by AJ Vega
Chapter 7: Dodging Shadows
Julius had cramped quarters compared to Laina. The room comprised a bed, a small desk with a holographic projector, a bookshelf, and a bathroom.
The dark color scheme mirrored the same shades of gray and blue of the ship’s corridors. Pictures of military vessels painted the empty spaces of the sparsely decorated walls. One wall displayed a collection of weapons, ranging from swords and knives to flicker rifles and pistols. Ship models decorated the shelf space, the centerpiece being a small-scale version of the Sea Wolf.
Julius walked to the end of the room where the bookshelf stood. Military books filled most levels of the bookshelf, except for the mid-level one, which had no books on it. Instead, it displayed a glass case filled with medals. Engraved on the medals were holographic insignias, some from the old UEP Navy, while others were honorary designations from his days of assisting the Martian Colonial Military against the A.I.
Julius glanced at the medals, grimacing that he’d even wasted his time to stop and look at them. If it hadn’t been for his dream, he’d have walked past them as he usually did.
“Old rewards for deeds long forgotten,” he whispered to them.
On the few occasions he even glanced at the medals, he just felt like getting rid of them. Nobody remembered what he did to earn them; sometimes even he forgot. Nevertheless, on each occasion he fought the urge and kept them. He justified the need to keep them as decorations for his room. Just as Laina had her artwork, Julius needed his medals.
He did not want to admit it to himself the real reason, and certainly not to Laina. The truth was simple: the medals remained his last tangible link to a time when he had a purpose. Perhaps, he felt, by keeping them, it kept that link and purpose alive… somehow.
Sighing, Julius felt a little guilty. He had chastised Laina for wanting to seek a purpose of her own; yet here he was, clinging to the same need. At least he had found a purpose once; Laina was still searching for hers.
Together, it seemed they were both lost in this underworld they had created, piling actions and plans on top of one another, hoping they would one day converge into a logical purpose.
Yet, throughout the years of piracy they had endured, they had found nothing in the riches. Sure, they experienced brief bursts of adrenaline as they narrowly escape an encounter, or felt the excitement of opening up a cargo container to find an unexpected treasure—brief moments of pleasure, but all without purpose. Julius had to wonder, perhaps, that maybe his heart was not in it anymore, either.
Turning away from the medals, Julius walked to his desk and sat down. He pushed away the somber thoughts. He had work to do, after all.
He activated the holographic projector. The hologram showed a potential list of target shipments. Laina had furnished him the list from one of her many contacts.
Glancing over a dozen possible targets, along with their delivery routes, Julius narrowed down the list to three, eliminating those that would be flying well-trafficked space routes. Of the three, he only knew the cargo from one of the ships; the other two were unknown. The known cargo was a shipment of refined ores: platinum and gold mainly. They would not be as easy to sell off as other typical cargo hits, but at least he knew it was worth something.
He keyed into the computer a command to bring up a new image. The hologram showed a still image of their most recent encounter with UEP Enforcement. The visual showed miniature versions of the Sea Wolf, along with the target convoy. A small set of icons depicted Wolf Squadron.
Julius hit the play button and the holographic ships began to move.
The convoy came out of warp just outside Earth’s gravity field. The gravity forced the ships to drop to regular propulsion. The convoy consisted of three cargo ships, each bearing Martian Confederacy markings.
The Sea Wolf waited close by, hidden in the field of its stealth shroud, watching the convoy pass. At that moment, Wolf Squadron came out of warp on top of the convoy and began its attack. Using precision strafing runs, Wolf Squadron damaged their propulsion and defensive systems, while the Sea Wolf jammed all communications from the convoy, blocking its distress call.
Wolf Squadron stopped firing and began to circle the wounded prey, while the Sea Wolf made a wave connection to the onboard computers of the cargo ships. Then, the Sea Wolf’s hacker—Jared—began breaking into their computers to force the cargo ships to dump their cargo. If all went according to plan, the cargo would drop, and the cargo ships would have hurried off while the Sea Wolf scooped up the goods.
Julius frowned as the recorder showed a flashing icon next to the miniature capital ship, indicating loss of power on the Sea Wolf.
The image of the Sea Wolf became solid as it came out of its stealth shroud. At this point, the communication channels opened up and the convoy’s distress call made it out. Wolf Squadron tried in vain to silence the convoy with some targeted attacks against their communication array, but the call had already gone out.
Julius remembered waiting, like a sitting duck, for the crew to get the reactor back online, hoping that UEP Enforcement did not get the signal. He knew his hopes were shattered when three Enforcement destroyers made their appearance.
Julius watched the replay of his fighter pilots picked off by the destroyers’ accelerated proton cannons and missile fire. He could see the Sea Wolf begin to move as it regained power. Julius ordered a retreat and warped the ship away. What was left of Wolf Squadron escaped along with her.
The computer beeped and displayed “End of Recording” over the hologram. Julius mulled over the replay of the battle. He realized that the unexpected power loss was the key factor in the outcome. Nevertheless, he could not dismiss it as the only factor; he needed to prevent this from ever happening again.
Julius’ ear-link chimed—he would need to mull this over later. A hologram appeared from his ear-link—it was not 2230 ship time. The last of the shuttles should be returning from Deimos-1 now. He turned off the holographic projector and headed out of his quarters.
He walked down the hallway, passing Laina’s quarters along the way to the elevator. He briefly wondered if Laina would be awake. She said she wanted to go to New Las Vegas, but he didn’t remember seeing her name on the list of departing crew. In all likelihood, she probably passed out from drinking.
Julius stepped into the elevator and rode it to the bridge. He could hear a creak from somewhere in the elevator as it moved. He shifted his weight to his other foot and could hear the creak again. The noise was coming from the flooring. With the endless list of things to fix on the ship, he would have to live with the noise.
The elevator doors opened to reveal the bridge. He stepped onto it and made his way ahead to his command module.
The bridge was a sphere-shaped chamber about thirty meters in diameter. The flooring, walls, and ceiling were made of non-reflective transparent metal. Beyond the clear steel was a holographic projection revealing the ship’s surroundings. No instrumentation was on the walls of the bridge; instead, various seating modules were in the center for each officer. The bridge had seven seating modules: navigation, ship combat, tactical operations, wave warfare, sub-command, and command, plus an extra auxiliary module. Each module had a chair equipped with holographic instrumentation and anti-gravity motors—to allow for free roaming within the chamber.
Julius sat in his command module, taking note that all of the bridge crew was present—except Laina, of course. Garval was the Tactical Operations Officer. Any operations dealing with the fighter squadron or shuttles fell under him.
Jessen was the Navigation Officer, and a former science explorer for the Martian Confederacy. He was the one who originally turned Julius onto the asteroid field anomaly that they now used as their base.
Jared was the Wave Warfare Officer, which meant he was their onboard hacker. He had been involved in various high-profile computer break-ins back in the early days after the A.I. War. He had narrowly avoided capture b
y the UEP before joining the crew.
Finally, there was Ramey, their Ship Combat Officer. He was probably the most quiet and private person on the ship; he ate alone and rarely talked with any of the crew, even Julius. Nevertheless, his experience with the UES Sea Wolf class capital ships was unsurpassed. He had served with Julius in the early part of the A.I. War, also as a combat officer.
“Garval, status report,” Julius said.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
The forward section of the bridge lit up with information that overlaid the view of the asteroid field outside.
“Most of the personnel have either returned or have checked in and are en route,” he continued. “However, we have six missing that haven’t checked in.”
Julius read the information. “The new recruits.”
“Aye, sir.”
Julius could detect the hint of a smirk on Garval’s face.
“Is there something more I should know about, Lieutenant?” Julius asked.
The smirk disappeared. “No, Captain.”
“Very well,” Julius said. “Send a bulletin to each of the returning crew asking for information on the whereabouts of the six.”
“Yes, sir,” Garval said.
“Jared,” Julius said, “tap into the Martian waves. Maybe if they were arrested, we can get the details.”
“Yes, Captain,” Jared said.
Julius knew the pilots could be trouble, but he did not think they would be arrested on their first shore leave. Nevertheless, if caught, they could be made to talk. Not to mention, they were good pilots.
The smirk on Garval’s face made him wonder if the crew was up to something. It would not have been the first time that they tested the mettle of new recruits. Undoubtedly, other factors could be at work, such as the fear that the individual salaries would drop with more crew.
“Sir, I have something,” Jared said.
“Go on,” Julius said.
“It’s an encrypted transmission from Reece. He says that he and the other pilots are on a stolen shuttle and are trying to evade Martian Civic Guardians. They are trying to make it out of Mars’ gravity well so they can make the jump out. They say they don’t need any help.”
“Of course they don’t need our help,” Julius said. “Jessen, plot a jump course to Mars, adjacent to Deimos-1. Keep us distant from any gravity wells; we’ll be going in under stealth shroud. Ready for stellar jump.”