by Robert Boren
“What about the Prime Minister?”
“What about him?”
“Is he stupid?” JJ asked.
“That’s a complicated question. I think he’s wise as a ruler trying to amass power, but he’s not a good military leader, and he hasn’t got good people under him, from what we’ve seen so far. We shouldn’t have been able to rescue the Chairman so easily.”
“You call that easy?”
“Nobody died. Hell, nobody even got wounded.”
“That’s the technology, isn’t it?” JJ asked.
“Partly, I suppose. Maybe even mostly. A good military mind could’ve made a rescue next to impossible, even for a team equipped like we were.”
“Okay, I see your point. They could’ve stuck him in a much-more fortified building, for example. The place they were holding him looked like an office building.”
“They weren’t thinking we’d have good enough intel to find the location, but they had time to react. When we were inside getting the Chairman, they could have brought several hundred armed fighters around that roof. There were taller buildings with windows on all sides. They could’ve slaughtered us.”
JJ thought about it for a moment. “I think you’re right that our adversaries aren’t as sharp as we are, but their biggest problem is that they’ve underestimated us, and that won’t keep happening. They’ll be harder to beat next time.”
“You’re right about that.”
“Hey, you okay?” JJ asked, looking into my eyes. “You look like the whole world is on your shoulders.”
“Oh, I’m fine, just getting a little tired. We should finish these drinks, grab some food, and head for home.”
“I’m game.”
We drank up, stopped by a burger stand, and headed back to the stateroom, eating and then relaxing, making love before we drifted off to sleep, the morning coming way too quickly.
“I heard that,” JJ said, rolling towards me. “Sleep well?”
“I did. You?”
“Perfect. I need to cleanse. Want to join me?”
We got up, heading into the booth, letting the machine work its magic. Then we got dressed and headed out, stopping for breakfast at one of the eateries, then going to the bridge.
“Ah, good morning you two,” Nolan said, turning from his station.
“The others aren’t up here yet, huh?” I asked.
“It’s still early. I’m surprised you’re up here already.”
“What are you doing today, Nolan?” JJ asked.
“A little last-minute study of Clan ships, weapons, and tactics. It’s amazing that the peace has held for so long. The Clan has a warrior culture.”
“So do we, if you go back far enough,” I said.
“True, but we shed it as our technology increased. That almost caused our demise, of course.”
JJ looked at him, questioning.
“There was a nasty war going on about the time that Earth became space-travel aware,” I said. “The Central Authority was losing, remember?”
“How old do you think I am?” JJ quipped.
Nolan laughed. “I’m not touching that one. Be cautious, Captain, you’re heading into dangerous territory.”
We chuckled, Skip and Sondra coming in.
“What’s so funny?” Sondra asked.
“Oh, we were just joking around,” I said. “We’ll be leaving sometime this morning, more than likely.”
“I wish you’d reconsider,” Skip said. “Going to the Clan Zone sounds like a suicide run to me.”
“We aren’t planning to fight anybody there,” Nolan said.
“You might not be, but the locals might have different ideas,” Sondra said.
“I agree with that,” Andrea said as she walked in. “Don’t worry, I won’t try to talk you out of it. We need those drive profiles and frequencies.”
“Deacon got his work done?” Skip asked.
“He had most of it done already,” I said. “He had to provide his drawings and instructions for the factories, so they could install the cargo bay shielding during manufacture. He just adapted what he already created for the upgrade of the Monitor.”
“Who’s going to be Captain of that ship?” Andrea asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Any of you interested in the job?”
“I might be,” Sondra said, “if you can find a replacement for my job here.”
“Good, we’ll keep you in mind, but no guarantees. The job you’re in is critical.”
“I understand,” Sondra said.
“Why would you want that job?” JJ asked. “Just out of curiosity. The job you have here is better in most ways.”
“I know why,” Andrea said. “She knows that Captain experience is required before getting a New Jersey-class ship, and we have several on the production line.”
Sondra smiled. “You found me out. I’d expect you to get the first one.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t like that,” Andrea said. “You notice how much I fight it when Trey is here.”
Skip laughed. “Point taken there. Maybe Cyrus would be interested, though.”
“Anything you want to move from this ship to the Zephyrus?” I asked JJ.
“Clothes. Should we do that now?”
I shrugged. “Might as well. We’ve got time.”
“Let’s go,” she said. I nodded, getting up.
“Don’t leave without saying goodbye,” Andrea said.
“I’ll say goodbye, but it might not be in person.”
We left the bridge, walking to the transit station.
“They don’t want us to go on this mission,” JJ said.
“Andrea does. She understands. And by the way, she’s at the top of my list for Captain of the next battleship. She’s handled this one very well.”
We got to our stateroom quickly, the morning rush hour not started yet. Both of our clothes fit into a single vacuum bag.
“You don’t want to take anything else?” JJ asked.
“I’ve got duplicates of a lot of stuff on the Zephyrus, so I’m good. I was on that ship for six months, remember?”
“That was before I knew you,” she said. “I just worshiped you from afar.”
“Oh, brother. Lay it on thick, why don’t you?” JJ responded with a giggle.
I carried the bag as we went to grab a tin can, riding it down to the main bay. The Zephyrus was already in position to launch.
“Did the Chairman get done already?”
I dictated to open the Zephyrus ramp, and we climbed aboard, dropping the vacuum bag in the stateroom and then going to the bridge. Tim and Izzy were already there.
“We must be leaving pretty soon,” Izzy said.
“Still waiting on word from the Chairman,” I said. “Thought we might as well load up. Thanks for getting us into launch position.”
Nolan walked in a few minutes later. “Ah, Captain, didn’t expect to see you here this early. Did our departure get moved up?”
“Loading. Killing time. You’re here early too.”
“I wanted to set up a news download to run before we jump away,” Nolan said.
“It’s just going to be more BS,” Tim said.
JJ and I s
hot each other a glance.
I turned towards Tim and Izzy. “I just got called to the Chairman’s office with JJ and Nolan. We’ll be back soon. If there’s prep work to do before departure, now’s the time.”
“Finally,” Tim said.
“Do you really want to go on this mission?” Izzy asked.
“Aren’t you a little bored sitting in a bay on this behemoth?”
I chuckled. “Well, you’ll get plenty of entertainment on this trip, I’d imagine.”
{ 8 }
Departure
W e left the Zephyrus, heading for Vermillion’s office on the New Jersey.
“I hope those talks went okay,” Nolan said. “This has me nervous. I stewed about it last night.”
“I slept like a baby,” I said, “but that surprises me a little.”
We got to the transport station and took a tin can to Vermillion’s office. He ushered us into the conference room we’d used the day before.
“Have a seat. Coffee?”
“Love some,” JJ said.
I nodded. “You look a little worried.”
Vermillion smiled as his orderly brought in the coffee machine. “I am worried, but not about the meeting. It was quite productive and very pleasant.”
We got cups of coffee and sat at the table, Vermillion taking his usual spot at the head.
“You’re worried about us going,” JJ said.
“Yes, I’m sending my best people to the Clan Zone. That’s not a choice I like, but it’s the only one we have right now.”
“Hello, sir,” Nolan said.
I chuckled. “You just scanned us?”
“What happened in the meeting?” JJ asked.
“We spent most of the time laying down ground rules for our relationship,” Vermillion said. “We won’t do much while you’re gone. When you’re back, we’ll work together on several things, depending on what you find out there, and what the scans of our zone reveal if you get the profiles and frequencies.”
“What kinds of things?” Nolan asked.
“We’ll help them tune the Razor ships they have left, for one thing.”
We were silent for a moment.
“Will it allow her to destroy this vessel?” I asked.
Vermillion chuckled. “Told you.”
“So the Razor ships aren’t more powerful than this one, even if tuned?”
“Simone knows that,” Vermillion said. “We discussed it. She will have a numerical advantage for a little while.”
“How many ships does she have?” Nolan asked.
“Seven,” Vermillion said, “with no manufacturing plants making more, so she doesn’t have an advantage over us in the long run. We need to adjust our mindset, though. We’ll be fighting alongside the Overlords. They will be our allies. We’ll have to learn to trust them.”
“Do they know about the AIs, and the Nano suits, and Drake?” I asked.
“They know about the AIs, yes, and they have a similar system as well.”
“Knew that,” Nolan said. “Remember how small the Razor crews were?”
“Yes,” I said. “I was gonna bring that up yesterday, but thought better of it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Vermillion said. “We talked through a lot of things, only some of which we can discuss right now.”
“I figured,” JJ said. “What about the Nano capability?”
“Interesting,” I said. “What else?”
“Hamilton Zenos is with Simone’s forces, under her protection. The Prime Minister tried to kill him twice, and now he’s holding some of Zenos’s relatives. Two cousins.”
“What a jerk,” I said. “Anything else?”
“They know about Boroclize.”
I eyed Vermillion. “You mean they knew we’ve been there?”
“No, although I admitted that to her. They’ve been afraid of the Clan coming in here, given the problems in the Clan Zone. They’ve mapped out all the ultra-high-quality sources of Boron. There are others, of course, some of which are near natural wormholes, as we found out.”
“What about their fuel supplies?” Nolan asked.
“They’ve got a similar setup to the one we have on Amberis. We agreed not to reveal to each other where those sources are, at least for now.”
“Everything okay?” Vermillion asked, looking me in the eyes.
“Yes sir,” I said.
I chuckled. “Or it might have killed them.”
“If it killed the first people who stopped there, they might have military craft nearby,” Nolan said. “That’s the concern, right?”
“Should we just skip it?” I asked.
“We’ll be running cloaked more than normal,” Nolan said. “That makes the trip worth it.”
“What about the other sources of high-quality Boron?” JJ asked. “There might be one on the way.”
“If we were taking the New Jersey, I’d go in that direction,” Vermillion said, “but we won’t have people with mining experience on the Zephyrus. Taking mined ore out of a mover is one thing. Actual mining is something else.”
“Anything else we need to know?” I asked.
“I can’t think of anything, but we’ll be in contact,” Vermillion said. “Oh, that reminds me. I’ve got another holographic communicator for you. Put it on the bridge. It’ll make things quicker and easier.”
“Where is it?” JJ asked.
“Down in engineering. I’ll have it brought to the Zephyrus as soon as you guys leave here.”
“Well, then I guess this is it,” I said.
“It is,” Vermillion said, rising. “Be careful. Keep your wits about you. Don�
��t take unnecessary chances.”
“Oh, one other thing,” I said. “How much can we tell the bridge crew of the Zephyrus? That’ll be important if we have a communicator on the bridge.”
“Normally I’d balk, but in this case it’s a must. Thanks for bringing that up.”
We said our goodbyes and left the bridge, heading for the transport station, grabbing a tin can to the main bay. The communicator was being pushed up the ramp when we got there. Cyrus was standing outside the Zephyrus with Andrea.
“You guys be careful,” Cyrus said. “I still don’t like this.”
“Ditto,” Andrea said, “but I know it’s a must.”
I nodded, shaking hands with Cyrus and giving Andrea a hug, the others doing the same. Then we walked up the Zephyrus ramp. It closed behind us.
We walked onto the bridge. Izzy smiled at me as I sat in the Captain’s chair. “That’s right where I like you. Sondra’s standing by to open the bay doors. Ready?”
“Take us out,” I said. “Tim and Nolan, the coordinates for Boroclize, please.”
They nodded from their stations. The alarm for the bay sounded, remaining people leaving quickly. We moved towards the door as the bay door cracked open, closing as soon as we slipped out.
“Cloaked in the jump, correct?” Tim asked.
“Yes,” I said. We felt the dizziness and were off.
After we were stable in the jump, I had Butch call Deacon to the bridge. “Izzy and Tim, we’ve got to chat when Deacon gets here.”
Izzy shot me a glance. “Are we in trouble?”
Nolan snickered.
