Moral High Ground: Crew of the Ninja #1

by Joseph Bradshire

  “Don’t worry Weston,” Jeff said. “I’m sure you’ll be monitoring the drive the whole time, you can spin it down if it starts to get touchy.”

  That didn’t placate Weston. He was about to say something back when Young Rae interrupted.

  “We are getting a hyperwave message from Cao Prime. It’s from my cousin, Tan.”

  Young Rae played it on speaker. It was a man’s voice, a native of Cao from the nearly unintelligible accent. “This is Tan Verakul, representing House Lee and Protector Lee Sang-Hun. On behalf of my family I welcome you to Cao. We are aware of your passenger and the troubles you’ve had on Earth. The delay in your arrival has caused us great concern. We are dispatching an escort to rendezvous with your vessel. If you could have your passenger respond as soon as possible her father would be most grateful.”

  They didn’t have the capacity to respond in real time, they were nearly 16 light minutes out from Cao and didn’t have a hyperwave emitter to push a real-time signal. Young Rae recorded a message to her father and sent it off. Encrypted, just to be on the safe side.

  Weston was watching the sensors when 16 minutes later, ship reference, a heavy cruiser broke orbit of Cao Prime and headed in their direction. The rendezvous time came to about 13 hours. Half a day and they’d be done with this mission and back on their way to Earth.

  Jon was relieved, partially. He looked over at Young Rae sitting at the com station. She looked back and smiled.

  God that smile…

  He’d hate to see Young Rae go. She was good company. The ship would seem lonely without her. Even with Jeff and Weston to keep him distracted.

  Jeff set the autopilot and got up to go to bed. It was nighttime on the ship schedule, Jon had no idea what time it was on Cao. He didn’t care, he was tired. Weston would man the bridge while the rest of them slept. Not that the bridge needed to be manned, the computer could do all the work. But with the jump coil cooling down and respinning up hot Weston wouldn’t be sleeping, he’d stay up all night monitoring.

  It had been a long mission. Weeks longer than expected. Jon planned to get a good sleep, wake up tomorrow, have a nice breakfast to see Young Rae off and finally be done with it.

  All of it.

  * * *

  Rendezvous with the escort ship, the cruiser Tong-Gue, went smoothly. They sent a shuttle over to retrieve Young Rae, it docked with the Ninja’s top airlock. Two guards came through and stood at full attention. Their military bearing was pleasing. Jon was really starting to miss the simplicity and discipline of a warship.

  The House Lee representative, Tan Verakul, climbed down through the hatch. He was dressed in formal attire, every crease and fold perfect. Again, military precision, though he doubted this man was military. He looked more like a young diplomat.

  “Greetings on behalf of House Lee,” Tan Verakul said. “I thank you for transporting Lee Young Rae to us. We were infinitely worried.”

  Jon looked at Young Rae. She nodded to him. Jon had noticed Young Rae had a certain sense about people. A good judge of character. She seemed comfortable about leaving with her cousin Tan. Good enough for her, good enough for Jon.

  “Thanks for coming out to us,” Jon said. “Having a cruiser around makes everyone feel safe. It’s been quite an adventure.”

  “I’m sure,” Tan said. “Young Rae will have to tell me all about it.”

  Tan turned to Young Rae. “Should we go? Your father is very eager.”

  “Yes of course,” Young Rae replied.

  She looked at Jon. With those eyes of hers, that piercing stare. “It was eventful Jon. Even the boring times were made better by your company.”

  Jon melted a little, but kept his bearing. He was only to deliver this woman, then get back to his duties captaining warships for Battlefleet. No room for much else.

  “Will I see you again?” Young Rae asked, but before Jon could answer she said, “No, I see I will not.”

  She paused. “Farewell Jonathan Aichele.”

  With that, she climbed up the ladder into the top airlock and was gone from Jon’s life.

  Chapter Eight

  Jon walked back to the bridge where Jeff and Weston were calculating their course back to Earth.

  “How long to Earth?” Jon asked.

  “What’s your hurry?” Weston asked. “Don’t you want to visit Cao, maybe spend some time?”

  “Yeah,” Jeff said. “I’m sure Young Rae would love to have you stay awhile.”

  Jon wanted nothing more than that to do just that. But he knew his duty. His job.

  “No. We get back to Earth, you get paid, and I go back to regular Battlefleet duty. That’s the way it was always going to be.” Jon said it with authority, but it sounded hollow. Sad.

  Weston rolled his eyes and went back to plotting their jump course while Jeff boosted away from the Tong-Gue.

  The least time route between Cao and Sol was well mapped. If they took the correct angle out of Cao they’d save a lot of time and hassle by not having to recalibrate and plot their own way around every gravity well and navigation hazard.

  They were half a day’s real time travel out of position. They’d have to clear the primary to hit the first part of the mapped string of jumps. Jumping around inside a star system, with the star flares and gravitational interference, was a death sentence. So, like the ships of old, they were reduced to boosting around in real space.

  Jon watched the Tong-Gue open the distance on its way back to Cao Prime while Jeff nosed the ship toward the optimal jump off point.

  “We should clear the primary and be in position in 14 hours 23 minutes,” Jeff said.

  “Good, nothing to hold us, we might as well get going,” Jon said.

  “Wait a second.” Weston held up a hand. He was monitoring coms.

  “There’s a message from a ship that jumped in about 30 minutes ago, from the direction of Sol.” Weston put the message on speaker.

  “This is Sam Walchli for Jon Aichele. If you receive this before you jump out please halt, we need to talk. Immediately.”

  * * *

  The maximum safe speed limit inside a star system was 1% of ‘c’. One percent the speed of light, 2,998 klicks per second. Faster than that and even a ship’s shields could have trouble protecting a vessel from micro meteorites. Nearly every star polity had adopted the 1% rule into law, exceeding the speed limit could result in fines and an impounded vessel. The ship Sam came in on, the heavy cruiser Lord’s Justice, was stretching that rule to the limit.

  “They’re coming hard,” Jeff said. “Must be pretty important.”

  “Or Sam could be showing off,” Weston said.

  That was likely. Sam did like to push the rules but that sort of speed was dangerous. Also, this was a Crusader vessel. Sam wouldn’t travel with Crusaders unless he had to, unless something important forced him. Sam and Crusaders didn’t get along well, especially not in the enclosed space of star ship.

  The Ninja and Lord’s Justice settled at zero relative velocity less than a kilometer from each other. The heavy cruiser launched a shuttle that docked with the Ninja’s top hatch. They could have spoken over whisker laser but face to face left no chance of anyone intercepting their conversation.

  When the top airlock cycled Jon opened the door for them. It was Sam and one other. The captain of the Lord’s Justice judging by the square insignia on his pure white uniform. As they entered the main corridor of the Ninja Sam spoke first.

  “Jon please tell me you didn’t deliver the girl,” Sam said.

  “Yeah, we just did. One of her father’s ships came out to retrieve her. Why?”

  “It’s her father. He’s the one hunting her. I found out as soon as they brought me out of the healing coma. I came as fast as I could.”

  “Found out? Found out how? How do you know you are right?” Jon asked.

  “One of the guys who attacked the cafe lived. Captain Crater here found him, monitored him for a few days. They were discreet but Crusader
s know how to sniff out corruption. We’ve confirmed it through financial tracing.”

  Jon mulled that over. It made sense. It would take a powerful person, or at least a wealthy person, to order an interstellar hit. Not to mention the cost of destroyers to trace jumps and give chase.

  Which meant Jon hadn’t protected Young Rae at all. He’d done the exact opposite. Some hero he turned out to be. One failure after another.

  Sam slapped him in the back of the head. Hard.

  “Stop it,” Sam said. “You’re wallowing. Try thinking instead.”

  Sam, his counseling methods aside, was right. They needed a plan.

  Jon turned to Captain Crater and stopped. Captain Crater looked familiar.

  “Captain, have we met?”

  “I’d say so,” the Captain said. “You nearly broke my jaw last month in the Might and Sword.”

  Unbelievable. Sam had come to Cao with the same men they’d fought that night in the bar.

  “Captain...” Jon sputtered, looking to Sam, and back at the Captain, “...Crater. I’d like to apologize for our behavior last time we met. I am grateful for your service, bringing Chief Walchli all this way with the message.”

  Captain Crater put up his hand, waiving away the apology.

  “Think nothing of it Captain Aichele. Sam and my crew have brawled at least a dozen times. Crusaders and Battlefleet have been brawling for decades. It’s good for morale. Teaches the young ones how to fight, how to cope with winning and losing. A valuable training tool.”

  Both Sam and Captain Crater were nodding in agreement. As if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. Jon wasn’t sure if they were joking. They had to be.

  Sam slapped Jon again. Even harder.

  “Plan, Aichele, plan. Get that brain working. You have a mission.”

  “The mission is complete,” Jon said. “Technically we were just escort. Delivery. She’s been delivered safely. Successful mission. We’re done.”

  Sam frowned. As did Captain Crater. Jon let it sit for a second.

  “But a Captain in command in deep space, far from central command, has great leeway in deciding his course of action. Up to and including altering mission,” Jon said, deep in thought.

  “Sam, I’ll need you with the Lord’s Justice, coordinating.”

  Sam gave a short nod in affirmative.

  Jon turned to Captain Crater. “Captain, how far are you and your crew willing to take this?”

  Captain Crater didn’t hesitate. “We are Crusaders. Our mission is to do good works for humanity, bringing glory to God. We’ll take it as far as needed.”

  “Good.” Jon said, “Let’s go get Young Rae.”

  * * *

  Tan Verakul leaned back in his chair, stretching. He’d been so busy in the last month he barely spent any time in his private quarters. He was on duty nearly 20 hours a day. With Young Rae’s fate in question he had been assigned to the Cao hyperwave station to monitor and coordinate. A job for two people maybe three, but he’d handled it on his own.

  He’d been chosen because of his perfect fluency in English and his availability. He’d just graduated with a degree in physics and needed a position. This was the perfect first assignment for him.

  Successfully contacting Young Rae, even though he didn’t have much to do with the success, put him in the good graces of the elders in his family. He would be rewarded. Some small token, perhaps a credit bonus, and more importantly a position of greater trust inside the family business structure.

  A good day.

  His personal com chimed, a message forwarded from the IMS Ninja.

  It was a voice message from their captain, Jon Aichele. “Tan Verakul, sorry to bother you this one last time. I was wondering if you could forward this private message to Young Rae. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her private com link before she left. An oversight on my part. Thanks for everything.”

  Jon Aichele, a decent man. Treating Young Rae so well. Probably forwarding his contact information and his farewell. Tan was tempted to open the private portion of the message, but decided against it. Snooping into the Protector’s daughter’s messages out of pure curiosity was not the smart move.

  Tan Verakul was all about the smart moves that day. He went back to his daydreaming of what his next assignment might be. Maybe something adventurous, out system. Maybe apprentice manager at the new jump coil facility.

  The opportunities were limitless.

  * * *

  “Did Tan Verakul go for it?” Weston asked.

  “He sure did,” Jon answered.

  “Are you sure you can trust him?” Jeff asked. “He’s part of the Lee family, her father is the boss of that family and wants her dead.”

  “Yeah, but he’s so far down in the rankings. I doubt he’s in on any assassination plan. Besides, Young Rae trusted him.” Jon knew his logic was shaky, but every plan had risks.

  “You know if they find out we used him like this he could get in a lot of trouble.” Weston said.

  Before Jon could answer the communications console pinged. Success. The tracer they’d imbedded in the message to Young Rae had activated. It was pinging her location on Cao, they could follow it right to her.

  “Couldn’t be helped Weston,” Jon said. “If we’d sent it straight to her it might have been blocked. An interfamily message though? It’s more likely to squeak through any security.”

  “Still. I liked the guy. Horrible English, but he seemed decent,” Weston said.

  Jeff and Jon agreed.

  * * *

  Jon watched the scopes and scanners closely, seeing which ships had the angle, any that could possibly see what Jon had planned. They were clear, no ships for a few light minutes.

  The Lord’s Justice and the Ninja proceeded together to the jump off point closest to Cao.

  Weston was back in engineering, fine tuning the engines for their trick jump.

  “Weston, we’ve reached jump off point, you are clear execute when ready,” Jon said.

  “Doing it now,” Weston replied.

  Jon experienced a tearing at his mind and guts like he hadn’t felt since fleet training. A failed jump. They could be deadly, drive a man insane. He looked over at Jeff at the pilot’s station and he didn’t look bothered. His altered genome was probably resistant, lucky guy.

  Jon fell to the deck and vomited. Then he passed out.

  * * *

  Jon woke with Jeff standing over him, shaking him. He didn’t know how long he’d been out. Could have been days. He was sore all over.

  “You passed out,” Jeff said.

  “Yeah. I gathered.”

  Jon checked his hand com, he’d been out less than a minute.

  “How’d the false jump go?” Jon asked.

  “Great. It was a good light show. You missed it. We are proceeding to Cao now,” Jeff said.

  Jon nodded, and in doing so it was like a bomb went off in his skull. He checked the intercept time with Cao. Over 8 hours. Good. He could sleep.

  “Call me if anything goes wrong, I’ll be sleeping off this headache.”

  “Aye captain.” Jeff gave a mock salute.

  * * *

  Jon didn’t remember making it to his cabin but he must have. He woke up in his bed, feeling like he’d been kicked half to death. Like his body was one huge bruise. He checked his com, he had an hour.

  Great. Time enough for coffee and food before going off to save the princess.Weston staggered into the kitchen where Jon was mixing up some eggs, or at least what passed for eggs on a star ship. Weston looked about as bad off as Jon. Maybe a little greener.

  “Eggs?” Jon asked.

  Weston shook his head, turned a little greener. He opted for the orange juice instead.

  Chapter Nine

  Tan Verakul sat at his duty station, watching the Crusader cruiser Lord’s Justice approach. It had looked like it was maneuvering to jump out, but after the Ninja had jumped the ship reversed course and boosted towards Cao.


  The Crusaders were an interesting bunch. Strictly religious, out in the galaxy seeking good works. Tan didn’t mind them but knew his superiors detested them as overly meddlesome.

  As the main communications hub for Cao, the hyperwave station doubled as traffic control. Tan was the English speaker on duty so had the job of contacting them. They could have used the translator but native tongue communication was preferred. The translators lacked nuance.

  Tan hailed them. “Crusader vessel, Lord’s Justice, this is hyperwave station Taishi. How may I direct you?”

  The ship was only a few light seconds out. Their response came through in moments.

  “This is Captain Crater of the Lord’s Justice, we are here for provisioning and a bit of down time. If you could direct us to the appropriate groundside port we’d be much appreciated.”

  “Certainly. You are cleared for Port Liu, I’m forwarding the coordinates and reserving a convenient orbital. Welcome to Cao.”

  “Thank you. God bless. Lord’s Justice out.”

  * * *

  On the bridge of the Ninja Weston paced back and forth. He got up, sat down, paced some more. It was driving Jon nuts.

  “Okay Weston, sit, it’s not like they are going to shoot us down. They don’t even see us,” Jon said.

  “Yeah, not yet, they will soon enough,” Weston said.

  As soon as he said it a ping from the sensor station informed them that they were now clearly visible by Cao traffic control.

  It was now or never.

  Jon nodded to Jeff and they all strapped in. Jon at the sensor station to the left of Jeff’s piloting station. Weston to the right of Jeff at the operations station.

  Jon looked to his left to the communications station, where Young Rae had sat for the last month. He put it out of his mind. Time to focus.

  “Okay Jeff, break away and take us least time to Young Rae’s coordinates.”

  * * *

  Tan watched on his sensor screen as the Lord’s Justice split into two sensor signatures. He was initially alarmed, perhaps the ship was breaking up, but there were no signs of outgassing or any of the other tell tales of a major breach of vessel integrity.

  Then his plotting updated. It was the Ninja, hiding in the sensor shadow of the Lord’s Justice.