent. When we brought in the essence core we took from the Warped broodmother, Unity sensed it and asked me for it. I couldn’t refuse.”

  “You should’ve checked with us first,” Bulco crossed his arms.

  Nori raised her hand to hold off the irritable Engineer. “You’re right, but none of us would be alive today without those two, so I say they’re entitled some room to maneuver. That said...” She stared hard at Nathan and Lana. “You chose me as your captain, but if we want to make this work, everyone has to respect the chain of command. No more making big decisions that affect everyone on your own. Agreed?”

  The two young people nodded silently.

  “Good.” Nori relaxed her posture and met Nathan’s gaze. “So, does that mean Unity’s a full AI now?”

  “I guess you can say that,” the young man replied with a shrug. “But she has a soul in addition to intelligence. What do you call that?”

  “Alive,” Lana exhaled softly. “Is that why she keeps referring you as her soulmate?”

  “That is correct, Expert,” Unity answered.

  “Unity,” Nori intervened. “Can you tell us more about yourself?”

  “I’m a modified space vessel based on a Gretqa-C9 freighter, Inthidlon make,” she replied. “My hull composition is—”

  “No,” Nori stopped her. “I meant, what can you do? Can you fly the ship?”

  “No. My main functions remain the same as before, and I require a crew to operate efficiently. I have limited control over secondary subsystems and can provide real-time data.”

  “So you can basically tell time and open doors?” Bulco asked.

  “That is correct. I may also flush the toilet for you. Maintenance logs suggest you have neglected to do that on two separate occasions.”

  Cattie snickered into her hand.

  The large Engineer blinked. “Did she just take a shot at me?”

  “I may also provide tactical analysis based on current scenarios,” Unity added smoothly. “My ability to assist with the ship’s operations may improve should you upgrade a few key components—sensors, mainly.”

  “Nathan.” Nori looked directly into the young man’s eyes. “Can we trust her?”

  “Yes,” he said confidently. “Unity always took care of us. That hasn’t changed.”

  Lana bowed her head toward the hovering holographic sphere. “Unity, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “It is tolerable to make your acquaintance as well, Science Officer Lana.”

  Cattie chuckled. “I can’t believe we’re talking to a living alien spaceship.”

  “Enjoy the experience,” the Engineer grumbled. “When compared to mutated, man-eating cyborgs, it doesn’t even hit the top ten weird list. I’m off to bed.”