Orion's Dawn: A Gritty Space Opera Adventure (Frontier's Reach Book 1)

by Robert C. James

  Under the clothes were several small crates sitting on the floor. Jason picked one up and placed it on his bed. He yanked off the lid and peered inside. There were more clothes, an E-Class technical manual, some flight instruction books, and a photo frame.

  Huh, what’s this? He flipped it over and brushed the dust from it. Inside the silver frame was a family photo.

  Jason shook his head in disbelief. It was a picture of him as a toddler. His father… and his mother. “Well, I’ll be damned. Come and look at this.”

  He turned, but Tyler was gone. Jason sighed and regarded the photo. It’s faded color was just as faded as the memory. The fateful day she’d died was from a time before he could remember. But sometimes he would gladly take it if it meant being able to see her face when he closed his eyes.

  Jason put the photo frame back in the box and returned it to the closet. With the crates secured, he opened his bags from Odyssey Station. All he had left were a few changes of clothes, old rank pins from the service, and a small box containing the medals he’d won during the war. He’d wondered why he’d even bothered to keep them. He rummaged to find something a little more to his liking.

  A bottle of Blue Jacket bourbon. Jason had brought it from Vic, just before he’d left the station. The top was still sealed. He thought about opening it, but a rumble beneath his feet stopped him. The Argo’s engine was humming to life.

  It sounded just as sluggish as he remembered it. Out the viewport, he saw the other ships disappearing as the Argo lifted off and made her way through the access lane of Odyssey’s hangar deck. Jason looked at the bottle of bourbon and stashed it inside his bedside table. Maybe another time.

  He wondered how welcome he would be on the bridge. It’d been a long time since he’d been on a ship of even the Argo’s size. The courier transports on Odyssey Station just couldn’t compare. To hell with it.

  Jason left his quarters and took the elevator to A Deck. As he approached the bridge, the ship’s engines started pulsating with the full might of its power.

  His eyes lit up stepping through the hatchway. Like the rest of the ship, it had changed little. Tears to the upholstery, scorch marks on the consoles, and dimmed monitors. It was worn and near obsolete. But there was a strange warmth to it. And it wasn’t because the climate-control system was up too high.

  Through the viewport at the front of the bridge, the Argo had cleared the station and passed the final marker. She was now in orbit of Vesta III.

  “Take us to half thrust.” Tyler was sitting in the captain’s chair, giving his orders to Kevin, who was at the helm in front of him.

  Kevin did as instructed and pulled the ship to starboard. Vesta III disappeared, and all that lay ahead of them were the stars.

  Tyler activated the intercom on the small command console next to his chair. “How is it down there, Aly?”

  “The engine’s making all the right noises. At least for now,” she said from the engine room.

  “Good enough. Get strapped in down there.”

  “Will do.”

  On the starboard side of the bridge, Althaus was sitting at the operations station, staring daggers at Jason. He assumed he was taking exception with him being up on the bridge.

  “Is the course plotted for Frontier’s Reach?” Tyler asked.

  Kevin did one last check on his navigation monitor. “Course plotted.”

  “All right, everyone. Standby for FTL.” Tyler buckled up and swiveled around in his chair, noticing Jason standing at the hatchway. “You might want to take a seat. These things aren’t as smooth as the cruisers you’re used to.”

  Jason had spent too much time on CDF ships where the gravity network would keep your body firmly planted during an FTL jump. He forgot that the Argo wasn’t quite as modern. He pulled down one of the emergency seats from the wall and strapped himself in. He could swear he saw a smirk on the side of Tyler’s face before he returned his attention to the viewport.

  “All right. Let’s go.”

  Kev punched in the FTL sequence and pushed the lever on the helm. The power from the engines heaved, shaking the whole ship around them. The stars through the viewport spun and twisted. With one final rumble, the Argo exploded into FTL.

  The force of the jump slammed Jason into the back of his seat. He smiled. Maybe this trip won’t be so bad after all. As he looked across at Althaus, his smile faded.

  Or not…

  Chapter 11

  August 1, 2213

  Jason peeked at his cards. He was on a roll tonight. With a seven, nine, and jack in his hand, and a queen, six, eight, and ten on the board, he’d landed a straight. Looking across the table, he knew he had Kevin easily beat. Jason assumed he had a pair, two pair, possibly trips. And Kevin only had so many chips left.

  To his right, Aly wasn’t fairing any better. She, however, had been smart and had withdrawn from the last round of betting. Kevin was stubborn. He was taking it all the way. Jason waved casually toward the middle of the table at the growing pile of chips.

  “I’ll put you all in,” he said.

  Kevin shook his head. “Your luck has to run out sometime.” He peered down at his hidden cards and then at the community cards on the table before turning toward his daughter, who merely smiled and shrugged.

  “Hey, no coaching,” Jason told him jovially.

  “All right, all right.” Kevin grabbed the rest of his chips and pushed them in. “Let’s see them.”

  Jason put his cards on the table.

  “Unbelievable!” Kevin’s head dropped, and he mucked his cards into the middle of the table in disgust.

  Jason pulled the pot toward him and stacked his chips up high. “A pleasure doing business with you.”

  “This is the third night in a row you’ve cleaned me out.”

  Aly giggled. “You’d think you’d have learned by now when to quit.”

  “You can’t talk.” Kevin pointed at her stack. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  Aly put a hand over her chips. “Oh, no, I’m running while I can.”

  Jason’s stack resembled large Centauri skyscrapers. “Where’s your sense of adventure? You might be able to win your money back.”

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “Thank you,” Jason said with a large grin.

  Kevin got up from his chair. “Well, while you continue being incorrigible, it’s time for this old guy to hit the sack.”

  Jason put all the cards together in one nice neat pile. “I trust you’ll be back tomorrow night?”

  Kevin rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you both in the morning.”

  With Kevin gone, Jason waved the deck of cards in Aly’s direction. “Are you sure I can’t convince you to a few more rounds? It’s difficult playing Cerberan Poker by one’s self.”

  “You’ve got enough from me for one evening.”

  “What about some ping-pong?”

  Aly checked the clock above the chess table. “I don’t know, there are a few things I need to get done in the engine room in the morning. I should probably go to bed.”

  “Damn.” Jason put the cards in the middle of the table. “You used to be fun. What happened?”

  She laughed. “I got older. I have responsibilities now.”

  Jason nodded, remembering the simpler times that were his teenage years aboard the Argo. He heard footsteps from the corridor. Tyler walked past and peered in with a sideways glance. He quickly continued on his way.

  Jason turned back to Aly, who appeared to notice the uneasiness on his face. “You haven’t talked much, have you?”

  Jason frowned. “Here and there. The odd word over dinner and on the bridge. I didn’t want to force anything, you know?” He tried to put a spin on it. “It’s more than I talk to Althaus.”

  Aly smiled. “It’s not like you can overturn ten years in a few months.”

  “I know that, and if I were in Tyler’s shoes, I’d probably feel the same way.” Jason leaned back in his chair. “Front
ier’s Reach can’t come soon enough. Once it’s all over, things can go back to normal, and I’ll be on my way.”

  Aly went quiet.

  “What?” Jason asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Come on.”

  She sighed. “Well, I’ve just been thinking, what would be so wrong with staying?”

  Jason wondered if she was being serious. “I don’t think that’d be wise.”

  “Why not?” Aly sat up in her seat. “This is your home, and as you can tell by now, we could use the extra pair of hands around here.”

  “This place stopped being my home a long time ago, Aly.”

  She seemed insulted.

  He tried to be more concise. “There’s just too many bad memories here.”

  “You seem to have got back into a good routine since coming back. I can’t remember the last time Dad was so happy. And Tyler. He’ll come around. You two just have to work at it.”

  “I would never place him in that position.” Jason chuckled. “Then there’s Althaus. Somehow I don’t think this ship would be big enough for the two of us.”

  They both laughed.

  Aly stood from her chair. “Well, I’m going to go to bed.” She put a hand on his back. “Seriously, though, please think about it.”

  Jason humored her by giving her a nod and watched her walk out. He frowned. There was no chance he’d stay aboard the Argo after his mission to Frontier’s Reach had concluded. He felt like a jerk giving Aly even a little false hope. He yawned and stood, passing by the ping-pong table and through the door into the A Deck corridor.

  Proceeding down the elevator, he stopped at B Deck and strolled toward his quarters. He stopped. What is that noise?

  It was coming from the elevator chute. Music? They were the twangs of an acoustic guitar. A familiar tune. It sounded good. Really good.

  Jason got back on the elevator and made his way down to C Deck. He searched the entire cargo bay wondering where the sounds were coming from.

  As he listened to the music bouncing off the bulkheads, he had his answer. The pods. He made his way over to the port side of the cargo bay while the song broke out into its chorus.

  Through the circular airlock he spotted Tyler sitting in the pilot seat of the Maybelle, one of the Argo’s two pods.

  Tyler was facing toward the controls with his eyes closed. Jason decided not to disturb him until he’d finished his song.

  Unfortunately, Tyler must have sensed his presence. He turned in his chair and opened his eyes. The song came to an abrupt end.

  “Don’t stop on my account,” Jason said, raising his hands.

  Tyler put the guitar down at his feet.

  “That’s the old man’s guitar, isn’t it?”

  Tyler nodded. “Still works after all these years.”

  The guitar had different colored strings. “I see you’ve had to make repairs.”

  “Here and there.”

  “It’s still got a great sound. Helps to have a talented person wielding it. I don’t think I’ve heard Over the Titan Moon played so well.”

  Tyler blushed. “Plenty of practice, I suppose. It gets quiet out here, you know?”

  “Oh, I remember all too well.” Jason immediately realized he’d put his foot in it. “I didn’t mean—”

  “Yes, you did. The slow-paced life was never for you. That’s why you left.”

  Jason almost lamented how smart Tyler had got. “You’re probably right.” Jason folded down one of the seats in the aft cabin and sat. “When Kevin taught me how to fly, that’s all I ever wanted to do. It felt like there was so much more beyond these bulkheads.”

  Tyler twirled the guitar around in his hand. “It hurt Dad you never wanted to stay. He wanted you to take over from him one day.”

  Jason knew all of that. “You’ve made a better go at it than I ever could. You should be proud, Tyler. I know the old man would be.”

  Tyler blushed again.

  “You know, maybe you could give me a lesson on that thing.” Jason pointed at the guitar. “I always wanted to learn how to play.”

  Tyler held the guitar close to him. “You teach me how to play cards, and we’ll call it a deal.”

  Jason smiled. “Done.”

  With that, Tyler left, leaving Jason to ponder that all the nights since he’d returned, he’d never thought to invite his brother to play with them.

  Chapter 12

  September 9, 2213

  UECS Vanguard

  As Susan Tai walked by a pair of ensigns in the corridor, she noted their long faces. The night was still young, but she knew it was going to be a quiet one for a lot of people on the Vanguard.

  She stopped at one of the many doors lining the corridor and knocked. No response. She put her ear to the door. There was music playing inside. She knocked louder.

  “Come in!”

  Susan pushed the door open and walked over the threshold into the dark confines of Nicolas’s quarters. The only illumination was of the passing stars from the viewport.

  Nicolas was sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed. Susan listened intently to the music. She knew the tune but couldn’t put a name to it. All she knew was that it was classical. Which seemed odd because Nicolas was no music buff, much less a classical one.

  “Nicolas…” she whispered.

  “Susan?” he sounded surprised.

  During their journey to Orion V, she’d given him a wide berth. She didn’t want to make the trip any harder than it was.

  “You’re up late.”

  “As are you.”

  “Yes. Well…” Nicolas trailed off and looked at her with a brave face.

  She pointed toward the speakers in the ceiling. “What are you listening to?”

  “This?” He sat up on the sofa. “Symphony Number Nine. Beethoven. This particular part is the Ode to Joy.”

  Now Susan knew why it sounded familiar. It was a famous piece of music. A beautiful tune. One that had transcended centuries.

  “This was one of Chief Keene’s favorites.” Nicolas chuckled. “How he tried to get me to like this stuff. I guess I never had an ear for music like he did.”

  Susan took a seat next to him. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah…”

  Being a doctor herself, she’d seen Jung’s Disease firsthand. While no disease was pleasant, this was the daddy of them all. She hated to think how painful Keene’s last days were.

  “Do you remember that time we had his birthday at Vega Station?” she said, remembering.

  Nicolas chuckled. “He actually thought the woman who jumped out of his cake was real.”

  “You were in a lot of trouble after that.”

  “He didn’t talk to me for days.”

  They both laughed. Susan had many fond memories of the chief when she’d served on the Vanguard. But what she loved most of all was the friendship he shared with Nicolas. It was almost a father-son relationship. One that Nicolas hadn’t enjoyed when he’d been a child.

  “I just wish I’d been there,” he said, watching the stars go by.

  “There’s nothing you could have done.”

  “I know. It’s just…”

  “Believe me, I understand.” Susan pulled out a small flask from her jacket pocket and shook it about. “I thought perhaps it might be the right time for this.”

  Nicolas’s eyes widened. “Is that McKinley Oak?”

  “Of course.” She’d always known how fond he was of that particular spirit. For whatever reason when they’d divorced, she’d ended up with a bottle of the fine liquor. All that was left was in the small flask. “I think the chief would have liked us to have it.”

  She detected a slight smile on Nicolas’s face.

  “You know where the glasses are.”

  Susan walked over to the quaint old-fashioned liquor cabinet and took out two square-sided glasses. She poured one each and took a seat beside Nicolas on the sofa.

  She held up her glass. “To Lewis.”<
br />
  Nicolas nodded solemnly. They both drank it down in one mouthful.

  “Another?” Susan asked after letting the burning sensation finish tingling her throat.

  He seemed amused. She knew it was a stupid question and filled the glasses. They sipped at their drinks and reflected. Being the doctor she was, she couldn’t help but notice the fatigue in Nicolas’s eyes.

  “When was the last time you got a decent sleep?”

  He chuckled, closing his eyelids. “I wish I could remember.”

  “You know you can talk to me?”

  Nicolas’s eyes shot open. He nearly laughed, doing his best to hide it.

  “I am a doctor, remember?”

  “I have my own doctor should the need arise.”

  “Well, the offer’s there.”

  Nicolas grunted and took a taste of his drink. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Always.”

  It appeared Nicolas was trying to find the right words. “At the end of the war, if I’d taken that job at HQ, would we still be together?”

  Susan nearly choked on her scotch. They’d said so little to each other since leaving Earth, particularly on the subject of the breakdown of their marriage. She guessed the passing of Keene had made him think. “I…” She trailed off.

  But Nicolas continued to hold her gaze. He’s been thinking about this for a while…

  She took a mouthful from her glass to build up her courage. “You didn’t want a desk job. If we’d stayed together, I’d have felt guilty for the rest of our lives. We were on different paths, Nicolas. You know that.”

  At that moment, however, she began to wonder. Susan’s heart raced. Perspiration beaded above her brow.

  The intercom interrupted them. “Command Deck to Captain Marquez.”

  “What is it, Lieutenant?” Nicolas said, more than a little grumpily.

  “Captain, you wanted to know when the evening readiness reports were in. I’ve downloaded them to your quarters.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  Susan stood, believing the time was right to make a getaway. “I think I better call it a night.”

  He raised his glass, seemingly a little embarrassed from their deep and meaningful. “Thanks for the drink.”