by Tony Healey
ENIGMA
A Far From Home Novel
Tony Healey
ENIGMA: A Far From Home Novel
Copyright Tony Healey 2013
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author.
Edited by Laurie Laliberte
http://laurielaliberte.blogspot.com
The Far From Home Series
http://tonyhealey.com/books/the-far-from-home-series/
Suggested Reading Order
*
Far From Home: The Complete Series
Enigma: A Far From Home Novel
Nemesis: A Far From Home Novel (2014)
Vengeance: A Far From Home Novel (2014)
Dedication
For Danny, with love
Remembering this day,
my sweet brother,
when your eyes closed
for the final time
02/12/1986
Table Of Contents
PART I - La Familia
PART II - The Unknown
PART III - Pandora’s Box
ENIGMA
PART I
La Familia
1.
Starbase 6 was a welcome sight as it loomed into view. The Defiant slowed from the tremendous speeds of exiting the Jump. As it approached the huge Union space station, Lieutenant Kyle Banks handled the helm controls of the ship with consummate skill.
Feels good to come back here, Captain Jessica King thought to herself. Like coming home.
After more than a year away on a mission of exploration, they had returned to Station 6 for some much needed supplies and minor repairs. The Defiant had also been promised a few upgrades, and Jessica fully intended on making sure she got them.
The old girl could use them, she thought. And the much needed rest…
“Starbase control has made contact, Captain,” Ensign Olivia Rayne reported from the comm. station, her hand to her earpiece.
King nodded. “Patch me through.”
She waited a few seconds for the connection to be made. “Captain Jessica King, Union Starship Defiant.”
“Please state your prefix number,” an artificial voice said.
“T.U. zero-one-one-three-eight,” Jessica said.
There was a brief delay, then the voice announced that they were cleared to dock. “Docking bay three. Please do not exceed standard thruster speed.”
“Close channel,” King said.
Just like old times . . .
She looked ahead at the large circular space station. Tall centrifuge at the centre, spokes extending out at the middle to form a wide outer ring. Along the ring were enough docking bays to accommodate up to twenty vessels, with many of the bays currently occupied.
Lieutenant Banks brought the Defiant – an old but well-kept Archon class battleship – to a relative crawl and lined up the port side with the slowly rotating docking ring. At one time, Archon class vessels had been the backbone of the fleet. Now they were little more than relics. While the Draxx war raged, they still had a purpose. But now, in this newfound era of interstellar peace, the Archons were slowly being taken out of service.
Decommissioned. Scrapped. Thankfully, there were no such plans for the Defiant.
Yet.
The thought of her being dismantled, ending up as salvage, made Jessica shudder.
“Aligning to dock,” Banks reported, his voice taut with effort as he concentrated on the task at hand. Starbases were not designed to accommodate simple and easy docking manoeuvres.
“Keep her steady, Lieutenant. You know the drill.”
“Aye,” Banks said. His hands flitted over the controls, the Defiant edging to the left to butt up against the station. “I could do this with my eyes closed.”
Jessica smiled. “Well, please refrain from doing so on this occasion, Banks. I’d like my ship kept in one piece for the time being. It’d be a shame to crash just before we park.”
“Yes Ma’am,” he said with a chuckle.
“Less than two metres clearance,” Commander Chang reported from the science and tactical station to the Captain’s right. The Defiant nestled up to the dock with a slight bump a moment later.
“Good job Mister Banks. Commander Chang, activate all moorings and equalize atmospheres,” King ordered. She got up from the captain’s chair. The Defiant was now under the momentum of the station itself, like a very heavy passenger on a merry-go-round. “Power down all non-essential systems. Commander, observe standard protocol.”
“Yes Captain,” Commander Greene said as he relayed her orders to the rest of the ship. Every department would shut down those systems that weren’t needed while the Defiant underwent any repairs and refurbishments that had been scheduled for her.
“When the bridge is cleared, come and find me,” Jessica told him.
The Commander nodded. Jessica ran her eyes over her team – Kyle Banks at the helm, Olivia Rayne at the comm. station, Lisa Chang at the science and tactical station, and Del Greene by her side as her second in command – and all she could feel was pride at having the fortune of serving with such a fine group of men and women.
“I’ll be in my quarters,” Jessica said as she left the bridge. “Well done everyone.”
2.
“We can’t have everyone on shore leave at the same time, Del,” Jessica said as she made them both coffee. She handed Greene his cup and sat opposite him. “The repair team will still need crew to assist…”
“I can work that on a rota, Jess,” Greene assured her, both of them comfortable addressing one another using their first names when in private. Captain King had always encouraged the crew of the Defiant to relax in her presence. She was there to run a ship, not play dictator.
“I’ll make sure it’s done fairly,” he said. “And that it rotates so everyone gets their share.”
She sipped her coffee. “I don’t know. I worry about them letting their hair down a little too much. You know?”
“Yeah there is that,” Commander Greene admitted. Only two months ago they had made a brief stop at Station 37 on the way back home, a short layover of twenty-four hours that had seen her crew engage in half a dozen brawls with another Union ship. It had not only been embarrassing for her, but difficult to find the correct punishment for those involved. “But we dealt with them, didn’t we? Three days scrubbing the deck plating with your own toothbrush will knock the fight out of anyone. They’ve earned it, regardless. It’s been a long tour of duty for us all, Jess. Especially you. I don’t think Station 37 counted as proper downtime.”
She frowned. “What d’you mean, ‘especially you’? I’m okay.”
“You can’t hide stuff from me,” he told her with a smile. “I’ve been around you too long. You’re tired, stressed. I can see it. If there’s anyone who should be getting some shore leave, it’s the Defiant‘s Captain.”
“We’ve had some adventures, sure, and got into a scrape or two,” she said. “But I wouldn’t say it’s been any more stressful than normal. In fact it’s been a good year, give or take a few things.”
She thought back over that past year of exploration. They’d seen some unbelievable sights. The Defiant‘s memory banks were literally heaving with precious data. There had been danger, too, but that went hand-in-hand with anything involving a starship… particularly one travelling on its own, charting unexplored territory.
“Then what is it, eh?” Greene asked her. “You can tell me.”
Jessica sighed. “Listen, you remember I told you about that video,” she said.
“Yeah…” Greene said, uncertain. “The one
from… you know, yourself?”
She nodded.
“Go on,” he said.
A year before, prior to casting off on their new mission, Jessica had found a video waiting for her on her personal console. When she played it, it appeared to be from herself. The other version of her proceeded to detail an entire series of events, some of which were beyond her capability to understand. Nor did she need to. They’d apparently happened in another galaxy – and another time.
The other version of herself perished in an incident involving a hijacked Union starship and a Draxx battleship just beforehand. The Draxx vessel, the Inflictor, had arrived at Starbase 6. At the same time the base’s alarms were triggered, a small ship called the Saratoga had been stolen. Whoever stole it proceeded to take the Inflictor on in head-to-head combat. Jessica took the Defiant out to give them a hand – whoever had the Saratoga obviously intended on defending Starbase 6 from the Draxx. However, after listening to the video left on her console, it was made perfectly clear who had taken the Saratoga and saved all their lives… herself. Alt-Jessica had used the Saratoga‘s Jump Drive to rip the Inflictor apart, ending the short engagement. The realisation that it was herself who’d saved the day… well, it was all enough to make anyone’s head spin.
Among the countless other details, her doppelganger told Jessica she was a victim of Multiple Sclerosis and advised seeking treatment as soon as she was able.
It turned out she was right.
“My condition has been making it difficult for me lately,” Jessica told Commander Greene. Intermittent difficulty walking, numbness in her feet, and sharp back pain had plagued her since receiving the diagnosis. “Despite all Doctor Clayton’s attempts at treating it, nothing’s really been much help. Except . . .”
Greene frowned. “Except what?”
“Clayton’s found an experimental drug that may force it to subside for good,” she said. “He’s having it brought to the station. It should get here any time.”
“Well, that’s great news,” the Commander said. He drank some of his coffee. “Anything’s worth a try, right?”
“Yeah.” Jessica looked away. She couldn’t help the gathering moisture in her eyes, or the way she gripped her coffee cup as she stared off at the stars beyond her viewport.
“Jess . . .”
“I’ve feared losing all this,” she whispered. “Losing this ship. Because my legs don’t work. Or the soles of my feet are growing numb. I’ve wondered how far I’d be willing to go to not have that happen. As it is, Clayton tells me this is more or less untested. There’s no guarantee.”
“The doc knows what he’s doing,” Greene said. “And you should trust him.”
“You’re right,” Jessica said. “It’s just, you like to think you’re invincible. Especially in front of your crew. You want to appear strong and able-bodied.”
“You do already,” Greene assured her. “And you will. It’ll all work out in the end.”
“In some ways I wish that my other self hadn’t left me the video, hadn’t bothered to tell me anything. It’s been a blessing and a curse.”
This happened to be a semi-truth. While the video from her other self had served to plague some of her choices since watching it, the content of the video message itself had been useful information. For instance, warning her against Lieutenant Swogger. Her other self had detailed how the man was suffering some sort of breakdown. Jessica had him removed from the Defiant at the earliest opportunity and saved herself a lot of potential grief.
Another was Hal Dolarhyde, a new member of the crew who just so happened to be the legendary star pilot – and hero of the Union, back in the day – Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan. While Jessica’s other self had died, Hawk had survived to render his services to the Union top brass. They’d granted his request to be assigned incognito to the Defiant, provided he took a different name and kept his real identity a secret. Only Jessica and Commander Greene knew who he was.
“I still can’t believe we have Hawk Nowlan aboard,” Greene said. He drained the last of his coffee and set the cup on the table in front of him. “I mean, I used to have that guy’s posters up on my wall as a kid.”
“I know what you mean,” Jessica said, lightening somewhat. “It was a shock to me, too. But you know the orders. It has to remain top secret.”
“How do you even function, knowing all of that went on? And I mean it’s not like it’s an elaborate hoax. We saw the ship they stole get destroyed along with the Inflictor. And we have Hawk, of course. Living proof,” Greene said. “I think it’d drive me nuts.”
“It did in the beginning. You know, when we first set out on our new mission. But Grimshaw advised not to think about it too much. Just consider myself lucky to have some forewarning of things and move on.”
“Swogger…” the Commander said. “That was handy, knowing one of our own was about to go nuts.”
“Not nuts, Del,” she corrected him.
Greene laughed. “Okay, okay. Wrong word. But you know what I mean. A little unhinged.”
“Unhinged. Yeah. Something like that. All I know is that it saved us from a situation aboard ship. And Lieutenant Dunham’s proven to be a good replacement for him down in munitions,” Jessica said.
“Yeah,” the Commander agreed. He checked the time. “When’s your meeting with the Admiral?”
“Another hour or so. Hence the coffee. I’ll have a quick shower and shoot on over there. I’m sure he’ll want a full debrief on everything we’ve catalogued this past year. There’s a lot of ground to cover.”
That should have been Greene’s cue to leave, but he remained seated.
“Jess…”
“What is it?”
His eyes brimmed with sadness. “You know what day today is, don’t you?”
She shook her head, then realisation dawned. “Yes. I’m afraid I do.”
“A year today. Doesn’t seem possible, does it?”
“No,” she whispered and looked down at the floor.
The Commander now recognised the need to give her some privacy and got up to leave. He walked to the door.
“Del?”
He turned around. “Yeah?”
She smiled. “Thanks. For, well, you know . . .”
“Sure. I know,” he said and left.
Jessica dealt with the coffee things and ran for the shower. Soon she was enveloped by the steaming hot water. It felt good. She managed to wash most of her troubles down the drain.
More or less.
3.
The last time they’d docked at Station 6, the Defiant had borne the scars of a battle – the very same battle in which Captain Singh had perished and Jessica had wound up assuming command. And though the Defiant was not battered and bruised this time around, she was in need of a general overhaul in places. Her stores were almost depleted, too, despite their reasonable use of the replication technology aboard. Though perfectly edible, the replicated food did have two things against it.
One, it was created by recycling human waste, a fact that a lot of people couldn’t get past. And two, no matter what they did with it, the replicated food always seemed to come out tasteless, bland.
The machines could reproduce a programmed version of a steak from the matter fed into them, but they could not recreate the taste and texture of one. She supposed that on something like a prison barge, such a thing would not be a concern. But on a year-long mission into unexplored territory, being able to feed her people a good meal was important to her.
And there was only so much the Chef could do with the pallid vegetables grown in the hydroponics chambers . . .
Jessica walked through the decontamination jets of the airlock and out to the station side. She spotted groups of Defiant crew on their way toward the promenade, and in a way she envied them. What she wouldn’t have given for a drink in Mickey’s right now. But the Admiral was expecting her. She found a half-empty buggy and sat at the front.
The buggy moved, racing along
a specially laid track that allowed fast and convenient travel of goods and personnel around the station.
King glanced behind her at the Defiant through the view ports. Unlike last time, her ship looked in good shape.
You’ve served us well, she thought with pride. Something lifted within her chest at the sight of her ship, of the one place they all called home. It was more than simple pride, more like love.
She turned back around, a smile on her face. The buggy sped along the track and Jessica arrived at the centrifuge in no time at all.
4.
Admiral Grimshaw perched himself on the edge of his desk, arms folded.
“We’re just now beginning to compile the masses of data transferred from the Defiant‘s memory banks,” she said. “It’s going to take some time to make sense of it all. The stellar cartographers will have a field day going through it all.”
“Well . . .” Jessica said, about to begin recounting their mission.
Grimshaw held up a hand. “If you think you’re here for a debrief, I’m afraid you’re wrong, Captain.”
“Oh,” she said, taken aback. “I just assumed…”
“No. We will go through your log entries, star charts, and data in due course. They’ll be a great asset, not only to the Union, but the many races and worlds that will make use of them. For now it can wait. I’m afraid you’re here for another purpose.”
He got up, walked around the desk and sat in his chair.
“Lights.”
At the simple spoken command the lights dimmed. Admiral Grimshaw activated a holo-projector on his desk. It showed a star system.
“What’s that?” King asked.
“It was, at one time, the Namar system. You’ve heard of them?”
She shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter. They’ve been gone for a thousand years or more. Lost.”
