Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match

by Ron Francis

  “It’s all so hard to fathom. It’s always just been me and my mom against the world. She never told me anything about who my dad was until about a week before she contacted Aunt Nina. I went from never knowing to finding out that my dad was one of the richest, most famous men in the Coalition. When she first told me, I was so angry at him, I hated him. I thought, how could he have all this time to save the world over and over but never have time for me? I thought if he could just see me, he would love me.”

  Ariel’s heart was breaking as she heard Lana’s story. “He will, it will be love at first sight, trust me. I know your dad better than anyone, and if he even thought there was a possibility he had a kid, he would have moved heaven and earth to find you.”

  “I know, my mom saw how upset I was and then told me the whole story. I knew what she had done was wrong, but I still loved her for it. I knew it wasn’t Jesse’s fault, but I was still mad about it. I just guess I’m gonna have all of these conflicting feelings until I finally meet him.”

  “Yes, you will, in the meantime, I’m going to go talk to Nina and Jason right away and see about getting you off this ship for a little while.” She smiled and hugged her niece. She was going to like having Lana around.

  ______

  Serge had been in his lab for days. He and Nina had been arguing about production of the fleet the President had requested, again. Why could she not understand that all he wanted was to protect the Coalition? He had been honest and would continue to be honest about what they could and could not do. He felt they were out of danger from Natora. Even that fool can see we would not win against either threat without the ships from Sea Side Enterprises. Yet Nina still continued to argue. They almost never argued in the past. When they did, Jesse would always be around to ease the tension. He always seemed to know the right thing to say to calm Nina down when she disagreed with them. He could stop her tirades cold in the way that only a little brother can. He was not here; however, he was in another galaxy for almost six more months. That estimate did not take into account how long it would take them to return home if something went wrong with the conduit.

  Still, the development of the Polisian production facility was going slower than expected. He had no desire to speed it up either. What if Nina is right? What if our leaders have less than noble intentions for our ships? If that happens, I will be responsible for the damage they cause. I have no desire for that kind of guilt. He had secretly, with Jason and Irina’s help, been increasing Polisia’s planetary defenses. It wouldn’t be too long before Polisia’s defenses were more powerful than any in the Coalition. He could at least do that in good conscience.

  While he was thinking about this whole situation, his mind drifted back to the explosion that had rocked Endeavor on her way into the conduit. In light of the attempts on his wife and Ariel’s lives, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the accident was something more than just unexploded ordinance. He had spent the last couple days going through the data when a thought occurred to him. Winter’s Edge was the closest ship to the accident, but Natora had never let them get a look at the footage. Now, however, Winter’s Edge was one of the decommissioned ships Serge was overseeing the upgrades to. He was surprised he hadn’t thought of it sooner, but his recent fighting with his wife had shaken his confidence. He seemed to be second-guessing himself a lot. If only Jesse were here, he’s always so calm in these situations and it gives me confidence. However, we are now in the worst situation we have ever been in and he is stuck in another galaxy for six months. He strode onto the bridge of the ship while techs were all buzzing about, rushing to complete assignments. He logged in to the database to see if anything remained of the records from that battle. As he searched the database, he knew that the actual battle footage would have been removed. He hoped that whoever Natora had tasked with completing the assignment was sloppy enough not to realize the accident had occurred over sixteen hours later. Serge was rewarded when he found the footage. The battle had been wiped clean. Five hours before until five hours after were missing. The explosion, however, was still in the data banks. He downloaded the information and took it back to his lab for further study. As he walked, he held his data pad right as if it were a treasure. What he was doing was technically illegal and he walked like guilty man, hoping he didn’t run into anyone that knew him well enough to see it.

  Serge eagerly went through the data and what he saw shocked him. The explosion was caused by one of SSE’s space mines. The mine would have had to be activated after the battle to attack Endeavor. Not only that, but the energy signature marked it as one of the mines dedicated to the Earth’s planetary defense system. Someone has used our own mines against us, he thought as he grew angry. The only possibility is that it had come on one of the reinforcements or rescue ships that came after the battle. This was no accident; someone had tried to kill Jesse. Emboldened by his find, his confidence began to return as his anger grew. He immediately sent word to his wife to call a meeting.

  Nina noticed a message flashing when she arrived in her office. “Nina, we need to speak. It is urgent. Gather up Manny, Ariel and Jason immediately.” Serge’s message certainly had Nina’s attention. What could it be that was so important? She knew he had been holed up in his lab, and she knew it was her fault. She would apologize soon enough, but she wanted him to cool down first. Now he wanted everyone together for an urgent meeting. It must be important, because Serge had never scheduled a meeting like this before.

  When Serge arrived, he was thankful that Nina had done what he had asked. He seated himself next to his wife and looked around at his coworker’s expectant eyes.

  “You are probably wondering what is so urgent. I know we are all busy, but I felt this could not wait. I have just found out that the plot against us began long before the attempts on Nina, Ariel and Manny.” They all had his attention as he took a deep breath steadying breath to continue. He couldn’t let his anger gain control, yet. “We are currently readying several decommissioned ships for war. One of which is the Winter’s Edge. On a hunch, I looked through the ship’s database, hoping for more clues as to what caused the explosion at the conduit. Footage from the battle had been erased up to five hours after the incident.”

  Nina knew she wasn’t going to like what was coming as she asked, “What did you find, Serge?”

  He smiled as he continued. “Natora’s men were sloppy, because the footage I needed happened sixteen hours after the incident. The explosion that hit Endeavor was from one of OUR mines, specifically one from Earth’s planetary defense system!” The look of shock that crossed his wife’s face was mirrored all around the table as the realization of what he had said hit them. “Admiral Natora was the only one with the authority to release one of those mines to be used elsewhere. His first assassination attempt was against Jesse, not any of us.”

  “No wonder he so adamantly kept us from the footage of the explosion.” Manny mused while Ariel nodded her head in agreement.

  “Serge, we need to bring this to the President immediately, at least to Admiral Bliney.” Nina was livid. They had taken a shot at her brother and she could not let it stand.

  “We can’t, Nina, Serge obtained the footage illegally.” Ariel sadly replied.

  “No he didn’t, those ships were voluntarily put into our possession by the military. We wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we were not spot checking databases.”

  “Do you think they are going to believe that we just happened to spot check the one piece of information we tried so hard to get our hands on eight months ago? Jason asked with a laugh.

  “It doesn’t matter what they believe, it only matters what they can prove. Trying to prove we didn’t spot check it will only make them look guilty when we go public with the information.” Manny informed. He was noticeably angry that high-ranking officials of the government he had served for so long could just callously try to eliminate one of its biggest heroes and brightest lights. “
Make a second copy, Serge, because the moment they hassle us, the information goes public. We will demand Natora’s arrest or the people will.”

  “We have to be more diplomatic than that,” Ariel pleaded. “I know this info makes us all very angry. Trust me, Jesse is my favorite person in the galaxy, but we cannot trample on the good people with the bad. Then we become just another bully with an ax to grind.”

  “I understand what you are saying, Ariel. I really do, but if our allies focus on how we got the information rather than what’s in the information, maybe they are not as “good” as we thought.” Nina was also visibly upset, but she had a point.

  “I don’t trust any of them, anyway, so I’m with Manny and Nina on this one.” Jason added with a smirk. As thoughts of Endeavor‘s crew filled his mind, he realized he might not wait for any of the others to act. Jesse is the one man that had believed in me when no one else would. He took a blaster bolt meant for Carmine to save my life. He got me a presidential pardon and gave me a great job when my prior life as a hacker was exposed and I almost lost everything, and he’s always been very kind to Raina. I’m not letting Natora get away with this.

  “This isn’t a vote, Jason, not yet at least. We are simply exploring all of the options. We will not make any decisions until we have all had a chance to cool down.” Serge intoned. If they came at this while they were all so visibly angry, it could spiral out of control very quickly.

  “Serge’s right,” Manny conceded. “We can’t decide what to do with this while we are all so angry about it. We should sit on it for a couple days and then revisit it.”

  “I agree,” Ariel concurred. My cousin had better be all right, or I’ll dismantle Earth’s power structure myself, bully or not, she thought as she sadly shook her head.

  “Fine,” Nina replied, still unhappy. “Let’s meet back in two days and let cooler heads prevail. In the meantime, watch your back. We all may be targets at this point.” She knew it was a good point, but she wanted retribution now. She was now really looking forward to her upcoming meeting with Ladyhawk.

  ______

  Supreme Commander Lucien was in the process of deciding which alien planet the Enclave would invade next when he received the transmission that he had been waiting for. His face lit up as he greeted his top spy. “Hello, my friend, I hope you bring me good news.”

  “I bring you great news, Lucien; Earth will be drastically increasing their military production. Both the Secretary of Defense and the Romanovs are planning increases to their production facilities that will more than double their output. I know that Earth’s ships are not as powerful as the Enclave ships, but with the SSE enhancements, they will make fine fodder for the aliens in our coming war. The real prize, of course, is the SSE ships, which are far more powerful than anything we or the aliens have. I know these are the ships you truly seek.”

  “Tell me, what kind of numbers are we looking at for the War Hawks and Leviathans?”

  “The SSE can currently produce up to forty-eight a year. Sixty if they are really motivated. But in one year’s time, they will finish a production facility that will be able to produce eighty to one hundred per year on top of the forty-eight. So we would be looking at one hundred thirty to one hundred sixty SSE ships a year, beginning next year. The other ships produced by Earth’s military will jump from eighty to two hundred per year. Add that to the already impressive production of the Enclave ship yards, and we should be able to dominate the aliens within the next ten years, Lucien.”

  “This is good news. Are you sure these production facilities will be up and running within the next year?”

  “Yes, they will, Lucien, President Sandoval is convinced that the more ships we put out, the less likely you or the aliens will be to come looking for trouble.”

  “What the fool doesn’t know is that he is building all of those ships for me.” He laughed an evil, soulless laugh as his spy continued.

  “I think until both production facilities are complete, we should hold off on any more assassination attempts on Nina Romanov, Ariel Marcos or President Sandoval. If any of them were to die before the completion of the facilities, it would delay completion greatly, especially on the SSE side.”

  “I agree. We will call off the plans for Nina Romanov and the President until the facilities are complete.”

  “You will have to reign in Natora; he hates the Marcos clan with a passion and is looking for a win since both Enclave attempts on them have failed.”

  “Don’t worry, I know how to handle Natora, I will promise him the one thing he wants most.”

  “What would that be, Lucien?”

  “I will let him personally kill Jesse Marcos once we have the SSE facilities. Until then, I will make him leave them alone. If they are worried about him, they will be distracted from building our ships. If Natora won’t get in line on this, he will be eliminated. Is there anything else?”

  “Just one last thing, there is a spy that goes by the name of Ladyhawk, she has uncovered many of our secrets. We need to eliminate her before she finds out we are in league with you.”

  “Make it happen, contact me when it is done.” As the transmission ended, Lucien smiled at the thought of all of those powerful SSE ships under his command. When that happens, the galaxy will quickly be mine. Lucien Drotorr, Supreme Commander of the Milky Way Galaxy. I have to admit, it had a nice ring.

  ______

  Nina had scheduled a meeting with Ladyhawk because she wanted to hire some mercenaries not tied to SSE in any way. She wanted mercenaries that Jesse would trust, and Ladyhawk was the only one likely to know who that might be. Manny might have a couple suggestions, but he would surely object to what it is she was proposing, so she was left with Ladyhawk. A meeting with Ladyhawk wasn’t like a meeting with a customer or business associate. A meeting with Ladyhawk was you waiting until she contacted you with instructions, and then you leaving instructions for the job you needed her to do. This would be a fairly simple assignment for the renowned spy as Nina only needed her to put her in contact with a mercenary willing to do wet work that Jesse would trust. Two days later, a file appeared in Nina’s office. There was no record of who had put it there, and the file was heavily encrypted. If you didn’t have the decryption key, you would not be looking at the information on the file. There was no known way to crack the encryption algorithms she used. If nothing else, she was incredibly cautious. When Nina had decrypted the file, the only information on it was a name with the corresponding contact information. The name was Maria Tejada. Nina recognized her name. She was one of the unit leaders Jesse had led into the Battle of Polisia against the Pack. Nina sighed, took a deep breath, picked up an untraceable line, and reached out to Maria.

  As Maria’s face filled the screen, Nina looked at her and began, “My name is Nina Romanov, I’m…”

  “Jesse Marcos’ sister, I know. The whole Coalition knows. How did you get my contact information, and what do you want?” Maria knew Jesse was out of reach and a contact from his family was the last thing she had ever expected. She knew it could only mean bad news.

  “A mutual friend of my brother’s gave it to me, and I would like to hire you.”

  “Hire me, what would the Coalition’s princess of business need with my services?”

  “As you may or may not be aware, there have been several recent attempts on my life and the life of my cousin Ariel. My cousin almost didn’t survive the last one, and is still recovering. What I need is someone who can find out who the perpetrator of these attacks is, and take them out before they can try again.”

  “Take them out?” The shock was evident in her voice. “I’ve got to admit, I’m very surprised to hear you ask me to do that.”

  “Why, do you not do that kind of work?” Nina’s confusion was evident in her voice.

  “No, it’s not that, it’s that usually when your brother hires me, he has more benevolent missions in mind.”<
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  “Benevolent?”

  “Protecting missionaries in the outer colonies, or helping a farmer stand up to a company trying to illegally seize his land, that sort of thing. You know, a good cause. I always get to feel good about myself for a little while after I work for your brother.”

  “I suppose taking out the people that are trying to kill his family does not fit into the category of benevolent.” Nina reflected sadly. She hated that it had come to this, but she felt like it really was them or her family.

  “Hold on, Nina, I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. I was merely surprised. Jesse saved my life on Polisia, and he never called in that marker. I feel like I need to help you.”

  “No one can know you are working for me, especially Jesse when he gets back.”

  “Agreed, now, do you have any idea who may want you dead or am I starting from scratch.”

  “No, I have a list. We believe it is a secret organization called the Enclave. The organization has twelve members and we have been able to identify eleven. I am forwarding you their names. I have to warn you, there are some pretty heavy hitters on this list.”