by Francis, Ron
“I’m glad you asked us before you jumped in to this one, Jess,” Josiah remarked. “I know you have been trying to take fewer risks, but sometimes it’s hard to change your routine. We appreciate it, and so will Kimi when she wakes up.”
“Thanks, Jo,” he replied. “I just wish trouble would stop finding us. I really believed Hyperia would be a safe harbor for us; I had no idea that so many Conglomerate spies had infiltrated Hyperia's capital. Reece and Collin are going to have to be vigilant while we are gone."
"I agree," Josiah replied. "So," he started, "Do you think saving Kimi today will help you two get back on track?"
"I don't know. I'm sure it can't hurt. We have the saving each other part down; it's the rest of it we struggle with. I’m willing to do whatever I need to in order to repair our friendship. I know she closed the door on more, but I'm hoping that will change. Still, friends first.”
“I agree, Jess,” I hope things get back to normal with you guys. If you two ever decide to be more, I think it will work out fine. He walked off the bridge to get his and Kimi's gear ready for the morning.
______
Early the next morning, Jesse, Josiah, Kimi and Commando prepared to leave. Jesse didn’t like using other people’s ships and other people’s strike teams because he was unfamiliar with them. There were too many variables, too many things that could go wrong. This time, he had no choice. Endeavor had to stay on Hyperia. Collin was not only working on coordinates, but he was also working on a way of connecting the Conglomerate FTL to Endeavor’s drive to see if they could be compatible. Jesse and Collin were both of the opinion that they were far enough away from home that they might need more than one drive to get back if it came to it. While Collin and Bessa were working on the telemetry, Suzy would be continuing to monitor Shadow’s condition. Reece would be staying to keep both Suzy and Endeavor safe. Reece understood how much Jesse must have trusted him to put the safety of his oldest friend in his hands, and he vowed not to let his friend down.
On the way to the palace, he noticed how tired Kimi still looked.
“Kimi, are you going to be all right? We can go on without you if you are not feeling up to it. You did take a beating saving my butt yesterday,” he noted.
“As I remember it, it was you that saved my butt.” She smiled, and Josiah knew things were beginning to get back on track with them.
“Well, I’ll make sure you get to sleep on the way there,” he added, a note of concern in his voice.
“Thanks, Jesse, I just might need to.” She replied with a grateful, yet tired, smile. She was indeed going to have to sleep on the ship if she were to be of any use when it came time for the actual rescue to occur.
Josiah pointed as he noticed Zendar and nine other men getting on a rather interesting ship. The extra man Josiah realized was the pilot, which was a good idea to have a pilot that stayed in the ship in case they needed a quick liftoff during a rapid withdrawal.
Jesse’s crew met up with Zendar’s strike team. King Dominus had come out to wish them luck. “Please bring my daughter and Collette back to me,” he said while looking at both Zendar and Jesse. “Just to be clear, Zendar is in charge of the operation. Colonel Marcos, you are second-in-command. You will take over in the event that anything happens to Specialist Zendar. I realize you are used to command, are you going to be all right with that?”
Jesse realized he would have to be okay with that. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but for the sake of Princess Rayelle, he would have to be all right with it. “No problem, Your Majesty. I only wish to aid in the rescue of your daughter and return safely to my crew.” He thought briefly about how the King must be feeling with his daughter missing.
“Have there been any demands yet, Your Majesty?” Josiah asked as he entered the conversation.
“Not yet, Lieutenant, but I’m told that is a tactic sometimes used to create more panic in the family of the abductees. It is also possible they had to change their strategy once they failed to obtain my wife.” Dominus looked at Jesse and Kimi with gratitude in his eyes.
“Constance told me you had a bad feeling before hand and she elected to ignore it. She feels terrible that Officer Tamanorra was injured because of her. She wishes to convey her sincerest apologies once again.”
“Thank you, but there really is no need. I have already let your wife know that it was not her fault. She had no reason to rely on my instinct because she has always been safe on Hyperia. No one blames her, and Kimi is already healed. Please let her know it was no problem, and we will do our very best to bring Princess Rayelle home safely.” With that, he and his team loaded onto the assault vehicle they would be using.
The vehicle was of interesting design. He had never seen one quite like it. It couldn’t really be called a shuttle because it was quite a bit more than that. The ship was about the size of a small freighter and was loaded with state of the art Hyperian tech. He couldn’t wait to go through the vehicle and see all of its surprises.
While they were still speaking, a communiqué arrived alerting the King that his daughter had been spotted on Golaran, a Conglomerate border world. They now had a starting point, and the journey was about to begin.
“Colonel Marcos, the rest of your team did not wish to come?” Zendar asked as he was approaching Jesse.
“Oh, they all wanted to come, but we have other areas of focus at the moment, so it’s just us. He smiled and began to head to the ship. “You’ve seen us in action, hopefully we will be able to hold our own and aid you in the retrieval of the Princess.”
“I have no doubt about that. Those Conglomerate dogs are in for some pain if we catch up to them.” Zendar called out with a confident gleam in his eye as he followed Jesse into the ship.
“So let’s have a look at this beauty, shall we?” He added as he boarded the ship.
Specialist Zendar spent the next ten minutes as the pilot was preparing for takeoff showing Jesse, Josiah and Kimi all the bells and whistles aboard the new stealth assault ship, the First Stryke. The stealth capabilities aboard First Stryke were nowhere near as advanced as the capabilities of Endeavor, but they were still pretty useful. The ship had first-rate shielding and more firepower than any ship her size Jesse had ever seen. The power distribution system was well thought out, and the FTL drive was fast. Even the sublight engines exceeded galactic standards. There was no way this ship could be mass produced, but for this mission, it was probably the most desirable ship available besides Endeavor. As the First Stryke took off, Jesse knew they were going to need every available advantage if they were to bring the hostages back safely.
Chapter Eight:
______
Collin understood why he needed to stay on Hyperia while Jesse took Josiah and Kimi to rescue the King’s daughter, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. It never sat well with him to see his friends go off into a dangerous situation while he was safe from harm. Jesse needed him to work the deep space telemetry equipment to see if their backup plan was viable. He also needed Collin to help Reece protect Suzy and Bessa. Although, Bessa's training with Kimi was turning her into quite the fighter. It turned out there was a lot more danger and intrigue on Hyperia than any of them thought, and Jesse hadn't felt good about leaving only one of them behind. There was plenty for him to do, but the Special Forces soldier in him wanted to be where the action was.
There was one benefit to being left behind this time though, and that benefit was Bessa. She would be working the telemetry equipment with him, which would make the task infinitely more enjoyable. He knew he was going to be spending a lot of time with her, and he loved every minute of that part of the assignment. He had decided to take his budding relationship with her slow so that she could continue to grow and understand who she is as a free woman. It was difficult to do because she seemed to be spending every free moment with him, and he didn’t mind. She would often slip into servant mode and he had to remind her that she was his friend, not his servant. She would always smile
shyly and comment about how she didn’t mind doing things for him, but Collin knew she was trying to change. She always needed to hear that she was free, and that her friends on Endeavor valued having her around because of who she is, not what she could do for them.
As day four of the star mapping began, Bessa walked in and smiled while he was thinking about her. He loved her smile. It had only been a few weeks, but he was beginning to think she might be the one. He could never get her out of his mind. This was so much different than it had been with Stephanie. That had been fun, but he didn’t feel like he needed her. He knew he needed Bessa, and taking things slowly was very difficult for him.
“Hello, Collin,” she said with a smile. “I brought you some coffee. I am told it is the best blend on all of Hyperia. And the establishment would not even let me pay. I think King Dominus has instructed the entire city that we are to be given whatever we ask for.”
He smiled as Bessa spoke. He took the coffee she had offered him and replied. “I think you’re right. My lunch was free yesterday while you were with Suzy. How did you sleep?” He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek which made her blush.
“I slept very well, thank you. How did you sleep?” She put his notebook on the table as she took a sip of her own coffee.
“I slept very well, because I was dreaming about you,” he responded with his usual answer to her question.
Bessa blushed a little more, and he loved that she blushed every time he complimented her. Compliments, like so many others things freedom had to offer, were still new to her.
“Are we ready to move to the next sector of space yet?” She asked, still smiling.
“I think we are Bessa, just a couple more calculations, maybe fifteen minutes.” He noticed she seemed a little distracted as he spoke. “Is everything all right, Bess?”
She looked at him with a worried look and replied. “I’m just afraid for our friends. I know they are great warriors, but I feel like they might be up against too much. Jesse was my first ever true friend, the first person to ever care about me. Now, because of him, I have a home, I have other friends, I am no longer a slave and I have you. I would be most upset if anything happened to him, or any of them.”
“I know how you feel. Jesse, Josiah and I have been friends for almost seventeen years. They are like family to me. Kimi, Suzy and Reece, too. Don’t worry too much for Jesse, because the one thing I know for sure is that there is no one better in two galaxies.”
She smiled, “They are like family to me, just as are you. I never thought it possible that I would have friends or family. I never thought it possible that I would be a special guest of a King and Queen. All of those things have happened, and I would hate for it to stop.”
Collin gave Bessa a big hug and she leaned into his embrace. “As long as any of us are still alive, it never will. Now, how about we move onto the next sector?”
She nodded and he noticed she was blushing again.
Almost three hours later, Collin excitedly began to yell, “I think I have something.” Bessa ran over to see what had him so excited. “I think I recognize this, but I’m not sure if it’s in our galaxy or not. I’m going to send these readings to Endeavor, and see if it matches anything in SAMMI’s database.” Bessa could see how happy he was and hugged him tightly. She truly hoped he had found something.
One of the technicians came over and jotted down the coordinates of his readings. He gave Collin a big smile and said, “Do you realize how big a breakthrough this would be for us if you have indeed found something. Finding a starting point could be the key to us mapping out several galaxies. I really hope you have found something. The King will wish to be updated.”
“I think we are still a ways off from alerting the King, but we just might have a good starting point. SAMMI, I’m sending you some images and coordinates, we may be on to something. Analyze the information against Endeavor’s databanks, and let me know if there is any sort of match.” He didn’t want to get too excited, but he thought he was on to something.
“Lieutenant Torrensede,” SAMMI’s feathery voice replied. “It will take me at least forty-five minutes to input, compile and analyze this information.”
“Thank you, SAMMI,” he replied as he stood and looked at Bessa. “This is going to make Jesse so happy when he gets back."
Collin was anxious to hear back from SAMMI about the possible match he found. Bessa found his pacing to be humorous. Most of what he did she found she enjoyed. He was a good man and she counted herself lucky to have found him. As she watched him, she realized she was falling in love for the first time in her life, and it made her smile. Finally, after almost forty-five minutes, SAMMI alerted him that she had analyzed the data.
“Lieutenant Torrensede, I have analyzed the images and data you have sent to me, and I require more information to be certain we are looking at star patterns found in the Andromeda Galaxy. Please adjust the deep space telemetry equipment point zero, zero, zero, one, five to the left, and record the images. Please overlap the images slightly with what you have already given me to be sure you are still looking in the area I require.”
“It should only take me about a half an hour to get you the information you require, SAMMI,” he approximated, as he began to recalibrate the equipment. Twenty-eight minutes later, SAMMI received the information.
“It will take me approximately twenty-four minutes to analyze these images and this data. I will alert you as soon as I have completed this assignment.” SAMMI cut the transmission without awaiting a reply. Twenty-four minutes later, SAMMI provided Collin with the good news. “These images are indeed images of the Andromeda Galaxy,” SAMMI began as if reading from a text book. “The Andromeda Galaxy does not border this galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is the second closest full galaxy to the Kalephi Galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is the third full galaxy out. If you could extend the range of the deep space telemetry equipment, we will see the star patterns of our own galaxy. That information would allow me to plot a more accurate course to Polisia.”
Collin and Bessa were in full celebration now. As he readjusted the equipment to go further along the same line it was already on, constellations he recognized began to come into focus. He sent the images and the data to SAMMI and resumed celebration. The celebration, however, was cut short when SAMMI informed them that it would take six months running the FTL drive at one-hundred percent to get back to the Milky Way Galaxy. Collin knew Endeavor could not handle that kind of journey. They were likely to have to stop many times. In fact, in order to safely make it home, Endeavor would need close to nine months. Jesse was not going to be happy, Collin sure wasn’t. He explained the good news-bad news situation to Bessa, but she seemed to be the optimistic one.
“At least we have a route home now. You and Jesse will figure out the rest. Let us just be happy with the good news.”
He agreed, and they resumed celebrating.
______
Suzy had put off her next social visit with Holt until after Jesse and his team left. She knew things would be hectic until then. She hated watching them go off on missions because there was always the chance that she would never see one of them again. Reece had left early, and she was preparing to go to lunch with Holt. She couldn’t be gone too long because she had scheduled for Shadow to be given some medicine, and she wanted to check her pet’s condition. Still, she had about three hours she could spend with Holt, and she was looking forward to every second of it. She felt the smooth texture of the lightly scented lotion as she rubbed it on her hands and arms. It had the faintest smell of peach and she inhaled the scent of the bottle deeply and smiled. It was her favorite smell and it helped calm her as much as the action of rubbing the lotion on her skin did. She hadn’t been this excited in a long time. Now, she had mixed feelings of worry for her friends and excitement to see Holt. She was also really excited that Collin had been able to map out a way home, which would come in handy should the matter conduit fail them. She didn't need to wo
rry about that now, she was focused on having a good time with Holt, and putting her worry for her friends out of her mind, if only for a little while.
Just then SAMMI announced that Holt had arrived. Suzy checked her hair in the mirror one last time and proceeded towards the landing bay.
Suzy arrived at the landing bay and greeted Holt, then they were then on their way.
When they were in his air speeder, he began to talk about how beautiful she looked, which was a subject she definitely enjoyed. As they arrived at the restaurant, she noticed they were in a very wealthy part of the city. He informed her that this restaurant, which was named Sunset Beach, had been voted best on Hyperia for the last three years. It usually had a two month waiting list just to get in. He was able to get them in because Suzy was one of the Kings honored guests.
“So, you’re just using me for my connections,” she replied jokingly.
He just leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips and responded, “You’ve uncovered my evil plan, I’m using you to get into all the restaurants I never could on my own. I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me.”
“Kiss me again, and that will be a start,” she added playfully.
He leaned in and kissed her again, this time a little bit longer and a little bit more passionately. She felt a flutter in her stomach as she felt the pressure of his lips against hers and wondered if her life could be any better at that moment.
He looked into her blue eyes and asked, “What are you thinking about, beautiful?”
“I’m thinking I’m glad we met at the banquet the other night. Being away from Earth has been difficult for me until a few days ago. Now, I’m not entirely sure I want to return home.” She gently slipped her hand into his as they walked into the restaurant.
Sunset Beach was famous for its seafood. Suzy loved seafood, and couldn’t wait to try Hyperia’s best. The restaurant was decorated in sea blue and sand colors. Beautiful artwork depicting various ocean activities adorned each wall. The tables had the look suggesting they were carved from driftwood, and the chairs had a comfortable beach feel to them. The ambiance was very inviting and made Suzy wish they were at the beach. She supposed that was the reason for it, and decided the decorators had done their job quite well. She took some vid stills of the décor as she and Holt were shown to their seats. She noticed they had gotten in very quickly. She didn’t like the idea of being bumped ahead of other guests just because she was friends with the King. Holt had assured her that restaurants like these always keep a table or two open just in case someone famous or honored comes in for a meal. She felt a little better hearing that as they walked to their table. They were warmly greeted by everyone they passed. Suzy smiled shyly and returned pleasantries with several people as they made their way to their table. Holt was quiet, letting her bask in the attention of a grateful planet.
