by Robert Boren
“Yes sir. Talk to you soon.”
Vermillion’s face disappeared, and I shut down the system. My head was still bothering me a little, so I took a shot from my inhaler, then went back to the bridge.
“You get him?” Tim asked.
I nodded. “They captured Ensign Daniels. He had a transmitter on his person. They’re still working the scan of the ship.”
“That ship is ten kilometers long, and four kilometers wide,” Nolan said. “It’s gonna take a little while. Wish he wouldn’t have gotten onboard.”
“You and me both,” I said. “Find anything more out about this planet?”
“They’re in the later stage of level seven. There’s no computer technology, of course, but they have telegraph and the beginnings of a radio broadcasting system. I’ve been analyzing transmissions via both. This is a very busy world. I’d be surprised if there’s been no exploration of the poles. We need to up our game with planet surveys.”
“So you’re saying this is nearly to level eight,” I said. “Wonderful. Maybe we ought to meet someplace else.”
“I’d recommend that,” Nolan said. “There’s another place nearby. Level ten. Demonia One.”
“That sounds a little frightening,” Izzy said. “I take it there’s a Demonia Two someplace?”
“Yes, and a three as well.”
“Why the devilish name?” Tim asked.
“All three revolve around the same red star,” Nolan said.
Tim shook his head. “Most red stars are too cool.”
“The Demonia worlds are in closer orbit to their stars than most inhabitable planets. The one furthest away is in a perpetual ice age, but the other two are quite nice, from what I’ve been reading.”
“How close are they to natural wormholes?” I asked.
“Closer than here, but still many months away, Captain. They’d be safe for quite a while, unless the Clan started the journey there a year ago.”
“What levels are the other two?” Tim asked.
“Demonia Two is a level nine, and Demonia Three is a level eight,” Nolan said.
“So, we’re going to the ice age planet?” Izzy asked.
Nolan chuckled. “No, that one is Demonia Three – the most advanced. Cold climates are tough, but they tend to push societies towards faster advancement.”
“Counter-intuitive,” I said. “These planets will mature slowly, if ever, though.”
“Very wise, Captain,” Nolan said.
“Why?” Izzy asked.
“They’re too close to their star, so every time there’s a solar storm they’ll lose their power grids. That’s another advantage for Demonia Three—they’re a little further out. They might get through level six without too many setbacks.”
“Should we suggest meeting on Demonia One instead of here on Amberis?” JJ asked.
“Chairman Vermillion already knows the score on this,” Nolan said. “He’s got a reason to go to Amberis. I’m guessing it has something to do with fuel.”
Nolan froze, looking at his PA.
“What?” I asked.
“Nanos found some activity,” he said. “Not far away.”
“Coming this way?” Tim asked.
“Yes,” Nolan said. “Captain, we’d better take the Zephyrus into a hover, or they’ll run into us.”
“Do it, Izzy,” I said.
She nodded, talking into her PA. The ship vibrated slightly as we went up.
“Is a thousand feet enough, Captain?” Izzy asked.
“Yeah, just hold it here,” I said. “Nolan, put the nano video feed on screen.”
Nolan did that. “It’s a train of dog sleds. They must have a base nearby.”
“What’s that big thing following them?” Tim asked.
Nolan chuckled. “That’s a wooly mammoth. Guess they’ve got the heavy stuff on that sled it’s pulling.”
“They survived on this planet to level seven?” JJ asked.
“Appears that way,” Nolan said. “It’s not that unusual. There are lots of worlds below level six that have mammoths but no elephants. Luck of the draw.”
“They’re visible in the main cameras now,” Izzy said.
I nodded. “Let’s put those on screen. Better video quality.”
Nolan sent the video to the screen in a sectioned view. “Interesting. These aren’t indigenous people. Look at their clothes. Looks like military to me.”
“I was just gonna say that,” Tim said. “Can we see their base?”
“Nope, must not have enough metal to set off our sensors,” Nolan said. “They’re moving slow, so the nanos will follow them all the way there.”
“Want me to set down, Captain?” Izzy asked. “They’re past us.”
“Yeah, go ahead, but let’s release more nanos to keep watch.”
“Already did, Captain,” Nolan said.
My PA buzzed. “Hello, Deacon.”
“Everything okay, Cappy?”
“Yeah, we just had to get out of the way for a few minutes. Dog and mammoth sleds were coming right at us.”
“Did you say mammoth sled?”
I laughed. “Yeah, they had one pulling a big sled.”
“Save that video. I’ve got to see it.”
“No problem. Everything okay down there?”
“Everything’s fine, Cappy. Thanks.”
The call ended.
“Dammit,” Tim muttered.
“What happened?” Izzy asked.
“There’s a battle going on in the free space between Earth and Mars. Several ships on both sides.”
“Who?” Nolan asked.
“Local Earth ships on one side, Overlords on the other.”
“Who’s winning?” Izzy asked.
“Can’t tell from here,” Tim said. “This sucks.”
“No, it’s actually good,” Nolan said. “We’re not going down without a fight. It will give inspiration to the entire Zone.”
I sat in my chair, thinking it through. Izzy noticed.
“Why would Earth ships fight in that location?” she asked. “I know where the shipping lanes are, and that’s not one of them.”
“It’s a good route to use if you wanted to take out the Overlord base orbiting Mars,” Nolan said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said. “There aren’t enough Earth ships there to take out the Overlords Centurion class ships, though.”
“They figured that out,” Tim said. “The Earth ships are heading back to Earth.”
“Are the Centurion ships following?” JJ asked.
“Not so far,” Tim said.
“Let’s hope that they don’t,” JJ said. “Since the Corporation doesn’t have the Samson Drive remote destruct capability anymore, things will get much more violent.”
“That situation won’t hold for long,” Nolan said. “You told us yourself—a fix has been tested on the Tristar.”
JJ sighed. “True, but the transmit stations were all on Earth.”
I stifled the impulse to mention the five off-Earth Corporation bases. “I can’t wait to get the New Jersey back. That Overlord station would be a good target.”
Nolan snickered. “Yeah, that would get their attention, and it would remove the threat to Earth.”
“Only some of it,” JJ said. “There are Central Authority and Overlord ships all over the Zone, and we’ve still got the wild card to deal with.”
“The Clan?” Tim asked.
“Yes.”
“Remember that the Clan might not be on the side of the Central Authority,” I said. “They might not be on anybody’s side but their own, given what we know about conditions in the Clan Zone.”
“Whoa,” Izzy said. “Energy sensors going nuts. Something arrived, but I can’t see it. Nolan, look at your sensors.”
Nolan glanced at her, then turned to his station. He looked back at me and smiled.
“What?”
“Has to be the New Jersey.”
“Already?” Tim
asked.
I nodded. “She wasn’t as far away as the Tristar.”
“This world probably has observatories already, and that ship is huge,” Tim said.
“They’re cloaked,” Nolan said. “Nice job with the energy sensors, Izzy. Wasn’t easy to see, so you had it dialed in perfectly. Perhaps we should work on technology to hide the energy profile more completely.”
“We’re being hailed, Captain,” Izzy said.
I nodded. “Put it on screen.” The picture lit up, Andrea’s smiling face appearing in front of us.
“Hello, Captain Clarke.”
“You guys got here fast.”
“Nolan’s module increased the speed more than expected,” she said. “It responds well to a large power source. Where are you?”
“Near the south pole,” I said. “There’s some human traffic here. We just saw it.”
“Mechanized?” asked Andrea.
I laughed. “Dog sleds, and a huge sled pulled by a wooly mammoth.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’d never joke about something like that, Andrea.”
Nolan chuckled. “The sleds are still moving, Captain. If they go much further we’ll lose contact with our nanos. Wish we had a stealth drone.”
“No worries, we can see the base,” Andrea said. “It’s a collection of wooden huts. Our sensors are showing nearly a thousand bio-hits.”
“There’s a thousand humans here?” Izzy asked.
Nolan laughed. “Five hundred of those could be chickens and goats.”
“Oh,” Izzy said. “Sorry.”
“Do you want to land near us?” I asked.
“No, we’ve got spaces cleared for you and the Tristar in the main bay.”
“What about the fighters?” I asked.
“We only kept a quarter of them onboard,” Andrea said. “They’ll give away our position, and get in the way during a battle. Most of them are guarding our off-Earth bases.”
I smiled. You also needed the space to move the bases off Earth. “Do you want us up there now?”
“The Chairman said it can wait until the Tristar gets here. Stay there and observe. We might have a reason to infiltrate the planet briefly.”
“Knew it,” Nolan said. “Fuel.”
“No comment, Nolan,” Andrea said.
“How’d you get my module on that ship?” Nolan asked.
“A commando team plucked your prototype off the captured ship,” Andrea said. “Right under the nose of Simone’s best security team. We’d like you to create another one for us, to put onto the Tristar. I think you’ll find we have everything you need on the New Jersey.”
“Good, I’d be happy too,” Nolan said, “although with the new cloaking device you get most of the same capability.”
“You’re right, but it takes more fuel to have that running all the time,” Andrea said, “and there is a significant increase in speed with your module.”
Chairman Vermillion appeared next to Andrea. “Greetings.”
“Hello, Mr. Chairman,” I said. “Nice to have you here.”
“Nice to be here,” he said. “We were looking over our shoulder until Nolan gave us the mod for the cloaking device, but still it’s nice to be so far away from those damn natural wormholes.”
“How come you want us to wait for the Tristar before coming up?”
Vermillion smiled. “Not to sound paranoid, but I’ve never liked having all of our eggs in one basket for very long. Especially when we had an enemy plant on board.”
“Is the scan completed yet?” Nolan asked.
“Almost,” Andrea said. “This ship is huge. Takes a while. Daniels had time to be all over it. Saw him popping up all over the place in the surveillance video.”
“Does the crew know the capabilities of the ship?” JJ asked.
“No,” Vermillion said, “but Daniels might have picked something up, if he knows anything about Samson Drives or shield algorithms.”
“He’s not talking?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Vermillion said. “No matter. We’ll keep him alive for now. If the action gets too heavy we’ll dump him someplace.”
“You mean on a planet?” JJ asked.
Vermillion chuckled. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
JJ shot a worried glance at me, which Vermillion noticed.
“We’re at war, JJ,” Vermillion said. “The life and liberty of many trillions of people hang in the balance. We won’t toy with this character, and we won’t leave him someplace where he’ll make noise and be rescued. He’s seen a lot of this ship. He might not have any idea what he’s looking at, but I’m not willing to take that risk.”
“Of course, sir,” JJ said. “Sorry.”
“The Tristar should be getting here shortly,” Nolan said. “I’d estimate less than an hour.”
“Then we’ll see you soon,” Andrea said.
{ 15 }
Starship New Jersey
W e were on the bridge of the Zephyrus, waiting for the arrival of the Tristar.
“What happened with the battle?” I asked Tim, who was watching his PA.
“Our ships are orbiting Earth now. The Overlord ships have taken defensive positions around their space dock.”
“Captain, the Tristar just came out of its jump,” Izzy said.
“Confirmed,” Nolan said.
I nodded. “She’s cloaked, I hope.”
“Yes sir,” Nolan said.
“We’re being hailed again, Captain,” Izzy said.
“Put it on screen.” I watched as Andrea’s face appeared.
“We’re almost ready to receive you in Bay One,” she said. “We’ll pull the Tristar in first, and then use our tractor beam to load you. Stand by.”
“We’re ready when you are,” I said.
“They’ll be visible for a split second,” Nolan said. “Hope nobody’s watching.”
“Without computers scanning constantly, we have a pretty good chance of not being noticed,” Tim said.
I shot him a glance. “If there’s no rogues on this planet, we should be okay.”
“They’ve already pulled the Tristar in,” Izzy said. “There was about ten seconds of exposure while they were passing through the main door.”
Andrea’s face was back on the screen. “Turn off your stabilizers and stand by, please. We’ll pull you up.”
Izzy turned to her PA and spoke the command. After a moment the ship lifted off the ground, rising quickly, passing through turbulence as it left the atmosphere.
“Put the camera video on screen,” I said, sitting back down.
Nolan did that. We were hurtling quickly towards nothing, and then there was a line of light, getting wider as the door slid open, the timing of our movement perfect, our ship slipping through as soon as the door was open wide enough, closing behind us quickly. We were moved towards the rear of the ship, setting down next to the larger Tristar. We waited as the bay re-pressurized, our outside sensors flashing the green light on the arm of my captain’s chair.
“We’re good,” I said.
“Yep, beautifully done,” Nolan said. “Wish we could get a look at the ship. She must be magnificent.”
“She’s a beauty,” I said.
“Why doesn’t this ship belong to the Central Authority?” Izzy asked.
“It was going to them eventually,” I said, “although we lease these now. The last generation that we sold outright was the Centurion Class.”
“Which is why the Overlords use them as their main platform,” Nolan said. “They’re getting long on the tooth.”
“Don’t underestimate those ships,” JJ said. “They’re still plenty potent.”
“The Tristar could take them on and win,” Nolan said.
I chuckled. “Yeah, the Tristar could cause havoc until they’re out of fuel, which their new weapons systems will use up in a hurry.”
“You’ve got that right,” Andrea said, her face popping back onto the m
ain screen. “You can come on out. We’re meeting on D level, port side. Main conference room.”
“Who’s invited?” Nolan asked.
“The entire bridge crew,” Andrea said, “and Deacon.”
“How about the rest of the crew?” I asked. “Are they restricted to the Zephyrus?”
“For now, yes,” Andrea said. “We’re still working that scan, and we aren’t sure that Ensign Daniels was the only plant we’re dealing with.”
“Is there evidence of that?” JJ asked, her brow furrowed.
“Not concrete, but he got onboard somehow. We can’t find a record of who allowed it.”
“Okay, fair enough,” I said. “How are we protecting against a signal?”
“When we’re cloaked, nothing gets out,” Andrea said. “It’s a side benefit.”
“There may be ways around that,” Nolan said.
Andrea paused. “How? No, never mind, we’ll discuss that when we’re in the meeting.”
“Good,” Nolan said.
“All right everybody, let’s go,” I said, tapping my PA. Deacon’s face showed up.
“Yes, Cappy?”
“You’re going to the meeting with us,” I said. “Meet us at the ramp.”
“Will do. See you in a few minutes. The crew is restricted to the ship, I hope.”
“Yes, and I want surveillance and monitoring running at all entrances. Nobody gets on or off this ship without us knowing about it. Clear?”
“Yes sir, I’ll set that up on the way out, and I’ll leave Caraway in charge.”
“Perfect, thanks.” I rushed off the bridge, catching up with the rest in the hallway.
“How far away is our destination?” Nolan asked.
Izzy chuckled. “About two kilometers up, then four kilometers towards the front of the ship. We’ll have to ride the tin can.”
“Am I the only one who hasn’t been on this ship before?” Nolan asked.
“I’ve been on it, but only twice,” JJ said.
“Tim, Izzy, and Deacon worked on this ship,” I said. “Hopefully they will again soon.”
Deacon was waiting for us at the ramp. “Everything’s taken care of, Cappy.”
“Thanks. You can open her up.”
Deacon nodded as he looked at his PA, touching it a few times. The ramp began dropping in the back, the familiar smell of the giant ship giving me a peaceful feeling.
