Baldwin's Legacy: The Complete Series Read online

  “Let’s give it a Standard day, and let them think they’ve won. If they assume we found the wormhole and haven’t emerged yet, they’ll be more at ease thinking we elected not to enter it,” Tom said.

  “Good call. You must have had a good mentor,” Shu told him.

  “The best.”

  ____________

  The planet loomed before them, and Treena nervously watched it. Even if their ship wasn’t visible to the Statu computer systems, they were going to be able to see them as they entered the atmosphere, but only if someone was looking closely enough. She didn’t know enough about them. If there were really Statu nearby, what were they like?

  Now that they’d discovered the enemy they’d battled in the War were mostly their own people in Statu armor, she was curious as to what the aliens looked like and where they hid behind the curtains to run their warships. As intrigued as she was, she’d be satisfied without an answer if it meant never encountering them.

  She lowered Cleo toward the planet and figured that wasn’t in her cards.

  The computer began sounding an alarm, startling her. She pulled up on the yoke, moving out of her planned path. “Reeve, talk to me.”

  “It’s bad, Treena. It’s bad.” The normally affable Tekol woman’s voice was shaky and low.

  Treena peered at the screen, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The system map was showing one huge red blob near the edge.

  “The probes made their second loop. We have company.” Reeve switched the image on her console screen to the feed from the probes. Treena gasped as she saw a dozen warships moving in system, slowly and methodically traversing through space.

  “What’s their ETA?” Treena asked.

  Constantine answered, “Seventeen standard hours.”

  Seventeen hours. That was enough time to grab Brax and return through the wormhole, but what about the Bacals? Treena suddenly wished the kid hadn’t come with them.

  Tarlen was behind her, his expression resembling shock. “That’s them, isn’t it? They’re like the ship that took my people. Maybe they have others on them. More slaves.”

  “Probably,” Treena told him. She didn’t have the heart to say they were likely brain dead and hypnotized, happy to do the Statu’s bidding by this point. She wasn’t going to be able to save his people below. This was a small expedition ship, not a rescue cruiser.

  She had to warn the captain of this, but had never attempted to reconnect to her artificial body after disconnecting. She would pilot this ship first and do what was necessary once Brax Daak was on board Cleo.

  “Taking us in. Shields at full capacity, weapon systems ready,” Treena said. They broke through the atmosphere, lowering ever toward their target between two work sites. She figured their best bet at not being seen was to land between the two manufacturing stations. It appeared as if they’d created over two hundred isolated encampments, and Brax was smack dab in the center of them.

  The camps were a couple of kilometers apart, almost perfectly measured, and as they moved through dense cloud cover, she questioned the insanity of their plan for a moment until they broke past the wispy white vapor.

  It was nighttime, the moons glowing bright and blue, and her ship moved silently, the lights all blocked from view below by Cleo’s shields. In a few minutes, they’d settled to the ground beside a copse of trees. The world was deemed a Class Zero-Nine planet by the probes, and Reeve stood, rushing to the exit, opening the ramp. It lowered from the ship, touching down on the grass below.

  Insects chirped their song loudly, and Treena accepted an arrangement of weapons from Reeve.

  “Tarlen, you should stay here with Constantine,” Treena told the boy. He was already standing, reaching for a gun. He grabbed an XRC-14, and she saw his weak arms struggle to lift the weapon.

  “I’m coming with you. These are my people. Captain Baldwin trusted me to come, so there’s no way I’m staying here and letting a hologram babysit me while you go on a rescue mission,” Tarlen said.

  Treena looked to Reeve for some backup, and the Tekol woman only shrugged, taking the huge gun from the boy’s grip and passing him a handheld. “Point and shoot,” Reeve told him, and he held it awkwardly. She passed him a holster, and he slid it over his shoulder, copying Treena’s movements.

  “I regret to inform you I cannot assist your mission,” Constantine said.

  “You can control the ship, right?” Treena asked.

  “Of course.”

  She grabbed the wrist communicator for the ship and clicked it over her left wrist. “Then be ready.”

  “I’ll await instructions,” he told her.

  Treena felt vulnerable as she stepped down the ramp, her boots finding the grass beneath them. The ground was soft, even welcoming. A warm breeze brushed against her fake skin, the realistic sensors making her feel more alive on the surface of this world than she had in a long time.

  The moonlight was casting enough glow over the landscape for them to see properly. She was glad they didn’t need lights, or even the night visors. She kept hers inside a pack, and Reeve tossed a bag to Tarlen, who threw it over his shoulders without a word.

  Their target was two kilometers away, and she was glad it wasn’t any farther. Moving at night in unfamiliar territory was always risky, especially when you had no idea what kinds of predators were watching. They had little knowledge of the planet, except that it was green and healthy, which meant it was probably teeming with life.

  Reeve came to stand next to her, Tarlen beside her, and all three stared into the distance. Treena almost thought she could see the billowing smoke of the smelter rising into the air from here. That was their destination. At the end was one of their crew members, a man she’d only met a week ago. It had been a whirlwind of a first mission, and the chances they’d survive were unknown, but she was glad to have broken out of her shell.

  The past two years had been the worst of her life. If she could go back and tell her damaged body that she would be controlling a new Treena Starling on a distant world, attempting to rescue her new chief of security, she would. She could almost imagine the sideways grin her withered face would make, the tears forming in her eyes. She was going to make herself proud. That much was obvious.

  Treena sniffed the air, wishing she could use her senses like before. Now there was nothing but the faint signal of familiarity. “What does it smell like?” she asked the others.

  Tarlen shook his head. “Does your nose not work?”

  “Something like that,” she told the boy.

  “It’s damp, slightly musty. The grass is a little wet.” Reeve glanced to her feet, and Treena noticed dew on their boots. “But overall, it’s refreshing, like a hot night on Nolix. Even the insects sound similar to my planet. Let’s move if we want to arrive before daybreak.”

  Treena started forward, marking their location on a tablet before shoving it into her pack. The grass became taller as they trod forward, and soon thick stalks were tickling her knees. Tarlen was the slowest of the three, and the two Concord crew members had to accommodate him.

  The landscape was even here, the trees sparse. Treena thought it odd how there was a direct path through the forest leading to the work site Brax was stuck in. She stopped, pulling out the tablet and a sensor drone, setting the drone loose.

  “What are you doing?” Reeve asked.

  “I have a feeling we aren’t seeing this planet as it once was.” Treena sent the drone off and programmed it to head into the forest, searching for anything non-organic within a three-kilometer radius.

  “What are we going to do when we arrive?” Tarlen asked, peering at the gun strapped to him.

  “We’re going to watch.” Reeve stared into the distance, and Treena followed her gaze.

  Treena watched the feed from the drone, its night vision casting a glowing green image on her tablet. The screen blinked repeatedly, and the drone hovered over something.

  Reeve stood at her side, watching with in
terest. “What in the Vastness is that?”

  “I can’t identify it, but it’s big,” Treena told her. The drone’s image showed something metallic jutting from the ground, rectangular in shape.

  The readouts scrolled over the screen, and Reeve grabbed the tablet. “Hold on. There’s something inside this thing.” She directed the drone lower, and it showed more grass.

  “It’s nothing. That’s grass,” Treena said.

  “No. See these readings? That’s artificial grass. Turf of some sort. They’re hiding something there.” Reeve’s red eyes were bright against the screen.

  Treena’s instinct was to go investigate. That was what they were trained for. Reeve seemed to pick up on this, and she made a tsking sound with her lips. “No, no, no. I get what you’re thinking, but we have to find my brother.”

  “What if this is something about the Statu?” Treena asked. “Maybe this is their planet, and they’re hiding under the surface?”

  “And how is this going to help us now?” Reeve made a good point.

  “There could be a clue to how we defeat them. I think we need to check.” Treena calculated the distance. “It’s only one point five kilometers from here, and mostly on course for Brax. Plus, I’m your commanding officer.”

  Reeve passed the tablet to Treena and frowned. “Then I guess we do it your way. If we’re making this detour, we need to hurry. Tarlen, can you walk faster?”

  Tarlen smiled. “I was the fastest boy on the block. Don’t worry about me. I’m just used to bare feet.” He crouched and removed his boots, his toes squeezing the grass. He picked them up, cradling them under an arm.

  Treena had to laugh, despite their circumstances. Their group moved for the treeline, heading to the mysterious discovery, her curiosity for the unknown demanding to be sated.

  Nineteen

  “Yephion, tell me again,” Tom told the Statu.

  Constantine stood behind Tom, translating the conversation. Yephion was doing much better, recovered from his cryo sleep, and he was out of the bed for the first time. The others remained frozen, and Yephion had been promised a walk-through to check on his people after this discussion.

  The being’s mandibles clicked together, and he rattled off the tale. He told Tom about the other planet, and how they were fearful of being destroyed by their neighboring world. To Tom’s surprise, the Statu lived underground in an intricate system of subterranean cities. Their neighbors were different in more ways than ideology; they lived in cities above the surface.

  “Yephion, we’re going to be moving through a wormhole and will be arriving at what we think might be Konov,” Tom said.

  The second Constantine finished telling the Statu man this, he banged his hand on the table. “We will surely be met with opposition,” Yephion said.

  “Constantine, have you told him about our war with his people?” Tom asked, and the AI shook his head. “I think it’s time we did.”

  Tom poured some water and passed Yephion a glass, taking one for himself too. He drank deeply and settled into his seat as he told their guest about the war that he and his ship had slept through. Tom was interrupted numerous times with questions, and when Yephion learned how far his people had gone, how they’d used other races as slaves, he let out a noise akin to a wail.

  “Is he all right?” Tom asked the AI.

  “He says he is ashamed. Captain, I believe him. He asks if he can help in any way,” Constantine said.

  Tom watched the strange creature, his eyes black, his exoskeleton hard and imposing. He couldn’t believe he was really sitting and conversing with a Statu. After all these years, no one had seen them in the flesh, and here he was, chatting with the enemy. Only he didn’t feel like this man was his adversary.

  “What were you, truly? You said you were on the maintenance crew. I don’t believe you,” he said.

  The man sat up and uttered a series of clicks, which Constantine relayed as: “I was the second in command for our vessel. I was a leader of my city. My family was with me. Can I see the cryo chambers now?”

  “Will you share what details you have about the warships, the other Statu, and the system we’re possibly heading into?” Tom asked. The truth was, he had no idea if the wormhole led there, and he told Yephion as much.

  “I suspect it is,” the man said through Constantine.

  “How can you be sure?” Tom asked.

  “Because we were almost ready to test our wormhole generators when they invaded us. Stole our entire team.”

  Tom’s heart raced as he heard the AI translate this. “Are you saying this wormhole is artificial?”

  “No. It’s very much real. However, it was likely created by the Statu,” he said.

  “Then why didn’t they close it?” Tom asked.

  Yephion looked at him as if he’d asked the universe’s most basic question. “Because once you open a wormhole this size, they’re nearly impossible to shut down. The only way is to disrupt them enough inside so that the exit is no longer functional.”

  “Why didn’t they use more? They could have invaded us easily if they had,” Tom said.

  “The wormholes require years of planning and more stored energy than you can imagine. They take decades to create,” Yephion advised him.

  Tom had an idea, a crazy one. He tapped his computer screen. “Captain Yin Shu, do you have time for a visitor?”

  His old mentor replied quickly. “We’d be honored to have you.”

  Yephion stood as Tom did, his mandibles clicking together loudly. “Do we go to the cryo chambers?”

  “Constantine will show you there. Maybe bring Nee with you,” he told the AI. “And one of the Tekol guards. I don’t think he wishes us ill, but I’d rather be cautious.”

  “Very well, Captain. Should I remind you that we leave in less than eight hours?” Constantine asked.

  “You just did.” Tom left them in the room, moving for the docking bay, where a waiting transport vessel sat.

  A half hour later, he was latched on to Cecilia. He hadn’t told anyone he was leaving, because it was technically against protocol since Starling wasn’t on board either. Ven was the last remaining member of their executive team, and Tom had to laugh to himself that the gifted Ugna was in charge at the moment, even if he didn’t realize it.

  Maybe he did know Tom had left. There was so much to Ven that Tom wasn’t aware of yet.

  “What do you care about protocol, Tommy? You have the admiral locked away in a cell,” he said to himself as he departed the transport vessel onto the docking bay of his old ship.

  He took a deep breath; the smell of grease and a decade of hard work filled his nostrils. It was a good scent. Like home.

  “Commander Baldwin…” The woman grinned and corrected herself. “My apologies, sir. Captain Baldwin. Welcome to the Cecilia.”

  Lexi was as prim and statuesque as ever. “I pity the sucker that has to fill my boots on this old rust bucket.”

  “I heard she’s doing a hell of a job.” Lexi smirked, and his eyes settled on her orange collar.

  “It looks good on you, Lexi,” Tom told her.

  She crossed the room, surprising him by wrapping her arms around him. They’d been close, but never this close. “Can you believe they’re back?”

  “I know. I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” Tom told her.

  “Are you kidding? This is what we’re all about. What new recruit didn’t dream of the day the big bad Statu would return, giving us a chance to kick some butt on behalf of the generations before us?” Lexi said, striking a chord with him.

  “You’re right. I used to hear about them so often growing up with the old man. God, can you believe they named my ship after him?” Tom asked, happy to be speaking with someone from his past.

  “How is he?” she asked, meaning the AI.

  “Nothing like Cecilia. They went all-out on him. You’d think it was really him at thirty years old,” Tom said.

  “Sign me up. I’d like to me
et Constantine Baldwin at thirty…”

  “Enough,” Tom said with a laugh. “Can you show me to the captain, please?”

  “She’s waiting in her office. I think you know the way,” Lexi said as they headed into the corridor. The halls were so much smaller here, narrow where his new post was wide. The lights flickered, dimming as he walked, and Tom reflected at how spoiled he was with Constantine.

  He nodded to a few crew members, not stopping to chat to any of them as he moved with purpose toward Shu’s office. He buzzed as he approached, and the door opened.

  “Come in, Thomas.” Yin Shu motioned for him to take the seat across from hers.

  Tom sat in the chair, resting his elbows on the dark surfaced table. “Wormholes.”

  “What about them?” Shu asked.

  “My guest claims the Statu had wormholes. Remember the openings we found in the aftermath of Yollox? There was an unstable wormhole half a light year from the battle zone. We had no idea how long it had been there, or why it didn’t function,” Tom told her.

  “That’s right.” Shu tapped at her desk screen, and a projected image appeared of Yollox space, the small wormhole rotating slowly in the far edge of the system. “It’s still there.”

  “I was just informed that the Statu can create them. This means they retreated from Yollox. The damned Concord allowed them to go through a wormhole. I believe that Hudson knew all this, but they had no idea where it led. I bet it leads to the same place this one does.” Tom stood and pointed at the colorful opening showing through her office viewer.

  Yin Shu rarely looked surprised, but she did now. “Then what? How do we stop them?”

  “Yephion tells me it takes decades to produce one. We head in, destroy the bastards, and figure out how to disarm it on our return,” Tom said.

  Shu stood and stared out the viewer with her hands clasped behind her. “That’s what we’ll do, then.”

  “Good.” Tom tapped the screen and opened a line to his ship. “Executive Lieutenant Ven, this is Captain Baldwin.”

  “Captain, go ahead.” The Ugna didn’t seem surprised Tom wasn’t on board.