Europa Strike
It’s time for humanity to claim its rightful heritage…2040: Ruins of ancient civilization uncovered on Mars reveal startling truths about the creation of humankind.2042: In the grey dust of the Earth's Moon, an extinct enslaving race left behind more answers, more questions…and a grim warning.2067: As Earth's warring factions clash in space for scraps of alien technology, a strange artifact lies trapped beneath the ice-locked oceans of Europa: a machine that holds the key to the final human destiny.It is called "The Singer" for the eerie tone it emits. An artificial intelligence built aeons ago, it may ultimately solve the mystery of the vanished alien races responsible for the birth and development of humanity. But after decades of war, the hostile nations of Earth care more for power than for knowledge.And now all that stands between the coveted Al and an all-out Chinese assault is a vastly outnumbered contingent of U.S. marines, dug in beneath the baleful red eye of Jupiter. As terrifying events light years distant begin to converge –- with confrontation imminent and annihilation inevitable –- a secret history of creation and doom must at long last be contended with… if humankind is to finally claim its glorious heritage among the stars.
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Europa Strike:
Book Three of
the Heritage Trilogy
Ian Douglas
For Dave Plottel, who helped with the numbers; for
Heather Foutz, research assistant and first editor, par excellence; and, as always, for Nina.
Contents
Prologue
The sounds of celebrationâthe bang and snap of firecrackers,â¦
One
âIncredible,â Major Jeffrey Warhurst said, his face pressed against theâ¦
Two
The sign above the place on Highway One, just outsideâ¦
Three
Why, Colonel Kaitlin Garroway asked herself, do I come toâ¦
Four
Major Jeff Warhurst made his way along the narrow accessâ¦
Five
Captain Jeremy Mitchell entered the officerâs wardroom with his trayâ¦
Six
Rena Moore came down the stairs to the e-room andâ¦
Seven
By the second half of the twenty-first century, there wasâ¦
Eight
Major Jack Ramsey stared into the monitor, shock transforming intoâ¦
Nine
Major Jeff Warhurst looked up from his desk as theâ¦
Ten
General Xiang Qiman sat strapped into his couch, watching theâ¦
Eleven
The refueling was almost complete.
Twelve
Descending Thunder No. 4 bucked and kicked as the pilotâ¦
Thirteen
Jeff Warhurst was linked in.
Fourteen
Jeff had designated a small room off of the compartmentâ¦
Fifteen
Jeff shook his head sadly. âWhat the hell were youâ¦
Sixteen
âSo,â Jeff said with a wry grin. âIs this wonderâ¦
Seventeen
âPlease, God,â Kaitlin said with a rush of emotion thatâ¦
Eighteen
The steady, rattling vibration of the Tommy Jâs A-M drivesâ¦
Nineteen
âGentlemen, itâs about damned time we took this fight toâ¦
Twenty
The Mantas rested side by side, their tapering aft sectionsâ¦
Twenty-One
The city illuminated the night, holding it at bay withâ¦
Twenty-Two
âHold it!â Hastings said. âIâm getting something!â
Twenty-Three
Two of the Chinese assault troops were down, fist-sized holesâ¦
Twenty-Four
The Chinese assault down the spine of the E-DARES complexâ¦
Twenty-Five
âIâve got something, sir,â Hastings said. âTen Kilometers ahead, andâ¦
Epilogue
Major Jack Ramsey looked up at Dr. Alexander. âWhat did youâ¦
Other Books by Ian Douglas
Copyright
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
10 JULY 2067
Peopleâs Bureau of
Astronomical Sciences
Beijing, Peopleâs Republic
of China
1925 hours (Zulu plus 8)
The sounds of celebrationâthe bang and snap of firecrackers, the cheers of the crowd, the rattle and throb of drumsârose from the street, hammering at the broad window overlooking the mob-packed Dongchanâan Jie. Dr. Zhao Hsiang sipped green tea from a porcelain cup and watched the festivities a moment. A huge dragon was snaking through the throng almost directly below the office window, making its sinuous way on dozens of human legs along the block midway between the southern gates of Tiananmen Square and the burned-out ruin of the old McDonaldâs restaurant.
Zhao sighed. Great Zhongguo reunited at last. China, the Middle Kingdom, a major power once more. It would have been politic for Zhao to have joined the revelers, to have attended, perhaps, the ongoing parties at Tiananmen Square and the Hall of the Revolution in order to be seen by the Authorities celebrating the end of the Great Division, but heâd been too excited by this new insight. He had to knowâ¦had to. There would be time for parties later, once the results of his discovery had been confirmed and published.
âThe simulation you requested is ready, Doctor,â a cool, male voice said in singsong Mandarin. The voiceâs source was the IBM KR4040 on his deskâarchaic technology by global standards, but the best available for the Bureau.
âXièxie,â Zhao said, thanking his secretary. Turning, he set the cup down on a table by the window, walked across to his desk, and seated himself in the power chair, which lowered its back as he stretched against it. Taking a trio of colored leads, he began plugging inâ¦the red in the socket behind his left ear, the green at the base of his neck close by the Atlas vertebra, and the white into the nerve plexus on the inside of his right wrist. âI am ready,â he said, enunciating the words carefully. âSafeword ting-zi. Run program.â
A crackle of static snapped somewhere in the back of his brain, and his vision winked out in a white fuzz of electronic snow. As with the Bureauâs computers, the virtual reality interfaces available to the researchers were not the most up to date, and the transition to cyberspace was always a bit disconcerting.
But they served. The static faded, replaced by a ghostly black emptiness, with a faint, blue-green glow in the depths below. He was adrift in an ocean and at a considerable depth. Lishu phonograms and numbers scrolled past the right side of his visual field, giving figures for depth, temperature, pressure, salinity, and other factors of the deep ocean.
The illusion was perfect, or nearly so. The data jacks surgically implanted in his skull allowed incoming data to override his normal processing circuitry, replacing what he saw and heard with records residing within the IBMâs fifty terabytes of storage.
