Lives of Future-Past (The Chronicles of Max Gunnarsson Book 1)

by S. K. Benton

  Chapter 6 – Hidden Agenda

  “We enter Sol system in approximately 8 hours, Father. From there it could take anywhere up to 24 hours more to cruise into Earth orbit."

  Ryder paused briefly before continuing, as he stared at the side space console vid screen. The last he had spoken to his father was some 18 hours prior, when he informed him of their proximity, but now that he had a more precise ETA he had initiated contact again.

  “I am retrofitting my Draeder with supplementary fuel extraction equipment and have stashed extended supplies on board. Once there I will install the side space transmitter arrays at the predefined locations and we should be good. Then I’ll find Gunnarsson’s ship and take command of it, giving us our own personal SSCC transport. As the plan goes, once I get his ship I will crash my Draeder and move to a hidden location with Gunnarsson’s craft and wait until the fleet departs back for Azul. I’ll be listed as missing in action. From there we’ll rendezvous at our base on Vela.”

  The plan went further – once his father’s scientists had successfully stolen/extracted all of the SSCC technology and could build hooks drives for a virtually derelict fleet of barges left over from the Exodus, he would take Gunnarsson’s ship back to Azul and return the hero. He would claim he had bailed out of his Draeder after being shot down by Gunnarsson, and then killed the man in hand-to-hand combat. Then, after some weeks, would have found the traitor’s ship and returned it to Azul military. Then he would be able to assist his father with the continuation of their nefarious plans.

  Councilman Johnson beamed with pride; his son was implementing a plan hatched long ago - the re-conquest of Earth. For too long he had been biding his time, surrounded by weaklings who were all too willing to live a peaceful existence. Councilman Johnson wanted power, and he was going to get it, thanks to Max Gunnarsson’s discovery of faster than light travel.

  “Son, I am pleased. Do not let me down. Maintain secure transmissions at all times, and immediately let me know Earth status once you have entered Sol system.”

  The screen went blank, and Lt. Johnson put the console back into the footlocker, pushing it back under the bed. He showered up and got ready for his duty cycle, and thought he perhaps had one more chance to get Jennie into his bed.

  In the forward section of the massive spacecraft, Rear Admiral Bagatelle stood on the bridge, overlooking the mad display of colors until it caused his eyes to ache.

  “Turn screen opaque,” he commanded. He knew they would arrive at Sol system in just a few hours, and as it was completely new to anyone from his planet, he didn’t know what to expect. He only knew the mission at hand. He had to capture or kill Maximilianus Gunnarsson, and reacquire the upstart’s vessel before anyone else did.

  Bagatelle had issues back home, and was constantly battling with the authorities over the proper course of action. His biggest headache was Councilman Len Johnson. He had long known that Councilman Johnson had coveted power. It was the man’s nature - he was always trying to lead discussions and operations on the Security Council. In fact, he even tried to take over military operations at one time, albeit in a very sideways manner. Knowing something was seriously up with Johnson’s son, who had been a last-minute placement on the Revolution, he was hoping that Lt. Escalante would at least keep an eye out on the man.

  He was very proud of her – all of her accomplishments, everything done alone and without help. She was the polar opposite of Johnson, who was born into a powerful family and had every luxury handed to him as he grew up. He was only in the military to satisfy a requirement anyway – anyone serving on the Security Council must have performed military service in a commissioned capacity.

  Jennie went about her duty schedule, but also intended to give Ryder a bit of a sideshow. Entering the flight deck, she crossed diagonally to the ops booth, weaving in-between Draeder attack fighters, which were all lined up in perfect formation. She knew that he would see her, so she walked a bit more slowly than usual, and put a tad more swing in her hips.

  Just a little, enough to be subtly sexy.

  Through the corner of her eye she saw Johnson and pretended not to see him, but she knew he was watching her. He was working on his Draeder, which was not unusual. Although this was generally the work of the myriad of techs on the flight deck area, he liked to take care of his own craft. He seemed to be quite protective of the general area around his ship, waving techs off who had offered assistance. Nevertheless, she sat down in the ops booth and started going through flight recordings to make sure that none of the Draeders had suffered equipment or system failures in the recent past.

  Moving on, she finished her work looking over the flight logs and moved on to her next duty station, which happened to be the surveillance level’s vid deck. Entering the large, expansive room full of screens, she nodded courteously to the lead tech, and then took out her list.

  “I’ll be going over footage in the editing bay. I am not to be disturbed.”

  The tech again nodded and said, “Aye-aye, Ma’am,” and obediently turned back to his duties, surveying every square inch of the ship, minus living quarters. This was helpful in certain situations, if one knew what he/she was looking for, but this was a tech, and he was just looking for normal abnormalities, such as conduit leaks or broken door sensors.

  Jennie shut the door behind her and sat down at the main screen in the editing bay, where she turned on live cams and zoomed into where Johnson was working on his craft. She wanted to get a close-up of his cute butt and then take some snaps of it and tease him later.

  She was really considering spending the night with him, although it made her nervous thinking about it. She wasn’t sure if it was the right time, as she wanted so much more with him. Zooming in on his location she saw nothing unusual - just someone being slightly anal about his attack vehicle, which made her giggle.

  “God, he’s such a perfectionist,” she thought. She knew in her heart that she could really compliment him in life and help him to reach his true potential - all he needed was a little prodding in the right direction.

  She checked some other sectors on different consoles and then went back to her zoomed view on his posterior, but this time she noticed him look around suspiciously and remove a 1 by ½ meter device out of a box and place it up into the cargo storage of his Draeder. She then saw him lift up some thick tubing and shove it up into the same cargo area.

  He’s loading up gear so he can refuel himself on Earth!

  Earth, like Azul, was full of saline oceans, and saline oceans had deuterium. Deuterium powered fusion-ion drives, as well as atmo concussion boosters, but Draeders carried enough deuterium to last two weeks at full burn. Johnson had no need for refueling gear.

  Tempted to contact Commander Bagatelle immediately, she held off and started to record Ryder’s activities, which were in direct violation of orders and protocols. She made an educated guess that he was planning to stay on Earth, but as the details of the mission were completely transparent to all officers, she had no idea where his orders came from – most certainly not Admiral Bagatelle.

  Once Ryder had stored everything he needed for his mission, he made a beeline to his quarters and again pulled out his footlocker, unlocking it and opening up the side space video console. His father’s familiar face appeared in the screen.

  “Father, we are nearly in Sol System. My ship has been adequately prepared for the extended operation. I will –”

  Councilman Johnson immediately interrupted his son. “Stop. There is a change in plans.”

  “Father?”

  “Our side space orbital probe detected Gunnarsson’s basic landing zone, and you are to go there immediately and engage him before Revolution’s recon teams can find him. Here is what you are to do.”

  He watched the screen intently as his father gave him instructions that even unnerved the jaded young lieutenant.

  Oh well, he thought. It was good while it lasted. Time for Plan B, I guess.

  Jenni
e kept scanning all displays, and going back to her view on Ryder it appeared that he had left his Draeder and the flight deck, so she stopped the recording and decided the take the ball into her own hands. She felt she knew him, and didn’t want to accuse the lieutenant of any wrongdoing, so she left her duty station and went to his quarters, where she had hoped he would he would be. She was positive that she had totally misunderstood the whole situation, and that there was a plausible explanation for everything.

  As she approached his door she was surprised to see him exiting while holding the box from underneath his bed. He was also dressed down in his flight gear, which was unnecessary, as there would be no Draeders leaving the flight deck for at least some hours.

  “Ryder – Hi… I saw you leave the flight deck and - is everything OK?”

  His face showed absolutely no surprise at all – he looked cool as a cucumber. He stared into the eyes of who could have been realistically considered his girlfriend, and simply lied through his teeth.

  “Oh heya Jennie! Yeah, I’m just super excited and want to be ready. You know, I really want to be the one to apprehend that bastard traitor. It could really put me over the top, so if you and I were to do it together we could both benefit – I mean, I think we could make a really good team, don’t you?”

  Jennie melted a bit as all of her suspicions were easily pushed aside by the manipulative lieutenant. Opening his door, he asked her into his quarters. She entered, fully expecting him to give her the details of how they were to emerge as heroes. Turning around she watched as he set his mysterious box down and took her hands into his, her heart racing due to the fortunate turn of events.

  “Jennie, I gotta tell you – being with you is really a lot of fun, and I was hoping that we could have had even more fun together, but it’s not going to happen…”

  “Huh?” she muttered, confused and shocked at his comment which he blurted out with no more passion than when someone was asking for a tomato in the mess hall line.

  “Nope. No más. Sorry.”

  The last thing she remembered was him letting go of her hands, followed by a flash. (*6*)

  Jennie woke up to the sound of alarms and the flashing of a red, rotating light in the room where she was. Her head ached and she felt a definite pain in the middle of her chest. Still dazed, she grabbed the bed frame to her side to help lift herself up, and looking around noticed that she was in Ryder’s quarters.

  Unable to think clearly, the cacophony of sounds – mixtures of alarms and alerts bells – made her head ache even more. She needed to think clearly, so she sat down on the bed.

  “Ryder – flight suit. Box in his hands. Team… no más. Oh shit,” she thought to herself as the disassociated images ran through her head, finally coalescing into rational thought.

  Ryder had stunned her and was probably the cause of the alarms, but she had no idea how bad the alarms were. She still tried to convince herself that he was simply out to be a hero, and that his nature forced him to do it on his own – but why would he stun her?

  Gathering herself up, she made for the door. She needed to see what was happening. Exiting Ryder’s quarters she saw techs running everywhere – it was absolute pandemonium, and was not typical of a drill - something bad had happened.

  Stopping a young female ensign, she demanded answers as to what had happened.

  “Ensign – report. Now! What has happened?”

  The younger woman looked at her superior officer with distraught eyes and said, “Lieutenant – where have you been? The second we dropped out of side space someone blew the airlock, and then flew out without even activating the atmosphere lock field. We’ve lost dozens of Draeders, pilots and techs… they’re floating out there - dead in space.”

  The atmosphere lock field, as the ensign called it, was an energy barrier, separating the safe atmosphere of the flight deck from the vacuum of space.

  The young woman looked at Jennie as she started to shed tears. Jennie was about to cry too, now realizing that she had been betrayed. She didn’t want to believe that Ryder had created their current disaster, but all indications led to that hypothesis. She sent the ensign on her way and went directly to the command bridge.

  Running up onto the command center she found everyone in a state of panic. Weapon fire erupted, Bagatelle was barking out commands, and on the giant display panel she saw a lone Draeder blasting away on full fusion-ion propulsion, with the Revolution desperately trying to blow it out of the sky. Further, to her horror, she saw dozens of ships, equipment and people floating dead in space, having been sucked into the void due to the lack of a lock field when the flight deck bay doors had opened.

  “Escalante, where have you been?” yelled Bagatelle, sporting a small dripping of blood from the corner of his mouth. He had been chewing on his lip again, as he usually did when he was under extreme stress. “Report!”

  Jennie was in a near state of panic, not knowing what had happened. She just stood looking at the screen with her jaw agape. Then it started to creep in. I’m responsible. She looked at her commanding officer and stuttered, not being able to form the words that she needed to say.

  “Sir, I was watching Lt. Johnson attempting to load what appeared to be some contraband equipment onto his Draeder, so I followed him when he left the flight deck. He… invited me into his cabin and then I think he stunned me, because I woke up to alarms, and this on my chest.”

  She pointed at a light burn mark on her uniform, which Bagatelle glanced at and then nodded, followed by a stern look.

  “Did you happen to record any of his activities?”

  “Yes sir. I was in the editing bay when it happened. I was watching him, as you requested, when I saw him doing something unusual.”

  She partially lied – yes she was watching him, but she was looking at his butt, and wasn’t concerned with any sort of surveillance. She knew that if she told her commanding officer what she was really doing she could be brought up on charges. She had been betrayed, used, and she was starting to get really pissed off about it. She went to the command console and brought up vids of the flight deck and zeroed into Johnson’s activities not long before.

  Bagatelle scanned through the video and closed his eyes with a look of remorse. There was nothing any of them could have done, as this had to have been timed perfectly. The escaping Draeder was identified as Johnson’s, and the lieutenant knew exactly where they were in side space. A pilot was not able to fly the Draeder of another, as each craft had a psionic connection to its designated user. Logs showed that the bay doors had been opened mere moments after hitting normal space, so, in reality, there was not a whole lot they could have done, given the circumstances.

  Bagatelle continued to give Jennie a sharp look, but then relaxed a bit, saying, “In truth, Lieutenant, I believe I was too late to the game. I should have acted sooner on my suspicions. Now we have to hunt down another fugitive, and I have a feeling I know which one is the more dangerous of the two.”

  Swinging his body around, he roared, “GET THOSE SHIPS BACK INSIDE NOW!”

  Jennie took a deep breath and dropped her shoulders, but was still immensely concerned about the current state of crisis.

  “Sir, how can I be of assistance?”

  Bagatelle looked frantically around the bridge, scanned the view screen, and then turned to the attractive lieutenant. “Jennie, I need you to put on a pressure suit and run a mag-cat with a grappler on the outside of the hull. Help to get those Draeders back onto the flight deck.”

  The lock field had been activated by a quick-thinking tech, only moments after Johnson had fled with in his Draeder, so only a couple dozen of the deadly attack craft had been lost. Unfortunately, nearly all flight deck techs on duty, and some 17 pilots lost their lives, and they most certainly were not recoverable.

  Bagatelle turned to a senior officer nearby and said, “Get a security team to the quarters of Lt. Ryder Johnson and turn that room upside-down. Find out what the Hell he was up to, a
nd see if we can get a clue as to what his intentions are.” He was starting to piece the puzzle together with a bit more clarity now.

  The recovery operation was long and arduous. As the Revolution had dropped out of side space at nearly zero velocity, it had to remain in place while crews worked to salvage whatever they could. Once they had gathered everything possible in their vicinity - eight Draeders and the bodies of some eight techs and three pilots - the Revolution made for Earth on full burn. The massive warship, although not very maneuverable, was faster in a straight line than any Draeder, so in reality they were only 30 minutes behind Johnson’s craft, even though they had spent a good two hours cleaning up the mess he made.

  Jennie finished with the cleanup effort and retired to her cabin, where, on her desk she saw a bottle of that expensive tequila and a note written on her static wallboard.

  Jennie, sorry we didn’t have a chance to get together, but we’ll meet again soon.

  Count on it.

  Ryder

  The note was not a kind goodbye letter – it was taunting and cruel. What kind of a sociopath was he? She thought he was a bit rough around the edges, but had great promise, and he just ended up being a murderer. She started to cry and beat her fists against the wall, nearly taking the tequila bottle and smashing it, but just stopping herself short of doing so. She would not be weak. She was going to save that bottle, and every time she saw it she would be reminded of his betrayal. She vowed to track Ryder Johnson down and bring him to justice.

  No. I am going to kill him.

  Lt. Johnson rounded the backside of Earth’s sole satellite, and starting preparing atmospheric re-entry vectors. While no one on the Revolution was even sure that Earth still existed, Johnson knew it did, for a fact. His father had a team of scientists working on a side space probe that auto-dropped right into Earth’s orbit some months ago. This enabled them to verify Earth’s existence and to analyze the planet quite thoroughly, all the while acting as if they were waiting on the Military Complex to make a first contact via the hook drive. It was all an elaborately planned ruse, and getting the probe to Earth was complete luck anyway. Councilman Johnson’s science teams had gleaned enough information out of military research to put together a small SSCC drive for the device - but building a massive one, able to propel a large ship through side space was on a completely different level.