"Well, the only thing you can do that'll keep you from getting into even more trouble is follow through. It's a good mission. If you don't follow through, leaking your mission details to me won't be the only violation they can charge you with. You'll be facing insubordination charges."
"So, you think I should fake-steal this ship and get outta here?" Noah asked, surprised.
"Yeah, just send me a message when you get where you're going and hang tight."
"While you do…. What?" Noah asked, sitting in the pilot's seat.
"Tell my father I'm joining you with the Clever Dream. We've been ordered to rest for now and I have no assignment on the board after that, so he's going to order me to join you in the field."
"Uh, will that…" he struggled to find the right term for a moment before settling on; "Will that work?"
"It's either he orders me to join you in the field and help you with your mission, or Theo and I go after you anyway. One keeps my crew together, the other option leaves whoever isn't willing to go on the deck behind me. It’s not ideal, but I get the feeling that half the admiralty expect me to break off on my own any time, so why disappoint?"
"You know I'm crazy about you, right?" Noah said, his heart feeling full and warm as he brought the ship's main systems online. It purred around him as the fusion chain woke up from standby mode.
"You know you drive me crazy, right?" Alice said with a crooked smile. "I'll talk to you soon, Flyboy." The call ended.
"Don't get yourself into more trouble than you can handle," he muttered under his breath as he watched the hangar doors open. It was surprising, the automated departure systems were all set. A ladder that wasn't secured to the deck rushed out before the new atmospheric energy barrier went up. "Oops, should have checked that before the doors opened."
Most of his worries were dulled as he ran through his checklist, looking all the main instrument panels over. He was surprised to see two Uriel fighters latched to the underside of the ship and decided to take a good look at them after he was far away. "Clever Class Corvette Zero Six Three, this is Triton Flight. Power down and secure that ship to the deck immediately." Came the stern female voice over the ship's emergency communications channel.
Noah looked to the Navnet screen, making sure there was nothing in his way, then checked the quad drive system to ensure that his course was already laid in and verified. Everything checked out, so he throttled up. The bridge around him darkened as he left the Triton behind. There were three fighters on their way, moving to cut him off. The navigational system beeped at him, a bright chirp that told him that the quad drive was ready, his course was verified and safe. "I really hope you can pull the right strings so I don’t have to do this without you, Alice," he said under his breath as he activated the quad drive.
Space split in front of him, not a tear like the previous generation of drives, but a neat, rippling hole with light pouring through it, and his ship slipped inside. Noah sat back with a sigh, then looked to the hologram of Commodore McPatrick. "I forgot your old friends called you 'Oz,'" he said. "What else do you have to say about this mission?"
"…enemy and we'll be able to review your reports on rebel groups, making sure we only recruit the best of them," the Commodore continued. "Most of the fine details of this mission are in the text section of this record, but I'd like to make a few of the limits and benefits clear before I end this introduction. You can grow your criminal enterprise to any practical size you like. Any actions you take while you're on mission will not be prosecutable by Haven Fleet or the Haven Government. You are immune as long as you can prove your actions served the mission. You are not to directly combat the Order of Eden unless you have no choice. You are not to sell weapons of mass destruction, but you may sell any size of ship you like. Do not pirate non-Order of Eden ships, but all of their allies are fair game. That should provide plenty of opportunity for captures if you get a crew together who can pirate vessels. All proceeds from your work belong to you, and you may sell any leftover equipment that you didn't manufacture using your ship to Haven Fleet for luxury credits. If your ship is captured, the data drives will re-crystalize until they're useless, the quad drives will melt, and the rest of the proprietary systems will self-destruct. This is an incredible opportunity for you to become one of the most important people to our efforts to grow our numbers and win this war against the Order. Make sure you read the text attached to this mission brief. Remember, your mission could be rendered ineffective if people in Haven Fleet discover it's a ruse. The chance of your true purpose being leaked increases as more people find out, so keep this secret. We will control the flow of information coming to the fleet, and you should only contact us at pre-arranged times. Good luck." The hologram faded.
"Oh, he is gonna be pissed when he finds out I brought Alice in on it," Noah chucked, just as worried as he was amused.
Thirty-Three
The Hunter
* * *
The map of the Kedan Solar System surrounded Admiral Scanlon and Captain Holm. The white sun burned at their feet while the planets and fields of asteroids drifted around them in a high-speed time lapse. "Three large ships are running the operation near Nuaji," the Admiral said, pointing at the now grey-brown world. "Since they began running their rescue operations, smaller ships have moved in to the vessels that we didn't allow to jump to Dulo. They disappeared one by one. We assume the smaller Haven Fleet vessels are extending a cloaking field around them. A few signals escaped their cloak as they performed a hand-off with another, larger ship. From the glimpses we've caught, which were hard-won, requiring hundreds of scanning hours, we suspect that they are loading the ships escaping Nuaji into a massive carrier. It's definitely a vessel we haven't seen Haven Fleet use before."
Captain Holm paused a moment before commenting. Like any good subordinate, he took every word in, making sure he understood everything before asking a question he thought would be obvious. At times it was difficult to concentrate. As an Admiral she was knowledgeable, showed wisdom in her decisions and in the viewing requirements she sent out to everyone under her command. She had a quick mind, and he admired how she brought her staff together to work on one problem after another.
As a woman he found her fascinating. Her beauty seemed effortless, and if it weren't for his own discipline she could become a fixation, a breathtaking infatuation. That wasn't something he'd allow, in fact, he made every effort to make sure she didn't see him notice that she was letting her blonde hair grow back into brunette. That her brown eyes seemed livelier ever since work on the Lance began, ever since he returned from leading the Justicars on their most recent mission. Ever since Tafford was murdered she was closer to the Overlord, closer to Dron, closer to power. He asked his question before he was caught staring. "Why not launch the sensor satellites? Back them up with a coordinated attack in Nuaji orbital space?"
"We can't learn as much from an autopsy as we can a living specimen," Admiral Scanlon said quietly. The Rear Admiral and several of her command crew were talking amongst themselves along the edges of the large hologram. The space between them and the middle of the holographic solar system gave her and the Captain the illusion of privacy. "A phrase one of my instructors in college used to use. If my guess is right, there's a commander orchestrating the rescue operations around Nuaji and they're wondering why we don't attack too. They're tempted by the target the Lance provides. I know I'd want to send an antimatter bomb, maybe a full-on attack at a heavy cruiser while its being refitted light years away from any Order of Eden space dock, while there are no extraordinary defences. That's why we're not aboard that ship, why most of the work is being done robotically. I want to see what that commander does. I don't care if they rescue every living soul on Nuaji and save every ship in orbit. I'd rather they did it so we could watch the work." She looked to her left. "Vice Admiral Jepsen, what do you think of their rescue operation?"
The Vice Admiral, a short fellow who Captain Holm was sure would be promot
ed the next time a spot for Admiral came up considering his consistently good work, took a few steps into the hologram. "Efficient, they move quickly and covertly. Considering how long it's taken for us to make an assessment, and how few mistakes they make with their cloaking systems, I expect most of the crews are well trained. Most, but not all. There have been errors. We know they are using state-of-the-art ships, technology that outstrips most of our own, and that they ordered the nanobots that were destroying life on the planet to burn out, making them useless to anyone who wants to duplicate them. They've saved over twelve thousand people from the surface since. Those operations happened so quickly that we would have had a very narrow window to attack them while they were taking passengers on board if we had an opportunity at all."
"So overall they have skilled crews and good leadership?" the Admiral asked.
"Overall. The vast majority of their people are highly skilled, yes. As far as leadership, I expect they're experienced. They kept their approach to rescuing the people left on and around Nuaji simple: they treated it like triage."
"Thank you, Rear Admiral." She turned back to Captain Holm as the Rear Admiral retreated back to a workgroup along the edge of the large space. "We've learned a great deal. Only hours ago we discovered that there was an unauthorized user in our system. We're sure there are more, and we're tracking them down. The signal came from the orbital space around Nuaji. Letting them go about their business has been helpful."
"I applaud your tactics and patience," Captain Holm said.
She took him in, her eyes sweeping down then up. He forgot that he was wearing a fitted suit. It was dark green with the markings of his Order of Eden rank, but it was the same technology Haven Fleet used under their heavy combat armour. Her eyes locked with his for a moment before she quietly said; "Thank you. You don't need to compliment me, Captain." Admiral Scanlon turned back to the hologram, focusing on Nuaji. There were a few locations marked in red around it. Each represented a spot where they suspected there may be a ship. "We still don't know why they hold off from attacking the Lance. It's a prime target, they have a weapon that can get through our best counter-cloaking systems, but we haven't detected any sign of sabotage."
"Maybe they recognize an unofficial truce. Two big predators respecting each other, aware that any conflict would inflict serious injuries on both, regardless of who wins," Captain Holm offered.
"That's come up. It's the best theory, but it makes me wonder who we're dealing with. Valent doesn't seem patient enough. I can't see anyone from the Admiralty putting themselves at risk by coming so far behind our frontline."
"Maybe it's McPatrick? He's one of their most experienced commanders."
"Someone I've done some of the reading on," Admiral Scanlon said, nodding. "It only seems like we know enough about these people. There is so much data out there, but their military has come together so quickly, and it functions well enough. Even with all our records on Freeground and its history, we don't know enough to predict exactly what they'll do, where they'll go. The strikes on our bases and shipyards were sudden, a surprise. It doesn't seem like them, but maybe there's a new mind making plans over there, someone who doesn't care as much about preventing collateral damage. Planet Nuaji is a clear example, but that seems more like a blunder. We've only seen a garbled image of Alice Valent on the planet. Everything we know about her and her family tell us that they wouldn't condone the waste of a planet or so many civilian deaths."
"I'm afraid I wouldn't know," Captain Holm said.
"You haven't watched the files on them?" Admiral Scanlon asked.
Was that amusement? Was his lackadaisical attitude towards her recommended viewing list funny to her? "My people have been practicing in the encounter armour we bought from the British. I've had to design new challenges for them, it's taken up most of my time. I apologize."
"Don't worry about it. There's a reason why it's called a 'recommended viewing list,' but now you and your people will have to catch up. Learn everything there is about the Valents. The Clever Dream, their entanglements, positions in the fleet, and their pasts. I'll have someone put a file together."
"We're going to hunt them down?" The thrill of that challenge made the Captain square his shoulders, even puff his chest up a little.
Admiral Scanlon looked at him, the edges of her lips turning up just enough so he could see her smiling in the half light. "Not directly. Our intelligence tells us that the Clever Dream came here on its own before Nuaji was denuded. The uninvited user who was exploring our network visited the profile of Mary Reed more than once, and we know she was down there on the planet. Our experts expect she's helping resistance groups and suspect that she left Nuaji after a short time. We don't know why, but I have a theory that I'm so certain of that I'm willing to send you to test it. Bring your best, leave the rest of your people with me so they can continue training. You're going to follow our most promising leads to find Mary Reed. I need you to hunt her. Tell me when you find her. Watch her while she meets with resistance leaders. I don't want you to make a move until you see a Valent. Alice or Jacob, it doesn't matter which."
"What about the mother, Ayan?"
"I don't think she'll expose herself, not for this. We know that Remmy Sands was a friend to Mary Reed, they may send him to entice her into joining them, but don't spring your trap until you see a Valent or are sure Reed is about to disappear in to the ranks of Haven Fleet. I'll need detailed reports from you. I trust you to execute this on your own, but the Overlord is eager to capture a Valent. The Edxi are furious at the destruction of Nuaji. We've convinced them that the Valents are at the centre of their failure to take the Haven System and the Nuaji incident, so they'll be satisfied if we present them with a living Valent and a new, populated solar system to colonize. I don't have to decide on which solar system we're sacrificing yet."
"But you do have to capture a Valent," he added, looking at the red marks on the map. A new one appeared, an old one disappeared. Their information was three minutes old, who knew what they were really detecting. The signals could be sensor ghosts, decoys, or momentary gaps in the Haven ships' cloaking fields. "If you try to capture the ships around Nuaji, there's a chance they'll all slip away."
"Not only that, but the Merciless may be in orbit. That ship can stand toe-to-toe with one of our heavy cruisers and win. We know the Excalibur may be here as well. The cost of this hunt would be too high, especially if the third ship they have is some kind of super carrier."
"So we watch what they're looking for."
"No one knows I'm sending you on this mission. There may still be unwelcome guests in our system. Officially I'm sending you out on training exercises, a tour of nearby moons. You're joining me in a real conspiracy, Jaden."
Hearing her use his first name for the first time was exciting. It was even sweeter whispered in half-light. Then he remembered how far in debt he was, that she was much more powerful thanks to rank, wealth and political connections. He sunk from the height his heart rose to, stiffened his spine and replied; "I'll bring you a Valent, Admiral."
There was that amused smile again. He returned it this time along with a salute. The Admiral straightened up and returned the gesture, releasing him to begin preparations. An encrypted message appeared on the optical display inside his mechanical eye. It was bio-locked to him, from Admiral Scanlon and it contained the details of his secret mission. He was to depart in three hours.
Thirty-Four
At Last
* * *
There were a lot of complaints running through Alice's head as she left her quarters. Quan met her in the hallway outside, it was still strange seeing him in the black on black uniform of the Merciless. He was a visitor, but ship security put him in the uniform of an able crewman after determining that wearing a suit that made him stand out from the rest of the crew would make him a target to boarders. It almost suited him.
"I sense that you're frustrated," Quan said.
"See, that
's what I don't want to turn into," Alice said, turning nose to nose with him, well, it was more like her nose to his chin. "I don't want to walk around my ship telling my crew how they're feeling, playing amateur therapist to the lot of them while they don't feel like they have so much as a private moment. Ever since I woke up it feels like you've been listening to whatever's going on up here."
"I'm sorry, I'm here to help but I'm still figuring out how to do so tactfully."
Iruuk was in the hallway next. The uncertain look he fixed her with made her remember why Quan was so important. He wasn't just there to help her, he was there to protect everyone in case she had a flare up. That was the only reason why he got aboard the Merciless before it jumped far behind enemy lines. "I'm sorry, and yeah, I'm pissed. Is that splashing around? I thought I was containing my emo-spill."
"Emo-spill? Interesting term," Quan said, cracking a little smile. Then he went on more seriously; "No, you're perfectly contained, I sensed it because I was reading beside my door. I'm still highly attuned to you. The mind bridge I made between you and your father left me connected. I hope that's not unsettling, it will fade over time."
"No, I'm getting used to all this somehow." It was irksome, but Alice didn't think telling him would make anything better. It felt like she spent an afternoon with her father, the memory of her being a child at his side was as real as any. It was as if a puzzle piece was created and put into place where she had something missing. Quan was the one who made that possible, and she'd always be grateful.
"You keep forgetting that you can't be deceptive with me," Quan said. "But I sense that you were only trying to spare my feelings."
"See, you keep telling me you're not a telepath, but that's a lot of detail for someone who can just read emotions," Alice said.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13 Page 26