Second Expansion Book 1: Shadows of the Ancient War Part 5: The Shattering of the Sword By Mike (mjm_keen@hotmail.com) Through the debris, the sword still flew. Even with enough spatial distortion waves to shake the crust off of a planet, the ship survived, though not unscathed. Most of the outer layer of the ship had been ripped away with only small bits hanging behind. The ship's guts were open out into space and resembled a large piece of brown coral reef. A green "blood" oozed out of the ship, sticking to the sides and coming off in small bubbles. "How the hell did that ship survive?" Shark seemed to scream over the com. "The ship has a fold drive. It sent a spatial wave back out to dampen the Trinities' waves," Lucy replied in a matter of fact voice. But the tone changed to suppressed panic when she looked at the sensor readings. "Shit! It's going to fold! The damned thing's going to fold!" Over the com came Clint's voice, "Fighters are to remain here. The Einstein will go to hyperspace in a minute and a half. Repeat, all fighters are to remain as the Einstein goes to hyperspace." There was already enough data to pinpoint the destination of the Sword and the Einstein would be able to make it there in hyperspace at the same time. The only thing left for the pilots would be to hope and pray since the rest of the Zylon fleet in range had been destroyed. Something came over Lucy as she sat in the fighter. She could feel another presence in the fighter with her. The mental pattern was familiar. She couldn't put her finger on it right away, but then it came to her. It was the same as the pattern that had left behind on Clint's mind. It was M'ken. But there was much more to this mental pattern then that of a normal person, almost as if it were two minds. Images began to flash in her mind. She saw Harry sitting at a console when an energy beam hit him. He slumped over the console and his whole body disintegrated. An extra surge of adrenaline that she didn't know she had left coursed through her. "I'm returning to the carrier," she said with fierce determination to Shark. She slammed the throttle full down and hit the boosters. The Einstein was in close proximity and she would just make it before the ship went into hyperspace. "Einstein, prepare for an emergency landing,” she sent over the com when she was within a few hundred klicks of the ship. She killed all the engines and hit full reverse thrusters after just passing inside the atmospheric force field. The fighter slammed into the flight deck and skidded through the launch bay. Techies ran out of the way of the block of metal. Lucy sprang out of the fighter still in her full flight suit and ran to the lifts. * * * * * "What in God's name is she doing," Clint muttered while watching a video feed of Lucy's Broadsword crashing into the flight deck. "Sir, we've just dropped out of hyperspace. The Sword lies twenty thousand klicks to port." The sensor officer reported. "Bring the ship around to face it," Clint paused and hit the engineering com button, "Harry, we're waiting for you." "Roger." * * * * * Lucy shot out of the lift and into engineering. She had shed most of the flight suit and was down to her normal jumpsuit. Harry hadn't been responding to her mental shouts and now she knew why. A psi block was in effect around the G-cannon control room, where Harry was. This one was more advanced then the previous one. It had a scattering field so she couldn't find the device itself. As soon as she came into engineering she started to shout for Harry. The engineers on duty looked up to see her run through the room. She then jumped over the railing in the middle of the room, grabbed the power transfer conduit that lead to the Graviton Cannon, and slid down. She leaped off and landed in a crouched position on the floor. Harry seemed to be alone in the room and was fully concentrating on the console. "Harry!" Lucy yelled standing up. Harry looked at her. A purple energy beam from the other side of the room hit Harry in the chest. His body slumped onto the console and then slid down to the ground. Lucy stepped around the conduit to get a view of the assassin. Shornel was standing in a side hallway holding what appeared to be a standard blaster. Anger was spilling all over Lucy. She could feel her senses escalating and seemed to be breaking through the psi blocker. Her emotions were spilling over. Sweat was poring down Shornel's head. His fingers tightened around the trigger. Shornel pulled the trigger again. Lucy felt the energy build up in the blaster. She focused onto containing it. The energy discharge didn't leave the emitter. The blaster was surrounded by a purple glow and began to melt in Shornel's hands. He dropped the now super hot weapon and tried to run away. Lucy focused all of her anger into a psi blast. The blast gave no visible light, since it was pure thought. Shornel went into convulsions and fell to the floor. Lucy stepped over to Harry and knelt down beside him. His eyes were shut and he appeared to be unconscious. "Harry! Harry!" She said shaking him in despair. He opened his eyes slowly and looked up at her. he though. she replied on the verge of tears. In a brief moment, Harry told her. Lucy leaned down, bringing her forehead just above his. After a few moments, his body crumbled to dust. Lucy stood up in a sort of daze, yet still maintained a steady focus. "It won't work. The Graviton Cannon isn't powerful enough to destroy the Sword," she muttered to herself, "However, we can block their cannon." Lucy started working hard at the console with reconfiguring the Graviton Cannon. She opened the intercom to the bridge. "Clark to Bridge, Pull the ship back twenty thousand klicks." Doris' voice came back over, "What's going on down there. Where's Harry?" "Harry's disposed of right now. We can't destroy the Sword in time. However, with the G-cannon, we can reinforce N-Space in the blast area and neutralize the effects of the Hyperspace Cannon. The Sword will be drained of power and a shot with the G-cannon will disable it." "How can you be sure this will work? It sounds like a pretty long shot." "Doris, I'm positive this will work," Lucy replied slow and deliberate. It took Doris a moment to reply. Something about how Lucy had responded took Doris aback. Her reply was instructing the helmsman to pull back. "Go ahead," she said and cut off the intercom. Lucy quickly reconfigured the cannon for a wide, high intensity, short-range blast. Her fingers seemed to blur as they danced over the console. It took the ship only a few moments to move to its new position. She pulled power from the main engines and shut down the hyperspace coils. The lights onboard the Einstein went out to be replaced after a few moments of darkness by the dimmer emergency lighting. Every single drop of plasma available on the ship was being fed into the cannon. "Hyperspace cannon is reaching full power. Estimated firing time in fifteen seconds." Came Daneel's voice over the com. Lucy's hand hovered over the firing button. Daneel continued to count down. At three, Lucy hit the button to fire. A cone of dark brown was emitted from the Einstein. The cone spread out wide, giving out hardly any light. A moment later, the sword shot out a tight group of bright violet and blue beams. As the beams reached the graviton cone, they began to balloon and faded into the blackness of space. The Graviton Cannon cut out firing a few moments before the Hyperspace Cannon, but the Gravitons had done their work. The reinforced N-space absorbed the energy of the Sword's weapon. Both ships were sitting ducks. The entire engineering department was working on getting what power they could. Lucy gave a quick look over of the sensor data of the Sword. The ship had burned herself out firing that shot. She was dead. The internal temperature of the ship was dropping quickly. The only electromagnetic activity left was that of a few surviving Zylons. Though they would soon be dead. Lucy walked to the lift in a very stiff and serious movement. * * * * * They had succeeded. The Zylon ship was dead. At least that is what the sensors said. But Doris didn't feel comfortable with that. "As soon as we have the power. Fire a group of missiles to destroy the ship," she commanded. Lucy was acting strange. The way she had addressed Doris over the com, seemed so much like Harry. The tone, pitch, and deliverance were just like how he would have said it with Lucy's voice. It was a tone he only used when he was trying to tell her something very important. And he only used it with Doris. And there had been Lucy saying that Harry had been predisposed. Something very strange was going on. The lift doors at the back opened. Doris turned back to see Lucy walk onto the bridge. Lucy was walking in a very serious, no-nonsense way that Doris hadn't seen her walk in before. Lucy walked up to Doris. Doris looked Lucy very carefully in the eyes. She could see something more then normal in Lucy's big, blue eyes. There seemed to be more to her now. Almost as if there was another person in that mind. Lucy set her hand very lightly on Doris's arm and said very softly, "We need to talk." Doris was stunned. It was all just too weird. "Daneel, you have the bridge," She said before walking to her ready room. After the doors closed behind her, Doris just stood there. Lucy stood right in front of her and reached forward to grab her arms. "This is going to be very hard for you to accept. Harry is.. well his body is dead, but he isn't." Lucy paused, taking a breath. "Harry was shot by the same weapon as Langely and didn't have much time to live. The only chance he had was to transfer his mind into my body." "How?" Doris stammered in shock. "He never told you this, but Harry's a telepath and so am I, as I just found out." Doris just didn't know what to say or think. Too much was just hitting her at once. Doris suddenly found herself in a tight embrace and didn't know what to think of it. Normally this would have repulsed her, but in this situation, she was just numb. "I'm sorry about this, but the only alternative was to die," Lucy was saying, but Doris could tell that it was actually Harry by the tone of the voice. "Just, please, leave," Doris said. Lucy slowly let go and left. Doris slumped right to the floor and cried. * * * * * Clint intercepted Lucy at the lift. "Ah, I was just going to see you," she said with a slight bit of bemusement. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in. He was angry with her for her crazy behavior but understood something else was going on here. That just made him angrier because she had been hiding something from him. "Computer, put this car out of service." The computer responded with its trademark ding. The lift dropped several decks before going forward into a storage shaft. The whole time, Clint analyzed her very carefully. She held her body very stiff, the way she did when commanding, but never did with him in private. He looked right into her eyes. That's where he could really see the difference. There was something more to her now. It seemed that there was somebody else in there. "Harry?" It just came out of him. Lucy responded with just looking back at him. "I saw the sensor records in engineering while you were in there. I didn't know what to make out of what had happened right before he died. I was afraid that the two of you were having an affair, which didn't seem like either of you. But with how you'd been acting, I wasn't sure. And also I was seeing little mannerisms in you right now that are Harry's." The stiffness seemed to fall out of her body. She slumped forward and hugged Clint. "I'm sorry about these last few days. I hate lying to you, especially when you start thinking like that." "What's been going on?" "Harry and I are telepaths. I just found out yesterday. That's why I was being hunted down." "Harry? I never saw anything that would suggest." "It's just like how you don't believe M'ken was a telepath." "Mind adjustment?" "Exactly. We need to get off this chitchat. Doris isn't taking this too well. You need to talk to her. I, Harry can't do anything for her." Clint glanced up at the ceiling by habit, "Bridge." He glanced back down. Lucy/Harry had disengaged him/herself. "Shornel is dead. His mind was fried so we can't get a transcription of the mental pattern. Do you know who the head traitor is?" Clint asked. "We think its Grier." "Are you sure?" "Pretty sure. We glimpsed a connection to Grier in Shornel's mind before he died." "I'll have security run through Grier's quarters." The lift reached the bridge and the doors opened. "Have you told Daneel yet?" he asked while stepping out. Lucy shook her head. * * * * * Lucy flopped down on her bed. Following the mind transfer, her body went into sort of shock to protect itself during the initial mental integration. This was the almost unemotional, serious mode she had been in for the last hour. Her body was beginning to pull out of it. The transfer had put a strain on her body and now she was exhausted. She fell right to sleep. It was an odd sleep. There were several times that it seemed she was having two dreams at the same time. She couldn't get a very good focus onto either of the dreams. The oddest dreams were the ones when she and Harry were sharing the same dream. These seemed to dive through past experiences of both of them, many times combining them. For example was Harry and Doris' wedding on Lucy's colony while she was abandoned. After seven hours, she finally woke up. She took a glance over the ships status on her computer terminal. The Einstein had returned with the rest of the fleet. The entire Zylon fleet had been destroyed, but over half of the human fleet had also been destroyed. The Essex and Hawking had been destroyed with most of both crews still missing. Seventy-three Commonwealth fighters had also been destroyed. The Einstein had taken fairly light damage, except for the power loss following the firing of the Graviton Cannon. The ship was now back at full power and was helping with recovery operations. Doris had been taken in to sick bay following a mental break down. Harry thought referring to Doris' condition. Lucy got up off the bed. Lucy walked into the bathroom and started to run the bath water. * * * * * Tens of thousands of people gathered in the field to the south of the Castle of Lions. The crowd's attention was focused on the scaffolding with a large, holographic image floating over it and the fifty people that stood near it. The group was composed of the leaders of the human defense fleet; the Captains and Commanders of the CTW fleet, King Marcus, the leaders of the ASA, and the leaders of the other worlds that assisted. "These brave soldiers fought for more then any human every has. They fought to protect not just the human race, but dozens of other sentient races from total destruction," King Marcus was saying as a tribute to the fallen soldiers. Clint was standing in the front row of the group, less then ten meters from the ruler of Arus and the podium. He wasn't paying much attention to what the king was saying. Clint took a glance to his left where Lucy was standing. She had a stone face and the same withdrawn look that Clint had had a few moments before. For the last two days she'd been like that. What are the two of them up to, Clint thought to himself. Just six hours before, Clint and Go-on had been working on the deceased and missing in action reports. It had been hard reporting almost the entire crews of two capital ships dead. Actually the hardest was what to report about Harry. Clint hadn't been sure what to report about Harry. He had reported Harry as MIA with a further report pending. Daneel and Go-on were working on a cover story for his disappearance. So far only the main officers on the Einstein knew what had happened. There was too much at stake to reveal what had happened. He had to do this to protect Lucy. Otherwise, she would have been sent off to a research lab for a good chunk of her life. Even with his position, there would have been nothing he could do. Then there was Doris. He had had to relieve her of duty. She was still in sick bay under mood drugs and frequently seeing the ship's councilor. She was taking the whole thing as being her fault. It wasn't rational, but the mind didn't always work things out rationally. It would very likely be months before she could return to command. Daneel was doing a good job in her absence, though. Daneel was taking it very well, in contrast. He was always so optimistic and he didn't seem to be taking this any different. When Harry's new body was finished, everything would be back to normal, was his view. Clint was certain there was more to it than that. The silence brought Clint back to the present. Marcus had stepped back from the podium and was now motioning Clint forward. Clint took a few steps up to the podium. With a cough to clear his throat, he began. "Only three days ago my crew and I arrived in this galaxy. We came because we saw a threat to not just ourselves, but to the people of this galaxy, too. When we arrived, you welcomed us. Together we fought and won. Many of my people sacrificed themselves in this galaxy, far from home. "I'm not trying to make preach how great my people are. Our galaxy was also in danger and the people of this galaxy also sacrificed much. I hope that this is a good beginning to a friendship between our two galaxies." Clint stepped back. He liked to keep these non-informative PR speeches short. If he went on too long, he'd end up making a boob of himself, most likely some sort of Freudian slip. Clint returned to his spot and waited for the ceremony to end. * * * * * Clint stood on a hillside several kilometers from the Castle of Lions. It was becoming dusk. Behind the castle, the lights of the capital city were coming on. The Arusians were very conservative with their environment. They had thriving high-tech cities housing millions of people each, but still kept most of the planet natural. Clint turned to watch the sunset, but a figure was blocking his view. The person was a few centimeters taller then him, wore his brown hair short, and wore an old, gray academy uniform. "It can't be!" Clint said in disbelief. The other person replied with an inquisitive look. "But, but you're dead," Clint stammered out. "If I was dead how could I be here?" Clint walked around his companion giving a close examination. "Clint, they never proved I was dead. I just went missing." "Did you watch what you drank?" "Only if 'you' were handing it to me and I didn't get any drinks that had a mind of their own." Back in the academy, Clint had reprogrammed the food dispenser to make coffee that was a gelatin and oozed oddly on it's own. It was something that had become a little joke between the two of them. Clint was now convinced that this was M'ken, if he wasn't hallucinating. "Where have you been all this time?" "Well that'll take a while." M'ken sat down on the hill, and motioned for Clint to sit next to him. Clint reluctantly sat down and M'ken began to talk. "Well you've already found out that I was a telepath. Actually I'm a little bit more now. I've become what could be referred to as a quantum entity. My entire body and conscientiousness is just information imprinted on the fabric of space/time." "But then how can you have a physical body?" "Ahh, but isn't the world just information. I don't really have a physical body." Clint reached out and touched M'ken. He seemed solid enough. M'ken gave out a slight laugh, "I'm just information that your senses are interpreting as a physical body. Therefore, to you, I'm no different then any other physical body. Most of the time, I can't be sensed by any of the standard senses, except for psi. Right now, I'm just manifesting myself for you. Actually, anyone who comes here will be able to see me. I didn't feel it right for you to be seen talking to yourself." "But how did this happen?" "Well, I was actually this way before you met me at the academy. You see, I was born in 1648 as M'ken Dori." "You mean you weren't just named after the legendary pilot, you are him?" "Yeah. On that last mission in the history books, I was stranded in space by a ship breakdown. After all the tight calls in combat, what almost did me in was a malfunction. Can ya' believe that? "Anyway, while I was out adrift, I was contacted by Mejem, another quantum entity. The two of us have very similar brain patterns. I joined with him and we went out and about for the next few centuries. Over all that time, we became lonely. We created a new body for me and I entered into the academy." "And so when you were lost again, you went to rejoin with Mejem." "Exactly." "But why did you return now." "We have a certain interest in your daughter." * * * * * "So you're the one that warned me?" Mejem nodded his head. "Why that late? Why not earlier so I could have saved his body too?" Lucy asked becoming almost frantic. "This is how it has to happen." "But just what does that mean?" "You're important to both humanities future and past. You have to walk the right path in order for that to happen. This is just one step on that path." This was just getting to be too much for Lucy for one week, especially when people started to talk to her like that. She looked Mejem over again. He did in many ways resemble old pictures of M'ken: The same shape of face, the same color of eyes, and the same body build. But Mejem was shorter, had blond hair, and had a shorter neck. In all the pictures of M'ken, the big neck always stuck out to her. "How is it that both you and M'ken are so physically and mentally similar?" "Well, that's the reason we merged. I had sensed the similarities when he was born and followed him closely until the accident." "But just by chance, how can it be that you two would be so similar?" "Probability. How many humans are currently alive?" "The population of the Milky Way is just under two quadrillion." "That's right. The human population for the entire four galaxies is about six quadrillion. At the end of the First Expansion, it was close to ten quadrillion. Yggdra's population at its height was over thirty quadrillion. With that many people at just single times, doesn't it seem that it wouldn't just eventually happen?" "Yggdra?" "That's where I was born, millions of years ago. It was a colony started from the crew of a human ship that had a run in with a temporal anomaly." "Where's M'ken right now?" "He's down on Arus, talking with Clint." "And just how are the two of you connected. I take it that it's more than just two good friend's off for a good time." "In the beginning we were two separate entities, but over time we've merged. Now we're just two slightly different representations of the same entity. It's really quite hard to explain." "Well Harry seems to be pretty happy about getting the M'ken business all squared up." "And how's Harry doing." "He's depressed over Doris' situation. Other then that he seems to be adapting pretty well." "And how about you?" Lucy took a deep breath. "I'm just sort of going with the flow. It bothers me always having someone looking over my shoulder. And then there's Daneel. He's trying to act like it's nothing, but he is worried that I'll fall for Harry now." Mejem put his hand onto her shoulder. "You've got a lot coming up over the next few years. But just remember through it all, you'll come out just fine." Before Lucy could question him to clarify, Mejem had vanished. The End Book 1