Category Archives: Book 06: Glory

Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 2

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Isaac led us through the facility, explaining generally what was going on on each floor. I would have asked a lot of questions except I knew better. He didn’t know anything worth knowing about how anything worked. Sure, he could tell us what the major activities on each floor were, but I could guess that.

What I wanted to know was what techniques they were using and if they’d made any advances over the Alliance’s standard ships.

I didn’t need Isaac to figure that one out either. All I had to do was to observe. The spaceships around me in various stages of construction weren’t quite designed to human specifications. Take the big spaceship at the bottom of the hole. When we walked through it, it was obvious to me that whatever race it had been designed for was on average about seven feet tall. Bearing in mind variation, they’d designed the size to allow people (beings?) as large as eight feet tall.

Continue reading Stardock: Part 2 →

Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 1

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My grandfather told me once that war was long periods of boredom broken up by moments of terror. From the stories that the original League told about World War 2 and their experiences afterward, it sounded right.

Knowing that, it’s not so much of a surprise to learn that after the Hrnnna’s disappearance, the Xiniti’s trip through the gate they normally guarded, the annual inspection of the Jay and Kay, and my own frantic call to Agent Lim saying that I had Figured It All Out nothing happened at all.

I went through the week wondering if we’d be invaded, or worse, bombed from space.

Neither occured, and we ended the week with a normal Stapledon weekend.

Well, normal for the fairly loose definition of normal I’d been living under during the last few years–the kind of normal that puts you in a position to fight evil alien space horses.

Continue reading Stardock: Part 1 →

Arc 6.3: Alien Robot Autopsy

Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 4

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I rolled that around in my mind for a moment. “Let me get this straight. The Hrnnna we talked to earlier were pretty clearly freaked out by how Haley looked or smelled or something-”

[Unsurprising. Her transformed self is nearly identical to the troops the Abominators used for hand to hand combat.]

We’d suspected based on the Hrnnna’s reaction to her, but I felt my jaw drop at the jet’s confirmation.

Since hearing the story of how she broke up with Sean, I’d suspected that the biggest part of her unhappiness about her change came from the fear surrounding the police investigation that followed the breakup. That and the fact that she didn’t feel like she could control her transformation.

Confirmation that she was so close to one of the Abominators’ slave races wouldn’t help.

Continue reading Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 4 →

Arc 6.3: Alien Robot Autopsy

Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 3

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Was there any reason I could think of that the Spinward Searchers for Knowledge Valued clan might have a grudge against the Hrnnna?

No.

Whatever was going on here probably had its roots in alien politics, and I didn’t know anything about alien politics beyond the fact that pretty much everyone hated humans. Did I know anyone who might know more? Lee, probably, but he wasn’t always available when I needed him.

Plus, I had two alien AI’s here in HQ with me. Cassie’s gun wouldn’t be much help. From what she’s said, the Nine had found it as part of some sort of archeological dig. It might have been out of the action for thousands of years. The jet’s AI, however, might not be up on the latest events in space, but it probably knew the basics.

Continue reading Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 3 →

Arc 6.3: Alien Robot Autopsy

Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 2

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I hadn’t had Vaughn carry the robots all the way to League HQ. A tornado isn’t exactly subtle. More to the point, it’s not exactly a mode of transportation that can carry a couple robots to HQ without giving anyone a hint that we’re there.

That’s why I told Vaughn to drop the two robots in an open field off the side of the highway. I don’t know if anyone owned it. Brown grass lay on the ground, a thin layer of snow covering it.

Whatever the case, I’d flown off in the Rocket suit, and brought each of them into the jet’s cargo bay. I also had the Jet give them a quick scan to see if they were really dead. Continue reading Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 2 →

Arc 6.3: Alien Robot Autopsy

Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 1

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League HQ—On Sunday afternoon, I made some time to investigate the robots that had attacked us. By investigate, I mean take apart.

We’d brought home two of them—the least damaged ones. Neither of them looked good, but neither of them had surrendered, so there you go.

Because they were both about the size of the van, I’d brought them into HQ’s hangar. Because I kept certain tools in the lab, but not in the hangar, I’d had to lug a pile of tools over.

It took time, and that’s why I had SuperTV playing simultaneously in every room, and that’s why I was watching “Hero Scoop with Baz Wilson.”

It wasn’t that I particularly liked the show. He was more often wrong than right, but when he was right, it could be a disaster. When he’d done a show on Hard Luck, he’d inadvertently revealed the guy’s secret identity. You could argue it was mostly Hard Luck’s own probability powers working against him, but he wasn’t the only hero who’d been outed that way.

Continue reading Alien Robot Autopsy: Part 1 →

Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 16

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Talk about loaded questions, and not one I could lie about either. Haley could tell when I was lying by smelling my reactions and hearing my heart speed up.

Izzy, I knew, had a sense of hearing that could substitute for sight, and not just sight—X-Ray vision. I couldn’t lie. I also couldn’t tell the truth. This was Daniel’s relationship. He should talk about it with her.

As I thought about it, my heart sped up. Haley gave me a sidelong glance, and frowned.

I said, “He’s talked about you. I can’t say much about it since he told me in confidence, but yes.”

That was pretty much the ideal response. She couldn’t demand I tell her what he’d said. Well, not politely anyhow.

Continue reading Chancy Connections: Part 16 →

Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 15

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Haley swung forward, and at first it looked as if she might hit the ground, but she retracted the line, giving her more space. Then more quickly than I could see, she set the line to detach, retracted the line entirely, holstered the gun, and hit the ground in a series of flips.

At any rate, she had to have done that. I missed it because once the line detached, I flipped myself over, using the rocket pack to slow down, and finally hover in place.

I saw Haley’s last couple flips, and then she came to a stop standing, facing the trees.

Clearly the years she’d spent in gymnastics hadn’t gone to waste.

Still feeling a little disoriented from my own aerial acrobatics, I glanced at the HUD. The feeds from the roachbots showed that the remaining two machines had driven through the clouds of my bots, destroying a few.

The moment they cleared the trees, they were firing. Continue reading Chancy Connections: Part 15 →

Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 14

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They hit me several times even as I gave the rocket pack more fuel, and twisted, shooting upward and unpredictably (I hoped) to the left.

Meanwhile, I gave each of them a full blast of the sonics, hoping that the way I’d tweaked my grandfather’s algorithm would find a resonant frequency that would break alien tech.

Nothing started smoking, and that was bad because Haley needed help.

She hadn’t stayed inside the van. She’d ducked around the corner, using the van for cover—which wasn’t a bad idea. It was better than staying inside until the alien machine burned through, but it didn’t stop the machine from hammering the van and everywhere around it with lasers.

I had no idea how she survived, but she rolled out from under the van on the near side—away from the road.

Continue reading Chancy Connections: Part 14 →

Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 13

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“Okay,” I said, “but, they can practically disintegrate you with a shot, and I’m thinking they’re machines, so their reaction times are going to be faster than we’d expect. Plus sneaking past them will be harder. I mean, it depends on their design, but—“

Haley sighed, sounding more irritated than anything else. “I know. I’ll be fine.”

I wasn’t going to change her mind. “So,” I said, “I guess I’ll fly out and get their attention, and you’ve got the van and everything in it to work with after that?”

She gave a brief smile. “Don’t worry about it. Go. I’ll help if you get in trouble.”

I’d noticed before that she seemed more confident after she’d fully transformed.

“Alright.” I put my hand on the door, and we looked at each other.

“Good luck,” I said.

Continue reading Chancy Connections: Part 13 →