Ep.#6 - For the Triumph of Evil (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “They just got back,” the lieutenant commander pleaded.

  “Tough,” Cameron responded plainly, tapping her comm-set. “CAG, XO. I need Falcon One ready to launch as soon as she is recycled, and her crew is ready to go.”

  “XO, CAG, aye.”

  “Those guys have been gone for twelve hours, Cam,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda reminded her.

  “They can take a nap while they’re waiting for a reply,” Cameron insisted as she typed out the return message. “We’ve got an intel source from boots on the ground, and I intend to get everything we can out of it.”

  “Can’t we just send a recon drone from here?” the lieutenant commander suggested.

  “Once a comm-routine is established, yes,” Cameron agreed. “But this is the first contact we’ve had from Corinair since we arrived. I want to make sure we don’t lose this opportunity.”

  “I understand, but those guys have been flying back-to-back missions for days now, with very little downtime.”

  “I’ll give them a few days off after we establish regular contact with the Corinari,” Cameron promised as she finished typing the message. “There. Encrypt that using algorithm one five seven tango bravo.”

  “Tango bravo?” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda laughed. “The tango bravo series hasn’t been used in decades.”

  “It’s never been used in this part of space,” Cameron pointed out. “Use it.”

  Lieutenant Commander Shinoda shook his head. “As you wish, Captain.”

  “Damn, I wish Nathan and Jessica were here right now,” she exclaimed. “They’d love this. Especially Jess.”

  * * *

  “Jump complete,” Loki announced from the Reaper’s copilot seat. “Welcome to the Rogen system,” he added as he entered instructions into the navigation computer. “I’ll set us up for the polar approach.”

  “How long are we going to be on Rakuen?” Josh asked over his comm-set.

  “Only as long as it takes to pick up the shuttles,” Nathan replied from the passenger module.

  “Uh, you do realize we have to do a full checkout of those shuttles before we take delivery, right?” Loki asked.

  “How long will that take?” Nathan wondered, coming forward into the cramped cockpit.

  “A full day, I’d say,” Loki warned. “Besides a very thorough inspection, we need to do a couple shakedown flights, and a few short jumps, before we take them on a multi-jump series back to the fleet.”

  “Doesn’t the builder do all that before delivery?” Josh wondered.

  “Yeah, but they don’t fly them,” Loki explained. “They just put them through diagnostics.”

  “That’s not good enough?” Josh said.

  “Not for me, it isn’t,” Loki insisted.

  “Oh, come on…”

  “No, he’s right,” Nathan agreed. “If something goes wrong on the way back, we’re going to be a long way from help.”

  “We’ll be a three-element flight,” Josh pointed out.

  “With no docking capabilities, and no pressure suits,” Loki countered. “We need a thorough checkout.”

  “Agreed,” Nathan seconded. “Besides, it will give me more time to talk with Ito Yokimah again.”

  “Why?” Josh wondered.

  “He owns the biggest, most successful Gunyoki racing team on Rakuen,” Nathan explained.

  “And he’s an arrogant asshole,” Jessica called from behind.

  “An arrogant asshole who might be the key to getting the Gunyoki to help us fight the Dusahn,” Nathan continued.

  “Racers?” Josh exclaimed. “You want to get race pilots to help us?”

  “Gunyoki ships are highly maneuverable and, if given full power, their weapons could be quite formidable,” Loki told Josh.

  “And, they know how to fly them,” Nathan added, “really well, I might add.”

  “In simulated combat, yeah,” Josh smirked. “They’d probably shit themselves in a real firefight.”

  “I agree with Josh,” Jessica said.

  “I don’t think so,” Loki argued. “The Gunyoki are fearless, and very well trained, with amazing reflexes and instinct, honed by years of experience.”

  “Bullshit,” Josh commented.

  “They maneuver at speeds well above what we normally would,” Loki insisted. “And in very tight confines.”

  “Please, I could fly circles around those guys,” Josh bragged, “and without all that training and so-called experience.”

  “Unidentified armed ship at two five seven by one one five, inbound for Rakuen, this is Rakuen Control. State your intentions,” the controller called over comms.

  “Patch me in,” Nathan ordered. As soon as Loki signaled him, he replied. “Rakuen Control, this is Reaper Eight. We are here on business for Ranni Enterprises. We are requesting permission to land at the Ranni shuttle plant.”

  “Reaper Eight, Rakuen Control. You are an armed vessel of unfamiliar design. You are being tracked by our defense batteries. To whom am I speaking?”

  “He’s right, they’re painting us,” Loki told Nathan.

  “Rakuen Control, Reaper Eight. This is Captain Nathan Scott, of the Earth ship Aurora.”

  There was a moment of silence.

  “That made him choke on his sushi,” Josh chuckled.

  “I don’t get it,” Jessica said, peeking in from behind Nathan. “We didn’t get questioned last time, and the Seiiki was armed.”

  “We filed with Rakuen prior to arrival,” Nathan told her. “And they’d seen the Seiiki before. We didn’t have a chance to file this time.”

  “Reaper Eight, Rakuen Control,” the controller finally replied. “You are cleared direct to the Ranni plant. Do not deviate from your course, and do not charge your weapons or shields, or you will be fired upon. Do you understand?”

  “Rakuen Control, Reaper Eight, Understood,” Nathan replied. “Make sure all weapons and shields are completely offline,” Nathan reminded Loki.

  “I shut them down just before we jumped in,” Loki assured him.

  “Good. Take us down,” Nathan instructed.

  “You got it,” Josh replied.

  “Uh, Captain?” Loki said. “Two contacts just departed the Gunyoki race platform. They’re on an intercept heading, and will be on us in thirty seconds.”

  “Then let’s look as non-threatening as possible,” Nathan suggested.

  “I thought they were just racers?” Josh said. “With their weapons systems dialed down to minimal power.”

  “Racers or not, the Gunyoki are the Rogen system’s primary defense force,” Loki reminded him.

  “Which means someone on Rakuen doesn’t trust us,” Nathan remarked.

  “That might not be the case, sir,” Loki said. “I’ve heard of them doing this before, when an unexpected, unidentified ship arrives in the system. Sometimes, the Gunyoki just do it for practice. If they really meant to threaten us, I doubt Rakuen Control would have hailed us first. They would have let the Gunyoki pilots do it, for effect.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Josh wondered, spotting the approaching two-ship element to their port side.

  “Uh…”

  Two Gunyoki racers, each painted in differing color schemes, but with the same general patterns, streaked across their bow at high speed.

  “They’re circling around to get behind us,” Loki warned.

  Josh immediately reached for his flight control stick to take evasive action.

  “No!” Nathan warned. “Hold your course and speed.”

  Josh looked back at Nathan.

  “They’re in firing position,” Loki warned.

  “Captain?” Josh asked. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Nathan assured him. “If they were going to shoot us down, they would’ve already done so. Flying across our bow was only putting themselves in our line of fire, which would be really poor intercept policy. Loki’s right, they’re just taking advantage of the opportunity for a little intercept pract
ice.”

  “So, they’re practicing a poor intercept?” Josh wondered. “And you want these idiots to fly for us?”

  “I never said we wouldn’t have to teach them a thing or two,” Nathan said. “Just get us down, Josh.”

  “You’re in charge,” Josh agreed, glancing at two red blips on the threat display.

  Nathan moved back into the passenger compartment with Jessica.

  “You think Yokimah had a hand in this?” Jessica asked.

  “He’s trying to show us two things,” Nathan told her. “That he has power of the Gunyoki, and that the Gunyoki aren’t afraid to take on any aggressor.”

  “And yet, you look pleased about that,” Jessica commented, noticing the satisfied smirk on Nathan’s face.

  “That’s exactly what I hoped he would do.”

  * * *

  “We are at the test position, Captain,” Lieutenant Dinev reported from the Aurora’s helm.

  “Very well,” Cameron replied. “Launch the test drone,” she instructed.

  “Launching drone,” Lieutenant Commander Kono replied from the sensor station.

  “Captain, it was not necessary to test this on an actual drone,” Abby insisted.

  “I know,” Cameron replied. “But the new emitter design did pass all the computer simulations, correct?”

  “Yes, that is correct,” Abby replied.

  “And, testing it on a drone would be the next step, wouldn’t it?”

  “Drone is away, Captain,” the lieutenant commander announced.

  “Yes, I suppose it would,” Abby agreed. “But, there is still a chance of failure…one that could cost you the drone.”

  “But that chance is minimal, you said so yourself,” Vladimir added, standing beside the tactical station. “And this drone is one of our older models, and was scheduled to be taken out of service and scrapped for parts, so it will not affect us from an operational standpoint.”

  Cameron looked at Abby. “The commander is right.”

  “Thirty seconds to safe test jump range,” Lieutenant Commander Kono reported.

  Abby sighed. “It’s just that, there are steps one follows in such cases, designed to ensure safety. Skipping steps in this fashion is highly irregular…”

  “We’re willing to take the risk, Doctor,” Cameron reminded her. “Time is far more important to us than one old comm-drone.”

  “It will work,” Vladimir insisted. “I checked the simulation results myself.”

  Abby looked at Vladimir, an annoyed expression on her face.

  “I am chief engineer, you know.”

  “Ten seconds,” Lieutenant Commander Kono reported.

  Abby turned to face her console in preparation for the test jump.

  “Raise forward shields,” Cameron ordered.

  “Raising shields,” Lieutenant Commander Vidmar acknowledged.

  “It will work,” Vladimir insisted.

  “No sense in taking chances.”

  “Test drone has reached safe range, Captain.”

  “You may begin the test when ready, Doctor Sorenson,” Cameron ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” Abby replied. She checked the telemetry from the drone, ensuring all its systems were operating properly. “Are you ready, Lieutenant Commander Kono?” she asked.

  “Primary sensor array is locked onto the target, and the deep-space array is locked on the destination point,” the lieutenant commander acknowledged.

  “Maximum magnification on the drone,” Cameron ordered. A moment later, the view screen changed its focus, and the drone came into view, despite the fact that it was ten kilometers ahead of them.

  Abby took a deep breath. “Initiating stealth jump test.”

  Cameron kept her eyes glued on the view screen as the drone simply disappeared, without any flash of light. “It worked?”

  “Of course it worked,” Vladimir said.

  “I wouldn’t get too excited just yet,” Deliza told them.

  “She’s correct,” Abby added. “So far, it has performed exactly the same as the emitters on your stealth recon drones.”

  “But with different formulation,” Vladimir added. “One that should be able to handle greater power loads required to jump larger vessels.”

  “We won’t know if the new formulation will be able to do that until we get the data back from the test drone,” Abby explained.

  “Contact at the destination point,” Lieutenant Commander Kono reported. “The test drone. It’s coming about.”

  A split second later, the drone appeared, again without any jump flash, on the main view screen.

  “Receiving telemetry from the test drone,” Abby reported, her eyes glued to her console.

  Vladimir moved to stand next to Deliza, who was already looking over Abby’s shoulder at the data streaming in.

  “It worked,” Deliza exclaimed.

  “I told you,” Vladimir insisted.

  Abby did not say anything, only kept studying the data.

  Cameron took notice. “Doctor?”

  “Emitter temps are well below maximum safe levels, power draw is normal, field strength shows even across the entire field perimeter, and the frequency variations between emitters are well below tolerances. One moment while I extrapolate the current live data into the computer simulation program, and apply it to a maximum range jump on a larger vessel.”

  “See, it worked,” Vladimir repeated.

  Cameron waited patiently for Abby herself to make the decision, knowing full well that Commander Kamenetskiy, despite his good intentions, had a habit of being overly optimistic at times.

  Vladimir and Deliza continued watching over Abby’s shoulder as she ran the simulations based on the live test data she had just obtained. Finally, she made the call. “I believe the test was a success, Captain.”

  “Excellent!” Cameron exclaimed. “How big of a ship do you think we can safely jump using the new emitters?”

  “I’d have to do some more analysis,” Abby replied.

  “Best guess, Doctor.”

  Abby sighed in resignation. “A gunship, maybe. But I’d be very hesitant to try it without further testing.”

  Cameron sighed, thinking.

  “We don’t have anything as big as a gunship to test it on,” Vladimir stated.

  “Could we test it on Josh’s gunship? The one we were planning on scrapping for parts?” Cameron wondered.

  “It would be better to do it on an intact hull,” Abby warned. “The irregularities in the damaged gunship’s hull could cause problems establishing a complete jump field.”

  “What about the Seiiki?” Cameron suggested.

  “What?” Vladimir said, his eyes wide.

  “It’s already opened up for upgrades, right?” Cameron said. “And you’re going to upgrade her shields, so you’ll be running new power conduits throughout the ship.”

  “And the shield emitters are co-located with the jump field emitters,” Vladimir realized. “Nathan will not be happy.”

  “Trust works both ways,” Cameron stated. “Besides, I’d rather lose the Seiiki than a gunship.”

  “I’m not sure Marcus will agree with you,” Vladimir warned.

  “I don’t need him to,” Cameron said sternly. “How quickly can you make it happen?”

  Vladimir scratched his head. “Assuming Marcus doesn’t kill me? A week? Maybe four days, if we pull the teams working on the gunships to help us.”

  “Make it happen,” Cameron decided.

  “Are you sure?” Vladimir wondered.

  “Nathan will be back before we run the test. He can countermand my decision then if he so chooses. Worst-case scenario is that we have to change the emitters back to the original ones. Either way, the Seiiki will be back in action on pretty much the same schedule.”

  Vladimir tipped his head in agreement. “A very good point,” he conceded. “I’ll get started,” Vladimir promised as he turned to exit.

  Abby looked skeptically at Cameron.
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  “Like I said, time is of the essence,” Cameron reiterated.

  “If you’re going to jump directly to upscaled live tests, I’d like to first conduct a few more test jumps with the drone,” Abby suggested, “since we’re already out here.”

  “Of course,” Cameron agreed.

  * * *

  “I was surprised when I got word that you had returned to the Rogen system, Captain,” Mister Yokimah said as he led Nathan and Jessica to his office. “After all, it has only been two weeks.”

  “About that, yes,” Nathan replied. “I haven’t bothered to do the conversions.”

  “So, am I to understand that you are still in command of the Aurora? I find that rather surprising.”

  “Actually, I have only recently taken command of her again, after a long absence.”

  “I see,” Mister Yokimah said, swinging the double doors to his office wide open for all to enter. “Welcome to my refuge,” he added proudly, his arms wide.

  Both Nathan and Jessica’s eyes opened in amazement as they entered the massive office.

  “My God,” Nathan exclaimed. The office was long and rectangular, with high arched ceilings. Along either wall were massive windows, also arched. In between the windows were bookcases, each of them neatly organized and similarly clad in the same bindings and covers. Placed strategically about the office were numerous games, obviously meant as distractions from the occupant’s work. At the far end was an equally massive desk, backed by even more arched windows that opened out to the planet-wide oceans of Rakuen.

  The entire office felt as if someone had stuffed a library and a game room into an old-Earth cathedral. Nathan found the decor odd, and out of place, on a world that echoed Asian influences in most of its architecture. Here, there was none of that influence.

  “Are these books real?” Jessica wondered.

  “In the sense that you can open them and read them, yes,” Mister Yokimah replied. “However, they are all reprints made from digital versions. I had all the greatest works of humanity, from as far back as I had access, printed and bound for this collection.”