“OK sweetheart...”
■ ■ ■
Dressed in loose workout clothes and his favorite Cubs baseball cap, Jack Steele jogged up the corridor towards the bridge, water bottle in hand. Though for all intents and purposes it was about four in the morning by his standards, it meant nothing to a ship in space that saw no night and no day. The corridors were much as they'd be any other time of the day and he passed members of his crew going about their duties. The Marine standing at the door of the bridge did a literal double-take, then nodded casually as Steele jogged passed him. Good, thought Jack, they had taken his advice to heart, no more saluting. He rounded the corner in the bridge and passed quickly into his ready room, jinking around his desk and dropping into his chair. His fingers danced across the keyboard, the keys chirping as he called up the comm system and entered his password. He waited, taking a drink from his water bottle as the screen winked, shifting from the UFW logo to the incoming video signal. “What can I do for you Admira... Lisa? Hi, how are...”
She was waving her hands to get him to stop talking, the delay stuttering the video, “Jack we're in trouble...”
He leaned in, “What kind of trouble? And who is we?”
Nina leaned into the video camera's frame, “Hi, Jack.”
It wasn't so much that he suddenly realized Nina knew more than she should, but the fact that he realized he was looking at the back wall of the safe room in his house. “Hi Nina - OK, what happened Lisa? What's going on?”
“Phil Cooper sent us a cell phone, said we were being watched...”
“He sent you a cell phone?”
“Yeah, a pizza man delivered it with a note and he called me on it later. When he told me we were being watched and I asked him who it was, he said something about think men in black and told us to stay home for a few days. I'm not sure what he meant...”
“Well if he's referring to who I think he's referring to, he's talking about the NSA,” he slid his ball cap back and rubbed his forehead, “they may be tracking your signal - we need to get off the comm...”
“Wait a minute,” she countered, “it was the FBI and the CIA looking for you, how or why would the NSA get involved?”
“The NSA is an informational watchdog Lisa,” he took a sip of water, “who is directly connected to DARPA...”
Lisa waved her hand at the video camera, “Wait, what is DARPA?”
“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Pretty much every electronic communication on the planet is examined by them via the NSA. Probably even things like the SETI research signals. That's why we need to get off...”
“Wait! We're passed that already,” she interjected, “someone tried to grab us tonight, but they were Russian, there were five of them...”
“Holy shit...” he groaned, his mind jumping to Maria's family clusterfuck. “Are you sure about them being Russian?”
“I'm chipped, remember? she reminded him, pointing at her ear. I understood every word they said.” She paused for a second, “And I killed one...”
Jack sat bolt upright, “You're shitting me!”
“No. We were trying to get into the safe room,” her eyes were teary, but it looked more like anger to Jack than grief. “I shot him in the face Jack... it was disgusting... but we were able to get into the safe room. The Russian guys disappeared and these guys in black came in and cleaned everything up, we watched them on the security cameras...”
Nina cut in, “Should we be saying this, what if they hear us, they'll know we're talking about them...”
Jack shook his head, “They might be able to see the signal, but they won't be able to decrypt it. Are you OK?”
“I'm OK... We're fine for the moment. But we've got no place to go, Jack. They took the secure cell Phil sent us, our cell phones, our IDs and our credit cards. They bugged the house and probably the phones...”
“Probably...” Jack's mind was racing, his fingers steepled.
“I think they just want us to get to you,” she added.
Nina cut in again, “Who did you piss off Jack, like, everyone on the planet? And how fast can you get your ass here and get us out of this mess?”
“I can't, I'm eight weeks out...”
“Eight weeks? What are you, out in space or something...?”
Jack knew she was just fishing for more information but this was not the time. Thankfully, Lisa pushed her aside. “What do we do, Jack?”
“You have company...” he pointed.
“What? Like have people over?”
“No,” he pointed again, “the security monitor behind you, you have company...” The corner of the flat screen that Jack could see showed dark SUVs pulling up out front of the house in the dark.
Lisa looked panic-stricken, “Oh my God, they're coming back... what do we do?”
“Stay calm,” he urged, “turn off all the lights, cover yourselves with the thermal blankets. Turn off the comm-tablet, the security cameras and the laptop, then unplug them. Stay quiet. I'll call you back in exactly four hours. Do it now.” He punched the button on the keyboard to end the communication feed. He pushed away from his desk and keyed his mic, “Ms. Stacell, please see if the Admiral is available.”
Jack was standing and staring at the holo-chart in his ready room. Any way he looked at it, there was a minimum of seven weeks between the Freedom and Earth in the Terran system. The comm pinged and the Admiral appeared on the large screen behind him, he looked like he'd been woken up too. “What can I do for you Mr. Steele?”
“Ah geez, Admiral, I'm sorry to have gotten you out of bed...”
“Looks like I'm not the only one...” the Admiral sipped some tea, “so as long as we're both here, tell me what's on your mind.”
Jack took a deep breath, “My family's in trouble,” he lifted his ball cap and scratched his head, pulling it back on, “actually it's my sister. There are some people back home that seem to be going through some pretty great lengths to get to me... they don't know I'm not accessible.”
“I see...” he sipped his tea again. “We're eight weeks from Terra, you know that right?”
“Yes sir, I was hoping if there was another ship in the vicinity...”
“That would be highly irregular.”
“I'm sure it is sir. But I, like you, have made a habit of coloring outside the lines, if you get my meaning...”
The Admiral nodded, “I do,” he smiled, looking down at his tea for a moment. He turned away from the screen, “Ms. Claire, see if we have anything near the Terran System, please...” he turned back to the screen, “Jack, I'll have Ms. Claire let you know what we find, I'm going back to sleep.”
“Thank you sir, I appreciate it.”
“I'm not doing it solely for you, Mr. Steele,” replied the Admiral, “I need you committed to our mission - without distractions. This task force can ill afford to have a key member suffering a major morale issue...” He sipped his tea, “You may need to save your family, but we need to save a planet...”
“A planet..?”
“Later.” The screen winked out, returning to the outside view of passing stars.
Steele glanced over his shoulder at the holo-chart as he walked out of his ready room onto the bridge, adjusting his ball cap. “Ms. Stacell, I'm expecting some information from Ms. Claire on the Archer, please let me know as soon as she calls...”
“Will do Captain.”
■ ■ ■
Steele knew better than to even try to go back to sleep, his mind would never let him. It would be best to just assume the day had begun. Shower, eat, read reports - anything while waiting for the information from the Archer.
Having finished serving dinner, the galley was just putting out breakfast for the shift that would be coming on duty. Showered, shaved and in a fresh uniform, Jack sat quietly with Fritz at a corner table in a mostly empty mess hall, eating something that resembled an omelet and paging through reports on his e-Pad. One of the servers brought Fritz a healthy sized pla
te of leftover meatloaf with a rice and vegetable mix which he happily consumed.
“Bridge to Captain Steele...”
Jack activated his earpiece, “Steele.”
“Incoming from the Archer.”
“To my earpiece, please...” Ensign Stacell acknowledged and he heard a short tweet in his ear.
“Captain Steele, this is Ensign Claire...”
“Good morning Ms. Claire.”
“Good morning, sir. We only have one vessel near the Terran System, about forty eight hours away. It is the UFW77, a Corvette class ship and Lieutenant Commander Ribundell is the skipper...” She read him a security code so he could contact the UFW77 directly. “The Lieutenant Commander has been informed that this is approved by the Admiral. We will leave it up to you to work out the details with Commander Ribundell... We trust you will be tactful, Captain, this is highly irregular.”
Jack smiled to himself; someone seemed to have mentioned that to him earlier. “Thank you Ms. Claire, I will.”
“Talking to your girlfriend...?”
Jack looked over his shoulder and Fritz thumped his tail happily on the floor. “Sshhh, don't tell my wife,” he kidded, “she's very jealous.”
“I am not,” smiled Alité, her eyes a smoldering golden brown. “Everything OK?”
Jack rose and slipped his hand around her waist. “Lisa's in trouble. Someone tried to scoop her up last night and she fought her way out of it, very bad people. But there's a government agency looking for her too - I think ultimately they want her, to get to me.”
Her brow furrowed, looking up at him, “What are you going to do?”
“There's a UFW ship in the area, I'm going to try to arrange a pickup.” He lifted the e-Pad up off the table and they walked toward the mess hall doorway as crew members started filtering in. “I have to comm with the ship's commander, then I need to get a hold of Lisa and fill her in on the details. She's hiding in the safe room. They have her trapped but they don't know where she is... yet.” He checked his watch, “I gotta run Princess...”
“Wait,” she kissed him unabashedly, full on the lips. “I love you...”
He smiled, “Love you too,” he leaned in close whispering, “even though you're such an evil woman...” She grinned, blushing, her eyes changing hue to deep reddish brown.
■ ■ ■
Steele stared at the UFW77 home screen on the comm waiting for an answer. A little box popped up that said comm acknowledged, please stand by. He checked his watch, he needed to call Lisa back in less than thirty minutes. Hurry up... He watched another minute tick away, then another.
The comm chimed as the screen flicked to a live video. The face of a UFW officer appeared, an attractive young woman of about thirty, with smooth, short, raven black hair framing her face. Her shining black eyes blinked at him. “This is the 77...”
“Hello, I need to speak with Lieutenant Commander Ribundell, I am...”
“Captain Jack Steele,” she said, finishing his sentence. “And I am Commander Renae Ribundell.”
“Oh...” he wasn't expecting that.
Even though he masked it well, she caught the brief flash of surprise cross his face. “They didn't tell you I was a woman,” she smirked.
Jack smiled crookedly. “No they didn't.”
“Does it matter to you...?”
He shook his head, “Absolutely not.”
“Good. I understand you have family in need of extraction from your home planet..? That's highly irregular - for us to get involved, I mean.”
Jack nodded, “Somebody did mention that, yes...”
“So tell me what's going on Captain, I know we're going to Terra in the Terran system, but that's all I know... We are currently in route, best speed. We should hit orbit around Terra in forty-two hours.”
“That's better than I had expected...”
Commander Ribundell nodded, “The 77 is a fast ship. Our disadvantage is that we have a very small bay and our shuttles are not suited for this assignment. We will need to take the 77 down to the surface, so I hope there is something we can use as a landing zone...”
Jack started typing in the Longitude and Latitude of his house on the coast, “These are the global coordinates; the location is along a wide beach on the coast so landing should not be an issue. But the area is crowded with residences so the best time will be at night.” He continued typing, “And this is the security code for my sister's comm unit...”
“What's the situation there?”
Jack took a deep breath, “It's complicated, Commander. It's not really about my family; it's about me, about how I got out here and the circumstances surrounding the whole event.” He ran his fingers through his hair, “There are people there who want me and seem to be willing to use my family to get to me... they don't know I'm out here...”
“So there may be some hostiles...”
“It's possible, though they might actually be government agents.”
“Understood,” she replied, “we will of course do our best to avoid any conflict. But I will not hesitate to protect my people or my ship if we are challenged - that includes protecting members of your family.”
“Thank you Commander.”
“I will keep you apprised of our progress Captain,” Commander Renae Ribundell saluted, the screen winking out.
Jack checked his watch, he had three minutes left. He pulled up the security code for Lisa's comm and made it ready to broadcast. Pushing away from his desk he picked up his bottle of water and walked around to the holo-chart marking the present location of the UFW77. Fritz looked at him from the sofa, his head resting between his paws. “I really wish it was us going to pick them up,” he told the dog, whose tail wagged ever so slightly. Jack checked his watch, thirty seconds left.
Standing in front of the comm unit he hit the broadcast key, then paced, waiting for a signal connection. C'mon, c'mon... answer... He sipped his water nervously as he watched the connection timer hit two minutes. The floor rumbled as two Cyclone fighters were launched on patrol. That meant there would be patrol reports coming in from the returning flights. He picked his e-Pad off the holo-chart table and pulled up the notes paging through them, keeping an eye on the comm. On one of the reports he noticed a reference to an uncharted asteroid field that appeared so dense, it was unexplorable. The flight had requested a navigation buoy be placed for caution and Jack forwarded that one to the Admiral, he would know how to deal with it. At just over six minutes on the counter, the chime pinged on the comm, initiating a video. Steele swung around the desk and dropped into his chair just in time to see the video frame appear. The highly disrupted video was green and black, the comm-tablet's camera switching to night video settings. “Lisa, finally! You had me worried... what's with the darkness, the picture is horrible...”
“I don't know what's going on Jack,” she whispered, “I'm really scared, it's like all the power's been cut or something...”
“Is it really hot, or do you still have AC?”
“No we still have air. But the computers are dead, the security camera system is down and the lights are out...” her eyes glowed bright green in the comm-tablet's night vision video. “So I don't even know if they're still here or not...”
“You did remember to plug everything back in, right...?”
Her look of disdain was evident, “I'm not a fucking idiot...”
He smirked. “OK don't panic, do your flashlights work OK?”
She clicked one on, “Yes.”
“OK good. On your left, there is a metal breaker panel door, open it.”
“OK.”
“Flip the red ones marked BB, that'll put you on the battery backup system. Watch the gauges they'll tell you when it's charging, when it's pulling power and how much charge you have.”
“They're all at the top in the green.”
“Good that means they're full and you're charging too, what time is it?”
“Nine-fifteen in the morning.”
“OK, as long as it's a nice day outside you've got pretty much unlimited power for the room; just watch your consumption at night. With a little power conservation, the batteries can hold you for about forty-eight hours, without charging.”
Lisa turned on the security system computer, its monitor and a light, the comm-tablet's video camera adjusting to color, flicking on Jack's screen. “That's better,” he prompted. “Now, as you know, I can't get to you...”
“Yeah, and...”
“And I've made arrangements for someone to get you out of there.”
“Who'd you call?”
“Mom and dad.”
“Really?” her head snapped around to look at the comm screen.
“No dumbass,” he chided, “it's not like I have a phone and can call them from out here...”
Nina's face appeared on the screen, popping in from the side, “and just where is out here, Jack?”
Lisa pushed her out of the way, “Stop it. Who's coming Jack...?” She was pretty certain she knew the answer to the question.
“There's a ship coming to pick you up. I don't see that we have any other options.”
Lisa's stomach flip-flopped, “Oh God...”
“They'll be there within about forty eight hours, but they'll wait and come in at night. They have your comm number and will contact you when it's time.”
“Oh God...” Lisa felt flushed.
“But I thought you liked it out here, thought it was cool,” queried Jack.
“Well yeah... but I wanted to decide for myself.”
Nina's face appeared on the screen, popping in from the side again, “OK, please tell me where out here is...” There were tears in her eyes and she looked scared.
Jack sighed, there was no easy way to say it, “In space...” he wasn't sure if she'd believe him or not.
There was silence and Nina didn't move or speak, her eyes making that deer in the headlights look. She pointed at the ceiling. “Out there, out there...?”
Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) Page 10
