“Whatcha doin'?” she asked, looking at my arm unit. Her eyes widened and a hand went over her mouth. “You didn't turn any of the recorders off?”
“I completely forgot about them!” I explained with a defensive shrug. “Oz has everything aboard active by default.”
She laughed and pointed at me. “No sharing! We'll look at it later.”
Even after spending almost an entire two days with her, even arguing with her once during that time over something completely unimportant, she continued to surprise me. I thought forgetting to turn the recorders off would turn into a huge fight. I snapped to attention and saluted. “I'll keep it under the tightest security, Commander.”
She laughed and walked right up to me, standing on toes so she could look me in the eye. “You'd better, Captain, or I'll start revealing facts disclosed in confidence,” she threatened.
“I'm so lucky you're not a spy,” I replied.
“You sure are.”
I grabbed her around the waist and kissed her. She melted a moment and then broke away. “I'm going to be late.”
“By the Captain's orders,” I said, fishing for another kiss.
“Hey! No pulling rank off duty!” she protested, laughing and turning her head so I couldn't meet her lips.
I found my mark and for a moment I think we both forgot that we were about to be very late. We stopped and smiled at each other. “I'll see you on duty Commander.”
“I'm at your disposal, Captain,” she replied.
After she left, I checked the time and realized that we both had two minutes to get to our respective commands. I stepped out of my quarters and jogged to the lift, waited for the doors to open, and stepped inside. As soon as the doors opened again it became obvious that leave was over. The core of the ship was alive with crew members hurriedly moving down the halls, reporting for morning shift and getting the ship ready to get underway. I strode down the hall and entered the security airlock that lead to the bridge. The first heavy doors parted and seemed to take forever to close behind me. The inner doors opened and I was greeted with the sight of a busy bridge staff. There were over twenty of them now, manning navigation, tactical, field control, engineering, gunnery, repair, dedicated sciences, communication, security, helm, and life systems management stations.
“Captain on the bridge!” an ensign called out as I entered.
Everyone stood at attention. Oz and I smiled at each other. “Have a good leave sir?” he asked.
“As you were,” I ordered the bridge crew as I made my way back to my seat. “Even better than expected,” I replied.
“That good huh?”
I nodded as I looked around at the faces manning the bridge. It wasn't the regular day bridge crew. “How was yours?”
“Fantastic. I hit it off with someone after rescuing Minh from that first mate.”
“How was that?”
“No big deal. He just woke up in a public garden as nude as the flora.”
“The person you hit it off with, or Minh?” I teased.
“Minh. My date's clothes stayed on until last night.”
“So he's all right?”
“Oh, he'll be fine, it was just a port fling. He's leaving on the Kensington tomorrow.”
“I meant Minh.”
“Oh, sure. He's a little pissed that we let him go home with her, but he'll be fine.”
“Glad to hear you had some fun though.”
“A night to remember,” Oz said, looking through navigation charts on his arm console.
“I think almost everyone had an interesting time this leave.”
“It was a good first. Everyone's back on board, a few were late, but they're here without serious injuries and no one was tossed in the station's brig.”
“Sir, Captain Wheeler's on the comm,” said a young woman at the communications terminal.
“Put it up.”
Captain Wheeler appeared on the main holographic display. “We're just about to get underway,” his manner didn't hint at a grudge.
“We're just about ready here.”
“We'll start scanning from the south pole.”
“Sounds good. First Light out.”
“Either he's got an amazing sense of professionalism, doesn't remember the other night, or he's just biding his time,” Oz said quietly.
“Well, if his idea of revenge is sticking us with the tab for the club the other night, then we paid through the nose. Good thing our finances are in good shape,” Jason commented from the central seat at the communications station.
“Here's hoping that's the end of it,” Oz replied.
“Doesn't sound like you're convinced,” I prodded as I checked the general status reports.
“I'm not.”
“Me neither. We'll have to keep our eyes open.” We were quiet for a few moments while we waited for departments to report ready. “Where's my bridge crew?” I asked in a whisper.
“I thought it would help if one of the mid shift crews got to work with you for a while. Get a feel for your command style.”
“Ah, how many bridge crews do we have now?”
“All together, including emergency staff, we have three.”
“And acting captains?”
“Two, not including myself.”
“How many of those are experienced?”
“Combat, watch, or simulation experienced?”
I shrugged at the stipulation. “I hope they've all had a few watches.”
“Yup, they've all had watches. Mostly in hyperspace.”
“How about manoeuvres or simulations?”
“A couple of the crews have been on during in-system manoeuvres. They all have training.”
“Combat?”
“A few have combat experience.”
“How many are a few?”
“Your bridge crew and a couple members of one other.”
“How many of the acting captains have command experience?”
“Including you and the doctor?”
“Sure.”
“Two.”
“I'd better get ready to pull some long shifts if this mission takes a while,” I whispered.
We didn't see a trace of the Triton on our way to the third moon of the second planet in the system. I didn't second guess it, but I did quietly command our tactical station to keep scanning for any strange readings or signs of them.
“Maybe she's just not there. It could be some kind of trap,” Oz whispered.
“She's a Sol defence carrier. I'd be surprised if he didn't have some kind of cloaking device.”
“Still, a cloaking device, that's about as advanced as you can get.”
“Yes and no. We're close to making one, it's just not easy. We have the primary and secondary projectors for it. We can seal our ship up, we just don't have all the hard math or fine tuning done. We also can't counter our gravitational silhouette.”
“Which normally takes decades for a single ship. I've never seen one.”
“That's the point,” I whispered with a smile. We were moving into orbit around Lauvin. It's surface was in phase three of the terraforming process, and it looked like it was going very slowly. The side we were on was a slightly varying shade of beige, with darker lines across indicating deep craters and chasms. “Have they managed to ignite anything in the core?” I asked.
“Nothing sir. There's very little heat in the centre of the moon. It's solid rock. No tectonic activity. Just sand, sand, and more sand with a few rocks and sandstorms.”
“No water yet at all?”
“The beacon reports that they've just started liquefying water underground. Temperature in the temperate zone reads minus twenty-one degrees, minus thirty-four with wind chill.”
“Looks like a beach, but it's really a deep freeze,” Oz commented quietly. “Glad we already took leave.”
“Sir, there's an object headed towards the planet. Decelerating from near lightspeed.”
“Time to impact?” I asked.<
br />
“Forty seconds. It's reducing speed at over nineteen thousand kilometres per second. At this rate it will just barely make entry.”
“Incoming communication from the Triton,” came the report from communications.
“Put it up.”
Wheeler appeared on the holodisplay. The transmission was a little garbled. “Looks like we're right on time. I'll meet you at the landing site.”
“See you down there,” I replied, cutting the comm. The pod had decelerated and was entering the atmosphere at just under the safest maximum speed. “Oz, get a full security team together. We're going down heavy.”
“Already done. Minh's waiting for us in a boarding shuttle and we'll have seven fighters as cover.”
“That's why you're my first officer,” I stood and looked to the tactical station before leaving the bridge. “Where is that pod going to hit?”
“Just at the northern point in what's marked as the future tropical zone. It should be clear of sandstorms for another hour and a half. About minus eighteen degrees.”
“Oh good, the garden spot,” Oz smirked as he followed me into the exit.
Chapter 17
The Garden Spot
We followed the smoke. The pod had left a trail in the sky as well as on the ground, and I watched from the rear of the shuttle cockpit as we headed towards its final resting place. I looked back into the main cabin to see every seat full. Every pair of hands held a rifle, save the two medics we had with us. It was a full security team of twenty, everyone sealed up in their vacsuits and dressed in their dark long coats. There were four members of the engineering team as well, just in case we ran into trouble with the pod. Looking out to my right I could see three of the fighters in our escort group, and I knew above and behind there were gunners manning the shuttle turrets.
We hadn't come light. In fact, we were so well armed you'd think we were on a combat drop. Looking over to where Minh piloted us over the endless dunes of fine sand, I felt as though I were back with the infantry team on All-Con Prime, where I had first met him. I was just a mechanic then. Part of the engineering team, sure, but we were really there to keep our transportation in the air, the comms on line, and our weaponry working as we destroyed one factory after another. That was a long time ago, and a far less complicated mission. I found myself wondering what being on the engineering staff during this trip was like as Minh's copilot pointed out a crater of blackened sand and glass ahead. “There it is, Sir. It should be cool enough to set down in.”
Somehow, there was already a rough, boxy shuttle on the ground with a small turret pointing out the back. Captain Wheeler had already arrived and his people were prying at the pod's hatch.
Minh put us down in haste as our fighter cover circled overhead. The landing gear groaned at the pressure of the quick landing.
“See you back here,” he said to me. “Good luck.”
I nodded, brought my vacsuit hood up, then activated the faceplate to form an airtight seal. “May your life be interesting,” I told Minh through the proximity radio built into the suit.
We emerged from the shuttle and Oz ordered the engineering team to help open the pod. “Be careful. We don't want to break any bio-seals without knowing if whoever is inside is injured or not prepared for the environment,” he added.
I strode towards Captain Wheeler and his four armed officers, then looked over to where his team was clumsily working at the seals of the pod with pry bars. One was starting a cutting tool. Everyone from his crew were in mismatched vacsuits. Some weren't even the right size, and slack had to be strapped up so the extra material wouldn't get in the way. Wheeler himself was wearing a much older Freeground vacsuit. “My team can finish opening this. They're trained for rescue and retrieval,” I said.
“We're in a hurry here. There's no time to get this open layer by layer.”
I looked at his team again, standing right in the way of my own, who were prepared with sensors and tools made specifically to handle tasks like the one his crew was bumbling through. “You're kidding.”
“My boys'll get it open,” Captain Wheeler said, nodding.
I looked back at him. “Tell your men to step away from the pod.”
Captain Wheeler looked directly at me but didn't say anything.
“You can't tell me you've been this successful out here with this kind of recklessness or stupidity. Either use the right tools or step aside,” I told him flatly. My patience was just about gone where he was concerned.
He shrugged and ordered his team to step away from the pod.
The First Light engineering and medical personnel stepped in but didn't actually touch anything. They started by scanning, then tried opening a communications channel to whoever waited inside. “Sir, the occupant confirms that he will be ready to exit the pod in another minute or two. He just finished emerging from deep stasis,” came a crewman's report in my earpiece.
“Acknowledged. Find out if he requires medical assistance.”
After a moment the engineering specialist nodded. “He says he made it fine. He's in good shape.”
Looking at the pod, it was eight meters long and four across. I couldn't believe that it could survive such an impact and then be functional enough for hatches to open properly. I had seen drop pods before, but none that were made to travel long distances using hyperspace systems, then decelerate for hours before smashing into a planet surface at such high speeds.
A few moments later, breaks appeared in the hull of the pod in the shape of a perfect circle. Despite the dented and fused metal, it pushed outward and moved to the side to reveal a well made interior that, from what I could see, contained the equipment required for long term stasis. A dark haired man who looked much older than I expected -- deep wrinkles and receding hair included -- emerged in a vacsuit that featured a thin, flexible transparent material for the head piece. He smiled uneasily and looked around as he climbed out.
I knew it would be cold, and the wind was lazily moving the sand around at chest level, but I retracted my headpiece and stepped forward, hand extended. “I'm Captain Jonas Valent, of the First Light.”
He smiled at me and shook my hand. “Doctor William Marcelles.”
“Nice to see you made it in one piece.”
His smile grew a little broader, and his gravelly voice spoke in a very friendly, personable tone. “Prototype faster than light hyperspace escape shuttle. If there were more time I'd say you should take it up to your ship, but we're on the clock I'm afraid.”
I looked over my shoulder and regarded Captain Wheeler, who was standing by, observing. “This is Captain Wheeler and his crew,” Lucius approached at hearing his introduction.
The doctor looked at him for a moment and then simply said. “Ah,” before going on. “This strike was arranged by some of the researchers, most of whom have already made attempts at escape or have already been killed. Triad probably noticed I was missing not long after I left. If we want to avoid them we should be going. Here is a copy of the coordinates and tactical information we could gather.”
I took the tiny data cylinder from him, loaded the information onto my arm command unit, and handed it off to Captain Wheeler. “Is there anything that isn't in this report that you can tell us?”
“Triad has not allowed the separate components of the Framework project to come together anywhere else in the galaxy. I made sure of that before leaving. Your mission should still be achievable.”
“Come with me. I have orders to keep you hidden,” Captain Wheeler said as he started back to his shuttle.
Doctor Marcelles started walking behind him, but turned his head towards me momentarily. I could hear him in my communications implant. His mouth wasn't moving but his eyes punctuated his message, they were cold and piercing. “Every few generations there is a leap in technology so drastic the conditions of living change. This is a such a time. Make sure this information lands in the right hands so it is a cure before it becomes a weapon. All your fears
are justified.”
I nodded at him and brought my headpiece back up. The cold was turning my ears and nose numb. Just then my communicator buzzed and Jason came on. “Sir, a battleship has emerged from hyperspace dangerously close to the planet, and another has passed through the atmosphere.”
“Acknowledged. Minh, you hear that?”
“Already warming it up sir. Fighters are moving to intercept the vessel going atmospheric.”
“Don't bother Commander, it's the Triton. She's coming to pick me up,” interjected Captain Wheeler. “I suspected there would be something right behind the pod.”
We closed the distance between the pod and the shuttle double quick, and the ramp was closing as the last of us set foot on it. “Get us out of here Minh. Don't spare the throttle,” I ordered as the inner hatch came down and sealed.
“When have you known me to spare the throttle?”
“Just an expression.”
Sergeant Everin came on the communicator again. “That battleship is right on our heels captain. We're sending the interception trajectory now.”
“Condition?” I asked, making my way through the shuttle to the cockpit as the inertial dampening systems whined trying to keep up as the shuttle made its climb towards space. “How's the ship and crew?”
“All guns blazing Captain. We're taking hits but so far we're okay,” I heard Ayan's voice reply. “They sent a twin hulled battleship after the pod. She's called the Vindicator, she's Triad.”
I got to the cockpit and saw that we were flying under partial cover provided by the Triton. She wasn't nearly as long as the First Light, but she was wide. It was like looking at a silvered stingray with three launch bays along the bottom and several turret emplacements firing at the intercept fighters that had been launched by the Vindicator. Our own turrets blazed as we followed the Triton up through the atmosphere and out into space.
I managed to drop myself into a rear cockpit seat and started checking the tactical station. “See you at the waypoint Captain Valent. Good luck getting clear,” I heard Wheeler say over the communicator.
“See you there,” I replied as I did a double take on the tactical screen. There were at least fifty small craft marked as fighters or small gunships with the Vindicator's battle group. The Vindicator itself came up, less than twenty kilometres behind the First Light. Everything was coming straight for us.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins Page 48
