Orion Fleet (Rebel Fleet Series Book 2)

by B. V. Larson

  “Very well.”

  “Gref need new officer in engineering,” he said.

  Shug made a show of considering the idea. Finally, he nodded.

  “That will do nicely. I’ll remand him into your custody. He’s to be incarcerated until he proves he’s worthy to serve the Rebel Fleet again.”

  Fex looked at everyone, his mouth agape. It seemed he couldn’t believe his misfortune.

  “But…” he said. “A compartment full of Grefs? I won’t last a week!”

  “Nonsense,” Shug said. “They’re easily beaten with club or fist. It’s all a matter of technique. My advice to you is to tone your body and challenge every Gref officer you meet. Inside a month’s time, you might well be their master.”

  These words only made the Gref officer’s face darken. Shug walked away, and I followed him.

  “Sir?” I asked. “Did you give him to the Grefs on purpose?”

  He shrugged. “They needed an officer. I needed to get rid of Fex. This seems like an equitable solution for all, doesn’t it?”

  I nodded thoughtfully, hoping I never pissed off Shug as much as Fex had today.

  “Why are there so many Grefs around this station anyway?” I asked him.

  “This region of space is full of them,” he said. “They build weak ships, but they breed fast and work hard.”

  “I see…” I said, craning my neck around to see what was happening to Fex. It didn’t look pretty. He was hauled to his feet and dragged away by a whooping team of Grefs.

  That was the last I saw of the admiral. It occurred to me later that threatening Secretary Shug with a grievance committee had been a poor choice on Fex’s part.

  “Oh…” Shug said, stopping and turning to face me. “You’re in line to receive a status award. You’ve earned quite a few points by any measure.”

  Surprised, I looked at my epaulets. I truly had no idea what would happen, but they were changing. After a few seconds, they displayed not diamonds, but pentagons. I was a full-fledged captain in the Rebel Fleet now.

  “Congratulations,” Shug said.

  “Thank you, sir!”

  =71=

  Once the Hunter had left our local space, the Rebel Fleet hung around for a time, but eventually began to disband again.

  The Rebel Fleet was like armies of old back on Earth. There was only a small core of professionals. The majority of the ships and troops were only called up for the common defense when a threat appeared.

  After several months, Hammerhead was allowed to return to Earth. Ursahn dropped us off in orbit over my home world, and I felt joy in my heart to see familiar oceans and streaks of white cloud cover again.

  This time around, Mia wasn’t returned to her home planet. I think if she’d requested such a thing, it could have been arranged. But as she was a member of Hammerhead’s crew and the only one of her kind aboard, no one really wanted to bother with the extra trip.

  We drifted above Earth in orbit until a shuttle came up to greet us. The welcome we got as we reached the ground was amazing. We were truly heroes on our planet this time around.

  The best thing about the homecoming was the fact I was bringing Mia with me. I’d missed her out in space.

  Robin was unhappy about that, but she’d quickly moved on to other pursuits. Gwen seemed miffed, but she was resigned to the fact we weren’t meant to be a couple.

  “I’m happy for you,” she said stiffly.

  “Liar.”

  “No, really! You shouldn’t get any ideas. I’m officially no longer interested in you, Captain Blake.”

  I nodded, accepting her words.

  “Gwen, as my XO, you’ll have to stay aboard while I report to Space Command.”

  She shook my hand, and I turned to lead most of the crew back to Earth.

  Hammerhead herself never did land back on Earth. She wasn’t built to enter thick atmospheres unless it was an emergency situation. We were shuttled down instead, and I was on the first ship with Miller and most of the rest of my bridge people.

  At NORAD I was congratulated by Lieutenant Commander Jones, General Vega and a dozen others. One face was missing however, and I asked about him at a dinner held in Boulder in my crew’s honor.

  “Whatever happened to Godwin?” I asked General Vega.

  “Who?” he asked me. “I don’t recall anyone by that name.”

  It was a strange answer, so I turned to Jones, who sat at my other side.

  “Jones, do you recall someone named ‘Godwin’ ?”

  He squinted for a time, and I thought I saw a spark there for a moment—but then it faded.

  “No,” he said. “I can’t say that I do. Was he from Space Command, or—?”

  “Come to think of it, I’m not sure,” I said managing to chuckle.

  Internally, I was roiling with alarm. How could they both have forgotten about Godwin? I decided to make discreet inquiries, starting with Dr. Abrams.

  Unlike the others, Abrams definitely recalled Godwin. “An agent of some kind,” he said. “We’d always understood he was working for the Rebels. But I’ve noticed since we returned that he’s vanished from this base—and from the minds of everyone here.”

  “There has to be some physical evidence, or at least some kind of security record.”

  “I’ll check,” Abrams said.

  Mia had discovered the joys of wine-drinking and was wilder than usual that night. As a result, it was almost eleven the next day before I caught up with Abrams.

  “What about Godwin, Doc?” I asked him. “What did you find out?”

  He gave me an oddly blank look. “Who? Is that a person’s name?”

  “Yes, I…” I stared at him, and I could see he really didn’t know what I was talking about. I smiled quickly. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Forget it. Let’s look at the mission vid files instead.”

  We paged through countless documents. All the while, I was looking for something other than what I’d stated to be my goal: evidence of Godwin.

  I found it at last when I scrolled down to the very first day we’d lifted off in Hammerhead, headed for the stars.

  “Who’s this man here?” I asked Abrams. “The beefy guy talking to Jones as we left Earth?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know. There were many dignitaries here that day.”

  “Right…” I said. “It’s no big deal.”

  Abrams looked at me strangely for a moment, then went back to scrolling through the files methodically. There were several images of Godwin on file, but no identifying materials. No supporting documents—nothing. The guard stations didn’t even have a record of him signing in at the base entrance.

  That night, I couldn’t sleep. I forced myself to lie down, however, and I assured myself everything would be all right.

  I wasn’t so overconfident that I hadn’t set a section of the wall in my quarters from opaque to transparent before retiring.

  It was some time before dawn when a form appeared in the corridor outside. The door jiggled and unlocked itself.

  I was awake, and I heard a slight hiss. Someone was releasing gas into my sleeping chamber—but I didn’t stir.

  A few minutes later, I felt a presence creeping into my room and standing over me. My hand lashed out and struck Godwin a low blow. It was direct and purposeful—oddly, it didn’t incapacitate him. He grunted unhappily, but it was nothing like the usual howl and hiss of a man who’s been punched in the groin.

  Still, he was surprised. That was enough for me to get up and tackle him. He had some kind of device in his hands—something that looked like a circlet of silver metal.

  Pinning his hand I slammed it on the floor until he released the object. Then I slammed his head into the rock wall opposite my bed until he relaxed.

  I stood up, panting, and I pulled the filtering plugs from my nose. The gas Godwin had released was still lingering, creating a slightly peppery smell that hung in the air.

  Switching on the lights, I began rifling th
rough his pockets.

  “Why are you waking me up at this hour?” I demanded. “What the hell is so important about erasing yourself from all our records?”

  “I could have killed you,” Godwin said.

  His words were slightly slurred, but he was conscious. Surprised, I squatted in front of him.

  “Why didn’t you, then?” I asked him.

  He grinned, his teeth rimed in blood. “Because you didn’t deserve that. You did what we couldn’t. You struck a great blow for the cause. Even better, you made it look like it was your idea.”

  I blinked at him without comprehension.

  “Beyond assessing the correct levies from the appropriate Kher,” he said, “I had a small additional mission.”

  “You’re crazy, aren’t you?” I asked.

  This seemed to strike him as funny. “Certifiable.”

  “Tell me, how did you get everyone to forget about you?”

  Godwin reached down to pick up the silver crescent of metal he’d dropped. I pinned his wrist to the floor.

  “You really should let me do it,” he said. “It will be better for you in the end. Better for everyone.”

  I shook my head.

  “All right then,” he said. “Can you help me to my feet? I’ll show you something that will explain all this.”

  That offer intrigued me, but I knew I couldn’t trust him. I kept his circlet and walked behind him with a disruptor planted in his back.

  He led me out of my quarters and down into the lower vaults—then lower still. We walked down to the deepest chambers, those below the cavern where Dr. Abrams had built his phase-ship.

  There, we came to the transmat chamber. There were guards there, and they looked at us warily. Godwin gave them a calming wave of the hand. They relaxed, and they stood aside.

  I followed him into the transmat chamber, my eyes searching the place. I’d never been allowed down here before.

  “Is this how you get in and out of NORAD?” I asked him.

  “Of course. How else?”

  After staring at him for a second, I shook my head in confusion.

  He laughed. “Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought you were—but I still can’t kill you. Even idiots are useful.”

  Saying this, Godwin stepped toward the transmat doors. It looked like a cylinder, about ten feet tall, with a set of doors that slid open.

  I shot him before he entered the chamber. He stiffened in pain, but he didn’t stop. I shot him again, making smoke curl up from his back.

  He kept moving forward. Whatever Godwin was, he was a tough bird.

  Then, the chamber slid shut behind him. Inside I could see him in there, like a man in a tube-shaped phone booth.

  I fired one last time, but the disruptor didn’t even scar the surface of the transmat.

  Then, he vanished. There were no flashing lights, or zapping sounds. The only noticeable noise was a tiny clap made by the air inside the chamber. It had been sucked into the space where he’d once been standing.

  “Hey, you there—how’d you get in here?” a guard demanded, landing a heavy hand on my shoulder.

  “I don’t remember,” I lied.

  They marched me out of the place and to the brig. In the morning, I was questioned by a dozen angry security people. It seemed to me that I’d embarrassed them more than anything else.

  “Tell me,” I said, after they’d finished asking me a battery of questions and gotten nothing useful out of me. “Did someone use the transmat last night?”

  “There was no usage authorized.”

  “Maybe you should check the logs.”

  They did so, after glaring at me for a while. When they came back, they were even more pissed off.

  Commander Jones accompanied them this time. He sat in a chair to one side as the grilling continued.

  “Captain Blake,” the security chief said. “You activated the transmat last night. I’m not sure how you did it—but it had to have been you.”

  “Really?” I asked. “Where did I go?”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “Tell me, Major,” I said. “Does the transmat use power when it receives a transmission, or only when it sends one?”

  “That’s classified.”

  “Come on,” I said. “Humor me, and I might be able to help you.”

  The major frowned fiercely, but at last, he nodded. “Yes, it does. It uses power either way.”

  “Right… so, how many times was it activated last night?”

  “Only once.”

  I smiled at him. After about three seconds, he blinked, and he finally got it.

  “You’re saying it couldn’t have been you...” he said. “It’s true that we’ve got video of you entering and exiting your room. You were here before the single surge of power—that means it could only have transmitted someone, not received anyone.”

  “Right. The very fact I’m here in front of you proves I didn’t use the transmat.”

  “You could have turned it on without entering the chamber,” the major said, pressing.

  “No, he couldn’t,” Jones said. “At least, that’s not how it works as far as I know. It’s automated. You walk in, and it sends you. That’s it. Where did the computer say it was focused?” Jones asked the security chief.

  The major shook his head. “That’s just it. We don’t have coordinates. The computer was blank. All we know is that there was a surge of power to the chamber.”

  “And your men saw nothing?”

  “Just Blake, here, walking out of the transmat chamber like he owned it.”

  Jones looked at me, and I returned his stare. “You still swear by this ‘Godwin’ story?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “A person of unknown origin, who none of us remember? Who isn’t on any video recording, or security checkpoint log?”

  “Only the transmat,” I said. “Which was activated last night and sent him to points unknown.”

  Jones dangled the silver circlet I’d given him hours earlier. “You say this can blank memories?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “He seemed to indicate that it could. Give it to Abrams, maybe he can figure it out.”

  Jones looked at the silvery glinting object, then put it in his pocket. He stood up.

  “I’ve heard enough. Release the captain.”

  “Sir, I—”

  “On order of General Vega, base commander. I have the order right here.”

  He produced a piece of paper, and I frowned at him.

  “You might have given that up earlier,” I commented.

  He shrugged. “Sorry Blake, I wasn’t convinced. You do have a rep, you know.”

  We walked out of the place, and when I had Jones alone, I asked him a few questions of my own.

  “You know who that was, don’t you?” I asked him.

  “Godwin?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I know what he was.”

  “What then?”

  He stopped walking, and he looked at me seriously. “I think he’s one of the Nomads. One of the people from far, far away that even the Imperials fear.”

  Then he kept walking, and I fell into step beside him, thinking hard.

  The End

  From the Author: Thanks Reader! I hope you enjoyed ORION FLEET. If you liked the book and want to read more about this universe, please put up some stars and a review to support the book. Don’t worry if you’re a fan of another series, more of those books are coming soon!

  -BVL

  More SF Books by B. V. Larson:

  The Undying Mercenaries Series:

  Steel World

  Dust World

  Tech World

  Machine World

  Death World

  Home World

  STAR FORCE SERIES:

  Swarm

  Extinction

  Rebellion

  Conquest

  Army of One (Novella)

  Battle Station

  Emp
ire

  Annihilation

  Storm Assault

  The Dead Sun

  Outcast

  Exile

  Demon Star

  Lost Colonies Trilogy

  Battle Cruiser

  Dreadnought

  Star Carrier

  Visit BVLarson.com for more information.