Page 33 of Agrippa's Acceptance

Scotty smiled huge. “I just happen to know a story about a little guy beating a giant with only a piece of leather and a small rock.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

All of them gathered on the bridge of LBS. Amelagar had made a point of saying he wanted the whole team present and that includes LBS.

“The cloaking device will be a huge advantage. We can bomb the temples and get away before they know what hit them,” Colonel Farnham made poof motions with his hands.

“They have planetary defence systems.

“Pardon my French I’m not speaking,” Scotty said.

“Exactly,” sergeant Bjorn said.

Amelagar tapped his claws on the arm of his chair. “Anatu, ask LBS if he could deactivate the defence grid.”

“He says not without alerting the clones.”

“So, we take out the planetary defence system with LBS and at the same time we bomb the temples.”

Agrippa shook her head. “We might do some damange, but most of us will be killed. The planetary defence orbiting Tundra, has a backup system on the gorund. It comes online if the orbiting system is taken out.”

One of the soldiers shrugged. “Who wants to live forever.”

“I do, I want to see my human again,” Anatu said.

“You will see your human again, as soon as we’ve destroyed those temples,” Amelagar promised.

“It’s two years and nine months from here to Tundra in hyper space. I will have to stay awake to ensure the ship stays cloaked.”

Agrippa bit her lip. “I want to stay awake as well. I might be able to hasten our journey.” Anatu was the expert with the cloak, but Agrippa knew the engines and cryo chambers inside out.

Amelagar didn’t question her. What should have taken ten years had taken them less than one so far. She was stunned to realize they all trusted her. Amelagar trusted her skills. “I will stay awake too.”

“Do you think, the clone ship could take back control,” Amelagar asked. “We are severely under manned.”

Agrippa rubbed her forehead. “It is strange, but the ship is much more docile than I expected. Normally a ship that is enslaved keep trying to take back control. But this ship seems to be … curious.”

Anatu looked up from her tablet. “I will help you monitor the clone ship.”

Amelagar shook his head. “No, I want you focused on that cloak. Without it we will fail.”

Agrippa raised her hand. “The cryo chambers take a lot of power.”

“We will all stay awake and train for the coming mission,” Amelagar decided.

“Everyone groaned, but no one objected.”

A year and three months later their cloaked ship orbited Tundra. It should have been a ten year journey, but the combination of the sudden speed the ship was capable off and Agrippa’s tinkering made a huge difference. Still the ship did not try and take back control. If it had tried at least, Agrippa would have felt better. What if it was some clone trick to put them at ease?

Chapter Twenty-Four

It’s been three miserable years without his wife. He was lonely and he’d heard his staff pray out loud for Anatu’s return so that he could become a human being again.

John looked at his general and his heart shattered. He stood there, face expressionless, knowing he had to react, do something, but he couldn’t move. Did they capture her? If she was a captive, at least there was hope. He refused to think of the other possibility of what the message contained. The message the general had handed him was sent in several pieces on different frequencies and to different locations on earth.

He had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “Could your people decode it? Have you considered it might not be from our team.”

The general did not quite manage to hide his sympathy. “We can never be hundred percent certain, but we could not detect any sign that it was sent from the clones.”

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