by John Filcher
Ronin smiled and laughed before responding “Nagun! You old pirate. I guess they’ll let anybody captain a ship these days! And as I recall, it’s you who still owes me because you stole my date that night and stuck me with the bar tab.”
Nagun roared with laughter and said, “She was a monster! I did you a huge favor by swiping her, buddy. She made life miserable until I could ship out and leave her behind. Best fifty bucks you ever spent. You OWE me! She made my life miserable for three long weeks!”
By now the crews of both bridges were trying very hard to suppress smiles at the banter between the ship captains.
“Hmmm. You might be right after all,” said Ronin with a huge grin. “I suppose you’re going to tell us what the scoop is now?” he asked.
His face turning serious, Nagun thoughtfully looked at his old Academy roommate and said, “Ronin, all I can tell you is Ike has hauled your new toys far enough. Leave them with me, and we’ll make like Santa by delivering them to the good little girls and boys who aren’t on the naughty list this year.”
Ronin snorted and replied with a raised eyebrow, “With pleasure. You want I should just drop them where they are?”
“Yep. We brought everything we need for this pleasure cruise, and we even brought some party favors for the Ike. Stuff a guy like you’ll be inappropriately excited about, like munitions and food and stuff so you can keep skulking about, causing trouble,” said Nagun.
“We’re not returning to a base?” said Ronin in a surprised voice. “We’ve been out patrolling for six months already.”
Nagun nodded, and said, “Long patrol, what can I say? Maybe you can bag some more game before you return to the nest. Your orders are onboard the containers that your crews will bring back to your hanger.”
Chapter 6
Wayside Station
Six months of ambushes and combat later, the Ike was coming in from a record-setting long patrol: six enemy frigates, a handful of shuttles, and a captured war prize frigate, plus a year out in the wild without leave. Ronin was proud of his tired ship and crew. They were finally coming home to Wayside Station, which earned its name because the monstrous space station was mobile.
Wayside dwarfed the Ike, which never failed to impress Ronin whenever he had the opportunity to watch as they approached. One hundred and fifty decks tall and weighing in at a massive 300,000 long tons, Wayside was a combination command and control station as well as a shipyard, crewed by 11,000 fleet personnel, including a large number of engineers.
He had been ordered to report immediately to the Admiralty. I wonder what’s the hurry, he said to himself as he entered Wayside. I’ve been gone forever and they know we’re exhausted. Ike needs a refit and repairs, and we should be up for extended leaves. I have a lot to do without getting caught up in someone’s bureaucratic time-wasting.
Minutes later, Ronin reached the offices of Adm. Jessup Rodding, and he was surprised at how quickly he was rushed through security by the guards and orderly.
“Admiral is waiting for you now, Captain. Would you like some coffee before you go in? The Admiral thought you probably could use a slug of the real thing when you arrived,” said the orderly.
“Yes, thank you,” responded Ronin, gratefully taking a sip of the wondrous black liquid and straightening his dark gray uniform. He sighed as he tilted his head back, eyes closed for a moment to enjoy the taste. His cache of coffee hadn’t been refilled as part of the resupply six months ago, which in his opinion is a serious oversight by the Fleet. He knocked on the Admiral’s wooden door and heard “Enter!” from behind the door. Admirals and their little luxuries, thought Ronin as he opened the door.
Admiral Rodding stood up and walked over to greet Ronin.
“Dan! I know you’re tired from an outstanding patrol, but this is top priority and things are moving fast,” he said, shaking hands with Ronin before he had a chance to salute. “Grab a seat at the table over there and we’ll get started,” said Rodding in his soft West Virginia accent.
Once seated, the Admiral quickly poured himself a cup of coffee and looked at Ronin. “Captain, this discussion is Top Secret, understand?” he asked Ronin.
Ronin nodded that he did.
“What do you know of jump gates?”
Ronin’s eyebrows shot up at the totally unexpected question. “Not much. They’re little more than old legends from before The Fall. Some sort of drive tech that accessed a jump gate which instantly lead to another jump gate elsewhere. Only we don’t know what that tech was, or where these gates might supposedly have been, or how to find them. And beyond a few old references, we’ve never found anything to substantiate that they ever existed,” said Ronin.
Admiral Rodding nodded thoughtfully, before responding. “Yeah, about what everyone knows and thinks. Fairy tales,” he said. “What if I told you there’s now more to it than a few old myths?”
Despite his weariness and it being the middle of the night on his ship’s time, Ronin sat up straighter, looking intently at Rodding. “Sir? I don’t understand,” he said.
Rodding had a small smile quirking up the right side of his face as he watched Ronin’s visible surprise and confusion at being told there may be more to the myths and legends than was generally believed.
“All right, well, I’m not here just to pique your interest. That’s not all, Ronin. Effective immediately Captain Ronin, you are relieved of command of the Ike.”
Ronin’s face failed to hide his disappointment at the stunning news. “Sir! Am I being charged with something I did wrong? I, I don’t know what it would be. Are you sure? That’s career ending,” stuttered Ronin.
Rodding smiled fully this time. “Relax, Dan, you’re not being demoted, or prosecuted, or any of that crap. In fact, both those announcements are related and intersect with you in the middle. You ready to follow me?”
Ronin, utterly confused and far too tired to figure out the games being played here, simply nodded.
“OK. Let’s wander over to Fleet Intelligence. They’re waiting to brief you on what’s up,” said Rodding as he stood up. “Bring your coffee though. Looks like you’ll need it.”
Ronin grabbed his mug as he stood to follow the Admiral, who was already headed out the door.
“And brace yourself for a review of your record,” he added mysteriously.
The two of them walked down the station’s white outer corridor in silence until they reached the secure area for Fleet Intelligence. Two quick retinal scans, then armed guards in black Fleet Intelligence Security uniforms escorted them to the area’s briefing room. A large conference table with a holoprojector in the middle dominated the room. It was projecting a holo of a region of space Ronin did not recognize. He gazed at the holo for several moments before realizing he was quietly being scrutinized by the intelligence officer who was seated at the table.
Ronin quickly saluted, while Admiral Rodding was already walking over to the other officer. “Ready when you are, Colonel Hobson,” he said, approaching the tall officer in a black uniform at the table. Colonel Hobson rose, nodded and extended to shake Ronin’s hand.
“Glad to meet you at last, Captain Ronin. We have quite a show for you this evening,” he said in a smooth Indian-British accent. “If you’re ready, please have a chair and we’ll get started. Please confirm for the recorders your understanding that everything discussed here is classified Top Secret.”
Ronin responded, “I confirm my understanding everything discussed here is Top Secret.” A beep sounded, indicating Ronin’s understanding was logged into the security system.
Ronin was now fully alert, as being brought to a meeting with anyone from Fleet Intelligence will make even the most placid officers experience a bout of anxiety. He felt like the rug had cruelly been pulled from under his feet due to having Ike taken away from him, and his gut was sending all sorts of warning signs about Colonel Hobson
’s upcoming news.
Hobson sat down and looked at Ronin, his black eyes and dark skin showing a moment of thoughtfulness on how to begin before he began reading a summary memorandum on his screen. “Ronin, Dan J., Captain of the Confederate destroyer Ike the past seven years. Prior to that, first officer for three years on the Delphi class frigate, the Frisco. Highly decorated, numerous successful tours of duty interdicting smugglers before successfully transitioning to combat against AC ships when the current hostilities commenced five years ago when AC fired upon Confederacy ships in the Lagrange Point Incident.
“Since then, you’ve become more of a pioneer in single-ship hit-and-run tactics than any other Captain in the fleet. Accordingly, your command has been detached to do just that, and is tasked with making mischief and keeping the enemy off balance while most of the rest of the fleet operates in combat formations. It is a valuable role, which you’ve excelled at.
“Born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Attended the Naval Academy there. Parents are Robert and Julia Ronin, who still reside there. Widowed when the Frisco was hit during an engagement, your two children, Sarah and Edward, are in the care of Robert and Julia while you work to make their world safe again. Correct so far, Captain?”
Ronin, hiding his impatience at having his time wasted on a quick recital of his own background, merely nodded.
“Captain, do you know why your last patrol was extended without warning?” asked Hobson.
Saying nothing besides “No sir,” Ronin merely shook his head and waiting for Hobson to continue.
“There were several reasons. One of which is the operational tempo has accelerated due to enemy activity the past two years and you captain a destroyer, of which there are never enough to go around. The second reason was to keep you and the Ike occupied for a while because of information from the Shanwei which the Ike’s AI sent to Fleet Intelligence,” said Hobson.
Ronin’s eyebrows shot up in surprised and he blurted out, “Sir, I didn’t authorize the AI to make any transmissions to anybody. We were keeping communications to the initial burst to mask our location and prevent intercepts for operational security.”
Hobson nodded and responded, “I know Captain. Ike’s AI was following the Hades Ordinance, which is a subsystem hard wired into each ship’s computer. Like the mythological Hades, which is the underworld of the dead, this ordinance looks for pre-Fall information. When a fleet AI encounters anything linked to a predetermined data set of pre-WWIII information, the AI encodes it for priority burst transmission to fleet intelligence. No record of the transmission is retained and to maintain maximum operational security, no one on that ship is made aware of the transmission.”
Ronin nodded and said, “I presume you’re telling me now because I have a need to know?”
Hobson cocked an eyebrow as he nodded, “Correct, Captain. Shanwei’s main computer yielded a bounty of information thanks to you and your ship regarding their fleet, encryption protocols, tactical capabilities and the like; however, we deem a piece of intel Shanwei was carrying of top priority. It seems our old friends in the Collective have found jump gate records in the old Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.”
Startled despite himself, Ronin asked, “What were they doing in Kazakhstan? It was a No Man’s Land due to the bat flu pestilence that depopulated the entire region during The Fall.”
Rodding leaned forward and noted, “Dan, the Collective has been treasure hunting for old technology in their old installations from prior to The Fall for quite some time. Same as the Confederation, although neither side wants to draw attention to that fact.
“As you know, due to the passage of time and the widespread destruction that occurred due to The Fall, we found ourselves in the situation where we possessed more advanced technological information than historical. That technological advantage allowed the Confederation to rebuild in a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken, but we still don’t know anywhere near as much about the time before The Fall as we would like.”
Ronin thought back to his history classes as a schoolboy. Civilization fell into barbarism, but there were some smaller (at the time) cities that survived due to different combinations of leadership and residual technical data, which they managed to pass on to future generations. Those cities held on to become city-states at first, and then eventually they banded together to reform a new nation as civilization re-emerged from the ashes.
Hobson looked away from Admiral Rodding and back to Ronin. He picked up where Rodding left off and answered the disbelief written on Ronin’s face. “All of that is true, Captain. And there’s a lot more. Shanwei was carrying a coordinate to this system’s possible jump gate location. It was the coordinate we happened to be missing. Our spies inside the Collective are pretty clear they may need more coordinates to find where the old gate may have been, but with the information from Shanwei and other data recovered from the pre-Fall base on Ganymede, we now have a set we think could lead us there. You will take a fleet ship there to investigate.”
Ronin looked at both Rodding and Hobson for a moment before asking the obvious first question they all knew would be next: “Sirs, since I’ve just been relieved of command of the Ike, what’s my next ride?”
Rodding smiled. “I thought you’d never ask, Dan. Your next ride, as you called it is a new, top secret ship called Cerberus.”
He looked down and pressed a screen button next to him. The holo projector replaced the current image with an image of Cerberus. “She’s nothing like anything the fleet has elsewhere. For purposes of figuring out the scale here, the old Ike is 20,000 long tons, 605 feet long, 60 feet wide, and crewed by 1,100 with a main propulsion drive of two fusion engines. Cerberus is an entirely different animal. Weighing in at 100,000 tons, Cerberus is 2,000 feet long, 500 feet wide, crewed by 2,500, and powered from two different drives. You’ll have three sub light drives for propulsion up to .3 lights, and jump drives for FTL mobility. Cerberus also carries two full squadrons of Tomcat fighters and half a dozen FTL capable Bulldogs for scouting and reconnaissance as well as combat control missions.”
The onslaught of information completely floored Ronin. “Wait, sirs! This is coming at me too fast here. Gravity jump drives? FTL is…even possible? What old base on Ganymede? Ah,” Ronin stammered before being interrupted by a smiling Rodding.
“All right, son, relax. I can see we need to give you a baseline for all this. Yes, Faster-Than-Light is now a reality although no one knows yet, and it’s an FTL jump system that doesn’t need a gate. You’re limited to jumps of 20 light years under our current navigation, technological and power systems. Your FTL capability has an outer limit of 100 light years due to fuel constraints.
“Yes, the technical FTL knowledge was greatly aided by our secret discovery of an ancient Western base that had been hidden on Ganymede centuries ago. It was a scientific outpost when The Fall occurred, and before the scientists there passed away, they saved their data so it could be recovered far in to the future. They had figured out Mankind wouldn’t be back for quite some time based on information that had been beamed to them while civilization crumbled. Ganymede Station also had one of the missing coordinates for the Sol jump gate. And as for Cerberus, you’ll soon be on your way to see her.”
That last comment sounded mysterious enough to prompt Ronin to ask, “On my way? Cerberus isn’t here in Wayside’s shipyard?”
Colonel Hobson shook his head slightly and said, “Welcome to the world of secrets and misdirection. One of the other reasons why Ike was kept patrolling is simply because we don’t have enough large ships out there. The Confederation hasn’t been making enough of them while the shipyard that built Cerberus was itself being constructed for Project Argo. That temporarily diverted an enormous amount of resources from new ship construction, which necessarily meant ships like yours had to stay out longer.”
Admiral Rodding nodded and conti
nued on where Hobson left off. “Now that Project Argo is operational, the Argo shipyard will build more warships like Cerberus, as well as other classes of vessels. To help protect Argo, the shipyard is both mobile and self-sustaining with extensive mining and food production facilities. Because you’ve been brought in on this as the new captain of Cerberus, you’ll leave directly from here for the shipyard under strict operational secrecy. Commander Toft will captain the Ike going forward, and you’ll get to select some crew from Ike to come along if they’re willing to follow you with no questions asked and no prospect of the leave they have coming.”
With that, Rodding and Hobson both stood and, mirroring their movement, Ronin stood up as well. As they shook hands, Hobson told Ronin further orders await him upon his arrival on Cerberus.
Chapter 7
Project Argo
After the unexpected excitement of boarding a new transport bound for an undisclosed location followed by a hurried launch and full power flight, the trip settled down into a routine for the selected Ike crew who accompanied Ronin. When Dan had received permission to poach some of his crew from the Ike, he quietly spoke with some of his officers and crew members who he thought would be open or able to make the transition to Cerberus with him even though there was little he could tell them at the time. Over a hundred chose to join him on Cerberus on that basis. Although he resorted to enticing some officers to follow him by sweetening the deal with promotions, Dan was pretty satisfied with those of his people that he kept. He even brought along the entire Marine Bravo Team and lieutenants Matt LeCroy and Marcy Anzio. Bravo would be joining the other two Marine teams already stationed aboard Cerberus.
They spent the three-month transit productively getting up to speed on their new, top secret ship. To maintain mission secrecy, they were kept away from all the other passengers in a secure section of the transport and not allowed to interact with anyone from beyond that security zone.