by Trent Falls
“Okay, just checking. I’m heading home now. I’ll straighten up a bit. You kids want me to make you some dinner?” John asked.
“No.” Julie hummed. “We’re okay, I think.”
“Okay.” John said finally. “You guys have a good day.”
“You too.” Julie replied. “Love you!”
“I love you too, sweetie.” John smirked. The call ended. John put his phone on standby and put it in his pocket.
David Troy drove east on Okeechobee Boulevard in a white Dodge Fury. The sleek yet sizeable muscle car was hybrid gas and electric. At 90 mph, the Fury, drove swiftly with considerable power under the pedal and an ultra quiet ride.
It was a beautiful day out, Troy thought. He could really see himself living in South Florida. Clear Lake was to the right side of the road. The skyline of West Palm Beach, with its old steel and glass forms as well as its new gleaming white towers, stood ahead. The sky was crisp; bright with clear white clouds and a deep blue sky.
The computer in his government-modified Fury recited the dossier of one Andrew Rochette; former Master Chief in the EEF Navy.
Andrew Rochette
SN: B22-E9-1122
Born: Corpus Christi, TX
Enlisted in EEF Navy: May 4, 2115
Next of Kin: None.
Basic Training: Torpoint, Cornwall – UK.
Advanced Training:
Trans-Atmospherics – Patrick AFB, FL – USA
Zero Gravity Firearms – Embry Point EEF Space Station – Earth
Zero Gravity CQC – Embry Point EEF Space Station – Earth
Hostile Environment Survival – Anchorage, AK – USA
Hostile Environment Survival – Kewsick, Adelaide – S.AU
Advanced Recon – Coronado, CA – USA
Advanced Recon – Vladivostok – RU
Assigned to 32nd Marine Expeditionary Unit: December 8, 2115
Notable Actions:
Alpha Centauri Suppression 3/2/2116
Operation Nagel 7/8/2116
Akron Bay – Tau Ceti Six 5/14/2117
Honorable Discharge: 1/1/2121
Final Rank: Master Chief EEF Navy.
Clearly, Andrew Rochette was no lightweight! The report went on to list a number of post-military operations Rochette might have been involved in, including working in the Surya Prime Control Zone and being a bodyguard for several VIP’s after the war.
A wide patch of grass separated the east and west bound lanes of Okeechobee Boulevard. Troy turned his white sports sedan left on Florida Avenue. Seeing John standing on the corner waiting, David turned off the center console computer and pulled out his government-issue PDA from the docking port. He slowed to a stop on the corner to pick up John, much to the dislike of the drivers behind him. The truck behind him honked his horn.
“Man, these Florida drivers are something else!” Troy looked over his shoulder as John dropped himself into the passenger seat. “Rude as hell!”
“Tell me about it.” John buckled his seatbelt quickly.
Troy pulled forward, driving past the mid to higher-end storefront shops on Florida Avenue. Traffic was slow, allowing two brunette girls with tan skin and short shorts to walk across the street in front of Troy’s car. They were twenty somethings. One flipped her long hair away from her face and smiled at David.
“Lots of honeys here, though.” David observed, grinning back at the girl as she walked off.
“That there are.” John agreed, taking a quick look himself at the girls. His mind, however, was certainly focused on Rochette’s job offer. “So, why the hell are mercs trying to hire me to look for the Norn, David?”
Troy turned his eyes away from the surroundings to look John in the eye. “It is kind of a coincidence, eh?”
“No it isn’t, Troy.” John noted sternly. “You came to me asking about the Norn, now this steroid junkie comes and asks me the same thing. He also mentioned Scott Euler, that he was running an expedition to find the Norn.”
“Interesting.” Troy noted plainly.
“You know something you’re not telling me.” John noted bluntly.
“We have suspicions, John.” Troy glanced sharply back at him. “Those are different from facts.”
“No shit?!?” John’s tone grew a bit more agitated. “You know, I may seem like a boring schoolteacher and dad now, but I’m sure the personal computer in your pocket told you I was a Marshall on New Australia for over seven years! I know it’s been years since, but I’ve been a lawman before, Troy. Please don’t treat me like I’m some asshole.”
Troy took a breath, turning his eyes towards John once as he drove.
“Alright.” Troy exhaled. “We only have bits and pieces now. We got our first reports from the Dekker Ranch on Kappa Cetti Three. It was completely destroyed. Nearly all hands were killed.”
“Jesus!” John exhaled. “Colonel Dekker?”
“No trace.” Troy answered. “They did find Kyle Jensen’s body, though.”
“No.” John couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Yeah, cut to pieces by a laser sniper.” Troy added grimly. “We might have, however, scored a break. A very resourceful Marine named Jon Peterson helped Dekker’s wife, Mary, escape the planet on the Colonel’s emergency escape craft.”
“Escape craft?” John asked with some confusion.
“Dekker’s outpost was near Xen space on a treaty zone planet. He was an Earth Alliance member, looking to develop Kappa Ceti Three for further human colonization and farming. Every Alliance member that close to Xen space is given access to a secret hangar with an escape craft. Peterson was able to get Dekker’s wife there and fly her out, oddly enough to New Australia. He’s at an EA station there being debriefed, along with Mary Dekker.”
“Who shot up the ranch?” John asked.
“Which way are we going?” David interrupted him, turning the car back east on Okeechobee Boulevard.
John thought of the question for a moment. He didn’t want Troy taking him home and knowing where he lived. As John gave the matter more thought, he realized that Troy, as an ESF agent, probably knew where John lived already anyway.
“You didn’t drive here?” David asked.
“I use public transportation when I can.” John replied.
“Interesting.”
“Can you drop me off by my house?” John asked.
“Sure! Why not?” Troy replied flatly.
“Keep heading this way and go to ninety five.” John noted, pointing ahead down Okeechobee Boulevard. “I live on Congress near Gateway in Boynton Beach.” John thought for a second of what he had been talking about. “So, who shot up Max Dekker’s ranch? Private army?”
“The Search and Rescue team thinks it might have been the Xen.” Troy noted seriously.
“The Xen?!?” John pulled his head back slightly in disbelief. “What the hell would they do that for? They’d be breaking the treaty.”
“Impressions on the ground show landing struts from a shuttle craft that resemble a Xen configuration. Grenade, missile, and small arms residue and debris also match known Xen weapon systems.”
“That might not mean they’re involved. They made enough shuttles and guns during the war that I was still seeing them sold on the black market when I left Proxima Centauri Five.”
Troy looked over at John and smirked. “Yeah, we thought that might be a possibility.” Troy’s tone was tinted with sarcasm. “We’re still checking it all out. All the same, the Cherenkov radiation readings we picked up initially were too large to be anything but a large Xen starship. We didn’t have anything in the region.”
“Are you sure? Commercial freighters have gotten pretty big these days, larger than any of our carriers too.” John observed.
“Kappa Cetti Three is way out of standard shipping lanes, John.” Troy noted. He pushed down the car’s accelerator once out of city traffic near Clear Lake. The white Dodge Fury responded, surging ahead into the open asphalt lane.
&nb
sp; “The I-95 ramp is coming up quick on the right.” John observed.
“Right.” Troy took note. He slowed down and pulled his car back into the right lane, turning up into the long sweeping interstate ramp that would take them onto the busy interstate.
“So, the question is,” John got back on track mentally, “what do I do about this Rochette guy?”
“YOU aren’t going to do anything, old friend!” Troy answered sternly. “We already have people on him.”
John turned his head to look at Troy. He didn’t doubt that Troy was being serious. Earth Security Forces were notoriously fast when it came to response. After decades of dealing with Earth-bound terrorists, tracking and intercepting off-world intruders was simple by comparison.
“I don’t want this man near my family, Troy!” John said with certain conviction. “Rochette seems to have found me pretty easily. He probably knows where I live too.”
“Rochette won’t harm you or your family, John.” David replied. “Trust me on this one.”
Troy turned his white sports sedan to merge onto the southbound interstate lanes. The five lane interstate was somewhat busy for midday traffic. A metallic blue Nokota 500D turbojet transport, the modern civilian version of the Kestrel, took off from one of the storefront businesses along the highway. The hybrid turbojet/repulse craft, which required far less thrust to operate, was rather popular on Earth as it was with the EEF on other planets. Several could be seen in the afternoon sky over the Florida interstate highway at that time, along with a long cigar-shaped airship far to the east.
“You better be right on this, Troy.” John warned him.
Troy looked over at John, giving him a somewhat serious glance for a moment before turning his eyes back on the busy road ahead.
“We already have eyes on your place, John.” Troy noted to him plainly. “I put them there just after you called me. I have a few guys keeping an eye on your niece too.”
John exhaled. He didn’t know if he should feel good or bad that the ESF was keeping an eye on him and Julie.
“So, you’re taking this… ‘dad’ thing really seriously huh?” Troy smirked back at him.
“Jules and I have been through a lot.” John noted soberly. “I’m all she has left since her mom died.”
Troy glanced over at John again.
“I don’t know, Troy.” John breathed. “It’s like… a part of me that was really ugly… I was able to put away. Julie is my shot at making things right. My students too, but Julie’s special.”
Troy stared at the road ahead for a moment, clearly in though. “Good for you, John.” Troy finally spoke with genuine enthusiasm. “Guy’s like us need to do some good in the world. God knows we’ve racked up a hell of a bill.”
John smirked at Troy. He remained silent for a while, looking out the passenger side window. The bullet train flew past their car on their right.
“Give me an honest answer John. You’ve knew the man for a long time.” Troy spoke. “Do you think Scott Euler would work with the Xen?”
“Euler?!? No. Never!” John answered certainly.
“You sure?” Troy pressed.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” John replied. “He hates them.”
“A long time has passed since the end of the war, John.”
“I’d be really surprised if he was.”
“Fair enough.” Troy looked over his shoulder on his right to veer his car into the next lane. “I think he’s working with them.” He noted grimly. “If he is then we’ve got lots of problems.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing Earth Alliance can’t sort out.” John noted glibly.
Troy turned the Dodge Fury off on Gateway without instruction. A large public park was set on the right side of the road with a number of condominium homes on the left. Some looked rather ancient while several tracts of condos appeared brand new, with transparent glass tube elevated walks and a public repulse shuttle station.
“Nice neighborhood.” Troy noted, looking around at his surroundings.
A dog and his owner were busy in a game of Frisbee fetch on the vast park lawn on the right. A cop in a black and white grav car had pulled over another grav car on the highway for speeding.
“It isn’t bad.” John observed.
A large collection of maroon and tan buildings appeared ahead on the left. The ground floor of the buildings facing the street contained a number of shops and restaurants. The structure on the end was topped with a patina green oxidized copper dome.
“This is me on the left.” John noted.
Troy turned the sporty white sedan left and drove down the main thoroughfare towards John’s building. The maroon and tan stucco towers loomed on both sides of the street. Each building was six to eight stories high. Many of the balconies around them had a variety of objects on them. Some with lawn chairs. Another had a variety of hanging plants. The next on the third floor had a bicycle set outside.
The main road through the development was a long circuit with a wide landscaped lawn in the middle, which resembled a small park. Troy pulled up to the building at the curve on the far end of the circuit. It was John’s.
John sat up in his chair to get up. He looked out the window of the car towards their parking lot. Julie’s car wasn’t parked in its typical spot. She wasn’t home yet. John opened the door of the vehicle to get out.
“John.”
Troy’s voice stopped him. John looked back over at Troy before continuing out.
“If Euler or anyone else like Rochette comes in contact with you, I want to know.”
John stood up to get out. He looked around really quickly to see if he could spot the security detail Troy had set up. He couldn’t. John closed the door and leaned in towards the open window to look back at Troy.
“If someone like Rochette comes near me again, trust me, you’ll know about it.” John noted sternly to Troy. He tapped on the hood of the car. “See ya around.”
“Yeah, see ya.” Troy rolled up the power window on the passenger side.
John took a step back from the white Dodge before it pulled away.
He took a deep breath. The familiar lobby of his condo was behind him. It was a small lobby with a pair of beige couches, a lamp, and nothing else aside from three polished stainless elevator doors.
It was great to be home, but he couldn’t shake the thought of Rochette. His mind was also busy digesting his conversation with Troy. Euler? Working with the Xen? Impossible!
It was nearly three o’ clock. Julie would be home soon.
Chapter 6
Captain Shin walked into one of the secure areas of the Ao Shun. The corridors were rather wide, with a number of sealed security doors ahead of him on both sides of his path. The area was a special zone set on most large Xen vessels; and on EEF ships as well. Space held many mysteries. Often, members of his crew on away missions would find odd object. Sometimes it was a new life form. Other times it could be a new botanical sample; perhaps yielding a new drug or food source. The chambers around Shin were proper laboratories, where the science teams in his crew would study these samples, perhaps benefiting Xen society.
Shin entered a code on the keypad next to one of the sealed metal doors. A hiss of air escaped the seams of the door as the two white panels parted. An air curtain blasted Shin from above, rippling over his uniform with invisible jets. If the containment protocols hadn’t already been broken, he would have had to put on a clean suit.
The inside of the lab was dimly lit around the object. Pale amber lights at the back of the lab were directed down at the collection of lab equipment. Three Xen officers sat around a tall stone tablet, which was set at the back of the lab with bright lights all around it. The object was made of what was called Yorkstone on Earth; a tan sandstone. The slab seemed to have a somewhat polished sheen in some areas. Other areas showed considerable wear, with edges worn off on the corners and many of the characters rounded off from erosion. The characters written on the slab were, indeed, like not
hing Shin had ever seen. Dots with slashes, something that looked like a ‘K’ on its side, a circle with two lines through it, another circle with a line and a dot, and other characters that kind of resembled simplified Kanji.
“Sir!” the officers moved to stand before their Captain.
“As you were.” He stopped them in mid movement.
The men relaxed in posture and continued their work.
Shin looked on at the slab. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the tablet was the imperfect series of concentric circles in the upper right corner of the slab. There were ten circles in total around a central point. The Denebola System had nine planets and a sizeable asteroid belt. The asteroid belt was widely believed to have once been a large rock planet that disintegrated about 7.9 million years ago. While it was pointless to carbon date the tablet itself, a sealant used on the rock was dated at being possibly 10 million years old. Furthermore, the sealant, which gave parts of the tablet a polished appearance, was a compound – something made artificially by an intelligent entity. The sealant, if genuine, had been made by an extraterrestrial intelligence long before human ancestors even thought of walking erect.
Shin still had his doubts as to the authenticity of the tablet. If it were a forgery, then they were embarking on the greatest fool’s errand in all human history. The Xen High Council knew what he was doing, certainly. Their distance gave them a level of plausible deniability. Killing all of Dekker’s men and destroying his hacienda was probably a bit excessive, but he needed results. It would also sell him as a potential loose cannon. Shin had hoped to be well on his way to finding the Norn in the time Earth was figuring out what had happened. The great distances of space allowed him some time before the EEF would put things together. Having the Dekker woman escape, however, complicated matters.
Still, to find an extraterrestrial civilization – one that existed long before humans, was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. It was something he had dreamed of since he was a child. It was one of the reasons he had joined the Navy.