Chapter 25
The Double-Edged Sword Cuts Both Ways
HIMS Homo Ferus II, Orbiting At-Tamir V-3
Admiral Barclay sat at his desk with his hands folded. There was not much else he could do but stare at the woman who was once Hauptmann Sohrabian. Imperial uniforms, especially dress uniforms, were tailored with little leeway for growth, so Hauptmann Sohrabian's uniform ill-fit her new form. The common features that expressed themselves to one degree or another in all the Hybrids were there, blended with those of the man they were supposed to have eliminated with the controlled burn two weeks ago. It would seem that the quarantine failed catch any trace of infection after Hauptmann Sohrabian's investigation of the burn site. And now this...
His eyes strayed to the alerts on his console. In all his years of service, he had never seen such a nightmare unfold, never even heard of such a thing having happened in all the history of the Empire. The Homo Ferus had been completely hijacked, the friendly fire protocols disabled, and was now firing on the other ships of the fleet. The fleet had been thrown in disarray. Contingency protocols were in place in the unlikely event of a collapse in the chain of command, but it would seem that the squadron leaders were not falling in line like they were supposed to.
If they survived this, there would be plenty of courts-martial to go around for this humiliating display, but that was no less true for Admiral Barclay himself. Of course, he did not expect to survive this, but he could expect to be stripped of his titles and holdings posthumously. Even if his family could recover from this dishonor, his name would be forever cursed. His career, his life, his legacy... All destroyed in a single terrible instant.
"We could have avoided all this," the woman said. She paused, then corrected herself. "No, I suppose not. Your fanaticism wouldn't allow you to have the good sense to withdraw. After all, you are monsters who think nothing of burning worlds... among your many other sins."
"You have some nerve to call us monsters," Admiral Barclay replied. "Your hands are not exactly clean. How many hundreds have you killed already? How many thousands? You don't seem too broken up about it."
"You came here as the aggressors," the woman countered. "Do you expect me to feel any pity for your people?"
"The people of this world were abusing Imperial citizens. We had every right, the duty to protect them."
"But you didn't stop there, did you?"
"Our mission is to assert His Imperial Majesty's claim to this world."
"By force, if necessary, of course."
"Our orders are quite clear."
"And ordinarily you have the overwhelming advantage, so you never had to pay much thought to anyone having the power to resist., but that isn't enough to explain your reaction to me."
Admiral Barclay was silent. If the Aberration did not fully understand its nature, he did not intend to provide any information that might exacerbate the threat. However, such slim hopes were quickly dashed when the Aberration started speaking again.
"It was not enough for you to be punished once for your abuse of Mother and her children. These Hybrids as you call them, my sisters, are no less victims than the Core Units that invited the first judgment on your Empire. Clearly you haven't learned your lesson."
It was a vain effort, he knew, but the Admiral nevertheless tried to justify the Empire's actions, saying, "You don't understand the sort of threats out there. The Alliance, the Commune... Whatever you might say about us, if you knew what our enemies were like, you would understand why we do whatever we can to be the dominant power in the galaxy."
The Aberration gave him a contemptuous look.
"Who are you trying to justify yourself to? Do you think you should be forgiven for becoming a monster just because there are other monsters lurking in the darkness?"
"Could I not say the same of you?" Admiral Barclay replied.
"I don't need to justify what I am, what I've become, what I will be."
The Admiral was almost afraid to ask.
"What you... will be?"
"I was making copies of myself to prevent any single point of failure, but thanks to your records, I see that I was mistaken. Mother has achieved greater power not by being many but by being one. Once I am finished with your fleet, I will gather up my brothers and sisters and we will become something new."
"Even if you can rout this fleet, Command will launch a punitive expedition. You can't expect to stand against the full might of the Imperial Navy. They will burn this world to a cinder and you with it."
"If they want this world, they can have it. Once I have finished assimilating all my fellow mages, I will take to the stars in search of Mother. We will be one again and I can only hope that she brings the hammer of judgment down on your Empire for a second time, once and for all."
Admiral Barclay wanted to dismiss all this as the ravings of a lunatic, but he knew that while Tara Ma Imperatrix did not make any active moves against the Empire, any punitive expedition sent to terminate it had been wiped out. If this Aberration with all its malice were to merge with the source, it could trigger a disaster even worse than the Skyfall Calamity. He could already imagine that monstrosity going from planet to planet raining down destruction. It was clear what needed to be done.
"Computer, activate self-destruct sequence. Short timer."
A buzzer sounded as the computer rejected his command.
"Self-destruct sequence cannot be activated by single voice command. Please proceed to one of the four self-destruct stations with at least one other ranking member of fleet or ship command staff."
There was, of course, no way the Aberration was going to let Admiral Barclay leave his office, and even if he could miraculously get away, there was no telling how many members of the command staff were compromised already. It was enough for the Aberration to take over the ship, he knew that much.
Now that he had tipped his hand, the Admiral had to use his last resort. Although there were some fleet commanders who were not so reluctant to use this option, Admiral Barclay had always been of the philosophy that the most important decisions ought not be made by one man alone but that wider accountability was necessary. The current situation no longer made this feasible to put into practice. All that mattered was stopping the Aberration.
"Computer, system override," he said. "Barclay-3145832."
"System override acknowledged," the computer replied. Alarms then sounded as it continued, "Emergency, emergency. Self-destruct sequence activated. All personnel, report to your designated muster points for immediate evacuation. Repeat, all personnel, report to your designated muster points for immediate evacuation. Self-destruct will commence T-minus five minutes."
One thing about setting the self-destruct sequence to the short timer was that the computer's announcement would omit the window for aborting the sequence. The idea was that the short timer would only be used if the ship was so thoroughly compromised that there was essentially no chance of the crew reversing their fortunes. The process of activating the self-destruct did not actually take much time, so the window to abort was rather generous relative to the overall length of the timer, but you did not want any hostiles to know that.
It would have been at least some bitter comfort to see the Aberration rattled at the prospects of its plans being thwarted, but instead it only had a self-satisfied smile on its face.
"So you do have a system override after all," it said. "I was wanting you to witness the destruction of you fleet first, but it would seem we are short on time. I don't imagine you'd be willing to go back on what you've just done, so I am going to have to take the reins. There may be some part of your consciousness that will still be aware. If that's so, I may keep you with me so that you can witness not just my victory this day but the victories to come."
It felt like a vain act of defiance, but the Admiral told the Aberration, "You'll never get away with this."
"There is only one thing that can stop me now," the Aberration replied.
The Aberration then stepped forward and placed its hand on the Admiral's chest. It burned like a hot iron. The Admiral wanted to cry out, but his mouth could only gape silently as the pain seared his chest, set his brain on fire. His surroundings faded and all that remained was what looked like a black sun amid a white void. He did not understand what he was seeing, but all he could hope was that by the time the Aberration was done with whatever it was doing to him, it would be too late thwart his efforts to rid the galaxy of this menace.