John felt unsteady again after Mick dropped them off in Jen's mountain office. He did not get that feeling with TRs and considered it must be an effect by Turas Luath. Tye and Higgs were standing in front of them with a choice of CDUs.
"West is waiting for us," Higgs said trying to brush off dark smudges from his lab coat.
"External SITREP," Jen asked as John dressed.
Higgs looked like he had not slept for days. He was not the Prime Higgs John knew, but a stained lab coat? Things could not be good.
"Large enemy forces are advancing on both the western and eastern fronts," Higgs said. "Still no word from Appalachia and the mid West. It seems we're the last."
"And Carl is organizing the militia's deployment; he was thankful for the smart-round system," Tye said to Jen.
"And just how did all those crates get here and distributed before our arrival?" Jen asked.
"Not important," Tye said nervously.
"Bending accords again?" John said dully as he closed the last fastener on his CDU.
"West wanted to see you both as soon as you got here," Higgs said diplomatically changing the subject.
"And we have an interesting prisoner," Tye added, "but I will catch up with you; Rodney and I still have reprogramming to do on the nano-weapons."
"Let's don't keep the general waiting," Jen said as she playfully pushed John in front of her and out the office.
General West and Major Timberin were engrossed in a heated conversation around the general's conference table when they arrived.
West looked up and smiled at Jen. Cale stood and just pushed his chair back a bit too hard; he tried a desperate grab for it, but failed.
The general was the first to speak, ignoring the clatter, "The major doesn't like the plan one bit, but he doesn't have anything better that's executable in roughly sixty hours."
"It's a suicide mission," Cale said, "For you both."
John liked and respected the major. He also knew Cale had known Jen for years and understood his concern.
"What's not suicide these days?" Jen said looking at Cale. "Sitting here will be."
"Can't argue with that," Timberin replied thoughtfully.
"Your mission is a go," West told Jen. "And Captain, good to finally meet you." He held out his hand to John.
"Likewise, General," John said shaking a firm hand. He found it hard to believe that, despite the current considerable differences between Prime, Plus and Minus, there were some fractime twins that led practically the same life in all three universes. Hal West was a case in point.
"Mission support will be limited," West explained, looking to Jen and then Cale.
"How limited, General?" Jen asked.
"Nonexistent," Cale muttered.
"There's still the Chinese," West added with a sigh.
"Like I said- nonexistent," Cale reiterated.
John had gotten enough detail on Jen's mission to Plus 1 that it was not surprising the major was pissed with the Chinese. It could have gone pear-shaped several times. They were lucky to get out.
"We'll see what they have to say," West said.
"They're here?" Jen asked incredulously.
"Yeah," Cale said. "You friend Su is here with an 'ol buddy of Tye's."
"We'll deal to the Chinese later," West said. "The Navy went to a lot of trouble getting a POW to us. You two need to see him." West looked at Jen and John with tired eyes and said, "Interrogation Room three. We'll deal to the Chinese when you're done."
Tye and Cale met John and Jen at the holding cells. Cale led them into the observation room attached to interrogation room three. Shutting the door behind them, he turned on the one-way viewing wall.
"Damn. He's huge," John said.
"What is it?" Jenny asked, staring at the creature.
"I am not familiar with this particular species, perhaps it is distant sector," Tye said. "Not my specialty," she added sounding a little embarrassed.
"It says its name is Kharg," Cale said.
"Male or female?" Jen asked.
John was proud of her for not assuming size meant male, as he had just done.
"It doesn't register to it," Cale said. "Both? Neither? And I'm not interested in looking."
"Just Kharg?" John asked, suppressing a smile.
"Yeah. Just Kharg," Cale replied.
"Are those burns?" Jen asked.
"Mostly first and a few second degree," Cale said. "That's not bad for surviving a mid-air explosion from at least twenty-five thousand feet; at least that's part of what it's told us so far."
"You've got to be joking," John said in awe.
"USS Texas found it drifting north in the Gulf Stream off South Carolina," Cale said. "It's been cooperative if not a bit confused. It thinks it's dead."
"Anybody would think that after being blown up at twenty-five thousand feet," John said shaking his head in disbelief.
"Oh, it's not that," Cale said. "It's its Synth. Kharg expected it to do its thing before the explosion, but it's not responding. Apparently, unheard of for Synth."
"It is goodlife. We should kill it," Tye whispered in John's ear.
"There's more," Cale said.
"Is it friendly?" Jen asked looking at the colossal being sitting quietly twirling its huge thumbs together.
"Totally," Cale said. "Quite passive in fact."
"How's a dead mountain supposed to feel?" John asked rhetorically.
"Passive is good." He did not think the cell could actually hold the creature if it did not want to be there.
"You said there's more," Tye asked Timberin.
"Yeah," Cale said, mesmerized by the creature. "Too bad there aren't chairs here for you to sit down."
John took Jen's hand and squeezed it gently before letting go and pressing his nose to the wall to get a closer look at Kharg.
Cale activated the intercom to the interrogation room. "Kharg," he said.
"Yes, God," Kharg said looking to the ceiling.
"What was your title?" Cale asked.
"Cull master."
"And isn't Lutzger supposed to be a cull master, too?" John asked.
Tye shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows?"
"While on planet," Cale asked, "who was your last commander?"
"Hemisphere tier one Leadership Commander Johnston 31," it replied with a hint of disdain.
John looked at Jen and said, "Not the same—"
"An upline twin," Cale said as he cut the intercom. "According to Kharg, she destroyed the aircraft with all on board after a botched mission
to attack the Prime US with over two hundred nuclear weapons. The Nukes do tie in loosely with the flash observed above Calgary followed by radiation traces for a few days after the EMP activation. However, they were just returning from the Caribbean."
"Where did they go?" Jen said.
"The Sojourn was forming," Tye said. "The instabilities surrounding space time during this event are substantial. Given we now know null space is not just a theory; that would be one possibility."
John groaned. "Martinique, I suppose."
"Why would the nukes end up in Martinique?" Jen said with a tinge of confusion.
"No. Johnston and Kharg," John clarified.
"Good guess," Cale confirmed. "The Texas tracked the aircraft from Miami to Lamentain and then most of the way back until it self-destructed."
"Good guess," Jen said while trying covertly to poke John again, but missed.
"Ask him if Cliff Henrys was there," John said.
Cale activated the intercom again. "Kharg."
"Yes," Kharg replied.
"Was Cliff Henrys on your last mission?" Cale asked.
"Cliff. Yes," Kharg replied. "Small, weak human."
John nodded to Cale to deactivate the intercom. "Carl Watkins has identified Henrys as the man with the TIA on Martinique in Prime during the Pelee eruption in 1902," John explained. "But he couldn't have been making transit from Plus 2075. The transit range would have to be as good as Tye's modification of our standard transit units." John scratched at the top of his head in frustration. "And it believes in God and speaks English with a Russian accent. How can aliens do that?"
"Maybe he is not an alien and there is a set of missing modified TRs," Tye said. "The one's Carl used to escape Pelee."
John looked at Tye and nodded. He considered those TRs lost to the eruption. "Damn," he said softly. "I wonder if they were the other TIAs Jenny said were stolen from a French museum."
"Seems to be Ukrainian not Russian; the accent that is," Cale added.
"Haven't got much in addition. Just this." He dug a small medallion on a metallic cord out of his uniform pocket. "It was the only thing Kharg was wearing when they fished him out of the Atlantic."
"Any ideas on what is it?" John asked.
"Higgs says there some kind of quantum smell to it," Cale said handing it to Jen.
Tye turned toward the wall to get a closer look at Kharg. "The cull master is the second most powerful person on or off planet. They hold life or death over all goodlife."
"But its brain-eater ain't working," John quipped.
Tye stared at Kharg. "That's probably why it is so—"
"Lost," Jen said empathically while looking at the creature.
"Anyway," Cale said to Jen, "You keep the medallion. He's obviously important, so it's probably important, too."
"Probably just a birthday present from its mother," John added.
"You think it had a mother?" Tye asked sarcastically.
"We better see what Su has to say," Jen said breaking Tye's cynical mood and making her giggle.
John followed Jen in to the general's office just ahead of Major Timberin. Higgs and Tye were there sitting across from General West, General Zhong, as well as another Chinese officer and a middle-aged woman he did not recognize.
General West stood up. "Let me introduce General Zhong, his attaché Major Yenzu and—"
"Rori Nysas," Tye interrupted. "Apologies General," she added hastily.
"Actually it's Captain Nysas," Rori replied dryly.
"Actually it's Captain Nysas of the Time Corps," West added sternly.
"It seems the Chinese have had an alliance for some time with the TC."
"News to me," Tye said. "Why wasn't I informed?"
"Not my decision," Rori replied and then grinned.
John was wondering just what Tye and Rori's history was when they rushed to hug each other.
"It is still good to see you," Tye said, firmly holding Rori's shoulders.
"And you," Rori reply warmly.
"At least now we know who was flying the Forever," Tye said and obviously happy to see an old friend.
Jen looked to Su.
"You know how it works," he replied shrugging his shoulders.
"Things take time. Just like the Mets," Major Yenzu added with an American accent.
"Ancient history people," West chided. "We've got less than sixty hours on the mission clock."
"I should offer a quick explanation," Zhong said. "Captain Nysas made contact shortly after we obtained our first captured transit set almost ten years ago."
Rori added hastily, "A non-sanctioned contact but, permitted with their capture and subsequent development of transit tech."
"A loose technicality," Tye said.
"Why non-sanctioned?" Jen asked Rori.
"It was debt called in," she replied.
"The Queen?" Tye asked with disbelief.
"I owed our former Queen my life," Rori said.
"So, you guys are on the same side," John said stating the obvious to everyone one other than himself.
"We always have been," Rori said looking to Tye rather than John.
"The queen demanded complete deniability and I have acted outside the Time Corps. She obviously had other plans for the western alliance."
"Some alliance," Jen scoffed, looking at Zhong.
"The Sojourn was successful," Cale said stiffly.
Zhong cleared his throat. "The war has had a high cost. But with some luck, counter intelligence recently identified several large bases associated with enormous fluctuations in ground forces. And while they started to disengage in some areas, they committed large forces to storming our most heavily defended bases only to result in large-scale mass causalities or suicides. We needed more intel on what this all means."
"Nothing more than a mass goodlife cull, I bet," Tye said.
Zhong continued, "With Captain Nysas' help, we executed the Taklamakan operation, making sure Colonel Scott and Watkins were there. It was risky, but it constituted the first steps of a formal alliance with the remnants of the US. As planned, your mission was successful."
"The Chinese have been fully briefed and given our work on the Prophesy," West told his command.
"We knew the enemy was coming and going from somewhere in the area and you found out where in both cases," Rori said. "This null ship has to be destroyed and soon. The Time Corps is in conclave considering erasure of several adjacent universes. Sufficient anomalies have been documented, and it could go sector-wide."
John shook his head as the TIA came to mind yet again.
"Damn," Tye said slowly. "But, the whole sector? It is unprecedented."
Zhong continued. "An élite squad infiltrated deep into the base while Captain Nysas created a distraction from above. The squad succeeded in determining numerous, functional transit stations are operating within the
base. The scale of personnel transits to the null ship must be immense.
You should be able to gain access to the ship from one of these stations."
They are telling the truth, Luca told John and Jen.
John jumped, forgetting Luca was still in his head.
Zhong looked troubled. "Transport back to Taklamakan will take precious time," he said.
"Let us handle that General," Tye said. "We can beat that timeframe considerably."
Rori gave Tye a sideways glance.
"We could use another diversion," Jen said looking to Zhong and then Rori.
"Difficult." Rori grimaced.
"You can do it," Tye told her.
"What about Kharg's medallion, Rodney?" John asked.
"You have a Kharg?" Rori said. "Big fella?"
John nodded. "A cull master and I thought Kharg was its name."
"The Kharg are a docile and introspective species," Rori explained.
"They have a passion for the mental side of martial arts but are non-violent by nature. Unfortunately, they are very pliable by others, even with their incredible sturdiness. It's not surprising one could be controlled to act as a puppet cull master. They probably have its family hostage."
Higgs straightened his lab coat lapels. "Kharg's object seems only to be partially in this fractime. Very unusual. It could be in contact with a larger network of similar objects. Hard to tell without an invasive inspection."
John wondered if there was whiskey in West's Plus desk drawer.
"A ground assault should also help," Zhong said getting back to the mission. "We barely have the resources, but that could make an impact. I may be able to get back just in time."
Jen said something in fluent Mandarin, and then abruptly stopped herself.
General Zhong looked at her. "You're full of surprises, Colonel. And you're right; we'll have to be careful not to be late or endanger your team."
John smiled and made a mental note of Jen's add.
"We'll take anything you got, General," Cale said while staring at Jen.
General Zhong bowed subtly to the major.
"Good," West said. "Make it so people."