Warpath

by Randolph Lalonde

  “The mattress in there is more like a torture device, but yeah, I was out like a light,” Jake replied. “We have a meeting. Did you sleep?”

  “Better than I have in months,” Ayan replied, pulling at the collar of her form-fitted engineering blue uniform. “I busted myself down to the rank of Captain and put myself in the position of Fleet Engineer, with my father’s blessing. He’s taking over everything I was slated to do as Commodore with his staff tomorrow.”

  “That’s giving up a lot,” Jake said. “I know you really enjoyed working on the ship redesign with me last night, but are you sure you want to get clear of everything associated with Tamber?”

  “I’ve never been so sure,” Ayan said. “I’ll have to spend time on different ships though, I can’t just remain aboard one all the time, but I know this is something I want to do. Overseeing the condition of Triton Fleet and helping all the Chiefs keep their ships in shape is really exciting. I honestly think this is where I can do the most good. You don’t seem very happy for me.”

  “Oh, no, I am, I’m really happy, it sounds perfect, and I know everyone wants you in that position. It just hurts to walk,” he replied.

  “Good thing the War Room is only three frames back from here,” Ayan said with a chuckle.

  Jake noticed that Ayan’s command and control unit flashed and nodded at it, “What’s that all about?” his flashed red then, and he looked at it. PRIORITY LEVEL RED was written over the meeting he was already trudging towards on his morning schedule. “Okay, something’s up.”

  “That’s an alert from the British,” Ayan said. “There’s no other information.”

  The pair hurried down the busy corridor, work on the ship was beginning under Frost’s command already. There wasn’t much damage where they were, in the upper decks of the aft section, so that was the area they were finishing first.

  Several skitters carrying sealed replacement circuits and extra tools that didn’t fit under their little silver domes rushed by along the wall. Triton technicians, trained on Sol Defence technology lagged behind with a cart carrying several EMP hardened oval computer nodes, a welcome reminder that every computer aboard the Blessed Mission was being replaced. The Triton sacrificed its entire store of spare parts so the Blessed Mission could get a head start, but the computer nodes would be replenished soon thanks to the secondary fabrication line on the Solar Forge.

  They entered the War Room, which had a simple, thick round hatch with a Triton Fleet guard standing to each side. “The locking systems in this section of the ship are not functioning, Sir,” said one of them.

  “All right, if anyone else wants in, signal me first and I’ll tell you if they’re cleared. Other than that, no one gets through that door,” Jake said.

  “Yes, Sir,” replied the guard in heavy black armour.

  The war room was far more well furnished than Jake expected. The ten swivel seats at the long table were heavily padded, and two short sofas at the rear were deep and plush. He dared not sit down on either of those, at least not while important things were happening. Holograms of Governor Anderson and Oz were already standing at one end of the table. Ayan took a seat at the other, while Jake sat down beside her with a sigh of relief.

  “He’s a little sore today,” Ayan explained.

  “The price we pay,” Oz said. “Welcome to the human race.”

  “A sign of old age, Jake,” Admiral Anderson said. “Maybe it’s time for you to lock your clock, stop aging while you’re in your prime.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Jake said. “But this has nothing to do with age, just muscles doing what they’re not used to yet. So, why are we at red level?”

  “Admiral Charon elevated the urgency of the mission,” Governor Anderson said. “I’m putting her through our encrypted channel now.”

  “Good morning, ladies, gentleman,” Admiral Charon said from where her hologram appeared to the left of the table. All the holograms looked perfectly real, and the sound was projected from each person’s perceived location. It looked like all the attendees sat down with Jake and Ayan. “I understand you have some business to get through before we share our intelligence, thank you for letting me sit in,” she said.

  “I’m surprised you’re interested,” Jake replied as he projected his notes from his command and control unit to the table top.

  “Unlike the previous Officer in charge of maintaining ties with your people, I have a real interest. I believe Triton Fleet is a legitimate entity here, and can have a significant impact on the sector, given the right support. Now, please, go ahead.”

  “Oz?” Jake said, motioning for his friend to begin.

  “There are three major missions running from the Triton’s flight deck right now. First, we are sending repair crews to the Norridge, Gambit’s Pledge and the Fallen Star. Second, we are assisting the Rangers with rescue operations near Kambis. Several ships were caught in the flash when the planet was attacked. We estimate that there are over three hundred small ships and escape pods in or near Kambis orbit. Thirdly and lastly, our squadrons are coordinating with the British Alliance in maintaining a patrol. Minh-Chu would be here, but he is leading the first patrol with Samurai Squadron. Other than some light repairs on the Triton which will wrap up this afternoon, and our continual scanning of the area for more survivors, there’s nothing worth reporting.”

  Governor Anderson stood and began his report. “The Rangers are doing everything they can on the surface of Tamber to rescue people in remote areas that still have no power, but we could use some assistance from the British Alliance. With the removal of Kambis from our supply trade network, we will have to look further for our supplies and step up our own production. Three manufacturing grade fabricators are in need of parts, we might be able to keep them going for another two days, but after that we’ll be down to one materializing fabricator. I have people in Haven Shore who are native to this sector trying to contact potential suppliers from nearby solar systems so we can get trade going quickly, but we don’t have the ships we need to transport the amount of supplies we’ll need.”

  “I may have some contacts for you,” Jake said. “And I know of three shipping companies that are against the Order of Eden. They’re small, but they take trade as payment, and they can be trusted.”

  “Thank you, I’ll take you up on that,” Governor Anderson said. “Food is not going to be a problem for Haven Shore and our military bases, our third growing tower just finished delivering its first crop, but the rest of Tamber is going to start running out in a week or less. Warlords and gang bosses, the people who have taken control of most of the cities on Tamber, don’t keep a large stockpile, and most of them were trading with or stealing from Kambis. We’re in for a rough time unless trade is made top priority after defence,” Governor Anderson took a moment to look at another document and continued. “If we manage to grow and import enough supplies, we may be able to take people in as high crime areas run out of food. If not, those areas will only get much worse.”

  “Haven Shore, our military bases, and the equipment we have are running well, but I’m putting a hold on recruiting for now. It comes back to maintaining our stockpile of food. We have a month’s worth in storage already thanks to a bumper crop in the jungle, but we can’t sacrifice our security to save people. As our stores grow, we’ll start bringing more people in.”

  “The Council was eager to hear my plans this morning, that’s my next meeting. They seemed more open to my leadership than before, so I expect relations will be good, considering I’m putting their people first. With regards to leadership, my daughter, Ayan has stepped down from her rank as Commodore, and fully dedicated herself to the maintenance and progress of Triton Fleet, as the new Fleet Engineer. There are other details to operations on Tamber, but those are the highlights. I’m submitting a report compiled by my staff detailing everything else this week. Your turn, Jake, I hear the Blessed Mission is a busy ship today.”

  Jake was not looking forward t
o his part in the meeting. He decided to get the grim news out of the way first. “At oh-three-hundred hours last night, we received an emergency signal from the Fallen Star, a Freeground research ship delivered to us from former allies to Clark Patterson, one of the Order of Eden leaders. We were the closest ship in the area, so we dispatched the Clever Dream for a closer look. Emergency boarding teams discovered that the ship had been damaged in Kambis’ flash. None of the crew noticed the damage because it took place in a sealed, experimental system, which was inside the main lab’s vault. All we know at this point is that this faster than light system may have been overloaded, and it released something inside the ship that killed all organic life instantly before powering down. All but one of the issyrians who brought this ship to us were killed. We haven’t been able to determine why so many issyrians were aboard. Two of Doctor Messana’s medical team survived because they were sleeping aboard the Triton, but the rest, and the Doctor herself are all dead. A lab in which she was doing research we only found out about this morning is still sealed, and there is a faint life sign inside. It is a vault, so we can’t even tell you want kind of life it is other than it has a pulse, and a human body temperature.”

  “What kind of research was she doing, if I’m permitted to know?” asked Admiral Charon.

  “Doctor Messana was conducting research on framework technology using the first lab in which it was developed. She was trying to find a way to safely extract framework technology from any person. Her plan was to use a different regeneration technology to replace the voids left behind by the correct living tissue during the extraction.”

  “I’m sorry, Captain Valent. Your daughter has framework technology, as I understand it, this must have been important to you.”

  “I didn’t know she was pursuing that line of research,” Jake said, keeping a stiff upper lip. “But I think it will be important to us all, so I’m sending a team of my best, most experienced officers with someone who has had a great deal of experience aboard the Fallen Star to investigate this morning. They will enter as soon as the Triton’s cutting crew is finished getting through the airlock and determining that all systems are down.”

  “Please keep me in the loop,” Admiral Charon said. “The British Alliance, and British Security Forces will be very grateful for any information regarding framework systems.”

  “I will,” Jake said, taking the full meaning of her words. There was a trade to be had there. “Moving on, there isn’t much else going on with the Blessed Mission. A full examination of her systems is under way. We expect to be finished today, thanks to the Solar Forge. The refit begins tomorrow, and continues for one more day before she gets re-christened.”

  “My turn, then,” Admiral Charon said. “Recovery operations continue on the Order of Eden ships that were wrecked during the battle. We are willing to give you any ships that can be restored. We expect that you will have one destroyer and the Blessed Mission’s sister ship in your possession by the end of he week . We have captured nine enemy combatants, twenty-four enemy service men and women, and killed three Order Knights with no losses.”

  “Thank you,” Oz said. “With those ships we may really become a significant force in the area.”

  “You’re welcome, Admiral McPatrick, and the British Alliance only wants your continued cooperation in return. On to the next item, two more carrier fleets are now en-route to the Rega Gain system. They will be here soon, exactly when, and where they are coming from are details I cannot reveal. Now, on to the matter of cooperation, the British Defence Force is officially grateful to Captain Jacob Valent and his valiant crew for his sacrifice in battle, and for turning the entire contents of the computer systems of the Blessed Mission over to us for analysis. We finished decrypting all of the files twenty-eight minutes ago, and will share everything with you if you agree that the possession of this data remains secret, accessible only to trusted officers. We invite you to check the contents of the file system against the raw file tables to make sure everything is there.”

  “We will, thank you,” Ayan said.

  “Before I disclose the nature of the information we recovered, I have to relay a message from the British Alliance Central Command. They approve of our alliance, but I’ve been asked to confirm that Captain Valent’s new ship is following the same laws as the Triton.”

  Considering that his crew was about to swell past two thousand, he was a little embarrassed that it wasn’t something he’d considered. “Yes, we’re using the same ranking system, regulations and laws. We’re all one fleet,” he replied. “I thought that was obvious.”

  “I’m sorry, I just needed it on record. Central Command is having me report back on your conduct, it’s always like this with new allies. Now, on to the most important discovery of this morning. The Order of Eden have determined the location of Freeground Alpha, the central hub of Freeground Station,” Admiral Charon pressed on, delivering the information she had as quickly and as clearly as possible despite the dropped jaws and gaping eyes at the table. “We determined, without a doubt that Freeground Alpha was forced to abandon the rest of the station because they were increasingly under attack by a force who had been given an incentive to destroy Freeground by the Order of Eden. Freeground Alpha and a fleet of ships escaped through a wormhole that led them as close to the Rega Gain system as they could manage. From the data we recovered we were able to determine their approximate location, which is somewhere half way through the coreward side of the Iron Head Nebula.”

  “What can we spare to help them?” Governor Anderson asked.

  “You can spare everything but time and the Governor,” Admiral Charon said. “As I said, two more carrier groups are on their way, they will be here soon, so orbital defence will not be an issue. I need someone competent to coordinate with on the ground, however, and I submit that it should be you, Governor, even though it’s not my place to do so.”

  “She’s right,” Oz said. “I wouldn’t expect anyone to defend Haven Shore better.”

  “I was outcast by Freeground,” Governor Anderson said. “Not officially, but it’s true. As much as I want to help, I think the better choice is to send the Triton and the Barricade.”

  “No, the Barricade is a perfect heavy defence and patrol ship,” Jake said. “It’s going to take a couple days, but when we’re finished with the Blessed Mission, it’s going to be a good ship for fighting in a large nebula. It’s more manoeuvrable, and I can add hangar space under the extra armour she already has on her sides. Keep the Barricade here, those interdiction systems are useful, and worth studying. Keep training her crew, their response time was too slow yesterday for anything more intense.”

  “You have more than one good point,” Governor Anderson said. “We’ll keep it here, and by the time you get back, her crew will be ready for anything.”

  “I am sorry to bring you this news,” Admiral Charon said. “But the cooperation we’ve had in just the last two days has led us to important intelligence, open communication, and a renewed sense of purpose for everyone here. Aside from the approximate location of Freeground Alpha and the fleet, we also have recent deployment reports and ship movements from the Order of Eden. We also have confirmation that Citadel has formed an alliance with them, and that their queen bee is nearby. Our plan is to help you shore up the defence here so you can help Freeground Alpha, then to join you in fighting the Order of Eden. As a show of good faith, I’m sending two destroyers and a drone ship with you. They are under your command, Admiral McPatrick. Their only agenda is to assist you in your mission to aid Freeground Alpha. Take care of them, these ships are under the command of my best Captains.”

  “Thank you, Admiral,” Oz said, surprised.

  “Other affairs are calling me away, and I think it’s a good time for me to let you start working out the details of your next mission, so good hunting,” Admiral Charon said, ending the transmission with a salute.

  Jake’s command and control unit chirped at him with a mes
sage from Stephanie:

  DID YOU JUST FIRE FINN AND AGAMEG THEN REPLACE THEM WITH AYAN?

  He couldn’t help but snicker, drawing the attention of everyone virtually and physically at the table. “Sorry, I think there was a mix up in the new crew,” Jake said. “A couple people are out of jobs until I fix it.” He hurriedly tapped a reply.

  MAJOR MEETING. WILL FIX IT AS SOON AS I’M OUT.

  “Carl,” Oz said, addressing Governor Anderson. “How big was the population of Freeground when you were there last?”

  “Anyone who could get a pass off the station to another world that wasn’t hit hard by the Holocaust was doing it, unless they were part of the political movement in charge. Last I heard, the military was about to take charge. I’d guess that about half of the people left could fit into the Alpha ring. If people kept leaving afterwards, maybe they fit them all. I can’t be sure.”

  “The decrypted data is coming through now, starting with the Freeground Alpha package,” Ayan said as she motioned to spread the information across the table. “There’s a lot here, I think.”

  “Freeground Alpha is in hiding,” Jake said as he sifted through the Order of Eden patrol logs inside the nebula. “It’s not all here, this ship wasn’t privy to all the details, but it did run with two patrols. There have been skirmishes, but they’ve only seen Freeground Alpha inside the nebula once. The ship that saw it, the Sacred Redeemer, was destroyed shortly after sighting it by Freeground ships.”

  “The Alpha ring moved since,” Oz said, summarizing another set of log entries. “This log is only four days old, and it says they’re starting their search from scratch. Ayan, could Freeground Alpha open wormholes inside the nebula?”

  “Not far reaching ones,” Ayan said. “I’m sure they open them whenever they find large pockets of clear space inside the nebula, but from what I’m seeing, the Order is guarding as many of those pockets as they can. Without someone to clear the way, it’s going to take them years to get through.”