Ep.#3 - Liberty and Truth Peace and Prosperity Read online

  Table Of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Frontiers Saga Part 3: Fringe Worlds

  Episode #3: Liberty and Truth Peace and Prosperity

  Copyright © 2022 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Nathan?” Cameron called over comm-sets. “I hate to be the one to say this, but…”

  “She’s right,” Jessica said, keeping her voice low enough for only Nathan to hear.

  Nathan was torn. The man before him looked exactly like Casimir Ta’Akar, but twenty years younger. Every fiber of his being wanted to believe that it was indeed the man who had fought by his side and singlehandedly enabled him to liberate Earth and her core worlds so many years ago. But that man was long dead. Executed by other house leaders of Takara.

  He wanted to believe that it was Abby, Doctor Chen, and Vladimir, but only Doctor Chen looked the same as she had the last time they had seen her. Both Abby and Vlad looked a bit younger than before. Not as much as Jakome, but younger.

  “You undoubtedly find all of this difficult to believe,” Jakome stated. “Were I in your shoes, I would keep us isolated until our identities can be proven. Preferably, someplace warmer than this?”

  A wave of relief washed over Nathan. It was so like the Tug he remembered to practically read his mind. “Thank you for understanding,” he told Jakome. “Jess, you and the Ghatazhak escort them to medical. Have Master Sergeant Baris check their DNA against records.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jessica replied.

  “It would be best if I notified my ship that we are going inside…willingly,” Jakome suggested. “They have strict orders to disable this ship and all aboard—including the four of us—if we are taken captive.”

  “Of course,” Nathan agreed.

  Jakome tapped the side of his neck, just below his left ear. “Captain Elias, we are going inside. Maintain position and condition until further notice. All other standing orders remain in effect.”

  “Understood, my lord,” the Bonaventura’s captain confirmed.

  Jakome turned to Jessica. “Lead the way, Jess,” he said, addressing her in an oddly familiar fashion.

  Jessica took a breath, exchanging glances with Nathan. “Follow me.”

  “Nathan, it is me,” Vladimir assured him.

  “I know,” Nathan replied. “Just humor me, though.”

  Vladimir nodded his understanding, following Jakome and Jessica.

  “We won’t have any genetic records for Doctor Sorenson or Casimir,” Doctor Chen told Nathan as she followed them out.

  “I know.” Nathan looked to Abby, still holding onto her son. “Abby, it’s not that I’m not happy to see you…”

  “I understand,” Abby replied, letting go of her son.

  “Captain, it’s her, I know it,” Nikolas insisted.

  “Stand down, Ensign,” Loki instructed.

  “It’s all right,” Abby told him, touching his face. “He has to do this. He has no choice.” She followed Doctor Chen. “It’s good to see you as well, Nathan,” she said as she passed.

  Kit and the other three Ghatazhak followed them out. Kit paused near Nathan, asking, “Orders?”

  Nathan sighed. “I honestly don’t know.”

  * * *

  “We verified Doctor Chen and Commander Kamenetskiy,” Master Sergeant Baris reported. “But we don’t have genetic data for Doctor Sorenson or Jakome for comparison.”

  “What about cloning markers?” Nathan wondered.

  “Cloning technology has advanced considerably over the centuries,” Abby told him. “I doubt you’d be able to detect a clone with your technology.”

  “It is difficult to do so even with current technology,” Jakome added.

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for their identities,” Doctor Chen told Nathan. “I’ve spent the last two days with Jakome, and as best I can tell, he is Tug.”

  “Perhaps I should explain,” Jakome offered.

  “To say the least,” Nathan agreed.

  “After the war, Takara was a fractured world. Deliza was a leader in appearance only, with the nobles making all the decisions. Both the war and the reformation of the Alliance that followed brought great profit to the houses of Takara. Deliza’s own child, Prince Toren, had not turned out to be the man she had hoped, and she felt uncomfortable leaving him in charge of House Ta’Akar upon her passing. So, she created me.”

  “Why didn’t she just clone herself?” Nathan wondered.

  “Cloning does not work for everyone. In Deliza’s case, the first two times she was cloned went fine, but the third time resulted in an abnormality known as “Hurrun’s Syndrome.” To clone herself again would have meant certain death, so she chose to live out her life, hoping for a cure to Hurrun’s. Unfortunately, that cure never came. In fact, Hurrun’s became more common, and it was one of the major reasons the Alliance banned cloning.”

  “How did you manage to be created, then?” Jessica asked.

  “I was born just prior to the ban.”

  “But wasn’t that a few hundred years ago?” Nathan said.

  “One of Deliza’s projects was to resurrect, and to improve upon the anti-aging serum that was lost when Caius fell.” He looked at Jessica. “I believe you were the one who took him out.”

  “A two’fer,” Jessica remarked nonchalantly.

  “So, you’ve been alive for three hundred plus years?” Nathan surmised.

  “Approximately, yes,” Jakome replied. “And I expect to be alive for another three hundred, perhaps more.”

  “But you don’t have any of Tug’s memories, right?” Nathan asked.

  “It’s more like feelings,” Jakome explained. “I liken it to the phenomena of Deja Vu. It is the result of genetic memory.”

  “I thought that was debunked?” Nathan said.

  “So did I,” Doctor Chen agreed.

  “In the sense that the term was originally used, yes. But science later discovered that it was something entirely different. You probably assume that you get your natural leadership qualities, and your ability to negotiate with others from your father, and that would be correct. Not, however, in the way that you would assume. Our experiences change our DNA, and those changes are passed on. You got your flight instincts from your grandfather’s experience, passed on to you through your father. If you were to father a child now, that child would inherit those same natural abilities. However, if after fathering that child, you learned to play the violin, the inclination for that skill would not be passed to your child because they were encoded into your DNA after your child was conceived.”

/>   “So, how do Tug’s experiences translate to you?”

  “I was created using a sample of his DNA that was taken after he retook the throne of Takara. When I see you, or Jessica, or Vlad…even Doctor Chen, I instinctively trust you, because, of my father’s experiences with you.”

  “Your father,” Nathan commented. “If you’re a clone of Casimir, then…”

  “It is a term I chose to use for the one whose DNA I was created from. It is also why I chose to be known as Jakome rather than Casimir. Without his memories, I am not the same man. I do, however, have the same potential as my genetic donor, perhaps even more so since I was created from DNA that was altered by his life experiences.”

  Nathan shook his head. “It’s all pretty mind-boggling.”

  “As I’m sure it was when you first discovered you were a clone,” Jakome commented.

  “How did you know I was a clone?” Nathan wondered. “That was never really made public.”

  “Deliza told me everything about each of you, as well as about my father. I have also studied all of your histories in great detail, as well as that of the original Aurora. I know everything there is to know about each of you.”

  Nathan looked uncomfortable. “Why?”

  “Perhaps I can help with that,” Abby suggested. “I took it hard when I lost Nikolas, and the fact that there was never any evidence of the Aurora’s destruction made it even more difficult. I spent years analyzing everything possible, and I concluded that it was at least possible that you were not destroyed. But I could not get anyone to listen to me. No one except Deliza. She provided the support I needed to continue my research, while I continued my work on the gate network for the Alliance. Together, we determined that your survival was not only possible, but probable. But by that time, we were deep into the war, and resources were limited. That, and the fact that we had no way to determine where or when you had ended up, put a damper on things.”

  “We heard about what the Alliance did to you,” Cameron told her.

  “The rogue gravity-well side effect has no grounding in science,” Abby insisted. “Except maybe political science. It was just a way for the Alliance to take control of all interstellar traffic, and therefore have control over humanity. I tried to argue the Science Academy’s findings, but they destroyed my reputation and ended my career, just as they did for anyone else who did not support their findings. Had it not been for Deliza…”

  “What about your family?” Nathan wondered.

  “I’m afraid my obsession with Nikolas and the Aurora destroyed my marriage and alienated my daughter,” Abby explained. “I lived out the remainder of what was my third life with Deliza. I passed shortly after her, just after scanning and storing my consciousness for long term storage.”

  “Long term storage for what?” Nathan wondered.

  “For the day that you were found,” Abby replied.

  “Deliza Ta’Akar left detailed instructions for myself and my kin to continually watch for signs of the Aurora’s reappearance, and to provide assistance to her as needed. She once told me that all that we were was only possible because of the Aurora and her crew. In a way, she was ensuring the legacy of her father by ensuring that House Ta’Akar would forever support the Aurora, her captain, and her crew. That is why I am here.”

  * * *

  “I apologize for the two days of suffering you had to experience,” Jakome explained as everyone took their seats at the conference table in the command briefing room. “Two days was the shortest time that we could safely create a replacement body for Commander Kamenetskiy, and Doctor Chen did not know your location. Even Vladimir did not know. Fortunately, he knew enough about this world that we were able to determine its location. Ironically, had your Ghatazhak arrived a few minutes earlier, we might have met two days sooner.”

  “How would you have known who they were?” Nathan wondered.

  “I would have recognized them from historical records. I assume that is who you sent in to retrieve the commander and Doctor Chen?”

  “It was,” Nathan admitted, taking his seat. “The purpose of this briefing is to discuss the state of the Alliance, and how we will proceed from this point forward.”

  “Captain, if I may ask Jakome a question?” Kit asked.

  “Of course, Lieutenant.”

  Kit looked at Jakome. “Do you know what happened to the Ghatazhak?”

  “The official record states that they died in the great war,” Jakome replied.

  “All at once?” Jessica asked in disbelief.

  “The historical records of battle are limited, but it appears they were killed in an ambush on their way to a covert op that would have shortened the war.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Kit argued. “General Telles would never have put all the Ghatazhak at risk of ambush.”

  “Like I said, the details are limited. Because of this, many theories have arisen over the years. My belief is that the Alliance set them up. General Telles was opposed to many of the changes the Alliance was making for the war effort. I believe he realized that the war was just an excuse to increase their control over member worlds and to grow the size of their fleet.”

  “Was there any evidence of their deaths?” Jessica asked.

  “I’m afraid there was,” Jakome answered. “Debris from their transports was found. Among the debris were bits of human tissue that were identified as belonging to several of the Ghatazhak.

  “Was Telles among them?” Nathan questioned.

  “He was.”

  “Why would Telles go on an op?” Jessica wondered.

  “If the op were important enough, he might,” Kit stated. “That’s the kind of leader he was.”

  “There were many conspiracy theories, most of which died out over the centuries,” Jakome continued. “But all the available evidence supports that they died in that ambush.”

  “If the Alliance wanted the war, why would they send the Ghatazhak on a mission that would shorten it?” Nathan asked.

  “I believe that originally, the Alliance only intended to start a war with the Ilyan, whom they could have defeated within a few years. But the Ilyan Protectorate was not equipped to fight a real war, and the Alliance was winning faster than they liked. Fortunately, the Jung suddenly decided to side with the Ilyan, ironically with the very ship that the Alliance had returned to them. The Jar-Benakh.”

  “Well, that can’t be a coincidence,” Jessica muttered.

  “It wasn’t,” Vladimir said. “The Benakh was fitted with a remote command code override before it was returned to the Jung. I designed it myself.”

  “And they didn’t discover it?” Jessica challenged.

  “I did a very good job of hiding it,” Vladimir bragged. “I made it from Jung equipment and aged it so that it appeared to be original issue. I even altered the manuals to include the item and created false service logs to make it appear to have been in use long before the ship fell into Alliance hands.”

  “You’re sneaky,” Jessica noted, impressed.

  “Why didn’t we know about this?” Cameron wondered.

  “The order came directly from Miri,” Nathan stated. “She, Vlad, and I were the only ones who knew.”

  “Opsec, baby,” Jessica said. “The fewer who know, the safer the secret.”

  “Then it was the Alliance that caused the Jung to side with the Ilyan,” Jakome realized. He looked at Nathan. “This also confirms the theory that the Aurora was set up.”

  “How so?” Nathan wondered.

  “Because two of the only three people who knew about that device were on this ship,” Jessica surmised.

  “But how did they know?” Kit asked.

  Nathan’s head fell back against his chair. “Miri’s headaches.”

  “What?” Jessica asked.

  “About two years ago, she
started getting migraines. They did all sorts of tests and imaging, but couldn’t figure it out. They eventually injected her with some kind of experimental nanites designed specifically to diagnosis and repair brain tissue.”

  “I’ve never heard of any such nanites,” Doctor Chen chimed in.

  “Apparently, they were top-secret. They seemed to do the trick, as she got better almost immediately. What if those nanites were actually designed to capture her memories and deliver them to someone else?”

  “That’s not possible,” Doctor Chen argued. “But they could have been designed to specifically repair the damage done by a Jung memory reader.”

  “I’m afraid your sister died suddenly of a brain aneurysm only a few months into the war,” Jakome stated. “Before the Jung sided with the Ilyan.”

  “That can’t be a coincidence, either,” Jessica stated.

  “That is one of the many conspiracy theories I spoke of,” Jakome said.

  Nathan was silent for a moment. He had accepted the fact that he had no real family left. In fact, it had not bothered him as much as he had expected. But he had imagined his sister living out a normal life, watching her children grow into adults, doting over grandchildren and perhaps even great-grandchildren. All from the comfort of the family estate in Vancouver. This was different.

  “What about her children?” Nathan finally asked Jakome.

  “Historical records show they lived long, normal lives after their mother’s passing. Both married and had children of their own, and so on. In fact, the Scott family estate is currently occupied by their descendants.”

  Nathan felt a wave of relief wash over him. There was comfort in the knowledge that his niece and nephew had survived, and that his family line had continued, even if not under the Scott name. After gathering himself, Nathan asked. “What exactly has the Alliance become?”

  “In simplest terms, the Alliance has become an interstellar oligarchy disguised as representative democracy. Over time, the changes that were made to the constitution led to the centralization of powers, putting them under the control of the Central Alliance Council. Member-states no longer have autonomy to rule themselves. This was a requirement for interstellarization to be successful. With so many different member-states, interaction between worlds was fraught with loopholes and arguments over interpretations of law that crippled any expansion of the Alliance, as well as its markets. Especially the latter. In fact, many now believe that the entire purpose of the Alliance is the profit of its markets, evidenced by the fact that every seat on the CAC is filled by politicians bought and paid for by the largest corporations in the Alliance. In fact, half of the council members are believed to be controlled by SilTek, one of the original founders of the Alliance, and the only one that was a corporate-owned world.”