A young woman in a bright blue uniform white blouse, and blue hat looked at them; smiled, and then asked. “What is your destination?”
“The Orion plaza,” Michael replied.
“May I see your identification?” asked the woman.
“Sure,” Michael replied; as he pulled out three small cards, each of which contained a small photo as well as a microchip. He passed them over to the woman. Who examined the photos, and then placed the cards in a small electronic reader at the side of the desk. At once all the information came up on her terminal, name, age, blood group, doctor, employment status, place of residence; everything.
One by one the woman placed the cards into the reader. “You’re clear,” she said finally. “Theo is only four years old, under fives go free when accompanied by an adult.”
“Thank you,” Michael replied, glad that Theo’s birthday was in two weeks time, and not today; as the woman passed the cards back to him.
“The next shuttle will be docking in ten minutes; if you would like to wait over there,” the woman said, as she gestured toward a row of comfortable seats.
Michael acknowledged the woman with a curt nod, and the three of them headed over to the seats and sat down.
“How big is the E.D.F daddy?” Theo asked.
Michael looked a little worried at answering Theo’s rather probing questions in public, “I’ll tell you on the shuttle son.”
“Okay daddy, then what is the biggest ship in the Navy?”
“Like I said son, I’ll tell you on the shuttle,” Michael replied, this time getting a little exasperated.
“Who is in charge of the Navy daddy?”
“Would you like a chocolate bar?” Michael asked, trying to avoid Theo’s relentless questioning.
“Yes please,” he said excitedly.
Michael walked over to a vending machine on a far wall, and keyed in the selection for a chocolate bar; it was an Orion delight, one of Theo’s favorites. Michael inserted his payment card into the machine, and the bar dropped out, walking back over to Theo, he handed him the chocolate bar.
“Thanks daddy,” he smiled, as he excitedly un-wrapped the chocolate.
“Maybe you should work for the intelligence services son.”
Jana shot Michael an angry look, “leave him alone, he’s only interested!”
“Sorry I spoke,” retorted Michael, as he winked at Theo next to him.
Jana harrumphed, “when is this damn shuttle going to come?”
Michael wondered what the hell had gotten into her; but thought nothing else of it, women, he thought.
Just as Michael was finishing his musings, the shuttle airlock slid open and the passengers disembarked.
“At last,” Jana said with a sigh, as she made her way to the airlock, Michael and Theo in her wake.
Together they boarded the shuttle; the seats were arranged in four tight rows, with a small aisle down the middle, which led to the airlock door behind them. Another small door at the other end of the aisle directly ahead of them, led to the cockpit.
Over an internal comm. system the pilot said, “please keep yourselves strapped into your seats at all times, our destination is the Orion plaza. E.T.A is approximately thirty minutes, and we will be landing on pad ‘B’. Please make yourselves aware of the safety signs around you; they are for your information. Thank you.”
Theo, Jana and Michael all strapped themselves in with the supplied harnesses.
And with that; the airlock closed. There was a slight shudder as the airlock depressurized and released from the station. And the shuttle slowly began to depart Delta base, Theo turned to get a closer look out of the view port.
He could see the massive outline of the base grow steadily smaller. The constant arrival and departure of civilian and E.D.F ships could be seen; like small ants scurrying around a giant nest.
The lights of the station twinkled along the length of its superstructures, the numerous docking ports, arms, and service depots could clearly be seen, able to accommodate even the enormous battleships and carriers of the Navy.
The outer defence platforms could also be seen; the huge station glowed as the light from the yellow Orion sun, played along its numerous surfaces.
“What guns are they daddy?” Theo asked, pointing towards the defence platforms.
Michael leaned over, and looked to where Theo was pointing.
“They are the Rail-cannons,” he said “and there are smaller laser cannons dotted between them.”
“What is a rail-cannon, daddy?”
“A rail-cannon is a massive gun, about the size of a four storey building. They fire a huge shell, filled with high explosives; at near the speed of light, where it causes massive damage to a target.”
“Why is it called a rail-cannon daddy?”
“The name actually comes from a very old weapon that was once used on earth during the second world war. The weapon was so big, that it had to be carried on a thing called a railway line. The shells our rail-cannons fire are so big and heavy, that we have to use a special vehicle called an autoloader to load them,” Michael replied.
Theo sat back in his chair mulling over this new information, his imagination going wild as he imagined all the adventures his father must go on.
The shuttle neared the atmosphere of Orion IV. Theo’s questions apparently answered; for now.
All the view ports suddenly went black, as the atmospheric heat shields slid into place over them.
“I hate this part,” Michael said, as he looked at Jana.
“Don’t worry; it’ll all be over in a minute,” she replied, touching his hand reassuringly.
The shuttle quickly began to shake and rattle, like an old aero plane hitting turbulence. Michael tightened his safety harness as he was jostled in his seat a little; his pulse raised and nerves began to rattle. A few minutes later, the shaking had slowly stopped. And sunlight began to pour through the view ports as the heat shields slowly slid back up.
Theo remembered his questions again. “Daddy, how big is the E.D.F?”
Damn; I thought he had forgotten, Michael mentally cursed. “Nobody knows the exact amount; the last audit done last year puts it at around three hundred and sixty thousand men all told. Of which one hundred and forty two thousand are made up of Naval and Troop personnel.”
“Wow, that’s a lot,” Theo said, his eyes widening with surprise.
“Not really; considering the size of the territory we have to protect, most people don’t think its enough,” Michael replied.
“What is the biggest ship in the Navy, daddy?”
Michael had to consult his memory for a moment. “The biggest ship; let me think, that would have to be the Jupiter class assault carrier, there are only four of them in the entire E.D.F.”
“Do they have rail-cannons?” Theo asked.
“Yes; they are the only carrier that does, but much smaller than Delta base, they mainly carry fighters and bombers.”
“How many fighters do they carry?”
“Usually two fighter wings and two bomber wings; a wing makes up twelve craft. So they can carry 48 craft in all.”
The shuttle cut through the cloud cover. And the various towns and villages of Orion IV could be seen dotted around far below.
Ahead they could just make out the imposing form of the Orion Plaza. It consists of kilometers upon kilometers of shops, bars, restaurants, and a huge cinema complex, it was a giant mecca of capitalism and indulgence.
A short time later the shuttle touched down on landing pad B. And the pilot spoke into the internal comm. again. “Welcome to the Orion plaza, we have successfully touched down on landing pad B, please wait for the airlock to open sufficiently to allow exit.”
Michael and Jana released their safety harnesses, and helped Theo out of his. Together they headed through the airlock and out onto the landing pad itself, a gentle breeze buffeted them and there was a bright blue sky; with only a small smattering of white clouds.
>
Directly ahead of the landing pad there was a set of automatic doors with a large sign that read ‘entrance’. Michael, Jana, and Theo, as well as the other occupants of the shuttle made their way towards these doors.
The glass doors slid open and allowed them access to the complex. Once inside they immediately stepped through a security scanner; and then continued through to a small desk directly ahead of them which was manned by another woman.
“May I see your identification cards?” she asked again.
Michael handed her the cards once again, and she punched their details up on her terminal.
“Everything seems to be okay, the fare is 35 credits please.”
Michael handed the woman his payment card.
“Thank you,” the woman said, and slid it into the receiver.
The three of them then proceeded through a gate in the large open arrivals lounge, and entered another elevator directly ahead; this one was heavily crowded. Still the three of them managed to huddle together in the tight confines.
Michael asked an elderly looking man that was stood next to him. “Does this elevator go to the shopping complex?”
“It sure does,” the man replied in an odd old Texan voice.
“Thanks.”
The elevator began to speed them to their destination. It soon stopped and the large grey doors slid open, everyone hurried at once to get out. Jana almost lost Theo in the press of people.
The three of them continued to follow the crowd; Jana was all the while trying desperately to keep tight hold of Theo’s hand, for fear of losing him in the crowds that swarmed about this place.
Theo looked up at his mother, his little legs almost struggling to keep up.
“It is busy, isn’t it mummy?”
Jana looked down at him and smiled, “it’s always busy here.”
They had entered a wide hall, with tall grey coloured walls, there were four elevator stops all in a row. On a far corner of the hall there was a lit up map of the complex.
Straight ahead, a giant set of automatic glass doors opened out into the main shopping complex.
They continued to walk towards the main doors. Slowly and silently, the frosted glass doors opened out revealing the interior of the main complex.
When they stepped inside; it made the three of them gasp in awe of the magnitude of the structure.
The complex was completely enclosed by a magnificent arched glass roof; which was suspended from some three hundred feet above them. The two sides of the hall were made up of huge department stores of every type of brand conceivable, and towards the center of the complex smaller niche stores existed selling more specialized types of goods.
Further up the main complex, there were giant escalators that took hundreds of shoppers up to a second level; where more stores were located. The center of the ground floor was dominated by a massive indoor fountain that sprinkled water into a larger circular pool. In the pool smaller jets of water shot up into the air, the water jets were lit up by lights from within the pool. Due to refraction, they looked like giant arcs of coloured water until they themselves splashed back down into the pool.
Michael and Theo were stood, dazzled by the beauty of the fountain. Circling it were many restaurants, snack bars and bistro’s where people sat and ate while watching the fountain itself.
For the rest of that day they all went into and out of shops of all kinds. Clothes shops mainly for Jana and Theo; Michael looked in a few of the hardware stores that were dotted around, but never really noticed anything particularly interesting. Still; he was glad that Jana and Theo were enjoying themselves. Theo had never seen so many toyshops in one place before.
Jana laughed, “he’s like a kid in a sweetshop.”
“Yeah,” Michael laughed as much at the pun than at Theo.
They stopped at midday; at a small restaurant with a deep red sign above the door, reading “the Ballisaire.” They all ate well, and Michael had his favorite grilled steak.
Later that day they did some more shopping, before they began to think of heading back home. Michael was tired and weighed down with the shopping that Jana had bought. Secretly; he was wondering if it was particularly wise to bring Jana to the biggest shopping facility in the Orion system.
Theo was also beginning to get tired, but Michael suspected that it was more to start playing with his new toys than of anything else.
Later that evening they re-boarded the shuttle and it lifted off and took them all on the short journey back to Delta base; where they headed back to their apartment.
Theo immediately went to play with his new toys, but stopped short; as if wondering about something, turning back to Michael with a puzzled expression he asked. “What do they eat in the E.D.F daddy?”
Smiling; Michael said, “Depends on the length of the mission son; if it’s just a short mission it will be similar to what we have eaten today. If it’s a long mission; say four months or longer then ration packs would normally be used.”
Michael watched as Theo went to play with his new toys, he picked up the model of the star liner, and pretended to fly the ship, doing his best to mimic engine sounds, he emitted a whooshing sound as he glided the model through the air with his hand.
“You know, one day he’s going to be exactly like you,” Jana said.
“I suppose, he is so intent on following in my footsteps, that he doesn’t realize that space can be a very dangerous place.”
“He’s young, give him time.”
“You know Jana, I see a lot of myself in him when I was his age. Curious, full of questions, I thought space was just one big adventure. Surprising what you learn when you get older isn’t it.”
Michael turned towards the viewer, the news was on again. “I am Annika Raumov and welcome to the outer colony news service. The headlines today, the hull of one of the damaged mining vessels has been recovered, and a full investigation has begun into the damage the vessel sustained.”
The image showed the smashed hull of the mining ship, berthed in a small private dockyard in orbit of the Agemman colony. The hull of the small vessel was shredded in several places, a huge hole was blasted into its front, making the fore of the vessel virtually unrecognizable. Its engines were just blackened craters, silenced long ago.
Michael wondered about the images, they are no pirate attacks. Not unless they had a new super powerful weapon the E.D.F didn’t know about, and even if they did, they don’t have the resources anymore to launch that kind of an attack.
The image of the smashed front of the ship worried Michael the most, mining ships had armoured frontal sections to guard against debris hits when extracting raw materials from asteroids. In some of the bigger ships this guarding can be metres thick. And whatever had hit it had gone through that armour as though it was butter.
Did the E.D.F or E.O.C.A know something that they couldn’t share, maybe they were worried about panicking the population, the last thing they wanted was mass hysteria to break out among the colonies. In the end he put the thoughts to the back of his mind, he simply didn’t know one way or the other. Besides he was on leave.
Chapter 3 The start of things to come.
For the remainder of that week domestic bliss continued unabated. Theo continued with his usual bouts of relentless questioning; while Jana continued to try her best to give Michael the rest that he needed after his long mission.
Late one evening Theo was asleep in his room, Michael and Jana had settled down to relax for the evening together in front of the viewer.
“I am Annika Raumov; this is the outer colony news service, the headlines today. The Montgomery class carrier Montfort has now arrived in the Agemman system and fighter patrols have already begun in the area. We now go live to the governor of the Agemman system, Mrs. Sylvia Cross.”
The picture on the viewer turned to a middle aged woman, with deep set eyes and a somewhat stern looking face; curled silvery hair flowed down to her shoulders.
“Gover
nor Cross; what are your thoughts on the situation near your colony, now that the carrier Montfort has arrived.”
“Well, the arrival of the carrier will obviously boost morale for the mining operations that operate within the nearby asteroid fields now that they have fighter escorts. However I do hope that this is not just a short term solution, and also that the E.D.F doesn’t pull its forces from the area in a few weeks time, just for the attacks to grow again.”
“Thank you Governor Cross, we now go live to the commander of E.D.F forces in the area; Admiral J.G. Kenelly.”
The picture turned to a proud, tall man in full Naval dress. He looked to be in his early 50’s and bore a short silver beard. He had dark, ashen, albeit sharp intelligent eyes, the lines on his face gave a sense of a seasoned officer with years of duty under his belt.
“Admiral Kenelly, what are your thoughts on the Agemman situation.”
“We had a successful deployment, as of 13.00 hours Earth time, the Montfort is on an extended mission in the area, and it also gives us the chance to use certain classified equipment on board the Montfort. If there is anything out there; I am confident the Montfort and its fighter crews will find it,” the Admiral said.
“Thank you Admiral Kenelly.”
Jana turned off the viewer, “you know I still think something isn’t quite right over there.”
“And I still think it’s a waste of time,” Michael replied flatly. “Just some colonists wanting some air-time, besides that new system the Montfort has got should sniff them out.”
“Maybe,” Jana confessed, “what is that new system the Montfort has got anyway?”
Michael looked at Jana suspiciously, “you know I’m not really supposed to tell you.”
“Go on,” Jana pleaded. “I’m your wife; it’s not as if I’m going to tell anyone,” she retorted.
“Ok,” Michael conceded. “It’s called L.R.D.A.T.”
“What on Earth is L.R.D.A.T?”
E.D.F chronicles - The Krenaran massacre. Page 2
