Hera 2781

by Janet Edwards

  JANET EDWARDS

  HERA 2781

  A Military Short Story

  Copyright

  Copyright © Janet Edwards 2015

  www.janetedwards.com

  Janet Edwards asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events or localities is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Janet Edwards except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by The Cover Collection

  Cover Design © Janet Edwards 2015

  Table of Contents

  Part I

  Part II

  Part III

  Part IV

  Part V

  Part VI

  Message from Janet Edwards

  Books by Janet Edwards

  About the Author

  Part I

  “Initiate pre-flight system check sequence,” said my team leader, Major Jaxon Tell Galad, on the ship to ship comms channel. “Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis, do you know how to run pre-flights on your fighter, or do you need me to talk you through it?”

  Jaxon was using exactly the same patronizing tone of voice he’d used during all our childhood arguments, when he’d claim the superiority of being two years older than me meant he was automatically right. I was tempted to revert to childhood too, and ask him if he needed me to talk him through putting on his underwear. Instead I reached for my controls, started the check sequences running, and gave a carefully neutral reply.

  “Pre-flights initiated, sir.”

  This was the moment I’d been dreaming of for years. I’d graduated the Military Academy, completed my fighter pilot training course, and was heading out on my first proper mission as a Military officer. I should be filled with joyful excitement, especially given I had my distant cousin and best friend as my team leader, but this was a horribly twisted version of my past dreams.

  Jaxon wasn’t my friend any longer, every word he said to me made it clear he despised me nearly as much as I despised myself, and nobody cared about our mission today.

  Well, that wasn’t totally true. The population of the planet Freya in Alpha sector would probably still care about it. Our team was heading there to clear up some space debris ready for the installation of Freya’s first orbital portal. The Orbital Ship Portal Network allowed both Military and civilian ships to travel vast interstellar distances using conventional portals, instead of having to drop portal a few star systems at a time, but few worlds had the strategic position or the ship traffic to justify having their own direct link to the network. The announcement that Freya was to get its first orbital portal would have triggered huge celebrations there, and the local politicians and businessmen would be eagerly watching the progress of the work.

  Most of humanity though, and particularly those in the Military like me, would be finding it hard to care about anything other than the crisis at Hera at this moment. We’d all been anxiously following the reports for weeks, and now the comet blockade had reached the crucial stage. Today the planet Hera would either be saved or destroyed. Our team had expected to have definite news before we launched, be celebrating or mourning by now, but we were still waiting in suspense.

  I leaned back in my pilot’s seat, ignored the holos and flickering screens in front of me, and studied the lookup attached to the left forearm of my protective impact suit. For the last thirty minutes, I’d had it displaying the latest Military status report on Hera. For the last thirty minutes, that report had consisted of the same four words: “Comet blockade operation continues.”

  I’d only been on active assignment for a few days, but even cadets in their first week at the Military Academy knew the key fact about Military status reports. If all was going well, the report would be full of details. The more problems there were, the less the status report said. If the official Military status report on Hera was just four words long, then the carefully made plans to deal with the comet must be going disastrously wrong.

  “Once pre-flights are completed,” said Jaxon, “we’ll fly through the atmosphere jump portal to reach planetary orbit. For the benefit of Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis, the atmosphere jump portal is the big circular thing directly in front of us. If possible, I’d prefer our new recruit to fly his fighter through the big hole in the middle rather than collide with the portal itself. Those things may only get you as far as orbit but they’re still mind bogglingly expensive.”

  There was a heavy sigh that made my comms crackle for a second. “This has been going on for three days now, Jaxon,” said Captain Mari Stuart, our silver wing leader and Jaxon’s deputy. “Whatever Drago did to annoy you, I think you’ve made him suffer enough.”

  “When I want your opinion, Captain Stuart, I’ll ask for it,” snapped Jaxon.

  There was an uncomfortable silence on the comms. I glanced at my screens to make sure pre-flights were still running smoothly, before using my lookup to check some of the major civilian newzie channels from different sectors of space.

  If there was no change to the official status report, then the Military obviously hadn’t made any new public announcements about Hera, but the newzie channels might have extra details from their roving vid reporters. A couple of especially suicidal ones were going for death or glory by covering the Hera crisis from the planet surface.

  I started with one of the Delta sector newzie channels, because I could count on science obsessed Deltans to get their facts right.

  “The whole of humanity waits in suspense as the comet nears Hera,” said a solemn announcer from Delta Sector Vision. “The Military have successfully dealt with much of the smaller debris, but the massive comet core itself is still on a collision course with the inhabited continent of Hera.”

  My lookup screen swapped from showing the announcer to running a horrifically realistic simulation of the comet core colliding with Hera. I winced and changed to a Beta sector channel. The Beta Veritas announcer sounded surprisingly cheerful. For a second, I thought that meant there was good news from Hera.

  “For centuries, Beta sector has had two more inhabited star systems than Alpha sector,” said the announcer. “Two hundred and three compared to two hundred and one. That lead may be about to change from two to three as Hera ...”

  I shook my head in angry disbelief. Chaos, I was used to the Beta Veritas newzie channel’s rabidly Betan loyalist approach, and the way its presenters grabbed every chance to gloat over a setback to rival Alpha sector. I was Betan myself, born into the sprawling, extended family of one of its Military clans, and I loved to listen to the Beta Veritas partisan coverage of hoverball matches between Alpha and Beta sector teams. This wasn’t a hoverball match though. You didn’t scream “Beta! Beta! Beta!” and hope for one of the worlds of Alpha sector to be destroyed.

  I tried Beta Sector Today instead. “The comet has been passing close by Hera every seventy interstellar standard years without incident. The shock announcement by the commander-in-chief of the Military on Year Day 2781 that an encounter with an asteroid had altered the comet’s course and ...”

  If Beta Sector Today had heard anything new, they wouldn’t be talking about the General Marshal’s announcement from weeks ago. I gave up and tried one of the Alphan newzie channels. I’d delayed doing this because they kept broadcasting the personal stories of Hera refugees living in temporary accommodation on other Alpha sector worlds. I found those stories painfully hard to watch. They al
ways seemed to end with someone breaking down in tears, and I couldn’t help imagining how I’d feel if my own home world of Zeus, the capital planet of Beta sector, was facing destruction.

  “... those who managed to evade the evacuation enforcement patrols. Now the last of the police have portalled to safety on other worlds, those people are coming out of hiding and gathering outside Hera Off-world. Alpha Spectrum’s man on Hera, Kasim Hashmi, sent us these heartrending images of the crowd looking up at the horror in their sky.”

  I groaned as I saw the size of the mob outside Hera Off-world. The Military had estimated that about two thousand people were still on Hera. It might be more like four thousand.

  “The interstellar portals in Hera Off-world have been left operating and locked open to destinations on Danae and Demeter,” said Kasim Hashmi. “The last of the other vid reporters has just left through one of those portals. The people still standing with me now are all citizens of Hera. They’ve chosen not to flee to other planets, but stay to share the fate of their beloved home world.”

  The image focused on the faces of the man and woman next to Kasim Hashmi. They were clearly very old, probably already a year or two past their hundredth, and I could understand why they’d chosen not to leave Hera. They’d know they only had a couple more years, perhaps as little as a month or two, before a rejuvenation cycle failed and they died. If I was their age, and a comet was about to hit Zeus, I’d rather stay and die in the historic clan hall of my ancestors than escape to live a brief extra time grieving the loss of my home world.

  I wondered what Kasim Hashmi would do if the comet blockade failed to save Hera. Did he intend to keep broadcasting his story until the second when the comet hit, or to attempt a dramatic last minute escape from global destruction? If he was planning a thrilling vid sequence with him running through the empty halls of Hera Off-world to reach the interstellar portals then it might end badly. One small chunk of rock hitting Hera Off-world or its emergency power supply could be enough to take out that escape route.

  Jaxon spoke again on ship to ship channel. “I should have received confirmation from everyone that pre-flights have successfully completed, but I haven’t. It appears that either Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis is asleep or his fighter has a serious system malfunction.”

  Oh nuke! I gave one rapid glance at my pre-flight displays, saw I had solid green lights, and reached for my controls to complete the pre-flight sequence.

  “Ah, Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis has woken up at last,” said Jaxon. “If we’re really lucky, he’ll make the supreme effort not to doze off again during the launch.”

  Jaxon had been seizing every excuse to lash out at me for days, but I deserved that particular criticism. This flight might seem unimportant compared to what was happening at Hera, but it was my job and I should be doing it.

  I tapped at my lookup to turn it off, but in the instant before the screen went dark I saw the image on it. Another couple on Hera, this pair far younger than the ones I’d seen before, and they were holding a snub nosed baby and a sleepy toddler in their arms.

  Nuke that! Adults choosing to risk their lives by staying on Hera was one thing, but keeping their helpless children with them was criminal.

  I had to fight down my anger at that unknown couple on Hera, because Jaxon’s black fighter marked with the gold flashes of command was lifting up into the air. As team leader, he led the way through the portal. The three fighters of silver wing followed in the standard sequence of centre, then right, then left. After them, it was green, blue, red, and then yellow wing’s turn.

  I lifted my own fighter into the air on hovers, and was the last of our sixteen ships to fly into the ground level atmosphere jump portal and come out of the matching one floating in orbit. I savoured the moment that could never get boring however many times I experienced it, as I made the abrupt transition from hovering just above the ground to being in the glory of space next to a glowing gem of a planet.

  Jaxon’s acidly hostile voice spoke on the comms. “Now Lieutenant Drago Tell Dramis has finally joined us, we only need to wait for base clearance before we drop portal to the nearest link of the Orbital Ship Portal Network at Aether.”

  I didn’t respond, but as I gently engaged thrusters to move clear of the portal I heard the background note of my comms change. Someone had opened a private channel to speak to me. I assumed it was Jaxon, and braced myself for a tirade of abuse, but was startled to hear Mari’s voice instead.

  “That’s enough, Jaxon. Drago’s flying yellow wing left. That means he’s the last one making the atmosphere jump, and he came through the portal on the bounce so you’ve no reason to snipe at him.”

  She was talking to Jaxon rather than me? I checked my comms details, saw Mari had opened a private comms channel with both of us, and frowned. Jaxon had already warned Mari off once, and he wouldn’t react well to her interfering again.

  “Mind your own business,” said Jaxon.

  “I’m your deputy team leader so this is my business,” said Mari. “If there’s a personal conflict between my team leader and another team member, then it’s my responsibility to step in and resolve the situation. If you refuse to let me do that, then I have to escalate the problem further up our chain of command.”

  I set my comms to speak on the private channel myself. “You mustn’t report this, Mari. You don’t understand what’s going on between me and Jaxon.”

  “No, I don’t understand it, Drago,” said Mari. “I know you’re a member of the same Betan Military clan as Jaxon, so presumably you’re related in some way. Jaxon seemed delighted to have you on the team for the first two days, so why did he suddenly start firing missiles at you?”

  “I’m not sure Jaxon would be happy about me telling you.”

  “I’d be extremely unhappy about it,” said Jaxon. “I don’t want the actions of a two-legged, Cassandrian skunk to bring discredit on our clan.”

  I winced. I could cope with Jaxon calling me a skunk, I deserved that, but being accused of bringing discredit on our clan was painful.

  “I thought you trusted me, Jaxon.” Mari sounded deeply offended.

  “I do trust you,” said Jaxon, “but I’m afraid the details are too serious and too personal for us to share the story with anyone outside our clan.”

  “What the chaos did you do, Drago?” asked Mari. “Commit crimes against humanity?”

  There was a long suffering sigh from Jaxon. “All right, I’ll give you a hint, Mari. You must have heard that General Dragon Tell Dramis is famous for certain character traits.”

  “I may have done,” said Mari warily.

  “Well, Drago takes after his father,” said Jaxon.

  I winced again.

  “That’s a bit harsh,” said Mari. “No offence meant, Drago, but your father has a reputation for being a difficult commanding officer.”

  “No offence taken,” I said. “I know my father’s famous throughout the Military for his unattainably high standards and brutal insensitivity. It may be hard having him as a commanding officer, but I assure you it’s far worse having him as a father. I don’t know why he was promoted to General.”

  “I know exactly why he was promoted to General,” said Mari. “My father had the honour to serve under Dragon Tell Dramis years ago on the world that was eventually named Sobek. He swears no other commanding officer could have arrived in the middle of that disaster and salvaged the situation.”

  She paused for a moment. “My father also does a lot of other swearing when the name Dragon Tell Dramis is mentioned. I admit I was nervous when I heard the son of the iron man of Sobek was joining our team, but Drago seems a perfectly likeable person to me. Why are you comparing him to his father, Jaxon?”

  “Because Drago may appear likeable on the surface,” said Jaxon, “but underneath the good looks and charming smiles he’s as brutal and insensitive as the iron man. He’s also added his own brand of spiteful selfishness to the mixture. Isn’t that true, D
rago?”

  I hesitated. It was true that I’d gone to the Military Academy as a self-centred boy who was blind to anyone’s feelings but his own. I’d hit the depths when I was there, done irreparable damage to someone I loved, and had to face up to the fact I was a loathsome waste of a human being.

  By the time I graduated and took the Military Oath of Service, I felt I’d become a different person. I hoped the new me was better than the old one. Whether I was or not, I definitely wasn’t blind to the feelings of others any longer. It seemed as if some sort of defensive barrier had shattered inside me, so now I shared the emotions of others as if they were my own.

  I could feel Jaxon’s pain at this moment, and understood the way he was lashing out at me in angry despair. He’d only discovered the scale of the disaster three days ago. Eventually, when his first fury had burned out into weary acceptance that I’d done the unforgivable, we might be able to talk more calmly. I knew that conversation would probably make things worse rather than better though, and there was certainly no point in attempting it now.

  “Jaxon’s right,” I said.

  Mari made an exasperated noise. “Military regulations say you have to show appropriate respect to your commanding officer, Drago. They don’t say you have to lie down and let him kick you to death.”

  A voice on command channel interrupted the conversation. “Sierra base to Freya Flight, you are cleared to drop portal to Aether.”

  “We’ll continue this discussion in a minute.” Jaxon swapped to speaking on command channel. “Freya Flight will now starburst ready for drop portal.”

  Part II

  I’d done several short distance transfers by drop portal in pilot training, but this would be the first time I’d used one to travel an interstellar distance. Three days of constant criticism from Jaxon had undermined my confidence, so I felt ridiculously nervous as our fighters scattered out from the orbital end of the atmosphere jump portal, all looking for clear areas of space.