Novum Chronicles: A Dystopian Undersea Saga

by Joseph Rhea Rhea

So, that’s how you knew what we were doing, Jake thought, remembering his conversation in the rec room. Aloud, he said, “What do those tracks have to do with...” Jake’s heart suddenly sped up. “Wait a minute—are you talking about the location west of the border? The place we think the salvager might have picked up the sphere?”

  Wood nodded. “And as I recall, your parents were on the westbound ship 15 years ago. They went the same direction.”

  “But if we’re right about the numbers,” AJ said, “that’s an eight thousand-kilometer round trip. Nothing can travel that far.”

  Wood nodded again. “Exactly. The salvager has an advanced fuel cell that would allow it to travel the four thousand kilometers to that location, but there is no way it could return without refueling.”

  “So you think there’s a refueling station of some sort out there?” Ash asked.

  “That is one theory,” Wood replied.

  “What’s yours?” Jake asked.

  Wood started to rise but then seemed to think better of it. “There is no reason for a refueling station to be sitting out there by itself. I believe that there is something habitable there, perhaps an outpost of some kind.”

  “What would it be doing out there?” Jake asked.

  “As I mentioned earlier, I believe Civica was once somewhere else. Perhaps something was left behind when we migrated.” Then he did stand. “And, Captain Stone, if I’m correct, then there is a real possibility that your parents could have reached it before any damage occurred to their vessel.”

  “They could be alive?” Jake whispered.

  “Once again,” AJ said as she pushed Wood back into the chair, “You know he’s making this up.”

  Jake glanced at Raines. “What do you think?”

  The engineer frowned. “I’m not sure. While I agree with our first mate that the doctor could be fabricating all of this, the fact remains that we have no other explanation of how the salvager could make the trip out there and back without refueling.” He turned back to Wood. “Speaking of which, if the Councilmembers are so concerned about alerting Betas to our location, why did you send the salvager so far outside the borders?”

  Wood sighed. “We didn’t send it. The salvager was programmed to search for Pre-Fall devices within a few hundred kilometers of the colony’s borders. Apparently the gentlemen we hired to operate the salvage yard reprogrammed it to travel much farther.”

  “Could the ship Jake’s parents were on have made it that far?” Jessie asked.

  “That’s an excellent question,” Raines said, “and the answer is yes, it’s possible. All four ships in the expedition had enough fuel and life support for a planned three thousand kilometer round trip, but if they cut down on nonessential power usages, and the crew agreed to reduce their rations, then it is possible they could have boosted their range by another thousand kilometers or so.”

  “But why would they?” Jake asked. “Even if they picked up some sort of signal from that location, why would they risk their lives on a one-way trip?”

  “It was the reason they left,” Raines added. “They were looking for signs of other humans, other colonies out there. That was the very purpose of the expedition. I know if I was on that ship, I would have voted to continue.”

  “So, what happened?” Jake asked. “They made it to this outpost, or whatever is out there, and then just decided to stay? If there is a refueling station there, why didn’t they recharge their ship and come back?”

  “Their ship was rigged to fail, remember?” AJ said. “Maybe they made it there and then couldn’t come back.”

  Jake shook his head, and then looked hard at the doctor. “Or maybe they died on the way.”

  “You know, there’s only one way to find out,” Wood said.

  “The salvager is gone,” Ash said. “We can’t send it to look for us.”

  “Pity that,” Wood said. “Perhaps you all should have thought of that before—”

  An alarm went off on the bridge, and before anyone could move, the ship began to vibrate violently as it rolled hard to port. Jake had to grab the table to keep from falling down. “What’s happening?”

  “Another shockWave,” AJ said, “but this one is big.” She tried to climb up the slanted floor to the bridge, but couldn’t. When the ship began to flatten out, everybody ran to the stairs.

  “Lock him in his room,” Jake said to Raines as he headed up.

  Wood protested. “If this is what I think it is, you need me up there, Captain.”

  “Fine, just watch him,” Jake said as he reached the bridge. He started to run forward when the ship began to shake again as it rolled the other way. “Another one?” he yelled over the noise as he held on to the chart table.

  Jessie climbed into the chair next to him. “Recoil,” she said. “Must have been a massive displacement.” When the sound began to dissipate, she put her earphones on and added, “I’ll try to find out what caused this.”

  “Check for quakes nearby,” Raines said, and he made Wood sit on the floor next to his engineering station.

  “It wasn’t a quake,” Vee said from her helm. She turned on the overhead speakers and a male voice began to speak.

  “This is an automated message from the Colonial Guard. An explosion has been detected in the proximity of the New Braska Supply Station. The magnitude of the shockWave indicates a likely detonation of the city’s main reactor. All ships are warned to avoid the eastern sector until further notice.”

  AJ stepped over and shut off the speaker.

  “We were just there,” Jessie said as she pulled off her earphones, her face looking pale. “I met people. I got to know people there.”

  “Can’t be a coincidence,” Ash said. “That fight in the dock.” He looked at Jake. “Did we cause that?” he stood and glared at Wood. “Did he cause that?”

  “Wait,” Vee said. She still had an earphone pressed against one ear, listening to the broadcast. Her eyes suddenly widened before she switched the overhead speaker back on.

  “Do not approach or attempt to contact this ship or its crew. I repeat. Any person knowing the current whereabouts of the cargo vessel, Rogue Wave, or its captain, Jacob Stone, is instructed to contact the nearest Colonial Guard vessel immediately. Do not approach or attempt to contact this ship or its crew. I repeat.”

  “Shut it off,” AJ said, and Vee hit the switch.

  Jake looked at her. “What the bilge did we do?”

  “The bigger question is, what will we do now?” she replied.

  “We can’t dock anywhere,” Ash said. “But we can’t just sit out here on the border, either.”

  “Why can’t we just turn ourselves in?” Vee asked. “We didn’t do anything wrong.” She looked around the bridge. “Did we?”

  “An entire city is gone,” AJ said. “Who knows how many people were killed? A thousand? Two thousand? They will lock us up until they find a reason to blame it on us.”

  Ash looked as though he were about to make another comment when Jessie interrupted. “Captain, we have a ship just coming into passive sonar range.” She had her earphones on again. “It’s on our stern quarter and closing. My console says it’s either a Nereus or Ophion-Class vessel.”

  “There’s a lot of difference between an Ophion and a Nereus,” AJ said as she headed towards the command console. “I need something more specific.”

  “I know,” Jessie said. “The signal looks a little funny to me. Permission to do an active ping?”

  “That will give away our position,” Ash said.

  “After that last message,” AJ replied, “I need to know who’s out there. Could be a friend, and we could use a friend about now.” She looked at Jessie. “Do it.”

  A few seconds later, Jessie spoke up. “It’s not a friend; it’s a Pontus-Class vessel using acoustic dampers to distort its signal.”

  “Pontus-class ships are huge,” Jake said. “Anyone besides the Colonial Guards use them?”

  AJ shook her head.
“No one else can afford one.”

  “We’re being hailed,” Vee said.

  Jake put a hand to his forehead. “Tell me it’s not the Scimitar.”

  Vee nodded. “Looks like your old friend, Captain Steele, has been following us.”

  “Drown it,” Jake cursed and then turned to Ash. “Tell me you have a way out of here.”

  “Already on it,” he replied. “I’ve plotted a course due east that will skirt the edge of the border.” He paused to smile. “They would be fools to try to board us out there.”

  Vee nodded. “Course laid in and ready to go on your orders, Captain.”

  “The Scimitar has increased speed and is heading straight for us,” Jessie shouted. “Looks like they got tired of waiting for a reply.”

  “Have they gone bubbly?” Jake asked

  “Too dangerous using supercavitation this close to the border,” AJ said, “but they can easily outrun us with normal thrusters.” She turned to Vee. “Get us out of here.”

  As the Rogue Wave came up to full power and banked hard to the left, Jake had to grab onto the helm console to keep from falling backwards. The old girl still has some fight in her, he mused, and then realized he was quoting his former captain again. Coal would have been thrilled to be in his shoes at that moment, but all Jake could think about was just surviving the next two minutes. He glanced back at Jessie who looked deranged with her oversized earphones and eyes shut tight. “Status?”

  “Gaining on us quickly,” she said then opened her eyes and looked up at him. “You know we can’t outrun them, right?”

  “Drown it,” Ash cursed. “I really thought this would work.”

  “Well, we certainly can’t stay this close to the border for much longer,” AJ said. “Ideas, anyone?” When no one spoke up, she added, “I’ll take anything. Something crazy, even.”

  “We don’t have any weapons,” Vee said.

  “Wouldn’t help if we did,” Ash countered. “The Scimitar would blow us out of the water.” He looked at Jake. “We can’t outrun them and we can’t outfight them, Sir.”

  “Captain!” Raines said from the rear.

  Jake turned to see the Scimitar filling up the aft viewport.

  “They’re trying to ram us!” Jessie yelled.

  “Steele might be crazy, but she’s not insane,” AJ said. “She wouldn’t risk damaging her ship.”

  “Then what’s she doing?” Jake asked. He turned to Vee. “Can we go any faster?”

  “We’re at full thrust,” she replied, “and I know what she’s doing. She’s trying to push us across the border.”

  “She’s doing a pretty good job of it,” Ash said looking at his display. “We are already inside the red zone.”

  Jake looked back at the approaching ship. The Scimitar was above them and just off their port side now, close enough that he could see people in the viewports. There was no way to outrun it and no place to go but toward the border.

  “You asked for crazy ideas,” he said to AJ.

  “You have one?” she replied.

  “Whatever you’re going to do, better do it now,” Ash said. “We are just about to cross the border.”

  “What’s your idea, Jake?” AJ repeated.

  “We test Jane’s hypothesis,” he said.

  “The transponder?” AJ yelled.

  “Drowned it!” Raines yelled as he stood up and pulled a small box from his pocket. “In all the commotion, I didn’t have time to determine if the signal could breach our hull.”

  “What?” Jake yelled. “You mean the border sensors might not pick it up?”

  “Four torpedoes in the water,” Jessie yelled.

  “Drown you, Steele!” Jake cursed.

  “Not from the Scimitar,” Jessie said. “These are coming up from the sea floor and heading right for us.”

  “Border defenses,” Raines said, looking down at the box in his hand. “I’m sorry, Captain. I’m sorry everyone.”

  “Scimitar is breaking off,” Ash said.

  Jake looked back and saw the huge ship veer away from them. “Can we follow them?”

  “Too far in,” AJ said then looked at Vee. “Hard to starboard, Helm. Take us across the line.”

  As the floor of the bridge tilted to the right, Jake knew what she was trying. The torpedoes were launched from the border, and they were already on the far side. Their only hope was to outrun them, hope that they would deplete their fuel before reaching them.

  “You bought us a few seconds,” Jessie said, “but the torpedoes are still gaining.”

  “How long?”

  Jessie pressed a switch, and an automated voice said, “Eight seconds to impact. Seven seconds...” Jessie pulled off her earphones and pulled her feet up in her chair. “We’re not going to make it.”

  “Six seconds.”

  “Everyone hit the deck!” AJ yelled.

  As most of the crew dropped to the floor, Jake looked at Jessie’s earphones and then at the transmitter in Raines’s hand. Without saying a word, he ran back, grabbed the box, and slammed it on Jessie’s console. He then flipped the ship’s intercom and pressed the box against the microphone. “Everyone quiet!” he yelled and then turned up the volume to maximum.

  “Three seconds. Two...”

  As the voice counted down, Jake could feel his heart racing inside his chest. When it reached “zero,” the silence on the bridge was deafening. Everyone had clinched expressions, preparing for the inevitable, preparing for the end.

  Nothing happened.

  Wood was the first to speak. “Why are we still alive?” He was lying on the floor as well.

  “I don’t know,” Jake said as he climbed to his feet. “AJ?”

  She was the only one still standing, holding onto bars built in to the command console. “We made it,” she said. “We’re actually on the other side of the border.”

  “The Scimitar?” Raines asked. “Did they...”

  Jessie turned off the microphone and put her earphone back on. “I’m picking up the Scimitar. She’s holding station just inside the border. Looks like they made it back undamaged.”

  “Pity,” AJ said, then looked at Jake. “That was pretty fast thinking. How did you...”

  Jake shrugged. “The transmitter puts out a low-power acoustic signal, and I figured that it might transmit through the hull of the bridge if I boosted it up a bit.” He looked at the blank faces in the room and answered their unasked question. “You do know the bridge is the only place on the ship that has an exposed hull, don’t you?” He winked at Jessie. “Anyway, I can’t take credit. It was all information you people gave me.”

  “But you used that information in a crisis,” AJ said, placing her hand on his chest. “That’s what a good captain does, and it’s why you belong here, Jake.”

  Ash made a loud kissing sound, and in one swift motion, AJ backhanded him across the face. “Hey!” he yelled, holding his reddened cheek. She hadn’t hit him that hard, but it was hard enough that he wouldn’t forget the lesson.

  “So now that we’re out here,” Raines said, “what are we going to do?”

  Vee had turned the ship around and was now facing the invisible border. In the distance, the running lights of the Scimitar were just visible. “They’re just sitting there,” she said. “Why don’t they come out and get us?”

  “Because they don’t have a key on their ship,” Wood said matter-of-factly.

  “The Colonial Guards don’t know about these?” Jake asked as he picked up the box. “They work for you.”

  Wood shrugged. “The guards are just people, and people can’t be trusted.”

  “Unbelievable,” Jake said, even though, to himself, it actually was believable, based on what he had learned that day.

  “So, they’re just going to sit there and wait for us to come back?” Vee asked.

  “Why not?” Ash said. “They have a lot more power and supplies than we do.”

  “We seem to be out of options again,�
� AJ said then turned to Jake. “Captain?”

  “What?” he asked, suddenly aware that his entire crew was staring at him.

  “You obviously have some skill in finding your way out of impossible situations like this,” AJ said. For the first time since he met her, she actually looked as though she trusted him.

  Jake looked down at the deck plating. It was a stupid idea, and he was probably crazy for even thinking it, but as AJ said, they were out of options, and this was at least an option.

  “So, where do we go, Captain?” Raines asked.

  “The only place we can go,” he said. “Due west.”

  AJ was the first to figure out what he meant. “You’re not serious,” she said.

  “I am, actually,” Jake admitted.

  “You want us to leave the colony?” she asked. “Leave Civica?”

  “I don’t think that we have a lot of choices,” Jake said.

  Ash appeared the most distressed. “Yes we do. I’m sure there is somewhere we can hide until this blows over.”

  “Blows over?” Raines asked. “How long do you suppose it will take for them to forget us: the people they think are responsible for destroying an entire city? Months? Years?”

  “Let’s not forget the Scimitar,” AJ added. “They aren’t going away any time soon, and we can’t hope to make it back across the border with them watching us.”

  “None of it matters,” Wood said, climbing to his feet. “This is how civil wars starts. Each side will blame the other for what happened in New Braska, and more people will die. Soon there will be no safe port for anyone.”

  “I guess finding that pureblooded Beta is now a moot point,” Jessie said. “Or the sphere. None of that matters now.”

  “Not necessarily,” Wood said. “If the Beta is real, then there is a very good chance that it is the first of an invading army. Perhaps an advanced scout sent here to find our weaknesses.”

  “I think it found one,” AJ said. “Our own fears.”

  “Regardless,” Wood continued, “if there is a Beta army out there and it attacks us now while we are busy fighting each other, it will be a slaughter.” He looked at Jake. “I think you’re correct, Captain Stone. Our best course of action is to locate the exact spot where the salvager picked up the birthing sphere. We need answers to our questions.”