The Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  “I haven’t decided yet that there will be a response, and if there is, you and Koh won’t be the ones to compose it.”

  “I didn’t mean that, I only meant we’ll be ready to reverse translate whatever you—wait, what do you mean you haven’t decided?” The engineer’s voice climbed in pitch until it was competing with the whine of fluid gushing through the smaller pipes. “They’re friendly. You heard it.”

  “They certainly claim to be friendly. It could be a trap.”

  Swettenham shook his head vigorously. “Oh, no. I know what you’re thinking, and I know what Apex does, but there’s no way they could fake this. They’d have to know Old Earth English, then they’d have to come up with a plausible path to put something together that sounds like a modern dialect, complete with vowel shifts and word changes. This sounds exactly like what you’d expect to hear. You couldn’t fake this.”

  “Apex is clever. They no doubt have their own linguists.”

  “And teach someone to be fluent. Can the birds even make human sounds like that?”

  “Or take someone captive,” Li said, “and force her to record a fake distress message. Or they could have easily intercepted the message and are waiting to see if anyone answers. Those are only the most obvious risks.”

  Swettenham didn’t respond right away, but licked his lips and blinked rapidly. He was looking for some way to refute this, Li could see, and at last he nodded, seeming to settle on something.

  “But we have to take a chance.”

  “That’s your rebuttal? That we’ll take our chances with fate? This isn’t a game of liar’s dice.”

  “Commander! The Albion woman said ‘the fate of your people.’ You know what that means. My God, you must.”

  “I do not, Swettenham, and neither do you.”

  “They know something, something that has happened to Singapore, and it’s terrible news, it’s the worst possible news.” The man reached out and grabbed Li by his uniform. “It’s over, Commander, we’ve lost! We have to team up with these people or we’ll be exterminated. Extinct, she said.”

  “Wartime hyperbole.” Li removed the man’s hands from his uniform. “If you continue this hysteria, I’ll have you locked in solitary confinement. If you spread news of this, you will be in violation of Directive One.”

  “I never knew,” Swettenham said, taking a step back until he was pressed against the pipes. “You’re like your sister. I thought you were different. I thought you would see.”

  “I haven’t made a decision yet,” Li said. “But until I have, nothing has changed. Is that understood?”

  The gleam returned to the man’s eyes. Hope, returning. Well, there was one good thing about Engineer Dong Swettenham—he was not harboring any secret conspiracies. The man’s every emotion was written on his face.

  “Yes, sir. And thank you, sir.”

  “For what?” Li gestured for the man to follow him up the passageway. They walked on the large green pipe like it was a walkway.

  “For trusting me with this. It is the most interesting work that has come to me in eleven years. By far. I won’t let you down.”

  “I know you won’t, Swettenham.” Li felt himself warming to the engineer again. “And I promise I’ll make my decision soon. The ship is still coming our way, there’s time. Meanwhile, lock down the message. Nobody else is to have access to it but you, me, and Hillary Koh. I suppose Koh will have to listen to it, won’t she?”

  “Of course.” Swettenham nodded. “Yes, I’ll keep quiet. You can count on me. Just don’t . . . don’t wait too long, all right?”

  Li would talk to Koh, but he thought she’d be equally amenable. No doubt she had factional sympathies—didn’t everyone these days?—but surely he could put her off for a few more hours. Better call her in, speak to her in person.

  Soon, Li was off the lift and headed in the opposite direction from Swettenham. Li walked down the narrow corridors that led through the power plant and into the storage bays, where he had to thread his way through boxes stuffed with what was mostly munitions. Beneath his feet, shielded by several feet of concrete, were lead-lined boxes holding fissile material. Overhead, bombproofs. Knowing Apex weapons and tactics, they gave him little comfort should there ever be a battle.

  Li felt eyes on him from the technicians, inspectors of munitions, and other workers here in the heart of the base. He rarely ventured this deep, finding it too tight, too claustrophobic. After so many years confined, he preferred the biggest spaces he could find, the least clutter, the fewest people. This was undoubtedly the reason they all stared as he passed. They wondered what he was doing down here. But he couldn’t help but worry that they were staring because the news had spread, that everybody—Opener, Sentry Faction, and Neutral—knew.

  People had heard, people had talked. They wanted to know what he would do about it. And what would they say when they learned he’d actually translated the message and knew what it contained?

  We’ll stay silent.

  There it was. There was Li’s decision.

  He would suppress the contents of the message if he could. If he couldn’t, he’d bring in his sister and Jeremy Megat to organize the Sentry Faction. But there would be no communication with HMS Blackbeard, whether the message was real or not. Even if real, the warship was severely damaged, by its own admission. It was far from friendly territory and had already proven itself incapable of fighting Apex. What could it possibly offer the Imperium?

  What about what you can offer it? What about helping your fellow humans, your allies against the birds?

  He pushed these thoughts out of his mind. Winning the war was what mattered. Inflicting maximum damage on Apex. Even if they were the last Singaporeans alive, they would fight to the end, never fall into the enemy’s hands. And they could only do that if they remained undetected.

  Li was lost in thought as he continued into the habitation module. He reached his quarters, spoke to the door, and stepped inside when it opened at the sound of his voice. The lights were already on. Two people were inside, waiting for him.

  Li stopped and gaped, so startled that someone had broken into his quarters that he didn’t even register at first who they were. The door slid shut behind him and sealed with a sigh.

  “Hello, brother,” a woman said, lounging on his couch, arms outspread. Anna.

  The other intruder was Jeremy Megat, who stood to one side with his arms crossed, scowling.

  “How dare you?” Li said.

  “My question to you, Jon. Exactly my question. This is treason, you know that.”

  He pointed to the door. “Get out of here.”

  “Explain yourself, first.”

  “I don’t have to explain my actions to you or anyone else. I am the base commander, and my word is law. Go, damn you.”

  “Except when you violate Directive One,” Anna said. “Then you have proven yourself unfit to lead and must be replaced.”

  “Directive One does not say what you think it does. In fact, there is no such provision in the military code. That is something you and your faction have concocted.”

  “It is an accurate interpretation of Imperium regulations, and we’re enforcing it.”

  Li noticed for the first time that Megat was armed with a pistol in a holster. Where had that come from? And how the devil had these two got into his room? The door was coded to his palm print, and his palm print only.

  Whatever the answer to those questions, or to how they’d learned he’d translated the message, it was obvious what this was. A mutiny. An overthrow of the military order of Sentinel 3.

  Megat took a step toward him, and Li put up his hands. His anger gave way to prudence.

  “Listen to me. Before you move, think this through.”

  Anna didn’t move from the couch. “We have. Believe me, we act without pleasure. Out of absolute necessity. I respect you as my commander, for the efforts you’ve made to keep Sentinel 3 operational for eleven years. And you are my broth
er. But you have committed a treasonous act. You are no longer fit to lead.”

  “I will have you both arrested,” Li said. “You understand that, don’t you? This display of factionalism will explode into civil war, and you will be the ones responsible for whatever happens. That makes you guilty of treason, not me.”

  Megat put a hand on Li’s arm. “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

  “Don’t touch me.” Li jerked loose. “Stand down, both of you. I’m warning you.”

  “When the threat has passed, you’ll be released,” Anna said. “Without command, but released. We will find a suitable position for you that will utilize your skills.”

  “Computer, open channel. Attention, base—”

  Li stopped as he realized that the com link wasn’t responding. He rushed to the door, but it wouldn’t open. Sensing Megat stalking behind him, Li whirled and lunged for the man’s gun. Megat blocked him with his shoulder, then shoved him back toward the center of the room. Li ducked out of the way, stepping clear of his sister, who remained on the couch. So cold, emotionless almost.

  He braced himself to grapple with Megat again. The man stayed back, wary. One hand rested on his pistol.

  “Go ahead, shoot me,” Li taunted. “You’ll have to kill me sooner or later.”

  “No,” Anna said. She came to her feet at last. “Don’t you do it, Megat.”

  “I will if I have to,” the man said in a grim tone. “He’s a traitor.”

  “Why?” Li demanded. “Because I wanted to hear what the message had to say? You call me a traitor because I didn’t delete it unlistened to? Because I had it translated?”

  “It was what you did after that’s treason,” Anna said.

  “I did nothing. I told the man who helped me to keep his mouth shut and I came directly here.”

  “After responding,” she said.

  “Responding? I haven’t done anything of the kind. If you want to know, I was going to suppress it, not that it’s any of your business.”

  “We caught your message. We haven’t decoded it yet, but we know. So don’t lie, don’t play us for fools. You sent a response.”

  There was heat in her voice, and Li wanted to glance at her, but was afraid to turn his gaze from Megat, who was still poised, ready to lunge. They wanted to take him uninjured, he knew—that was the only reason Megat hadn’t taken him down yet. They didn’t want the commander to look bloodied, to inspire the Openers to come to his aid when he was thrown into a holding cell. The whole sham would continue into a mock court martial, no doubt.

  “I don’t know what you think I did, but you’re wrong. Have you heard the incoming message? Do you know what it is?”

  “Why don’t you tell me, Jon,” Anna said.

  “You don’t, do you?” Li let out a bitter laugh. “So you’re more wrong than you know. It’s a human ship all right.”

  “So you think,” she said.

  “Will you shut up and let me finish? It’s a human ship—I’ve heard the voice, listened to the transmission, and had it translated. It’s a dialect of English, and we broke it open.”

  “What does it say?” Anna couldn’t hide the curiosity in her voice.

  “It’s a distress call, more or less. It’s some sort of warship from a human kingdom called Albion, a small collection of planets on the far side of the Hroom Empire. They promised to help the Imperium.”

  Megat seemed to relax during this, and Li took a chance to ease his own posture. He turned his attention to his sister and held her gaze.

  “You don’t know any of this,” he said, “or you’d never have suspected me of turning into an Opener.”

  “And you haven’t answered the message?”

  “Of course not. There’s no point. The ship is crippled, weeks away from her fleet, and her captain only wants to find us to get repaired so they can scurry back home. Some vague promise of giving us aid, of course. I have no idea how they got Imperium codes—it might be a trap after all—but it doesn’t matter. They can’t help us, and so I’m not tempted to answer.”

  This was not true, of course. Li was highly tempted. He could have easily swung the other way if he’d had slightly more confidence in the contents of the message.

  “And so we remain silent,” he added. “I told one of the pair who helped me to keep quiet until the ship was past us, and I was coming back here to summon the other to give her the same orders when you and your friend showed up and threatened me.” Li briefly turned to glare at Megat, who looked troubled. The situation was very nearly back under control. “Now, sister, tell me why I shouldn’t have the both of you arrested? You’ve broken about twenty military regulations, any one of which means a court martial. Should I name them?”

  Anna sighed and settled back onto the couch. “Sit down, Jon.” She glanced at Megat, who still had his hand on his gun. “Oh, will you stop that, Megat? We made a mistake, that’s obvious enough. My brother wasn’t the instigator.”

  “Well?” Li demanded. “What is your excuse?”

  “Jon, there was a message sent out. About thirty minutes ago. Someone sent a response back at our visitors. Tried to hide their tracks, but we found it. We got into communications and traced it back to you.”

  Li narrowed his eyes. “Neither of you work in communications. How would you do that?”

  “Neither does anyone else. Not really. They’ve been transferred elsewhere since there’s no one to communicate with, and all passive listening is automated.”

  “So how did you get into the system?”

  “The same way we turned off your com link and locked you into your room.”

  “In other words, you’ve hacked your way through the base. Broken through protected systems, made us less secure in an emergency.”

  “It was necessary,” she said.

  “And you call me the traitor.”

  “Anyway, we’re not the only ones, obviously. The originator of the outgoing message got in somehow, assuming you’re telling the truth.” Anna nodded darkly. “We’ll find out if you’re lying.”

  “You know I’m not.”

  “Then who did it?”

  Li thought of Swettenham and his boast that he’d been a level one communications engineer. He’d be skilled enough to get into the system, especially if he had a programmer like Koh helping him. Was Li even sure that Koh herself hadn’t been the one to build the extra security layers that protected the communications equipment? She might have coded a back door.

  Li faced threats from both sides. He’d been fighting a losing battle against factionalism for all these years, and now it had come to a boil, thanks to the message from HMS Blackbeard. The Sentry Faction and the Openers had each made a move. Which was more serious, the breach of the communications systems by the Openers, or the Sentry Faction physically attempting to remove him from command? And which was a bigger threat to the base?

  Li made a decision. “Keep your gun, Megat.”

  “Was there any question of that?” the man said.

  Li ignored him. “You will stay armed at all times. I’ll open the armory and distribute weapons to a handful of others. There are people who have proven willing to undermine our security.”

  “Openers,” Anna said. “The bastards.”

  “Call them what you want, they cannot be allowed to continue.”

  Anna remained lounging on the couch. “What is your plan?”

  “I’m sick of your insolence. Stand up when you address me. I’m going to forget this incident, and chalk it up to an overzealous desire to protect this base, but we’re tightening discipline here, and that starts with the two of you.”

  “What is your plan, Commander?” she asked.

  Her tone was still short of respectful, but she rose obediently to her feet. There was something almost akin to relief in her expression, and Megat no longer looked hostile.

  “I told you, Engineer Li,” he said to his sister. “We are and will continue to operate in silence.
This Albion warship has nothing to offer us, and will not be engaged. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, sir.” Her tone was sharp.

  “Megat?” Li demanded.

  “Understood, sir. And agreed.”

  “I don’t ask your agreement, only your compliance. Now, we will find and arrest those who have disobeyed orders and attempted unauthorized communication with an outside party.”

  “Yes, sir!” they both answered in unison.

  No sign of rebellion now. Apparently, all they wanted was a leader, a high priest for their religion of eternal vigilance in defense of the home world. Not that Li trusted them; their loyalty had returned too quickly, and would disappear again with the wrong word from his mouth.

  Li nodded curtly at their response. Inside, he was still in turmoil, not only from the factionalism that had taken hold of the base, but from the Albion message itself.

  We are aware of the fate of your people, and wish to help the survivors any way we can.

  Chapter Six

  Captain Tolvern hurried onto the bridge after receiving Tech Officer Smythe’s message on the com. Lieutenant Capp and Pilot Nyb Pim followed her, the latter ducking to get through the human-size doorway.

  A return message. Salvation and redemption. Information blinked on the viewscreen, which Smythe was manipulating from his console. Seen from the right angle, Smythe was the picture of masculinity, with a square jaw and broad shoulders. He looked like a captain or the son of an Albion duke, but he was all tech geek when hunched over his console.

  His junior tech officer was a quiet young woman named Lomelí, short and unimpressive to look at, but nevertheless one of the hardest workers in the entire crew. She worked the defense grid computer when not helping Smythe. Now she was bent over her own console on the other side of the tech station.

  “What have we got?” Tolvern said, hurrying to take her seat while trying to make out the information scrolling across the screen.

  In her excitement, she plopped into her old seat in the first mate’s chair. Capp had followed her in, and now snickered and moved as if to take Tolvern’s place in the captain’s chair.