The Orion Front - A Hard Military Space Opera Adventure (Aeon 14: The Orion War Book 9)
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“You sure?” Sera asked, turning in her seat to meet the azure woman’s eyes. “I mean, I already pushed a lot onto you.”
“I can handle it. I’ve spent a lot of time being…disregarded. I want to step forward again.”
“I get that,” Sera replied. “OK, you asked for it. Here comes the motherlode.”
Roxy was silent for a moment, then exclaimed, “Has Petra lost her mind?!”
Sera knew exactly what her assistant director was referring to and laughed, shaking her head. “Petra gets results. I give her free reign as much as possible.”
“Probably because she’s only quasi-Hand now anyway.”
“That too, but she’s loyal nonetheless.”
“So glad that my problems are limited to New Canaan, more or less,” Jason said as he brought the ship down to a lower orbit.
“I thought Tangel reported to you?” Roxy asked. “Doesn’t that kind of make the whole galaxy your problem?”
Jason barked a laugh. “And the less I think of it like that, the happier I am. Seriously, though. Tangel doesn’t ‘report’ to me so much as she just lets me know what she’s up to. If I have suggestions, she listens to them, but unless it’s an outflow of something parliament decides, I don’t pass her any directives at all.”
“How are the people of New Canaan handling all this?” Sera asked.
“Better than I would have expected,” he replied. “Half the population is directly involved in the war effort now. The other half is directly involved with supporting the first half. A quarter of our population is outsystem, crewing warships, and the AIs are breeding as fast as they can to bolster the population and fill as many gaps as they can.”
Sera gave a rueful laugh. “Good thing the colonists breed like rabbits.”
“There are downsides to that as well. It’s stifling the birth rate right now. Just about everyone has sent kids off to war, and no one is too excited about having more just to send them away as well.”
“The war will be over by then,” Sera said, knowing it wasn’t exactly true.
Jason shook his head. “This war is like a wildfire. Sure, we can put out the cause of the blaze, but it’s already spreading. There are tens of millions of systems out there, and the instability this conflict has caused is going to last for decades…maybe centuries.”
Sera knew he was right, and only nodded, trying to think of something to say.
After a minute, Jason continued. “My only hope is that once we stop Orion, Terra, and the Trisilieds, we can leave the rest of things to people with more resources. Get back to the life we all hoped to live.”
Sera nodded mutely, knowing that, to an extent, Jason’s hope was a vain one. The battle the people of New Canaan would have to fight after the war would be far more difficult than the one they were fighting at present.
Despite their desire to ‘get away’ and build a quiet colony, their time away from Sol had been anything but. Many of them would have a hard time reintegrating…or they just might not want to return.
Healing New Canaan would take a lot longer than building it had.
“I hope everyone gets that,” she finally said.
“Not me,” Roxy chimed in. “I’ve got a decent amount of anger that still needs to be taken out on the asshats of the galaxy. Be a long time before I settle down.”
Carmen said.
“Oh, it’s not,” Roxy nodded emphatically. “Which is why I have to expunge it from myself with force.”
“I’m kidding!” Roxy said with a self-deprecating laugh. “Mostly. I’m talking to a fleet psychiatrist…well, a team of them. I know I can’t do this alone, but I’m also not going to tell myself that I can go back to some sense of normalcy anytime soon. I need to see if I can get myself back to who I used to be before I look toward becoming something else.” She shook her head a look of consternation on her face. “Stars, that makes no sense at all.”
Sera gave a rueful laugh, having no idea if that was the best course of action. She couldn’t offer any advice, though, since she had no idea what she’d do in Roxy’s shoes. The fact that the woman was functional at all was a miracle.
“Sheesh,” Jason muttered, giving Sera a sidelong glance and a wink. “This was supposed to be the fun, ‘get away from my troubles’ trip. I should have gone to the Trisilieds with Cheeky and Sabrina.”
“You gonna two-time on me with them?” Sera squeaked in mock indignation.
“More like double-time,” Jason chuckled.
Sera groaned and gestured to the holo. “Don’t you have to do something important here, like concentrate on flying?”
“I could do this while playing three games of Snark at once,” he replied. “Eyes closed and hands behind my back.”
“Showoff.”
They rode the final minutes in silence, finally slipping into a deep crevasse on the moon’s surface before coming down to a hidden docking bay tucked under an overhang.
“OK,” Sera said as the pinnace settled onto the cradle. “Remember, this is just a routine visit. I’m here to chat with Colonel Rutger, and you two are doing an inspection of the logs for recent operations to make sure that nothing was sent in the clear that shouldn’t have been.”
“Easy,” Roxy replied. “We’ll just yank more than we need and see what we can see about Carson’s messages.”
“And I’m just your arm candy,” Jason said with a laugh as the docking clamps locked onto the ship, and he rose carefully in the low gravity. “Stars, been a while since I’ve been in partial gravity. Spoiled by a-grav everywhere these days.”
“Well, if anyone can get their space legs back, it’s you,” Sera said, nudging him with her elbow. “None of us were born before it existed.”
“You calling me old?” he asked.
“Uh huh.”
A minute later, they were out on the dock, where Colonel Rutger and two majors were waiting.
The moment Sera stepped onto the deck, he strode forward, his hand extended and a smile on his lips.
“Director Sera, so very good to see you. It’s unexpected to have our little outpost visited by someone such as yourself.”
She shook her head while shaking his hand. “Don’t downplay with me, Colonel. You run one of the most important facilities in the galaxy. My father just wanted me to swing by and have a chat with you. Make sure your needs are being met and that there’s not something we can do that’s not in the official reports.”
The colonel nodded. “Of course, Director. I can think of a few things that could improve our operation.”
“Excellent,” Sera replied, turning to Jason. “I assume you know Jason Andrews, New Canaan’s governor. He was at Khardine and decided to come along to see the good use we’re putting their technology to—and to verify that we’re safeguarding it appropriately.”
A look of worry came across Colonel Rutger’s face, and Sera wondered if it was concern over scrutiny in general, or if he had something to hide.
Jen commented.
Sera gave a mental laugh.
During her brief exchange with Jen, Colonel Rutger had introduced himself to Jason and then turned to the two majors.
“This is Major Belos and Major Lorne. They both share responsibility for message delivery, and also take shifts at the boards.”
“Really?” Roxy asked from where she stood on Sera’s left. “That’s surprising.”
“This is Assistant Director Roxy, and Commander Jane,” Sera said, then gestured for Roxy to continue as the colonel nodded in greeting.
“Well, I just would hav
e expected that we could staff you with enough people that your senior leadership didn’t have to work the boards.”
“I mandate it.” Rutger inclined his head. “I feel that it’s good for everyone to see firsthand what comes through, and to understand the underlying urgency that is at play.”
“Seems reasonable,” Sera said.
“Thank you,” the colonel said, his tone not giving away whether or not he cared for her approval. “I’ll show you to my office, Director. I assume you’re joining us, Governor Andrews?”
“I am,” Jason replied.
“Excellent.” Colonel Rutger gestured toward the bay’s doors. “Major Belos will take the assistant director and commander on their tour. Lorne, you may return to your duties.”
“Sir,” Lorne acknowledged before turning and leaving the bay.
Belos gestured for Roxy and Jane to follow, leading them toward an exit on their right, while the colonel directed Sera and Jason to the left.
A tingle ran up Sera’s spine as the group broke up. After spending so long with her High Guard shadowing her every move, she felt strangely vulnerable. The feeling was incongruous with the fact that she was in one of the most secure facilities in the Transcend.
The concern was assuaged by the fact that Jason’s cruiser was nearby, cloaked with a platoon of ISF Marines ready to drop at a moment’s notice.
Still, I’d feel a lot better knowing that Major Valerie was still with me. But she’s watching over my father now.
A strange feeling of jealousy hit Sera, and she shook her head.
Jason was walking alongside the colonel, and in her musing, Sera had fallen a step behind, her unfocused gaze aimed at the governor’s rear.
Sera tuned in to the conversation between Jason and the colonel, continuing to hang back and focus on what the man had to say—and didn’t say.
“A new shipment of blades just came in,” Colonel Rutger was explaining. “That always steps things up a notch, we have to run tests on them all, and then begin the confirmation process that the paired blades have gone to the right place.”
“Takes a while, I assume?” Jason asked.
“Core, you have no idea.” Colonel Rutger shook his head. “There are blades from the second shipment still in the confirmation process.”
“Really?” The governor tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow. “But that shipment came in well over a year ago.”
“It sure did. But here’s the thing: ships with gate mirrors are at a premium. So if we need to get a blade to a remote system, we jump it out to a location with a return gate, and from there, it transfers to a ship that takes it via dark layer FTL to the destination. Some of the blades have had to pass through two or three couriers before they get to their final destinations.”
“I can see how that would take a while,” Jason said, glancing back at Sera.
“Then there’s the confirmation process,” she added. “Some of these blades are going to places that had no prior knowledge of the unveiling and the war. They have no way to verify identity or allegiance directly over the QC network, so it needs to pass back through the courier network to get here.”
“Exactly,” Rutger said. “Because of that, we have an entire reliability system that gets assigned to blades.”
“As in, how certain you are that you’re talking with who you expect to?” Jason asked.
The colonel nodded. “Yes. For example, ISF ships that receive their blades in New Canaan construction yards have the highest reliability rating—well, next to the blades on I-Class ships. Blades out in the fringes of the Hand’s network have the least. Certain broadcast messages don’t filter down through all the reliability levels because we have to assume that somewhere, someone who shouldn’t be is on the receiving end of a QC blade.”
“We burn out more blades with reverifications,” Sera muttered. “I sure wish they had more longevity.”
Jason laughed. “I’ll consult physics and see if we can get it to make an exception for us.”
Sera reached out and gave the governor a two-fingered poke in the shoulder. “Earnest bends them enough. I bet they have a pre-existing exception built in for him.”
“I catch a lot of grief from remote commanders over how brief we have to be on the network, but everyone gets that it’s our number one advantage right now. So many of our major strikes wouldn’t have been remotely possible without the network.”
As the colonel spoke, they came to an observation window that looked out over a vast cave filled with small, standalone rooms.
“This, Director and Governor, is what I like to think of as the heart of the Alliance.”
The man’s voice was filled with pride, and Sera didn’t want to debate with him over semantics. At the very least, it was a heart, but she was certain that the true heart of the Scipio Alliance was the I2.
Jason must have been on a similar train of thought, as he said, “Well, there’s a significant secondary hub in the I2, but I get your meaning.”
The colonel gave an almost sheepish smile. “We labor long hours deep in this rock, Governor—grant us this one bit of hubris.”
A loud laugh burst from Jason, and he slapped the colonel on the back. “Very well, I’ll allow it.”
* * * * *
Roxy and Jane shared a look as they followed Major Belos on their tour of the facility.
Roxy held back a laugh.
“Blade Node Two,” Major Belos announced tonelessly as he reached a sealed portal. It was guarded by two soldiers, an AI in a warframe, and several drones.
“Excellent,” Roxy replied. “Let’s have a look.”
It took a minute for everyone to pass their tokens and get through the auth system to satisfy the guards that they were who they said they were.
Jane’s presence threw up some red flags, as the base systems listed her as AWOL with suspicion of being a part of Justin’s faction.
A near-imperceptible shift in the guards’ posture occurred when that information came back, but after a call to the colonel cleared things up, they relaxed a hair and opened the portal.
“And here we are,” Belos announced when they entered the circular room.
Roxy gauged the space to be just about thirty meters across, containing several dozen three-meter-high towers that contained the QC blades.
“As you can see,” the major gestured to the blade towers and the conduits feeding into them, “each tower has independent cooling and power supply. Several redundant systems ensure that it would take a chain reaction of very unlikely events�
�or a deliberate attack—to damage the towers.”
“That’s great, Major,” Roxy said. “But we’re less interested in the physical powering of the blades and more interested in the logging facilities. As you know, the devil is in the details, and the detail that worries us is the inconsistent shorthand people use over the QuanComm network.”
“You’re referring to how it requires people to translate the messages and then pass them on,” Belos replied. “There are primary and secondary teams that check all the messages to make sure no meaning was lost. Would you like to see them in action?”
“That’s real-time quality assurance,” Roxy said. “What about tertiary review? Who watches the watchers?”
“Everything is logged, of course,” Belos said, his brow lowering in annoyance. “Messages in and out. Messages that are delivered to a recipient directly aren’t translated, they just get slated for passthrough, so those are linked and checked roughly fifteen minutes later, depending on volume.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Roxy replied. “I’d like to view the reports on their corrections and error rates. Are the logs for each node stored with it? Or are they maintained elsewhere?”
“Since passthrough can utilize more than one node, they’re stored in a separate data facility.”
“Yes, Major, we’d very much like to see that,” Roxy said brightly.
Belos led them out of the room and back down the passage, taking them through a long stretch of the warren-like tunnels within the moon, until they came to another guarded portal.
This one was protected by an entire squad of soldiers, which made sense to Roxy, given that the entire repository of QuanComm communication was stored there—excepting what went through the I2 and New Canaan hubs.