by Robert Boren
“Agreed,” I said.
Nolan’s PA beeped, so he turned towards his station and engaged in a hushed conversation.
“They’ll be lucky if they aren’t already made,” Tim whispered.
“Any ship that tries to take the Tristar is gonna get a bad surprise,” JJ said.
“Cyrus, who else knows the battle capabilities of the Tristar, that you know of?” I asked.
“You know about that?” he asked.
“I told them,” JJ said.
Cyrus nodded. “Should have guessed, sorry. Other than the direct technical team, the only person I’ve discussed it with was Vermillion.”
“He’s been keeping things close to the vest,” I said.
“There’s an understatement,” Cyrus quipped. “You don’t think he’s working with the Clan, do you? One of the crew saw a story about that.”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. He might have been killed or captured. Do you know about the stand-down of space travel being enforced by the Overlords?”
“Yeah, I heard. They don’t have the power to do that.”
“Heard anything from the Senate or the Executive?” I asked.
“No, but we’ve been traveling. This world is a fairly long trip from Earth.”
“Captain, the Tristar has the cloaking alteration in place,” Nolan said.
I nodded. “Thanks, Nolan. Cyrus, what do you want to do?”
“Well, now that we’re truly invisible, I want to stay here and watch for at least a short period of time, just in case Vermillion finds a way to get here. Let’s keep our COMM channel open, though.”
“Yes, and watch for Clan and Overlord ships,” Nolan said.
“Got it,” Cyrus said.
“If you hear from Vermillion, let us know right away, but don’t mention our position,” JJ said.
“Will do. I need to go chat with my crew. Look out for yourselves.”
Cyrus’s face disappeared from the screen.
“Shall I go down to the south pole, Captain? Nolan gave me the coordinates.”
“Yes, might as well,” I said. Izzy turned to her PA and spoke to it, all our stomachs dropping as we flew down to the surface.
I glanced at Nolan. “As soon as we’re settled, I want to release nanos to keep an eye out.”
Nolan nodded. “I was going to suggest that, Captain. There’s more risk of rogue leaders on level seven planets than there are on the higher levels. Seems they don’t want to give up certain modern technologies if they can help it.”
“Exactly. After you’ve done that, let’s look at the documents.”
“Yes sir,” Nolan said.
I turned to JJ. “What do you think?”
“About Cyrus? He wasn’t under duress. He feels very uncomfortable with the situation, of course.”
“He can join the club on that one.”
JJ smiled. “Pretty much. You think there’s a trap laid for them there, don’t you?”
“I think it’s possible, that’s all. Time will tell. I forgot to ask Cyrus how much fuel he has.”
“Two small prototype ships can’t take on the entire Central Authority, you know,” JJ said. “We’ll run out of fuel or get trapped eventually, unless we escape to the Free Zone.”
“Everybody keeps bringing that up. If we’ve got as bad a problem as it sounds like, the Free Zone won’t be a safe haven for long.”
Tim shook his head. “It’s worse than that. Anybody who recognizes this ship will know it’s valuable. We’ll be fighting off attempts to steal it.”
“Yeah, now I wish we didn’t have the gold plating,” Izzy said. “We stick out like a sore thumb.”
“When we’re not cloaked,” Nolan said. “Nanos away, Captain. Should I put the documents up?”
“Yeah, start with the Central Authority doc, okay?”
“Will do, Captain,” Nolan said, putting the document on the screen. We all read it.
“There’s only one difference from the document they released yesterday,” Tim said.
I looked at it, my heart pounding.
“Wasn’t that your ship?” JJ asked. “It’s wanted too? Did it have any advanced technology on it?”
“Not that I was aware of,” I said. “Now it’s not surprising that Vermillion wouldn’t tell me who the captain of the New Jersey is.”
“Ten to one Vermillion is on that ship,” Nolan said.
“If he snuck the capabilities of the Tristar and Zephyrus onto that ship, it’ll be tough to deal with,” JJ said. “It’s our latest model battleship.”
“Do you know how to contact that ship, Captain?” Nolan asked.
“I still have my token, and know the security codes,” I said. “I’ll be shocked if they haven’t been changed, though. Those codes are reserved for the captain only, and that’s not me anymore.”
JJ chuckled. “Don’t be so sure about that.”
“Are you suggesting that I can be in two places at once?”
“No, I’m suggesting that Vermillion had no intention of moving you permanently off the New Jersey. He’s probably trying to contact you now. You are wasted on a ship this size, you know.”
I sighed. “Dammit, I don’t know what to think at this point. I’ll go try the New Jersey, but I have to do that in my stateroom, so I can run my PA through the private encryption link.”
“They’re still doing that?” Nolan asked. “They still don’t trust the enhanced standard encryption?”
“It’s not that. They want you to be in a place where it’s unlikely anybody can force you. It makes sense. Ships the size of the New Jersey have at least forty-thousand people onboard. Extraordinary safety measures are essential.”
“You don’t want to hang around and look at the other documents?” Nolan asked.
“They’ll keep, but you guys go ahead,” I said as I left the bridge. I went through my stateroom door and locked it behind me, then opened the cabinet the safe was in, using my fingerprints, retina scan, and my spoken password to open it. The token for the New Jersey sat inside, among other critical documents and tokens. I picked it up and put it into my COMM unit, which was in the same cabinet. The green indicator came on, so I called the bridge. It buzzed several times, then clicked.
“Captain Clarke?” a cautious woman’s voice asked.
“Andrea. How are you?”
“On the run,” she said. “When are you coming back? The Captain’s chair is no place for a Science Officer.”
“I’m sure you’re doing a fine job.”
“Are the others with you?” she asked.
“Izzy, Tim, and Deacon. Oh, and Nolan.”
“Nolan? What’s that jerk doing there?”
“Be nice. Where are you?”
“I’m not allowed to say, Captain.”
“You’re in command. It’s your call.”
“No, I’m just running the bridge. The Chairman is really in charge.”
“Good, Chairman Vermillion’s there. Can I talk to him please?”
“I’ll patch you to him.”
“Thanks, Andrea.”
“Get back here,” she said. Then I heard a click.
“There you are,” Vermillion said. “What happened to the holographic system? I’ve been trying to get you ever since we got free of Earth.”
“We didn’t know if you were captured or not, and we didn’t know if it made us traceable.”
“You didn’t discard it, did you?”
“No sir, we stuffed it into the shielded fuel compartment.”
“Oh. Not a bad idea. Where are you?”
“Amberis, sitting near the south pole, with the cloaking device engaged.”
“A little off the beaten path, but that’s good while we sort things out. We can’t see you. Are you sure the new cloaking software is working?”
I felt my face flush. “Nolan altered the program to remove the trace export.”
Vermillion laughed. “Figures. Again, not such a bad idea given the circum
stances. Did Nolan help the Tristar with that problem? We can’t see them either, all of a sudden. I was starting to get worried.”
“You guessed it,” I said. “We can undo that.”
“No, don’t undo it. Get Nolan to call Andrea and walk her through the same procedure here. Almost all the Samson Corporation board and most of upper management have been captured, and a few of them know how to access the trace.”
“Did you rescue anybody from the South Pacific base?”
“We did what we could,” Vermillion said.
“Is there an Ensign Daniels onboard the New Jersey?”
“Just a second. I’ll run a search.”
“Thanks. How much of the advanced tech did you stuff onto the New Jersey?”
Vermillion snickered. “Your ship has all the latest capabilities, including some you don’t know about.”
“My ship?” I asked, a smile washing over my face.
“Yes, I never intended for you to stay on the Zephyrus, but I didn’t want the others to know that. You’ll like what we’ve done to her.”
“I already got a rundown of what the Tristar has,” I said. “I also shared info with JJ that you hadn’t told her. Hope you don’t mind. I thought it was necessary.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’d have done the same thing, but I’m glad I kept so much compartmentalized. We’d be in a lot worse shape if I didn’t, with so many of my staff and board captured.”
“So the New Jersey has the plasma burst mode capability and the enhanced shields?”
“Yes, and Nolan’s module,” Vermillion said. “Ensign Daniels is on board. Is that a problem?”
“He was the plant. I’d arrest him and scan the ship if I were you.”
“Oh, dear,” he said. “Just a sec, I’ll give the order.”
I waited for a moment, listening to him murmur orders over his PA. “Okay. You stay on Amberis. We’ll join you there. I’ll send word to the Tristar to do the same. You’re cloaked all the time, right?”
“Yes sir,” I said. “This is a level seven world. We’ve released nanos, just in case there’s a rogue running this planet.”
“Good idea,” Vermillion said. “I’ll talk to you later. Oh, and get that holographic unit out of the fuel container. We’re gonna need it.”
“Yes sir,” I said. “One more thing.”
“What?”
“Did you tell the Tristar to go to Aurora Calista?”
“No, that’s the last place I’d send them. Are they still there?”
My headache was back. “Yes, waiting for you.”
{ 14 }
Ice Base
I hurried back to the bridge, my head throbbing. JJ’s brow furrowed. “Something’s wrong.”
“Get the Tristar back,” I said, sitting in the captain’s chair.
“Yes sir,” JJ said, making the connection.
“Cyrus, Captain Clarke wants to talk to you.”
“Go ahead,” Cyrus said.
“Get off that planet. It’s a trap. I just talked to Vermillion. He didn’t give you that order. Jump to Amberis. He’ll meet us there.”
“Dammit,” Cyrus said. “Where’s Vermillion?”
“He’s on the New Jersey,” I said. “Better get out of there in a hurry.”
“Got it,” Cyrus said. “Thanks.”
The call ended.
“Vermillion is on the New Jersey?” Nolan asked.
“Yep, and guess who else got on board?”
“Uh oh,” Tim said.
“Ensign Daniels,” I said. “They’re going to arrest him and scan the entire ship for transmitters.”
“That ship can’t cloak,” JJ said. “They’re in trouble.”
I smiled, the thought of my ship calming the pounding in my head.
Nolan eyed me, then chuckled. “They retrofitted the New Jersey?”
“You got it,” I said, “and it’s still my ship. We’re meeting here. I’ll be taking command again.”
“With who else?” Tim asked. “They aren’t gonna leave Izzy and I on this little ship, I hope.”
“Oh, I don’t know, this is a good little ship,” Nolan said.
“We’ll let Vermillion settle that.” I got on my PA. “Deacon.”
“Yes, Cappy, what’s up?”
“We can take that chair out of the shielded storage cabinet. Could you take it to my stateroom, please?”
“Yes sir,” he said.
“Thanks.” I ended the call. “What else showed up in the documents?”
“Not much,” Izzy said. “They added the leadership of the New Jersey to the Overlords document. Figures, after what you just told us.”
“And the news reports?”
“Official news is trying to tell people how much of a danger our three ships are to everybody,” Nolan said. “Morons.”
“And the not-so-official report?”
“Worlds in the Central Authority Zone are beginning to ignore the Overlord’s edict about space travel and submitting their ships for retrofit,” Nolan said. “There’s a mood of rebellion growing everywhere except the level one planets.”
I smiled. “I suspect we’ll be helping that along. Have you verified it?”
“Yeah,” Tim said. “The traffic is nowhere near normal levels yet, but it’s increasing by the hour.”
“Keep scanning,” I said. “If the Overlords begin taking out ships that defy their illegal order, I want to know about it.”
“There were some disturbing comments about Earth,” Izzy said. “About Overlord operatives landing in the major cities like storm troopers. They’re demanding that national governments be dissolved. It’s not going well for them. There are a lot of armed citizens on Earth.”
Nolan chuckled. “Yes, this is one time that I admire the rather backwards society on Earth.”
I shook my head. “Freedom is always messy, Nolan.”
“Captain, the Tristar just jumped away from Aurora Calista,” JJ said.
“Good. Hope they didn’t get attacked.”
“If they did, there’ll be wreckage orbiting that planet,” Tim said.
“We don’t want to tip our hand,” Nolan said. “It’s better if the enemy thinks all we can do is run and hide.”
“We also have no idea what capabilities the Clan has now,” I said. My PA beeped.
“Cappy, we just put the chair into your stateroom.”
“Great, thanks,” I said.
“So now you can chat with Vermillion when he’s in a wormhole?” Izzy asked.
I got up. “Yep. I’m gonna go make contact. They should be traveling right now.”
“Wish the Tristar had one of those,” JJ said.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure that’s coming.” I left the bridge, arriving at my stateroom just as Deacon’s men were leaving. I locked the door and got into the chair, tapping the pad under the arm. The holographic frame appeared, and I called Vermillion. He answered right away, his face appearing in front of me.
“Good, you got it out of storage,” Vermillion said.
“Yes. You’re in the jump?”
“We are. Thanks for calling the Tristar and getting them off Aurora Calista. You beat me to it.”
“It was a trap. Pretty obvious. Wish we could bring Cyrus into this conversation.”
“We’ve got a device for him, and there’s already one in your stateroom on the New Jersey.”
“Perfect. We got some of the news reports. The Central Authority added the New Jersey to their wanted bulletin.”
“Simone is no dummy. You know she’s positioning herself as some sort of emperor.”
“She’s not going to have an easy time. The Central Authority is helping her, of course. Their official news broadcast played up how much of a danger the Tristar, Zephyrus, and New Jersey are to the Zone.”
Vermillion chuckled. “They’re a danger to her. We’re the last hope of freedom in the Zone, but we’ve got the deck stacked against us. We might lose.”
“Nolan’s alternative news source said that worlds all over the Zone are rebelling. Space traffic is starting again. Tim verified it with his scans.”
“What’s the alternate source?”
“Some guy named Hamilton Zenos,” I said.
“He’s kind of a crackpot.”
I chuckled. “Well, he did get some digs in about the Samson Corporation and their veto power over elected officials.”
“Heard it all before. I partly agree. The problem with private benevolent forces is that they rarely stay benevolent forever. Somebody who’s only interested in power always takes over eventually.”
“Well, in any event, we’re keeping up our scans, watching for Overlord attacks on innocent commerce in the shipping lanes.”
“Don’t try to do anything about it yet,” Vermillion said. “If you were on the Tristar I’d have a different attitude, but the Zephyrus is a little light on firepower. At least for now.”
“Oh, you’re going to upgrade this ship’s shields and plasma weapons? How? Do we have any bases left?”
“We have five bases, none of which are on Earth. Sorry, I’m not sharing their whereabouts until I have to.”
“Understand. So how are we gonna do upgrades?”
“We’ve got the New Jersey set up as a mobile technology lab.”
I leaned back in my chair. “You saw this coming?”
“For more than a year,” Vermillion said. “Simone thinks she’s crippled the Samson Corporation. From a management standpoint, she’s right. They captured a lot of key people.”
“That’s why you restrict info with need-to-know. You were able to preserve the technical capability?”
“Yes. The enhanced cloaking capability and the module that Nolan developed were created to help us sneak Corporation assets and data to secret locations. We never planned to use it for battle, until one of our best designers came up with the enhanced shields and the new plasma weapons.”
“How about Ensign Daniels?”
“Captured and incarcerated. He had a transmit device in a very uncomfortable place.”
“You’re still gonna scan the entire ship, though, right?”
“Yes, we’re working on that now,” Vermillion said. “I’d better go. We were in the middle of something. Thanks for calling. Good to know that we can communicate no matter what.”
