“I am sorry, Sasha,” Srexx replied. “I can present the data to you for your own evaluation. It is possible that my relative unfamiliarity with Humans is affecting my analysis. Ah…and there we are. Sasha, your parents are being held in the administrative segregation unit of Corenthal Prison; it appears they have already been convicted of treason and sedition. They have been sentenced to life without parole. Ah, and it appears I might have good news for you. Your brother Nathyn occupies a cell in the next block over from your father; he is part of the administrative segregation unit as well.”
Sasha gaped. “Nathyn’s alive? You’re sure he’s alive, Srexx?”
The viewscreen activated and displayed a picture along with an incarceration record.
“Is this your brother?” Srexx asked.
Sasha held her lower lip between her teeth to maintain proper bridge discipline and keep from cheering. “Yes, Srexx. That is my brother.”
“Srexx, get everything you can on this Corenthal Prison. I know I said we’d proceed however you wanted, Sasha, but I’m calling it. We’re going down there for them. We’ll try a stealth job, but we’ll be outfitted for assault if we’re discovered.”
Harlon, his executive, and the personnel performing the operation gathered in a briefing room on Deck Four. Once everyone was seated, a hologram appeared at the front of the room.
“This is Corenthal Prison,” Srexx said via the briefing room’s speakers. “It is a civilian prison under the authority of the Commonwealth Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. We will retrieve three people: Paol Thyrray, his wife Mira, and their eldest child Nathyn. Paol and Nathyn are incarcerated in the maximum security, administrative segregation unit of the men’s half of the facility, while Mira is incarcerated within the equivalent unit in the women’s half. The individuals responsible for operating the fabricators are putting the finishing touches on a jammer that should block all radio communications across the facility. While the jammer blocks all radio communication, I will infiltrate the data network and ensure no other forms of communication are possible.”
Srexx fell silent, and Harlon stepped forward.
“Okay, people,” Harlon said, “this is a stealth job. The facility is a civilian prison, and as such, it is designed around the core purpose of keeping people in; it was never designed to withstand an assault from outside. The goal is to be quick and quiet. One dropship will descend on the facility and land just after local midnight. Srexx will shut down all lights, hardline comms, and the emergency generators just as you’re coming in to land. When you depart the dropship to begin the assault, Srexx will take control of all access points to the facility and remove all staff privileges; the prison personnel will effectively become inmates with no authority to open any doors or access any systems. You will move through the facility, establishing only those zones of control necessary to achieve the objectives. Once you have retrieved Paol, Nathyn, and Mira Thyrray, you will return with them to the dropship and proceed back to Haven. Questions?”
“What kind of backup will we have?” one person asked.
Harlon grinned. “As many of you know, the captain has conducted certain activities in the past that have earned him the nickname of ‘the Lone Marine.’ I will not discuss the amount of negotiation and discussion I had to go through to keep the captain from being part of the initial force entering the facility. That said, three dropships will be warmed up and filled with a quick reaction force outfitted in heavy armor and lethal weapons. If the situation spirals out of control and stealth is no longer an option, you are free to call for reinforcements, and the Lone Marine will deploy to secure the situation…but he won’t be so ‘lone.’”
“Did he really drop a dropship thirty meters on Oriolis VI, sir?” another voice asked from the middle of the room.
Harlon nodded. “Yes, he did, and the flight logs corroborate that. The dropship the captain piloted to the detention facility sat in a concave depression a little over half a meter deep, and its landing struts were buried in the concrete the better part of fifteen centimeters. Captain Vance, Haven’s CAG who has her own reputation as a combat pilot, told me later that she’d never been so terrified in her life as she was during the descent to Oriolis VI.”
Silence reigned as several of the personnel looked to one another.
“Anything else?” Harlon asked.
More silence.
“All right. Grab your gear and suit up. Muster on the flight deck ASAP.”
The dropship descended on Corenthal Prison. Everyone aboard was glad it was an overcast night; heavy cloud cover meant less ambient light. As the dropship neared its destination, the jammer magnetically secured to its dorsal surface came online. As the dropship touched down in the exercise yard—the only space large enough for it to land—Srexx locked out the prison’s data network, ensuring no internal or external comms could be possible, and shredded the personnel database, ensuring no one possessed any credentials that might permit a local override. Then, Srexx activated a full security lock-down and turned off all lights in the facility, even the massive perimeter lights.
The people broke into three groups as they departed the dropship, named Blue Team, Gold Team, and Red Team. Blue Team’s objective was to secure and retrieve Paol Thyrray, with Gold Team responsible for Nathyn Thyrray, and Red Team securing Mira Thyrray. Srexx opened every door or access point they needed as they progressed through the facility, leaving four people at every intersection along their path. Any guards…that is, corrections officers…were stunned and secured.
The teams moved quick and silent, little more than shadows in the already dark night. Just over an hour after touching down in the prison’s exercise yard, all troops plus Sasha’s parents and brother were aboard the dropship, and it lifted off, slipping away into the night.
Cole sat in the pilot’s seat of his dropship, his mind drifting between the operation on the planet below and how the Provisional Parliament was violating the contracts between the Commonwealth and CIE. Cole thought about how he’d used Beta Magellan, activating the jump gate into the system for just long enough to allow him entrance, and an idea came to the forefront of his mind.
Cole shifted to the pilot’s console and used it to access the ship’s comms systems. He opened a channel to the closest jump gate, using the ship’s powerful point-to-point laser transmitter, and smiled when the jump gate requested his identity. Cole activated the DNA scanner on the master panel of the console and tied it into the comms channel, soon transmitting an encrypted digital signature of his touch DNA.
After a few minutes, the comms channel displayed the full command console for the jump gate’s systems. Cole selected ‘Schedule Command Script,’ from the menu, built the script to be executed, and set an execution time of sixteen hours from that moment. He uploaded the script to the jump gate and queued the script for distribution to all other jump gates in the system. Then, he closed the channel and went back to waiting.
While supporting the extraction teams as they moved through Corenthal Prison, Srexx continued browsing the various digital storehouses around the planet, focusing on any data related to General Lindrick or where the massive fleet might have gone. While there didn’t appear to be any records to be found about the fleet’s destination (beyond its departure through the jump gate to Diamond system), Srexx did find information he evaluated required significant further processing in the most unlikely of places…General Lindrick’s personal cloud storage. Srexx copied the data to a protected archive in his tertiary cluster and returned his full attention to the extraction teams.
Cole and Sasha arranged for Talia to join them on the flight deck while they waited for the dropship to return. They didn’t say a word to Talia about Nathyn being alive; Talia had been a little down ever since seeing the video, and Sasha thought the surprise of seeing her older brother would be a good push to get her out of it. Besides, Sasha was the mischievous one of the two, and she hadn’t surprised her sister in a while.
They already had the quick reaction force out of the dropships and the flight deck clear. The heavy armor and gear was back in the armory, and the dropships were resting down on Hangar Two.
“It felt weird,” Cole said as he stood beside Sasha, “being here on the ship. I should’ve been down there.”
Sasha turned to look at Cole, a small quirk at the corner of her mouth. “That’s the hardest lesson of command, Cole. You give orders that might very well send good people you respect and value into harm’s way, and when that happens, there’s always the chance one or more of them won’t come back. We’ve been lucky in that regard so far, and I think it is the surprise the hyperdrive allows us that has been a significant factor why…well, that and no one has ever been crazy enough to drop a dropship thirty meters into a prison compound. You have a certain flair about you.”
“I feel like I owe it to them to be there with them,” Cole said. “Something my father told me once…show those around you the person you expect them to be by living that example every day. Well, it was something like that; I think I paraphrased a bit.”
The quirk at the corner of Sasha’s mouth grew into a full smile. “Do you think there was ever a moment that the people on the incoming dropship doubted you’d be bringing three dropships full of people in heavy armor loaded for war down to them the moment they called for help? They watched the quick reaction force load the dropships, Cole, and they saw that ridiculous heavy armor of yours sitting right outside a dropship cockpit with a rotary cannon at its feet and a plasma caster beside the cannon. I promise you…they knew you had their backs.”
Cole was silent for a few moments before he said, “We need to come up with colors for our ship-suits and a ship’s crest, don’t we?”
Sasha nodded. “We do…but we have time. We’ll want to be sure we get it right; the ship’s crest isn’t something one throws together.”
Just then, a black craft passed through the aft forcefield of the flight deck, and Cole smiled. He accessed his implant and placed a call to the bridge.
“Bridge, Mazzi here,” Cole heard his weapons officer say in his right ear.
“Mazzi, we have the dropship. Stand down on overwatch and prepare to depart. As soon as the flight status shows green for maneuvering, put us on a heading for Tristan’s Gate and take us out dead slow.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Thanks, Mazzi. Cole out.”
By now, the dropship was touching down almost even with them. Cole knew they’d have to move the dropship forward or aft to access the lift mechanism for the hangar decks, but that was a small matter compared to the moment that was about to happen.
Cole watched the boarding ramp lower and touch the flight deck. Moments later, he heard the low-frequency hum that indicated the dropship was now magnetically anchored to the deck. Three people in Aurelian prison uniforms stepped down the boarding ramp and walked to the two young ladies waiting for him.
Then, Cole heard it.
“Nathyn?” Talia gasped, barely above a whisper. Then, she almost shouted, her voice edging toward a high-pitched squeal as she took off toward her brother at what looked like a full sprint. “Nate!”
Talia didn’t quite tackle her brother, but from Cole’s perspective it looked like a near thing. He saw the smiles and sheer bliss in the expressions of whom he assumed were Sasha’s parents, and Cole looked to his left where Sasha still stood.
“What are you still doing here, Sasha?”
“I’m the first officer, Cole; there’s a certain decorum that must be maintained.”
Cole turned to face Sasha full on. “Bullshit, Sasha. If that was my family, I’d be on my knees crying like a baby. This one time, decorum be damned. Go.”
Cole knew he’d broken through ‘the officer’ when he saw a single tear escape Sasha’s right eye. Then, she was off. She didn’t sprint like Talia, but she wasted no time in joining her family.
Cole held his position, maintaining a silent vigil to ensure them as much time as they needed…or wanted. The personnel from the dropship filed across the flight deck almost unnoticed by the five people gathered halfway between the dropship and the starboard hatch. The flight crew approached Cole, while the ground forces team disappeared through the starboard hatch beside the traffic control overlook.
“Captain, what should we do about the dropship?” the pilot asked.
Cole shrugged. “Leave it for now. We can move it to Hangar Two some other time.”
The pilot nodded and led the co-pilot off the flight deck.
A short time later, Sasha led the small group over to Cole. When they approached within earshot, she said, “This is my father, Paol Thyrray; my mother, Mira; and my older brother, Nathyn.”
Cole smiled as he shook their hands in turn. “I’m Cole. Welcome aboard the battle-carrier Haven.”
“Thank you for taking care of my girls, Cole,” Paol said at last. “It means a lot to me.”
Cole grinned. “Well, when I first met Sasha, she was drifting a bit aimlessly, and I thought I might help with that.”
“There’s a story there,” Mira said. “That girl has never drifted aimlessly in her life.”
Cole laughed. “Yes, there is. How about I share it over dinner once everyone has freshened up and relaxed a bit?”
“That sounds good,” Paol said as Mira nodded at his side.
A little under sixteen hours later, Haven was proceeding on course for the system periphery under full stealth, moving slow and quiet, when the scheduled time for Cole’s script occurred. At midnight on 2 November 2999, every jump gate in Aurelius shut down and broadcast a text message on repeat, including transmitting the text message to each jump gate’s opposite in the far system.
The message read:
For repeated violations of the contracts between the Aurelian Commonwealth and Coleson Interstellar Engineering, specifying the free and unrestricted use of our proprietary jump gate technology, all outgoing jump gates in the Aurelius system will be shut down for the period of one week.
Be advised that Coleson Interstellar Engineering will consider this matter in due course to determine an appropriate long-term response, up to and including the possible revocation of the Commonwealth’s license for the use of our proprietary technology.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
Chapter Fifty-One
System Periphery
Tristan’s Gate
5 November 2999
A bit over seven days and fourteen hours after departing the planet Aurelius, Haven appeared on the periphery of Tristan’s Gate. Cole wasn’t paying that much attention to the sensor display while he set The Gate as their destination. He was just about to bring the sublight engines online when Mazzi jerked his attention from the helm.
“Captain, there are Aurelian Navy ships blockading the jump gate to Dante, with a larger force moving deeper in system toward The Gate. Tristan’s Gate SDF appears to be mustering to meet them.”
“It isn’t the force from Aurelius, is it?” Cole asked. “It would take over six days for a fleet that size to arrive here.”
“The Aurelian forces in this system may have come from Aurelius weeks ago, but they do not match the records I accessed, regarding the massive fleet movement with General Lindrick,” Srexx said. “I have also identified several troop transports in the center of the formation moving in-system.”
“It’s an invasion force,” Sasha said. “The Provisional Parliament is moving against Tristan’s Gate.”
“Not while we have anything to say about it,” Cole said. “Jennings, signal SDF Command. Inform them we just arrived in-system and that we will clear the jump gate blockade before approaching the invasion force from the rear. Mazzi, sound battle stations.”
Cole shifted the destination from The Gate to the Dante jump gate and set the sublight engines to three-quarters-lightspeed. Haven almost leapt toward the jump gate when the engines engaged. A hair over two hours and forty-five minutes later, Haven approached
the blockaded jump gate.
“Captain,” Jennings said, “we’re receiving a message.”
“Put it on, Jennings,” Cole said as he brought the engines back to two-tenths-lightspeed for what he felt would be the upcoming battle.
The forward viewscreen activated, displaying a man about Sasha’s age in the ship-suit uniform of the Aurelian Navy. Conceit and condescension oozed from his entire demeanor, from his shiny, slicked-back hair to his bored expression.
“Attention, unknown vessel. Tristan’s Gate has been annexed by the Aurelian Commonwealth. Until a provisional government is established, all traffic into and out of the system is prohibited. Turn away, or be destroyed.”
The viewscreen image froze on the man’s half-sneer. Cole swiveled to look at Sasha, his eyebrows lifted in a silent question.
“I would say I feel sorry for him,” Sasha said, “but I know his family and know of him. They’re not good people, and he’s probably a loyalist appointment by Aurelian Naval Command.”
Cole grinned. “Well then, let’s respond, shall we?”
Sasha hopped up from the command chair as Cole moved to it and Wixil moved to the helm. She started to step out of the video pick-up but Cole stopped her.
“No more, Sasha. You and your family are through hiding. Besides, isn’t a first officer’s place right beside her captain?”
Sasha gave Cole a smile he hadn’t seen before as she said, “Always, Captain.” Sasha moved to stand just off Cole’s right shoulder with her hands behind her back.
“Jennings,” Cole said, “record for transmission.”
“You’re on, Captain.”
“Greetings, and welcome to Tristan’s Gate. I am Bartholomew James Coleson, captain of the battle-carrier Haven. We are a member of the Tristan’s Gate System Defense Force reserve, and we do not recognize the Commonwealth’s authority to annex a park bench, let alone a sovereign star system that has been a respected trading partner for decades. Furthermore, as Majority Shareholder and CEO of Coleson Interstellar Engineering, I inform you that blockading jump gates violates the contracts that permit the Commonwealth to use our proprietary technology. I offer you one chance to stand down and slave your systems to ours, or we will defend this system with as much force as necessary. Coleson out.”
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