Along the Watchtower: A Gritty Space Opera Adventure (Frontier's Reach Book 4)

by Robert C. James

  “Get Ryland in here. We need to be on the front foot and put a presser out immediately.”

  “How do you intend to play this?”

  “One step at a time.” He glanced at Takashi. “Have our team of Zero-Five operatives completed their mission?”

  “Last they informed me they were about to engage the Argo in the Verada System.”

  “Get onto your people. They have new orders.”

  *

  Cargo Ship Argo

  “We need to go lower!”

  Another torpedo detonated near the hull, rocking Jason around in his seat. “Do it!” he said to Kevin. “Take us a click farther down.”

  The helmsman relented and dropped the Argo lower still. “I don’t dare go any deeper than this.”

  If we don’t, we’ll be blown to smithereens anyway.

  Jason tapped the intercom to the engine room. “Have you found that homing device yet?”

  “Stand by!” Aly replied

  “We can’t—”

  An additional discharge pushed the ship to port. “One more and we’re done,” Althaus said from the systems station.

  “Aly!”

  The shaking subsided. Silence permeated around the bridge. Jason darted his eyes about waiting for the next blast. But it never came.

  He sighed in relief. “Well done, Aly. Good work.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve found the homing device. They attached it inside the FTL core. Ingenious really. No wonder I didn’t find it. But it’ll take a while to remove.”

  “Then why have they stopped firing?”

  “They may think we’ve been destroyed.”

  “Possibly.”

  “Hull pressure’s at maximum.” Urgency returned to her voice. “We have to get out of this soup now!”

  “Very well.” Jason nodded to Kevin. “Take us up.”

  The Argo rose through the gaseous clouds of Verada IV, and the blue haze around them turned into the dark backdrop of stars. Where are they?

  “I’m picking up a bogey.” Althaus read off the scanners. “To port.”

  I knew it was too good to be true.

  The Argo circled with Kevin’s deft touch, and there eyeballing them was the Richmond Class freighter.

  Oh hell.

  Jason shook his head. “The bastards just waited us out.”

  “Why are they delaying?” Kevin wondered.

  Are they pausing for dramatic effect?

  The Gallant Trader moved to starboard and maneuvered away. Jason stared blankly through the viewport. Did my plan actually work?

  He activated the intercom. “Aly, how are you going with that beacon?”

  “Still trying to take it out.”

  “Scrap that. Just get the FTL up and running. I assume we need to make port for repairs?”

  “Ideally, yeah.”

  “Good. We’ll head back to Watchtower. I’m sure Admiral Kostecki will be more than happy to help out.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Althaus wailed. “If what your saying is true, they planted that beacon so the McKinleys could find us.”

  “They weren’t the McKinleys, and that wasn’t The Gallant Trader. It was a setup, to make it seem like revenge by a disgruntled former employer.”

  “They wanted us gone.” Kevin swiveled around in his chair. “We know too much about everything that happened with Psi-Aion and the Seekers. They don’t want to risk us revealing it even with the nondisclosure agreements.”

  “Yet you still want to go back there?” Althaus was confused.

  “We weren’t destroyed, which means we’ve suddenly become more valuable alive.” Jason stood and walked over to the operations station, studying the damage reports. “And tell me where we’ll get all these repairs done this far from civilization?”

  Althaus didn’t answer.

  Jason proceeded over to the helm and put a hand on Kevin’s console. “When Aly gives you the go-ahead, set a course.”

  Chapter 14

  Outpost Watchtower

  “Are you ready, Javier?”

  Jonathan Avery stared across Outpost Watchtower’s operations center at him while he checked over the last of the diagnostics.

  Their two previous failures gave Javier plenty of information to work with. “I’m ready.” He hoped the third time would be the charm. “Flick the switch, my friend.”

  The entire Destiny Resonance Telescope team filled the operations center and watched Jonathan toggle at the main controls.

  Javier peered down at the power levels. The transfer from the station directly into the telescope commenced. It surged to eighty percent and then to ninety. It smoothed out and crept all the way to one hundred. Javier flinched, as if waiting for something to go wrong.

  Jonathan’s mouth gaped open. He looked over at Javier and smiled. They didn’t speak a word, but both knew what each other were thinking. It’s working!

  But the telescope itself still had to be switched on.

  Jonathan ran his sweaty hands over the console, and all the controls lit up. A star chart spanning hundreds of light-years appeared on the large wall monitor on the rear bulkhead of the operations center. “We’re operational!”

  Everyone broke out into applause and raucous yelling. Javier stood back and let the Destiny team enjoy their moment. He understood what elation felt like after so many years of torture.

  With the shaking of hands and enthusiastic hugs spreading like wildfire, Jonathan approached Javier’s side. “Thank you for your assistance, my friend! We couldn’t have done this without you.”

  “You flatter me too much. I’m just happy to help.”

  Jonathan slapped him on the back. One of his assistants gave the pair a glass each, and before anyone knew it, champagne had done the rounds of the whole center.

  *

  The crew lounge of Outpost Watchtower looked like an elephant had run through it. The team from the Destiny Resonance Telescope had hijacked it to celebrate their achievement, and Captain Lang spared no expense, giving them full access to the bar so they could let their hair down.

  Javier imagined the outpost’s CO just wanted to get the boisterous civilians out of his command center so his station might return to some normality. Regardless, it was a nice gesture on his part.

  At the end of the night, there were still a few groups of the younger men and women drinking wine and other harsher spirits, while others were nursing their heads at the various tables. Javier even saw a few pair up and find their quarters for the evening.

  To be young again. He put down the half-empty glass of champagne, which he’d had well enough of, and stood from his barstool.

  But before he could move to the exit, Mister Caruso stopped him in his tracks. He could barely stand.

  “Professor, can I have a moment?” he slurred out.

  Javier smiled politely. “Sure.”

  “I thought I’d give you our thanks on behalf of us all. No one in their wildest dreams believed we’d have the pleasure of working with such a…” Caruso trailed off, trying to find the word. “Ah, genius.”

  “That’s quite all right, Mister Caruso.” Javier attempted to move toward the door.

  “I wonder if there’s a chance you might put a good word in for me when you get back to the Institute. I’d love to come and work with you.”

  Javier was impressed with the young man’s demeanor when they’d worked together on the telescope. But TIAS only took the best and brightest, and he was hardly in any state for an interview at that moment.

  “Avery to Professor Petit.”

  “I’ll need to get that.” Javier nudged past Caruso and pressed in a button on the intercom beside the door. “This is Petit.”

  “Javier, I thought you might like to listen to the first sounds we picked up on the telescope.”

  It surprised him they’d found something so quickly. He assumed the telescope would require refining for several more hou
rs. “I’ll be right up.”

  Javier turned off the intercom and tried to slink away from Caruso. Instead, he followed Javier all the way to the operations center, babbling incoherently the whole time.

  Jonathan was standing by the main console with one of his junior assistants when they entered. He looked up and smiled at Javier and frowned at his sloshed subordinate.

  “Listen to this, Javier. We’ve picked up the siren song of a yellow star four hundred light-years away.”

  Siren songs were a nickname for the ‘music’ stars made when they were accumulating new material at their surface. The sounds themselves were at such a high frequency only the best hardware detected them.

  Jonathan nodded at his assistant, and throughout the operations center the ethereal whispers of the faraway sun played out over the speakers.

  Javier closed his eyelids and imagined he was sitting in a theatre house somewhere back on Earth listening to a grand opera.

  “It sounds like Beethoven.”

  Javier opened his eyes. He turned to the young drunkard behind him who’d made the comment. Jonathan was about to say something, but Javier stopped him.

  “What do you mean it sounds like Beethoven, Mister Caruso?”

  Caruso looked at him as if he were deaf. “May I?” He gestured toward the console.

  Jonathan told his assistant to relent his chair, and Caruso sat. His hands ran over the station like a man on a mission.

  “Because of the distance the siren songs have traveled, they’re riddled with interference. But if we filter it out and compensate for the dispersion, we get this.”

  He played it again. Jonathan raised a brow, not understanding, but Javier heard it. There’s a pattern.

  “Mister Caruso, can you speed that up?” he asked him.

  Caruso nodded and keyed in the commands. He leaned back in his chair and sung the notes along with the sounds. “B, B, C, D, D, C, B, A, G, G, A, B, B, A, A.”

  Jonathan’s mouth dropped. “Jesus Christ, that’s Ode to Joy.”

  Javier turned to the closest Watchtower officer. “Ensign, I need a pod to the Repulse now.”

  “Why, Javier?” Jonathan asked him. “What does this mean?”

  Javier couldn’t answer him but knew it meant only one thing.

  *

  UECS Repulse

  Javier hurried up the corridor of the Repulse, struggling to contain his excitement. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d moved so fast.

  Around a corner, he spotted two guards at each side of the door to Susan’s room. Before he said anything, one of them put a halting hand up. “I’m sorry, Professor, but Doctor Tai already has a visitor.”

  “Yes, I realize who’s in there.” He handed the guard a data tablet. “I have Admiral Kostecki’s permission.”

  The guard checked the orders and nodded. He and his colleague stepped aside, and Javier pushed the door in.

  The lights were dim, and at the center of the room the tall figure of Kione stood over Susan’s bed. Javier moved closer, doing his best not to disturb them.

  In the light’s gleam from an adjacent monitor, there appeared to be a small injection vial in Kione’s hand. His heart sank. No, he didn’t…

  Javier grabbed it from him and glanced down at it.

  “It’s not cyclotrol, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Kione whispered.

  The bottle read: Lovacine.

  “This is a sleeping drug.” Javier watched Susan’s eyes drift into slumber ever so slowly. “She asked you to kill her, too?”

  Kione nodded. “I told her I’d consider it, but I couldn’t do it.”

  “Why?”

  Kione appeared unsure. “I guess I’ve spent too long amongst humans.”

  Javier smiled and sat by Susan’s side. He put his hand on hers, and her eyes closed fully. He wasn’t sure whether she’d understand him, but he had to tell her.

  “He’s alive, Susan. Nicolas is alive.”

  Chapter 15

  November 6, 2213

  Outpost Watchtower

  The rear access ramp of the Argo opened, and Jason walked down onto the hangar deck of Outpost Watchtower. Professor Petit waited for him at the bottom along with an old friend.

  “David Ortega.” Jason shook his hand. “You’ve got old.”

  “Haven’t we all?”

  “Lucky for us.”

  “Is it true?” Aly asked Petit as she Kevin and Althaus came down the ramp.

  The professor nodded and gestured toward the door. Everyone followed him out into the corridor and then onto an elevator. At the command level they arrived at the outpost’s operations center.

  They gathered around Petit at one of the consoles, and he ran his hands over it. The speakers came alive with music. It echoed eerily, bouncing from one bulkhead to the next. The tune was unmistakable.

  Ode to Joy…

  Marquez wasn’t dead, and with any luck, neither was Tyler. Jason didn’t know how or why. Right now, he didn’t care.

  “Where does the message emanate from?” he asked.

  Ortega pointed up at the star chart on the main monitor. Psi-Aion was at the center of the map. Beyond was the point of the signal. “The star’s designation is GP-34. It’s situated in the middle of the Horizon Cluster. A far-flung group of stars four hundred and nine light-years away from Outpost Watchtower.”

  Jason’s heart sank. “That’s over a one hundred light-years farther than Psi-Aion. How have they been able to send a transmission so quickly? Shouldn’t it take years to receive a transmission from that far away?”

  “It would seem they’ve somehow come across technology that sends audio much more rapidly than anything we can fathom,” Petit suggested.

  “More to the point, how did they survive the weapon ship’s shock wave?” Althaus asked skeptically.

  “We still don’t understand a lot about the power contained within the sphere,” Petit said. “I assumed the shock wave enveloped and disintegrated them. Instead, it looks like it propelled the Maybelle across space.”

  Aly stepped toward the wall monitor. “The question is, how can we rescue them if they’re that far away?”

  The room fell silent. While Jason was glad to find out his brother was hopefully alive, he couldn’t help feel more hopeless than he had before.

  “Hey, everyone, the president is about to speak!”

  It was one of Outpost Watchtower’s junior officers. Ortega walked over to him and nodded. The star chart disappeared and was replaced with the image of President Jarret sitting behind his desk.

  *

  Caput Mundi House – Istanbul, Earth

  Glendon Jarret was used to the limelight since his days in school. But even he feared staring down the lens of the camera knowing how important the next few minutes would be.

  He steepled his fingers on the desk in front of him and looked toward the camera with the most forthright expression he could muster.

  “People of the commonwealth. It’s with a heavy heart that I bring you news of an attack on our sovereignty. On the twenty-second of October, a decium ore mining facility on the edge of known territory was attacked by a malevolent new enemy. All lives on Orion V, including the valiant fighting men and women of the UECS Vanguard, were lost.

  “It’s come to my administration’s attention in the last few days that this barbaric strike resulted from our adversary’s desire for a relic discovered beneath the surface of Orion V.

  “As many of you have seen by now, Marissa Caldwell of the Martian Tribune has released details regarding this incident. To those families whose lives were rocked by this attack, we apologize. We had every intention of releasing the information ourselves, but not before we completed the proper investigations.

  “To the mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters we now say, all the commonwealth mourns with you. As President of the United Earth Commonwealth, I will do everything within my power to bring justice to those who orchestrated this crime.

  �
�Those who have watched Miss Caldwell’s report no doubt have questions about the extraterrestrial employed in our study of the ancient relic on Orion V. I could blame the many presidents and many administrations in office before me for continuing to cover up the proof that we’re no longer alone in the universe. But I’m a bigger man than that. We share that responsibility equally. It will be this president’s pledge to right that wrong.

  “We’ve entered a new age. A new dawn. Humanity is no longer the center of the universe. And, unfortunately, from what we’ve seen already, those out there aren’t as friendly as we’d have liked. My promise to you is that as President of the United Earth Commonwealth, I will do exactly what I did during the war. I will protect our sovereignty, our culture, and way of life…”

  *

  Outpost Watchtower

  “I can’t listen to that anymore.”

  It’d been the third time Jason had watched Jarret’s speech, and it hadn’t got any less pathetic with each additional airing. It wasn’t so much of an announcement but instead an election pitch. He hoped the people of the commonwealth would see through it, but he knew how democracy worked.

  The barman turned it off, and Ortega swiveled around on the stool beside him. “And to think you voted for him.”

  Jason didn’t want reminding. “From memory, so did you.”

  “Well, he promised a swift end to the war. To be fair, he kept his vow.”

  “Yes, but with his finger on the button.” Jason gulped his lager. “And right as it seems the people have finally woken up to him after all these years, fear is once again being stoked to keep the sheep in line.” He shook his head. “I hate that I’ve played a part in that.”

  Footsteps sounded from the door of the near-empty crew lounge. It was Commander Hariri.

  “Mister Cassidy. Admiral Kostecki would like to see you.”

  Jason chuckled and drained the rest of his beer. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”