Chapter Fifteen: Written in the Stars


Much to Emett's impatience, Daniel stopped short just before opening the door to the chamber. They were so close…was he having second thoughts now? "Before we go any further, I need to know: are you sure you want to do this?"

What sort of question was that? "If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have come this far, would I?" said Emett, a bit of irritation sounding through his tone. "Look, what's with the hesitation all of a sudden? Are you afraid of him or something?"

"No," Daniel said, firmly, but not so much that it seemed like a lie. "I'm…concerned. Just concerned, is all. I've never been comfortable with holding the guy on BAINE property, especially a site like this. The man's crafty. I just worry he might try something one of these days."

"He hasn't so far, and he's been here for a few months, so what's the worry?" said Emett. "He's locked up tight in there, so he's not getting out anytime soon. And it's not like anything he says can fool us, right?"

Emett could see Daniel slowly coming around. "...Right." He was quiet, almost a whisper when he said it. Without another word, he opened the door into the containment cell. It slowly slid open, grinding against the floor. As the light shined through, he caught his first glimpse of the prisoner within.

It was the first time Emett had ever seen him in person. He was deathly pale, which contrasted eerily with his bright blue and yellow eyes. "Captain Bridge," he said conversationally. He had just been sitting there on his cot, as though waiting for them to arrive. "And I see you've brought a friend." Emett felt a chill run down his spine as the prisoner looked directly at him.

"Enough, White," said Daniel. "Emett, you have the floor."

"Oh…um…" He wasn't expecting to be given free reign of the interrogation. He had no idea where to begin. "What do you know about the Koh'i'Noor?"

Aster had a blank look on his face for a moment before he laughed. "Have you all finally lost it?" he said, looking back and forth between the two. "Something new comes up, and I'm the one you immediately turn to? Sounds to me like you're desperate."

"Listen, you knew about the Xevellans," Daniel said, taking a step forward. "When I asked, you knew an invasion was coming. You were the one bragging about how much you knew, so I'll ask you one more time: what do you know about aliens?"

For a moment, Aster was quiet, as though he hadn't expected this response. "Xevellans…" he said softly. "How did you know they're called that?"

"One of the perks of actually having Gems on our side," Bridge answered. "A better question would be how you know. Mind telling us that?"

Aster chuckled. "I suppose I don't have any reason to hide it. The reason I know so much about the Xevellans is because one of my officers is a Xevellan."

At this, Emett was the one with a blank look. He glanced over at Bridge for clarification, only to find that the captain was just as stunned by this as he was. "Th-they are?" was all he managed to say.

Now that he was in control again, Aster leaned back in his seat, much more comfortable. "Looks to me like you weren't expecting that. Yes, I was quite aware that they aimed to strip the planet dry in preparation for the Cluster's emergence. At least…I assumed that the Cluster was the inciting factor. That they didn't start until after it was dealt with gives credence for this other invasion you're dealing with now."

"And how many other people know?" asked Emett. Daniel gave him an odd look, but otherwise stayed quiet. "About this Xevellan you're so chummy with."

"Only he and I know the truth," White replied. "The other Archons suspect he isn't an ordinary human, but I have yet to tell them the whole story. Although, they very well could be aware of this by now. I haven't heard from them in some time."

Daniel took over. "And there's a reason for that, isn't there? In any case, I find it hard to believe that someone who literally worships Gems wouldn't know about the species that created them."

Aster almost looked offended at this comment. "You speak of Gemkind as though they were machines, meant to fulfill a purpose. I can assure you that wherever you got this information from, it is false–and if they were created by anyone, it would certainly have been a divine force."

"I don't think he knows anything," said Emett, shaking his head. "For as much as he goes on and on about being some all-knowing prophet, he's surprisingly in the dark."

It was only a slight twitch, but Emett's comment seemed to have the intended effect of getting under his skin. "And yet, I know far more than either of you ever will," he said, trying not to sound offended. "For instance…how are those allies of yours, Captain? Still loyal as ever, or has one of them decided BAINE is no longer worth the effort?"

"What are you talking about?" growled Daniel.

"I was just making sure none of your friends have abandoned your cause," Aster said with mock innocence. Take Jonathan, for example. Or does he still prefer to go by Vargas?"

Emett looked worriedly at Daniel, who was getting angrier. Despite this, he managed to hiss out a calm "For the last time: explain yourself."

Aster answered with a small laugh. "How much clearer can I be? I'm simply asking if you're as familiar with your followers as I am with mine. Names escape me…but I never forget a traitor."

"Goodbye, Aster." Having had enough, Daniel dragged Emett out of the room, closing the door behind them. White's smile as they left further unnerved an already-shaken Emett. "I knew coming down here was a bad idea."

"What was that about?" asked Emett. "Who's Vargas? Is that one of your squadmates? And what did he mean by 'traitor?'"
"What he meant was to turn us against each other," Bridge said as he stomped down the hallway. "See, this is what he does. He gets in your head with all that cryptic nonsense, makes you think you don't know more than he does. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen if we talked to him."

For a moment, Emett was almost afraid to ask the next question. He figured it was a bad idea, but with nothing else to add, felt it was necessary. "Could he have been…you know…telling the truth?"

"And what would the truth be, exactly?" Daniel said. "That Vargas is planning to betray us? That the two of them worked together before? He's a desperate man in a desperate situation resorting to desperate lies. Nothing more."

"Probably," Emett agreed. "Still, he was telling the truth about the Xevellans. At least, I assume so. He couldn't have known their name otherwise."

"Mmm." As they left the cell block, their effort leaving them with more questions than answers, neither commented that he also had no way of knowing Vargas' name.


July 27, 2016.

Despite his best efforts, Aster's comments rattled around in Daniel's head long after he had left the cell behind. As much as he tried to convince himself that it was just, as he had said, a desperate man's attempts to mess with his head, the words lingered. He tried to interact with his team as little as possible, for fear that something would give away his thoughts. As the Director called a meeting of BAINE's captains, he was relieved to have something to put his mind on instead.

Maybe it was just him projecting, but Daniel swore that something was off with Mills when the latter entered the room. BAINE's director was never exactly a jovial man, but he always carried himself with an aura of hope. This was not the case today, as a dark cloud seemed to hang over him. Some of the other captains seemed to sense it too, proving to Daniel that this wasn't just in his head.

"Everyone…" Director Mills said, taking a solemn pause, "...I am sure you are all aware that we now face a threat unlike anything we have ever faced before; An extraterrestrial force bent on destroying everything we hold dear. We will need to come together now more than ever before to have any hope of survival."

"Seems like that's a yearly thing now," one of the captains said. "A few years back, SEEN was a threat 'unlike anything before.' Then, Homeworld started coming back. I mean, think about it: the Children, the Cluster, the Xevellans–what threat hasn't been unlike anything before?"

"Would you drop it?" said another. "No one said that this would be easy! What, did you think this job that entails protecting the planet itself would mean doing the same thing over and over again?"

"I'm just saying what everyone's thinking!" said the first captain, standing up. "Tell me I'm wrong! When exactly does this all stop? Does life ever get to a point where things are normal again, or does it just keep getting worse, and worse, and worse, until we can't do anything anymore!? Say Homeworld does decide to attack–what then? What can we realistically do against them?"

Daniel felt that there were several things he could have added to this argument, but he stayed quiet. Even he wasn't quite sure why. Maybe a part of him agreed. It did seem like things were steadily growing worse at times. Luckily, Mills put an end to this before it could escalate.

"That's enough, settle down!" he said, chiding the captains like a rabble of rowdy children. "There's no sense getting worked up over what we cannot control! Yes, we have seen more threats than usual as of late, but that is no reason to lose our heads! And while it's true that Homeworld may one day decide to launch a direct attack, they have yet to do so. Now, our opponents are the Koh'i'Noor strike team sent against us. Until we know for certain of other threats, this should be our top priority."

Mills then rolled over to the door. Several of the captains, Daniel partially among them, were surprised to see Valdain himself stroll through, accompanied by Rhodes. The robot looked around with what he could only surmise was nervousness at the congregation of leaders he found himself being judged by.

"In times like this, we need to make usage of every advantage we have at our disposal," Mills continued. "For the time being, Valdain is one of our advantages. We will need his assistance if we are to overcome these odds."

Before Valdain could speak, one of the captains interrupted. "How do we know we can trust him?" he barked. "We have no way of knowing he isn't just a spy for these Koh'i'Noor people!"

"Look, we ran the tests, what more do you want?" said Rhodes indignantly. "He isn't armed, he isn't radioactive, if there's…" Valdain placed a hand on his shoulder, quieting him down, and indicated that he would like to speak. Rhodes took a step back.

"Thank you. Believe me, I understand your concern. If anything, I would be worried if you all trusted me blindly. As I said, I can't offer you anything more than assurances…but if it's worth anything, I believe I have a plan to disrupt Alkaria's attack. May I?"

"You may," answered Mills. "Show us what you have been working on."

With his permission, the robot stepped up to a nearby blank wall, pressing on the side of his head once again. This time, a flat image of the same vessel was projected onto the wall, as a cross-section viewed from the side.

"This is the schematics for Alkaria's model of ship," he explained. The increase in aperture needed to increase the laser's power output has rendered it vulnerable to intrusion by smaller craft, as you can see." While it wasn't quite as obvious as Valdain was making it out as, the ship's frontal mining cannon did seem big enough for a small craft to slip through. "I imagine you can tell where this is leading?"

"Let me guess: we have to shoot something down the barrel?" one of the captains said. "Now where have I heard that before?" she muttered to herself.

"Precisely!" continued Valdain. "Before it fires, the crust-buster draws power from the dreadnought's core itself. This gives us a window of approximately one minute: too early, and our attack won't have any effect, too late, and any incoming weapons or ships will be vaporized. To say nothing of the planet itself…"

"And when you say 'our attack'...what exactly is it you mean by that?" asked Mills. "Is there some secret method to destroying the ship?"

"I wouldn't call it a secret; any sort of explosive should do the trick, provided it is large enough," Valdain said. "Now, forgive me for making assumptions, but something tells me that graviton-based explosives are a bit beyond your species' capabilities. We'll instead need to work with the next best thing. What would that be, in this case? Neutrino? Nova? I suppose even a necro-bomb could work under the right circumstances…"

"Biggest bomb I can think of is a nuke," said a captain. "We should just shoot an A-bomb straight down that thing's gullet. Or H-bomb, I ain't picky."

"Nuclear, eh?" said Valdain. "That…isn't exactly ideal, but I suppose it will do. You have a stockpile of such weaponry, correct?"

Mills looked uncomfortable. "Unfortunately, no. In theory, BAINE can be granted access to a country's nuclear arsenal in times of crisis, but President Rowsdower has always been hesitant to do so. I will convene with the British Prime Minister, perhaps we can–"

"Hang on," Daniel said, an idea forming in his head. "Why don't we just…make our own nuke? I mean, we've been collecting Gem crap for decades now, there has to be enough material there to come up with something that explodes, right? Eddy, back me up on this."

Rhodes was clearly uncomfortable at being singled out like this. "Look, most of that stuff is just raw material anyway, so we give it to Polaris. At least, that's what we used to do. But even if we did hold onto dangerous radioactive materials, there's no way we could just make a nuclear bomb out of junk lying around!"

"Then what about a shooting star?"

All heads turned towards Valdain. "...What now?" a captain said.

"A shooting star," he repeated. "It's a Gem weapon that they deploy from orbit–not unlike a nuclear bomb, in fact. One of my duties before working my way onto this expedition was studying Gem technology. With some help from Dr. Rhodes here, I might be able to synthesize one, provided we acquire the necessary materials."

"I…I mean, that could work," said Rhodes. "We might be able to scrounge some stuff up from the research bay. And I remember the CGs had one of these shooting star thingies a while back, so maybe they know a bit more about making one. What exactly do we need?"

"Judging from what I've seen so far, none of the materials should be hard to come by," Valdain said. "Some fluoride, some manganese, we can fill in the blanks with enough ionic charge…the only thing that could be a problem is the plutonium. To make a working star, I'll need exactly…" He paused, doing the conversions in his head. "...ten kilograms of it."

"Alright, good start…but where exactly are we gonna get any plutonium?" someone asked.

"I believe I can handle that part," Mills said, relieved to finally have a solution to their conundrum, incomplete as it was. "Mr. Rhodes, you yourself gave me the idea mere moments ago: I'll simply need to inquire with our inside man at Polaris Industries. I am certain he can lead us to a large enough stash."

"Alright then! Let's get started!" said Rhodes, eager to begin working with Valdain. Daniel was also eager to begin, but looked at the robot with unease when he left. The idea of this practical stranger helping them build a nuke didn't sit well with him. But, orders were orders, and it wasn't like anyone had a better idea."

"Once we have a location, I will send several Fireteams to discreetly acquire the material," Mills said. "Steele, Hugo, Bridge, you three will be taking point." All three of them answered with a 'Yes, sir.'

"Not that it;s a complaint, but it's still worth mentioning," the first captain said. "Seems like you Victor guys are always in the thick of it. Why d'you think that is?"

"Beats me," Daniel said with a shrug. "Bad luck, I suppose."