Ep.#6 - Head of the Dragon (The Frontiers Saga)

by Brown, Ryk

  “There could be any number of reasons for the delay,” Cameron assured him. “They may have been forced to coast longer before jumping out in order to avoid alerting the Takarans of their presence. Or maybe it was taking longer to receive word from Dumar’s contact. Maybe they decided to linger in the comm corridor longer. That is why we installed the cold jets in the interceptor’s secondary maneuvering systems.”

  “Yeah, you may be right,” Nathan said. “How long do you think we should wait?”

  “Until what?” Cameron asked.

  “Until we declare them as missing or lost?”

  “Assume that they may have been forced to change their flight plan and instead chose to do a full recon coast through in order to avoid jumping in and out of the middle of the system. That would take them upwards of twenty hours, even if they were coasting a little slower than usual. We should give them at least that much time.”

  “And if they don’t show up then?” Nathan wondered. It wasn’t so much a question as it was a confession that he really didn’t see any way of proceeding with their current battle plan without the confirmation of assistance from Mister Dumar’s contact on Takara.

  “How long until another imperial ship shows up here?” Cameron wondered.

  “That could take months,” Nathan warned. “We can’t stay here that long. At some point, we have to cut our losses and head home.”

  “What about Corinair? What about the Alliance?”

  “You know, Cam, the Alliance was my idea, remember? But at what point does our duty to Earth outweigh our promise to these people? Three months? Six months? A year? For all we know, we might already be too late. For all we know, those ships that jumped us outside our own system might have been the advance recon for a larger invasion force that was already on its way to Earth.”

  “You remember Captain Roberts announcement just before our first test jump, don’t you? When we were still in orbit around Jupiter? Fleet intelligence estimated an attack would occur within a year or two, not a few months.”

  “Yeah, I remember,” Nathan told her. “But you know how wrong fleet intel can be. Most of what we know of the Jung, we learned through signals intelligence, and most of those signals were decades old at best. They’re just guessing based on old, outdated notions of warfare logistics taught to them at the War College at the Academy. The fact is none of them have ever fought such a war. Hell, right now you and I have more space combat experience than any of them, if you can imagine that.”

  “Think it through, Nathan,” Cameron reminded him. “Think of the resources necessary to invade an entire world. I’m not talking about glassing it from orbit like the Ta’Akar. I’m talking about capturing it with its resources, infrastructure, and population largely intact. The reports from Alpha Centauri were not through signals intel. They were from operatives on the ground. The Centauri put up a good fight, and it cost the Jung dearly. Either they underestimated the amount of resistance to be expected, or they had committed as many ships as they could spare to the invasion. Either way, they wouldn’t be making that same mistake with Earth.”

  “So you agree with fleet intel’s timeline?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Nathan leaned back in his chair, letting out a slow breath. “Nevertheless, we do need to get back at some point. They need the jump drive technology, and we’ve got the only one.”

  “Actually, I’m not so sure that’s true,” Cameron told him.

  “Why?”

  “Think about it, Nathan. They had to know the importance of the technology. Why would they risk losing the only prototype they had in a test run? It makes no sense.”

  “I don’t know,” Nathan disagreed. “You don’t know how politicians are. They live in different realities.”

  “Maybe, but I still think they would be stupid not to at least have a backup copy of the development data stored somewhere.”

  “If that were the case, why tell us we had the only one? I mean, even Abby believes that. Captain Roberts died believing that.”

  “In case we were captured?”

  “If we were captured, the Jung would already have the jump drive technology, Cam.”

  “I don’t know, Nathan,” Cameron defended in frustration. “I just know that it all seems rather implausible; that’s all.”

  “Everything that has happened to us so far seems implausible, Cam!”

  Cameron had nothing to say for several seconds. “You’re right,” she giggled. “Nobody’s going to believe us when we get back.”

  “Nobody’s going to believe what?” Vladimir asked from the hatchway.

  “That I was dumb enough to make you chief engineer,” Nathan joked. “You finish fixing my ship yet?”

  “I am an amazing engineer; this is true,” Vladimir boasted as he sat down on the end of the couch, “but I am not a miracle worker.” Vladimir stretched out his legs and arms, finally settling into the couch and getting comfortable. “However, your ship is as good as I can make it, given the circumstances. So you may commence getting it shot up again.”

  “Thank you,” Nathan told him. “Then I guess you can keep your rank, Lieutenant Commander.”

  Vladimir waved him off. “Blah, you can keep the rank. No, wait. On second thought, I need the extra money. There is this little dacha outside of Moscow that I have always wanted to own. It has this wonderful little pond behind it, perfect for swimming on summer days.” Vladimir closed his eyes, partly to rest them and partly to daydream of the dacha. “Hey,” he exclaimed, his eyes suddenly popping open. “We will get combat pay, yes?”

  “Combat pay?” Jessica called from the hatchway, closing it behind her as she entered the room. “Are we getting combat pay?”

  “Uh,” Nathan stuttered, realizing their conversation might have carried all the way out onto the bridge.

  “Yeah,” Jessica confirmed as she moved toward the couch. “You might want to keep the hatch closed, sir.” She took a seat at the opposite end of the couch, swinging her feet up and placing them on Vladimir’s legs as she settled in as well.

  “Comfortable?” Vladimir asked her.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Jessica answered. “Now what’s this about combat pay?”

  “I’m sure we’ll get combat pay as long as we’re not all brought up on charges, that is,” he said in jest.

  The conversation was interrupted by the hailing beep of the comm-set built into Nathan’s desk. “Captain, comms,” Naralena called.

  “Go ahead,” Nathan answered, his anxiousness returning.

  “Sir, the interceptor just jumped back into the system. I have Mister Dumar on a secure channel.”

  “Patch him through.”

  A moment later, Dumar’s voice came crackling across the speaker. “Captain, this is Dumar.”

  “Go ahead Mister Dumar.”

  “I have received confirmation from my contact on Takara. He is willing to help us, and I believe he has an adequate plan on how to do so.”

  “That’s good news, Mister Dumar. Could you tell if any ships were dispatched from Takara?”

  “Yes, sir. There are now only eleven ships within the Takar system. Once we finished our communications task, we searched for the missing ships. We found a battle group on its way to Darvano. Based on their distance from Takara, I believe they were dispatched approximately one day ago. However, there were only four ships in the group that we found.”

  “So one ship is unaccounted for, then.”

  “That is correct.”

  “Good work, Mister Dumar.” Nathan clicked off the comm-set speaker. “Okay, you heard the man. Let’s get the ball rolling. As soon as the interceptor lands, I want to start jumping pieces out to the combat area. Remember, there’s a battle group headed this way, so let’s use two jumps and steer wide of their last reported position. The last thing we need is for them to spot us and turn back.”

  “Man, I was just getting comfortable,” Jessica complained.

  Vladimir picked up her f
eet and tossed them back onto the floor, rising to his feet. “Come on, little girl,” he teased, holding out his hand to help her up off the couch. “Back to work.”

  Cameron also stood as Jessica and Vladimir exited the room. She looked at Nathan for a moment.

  Nathan noticed her stare, his left eyebrow raising in confused curiosity. “What is it?”

  “I was wrong about you, Nathan,” she stated in all seriousness.

  “What do you mean?”

  “When I first met you, actually, before I even met you, I figured you were just another arrogant, self-centered, little rich boy who used his daddy’s name and money to buy his way through life.”

  Nathan pretended to be taken aback, despite the fact that he had always figured that Cameron had held a pretty low opinion of him from day one. “And now?”

  “I was wrong. You’re not the man I thought you were.”

  Nathan flashed his usual smile, the same one that always got him out of trouble with his mother. “You weren’t wrong, Cam,” he admitted. “I was all that, and probably worse. I’ve just changed. I didn’t really have a choice, did I?”

  “Good,” she said, smiling confidently. “I hate being wrong,” she announced as she turned to exit.

  Nathan continued to smile. It was the most his XO had behaved like her old self in a long time.

  Chapter Eight

  Jump complete,” Mister Riley reported from the navigation station on the Aurora’s bridge. “We are in position at the staging point, two light days outside the Takaran system.”

  “Mister Navashee,” Nathan called to the new sensor operator that was replacing Ensign Yosef, “Any contacts?”

  “Sensors are clear, sir.”

  “Helm, reduce speed to flight ops normal and maintain course,” Nathan ordered. “Trim the ship to Takara’s ecliptic and lock the reference.”

  “Reducing speed to flight ops normal and maintaining course,” the helmsman, Mister Chiles, reported. “Trimming the ship to match the Takaran system ecliptic plane and saving reference.”

  “Comms, inform flight ops they have a green deck.”

  “Yes, sir,” Naralena answered.

  “Tactical, give me a two window overlay, aft flight apron camera and full tactical map.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mister Randeen answered.

  A moment later, Nathan could see the tactical map of the area as well as the view from the aft facing camera located just above the number two transfer airlock. The camera gave him a clear view of the entire flight apron as well as the aft topside section of the Aurora. There were four heavy cargo shuttles parked so closely together that a good quarter of their aft ends protruded beyond the aft edge of the flight apron. Even then, the four massive shuttles, each of which were too large to fit into the Aurora’s largest transfer airlock, filled the entire apron. “I guess the extra emitters did the trick, Doc,” Nathan said to Abby, who was again sitting at her console at the aft station on the starboard side of the bridge. “Looks like all the shuttles are in one piece.”

  “Jump mass and geometry are unchanged,” Abby reported, “although we did use a bit more power for the jump than expected.”

  “How much more?”

  “Point zero four two percent.”

  “That much, huh?”

  “It may not seem significant, Captain, and in our current application it may not be, but if we were attempting the same technique in order to tandem jump a significantly larger additional mass, it would need to be considered.”

  “I’ll try to remember that, Doctor. Good work.”

  “Thank you, Captain. Engineering reports all reactors at one hundred percent,” Abby reported. “All available power is being diverted to recharge the jump drive’s energy banks.”

  “Very good,” Nathan answered as he watched the camera window on the forward wrap-around view screen. The first of the massive cargo shuttles, the one furthest to port, began to slowly lift off the flight deck. She rose more slowly than one would imagine as she began to slide sideways to port at the same time to avoid drifting to starboard and contacting the shuttle parked so closely beside her. The maneuver was performed perfectly, and within two minutes the bulky shuttle, loaded down with two Kalibri airships and various supplies to support the ground assault, was thrusting away from the Aurora at a more normal rate. The maneuver was performed two more times by the next two shuttles in line, each thrusting slightly to port as soon as their wheels left the Aurora’s deck. Finally, the last cargo shuttle lifted straight off the deck and followed the first three to their staging point a few hundred meters off the Aurora’s port side. On the main view screen, poking out from behind the two overlays, Nathan could also see the escort fighters being launched forward through the ship’s starboard launch tubes. The six deep space fighters would be of little defense if even the smallest of imperial warships had shown up during the Aurora’s impending ten hour absence. However, they might have been able to hold an enemy at bay long enough for the jump shuttle that was also being left behind with the cargo shuttles to jump back to Darvano with a distress message.

  “Flight ops reports all cargo shuttles are away, Captain,” Naralena reported. “Escorts have all launched, and Jumper one is lifting off the port elevator now. Recon flight is prepping for launch and will take off in one minute.”

  “Very well,” Nathan answered. “Mister Riley, plot a jump to the first KKV platform’s staging coordinates.”

  “Aye, sir, plotting jump.”

  Nathan watched the view screen as Josh and Loki lifted off the flight apron in the jump interceptor that Nathan had nicknamed the Falcon. As usual, Josh’s launch style was somewhat aggressive. As soon as the Falcon turned and headed away from the ship, she disappeared in a flash of blue-white light as she jumped to her entry point to begin another long recon coast through the Takaran system. Josh had complained about having to perform yet another long and boring flight, but Nathan figured since it was going to take them nearly a day to get all the pieces in place and get the Aurora’s jump drive fully charged and ready, they might as well get one last recon of the enemy’s resources and ship deployments.

  “Jump plot for first KKV platform’s staging point is plotted and locked in, sir,” the navigator answered.

  “Very well, make course for the jump point and jump when ready,” Nathan ordered. “Tactical, replace the aft camera window with a 3D flight plot.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mister Randeen answered, immediately switching screens for the captain.

  * * *

  “What does your contact propose?” Tug asked Dumar as they walked the dimly lit corridors of the Karuzari asteroid base.

  “He will temporarily interrupt the power, perhaps for as long as five minutes, at a time of our choosing.”

  “He can do this?” Tug questioned, finding it difficult to believe.

  “He is a senior programmer for the palace facilities management department. He can make it look like a minor software problem, easily corrected.”

  “But it will be happening shortly after the Ta’Akar receive our ultimatum. Surely they will go to some sort of increased security level.”

  “Yes, and he will make it look like that is the cause of the problem. He says that it has been some time since there has been such an alert within the palace, and there have been several software upgrades applied since then. It would not be beyond belief.”

  “It still sounds risky.”

  “He assures me it will work,” Dumar insisted.

  “And if they do become suspicious, he realizes that he may be putting himself at grave risk?”

  “He does,” Dumar assured Tug. “He is not the type of man to accept such risk lightly. If he feels it is possible, I assure you he also believes he can accomplish this task and still escape with his life.”

  “So after thirty years of fighting Caius and the empire, I must now place the safety of my people, and quite possibly that of all the Alliance as well, in the hands of someone I do not know
.” Tug shook his head. “I am not sure I can do so.”

  “Then put your trust in me, not in him,” Dumar pleaded.

  Tug stopped in his tracks, looking at his old friend. The years, and the battles that had come with them, had been kind to neither of them. Tug could see the pain in Dumar’s eyes. The pain of failure and the pain of remorse. However, he could also see the fire of hope in his friend’s eyes. It was not burning as brightly as he once remembered those many years ago, but it was still there nonetheless. It was the hope that he might finally set things right. “Of course, my old friend,” Tug promised, his hands on Dumar’s shoulders, “Of course.”

  “Thank you, sir…”

  “Get cleaned up and get some rest,” Tug interrupted. “You shall accompany us into the dragon’s lair.”

  Dumar smiled more broadly than Tug had seen since they had been reunited only weeks ago. As Dumar left him to prepare, Tug tried to imagine the pain and guilt that Dumar must have felt for what he must have perceived as his own personal failure all those years ago. It had been Dumar’s job to protect Tug on that fateful day more than three decades ago, and over all those years, Dumar had believed Tug dead and gone. Try as he might to understand the torture that must have beset his old friend’s sole, he could not. All he could do was to give him the opportunity to redeem himself in his own mind and heart.

  Tug turned and continued walking toward the Karuzari command center. There was still much planning to be done before the mission. He had to continue studying the plans of the palace, the layout of the grounds, the command structure, the defensive emplacements, and the guard posts. They had to all be committed to memory once again.

  “Sir,” Jalea called out to him from his left as he passed through an intersection. “May I have a word with you in private?” she asked, running to catch up with him.

  “Of course,” Tug agreed, looking about and gesturing toward an open door. They entered a small break area just off one of the machine shops where several Karuzari workers were discussing a project over a cup of tea. “Please, gentlemen, give us the room for a minute,” Tug begged them politely.