by John Filcher
The question broke through Ronin’s quiet reverie. “Yes, I believe there’s a small colony there again,” he replied after a moment’s thought. “I saw it somewhere in a briefing that there was a group who didn’t believe the old city was cursed, and that it would not be destroyed again.”
The bridge crew didn’t need to ask about the luck of Old St. Louis. The city had originally been known just as St. Louis, Missouri. When it was ravaged by The Fall, the population mostly died or fled from the original flu virus. Originally, the city had developed into a major transportation hub for the country, and that traffic brought in the virus before anyone was aware there was a problem. It wasn’t a pretty death, and the city struggled to get back on its feet when the nuclear weapons were exchanged before the Treaty of Midway had been signed.
Then a year later, a one-megaton warhead that slipped through the western air defenses reduced the city to rubble. For a few centuries after The Fall, it effectively didn’t exist as an urban center. But, due to its location on two of the continent’s major shipping rivers, St. Louis was eventually rebuilt in more primitive fashion, only to be wiped out once more when the old prewar Oahe Dam in South Dakota failed after a particularly wet couple of years. Billions of gallons of water roared down the Missouri River and crashed into St. Louis. Since then, the ruins had been renamed Old St. Louis and the site was avoided as a dead, repeatedly unlucky place.
“Missile six, away,” announced the AI.
There were no more course changes, and the mushroom cloud of their final nuclear strike became visible on the forward view screen. Ronin’s console node commlink chimed with an incoming message from Nagun.
“Kitty Hawk Actual to Cerberus Actual. Launch sites destroyed. Their defense grid is smashed,” he said soberly.
“Captain, Cygnus reports the enemy destroyers have been disabled, and their fighters scattered around the planet and out of fuel,” LeCroy added, intruding on Ronin’s conversation with Nagun.
“Acknowledged. Let’s mop up the skies and I’ll tell the ground pounders to start Phase 3,” Ronin replied to both of them.
Weeks later, the Battle of Earth was over.
Chapter 30
The End of The Beginning
Cerberus jumped into the designated arrival point for incoming jump capable ships at Wayside Station, something the traffic controllers at Wayside had realized was needed now that jump ships had joined the fleet.
“Jump complete, Captain.” announced Perez tiredly. They were all exhausted. Circles were visible under their baggy eyes.
“Captain, incoming message from Wayside. Admiral Rodding and Colonel Hobson are waiting for you and Commander Mueller for debriefing.” Delgado said.
Ronin merely nodded. “Begin docking when you’re ready, Perez,” he said.
All too quickly, Ronin and Mueller were soon ushered into Rodding’s office.
“Captain. Commander. Welcome back. We’ve a lot to discuss.” Ronin had been dreading this discussion. Every night he had awoken from a nightmare where he nuked the planet, then used rail guns to bombard lesser targets for weeks.
Hobson took the glasses from Rodding’s private bar without seeking his permission, and placed one in front of each of them. Hobson solemnly filled them with several fingers of the precious bourbon.
“Before we begin, I would offer the following toast. Not to victory, but to honor the memory of those who can no longer be with us,” Hobson said, raising his glass. “To our fallen. May our people never suffer from war again.”
They all raised their glasses and took a sip. It was the same high-quality bourbon Rodding always had on hand, which made the sipping easier.
“Sir, has the enemy resistance been mopped up already?” Mueller asked.
“Mostly. There are pockets of resistance, but the ground troops have been cleaning them out one by one. We’re about to enter a period of consolidating our victory, which means you and your crew will start to get some leave time to rest and recuperate.”
Ronin nodded wearily. He needed a vacation.
“Captain, we have a new mission for you, should you choose to accept,” Hobson said, staring intently at Ronin.
“Sir, I’m sure worn down now. I don’t think I would be mission effective,” Ronin began to respond as Rodding interrupted him.
“Agreed, Captain. Now. But later you won’t be. And your ship needs a refit after we finish repairing the battle damage to the Ceres,” he said.
Something about the way Rodding mentioned “refit” tickled Ronin’s internal warning lights. “Sir, a refit? Cerberus is still a fairly new ship.”
Rodding and Hobson exchanged knowing glances, before Hobson responded. “Captain, while you were fighting the Battle of Earth, the science division made multiple dark matter breakthroughs out at Ninebase. Cerberus is to be refit with a new, dark matter power plant.”
Ronin was speechless for a moment before he erupted. “What! Why? What’s wrong with our fusion plant?”
Rodding took the opening. “Nothing, except that your jump range is far too limited. Captain, with a dark matter power plant Cerberus can skip the need for an interstellar gas station and jump out to the Baidam constellation and search for our former colonies or explore new worlds.
“Ronin, we need to start finding out more about our galactic neighborhood, and Cerberus is the key to doing so. Besides, it’s not like you can just return to Earth and relax at your family’s cottage in the north woods without drawing attention to yourself,” Rodding concluded.
Ronin flinched a bit involuntarily as the Admiral just nixed exactly what Ronin had in mind. “Sir, I don’t understand. Why couldn’t I just take the kids camping out in the north woods or go to my folk’s cottage? No one would recognize us.”
The cluelessness of THAT statement nearly shocked Rodding for a moment, until he remembered that the Cerberus crew was busy fighting a war in space, and really hadn’t been planet side to watch the news for a long time.
Rodding’s eyes softened as his face broke into somewhat of a sad visage. Dispensing with formalities, he continued, “Dan, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but you, and to a lesser extent, Commander Mueller, are the two most famous people on the planet. And you’ve been the most famous for quite some time, but neither of you have been made aware of the true extent of your worldwide fame.
“You’ve found secrets possibly leading to the legendary lost colonies. You found a hidden planet and base. You’ve destroyed many enemy vessels. You led the Battle of Earth and defeated our ancient enemy. You nuked our own cities to stop a worldwide pandemic from wiping us out.
“There have been multiple television programs about the two of you, and about certain members of your crew. Your Marines have been especially popular subjects of the cinema. There have been hit movies about all these exploits. There isn’t anywhere you can hide on that planet where someone won’t find out and draw unwanted attention.”
Ronin and Mueller were speechless as they both turned to look at each other in horror. Both of them hated fame, the media, and anything to do with either. “Uh, I guess, perhaps, leaving the solar system is a good way to avoid all that,” stuttered Mueller, speaking for both herself and Ronin.
“Agreed. Maybe it’s time to get away while we can.”
Rodding smiled broadly, knowing his two highly perceptive officers would quickly reach the same conclusion he and Hobson already had reached. “Good. Excellent, in fact. We took the liberty to already cut the orders for you. In the meanwhile, I want the both of you to get as much downtime aboard Wayside as you can. The refit will commence in a few weeks at Argo 1, who is already expecting Cerberus after they launch their next vessel.
“Also, regarding the Marines from Force Omega. We have arranged a little publicity tour for them, so they will be detached for that duty for a few months. Omega’s exploits have been featured i
n a new hit movie that is drawing massive crowds, and the people want to see the crazy Marines who brought down the Collective’s defense grid. We understand the Marines ‘P’ for Plenty formula plays a key role in both the actual events and the show.”
Despite his weariness, Ronin couldn’t help but smile at the thought of his combat Marines being paraded around in a public relations role for a while. “Sir, they’re quite the characters. I can’t guarantee they’ll behave or even enjoy the duty. Best I can tell, they’ll either end up killing someone in boredom, or ham it up and have far more fun than is appropriate.”
Both Rodding and Hobson smiled, having worked closely with Marines earlier in their respective careers. “Understood, Captain, and not unexpected. We have already assigned Fleet Intelligence Security to ride herd on them, which both the Marines and the Security personnel will mutually hate. Those sort of folks are notoriously unforgiving in the humor department.” Hobson noted.
Ronin smiled broadly at the mental image of Fleet Intelligence Security trying to corral Marines bent on a good time. “I wish them the best of luck, sir,” Ronin said, making them all laugh somewhat maliciously.
Still chuckling a bit, Rodding continued where Hobson left off. “We can certainly celebrate a great victory for now, but we all know of greater problems than honoring our dead, and corralling Marines on a PR tour await us in the future.”
That might be the understatement of the millennium, thought Ronin as he and Mueller just glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, and took another sip of bourbon.
about the Author
John Filcher is an avid sci-fi reader who enjoyed writing Cerberus. Due to his tragically, some would say comically, bad skills with all things math, after an exceptionally misspent youth he went to law school instead of medical school.
Despite all that, he has been trying to write like a normal human being ever since. Someday, he has high hopes to master coherent sentence structure in addition to proper punctuation and stuff, but for now just makes do like everyone else.
