by Ben Winston
John turned to Chloe, "Let's get changed, and I'll look over the orders Mark has for us."
Chloe nodded. "All this cloak and dagger shit has given me the willies, I get the feeling this isn't going to be a very fun mission."
"Considering your definition of 'fun', then you must think this'll be boring duty!" John replied as they left the bridge, and a grinning Tami.
As soon as the lift doors closed, Chloe looked at him. "Now that we're alone, I really don't have a good feeling about this John. Just how deep are we going into Tammerain Space? You do realize that by doing this we're declaring war on the Tammerain on behalf of the Kingdom, right?"
John shrugged, "Just coming here for Will was an act of war according to that treaty. Besides, the Tammerain have already declared war. Twenty-eight heavily armed naval fleets crossing the border isn't very subtle."
"I know, but still... this just doesn't feel right to me."
John scoffed. "Honey, we don't even know what the mission is yet!"
"I know, and that scares me even more."
They had arrived at their cabin, and changed clothes. Just before she was about to head back down to the bridge, John stopped Chloe.
"Relax, Sweetheart, this is probably nothing more than a recon mission for Mark. You know how anal he is about gathering intel."
Chloe nodded. "If it's a simple recon mission, why did he look like he was sending us out to die?"
"He looks like that every time we leave the Palace!" John countered. "Look, all I'm saying is don't read so much into this okay?"
"Let me get back to the bridge. You find out what we're doing out here. Then we'll know, and I can quit stressing over it." She ended the conversation by closing the lift doors, leaving John to open the file.
Twenty minutes later, John called down to the Bridge. "Chloe, I've input our course. Please have Tami load 'Promethean Prime' and execute immediately. As soon as we're clear of the jump, call everyone to the mess, Tami too."
"What's up? Was I right?" Chloe asked.
"Yes and no, I'll be down in a few minutes to tell everyone what's going on. Just execute that nav program and head for the mess cabin," John replied.
On the Bridge, Tami had overheard him, and had loaded the program John had ordered. Since she'd been assigned to the Flyer as its pilot - some eighty years ago, Tami had never seen John handle anything related to navigation. However, she knew he had the ability, but hyperspace navigation was one of those skills you had to keep using. As far as Tami knew, John hadn't plotted a course in more than eighty years.
She was nervous as she instructed the helm to load the program. She wavered over the execute command and looked back at Chloe. "Ma'am, I know you guys are like the best at everything, but, I've never even heard of General Aster plotting a hyperspace jump before. Should we at least double check it before we jump?"
Chloe smiled at her. "Tami, I understand your unease - hell, I feel it too, but my issues are about the mission, not our course. John taught me how to navigate. I'd be willing to bet that the people that programmed that navigational computer learned how to do so from something John had a hand in creating. Even if the computer gives you an error, never doubt John's plot; there is a good chance the computer is actually wrong. Just hit the button, and let's go. We'll find out what's going on soon enough."
Tami sighed. "Yes Ma'am." She hit the execute button, and the ship immediately turned on a new vector and jumped into hyperspace.
"Come on young'en, buy me a coffee, and I won't tell John that you were nervous about his plots," Chloe said grinning.
Tami unbuckled and got out of her chair. "He'd just shrug; he knows I'm nervous about my own plots!"
"I've always wondered about that, you've been our pilot for damn near a century, and you're still nervous about plotting a jump?" Chloe asked as she got up.
Tami smiled. "Call it my way of keeping it fresh. Hyperspace fascinates me, and I love everything about it. I don't ever want to get bored or consider plotting a jump to be a normal or routine occurrence, even though they are."
Chloe nodded. "Okay, that works, but if you call me to the bridge to double check a plot while I'm getting lucky, I'm liable to be less than understanding."
Tami blushed. "I've never called you to bridge after hours since The General rejoined us. I'm not a total idiot."
"I thought he told you to call him John?" Chloe asked.
"He did," Tami nodded. "But to refer to him like that when he isn't here just doesn't feel right to me."
"By the time we get home, Tami, you'll have changed your mind on that," John said from behind them. He'd walked up quietly behind the women in the corridor outside the mess.
"Okay, I officially don't like the sound of that," Chloe said.
"Oh, you're gonna love the rest of this," John replied. "Come on, the crew's waiting."
The trio entered the largest cabin on the small ship to see that everyone was indeed there. John got a cup of coffee and stood at the front of the room.
"A long time ago, there was a race of beings that our scientists have taken to calling Prometheans. We don't know a whole lot about this race since we think it went extinct shortly before we left Earth. I say we 'think' it went extinct, because there is still a race of beings that claim to be 'Promethean'. They occupy an area of space we believe to be on the far side of the Tammerain. It is believed that the original race of these beings stood between six and eight feet in height. What we know of the current race is that none of them are over four feet tall.
"The original Prometheans were a race focused on the pursuit of knowledge. We know they were so tall because we have found a few of their artifacts over the years spread around the galaxy. All indications we have of this race is that they were destroyed by their own hand... somehow. Some think it was something like a rogue AI, others think it was a biological disaster of some kind.
"Regardless of what happened, what we do know of the current Promethean race is that they are nowhere near the level of technological development of the ancient race.
"I'm sure you're all really interested in finding out more about them. You're going to get your chance. Two weeks ago, the remains of one of our trading fleets landed in the Haven system. I say the remains because they got too close to something while in Tammerain space, and they were hunted down by a small task force. It took two years of playing cat and mouse them to get back home, and they lost over half their ships and crew. The fleet that had been hunting them arrived and was destroyed in the Haven system. I know that some of you helped with that. Here's why.
"What those ships got too close to was a Promethean artifact the size of a small planet. The freighters did what they could to record as much as possible, but they aren't scouts and don't have top of the line sensors. That being said, they brought back enough data to give the people at MIIO a serious case of heartburn.
"This planetoid-slash-artifact is believed to be the Capitol of the Tammerain Empire," John said as one of the Marines stood.
"Sir, forgive me, but no one knows where the Tammer's Capitol is; they won't let anyone in deep enough." The man sat back down, but John could see a general agreement to the comment.
John nodded. "The traders were allowed in far deeper than anyone had ever been before. The records from the wrecks show them going three hundred lights years past Draconis. The artifact is located only a hundred lights past Draconis, and it will be our first stop. Data from the freighters shows the system to be heavily guarded, and actually entering the system would be suicide. So we're going to be dropping out just inside the system's outer-most boundary, near the system's Oort cloud. We are to scan as much as possible, as quickly as we can, then jump back into Hyper after firing a targeting probe in-system.
"That is the first part of our mission," John said. "We will not be heading home. The Artifact is receiving ancient Promethean computer code from within what used to be their space. We are to investigate the source of that signal, determine what if any, acti
ons to take, then return to the Kingdom.
"Folks, from the looks of what we could figure out from that computer code, and other intercepted communications, there is a possibility that the Tammerain are being used to try to destroy the human race. For what ends, we don't know, and it is hoped that might be one of the things we can find out," John replied.
An officer stood. "General, why are we being sent on a recon mission? There is a war starting at home, and we're needed there. This is a ghost hunt."
"I understand your feelings Captain, but I don't agree with your assessment. This is most definitely not a ghost hunt. We are being sent out here to find out if the Tammerain are being used against us by a very much superior race, and if they are, we are to stop them. If we fail, this war that is getting started will never end."
"Sir, when you say the far side of the Tammerain, how far are we talking about? Have you been able to trace the origin of the signal?" a Marine asked.
"We have the source location down to a sector. The problem is that sector is in the beta quadrant, and that's where we're going," John said. "You want to know about time? I can't actually tell you. The Tammerain do have a stable transit point that terminates in the beta quadrant, but we don't actually know where. We will try to use that, at least to get there."
"What about getting home?" the Captain asked.
"Did you forget your teddy bear, Greg?" Chloe asked, to which a certain lieutenant sitting next to him blushed brightly.
When the teasing laughter died down, John answered him. "Let's just say it's a damn good thing enhanced marines can't get pregnant." He paused to grin. "I can't answer you, Greg. It may be that we'll have to jump straight home, which would take..." He closed his eyes to do the math.
"Eleven months, sixteen days, fifteen hours," Tami replied. "Based on the center of the next quadrant."
"What if it's on the far side of the quadrant, Lieutenant?" the Captain asked.
"Just use the rule of thumb that a quadrant takes a year across, and you'll be close enough - with our current drive tech. If we had transit points it wouldn't matter," Tami replied.
Chapter 43 Frisen Day (Thirty-first Day)
John had ordered the entire crew into armor for their arrival at the capitol 'world'. Not that it would save them if the ship was destroyed, but it would reduce injuries if the ship took damage.
"Drop-out in five, four, three, two, and..." Tami said as the view screens showed the return of 'real' space. "Stealth systems are stable and active. Prepping the probe for launch and initiating full spectrum scans of the artifact."
"On screen when you have an image please," John said. He began typing to make sure a copy of the data they were gathering was loaded into a special drone. The drone was like a flying memory core. Launched in Hyperspace, the drone would head back for the Kingdom with a copy of all the information they would gather here as well as any messages John or his crew needed to send.
Tami typed on her keyboard, and a somewhat fuzzy white orb took shape on the main screen. "We'll get better detail as more data comes in. There is a huge amount of data going in and out of that place!"
"Focus on the data feeds heading for Promethean space. Try to get as much as you can," John ordered. "Let me know when the bees get pissed."
"So far, I'm not showing anything unusual with the fleet..." Chloe began, "I spoke too soon, one of the fleets is powering up jump engines."
John nodded. "Tami, stand by to jump."
"Jump ready on your command, sir," Tami replied.
"I don't think they can find us," Chloe said.
"What? Why?" John asked.
"Well, we're in full stealth. Even though we are using full spectrum scans, they don't know where they're coming from. Those fleets are powered up, but they’re not moving yet," Chloe said. "They are scanning this area, but they're not locking onto us."
"Probe ready, Sir." Tami reported when she had a beep on her console.
"Great, hold off on launching it until we leave," John ordered. "They'll probably detect the launch."
"Understood, Sir, how long do you want to stick around?" Tami asked.
"As long as we can, or until we get a good look at that artifact," John replied.
"Sir, this data isn't... it's like that artifact isn't even there. Something that big should be effecting local gravity, but it isn't," Tami said. "The sensors read as fine, but the data is wrong."
"No, the freighters had the same issue with it. Just keep scanning it. We need as much info as we can about it," John said.
"John, That monster has a singularity for a power unit! That's why we're getting strange readings! The Prometheans used singularities as power!" Chloe said excitedly.
"How can you be sure?" John said.
"Boreon particles are off the fuckin' charts! Those can only exist near a singularity!" Chloe said typing furiously on her terminal.
"We didn't detect it when we jumped in, and we should have," Tami replied.
"Are we getting anything under the surface yet?" John asked.
"Not really, just that there are chambers under the surface in various places." Tami said distractedly.
"Speak up, Tami, your thoughts are just as important as ours are," John said.
"Well, I think I know what this is, Sir," Tami replied. "Although it's really difficult to get good reading under its shielding, I think what we're looking at here is a very large computer."
"Fleet's starting to move! I think our time's up," Chloe said. "Holy shit, they're jumping in place!"
"Okay, Tami, work your magic," John said.
"Firing Probe, and going to full power. Jump in forty seconds," the pilot said.
"Chloe, reharmonize our cloaking shields, just to be safe, please," John said.
"Enemy fleet has jumped, points forming ten-k klicks astern, and falling back. They're going to see us jump out," Chloe said.
"Tami, don't let..." John said but was interrupted by the ship jumping to hyperspace. "...that happen. Thank you."
"No problem, Sir. I just don't want to know what that did to the orbits of those ice chunks," Tami replied. "I can promise it'll be interesting for those arriving ships, at least for a few minutes."
"Good work, Tami. Once we're stable, make up a quick report on your computer theory, I want to include it in the message drone," John said.
"Yes Sir," Tami replied. "We're already stable, the report will be ready in just a minute, Sir."
"Okay, let's load up the message database and prep the drone for launch," John said. "When Tami finishes, load her report, and launch the drone."
"Will do, John. Do you think there is any way we can lift the comms lock long enough to see what's going on back home?" Chloe asked. "We're all getting a little concerned."
"I really wish I could, Chloe. Mark's orders didn't leave me much of a choice. No sending, no receiving, he was very specific about it," John replied.
"That sucks," Chloe said, as Tami replied that she had finished her report.
As he made sure the drone was uploaded with all the information they had gathered, John thought about the mission and the coming trials they would face. If they were successful, the war would end, and the human race would be safe; at least from this threat. He didn't even want to think about what would happen if they didn't succeed.
About the Author
Ben Winston (1965 - ?) was born in Iowa and grew up in Minnesota on the family dairy farm. Upon reaching adulthood, he joined the United States Army as a communications technician. Before getting out of the military, he decided to go to school for computer electronics.
Shortly after getting out of the military, and after getting a new job with an over-seas company, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. A month after beginning the new job, he was laid off due to budget over-runs on the project he was hired for. Upon returning to the United States, he had difficulty maintaining employment because of the chronic illness.
He began writing as a form of stress release, fr
om being home bound and not being able to work, and found he liked writing erotica. Ben wrote a trilogy called the Talosian Chronicles (Currently in rewrite to remove the graphic sex and finalized his vision of the story). The first book, Star Dancer, won awards and was nominated for many others by the online communities where it was posted.
Ben Winston returned to school for literature, after completion, he began writing professionally. Being an avid fan of science fiction he focused on this genre. He was, and still is, influenced and inspired by Gene Roddenberry, Anne McCaffery, David Weber, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury. Some of his favorite movies and TV shows are; Battlestar Galactica (both versions), Andromeda, Star Trek, Firefly, Star Wars, and many of the B-rated movies that were actually box-office bombs.
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Books Published by Blue Space Publications, LLC.
by Ben Winston
Pollux Paradox
Tides of Mars
Tides of Mars (Omnibus)
Ascension – Book I
Conflict – Book II
Book of the Guardian
Home – Book I
Pest Control – Book II
The Last Mission – Book III