Cerberus

by John Filcher

  “Captain Ronin, would you and Commander Mueller be available to come over to Fleet Intelligence at 1400 hours tomorrow for a briefing? I know it’s kind of a big ask so soon after you arrived on Cerberus, but the Admiralty wants to bring you up to speed on the latest aspects to your mission as quickly as we can.”

  “Sure, we’ll meet you there, sir,” responded Ronin. After the link was closed, Ronin wondered what was so urgent that they were being rushed through a new vessel commissioning. He didn’t like the possible answers he came up with.

  Chapter 8

  Shakedown

  At 1400 hours, Ronin and Commander Mueller arrived at Fleet Intelligence on Argo Station. The black uniformed security guards were expecting them, and they quickly were escorted into a briefing room where Colonel Hobson was waiting.

  “Captain, Commander, thank you for coming. If you would be seated, we can get started so you can return to Cerberus. I took the liberty of having coffee and snacks delivered, so I hope you’ll find them agreeable,” said Hobson.

  “Thank you, Colonel, that sounds wonderful,” said Ronin as the two of them sat at the conference table.

  Hobson touched a screen button. Behind him, a white wall with a portrait of the Confederation President suddenly changed into a tactical screen display of the Sol system. Hobson stood and turned to face the screen.

  “All right, as you both can see, this represents the current tactical situation in this system. Because of the Treaty of Midway, there is no combat on Earth between the Asiatic Collective, aka AC, and the Confederation, so all combat officially takes place off planet. The Belt remains a confused mix of independent Belters, AC-occupied rocks and ships, and Confederation rocks and ships. Earth’s Moon is nominally under mixed Confederation and Collective management, even though there aren’t any bases on it that we know of. Mars is solely ruled by the Confederation. The moons of Saturn and Jupiter out here are unclaimed, at least officially. Does that square with your understanding of the current strategic situation in Sol system?” asked Hobson.

  Both of them nodded, and Mueller asked the same question Ronin was about to ask. “I thought there was some activity around Ganymede? The map doesn’t suggest anything there.”

  Colonel Hobson smiled, noting “Very perceptive of both of you. Correct. Now let me show you the real situation in this system,” he said, reaching over to press another screen button.

  The display changed. Now there were blue markings indicating Confederate control of Ganymede, several more asteroids in the Belt, the Jovian moons of Europa and Io, and Titan, the huge moon around Saturn. Red markers appeared as well, indicating AC control of a swath of the Belt, the small Jovian moon Pandia, and the moon designated Saturn IV, which is sometimes called Dione, although no one knew why.

  “So, it would seem the Confederation and the AC both control larger portions of the system than is publicly known,” commented Ronin. “Are the locations selected because of resources, or some other reason?”

  “Both. Let me explain,” added Hobson, clasping his hands. “The majority of both sides’ early acquisitions were primarily because of resources. Could be a mix of minerals, other times a convenient resupply location not unlike the space version of old train depots that eventually lead to colonization around them. Or depots that were eventually abandoned when new technology rendered them obsolete and there were no other compelling reasons to keep them.”

  Ronin and Mueller nodded in understanding.

  “In the past two years, that pattern was changed somewhat by history. In this case, I mean the ancient history from before The Fall,” continued Hobson.

  The Fall again. Why does that suddenly keep coming up in mission briefings, wondered Ronin.

  “Remember the old observation about how long engineering specifications live?” asked Hobson.

  Ronin nodded and responded, “That’s the story told by the ancients about how the width of two horses eventually influenced the dimensions of the old American space shuttles because the railroads had been built to accommodate horse-drawn wagons.”

  “Correct, Captain,” Hobson stated. “While sometimes separating facts from myths can be difficult, in this instance, the popular story has been confirmed. I’ll walk you both through this so we can move on.

  “The booster rockets of the space shuttle were constructed for transport by rail. American railroads were an unusual width of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches. They had been built by the British, who had matched the U.S. railroads to the size of pre-railroad tramways in Europe.

  “As we continue back in time, we learn that the people who built the first tramways in Europe used the same tools used for building wagons. They matched the width of the tramways to the spacing of the wagon wheels, so they could align with the ruts in the roads of the time and avoid breaking wagon wheels.

  “Imperial Rome built those roads thousands of years ago for the benefit of their legions and the roads have been in use ever since. The wheels of Roman war chariots made the original ruts in those ancient roads. Those chariots were built just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war-horses,” said Hobson. “So, how does the life expectancy of engineering specifications impact Cerberus today?” he asked rhetorically.

  “Because at the pre-Fall base on Ganymede, which we’ve been exploring, the Confederacy has located information strongly suggesting the old jump gates and interstellar colonies are real and, combined with information captured by you from Shanwei, indicate where they may be located,” Hobson said, answering himself.

  “What?” exclaimed Mueller.

  “I still thought those weren’t real!” said Ronin at nearly the same time.

  Ignoring their outbursts, Colonel Hobson pressed another screen button and the wall display changed again. “As I was saying, the old carry-forward specifications included a description of the dimensions of the jump gates, which influenced the design and dimensions of Cerberus, in the hopes she could one day fit through a gate, assuming they ever existed. After you complete the commissioning of Cerberus and her shakedown cruise, the Admiralty has ordered Cerberus to jump out to the anticipated coordinates of the old jump gates to investigate,” he announced.

  “Cerberus has been under extended testing and AI controlled construction, but we anticipate there will still be some of the usual birthing pains of a new ship, with new tech and also a radically new class. How long do you estimate before the shakedown cruise may begin?” Hobson asked.

  “Best guess at this point is two, maybe three weeks,” responded Mueller. “Mechanically, it appears most of the systems are operating as designed and they have been extensively tested and stress-tested prior to our arrival. Crew sims are already underway, and we have implemented new sims of our own design as well,” she concluded.

  “Excellent. Is there anything we can do here to help prepare for your mission?” asked Hobson.

  “Yes, there is. We’d like to discuss our ideas for a new weapons system and several other tweaks to the ship’s systems with the engineers from Wayside,” said Ronin.

  “OK. Expect them to come aboard to discuss them within the hour,” said Hobson, concluding the meeting with a few more pleasantries and handshakes.

  After Dan and Diane returned to Dan’s ready room on Cerberus, Diane mentioned something Dan hadn’t thought of. “Captain, did you know we have no records of a Colonel Hobson in the Confederation databases? He doesn’t exist.”

  Dan’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? And yet he has all kinds of access to everything. Even the Admiral defers to Hobson’s authority. And yet, we don’t even know his first name.”

  Diane nodded. “Who he is, and where he has that kind of access and authority is quite a mystery. I doubt we’ll ever find out the truth.”

  * * *

  Twenty-five days later, Ronin sat in his command chair. Both he and Mueller had dark rings under their eyes from too much work
and not enough sleep from winding up Cerberus’ readiness for a shakedown. Now that the engines were certified as fully operational, the ship hummed with power.

  “Helm, prepare to take us out. Standard launching speed, please,” Ronin ordered.

  “Aye, aye, Captain. Standard departure speed,” Lieutenant Perez replied, pressing the screen buttons to execute the command. As Cerberus pulled out of the shipyard superstructure, the ship’s exterior camera’s focused on space suited construction personnel waiving to the ship excitedly. They tied into a camera feed from a drone that was positioned to film the beautiful ship leaving the shipyard.

  “Steady as she goes, Captain,” said Perez.

  Despite their exhaustion, the bridge crew fairly shook with energy due to the excitement of finally driving their vessel under her own power. Her hull plating, which was unlike anything Ronin had ever seen before, gave her a relatively smooth 1500-foot exterior in the front, broken by a hangar bay bisecting the lateral spine of the ship in the middle. The drives in the rear of the ship were both higher and wider than the main body. Get close enough to her, and you could also see the various sensor blisters and turrets of rail guns or missile launchers. Cerberus cleared the shipyard superstructure and headed out for her shakedown cruise. There was nothing quite like taking a new ship for an inaugural drive.

  Chapter 9

  Jump Gates

  A month later, Cerberus completed her shakedown cruise and returned to Argo Shipyard to finish her fitting out. After docking, Colonel Hobson boarded the ship to meet with Ronin and Mueller in Ronin’s ready room adjacent to the bridge near the center of the ship.

  “We were successful in creating jump bombs according to your specifications, Captain. One of our more creative techs dubbed them Grasshoppers because of their jumping abilities. Two dozen of them are being loaded into the ship’s magazines and the shipyard is making the changes to the ship that you’ve ordered,” said Hobson.

  “That’s great! Thank you, Colonel. Have there been any change to our deployment orders?” asked Ronin.

  “Yes, there is,” said Hobson. “Our spies have reported the AC ordered a war bird to the same coordinates where they suspect the old jump gate to be located. It left port fourteen months ago under heavy acceleration. Be advised to expect potential hostilities upon your arrival. Report your findings after you complete your survey of the area and expect further orders.”

  After the colonel’s departure, Mueller looked at Ronin and said, “It still doesn’t seem possible we’re actually being sent out to ascertain whether the jump gates to the colonies were real.”

  Ronin nodded and responded, “Agreed. We’re chasing ancient fairy tales. Maybe the fleet will have us look for some of the other wonders of the ancient world on our next mission. Feel like trying to find the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Commander?”

  Mueller laughed softly with a small smile. “Why not? Maybe we’ll become the most famous archaeological spacecraft in history?” she said.

  * * *

  The next few weeks passed swiftly as they made the final changes to Cerberus that were needed to make the ship operational. Finally, the ship and crew were ready to depart from the Argo once more.

  “Argo reports all docking connections severed, Captain,” reported Perez.

  “Excellent, Perez. Standard docking speed, take us out,” responded Ronin while looking at the forward view screen. Slowly, Cerberus left the shipyard, and continued on into space.

  “Perez, set course for the system’s outer rim to the coordinates I sent to your station. It’s time to make a ship-wide announcement of our mission,” said Ronin.

  Ronin thumbed the intercom and spoke to the crew. “Attention all hands, this is the Captain. These past few months you have incredible accomplishments to be proud of. No one has commissioned a new class of warship as quickly as you have, and no crew has ever served aboard a ship quite like Cerberus. She is a very special, one of a kind vessel that will become legendary. Now we have a mission that is hopefully one fitting for such a special ship.

  “Our first mission is to proceed to a point in space beyond Sol system to investigate an old legend. Fleet Intelligence believes our destination may have been a possible location for jump gates that lead to the mythical Colonies of Earth. Cerberus is to proceed to the coordinates and investigate the area. Stay alert and prepare for FTL jump momentarily. That is all,” said Ronin, turning to look at the very surprised face of Lieutenant Perez.

  “Lieutenant, initiate jump 1,” Ronin said to Perez.

  “Aye, aye, Captain, initiating jump 1,” responded Perez.

  Cerberus disappeared before reappearing elsewhere in a small flash of light, called a jump flare. Perez, monitoring his boards, announced, “Jump 1 complete. Taking navigation position reading now.” Moments later he added, “Captain, we have arrived at the designated coordinates.”

  “Conducting broad sensor sweep now, Captain,” said Lieutenant Delacroix at the Scans station.

  “Early threat assessment reports one bogey, now designating as Bogey A. Time horizon, approximately one week until our image reaches them. Constant bearing, decreasing range. They’re headed our way,” LeCroy announced from Tactical.

  Ronin nodded, then announced, “All right, we just skipped over fifteen months of sub light travel time, so we have some time to do a more thorough evaluation of this location. Let’s do a deep dive and see what we come up with.” Delacroix and LeCroy quickly got busy with their equipment after Ronin’s announcement.

  “I recommend we launch some drones towards the bogey in case it turns out to be the AC hostile we believe it is. They could give us some advanced warning of any inbound ordinance,” said Mueller.

  “Agreed,” said Ronin.

  Hours later, Mueller and Ronin were tired from reviewing poor quality scans that radiation kept interfering with.

  “Other than the patch of high-density radiation blocking our view forward and the bogey approaching from Earth, there just isn’t much to see this far out here,” said Mueller, standing up to stretch out the kinks while the two were in Ronin’s ready room. “I don’t see many options other than to jump and greet our AC visitor even though they’re too far away for us to ID the ship and possibly cause a confrontation, or jump further out to see what’s beyond the radiation using optics because the radiation hot spot in front of us is so intense our sensors are fuzzed from it,” she concluded.

  “Agreed. Since our orders didn’t send us here to pick a fight, let’s have Perez plot a jump path around the hot spot and we’ll take a peek behind the curtain. Have our rear cover drone screen go dark for now and we can collect or reactivate them later,” ordered Ronin.

  As Mueller returned to the bridge to give the orders and prepare the ship, Ronin pondered the obvious. What could possibly have caused a radiation hot spot of that magnitude out here in the middle of nowhere. The only answer he knew was thermonuclear detonations on a large scale. Could be numerous blasts, or one huge one. He hoped there was another answer out there instead.

  Ronin walked over to the restroom attached to the ready room and splashed cold water on his face. Going to have to stand down soon and make way for the second watch. Can’t wear everyone down on the first day.

  After drying his face, he looked at himself in the mirror and thought of Sarah and Edward. Other than video messages, he hadn’t been able to visit them since his last leave on Earth, over a year ago. In that time, growing dangers seemed to lurk everywhere. How tall they must be getting. I’ve got to get some time off with them.

  A chime interrupted his reverie. He heard Mueller’s voice saying, “Captain to the bridge.”

  Ronin quickly left the ready room and returned to the bridge. “Status?” he inquired.

  “Course plotted, and Cerberus is ready to make way again,” said Mueller as Ronin replaced her in the command chair.

&nbs
p; “Perez, execute jump,” said Ronin.

  “Aye, aye, Captain. Executing jump,” responded Perez, pushing the button to send the ship elsewhere.

  “Jump 2 complete,” said Perez moments later as the ship jumped sideways by three million miles past the outer edge of the hot spot. Seconds later, he followed up with, “Executing Jump 3,” which moved Cerberus forward beyond the diffuse hot spot barrier by twenty million miles.

  “Weak gravity well located ahead,” announced Delacroix. “No visual of what’s causing it,” he noted.

  “Put it on view screen,” commanded Ronin. The bridge crew stared ahead, trying to see what could cause gravity out here.

  “Reduce magnification by factor of ten,” said Mueller. The picture appeared to leap backward in time as the AI complied with the order. “Is it a black hole?” Mueller wondered aloud after the change in visual perspective revealed what appeared to be a dark eclipse in space.

  By now, Delacroix’s sensor suite had some time to provide additional data readings. “Commander, our sensors are still a bit fuzzed from our proximity to the hot spot but so far the readings suggest that’s a dark planet out there,” he responded.

  Mueller and Ronin glanced at each other while Anzio vocalized what everyone was thinking. “A ninth planet?” she asked, shocked. “We’re so far away from Sol, we’re practically in outer space!” continued Anzio.

  “Distance to Planet Nine approximately three months at current cruising speed,” noted Lieutenant Delacroix, unconsciously giving a name to the dark planet as he did so.

  While the bridge crew grappled with the concept of an unknown planet floating behind a radioactive hot spot that blocked the ship’s advanced scanners, Ronin made a decision. “Helm, jump us to a spot halfway between the hot spot and Planet Nine, as Lieutenant Delacroix called it. Launch a drone screen when we arrive and let’s run a thorough scan from there.”