Ep.#3 - Resurrection (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

The camera shook as another bomb exploded nearby.

  “I wish I could explain!” Nathan said, struggling to remain standing as the building shook. “You just have to trust me!”

  “Telles to all Ghatazhak! Evac protocol Zeta One!”

  “What the hell is Zeta One?” Nathan asked, as another explosion knocked over the camera, and he disappeared from view, heading out of the building.

  “You do not want to know,” Telles replied off camera, as the camera suddenly tilted to one side, then switched off.

  Cameron sat there, her hands covering her mouth, staring wide-eyed at the blank view screen. Finally, she picked up her comm-set from the table in front of her, and placed it on her head. “Vlad, you there?” she asked, her voice shaking. “Vlad?” She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this overwhelmed.

  “Yes, I am here. Are you all right?” Vladimir asked over her comm-set.

  “I need you to come to my quarters, right away.”

  “I will be there in five minutes.”

  “Thank you.” Cameron removed her comm-set and placed it back on the table. After wiping the tears from her eyes, she picked up the remote and queued the message for replay.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Isa Gullen”, the woman said, barely able to speak as she wept. She and seven others stood in the middle of the public square on Aitkenna.

  “Larso Gavin,” the next man in line proclaimed.

  The gathered crowd tried not to stare. Many even attempted to appear as if they just happened to be passing by.

  “Forrel Evans,” the last man in line stated, his lip quivering in fear.

  A Dusahn officer carrying an immersive vid-cam moved slowly down the line of prisoners as each stated their name, then turned to move to one side. Once in position, he turned back around to face the line of prisoners, as well as the Dusahn soldiers who were about to become their executioners. “By order of Lord Dusahn, leader of the Dusahn Empire, you are hereby condemned to immediate execution, for the crimes committed against the Dusahn Empire by your kin.” After barking out the sentence, the officer looked to the sergeant in charge of the firing squad and nodded.

  Three unintelligible words came from the mouth of the officer in charge of the firing squad, with a pause between each. As the third word rang out, all four soldiers opened fire with their energy rifles, sweeping back and forth across the row of prisoners. Their bolts of energy pierced the prisoners’ bodies, instantly burning gaping holes in their torsos, dropping them all to the ground.

  Another order was given, and the firing stopped, the guards returning to the position of attention, weapons at their sides.

  The crowd gasped in horror at the sight of the smoldering bodies, covering their faces to avoid the stench of burnt human tissue. Within minutes, the crowd began to disperse, and a team of unlucky Corinairans moved in to dispose of the bodies.

  There would be no burials. There would be no last rites. There would be no acknowledgment of any of the last wishes of the deceased. The bodies would be incinerated without ceremony, and the only notification to their next of kin would be the immersive video of their loved ones’ executions.

  The message was clear. The Dusahn did not tolerate disobedience.

  * * *

  General Telles and Captain Tuplo stood behind Josh and Loki in the Seiiki’s cockpit, gazing out the forward windows at the surface of the planet below them.

  “See, I told you,” Josh said. “Nothing but dust and rock.”

  “Perhaps, but the gravity is nearly identical to that of Corinair,” General Telles stated.

  “But the air isn’t even breathable,” Josh reminded them.

  “The atmospheric pressure is adequate,” the general assured him. “We will be fine, as long as we all wear face masks with supplemental oxygen and filters. Just find us at least twenty square kilometers of level area, with an atmospheric pressure of approximately twelve hundred millibars.”

  “Whatever you say,” Josh replied, shaking his head.

  “Once down, remain in the cockpit and be ready to launch again,” the general instructed. “We will be conducting a series of training hops.” General Telles turned and headed down the ladder to the main deck.

  Connor looked at Josh and Loki. “This should be fun.”

  * * *

  Vladimir sat on the couch next to Cameron, staring at the blank view screen in disbelief. Finally, he turned to look at her. “Nathan is alive?”

  Cameron said nothing, just nodded her head and sniffled.

  “He has been alive all these years?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And Jessica knew?”

  “I’m not sure, but it looks like it. That would explain why she suddenly quit and moved to the Pentaurus cluster.”

  “And they didn’t tell us?”

  Cameron shook her head, sniffling again.

  Vladimir looked back at the blank view screen. “I’m going to kill them both.” He looked back at Cameron again and asked, “When do we leave?”

  “What?”

  “We have to depart immediately.”

  Cameron looked surprised. “We can’t just go, Vlad.”

  “Of course we can,” he argued. “You’re the captain, aren’t you? You say go, we go. That is how it works.”

  “We are on the verge of war, remember?”

  “You heard him, Cameron. He needs us. The entire Pentaurus sector needs us.”

  “The Sol sector needs us!” Cameron exclaimed.

  “We haven’t seen a Jung ship in nearly a week. Besides, the Alliance has plenty of ships.”

  “The Alliance has thirteen ships, Vlad. That’s hardly plenty.”

  “Are you forgetting about the three hundred and fifty gunships?”

  “No, I’m not. Because they are gunships, not full-sized warships.”

  “They can take down full-sized warships when they hunt in packs.”

  “Vlad…”

  Vladimir threw up his hands, rising from the couch to pace around her living room. “You heard Nathan, Cam. The Dusahn are the threat, not the Jung. Just the other day, you told me you thought things were not as they seemed. You said, ‘there is something else going on here.’ This is that something else!”

  “You’re talking about disregarding our oath and making off with a fifteen-hundred-meter warship!”

  “Our oath was also to the people of the Pentaurus cluster,” Vladimir pointed out. “A fact that Alliance Command and our political leaders seemed to have conveniently forgotten!”

  “You’re asking me to disobey orders!” Cameron protested.

  “I’m asking you to help the one man who saved all of us seven years ago!” Vladimir shouted at the top of his lungs.

  “Calm down, Commander,” Cameron pleaded, throwing in his rank to remind him that she was still in charge.

  “Don’t you see?” Vladimir continued, taking his voice down a few notches. “If we do not go, the Dusahn quickly become a far more dangerous threat than the Jung will ever be.”

  “But if the Jung already have jump drives…”

  “You don’t believe they have jump drives any more than I do,” Vladimir said. “And like Nathan said, if they do, then one more ship isn’t going to make a difference. Besides, if they were going to attack, don’t you think they would have done so by now? We just took out half a dozen targets and killed millions of their people! If that wasn’t a good enough excuse to send a fleet of jump ships in to annihilate us, what is?”

  “But I’d be in direct violation of our orders, for crying out loud!”

  “Then you’d go down in history again, wouldn’t you,” Vladimir argued. “The first female to captain a warship, the first female to lose a warship in battle, and the first c
aptain to steal her own ship and go rogue.”

  “It would be akin to defecting, wouldn’t it?”

  “The worlds of the Pentaurus cluster are still our allies,” Vladimir argued. “Except Takara, that is. So you wouldn’t be defecting, you’d simply be upholding the Earth’s obligation to help defend the Pentaurus cluster.”

  “I’m not so sure Galiardi is going to see it that way.”

  “Screw that old man,” Vladimir said with a wave of his hand. “You and I both know he’s playing the whole Jung angle for all it’s worth, so he can drum up enough support to become the next president of the Alliance. I think he even wants us to go to war with the Jung again, so he can become the hero who defeated them. That would guarantee him the election.” Vladimir sat back down on the couch next to Cameron. “You know you want to do it.”

  “Storm off across the galaxy to save our long lost friend? Of course I do,” she admitted. “He’d do the same for us.”

  “He did do the same for us.”

  “What about our crew?” Cameron wondered. “If we go, we’ll be on our own, cut off from the Alliance, and we’ll be flying into who knows what. I would be asking my crew to put themselves in harm’s way, to dishonor their oaths to the Alliance, and become criminals… Fugitives who might never be able to return home.”

  “Unless Nathan is right, and we end up saving everyone,” Vladimir pointed out. “Then, we’d be heroes… For a second time, too!”

  Cameron sighed, her face tense with indecision. “I just don’t know if I can do it.”

  “If you don’t, I’ll mutiny and do it for you.”

  “Promise?”

  “Anything for a friend,” Vladimir joked.

  “I have to think about it, Vlad,” Cameron explained. “It would be grossly irresponsible if I did not.”

  “More irresponsible than stealing a warship?”

  “Vlad…”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, taking her hand. “Of course, you should think about it. Take all the time you need.” He leaned back on the couch. After a few moments, he looked at his watch. “Okay, it’s been thirty seconds. Have you decided?”

  “How about we talk about it in the morning?”

  Vladimir sighed. “You’re the captain,” he finally conceded. “But remember, it will take us nearly a week to get there, so you must decide soon.” Vladimir leaned over and kissed Cameron on the cheek. “Thank you for telling me he’s alive,” he told her. Then, he rose from the couch and headed for the door. “I will make plans to seize control of the ship from you while you think about it, just in case.”

  Cameron watched her old friend disappear through the door, happier than she had seen him in years. And she understood why. She had also carried the guilt for Nathan’s sacrifice for all these years… Always wondering what they could have done differently, or how they might have rescued him from execution.

  Apparently, one of them did. And now she had to decide if she was willing to sacrifice everything she had worked for her entire life.

  Her entire life.

  That was when she made her decision.

  * * *

  Connor, Doctor Sato, and Doctor Megel stood on the barren, dust-blown surface of Innis Four, watching General Telles and his men carefully pacing out measurements and pushing long marker poles into the ground.

  “What are they doing?” Doctor Sato asked from behind her breathing mask.

  “Marking out the target area,” Connor explained.

  “I don’t understand,” Doctor Sato said, still confused.

  “I don’t think I want to,” Doctor Megel added.

  After a few more minutes, General Telles came walking toward them while his men finished stringing colored ropes around the nearby marker poles.

  “Before you is the city of Aitkenna,” the general began, speaking extra loud to be heard from behind his breathing mask. “Those four shorter poles, with the green rope around them, are the landing pad at Ranni Enterprises. The taller poles to the south, the ones with the red ropes strung between them, are the north wall of the Ranni Enterprises building. The poles to either side are the neighboring buildings, and the row of poles to the north are the elevated rail tracks that run east to west along the north side of the landing pad. Your goal is to land on the pad, secure your canopy, move as quickly as possible to the entrance to Ranni Enterprises, and gain entry. You must do all of this within one minute of jumping.”

  “Jumping?” Doctor Sato wondered.

  “You will be conducting a low-level, low-surface speed jump from the back of the Seiiki, from a height of one hundred meters.”

  “One hundred meters?” Doctor Sato exclaimed. “We’ll be dead!”

  “You will be using parachutes,” General Telles explained.

  “Uh, General,” Connor began, “Aren’t parachutes usually used from a little higher up?”

  “These are special parachute systems, designed for extremely low-level use.”

  “We can’t jump out of a flying spaceship,” Doctor Sato protested. “We’re doctors, not soldiers.”

  “Can you teach Lieutenant Nash how to conduct the transfer?” the general asked.

  “Given enough time, probably,” Doctor Megel said.

  “Can you do it in five days?”

  “Maybe,” Doctor Megel replied. “Maybe not… Okay, probably not.”

  “Then I suggest you pay attention,” the general advised.

  “General, I have no experience in this type of thing,” Connor said. “None of us do. And that landing pad looks to be an awfully small target. And judging by the way you laid out those buildings, we’re going to have to be awfully precise. Isn’t there a less risky way to get us on the surface?”

  “The systems are self-navigating,” the general explained. “They are accurate within one meter, under winds of less than five kilometers per hour.”

  “We lived on Corinair for seven years,” Doctor Sato said. “Aitkenna is pretty windy this time of year.”

  “But the winds are normally out of the southwest, which means that the Ranni building will be blocking it during the last sixteen meters of your descent,” the general explained.

  “The last sixteen meters,” Connor commented sarcastically. “I feel so much better.”

  “This plan has the highest probability of getting you all on the surface without significant injury,” the general informed him.

  “Oh, why didn’t you say so,” Connor replied. He looked at Michi and Tori. “I feel better. How about you guys?”

  The two Nifelmian doctors did not reply.

  “We will start by gearing you all up, then practicing your vessel exit procedures. After that, we will execute our first practice jump, starting at five hundred meters.”

  “We?” Connor wondered.

  “I will be jumping in place of Lieutenant Nash.”

  “Then you’ll be going with us?” Doctor Sato asked.

  “I shall not. Lieutenant Nash will be well enough to lead your team on this mission,” General Telles explained.

  “Doesn’t she need the practice?” Connor wondered.

  “Lieutenant Nash has made many such jumps,” the general assured them. “She requires no practice.”

  “Good to know,” Connor said dryly.

  “With each successive jump,” the general continued, “we will decrease our jump altitude. Once you have mastered the techniques required and are able to land within the target area, we will conduct all subsequent jumps at the planned jump altitude.”

  “How many jumps are we going to do?” Doctor Sato wondered.

  “As many as it takes,” General Telles replied.

  Doctor Sato looked at Connor, then turned to look at her fellow Nifelmian.

 
“Don’t look at me, Michi,” Doctor Megel said. “Leaving Nifelm was your idea.”

  * * *

  Cameron sat at the small table in her quarters, studying both the old Earth Defense Force and the Sol-Pentaurus Alliance regulations, hoping to find a loophole that would give her the authority to take the Aurora to the Pentaurus cluster against orders.

  So concentrated was she that it took three alerts from her door buzzer before she went to answer it.

  “You wanted to see me?” Commander Kaplan said as she entered Cameron’s quarters.

  “Yes, come in,” Cameron said, closing the door behind the commander as she passed into the room. “I apologize for the late hour,” she said as she made her way to the sitting area. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  “I was just finishing up some reports,” the commander replied as she took a seat at the table. She glanced at the data pads in front of her. “Regulations?” she asked. “I thought you had them all memorized.”

  “I do,” Cameron replied, sitting down. “I was hoping I’d find one that I’d forgotten.”

  “Is this what you do when you can’t sleep?” the commander wondered. “Study regs? Because those would put me right out.”

  Cameron turned off both data pads and pushed them aside. “I wish it were something as simple as insomnia,” she began.

  “What’s going on, Captain?”

  “Please, Lara, this conversation is unofficial, and off the record. So, if there was ever an appropriate time to be informal with your commanding officer, this is it.”

  “How ominous,” Lara replied, leaning forward to listen. “Now, I’m intrigued.”

  Cameron took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, unsure of how to begin. Her mouth contorted from side to side, as she contemplated exactly how to ask the question that was on her mind.

  “Cam, come on,” Lara urged. “It can’t be that bad.”

  “Hypothetically speaking, if I decided to do something that was not only a breach of regulations, but was also directly against orders, but I was doing it because I truly believed it was the right thing to do, would you back me?”