Waking in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 2)

by D Patrick Wagner

  “How do we know you will stick to the agreement?”

  Everyone, including the Tolimars, winced at the accusation of deceit.

  “I’m glad you asked. Auditors. Your Tolimar Port Management people are free to assign up to three auditors at a time, all day, all night to monitor our activity and track our accounting practices. We have nothing to hide. We are not playing games, trying to bury profits. I and my people are here to protect the Gregor community and by extension, humanity.”

  “I have a question, Mr. Gregor.”

  “Corry? Is that right?”

  “Yes, sir. Corry Rosser.”

  “You own the repair shop.”

  “Yes, sir. And that is my question. I get a lot of repair work out at the port, ground vehicles and such. What about those vehicles at your port?”

  “Another good question. I will have my people construct a repair shop on grounds. You get to rent it for one credit a month. But you need to stock it with equipment and people. Be aware, that the number of in-and-out flights between these two ports is going to at least double.”

  “What if it doesn’t?”

  “I am so confident that it will, that I will reimburse you for any losses you incur at my port.”

  “Ok, I can go with that. You put that in writing?”

  “As will be all the proposals we agree to.” Turning to his personal secretary, Gregor, queried, “Jeff, taking notes?”

  “Every word, Sir.”

  “Anything else?”

  Following, Corry’s lead, John Decker put his hand up. “Do I get the same deal for my store?”

  “You old shyster. I know you have stores all over this planet, “Gregor laughed. “Yes, you get the same deal. But my people get discounts.”

  “That, we need to negotiate.”

  “And we will. I’ll sic Harriet on you.”

  Harriet glared her ‘Harriet’ look at the wealthy store owner and Randy chuckled.

  Richelle Brandt, owner of Brandt Minerals, spoke up.” I saw that you have some surveyors out in the mountains. What’s going on?”

  “Two things, Mrs. Brandt. One, we are mapping the terrain in case we need to abandon our town and flee. The second is, we found large quarries of granite. My engineers propose that our town be a fortress. To that end, we plan on enclosing the entire town with granite walls as high as we can build.”

  “You really are taking this whole invasion thing seriously.”

  “Yes, I am. We haven’t heard anymore about the alien invasion, but that is understandable, with the distances and timeframes involved. We do know that they haven’t reached Bridgelen or Arium, yet. But that is all we know. So, yes, I am taking this invasion seriously.”

  Who’s going to mine the granite?”

  “You have first dibs, Mr. Maier. Then my people will pick up the slack. I want zero delays in building my wall because of lack of blocks.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Governor Kaufman almost whined.

  “You’re the board. Give me a plan. I will put my people on it.” Not wanting to get stuck in the details, Gregor quickly moved on. I have another proposal. This one is why Mrs. Grey is on the board. It has to do with Randy, over there, and a hundred thousand just like them. Mrs. Grey?”

  After looking at her notes on her tablet, she began. “About five years ago, Mr. Gregor brought me a challenge. It had to do with Commander Krag Marston.”

  “We all here know him. He was here a few months back.”

  “Yes, well. When he left the Federacy, they bricked his enhancement computer. It is still in his chest, along with the energy source, wiring and cranial net. Mr. Gregor asked me to look into reactivating the computer and thus giving Mr. Marston his military capabilities back.”

  “And you succeeded.”

  “Yes, Mr. Roth.”

  “And you think you can do that for my boy?”

  “I know I can, Mr. Roth. But we have another problem. Chemicals.”

  “Chemicals?”

  “Yes, sir. Mr. Marston is a pilot. His enhancements were only for communications and heightened sensory capabilities. Your son was in the marines. His enhancement included a cocktail of battle drugs. From what I’ve researched, his body still contains the phials that store those drugs, but they are empty.”

  “Then, without those drugs, fixing his computer is useless.”

  “No, sir. It will return his speed and enhanced strength. But it won’t do anything about his state of mind, emotional control, if you will. Nor will it activate his hyper-awareness or increase his fight responses.”

  “Randy?”

  “That’s better than nothing, Father. I’ll take it.”

  “Well, actually, I think we can fill his phials, Mr. Roth. Governor Moreno has access to some military personnel. He can get some of the drugs. But, more importantly, he is trying to get all of the formulas. If we can get those, we can manufacture our own military-grade enhancing drugs.”

  “Here, on Tolimar?”

  “Yes, Mr. Roth.” Gregor took back the conversation. “We have the chemists and the laboratories. We will set up shop in the new town, away from the Tolimar populous.”

  “These are the same chemists that made your illicit drugs?”

  “The past is the past, Governor. What is done now is for Tolimar. Not making money.”

  “Mr. Gregor’s right, Dedrik. We have tens of thousands of ex-military people here. If we can get them back to fighting shape, that is only good for us. I go with Mr. Gregor.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Brandt.”

  “Not at all, Mr. Gregor.”

  “For the coming conflict, I suppose it is a good idea. But what happens when we don’t have this war and Tolimar is overrun with enhanced humans?”

  “Well, Governor, I reckon that is something that our good friend, Garon is going to need to figure out. I’m with Gregor.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Roth. That’s two. Can we make it unanimous?”

  “Ya, why not,” chimed in Maier.

  “Well, ok. With reservations.”

  “Thank you, Governor. What about the landing port? Is that a ‘go’?”

  “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need to see it in writing before I vote on it.”

  “I totally agree with you, Mrs. Brandt. I’ll have my people draw something up. Sean, Jeff, you clear on what we need?”

  Sean spoke for the two of them. “Yes, Mr. Gregor, I believe so.”

  “How soon can you have a draft on my desk?”

  Sean looked at Jeff. “Tomorrow? Noonish?”

  “Good. I’ll go over it, we work it up and we get the contracts back to the board tomorrow evening, say supper time. Does that work for everyone here?”

  Everyone nodded approval.

  “Good. Shar, may I rent your establishment for another evening? Say from dusk to closing?”

  “Your money’s as good as anyone’s. So, yup. I’ll put up the signs.”

  Knowing that he needed to feed Kaufman’s lagging ego, Gregor threw him a bone. “Governor, we’ve got those two things off the table. What else do we need to discuss?”

  Being put back into the spotlight without preparation caused the governor a slight mental stumble. “No, nothing just now. I’m sure, when the board meets again, there will be more topics to discuss. No.”

  “Then should we adjourn this meeting?”

  “Of course.” Taking on his air of authority, Governor Kaufman asked, “All those in favour of adjourning the meeting, signify by saying ‘aye’.”

  Everyone said, “Aye.”

  “Meeting adjourned.”

  Aboard the Odin

  “Captain Brewer,” Vice-Admiral Weiskoff spoke from his position in the command pod.

  “Sir.”

  “Has the alien derelict been tethered to Skadi?”

  “Mr. Connors, please contact Skadi actual and check on its status.”

  After a few moments of the communications spaceman mumbling into his mic and
receiving an answer, he stated, “Alien wreck tethered, all intel and videos have been downloaded and secured. Currently awaiting orders, sir.”

  The Vice-Admiral took over. “Captain Young.”

  “Vice-Admiral Weiskoff.”

  “Get that abomination to Cencore. And the intel.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  “Gods speed. We need you, son.”

  “I’ll get it done, Sir. And, if I may say, kill a bunch of those bugs for all of our lost brethren, Sir.”

  “That is exactly what I plan on doing, Captain. Now, get going. Stay safe.”

  “Aye, aye, Sir.” Weiskoff could almost hear the salute as Skadi’s Captain signed off.

  “Captain Brewer, Mr. Clark, my ready room.”

  After the three reassembled, commandeered drinks and sat in the plush furniture, Vice-Admiral Weiskoff resumed the conversation. “I guess we are on our own, gentlemen. Thoughts? It’s your ship, Captain. You know it best.”

  “We can’t go head-to-head. We could destroy a lot of tonnage before we go down, but not enough. And we’d be out of the game. We might even get that monster dreadnaught. But that still wouldn’t be enough.”

  “We launch fighters,” this came from Lieutenant Clark.

  “They will all be destroyed. You saw how much ordinance the dreadnaught and destroyers can field. And that’s not even counting the eight accompanying frigates.”

  “So we run. Again.” The vice-admiral could barely choke out the last word.”

  “Yes. But we leave a surprise. A one-shot gift.”

  “What?”

  “We turn the X-cannon into an X-bomb. Leave it and blow it.”

  “Risky.”

  “True. But what are our alternatives? If we simply run, they catch us. We have measured their top speed at point eight SOL. That’s thirty-three percent faster than we can attain. If we stay and slug it out, again, we die. So, we set a trap, see if we can scramble them enough for them to freeze while we run.”

  “Jeez, I don’t like it, David. It’s one roll of the dice. Win, lose.”

  “True, Theodore. But I can’t see any other way.”

  “Where do we run?”

  “Not towards Cencore, Jerry. We lead them away from Skadi. Any ideas?”

  “Novius or Corrinar. That’s it.”

  “Novius is out. It’s a dead end. That leaves Corrinar. Get your best engineers on the bomb, David. Then let’s game this out.”

  * * * * *

  As planned, Odin completed its counter-clockwise ellipse right at the two hour mark. Maintaining its maximum speed of point six SOL, it slashed through space, approaching the Dorogon gate. Odin hit the gate’s edge just as the alien armada broke in. first came the frigates, leading with thousands of anti-mine munitions. The five hundred mines guarding the gate never succeeded in bringing down a single frigate.

  “We knew that wouldn’t work.”

  “True, Captain,” Vice-Admiral responded, deep in his padded command pod. “But it did create a lot of radiometric noise, as planned. Continue.”

  “Mr. Robinson, bring to bear the proscribed ordinance and get me some alien frigates.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  Lieutenant Robinson focused on his firing panel, and activated the targeting application. The eight alien frigates displayed in red. The lone Federacy ship displayed as green. Just as the frigates became targets, the four alien destroyers exited the gate. The weapons officer located the pre-programmed icon and tapped it. Two hundred torpedoes fired from Orin and rocketed towards the eight enemy war ships.

  Twenty-five torpedoes per ship, for the smaller frigates at least, proved to be enough. Accompanied with the withering particle-beam fire, all eight alien frigates became star-bright fireballs of gasses, ship material and vaporized aliens.

  By this time the four destroyers had formed and began their attack runs. At the moment they were at the disadvantage. Orin still powered across the face of the gate at six-tenths the speed of light. The destroyers pushed their engines to the max, attempting to achieve pursuit speed.

  “We aren’t going to get the monster, Vice-Admiral.”

  “Sadly, yes, you are right, Captain. Fire the bomb.”

  To anyone looking with normal eyes, nothing happened. If one looked in the shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, he, or she, would have seen an expanding globe of high-frequency X-rays and radicalized neutrons exploding outward at the speed of light, completely engulfing the four enemy destroyers. The four ships died electronic deaths from the electromagnetic pulse of neutrons. All aliens fried from the X-ray bombardment.

  Four lifeless coffins continued their ballistic trajectories.

  “Torpedoes, Mr. Robinson.”

  Odin fired two hundred more torpedoes. Four more alien ships ceased to exist.

  “To the stops, Lieutenant Wright.”

  “Already there, Sir.”

  “Let’s see what that monster dreadnaught does now, Captain.”

  “Let’s hope they stay true to form, Vice-Admiral, and stop to lick their wounds.”

  Sasania Headquarters Survivors

  The rainy season continued to drench the forest, causing a constant runnel of water splashing through leaves, flowing down trunks and turning the ground into a quagmire of mud and soggy debris. The mid-afternoon sun barely cast enough light through the drizzling canopy to announce that day still persisted. The miserable survivors of the alien invasion variously huddled in their tents or slogged around camp, performing the duties required to keep on living.

  Using his imbedded cranial net and sub-vocal communicator, Lieutenant Kassis announced to the last officers of the Sasania Space Headquarters, “Incoming, sirs. First Sergeant Boulos just squawked that he and his squad are inbound. Two kilometers out.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Captain Qureshi responded as he prepared to greet his returning marines.

  “Notify the picket, Mr. Kassis. We don’t want any friendly fire.”

  “Yes, Sir.” Following Commander Toma’s order, the communications specialist called the sentries on duty to be alert for friendlies incoming.”

  An hour later, six worn out marines straggled into camp. Commander Toma and Captain Qureshi casually stood, waiting to welcome their reconnaissance squad’s return.

  Sergeant Boulos stopped in front of his commanding officers, came to attention and saluted. Where ever his team stood, they followed form.

  “First Sergeant Boulos reporting, Sir!”

  “At ease, Sergeant, men.” Before the Commander’s order, both officers returned the Sergeant’s salute.

  “You and your men are off duty until oh-six hundred. Report in two hours for debrief.”

  “Yes, Sir.” The First Sergeant again saluted, waited for the return, turned and dismissed his men.

  All returned to their original campsites and, going through the same, efficient motions of the previous two weeks, set up their tents and gear on the soggy ground. Except for the First Sergeant, all crawled in and crashed, forgoing meals or toiletry. The Sergeant pulled out his personal tablet and began reviewing what he would present to the officer staff.

  Two hours later a bone-weary First Sergeant Boulos stood at attention in front of a table of the four remaining officers of the Sasania Federacy Space Fleet Headquarters.”

  “Take a seat, Sergeant.”

  “Thank you, commander,” the Sergeant responded as he found a collapsible chair, unfolded it and sat.

  “First, I want to extend my condolences. Ghali was a good soldier, a good man. I know he was good friends with Latif. Tell him of my condolences. Even with all the losses we have experienced, we will still miss the best spotter in the regiment.”

  “Thank you, Captain. I will pass on your kind words.”

  “We saw the videos and heard your reports. Are they as bad as they seem?”

  “Worse, Commander. Much worse. The bugs are breeding by the thousands, millions, if there are more than one of these
breeding compounds.”

  “Can we attack those domes?”

  “They are heavily patrolled, sir. We don’t have the force for a full frontal attack. If we had just one rocket launcher, we could take them out. In my opinion, that would be the only way.”

  “That’s the same conclusion we came to after seeing your reports.”

  “If we could destroy those domes, especially the center one, it would be a blessing for those poor souls trapped and used as food.”

  “Same with the mining site?”

  “Yes, sir. Heavily patrolled. There is also a large press gang, whipping, beating and forcing our people to work until they die. It doesn’t look as though the bugs know how to sustain our people or they just don’t care.” Even through his weariness, First Sergeant’s anger and resentment burned through.

  It looks like the bugs are planning to be here a long time. And they plan on bleeding our world dry.”

  “Yes. We all agree on that. So the question is, where do we get some rockets and a launcher?”

  The pending silence forced the hesitant sergeant to speak up. “Inland weapons stash, Commander.”

  “What, Sergeant?”

  “Well, I may have heard of a place where some people, critical of the current ruling family, may have squirrelled away a stash of weapons, in case of unrest, of course, Commander.”

  “And you know of this, how, Sergeant?” The steel in Commander Toma’s voice broached no evasion.

  “Some of the men in our squad were conscripted because of anti-government leanings, Sir. Rumor has it that they have been spiriting equipment to an underground movement for years.”

  “You mean stealing equipment.”

  “Well, yes, sir.”

  “How long has this been going on?”

  “A long time, sir.”

  “Where is this stash?”

  “Not sure, sir.”

  “Who knows? Look, the past is the past. No one is going to be punished for past deeds. The bug invasion has seen to that. Who knows?”

  “I think I know. Let me do some digging, Commander.”

  “One hour. Get back here in one hour. I want results.”

  Rising and bracing, First Sergeant Boulos snapped a perfect salute, about faced and left to find the rebellious subordinate.