Ep.#14 - The Weak and the Innocent (The Frontiers Saga)

by Ryk Brown

  “What do you mean?” Loki asked.

  “I mean my control inputs aren’t doing much.”

  “Are they doing anything?”

  “Yeah, just not much.”

  “You came in too fast,” Deliza admonished.

  “It never used to be too fast.”

  “The new control surfaces were made larger to give you more response in slow flight, so that you wouldn’t have to come in so fast that you’d need a five kilometer long runway to stop.”

  “Then maybe you should’ve made the control servos bigger?” Josh suggested.

  “That would have required a redesign of the wing. We didn’t want to take that kind of time.”

  “I don’t know. I’m thinkin’ it might’ve been worth it,” Josh said as he continued to fight the controls.

  “Josh, you’re dropping like a rock,” Loki warned.

  “Yeah, I noticed that. All this oscillating is probably fuckin’ up the airflow over the… Jesus! Maybe you need to add some more area to the vertical stabilizers.”

  “Maybe you should jump in with a little less speed?” Deliza suggested.

  “Yeah, I’ll try to remember that next time.”

  “You’re busting one thousand meters, Josh,” Loki warned him.

  “I’m gonna try pulling the nose up a bit and see if I can get her to climb and lose some airspeed.” Josh pulled back on the control stick, but got no response. “Nope.”

  “Nine hundred meters,” Loki warned. “Eight hundred… Seven hundred…”

  “Oh, this is just stupid!” Josh complained. “You know, if I can’t pitch up, I can’t even jump back to orbit, people!”

  “Five hundred…”

  “Jesus! I’m still at mach eight!”

  “Two hundred… one hundred…”

  The wrap-around display screen went dark and Josh’s flight displays froze.

  Josh threw his hand up in the air. “Guess that means we’re resetting?”

  “I’m going to take you up to two thousand meters at three hundred meters per second,” Loki announced. “I’ll put you about five hundred kilometers out from Porto Santo, on a really long final… Give you some time to get used to the controls.”

  “Thanks,” Josh replied.

  “It’s okay, Josh,” Deliza assured him. “That’s what the simulator is for.”

  “I…don’t…like…crashing,” he replied emphatically. “Not even in a simulator.”

  “See what I mean?” Loki said. “Not normal.”

  “Guys…?”

  * * *

  Captain Roselle walked into the Jar-Benakh’s Command and Control Center and made his way to the middle of the compartment. He looked around at all the unmanned stations. At least he had a helmsman, and a navigator, although he had no idea if they knew what they were doing. Thus far, all they had managed to do was turn the ship around and get her on course for Kohara, which wasn’t difficult since they were still technically inside the Tau Ceti system. In addition, they were traveling slowly, which meant that they had plenty of time to react if something went wrong.

  Luckily, so far, nothing had.

  He also had a communications officer on loan from the Aurora, as well as a Tannan man who seemed pretty good at operating the Jung ship’s sensors.

  Still, there were an awful lot of empty chairs.

  “Captain,” Commander Ellison said as he stepped up to his commanding officer’s side.

  “Is it just me, or does this bridge seem unnecessarily large?”

  “Well, technically it’s not a ‘bridge’, sir. All of the ships systems can be controlled from here, not just the usual things you’d find on a bridge. Apparently all the Jung warships are like this. They like to have one central point of control.”

  “Well, I suppose it made it easier for the Ghatazhak to seize control and all.”

  “It was hardly…easy,” the Ghatazhak guard at the entrance corrected.

  Captain Roselle and Commander Ellison both turned and looked at the guard.

  “Didn’t your DI tell you it’s not polite to eavesdrop on a conversation?” Roselle wondered. He turned back around. “I suppose not.”

  “Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy reported a few minutes ago that both shields and weapons are back online.”

  “That was fast,” Captain Roselle replied.

  “As he explained it, when Nash jumped his ship, the section of the Jar-Benakh he took with him contained one of the main power relays. Apparently, their entire power distribution grid runs between the secondary and tertiary hulls, entering each section inward. The interruption caused a cascade failure that knocked all the reactors offline within seconds.”

  “Seems like a crappy design,” Roselle commented.

  “For normal conditions, probably not. The Lieutenant Commander believes the energy from Scout Three’s jump fields somehow entered the Jar-Benakh’s power grid when it sliced through her hull, causing the overload. He also believes it’s what caused Scout Three to break up when she came out of the jump.”

  “Seems like knowledge someone could use, doesn’t it?” Roselle observed. “Make sure that gets added to the next jump comm-drone run back to the Karuzara.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And tell Cheng good work.”

  “I did.”

  Captain Roselle looked around the room again. “From now on, let’s just call this place ‘command’, shall we? Command and control center is a fucking mouthful, and C-C-C just sounds like you’re stuttering.”

  “We could call it ‘3C’?”

  Roselle looked at his XO in disapproval.

  “Triple C?”

  “I like ‘Command’.”

  “‘Command’ it is,” the XO agreed.

  * * *

  Gerard came out of the small rustic building at the front of the resort and headed across the clearing toward Naralena, his eyes darting about, looking for any signs of being watched.

  “Did you get us a room?” Naralena asked as he approached.

  “Yes. We were lucky. I was able to secure a small cabin on the edge of the resort. That should make it easy to slip away before daybreak without being noticed. Come.”

  She took his hand and stood, her feet and legs tired from their long, arduous hike over the pass. They strolled casually across the compound, holding hands to appear as just another couple on a typical Koharan wilderness vacation. They made their way down the path and between the randomly placed cabins, each of them tucked away behind clumps of trees and flowering bushes. Although the grounds were obviously well maintained, they were done in such a way as to appear naturally occurring. The overall affect blended nicely with the wild surroundings just beyond the resort’s unfenced perimeter.

  “Should be the last one on the trail to the right, near the creek,” Gerard said as he led the way.

  A minute later, they entered the small cabin. It was tiny, with a large bed in the corner, a wood-burning stone fireplace, a table, and a small kitchenette. It was clean and modestly decorated in a way that spoke of the wilderness around them.

  Gerard quickly checked the only other door. “Toilet and sink, no shower,” he noted as he went across the room to check the kitchenette.

  “No shower?”

  “People on wilderness vacations usually bathe in lakes and rivers,” he explained as he opened the small refrigerator. “Fridge is stocked as well,” he said, pulling out a sealed package of sliced meats and vegetable sticks.

  “All I want to do is take off my boots and pass out for a couple days,” Naralena sighed as she sat down at the table.

  “You can take them off for a while, if you like,” Gerard said, “but do not go to sleep with them off, as we may need to leave in a
hurry.”

  “Right,” she said, deciding against removing them at all.

  “I would suggest that you eat as much as you can. None of this food will last more than a few hours without refrigeration. They do that on purpose, so that frugal vacationers do not stay a single night and leave with several days worth of supplies.”

  “You’d think they would at least have a shower. I mean, they have a toilet, so why not a shower?”

  “It’s not exactly a toilet,” Gerard explained. “It’s more like an indoor outhouse.”

  “A what?” Naralena asked, unfamiliar with the term.

  “A box with a hole for your butt, over a deep hole in the ground.”

  “I don’t understand. What happens with your bodily waste after you’re done? Where does it go?”

  “It just stays where it fell,” Gerard told her.

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Nope.”

  “Doesn’t it smell?”

  “They probably service it daily. Probably through a service hatch on the outside,” he explained as he sat down at the table with her and unwrapped the tray of food. “They put a powder over it and then sprinkle some chemical on it. I forget the name of the chemical. It forms a solid layer, trapping the odor.”

  “What do they do when the hole gets full?” she wondered, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.

  “Probably move the cabin and cover up the hole for good,” he told her as he handed her a bottle of cold water.

  “So, there’s human waste buried all over this resort?” she said as she took a drink of water.

  “Probably all over this valley. This resort has been here for more than a hundred years, and it is along one of the most popular routes in the area.”

  Naralena closed her eyes for a second. “Lovely.” She took another drink of water. “We’re only staying here for one night, right?”

  * * *

  “Thank you all for coming,” Admiral Dumar said as he entered the briefing room on the Karuzara asteroid base in orbit over Earth. “I know you are all quite busy, as are we all.” The admiral took his seat at the head of the conference table as he continued to speak. “Unfortunately, something of grave importance has come up that we need to discuss.”

  “What about Captains Nash, Poc, and Roselle?” Cameron wondered, noting their absence.

  “Captain Nash is busy training the Tannans on how to operate their new gunships,” Dumar explained. “Roselle is too busy getting the Jar-Benakh up and running, and Captain Poc is why we’re here. Two days ago, we tasked Scout One with updating the state of all Jung assets, starting with those closest to Earth that we have not yet destroyed. The two closest were Delta Pavonis and 82 Eridani. As expected, all Jung assets within the Delta Pavonis system showed signs of increased alert status. Greater number of patrols, and her battle platform and battleship were both executing random course changes.”

  “Then they know we’re coming,” Nathan commented.

  “It would seem so, yes,” Dumar agreed. “This would be in line with Lieutenant Commander Nash’s recent intelligence about the Jung’s communications network. We have to assume that all Jung assets within thirty to thirty-five light years of Tau Ceti are, at the very least, aware of the new threat the Alliance represents. So the question is, what will they do about it?”

  “If the Jung like to attack with overwhelming force, then they’ll send everything they have in the area our way,” Jessica said. “Perhaps to a prearranged staging point within easy striking distance of Sol?”

  “Perhaps,” the admiral agreed. “The question is, do the Jung field commanders have protocols that automatically dictate such action, or do they have to wait for orders from higher up, like Jung command? If it’s the latter, then we probably have plenty of time, but if it’s the former…”

  “There could already be ships on their way,” Cameron finished for the admiral.

  “That has always been a possibility,” Commander Telles added. “The Jung move entire battle groups around like pieces in that board game of yours… Chess, I believe you call it… Positioning units in preparation for future actions. Considering the area of their empire and the limitations of their FTL systems, it is a necessity.”

  “The commander is correct,” the admiral agreed, “and Captain Poc’s discoveries confirm it. Two days ago, Scout One discovered that the Jung battle group once at 82 Eridani was no longer in that system.” Admiral Dumar paused, noting the concerned looks of everyone in attendance. “That battle group was composed of a battle platform, a battleship, two cruisers, and four frigates. Knowing that the last recon of 82 Eridani was only a few weeks ago, Captain Poc realized that the battle group could not have gotten far. Since there were only two possible destinations of concern, he decided to search along the routes to both Sol and the Tau Ceti system.”

  “Gerard said there were rumors of a third battle group heading their way,” Jessica reminded the admiral.

  “Indeed, and Captain Poc was aware of that, which is why he chose to start by searching the route between 82 Eridani and Tau Ceti. Since the last recon of the system was so recent, he did not expect to have to search very far along that course. Unfortunately, that was not the case. After searching more than halfway along that route, he had still not detected the missing battle group. However, since the distance between 82 Eridani and Tau Ceti is only twelve light years, versus the twenty light year separation between 82 Eridani and Sol, he decided to continue along the route to Tau Ceti, just to be safe. Captain Poc’s thoroughness worked to our advantage, as he discovered a battle group only two week’s travel from the Tau Ceti system.”

  “But, that’s impossible,” Cameron argued.

  “Not if it was a different battle group,” Nathan added.

  “Precisely what Captain Poc concluded, which is why he went back and began searching the route from 82 Eridani to Sol, where he found another battle group, just over two weeks travel from 82 Eridani at twenty times light.”

  “But they still won’t reach Sol for nearly a year,” Jessica pointed out.

  “But they’ll reach Tau Ceti in two weeks,” the admiral said. “There are two nearly completed Frigates in the Cetian orbital shipyards, and the Jar-Benakh… None of which we can outfit with jump systems and get them out before that battle group arrives.”

  “When the Jung arrive in the Tau Ceti system, they will destroy it,” Commander Telles commented.

  “Why?” Jessica wondered. “The Cetians didn’t initiate the attacks. They had nothing to do with it.”

  “Neither did the people of Kent,” Commander Telles replied. “The Jung drove a battleship full of antimatter into them, just to make a point. Most likely to us… Undoubtedly not the Kentarans.”

  “Potential assets or not, we have a responsibility to the people of Tau Ceti,” Admiral Dumar insisted.

  “Do we even have any antimatter warheads left?” Nathan asked.

  “No, but we have a Jung battleship with twenty-two cores on her and, according to Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy, she can run on a quarter of that number, if she does not use her shields, or her FTL fields.”

  “That’s going to take all the bang out of Roselle’s new ship,” Cameron stated.

  “Frigates use antimatter reactors, don’t they?” Jessica said. “Since they’re building two of them in the Cetian shipyards, they probably have the ability to produce antimatter cores in the Tau Ceti system.”

  “Makes sense,” Nathan agreed.

  “It didn’t work last time,” Cameron reminded them.

  “Because we didn’t have KKVs,” Jessica argued.

  “But we’ve only got three of them left,” Nathan added, “and so far, we’ve always needed at least two, and one time three KKVs to take down a battle platform. Now we have one
headed for Earth, and one headed for Tau Ceti. Which one do we use them on? The one headed for a potential ally that we put in harm’s way, or the one headed for our homeworld?”

  The room fell silent.

  “We may not have to,” Admiral Dumar said, breaking the silence. “Lieutenant Tillardi is confident that his jump KKV prototype will work.”

  “We’d still have to manufacture a bunch of them,” Nathan pointed out.

  “Yes, but we would have nearly a year to do so,” the admiral said, “enough time to build hundreds of them. We simply cannot, in good conscience, put the people of Tau Ceti at such risk. We must protect that system.”

  “Those ships are going to be clustered together, flying in formation instead of spread out all over a system,” Nathan warned. “I’m not sure we can take them all on ourselves.”

  “The Celestia will be leaving dry dock in eight days,” the admiral said. “We will wait until then.”

  “We may be leaving dry dock in eight days, but we won’t have all our weapons systems by then,” Cameron reminded him.

  “But you will be as well-armed as the Aurora, perhaps even better with your mark five plasma cannons,” the admiral pointed out, “and you’ll have shields, which means you can go in close and fire repeatedly, while the Aurora must still fight using hit-and-run tactics. You can maneuver between them, push them apart, while Captain Nash attacks the ships on the outer perimeter.”

  Nathan looked at Cameron. “Looks like you’re going to give your new shields a real workout, Captain.”

  * * *

  “Thank you for agreeing to speak with us, Commander,” Kata said.

  Commander Telles stood at ease, feet shoulder-width apart, his hands clasped behind his back, looking at the camera.

  Kata signaled for Karahl to pause recording for a moment. “Commander, are you sure you don’t want to sit down? Maybe go inside?”