Chapter 10: The Mission

Alex fell silent for a moment to let that sink in. It wasn't a planned strategy designed to inspire her crew with the pause. Alex was no showman. She just seemed to do such things instinctively.

"This will not be easy, and if you hold any doubt in your conviction to these goals then I welcome you to depart the ship. No one would hold you to blame." Captain Alex felt she had to make the offer. Geri snorted quietly from where he leaned against the lockers and shook his head. She gave her Security Officer a bland look, but all he did was grin in return. Even with his distrust of the Horotech he knew that the crew was devoted to her, and their purpose. He felt that her offer was in vain, and only to appease her conscience. Alex could read all of that in his expression and found it annoying. She turned away from him as she continued.

"Naviwerks is only biding their time, monitoring the air for the signal that indicates an activated chrono-engine that is unauthorized. They know we have stolen their ship and are aware that the tracking devices and systems that once tethered The William to their armada have been disengaged or removed all together. Their tactics will be to lock on to the signature energy waves of an engaged chrono-engine, predict a course based on those readings then send their own ships after us. Each craft will have on board at least one Agent under orders to capture or destroy us before we can harm their reputation."

Here, Alex grew hesitant again. This was a personal point for her, one she refused to allow to affect her commitment or judgment as Captain. She knew she must maintain that outward appearance of cold detachment and seem unaffected by outside influence. Memories once pleasant now haunted her, plagued those attempts, but she grasped on to those feelings and used them to enflame her conviction and devotion to the cause she created. They may be going to the past, but they didn't have to live in it. She inwardly reminded herself of that fact.

"These agents will be Tier 2 at the very least." The Agents of Naviwerks were ranked in tiers from five to one, the latter being the highest on the information ladder. Naviwerks would not trust anyone less than Tier 2 with confirmation of defiance against them. Their claws were not sunk deeply enough into Agents under that rank. They didn't have near enough condemning information on them and their families to keep them under control. "Before I left the corporation I had discovered enough evidence to lead me to believe that a program exists that gave them greater control over their high-ranking Agents. I was unable to procure this information to be studied, but I saw enough to come to my own conclusions." Alex felt a spasm of pain within her heart to think of it, but she could not deny what she had seen before she had left Naviwerks. Human experimentation and genetic tampering was not something she could stomach easily and had been one of the details that had convinced her to leave the corporation for good.

"The information suggested that the Naviwerks medical department had designed a nanotechnology that would give the CEOs the ability to influence the thoughts and motivations of their Tier 1 and 2 Agents." Alex hadn't understood half of the information she had stumbled upon, but a long evening in discussion with Dr. Hennessey had included terminology like gene therapy, brain stem stimulation, perverted Horotechnology, and automatons. Alex had felt more than a little sick after that. "These Agents will give us no quarter so expect none and above all else, do not underestimate the lengths they will go to in order to bring us to the corporation's idea of justice."

There. The warnings and reasoning had been given. Alex felt somewhat proud of herself for getting through it. It had been the first time she had said all of that out loud to the entire crew as their Captain. Oh, certainly she had said it all at the time she had recruited them, but the vernacular had been changed to suit their personalities. Her words had been chosen carefully to appeal to each of them. It had been manipulative on her part, and she knew it. But as bad as that was what was worse was that she did not regret it. She believed in this and had known that deep down each member of her crew would agree with her. She had just had to reach inside of them, bring out that moral indignation until it burned in the front of their hearts and minds as it did within her own. This was just one more action a captain took that was unsavory, but necessary. Now that it was done, however, it was time to take the next step.

"Our first quarry is something Naviwerks wanted me to retrieve with my next assignment." Alex's voice took on a quality that was colder than it had been the task would have been her first as an Admiral in Naviwerks' fleet. The promotion had been something she had strived for since her recruitment into the corporation, but it would have come with a price she was not willing to pay. The memory of the knowledge she'd gained about Naviwerks seemed painfully fresh to her, and affected her speech, colored it with disdain.

"In the late fifteenth century Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza to create the Gran Cavallo. The horse was the symbol for the aristocratic house of Sforza, and the statue was to be the largest cast bronze piece ever to be made." A few flicks of Alex's fingers across her control console brought up an image of the replica of the horse on the video monitors throughout the ship. "It was never actually made, as the bronze set aside for the statue was needed to make cannonballs for use against the invading French. However, it is believed that a test statue made to one-sixth scale was created in 1490, and then confiscated in 1499 by the Vatican after the French had used the full-sized clay model as target practice."

Alex wasn't certain why Naviwerks wanted the scale model. There were no records of a museum or government agency wanting it retrieved, and to her knowledge, confirmed by Nigel, Da Vinci had no living relatives. She could only assume that it was one more acquisition Naviwerks wanted to have in their collection for future use. She intended to ensure that they did not have it in their possession and had arranged a sale with Castello Sforzesco since it had been that ancestor who had commissioned the piece in the first place.

"Naviwerks' plan was to seize the model from the Vatican's soldiers after they had taken it, but before they reached the Holy See, some place between Milan and Vatican City." The image of the Gran Cavallo on the monitors blurred then faded out only to be replaced by a map of Italy circa the late fifteenth century. "For all of its greed and corruption, Naviwerks does try to adhere to the non-interference agenda. Altering history too blatantly could have dire consequences, obviously, so 1499 was to be their target destination." For all Alex knew, Naviwerks, disguised as Vatican soldiers, had made their mark on history with this action. They had done so before. "I intend to aim for a much earlier mark, that of 1490 when da Vinci was rumored to have made the model."

It was risky and could possibly alter history. A lengthy discussion with Nigel over a fine bottle of brandy had convinced Alex and the Historian that the action wouldn't affect the time stream too much since it wouldn't change any of the major events of the French invasion, or the creation of the replica in the twentieth century. The scale model was still considered just a rumor since the Vatican would not acknowledge the artifact publicly. Their greedy secrecy worked in Alex's favor this time.

"We will retrieve the Gran Cavallo directly from da Vinci's studio, return it to the present day and complete a transaction that I have arranged." The Castello functioned as a museum now with most of its works by Michelangelo, but they were very interested in da Vinci's scale statue and had offered a more than fair price. Captain Alex had sweetened the deal with a small bribe to keep the curator from making a counteroffer to Naviwerks.