by Robert Boren
“You read my mind, Captain,” Nolan said. “We’re cloaked again. I’ll stop us just past the orbit of Pluto. Ought to be close enough for a good look.”
We stopped, the static hitting all of us, the video monitors coming on again.
“Going telescopic on camera nine,” Andrea said. “I’ll put it on center screen.”
“Thank you,” I said, settling in. The drifting Centurion ships were visible, as was the space dock, parts of which were still glowing.
“Look, they’re already bringing tugs out to steady the drifting ships,” Izzy said.
“They’d better save some of those for the space dock,” Tim said.
Suddenly a giant ship appeared in their midst.
“There it is,” Andrea said, zooming in so the ship filled the screen.
“What the hell is that?” Tim asked. “It’s not one that the Corporation constructed.”
Nolan shot me a glance. “I’m doing a search now, Captain, looking for a match.”
“Better include Clan ships,” I said. Nolan nodded affirmative.
“That ship is bigger than this one,” Andrea said. “Significantly.”
“Size doesn’t always matter, my dear,” Nolan said, bringing a snicker from Tim.
“This isn’t good,” JJ whispered. “One of my main jobs was on the Central Authority’s Spacecraft Design Approval Committee. I know I would’ve remembered that ship from the SDAC, and they didn’t build it in the time that I’ve been off that committee. No way. I’ve only been off it for three months.”
“Having any luck?” I asked Nolan.
“It didn’t match any known ships in the Central Authority data banks, Captain. I’m still running the search of known Clan vessels, but so far it’s not seeing anything there either.”
“No matches at all? Not even similar?”
“Not yet. After I get through the known existing ships, I’ll search for prototypes and concepts. Maybe we’ll get a match there.”
Chairman Vermillion entered the bridge, eyeing the image of the giant ship on the monitor.
“Should I brief you on what just happened?” I asked.
Vermillion shook his head no. “I watched the whole thing from my office, Captain. Well handled, by the way.”
“Do you recognize that ship?” I asked.
“Nope, but I’m not an expert on the ships of our customers.”
“We’re not sure this ship has a Samson Drive,” Nolan said.
“There aren’t natural wormholes near Mars,” Vermillion said, “so it’s either one of our drives, or somebody figured out how to duplicate our technology.”
“The power profile wasn’t the same as our standard drives,” Nolan said. “That was the first thing I checked. Oh, and the scan of the Clan data is complete. No matches. Not even anything close. Moving on to prototypes and concepts.”
“I doubt you’ll find anything,” Vermillion said. “The Overlords have been busy. First the PA system infiltration, and now this.”
“Simone was very defiant,” I said to Vermillion.
He smiled. “She’s about eighty-percent bluster, you know. Even back in the days when I was her friend.”
“Uh oh,” Nolan muttered.
“Match?” I asked.
“Close, sir. Too close.”
I stood, walking to his station, looking over his shoulder. “Prototype or Concept?”
“Concept,” Nolan said, eyes glued to the screen. “This is about twenty years old. Earth years, that is.”
“Who owns it?” Vermillion asked.
“The local government of Devonia Axxiom.”
“The Capital world?” Izzy asked, eyes wide.
“I’m afraid so, dear,” Nolan said. “Dammit. Ecason.”
Vermillion laughed nervously. “That crackpot? He disappeared about sixteen years ago, after being exposed as a fraud.”
“He was brilliant,” Nolan said. “I met him once, at a conference. He was far ahead of his time. Completely anti-war, though, and dead set against government overreach. I can’t imagine he’d construct a killing machine for Simone. He railed against the ascension of the Overlords into a sanctioned part of the Central Authority.”
“How did he disappear?” Tim asked.
“That’s a good question,” Nolan said. “Never believed the stories about him being a fraud. I figured he just said screw it and went into solitude someplace.”
“His ship blew up,” Vermillion said, “and he was presumed dead, along with a crew of seventy-thousand.”
“I’ve never heard that before,” Nolan said, eyeing Vermillion.
“Where did his ship blow up?” I asked.
“Far end of the Free Zone.”
“So it wasn’t a military ship,” Tim said.
“Research ship,” Vermillion said. “He was trying to go outside of our Universe.”
“Did they find wreckage of his ship?” Nolan asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Vermillion said. “It was in a very remote part of the Free Zone. Nobody wanted to expend the fuel to check it out.”
“Maybe his ship didn’t blow up,” Nolan said. “Maybe it left the Universe.”
{ 19 }
Mystery Ship
W e were still on the New Jersey bridge, staring at the massive ship on the main screen.
“We need to find Ecason,” Nolan said.
Vermillion laughed. “We aren’t gonna chase ghosts around the universe. We need to get back to Amberis and work the fuel supply issue with Tac, and I need to oversee the construction of the first three New Jersey Class ships.”
“So we’re dropping you someplace, then?” Nolan asked.
“I’ll be taking the Tristar to the lead manufacturing plant.”
“Is that safe?” JJ asked, shooting a glance at Cyrus.
“I believe so,” Vermillion said, “but we are heading into a time of war. That’s obvious. All of us will have to be vigilant. War is very unpredictable.”
“You aren’t telling us where you’re going, are you?” Andrea asked.
“Sorry, afraid not,” Vermillion said. “You understand, I hope.”
“We might get captured,” I said, “although if we run into trouble, it’ll more likely be in the form of death after this ship is destroyed than capture.”
JJ laughed nervously. “Gee, thanks for that.”
“He’s being realistic,” Nolan said. “What about the Zephyrus?”
Vermillion smiled. “The Zephyrus as unfinished business, remember? The Clan. We have to eliminate them as a problem.”
“You’re not thinking they’re involved, are you?” Tim asked.
Vermillion shook his head no. “I don’t know what’s going on with them, but the concept of them hiding here makes more sense to me, given what we’ve been hearing about conditions in the Clan Zone.”
“What are we to do if we find them hiding?” I asked. “Make friends?”
“We’ll chat about that later,” Vermillion said. “Let’s jump back to Amberis.”
“Yes sir,” I said, nodding to Nolan, who fed data to Izzy. She conferred with the main pilot for a moment, and then fed the information into the console. We all felt the momentary dizziness as the ship took off.
“I’m going back to my office,” Vermillion said. “Good job, everybody. Be sure to commend the battle pilots and gunners for me.”
We watched him leave the bridge.
“Well there you have it,” Tim said, shaking his head. I shot him a glance, looking up at the microphones in the ceiling. Tim shrugged.
“I suggest we scan as we’re going,” Nolan said. “Since we know nothing about that big ship, we have no idea if they have sensors good enough to track us.”
“What about that encryption module of yours?” Izzy asked.
“There are quite a few ways to skin a cat,” Nolan said. “They can’t use existing Central Authority scanners to track us, but generating a wormhole through space is nearly impossible to hide completely.”<
br />
“Should we be running cloaked?” I asked.
“We could, but it’s harder on fuel consumption, and we have an adversary we don’t understand,” Nolan said. “I think it’s better to stay uncloaked and scan, but it’s your call, Captain. We can turn cloaking on if the scan reveals anything.”
“I’m giving up the Captain’s chair to Andrea. The battle is over.”
“Feel free to keep it, Captain,” Andrea said. “I never wanted that slot anyway.”
“I’m gonna be on the Zephyrus again soon,” I said.
She sighed, getting up and taking the captain’s seat. “Okay, no problem.”
“Are we taking off on that Clan search mission right away?” Nolan asked.
“I think we’ll meet with your uncle on Amberis first,” JJ said. “You have to be involved, of course. Vermillion, Cyrus, Trey, and Deacon should be involved as well.”
“And you, JJ,” I said. “Agreed, but we’ll have to run it past the Chairman.”
“He’ll agree,” Nolan said.
We settled into the trip. JJ made eye contact with me and nodded at the door.
“We’re going down to the Zephyrus,” I said, getting up.
“Who’s we?” Izzy asked.
“JJ and me. We were in the middle of a discussion when the general alarm went off.”
“I see,” Izzy said, shooting me a smirk. I shrugged, following JJ out the door.
“Good,” JJ whispered. “Izzy thinks we’ve got something going on.”
I chuckled. “We do. I’m assuming you want to go chat.”
“You okay?” she asked.
“After that discussion? My mind is reeling, but that’s not unusual in this line of work.”
JJ chuckled. “True enough. Let’s stop at the cafeteria and grab something. I’m hungry.”
We made our way there, able to get our food without the normal lines and bustling crowd.
“Guess everybody got nervous about that battle,” JJ said.
“They’re banking some down time. We’re on a military footing now. Been a long while for most of us.”
“Was this the first action you’ve seen on the New Jersey?” JJ asked.
“Yes. The last real battle I was in was on a Centurion Class ship.”
“What was it about?” she asked as we carried our food back to the Zephyrus.
“Smuggling,” I said. “It was tougher than we expected.”
“Really? Why?”
“The smugglers had an old Gladiator Class warship. Never figured out how they got it.”
“I thought they were all scrapped.”
I laughed. “They were supposed to be, but not in a centralized location. They were spread out all over the Central Authority zone.”
“Are they a danger to Centurion Class ships? They don’t even have Phase 3 shields.”
“This one did. They had a genius working with them. He cooked up a very clever workaround to bring the Phase 2 shields up to Phase 3 levels. We had to shoot it out with them. Barely won.”
“What happened to the genius?”
“We caught him in an escape pod after we’d neutralized their weapons systems. He’s doing time someplace. Probably won’t see the light of day again.”
“What were they smuggling?” JJ asked as we got down to the bay.
“Just a sec,” I said, leading her to the Zephyrus, speaking into my PA. The ramp opened and we went onboard, closing it behind us.
“Sensitive subject?” JJ asked.
“It’s classified,” I said. “Let’s go to my stateroom.”
We headed down the hall, making a turn, almost running smack-dab into Deneuve and Barney.
“Hello, Captain,” Deneuve said. “Say hello, Barney.”
“Hello, Captain,” Barney said, his eyes searching my face for aggression. I watched as he relaxed. “He’s nice, isn’t he?”
“He is,” Deneuve said. “So is JJ.”
“JJ,” Barney repeated. “Hi JJ.”
“Hi, Barney,” JJ said, moving forward slowly. Barney started to back away, but Deneuve steadied him, petting his shoulder.
“Let JJ pet you,” he said. “She’s nice. You’ll like her.”
JJ reached up and rubbed his other shoulder, Barney’s eyes squinting. I watched, feeling affection for the Neanderthal growing in me.
“Has he met the rest of the crew yet?” I asked.
“Everybody except the bridge crew,” Deneuve said. “It’ll take a few times for him to get comfortable, but overall he’s doing well.”
“I think he’s charming,” JJ said, backing away, Barney looking disappointed. “Don’t worry, I’ll see you often.”
“Have fun you two,” I said, turning to continue to my stateroom. We went through the door and took the food to the table.
“You liked him, didn’t you?” I asked as I opened the cover on my food tray.
“There’s something about them. It’s like petting a puppy or a kitten. You start to bond so quickly.”
“Yeah, it’s strange,” I said, taking a bite out of my hamburger. “Wow, this is so much better than the food on the Zephyrus.”
JJ nodded in agreement.
“What did you want to talk about?”
JJ finished chewing a bite, then took a drink of water. “I want to go on the mission.”
“On Amberis?”
“No, on this ship, when we search for Clan presence.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Oh. Are you sure? It might be dangerous.”
“Being on the New Jersey is dangerous,” she said, “so that doesn’t bother me.”
“You’ve got a point there.”
She smiled, taking another bite of her salad.
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s more interesting than sitting on the New Jersey, it helps our cover story, and I feel more confident being close with you than I do being close with the Chairman.”
“Wow, that’s quite a mouthful.” I watched her face as I took another bite of burger. “Are you afraid Vermillion is going to take you on the Tristar with him?”
“A little.”
“Does he like you?” I asked.
She smirked at me. “No, he’s not interested in romance. I was hungrier than I thought.”
“We’re liable to be gone for a while, you know. A month or more.”
“Good,” she said. “You don’t mind having me around, I hope.”
“Not even a little bit. I just want to make sure you know what you’re signing up for. Vermillion may veto the idea. He’s rather fond of you, even if he’s not interested romantically.”
“I’m sure you could help me convince him,” she said, pushing her salad plate away. “That was good.”
“We’ll have to watch Nolan, or we’ll find ourselves on a wild goose chase towards the last place Ecason was.”
“That’s actually more interesting than chasing down Clan ships,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “Isn’t it?”
“Yes, and no, I’m not going to let Nolan push us into that.”
JJ laughed. “Well, it’ll be hard to hide the fact that we’re jumping to the far end of the Free Zone.”
“It would appear to be legal, at least, since it isn’t common knowledge that this ship has advanced weapons systems and shields.”
“Doesn’t matter if it does,” JJ said. “This was designated a prototype, and we’re allowed to test new weapons systems. Taking this into the free zone would be pushing the gray area a little hard, of course.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, like the Central Authority will buy that. Hell, they already want us to surrender because they can’t track us.”
“That’s the Central Authority. I was talking about the Free Zone.”
“We aren’t going there,” I said, then paused for a moment. “Let me back up. We aren’t going there without a critical reason.”
“You done with that burger?”
“Yeah, can’t eat as much as I used to. You wan
t the rest?”
“No, I need to go, but we’ve got something to do first.”
I raised my eyebrows, staring at the intensity of her expression.
“Have you forgotten already?” she asked, getting up and walking to me, bending down, our lips touching. We kissed gently.
“Oh,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Was it that bad?”
“No. I wasn’t saying that.”
“Then what were you saying,” she asked, smiling at me.
I got up, forcing her to back away. “This isn’t optimum.”
“What do you mean?”
I moved to the bed, laying on my back, and motioned for her to come over. “Come here.”
“We aren’t going to… ?”
“We’re just going to kiss, but I want to be comfortable.”
JJ smiled and climbed onto the bed. I pulled her over on top of me, kissing her shocked face as my hands roamed over her back. She gave in quickly, moaning into my mouth, her hands going to my hair. We broke it after a few minutes.
“Wow,” she said, looking flustered as she got up. “That’ll do it.”
“Where are you going? We could do that a little longer.”
“If we do, I’ll be peeling my clothes off. Not a good idea.”
I laughed. “Maybe not to you.”
“Quiet. You remember what we agreed to.”
“You told me what you wanted to do. I don’t remember agreeing with you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Maybe this is going to be harder than I thought.”
“You said it, not me.”
“Stop.” She flashed an embarrassed smile, getting up and straightening her blouse.
“Where are you going?” I got off the bed.
“I want to see how far along the techs are with the Tristar, and when they’ll be doing the retrofit on this ship.”
“Anxious to have it done, aren’t you?”
She glanced back at me as she headed for the door. “This is like our escape pod.” She left, the door closing behind her.
I picked up the food containers and leftovers, putting them into the disposal unit next to the table, then straightened my uniform and left, heading back to the New Jersey bridge. Nolan and Andrea were busy chatting, looking at documents about Ecason’s ship concept. Tim and Izzy were both watching their PAs.
“Where’s JJ?” Izzy asked. Tim elbowed her.
