by Trent Falls
“Sergeant John Carn.” Shin bowed ever so slightly. “My name is Captain Quan Shin. You are on my vessel, the Ao Shun. Welcome aboard.”
John bowed slightly in return. It was an odd display of protocol. Certainly a standing captain of a Xen vessel was not required to bow at all to a civilian of a foreign power, let alone a retired non-com like John.
“Thank you sir.” John couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. Perhaps it was the awe of being in that ship.
“We welcome you as a dignitary to this vessel.” Shin added politely.
“You normally welcome dignitaries in handcuffs?” John raised his bound hands to show the silver steel shackles on his wrists.
“For your protection.” Shin turned a satisfied grin. “We will remove them once you’re in your stateroom and once our mission is underway.”
John felt like telling Shin that he was crazy, that he would never find the Norn and that they didn’t exist, but he was getting sick of that argument.
“Do whatever you want to me. Just don’t harm the girl.” John stared into Shin’s eyes and demanded.
“We assure you no harm will come to her.” Shin replied.
“I also want her to stay on this vessel. I’ll do whatever you like, but leave her out of this.” John pushed.
“You are in no position to make demands, Sergeant Carn.” Shin replied, again using John’s old rank. “The girl will stay with you at all times. We will assure your safety and you will assure hers. Fair enough?”
John said nothing in response. He really didn’t want Julie placed in any more danger than the unfortunate events she had already endured. He wanted her to be done with the terrible parts of the universe. John wanted her to be safe and remain at peace.
“I’ve seen Dekker’s memories. I know what awaits us on that planet.” Shin replied with a confident grin.
John stated into Shin’s eyes, almost staring through him. “You don’t know what you saw in Max Dekker’s mind, Shin.” John replied in a grave tone.
John said nothing else. He was led away by and armed escort. Julie followed him closely. She was in sheer awe over the size of the hangar bay and, relatively, of the size of the ship they had to be inside of. It was one thing to be on an alien world; it was something else to be inside a spaceship the size of a city.
“Come on Jules. Stay close.” John called out to her.
Julie picked up her pace to keep up with her uncle.
Scott Euler remained behind near the ship to stand next to Captain Shin. Both men stared at John and Julie as they were led away.
“This is it, Shin! We’re on the verge of the greatest discovery of mankind!” Euler noted excitedly.
“I would save your cheerleading until the end, Sergeant Euler.” Shin noted grimly. “We still have some ways to go.”
Euler smirked in response to Shin’s flat rebuke. “You Xen! All business all the time. Come on, Captain! They’ll put your name in the history books. You’ll have a high school named after you.”
Shin didn’t want his name in any history books. He simply wanted to go home and see his family. He kept his eyes on John and Julie until they vanished into an adjoining corridor.
Shin then turned back around to face Euler. “Is your team ready?”
“Yes sir.” Euler replied professionally, seeing that Shin was very serious.
“Good. Agrev and Hedges will be joining you down.” Shin noted, taking a step away. “The Chancellor is extremely impatient to get this operation underway.”
Shin walked away, leaving Euler and Zao standing alone next to the Glazkov.
Another GRV-33 Nomad pushed on through space. Its pilot directed the reconnaissance fighter towards an area of space where Razorback 2, and its EO Officer Lt Nills, had directed them. There was nothing ahead in space. It was cold and empty. All that was ahead was the stars of distant space. A reddish glow in the upper right of the pilot’s field of vision was a nebulae of some sort. He would have had to run a scan on his computer to identify the nebula. The pilot, Lt. Nathan Mansour, didn’t know its name off the top of his head.
“Razorback Two reporting in.” Mansour spoke into his helmet com mic. “Entering search sector twelve. Approach vector two twelve entering grid at 10,000 MSK.”
“Mission Time is oh seven twenty five.” The Electronics Officer, Lt Marx, said as he began working over his reverse-facing console.
A long period of silence passed. The pilot flipped through pages on the small digital tablet strapped to his right leg. It contained the mission profile they had worked up in the preflight briefing. Various noises and clicks from a standard keyboard came from Marx’s station in the back. Marx coughed.
“I’m reading a point seven decline in pressure in the number two EM exchanger.” The pilot spoke aloud. “Still within operational parameters.”
“Hopefully this won’t take long.” Marx noted from behind. “There’s nothing out here. Once we’re done here we should head back to the Ao Shun and get that exchanger checked out. Razorback Three is only forty million kilometers away. They can take our slot while we…”
There was a single beep on Marx’s screen. It instantly grabbed his attention, silencing him. It was gone. He waited silently for a while until two more successive beeps sounded, indicated with a green dot on his three-dimensional tracking screen. That appeared then suddenly winked out.
“What the hell was that?” Mansour asked aloud.
“I don’t know.” Marx’s hands flew over the controls of his station. The idea was unfathomable. At first glance it appeared as though an entire planet was hidden from his sensors. He desperately wanted to spot it again.
John sat in a chair on his own at the bottom of a briefing room. The chamber was lecture hall style seating, truncated in angles on the side. The thick padded chairs were typical of a pilot briefing room. A number of digital images lined the walls. One was of the GRV-33 Nomad in flight over the Xen homeworld. Another was a Dragon Class carrier with full running lights in the dark of deep space. A mobile podium stood to John’s right. A marker board was set behind him.
The lights in the room seemed centered on John, though in reality they were generally set up to direct attention to the speaker who would normally stand where John was seated.
Captain Shin stood to John’s right along with Lieutenant Zao. Scott Euler and a two of his hired hands sat in the padded ready room chairs. Terrans and Xen weren’t much different in appearance unless placed next to each other. Euler and his men had a lighter overall hue to their skin that the Xen seated in the room. At the center of the audience sitting in the first row was Councilor Agrev.
The aged Councilor, still wearing a grey long coat, stood up and approached John slowly.
John’s hands remained free at his sides. He could have attacked Agrev or anyone else in the room, but his chances of escaping a Xen carrier were practically nil.
“Sergeant Carn. My name is Marcus Agrev. I am… I represent the Xen government in this operation.”
“Nice to meet you sir.” John replied. “I’d get up, but….”
“No need.” Agrev replied bluntly. “As our prisoner you aren’t really expected to adhere to diplomatic protocol.”
“You’re holding me and my niece illegally, sir.” John glared back at him. “I’d say protocol is the last thing on my mind.”
“Regrettable, yes.” Agrev noted. “But you, sir, understand the risks we are taking and why. The planet we’re searching for… you’ve been there before. You know what we’re searching for.”
“The Norn.” John sighed in real frustration. “Listen, if the Norn did exist do you think they’d want to talk to you? Or me for that matter? We’re a bunch of savages, Agrev. We killed millions of our own in a war over who has the rights to mine a few lousy planets. Not very civilized, don’t you think?”
“I’m not here to debate the war, sir. Certainly we’ve both seen our share of the dead.” Agrev continued. “What we’re searchin
g for is for the benefit of ALL humans, Terran and Xen.”
John took a long look up at Agrev, holding onto his blank cynical expression. “Riiiight.” John said skeptically.
Agrev stared down at John for a moment, eventually breaking into an amused grin.
“I remember being a young boy, Mister Carn.” Agrev began to pace. “When the Xen were in their infancy. I am one generation removed from the pilgrimage from Earth. I wanted to go into space to be a great explorer. I wanted to find new life… out there in space.”
John’s eyes shot up towards Agrev as he listened.
“I never wanted to go to war.” Agrev continued, stopping to look down at John. “I was a lieutenant in the navy at the time. I didn’t make the decision to go to war. I only followed orders and did as I was told.”
John held his gaze on Agrev. The Councilor’s words hit home. John could have just as easily described himself in the same speech. John stared at Agrev for a while, realizing he wasn’t all that different from him at all.
“This is our chance to be great men, Mister Carn.” Agrev argued.
John continued to stare at Agrev for a few moments more in silence. “You won’t find anything on that planet, Agrev.” John looked away finally. “The Norn aren’t real. This is all a big waste.”
“I disagree, Mister Carn.” Agrev grinned. “In fact, there are those within our own government who believe the Xen have met the Norn before.”
“Really? You’re not privy to this information?” John asked in disbelief. “You look to be a fairly important person.”
Captain Shin had an audible laugh at the side of the room. John wasn’t aware he was talking to one of the Xen High Councilors. It was somewhat entertaining.
Agrev silenced Shin with a quick look in his direction. He then turned back to look down at John.
“Those who we believe that have access to that information within our government won’t divulge the truth.” Agrev explained to John.
“So you took it upon yourself to find out?” John asked skeptically.
“Yes.”
“You spent all this money, all this time and equipment, to chasing something that might be a bedtime story?!?”
“We will soon know the truth, Mister Carn.” Agrev replied. “We know you were on that planet where Lyle Ramirez allegedly located the Norn. We know you were there. I want you to tell us what you found on that planet. What can we expect?”
John stared again at Agrev in silence for a few moments. “Sand. Sand and rocks.” John said finally. “Just like any other damn planet.”
“With all due respect, sir, this is a real waste of time.” Euler noted aloud from his seat in the audience. “He’s not going to tell us anything.”
“All the same, Mister Euler, it couldn’t hurt to….”
A buzzing came from the com on Shin’s wrist. All eyes in the room turned towards him.
“Excuse me sir.” Shin said apologetically to Agrev before lifting the com to his mouth. “Go ahead.” Shin spoke into his wrist com.
“Sir, we’ve received a report from Razorback Three. They’ve located the planet.” a male voice said over the com.
Shin’s eyes went wide, as did a few others in the room. Those closest to him could hear his wrist com’s speaker as well.
“Very well, tell hangar three to be ready for us. Shin out.” Shin tapped a button on his wrist com to close the channel. He looked out to everyone in the room as all eyes were on him. Shin spoke in an even reserved tone. “They found the planet. It’s the fourth in the system. Somehow it was… obscured from all long-range sensors.”
There was a general mood of disbelief in the room; of stunned silence.
Agrev looked over at John finally. “Well, Mister Carn. Let’s see whether or not the Norn really exist.” Agrev walked away and headed for the door, speaking to one of the Xen officers in the room indirectly. “Bring him.”
Agrev exited the briefing room. Shin walked over to John and gestured for him to get up. “Alright, let’s go.”
John turned a half smirk back at Shin. He then stood up, not in any rush. Euler and his two mercs walked out past John, leaving Shin and Zao to usher John out into the corridor.
Julie zipped up the front of her newly issued Xen jumpsuit. It was a horrible olive drab. She looked at herself in the tall mirror of what was allegedly her ‘stateroom’. The room was bare except for a single bed set into the bulkhead. A remote camera had been placed high overhead to keep an eye on her. Another prison. The room looked to be one a Xen soldier or, more likely, a junior officer might use. There was a one meter by one meter square outline on the concrete floor where possibly a locker or closet might have been placed.
She looked again in the mirror, placing her hands on her hips and turning to bend back, as though she were modeling. No matter what she did she couldn’t get the olive drab jumpsuit to look right. At least they had given her decent boots to wear.
Even with long straight blonde hair she stared in the mirror and decidedly felt punk rock.
There was the sound of muffled voices outside her room. The tall maroon sliding door to her room had been locked, likely with a guard on the other side. The voices were muted and indistinguishable. The door slid open with a hiss.
Captain Shin stood on the other side of the door. Euler and two other men hurried past the open door in the corridor outside.
“Ms Stevens. If you would please follow me.” Shin asked politely.
John was pulled into her field of view by Zao. Her uncle, also wearing an olive drab Xen jumpsuit, looked back over his shoulder to spot his niece. He seemed visibly angry upon seeing Shin standing at the doorway with her.
“Please, follow us.” Shin repeated what he had said to Jules, this time in more of a tone of voice suggesting that he was giving an order.
“Better do as he says, Jules.” John said to her with some reluctance. “It’ll be okay.”
Julie sheepishly stepped out into the corridor. Immediately she was surrounded by Shin’s men, including two Xen marines with pistols holstered on their waists. Julie looked up and down the grey corridor of the ship. She was a bit frightened by the thought that she was in a real Xen naval carrier; a warship designed to kill many people.
The group hurried down the corridor towards a set of waiting lifts. Along the way John peeked down some of the corridors. Others in Shin’s security detail were blocking off access corridors to the main hall they were walking down. It seems Shin was trying to limit the hands on his own vessel from seeing John or Julie.
The group arrived at a pair of lift doors at the end of the corridor. Two marines, both with submachine guns, guarded the two flanking hallways leading into the elevator landing.
Shin raised his wrist com up to his mouth as the lift doors opened. “Sound general quarters.” He spoke into the com.
John let out a deep breath. Battle stations on a Xen vessel – and he was on board! A klaxon resounded through the corridors. Small red blinkers flashed as the call to ‘General Quarters’ was called throughout the ship in Xen. The few ship hands that John could see immediately sprang into action, hurrying to wherever their duty station called for them to be during alert.
Shin, Euler, John and Julie were ushered into one of the lift cars along with one of the armed marines. By naval standards the lift car was actually rather spacious. John could see that the passage beyond the closing door was cleared, allowing the hands of the Ao Shun to hurry towards their action stations.
John’s eyes turned towards Shin. “General quarters, sir? What do you think you’re going to find on that planet?”
“I was hoping you would tell me, Mister Carn.” Shin replied smartly.
“Well, hypothetically speaking, sir, if you did find an alien species on the planet do you think it’s wise to display a strong military presence?” John responded.
“I will maintain my ship at the utmost state of readiness, Sergeant Carn.” Shin turned his eyes forward again. “I don’
t know what’s out there. My crew is to be prepared for anything.”
John turned his eyes forward as well, shaking his head slightly. He remained still, trying to take note of his surroundings. The elevator car was going up. It slowed and buffeted slightly as the car came to a stop. The elevator doors parted into a dark landing area. It was as if the area had been shut down for the night, with minimal lighting set and no hands to be found. Shin hit a button on his wrist com. The lights in the elevator landing area lit up.
“We’ll use Ops Room Two.” Shin noted aloud, leading the group to one of the four passage hallways set beyond the elevator landing.
A door opened at the side of the elevator forum. As rehearsed through many drills, a pair of Xen marines appeared, wearing full black and grey riot gear. Each carried a Type R7 submachine gun. The sight of them terrified Julie and broke her stride.
“It’s okay. Come on.” John urged her forward silently.
Jules looked away from the riot armored marine but John couldn’t help but eye the warrior as he walked by. The man inside the black flash armor was in his early twenties, maybe his late teens. Certainly he was too young to have seen any real action in the war. All the same, John sized the Xen marines up in the glance of an eye. Even unarmed they had the advantage of there being two of them, not to mention they both had age and size on him.
John led Julie into the room where they were being ushered into. There was a wide window to the back of the room out to space. Some of the other adjoining rooms looked to have the same design even though they were dark. The lights lit up in the room with a push of a button on Shin’s wrist com. There was a long table set on a metal pedestal in the center of the room. Overhead was a series of stainless bars hanging from the ceiling as well as several flat screen monitors. The room looked to be a cross between a stadium luxury suite and a subway car. The monitors in the room flickered to life. The table at the center of the room illuminated on its surface. The table was in fact one giant touchscreen.
Shin walked over to the edge of the table. He tapped his fingers over a keyboard displayed on the screen, entering his access code. The monitors in the room changed to show telemetry data from the bridge. The monitor closest to Shin showed the system of planets with their orbits modeled in wire frame. The table at the center lit up brightly. The image on its screen, also a computer generated model of the HD209458 star system, raised up from the table to float semi-transparently above the surface. The holographic model zoomed in on an area between the third and fourth planet in the system. A glowing green spec on the holographic map grew into a holographic model of the Ao Shun.