Ghost Company

by Richard Turner

  “I’ll help you,” said Komada, taking the seat next to her.

  Sheridan stood behind Tarina and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll help translate what I can for you, too.”

  “Where is the fuel readout?” Wendy asked.

  Komada pointed at the screen. “It’s here. We have less than half of our original fuel supply left.”

  “That won’t get us home.”

  “I don’t want you to,” interjected Sheridan. “Just see if you can get us close to the outer planets in the Illum system. We’ll be safe enough there.”

  “How much time is left before the Kurgan ship can fire on us?” asked Cole.

  “Three minutes, maybe less,” replied Wendy as she scribbled furiously on the back of Tarina’s chair with a marker.

  Sheridan looked over at Cole. Both men knew it was going to be close.

  With less than a minute to go, Wendy stood up and looked over her work. “That’ll do.”

  “Hurry up and get the coordinates inputted,” said Sheridan.

  Wendy took Komada by the hand. “Type those coordinates into the computer.”

  “I’m going to pass our anticipated destination along to Colonel Wright,” said Tarina. “He can meet us there.”

  With the clock counting down, Sheridan could feel the tension rising by the second in the bridge.

  “I’ve inputted the information as you requested,” announced Komada.

  “Press the engine activation control button,” said Wendy.

  The sound of the jump engine coming online filled the ship just as an alarm sounded on the bridge.

  “I take it that’s the Kurgan equivalent of someone’s firing at us,” said Cole.

  “Time to impact ten seconds,” explained Komada.

  Sheridan looked over Tarina’s shoulder and read her controls. There were more than two dozen flashing lights on her instrument panel, but only one large red button. “Press that,” he said as calm as could, praying he had it right.

  Tarina crossed her fingers and pressed the button. In an instant, the world outside of their ship went pitch black. They had made the jump.

  “That was a bit too close for my liking,” said Sheridan, exhaling a held breath.

  Wendy nodded. “Okay, folks, let’s not do that again.”

  “Amen to that,” said Cole.

  “ETA to our new destination?” Sheridan asked Wendy.

  Wendy glanced over at her calculations. “If I didn’t make any errors, at our current speed, we should drop out of our jump in precisely four hours and eighteen minutes’ time.”

  Sheridan turned to look at Komada. “You had best go and inform your men what is happening. They have a right to know.”

  Komada didn’t move. “And what is happening, Captain?”

  “I’m going to need to speak to my boss, but for now, it’s safe to assume that you will be offered protection in Terran space.”

  “Thank you.” Komada bowed, turned on his heel, and exited the bridge.

  The moment the doors closed behind Komada, Cole said, “If that man is a corporal, I’m a four-star admiral. Corporals don’t talk as if they had just graduated from the academy. That man is hiding something.”

  “I agree. Komada worked the nav computer as if he was quite familiar with it,” pointed out Wendy. “I bet he could have made the jump calculations without me.”

  “Speaking of the jump, where are we heading?” asked Sheridan.

  “To the fourth moon of Illum-Seven. It’s a ball of ice and rock just over seven billion kilometers from Illum Prime.”

  “That should work. When we come out of our jump, I’ll use the comms system on our ship to contact Captain Killam and ask him for further orders.”

  “Captain, we need to tread lightly with these alleged defectors,” said Cole. “My gut’s telling me to be wary. That Kurgan ship showing up at just the right time to force us into making a decision whether or not to help them was too convenient for my liking.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  Tarina shook her head. “You three should listen to yourselves. Not everyone is into devising intricate Machiavellian schemes. I trusted Angela and that turned out all right for Wendy and me.”

  Sheridan looked his girlfriend in the eyes. “Do you honestly believe Komada has told us everything that is going on?”

  “No, but I don’t sense any danger from him, either.”

  “Captain, what was all this talk of a holy war?” queried Cole. “They’re the only one in this conflict using religion to get their troops worked up into a frenzy.”

  Sheridan was as puzzled as his friend. “I’m not sure what he was going on about.”

  “For now, folks, we had all best be on guard until we reach Illum-Seven,” said Cole. “Let’s not forget we’re traveling in an enemy vessel filled with hostile combatants.”

  “Agreed,” said Sheridan. “No one goes anywhere alone. Tarina and I will pair off. Wendy, you and Master Sergeant Cole can work together.”

  “Oh, there’s a surprise,” said Cole.

  “Is there a problem with that, Big Bad Wolf?” asked Wendy.

  “No, Red. No there isn’t,” replied Cole, grinning.

  7

  “Excuse me,” said Komada, standing at the entrance to the bridge. “I see we are an hour out from our destination, and I’m sure you have a lot of questions you’d like answers to.”

  “Sure, come in,” said Sheridan. He and Tarina were alone on the bridge as Cole and Wendy had insisted on taking a tour of the Kurgan vessel.

  Komada took a seat. “Where would you like me to begin?”

  “First off, you’re not really a lowly soldier are you?”

  “No,” he replied shaking his head. “I’m a junior lieutenant.”

  “That would explain a lot.”

  “I didn’t think the Kurgans promoted Chosen warriors above the rank of sergeant,” said Tarina.

  “Normally, they don’t. In fact, I’m only one of a dozen Chosen officers in the entire empire.”

  “What makes you so special?” asked Sheridan.

  “It is the assignment my men and I have spent years training for that made it essential for some of us to get a higher education and advanced training.”

  Sheridan leaned forward. “And what assignment might that be?”

  “We are a highly trained infiltration unit. Our mission is to be prepared to pave the way for a massive multi-star system offensive by the Kurgan Empire.”

  “Go on.”

  “We are trained to blend in with human civilians and soldiers. All of my men can speak English. A handful can also speak another language. When the order was given, we would strike at your logistical and communications facilities. Some, like myself, would try to assassinate key military personnel.”

  Sheridan could hardly believe what he was hearing. “Who was your target?”

  Komada’s voice turned serious. “Your father, Admiral Sheridan, was my target.”

  “My God,” gasped Tarina. She reached over and placed a hand on Sheridan’s arm. “Are there other teams waiting to cross over into Terran space?”

  Komada shrugged. “I’m not sure. We never interacted with the other teams being trained in deep-strike operations.”

  Sheridan looked at Tarina. “Captain Killam needs this information the second we come out of our jump so he can pass it back to Fleet Headquarters back on Earth. I hope we’re not too late to stop them from acting.”

  “When is this offensive going to occur?” asked Tarina.

  “I don’t know,” replied Komada. “However, they wouldn’t have risked sending us across the border if it weren’t imminent.”

  Sheridan asked, “How would you know when to act?”

  Komada held up his watch. “A coded signal would be sent to each person. After that, the invasion was only a matter of hours away.”

  “This is a lot to take on faith.”

  “It’s all in the tablet I gave Captain Pheto.�
��

  Tarina said, “Kitan is your cousin. Is that the reason you asked for me?”

  Komada smiled. “Yes. She is the person who opened my eyes to the lies I was being told about this war. Do you know why she was sent to prison?”

  “She told me it was because she killed her abusive husband.”

  “That’s only half the story. Kitan is a teacher and as such she reads the scriptures to the children for them to learn the word of the lord. Considering where she was, she may not have acted very spiritually around you, but Kitan is a true believer in the immutable word of the lord.”

  “How does this have any bearing on how she ended up in jail?” asked Sheridan.

  “Captain, the Kurgan Empire is about to tear itself apart in a bloody civil war, that is why.”

  Sheridan shook his head. “I’m not following you.”

  “To put this all in context, we must go back to a time just after the last war when the empire found itself with billions of Terran citizens on its side of the border. The Kurgan language and religion was introduced to these new citizens of the empire. Naturally, for the first decade or so, people resisted it, but before long those people saw the truth and beauty in the lord’s words and adopted this religion as the one true religion in the entire universe. The schism first appeared about forty years ago after the last meeting of the empire’s religious leaders. There were some heretics among them who sought to update the scriptures to bring it in line with the more modern teachings spreading throughout the empire.”

  Komada paused to take a drink of water from his canteen. “At first, there was open debate among the people of the empire about this new interpretation of the lord’s words. After a while, the Kurgan Emperor decided he had heard enough and gave his blessing to rewrite the Holy Scriptures. That’s when the trouble started. The once monolithic Kurgan religion split in two.”

  “I’ve never read or heard of this before today,” said Sheridan.

  “Don’t feel bad, Captain. There’s a lot you don’t know about the empire.”

  Tarina asked, “What happened after your religion split apart?”

  “There were those among us, like Kitan, who felt that the word of the lord was not open to being modernized. His words are his words and not open to interpretation by some religious scholar. We are called Khynisan. It is a term from the scriptures meaning followers of the word. Those who allowed themselves to be seduced by the nonbelievers are called Kelshan. It means less-enlightened ones.”

  “Many religions have split apart and changed over the years,” said Tarina. “It’s nothing new.”

  “No. You’re wrong,” snapped Komada. He raised his hands and took a deep breath. “I apologize for my outburst. But the word of the lord, passed on five thousand years ago to his prophet, Kurgan, cannot be altered. To do so is wrong and should be punishable by death.”

  “This is all very interesting,” said Sheridan, “but how does this apply to your cousin and your prediction of civil war?”

  “Kitan became incensed at the introduction of the Kelshan versions of the scriptures to teach the children with and petitioned the planet’s governor to stop the books from ever being used. He refused to hear her complaints, and that’s when she tried to take her children and leave the planet to find a new home, where she could teach using the old Khynisan scriptures. Her husband found out and attempted to stop her. She fought back and killed him. For her crimes, Kitan was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole, and that is where you met her.”

  “She never once told me any of this,” said Tarina.

  “Nor would she. To her, you are an outsider, a nonbeliever who could never understand her passion for the word of the lord.”

  Sheridan said, “How does this add up to civil war?”

  “Almost a decade ago, the Kurgan government foresaw a split about to occur in the empire. That is why they went to war with you. We were told you were going to attack us first, but Kitan said it wasn’t true. I learned recently that the government’s war aims are quite simple. First off, by attacking you, they hoped to deal you such a blow that you would sue for peace and be unable to interfere militarily in the coming Kurgan civil war. Secondly, by taking Terran planets, they were hoping to recruit more people to their cause. They anticipated that this war will be long and bloody. The side with the most people on it will win. Unfortunately, you have proven to be far more resilient than you were a century ago. The coming offensive will be the Kurgan Empire’s last. They have nothing in reserve. For the empire, this time, it is all or nothing.”

  “How many star systems are there on either side of this religious debate?” queried Tarina.

  “I really don’t know. Kitan believes it is about sixty-forty in favor of the heretics. But every day we hear of more people coming to our side. I know the lord will be with us when the time comes and we will prevail.”

  How many times in Earth’s bloody history had one side or the other proclaimed God was on their side, thought Sheridan.

  “My head’s spinning with all of this information,” said Tarina.

  “Mine too,” said Sheridan. “Komada, before we dock, I’d like you to sit down and type out a report for me to forward to my headquarters. Don’t leave anything out. This information, if true, could alter the nature of the war.”

  “Captain, I have not lied to you. Every word I have told you is the truth. I want your side and mine to join together and wage a holy war on the Kelshans until the empire is purged of every last one of them.”

  A shiver ran down Sheridan’s back as he looked into Komada’s eyes. He could see Komada’s hands covered in the blood of his enemies. Sheridan had to speak to his father before the politicians got a hold of the information and made a decision everyone would live to regret.

  8

  Tarina brought the Kurgan ship to rest inside a deep canyon on the icy moon.

  “Captain, how long do you think it will be before we receive a reply to your message?” Cole asked Sheridan as he took a seat on the bridge.

  “Three, maybe four, hours at the most,” replied Sheridan.

  “Colonel Wright had to jump back to Illum Prime,” said Tarina. “He said he’d dispatch a couple of fighters to keep watch over us.”

  “I guess the deserters’ existence will soon be out of the bag,” pondered Wendy.

  “I know we can trust Colonel Wright to keep a tight hold on the info, but if what Komada said is true, people are going to have to be informed—like, yesterday.”

  “Folks, I know you already think I’m a bit of a conspiracy nut, but did you ask our friend why he knew so much about the ship’s nav computer?” asked Cole. “After all, Red said Komada probably could have worked out the controls without her.”

  Sheridan chuckled. Cole rarely used an officer’s first name. After all they had been through, he was still more comfortable keeping the formal officer-NCO relationship as his default setting.

  “With everything he was passing on about his mission and the religious split in the Kurgan Empire, I guess I forgot to ask,” said Tarina.

  “Me too,” added Sheridan.

  “Also, what’s their fascination with you, ma’am?” said Cole. “I get it that this Kitan person and Komada are supposedly related, but why ask for you to come out here when they could have just as easily surrendered to Colonel Wright?”

  Tarina thought about the question before saying, “I think it’s so I would believe his story.”

  “Precisely. Next to your much-less better half, you’re the one person who Admiral Sheridan is going to trust to say if this defection is real or not. If Kitan had been captured and interrogated by the Kurgan authorities, they could have gotten your name and what happened back on Earth from her. It’s not too farfetched to believe that they came up with this operation to muddy the waters.”

  Sheridan could see his friend had a point. He had been too quick to accept Komada’s story as being possibly true.

  “If this is some form
of deception, then what are the Kurgans really up to?” asked Tarina.

  Cole shrugged. “Beats me. All I know is I don’t trust the bastards.”

  “I suspect Komada and his people will be placed in quarantine, so for now, they’re harmless,” said Sheridan.

  Billions of kilometers away onboard the carrier Intrepid, Admiral Sheridan sat at his desk reading over the report his son had sent back via a secure comms channel. He placed his tablet down and looked over at Captain Killam. “This is amazing. If only one-half of what is written here is true, we may have been given the intelligence coup of the century.”

  Killam nodded. “Your son did state that until this information can be verified, we should tread lightly on what is written in his report, and I agree with him. We have had no indication of a forthcoming Kurgan offensive in our sector or elsewhere. Also, why does no one know about this growing rift in their religion?”

  “Before the war, we had no trade or diplomatic ties with the Kurgan Empire, so it’s not inconceivable that we are only learning about it now.”

  “None of the prisoner reports I have read have ever said anything about this either, sir.”

  “We both know that Kurgan officers don’t surrender. As for the handful of Chosen prisoners our forces have managed to take in battle, it is unlikely they would tell our interrogators about this. Their religion is everything to them. Talking about it with a nonbeliever would run contrary to how they were indoctrinated in the first place.”

  “Sir, what do you want me to do with this information?”

  “I’d rather not send Fleet Headquarters into a tizzy, but I guess keeping it to ourselves until it can be corroborated is a nonstarter. I’ll send it back to Admiral Oshiro as an ‘eyes only’ message.”

  “What about the defectors? What shall we do with them?”

  “Have them escorted back to Illum Prime by Colonel Wright’s people. I want them placed in a guarded camp out in the middle of nowhere. They will need to be examined, medically and psychologically, so see that a small group of specialists is discreetly dispatched. For now, I want my son and Master Sergeant Cole to be responsible for these people.”