New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1)

by Joshua Dalzelle

  “Is that what I think it is?” Pike asked flatly as they walked through the hatch into the forward cargo hold.

  “It is,” Jackson confirmed. “It’s the stasis chamber the Vruahn gave us. Cube, this is Agent Pike … go ahead and say hello.”

  “Hello, Agent Pike,” a voice said, unmistakably coming from the stasis chamber. “I have heard of you. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  “You taught it to talk!” Pike nearly shouted.

  “I didn’t teach it anything,” Jackson shook his head. “It … woke up … for lack of a better term. It’s self-aware. An unforeseen accident that popped up in a hastily designed system.”

  “There aren’t any Phage bits still in it are there?” Pike whispered.

  “No,” Jackson said firmly. “There was some talk of preserving the organ we had in there, but in the end the piece was incinerated and this machine put into storage. Then it started asking for help.”

  “I think you’d better start at the beginning,” Pike said, following Jackson up to the cube that was surrounded by equipment and technicians.

  Chapter 14

  The Phage was essentially a biological weapon, an entity that had been designed by a species called the Vruahn to act as their guardians, allowing them to give up martial pursuits and focus their energies on purely scientific endeavors. But their creation became sentient and, eventually, insane. It repurposed its original mission to one that saw it try to eradicate all competing life from the galaxy.

  While humans had discovered the existence of a “core mind” and had launched an expedition to find it they had also struck an uneasy alliance with the Vruahn to try and corral their creation. One of the items exchanged in the partnership was a stasis chamber, the Cube sitting in the Pontiac’s cargo hold, that could fool a formation of Phage combat units that a human ship was actually one of them when it was loaded with a transponder from one of the Phage heavy units. The transponder was actually a biological organ and needed to be carefully protected and hooked to a support system to keep working.

  Before the plan to use the Cube could be fully executed, however, Jackson Wolfe, commanding the Ares at the time, had located the core mind and destroyed it with a fast-acting neurotoxin. But Jackson had moved the Cube to the Icarus prior to hunting down the core mind and, before the Ares could complete her mission, Celesta Wright had used the device to fly right within one of the largest Phage formations ever recorded during the entire war and singlehandedly destroy over four hundred combat units.

  “So I get that the Cube’s sentience is likely an aberration created by the Vruahn programming, but as anything other than a scientific oddity, what good is it?” Pike asked before turning to the Cube. “No offense.”

  “None taken, Agent Pike,” the Cube said. “To answer your question, my processing power is greater than all of your planetbound supercomputers … combined.”

  “It’s right,” Jackson said. “It employs some sort of quantum processing that allows such a small computer to pack a large punch. In addition to being able to power through any computing task we set before it the Cube was also plugged into the Vruahn aggregate computational network before they severed the connection, likely believing it was lost on the Ares before one of their ships brought us back home.

  “The sheer scope of its knowledge is staggering. We’ve not only been able to prove out our own scientific theories in record time but we’re now moving into areas of theoretical physics that were well beyond our understanding. The Pontiac is now home to over two hundred of humanity’s best scientists, researchers, and engineers … all working with the Cube on projects of practical application and others that are purely theoretical.”

  “And all the secrecy is because—”

  “Because, just like you, judging by the look on your face, there are many who would be exceedingly uncomfortable with trusting a Vruahn computer,” Jackson said. “Not to mention something that used to hold part of a Phage Super Alpha. We can’t afford to let the whims of politics shut this down. I’ve seen the reports, Pike … two more alien species popping up in less than a decade and the Cube has told us of two more in equally close proximity beyond that.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Pike swore, a look of understanding dawning on his face. “It was you. Is you. Prometheus is where Marcum has been getting all of his inside information on the Ushin and Darshik.” Jackson just nodded.

  “We were the first people he consulted when the Ushin scout ship intercepted the survey team,” he said. “We’ve been a failsafe. The Cube is able to confirm some, but not all, of what the Ushin tell us as well as provide analysis of the Darshik from a point of view we lack.”

  “Is there any special insight you’d like to provide before we send the Fleet in to hit the Darshik at the request of the Ushin?” Pike asked sarcastically.

  “We’re prepping an intel brief now, actually,” Jackson said slowly. “Who do you think you’re talking to? Do you think I would do anything to put Fleet personnel in harm’s way if there was something I could do to prevent it?”

  “I really don’t know what to make of this right now.” Pike just shook his head. “I can follow the logic as to why this has been kept secret, but it’s a lot to process. So what have you put together from this project that falls on the practical side?”

  “You know the training program Jillian is helping develop for the new Orbital Authority ships? That’s just a cover story; the ships the new branch will be getting are just going to be smaller, stripped-down versions of the Starwolf-class design.” Jackson turned to lead Pike away from where the technicians were trying to work.

  “What her team is doing is setting up a streamlined program to train up crews quickly on a whole new generation of Terran starship. Integrated reactionless drives, anti-matter weapons and sensors far ahead of what we have now … five new classes of ship, each needing crews that are trained to their higher performance envelopes.”

  “Where are these ships?” Pike asked hopefully.

  “The first keels are being laid at a secret facility run by Barclays Ironworks,” Jackson said after a long pause.

  “Holy shit,” Pike said softly. “You’ve cut Tsuyo Corp out of the loop completely on this?”

  “For right now all system designs stay under the strict control of this project office,” Jackson said. “I wasn’t privy to the decision-making on that one, but I don’t necessarily disagree with it.”

  Tsuyo Corporation had been the provider of military hardware to the Terran Confederacy since there was such a thing. The company was so old it had originated on Earth and had actually been involved in the project that developed the first functional warp drive. As such, their power was immense, both politically and militarily. Few decisions were made within the old Senate without their approval or at least input, and they ran such a tight ship that there was little anybody could do about it, at least not if they still wanted access to Tsuyo tech.

  They were so guarded that even on CENTCOM starships there were systems that were forbidden to be accessed by Fleet engineers. The company was so large and influential that before the Phage War had turned Terran politics on its head the board of directors had actually been colonizing its own planets with the intent of making Tsuyo Corp a sovereign power. Given their stranglehold on technology and manufacturing it was entirely plausible that they could have pulled it off without much of a fight.

  With that in mind and once it became apparent that Prometheus would produce useable outputs quickly, the project oversight had decided that maybe it would be better if someone besides Tsuyo was given the contract to begin manufacturing the prototypes. Barclays Ironworks, a commercial ship builder in the Britannia enclave, had been quietly approached about running a secret shipyard for the new generation of starships. Despite their partnership with Tsuyo, the smaller firm had leapt at the opportunity and agreed at once.

  “You’re not going to give me the location of this new shipyard, are you?” Pike asked.
>
  “That depends on what sort of agreement we can come to.” Jackson shrugged.

  “What do you want?” Pike asked, almost afraid of what the older man would say.

  ****

  As the Broadhead pushed away from the Pontiac, Pike was overcome with a moment of nostalgia as he saw the big Raptor-class destroyer swallowed back up by the black as the floodlights shut back off. He sat for a moment as the ship came about on its new course, remembering the same man, but a different, although identical ship. Or was it the same man? Jackson Wolfe, the legendary starship captain that defeated the Phage practically singlehandedly, a man who despised politics in any form, now looked and sounded like any other government bureaucrat. To be fair his project was a lot more important and useful than ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the paper pushers out there, but he was still just a project administrator now … filing reports while the scientists and engineers did the heavy lifting. That bothered Pike more than anything else he’d seen on the Pontiac.

  When you stripped away all the specialized training and all the toys, he was a soldier. He followed orders, mostly, and wasn’t prone to fits of introspection or existential thinking, but the Cube bothered him. He’d spent five days on the Pontiac, talking to the Cube, talking to the staff, and trying to formulate a conclusion that made sense. Jackson had asked him not to divulge the details of the project to Wellington, but that wasn’t something Pike felt he could decide. No matter what the eggheads had told him the Cube was still a piece of Vruahn tech that had interfaced directly with the Phage and had now blossomed into a fully sentient intelligence by random chance. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he believed that basic premise.

  Jackson had surprised him again by refusing to give him the exact location of Barclays’ new shipyard, and although he had provided detailed specs for each new class of ship he had unwittingly forced Pike’s hand in relation to his first request. The agent would now have to use his credentials as Aston Lynch to bring pressure to bear upon the Britannic government to cough up the yard location and it was unlikely he’d be able to do that without Wellington’s approval. To get that he was going to have to tell his boss everything about Project Prometheus and trust him to do what he thought was best.

  “Damn you, Wolfe,” Pike said aloud. “Computer, set course back to New Sierra and execute … max performance.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  By the time the second generation Broadhead transitioned out of the Arcadia System, Pike was already sound asleep in his seat. The computer analyzed his breathing and reclined the seat back until his labored snoring subsided, then it dimmed the lights and shut down the curved control panel. The adaptive software had become accustomed to the agent falling asleep on the flight deck and had developed a set of responses to make its sole occupant more comfortable.

  ****

  “Secure connection established, ma’am,” Ellison said.

  “That will be all, Lieutenant,” Celesta said. “Please wait outside.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Celesta leaned back in her seat and waited for the preliminary command level briefing to begin. She’d opted to attend the video conference in her office and had her com officer come in and set up the necessary decryption routines so that she could display it on the monitor bank mounted on one bulkhead. The Icarus had been flying circles around Juwel, one of the few remaining planets from the New European Commonwealth that was still controlled by the Federation. They’d arrived a full three weeks earlier and had been waiting for the rest of the taskforce to trickle in as well as the new theater commander. It had been rumored that Admiral Marcum would not be flying his flag on the New York as everyone had assumed.

  She was of two minds about this since Marcum was by far the most experienced flag officer still serving in CENTCOM, but he was also Chief of Staff and it was highly unorthodox that he should be personally commanding missions. Celesta freely admitted to herself that the admiral’s sudden shift towards her played no small part in her relief that he wouldn’t be directing the action. The Phage War had forced them all into roles they weren’t used to playing, but she strongly felt it was time for Starfleet and CENTCOM to get back to the business of being a professional military organization and that meant sticking to doctrine and adhering to policy.

  “Please stand by,” a voice intoned over the link, startling Celesta. A moment later the video monitors came on and the crest of the TFS New York was displayed before it also faded and was replaced by the feed of Fleet Admiral Wilton standing behind an unadorned lectern, flanked by the flags of the United Terran Federation on the right and Starfleet on the left. Celesta knew of Wilton, of course, but had never met the man nor served under him in any capacity. What surprised her more than anything was that Marcum had sent a Black Fleet admiral out to run the operation and not one of his friends from Fourth Fleet HQ.

  “Let’s get this started,” Wilton said without preamble or any sort of greeting. “We have a lot to do and we’re already behind the curve. I see that … yes, we’re all linked in, it looks like. This briefing is going to be a one-way flow of information. I’ve disabled your ability to transmit onto this channel so feel free to clear your throat, cough, or sing the old Confederacy’s anthem, but whatever you’re doing you damn well better be paying attention. There will be a lot of information coming at you and you’ll be responsible for knowing it. This briefing is classified Top Secret, special instruction two.

  “Now then … this mission will be a counteroffensive to free two Ushin-controlled systems from Darshik influence. One system is heavily defended by the enemy, the other appears to just have a light rearguard. Since all of our intelligence is coming from our new allies we’ll be forced to recon ourselves before committing our forces. Trust but verify, as they say. We have four CIS Prowlers currently on their way to both systems to gather intel. I hope to get com drones from each team within the next few days, but no guarantee on that.

  “If you’ll look at the accompanying imagery you’ll see that the heavily fortified system is defended by someone who knows what the hell they’re doing. Only the second planet is habitable, and the bulk of their forces are concentrated between the orbits of the second and third planets with outlying patrols flying random patterns in the outer system. As you’d expect from someone who has dug in, they have a slew of active sensor monitoring stations also scanning the outer system.”

  Celesta knew that often commanders without much experience tried to hold an entire system and not give an inch of ground to an attacking force, but that was virtually impossible. By the time you get to the outer planets of a typical star system you’re talking about a patrol distance of nearly five billion kilometers, and that’s just along the ecliptic plane. The number of ships it would take just to provide an overlapping sensor grid, and the logistical infrastructure required to support them, would bankrupt both New America and Britannia within half a year, and that was assuming they even had that many ships to begin with.

  The more effective strategy was to sprinkle the outer system with listening buoys and randomized patrols while concentrating the bulk of your force in a place you could more easily defend. If you knew where the enemy would likely appear, like Terran system jump points, all the better. What she was seeing in the scaled diagram of the defended system wasn’t exactly proof the enemy commander had a lot of combat experience, but it was an indicator. More importantly, their defensive formations provided important clues as to the capabilities of their ships. If Celesta was defending the DeLonges System with a squadron of the Vruahn fast attack boats she had seen during the war, with their real-time sensors and prodigious speed, she’d just park over the planet she was protecting and dare anyone to come in.

  “Assuming the Prowlers don’t come back with contradictory information on our provided intel, the Ninth Squadron will be the first in. Senior Captain Wright will move her three ships into formation here”—a blue chevron indicating the Ninth appeared on the diagram—“and begin a bi
t of a distraction to allow us time to move in our ships for the opening shot.

  “Captain Wright, you’ll be broadcasting a message provided to us by the Ushin declaring that the Darshik are no longer welcome in that system and demanding they withdraw immediately. I want you blaring active sensors so that you not only see any incoming but you provide a point of focus while I sneak in the heavy missile cruisers. You’ll be on your own for a bit, but your Starwolf-class ships should be just as fast as anything fielded by the Darshik. Just be aware of their intrasystem jumps and know that you’re free to take whatever actions you deem necessary in order to keep your people and machines safe while performing your mission, up to and including opening fire at any threatening gestures by the enemy.”

  Celesta had more than a few questions, but she knew this was just a preliminary overview and the Icarus would be getting much more detailed orders afterward that she could go through and then ask questions or lodge complaints. She had confidence that her ships could keep up with the Darshik warships in real-space, it was the aforementioned intrasystem jumps that had her worried. If she had more information on how they navigated them or the requirements needed that would allow her to use the system’s “terrain” to her advantage it would be a big help.

  She was now only half-listening as Wilton was giving each major grouping a breakdown of what would be expected of them. Truth be told, she was elated with her squadron’s role in the upcoming offensive. It would only be Starwolf-class ships in her formation so there would be no holding back for slower, older ships. She also liked that they were being turned loose as a bit of a wildcard and not given the usual role of escorting the lumbering heavies down the well, a mission that basically made them targets.

  Celesta pulled her tile over to her and, with an eye to the rest of the briefing, she began to sketch out how she wanted to array her ships. There were only so many strategies you could employ with three destroyers, but each also carried a complement of ten Jacobson drones that could be used to create a little more confusion. The Jacobsons were the most advanced unmanned spacecraft the Starwolf-class destroyer could carry. They could be loaded with mission-specific modules to tailor it to the role it was being asked to perform. While she was messing with different deployment strategies she also pulled up the mission module loadout they carried and began going through that. Depending on how long Admiral Wilton expected them to fly through the system alone kicking up dust there were some interesting things she could do that would likely confuse the hell out of the Darshik commanders. It would at least be something they hadn’t seen from Terran ships before.