by Ivan Kal
“Could we find another solution maybe? Sometime in the future? Olympus had always dealt fairly with us, none of you showed me any proof that they plan on changing that.” President Von Holt said.
“It doesn’t matter, they are dealing fairly with us yes, but they keep all the power. Each year they are gaining more and more of a technological edge on us. If they shared their technology we could have brought an end to most of our problems, overpopulation, hunger, disease.” Minister of Defense Ross said.
“Tomas Klein offered to use their technology for us.” President said.
“Yes, but with Olympus in charge, they want to keep all the control, we wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near their technology, and in the end they would be seen as the saviors by the people.” Minister of Economy Turner said.
“Mr. President it is our belief that he wants to control the entire world, every move he made since even before Olympus was created suggests that, as his final goal.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitkovic said.
“Well if that is the case, why are we not under Olympus rule?” President asked.
“We don’t know sir. But the truth is that we are even now in his power, and we can’t afford not to act. If we are to regain our self-sufficiency we must do this now.” Admiral Weiss said.
“Are you 100% sure that your plan will work as you presented?” President asked.
“Yes sir. Olympus has no assets to prevent it, and if everything goes according to plan, we will come out as heroes. Even if they suspect something they won’t be able to act, public opinion will be on our side, we have news stories ready to go live.” Admiral Weiss said confidently.
“It’s the “if everything goes according to plan” part that has me worried.” President said, he looked across the room at the council representatives. “Are you all in agreement? Are we going through with this?” He asked.
The three looked at each other and then each said a clear “Yes.”
President Lucas Von Holt took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“Very well then.” He opened his eyes and looked at the people around him. “Put your plan into action, and hope to god that it works, because if you fail that will be the end of Concordis.”
***
Seven days later
Captain Reginald Smith sat in the command chair aboard the bridge of Concordis military vessel Bismarck, the bridge was almost an exact copy of a navy carrier bridge, with a few stations removed and a few added, a bit larger perhaps, and of course without any windows, there was a big screen mounted inside the front wall, it could show the images from the outside of the ship, the ship had some of the more advanced optical cameras and telescopes created. The Bismarck was the first of her kind, a herald of a new age, the age of spaceflight. Captain Smith had been serving or commanded a naval vessel for the most of his life, and when plans for the Bismarck came, he was on the very short list of its potential captains. She and her two sister ships were ugly ships by any criteria, but then, they didn’t need to be pretty. They were there to protect Concordis interests in space. The weaponry of the ship was crude by some standards and yet in a way sophisticated. There were many ideas about weapons in space, but with no experience they had decided on a more proven concepts. Rocket propelled missiles where a simple solution, they were guided and each had 50 kilotons of explosive. They weren’t the biggest they could make but the brass decided that it was enough. Their range was just around 150.000 km at their max effective range. Those who served aboard them had taken to calling the ship a missile boat, which they were in a way. They handled like pigs, and looked like uneven grey boxes. There were many antennae on the hull, sensors, communication relays and such, though those were concentrated on the bottom of the ship towards the end and their drives were improvement on those that were used almost a century ago to get a man on the moon.
Captain Smith looked around the bridge, he was familiar with many of the crew, and was quickly becoming acquainted with the rest. They were all good men and women, loyal to their country, which was the reason why they got this assignment.
The Bismarck’s mission was complicated, and also top secret, they were to dock with Olympus Cloud station, then two squads of marines, dressed in such a way as to not appear to be from Concordis, would board the station, Captain Smith didn’t know their part of the mission, but he was assured that there would be no casualties. The Cloud station only had a handful of security officers, there had never been any need for more, and he was assured that they would surrender rather than risk injury to the civilian population of the station. The Bismarck was to play a part of a vessel hijacked by a dissident group. After docking they would transmit demands to Olympus, and stall until the marines finished their mission. The Bismarck’s two sister ships are even now following behind them, on orders to keep their distance, when Bismarck docks with the station, the Dauntless and the Viking would come into range and offer their help to Olympus, the Bismarck, after the marines accomplished their mission, would surrender into Concordis custody, the treat of two Concordis ships changing their mind. It was devised in such a way to fool the public eye, and they already had the dissidents that they plan to frame in custody. Captain Smith wasn’t 100% comfortable with the mission, but he was a soldier, and he followed orders. He knew that their mission objective was something important to the survival of Concordis.
Lieutenant Kraus turned in his seat at the communications station towards the Captain who watched a display in front of his chair, display showed the Bismarck’s current course, speed and a number of other important stats.
“We are being contacted by the Station Captain.” Lt. Kraus said.
“Follow the plan, ignore them.” Captain said.
The Captain then turned back to his display, trying to imagine what was going through the minds of those on the station. His first officer, Commander Olga Pavlov interrupted him by leaning over from her chair beside him.
“Are we sure that they have no defensive capabilities.” She whispered as to not be heard by the rest of the bridge. Captain Smith scowled at her for such blatant distrust of their superiors, but managed to subdue the impulse to scold her in presence of those serving under them, and this was their first real mission in space, and he understood that she like probably everyone on board were a bit afraid.
“The intel is solid Commander, our ambassadors to Olympus have been living on the station for years and they didn’t notice anything that looked like a weapon system, nor did our spies find anything that suggests that they have defensive capabilities.” Captain Smith said in a whisper.
Commander Pavlov nodded her head and leaned back in her chair, looking at the displays in front of her chair.
“Contacts from Viking and Dauntless.” Lt. Kraus said.
“Ignore them, just as planned.” Captain said.
It was a delicate dance they were playing, their ship must appear as if it was taken over, and the two other ships in pursuit, they were a long way behind them, Bismarck was given two hours before the other ships were sent into pursuit. And in a few minutes Bismarck will dock with the station, and proceed with their mission. Captain Smith had no doubt that Olympus had contacted Concordis government demanding an explanation, and hopefully they were already told that the ship was hijacked and that it would be best for them to abide by our demands until the two other Concordis ships arrive. A moment later Captain saw the ships that were either docked or in the vicinity of the station getting away from the station. They learned that this is a rebel vessel now, and are removing their ships from their path, good. Captain Smith thought, with no other ships in the vicinity there will be almost no chance for someone to try and be a hero, though in truth there wasn’t much they could do, their ships were not warships.
Captain instructed his first officer to turn on the front screen to the view outside, and he watched as his ship approached the docking point of the station, his fingernails biting into the chairs armrest.
***
M
ajor Denis Taylor did not look forward to his mission, but he was soldier and he followed orders, just like his team. They were currently sitting inside the Bismarck’s cargo bay, and were waiting for the go signal to enter the station, and begin their mission. The mission was highly classified, they were here for the data that was stored on one of the servers on the station. Taylor didn’t know what the data was nor did he care, he was here to do a job, he didn’t need to know everything. His squad mate opened a comm channel and informed him that the Captain had relayed their demands and instructions to the people on the station. Hopefully the security wouldn’t try to play soldiers and get themselves killed. Major looked up as he got the go ahead from the ships communication officer. The go ahead also meant that their communications countermeasures were deployed. Concordis might not be on the same level technologically as Olympus, but they still had some tricks under their sleeves, the plan was to deploy a comm dampening device built into the ship as soon as they docked, it had only a short range but enough to cut off the station from the other Olympus facilities. It only stopped radio waves, but seeing as the Earth was in the way of other Olympus stations, they wouldn’t be able to establish contact with laser comms. He got to his feet and took team through the corridor and into the station. His team was split into two squads, each with a different goal, the team that Major Taylor led was to secure and attain the server, while the other one had a delivery to the engineering. He did not like that part of the mission, but he understood the necessity for it. The team split immediately after entering the station, they already knew the layout. Taylor’s team managed to run through two decks without encountering anyone. Taylor thought that the Olympus personnel listened to the Captains demands, but as they got to the deck containing the servers, they encountered resistance.
One of his team went down, struck by a bullet in the chest, another grabbed him as he fell and dragged him back behind the wall. As Taylor crouched down, he noticed that the man was still alive, and that there was no blood on him. He looked closely and noticed the impression the bullet made as it struck him, but it didn’t penetrate the armor.
“Looks like the rumors are true, they got some kind of stun ammo. Don’t let them hit you. Morris, throw a few gas bombs in there.” Taylor said.
Morris moved into position and threw two canisters of sleep gas, their armor had air breathers installed, while the security personnel had only light armor. Immediately after they started hearing coughing. The intel said that there were only six security officers on board the station. There were more in the early days of the station, but as there was no need for them, the number was reduced to a handful. So there couldn’t be more than six of them inside, and probably less, if they split so that they could try and stop both teams. The Cloud station’s population was also reduced from what it was before. As Olympus transferred its interests to the moon, people moved from the station. There was supposed to be barely three hundred people on it now. The security personnel of Olympus were good, he would give them that, but they were not prepared for this kind of assault.
A few moments later the coughing stopped, and Taylor moved his team inside, they found three security officers on the ground, the gas was not lethal, but they would awake with a killer headache. They won’t be waking up at all, Taylor corrected himself. He moved deeper inside the room, where the Olympus servers were located. He motioned for Hughes, their computer expert to get on the job of disconnecting the server core.
“Taylor to Novak, report.” Taylor called the other team leader.
“Light resistance, package in place.” Novak responded.
“Good, secure the perimeter, meet us at the ship in an hour.” Taylor said.
Hughes kept working on isolating the server and separating it. Olympus software was high grade, and as such they didn’t have the time to try and crack it, so they would be bringing the core with them. Taylor told his team to secure the area, and informed the Captain that everything was going according to plan.
Chapter Twenty
Tomas looked up from his desk, as Laura barged into his office.
“There is a Concordis warship heading straight for Cloud station.” Laura said.
“What?” Tomas asked. “Could it be heading somewhere else?”
“No, it going straight for Cloud. It’s not responding to any of our attempts at communication.”
“Did you contact Concordis?”
“Yes, they are blocking me.” She said angrily.
Tomas sent the request for Elias, Seo-yun and Nadia over his implant to come to the office immediately. They all had offices here at the Moon base. He told Laura and she sat down on one of the couches in the office. He got on the comms with Concordis ambassador immediately after sending the request. A minute later, the others arrived, while Tomas was speaking with the Concordis ambassador.
“What do you mean hijacked!” Tomas yelled at the image suspended in the air above his desk.
“The dissidents had resources, and we suspect that it was an inside job. We have already sent our two other ships in pursuit, if you could inform your people on the station to go with the dissidents demands and buy us time for our other ships to arrive, we can resolve the situation.” Ambassador said, in a manner that telegraphed to Tomas that it was rehearsed. Tomas didn’t bother to answer him and just closed the connection.
“You heard?” He asked the room.
Elias put his hand up, and was nodding in a way he always did when he was talking with someone via his implant. Two minutes later he closed his eyes and then opened them and looked right at Tomas.
“They are lying.” Elias said.
“I know that! I just don’t know about what!” Tomas yelled frustrated.
“I got in contact with my people on the Concordis station. The ship Concordis claims is hijacked, was boarded by its original crew in secret. There are no dissidents on that ship.” Elias said.
“What the hell are they up to?” Tomas asked.
“Do your people know the reason behind this?” Laura asked.
“No, but they did say that there was an arrest made a few days ago, a dissident cell, that was kept secret.”
“What do they think they could get from this? They must be after our technology, but I have no idea how they plan to get away with this, we know that there are no rebels on that ship.” Nadia asked.
Tomas grimaced. “No we don’t.” He said sourly.
“What do you mean, we don’t know?” Seo-yun asked incredulously.
“If we know, then that means we have spies in their ranks, and if we have spies in their ranks that means that they will have grounds against us. They played this perfectly, if we say we know, they tell the world we have been spying on them, if we do nothing they will save us and be regarded as heroes, not to mention what they will recover from the station.” Tomas said bitingly.
“They know that Cloud station has no technology that they ca-”
“Damn!” Tomas interrupted Seo-yun. “Yes there is technology, the servers, they hold all of our files on our tech, including those on the alien ship and everything we translated from it. There is no technology on the station worth recovering, but they will get everything from the files, it will only be a matter of time until they manage to make sense of the tech.”
Seo-yun’s eyes widened. “We can’t allow them to get that. This just proves that you were right. They are not ready for that.” She said.
“I don’t see what we can do to stop them.” Elias said slowly.
“Where is our closest warship?” Tomas asked Laura.
“It’s on a patrol between Mars and the belt.” She said. “It would take it at least a week at full burn to get here.”
“Wait, isn’t there a ship docked here?” Elias asked.
Laura’s expression turned surprised for a moment, but she quickly hid it behind her professional mask.
“It’s undergoing upgrades, we were putting in the new FTL comms, and the crew is on leave, the Ship Maste
r and other officers are visiting their families on Mars.” She said.
“But it has crew?” Tomas asked.
“The ship is crewed with those that passed from the Academy, we gave them some time to get acquainted with the ship, before more experienced officers returned. They are kids Tomas.” Laura said.
“You told me that some of those kids where even better that the officer we had in command.” Tomas said.
“In simulations yes, they have no experience in real situations.” Laura said weakly.
“Who did you put in command?” Tomas asked with a hard look in his eyes.
“Adrian.” She responded, closing her eyes.
Tomas’s eyes softened when he heard and recognized the name.
“I know that you care about the boy Laura, but I need Laura the Fleets Master now, not Laura the mother. Can he command that ship?” Tomas asked, Laura had told him that she felt as if Adrian was her son. And that she hoped to recognize him as such in time, if he was willing.
“Yes.” She said softly.
Tomas moved around his desk and hugged Laura. He moved his head back and looked in her eyes.
“You once told me that he had the potential to become something great. Trust in him now.” He said.
Laura nodded, and swiped her hand across her eyes, a moment later she regained her composure.
“Alright. What are your orders?” She asked.
“I want them to get there as fast as they can, that ship can’t be allowed to go back with our files.” Tomas said. Then he turned to Elias. “Tell our people on station to try and stall them but not to endanger their lives.”
Elias nodded and closed his eyes, sending orders through the implant to be relayed to the station. Laura walked to Tomas’s desk and started giving orders to the people working on upgrading the ship, to stop their work and then she opened the channel to Athena and her commanding officer.
