by Kyle Larson
Contents
Introduction Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue The
The Kelvin Voyages Continue In
Afterword
INTRODUCTION
Eight Months Later
CHAPTER ONE
THE BRIDGE OF the Monarch was quiet for the first time in hours. Most of the morning had been busy, with several transmissions to monitor and scans to conduct. Most of the bridge crew just tried to focus on where the Monarch was headed – the gaseous, hostile planet of Venus. Venus was a mystery to most of the Nine Kingdoms of the Sun, inhabited by a people who prided themselves on staying out of the Nine Kingdoms business. No one on the crew knew what to expect, so they tried to keep their minds off of the Wanderers – the people whom they had faced and who continued to threaten the Nine Kingdoms.
Two people on the bridge never took their minds off of the Wanderers: Captain Eerika Ali and Lieutenant Amelia Chapman. The Wanderers were once called the Pirates of Mercury, but in the last eight months, the Wanderers had been making a name of their own. They had successfully attacked and captured a large squad of Saturn Armada fighters, which was no easy feat. Most people had nearly forgotten the legend of the Pirates of Mercury because there was something much more real and present to keep them terrified.
There were a lot of people on the Monarch who felt the conflict was very personal to them since they’d stared down at the Wanderers’ electro-cannons pointed at them. Few of them felt it as much as Amelia Chapman. The Wanderers tried to kidnap her friend, Kelvin, and almost got away with it. Amelia hated to think where Kelvin would be right now if the star dragons had not smashed up most of the enemy ships. Kelvin was more than her friend, he was her family. She would never let the Wanderers get that close to Kelvin again.
Captain Ali felt the weight of her new command every day. There was not a second that she forgot not only was she responsible for the safety of the future king, but she also had an even bigger responsibility to the people who remained on the Monarch. After the incident in the Antioch Belt, almost all of the population of the Monarch had returned to Earth. People were frightened and no one blamed them. Captain Ali was actually relieved, but the two-hundred that remained still demanded her vigilance and attention. She was grateful for her bridge crew though.
The officers around her were some of the best in Earth Navy. With all the bad things Sir Ristep Aker had done, he had complimented the Monarch with a great crew. Captain Ali considered Riz had done that because he probably intended on capturing them all and either making them Wanderers or keeping them locked up, which would be a blow to Earth Navy either way. She knew the day was coming when the Monarch would face the Wanderers again and she intended to be ready. The crew conducted daily combat exercises and simulations while on duty. They were all as ready as they could be.
“Ma’am,” Lieutenant Marian Rickart – the Monarch’s chief sensor officer – came over Captain Ali’s headset. Captain Ali jumped, as she’d been deep in thought about the rest she intended to get when they arrived on Venus. The captain put her attention on the monitors of her workstation, in the center of the bridge. “We’re picking up an incoming vessel. Moving very fast. It’s Mercurian, but it’s still too far out of range to get a designation.”
The sensor feed appeared on Ali’s monitor. She was able to make out the general design of the ship, which was a standard lite star diver model that was part of Mercury’s security fleet. It was unusual to see part of an orbital security fleet that far away from its home planet. It was moving much faster than it needed to be in this part of space. The Mercurian ship was traveling almost twice as fast as the Monarch was. It made Captain Ali suspect it may have been stolen. If it was stolen, there would be a good chance the Wanderers would have been the ones to do it. One ship wouldn’t be a threat, but that would most likely mean there were more nearby.
“Can you get a readout on their power grid? Are they powering up weapons?” Ali replied.
“Negative. Their weapons systems are not charged. Their engine systems appear to be functioning at normal capacity, at least from the strength of their heat signature and exhaust trail,” Rickart said. “Still too far out of range to detect any life signs.”
“Communications,” Ali said as she toggled her comm channel to the communications officer, Lieutenant Mauro Gueron. “Gueron, get me an encrypted channel to them. Let me know when it’s ready.”
Amelia looked back at her captain, as she noticed her heart had begun to race, so she assumed Ali’s had, too. They spent many hours, off-duty, discussing strategy and reading reports of any ships that had engaged the Wanderers in the last eight months. They studied footage of the Saturn Armada defeat and tried to look for weaknesses in the Wanderers attack patterns. The Wanderers were good and their fleet was significant, but they were not unbeatable. Still, both Captain Ali and Amelia hoped that when the Monarch faced them again, they would not be alone. They exchanged a nervous glance and then both turned back to their stations.
“We’ve established a communications channel, encrypted. They’ve accepted the link. You’re on, ma’am,” Gueron said.
“Mercurian vessel, I am Captain Eerika Ali of Earth Navy ship the Monarch. Please identify yourself,” Captain Ali, trying to establish a tone of voice that was both stern, but possibly friendly since she wasn’t sure who piloted the craft. If it really was a Mercurian security ship, Captain Ali didn’t have any business asking the ship to identify itself, so she braced for a cold or combative response.
“Captain Ali, this is Corporal Ottavio Sowas,” the voice said over her headset. “I don’t understand. Did you not receive my distress signal? I sent it out over six hours ago?”
The entire bridge crew heard Sowas’ question, but no one had an answer. Captain Ali deliberately made eye contact with Lieutenant Gueron, who shook his head to confirm no one received the distress call.
“I apologize, corporal. We haven’t received any distress call and our equipment is functioning properly,” she responded, again looking to Gueron for confirmation that what she said was true. He just nodded and looked away, nervous. The nervousness was all over the bridge.
“They must have jammed me,” Sowas said. “It’s the Wanderers. Ten ships, all of them just showed up and jumped my convoy. We were bringing a freight container of engine components and electro-cannon upgrades, for Mercury to start building its own fleet. Most of them were from your navy.”
Earth Navy had a surplus of parts and part of its new alliance with Mercury was to help them build their own fleet to combat the Wanderers. Captain Ali didn’t know all of the details, but she knew that shipment was out there. What she didn’t understand was how the Wanderers could attack an Earth Navy convoy without the Monarch hearing about it.
“Yes, I’m aware. I thought you had an escort. Wasn’t the Cicada supposed to escort you past the Antioch Belt to Mercury?” Ali said, puzzled.
“That’s what we thought, too. The Cicada got called back to Earth two days after we left. We don’t know why,
but we couldn’t stop.”
“Where’s the rest of your fleet and the container?” Captain Ali asked, knowing exactly how foolish a question it was.
“Where do you think?” Sowas said, sarcastically. “They captured the rest of the convoy. Six other ships like mine and the container. We didn’t stand a chance.”
The stomachs of everyone on the bridge sank. It was bad enough for Mercury to lose those ships, but that container was filled with some of the most advanced weapons Earth Navy had. The Wanderers had just become that much stronger. What made it even worse is that if the Cicada had been there, the Wanderers would have most likely not been victorious.
“Do you require assistance, corporal? You are welcome to board the Monarch. We can perform any repair or refueling your vessel may require.”
“No thanks, Monarch. I think Earth Navy’s done quite enough for us.” Sowas said, his tone was not mean, just tired and dry. “I’ve got enough fuel to make it back to Mercury on my own. Give my regards to Lord Sellwood. I imagine he or his mother will be hearing from Queen Evet quite soon.”
“Understood. Should you require assistance, we are en route to Venus, so we will be in range for the next day,” Captain Ali replied, trying to choose her words delicately. She could tell Sowas wanted nothing to do with the Monarch. The man had just lost his friends and was returning to his queen empty-handed.
“You’ll probably be the ones calling for assistance,” Sowas said.
Amelia snapped her head around to meet Captain Ali. They both looked confused.
“I don’t understand, corporal.”
“The Wanderers are headed for Venus.”
The communications channel went dead and Captain Ali watched Corporal Sowas adjust his course, taking him further away from the Monarch.
“Rickart,” the captain said. “I want long distance scans in every direction. Link up to every satellite and interplanetary tracker you can. Look for the Wanderers.”
“No need, ma’am. I’ve already got them,” Rickart said.
Captain Ali’s monitor filled with the ten ships the Mercurian officer described. There were more like fifty-ships, none of whom she could make out from such a long range scan, but all there. They were indeed on a direct course to Venus, though they were moving very slow.
“Gueron, get me Head Commander Enner on an encrypted channel. Inform her of its priority status,” Captain Ali said. “Lieutenant Chapman, please assess all the data you can from Rickart’s scans. Keep me updated on anything you learn.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Amelia said.
The scans would only get better as the ships got closer, but that made it all the more urgent for Amelia to determine the threat. She pored over the data, but there was still little she could read from it. Amelia knew exactly what Captain Ali was looking for: two ships, either the Empress or the Zephyr. Both were what Earth Navy considered Wanderer command ships, especially the newer, more advanced Zephyr. It was Earth Navy’s goal to disable one of these ships, which were rumored to have Aren Sellwood, Ristep Aker, or the Colonel as commander. Any of those people they could capture would put a dent in the command structure of the Wanderers.
It would be a while before Amelia could tell, but that didn’t keep her from refreshing her sensor feed, as well as running diagnostics on every defensive system of the Monarch. The nervousness of engaging the Wanderers began to turn to anticipation.
“Captain Ali,” Head Commander Enner’s voice said over static. “Report, please.”
Commander Raha Enner was not one for conversation. Like the rest of the Earth Navy, all she was focused on was what the Wanderers were up to. The rogue fleet had been difficult to track, so anytime Enner received a priority status transmission, she hoped it was some kind of intel on the Wanderers fleet.
Captain Ali recounted what happened and the situation with the Mercurian security ship. All of the Monarch’s sensor feeds went to Commander Enner, who was in a mobile command center just past Earth’s moon. After Ali finished, Enner didn’t immediately respond, which didn’t give the captain a lot of reassurance.
“Have you briefed Lord Sellwood, captain?” Enner responded, with little emotion.
“No, ma’am,” Ali said, confused. There would have been no reason to brief Kelvin at that point. “We’ve just discovered this.”
“Captain, please note in the ship’s log that I am ordering you to return to Earth and turn back from Venus. Our diplomatic team will make contact with Venus and warn the Gravity Warriors. They are closely allied with Uranus, so if they need a navy, hopefully, the Uranian one will be ready,” Enner said. Her tone of voice was unsympathetic and cold. “Because the Monarch is currently assigned to Lord Sellwood’s Traditions of Service, the prince himself with have to authorize these orders. That should be a ceremonial act because it’s common sense the Monarch is not prepared to face the Wanderers fleet. If Lord Sellwood refuses to return the Monarch to Earth, you have the Royal Council’s permission to override him. Please contact me when you are underway. Good luck, captain. Enner out.”
The transmission cut off.
“Lieutenant Scree, full stop,” Ali said in her headset to the pilot. “Lieutenant Chapman, you’re with me.” The captain stood from her workstation and started to walk toward the strange elevator that was the moth.
“But, captain, I’ve got–” Amelia started in. She wanted to finish her scans of the Wanderers.
“Now, Amelia.”
The captain glared when she said it, so Amelia fell into line very quickly. Whatever it was, Amelia knew it was serious. She followed the captain into the moth and the door slid closed behind them.
“We’ve been ordered back to Earth, by the Royal Council and Fleet Commander Enner. They don’t want us going anywhere near Venus.”
“What? They want us to run away?” Amelia said, a hint of disappointment in her tone. “That’s ridiculous, we’re more than ready to fight the Wanderers.”
“No, Chapman, it doesn’t matter how prepared we are. All those scans would have confirmed to you is that we would be outnumbered and outgunned.”
“Not with the Venusians. If we could make it to Venus, then we could fight alongside the Gravity Warriors, whom I might add have never lost a battle. There’s no way Kelvin is going to go for this.”
The captain shook her head and sighed. Ali wished she was anywhere in the Nine Kingdoms than on the Monarch, having this conversation with an angry teenager while on her way to make another teenager angry. If anything, it was good preparation for whatever Kelvin would say to her. Amelia and Kelvin rarely disagreed and almost always supported the other. Their friendship had become much stronger since the Antioch Belt.
“That’s out of our hands. The Royal Council ordered us back to Earth. They can go over Kelvin’s authority. The only military alliance the Venusians have is with the Uranians. Unless the king or the Royal Council order us to, the Monarch cannot engage the Wanderers with Venus. Now come on, Chapman, tell me where he is so we can get this over with.”
“Where do you think he is?” Amelia said. Her eyes lowered and she shook her head in disgust. “This entire crew has been training around the clock for the last eight months to get ready for the next time we met the Wanderers. If we run away from this, we’re just delaying the inevitable. We’re going to have to face them someday”
“So he’s still in the zero gravity simulator?” That was the only response Ali could offer up.
“Still? I don’t think he’s left that thing in the last eight months unless he’s headed to combat training or one of Holloway’s classes.”
The moth-elevator departed the bridge. It floated like a glass bubble across the cityscape of the Monarch. What was once a burgeoning city inside the ship had become mostly empty streets and darkened windows of empty homes. Most of the population were officers of the Monarch so they were either on duty or at home resting. The massive structure in front of them –– the zero gravity simulator –– dominated everything
and they headed straight for it.
“Will you please text him and let him know we’re coming? I don’t have time to climb inside that thing right now, and neither do you.”
Amelia took out her phone and sent Kelvin a text, telling him she and the captain were on their way and needed to talk to him. It would appear on the monitor in his helmet. He was no doubt speeding through the simulator’s tall structure, hundreds of miles per hour. She was amazed at how skilled Kelvin had become piloting himself in zero gravity with a thruster suit.
“Look, lieutenant,” Ali started. She could sense Amelia’s disappointment and defiance to the orders that demand they return to Earth. “Part of being an officer is learning to follow orders. You know that I know how hard you and the rest of the crew have worked. We will have our day to face the Wanderers, but we have to trust our superiors to make the right call. They know a lot more than we do about what’s going on in the rest of the Nine Kingdoms. This isn’t going to change anything about your commission if that’s what you’re worried about. You can still serve on the Monarch, for as long as I’m captain.”
Losing her place on the bridge was something Amelia hadn’t even considered. Captain Ali had doubts of her own about whether even she could remain on the Monarch. She was a new captain and command of the Monarch was traditionally given to an older captain or more senior officer. Ali never felt like her position was secure, and she’d be surprised if they let her remain in command after the Monarch returned to Earth. She would get another command, but the Monarch would be most likely turned into a full-scale battleship. Amelia suspected these things to about her captain. It made her angry to think of it.
If only they had the chance to prove themselves.
Kelvin Sellwood’s thruster burn reached the point where it could burn out completely. Kelvin dodged every object that flew at him, as well as the simulated electro-blasts. He had been doing this same drill for hours, from one end of the zero gravity tower to the other. Top-to-bottom, but in zero gravity, it didn’t really matter.
