by John Filcher
Ronin leaned back, and clasped his hands behind his head as he looked towards the ceiling and mulled it over before speaking. “I’ve thought about it and decided we will do nothing.”
Looks of surprise flitted across everyone’s faces at that. “Nothing? Captain, are you sure? Murder seems pretty inhumane to me,” Mueller said, speaking her mind much too frankly. LeCroy, a veteran of many missions with Ronin, was shocked by Mueller’s merciful attitude.
Ronin raised an eyebrow at Mueller’s response, and sharply spoke his mind in response. “Commander Mueller, Cerberus is not a ship of the line! Out here, we lack the resources of a large battle formation like you’re used to. For this kind of mission, Cerberus is going to be tasked to operate as a lone wolf for most of our missions. Old-fashioned notions of fairness will just get our people killed.”
“But Captain, they’re all going to suffer a horrible death! We can prevent that—,” Mueller started, but Ronin cut her off.
With a glare and ice in his voice, Ronin spelled it out for her, “Commander, our mission orders clearly state we are not to engage with the enemy or reveal this ship unless absolutely necessary to accomplish the mission. That includes mercy calls and anything else that might happen out here. The enemy blindly flies through a kill zone, that falls under the heading of ‘not our problem’. You better get used to this kind of mission environment, or you’ll not succeed on this ship.”
Mueller was shocked into silence. I can’t believe I have to work for this madman.
With that, the meeting broke up and Ronin headed to his quarters to complete his progress reports. As he walked, he thought about the coming end of the enemy destroyer. Letting their ship fry in a kill zone is just a bonus. Good thing I’m also not feeling too inclined to save them for personal reasons. Bastards never gave us any warning when they ambushed the Frisco and killed my wife ten years ago. I’m not going to get all broken up about that crew getting fried.
Sitting alone at the desk in his quarters hours later, Ronin’s tired eyes were unfocused and he ignored the report on his tablet as he muttered the ancient names to himself in wonderment. “Forrestal, Celestra, and Solara.” So maybe they actually did exist!
He shook his head as he pulled up the old legend on the tablet after he signed the final report. Ronin then read aloud the skimpy legend. “Forrestal is supposed to be a planet of cold, deep oceans, snowcapped mountains and dark forests. The entire planet is rumored to be quite temperate because of the mountains near the equator. Celestra orbits Forrestal, and enjoys a similar climate.”
That’s it? Yeah, that’s all on Celestra. Hmph. Solara was supposed to orbit somewhat closer to its star, with a hotter climate. Deserts, jungles and beaches and stuff. Great. Those are so vague we’d be lucky to recognize them even if we stumbled right into the system. Good thing we’ll never be sent on that little wild goose chase. Ronin chuckled to himself.
At the same time, Diane also retired to her family’s quarters. After putting Sonya and Sophia to bed with stories and some giggles, she curled up next to Karl on the sofa in their small living room.
Karl could read her eyes. “What’s troubling you? You’ve been putting on a brave face since you got home.”
Diane looked at him before replying quietly. “I may have made a mistake to take this duty assignment. The Captain and I disagreed about whether to save an enemy ship when it’s within our power to do so.” She told him about the remainder of the situation.
Karl thought about it for a few long seconds before speaking softly. “I suspect you both are just looking through the lens of your prior experiences. Your experience is with large fleet formations deep down in the inner solar system, while his is one of operating independently far away in the belt and beyond. Neither of you is wrong if this situation aligns to one of those contexts. But only one of those contexts applies to this location. We’re all alone out here. The Captain might be right.”
Diane rested her head on Karl’s shoulder. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that. This is going to be a long tour.” she said.
Chapter 11
Wayside Station
A month later, Cerberus jumped into space near the coordinates for Wayside Station. “Jump complete, Captain. We’re on approach for Wayside docking,” announced Lieutenant Perez.
“Captain, we’re receiving a coded message from Admiral Rodding. It’s marked “eyes only” for you and Commander Mueller,” reported Lieutenant Delgado.
Ronin and Mueller looked at each other a moment before they simultaneously began moving towards Ronin’s ready room.
Inside the ready room, both Ronin and Mueller sat at his desk and verified their identities through the retinal scanner on his screen. Moments later, a video message from the admiral popped up.
“Captain Ronin and Commander Mueller, welcome back. First item is your mission was a resounding success. Second item is, your mission created more questions than answers. Many more. The data you sent ahead with the Bulldog crew will keep our scientists busy for some time. Your Bulldog and its crew is returning to Cerberus as soon as you dock. Report to me at my office by 0900 station time tomorrow for further briefing and orders.”
“Questions,” said Mueller, glancing at Ronin. “They have no idea how many questions WE have!”
Ronin nodded with a small smile. “We’ve been gone for about two months. And while we brought back a large assortment of data scraps, we didn’t manage to find more than a few answers. For now, let’s focus on getting Cerberus docked and stocked before tomorrow’s briefing.”
The next morning, Ronin and Mueller were shown into the Adm. Jessup Rodding’s office promptly at 9 a.m. Mueller admired the beautiful real wood doors to his office, wondering for a moment how long it had been since she had seen actual wood.
“Captain, Commander, come in!” said a chipper sounding Rodding. “I trust you managed a good night’s sleep?” he joked as he motioned to the slightly dark rings under their eyes, knowing they would get the quirky humor. Nobody got much sleep the first night after docking and stocking. Too much to do.
“Oh, yes, sir. Like a vacation out there,” responded Ronin with a smile and chuckle.
“Funny you should mention vacation,” Rodding said. “You’re going on vacation. Mandatory two weeks of R&R, and the clock won’t begin to run until you’ve arrived in Green Bay.”
Ronin was surprised, as he’d been expecting more deployment orders. Just as he opened his mouth to protest, Rodding stopped him.
“No use arguing, Captain. The Fleet Admiralty is requiring you to get your long-delayed downtime so you stay sharp. Commander Mueller will handle your ship in the interim.”
Ronin and Mueller glanced at one another. “What will Cerberus be doing while the Captain is away,” Mueller asked.
“Good question, Commander. You’ll deploy Cerberus back to Planet Nine and deliver research teams to both the two ancient ship hull fragments and Ninebase. The teams also include archaeologists, who very nearly came to blows over who would get to investigate what. It’s the discovery of a lifetime for that profession.”
Mueller nodded, happy with those orders. She and Karl likewise couldn’t wait to return to those relics to do some more investigating.
Rodding continued, his gravelly voice warming up as he spoke to his two officers. “Ronin, there’s a shuttle leaving tomorrow at 1300 hours. Be on it, and go see your kids. There are some new videos from them in the commlink system’s buffers. By departure time, we figure most of the restocking process that would require your involvement will be done.”
“Yes, sir!” Ronin said smartly. There was more he wanted to ask and he figured now was the time. “Did our scientists make any new discoveries?”
Rodding was ready for the question, as it was obvious the two were dying to find out. “There’s a ton of conjecture so far, and our AIs are also hard at work
trying to connect all those data fragments, but here’s what we know for sure. The colonies are real. That’s the biggie here. Problem is, there are still no records identifying which celestial objects we’re supposed to look at to know where the shark constellation is, which is disappointing.
“The power facility you found down inside Ninebase might be a type of power totally unknown to us. Something called dark matter. We don’t know what that is yet, but one of the research teams will attempt to reverse engineer the power plant.
“I dunno much about all that, sounds like rocket scientist stuff. We have an AI who volunteered to work with the surviving AI on the Constitution. Hopefully that goes well, but the AI knows it will have to be isolated to protect our own systems. Oh, and the linguistics teams are in an uproar over something you stumbled across,” Rodding lectured.
“Sir, would it be the name of the language?” Mueller asked
Rodding nodded with raised eyebrows. “Correct, Mueller. Those relics call our language English, while in today’s world it’s simply called American. We had no idea.
“The AI on Constitution provided a short primer on the evolution of that language and how it was heavily influenced by other languages and borrowed words from them. The AI even explained the ancient language had developed a host of accents over time, and that it came from Britain where a portion of the island was called England. In fact, Britain apparently colonized the Americas using wooden sailing ships, if you can believe it. Colonists from a variety of nation states brought their native languages with them. American eventually became the dominant language. As you can guess, most of those other languages became extinct during The Fall.”
After the three continued discussing other matters for a while, Ronin and Mueller returned to their ship. “That part about extinct languages sounds like some old stories told in our family,” Mueller mentioned as they walked the corridor leading back to Cerberus.
“Oh, yeah?” Ronin asked, prompting Mueller to elaborate.
“The family historians who have researched the family lineage as far back as they can spoke of the main native language in Germany being called Deutsch. The country name was pronounced “Deutschland” in that language. And that there were multiple dialects, generally originating from different tribes scattered around the area as eventually they joined together to form a nation state with a common language. That’s about all we know though.”
Ronin was impressed. “Our family history basically begins with The Fall. Before that, we have nothing that was carried forward. After you, Commander,” he said, motioning for Mueller to proceed before him into the open passageway that lead into the heart of Cerberus.
Ronin managed to catch a few hours of sleep after they arrived at Cerberus. Mueller did likewise. Both of them were exhausted from the frenetic pace aboard the ship as it was made ready to depart again.
By the next day, Ronin was still exhausted by the time he needed to depart to catch the shuttle home. Mueller met him at the passageway into the Wayside docking area.
“Have a good time reconnecting with your family, Dan. Cerberus will be in good hands while you’re away,” Mueller announced with a salute.
Ronin returned her salute. “Thank you, Diane. I know you’ll take good care of her. Remember what I said about operating as a lone ship. Cerebus’ safety is paramount to concerns of civility. And you get to explore those old-world relics some more, which makes me a bit envious!”
Mueller forced a smile to hide her thoughts about killing the enemy, her blue eyes contrasting with her blonde hair. “The twins have been bugging me for stories about the old world for weeks. Hopefully we’ll be able to come up with some more material to send them off to bed with. We’ll jump back out there in a few days, and rendezvous back here with you in a few weeks.” They shook hands, and Ronin left to catch his ride home.
Ronin hurried as he didn’t want the shuttle to leave without him. Turns out he needn’t have worried, as it had been ordered to wait for him. An old veteran like Rodding knew Ronin might be a little late in this situation.
As Ronin settled in to his seat on the shuttle, the flight crew sealed up the ship and prepared to leave. “All passengers, prepare for departure,” announced the pilot as the engines began to whine louder with increased power. Ronin was quiet, his mind blurry with exhaustion, and he closed his eyes. He was sleeping before the shuttle even left the station.
Mueller stopped by her quarters for a few minutes before returning to the bridge. “I’m taking command of Cerberus for a few weeks while the Captain finally gets a break to take the edge off. He really needs a vacation.” she said to Karl after the doors closed behind her.
“What are going to do with the ship? Take her out for an interstellar joy ride somewhere?” Karl joked. His smile fell when he got a look at the expression on Diane’s face.
“We’re going back to deep space on a mission to Ninebase and the flying hull relics.” she deadpanned.
Karl’s eyebrows shot up. “We are?” he asked.
“It won’t be a trip without danger,” Diane replied.
Chapter 12
Green Bay
Ronin slept half of the five-day trip to Earth. He kept to himself the rest of the time, partially because he outranked the other passengers and they didn’t want to bother a fleet captain. After the shuttle docked at the Confederation’s orbiting transfer station, he was swiftly transported to the surface on a full surface to transport. It wasn’t difficult to find one headed to a major city like Green Bay, as they departed for the city every few hours.
The short trip to the surface seemed to take forever because Ronin was so excited to finally come home and see his family. Once the shuttle landed on the designated pad at the port, he quickly exited and was grateful to hear familiar cries of “Daddy!” when he entered to waiting area. His arms quickly wrapped around Sarah and Edward as they did their best to burrow into his neck area.
“You two have gotten so tall!” Ronin exclaimed as he glanced up at his father, Robert. “What have you been feeding them? They’re monsters!”
Robert was already grinning, glad to see his son at last. “We feed them steroids and cows! Only way to grow ’em big and strong,” he said, using the same old joke he used to tell his own father when little Ronin would visit his grandparents. “I’ve got some steaks ready to grill, and the beer is ice cold. How about we head home and get started?” he said to Ronin.
“Nothing in this world sounds better!” Ronin remarked, as they walked out to the car park with Edward riding on his shoulders. Once they arrived at Robert and Julia’s home, Ronin and Robert settled into the comfortable patio furniture while the steaks began cooking on the grill in the early summer evening of northeastern Wisconsin.
“What word from space? You were gone for so long due to the unexpected mission extension. We were afraid we’re losing the battle for space because of it,” Robert said as he handed Ronin one of his favorite oatmeal stout beers from the small brewery nearby.
Ronin took a long sip of the icy, thick beer with a brown frothy top before responding. “Well, Dad, first thing you should know is I was relieved of command of the Ike.”
Stunned, Robert looked at his son. “What! What happened?”
Ronin took another sip as he enjoyed tormenting his dad with that teaser. “Mark Toft assumed command when I was given a brand-new ship, the Cerberus. She’s far more advanced than Ike, Dad.”
Robert stood up to flip the steaks at the grill. “So, is Cerberus a newer class of destroyer then?”
Ronin grinned as he walked over to stand next to Robert, admiring the steaks with a hungry eye. “Cerberus is a whole other class of ship. A different animal entirely, Dad. She’s a heavy cruiser. Weighs in at 100,000 long tons, crew of 2,500. Carries two full squadrons of Tomcat fighters onboard, and a top-secret propulsion system. Soon she’ll have a few sister ships joining th
e fleet. Armaments are classified. The new heavy cruiser class can crush a destroyer before they knew what hit them.”
Robert pulled the steaks from the grill, and the two of them walked over to the outdoor dining table where the rest of the family was setting the table. “Julia, Dan is captaining another ship now,” he announced as they sat down.
“That’s fantastic!” Julia replied, beaming with pride at her son.
“Dad! Is that as good of a ship as Ike?” asked Edward.
“Oh, yes. Brand new ship, much larger and more powerful.” Ronin interrupted himself by attacking the steak, as he couldn’t wait any longer for real food after eating the spacecraft food for so long.
“I also have one heck of an announcement,” Ronin said, again interrupting himself with a sip of a second of those excellent oatmeal stouts. “This will be released to the public soon, so I’ve already been cleared to tell you. Cerberus was sent on an exploration mission the past few months. Remember the old legends about the space colonies, Forrestal, Celestra and Solara?”
Sarah nodded at her father, wondering why he was referring to the subjects of many a bedtime story. “We found proof that they were real, and we found the spot where the jump gate to them existed.”
While he chewed the steak, Ronin chuckled internally at how he managed to stop each of them mid-bite while they stared back at him in complete shock.
“Wait, there actually were colonies?” his mother asked, putting her fork down on her plate.
“Yes, we found a ninth planet way out in the outer reaches of the solar system. It’s a dark planet, so telescopes on Earth can’t detect it. Its satellite held an intact, ancient western coalition base. There were many fragmentary records that hadn’t broken down too far from the passage of time for our AI to retrieve. Some of the recovered data indicated the colonies were indeed real. We just don’t know where they are beyond some clues that are classified top secret. There were also other relics we found.”
