“Na’Tora is performing his duties well, Ki’Bonali,” Lee said, without waiting for the Tercero to end. “All of my officers are adjusting to his presence, as he is to ours.”
“The tales told of your adventures have been entertaining to us, and I see they do not overestimate your tact and facilities with language,” Ki’Bonali replied. “I hope to see more of you in action soon. Those stories are truly delightful. Are these officers the others I have heard about?”
Lee was uncomfortable. He had heard about the stories the Ch’Tauk were circulating about his actions during the war. Some of the commanders were elevating him to an undeserved legendary status. To have the creatures that had cost him his family and friends hold him in such esteem made his skin crawl. It wasn’t an honor for him, but he needed to preserve the alliance the admiral had created for the sake of the galaxy. In that vein, he managed a thin smile and a slight nod of graciousness. He neither cared, nor cared to know, if the alien knew what the gesture meant. It wasn’t for him anyway. Lee saw Chang grimace from the corner of his eye as he turned back towards his crew and introduced the staff. As expected, trying to introduce the Octopod was the most difficult part.
“Admiral,” Lee said after finishing, “this is all very nice but is there something we can do for you?”
“First things first, Lee,” Chang replied with a scowl. “Where is your chief medical officer?”
“Doctor Demsiri is still on leave at the Vadne medical conference. He should be back in a few days.”
“You’ll need to recall him immediately,” Chang said, turning back to the stage and mounting the short stage. “I need you at full staff within eighteen hours.”
“Eighteen hours?” Lee said, taking a step past Ki’Bonali. “We aren’t even in one piece, sir. What could you possibly want us to—”
“Lee, I need Alice to leave now,” Chang said suddenly. “I asked only the senior staff, and as far as I know she is not part of that command structure.”
Lee was dumbfounded. There had never been a time when he had held anything back from Alice, and he didn’t intend to start now. He felt her hand on his arm again and before he could reply to the admiral, she was around him. She shook her head softly, deflating his outrage with a quick nod. He understood. After the last few months and the admiral’s rescue, Lee had vowed not to let his personal life interfere with his duty any longer. If the admiral wanted Alice to leave, she was telling him she would. It didn’t matter anyway, he would tell her anything they discussed. Alice moved past him and out the door. As she left, she threw a sidelong glance at Kama Yu, who was uncharacteristically keeping her head down.
“Alright, Admiral,” Lee said as the door closed. “What are your orders?”
“Please take a seat,” Chang replied, throwing a glance at Lee that he could not decipher. “What I am about to tell you is classified and on a need to know basis with your crew. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Lee replied tightly.
“A week ago, we discovered a Gizzeen ship floating in space near Proximal Centauri,” Chang began, waving a hand across the podium and calling up a hologram of the blue energy field. “The ship was apparently damaged during the crossing. We discovered the cataract was not completely formed here. There were no other ships in the vicinity, so we outfitted a squadron with highly advanced scanners and sent them to learn whatever they could.”
The image solidified around a scout sized ship with a gaping hole in one side. Lee wondered how close the fighters must have gotten to the vessel to get such clear scans. The projection was remarkably detailed and Lee could make out a set of Ch’Tauk ships hovering just outside the blue energy field. His throat tightened as he saw several of the ships begin to move towards the scout ship. The admiral quickly stopped the projection with a wave of his hand and Lee guessed what had happened next.
“Two-thirds of the squadron was lost in getting this information for the Alliance,” Chang explained. “Our people have been analyzing the data and have found what we believe to be a weak point in their armor and weapons systems.”
Again, Lee was struck by the admiral’s revelation. For months, the Alliance had been losing ships to the Gizzeen advance. As each intrusion was detected, the fleet would move in ships and try to meet the threat. Each time, the results were the same. The Gizzeen were simply too well adapted to their home environment, and the energy fields were too disruptive to Alliance ships. If they had discovered a weakness, it might be enough to push the invaders back to their own universe.
“That’s amazing, Admiral,” Lee blurted. “When do we go after them?”
“It’s not that simple, Lee,” Chang replied. “We’ve got a lot more research to do before we can send a single ship after the threat.”
“So what are we doing here?” Lee asked, exasperated. “Why all the secrecy with my crew? If we’re not going after them, then what?”
“Resolute isn’t going after the Gizzeen in any case,” Chang said. “She’s not up to it and you know it. Even with the refit she’s nearly a century old and not nearly powerful enough to take on that kind of enemy.”
“We did fine last time,” Roy Booth spat at the admiral. “We’ll knock their toes all the way back to hell if we haf’ta.”
“Booth!” Lee ordered his chief engineer. “Stand down.”
Chang watched the exchange without expression. Booth glared back at Lee but didn’t say anything. The stout engineer crossed his arms and sat back in his seat. Lee turned back to the admiral, a sheepish expression on his face. Chang gave a slight nod to the captain.
“We are developing scenarios for a possible attack. We are going to be conducting a series of war games in Tonal space. We are ordering Resolute to take part in these games to help the Alliance develop tactics against the Gizzeen.”
“With all due respect—” Lee started before being cut off.
“I’m not interested in your protests, Captain. Your orders are clear. Report to the Tonal sector in twenty-four hours and take part in the games. Is that clear enough for you?”
“Aye,” Lee said through gritted teeth. “I understand my orders and will recall my crew immediately.”
“I know you are without a new comm officer since Captain Farthing was promoted, so I am assigning Kama Yu to Resolute for the duration of your new mission.”
“I understand, sir.”
“And Lee,” Chang replied. “You will be taking part in these exercises with the Ch’Tauk military. Is that going to be a problem?”
Lee kept his eyes forward and his head up. He wanted to shout back at the admiral to go to hell, but held his tongue. Everything about the mission was wrong and he wanted to shove his orders down the throat of the man for whom he had recently held such high esteem. He took a deep breath and relaxed his jaw.
“Orders received,” Lee said. “Will there be anything else, sir?”
“Kama can give you the details of the mission,” Chang said, gathering his flimsy and the Ch’Tauk officer. “I’ll be on board the Baal if you have any questions.”
Lee watched the man leave. For some reason, he had a feeling it was the last time he would see his former friend alive, but shook it off.
The trouble is, Lee thought, I don’t know which of us has to die to make that come true.
3
For the next ten hours, Lee Pearce did not stop moving. There were a million things to see to when launching a ship after a total refit. The majority of his time was spent in the engine room with Roy Booth though, as the burly engineer seemed to find fault with every piece of equipment he hadn’t personally installed. The new generators were configured differently than most and Booth wanted to shut the whole thing down and crawl inside and see the differences. These final checks would have been done over the next few weeks if it had not been for the admiral’s updated schedule. After receiving assurances from the argumentative Tonal engineers who had done the installation, Lee left Booth to stew amidst his machinery.
When Doctor Demsiri arrived, Lee was waiting for him. Despite the journey from Vadne and the sudden departure, the man looked better than Lee had seen him in years. The war and subsequent battles had forced a deep depression on the chief medical officer. His dark skin now seemed refreshed and nearly young again as he boarded and shook hands with the captain. It only took a few minutes, however, before the man ordered Lee to at least three hours of rest. It was useless to argue with the doctor. Lee knew he had gone too long without sleep. He begged off the prescription the man offered and headed to his quarters for some rack time.
Leaving the ship in the hands of the Ch’Tauk first officer galled Lee. It was bad enough to have the former enemy on the ship, but to actually turn over his beloved Resolute to the alien for any reason seemed like a betrayal. Resolute had taken enough poundings from the Ch’Tauk and others over the years. He felt as if the ship was now being turned over to the enemy. As he strode down the corridor to his room, however, his only thoughts were of sleep, and maybe a little time with his future wife. There wasn’t, after all, much the alien could do to his ship in dry dock.
Lee reached for the panel to open the door to his quarters and was startled to walk face-first into a wall. In his exhaustion, he had forgotten that, although structurally the ship was the same, some cosmetic changes had been made, including moving the door to the captain’s quarters exactly one meter aft of its former location. He stood with his nose against the wall for a moment, savoring the cool metal against his face, glad everyone else on the ship was busy and no one had seen his mistake. Chagrined, he slid down the hall and pressed the actual panel to his room.
Cool air hit his face as the door quietly moved aside. Alice set the temperature controls a few degrees lower in their quarters. Lee had grown up in the American Southwest, where temperatures were a bit higher than the California hills where she was raised. He liked the change, but sometimes felt a little cooler than he was comfortable. As the door slid shut he pondered the idea of just dropping face-first into the soft bunk, but decided he needed a quick shower first.
Stripping off his uniform, he moved into the small head and activated the shower. The ship was now equipped with voice command recognition, but he preferred to use the controls. Voice commands always got the water too hot or cold unless you were precise in the order. He showered quickly and toweled off. The wisps of steam clung to him as he moved back into the bedroom for some underwear. There, he noticed the message light on his desk blinking. It was an odd thing to have a message now, as he had been available for the last twenty-four hours to take any calls. He slipped on his briefs and moved to the desk, tapping the comm controls with his left hand.
“Lee,” the voice of Admiral Ronald Chang sprang from the small speaker. “I know this isn’t the right time for this but I needed to leave a message where I knew you and only you would receive it. If Alice is there, I think I need her to hear this too…”
Lee palmed the message closed. The sound of his commander’s voice was like an electric shock through his system. Chang had been distant with Lee ever since the accord with the Ch’Tauk had been signed. In fact, the admiral had been distant since Lee had risked his life and ship to rescue the man from an Alliance prison only to find he hadn’t really needed rescuing. Lee had felt betrayed by the man’s dishonesty. The peace accord they had reached with the enemy of every human being had been a slap in the face to all of humanity, but Chang had acted like it was a miracle cure for the galaxy.
Lee sat down on the small chair by the desk and took a deep breath. Whatever the admiral wanted could wait. If he hadn’t been able to say it to his face, it couldn’t have been important. Something in what the man had said, though, nagged at Lee’s mind. He was still thinking about it when the door opened and an exhausted Alice Bennett strode in.
“Oh,” she said, seeing him sitting in his underwear. “Were you waiting for me?”
“No …well, not really,” he said, not looking away from the blinking red light on the comm. “You’re home early. I thought you were supervising the arrival of the Demons.”
“I was,” she said, stepping over and dropping into his lap. “Seems, though, that our new flight deck officer didn’t need my help, and asked me to go away.”
Lee smiled up at Alice. The new officer was his own former wingman, William Richter. The man had formerly been known by his call-sign Baron, but a planted explosion had cost the pilot his arm. Although still a capable pilot, Lee had chosen to promote the man to the flight deck officer of Resolute. The refurbished hangar deck required more than just a passing maintenance crew to maintain the unique ships the battleship carried. Baron would see to it his pilots, commanded by his own wife Jacqueline, were in top shape before any engagement.
“Well, it’s about time we had someone, and I couldn’t think of anyone better suited to take care of my pilots than one of our own,” Lee replied, turning his head back to the blinking light. “In any case, I think we both need to get some rest.”
“Lee,” Alice said, turning her head to the comm as well. “What’s that?”
“It’s a message,” Lee said, “from the admiral.”
Alice turned back to look at Lee. Both had been hurt by the man and neither wanted to listen to anything he had to say, but there was still a loyalty to the officer. Alice had suffered under the hands of the Ch’Tauk for almost a year before a twist of fate had allowed her to escape. Much of Lee’s activity during that year had been at Chang’s request, to keep him sane and moving and trying to find her. For that she owed him some measure of loyalty, except the accord with the Ch’Tauk had stretched her loyalty past the breaking point. Both of them knew if the message was sent here, at this late hour, it was probably meant for both of them and it was likely personal.
“What did he say?” Alice asked, sliding off Lee’s lap and stepping into the head.
“I don’t know. I haven’t listened to more than the introduction. I’m not sure I want to hear what he has to say. Whatever it is, it’s not about the mission. He said you could listen.”
“How very magnanimous of him,” Alice replied, tossing her flight suit back into the room and turning on the shower. “I guess we’re important to him again. I wonder what he wants to use us for this time.”
Lee waited while she washed off her day. At any other time he might have joined her, but now he was too tired and too stressed to think about it. She came back into the room naked and pulled back the sheets. As she slid into bed, he felt the desire to join her, but the little red light continued to blink, taunting him with the choice to answer it. In the end, it was never really a choice. As with most things with Admiral Ronald Chang, you were simply meant to think you had a choice when all along he controlled you. Lee reached out and pressed the comm again, resetting the message.
“Lee, I know this isn’t the right time for this, but I needed to leave a message where I knew you and only you would receive it. If Alice is there, I think she should hear this too. I owe both of you my life and the lives of the galaxy several times over. I suppose the first thing I should do is say I’m sorry—”
Lee’s hand came down hard on the control. Alice let out a small sound at the impact but did not say anything. Of all the things he had expected, the sound of Ronald Chang apologizing was the least likely choice. It enraged Lee. The man was arrogant and controlling and he knew the apology was building to something even bigger, some vast scheme which would probably put his ship and crew in deadly danger. He held his open palm over the comm for a long minute before looking back to Alice. She held the sheet over her breasts, trying to show a proper modesty in the presence of his anger. Finally she nodded to him and he slid his hand back over the panel.
“…for the way I have been treating you. You and your crew risked your lives and careers to come to my aid after the peace conference fiasco and I acted like a total ass. On top of that, I was responsible for the bomb that killed your father. For that, I am truly, deeply sorry. I know that doesn�
�t mean much, and the arrangements I made to keep Everett’s body safe don’t begin to make up for my part in his death. I assume you hate me for all this and I don’t blame you. I believe I hate myself even more.”
Lee’s hand brushed the control again. This time he stood and began to pace. The mention of Everett Pearce and his internment on the Vadne home world in a state mausoleum was still a point of hardship for Lee. When Resolute had been taken into dry dock, the body had been removed from its place of honor below decks before Lee could stop it. Chang had ordered the equivalent of a hero’s wake for the old man, and for that Lee was grateful, but he still wanted to return his father’s body to Earth and felt betrayed by the admiral’s presumption.
“Computer, resume playback,” Alice called.
“I need to explain a few things to both of you,” Chang’s voice continued. Lee stared at his fiancée. “A lifetime ago, the Engineers came to me and told me about the Gizzeen. Lee I don’t know if you have ever seen one of those things scared, but I have, and it is not something I ever want to experience again. As we understand them, the Engineers are trans-dimensional beings who travel from one universe to another like we walk from a room to another. They have powers at the atomic level we can’t even dream about, and this one was scared.
“They explained the Gizzeen are a ruthless race from the other side of M-space. After the war they came again and showed me images from the other side. You wouldn’t believe these things, Lee. The ships they fly are alive. They have been bred to travel the stars and transcend space and time as we know it. Their universe is almost infinitely older than ours. On their side, they are the dominant species, and they have run out of space to conquer. They have either enslaved every other race or destroyed them, and somehow they discovered our universe.”
“They created a whole new type of physics and melded their bio-technology with machinery to cross over. The transition weakens their ships and their bodies, though, and that’s why we needed to be ready for them. While they are trapped in the cataracts they are still vulnerable. Once their ships complete the crossing and adapt to our vibrational frequency, we will not be able to stop them. That’s why I pushed for the Alliance so hard, Lee. That’s why I needed to clear away any chance of insurrection which would slow down the rise of the technology we needed to fight these things. I was wrong, though, in the timetable. We aren’t ready and they are getting stronger each time they cross over. If we don’t break them, and soon, we may not have any home to return to.”
Resolute Strike (The War for Terra Book 7) Page 3
