Desperate Measures Read online

  Desperate Measures

  Opus X™ Book Nine

  Michael Anderle

  Desperate Measures (this book) is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2020 Michael Anderle

  Cover by Gene Mollica Studios

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  This book is a Michael Anderle Production

  * * *

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  * * *

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  * * *

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  * * *

  First US edition, October 2020

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64971-016-1

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64971-017-8

  * * *

  The Opus X Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2019-2020 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Books By Michael Anderle

  Connect with Michael Anderle

  The Desperate Measures Team

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  * * *

  James Caplan

  John Ashmore

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Deb Mader

  Dave Hicks

  Peter Manis

  Jeff Eaton

  Larry Omans

  Paul Westman

  * * *

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  * * *

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  to Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  to Live the Life We Are

  Called.

  Chapter One

  July 3, 2230, En Route to Earth Aboard Modified Space Yacht Beidou

  Mistakes killed. Julia knew that all too well. She often punished others by taking their lives when they failed her. Sophia’s failure of imagination had led to mistakes that cost her life.

  Unfortunately, knowing that fundamental truth about mistakes wasn’t the same thing as avoiding them. Julia had been forced to accept that harsh lesson.

  There had been far too many mistakes in recent years, errors that threatened decades—arguably centuries—of planning, both on her behalf and that of the Core more broadly.

  Was she making a mistake now, remaining on Earth with the Last Soldier and the Warrior Princess on the hunt? Julia bit her lip.

  She’d intended to leave much sooner, but she had convinced herself that there was a difference between caution and paranoid terror. Small problems and issues lingered for her to resolve here, but it had become obvious she needed to leave soon, or she would likely experience the kind of lethal mistake defined by hubris.

  Opportunity remained to salvage her position despite her reversals.

  The loss of the Hunter ship had been a devastating blow. She couldn’t deny that, though she couldn’t admit the ship existed to the rest of the Core.

  It had been the key to her goal—the goal of the entire Core really—that required them to maintain technological superiority over all other humans, and eventually over all other races. Oh, the others could benefit from their scraps, but only they should possess the wisdom for full, unfettered control of advanced alien technology, Hunter or Navigator.

  Fate intended the Core to rule. That’s what Sophia had argued about the discovery of the original Hunter technology on the moon, which had been found by private parties—those who knew how to keep their mouths shut, unlike the team who’d discovered the Navigator tech on Mars.

  That same technology had allowed a small circle of like-minded people to live far beyond the known limits of human science and expand their influence. There would be no Core without alien tech.

  The ultimate humans were the product of the ultimate alien technology.

  The Core was supposed to be leading humanity to greatness, a perfect empire ruled by the perfect rulers—leaders to take the human race into complete dominion over the entire galaxy. Only they could do it because only they were capable of the necessary long-term vision.

  Mortality stared down all lifeforms and instilled them with fear. The breadth of humanity’s philosophy and religion was devoted to quelling the terror of death, but a true immortal could operate without the ever-present whispers of darkness in the back of their mind.

  Who needed gods when the Core could become gods? They had only to seize the necessary power.

  Julia raised her hand, so pale, so delicate. It gave no hint of her true age, but she understood there was damage she couldn’t see, genetic problems accumulating. Every survivor in the Core had lived over a century and a half, granting them many more decades than the most advanced technologies of other humans. But if their researchers were correct, the Core members had only a decade left to live.

  Goddesses didn’t die. She couldn’t die.

  Not yet. Not ever.

  The problem with relying on advanced ancient technology was never having more than a partial understanding of the tools it depended upon. The Core didn’t mind the cost of using the technology, which included the necessary sacrifice of other people.

  History was replete with the expenditure of the lower order to serve the higher order, but their old artifacts had now failed them and were nothing more than inert museum pieces. For the first time in decades, they felt the shadow of death hanging over them.

  Even though they had foreseen this issue, they had tried to not worry. The Core had been confident they’d find what they needed at each checkpoint in their existence. Based on what their researchers had said, the artifacts recovered from Molino held the greatest promise for further
rejuvenation of any discovered in recent years.

  True immortality had been within their grasp. They wouldn’t have to worry about death’s shadow creeping up on them. They would slay death and take dominion over his domain, but only for them.

  Julia curled her hand into a fist and sneered. So close, but now their plans were threatened by upstarts. Insects, really. Men and women of no vision who gave their petty support to the pathetic UTC. They’d delayed the ascension of the Core.

  The destroyed Hunter ship had been filled with lost technology. It had still been operational. The Core could have harvested it unlike any of the leftover, half-rotted scraps they’d been forced to examine.

  The ship would have set them ahead centuries and accelerated their final advance into divinity. They could have been freed of their incessant need to seek out replacements for their failing artifacts and technology. They would have had an easier time reverse-engineering both structure and function.

  No, not they. She.

  Julia needed to remember that. Her ancient allies shared a vision, but it was one she no longer subscribed to. She needed to remove any vestige of implied friendship and focus on her future only.

  The other members of the Core didn’t realize how many of the Molino artifacts she now controlled. They might suspect, but they couldn’t know they hadn’t been lost in the destruction of Sophia’s ship near Venus.

  Julia took a deep breath and settled into her chair, folding her hands in her lap. They must all be thinking what she was thinking.

  The Core was too large and too dominated by factions. The interference in her plans was proof of that, as was hers in Sophia’s works.

  The only way to maintain control over humanity was by decreasing the points of failure and reducing the inherent complexity of politics. This needed to be done in the appropriate way, taking stability into account.

  Unfortunately for others, the filtering and attrition of leaders were inevitable.

  She chuckled, thinking about the past. In ancient imperial China, the way of the world had been clear. Subjects obeyed rulers because their rulers were granted the Mandate of Heaven. The system was superior as long as the rulers possessed both talent and vision.

  It was hard to argue that quibbling, mewling masses could make better decisions than those with power, intelligence, and education. Rebellions were an expression of the ruler failing his or her subjects.

  The ancients had understood that.

  When the empire suffered, a clever and well-prepared ruler could deal with it, whether it was providing strength to protect the land from barbarians or stored food to deal with natural disasters.

  An ill-prepared ruler made his people suffer, which in turn allowed them to justify rebellion by claiming the natural disasters and barbarians were the result of him or her losing the mandate. The ranks of the insurrectionists would swell, and the empire would be toppled without the fundamental belief in the superiority of imperial rule being questioned.

  In all dynasties, decline was inevitable. Good rulers would give way to poor rulers with the passing of decades. The mandate would always be lost and a new dynasty would arise, more responsive to the subjects if only because of the simplest and basest of desires: self-preservation.

  Thus, the empire would be strong again.

  But Julia was different. All members of the Core were different. They could achieve something physically impossible before: a perfect and lasting rule.

  Monarchy was only flawed because the skilled ruler would always perish, leaving (eventually) inept offspring. No matter how well-educated a prince or princess might be, the inevitable machinations of chance would ensure an ill-suited ruler would rise.

  The reality was that people needed central control.

  The Core was leaving humanity and the petty pretensions of morality accompanying it behind to make a better, stronger race.

  Humanity was a divided, pathetic species, one still contending with pointless rebellions while aliens circled their systems, plotting and preparing to destroy them. As the Hunters had consumed the Navigators, the Local Neighborhood races could set themselves on the UTC and obliterate humanity down to the last man, woman, and child.

  True leadership was the answer to the question of the future. That was what humanity required—a perfect ruler who would never age, never risk the fall of her empire by bequeathing it to incompetent children.

  The ruler would fuse with the UTC and become its brain and heart.

  It didn’t matter if the Immortal Empress would inhabit the shadows and use puppets. In the beginning, they would be necessary, and as the decades passed and firmer control was established, the illusion of self-rule could be wiped away until there was only a United Human Empire that stretched into the future, with humanity pushing back against the Leems, Zitarks, and all other creatures who thought they deserved to exist in the galaxy.

  If necessary, they could be wiped out. Countless humans had been sacrificed for the species’ perfect future, so why not aliens? Humanity would become the new Hunters.

  But the empire wouldn’t come without struggle. A proper ruler always used subordinates, and it was the nature of humanity to fight for control when there wasn’t a single clear ruler controlling everything.

  As long as the other members of the Core existed, they would represent a threat to her future rule and thus a threat to the United Human Empire and the future of the species.

  There was only one good choice left. To protect the human race, Julia needed to eliminate the rest of the Core. However, she would have to step lightly lest they figure it out and target her, or she would wreak more chaos and disrupt her long-term plan. That didn’t change what she had to do.

  “What I do, I do for humanity,” she murmured quietly.

  It was time to take the first steps and rely on powerful allies, including the very Core she would eliminate. As long as certain people and organizations continued their hunt, her plans would never come to fruition.

  Julia tapped her PNIU and made a couple of quick motions to initiate a call. She needed to preserve resources before they were lost. She could use them as both sword and shield.

  A data window appeared, displaying a smiling Shoji. The man was always unflappable, so collected in his own way. Julia appreciated the honest rages of some of the other members of the Core, if only because it made them more predictable. The only member of the Core worse than Shoji was Constance, whose quiet nature concealed a woman who might be even more ruthless than Sophia or Julia.

  “It’s been a while,” Shoji offered, his smile brightening. “Not that I haven’t been expecting your call.”

  “I wanted to speak to you before I leave the system in the next week or two,” Julia replied with a slight frown. “I wanted to make certain things clear.”

  Shoji raised an eyebrow. “You mentioned leaving the Solar System, but when you didn’t immediately do so, I presumed it was more whim than plan.” He waited for a second. “Are you still holding such angst over our losses?”

  “It’s not just me. It’s dangerous for all of us.” Julia frowned. “Our enemies have momentum in their campaign against us, even if they don’t understand who they are fighting. The Last Soldier and the Warrior Princess are very resourceful and effective. Too much so, if you ask me. Ignoring this will only lead to death, as Sophia found out.”

  Shoji looked bored. “They have the backing of powerful elements in the intelligence community, and it’s not as if you haven’t taken advantage of them in your plans. Even though we have much control over the government, it’s hard to stop everything. I’ve complained about that in the past, but alas, some lack my foresight.”

  “It goes beyond the government.” Julia shook her head. “If it were just them, things wouldn’t have become so desperate. There’s a deeper concern here.”

  “Would you care to provide a specific accusation?” Shoji asked. “Because that’s what your tone suggests.”

  “We can’t be the only o
nes in the Core playing such games,” Julia replied. “The other members might know what’s happening. They might have chosen to use our greatest threat as their weapon.”

  “You did suggest that.”

  “I suggested coopting them.”

  She watched him carefully, half-suspecting Shoji of being responsible for some of her recent failures. Julia maintained no illusions that the man wouldn’t betray her if it was to his advantage. She calculated they hadn’t yet reached that point, but there might be some hidden variable confounding her conclusion.

  Even a goddess made mistakes.

  “Perhaps.” Shoji unfolded a fan and waved it in front of him with a smile. “Or perhaps vengeance provides a divine focus all its own, and we were foolish to wipe out the Last Soldier’s friends on Molino. In either event, our enemies have had some spectacular successes. I acknowledge that. I always have, but that’s not the same thing as fearing them.”

  “I think they’re getting too close. I believe Sophia wasn’t the only one who might fall. Now that they are creatures of the government’s ghosts, it’s more difficult to strike at them without risk. We have time, especially because of the Molino artifacts. We should retreat, let the trail grow cold, and make preparations for other plans, including further artifact research and recovery. Even after some of our losses, we’re not without resources.”