Unholy Trinity Read online

  “You shall send them our second reserves to give the outpost the false impression that Outpost 7 will be the theatre we are choosing for the final battle. I have killed the commander for the lack of care he showed on attacking the outpost. Inform Krio that he is the new commander, and instruct him to stay where he is. Let us test the mettle of this Melville.

  Send attack forces to each Outpost in a synchronised attack, but arrange for the rest of our forces to achieve a full invasion via Outpost 3 at my mark. By the time Melville has supported Outpost 7, and then realised that he faces a blanket attack, he will be totally out of position to face the true thrust of our assault. Don’t bother destroying the Outposts, once Melville has diverted his forces to Outpost 3, engage hyperdrives and bring all forces to Gipluk. Bypass all the Outposts and arrive at Gipluk by my mark. They are so confident in their defensive arrays, let us make their greatest strength, their greatest weakness. When it matters at Gipluk, there will be so many of us, we will swamp their defences, and it will force Melville out to face me, and I will then capture him and take him to the great Darknet Mother. Ensure my orders are carried out precisely!” he finished, and he felt confident that this little setback was now an advantage having responded precisely and cohesively.

  ∆∆∆

  Sat in his cabin, Chapat looked at the message in front of him. He had translated it, but it still made no sense. The alien probe was probably human in origin, and he felt it was important to try and break the code. To do this, he partook into a crash course in learning the human language. He needed to think in this language, otherwise through the vagaries of translating a foreign language, and trying to decode it would be too difficult. It took him fourteen hours, but he felt then he could speak and read the language. He then began thinking the ways that this could have been coded. He thought about days of the week, mathematical concepts such as number sequences, algebra and other forms the coder could have used. He realised he hadn’t eaten for ten hours, so he left his cabin for now. They were not needed on duty for another twelve hours, so he was confident he would crack the code by then.

  ∆∆∆

  Emily looked at the steady reinforcements that had been taking place over the last three hours. It seemed so obvious to her that this was an invasion fleet, she felt she had to bother Melville with it. He was sympathetic, but still insisted it could be a ruse. He promised her the sixth fleet was only an hour away, and with the defence system they had, it would not be easy to destroy the station. If she was the full target, he would go there immediately and ensure hers and the outpost’s safety. She told him she was grateful, but could not shake a feeling a way that this was all going to go drastically wrong! Why wouldn’t he take her seriously?! She was not in the habit of panicking, and as she remembered how things used to be when he was just Melville, and not bloody Lord General Melville, it reminded her of how much things had changed, and a depression deepened inside her. She felt lost, and did not feel that she deserved any of the praise, or even the expectations in her abilities which she now experienced. She shook herself out of her negative reverie and reminded herself that people’s lives were at stake, and they were all counting on her!

  ∆∆∆

  Outpost Four was in the UY system, and protected the entrance to the solar system. They had just finished installing the Gargarin blasters in their defensive array thankfully, when they were suddenly surrounded by thousands of sleek, black enemy ships, all giving off the tell-tale dark energy and matter signals. They just stood there looking at them, and for a short time, it was like time had stopped ticking due to the enormity of the crisis. Then the fighters attacked, and all hell broke loose. They reported the attack to Dodds, who told them they were not on their own, Outposts Two, Three and Five were also being attacked!

  ∆∆∆

  Melville looked at the screen in disbelief. He had never seen so many ships on a screen before. It was clear this was an all-out blanket attack across the entire defensive grid, and he had to deploy all his reserves to cope with the emergency. He heard Emily’s cry for help, and he told her she would have to hold on and use the sixth fleet as best she can, they had an all-out war on their hands and all outposts were being attacked!

  He paced up and down the floor, and he realised this just didn’t feel right. He thought he was being played like a fiddle by Grovolk, and ordered the second and fifths fleets back to Gipluk. The stares on the faces of the generals in the room mirrored what he was feeling inside, but he felt that this was a ruse by Grovolk, and we would not dance to his tune. He was convinced this was the right thing to do – it had to be! He simply could not make a mistake here!

  Another thought entered his consciousness then, what if the attack on all the outposts was a ploy to deflect his true intention? Did they really need to destroy the outposts, they could engage FTLS and go wherever they wanted to, but where would they want to go? He realised his thinking had been one dimensional, hiding behind their defensive arrays. He remembered the war, and Hitler just bypassing the Maginot line and heading towards Paris. He stood there convulse with indecision. He came to the conclusion that his one advantage was the navigation array, and he would have to remain glued to the communication array screen, and any deviation from the enemy, he would pull all the fleets back, and leave the outposts just protected with their defensive arrays.

  ∆∆∆

  Science officer Chapat had just two hours left, but he had made some encouraging discoveries. The code he realised was based on something he had researched on human mathematical development, and he had worked out the code was quite possible linked to the Fibonacci number system. With a sense of excitement, he entered the sequence into the computer, and asked it to use the system to decode the message. With a sense of horror developing within him, he read the decoded message, and sent a personal message to Lord Grovolk, who responded immediately by sending their ship to search for human remains where they had picked up the probe, and then when they find it, to destroy it immediately. He also congratulated Chapat and promoted him on the spot. Today had been a good day, and as he told the captain his new orders, he could tell there was a sense of fear and respect in the way he treated him now.

  They engaged the hyperdrive and after a short journey, they arrived at the coordinates, and after an even shorter time, their scanners picked up human remains floating in a debris field. Although it was invisible, they sent a target drone and it pinpointed its position with a holographic marker, but to their astonishment, each time they tried to destroy it, it replicated itself. The captain told Lord Grovolk, and after a short wait, over a hundred large ships had joined them, and a after a prolonged attack, eventually the system could not replicate itself quick enough, and it was completely destroyed.

  ∆∆∆

  The view outside her window was full of enemy ships, thousands had been destroyed, but it seems hundreds of thousands were there, continually replacing the ones which had been destroyed, and she was beginning to worry that the defensive array would not cope. Half of their ships were destroyed, and she felt that this was going to end very badly. She sent a vid message to central command, where she knew Melville and his generals would be there. She begged them for more help, feeling anxious in a tense knot in the pit of her stomach that her husband would once again disregard her request. She had not signed up to be an army commander, and couldn’t understand how she had ended up in this position. She felt every death, and she had the feeling of drowning, which wasn’t a good sign. Once again he didn’t listen to her! It was like a monster had taken her George’s place: he just didn’t seem to care about anything anymore!!

  ∆∆∆

  I listened with horror, but I could also see a mass of ships massing to attack Outpost Three, so it killed me to say it, but I told my Emily that we just couldn’t help her at the moment. We decided to send our available reserves to Outpost Three as that seemed the most likely point of invasion. Then, the unthinkable and impossible happened, the communications arra
y screen went blank. The generals checked the connections, and confirmed to me what I already knew! They had discovered the array and destroyed it! We were blind!

  Chapter Thirteen – The Trap Closes

  Deep inside the Darknet, the firewall programme known as tJor, was sort of no longer a programme. The Mother had been messing with its programming when it accidentally deleted itself, but was still present. It manifested itself in the form of actual fire, and felt as if it could exist within the mainframe, just as much as it could exist in a physical state. It was neither programme, nor a physical being. The Mother named it spirit, and it was a powerful protection for the Darknet. It could travel wherever it wanted across the huge Darknet in an instant, and it could split itself up into a myriad of smaller flames, and then resume its larger presence.

  It had been monitoring some suspicious communications coming from directly inside the mainframe, so it created extra security protocols meaning, not only would it block any further attempts, but it would also give it further information about the entity sending the messages. It looked forward to uncovering what it suspected was either a rogue programme, or something even more sinister. It also decided to raise security inside the mainframe to an unprecedented level 2 protocol. It was determined to find this cancerous growth inside the Darknet.

  ∆∆∆

  Susan had been monitoring events with a deep sense of worry, and she had just found out that the real target of the invasion wasn’t the outposts at all, it was Gipluk and Melville! She sent a message immediately, but it bounced back citing ‘UNABLE TO CONNECT DUE TO INCREASED SECURITY PROTOCOLS’. She looked at the message in horror. She had to communicate something to Melville, this was turning into a disaster!

  She talked to Melville’s father, and he said she was in danger of being discovered by the Darknet, so she then spent considerable time in adding protection and camouflage to the programme. She told Melville’s father that she was going to extend the programme and try to send part of her consciousness there so she can investigate why this has happened and perhaps raise her own security so she can warn Melville.

  “I warn you against this move pathfinder. You will be extraordinarily vulnerable while you are there, and your presence there can be eradicated for good. The only way you can safely exist there is if Melville is bodily there with you.” it said, and she could feel its concern. She just didn’t know what to do!

  ∆∆∆

  Mr Chu watched a third of the enemy fleet attacking the defences, and so far they had held, but he realised that the speed and intensity of the attacks meant that their defences would not last long. He marvelled at the rest of the enemy fleet as it just stayed there and watched. He communicated with Melville, but Melville told him he couldn’t afford any more ships, all the outposts were being attacked.

  Mr Chu let it go, because he could tell Melville was under extreme pressure, but he felt deep in his soul that something was very wrong with all of this; as if it was a game of cat and mouse, and he knew full well who the mice were.

  ∆∆∆

  It happened slowly, but Susan got an increasing feeling from the Darknet that her programme was being scanned, and she prayed her precautions of making the programme a communications hub for the Jut universe had been successful. She sensed the presence of the firewall, and withdrew as much of herself back outside of reality so it could not sense her.

  ∆∆∆

  Mr Chu, and all other outpost commanders suddenly reported almost immediately that all enemy ships had disappeared. I looked at the other generals in disbelief.

  “Raise shields and alert our forces, activate the defence grids and bring all fleets back to Gipluk immediately!” I shouted, and then looked out of the window to an amazing sight. One by one, per millisecond, ships were appearing out of nowhere in numbers that astounded me. At the same time I sensed Lord Grovolk and his link to the Darknet witch, and I knew I had been out-maneuvered.

  I sent precise instructions to the fleets which were here, and those who were on their way, and I knew that Gipluk could not stand a sustained attack by a force this big. I knew I couldn’t let that happen, and at the same time, I guessed how this would be resolved, In preparation, I sent detailed orders to all commanders if the scenario I anticipated, happened. There was a chance I could turn this around. I had already spent some time in trying to work out how Darknet forces travelled from one multiverse to another, and I already had my suspicions.

  It was then that Grovolk’s voice entered my spirit, and spoke to me personally;

  “You know very well Melville that your precious Gipluk will not survive, and we know now how important this planet is. You cannot defend this planet against our forces, and you will not be able to live with yourself if this system and more become cyborg Darknet monsters, would you Melville? I offer you a genuine proposal. You come to me willingly, and we will leave this system, this entire multiverse alone. All we want is you, and I’ll then take you home to meet my Mother again, she is so looking forward to seeing you!” It said, with evil emanating out of every syllable.

  “I am very aware of the situation, and I will make my way to your vessel now and offer myself up to you, as long as you promise to leave this multiverse alone. I will cooperate all the way, but I must insist this multiverse be left alone.” I replied, already with an entire plan now in my head. It was dangerous, but just had to work.

  “You have my word Melville!” was its reply, and I knew that wasn’t worth much, but I also knew that once his Mother got hold of me, she wouldn’t need this multiverse again. I nodded to Jom, and then materialised on board Grovolk’s ship.

  ∆∆∆

  Susan’s programme not only passed the security inspection, but had been upgraded to deal with all Jut multiverse communication. She realised there was enough higher band function in the programme now for her to consciously inhabit it, while keeping a foot in the door as it were outside of reality. In spite of Melville’s father’s warning, she entered the programme and achieved full sentience through the power of her spirit, and she immediately created a barrier to hide her presence from the firewall and the Mother. As she looked around, she saw a super-highway of information, punctuated by entities moving faster than light, and she realised these are other programmes. She sensed that she is invisible to them, so then she started to look for signs for the CPU inner core, so she can message Melville. She felt confined by the experience of being inside a programme, but she was constantly aware of her foot outside of the door, and was continually reassured that she could pull out of the programme at any time she wanted.

  ∆∆∆

  I was not tied up or bound, but left to sit in a chair, looking at the display screen as stars shot by in their version of faster than light speed (FTLS). Grovolk just observed me, and I was grateful for the opportunity to concentrate on how the fleets would manifest themselves back into their own multiverse.

  I felt it first, before seeing it, and my suspicions were correct. I recognised the star system as the Black Eye galaxy, and I felt before seeing the wormhole that was there. It was stable, and before I knew it, the entire armada disappeared out of the Black Eye galaxy into a different multiverse. It occurred to me that there were different versions of people in each multiverse, except me, Susan, and obviously Grovolk and the Mother.

  There was nothing to mark the point, and I was relieved that so little had been employed to protect the entrance to the wormhole. Suddenly Grovolk spoke, as if feeling more assured now that it was away from my fleets and friends;

  “Mother has killed your Susan you know.” It said, with obvious relish.

  I knew I had to react somehow as it was very important that they not know that their attempt at murdering her had not been successful.

  “Mark my words, I will kill you and your murderous Mother for this!”

  It laughed, and seemed genuinely pleased at the pain his news had apparently caused me.

  We arrive at a huge construction in space, like
a thousand battleships all joined together, and our ship entered and followed a number of tunnels until it reached a doorway and we docked. I was encouraged to walk in ahead, and then realise why as there were a number of guards ahead, and then we all marched along plain grey passages towards I presumed a meeting with the Mother. I prayed that my wishes had been obeyed, and I hoped that I was able to do what I had to do.

  ∆∆∆

  Susan decided to send several subroutines ahead to be her eyes and ears, and then created a photon version of herself inside the Darknet’s physical space so she could actually feel more able to respond in real time, and operate more normally. There was such a sense of claustrophobia being a programme. She still had the sense that she had a foot outside the door, but this way she could function better.

  Suddenly, she became aware of Melville, he was close, and he was inside the Darknet! She directed her eyes and ears to go and find him. If he was here, then he would need her help!

  ∆∆∆

  Dodds, Yvonne, Emily, Mad Dog, Mr Chu and general Jom arrived with the entire fleet at the location of the wormhole following Melville’s thought communication and started quickly building a hopefully, indestructible defensive array around it. In Melville’s instructions to Jom, he had told them of his instinct that each multiverse had a separate wormhole to allow travel between multiverses. During his journey with Grovolk, he had communicated with them to follow the Darknet fleet at a discreet distance, meaning they would be able to discover the wormhole to the Darknet home multiverse. Once they found it, they were to build defences this side, and then send a ship through to the other side to see what was there. Dodds had volunteered for this, but wasn’t particularly looking forward to the experience.