Relentless: Book One of the Union Warship Saga

by Scott Mullins

  He opened a comm channel to Dax’s station on the bridge.

  “Mr. Deas, set the course and speed I am sending to your station,” the captain instructed the ensign.

  He needed a plan.

  ***

  Galloway’s quarters were sparsely decorated. An interactive schematic of the Relentless dominated one wall. With it he could keep an eye on all the ships functions. He was standing in front of it appearing to checking some items of interest. The VEGA was operating at forty three percent capacity, the gravity drive and sublight engines showed idle and the hyperdrive displayed one hundred percent. He tapped on the subspace communications array, this brought up another display and menu. He tapped on the screen a few more times and then sat down at his desk.

  On the desk was a flat, transparent screen. He tapped a few codes into the desk interface and the screen lit up with the Union logo and a message that stated sending with a row of dots that lit up and dimmed in sequence from one end to the other below the logo. As he waited he sipped his tea. After a few minutes the president appeared on the screen.

  “You have something important to tell me,” he sounded irritated?

  “Yes Mr. President. Captain Connor found the command code changes that were made to the Nacuru. It’s only a matter of time before he pieces things together. What happened to the moon base and stardock,” he asked the president?

  “An unforeseen anomaly in the wormhole device, it malfunctioned and detonated I have been told. Seems we built a base on a moon with a great deal of unstable material that contributed to the explosion amplifying it hundreds of times,” the president said to him nonchalantly. “Stay on mission and keep your head down. It won’t matter what he pieces together, it’s all about to come together and you need to be ready in case things don’t go according to plan. Remember, the details of this whole scenario can never get out and if you fail when called upon our deal is over. Make sure you don’t fail.”

  The last statement was very direct and forceful.

  The screen cut off and Galloway slumped back in his chair pondering what had transpired. Had the explosion that destroyed the moon really been an accident? It seemed to him you wouldn’t build a base on an “unstable” moon, not unless you planned on destroying it. That thought sent a chill down his spine. Was the crew evacuated he wondered? Probably not. A wave of nausea came over him as he thought of himself dying there. Then he thought of all the people he worked and lived with these last several years being snuffed out as if they didn’t matter. They didn’t, not to him, but the implications of his value and whether or not he was disposable had him alarmed. With all of them gone no one outside of the people on this ship and the president knew anything. Galloway decided he had little choice but to continue as he had been. He would do what the president wanted him to do. It was obvious he had no other choice.

  ***

  The door chimed.

  “Enter,” the captain said.

  It was Galloway. He seemed a little nervous.

  “Captain. I realize that a lot about this entire endeavor is on a need to know basis, however I would implore you to take time to stop and complete our final system tests before entering Telarian space,” Galloway pleaded to the captain.

  “As you know Mr. Galloway with the hyperdrive we are undetectable,” Captain Connor replied.

  “Yes. In hyperspace we are very safe. Perhaps we may encounter a failure in another system or a similar malfunction as we encountered before. I’m simply concerned with the hyperdrive failing in Telarian space is all,” Galloway stated expanding on his plea.

  “I understand your objections and under normal circumstances I would agree with you, however, these are extenuating circumstances and I cannot allow a delay,” the captain explained to him. “And you are correct, some things are on a need to know.”

  ***

  The Relentless exited hyperspace outside of the star system designated for rendezvous. Akema shivered. It was cold, colder than usual, and quieter. This star was alone. It was one of only a handful in the Expanse. Its nearest neighbor was tens of light years away. The star from this distance appeared brighter than it would have in the crowded confines of the Orion Arm. The lack of ambient light from nearby stars made it shine like a diamond. The planets were not visible at this distance but for the captains purpose this was close enough.

  The primary command crew was on the bridge anxious to be out of hyperspace and on task.

  “Passive scanning only Mr. Lokae. I don’t want to alert anyone to our presence if they haven’t detected us already,” the captain instructed the lieutenant. “Maintain this position Dax.”

  “You have been playing this one close to the hip. What’s the plan Scorch?” Brice asked from his chair to the right of the captain.

  “I’ll fill you in now that we are here,” the captain told him. “Let’s talk in my quarters.”

  Once in his office Connor waved his hand at the chair in front of his desk in a gesture for Brice to sit.

  “Would you like a drink?”

  “No, I’ll pass, I am on duty,” Brice answered.

  Connor poured two drinks anyway and handed one to his friend before taking his seat. Brice swirled the drink around, it was a nervous habit of his.

  “You are not going to like what I am about to tell you Jerry,” Connor started. “The Telarian we are supposed to hunt down is apparently hunting me. He has kidnapped Kara and wants me to trade myself for her. And I cant tie anything together but I believe all of these recent events are linked too. The colony, the stardock, maybe even the Nacuru. Its all too coincidental not to be part of something bigger and we are caught in the middle.”

  “So why the secrecy. Two weeks in hyperspace with no hint of what we are doing. Have you been planning the extraction op all this time?” Brice asked thinking maybe that was the reason for the secrecy.

  “No op my friend. I’m going to jump my Raptor to the planet, land, program the autopilot, make sure Kara gets away, then surrender myself to him and you are going to take the Relentless and get out of here,” the captain told him.

  “The hell I am,” Brice started his protest. “I will not leave you to die on some god forsaken rock in the middle of nowhere.”

  Jerry took a swallow from his unwanted drink. It was smooth going down.

  “This is what we do. Let me and my boys go get her,” Jerry proposed.

  “He would kill her without hesitation if something went wrong, I can’t risk that. These are my orders Commander. Once Kara is safely back on board you take her home regardless of what is happening with me,” he affirmed.

  Sean looked him in the eyes.

  “Do you understand how important it is to me that she is ok?” he asked his oldest friend.

  “I do. I still think we could come up with a better plan,” Brice complained.

  “If we had more intel maybe so my friend but we are on a clock too. He is going to kill her in just a few hours from now if I am not there. This guy is smart and he knows things about my past obviously. He has his plan well laid out and I don’t think we could safely make an extraction happen. I could not live with myself if she died Jerry. Follow my orders and get her far away from here,” the captain implored him.

  Jerry took another mouthful from his unwanted drink swallowing hard.

  “What about all this other business with the colony and all?”

  “You will have to use your best judgement. You are in command now.”

  “I guess this is good bye then,” Jerry croaked past the growing lump in his throat.

  This was worse than one of your buddies dying on an op he thought. He would know when Sean flew away he would never see him again. Jerry wasn’t sure how he was going to leave Connor behind but he understood his duty to his friend to honor this wish. They stood to leave, to get on with the unpleasant business at hand.

  “Thank you Jerry. You have been my best friend, a brother for many years,” the captain’s gratitude was genuine and he
too started to tear up. Commander Brice extended his hand. Sean grabbed it but instead of shaking he pulled him in for a hug with the other arm. “Thank you. And Jerry—I know what you are thinking, don’t come after me. Leave.”

  Jerry never one to show any emotions could only nod.

  Connor activated his comm, “Akema. Get my Raptor ready.”

  All the while Akema watched the situation unfold. She was aware of the scenario at hand and had hoped, as Commander Brice initially had, that Sean had a plan. It was illogical for him to sacrifice himself for her. Kara obviously didn’t love him, she left him years ago. She also knew she could not stop him. Akema loved him, maybe if he knew how much she cared. Maybe she could convince him to stay and love her. Her thoughts were irrational she knew but she would tell him. He would be lost to her forever, it would make little difference if he did not return her affection. A plan began to form in her complex neural pathways, yes she could convince him. She would plead her case to him, confess her love and her transgressions. He would stay with her and if not, she had a plan for that too.

  “Captain I need to speak with you,” Akema told him as he boarded the maglift.

  “I don’t have time right now Akema, maybe later,” he responded.

  “It’s important,” she pleaded.

  “Tell me here Akema, I’m trying to get somewhere in a hurry.”

  Silence.

  “Akema?”

  The door to the maglift opened and he exited assuming he had reached his destination. He wasn’t paying a lot of attention to his surroundings until he saw Akema in the corridor. It caught him off guard. She approached him.

  “Sean. Come with me please. I need to talk to you before you leave,” her tone was desperate.

  She took his hand and led him to the Avatar Chamber a few meters away. He had been too distracted to realize he had not reached the Engineering deck or to ask how she was appearing outside the Avatar Chamber.

  Once inside and the door sealed, she looked him in the eyes and started her plea with, “Sean, I love you.”

  ***

  Captain Connor entered the shuttle bay in his flight suit. His Raptor was prepped and ready for launch. He walked beside her rubbing his hand down her hull. He missed flying her.

  “You have been a good friend too Willow,” the captain told the starfighter. He climbed into the cockpit and as he was putting on his helmet the fighter responded to him.

  “You never call, you never write,” Willow spoke in a female voice as he donned his helmet.

  “Sorry Willow, I know it’s been a while,” the captain apologized to the fighter. “We are on a mission Willow. You will not be bringing me back to the ship but a civilian passenger.”

  “Understood, and they better keep their hands off my controls,” Willow said to him. Geez, were all these SI’s so jealous he thought as he activated the engines and started his preflight check list. “Everything is good Sean, I made them double check everything myself.”

  “Sounds like someone is ready to blow out some carbon,” he replied.

  “Absolutely,” she said as she activated her grav lift and retracted her landing gear. “Let’s go. I already cleared us for launch.”

  He grabbed the controls and eased her out of the shuttle bay. Once he was at a clear distance he programed the jump drive coordinates and punched the throttle. He loved the feel of g-forces from smooth and unreasonable acceleration.

  “Wish me luck,” he said to his crew and he jumped away.

  The fighter appeared on the other side of the jump window.

  “Scan the landing coordinates. Check for anything out of the ordinary,” he instructed Willow. He orbited once allowing her to do her scans.

  “There is wreckage of a large capital ship, One shuttle, four life signs, three Telarian, one Bvaltari. No anomalous signatures that I can detect. Breathable atmosphere, mostly barren terrain in the LZ,” Willow reported.

  “Find us a bowl within a kilometer and set us down, come in low so they don’t see us,” he instructed.

  “Hold on to your lunch,” she told him as she dived, inverted and turned into her entry window. The heat flared off her nose as she entered the atmosphere. She extended her atmospheric flight surfaces as they descended. She retained a lot of her agility in atmospheric flight but she felt heavier and responded slow in the thick atmosphere. He could see the ground. It was a breathtaking landscape of rocky mountains covered in snow surrounding the cool rocky desert. Willow triggered her active camouflage. While useless against sensors she would be invisible to the naked eye. They descended to the landing zone she had picked out and started a flyby of the rendezvous coordinates. The wreckage was the remains of a Telarian Juggernaut. How it would have gotten here was a mystery, but lately so was everything else. It towered over the landscape but the bulk of it had been crushed or buried on impact. At about two hundred meters high it was the tallest structure in the rocky desert. Willow landed in a depression approximately one kilometer from the rendezvous as instructed. It was close to noon he guessed. He removed his helmet and gloves before he opened the cockpit.

  “Willow. Set the return coordinates minimum safe distance from the Relentless. I want you to jump from here. Do not take off, jump from the ground. Understood?”

  “Yes sir.”

  He exited the fighter, looked around to gather his bearing and his wits and headed off to the rendezvous.

  He contemplated many things as he walked. Akema’s confessions had him very discombobulated. Oddly enough he felt very similar for her. He hated seeing her plead with him not to go. Sean found himself wanting to stay, she had been very convincing. He didn’t understand why Akema was so attached to him and him to her. In the end, a life hung in the balance and he could save it, he would go. Regardless of what she had done to him, for whatever reason, it was not good enough to abandon her to die in his place. It was all very confusing.

  ***

  Yasa Tomac could see Sean walking.

  “It won’t be long now Ms. Novellas. Your imprisonment is almost at an end,” Yasa said to her reassuringly.

  “You are an animal,” she said to him angrily.

  “I make no excuse for my tactics Ms. Novellas. I would kill a thousand souls to make him pay for his crimes,” he said angrily as he pulled a device from his pocket and pressed it against her neck.

  She fell. Her body trying to curl into the fetal position as the effect took hold. Kara was unable to scream as the air was sucked from her lungs. She grasped at her throat as though it would help. She was as if a small child again. Struggling to understand what was happening to her as she tried to cry out for her momma to make it stop, a shrill moaning sound was all she could make. Her mother clutched her tightly but when her mother could offer no solace against the biting pain she tried crying for her Dada to make it stop, however, there was no air left in her lungs. She felt the sting of her skin freezing and an intense burning in her chest. She clutched her momma tightly. Terror gripped her as she felt her life slowly slip away over many agonizing minutes wondering why her parents would not help her, why won’t they help me? Then it was over.

  Kara rolled over crying at what she had just experienced. The end of Llihanan Tomac’s life as seen through her young eyes. She felt everything as if she had been the young Telarian girl during those last few agonizing moments of life. She could even remember her mother’s smell and the song she was humming to her as she brushed her hair moments before it happened. It was Llihanan’s birthday, she was preparing for her fourth birthday party. She could remember even more of the child’s life. Flowers, toys, trees, grass, she loved outside, to swing and play. Llihanan had been so happy and full of life. This monster had been a caring and dedicated father. All Kara could do was weep uncontrollably.

  “He was responsible for this. Only now do you understand why he must pay Ms. Novellas. Never again doubt that he deserves what is coming to him. Imagine if you had a child that endured such a death. You would stop at nothing,�
�� he said confidently.

  Kara could only manage a nod as she slowly regained her composure as the effects of the perithricine wore off. She rolled onto her hands and knees. Dust from the desert floor covered half of her tear stained face.

  Kara slowly rose to standing in time to see Sean take his last few steps before he stopped about ten meters away. She could barely see through tear filled eyes but she knew it was him. She picked up his scent in the air. He held up his arms above his head and slowly turned around displaying that he was unarmed. Tomac nudged Kara forward.

  She was disheveled looking, covered in dust. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. It hung low and stray tufts had escaped. She was still beautiful, nothing could ever conceal that.

  “Unharmed,” Tomac said with a smile.

  Her first few steps felt heavy but she quickly found the will to run to Sean’s outstretched arms. She was crying uncontrollably and they went to their knees as she could no longer hold herself up.

  “Calm Kara. Everything is going to be ok,” he whispered in her ear.

  She shook her head no. It would never be okay. Llihanan’s final moments would haunt her soul. Kara placed her hand on the exposed skin of his neck and face, her thumb framed his ear.

  It had been so long since she had real contact with him and so long since her therapy that she was overwhelmed. It was like a junkies first hit after a dry spell. Kara was flying high but yet still overwhelmed with a sadness she knew she would carry for the rest of her life. Llihanan’s death would be as real for her as it was for the little girl. And then there was Jacob. Her anxiety over what had happened to him had been the proverbial nail in the coffin of her sanity.