Neighbors

by Brian Whiting

  lar bridge. Two rows like chevrons of seating faced a large flat wall, with the captain and XO seated behind everyone.

  Alex passed up the captain’s chair, instead taking the XOs chair, as it

  was upgraded to include identical functionality to the captain’s chair. Alex

  looked up as the XO found an empty chair near the front. Jack stood beside

  the stationed tactical officer, who seemed nervous about Jack standing

  near him.

  “What’s our fleet’s status?” Alex asked the Captain in a hushed tone.

  “Nothing from the Raziya; she’s drifting out at a good speed, too. We

  took a direct pod hit, but we got lucky; for some reason, the Drones weren’t

  able to leave the pod, and we were able to kill them inside. We have full

  ship functionality, except to get to the cargo bays, you’ll have to take the

  stern hallways. The other is impassable. The Nuboko took a pod strike as well. They eliminated the drones; five soldiers were killed. The Abraham

  took a pod strike, and then you collided with a chunk of debris from a

  destroyer. Then there were a couple of internal explosions. It seemed…

  you lost power. The ship was nearly split in half. It’s adrift on a slow course inward to the system. There’s been no contact with the Destiny.”

  “Do we know anything about the enemy fleet?”

  “They are cresting the horizon right now. We should have information

  in a moment.”

  From their chairs, both Alex and Jerome could hear high-pitched

  squealing from one of the officers’ stations. The officer adjusted the volume

  control and toned down the signal his station was receiving.

  “What is that?” Alex asked, craning his neck to try and see their dis-

  play screen.

  “It’s a Zorn subspace signal, sir… It’s powerful!”

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  “I wish we knew what they were saying,” Jerome said.

  “Sir…Sirs, whatever it was certainly got their attention.”

  Alex modified his screen to display the tactical information. The Zorn

  fleet was leaving orbit at full burn.

  “They are going to pass us by, but I don’t think we are the target.”

  Jerome’s pilot said. “I think they are leaving.”

  Alex eyes grew big and then looked at Jerome. “On our ship, we have

  a bomb in a box.”

  “Huh?”

  “Bomb in a… It’s a gift from the Chinese. I think we have an oppor-

  tunity to make them think twice about ever coming back here. We need to

  retrieve the box and put it into play before the fleet passes us by.”

  “Sir, your security team is just now boarding our ship. Perhaps they

  could go retrieve the object,” said one of the younger bridge officers.

  Alex navigated his display screen and tapped into the communications

  for his security team. “Squad leader, I’ve got something for you to do, and

  we don’t have a lot of time for you to do it. I need the bomb in a box.”

  “Yeah, we have it with us. We also have a few boxes of weapons and

  supplies from the ship. I got people removing the decoupler as we speak.”

  Alex sat frozen in his chair, his mouth slightly agape. He glanced at

  Jerome for an instant and returned his attention to the display. He was

  shocked they knew about the bomb, then he realized it was silly to be sur-

  prised; they were elite soldiers, after all. They would have recognized it.

  “How long do you think it will take to remove the decouplers?”

  Alex asked.

  “Depends on how much of it you want to salvage. If you want it com-

  pletely intact, it will be another hour.”

  “I want them intact, but we don’t have that kind of time. We can

  retrieve the decouplers later. Right now, get your men on board this ship,

  unload that box and have it ready at the rear cargo ramp.”

  “On it, sir!”

  The video feed disconnected.

  “A lot of attention for a box,” Jerome stated with obvious sarcasm. He

  lowered his head and glared at Alex as he waited for an explanation.

  “It’s a very big bomb.”

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  “Sir, I have final Zorn fleet telemetry. They will pass us by at a distance of twenty-two thousand kilometers in about twenty minutes.”

  “As soon as we confirm my team is on board, I need you to move us

  directly in their path.”

  The bridge crew hesitated, Alex got the impression they didn’t want

  to obey the order. He thought about all the people who were likely dying

  right now and wondered about Amanda, whether she made it to the shelter

  or not.

  “We’re not going to fight the fleet, I am not crazy. But…I have a very

  large nuclear weapon in the cargo bay, and I want to place it in their path

  like a stone, or… space mine, whatever. The point is, we won’t be near

  when that thing goes off.”

  Everyone relaxed a bit. Alex wondered how things were on the surface,

  and his imagination did not produce a positive outlook.

  He didn’t have to wait very long before the ship maneuvered to the

  intended destination. Alex tapped into the communication system again

  and sent a message to the Nuboko.

  We are going to divert for a quick

  pit stop. Link up with the Destiny

  and provide whatever assistance

  they need.

  A minute went by before he received a message from Cindy.

  Will do, be safe… noticed the ISS is

  no longer in orbit.

  “Sir, no disrespect but I don’t think this is a smart play. You’re risking

  too much for an unknown gain. You’ve already lost your ship, and we don’t

  need to lose another one by taking this ship into the middle of their fleet

  to drop a mine.”

  Without moving his head, Alex locked eyes with Jerome. Several things

  came to his mind in rebuttal, but he clenched his fists as he felt a bubbling

  rage about to sweep through him.

  “Sir, can you attach it to the emergency escape craft?” Fena asked,

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  turning to look at him. “Let me fly that craft through the fleet and release the bomb. That way we won’t be risking the entire ship.”

  The suggestion threw Alex off just long enough for his rage to subside

  and consider the possibility. “Yes, I don’t see why not. You’ll need to wear

  an EVA suit during piloting, however.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “That’s acceptable if you’re willing,” Jerome told Fena.

  “I am. It’s not like I’m doing anything here anyway.” She looked at the

  pilot’s seat, which was occupied by this ship’s pilot.

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  Chapter 12

  Going It Alone

  FENA WAS BUCKLED into a tiny chair in the corner of the cargo con-

  tainer. It took her longer than expected to get the craft up and running.

  The EVA suit was restrictive, and she had problems interfacing with the

  touchscreen controls on the laptop. She had to find a stylus before she

  could proceed.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” Captain Jerome asked after he watched

  her struggle with the startup routine.

  “I’ll be okay now, everything is good,” Fena responded.

  “You’re a good pilot. If you ever want to transfer onto my ship, let

  me know.”

  Fena pretended she didn’t hear him as
the crafts lights came on. “Turn

  your artificial gravity off so I can get out of here.”

  Jerome shut the heavily-modified cargo container’s doors and relayed

  the request to the bridge.

  * * *

  Alex quickly typed Fena a message.

  How did you end up on this ship,

  anyway?

  During the emergency liftoff, when

  the Nuboko took off from the

  Complex, I was not onboard yet.

  The Seraph was still in the bay, so I

  boarded it instead.

  Fena carefully used the tiny stylus in her bulky gloves to adjust the

  power settings and rotational angles of the drive disks. The emergency craft

  slipped out of the cargo bay as though the Seraph had simply left something behind. She wondered how her family was doing, then she thought

  about Stacy.

  Following carefully-plotted coordinates and velocities, she flung her

  craft towards the enemy fleet. She had to wait several minutes before she

  had to do anything, and Jerome’s face appeared in the corner of the laptop.

  “What makes you think you’re going to survive this?” His tone was

  sour; he was pissed off.

  “So far, they only can attack us by boarding. This ship is too small and

  fast to board with a pod. It’s fine! I’ve got to go.” She shut down the chat.

  The emergency craft had no windows, so she had to rely on the very

  limited sensor data the ship provided her to navigate. Once she managed

  to link the sensor data from the Seraph, she felt much more confident.

  Now she had a 3D representation of the fleet on her laptop. She fine-tuned

  the course to fling her across the path of one of the carriers and down the

  center of the fleet itself. She had four minutes left.

  She opened the craft’s doors; they burst open as the escaping air left the

  craft in just short of an instant. She would have been flung out into space

  herself, but she was buckled securely into her chair. She released herself

  from the chair and moved towards the large box. Easing off a small clamp,

  she pushed the large box out of the craft with her legs.

  She sat back down in the chair and buckled herself in. One minute

  left. She tapped the automated flight sequence button she had already

  programmed. The ship high-G maneuvered as Fena was tossed against

  her straps.

  Her ship silently passed the nose of the Zorn carrier, far too close for

  her comfort. Several destroyers passed beneath her, as though they didn’t

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  care that she was there. Her craft made another hard turn to send her straight down the middle of the fleet.

  She eyed the two battleships on the right of her screen, one each above

  and below her. Her laptop screen went red, and she panicked as the stylus

  hit the wrong part of the screen. She lost precious seconds figuring out

  what the warning was for.

  Impact alert!

  She put the craft in manual flight and made a series of angle adjust-

  ments and power bursts to move the craft out of the way of the incom-

  ing object.

  Her eyes widened as she realized it was not object, but objects. The sen-

  sors were giving her confusing information, and she couldn’t rely on it to

  navigate away from the incoming unknowns.

  “I need windows!” she shouted into her headgear.

  An idea occurred to her. She plotted a new course on her screen, much

  like ‘connect the dots.’ The computer gave an error message.

  Lethal G-force risk.

  “Damn,” she said with increasing panic.

  The craft shuddered, as though she hit a bit of turbulence, impossible

  in a vacuum. A frown formed on her face as she plotted a new course, away

  from the upcoming battleships. The craft shuddered again; this time the

  turbulence was different, both shallow and audible.

  The ship maneuvered wildly, and her stylus was flung off somewhere

  inside the craft. Fena’s head banged around, then one of the two lights

  inside the craft went out. She looked up to see a gaping hole growing larger

  where the wall met the ceiling about midship.

  She looked at her laptop, and above the edge of the screen, on the wall

  behind it, was another small hole forming on the hull. She could see a few

  stars turn into a cluster and she was mesmerized by the sight. All around

  her craft, small holes grew into larger holes.

  She plotted a rough course back towards the Seraph as her craft exited the Zorn fleet. Moments later, the craft finished maneuvering, and the

  power went out in the ship. The only thing illuminated was the laptop.

  She looked out of the small holes to see large pieces of debris zipping past

  her ship.

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  * * *

  “Fena is approaching the perimeter of the Zorn fleet,” the tactical officer

  said. “Her doors are now opening.” Another minute passed. “Box is away.”

  Alex rotated the view on his display to see if the trajectory of the box

  was going to intersect with the carrier.

  Alex watched as the craft maneuvered quickly to get in front of the

  large carrier, then hug its hull as it turned to fly down the middle of the

  fleet. The box continued on its path; impact was seconds away.

  The main viewscreen turned white as the telescope focused on that par-

  ticular carrier.

  The crew of the Seraph shouted with jubilation. Alex continued to

  focus on his screen, waiting for the sensors to clear up. The sensors only got worse. He watched a spreading cloud of debris travel in all directions, the

  carrier half-destroyed, stalled in the space as the explosion countered their

  acceleration. A majority of the carrier was still intact, albeit glowing and

  mangled, and several destroyers collided with it, sending yet more debris

  flying amongst the fleet, and large chunks buried itself into the snowflake-

  shaped ship, causing a large expulsion of gasses and debris.

  The emergency craft was lost in the confusion of sensor ghosts.

  “How’s Fena?” Jerome asked Alex quickly. He wasn’t quiet enough,

  however, as the bridge crew grew suddenly silent to hear the news.

  Alex focused on an odd object maneuvering wildly through the debris

  field. He tasked the telescope to locate the object, and within a minute, the

  emergency craft appeared on the viewscreen.

  Alex cocked his head, as he was sure he could see an EVA suit inside the

  ship. Then the lights in the ship went out.

  “What happened?” one of the bridge officers said.

  “Plot a course to pick her up,” Alex ordered and looked sternly

  at Jerome.

  Jerome said nothing as the pilot of the Seraph obeyed the order without question. As they approached the small craft, it grew on their screens. Alex

  and Jerome hissed under their breaths; the craft looked like swiss cheese.

  * * *

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  Alex walked into the medical bay. An oxygen mask covered Fena’s face as she turned to face him. She held up her right hand with a thumbs-up, and

  Alex relaxed. Alex’s vision was obscured as a medic set up an IV line to her

  arm. Noticing the medic’s uniform, he turned to Jerome, who was standing

  right behind him.

  “Where’s your doctor?”

  “Wasn’t on board when we departed.”
/>
  “How many of your people did you leave behind?” Alex asked.

  “About ten… How many of your people were killed?”

  Alex eyed him, unsure if the comment was laced with anger or actual

  concern. “Too many,” Alex whispered. He walked over to a display screen

  on the wall and entered his login information. Then he typed out a message

  to the XO of the Abraham, Lanora.

  I want a headcount and schedule a

  meeting asap.

  Alex wasn’t sure where Lanora was on the ship at the moment, but he

  was sure she would get the message shortly, if she didn’t have it already.

  Alex’s foot scraped on something as he turned around, and he looked

  down to find a penny lodged between the decking and the wall. He bent

  over and worked the coin for a few moments, then plucked it free. There

  was a deep gouge on the back side, making it almost impossible to see what

  was once there. The front side appeared relatively unscathed, so he pock-

  eted the penny and returned to the bridge.

  The Earth was large and majestic on the viewscreen as he returned to

  the XO’s seat, watching the planet in their view.

  “There’s a lot, and I mean a lot, of debris in orbit, scattering in various directions and getting worse. This time next year, it will be nearly impossible to traverse orbit without an active deflector,” the officer at tactical

  stated as he entered the bridge.

  Something about that statement kicked Alex out of his mental hole.

  “Comms, order the Nuboko to head over to Japan and hunt Zorn

  drones. Start at the capital and make your way to the shipyard. Meanwhile,

  we are going to check in with the Destiny. Set our course and proceed,”

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  Alex said strapping himself into his chair. “People are in free float, so keep maneuvering to a minimum, safety over speed.”

  “You need to get to the capital!” Drake said from his chair. “You have a

  responsibility to your country!”

  “We can’t help everyone else unless we help ourselves first!”

  “They are the ones that are going to rebuild this mess. The government

  has planned of this for well over a year, and everything is going to be fine

  once we clear the area for them.”

  Alex didn’t respond

  “Hey, you can’t ignore the responsibility you placed upon yourself—”

  Alex glared at his father and snapped, “I’m not ignoring anything.