by Ryk Brown
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
The Frontiers Saga Part 2: Rogue Castes
Episode #2: Rescue
Copyright © 2016 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
CHAPTER ONE
Captain Tuplo stared at Josh as if he had lost his mind, but the young man looked serious, and in all the years Connor had known Josh, the talkative pilot had never been able to keep a straight face for long. The captain studied the faces of the four visitors in Ghatazhak-style combat armor. All of them looked stoic as well, but from what he had heard about the Ghatazhak, he expected as much.
Finally, he looked at Marcus. “You want to tell me what’s going on here, Taggart?”
“You’re not Connor Tuplo,” Marcus said. “You’re Nathan Scott.”
“Nathan Scott, Captain Nathan Scott, captain of the Aurora. The guy from Earth.”
“That’s right.”
“And you’ve known this for how long?”
“Well, as long as we’ve known you, I suppose.”
Connor looked at Josh. “By we, I assume he means you as well?”
“Yes, sir,” Josh replied.
“Are you kidding me?” Neli exclaimed in disbelief.
“Oh, I don’t believe this!” Dalen said with excitement. “I’m flyin’ with Na-Tan!”
“There’s no way that Connor Tuplo is Na-Tan,” Neli insisted.
“I agree,” Connor added.
“Marcus and Josh were assigned to look after you, Nathan,” Jessica explained, taking another step toward him.
“Don’t call me that,” Connor snapped. “I’m not Nathan Scott. I told you, I’m Connor Tuplo, owner and captain of the Seiiki.”
“You see?” Neli said.
“You’re Nathan Scott,” Jessica said, “and the ship you think you own is actually named the Mirai, and technically it is owned by Deliza Ta’Akar.”
“Then how did I end up with it?” Connor wondered.
“It’s a long, complicated story, Nathan.”
“I told you…”
“I’m sorry,” Jessica apologized. “I’ll call you Connor for now, if it will make you feel better.”
“It will make me feel better if someone will tell me the truth,” Connor told her impatiently.
“We’re tryin’ to, Cap’n,” Josh insisted. “You are Nathan Scott. Well, technically, you’re a copy of yourself.”
“What?”
“Josh!” Jessica chided. “Maybe you should let me do the talking?”
“Sorry.”
“Oh, this is great!” Dalen exclaimed.
“A copy?” Connor said doubtfully. “Of myself? Like a clone, or something?”
“Yes.”
Connor didn’t know what to think at this point. “Let’s just assume for a moment that I believe you…which I don’t. How is it that I don’t know who I really am? Does it have something to do with the crash?”
“The crash is just a story they planted in your head,” Jessica replied. “Look, I’ll explain everything to you, I promise. But not here. This place is within the Jung’s single-jump range. We need to get someplace further away, someplace safe.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Neli agreed.
“Shut up, Neli,” Marcus scolded.
“I’d love to go with you, lady,” Connor said, “but I’ve barely got enough propellant left for one cycle, so, unless you’re offering to pay me, or at least fill up my tanks, I’m afraid we’re staying put.”
“Come with us, and we will give you all the propellant you can carry,” General Telles promised.
“What do we have to do for it?” Connor asked suspiciously.
“Just come with us to Burgess, and hear us out, that’s all we ask,” Jessica assured him.
“Burgess?” Connor said in surprise. “In the Sherma system?”
“That’s the place.”
Connor looked at Jessica and the general for a moment, then at Josh and Marcus.
“It’ll get us off this rock, and what, like a hundred light years away from the Jung?” Marcus pointed out.
“One hundred eleven, point eight six, to be exact,” General Telles corrected.
“That would take us completely out of the Pentaurus sector,” Neli realized. “That would be a damn good start.”
“No strings attached?” Connor asked.
“None,” Jessica promised him.
“And after I hear you out, if I still don’t believe you?”
“You’re free to leave.”
“To go anywhere we want,” Connor added, just to make sure.
“Anywhere you want,” Jessica confirmed. “We’ll even give you a list of systems where you could pick up some runs to keep you going.”
“What makes you think we can’t get some here?” Connor wondered.
“The fact that you’re almost out of propellant and out here in the middle of nowhere means you probably don’t have the funds to pay Haven’s meager port fees,” General Telles said. He looked at the damaged cargo ramp. “And your ship appears to be in need of repair. Since the Jung have locked down the Pentaurus cluster, and will most likely do the same to the entire sector before long, your options appear somewhat limited.”
“Something will turn up,” Connor said.
“Something has,” Jessica told him. “Us.” She stepped even closer to Connor, standing less than a meter away. “Look at me,” she said, gazing into his eyes. “Tell me you don’t remember me.”
Connor stared into her eyes, hoping he’d be able to recognize her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered sadly.
Jessica’s spirits fell. “That’s okay,” she said quietly. She looked up at him again. “Because I do remember you. Come with us, let us tell you what happened to you. What really happened to you. What have you got to lose?”
Connor continued looking at her, captivated by the genuine sincerity in her eyes.
“You can always return to this place afterward, if you so choose,” General Telles added. “We can even help you repair your ship.”
Connor thought for a moment, weighing his options, then quickly realizing that he had very few. “Very well,” he sighed. “I’ll hear you out. But after you fill up our propellant tanks.”
“You have my word,” General Telles replied. “Shall we depart?”
“Everyone, back inside,” Connor ordered as he turned around and started up the ramp. “We’re going to Burgess.”
“We’re not coming back here, right?” Neli asked, as she followed Marcus up the ramp.
* * *
The Seiiki’s cockp
it windows filled with dust as she slowly lifted off the ground, leaving the dusty old molo farm behind.
“Jump us to orbit,” Captain Tuplo instructed Josh, in a very matter-of-fact tone. “I don’t want to waste the propellant on a standard climb out.”
“Even Haven has jump rules…”
“Just do it,” the captain stated, cutting him off.
“If you’re worried about Jess going back on her word…”
Captain Tuplo gave Josh a disapproving sidelong glance. “Do I have to take the controls, Josh?”
“No, sir,” Josh replied as he punched in the jump parameters and started the ship forward. “Jumping to orbit.”
The cockpit windows turned opaque. When they cleared two seconds later, they were filled with the blackness and stars of space to their right, and the gas giant that Haven orbited to their left.
“Use just enough propellant to get Tikka’s gravity to pull us away from Haven, then jump us to outside the system so we don’t have to burn as long to change course for Sherma,” the captain ordered.
“I know how to do a minimum-propellant departure, Cap’n,” Josh replied defensively. “Besides, they’ll give us the propellant, I’m tellin’ ya…”
“Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it, Josh,” the captain snapped.
Josh altered the Seiiki’s course just enough to steer it toward the looming gas giant. “Are you mad at me, Cap’n?”
“I’m mad at somebody, that’s for sure. I just haven’t figured out who yet.”
“How do you mean?” Josh wondered.
“Someone is lying to me.”
“No one is lying to you, Cap’n.”
Captain Tuplo looked at Josh. “The way I figure it, either all of you are lying, or they are telling the truth, and you and Marcus have been lying to me all along. Either way, I figure I have a right to be mad at somebody.”
Josh was silent. He continued monitoring the ship’s movement away from Haven and toward the gas giant, waiting for the right moment to execute the jump that would take them well outside the system, and away from its gravitational influences.
After several minutes, Josh finally spoke. “You know, we were just following orders.”
“So, you didn’t resign from the Alliance,” the captain accused.
“No, we resigned, all right. We had to. Rescuing you was going against orders.”
“If you resigned, then whose orders were you following?”
“Jessica’s,” Josh replied flatly. “In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not exactly someone you wanna piss off.” Josh checked the navigation display again. “We’ll be at our jump point in two minutes.” He looked back at Captain Tuplo. “Look, Cap’n, if you wanna be mad at me, that’s fine. But we’re telling you the truth. You are Nathan Scott, not Connor Tuplo. And Nathan Scott would understand why we did what we did.”
Captain Tuplo sighed. “That’s the problem, Josh. I’m not Nathan Scott. Even if you’re all telling the truth, and I am a clone, I don’t have Nathan Scott’s memories. I have mine…Connor Tuplo’s…or at least those from the last six years. As far as I know, that’s who I am.”
“Just hear them out, Cap’n,” Josh begged.
“I intend to. We need the propellant, as well as the list of potential systems to fly, assuming they keep their word.”
“You really don’t believe them?”
“No, I don’t.” He looked at Josh. “Would you, if you were me?”
“I’d at least want to listen,” Josh argued, “and not just to fill my tanks, but to try to find out the truth about my past. You’re always talking about bits and pieces of memories that you can’t string together. Maybe it’s finally time to fill in all the blanks.”
“That’s what worries me,” Captain Tuplo admitted.
“Whattaya mean?”
“I mean, why now? Why not six years ago?” He looked at Josh. “There’s more to this than all of you are letting on, isn’t there?”
Josh sighed, realizing he had said too much already. “Just… Just hear them out. That’s all.”
* * *
Josh jumped down off the end of the Seiiki’s damaged cargo ramp, onto the tarmac at the Lawrence Spaceport on Burgess. “Sorry it took us so long,” he said to Jessica and the general as they approached. “Cap’n wanted to fly a low-consumption departure. I hope the controllers here aren’t going to be too angry about our jumping in so low.”
“I will take care of it,” General Telles assured him. He looked at Captain Tuplo as he came down the ramp, also jumping down the last half meter to the surface. “We can begin your refueling immediately, if you’d like, Captain.”
“Yes, please,” Connor replied. He turned to look at Marcus, who was also coming down the cargo ramp, followed by Dalen and Neli. “Marcus, Dalen; you two see to the refueling.”
Deliza and Loki walked up from behind the general, both of them looking as if they weren’t sure they would be welcomed.
“Lok!” Josh exclaimed, rushing to give his old friend a hug.
“Josh,” Loki replied, embracing him with a smile. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Damn good to see you. How have you been? How’s Lael? She wise up and dump your sorry ass, yet?”
“Not exactly,” Loki replied, sighing.
“What is it?” Josh wondered, noticing the concerned look on his old friend’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Connor Tuplo, this is Loki Sheehan,” General Telles announced.
“A pleasure to meet you, sir,” Loki greeted.
“What the hell is going on?” Josh asked Loki again.
“Likewise,” Captain Tuplo replied, shaking Loki’s hand.
“Do you mind if I borrow your copilot for a few minutes?” Loki asked. “We have some catching up to do.”
“Go right ahead.”
“And this is Deliza Ta’Akar.”
Connor nodded respectfully at the young woman as she stepped out from behind the general. “I suppose this is why you lured me here with promises of free propellant…so that this young woman could lay claim to my ship?”
“Oh, no,” Deliza insisted. “I gave that ship to you, Nathan…”
“He doesn’t like to be called Nathan,” Jessica warned her.
“I’m sorry,” Deliza apologized. She paused for a moment, trying to decide what to say next. “May I just call you Captain?”
“That would be fine.”
“I promise you, I do not wish to take your ship from you,” Deliza continued. “As I said, I gave that ship to you. I mean, legally, yes, I am still the owner of the Mirai. I would have gladly signed the title over to you at the time, but we feared that creating such a document trail might put you at risk. So, we decided to list the Mirai as lost in space.”
“But I have the title for the Seiiki,” Captain Tuplo argued. “Bought and paid for with the settlement funds from the crash.”
“Yeah, well, that title was pretty much forged,” Jessica explained. “We had Marcus take the Mirai someplace outside the sector and scrub her clean, so to speak.”
“I see,” the captain replied, one eyebrow raised. He studied their faces a moment. The Ghatazhak general was nearly expressionless and impossible to read. But the Ghatazhak female known as Jessica was different. Her expression was quite sincere, and she had been genuinely pleased to see him back on Haven. Although he could not read the general, he was sure that she believed she was speaking the truth, as did the young woman named Deliza. But with Deliza, there was something more. A fear, or guilt. He wasn’t sure which. “Ta’Akar,” Connor said, recognizing the name. “Any relation?”
“Yes,” Deliza admitted. “My late father was Casimir Ta’Akar.”
Connor pulled his head back, h
is eyes opening wider in surprise. “Doesn’t that make you…”
“Rightful heir to the throne of Takara…yes,” Deliza finished for him. “My father considered you a very close, and trusted, friend.”
The word trusted set off alarms in Connor’s head.
“As do I,” Deliza added. “I only hope you can forgive me.”
Now he was really alarmed. “There’s more going on here than you people are letting on,” Connor accused. “One of you want to tell me why I’m really here?”
“We need you to help us conduct a rescue operation,” General Telles told him.
“From where?”
“Corinair.”
Connor laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” He looked at their faces; none of them were smiling. “Shit. You’re not kidding. Are you nuts? The Darvano system is crawling with Jung ships, and I’m sure Corinair has got boots on the ground…lots of them!”
Jessica smiled at the captain’s turn of phrase.
“You are correct,” the general replied, looking at Jessica. “The Jung have occupied the surface of Corinair, which is why we need you, and your ship.”
“Why me?” Connor wondered. “Why my ship?”
“We need to extract at least twenty people,” the general explained. “Possibly as many as fifty.”
“Why not just use one of those things?” Connor asked, pointing to the boxcar near the hangar.
“They are too large, and not terribly maneuverable. Nor are they very accurate in their jumps. We need a ship that is just big enough to fit in a small space. And it needs a highly skilled pilot. One who is adept at jumping in very close to the surface.”
Connor’s eyebrow went up again. “How close?”
“Less than ten meters,” the general replied.
It took a moment to sink in, as Connor again couldn’t tell if the general was kidding. “I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong guy,” he finally replied.
“Your ship cannot make such a precise jump?” the general asked.
