Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15)

by Tony Healey

  "No more than an hour," Chief Gunn said.

  "Good. Then we're ready for action. Who's the best at handling the grapplers?"

  Master At Arms Eisenhower sat up straight. He'd obviously been waiting for his moment. "You're lookin' at him."

  "I thought so," Jessica said. "You're confident that you can handle all four at once?"

  He nodded. "Sure can. You didn't see me at the battle of Koenig Prime. I was like a card dealer, had 'em flyin' left, right, and centre."

  "Koenig Prime was a long time ago," Greene said.

  Eisenhower fixed him with a cocksure stare. "Don't doubt the man who's done it, sonny Jim."

  Commander Greene rolled his eyes. Jessica stood. "Okay everyone. We all know what we're doing. Let's get to work."

  "Captain, I'll need support in getting the repairs underway while I deal with this," Gunn said.

  Jessica was about to answer when Dollar tapped the Chief on the elbow. "If it's all the same to ya, Chief, I'd like to give you a hand."

  "Sure. I've seen your work on the Dragonfly. Follow me," she said.

  Dr. Clayton and Eisenhower left. However Dr. Gentry remained behind.

  "Doctor? Thoughts?" Greene asked.

  Gentry rubbed the corners of his eyes wearily. "I've been doing what research I can," he said. "And I keep finding a reference to a Project Prometheus. And a partial record of something similar to the Enigma being detected in an uninhabited system. Of course, the record has been altered. By whom, I can only guess."

  "What're you saying?" Jessica asked him.

  "That things are being hidden from us. I don't know why. A Union team made a rendezvous with the Enigma some time in the past, I am sure of it. They went in there and abducted some of her crew. And Cessqa knows it."

  "But I can't answer for their actions," Jessica said. "All I can do is respond to hers. We're in the dark here."

  "Aren't we just . . ." Gentry said with a shake of his head.

  "See what else you can drag up from the records, Doctor," Commander Greene said. "I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this. Whatever this is."

  "Yes," Gentry said regretfully. The concern hung over him like a black cloud.

  He departed, leaving Captain King and the Commander on their own.

  Jessica contacted the bridge.

  "Anything?"

  "No Captain," Chang said on the other end. "Still no sighting of the Jandala."

  "Okay, keep me informed," she said and closed the channel.

  She sat back down. It was quiet in there now.

  "Everyone supports the team . . ." Greene said.

  "Huh?"

  He smiled. "An old saying from Earth. You've probably never heard of it. Doesn't matter."

  She didn't press it. There were more pressing things on her mind than references to Earth's distant past – such as the alien menace out there right now, doing the exact same thing they were.

  Hunting.

  "I'm tired, Del," Jessica said. "Tired of all this."

  She meant it. There'd been no chance at respite, it seemed. First the year away, exploring, and all that had happened while they'd been away. Then the quick refit of the Defiant so that she could explore the Enigma. And now this . . .

  At what point were they to be cut a break? God, she felt like she needed one. It had taken its toll on her. And not to forget that she'd experienced the loss of her Father, too. It all seemed fuzzy now, a kind of haze that prevented her from seeing everything that had happened with any clarity.

  "I know how you feel," Greene said.

  She shook her head. "No, I mean really tired. Like I need time off. Or a change."

  He looked up. "A leave of absence?"

  "Not quite. Maybe. I don’t know. When this is over, I'll be having a chat with Admiral Grimshaw. If we ever beat her . . ."

  "We will."

  "You sound cocksure."

  He smiled. "Cause I am. This is the best ship, and the best crew in the entire fleet. If we can't beat her . . . well, nobody can."

  "I may love the Defiant, Del, but she's old. An antique. I wonder if even she'll be able to get us out of this one. Sure we got in a few good hits ourselves, but that woman's unrelenting. I've never known an opponent like her," Jessica confessed. "And she's got me worried. I don't care to admit it, but I fear what she's capable of."

  "They lack humanity," the Commander said with distaste.

  "No, that's the problem. They're all too human. Too full of everything we despise in ourselves. The way she disposed of those crew, as if they were nothing. Would she think twice about laying waste to a planet, Del? I don't think so."

  Greene didn't say anything. Jessica could see the cogs in his head were spinning around as much as hers.

  "We've barely made a dent in her defences. At least we hadn't until a short while ago. Not compared with what she's managed to do to us."

  "But we do have a big advantage."

  She looked at him expectantly.

  His eyes burned. "You."

  Jessica looked away. "I wish I had your confidence in myself. I think it will come down to a boxing match. Throwing punches at one another until one falls down. It'll be a test of resilience, is all."

  "No," he said. "You're wrong. Sorry Captain, but you are. This isn't about brawn. This is about brains. Sure, she's one smart cookie. But she doesn't fight creatively."

  She waited for him to elaborate.

  "Even a computer can be beaten," he said. "It's just knowing which button to press . . ."

  18.

  When they returned to the bridge, Commander Greene went straight to Chang and hunkered down next to her console.

  "You've heard our plan? What we're going to try?" he asked in a low voice.

  "Yes," Chang said.

  "Now I was wondering, could we use the arrangement with the four probes, extended out the way they are on the tethers, to boost power to our communications system?"

  "Use it all as an antenna?"

  Greene nodded. With the Defiant at its centre, and the four probes kilometres out, but connected by the thick grappling tethers, it would improve their chances of making contact with Command . . . or so he hoped.

  "I guess. In theory it'd work. I could try it out. See if I get anywhere. With Olivia Rayne's help, of course," Chang said.

  "Do it. Let me know if you both get anything. The thought occurred to me earlier. Hey, it won't affect our operation now, will it?"

  "Shouldn't do."

  He stood, then patted her on the shoulder. "Get to work."

  *

  "Hey old timer, ya reckon ya'll be able to handle those?" Dollar asked.

  Eisenhower shot him a look that was both stern and fiery.

  "You'd be surprised what an old man like me is capable of, sonny," he said.

  Dollar clapped his hands together. "That's what I'm talkin' about! Listen to him!"

  Eisenhower smirked. "Young whipper snapper, knee high to a goddamn grasshopper . . ."

  Technically I'm older than you, Dollar thought.

  "Okay you two," Gunn said, interposing herself between them. "At this rate nothing will get done. You got the controls?" she asked Eisenhower.

  He nodded. "Check. Ready for action."

  The Chief leaned over to the nearest comm. channel. "Bridge, this is the Chief. We're ready to go down here."

  *

  "Okay Chief. Proceed," Jessica said.

  "All four grapplers are on their way," Chang said. "Shall I put them on screen?"

  "Please," Jessica said and watched as the view cycled between the four. They were soon lost to the dense clouds of material around them.

  "Data coming in already. We're getting an image of the surrounding area," Chang said. "I'm switching that over to the computer to compile while I attempt to make contact with command."

  Jessica shot Greene a look. "This was your idea?"

  "Yep," he said.

  "A giant antenna," King said, impressed. "Clever."

&nb
sp; "I thought so."

  Chang looked up. "Rayne, patch me in will you?"

  "Working on it," Ensign Rayne said. Her face lit up with a smile. "Done it. We're on."

  "Captain, I have command on the line," Chang said.

  Jessica got up. "Commander Greene, you're with me. Chang you have the bridge. Well done, ladies. Well done indeed."

  *

  The connection was less than ideal, but they could hold a conversation and that was all that mattered. Admiral Grimshaw's face appeared as a fuzzy blur on the holodisplay in the briefing room. A shimmering swirl of glowing pixels that barely resembled a human face.

  "Captain. I didn't think I'd hear from you for some time," he said.

  "Neither did I. But thanks to the ingenuity of my crew, we've got a rough connection."

  "Indeed. You'll be interested to hear I've done some digging. There's a lot I'm not comfortable discussing in this manner, Captain. It will have to wait until we can meet again in person."

  "Admiral?"

  "I know you must be eager to hear what I've found out, but trust me. This is all much bigger than any of us could have thought."

  "Sir . . . we have some suspicions ourselves. Just what are we involved in here?"

  There was a long pause as the Admiral considered her question. "Trust me, Captain, it's something I'd rather not have seen. In the meantime, I am assigning a task force to investigate. They will report directly to me. I'm sure you understand. My hope is that they will answer some of the many questions I have."

  "Like what?"

  She shared a look with Commander Greene, who stood off to the side so that Grimshaw couldn't see him. The Admiral sighed.

  "Like why we boarded an alien relic and stole its crew," he said. "Why we have invaded a homeworld."

  19.

  "I don't follow," Jessica said.

  "The Namarians were used in some kind of experiment," Grimshaw told her. "Something called Project Prometheus. I'm still pretty much in the dark about it."

  As Dr. Gentry said, she thought. Project Prometheus. What did all mean? How did the dots connect?

  "For what reason?" King asked.

  "Far as I can tell, given the evidence we have already, it is an attempt to create some kind of super soldier," the Admiral told her. "A hybrid of some sort."

  "Who's behind it?"

  "That's what I want to find out. I'll be assigning a team of specialists to investigate. Meanwhile, Captain, focus on the task at hand. I will speak with you when you return to base," he said. "I have two Hemingway class cruisers headed your way but they will be a while yet. At least twelve hours."

  Good lot of use that'll do us, Jessica thought.

  "Thank you Admiral. Any help is appreciated."

  "Don't mention it. Stay safe, Captain. Grimshaw out." She watched his image fade.

  Commander Greene stood with his arms folded. "What the hell was all that about?"

  "You tell me. Sounds like a conspiracy. Doesn't it to you?"

  "A bit, yeah," Greene said. "And Grimshaw's up to his neck in it."

  "Hmm. I can only hope he finds something we can use. After all, we weren't the first ones there. And we only broke in because we were ordered to . . . by him," Jessica said. "But that's a different issue. Right now we have a mad woman out there trying to kill us, and this giant fishing net . . ."

  "Captain to the bridge! Sensor contact, port side!"

  Jessica didn't bother to respond. She hit the ground running, the Commander in tow.

  *

  "Report!" Greene demanded, running onto the bridge ahead of her.

  "She's going slow, probably attempting to do the same as us," Chang said.

  Captain King was close behind. There would have been a day she'd have beaten Greene in any race. He had more than a few pounds on her and was prone to enjoy more than his share of pancakes in the morning – but nowadays she found herself trailing behind him.

  Still, I do well for a woman with MS in remission, she told herself.

  "Do we have visual?" Jessica asked as she assumed the captain's chair.

  Banks flipped several switches. The Formation was unchanged, a swirling storm of muted, metallic colours. Brief yet startling discharges of energy erupted around them. Jessica waited for something to show, squinting in an attempt to make out the shape of the Jandala somewhere in the cloud banks.

  "I'm not seeing anything . . ." she said.

  The bridge crew collectively held their breaths as then viewscreen continued to show an unchanged panorama of cosmic mist. There was complete silence, save for the chirping and whirring of the computer systems, the hum of the life support system and the reassuring whomp whomp whomp of the Defiant's reactor.

  She heard Commander Greene draw a breath and hold it, his eyes focused on the screen.

  "Jackson," Jessica whispered, almost as if by speaking too loud she might scare their spectral Namarian nemesis away. "Switch the batteries to manual and get ready to fire."

  "Aye," he said quietly.

  The Defiant coasted forward, into the relative unknown ahead of them, toward an invisible enemy. Jessica started to wonder if perhaps it had been a fluke, a glitch of some kind. Perhaps one of the probes had, in fact, registered a ghost image of the Defiant herself . . .

  Then she was there. Her outline emerged from the fog, became clear and defined as they drew closer.

  "Locking guns," Jackson said. "Ready to fire on your command."

  "Banks, get that Jump drive ready. The minute they fire back, I want you to take us out of the Formation and Jump away."

  Chang's eyes widened. "They're targeting the Defiant."

  "Fire," Jessica ordered coolly. Jackson unleashed the Defiant's guns. They punctured the Jandala's hull, sending streams of debris and gas into the surrounding nebula.

  The Jandala turned, fired. Their hits sent the Defiant reeling, everything shaking around Jessica. "Banks, get us out of here!"

  "Aye!"

  "Not too fast," she reminded him as he swung the old ship about, steered her out of the Mobius Formation and back to open space. "Remember we want them to follow us."

  *

  "Major damage to several primary systems," Risa said. "I'm prioritizing those and switching to secondaries in the meantime."

  "Good. Keep me updated."

  Cessqa watched the Defiant sweep away from them. As if to illustrate the point they were leaving, the Union ship gave them a few last licks of its weapons. It sped off, into the fog.

  "Pursuit," Cessqa told Gelvin. "Don't let them get away."

  *

  "Approaching the outer perimeter," Banks announced. "Jump drive at the ready."

  Jessica strapped herself in. "Everyone, buckle up. Mister Banks, set your course for the Bos System."

  "Aye."

  "Rayne, tell the Chief to disengage the grapplers. They’re of no use now."

  "Yes Captain," the Ensign said.

  "The Jandala is closing in," Chang reported.

  "Wait for it . . ."

  "They're targeting our engines. Preparing to fire."

  "Wait . . ."

  Commander Greene shot her an anxious look. "Jess."

  "They’re firing weapons," Chang said, her voice strangled.

  "JUMP!" Jessica yelled.

  Banks threw the lever, the Defiant pounced toward the more familiar, starry sky, as if she were a big cat leaping from the grass.

  Mere seconds later, the Jandala did the same.

  20.

  The Defiant rocked from an explosion close to aft.

  "What was that?" Greene asked, startled.

  "Direct hit to our stern," Chang said, checking her readouts. "I can't believe it. The Jandala is directly behind us, closing the gap."

  "And able to fire when Jumping," Jessica said with a shake of her head. "Incredible."

  The bridge rumbled from another hit, a system next to the weapons console blew and Jackson sprang up to deal with the resultant fire. Black smoke piled o
ut of it, tainting the air with plastic fumes. The air filters came to life, sucking the toxins out of the atmosphere with a distinct whine.

  "We're losing the Jump drive!" Banks yelled.

  "What!?" King cried. Just then everything tumbled around her as the Defiant fell from the Jump, spinning uncontrollably at incredible speeds, end over end. Jessica clamped her eyes shut, gripped the arms of her chair hard, fingernails digging into the leather covering. Despite the best intentions of the Defiant's inertial dampeners, she still felt the spin. The fake gravitational effect of a centrifugal force, pinning her to her chair. She couldn't have gotten up if she wanted to. The blood rushed from her head, made her feel light. Jessica passed out, the thud of her beating heart like a drum, sending her down into the dark waters of unconsciousness.

  *

  Before their last moments on the station. The night before, in fact. She in his arms, their two bodies clamped together beneath the sheets. He kissed the side of her neck and though they'd just made love, she still felt herself quiver at the very touch of his lips on her skin.

  "This is my favourite part," she whispered. "Just after."

  "I know what you mean," he said and kissed her again.

  The ship throbbed around them, its reactor and heavy engines rumbling through every part of the ship, down to the bolts holding her bunk to the wall.

  Their bunk.

  "I wish you didn't have to go," she confessed.

  "Me too."

  "I sometimes think about giving it all up. Going somewhere with you, making a life together."

  His mouth pressed against hers, they kissed, long and passionate. When he pulled away, she gazed into his eyes, her free hand at the back of his neck, still damp with sweat.

  "I love you."

  *

  She opened her eyes.

  It was slowing, the Defiant was slowing from her decelerating spin.

  So, we're still alive . . .

  Jessica returned to the real world, her eyes refocusing. She sat upright from where she'd slumped in the chair and cleared her throat.

  "Report."

  "Attempting to restore control," Banks said, biting his top lip as he wrestled the Defiant's helm functions.

  The vessel slowed down, stabilized, and Jessica could now make out what was ahead of them on the viewscreen. A comet, big as a moon at least, on a flyby of whatever planetary system they'd ended up in.