“The heavens are telling the glory of God,” she said. “And the firmament declares His handiwork. It’s magnificent, is it not?”
“Kind of like you,” he replied. “Takes my breath away no matter how many times I see it.”
The doctor smiled, blushing at his compliment. “Then make sure you come back to me, my husband, so you can see it all again.”
“I will, Fi. I promise.”
Fiona held him tightly, as if to give him further incentive to keep that promise.
The U.S.S. Liberty pulled alongside them, right on time, her floodlights illuminating the Selene and obscuring their view of the stars. Her shuttle bay opened and one of the small crafts exited from beneath the Liberty’s bow. With Tracht’s ship here, Fiona released him.
“I love you,” she said, stepping back into the corridor, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I will pray for you without ceasing, my love.” With that, the airlock closed, separating them until his return.
The shuttle was soon less than ten meters from the Selene, her starboard airlock open with two men in space suits waiting to receive him. Kendrick looked back at his wife longingly, her face still visible in the airlock’s window. “I love you, Fiona,” he said into his suit mic.
“I love you too,” he heard her reply in his helmet’s earpiece.
With that, the captain gracefully launched himself towards the Liberty shuttle, using the suit’s jets to guide him. The waiting astronauts took hold of his arms as he entered the shuttle and the door closed. The airlock pressurized and the three of them took off their helmets. The airlock opened to the shuttle’s interior, revealing a tall man in a U.S. Space Marine Corps uniform. He was a couple of centimeters taller than Kendrick, and filled out his uniform in such a way as to indicate a very robust physique beneath. His dark hair was graying at the sides, lending a distinguished look to a man with a face both handsome and familiar.
“Captain Kendrick Royce,” said the man welcomingly, “Colonel Siegfried Tracht.” He shook Kendrick’s hand as though greeting a long lost friend. “It is truly a pleasure!”
“Thank you, sir,” Kendrick replied as professionally as he could manage. “I take it you have something for me to sign?”
“Ah, right to business,” said Tracht, inviting Royce into the shuttle’s interior. “Well, my friend, let’s get down to it. I thought we could take care of this here on the shuttle for expediency’s sake.” The colonel handed him a datapad. “You’ll find the agreement exactly as we discussed, with a bit of legalese at the bottom for good measure. Take your time and read it.”
Thankfully, Royce read very quickly and thoroughly, a skill he had developed long ago, reading contracts in the entertainment business. He took special note of the fates of each of his crewmembers, particularly Fiona’s and Lena’s. Lena would become Kendrick’s legal property and would remain with Kendrick and serve with him, no choice in the matter. And Fiona, as Tracht had said before, was to remain as the ship’s doctor, never to work against the biotech firms again. Keyes would be returned to the Alliance; and the rest were to receive full pardons for any crimes they had committed against the U.S. government and were free to go. Heather would remain aboard on assignment.
Kendrick, Fiona, Lena and the Selene, with Heather aboard, were obligated to a specific, unspecified item, after which, their obligations would be fulfilled and Kendrick could take the two of them and the Selene and do as he wished. Good, he thought. I’ve secured my ship, freedom for my crew, and kept Fiona and Lena from government hands.
“You know, Royce,” said the Colonel, “when I first sent Lorgen to bring back Doctor Keane, my interest in you was mostly academic, though I did have my eye on you as a potential candidate. After you outflew our boys at Luna, and then outwitted Lorgen repeatedly, I knew you were my man.”
“For what?” Kendrick asked as he removed his glove so that he could sign the agreement. “You seem to have something in mind other than just having me on as a regular pilot,” he observed as he placed his thumb on the sensor, then held the camera to his eye for a retinal scan. “General Martins had me caught briefly and he said the Alliance did too; something about the Austin test. I have to say; in spite of the nature of our encounter, I’m intrigued.”
He handed the document back to Tracht, who signed and placed his thumb on the sensor and had the datapad scan his own retina. “Agreement authenticated,” said the electronic voice of the datapad.
“Very astute,” replied Tracht. “I definitely have something in mind and wanted to get to you before the blasted Alliance, so I’m pleased you escaped. No doubt you see in the legalese that once your obligation to the Promethean Project is fulfilled, you will be granted the rank of lieutenant commander and may be honorably discharged with the rank of commander. Now, you choose to continue your service for another four years and I’ll give you and your Selene diplomatic and rescue duties. At the end of your term, you can retire with the rank of captain. Whether you serve one tour or two, the Selene remains your property at the end, maintained and upgraded at taxpayer expense through it all. Not a bad deal for a middle-aged civilian captain, now is it?”
“For a deal I have little choice but to accept,” Kendrick noted, “It’s surprisingly generous. So, just what is the Promethean Project?”
Tracht chuckled. “In due time, my friend. Now, let’s get you back to your ship. I’ll finalize our deal with High Command and once the deal is authenticated, I’ll send the codes to countermand the sabotage and you can be on your way.”
The two men shook hands and Kendrick made his way back to the Selene, the deal between himself and Tracht now finalized and the Selene at the mercy of the U.S. Starfleet.
Chapter 16
Three’s a Crowd
The Phantasm slowed on Lorgen’s order. They tracked the Selene partway to Earth, having picked up her transponder. With a fix on Royce, Lorgen forgot about the Liberty; she was long gone and Gifford’s was wise to Lorgen’s presence and tactics. Selene, on the other hand, had but one viable destination at this point: Earth and if Phantasm’s instruments were accurate, Selene had stopped and went silent. This meant that either her power was down or she was destroyed. However, the communications officer was picking up the transponder of another ship and communication between that ship and Selene.
“Sir, it’s the Liberty! Colonel Tracht is aboard!”
“No way!” Lorgen could hardly believe his luck.
“Yes, way,” replied Mister Levin, the Enigma’s coms officer. “He’s making an offer to Royce.”
“Is he taking it?”
“Apparently; he’s fucked if he does and fucked without lube if he doesn’t,” replied Levin. “But if he takes it, he gets to live and his crew goes free. At least that’s the gist of it. Tracht isn’t giving any details of what Royce would actually be doing, but it doesn’t appear that Royce has any alternative.”
“Highlight the Liberty,” said Lorgen. “I want an exact location.”
Levin did as he was asked and the red dot that represented the Selene suddenly had a green halo around it. “Given that he’s sending the signal to Royce’s datapad,” said Levin, “he must be literally on top of them!”
“Stiles,” ordered Lorgen, “arm torpedoes.”
“Torpedoes armed, Captain,” announced Stiles.
“Levin, get me a fix on the Liberty’s energy signature; specifically, her engines,” Lorgen ordered. “Send them to Stiles as soon as you have them.”
“Coordinates sent,” Levin announced.
“Fire,” ordered Lorgen.
The torpedo cleared the tube and sped off into the darkness towards Lorgen’s unsuspecting target.
“It’s away,” replied Stiles with a smile. “The Liberty won’t be in one piece for long.”
“I’m counting on it,” said Lorgen. “I will have my revenge! Selene, you’re next.”
Kendrick had just explained the specifics of Tracht’s deal to his crew and all agreed that it was bett
er to take it than not. “So long as Tracht keeps up his end of the bargain, we take what he’s offering and cut our losses.”
“It doesn’t sound like a bad deal, really,” said Kang.
Royce shook his head. “You have no idea, Kang. The U.S. does not do charity work and is not an altruistic entity exporting freedom to the oppressed. They’ll use me for all manner of jobs that I would never ordinarily agree to and they’ll hold Fi, Lena and the Selene over my head for the rest of my life, with a reprogrammed Heather right there to keep an eye on us all.”
“So, how do we get home?” asked Keyes.
“Tracht says he’ll escort us to Earth,” Kendrick explained. “They’re sending you back to the Alliance, Amanda. The rest are free to go. I’ll have to live with my decision, along with Fiona and Lena, but at least none of you have to.”
Fiona sat serenely in her chair, a faint smile on her face. “The Lord will provide, my husband. The Lord will see us through.”
“You really believe that?” Amanda’s question was bordered on hostile.
“With all my heart, Amanda,” Fiona said. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold; I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies.”
“What she said,” Kendrick said before Amanda or Cyrus could comment. “Father, it’s been an honor, but if that miracle is gonna happen, it had better happen in the next few minutes.”
“Look to your wife’s example, Captain, and Have faith,” replied the priest. “Regardless of what happens, it’s been an honor and a privilege to serve with you.” He extended his hand and Kendrick took it, the two men shaking hands.
“Likewise, Father.”
That was when the explosion rocked the ship.
The Liberty was rocked by a violent explosion, spinning the ship around, causing the Selene to completely disappear from view. Tracht knew the ship had been torpedoed, but by whom? It was not the Selene, which was still under Tracht’s control at present.
“What the hell was that?” shouted Tracht.
“Something just struck our engines,” shouted the helmsman. “We’re dead in the water!”
“Engineering, status report!” Gifford’s barked the order, but no response was forthcoming.
Ms. Carlisle’s eyes went wide. “Ma’am, based on diagnostics, engineering is … gone!”
Before the captain could respond, the ship was rocked by maser fire. Main power went out and auxiliary power came online.
“Return fire,” shouted Gifford’s frantically.
“We can’t, sir; our weapons are offline,” announced the gunner.
The radio crackled to life and a familiar voice greeted them.
“Nobody hangs me out to dry, Tracht,” growled Lorgen. “You know, just having a warship is worthless if you don’t know how to use it. I know every weakness of your frigate, Gifford’s, including where to hit it to disable its weapons systems.”
Tracht cursed his bad luck, but he could do one thing before he was taken out. He transmitted a message off to Starfleet High Command, then contacted Royce before Lorgen robbed him of communications.
Kendrick answered the incoming message, Tracht’s face on his datapad’s screen, a frantic bridge crew in the background behind him. Kendrick felt sadness at the sight, knowing the look of a sinking ship when he saw it.
“Royce, it’s Tracht; Lorgen’s here firing on us! Get out. I’ve sent back to High Command the details of our arrangement and a favorable report exonerating you and your crew. I’m returning you control of the Selene. Get out!” With that, he sent the signal to the Selene countermanding Heather’s program and restored power to the stricken ship.
“Keyes, Mun, let’s get to the bridge,” shouted Royce.
The three propelled themselves as fast as they could to the bridge and strapped themselves in.
He brought the engines online and pulled away, circling around to face the incoming Phantasm, now visible to their instruments; thanks to her unrelenting maser fire on the crippled Liberty.
“Mun, prepare to fire on my command,” he barked. But Keyes announced something that changed their plans.
“Captain, A.M.S. Icarus approaching and she’s targeting us.”
For some reason, Selene’s Ai had not come back online, forcing the captain to both fly and astrogate manually. Kendrick plotted a course to Earth, then called out over the intercom, “Initiating maximum burn in three … two … one.”
Keyes and Mun were pinned to their seats as the engines roared to life, bringing the ship from a standstill to Mach 15. It was dangerous; without a direct connection, or even the Ai, he really should be going no faster than Mach 5, but he had no choice in the matter. Escape superseded the potential dangers.
“Man, that was close,” Kendrick exclaimed as the acceleration leveled off at Mach 15. “Never thought we’d see Lorgen on this flight plan, though. Maybe the Phantasm and the Icarus will blow each other to bits. Either way, that gets the U.S. government off of our adversary list.”
Lorgen would have preferred to have simply disabled Tracht’s vessel and board it to capture Gifford’s, but the interloper fired a series of torpedoes into Tracht’s ship, setting it ablaze. Escape pods fired and both Lorgen’s gunner and the interloper began taking them out. Finally, both ships faced off against each other.
“Incoming transmission from the interloper, Sir,” announced Mister Levin.
“Patch it through,” ordered Lorgen.
The man who appeared on screen was a robust black man with graying temples, wearing the uniform of an Alliance general. His piercing gaze made even Lorgen nervous. He spoke with a deep, commanding voice.”
“Captain Lorgen, I presume?”
“I am,” replied Lorgen. “Who the hell are you?”
“General Martins, U.P.A. You’ve murdered the captains and crew of two Alliance ships,” Martins growled. “You also killed the captain and crew of the Ness Frigate Ramos. My government has been trying to get their hands on your ship’s stealth technology since the Enigma was launched. Captain Santiago was my nephew’s godfather, Lorgen. Time to pay the piper.”
Before Lorgen had a chance to respond, the Phantasm’s airlocks and all interior doors opened. Lorgen and his crew made for the escape pods, only to find that the pod doors would not open. They tried to get to their space suits, but the time taken getting to the pods had gone past their window of opportunity. Captain Lorgen was helpless, suffocating. He soon was dead, firmly believing that the United States and the Alliance had grievously wronged him.
General Martins sent a boarding crew over and soon, the Phantasm had been captured. Martins had options available to him now. With a stealth warship at his command, he no longer needed to rely on speed and power. Instead, he would use Royce’s own morals and integrity against him. He had Commander Williams, the Icarus’ first officer, and a skeleton crew aboard the Phantasm, and had ordered Briggs to take the Icarus back to base.
“Prepare to take on survivors,” Commander Kim Williams ordered.
“Belay that order,” Martins said. “Take us out of visual range. Let them fire the escape pods, and activate a distress beacon. Royce is the only ship in range. He’ll come back for them … then we strike. Once we have Royce, we can rescue the Liberty’s survivors.”
“Sir,” she countered, “their pods only have a few days of breathable air. They’ll die if Royce either doesn’t return, or takes too long.”
“If it goes too long,” Martins replied, “we’ll rescue them. But for now, we wait. I’m going to prep my team. Once Royce returns, we need to be ready. Make damn sure he doesn’t see us. If he does …”
“He won’t,” Williams replied. “For the record, I oppose this course of action. There could be wounded who need immediate attention. They could be lost, even if Royce returns as soon as the beacon is activated.”
“Casualties of war,”
Martins said. “Casualties of war.”
The Liberty was lost, and the crew was scurrying to the escape pods. Lorgen’s sustained broadside of maser fire had ceased, giving Captain Gifford’s time to make a sweep of the ship. Gravity was gone, and debris and objects not bolted down created an obstacle course that she had to navigate as she floated through the ship.
“Captain!” It was Jax calling to her.
“Commander, I ordered you to the escape pods!”
“Not leaving you, Captain,” he replied as he floated up to her. “There may be more people than just one person can help. Besides, we’ve been together since the Colonial Conflict; we’re a team.”
“All right, Donavan,” she replied, smiling in spite of herself. “I’ll forgive your insubordination just this once. Come on; let’s sweep through and rescue who we can, and get out of here!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The two of them managed to rescue five more crew members who were trapped in their cabins, and got back to the escape pods just as Lorgen resumed his attack. Gifford’s fed the two people she was carrying into an escape pod as Jax fed the three he was carrying into another one, before launching both pods, leaving only two.
“You all clear, Captain?”
“I am, Donavan,” she replied. “Colonel Tracht …”
“He’s in Pod-Nineteen, along with Henderson and Gardner.”
“Good. Let’s mo …” Before she could finish, her communicator crackled to life.
“Captain, help!” It was Ms. Carlisle. She had left the bridge to sweep for survivors earlier and Carol had assumed that their helmsman had made it to the pods.
No Safe Harbor: The Silver Liner Page 21