Eyes of Tomorrow (Duchy of Terra Book 9), Glynn Stewart [reading well .TXT] 📗

Lawrence said grimly. “And I need to pull my people off the station before we initiate.”

“Agreed,” Rin said instantly. “The odds of losing the teleporter stations are too high for me to want to keep people aboard. We’d lose them all.”

“Will it help if someone stays aboard?” Oxtashah asked.

“It might cut the odds of a failure by ten percent, get us another dozen or two shots,” Lawrence admitted. “But I’m not going to ask my people to die for that.”

“No. But I will ask for volunteers from the Drones,” Oxtashah said grimly. “And we will remember their names for all eternity. That is always the deal.”

“That…” Lawrence trailed off. “There are definitely people among your Drones who can do what we need. That just…goes against the grain.”

“Your people live one way, Commander Lawrence,” Oxtashah told her. “Mine live our way. The only hope the Drones have for immortality is to be remembered. For this… For this, they would earn a thousand years if I had the power to give it to them.

“But all I can give those shortest-lived of our children is a promise that their sacrifice will be remembered—and if their sacrifice can save millions, they will make it gladly.”

“If they volunteer,” Rin insisted. He knew it was a feeble demand, but he had to make it.

“Of course,” Oxtashah agreed. “We do not order our Drones to their deaths. Ever.”

Rin exhaled a sigh and nodded.

“Then it seems we may actually be ready when the Infinite get here,” he murmured. “Let’s hope it is enough.”

“Just to confirm, there is nobody on those ships, correct?” Rin asked as his team settled in around him on the control station.

A Wendira holographic display had been hooked up to the Imperial molycirc core that was actually running everything. Hybrid interfaces designed by the Taljzi but manufactured aboard Zokalatan linked the upside-down chandelier of molecular circuitry to the ancient Alavan systems.

Only about a tenth of the Alavan computers were working, and Rin had no idea what proportion of the rest of the systems were online…except that it was enough. They had the scanners, they had the coms, they had the teleporters.

They’d done it. In theory, at least—which was what the two ships now positioned a light-hour from the Skiefail Swarm were meant to test.

“We have removed all of our personnel,” Castellash confirmed. “Both transports are standing by to activate their interface drives by remote command.”

Rin nodded and checked his own reports. He’d commandeered Castellash’s two largest sublight ships and had them fly out to a designated zone.

“Kelly, confirm the teleporter station is clear,” he asked. They’d have a skeleton crew of thirty-two Drone volunteers on each station when the real fight started, but there was no point risking anyone for the test.

“Station is clear,” Lawrence replied. “All systems show green from here. You have the button, Dr. Dunst.”

“Confirm, I have control,” Rin announced. He glanced around the room. They’d rigged up lights and systems at the heart of the Alavan station to make it more usable, but that somehow just made the black spires of the dead computers they hadn’t been able to restore more intimidating.

A holographic image of Oxtashah watched from a communications console, and most of his team was scattered around the room, waiting for the word.

“Targeting system is online,” he reported, entering the first commands. “Link to the teleporter is disabled. Neither ship is appearing. Boards are clear.”

He waited a moment, double-checking everything.

“Director Castellash, have the ships bring up their drives,” he ordered. “Let’s confirm these sensors are working.”

They’d calibrated them on live targets, but they still had time to test everything. The second and third potential teleporters were still being worked on, but he wasn’t feeding those stations instructions—both the Alavan communicators and the new hyperfold setup had been physically disconnected, just in case.

“Drives are online,” Castellash reported.

“And I see them,” Rin replied as two icons appeared on his screen. The interface scanner operated in real time across a surprising range, picking up disruptions in the barrier between realspace and hyperspace.

“I have the feed from Extana,” Rin continued. “Mapping the mask… Activating the mask.”

One of the icons disappeared from his screen. If he’d done everything right, the Alavan computers now didn’t know Extana, the larger of the two transports, existed. A mask had already been in place around Zokalatan and her escorts, though the ships were close enough to the swarm to probably be safe and had their drives offline.

“I am maintaining the mask. Drop both interface drives,” he instructed.

The link from Extana changed as her sister ship disappeared from the scanner.

“Everything looks good. I have a mask on Extana that should pick up automatically when she raises her drive,” Rin said grimly. “Time for the real test.”

The room was silent as every gaze was focused on the hologram of the system.

“Commander Lawrence, complete the connection, please,” he ordered.

New icons flashed up on his screen and the main hologram, turning a bright green to declare that systems were operational.

“All systems are green,” she reported. “Containment fields online. Everything for the teleporter shows green.”

“Scans are green, control interface is green,” Rin concluded. He looked at the main display and the icons up there—the two transports, as their computers reported.

“No reaction to Zokalatan or the escorts,” he reported. “Everything is quiet. Exactly as planned.”

There was an audible sigh of relief. Zokalatan’s interface drive was shut down, and she shouldn’t have triggered the station’s new defenses, even without the masking program. But the chance had been there, and that made this the most dangerous moment of bringing everything online.

“We now know that a mask over an inactive drive works and that an inactive drive is fine,” Rin noted. He could theoretically stop masking Zokalatan and her escorts now, but why take the risk?

“Castellash.” Rin paused as the Wendira looked at him, waiting for the order everyone knew was coming. “Bring up both transport drives, please.”

Everything happened very quickly after that. An icon appeared on Rin’s scanners, and the ancient Alavan processes kicked