It Ain't Over

by Robert M Kerns

  Cole eyes scanned the people in the distance. “You have a nose count, Mazzi?”

  “One hundred seventy-three, sir.”

  Cole nodded, staring at the deck off to his right as he thought. Pilot Country was out. The largest briefing room there only held a hundred, and he hadn’t explored the decks he termed ‘Marine Country.’ It was possible there was a briefing room there large enough, but he didn’t want to go looking for it right then. A thought floated to the forefront of Cole’s mind, and he grinned. Sure…why not?

  “Well, I do have someplace we can all sit and talk. It’s not designed for the purpose, but everyone will be comfortable enough. And…the acoustics are excellent. It will take some herding and education, though. Go get me ten of your best people, and tell everyone else to gather at the starboard hatch. We’ll send someone for them when we’re ready.”

  Soon, Cole, Mazzi, and those ten people Cole requested left the flight deck. Cole took them to the transit shaft right outside the flight deck and gave them a crash course on them. He then left two people to control access to the shaft and keep everything in order, taking the rest up to Pilot Country. In Pilot Country, Cole left one person at the transit shaft and took everyone else to the main transit shaft closest to them, leaving one at the corner in sight of the shaft to Pilot Country and leaving a second at the transit shaft and taking everyone else up five decks to Deck Seven, the recreation deck. Cole left one person at the transit shaft there. He left the remaining five people at intervals in plain sight of the previous person—a trail of living breadcrumbs—all the way to one theater. This particular theater was set up for any media a theater might need: holographic movies, old-style 2D movies, and a stage for plays. Cole and Mazzi took the time to set up a few chairs on the stage where people could sit with Cole, while the majority would occupy the first few rows of the audience section. Then, they went back to the flight deck.

  Everyone had gathered at the starboard hatch as Mazzi had told them, and Cole explained what they were doing. He warned them not to wander off, as it was a big ship that wasn’t very populated; he made a point of saying it was possible for someone to get lost and die of starvation. A few chuckles broke out at that, but when Cole didn’t share them, the humor faded.

  Cole explained how to use the transit shafts and where they were going and that there were people along the way to keep them on the path. With all that said, he turned and left, taking Mazzi with him.

  Over the next couple hours, Cole discussed many topics with the former SDF personnel. The immediate question was if he was hiring; Cole said he would be, but not just yet. He needed to recruit HR staff, first. One of the final questions of the discussion was if Cole had any bed space for them. Cole grinned and explained he did…as long as they didn’t mind barracks housing.

  Cole returned to the bridge after getting everyone in the barracks up on Deck Two. He checked the helm and saw they were still two hours and fifty-four minutes from being able to engage the hyperdrive. The elements of the Aurelian forces in pursuit were still hanging in there, but the distance between them and Haven was almost laughable now. Cole almost brought the sublight engines back to six-tenths’ light-speed just to goad them. He suspected the Aurelian ships could easily do even half-c, but their acceleration profiles were such that Cole and Haven would be long gone by the time they could even reach his speed, let alone try to overtake him. Cole guessed they expected him to alter course for the jump gate at some point and thought to force an engagement then.

  Yeah…that wasn’t going to happen, and Cole would’ve enjoyed seeing the expression of the task force commander back there when Haven disappeared from their sensor feeds. Cole snickered and thought about having the ship’s computer turn off the transponder, just to see what they’d do.

  Instead, he told the computer to alert him if anything changed and left the bridge via the port hatch, going to the captain’s day-cabin. The captain’s day-cabin was just across the corridor from the port hatch for the bridge and shared a head with the captain’s office. The space was a fraction of the captain’s suite on Deck One, but it wasn’t intended to be much more than a place to sleep and relax while still being close to the bridge.

  After setting an alarm for two hours, Cole’s last thought as he drifted off to sleep was whether he’d wake up to Wixil curled up at his side, purring away.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cole entered the bridge and went to the helm station. He didn’t place his hands on the console. He took slow, deep breaths. After a time, he nodded and accessed the navigation database, then selected a new destination for the ship: Beta Magellan. Beta Magellan was once his home, back when he’d had a family. He didn’t remember living in Alpha Centauri, even though his parents told him he’d been born there. Cole only remembered the colony on Beta Magellan; his parents told him once they’d founded the Beta Magellan colony when he was three.

  Cole felt the ship begin a long, sweeping turn as it reoriented to the new destination, and he smiled at the thought of what his course change would do to the Aurelians who still pursued him. He hoped his new course caused at least a little frustration for them.

  Cole leaned back in the seat for the helm and sighed. He never enjoyed going to Beta Magellan; it was little more than a huge graveyard and had been for thirteen years now…ever since his families (both his father’s side and his mother’s side) were massacred there. As far as Cole knew, neither the perpetrators nor the forces behind it had ever been found. The thought there might be one or more groups of people waiting to see if an heir would step forward kept Cole from using his family name. Besides, he’d never liked ‘Bartholomew,’ either.

  In the days following his families’ deaths, Cole had discovered something he was certain CIE never publicized…and for good reason. If you were the current head of the family or the designated heir, you could board any jump gate and shut it down at the master control. That little feature had allowed a thirteen-years-old and still furious and heartbroken Cole to shut down the only jump gate leading into Beta Magellan. For thirteen years, the only visitor to the system was Cole when he arrived to add to his stash on an asteroid near the jump gate…and now, he was going back to clean out the stash and convert all of it to credits.

  Cole already had a ‘buy an island and disappear’ level of wealth, even if most of it now resided in Haven’s ship account. After liquidating the stash he’d accumulated over thirteen years of working, conning, and skimming the fringe of society, he’d have a level of wealth that would allow him to buy a planet and disappear. Well, maybe not an Earth-type planet, but definitely a small planetoid…

  Three hours later, the control to activate the hyperdrive lit up, and Cole pressed it. Haven vanished from the Caledonia system, leaving a small task force of Aurelian Navy vessels out in the middle of nowhere with no one to pursue.

  Cole sat at one table in the wardroom on the mess deck. The crumb-covered dishes and utensils of the evening meal rested on the tabletop in front of him. The hatch cycled behind him, and Yeleth walked into his view and sat across the table from him.

  “So, I said we should discuss the Kiksaliks,” Yeleth said.

  Cole nodded. “You did. Where do we need to go?”

  “Iota Ceti.”

  “Whoa. That’s a rough neighborhood. Half the crime lords in Human space run multiple illicit enterprises out of there.”

  Yeleth nodded. “Yes, and it is the single largest slave market in the known galaxy. Between the criminals only preying on Clanless and concern over inciting a war with Humanity, my people have not moved against it. I don’t know why the other races haven’t stepped in; Iota Ceti is an unaligned system in unclaimed space.”

  Cole shrugged. “Probably the same reason your people haven’t laid down the law. They’re afraid we Humans would see it as the opening of a general offensive against Humanity…and we’re mean when we’re angry. Sasha wasn’t wrong to fear the Solar Republic’s response to evidence of the Commonwealth shooti
ng down life pods. The Solars are known for their broad definitions of a war crime and a rather binary approach to what the response should be.”

  Cole fell silent as he thought about where they were in their journey to Beta Magellan. They’d left Caledonia just a few hours ago, so they were closer to Iota Ceti from their current location than they would be from Beta Magellan. Heh…and it wasn’t like his stash was going anywhere. With the jump gate leading into Beta Magellan shut down, no one could conduct extensive surveys of the system and stumble across seven thousand kilograms of precious metals all sitting on pallets and waiting for retrieval. He sighed and stood.

  “Mind if we continue this conversation on the bridge? I need to change course.”

  On the bridge, Cole went to the helm station and accessed the navigation database. Selecting Iota Ceti as a provisional destination proved his rough calculations; at 65 light-years (plus or minus), Iota Ceti was far closer than the 180 light-years they needed to travel to reach Beta Magellan. Cole keyed the command to change their destination to Iota Ceti and felt the ship pivot as it re-aligned to its new heading.

  “Okay. We’re headed for Iota Ceti now. The computer says it’ll take nine-point-three-six-nine days to arrive. I’d like you to track down Mazzi, please; she should be on Deck Two somewhere with her people. Explain that we’re about nine days from our destination and find out how their food is holding out. Part of me says to leave them on survival rations, until they pass an evaluation by Kiksaliks, but I can’t do that. Even if they would turn in either Sasha or Talia, that doesn’t mean they’re wholly bad people. No one is wholly bad…or wholly good. See about sharing our food with them.”

  Yeleth nodded once, saying “Yes, Captain,” before she left.

  Cole sat in the silence of an empty bridge—well, empty except for him—and went over everything he’d ever heard about Iota Ceti. Calling the system a ‘rough joint’ gave a bad name to rough joints everywhere. Unlike Caledonia, this would not be one of the ‘easy’ ones.

  “Haven?”

  “Yes, Cole-Captain?”

  “Reconfigure the ship’s transponder. Until further notice, we will broadcast we are the Vilaxicar. Say…Srexx called this ship a Class I Battle-Carrier. What can you tell me about it?”

  “The Gyv’Rathi Stellar Directorate classified this vessel as a Class I Battle-Carrier, but its final outfitting was interrupted when they discovered Srexxilan had achieved sentience.”

  Cole leaned back against the chair as he crossed his arms. “Srexx told me about work stopping on the ship, but do you have records about what the final outfitting entailed?”

  “The original design schematics for the Class I Battle-Carrier included additional dorsal and ventral-mount weapons emplacements that were never installed. Further, the schematics called for four batteries of dedicated bombardment systems that were never installed. Following what you would call a shake-down cruise, the Stellar Directorate had ordered that this ship undergo testing for implementing two additional shield layers.”

  Cole blinked. “This ship was supposed to have five shield layers?”

  “Yes, Cole-Captain. Given the ship’s current configuration, there is a significant power surplus with the generator operating at one-hundred percent. Implementation of the two, additional shield layers would assist with mitigating this…as would the installation of the additional weapons emplacements.”

  “How am I supposed to install those additional weapons or implement those extra shield layers? The Gyv’Rathi don’t exist anymore, or I’m sure they’d object to me claiming this ship.”

  “This ship’s primary data core contains protected archives that possess the schematics for all technology and devices intended to be installed on the Battle-Carrier, the intent being repair or replacement when beyond the range of support facilities.”

  “That’s…” Cole’s voice trailed off as he processed just what the ship’s computer had said, and his eyes widened. “Holy shit! You mean you have the schematics for every part of this ship?”

  “Yes, Cole-Captain.”

  “So…if I had a shipyard with a large enough construction bay, I could use those schematics to build another Class I Battle-Carrier?”

  “Yes, Cole-Captain. As with all other aspects of this vessel, those schematics are now your property.”

  A vision of a fleet of ships like Haven appeared in Cole’s mind, and that vision morphed into a fleet of ships based on the technology present in Haven. Cole’s mind drifted back to what he’d seen in Caledonia, and he realized he wasn’t sure if he wanted the technology behind Haven to be out ‘in the wild’ or not. Still, though, there was no reason not to complete Haven’s outfitting.

  “Haven, please prepare a list of all materials required to fabricate the needed items for a full outfitting of this ship according to its original specifications. Send that to me and Yeleth.”

  “Unable to comply, Cole-Captain. Purser Yeleth does not have a compatible implant.”

  Cole sighed. “I think Srexx is slipping. Oh, and please change the Haven transponder. We are no longer a ‘heavy transport;’ change the class designation to ‘Battle-Carrier.’”

  “Yes, Cole-Captain.”

  “Srexx?”

  “Yes, Cole?”

  “How’s the work coming along on implants for Yeleth and Wixil?”

  “I have finalized the design, and I am running it through simulations of the Ghrexel neuro-physiology right now. This project is utilizing 43-percent of my total computational capacity.”

  Cole grinned. “Thanks, Srexx. Let me know when you’re ready to proceed.”

  In 2763, a colony ship arrived in Iota Ceti. The settlers wanted nothing more than to build a life in a system far away from the developing governments, and they believed Iota Ceti would provide them a sufficient buffer of undeveloped systems to achieve their goal. The sole habitable planet in the system could best be described as arid, with only 30-percent of its surface taken up by water. Plains abounded, with some grasslands. Forests such as one might find on any Earth-type planet were almost nonexistent. A strange plant that absorbed moisture out of the air almost covered the world’s landmasses, and it was through this plant that the photosynthesis cycle converted carbon dioxide to oxygen.

  The colony flourished. As the years passed, traders heard of the settlement and added it to their routes, and in time, the system developed a thriving infrastructure beyond the planet.

  Just five years shy of the colony’s centennial, disaster struck. Though the people of Iota Ceti never learned the source, a mining consortium unearthed a fungus sealed up in a clay deposit. The clay was eye-catching, and soon, it (and the fungus captured throughout the deposit) spread across the system as artisans used the clay to fashion all manner of objects, from everyday items like bowls and cups to artistic pieces.

  In a system-wide pandemic the likes of which Humanity had never seen, the entire population of Iota Ceti died within six months of encountering the fungus. Traders from out-system who were contaminated became the source of ghost-ship legends as infected personnel soon spread the fungus to the rest of the crew, who died before making their next port.

  By 2950, the major criminal cartels re-discovered the system and put its abandoned infrastructure to their own nefarious use. It took several deaths before the criminals tried venting all stations, mining platforms, and space-borne smelters to vacuum, and when that didn’t work, they hired several tankers to bring tens of thousands of kiloliters of a concentrated disinfectant that would dissolve any organic matter. After wiping down every surface and flushing all pipes, decks, air handlers, and plumbing, the criminals could use the system infrastructure without fear of death.

  Iota Ceti System

  13 July 2999, 18:15 GST

  Haven coasted toward the system primary as Cole watched the sensor display, “Old Time Rock And Roll” by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band playing in the background. Enough traffic existed in the system that Cole had transferred
the sensor display to the forward viewscreen, just to make sense of it. Few of the ships on scan broadcast a transponder beyond the various stations’ sphere of control, and the more Cole considered the matter, the happier he was that he’d switched the transponder back to Vilaxicar for this little jaunt. He didn’t want Haven’s name associated with what was about to happen.

  “Cole-Captain?”

  Cole sighed and shook his head. “Yes, Haven?”

  “Passenger Madam Sasha desires entrance to the bridge.”

  “Pass her through.”

  Cole swiveled his seat around and stood, walking the short distance to meet Sasha as she walked onto the bridge. He had seen little of Sasha or Talia these past days. Cole figured they could use the sister time, and he wasn’t sure what their plans or goals were. He moved to the stations along the aft bulkhead and retrieved two chairs, as he had for the conversation with Yeleth, and had them waiting when Sasha stepped through the inner hatch.

  “Hi,” Cole said, gesturing to the seats. “How are you and Talia doing?”

  Sasha accepted the offered seat, shrugging. “It’s tough, Cole…not knowing if our parents and brother are alive or dead, free or captured. I’d like to think this new Provisional Parliament would crow to the stars if they’d captured Paol Thyrray or Mom or my brother, but there’s just no way to know. Even galaxy-changing news traveled slow before, and with the chaos we saw in Caledonia, that would make getting word out even more difficult if it’s happening across the Commonwealth.”

  Cole nodded. “Yeah…it’s not a good situation. My situation is a tad bit better. I mean, at least I know my families are dead.”

  Sasha blanched. “Your family is dead? Oh my goodness, Cole! I am so sorry!”