Starship Eternal (War Eternal Book 1)

by M. R. Forbes

  Millie looked at him, and then at Anderson. "Dismissed, Lieutenant."

  "Captain, I-"

  "I said dismissed," she snapped, starting to get to her feet.

  "Yes, ma'am," Anderson said quietly. His eyes darted to Mitchell, and then he retreated to the lift.

  "Do you have news, Captain?" she asked.

  Mitchell waited until the lift arrived and Anderson boarded. "I do. Are you familiar with the events on Liberty before I wound up on the Schism?"

  "The Prime Minister's wife?"

  "Before that."

  "Refresh my memory."

  "A few days before the Gala, I was attacked by assassins from the Frontier Federation. They killed my public relations rep and shot me a few times before I killed them."

  "Yes, I remember reading about that. Go on."

  "After I got out of medical, my rep was replaced. The woman who replaced him was military, but I was certain she wasn't public relations. She was dodgy about it, but she didn't deny it. Her name was Major Christine Arapo."

  He accessed his p-rat then, knocking only to send her the picture.

  "What is this?" she asked.

  "An old photo, taken the day the Goliath was launched into space. See the woman kneeling in the front? Third from the left?"

  "Yes. She's pretty."

  "That's Christine Arapo."

  Millie's head snapped up, her expression finding a path between fear and anger. "What?"

  "That's what I thought. Millie, I don't know what the hell is going on, but this Major Arapo turned up at my side right after M said he stopped the Federation, and these new enemies, from assassinating me. She wasn't that friendly, but she stuck to me like glue, and after the incident with the Prime Minister's wife she got me out of a jam before M picked me up."

  "You're saying she's one of them?"

  "I don't know. I don't know who or what she is. I asked M about her, and he said he didn't know her. She wasn't afraid to introduce herself to Cornelius, and she was doing her job better than my last rep did. I think it's safe to assume if you pull her records, you'll find she's the real deal."

  Her eye twitched. "You're certain this is her?"

  "It's crazy, I know. I'm sure. There's something about her. I don't know what it is yet. I just know that it is. She's the key to something. It could be the Goliath."

  He thought that finding a clue, any clue, might have made her happy. Instead, she stared out into the blackness in silence.

  "Millie?"

  "Shut up, Mitch. I'm thinking."

  Mitchell forced himself to stay slow and steady. He waited for her for a couple of minutes. "Every minute is another minute we're wasting."

  Millie got to her feet, turning on him. "What the hell do you want me to do, Mitchell?" she shouted. "Make a beeline straight for Liberty? Drop by and kidnap this Major because she looks like an ancient astronaut?"

  Mitchell took a few steps back, surprised at the outburst. "Millie, I-"

  "Stow it, Captain. We have orders. Orders to meet a transport in four days. If our orders stay the same, we're to be in Polaris three days later before making a two-week trip into New Terran space. Liberty is ten days at top speed, and not in the same direction."

  Mitchell slumped. He understood why she was upset.

  "We can't chase this lead without breaking our orders," she said, quieting her voice. "If we break our orders, we die."

  "Let me go," Mitchell said. "I can take the S-17."

  "You won't have enough air."

  "I will. The air shortage was rigged. M set it up so that-" He stopped talking. He hadn't told Millie any of his hypothesis.

  "So that what?" she asked, her anger returning.

  "So that you would find me," he said. "In his origin timeline, the Schism went to that rock, gathered the ore, and moved on to the mission without ever knowing a thing about me. I think they knew what the Schism was, what it is here in this timeline. I think he delivered me to you on purpose. I mean, what are the odds that a ship is going to turn up in the exact place in space where I am?"

  "Stranger things have happened."

  "Stranger things are happening. He knew where the Schism would be then. Which means they also knew where the Schism was going."

  "You think the travelers set us up at Calypso?"

  "I think it's possible. They may have dropped in to blow us out of the galaxy, and ensure that there wouldn't be anyone to stop them."

  "Stop them from what?"

  "I don't know what they want, other than to destroy mankind. All I know is that I'm supposed to be the one who can beat them." He took a few steps towards her, getting close. "I don't think I'm supposed to do it alone. This timeline is different, it was as soon as M arrived here. I know we have orders, but we have a more important destiny."

  "I don't believe in destiny."

  "Neither do I. Nobody says we're going to succeed or survive." He put his hand on her arm. "Let me take the S-17, and go to Liberty. I'll find Christine, I'll find out what the hell is going on, and then we'll meet somewhere after the mission."

  Millie looked up at him, thinking.

  "No," she said at last.

  "Millie-"

  She put her finger to his lips. "No. I don't know what happened in this origin timeline. I don't know if we succeeded in our mission to kill Chancellor Ken. If we did, then we would have been sent on this second mission into the New Terran space. What if the travelers know about it? What if they planted someone on the ship that we're going to meet? An assassin? Or even a bomb or something? I get it now, Mitchell. We're screwed, whichever way we turn. We might as well try to save humanity and go down in a blaze of glory." She put her bionic hand to his face. He could feel the humming of it against his skin. "If you're wrong, we're all dead."

  "We might be all dead anyway."

  "That's why I'm trusting you." Her eyes twitched momentarily. "Ensign Briggs is coming up. We'll plot the course and head for Liberty. If we're lucky, we'll have enough time to scan the surface, find your Major, and get back into hyperspace before the drones can send word that we missed the rendezvous."

  "What if we aren't lucky?"

  "Our blaze of glory is going to be a silent whimper. We'll be detonated the second we come out of FTL."

  41

  Twenty minutes later Mitchell and Millie were back in the conference room, with Ilanka, Shank, Watson, Singh, and Anderson arranged around the table with them.

  "You may have noticed we dropped out of FTL ten minutes ago," Millie said. "We're changing our course away from the rendezvous point."

  "What?" Shank said. "Away? Millie-"

  She shot him an angry glare.

  "Captain," he corrected. "If we miss the rendezvous, we're going to be breaking parole. If we break parole-"

  "We all die," Watson said.

  "That's why I brought you up here. We have a lead on Goliath."

  Ilanka put her hand on Mitchell's shoulder. "Really? That's excellent news."

  "There's more," Millie said. "We don't have the location or even a vicinity, and the lead is tenuous at best."

  "I don't want to die over tenuous," Shank said.

  "I don't want to die at all," Millie replied. "That being said, you know the score. You saw what happened at Calypso and Caldera. We have a choice to chase the lead and hope it bears fruit or chase the next mission and hope there's an Alliance left to return to if we survive it. Oh, and I should mention, I've seen the mission specs. That 'if' is a pretty big one."

  "What's the mission?" Anderson asked.

  "The New Terran's mining complex on Nova-12."

  "What about it?"

  "We're supposed to destroy it."

  The room was silent, save for Anderson's laughter. "With a Knight, a Piranha, and this tub?"

  "Exactly."

  "Captain, that's straight out suicide," Shank said.

  "Not necessarily. Not with Ares' S-17," Ilanka said.

  "It's still only one more fighter."
<
br />   "One more fighter that destroyed two Federation patrollers on its own," she replied.

  "Enough," Millie said. "I brought you here because you're my senior crew. I don't need to ask you anything, but considering I'm signing our death warrants I thought I would put it up for discussion." Her eyes crossed each of them in turn. "Now, Mitchell has identified a person of interest on Liberty who may or not be one of the travelers, and who may have information about Goliath. In order to reach Liberty and question this person, we need to break mission protocol and go even more rogue than we already are. You all know the penalty for doing it, and how that punishment can be meted out."

  "A person of interest?" Anderson said. "Someone who may have come across the Goliath, wherever it is out there?"

  "Better than that," Mitchell said. "Someone who was on the Goliath the day it disappeared."

  "How is that possible?" Shank asked.

  "We don't know, and we don't have enough information to guess," Millie said. "We'll get to that. First, I want each of you to decide what you want to do. I need all of you in on this one, because I have a feeling its going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

  "I'm in," Ilanka said without hesitation. "From what I've seen, we're going to die anyway if we don't stop those ships."

  "Hell, I'm in," Shank said. "I think our odds of surviving Liberty are about as good as surviving Nova-12."

  "I'm in," Singh said. "The whole idea of travelers from the infinite past... It's very exciting." There was no hint of excitement in her voice.

  "Captain," Anderson said. "You know I'd follow you almost anywhere, but this..." He turned his attention to Mitchell. "Nothing personal, Captain. I respect you and where you came from." He looked back at Millie. "You've been infatuated with Mitchell since he boarded this ship, and it's clouding your judgment. I know what happened on Calypso, but the more I think about it, the more ridiculous this whole thing sounds. A clone from the future-"

  "Past," Watson said.

  "Shut up. A clone from the future? A lost starship? And now a person who was on the lost starship turns up on the very planet that this one came from?" His finger lashed out at Mitchell, betraying the idea that it was nothing personal.

  "Not just from the same planet. She was my handler for the last few days before I ran," Mitchell said. "Do you think that was an accident?"

  Anderson huffed. "Please. You think that makes it more believable?" He glared at Shank, then Watson, then Ilanka. "You've all bought into this bullshit without much questioning. Do you think there's nothing else going on here? Do you think this is all on the up-and-up? First she screws him and then she wants to make him XO?"

  "Lieutenant!" Millie snapped, her expression taught.

  "Executive officer?" Watson said. "Were you going to tell us about this, Captain?"

  "Right after we decided whether to head for the rock or the hard place," Millie replied. "What I do during downtime isn't relevant to this conversation."

  "Not relevant?" Anderson said. "Of course it is. This guy comes out of nowhere and in a couple of weeks he's at the top of the food chain, telling stories and convincing you to do whatever he wants. It's one thing when it's just your ass on the line. It's another when it's all of our frigging lives."

  "He kicked your ass during the hazing," Shank said.

  "He tricked me."

  "No rules, remember? Look, Anderson, I'm usually on your side, but you need to take a breath and sit down. It seems to me you're pissed off because Mitchell got something you've wanted for a long time and weren't good enough to earn."

  Anderson's face turned red, and his hands balled into fists. "You son of a bitch," he said. "I'll kill you."

  Shank got to his feet. "Come on and try it."

  Mitchell watched the two men close in on one another, heads down and ready to come to blows.

  "Enough!" Millie shouted again, slamming her hand down on the desk. Shank and Anderson both turned their heads towards her. "You're way out of line, Lieutenant."

  "I'm the only one here who's willing to say what everyone else is thinking," Anderson said.

  "No one else is thinking like you," Ilanka said.

  "No? It never crossed your mind, Shank? That maybe our Captain isn't thinking with her head anymore?"

  "I didn't know the Captain and Mitchell had sexed each other," Shank said. "I don't really care either. Ares saved our lives at Calypso, and he's already proven he's more of a man than you are. If the Captain trusts him, then I trust him."

  "Screw you, Colonel. What about you, Ilanka? I know you like our pretty-boy here, but can you honestly tell me you never wondered if he's out of his mind?"

  "I'm wondering that about you right now. You know we're all criminals of some kind. Except Mitchell."

  "He raped the Prime Minister's wife!" Anderson said.

  Mitchell felt all eyes turn towards him. He hadn't told anyone but Millie that part of his story.

  "How do you know about that?" Mitchell asked, working to stay calm.

  "I have my ways."

  "Is it true?" Ilanka asked.

  "No," Mitchell said. "It isn't. I was set up."

  "Please," Anderson said. "We were all set up." He laughed.

  "If you were court-martialed for being an asshole, I doubt it was a setup," Mitchell said. He looked at Ilanka. "I didn't do it."

  She nodded and smiled reassuringly.

  "You've just opened up another point of discussion though, Lieutenant," Millie said. "Mitchell told me about that in the privacy of my quarters, and I didn't tell you anything."

  Anderson's angry face fell, his eyes dropping. He realized he had made a stupid mistake.

  "Well, Lieutenant?" Millie pressed. "How did you know?"

  Anderson was silent, his eyes downcast. He wasn't going to tell. He didn't need to. Mitchell looked over to where Watson was sitting, silent during the entire exchange. He too had his eyes down, trying to avoid the confrontation.

  "You can intercept signals if you have the right tools and know the encryption scheme can't you, Singh?" Mitchell asked.

  She considered for a minute. "Yes, I suppose you could. Are you accusing me?"

  "No," Mitchell said. "Not you." He had recognized that she and Watson were playing a game, trying to outdo one another. Now he understood that it had gone too far. "Watson?"

  The big man kept his head down. The room fell silent.

  "Watson?" Millie said.

  "I just wanted to see if I could do it," he said. "It's not as easy as you make it sound. You need to build modulators to capture the signal, decryption tools, and a rig that can do the processing as well as the neural implant, which has the brain to help it along."

  "How long?" Millie asked, seething.

  "I didn't mean any harm. You know sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me. That's why I'm here anyway, because I hacked into confidential systems."

  "That isn't why you're here," Millie said, her voice cold and even. "The MPs only discovered that after you got caught with that little boy."

  Watson looked stricken to have his past announced to the gathered crew. His face flushed, and he made a strange whining sound that was somewhere between a cry and a howl. Singh pushed her chair back, putting space between herself and the engineer.

  "Oh, grow a pair, will you," Anderson said. "You should be glad nobody told me you were a child molestor earlier, or I would have slit your fat throat already."

  "Captain," Shank said. "Permission to throw this piece of dirt out of the airlock."

  "Granted," Millie said. Mitchell saw it then. The bald reason, the easy calculation. She knew he was forfeit the moment she mentioned his crime. She'd always known. He was too valuable to waste, too valuable to let the truth come out. Until he had crossed her, and betrayed her trust. The reasons why didn't matter. Excuses were worthless.

  "What?" Watson said. "Captain? No. You can't. You need me. You need me to keep the engines going. To keep medical running. To handle electrical and plumbi
ng and-"

  Shank grabbed him from behind, pulling him to his feet. "I'll learn to do all of it if it means getting you off my ship," he said.

  "You might have to," Millie said.

  "Wait," Anderson said. "That doesn't change the other facts."

  "No, it doesn't," Millie said. "You knew what he was doing, and you didn't tell me."

  Anderson paled. "I... You don't rat out your mates."

  "I can't believe you just said that," Ilanka said. It was clear to Mitchell there was history - much, much more history - to this entire altercation than he could understand.

  "Not when it suits you, is that it, Lieutenant?" Millie asked. "Not when it lets you get into my bedroom. Tell me, did you listen in while Mitchell and I were doing it? Did you jerk off?"

  "I..." He fell silent. Was it an admission, or had he realized arguing was a lost cause?

  "I'm going to take this shit to the airlock," Shank said. "We can finish up when I get back."

  He started dragging Watson for the door, the man not fighting it, but not going easily either. His body fell limp in the soldier's arms.

  "Shank, wait," Mitchell said, a sudden thought coming to him. "Watson, you said you built a system to intercept encrypted communications?"

  "Yes. It's kind of a hack, and it isn't completely reliable."

  "Could you use it to stop a kill signal?"

  The engineer raised his head and started nodding. "I should be able to. I mean, it will take some work because the signal is much tighter and shorter than the standard ARR transmission, but the theory is all the same."

  Mitchell turned to Millie. "Can we delay the order to have him jettisoned?"

  "You want to keep this child molester on board?" Shank asked.

  "I didn't say I wanted to. We're all here because we have valuable skills. Right now, we need his. If we can stop the military kill signal from blowing the ship, the odds get a little better."

  "Ten-million-to-one to one-million-to-one?" Singh said.

  "I can do it," Watson said. "Don't kill me, and I'll make it happen."

  "Captain," Shank said. "I'd rather take my chances with the kill switch."

  "No," Millie replied. "Mitchell's right. We need him. Sit him down, I'll deal with him in a minute."