The rest of the time was uneventful. Rick returned and I finished up the daily routine of paperwork.
He mostly complained and came up with ideas of what he wished he was doing, which he relayed to me as often as he did things that needed my attention. Then we sat back and monitored the fleet and ships as we waited for the wormhole generators to complete their work.
“Worst part of the job, waiting,” Rick said, completing a test that accompanied his sleep teaching implants to make sure he was actually understanding what the implants told him.
“Yeah, damn, it’s the worst. All this preparation and moving takes time. It’s dumb, really. We’re so used to things being instant or quick on Earth yet with our technology, it would take us decades to get from Earth to the jump boundary. Getting to other planets, centuries. Yet here we are, complaining about a few hours and a few days.”
“No one accused humans of being the brightest bunch.” Rick grinned.
“Ain’t that the truth.” I spared a glance toward Edwards.
Rick’s smile widened as he let out a half-laugh, half-exhale. “Chaleel will be good to visit.”
“Hopefully they’ve got those planetary elevators back up. I hoped that they would be able to keep trade going. We’ve got trade agreements between Parnmal and them, so I’m hoping that could bring more traffic to Parnmal. Though, I hope that no one’s been there since the Syndicate moved in.” So many plans destroyed by the damned bastards, always making us react to them.
“What would Parnmal trade, though?” Dave asked.
“Technology, minerals, schooling are a few. I wanted to see how it would grow by itself. I already passed a port fee. Each ship pays per tonnage and for transportation if they use ours.”
“Smart. No matter what, we get something.” Rick nodded.
“Spent enough time in Korea to look into the future, not at the right here and now. Sometimes it seems like the here and now throws us nothing but curveballs.”
Rick made an unhappy noise as we continued to watch the countdown reach toward zero. Connolly made it onto the bridge as the general alert was sounded and everyone secured themselves, plus any equipment that could move.
“Wormhole established,” Helm said as enough power to power quite a few countries ripped a hole from Earth to another star system.
“Other ships are confirming wormhole links,” Nav said. All of the ships lined in formation, our generators working together to make a wormhole for the entire fleet.
“Entering wormhole area,” Helm said as the ships began orbiting the spherical wormhole, quickly getting closer to it before we plunged through it. The Resilient shook slightly as we entered the hole in the fabric of space.
We extended our sails in order to catch bands of charged particles. The sails had been ripped off by the Syndicate for the rare materials that they were made from. Eddie had seen to their replacement and was able to ramp down power plants as well as collect a minute amount of anti-matter. Resilient had kept the facility quiet from the Syndicate, with Eddie’s help. It was always useful to be able to have immediate power when needed.
The secrets the two had kept had been immense. I still didn’t know a lot of the ones Resilient kept, and I doubt she did herself.
As we transited, the other ships followed in formation as Navigation took us into rich areas of charged particles Sensors found. Resilient passed the commands to the other ships continuously.
For two days, we watched the rainbow of colors, like liquid mercury, switching out our navigators.
I had Keith follow me everywhere I went, from sparring with Commandos to taking tests when I was told to by my sleep teaching supervisor.
Keith learned to sleep in his chair—as I didn’t sleep, my changed body making sleep less necessary.
I forced everyone to get at least six hours of enforced rest the final day before we entered into the next system. An hour before we emerged, everyone was in their Mechas, the gun crew was manning their guns, and engineering was in reaction areas for damage control.
“Transitioning. Event horizon formed,” Vort said.
“Lowering sails,” Milra said as the gossamer sheets pulled together and then retracted underneath the armor plating.
“Entering horizon,” Ben said a few minutes later. Their voices were tense.
“Configuring shields.” Krat didn’t share in any of the nervousness of my bridge staff. In wormhole travel, there were no shields; instead, we had to rely on layers that stopped particles speeding through our ships and bodies.
The metallic, colorful swirl that had enveloped us changed to a surrounding darkness, the blandness of complete darkness illuminated by trillions of stars.
Its starkness held a different kind of beauty and could—and had—mesmerized more than one person with its vista as wormholes had in the time of the Union. All that life, so much to discover, and so much beauty and here we’re going to fight a battle, I thought sourly for a second before turning to my tasks.
“Clear of horizon,” Ben said as the ship seemed to calm without a hiccup at the exit from the wormhole.
“Populating map with sensor buoys information,” Vort said. He’d already completed the handshake protocol with the sensor buoy.
“Weapons are deployed and roving,” Marleen added. Everyone’s voices were businesslike and brisk as silence reigned except for information snippets between groups.
Kart was one of her supposed sub-commanders, but reported directly to me instead of Marleen. Shields were our first line of defense, after all. “Shields are online and accommodating the system’s gravitational forces,” he said.
“The fleet has emerged from the wormhole with us. All thirteen accounted for,” Vort said.
No one relaxed, even though we’d all made it through yet another possibly deadly wormhole transition. Other things could kill us—and in the near future.
“We’re cleared out to five light-minutes. Sensor buoys reporting nothing in the system.” Vort’s voice was calming to everyone as we relaxed minutely.
“Good work, people. Milra, begin charging generators,” I said. The tell-tale thrum began once again.
The worm limit was an unseen line in which the ships were outside of the solar system. We jumped from here as it created less issues going through the wormhole, and we came out at the same limit to make sure that we didn’t arrive inside an atmosphere or right into a rock. Being on the system side closer to where we were jumping took less charging and thus less fuel. Yet, you could jump from any worm limit. That made it so we could stay where we arrived from the first wormhole, jump to a limit or open space within range, and then repeat the process again, never entering a system and shaving days off our arrival time. It had been just over two weeks since Parnmal had detected the Syndicate fleet. I expected it to take us at least that time to get our preparations completed and get to Parnmal, making it close to five weeks since the Syndicate fleet was first detected.
Arrivals
“Gravitational anomalies!” Qurv said as Wilma threw the Rebirth in order to avoid the impingements on the wormhole throat.
“I’m dropping us out now,” Wilma said as more anomalies cropped up in the sensor feed. She reduced the amount of power going to the wormhole generators and kept the throat open.
The Rebirth shuddered as the throat reduced in size and the swirling metallic colors slowed.
“Coming out in five, four, three, two, one.”
There was no time for talking as commanders and their people worked to keep the Rebirth together in seconds’ notice.
The Rebirth’s structure screamed as Bregend grunted. There was nothing that he could do.
Power fed back into the command center as power lines overloaded. Smoke filled the area and Mecha helmets sealed to keep it out. Bregend climbed out of his chair. Grabbing a fire extinguisher, he sprayed the fires as the Rebirth screeched again. Controller Worchek was covered in sparks, his Mecha saving him from a serious burn.
“We
’re clear of the wormhole. Stabilizing,” Wilma said, her voice now inside Bregend’s helmet as he pulled up a schematic of the ship on his built-in arm data pad.
“Shit.” He looked at the damage. It was severe. “Get us on silent running and behind some cover. Flush sensor buoys.”
His people saw to it.
Bregend took his seat again.
“Preliminary, looks like the Rebirth won’t be making any jumps anytime soon,” Mills informed him.
His face took on a gargoyle-like appearance, his heavy lifting adding to the protruded lips and large cheeks. “Well, she’s going to have to. Use whatever we got. I don’t care if we have to use cables and splint her. We have three more systems to go.” Bregend brooded as his map populated. He had a week to go till he got to Cheerleader. Five weeks since the first report, he thought, wishing he could bend physics just a bit more to get there sooner.
***
I watched as Vort updated the sensor output of Chaleel with our own sensors. He accessed the information stored in a stealth sensor collector.
“Populating system map,” he said as the handshake protocol went through and the plot populated.
“Good. We’ll go in-system to get fuel from our outpost and then continue on.” I had already said the plan once, but there were also contingent plans based on what we found.
It was a few hours later when Walf spoke up. “Incoming communication from Chaleel’s planetary governor.”
“On screen.”
“Ah, Commander Salchar, it is good to see you again.”
I could see by the way the governor’s elongated head drooped that he was speaking the truth. The fact he was trying to have a conversation with me with a seven-minute time delay was going to be quite annoying.
“Only here for a short period of time. We have some bastards playing around in our backyard.” I sipped on water. Well, this is going to be a long conversation, I moaned inside my head.
“Yes, indeed.” The Chaleelian governor’s eyes became cold. “How is your Planetary Defense Force?”
“It is good.” I could see tension return to the governor as his snout lifted, as if in challenge. “Don’t worry, I’m not stripping them. I just wanted to see what their missile supply was like.”
“We need every missile, Commander.”
“I don’t doubt it, and I am willing to give the Free Fleet personnel in this system plans for more missiles, as well as the specialized machinery to rearm your ships.”
“We do not have those kinds of natural resources on Chaleel.”
“I was going to put it on your asteroid belt or on your fifth planet.”
“It has no atmosphere, though,” he said.
This conversation has been going on for an hour and a half nearly, I thought as Rick, outside the feed, mouthed those exact words before he left, a mischievous grin on his face.
“Drop in asteroids in one place, strip them and then spit out weapons and ammunition. Other things will be available as well, such as ships and engines, with enough time. Though, as the primary sentient inhabitants, to my knowledge, I want to ask if this is okay with you?”
“Yes, it suits us. You may have five percent of the planet, though.” He nodded his head officiously.
I would never put the machines on a planet, but I would need somewhere secure to hold such armaments. The machines would be put in the belt to get reloads out faster; they were closer to resources and could be moved quickly...
“Thank you. Shall we have this as the official record?” I asked as Rick had returned and began eating some kind of real food in front of me as I waited for the response.
“Make it so.” He straightened his appearance.
“As witnessed here, the fifth planet of the Chaleel system, by Salchar, the Free Fleet will control five percent on its land mass,” I said. Rick made a show of eating his roast beef and all the trimmings, down to the Yorkshire pudding. I should have never told him about how I had Yorkshires—soo good! Ass. I tried to impress my words on him with my eyes as I waited.
“I, Planetary Governor Ferwlick, accept these terms as long as the Free Fleet keeps their word to rearm the Chaleelian space force on agreed terms.”
“I, Commander Salchar, agree.” There’s even gravy!
“Very good, Commander,” Edwards said. “For a second, you had me going. I actually thought that we were in a different solar system, talking to another group of aliens.” He’d learned how to activate his comms.
“I did not give you permission to talk, Edwards. When talking to the person who has a more populated and powerful planet than your own, it might serve to hold your tongue,” I said as his guards took him away, complaining as he usually did when he was in the mess.
“Who is this creature that talks?” Ferwlick hissed. His tongue flashed out in anger as he received the transmission a few minutes late.
“He is—” I tried explaining as Edwards yelled over me.
“Your hologram is more powerful than Earth? I think not. Plus, you say he has a more powerful planet? We have two protecting bases and a shipyard.” He let out a sardonic rush of air as I looked to him.
“Correction, the Free Fleet does,” I said back to him as I turned to Ferwlick, nodding my head in respect. “I am sorry. Sometimes one must teach their young and idiotic,” I said as the guards pulled Edwards away in a rash of threats.
“I am disappointed that you have one as such in your ranks,” Ferwlick said. He had been a warrior—a friend of Carsickle’s, actually—but in a time when nothing but war with the Syndicate was practically guaranteed, they’d elected him as governor to take them through the rough times ahead.
“Trust me, I would not accept one like this into my ranks,” I growled.
Ferwlick nodded his head to the side in acceptance, a slight apology without losing face.
I held a finger up to the guards taking Edwards.
“If Ferwlick so wanted to invade Sol system, you’ve just told him your defenses and the targets he should pick for long-range bombardment. Now, if you want to keep putting the homes of people in this fleet in danger, keep talking. Don’t worry, I have recorded everything you have said and I will be reporting it to Earth’s governing body.” The color drained from his face. God, it felt good to turn the tables on the smug bastard. I turned back to Ferwlick as the blast doors closed on a mercifully silent Edwards.
A contemplating Rick was gnawing on a Yorkshire. He has no mercy, I thought.
“Sorry for that interruption, Governor. We will have your people meet us on our journey to the nearest point; we can transition to AIH and then Parnmal.”
Sensors reported on my personal screen that the area had been checked and the sensor buoys were reporting that there was no enemy in the area. Intelligence Department was reporting the same in their study of sensor logs, Tactical was going to half across the fleet, and Commandos were standing down and preparing for the next part of my plan.
“Very well, I wish you well on your journey.” He brought himself up, looking at the camera fully as a sign of respect. “Thank you for what you and your fleet have done, Commander Salchar. May we, upon your return, take tea in the southern regions of Chaleel?”
“I would be honored, Planetary Governor Ferwlick.” I inclined my head in the Chaleelian way of deep thanks.
“Till then.” He cut the channel and I opened a private channel to Eddie, being transferred to a console.
“Get those bucking cables ready! You dolts, I told you to get them ready when the commander came up with this latest harebrained idea!” A boot flew across the screen’s pickup.
I reflected that the Free Fleet members were picking up one another’s idioms quite quickly. A yelp came from the boot connecting with an offending “dolt.”
Eddie made his defining limp into the view, only having one boot. “What?” he demanded before looking at his foot and pressing a button on his belt before he grinned. “Looks like they finally figured out how to outmaneuver my boo
ts. I’ll just have to get old school.”
Of course he’d find a learning opportunity in hurling boots at his people.
“I need to put a damned magnet in that thing.” He shrugged and looked up into the feed. “Well, you going to answer me?”
“I take it everything is under control?”
“Nothing’s under damned control! I am more shorthanded than I was in the Syndicate fleet. But, if you’re asking if we’re ready to try out your idea, then yes, we’re damned well ready. I think you’ve watched too many Westerns and rodeos with their damned nooses.”
“Maybe a few. Wait, how do you know—”
“Hey! What in the ejection port are you doing over there! Git!”
“Eddie?” My voice rose as he talked to someone off feed.
“I told ya!” I could imagine Eddie pointing in his accusatory manner.
“But Chief!” they said, sounding panicked as I saw a boot fly through the pickup, accompanied by a resounding “Ow!” as the boot connected and then returned to Eddie a few seconds later.
He put it on his foot as he hopped into view. “Now some of us have to try to be damned rodeo clowns.” He scowled.
“Good luck.”
“Good luck, he says! Good lu—”
I could swear I saw a hint of a grin as I cut the channel.
I turned to Rick. “Seems everything’s quiet in engineering,” I said, belying what I’d just heard.
Rick blew out in a disbelieving way. “Engineering, quiet? Eddie would have a fit. And an empty closet of boots!”
I saw grins around the bridge as my eyes thinned on Rick. “Now, there was something I had to say about my subordinates eating on the bridge while I’m on an important call!” Rick was already running, the blast doors opening as the bridge crew laughed and I chased after him. “Where are the damned Yorkshires! Get back here, Rick.” I yelled as we were out in the halls.
Rick took a corner, running on the walls to miss people. I saw him look back to me and put the last piece of the golden delight in his mouth.
“Riiiiick!” I yelled. I used the wall to run on as I chased after my laughing second-in-command.
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