The two Sovereign Angels on guard opened the doors for him to enter. It always struck him as slightly humorous that with Fleet Command mere steps from the Capital, and all of the modern weaponry at their disposal, the royal family still chose to have their own private bodyguards utilizing armor and swords. More for a grand appearance, I suppose. It was something to ponder later. Right now, he had more important things to deal with.
"Admiral Hawthorne, have you received word from the border? Did the salvage ship find anything?" The Queen asked as soon as he approached the dais that her throne sat upon.
"No, Your Majesty," he replied. "There is no trace of the ship. Whatever kind of weapon that was used to attack the ship must have disintegrated it."
"Hmm. Are we aware of anyone with such weapons tech?" she questioned.
"Not to my knowledge," Hawthorne answered. "It was rumored that an outlaw weapons dealer from the Rylan Protectorate was attempting it, but his warehouse was destroyed and he and his entire gang of criminals died in the explosion. Their research also destroyed with them."
"So someone else may have decided to take a try at disintegration technology," the Queen pondered aloud.
"Perhaps, but there's more to the report." Hawthorne took a slow breath before continuing. "Sentry Command has picked up an intermittent contact inside the Quarantine Zone, but it is at the very edge of their sensor range. It doesn't appear to be moving either. Like it knows how far we can see and is waiting to see what we are going to do."
"That definitely is not good," the Queen sighed. "I want to send someone in to check it out. I'll have to relay our findings to the Rylans. Per our agreement, neither side can send any ships into the QZ without the other side approving it. However, we can have our people in position at the border waiting for the go-ahead."
"Agreed, Your Majesty," Hawthorne nodded. "I'll have the nearest Dreadnought diverted to Sentry Command."
"Actually, I was thinking something a bit less noticeable," the Queen explained. "I want to send a squadron of Sovereign Angels to investigate. They report directly to me, so it will keep things quiet for the time being. You, of course, will attend any briefings." The Queen thought for a moment. "I know which squadron to send. Valkyrie. The Lieutenant in command, Danielle Hart, and I went through command academy together. We were squad partners my last two years, and I know I can trust her discretion. I'll dispatch orders to them at once. I believe they are stationed on the Expedition currently. Please have it diverted to Sentry Command."
"At once, Your Majesty." Hawthorne clicked his heels and bowed before leaving the throne room.
CHAPTER 2
The C.S. Expedition was the newest of the Pathfinder class of ships fresh from the Terran shipyards. Other than a few short test voyages, this was her first run. Her first mission was to explore the Quarantine Zone and see if the cause of all the disappearances could be discovered. The Pathfinder class ships have long been the favorite means of travel for the Sovereign Angels. Large enough to carry a squadron and their Talon class ships, small enough to get in and out of areas without being detected, courtesy of Pathfinder's ionic camouflage.
For Lieutenant Danielle Hart, ships like the Expedition had become home. As squadron leader of the Valkyrie Squadron, she was never in one place very long and from time to time it would make her miss being stationed somewhere permanent. They were always going from situation to situation, where ever Queen Constance wanted them. Sometimes I wish I was back on guard duty. At least then I had a little bit of downtime, she thought.
The Valkyrie Squadron was one the three Sovereign Angels tactical groups. These groups handled situations for the Crown that were considered too delicate for normal military channels or fell outside the military's operational scope. If the Queen wanted Valkyrie here there must be a reason, but at the moment she didn't feel like sharing it with them. Such was her royal prerogative. It wasn't the first time they had been dispatched somewhere with no information other than a destination, but Danielle never liked it. Hard to start planning a strategy if you have no clue what is going on. She would figure things out. She always did.
As Danielle walked down the corridor she wondered what they would find inside this restricted area of space. There have been so many rumors about the Quarantine Zone. Rumors that spanned from the ancient V'drellians hiding to space monsters from another dimension. Yeah, like either one of those is true. She chuckled.
"LT, have you ever been this close to the QZ?" asked Lakeisha Johnson. Lakeisha had come through command academy a year behind Danielle, but they had been dorm mates during Danielle's last two years and they became close friends. When Lakeisha applied to the Sovereign Angels, Danielle requested that she be assigned to Valkyrie Squadron. Danielle knew that Lakeisha had a hard life growing up. She was the only child of a single mother, and her mom had died the year before she joined the academy.
"No, I haven't," she responded. "I guess this will be a new experience for all of us. Time to ghost hunting."
"Ghosts? So, you don't think the V'drellians are still out there?" Lakeisha asked with a curious look on her face.
"A race of warriors bent on conquering the universe, yet no one has seen in five hundred years?" Danielle said rhetorically. "No, they're long gone. If they were still around, don't you think we'd have seen them by now? Yet, there have been no sightings, no sensor contacts, no nothing." Leave it to Keisha to believe in things that go bump in the night.
“So, Miss Smartypants, what do you think is out there? Must be something, or the Queen wouldn’t have sent us.” Lakeisha shot back.
Danielle turned to look out one of the portals in the corridor wall. She could see countless stars. They reminded that the universe still has many unanswered questions and this was one of them. “I don't know, but this is the first time that the Commonwealth and the Protectorate have agreed to allow anyone into the QZ. I’m sure that is the reason why we are here. The Queen wants it handled 'delicately'. Since we report directly to her, she can find out what is going on without involved the entire Fleet chain of command."
The sound of the public address system interrupted their conversation. "Lt. Hart, the Captain requests that you come to his office."
Danielle walked over to the wall console and keyed the intercom system. "Hart to Bridge, on my way." She turned back to face Lakeisha. "I'm guessing we've arrived. Rally the troops, and meet me on the hangar deck."
"We'll be ready. Just don't take too long getting down there or we may start the party without you!" replied Lakeisha over her shoulder as she turned and walked back down the corridor.
***
As she rode the lift to the bridge deck, she couldn't help but let her mind wander back to her conversation with Lakeisha. What are we going to find out here? The question kept gnawing at her. The Rylans said that they had sent ships in years ago and that they never came back. She didn't believe in ghosts, but was it possible that the V'drellians were still alive? She doubted it. Entire races don't simply vanish. Do they? If so, what caused it? Some kind of extinction level event? Perhaps a star went nova in the sector? No, that couldn't be it. The residual energy signatures would have been easy to find. Not to mention that an event of that size would have been detected by the Rylans.
The lift stopped and she stepped onto the bridge. Here the command staff and bridge officers directed the operations of the ship. The Expedition bridge was brightly lit and very pristine, almost what one would expect from a surgical suite. As she stood there she couldn't help but think, It still has that new ship smell. To her left was the weapons officer station, and just beyond that was the sensor officer station. To her right was the engineering officer station. So many displays constantly updating the various status' of the ship. Past the displays was the communication officer station, which seemed utilitarian beside the engineering station. Directly in front of her was the holo-core, a holographic device that was connected directly to all the ship systems. This system displayed a young woman's face most of
the time. Capable of operating the ship's systems autonomously, the Automated Logistics, Intelligence, and Combat Entity could maintain control of the ship in the event of a crew-wide catastrophe. In other words, she, if AI systems had a gender, was the heart and brains of the ship.
When Danielle took her next step, the holographic face immediately turned toward her. "Good afternoon, Lt. Hart. The Captain is waiting for you in his office."
"Thank you, ALICE." Danielle walked to the left side of the holo-core and toward a door that was to the right of the sensor station. She pressed the small comms panel beside the door. "Lt. Hart, sir. You wanted to see me?"
"Come in, Lieutenant." a male voice said through the panel speaker.
Upon entering the room, one would immediately realize just how recently this crew had been assembled. The most captain's personal decor items were still in boxes in the corner of the office. The captain, Brady Reynolds, was probably forty years old. Slim, with a thick head of light brown and gray hair, he was often referred to by his former crew members as 'Captain Maverick', though never to his face. He was known to skirt the rules when it suited him. "Have a seat, Lt. Hart. We received an encoded message for you from the capital." He handed a tablet to her, and she entered her security code. "Does your message have any bearing on my crew or my ship?"
Danielle read the message twice to make sure she memorized every word, then she deleted it. She could tell that it was eating at him that the message didn't come to him first. "In a manner of speaking, Captain." she finally answered. "Her Majesty wants Valkyrie Squadron to perform interior scans of the QZ sector where the two incidents occurred."
"I assumed as much," he nodded. "We'll come in behind to offer any support you might need."
"Actually, the Expedition is only cleared to approach the border, not cross it." Danielle corrected him. "Only our Talons have been cleared for entry into the QZ." She could see the anger and disappointment in his eyes and knew that he, like so many others, wanted to be the first Fleet captain to cross into the Quarantine Zone.
"I see," he responded curtly. "That will be all, Lieutenant." He dismissed her abruptly.
She stood, nodded to him, turned and left. What a complete jerk! She thought as she left his office. As she walked back to the lift she tried to put him out of her mind.
As Danielle walked by the holo-core she heard ALICE speak. "Lt. Hart, I wanted to tell you that the Talons on board have been upgraded with the new Mark VIII pulse cannons you requested. Also, the Talon computer system has been upgraded to include a copy of my neural matrix, so I can assist you in your duties."
"So, you're going to be on my ship, ALICE?" Danielle asked curiously.
"Not me exactly, Lieutenant." ALICE went on to explain. "You will have a copy of my neural matrix. So your ship will have an independent copy of me on board."
"Never had an autopilot in a Talon before," Danielle smirked. "You can wake me when the job is done."
"I'm much more than a mere autopilot, Lieutenant," ALICE almost seemed offended.
"I know, ALICE," Danielle grinned. "Glad to have you aboard. Tell the crew on the hanger deck that I'm on my way down," she said as she entered the lift and pressed the button for the hanger deck.
***
The hanger deck was a flurry of activity. The mech crews were getting the Talons ready for flight, and the pilots and tech officers were getting suited up. She loved the smells of the hanger. The smell of grease and oil as the mech crews performed final adjustments. The smell of ozone, as each engine was test fired. This was her favorite moment. The anticipation of once again flying through the reaches of space. Oh, how she loved it!
As Danielle walked out onto the deck, one of the tech officers jumped up, saluted, and shouted "Commander on deck!" All of the remaining flight crew likewise stood and saluted. Even though she was technically a Lieutenant and not a Commander, the tradition in the Commonwealth Fleet and the Sovereign Angels by extension was to refer to the senior ranking officer of a combat flight squadron as 'Commander' because that officer had command of the squadron. As far as Valkyrie Squadron was concerned during flight operations, she was their Commander, their Captain, their Admiral. She was the final authority outside the Queen herself. She had been in command of Valkyrie for a bit over six years now, and her squadron admired and respected her.
"At ease," she said returning their salute. "We are about to go where no Terran has ever been. We have been given a mission to explore an area of space just inside the QZ. The Queen has instructed us to find out what happened to the patrol craft, and find out what is lurking out there. We will do both without fail. This is being treated as a combat mission because we don't know what is out there. It might be nothing. It might be something. We won't know until we get out there, so we have been given combat clearance on weapons. Trust your instincts. Trust your wing leaders. Come back safe." she said concluding her briefing. "Mount up! Launch in ten!"
She walked toward her Talon and saw Lakeisha already suited up and waiting. She began putting on her bio-armor that also served as a space suit worn by all flight crews in the Fleet. Although it looked heavy, most of it was made of a nano-carbon material which was extremely strong yet very lightweight. The nanotechnology built into it would read the neural impulses of the wearer, making the armor much like a second skin. As she put on a glove, she could feel the slight tingle of the nanotechnology linking to her nerves. She rubbed the gloved hand with her other one and could feel the touch through the glove like it wasn't there. Almost the entire surface of the suit was neural linked once put on. I don't think I'll ever get used to this technology. I always feel naked in one of these suits. She laughed in her mind. Once suited, she climbed the ladder and crawled into the cockpit. Lakeisha was already in the back seat checking the ship systems. Danielle pulled the cockpit down and locked it. She heard the familiar hiss as the canopy locked into place and the cabin pressurized. She looked out the glass and gave the deck crew leader a thumbs up to signal that she was ready for launch. The deck crew rolled her Talon to the launch area. When her ship was in position, the deck crew leader gave her a thumbs up signaling she was in position and the deck crew was clear. She flipped the toggle switch for the engine and felt the rumble as the power core began warming up.
"All systems go. Power core is green." Lakeisha said over the comms system.
"Confirmed." she acknowledged. "Valkyrie One to Expedition, we are green, and request permission to launch."
"You are ‘go’ for launch, Valkyrie One. Good hunting!" came the reply.
Upon receiving clearance, she placed her hands on the controls, and pulled the yoke back slightly, feeling the ship gently lift off the deck. She looked at the blackness in front of her. Hello, old friend. I'm back. Danielle then eased the yoke forward and the ship began floating toward the hanger bay opening.
Once her ship had cleared the operating zone for the Expedition, she eased off the yoke and let the ship float. She watched as, one by one, the rest of the squadron launched and cleared the Expedition. When the last Talon was clear, she keyed her mic. "Form up on your wing leaders. Green Leader, take left of my position. Red Leader, take the right of me. Follow me in, nice and easy." The squadron of Talons began slowly approaching the border to the QZ. Danielle's Talon was in the lead, as they crossed a border never before crossed by Terrans.
"Congratulations, Danni. You just became the first Terran to ever enter the QZ," Lakeisha said, a lilt in her voice. "Got any words to record for this historical moment?"
"Yeah," Danielle replied. "Let's hope it's as easy getting out as it was getting in," she said seriously. "Stay frosty, people! We've got space to scan, so let's get moving!"
***
The squadron made a full sweep of the area but found nothing. No sensor readings of any kind. If something had been here, it was long gone now. Danielle opened a comms channel. "Valkyrie One to Expedition, we're not reading anything out here. Returning to ship."
"Negative, Valkyr
ie One," came the response. She recognized the voice of Captain Reynolds. "Our sensor arrays are more powerful than yours. Hold your position, and we will come to you."
"Captain, the Queen's orders were specific. The Expedition was not cleared for entry into the QZ, only our Talons," countered Danielle. "It was our job to scan the area, and the area is clean. Do not enter the QZ."
"May I remind you that you are a Lieutenant, and I am a Captain!" Reynolds barked. "You do not give me orders! I am the senior officer in the area, not you. If you did your job right, I wouldn't need to come in and clean up after you. We've lost a ship, and have had several faint contacts in this area, so yes, there is something out here, Lieutenant! Reynolds out."
"Keisha, send a message to the Queen," Danielle ordered. "Inform her that Captain Reynolds is defying her orders and bringing the Expedition into the QZ."
"I'd love to, but can't," replied Lakeisha. "I can't get a clear signal to Mars. In fact, I can't get a comms signal from anything outside this immediate area. You don't think that Captain Reynolds is blocking the signal, do you?"
"Doesn't matter," Danielle answered. "He's finished. He directly defied an order from the Queen. He's looking at a court-martial at the least, and maybe worse, depending on how upset the Queen gets."
The Expedition had crossed the border and was making its way to their position. It was close enough now that they could see it as a faint dot in the distance that was slowly getting bigger. Suddenly the Expedition exploded in a bright flash. Emerging from the flash was some kind of ship! What... is that? Danielle wandered, but quickly put it out of her mind as smaller ships started emerging from it. "Evasive maneuvers!" she shouted into the comm link in her helmet. "The Expedition is down! I repeat, Expedition is down!" The small alien ships began systematically attacking and destroying the Talons one by one. We've been ambushed! The realization of what was happening made her entire body tense up. Her mind shifted from reconnaissance mode back to fighter pilot in an instant. The old familiar cold chill started running down the back of her neck. She used to get that feeling when she was participation in combat training in the academy. She hadn't felt it in a long time, and it wasn't any more welcome now than when she was training. These things are fast! She tried to get a weapons-lock on several, but the computer just couldn't keep up with the enemy movement. As one of the ships flew past her canopy and locked onto another Talon close by, she tried to lock on long enough for a scan. "Keisha, can you get a reading on these ships? What are they?"
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