by M. D. Cooper
“It’s in the dock. We were on our way there when your guys brought us here,” Jessica replied with a frown.
The major leaned forward. “Cut the shit, you two. Your colony ship, where is it?”
Joe couldn’t hide his surprise. He glanced at Jessica, who also appeared rather shocked.
“It’s outsystem, we’re just here to find someone who went missing.”
Major Akido’s brow furrowed into a deep frown. “Missing? How did someone on your colony ship go missing here?”
“We had an accident,” Joe replied. “She had to eject in an escape pod, and by the time we got to her reported position, she was gone.”
The major didn’t respond immediately, and Jessica jumped in with a question of her own.
“How did you know that we’re from a colony ship? Why would you even look for that?”
“Your ship, for starters. Your graviton emitters aren’t broken, they’re not present—neither is your grav drive. No grav drive means no FTL. If that’s the case, then your shuttle didn’t just jump in outside the system, you came in a different ship. Only two types of ships lurk out there sending in small shuttles. Enemy militaries and lost colony ships. But no military would do such a crap job sending in spies, so it was pretty simple.”
Joe whistled. “So this happens a lot? Colony ships just wind up on your doorstep?”
“Not a lot, but often enough,” Major Akido said with a shrug. “Isotope analysis of your shuttle confirmed that it is of Sol manufacture, sometime in the early fifth millennium. That sealed it.”
“Then what’s next?” Joe asked.
The major leaned back and smiled, “We’re going to want to speak to your captain.”
NEW EDEN
STELLAR DATE: 10.06.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Scattered Disk
REGION: New Eden System, Eden Alliance
Sabrina transitioned out of the dark layer into the New Eden system at the precise location Cheeky planned.
“Nailed it!” Cheeky shouted as the system nav buoy confirmed their location. “Pay up, Cargo.”
Cargo sighed and flipped her a Silstrand token. “I can’t believe you pulled that off. Your vector looked totally out of whack back at Ayrea.”
“Or so you thought,” Cheeky chuckled.
Tanis only half-heard their banter as she reviewed the local scan data.
New Eden was a booming system. Tens of thousands of ships plied its space lanes; it boasted three terraformed worlds, up from the original two the FGT had left for the Intrepid. It took conscious effort to keep herself from becoming morose at the thought.
Tanis nodded absently. Sabrina’s captain was a frequent topic of conversation between her and Angela. They both harbored doubts that Sera could live up to her end of the deal.
Angela stopped as both she and Tanis saw the same scan data roll in.
“There are eleven AST dreadnaughts passing through the system!” Tanis called out.
“There are what?” Sera said, half out of her chair as Tanis brought the scan data up on the bridge’s main holo.
“That’s rather usual,” Cargo said calmly.
“Understatement of the year,” Cheeky tossed a scowl his way. “New Eden and the AST aren’t exactly on the friendliest of terms, not since that little war they had a few decades ago.”
Tanis remembered reading about that conflict. New Eden lay on the spin-ward edge of AST space, and was under constant pressure from the core worlds to join their alliance. New Eden preferred its independence and maintained a sizeable space force to ensure they retained it. They would lose to a full assault from the AST’s military, but they were capable of making the effort too costly for any aggressor.
“They must have pulled some sort of serious diplomatic shit to be here right now,” Sera said in awe.
“Doesn’t look like the locals are too trusting either,” Tanis said. “Almost half their fleet is shadowing those dreadnaughts.”
Sera nodded with appreciation. “From the looks of it, they stopped and refueled here, too.”
“They’re headed for the same jump point we are,” Cheeky said, her voice low and completely serious. “They’re going to Bollam’s.”
“Punch it, Cheeky! Full burn. We must get there before those AST assholes,” Sera yelled.
Cheeky complied and Sabrina prepared for a full antimatter burn around the edge of the New Eden system.
“Not around, Cheeky,” Sera said, her eyes deadly serious. “Go through the system.”
“We’re going to pick up a hell of a fine for this,” Cargo said. “They’re not going to take kindly to us blasting through.”
“And with their current fleet distribution, they won’t do anything to stop us either,” Sera replied.
“You hope,” Cargo said.
Sera did not reply.
“I don’t get it,” Cheeky said as she plotted the new course and spun out the AP nozzle. “I mean, I get that your ship has some cool shit, Tanis, but what could be worth the AST doing this?”
Tanis was poring over the available specs on the dreadnaughts and didn’t reply. The ships were large by ninetieth century standards, each coming in at just over six kilometers long. They sported more rails, beams, and missile launches than she even cared to count.
“Well?” Cheeky asked once Sabrina was boosting on its new trajectory. “What does your ship have that’s so special?”
Tanis looked around the bridge. Cheeky appeared to be almost angry, while Cargo was merely curious. Sera’s expression was more unreadable. Then the captain turned her head toward Cheeky and Cargo without breaking eye contact with Tanis.
“Look up something called The Battle of Victoria. It took place in the Kapteyn’s system before the Intrepid left. Look for speculation on how they defeated the Sirians with minimal losses.”
Tanis let out a long sigh. If Sera was telling her crew what to look for, then she had already found it. The record of the Intrepid’s picotech had persisted these five-thousand years.
Tanis replied.
“Pic
otech!” Cargo exclaimed, half rising from his chair. “How…what…is it real?”
Tanis didn’t have it in her to lie to Sabrina’s crew—she knew that her resigned expression was already all the confirmation that Sera needed—if she needed any at all.
“It is true,” Tanis replied.
“And you…wait…you!” Cheeky’s voice fell into a shocked hush.
Tanis could tell that she had read something which referenced her as a general and lieutenant governor.
“General Richards, is it?” Cargo asked. “Or should I say governor?”
“How long have you known?” Tanis asked Sera. “This information was not in your databases when I came onboard.”
“I pulled an update when we were in Ayrea,” Sera replied smoothly. “I wanted to know more about your ship and the time you came from.”
Tanis nodded slowly. “Well, now you know.”
She fended off as many questions about the picotech, and her rank, as she could. She was surprised that no one was overly upset about her lies and omissions. Even Thompson grunted that he would not have volunteered the information either.
She was saved from further revelations by the first few calls from the system traffic AI regarding their speed, which Tanis responded to, but eventually just logged them with no response. It was clear they were on an outsystem vector, not passing close to any New Eden worlds or stations. No military vessels or drones moved to intercept them, and the traffic AI appeared to content itself with simply adding on fine after fine.
“This’ll bankrupt us,” Cargo muttered at one point.
“No,” Sera disagreed while directing a pointed look at Tanis. “It really won’t.”
Tanis set two countdowns on the main holo. One for the AST dreadnaughts, and one for Sabrina. The dreadnaughts would beat them to the jump point, but the AST vessels were maintaining steady 0.5c. A max speed which was likely enforced by the New Eden space force ships shadowing the foreign military vessels.
Because entry velocity into the dark layer translated into faster travel time, Sabrina would reach Bollam’s World before the AST vessels, even though they entered FTL later.
The trip across the New Eden system took just shy of twenty-three hours, and Tanis watched with concern gnawing at her innards as the eleven AST dreadnaughts winked out of scan visibility.
“There they go,” Sera said. “Now we just have to hope that half the New Eden space force doesn’t decide to find out why we’re in such a hurry.
Sabrina was an hour from the jump point; light-lag to the closest New Eden vessel was fifty-two minutes—with the relativistic adjustments.
On her queue, the comm board lit up with an incoming transmission from a NESF patrol craft.
Tanis played the message aloud.
“Star Freighter Sabrina, this is the Sword of Eden, please declare your intentions. If we didn’t know better, we would think you’re chasing those core-worlder dreadnaughts.”
Cargo let out a laugh. “Calling those AST ships core-worlders as if he isn’t one. When the fringe is nearly a thousand light-years in any direction, you’re core, too.”
“What would you like me to say,” Tanis asked Sera.
“You’re asking me?” Sera said with a wink. “You’re the general—what do you think you should say?”
Tanis remained silent for several moments before shaking her head and turning to her console.
“Sword of Eden, this is General Tanis Richards of the ISS Intrepid. This ship is returning me to Bollam’s World and is under my protection. As for what we plan to do with those dreadnaughts, look up the Battle of Victoria and figure it out.”
Cheeky let out a long whistle. “Well, that’ll either get them the hell out of our way—or they’ll blow us to bits.”
“We have thirty-seven minutes to find out,” Sera replied.
“Damn relativistic math,” Sera muttered.
No one spoke on the bridge as they raced closer to the NESF ships still clustered around the jump point. Tanis surmised that they weren’t entirely trusting the AST ships’ word that they were going to Bollam’s World. It was possible, however unlikely, that this was some sort of feint before a full-scale attack.
The earliest time for a reply from the NESF came and went, then sixteen more minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness before a message came in.
The message was short and to the point.
“Star freighter Sabrina, you are cleared to maintain your current course and exit the New Eden system. Fines against your vessel have been lifted.”
“See?” Sera said with a grin as she looked between Cheeky and Cargo. I told you the general would know what to say. And we’re not facing any fines. A good day in my books.”
THE SILENT SYSTEM
STELLAR DATE: 10.25.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, Scattered Disk
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Cheeky brought Sabrina out of FTL further from the Bollam’s World star than Tanis would have preferred, though she understood the need for caution—not to mention the time it would take to decelerate from 0.79c.
“Forty-nine AU from the stellar primary,” the pilot reported.
“Well done,” Sera said with a nod. “Pull us up above the stellar disk and start our braking.”
Tanis tapped the system beacon’s passive data stream.
“That’s weird,” she said with a frown. “There’s nothing about the Intrepid on the beacon, just the standard traffic conditions, and system laws and regulations.”
“I don’t think those AST ships are coming here for a vacation,” Sera said. “Someone is trying their best to keep things looking normal.”
“The outer beacon isn’t responding to requests for active data. I’ve sent our packet to the system relay further in; maybe once we’re registered on scan we can get more info,” Tanis said.
“Keep active sensors on full bore,” Sera said to Tanis. “This system is always a hot mess.”
Tanis had noticed Sabrina’s shielding taking repeated impacts from dust. She was impressed at how well the graviton shielding protected the freighter. The Intrepid’s shields would be hard-pressed to keep the ship safe in a system this young and active while traveling at such speeds.
She had spent some time reviewing data entries on Bollam’s World. The star was young, under half a billion years old. The eleven major planets which orbited the star were still young and hot, with the exception of the terraformed worlds in the habitable zone. Records showed that the initial colonists, also victims of Kapteyn’s Streamer, had spent considerable effort cooling those worlds before they could even begin to make them habitable.
The star lay in a region of space with few G or K class stars. Its location, combined with youth, had caused the FGT to pass it by entirely. It was probably the only G-class star within a hundred light-years of Sol which was not prepared for humanity by the FGT, but by the colonists themselves.
Tanis had to admire the tenacity of those original settlers. What they had accomplished was more even impressive than what the Edeners and Victorians had built at The Kap.
She scanned through the data on the planets, taking note of the strange gas giant named Aurora which lay seventh from the star, and the terraforming that was underway on a moon around the sixth planet, a gas giant named Kithari.
“You’re going to want to alter course, Cheeky,” Tanis said as she put the results of the first active scan sweep on the main holo. “There’s a dense molecular cloud ahead, and a small dwarf world seems to have its orbit changed since the last time Sabrina got an update on Bollam’s.”
othingly.
“I’m going to grab some coffee, anyone want some?” Cargo asked as he rose.
The three women called out in affirmative and the first mate chuckled. “Maybe I’ll just bring the pot.”
“You know, I’m going to go do a quick walk through the ship,” Tanis said while rising from her station. “I’ve slaved scan to your console, Cheeky, and Angela is keeping an eye on it as well.”
“We’ll ping you if you’re needed,” Sera said.
Cargo returned with three cups of coffee. “Gave Tanis hers in the galley.”
“She’s got a lot on her mind,” Sera said with a nod. “Don’t know that I’d want to be in her position right now.”
“What position is that, Captain?” Cargo’s dark eyes stared at Sera intently. “What do you think we are flying into?”
Sera thought about it for a moment before replying.
“Either the Intrepid was smart and started trading its tech for fuel and FTL capability, or they clamed up and got themselves boarded and gutted.”
“Do you think they’d be able to defend themselves?”
“Maybe—Tanis never said how much of that fleet they took with them when they left Kapteyn’s Star—or if they have more of their pico bombs. If they do, then we’re flying into a war-zone.”
“Didn’t we just leave that party?”
“That was just a mixer; the real party’s still to come,” Sera laughed. “But now that you bring it up, I think I should go and see if I can get our general to lay down some specifics on her ship’s defenses.”
Cargo nodded and Sera slipped off the bridge. She found Tanis where she expected, at the forward scan and targeting sensors. Sera wasn’t sure if she should be surprised that Tanis was a general and colony governor, or that she hadn’t suspected her rank was far higher than she let on—she fit in with the crew as well as possible, but there were times when her bearing and poise had hinted at a higher position.