Left by the Marines at the rear entrance, he entered the White House through a back doorway. The very first sound he heard was that of a baby crying. Jason smiled. Kid’s got some lungs on him.
Compared to the nation’s capital in general, the White House was bustling. Jason had visited six times over the past few months, since the birth of his son, and it was good to see so many people back in the business of running the country.
Jason found his way to the West Wing and the Oval Office. He walked over to the large redwood desk and looked about the empty room. A middle-aged woman peeked her head in from around the corner. “Good morning, Captain Reynolds … She’s upstairs … nursing.”
“Thank you, Ms. Pollard.”
Jason followed the slender woman down several hallways until he found the stairway leading to the family residences above. Gone now were the sounds of a baby crying … replaced, instead, with the voices of two young girls arguing about something. Nan, seated in an armchair, his son in her arms, was adjusting the top of her blouse, tugging it back into place.
“He won’t eat. Maybe he knew you were coming.” She stood and handed him the light-blue bundle. A small pinkish head peeked out one end of the blanket. Small eyes widened when they locked on to Jason and the infant made soft, happy cooing sounds. Nan leaned in and kissed the top of young Michael’s head, then kissed Jason’s cheek. “It’s good to see you again … we’ve missed you. You doing okay? Heard you’re heading back into space.”
“Yes and yes. Doing fine and yes, decided it was time to get back into the mix of things. Seems my father’s found something for me to do. Some kind of space marshal position.”
“I heard,” she said with a smile. “Wyatt Earp of the final frontier …”
“How are the kids?”
“Go see for yourself; they both were excited when they heard you were coming by today.”
“In a moment,” he said, unable to take his eyes off his son. He was beautiful. Amazing. Jason wondered what the future held for the little guy. Would he follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, venturing out into the far reaches of space? Or, perhaps, follow his mother’s path and become a future world leader?
“Dad!”
It was Mollie, running into the presidential master suite. She wore a yellow dress and had her long hair parted neatly down the middle. Jason quickly handed Michael off to Nan and prepared for the incoming hug. Mollie, her arms wrapping around him, asked, “Where have you been? Why do you always stay away so long?”
“I was just here last week, kiddo. Before that, you spent two weeks with me in California … aren’t you sick of me yet?”
“No! I want you to come live with us … here in the White House.”
“Yeah … that’s going to happen,” Nan said sarcastically.
Just then Jason noticed Boomer standing in the doorway. She was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt—her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Jason and Nan exchanged a quick glance.
“She hates it here. She’s also mad at you for making her live here,” Nan said.
“She’s also mean to the help … she plays tricks on people. She’s not very nice, Dad,” Mollie added, making a scowly face in the direction of Boomer.
Jason continued to stare at his obviously unhappy little girl. He knew it when he first sent her away to stay here with her mother. Mollie and Boomer shared the same DNA and were actually the very same person. But, over the past year, since a bizarre time realm mishap that resulted in there being two identical Mollies, their individual personality traits produced two entirely different young girls. While Mollie was much like her mother, Boomer (who’d renamed herself) was … well … hard to describe. It was as though she was meant to travel in space. Even at ten, she was an adrenalin junkie … not so unlike her father. She didn’t particularly get along well with kids her own age, and was fascinated by martial arts. Taken under the wing of close-combat instructors aboard The Lilly, she’d become scarily competent throwing knives, among other things.
“Are you going to just stand there making mean faces at me, or can I get a hug?”
Boomer squinted her eyes at him, attempting to make as hateful a glare as possible.
“Knock it off, Boomer,” Nan said, irritated. “You were just saying this morning how much you missed your father.”
With that Boomer spun on her heels and left the doorway. Nan rolled her eyes. “Kids … everything has to be so dramatic.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
“Good … she’s driving us all a little crazy.”
Jason found Boomer in her bedroom. It was a fairly stark room, compared to Mollie’s. There was no sense of permanence. She’d never really settled in. Boomer sat on her bed and pretended to read a book.
Jason sat down next to her. She didn’t look up. “What are you reading there?”
“A book; what does it look like?”
He continued to gaze down at her. He let her smart mouth go … for now. “I wanted to tell you, I’m heading back into space for a while.”
“Good. I hope you stay away a long time. Maybe you and Dira can build a house on another planet and have lots of little kids and—”
“That’s enough of that!”
She continued scowling, her face mean. She continued to pretend to read.
“I’m now captain of the Minian … you know?”
That got a reaction. She was doing everything she could to keep a smile from her lips.
“Seems Ricket is excited about bringing new habitats into the Zoo … He mentioned something … I’m trying to remember what he said.”
Boomer’s eyes were now the size of small dinner plates. “What? Tell me what he said!”
“Just something about needing help in the Zoo … it’s really quite large, you know … huge, in fact. I told him I’d help him find an assistant.”
Her arms wrapped around his neck before he’d even finished the words. Her muffled voice rose up, her face buried in his chest. “I’m going with you? I can come with you, Dad?”
He looked down at her upturned, hopeful face. “Of course you can. I’ve already talked to your mom. If you want, you can live with me on the Minian.”
She wiped away several tears and became all business. “Okay … I’ll need to bring Dewdrop … That’s not even an option.”
“It’s your droid … that’s not a problem. But understand, you’ll be attending school. You’ll also have—”
“I know, a new nanny … someone like Petty Officer Miller. I miss her, Dad.”
“I know you do. She cared about you and Mollie. We’ll find the perfect person. Now let’s get your things packed up together. It’s time to go.”
Chapter 8
Sol System
The Minian, Open Space – Nearing Jefferson Station
_________________
Jason reviewed his virtual notebook on the trip back to the Minian. The admiral, it seemed, had been busy since he’d left for Earth—he’d already sent out Jason’s marching orders for the following week.
“So, any idea where we’re off to first, Cap?” Orion asked, filling the narrow space between the cockpit and the cabin behind it.
Jason, sitting in the copilot’s chair, shifted to face her. “There are pockets of instability, including planetary infighting, piracy, and even several imminent world invasions. Obviously, the most egregious acts are apt to bring the greatest instability to the Alliance, and they are flagged as high priority and will be our top destinations.”
Orion looked over at Jason’s virtual notepad and he expanded the hovering holographic image so she too could see the report.
Jason continued, “There are two worlds in jeopardy. Trom, typically a peaceful world, with much in the way of natural resources, is being invaded by the Pharloms, who sound more like local thugs or bullies, out to flex their muscles now that the Craing are no longer a threat. The Pharloms have a small fleet of warships and are poised to land on Trom … or hav
e already.”
“And the other one?”
“The other planet in jeopardy is the Dacci Commonwealth. They’re in the path of an approaching fleet of ships from something called the Sahhrain.”
“Oh … I’ve definitely heard of the Sahhrain,” Orion said, her expression serious. “Dark is the word that comes to mind. Their spiritual beliefs require them to live their lives in a solitary way. They don’t have much commerce with outside star systems and they’re said to possess powerful supernatural abilities.”
“Well, it looks like they’ve kept to themselves for the last twenty years. There’s not much we know about them, other than they have a fleet of no less than fifty warships … their home star system is desolate.” He read on, noting that the Sahhrain system had five planets circling a burnt-out sun.
“But why are the Sahhrain interested in the Dacci Commonwealth?” Orion asked.
“Greater access to the far reaches of the universe. Look here,” Jason said, pointing to a familiar spiral symbol. There, within the Dacci Commonwealth’s star system, was a Loop wormhole. Both Jason and Orion knew from past experiences these fixed location wormholes, interspersed throughout the universe, were the Craing’s primary means of far-reaching interstellar travel. One reason they’d maintained such a profound advantage and influence over their enemies for so long.
“If the Sahhrain get access to that wormhole,” Jason said, “they’ll be far more difficult to rein in. We don’t want another Craing Empire-type escalation.”
* * *
Jason eyed Earth’s distant white moon and the shimmering cluster of lights beyond it. As they approached, details of the sprawling space base became more apparent. There were four sprawling military platforms for Allied combined fleets; dozens of moored warships were in maintenance there, for one thing or another. But the real attention-grabber was the newly-constructed Jefferson Station. As the recognized seat of the Alliance, all big decision-making policy took place there among the Allied worlds. Grimes slowed the Perilous as Jefferson Station filled the forward observation window. The station went against all preconceived, conventional, design principles. With that said, it was beautiful and inspiring, yet immense and intimidating at the same time. Jason had visited the station on several occasions and still found it captivating. There was the center hub disk, or saucer, spanning a thirty-mile radius, where the primary station’s populace conducted business and also resided. Encircling the hub, almost twenty miles out, was a thick outer ring, which had its own ten, constantly rotating, encircling, round rings spaced evenly along the structure. Jason thought the smaller, perpendicular rings looked somewhat like little Ferris wheels.
Both the Minian and the significantly smaller Assailant, now the admiral’s command ship, were parked several miles off in space. In the distance beyond was the bulk of the fleet—including several meganaughts, ten or more dreadnaughts, and hundreds of both heavy and light former Craing cruisers.
“We’ve been cleared onto the Minian’s flight deck, Captain,” Grimes said.
“Take us in, Lieutenant.”
* * *
Jason entered the Minian’s bridge with Boomer following two steps behind. The Minian’s AI announced, “Captain Reynolds has entered the bridge.”
Once again, Jason was reminded of The Lilly—so similar, yet quite different as well. The Minian was larger—far more advanced. Heads turned in his direction, then to Boomer. She immediately moved to the command chair and sat down, her feet not quite reaching the deck. She placed her arms on the armrests, sat back, staring at the bemused faces, and said, “There’s a new Captain Reynolds on board … as you were, people.”
That brought chuckles and several salutes. Jason winked at her and brought his attention to the forward right console where Granger, Ricket, and Bristol were involved in a heated discussion. The console was open, obviously going through some sort of modification.
“Hello, Captain,” Ricket said. Both he and Bristol were on the deck, lying on their backs, holding handheld test equipment. Granger was seated in a chair in front of the console.
“What do we have here?”
Ricket sat up, then stood. “Captain … we understand we’ll be underway soon. In an attempt to get the Minian operating optimally, we’ve gone ahead and installed several upgrades.”
“Doesn’t look like you’ve been successful,” Jason said, peering into the inside of the console; its wired bundles, he’d learned in the past, were called PhasePath Conduits.
“Hi, Orion … report to your post!” said Boomer. Jason turned to see Gunny Orion entering the bridge as Boomer still play-acted captain.
“Aye, Captain,” Gunny replied, sounding appropriately official and saluting the ten-year-old.
Jason brought his attention back to the others.
“This was a cluster-fuck from the get-go.”
Jason took a step back as young, pimply-faced Bristol scooted out from underneath the console and sat up. Bristol was far from a military person. In fact, his past was checkered at best … brother to a psychotic pirate, Captain Stalls, who, among other things, was a mass murderer. But with all Bristol’s faults, the least of which were a bad temper and a foul mouth, his past genius had saved countless crewmembers’ lives, including Jason’s. So Jason was willing to tolerate some of Bristol’s shortcomings.
“Just tell me what’s going on here. Our timetable for departure has been pushed up. We have to go.”
“It’s another of Granger’s new Caldurian upgrades,” Bristol said.
Jason looked down at Ricket; maybe he’d give him a straight answer.
“It’s a problem tied to the communications system and the whole interchange wormhole process, Captain,” Ricket said, referring to another aspect of what the technologically advanced Caldurian vessels were capable of, including their unique means to travel virtually unlimited distances across the universe. That ability was accomplished through a unique, permission-based communication to an elusive being of higher-consciousness known now as the interchange. The interchange was not a single being but several, or many; Jason wasn’t sure how many. His only point of contact with the interchange was through an aquatic, wormlike being called a Drapple, who could be contacted through one of the onboard Zoo habitats. Staying within the Drapple’s—and the interchange’s—good graces was monumentally important, as it didn’t dole out permission to move unhindered across the universe arbitrarily. Those bestowed with this ability had to adhere to certain moral constraints. The simple fact that his three crewmembers were messing with something so important, especially before a crucial mission, was crazy.
“Are you telling me we’ve lost the ability to call up an interchange wormhole?”
All three shook their heads in unison. “No no,” Ricket said, “but Granger’s upgrade does seem to have instigated a negative byproduct.”
“What?”
“A significant time delay, Captain … it seems now to take close to an hour from the time we’ve communicated our interchange wormhole in-and-out coordinates request to when the wormhole actually appears.”
“So we’ve gone from something that worked perfectly fine … took mere minutes to accomplish, to now taking an hour? That’s ridiculous … not to mention, the long delay could put both ship and crew in potentially dangerous situations!”
“I assure you, Captain … I will continue to work on this issue … I promise, it will be resolved—”
Jason cut Granger off mid-sentence: “We will be leaving Jefferson Station as soon as an interchange wormhole can be called up. Ricket, you have the coordinates to Trom in the Alchieves system. I expect this mess to be cleaned up by the time I return.” Jason spun around to see Boomer sitting wide-eyed in the command chair. “Come on, Boomer … we need to get you situated.”
Chapter 9
Sol System
The Minian, Open Space – Near Jefferson Station
_________________
With Boomer doing her best to keep up
with her dad, she and Jason found Jack lumbering along, using a long mop handle to steer a rolling bucket in between the fifteenth row of habitats, deep within the Minian’s Zoo. Jason interrupted the old caretaker’s duties to let him know he’d be responsible, as he’d once been on The Lilly, for Boomer’s care—a minimum of several hours every day.
Looking around her surroundings, Boomer couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this excited. She listened as Jack balked at the request, exclaiming how little time he had to babysit her, but Boomer, unoffended, knew Jack was only being Jack … grumpy. She knew that Jack was actually quite fond of her—liked her company. From what she’d already seen of the Minian’s Zoo, he’d need her help. She figured it was easily ten times the size of The Lilly’s Zoo. And though the same habitats once accessible from The Lilly were here as well, there were hundreds of others she’d yet to have an opportunity to explore.
Her father hurried off to other duties on the ship’s bridge, leaving Boomer with Jack. Attending to something, she wasn’t sure what, Jack left with his mop and bucket. There are droids far better suited for these types of chores, she thought … but Jack wasn’t big on technology. She slopped the end of the mop onto the deck, half-heartedly dragging it back and forth, then dunked it back into the bucket. She was having trouble keeping her attention on the boring job at hand. Up ahead was a section cordoned off with what looked like strung yellow tape like she’d seen on TV—where a murder had taken place. She pushed the long mop handle forward, steering the bucket to an open habitat. The common transparent portal window was, surprisingly, deactivated—allowing her to take a step into another world. A warm breeze touched her cheeks and she heard the sounds of small insects, no more than a few feet away. But something wasn’t right. In all the hours spent working around the habitats she’d never found a portal left open. She was well aware of environmental contamination concerns—both for the Minian as well as the Zoo. The access panel to the left of the portal was blinking with a series of red lights. Boomer’s heart rate elevated and she debated if she should call out to Jack. But there was something familiar about the habitat’s otherworldliness—the humid air, dense tropical trees, and the thick foliage. She turned and looked back at the seemingly empty Zoo corridor behind her and, coming to a quick decision, stepped further into the habitat. It all looked familiar.
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