-20-

  Lieutenant Commander Valerie Noonan sat in the captain’s chair on the small bridge of the Patrol Scout Kit Carson.

  It was the smallest type of Patrol craft to independently go alone into the Beyond. The Kit Carson had a complement of twelve effectives in a ship with a relatively weak shield and hull armor and minimal armaments. The scout had left Earth via the nexus, appearing in the destroyed Adok home system with its shattered planet. There, the scout had remained for three weeks, searching for any clues that might show a hint of surviving Adoks elsewhere.

  Returning to the Adok Home System after all this time had been a strange experience for Valerie.

  She was a striking woman with long brunette hair, a lean athletic build and a quietly competitive nature. Valerie believed in following the rules, maybe because she’d had such a chaotic childhood in Greater Detroit.

  In any case, three weeks ago, the sensor specialist had detected some odd readings from a nearby nebula. In this case, near was forty-eight light-years away, and the nebula in question was quite dense.

  The Kit Carson did not have a Long-Range Builder Comm Device like Victory. Thus, Valerie waited. Eventually, the hyper-spatial tube had appeared on schedule and a courier vessel had come through. Valerie had given her report. The courier had departed via the hyper-spatial tube. An hour later, a message buoy had come through, granting Valerie the go-ahead from the Lord High Admiral himself.

  That had been two weeks ago.

  Since that time, the Kit Carson had reached the dense nebula and started in. The scout had followed a faint radiation trail, maneuvering through the thick stellar cloud of vapor and gas. The compacted space-substance had soon glommed around the Patrol vessel, blocking any sight of the stars.

  In the end, Valerie ordered the Kit Carson to turn around and retrace its way out of the nebula.

  Later, from a preselected location, a hyper-spatial tube had appeared and another courier vessel had come through. Valerie gave her report as before, and later a message buoy had returned, urging her to follow the radiation trail to the end. Starship Victory would soon join them, as the Lord High Admiral had received interesting historical data concerning the Glenna Nebula. That was the name for the dense stellar cloud forty-eight light-years from the Adok Star System.

  Valerie stood watch on the bridge, as the Kit Carson maneuvered through the dense Glenna Cloud or Glenna Nebula.

  The faint radiation trail—a sensor at one of the stations began to beep insistently.

  Valerie went to the panel. It showed a satellite or buoy nearby. The thing blipped, showing that it had power.

  Valerie went to the helm, guiding the Kit Carson toward the low-powered object. She tapped another control and called for the pilot.

  The pilot acknowledged the call and said he would be there in a few minutes.

  At that point, Valerie saw the buoy on the main screen. It was silvery in color, tubular, with a slowly rotating antenna on one end. The other end showed a spent thruster. Fuel pods were attached to the small thing’s side.

  Curious, Valerie returned to the nearby sensor station. With a few taps, she ran a quick scan. The fuel pods were empty. The—

  An alarm began to blare on the bridge of the Kit Carson.

  Frowning, Valerie tapped the sensor panel. There appeared to be an energy surge inside the buoy. The surge manifested itself as some kind of…teleportation process, it seemed.

  Valerie looked up at the bridge’s main screen. As she did, a beam of ethereal light shot from the drifting alien buoy. The beam bypassed the scout’s weak shield and hull armor—and focused against Valerie’s forehead, forming or teleporting into place a small metallic object partly embedded within her forehead.

  Lieutenant Commander Valerie Noonan abruptly dropped onto the deck, unconscious. She continued to breathe, but her eyes were screwed shut. As Valerie lay there, she began to dream most strangely.

  -21-

  In Valerie’s dream, a world sprang forth fully formed. There was an Earthlike planet named Remus where she lived. Several colony ships had landed here long ago, the beginning of the world.

  There had been a nuclear war fought sometime in the past. That had radically changed things. These days, at the pinnacle of the restructured Remus society were seven families, the so-called ‘seven houses,’ of which House Tarentum and House Varus were closely allied.

  The houses were aristocratic to the core. The patricians running the houses believed in their innate right to rule Remus. Each family had amassed huge estates on Remus, along with many asteroid mines, moon domes and drone balloon scavengers scourging the upper atmospheres of the outer gas giants.

  The seven families ran the Senate, which controlled the Legions, the AirSpace Service and a particularly effective Secret Service. Few outside the ultra-paranoid intelligence agency knew about the darkest clandestine project.

  Diana Valerian Varus was one of the most successful test subjects to come out of the clandestine project. She was a female clone of Julius Marcus Varus, one of the most cunning people to have run the Secret Service. Unfortunately, J.M. Varus had been dead for over fifty years.

  Remus had harsh clone laws to such an extent that in the entire system, there were fewer than a thousand known genetic replicas. While hereditarily belonging to House Varus, Diana did not have any rights of inheritance or patrician status before the law. She was a servant of the Senate, dependent on their favor.

  In the strange dream caused by the ray from the buoy, a ray that powered the device embedded in Valerie’s forehead, the Lieutenant Commander now thought of herself as Diana.

  From an early age, Diana-Valerie had received a grueling education and physical training. Her instructors had also hammered home her duty to Remus, her obligation to her family and people. She was a brilliant student with a photographic memory and a hard core of ruthlessness that had been her cloner’s signature attribute.

  Valerie was on the Agrippa when the first foreign spaceship appeared at the edge of the Remus System. Beyond the system were dense stellar clouds and gases, hiding the legendary stars, which historians said existed beyond the giant nebula that surrounded the Remus star.

  The appearance of the spaceship caused the entire Remus AirSpace and Secret Services to go on highest alert. Messages flashed back and forth throughout the system. Was the alien spaceship friendly? Did the crew on the ship understand that no one here possessed an FTL drive? What was the right thing to do: fight, beg or send a friendly message to the alien vessel?

  The Agrippa was presently on red alert. It was a monitor, the biggest warship in the Remus arsenal. It began a hard fusion drive toward the alien craft, with Praetor Titus Flavius Arrius of House Tarentum commanding.

  The rest of the AirSpace Service watched with bated breath, waiting to see the alien’s reaction.

  Several hours later, the alien began heading in-system. It used a fusion drive just like the Agrippa.

  Valerie was on the bridge, standing behind the praetor as his go-for. T.F. Arrius was a short, square-bodied patrician with a mop of brown hair. He had intense eyes and a demanding bearing with a voice that could lash like a cat-o-nine-tails.

  Valerie was nothing like that. She was tall with supple legs, a beauty with long blonde hair and a scarlet uniform. Whenever she was on the bridge, the men covertly watched her, finding her presence intoxicating.

  “You must use your beauty like a weapon,” her instructors had told her. Despite her youth, she had an actual mission other than just learning AirSpace ways. She monitored T.F. Arrius because the chief of the Secret Service didn’t trust the man.

  Arrius snapped his fingers. “Cup,” he said.

  Valerie stepped forward, handing him a steaming cup of coffee she’d been holding for just this moment.

  Arrius took the cup, sipping it as he kept his eyes on the main screen.

  “I’m receiving ship data, Praetor,” the comm officer said from her station.

  “Tell me,” Arrius said.

  Valerie along with everyone else on the bridge listened to the report. The alien vessel had five times the Agrippa’s mass. It had a heavier hull and strange openings that might be torpedo tubes.

  “Praetor,” another officer said. “The alien ship has increased velocity.”

  “How much of an increase?” Arrius demanded.

  The officer turned around to face Arrius. “Praetor, they’re accelerating at five gravities toward us.”

  “Impossible,” Arrius said. “They surely can’t keep up that rate for long.”

  “You’re making two unwarranted assumptions,” the officer said.

  Arrius whirled around to stare at the officer.

  “Our crew could not withstand five gravities for long,” the officer said. “Thus, are the aliens human?”

  “What’s the second assumption?” Arrius demanded.

  “Maybe the aliens have gravity control. Thus, they don’t feel the five gravities. Perhaps they only feel one.”

  “Yes…” Arrius said. “I’ve heard theories about gravity dampeners. If the aliens have such, it would appear they badly outclass us. If they should attack…”

  The squat praetor stood, handing Valerie the half-full cup. His gaze took her in as if seeing her for the first time. He frowned, saying. “You are confined to quarters.”

  “Sir?” Valerie asked, stunned by his words. What had she done wrong?

  He looked away, ignoring her as he spoke to the bridge crew. “I will be in my ready room. Report as soon as something changes.”

  ***

  Valerie spent a week confined to quarters. Security brought her meals, her only interaction with anyone in the crew.

  Finally, the Agrippa applied heavy thrust, slowing down. Valerie had no idea why. Another three days passed.

  On the fourth day after the heavy thrust, her hatch opened without warning. Two legionaries stared at her hard-eyed. A tribune in a red cape appeared next, motioning her into the corridor. In silence, they marched her to the praetor’s quarters.

  The hatch opened and the tribune gently but firmly pushed her into the cabin. Behind her, the hatch shut.

  The praetor stood with his back to her. The room was small with several paintings attached to the bulkheads. A second hatch must lead to his bedroom. There was a small table with two chairs in the room.

  “Sit,” Arrius said in his commanding voice, with his back still to her.

  Frightened, wondering what this meant, Valerie gingerly sat down.

  Arrius faced her. He looked worried, and he wore his dress uniform with medals, the silver Legion Eagle of courage among them. Slowly, the praetor approached the table. He also sat.

  “Let me see your hands,” he said.

  Valerie put them palm-first on the table.

  Arrius took one of her hands. He had thick, stubby fingers, warm fingers. He felt her hand. It gave her a strange feeling. Finally, he released her.

  “You’re a clone,” Arrius said matter-of-factly.

  Valerie’s features tightened. Few knew that about her. If most people did know they wouldn’t talk to her, have anything to do with her. Did Arrius think her being a clone made her nonhuman?

  “You’re incredibly beautiful,” Arrius said. “I imagine that’s one of your tools of the trade. Was I supposed to bed you?”

  “Sir?” Valerie said, as if shocked.

  He smiled grimly. “Was that one of your assignments? Be truthful,” he said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Arrius held up a hand as his features hardened. “Do not lie to me, clone.”

  Valerie went cold inside, hating it when anyone hurled that in her face. She believed that she hated Titus Arrius.

  He smiled. It was a hard, cruel, knowing thing. “In my youth, I watched your original: Julius Marcus Varus. He never forgave an insult. J.M. Varus had a ruthless drive to power. Yes, I imagine you are very dangerous, Valerie. How old are you?”

  “Eighteen,” she said.

  “Eighteen, eighteen. How very young that is. Have you ever killed anyone?”

  “No.

  “Do you love Remus?”

  Valerie blinked several times at his odd question. “Of course, I do.”

  “You hesitated answering,” Arrius said. “Perhaps as a clone you feel as if life has been unfair to you.”

  “That would be absurd.”

  “Would it really?” Arrius asked. “You have great beauty and no doubt intelligence, perfect breeding and training, and yet you shall never inherit anything of House Varus. How fair is that?”

  “If the scientists hadn’t cloned me, I would not be alive. It isn’t rational for me to—”

  “Rational!” Arrius laughed, interrupting her. “She speaks of rational as if that makes sense.”

  Valerie frowned. Who was he talking to? Maybe he was recording the meeting. Yes. That must be it.

  Arrius sobered quickly. “Listen to me, Varus. I charge you with the assignment of your life. Maybe the scientists cloned you for this very day. They couldn’t have known, but the Deity would have. Do you believe in the Deity?”

  Valerie shrugged, uncomfortable with the question.

  “Hmm,” Arrius said, “so be it. I must use what tools I have. You are a tool, Valerie Varus, just as I am a tool. I believe that I am in the right place today in order to make the correct decisions. Does any of that make sense to you?”

  “No.”

  “An alien spaceship has come to our star system.”

  “I was on the bridge, sir. I heard the finding in real time.”

  “Yes, of course, you were. Do you know that I have visually met with the alien spaceship’s director?”

  Valerie shook her head.

  “Director is the rank of their commander. She is a woman belonging to the system of New Trotsky. It is the premier system of something known as the Fusion of Planets. Their political system is something called Social Harmony, a form of communism, I believe. She acts politely, but I sense hostility in her toward me or maybe toward us on Remus. I don’t know for sure. I’m acting on instinct in this.”

  “You can communicate, as in exchange ideas, with them?” Valerie asked.

  “Our language experts found we have a common tongue.”

  “Oh.”

  Arrius gave her another of his predatory smiles. “Do you wonder why I’m telling you all this?”

  Valerie nodded.

  “The director asked if I would send four representatives to her. She plans to return to New Trotsky, to the ruling Politburo. There, our representatives can speak with the chairman and with their Public Service Assistants. We can begin talks for trade deals and other such interactions.”

  Valerie swayed, stunned. “You want to send me?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to decide.”

  “Why me?” Valerie asked.

  Anger appeared in his eyes. It was doubtful Arrius liked anyone questioning him. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the anger disappeared.

  “I have a suspicion,” the praetor said. “I believe the director wants you four as specimens, maybe as subjects for a Fusion profiler in order to better understand our society. They have found us. Now, before they make their next move, the Fusion wants to know us.”

  “Why send anyone then?”

  “You’re too bright to ask that. We have no choice in this. We have to play their game right now, not ours.”

  “Destroy their ship or better yet, capture it,” Valerie said.

  Arrius’s eyes brightened. “I would destroy their ship in an instant, but I don’t think the Agrippa can do it alone. I’ve asked them to come to Remus, but the director politely refused me each time.”

  “I think I understand,” Valerie said.

  “Do you?” Arrius asked, in a hungry, curious way

  “I’m expendable, a throwaway, a clone. Of course, I’m the right person to go to New Trotsky.”

  Arrius’s evil grin tightened. “You understand nothing, girl, nothing at all. You are a trained spy. The only one I can get at short notice. You’re fantastically beautiful and smart, with a mind trained to absorb facts. I want you to keep your eyes peeled. Figure out their ultimate game plan for us and report it to me on your return.”

  “What if they never let me leave their system?”

  “Then you’ve got to figure out a way to get back anyway. You must report to us, Valerie. This is the greatest moment in our history. We must get our hands on the hyperdrive before conquerers find our system. Maybe the Fusion plans to conquer us. We must learn more about them, much more.”

  Arrius leaned forward earnestly. “Will you go willingly, Valerie Varus?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Yes!”

  She doubted that. “And if I say no?”

  “You will stay here, of course.”

  “And that goes on my record?”

  Arrius stared into her eyes as he shook his head.

  It stunned Valerie to realize she believed him. “What do I get as a reward if I return with this knowledge?”

  “If it was within my power, I would make you a full Varus. I would stamp out the stigma of you being a clone.”

  “That isn’t in your power,” she said, wanting it to be in his power with all her soul.

  “Not yet,” Arrius said.

  With a start of insight, Valerie realized something about him. He kept letting it slip by his word choices. “Do you aspire to be the Imperator of Remus?” she asked.

  Arrius didn’t reply, although he watched her more closely than ever.

  Valerie raised her eyebrows. Her minders had warned her T.F. Arrius was dangerous and highly ambitious. Until this moment, she had not realized just how ambitious.

  “Yes,” Valerie heard herself say. “I willingly volunteer to go with the aliens.”

  “Then bow your head,” Arrius said. “I’ll pray for you and your success. This will be the most difficult mission of your life and the most pregnant with perils neither of us can foresee. You must succeed, Valerie Varus. You must for the sake of Remus.”

  Valerie nodded, bowing her head, excited and terrified all at once.