Rogue Clone: The Clone Betrayal Part 1

Rogue Clone.

The Clone Betrayal.

Steven L. Kent.

In 2001, I became acquainted with one of the world's last Renaissance men, an American who speaks Portuguese like a Brazilian, plays the piano like a concert pianist, and knows how to frame his own home. When the retention pond beside his house became choked, he hopped into a Bobcat and dug it out. When I asked him how he learned to operate heavy equipment, he responded, "It really isn't that hard." He said the same thing when he finished restoring a cla.s.sic Austin Healey: "It really wasn't that hard."

John Thorpe's long list of skills goes well beyond carpentry, auto restoration, music, linguistics, landscaping, and driving a backhoe; it also extends to human renewal. I know this for a fact. My entire family has benefited from his talents.

Here's to you, J.T.

We have a wretched, motley crew in the Fleet. The Marines, the refuse of every regiment, and the seamen, few of them ever wet with salt water.

-Benedict Arnold.

SIX EVENTS THAT SHAPED HISTORY: A Unified Authority Time Line.

2010 TO 2018 DECLINE OF THE U.S. ECONOMY.

Following the examples of Chevrolet, Oracle, IBM, and ConAgra Foods, Microsoft moves its headquarters from the United States to Shanghai. Microsoft executives maintain that their company has long been a global corporation and remains dedicated to the United States; but with its burgeoning economy, China has become Microsoft's most important market.

Even though Toyota and Hyundai increase manufacturing activities in the United States-because of the favorable cheap labor conditions-the U.S. economy becomes dependent on the s.h.i.+pping of raw materials and farm goods.

Bottoming out as the world's twelfth largest economy behind China, Korea, India, Cuba, the European Economic Community, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, j.a.pan, South Africa, Israel, and Unincorporated France, the United States government focuses on maintaining its position as the world's only remaining military superpower.

JANUARY 3, 2026 INTRODUCTION OF BROADCAST PHYSICS.

Armadillo Aeros.p.a.ce announces the discovery of broadcast physics, a new technology capable of translating matter into data waves that can be transmitted to any location instantaneously. This opens the way for pangalactic exploration without time dilation and the dangers of light-speed travel.

By the end of 2030, the United States creates the first-ever fleet of self-broadcasting s.h.i.+ps, a scientific fleet designed to locate planets for colonization. When initial scouting reports suggest that the rest of the galaxy is uninhabited, politicians fire up public sentiment with talk about "manifest destiny" and spreading humanity across s.p.a.ce.

The discovery of broadcast physics leads to the creation of the Broadcast Network-a galactic superhighway consisting of satellite dishes that send and receive s.h.i.+ps across the galaxy. The Broadcast Network ushers in the age of galactic expansion.

JULY 4, 2110 RUSSIA AND KOREA SIGN A PACT WITH THE UNITED STATES.

With the growth of its s.p.a.ce-based economy, the United States reclaims its spot as the wealthiest nation on Earth. Russia and Korea become the first nations to sign the IGTA (Intergalactic Trade Accord), a treaty created by the United States that opens the way for nations to become self-governing American territories and enjoy full partners.h.i.+p in the s.p.a.ce-based economy.

Hoping to consolidate its position as the sole nation colonizing s.p.a.ce, the United States issues an open invitation for all nations to join the IGTA. Several nations, most notably China and Afghanistan, refuse to sign the IGTA, which leads to a minor world war, in which the final holdouts are coerced into signing the treaty.

More than 80 percent of the world's population is eventually sent to establish colonies throughout the galaxy.

JULY 4, 2250 TRANSMOGRIFICATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

In an effort to demonstrate that the IGTA is a unilateral ent.i.ty rather than an extension of the United States, the organization changes its name to "The Unified Authority."

Deemed inadequate for governing the galactic expansion, the U.S. Const.i.tution is replaced by a new manifesto merging principles from the Const.i.tution with concepts from Plato's Republic. In accordance with Plato's ideals, society is broken into three strata-citizenry, defense, and governance.

With forty self-sustaining colonies across the galaxy, Earth becomes the political center of the republic. The eastern sea-board of the United States becomes an ever-growing capital city populated by a political cla.s.s-families appointed to run the government in perpetuity.

Earth also becomes home to the military cla.s.s. After some experimentation, the Unified Authority adopts an all-clone conscription model to fulfill its growing need for soldiers. Clone farms euphemistically known as "orphanages" are established around Earth. These orphanages produce more than a million cloned recruits per year.

The military does not commission clone officers. Officers are drafted from the ruling cla.s.s. When the children of politicians are drummed out of school or deemed unsuitable for politics, they are sent to officer-candidate school in Australia.

2452 TO 2512 UPRISING IN THE GALACTIC EYE.

On October 29, 2452, a date later known as "the new Black Tuesday," a fleet of scientific exploration s.h.i.+ps vanishes in the "galactic eye" region of the Norma Arm.

Fearing an alien attack, the U.A. Senate calls for the creation of the Galactic Central Fleet, a self-broadcasting armada. Work on the Galactic Central Fleet is completed in 2455 and the fleet travels to the Inner Curve, where it vanishes as well.

Having authorized the development of a top secret line of cloned soldiers called "Liberators," the Linear Committee-the executive branch of the U.A. government-approves sending an invasion force into the Galactic Eye to attack all hostile threats. The Liberators discover a human colony led by Morgan Atkins, a powerful senator who disappeared with the Galactic Central Fleet. The Liberators overthrow the colony, but Atkins and many of his followers escape in G.C. Fleet s.h.i.+ps.

Over the next fifty years, a religious cult known as the Morgan Atkins Believers-"Mogats"-spreads across the 180 colonized planets, preaching independence from Unified Authority government.

In 2510, spurred on by the growing Morgan Atkins movement, four of the six galactic arms declare independence from Unified Authority governance.

On March 28, 2512, the combined forces of the Confederate Arms Treaty Organization and the Morgan Atkins Believers defeat the Earth Fleet and destroy the Broadcast Network, effectively cutting the government off from its loyal colonies and Navy.

Believing they have crippled the Unified Authority, the Mogats then turn on their Confederate Arms allies in an attempt to take control of the renovated Galactic Central Fleet. The Confederates manage to hold on to approximately fifty s.h.i.+ps and join forces with the Unified Authority, leaving the Mogats with more than four hundred self-broadcasting s.h.i.+ps, the most powerful attack force in the galaxy.

Under U.A. leaders.h.i.+p, the combined forces stage a counterattack on the Mogat home world destroying the entire Mogat Navy and leaving no survivors on the planet.

2514 TO 2515 AVATARI INVASION.

At the heart of Morgan Atkins's doctrine was a claim that aliens he referred to as "s.p.a.ce Angels" planned to invade the Milky Way. The U.A. government, however, dismisses Atkins as a crackpot, ignoring warnings of alien sightings during the invasion of the Mogat home world.

In 2514, an alien force enters the outer region of the Scutum-Crux Arm conquering U.A.-held planets. As they attack, the aliens wrap their "ion curtain" around the outer atmosphere of the planet, creating an impenetrable barrier that cuts off all contact.

In a matter of two years, the aliens spread throughout the galaxy, occupying only planets deemed habitable by U.A. scientists. The Unified Authority has lost 178 of its 180 populated planets when it makes a final stand on New Copenhagen.

During this battle, U.A. scientists unravel the secrets of the aliens' tachyon-based technology, enabling the U.A. Marines to preserve Earth and New Copenhagen.

PROLOGUE.

Earthdate: October 16, A.D. 2516.

Location: Terraneau.

Galactic Position: Scutum-Crux Arm.

With the ion curtain sealed around it, Terraneau looked more like a small star than a living planet. Before this mission, I had never gotten a firsthand look at a "sleeved" planet from the outside. From s.p.a.ce, it looked like it might have been plated with white gold.

I could not see so much as a trace of the land or water through that ion layer. With the curtain around it, the planet was as featureless as a ball bearing.

Until four years ago, Terraneau was the capital planet of the Scutum-Crux Arm. Of the 180 populated worlds, this rock had the fifth largest population-1.2 billion people. But Terraneau was an early casualty of the Avatari invasion. The aliens wrapped their ion curtain around the planet, and no one had heard anything since. At least they had not heard anything until one month ago, and they didn't hear much then.

We still didn't know if we would find survivors behind the curtain. We might find the planet covered with alien soldiers. We might find a hollow ball populated only by alien miners. The only message we received from the planet was brief-just the words "Go away."

"I have a fix on the target zone," the pilot told me. We sat watching the planet from the c.o.c.kpit of a military transport. We had to use computers to calculate the location of the target zone on the planet; the ion curtain rendered our sensors useless.

Kelly Thomer, the third man in the c.o.c.kpit, asked, "Do you think that was what New Copenhagen looked like from outside, sir?"

He and I had fought together on New Copenhagen, a planet not much different than Terraneau. The aliens "sleeved" the planet with their ion curtain, cutting us off from the rest of the universe. Once the curtain was up, no s.h.i.+ps could enter or leave the atmosphere. The ion curtain disa.s.sembled light waves and absorbed energy. The aliens who created the curtain also used its tachyon particles as building blocks for creating an army of remotely controlled soldiers.

That was their strategy, isolate and attack. First the aliens wrapped the planet in their ion curtain, then they invaded.

"I've never thought about it," I said. When pedestrians were hit by a car, did they wonder what the accident might have looked like from across the street? Did shark-attack victims wonder what the attack looked like from sh.o.r.e?

"Captain, what if the aliens are still down there?" the pilot asked.

"They're gone," I said, trying to sound confident even though I had my doubts. "They don't have time for sightseeing, not with an entire galaxy to destroy."

"Do you have the torpedo ready?" I asked the pilot.

As a rule, military transports flew unarmed, but this particular bird had been modified. Our engineers had attached a tube below the c.o.c.kpit armed with a nuclear-tipped torpedo-the key we would use to unlock a trapdoor through the ion curtain.

If it worked, we might have a one-minute window to penetrate the curtain and land on the planet. If we didn't get through the curtain quickly enough, the electrical systems on the transport would fail while we entered the atmosphere. If the ion curtain proved impenetrable, our fleet would be stranded in s.p.a.ce with no port for food and supplies. Even if the torpedo got us in, and we landed safely, we might run into aliens. We might also enter an atmosphere so saturated with toxic gas that our s.h.i.+p would dissolve around us.

"Ready to go, sir," the pilot said.

"Do you think this will work?" Thomer asked. He didn't usually ask so many questions. Nerves.

"It doesn't matter what I think," I said; though, in truth, I thought we had a good shot. We were firing our torpedo directly over the spot where the aliens had landed. a.s.suming our calculations held up, and the spheres from which they emerged were still down there, the radiation from our torpedo would tear a hole in the curtain.

I didn't feel as confident about what would happen next. Once we made a hole through the curtain, we had to enter the atmosphere before our hole closed in around us. If we successfully entered a breathable atmosphere, then we had to land without running into aliens. If we landed safely, we would need to evict the aliens. The odds grew longer with every step.

For Thomer, though, my first answer was good enough. I said, "We'll know one way or the other in about five seconds." Then I told the pilot to fire the torpedo.

He reached up and flipped the trigger. I caught the quickest glimpse of the torpedo as it sped off from under the s.h.i.+p-just a flash of dull white casing and bright orange flames-and the torpedo was gone.

The official reason for liberating Terraneau was to use it as a base for the Scutum-Crux Fleet, the largest fleet in the Unified Authority Navy; but I had reasons of my own. I wanted to wage a war against mankind.

The Pentagon had sent us out to the farthest corner of the galaxy and stranded us here. Back in Was.h.i.+ngton, they thought they could leave us out here to rot. The politicians and generals thought they were sweeping their clone problem under the carpet, but I would show them. I knew something they did not know, I knew a backdoor that would lead to Earth.

Clones have ghosts, and this time their deceit would come back to haunt them.

PART I..

THE WORKINGS OF WAR.

CHAPTER ONE.