The Clone Redemption

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

More often than not, the Unified Authority colonized planets that came complete with continents and an oxygenated atmosphere. The Galactic Expansion Committee’s top criteria for selecting suitable locales included distance from a suitable and stable star, Earth-like size and gravity, and good galactic position.

Since the prime criteria could not be altered, they were nonnegotiable. Other preferences, such as oxygen and water were open to interpretation. Providence Kri, for instance, was something of a fixer-upper when the Unified Authority decided to colonize it. The term “Kri” was attached to planets that required terraforming—a miracle process that could convert rocks and deserts into gardens of Eden.

As I entered the bridge, I saw Providence Kri in its rotation through the view screen. Whatever the planet had looked like before the Unified Authority gave it a makeover, it certainly looked like a hospitable blue-and-green marble afterward.

Having been rescued from the Avatari by clones, the populace of Providence Kri was unfailingly loyal to the Enlisted Man’s Empire. That was good. We were too busy fighting natural-borns and aliens to lay down laws, so we trusted the residents of the various planets to govern themselves. We were military clones; our dabbling in politics never worked out the way we hoped.

Looking out of a viewport, I wondered how long we had until the Avatari turned this planet into a dust bowl as well.

In better times, Providence Kri had served as a galactic hub for the Unified Authority. In these times, it served as a galactic hub for the Enlisted Man’s Empire. The Cygnus Central Fleet, Admiral Liotta’s fleet, a fleet that included seven fighter carriers and thirty battleships, orbited the planet.

The Cygnus Central Fleet was big, but it lacked the firepower needed to defeat the Earth Fleet. The U.A.’s new generation fighter carriers and battleships were smaller, faster, and better shielded than our ships.

Liotta and an entourage of fleet officers flew out to the Churchill to meet me. We did not have time to chat. Time had become scarce.

Liotta took me and my team to Engineering, where Lieutenant Mars presented the crew with a new broadcast key. I allowed Admiral Liotta to have a key, but I did not give him a copy of the book that contained the complete set of codes and broadcast locations. The book contained hundreds of thousands of codes, pinpoint coordinates for safe broadcast areas all across the galaxy. Instead, I handed him a highly abbreviated list that included coordinates for the twenty-two remaining planets in the Enlisted Man’s Empire along with a few strategic destinations such as New Copenhagen.

“I have a pilot delivering keys and coordinate cards to every fleet,” I said. “He’ll have a key to Jolly within the hour.”

Liotta smiled, and said, “So we’re back in business,” as he glanced at the list of broadcast coordinates. Then he paused, and asked, “New Copenhagen? I thought they destroyed that planet.”

“They did.”

“Why would we want to go there?”

“That’s the point,” I said. “There’s absolutely no reason to go there. If there’s no good reason to go there, the Unifieds probably aren’t patrolling the area.”

Liotta nodded, and said, “So it’s a safe place to regroup.”

“Something like that,” I said.

I did not say good-bye to Ava. As I said before, time was scarce.

She would be safe on Providence Kri until we evacuated the planet. Once the evacuation was done, and the danger had passed, we would sit down and sort things out …assuming she had any interest in sorting things out with me.

I had not come to Providence Kri to drop off refugees or meet with officers though I did a little of both. I came to commandeer a new ship. With her shields broken, the Churchill needed repairs or retirement, so Freeman and I transferred to a carrier named the Bolivar. I met the captain in the bridge, handed him a broadcast key, and told him to take us to New Copenhagen.

Captain Tom Mackay heard my orders, and said, “I heard the aliens scorched that planet.”

“They did,” I agreed.

“Um,” Mackay said. “I just wanted to make sure.”