“That's what Midshipmen wear on their uniforms. You can put yours on as soon as you're cleared for duty.” Raising his hand, Koslov added, “You'll be going back to Mars, and will have a few months to hit the textbooks and catch yourself up at your discretion. Then I'll see that you get an assignment to a starship. A capital ship, almost certainly. That should kick-start your career nicely.”
“Sir, I didn't even...”
“A large part of the training your receive at the Academy is how to be an officer, son, and I don't think we have much to teach you on that score. As for the rest, I trust in your ability to catch up.” Pausing, Koslov said, “There's a Gold Cross to go with that pip, as well as a couple of other citations. You just won't be able to tell anyone about how you got them.”
“Midshipman,” Jack added, “You saved millions of lives. Maybe billions. This seems like a meager reward for your heroism.”
“I'll try not to let you down,” Clarke said, looking up at Blake.
“I hope you're happy,” she said. “I just about had him convinced that wearing the uniform was a short cut to a body bag.”
“It can be,” Koslov replied. “What about you? What do you want?”
“I was going to go to medical school,” she said, with a shrug. “No sponsor, no money.”
“Join the Fleet,” Jack said. “Doctor Strickland thinks very highly of you.”
Nodding, Koslov added, “We'll take you in as a Technical Officer, and you'll serve a three-year tour as a paramedic and surgical assistant. If you work like hell, you'll get enough training to cut the amount of time you'd have to spend in that school in half, and the Fleet will pick up the tab afterward.” Glancing at Clarke, he said, “As a bonus, I'll guarantee that you'll both be assigned to the same ship.”
“What makes you think I want that?” she asked.
“Did I say the bonus was for you? From the report I read, you two are a fantastic field team. It seems a shame to waste talent like that.”
“I'll think about it,” she said, looking down at Clarke in a manner that made it clear that she had already made up her mind. “Once this idiot gets back on his feet, anyway.”
“Have fun, kids,” Koslov said, rising to his feet. Turning to Jack, he gestured at the corridor, and the two of them walked back towards the hangar bay, both with smiles on their faces. “Good officer material, both.”
“I'm surprised you didn't recruit them.”
“I will, sooner or later. Or Triplanetary Intelligence, anyway. If they season nicely, they'll make excellent field agents, but that will come later.” With a sideways glance, he added, “The best agents always recruit themselves, anyway.”
“Good reason to rule me out,” Jack replied, looking around. “I'm going to miss her.”
“You've already got everything packed?”
“Already on the O'Dell. I was planning on shipping out as soon as I could anyway. There are lot of good memories here, but that's what they are. Memories. I want to remember her as she was, not as she is now.” Tapping the hull, he added, “She died with honor. That's what she would have wanted, anyway.”
Nodding, Koslov said, “For whatever it's worth, there will be a TSS Churchill again in a few months. One of the new Hercules-class cruisers. I already signed off on the paperwork, and I pulled a few strings to slide it through committee. Probably a Kathryn Mallory and a Moses Sullivan at some point, too. They're naming the next generation of scoutships after war heroes, and they seem like perfect choices.”
“She'd like that,” he said. “Damn, I...”
“She died as she lived. She saved her ship, her crew, and the mission. There are worse ways to go. All of them the same. This was important, Jack, damned important. And the curse of it is that no one can ever know the truth.”
“I won't talk,” he replied. “You know that.”
“If I didn't, you wouldn't be leaving the system.” They walked back into the hangar deck, where Cruz was standing beside the sole remaining fighter, a smile on her face. “I figured you'd want to leave Churchill for the last time on something a little more impressive than a shuttle.”
Looking up at the fighter, he nodded, and said, “Thanks, Vlad. For everything.”
“Don't be a stranger.”
Jack stepped onto the ladder, climbing into the cockpit, Cruz tossing him his flight helmet. As he worked through the pre-flight checklist, he looked around at the hangar deck, slowly falling through the elevator airlock.
“Goodbye, old friend,” he whispered.
After fifteen years, he was finally leaving his past behind. Now the future awaited him, whatever it might be.
Appendix A: The Triplanetary Confederation
During the aftermath of the Third World War, the unified peoples of Earth, in a desperate hope to find both a new home for mankind and new resources to replenish the old one, launched waves of colonies into space, settling primarily on the Moon, Mars, Callisto and Titan. The Moon, settled by the remnants of the Chinese government, was the first to declare independence during the height of the chaos, and held fast to their goal through the decades of privations that followed to forge the Lunar Republic.
The other colonies, tied more closely to the United Nations of Earth, served as a refuge for civilization, and after fifty long years, the dawn of the 22nd Century saw two triumphs that pointed the way to a bright future for humanity. The geoengineering projects had finally reached a stage where Earth's long-term habitability was viable, and a long-shot experimental program had done what was thought to be impossible, mastering the secrets of faster-than-light travel.
During the darkest days of the war, just before the final Nuclear Spasm, a Franco-American research team had determined a theoretical method of accessing hendecaspace, a higher dimension where the rules of our reality did not apply, and where transit between the stars could be accomplished in days, rather than decades. Research teams launched across the stars, and within ten years had located not one, but two habitable worlds, revolving around the suns of Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani.
With the discovery of these new havens, attention switched from the maturing colonies of the Solar System to the development of the new worlds, and increasing demands were placed upon Mars and Callisto to fund these projects. As discontent grew, the security crackdown worsened, transforming these worlds from havens of liberty to little better than feudal territories, laboring for their absentee corporate masters on Earth.
Finally, a new project proved a step too far. The decision was taken by the Security Council, now the ruler of all of humanity other than Luna, that Mars should be terraformed, transformed into a new Earth in a process that would take a century. Life would be possible on the surface, but harder than it had ever been, and the protests of the colonists were ignored as the work began, comets redirected into the red sands of Mars, slamming into the surface.
The inevitable revolt began as a dozen Martian cities rebelled, many of the troops stationed there switching sides, years of garrison duty providing them with greater sympathy for the colonies than their distant commanders. The United Nations Space Fleet was mobilized, and the Interplanetary War began. As Mars successfully deflected the first blows, Callisto and Titan joined them in their fight for freedom.
The war lasted for more than a decade. For the first half of it, only light blows were exchanged as both sides built up their fleets, raiders striking supply lines across twenty light-years of space, crippling the nascent interstellar colonies. Dozens of colonial parties, those fearing that this war would be the last, fled human space for unknown territory, hoping to find a new life in the darkness.
Earth had the greater productive capacity, a hundred times the population and, over time, that superiority began to tell. A series of battles, the largest ever waged, decimated the fleets of Mars and Callisto, and the Lunar Republic remained resolutely neutral. It fell to the rai
ders, the Battlecruisers, to win the war, launching hit-and-run attacks on the mines of Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star, Sirius and a dozen other systems, finally bringing the two sides to the bargaining table.
On June 28th, 2155, the Triplanetary Confederation was born, the worlds of Mars, Callisto and Titan forming a single interplanetary government, initially unified by nothing more than their desire for independence, but ultimately growing closer together, dependent on each other for sheer survival. For a decade, they consolidated, rebuilding the damage caused by a decade of conflict, and all of humanity started to look inward, the distant stars a fading dream.
As a new generation, unencumbered by the fears of the war, moved into key positions, the mood gradually changed, and once again the starships ranged forth on missions of exploration, discovering new worlds, rediscovering lost colonies and outposts, and finding new enemies out in the dark. The shadowy Cabal, ready to conquer all humanity for its slave empire, and the vicious Xandari, a long-forgotten offshoot of mankind, seeking not conquest, but extermination.
The three fleets of the Confederation merged into a single Triplanetary Fleet, ready to stand against all that opposed them, holding the line while new starships, larger than ever dreamed, were built at the mighty shipyards of Mars and Callisto. New colonies were established, and old ones rejoined the mass of humanity. As 2171 dawned, humanity was poised on the verge of either interstellar dominance, or final annihilation….
Appendix B: Triplanetary Rank Structure
When I was making my preparations for the original 'Battlecruiser Alamo' series, one of the elements I had the most fun with was creating the tables of rank. This is something that has often bugged me with science-fiction in the past, with television SF by far the worst culprit; naval and military terms are thrown haphazardly about with no regard for logic, reason or tradition, the latter being the most important of all – for essentially all the military ranks stem from some long tradition or another, often now totally irrelevant – but yet the rank remains. I had lots of fun here; given that that series opened with the merger of three militaries into one, I had to create five tables of rank, two for the Triplanetary forces (one Fleet, one Espatier) and one each for the other three services. I have a nice complicated table, but I'll break it down here one at a time.
Martian Space Service
General, Colonel-General, Lieutenant-General, Major-General, Colonel, Major, Captain, First Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant, Third Lieutenant
Fleet Sergeant-Major, Squadron Sergeant-Major, Staff Sergeant, Technical Sergeant, Sergeant, Senior Corporal, Corporal, Private First Class, Private Second Class, Private Third Class
Mars, was colonized mostly by the United States, though with some immigrants from the United Kingdom, Canada, and a few other places; hence these ranks take the Army as their guidelines, following the model of the USAF, though with a few variations. Colonel-General is a rank used extensively in Asia, Russia and parts of Eastern Europe; it seemed to fit nicely, avoiding the need for a 'General of the Space Service'. Third Lieutenant – well, I read Starship Troopers, and let's just leave it at that. As for the enlisted ranks, those are much more conventional – but Sergeant-Major, instead of 'Regimental', or 'Company' (and I know those are titles, not ranks – but then most ranks started out as titles) breaks down as 'Fleet' and 'Squadron'.
Callisto Orbital Patrol
Fleet Commander, Flotilla Commander, Squadron Commander, Flight Commander, Senior Flight Officer, Flight Officer, Junior Flight Officer, Recruit Officer
Master Astronaut, Senior Flight Sergeant, Flight Sergeant, Junior Flight Sergeant, Senior Astronaut, Astronaut First Class, Astronaut Second Class, Astronaut Third Class
This one was treated rather differently; I decided to follow the same sort of design process as used when creating the RAF ranks – essentially, starting from scratch, taking a few bits and pieces where appropriate. Callisto was colonized by Russia and the 'European Federation' mostly, so that had a role as well – and again, title has become rank in short order, with the flag ranks following the French pattern of describing what size of command is appropriate – a fleet, a flotilla, a squadron, or a single ship. The enlisted ranks were rather easier here, again taking inspiration from the RAF.
Titan Militia
Commodore, Captain, Commander, Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant, Midshipman
Petty Officer, Senior Spaceman, Spaceman, Recruit Spaceman
The Titan Militia was pretty easy; it was settled by the East African Federation mostly, with some from the 'Indochinese Union', but it suggested Royal Naval ranks as a baseline, especially as I established that this was the smallest fleet, the moon having being settled on more of a shoestring. This was to be much more of a 'part-time' service, implied in the 'militia' term; so they didn't need anything like as many ranks. It boiled down to replacing 'Airman' or 'Sailor' with 'Spaceman', and trimming down. Actually, a lot of inspiration also came from the early US Navy rank structure, before the first Admiral rank was created.
Triplanetary Fleet
Admiral, Vice-Admiral, Counter-Admiral, Commodore, Captain, Lieutenant-Captain, Senior Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant, Midshipman/Cadet
Senior Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer, Junior Petty Officer, Senior Spaceman, Spaceman First Class, Spaceman Second Class, Spaceman Third Class
This one, naturally, I paid the most attention to, but did it after I'd established the planetary ones; the peculiarities of the setting meant that it would have to draw inspiration from the others, but couldn't be a direct copy – the militaries involved would not have gone along with it! So – I went to Russia for the ranks, the four flag ranks ranging down from 'Admiral' to 'Commodore', with 'Counter-Admiral' replacing 'Rear-Admiral'. 'Lieutenant-Captain' was my alternative to Commander, if only because...I liked the sound of it! The idea was that it was the lowest rank of independent ship command, and that 'Captain' should be in it somewhere; the enlisted ranks were fairly conventionally drawn, because I wanted that to be more familiar. (Passing from Cadet to Midshipman happens at the end of an officer's Academy training; a successful tour-of-duty as a Midshipman is required prior to commissioning.)
Triplanetary Espatier Corps
Brigadier, Colonel, Major, Lieutenant-Major, Lieutenant, Ensign, Cadet
Sergeant-Major, First Sergeant, Master Sergeant, Sergeant, Lance-Sergeant, Corporal, Lance-Corporal, Private, Recruit
If this looks like the US Marines, its meant to – but I drew in an additional tweak to reflect the 'combined' nature of the services by incorporating the European rank of 'Lance-Sergeant', which I first saw in the Polish armed forces. I actually rather like the sound of it, if I'm honest! And Ensign? Well, that was originally an Army rank; it seemed an interesting alternative to 'First' and 'Second' Lieutenants...especially as there were going to be a lot of Lieutenants running around anyway! The other new rank, Lieutenant-Major, I humbly submit as my answer to the age-old 'two Captain ranks' problem; evidently someone in the service decided to end it once and for all be eliminating the rank of 'Captain' and replacing it with 'Lieutenant-Major' instead; it goes well with 'Lieutenant-Captain', I think, and you can expect to see this one cropping up...
Appendix C: Further Reading...
This book is the second series set in the 'Triplanetary Universe', a 22nd-century setting where humanity is on the threshold of exploring deep space, and all the terrors and wonders that lie therein. I've been developing this setting, on and off, for twenty years, and three years ago I launched the first series in this universe, the 'Battlecruiser Alamo' series, which as I write this numbers nineteen novels and a spin-off.
If you enjoyed this book, then I think you might also like these other books, but I'm aware that launching into a series of that length could be daunting; I know I've felt that way myself about long series in the past! Naturally, you can simply jump in at the first book, Price of Admiralty, which is set five years before the events depicted in
'Starfighter', but if you'd like to start a little deeper into the series, I did write some of them specifically with new readers in mind.
Typically, I've written the Alamo sequence as an ongoing epic, with multi-novel story arcs. The latest of these began with 'Triple-Edged Sword', number seventeen, which takes place contemporaneously with the events of this novel, and would be a good starting point for those wishing to jump into the series. While naturally there are references to earlier books – and if you want to start a little earlier, number thirteen, Aces High, is another good starting point – starting with 'Triple-Edged Sword' will not require any knowledge of previous books. The complete list of works in this setting is given below, in the recommended reading order, with the start of new story arcs in bold.
Alamo 1: Price of Admiralty
Alamo 2: Fermi's War
Alamo 3: Victory or Death
Alamo 4: Tip of the Spear
Alamo 5: Not One Step Back
Spitfire Station: Triple-Cross
Alamo 6: Battle of Hercules
Alamo 7: Sacred Honor
Alamo 8: Stars in the Sand
Alamo 9: The First Duty
Alamo 10: Ghost Ship
Alamo 11: Take and Hold
Alamo 12: Traitor's Duty
Alamo 13: Aces High
Alamo 14: Not In My Name
Alamo 15: Cage of Gold
Alamo 16: Malware Blues
Alamo 17: Triple-Edged Sword
Alamo 18: Forbidden Seas
Alamo 19: Final Testament
Alamo 20: Operation Damocles
Alamo 21: Pyrrhic Victory
Alamo 22: Final Orbit (Coming Soon)
Thank you for reading 'Aggressor'. For information on future releases, please join the Triplanetary Universe Mailing List at http://eepurl.com/A9MdX for updates. If you enjoyed this book, please review it on the site where you purchased it.
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