by Ryk Brown
Unfortunately she could not say the same for the men and women that regularly occupied the room for days on end. They had to be careful about their comings and goings to avoid detection by both neighbors and the authorities in Ancot city, both of which were not supportive of the Karuzari. Ancot was considered one of the most difficult worlds on which to operate for the Karuzari for just this reason. Jalea had been surprised to make contact with six people claiming to be members of the rebellion. Unfortunately, she only recognized two of them, and therefore she had to be careful what she said around the other four. To be safe, she had chosen to speak to no one about her real mission, nor about the situation in the Darvano system, revealing only that she had been instructed to monitor all Ta’Akar activity in the system and log it, and that she would be contacted periodically to collect the information she had gathered.
So far, she had collected nothing of any importance. Crop yields, local crime reports, and some Takaran comm-drone traffic of little interest to their cause. After a few weeks of near daily rain, she was already growing tired of her assignment. Luckily, the man she had met up with and who pretended to be her husband was someone she knew and trusted well enough to feel comfortable letting her guard down without fear of being assassinated.
Still, she had hoped to at least establish a reliable cell on Ancot so that she could return to Karuzara, but this was not yet the case. She was beginning to wonder if it ever would be.
“Jalea,” the man called Tomon said, “I have received word from Rena.”
Jalea did not care for Rena. She was an attractive and intelligent woman who chose to engage in relations with her sources in order to retrieve information from them. Although Jalea had used similar methods in the past, she found much of the information obtained in such fashion to be suspect, as men seeking to impress their sexual partners often exaggerated to accomplish their goals.
“She reports that a Ta’Akar frigate will arrive here in a few days, a week at most.”
It was exactly the type of news she had hoped to discover. “From where does it come?”
“Norwitt,” Tomon added, “it comes from the Norwitt system.”
“Then it will likely head for Darvano next,” Jalea said, gesturing for Tomon to follow her into the corner, away from the others. “You must not speak of this to the others.” She peered over his shoulder to make sure those in the room that she did not trust could not hear her words. “Instruct Rena to do the same. Do you understand?”
“Of course.”
“I have another task for you, Tomon. Monitor this frequency,” she told him, writing the number down on a small scrap of paper. “Only at the times indicated by this algorithm,” she added as she continued to scribble on the paper. “Apply this algorithm from midnight of the Day of the Harvest. Each time, you must only monitor for one minute, no longer. Understood?”
“I know how this works, Jalea. I have worked comms before.”
“Of course. When you make contact, transmit the information about the frigate,” she instructed. “Call me the moment you make contact,” she added, handing him a personal comm-unit. “Then dispose of this unit.”
“Of course. But who will be contacting me?”
“I do not know, not for sure. All I do know is that it will be someone you can trust, and it will only be on this frequency and at the times indicated by the algorithm.” Jalea put her hand on his neck. “Tell Rena she has done well and to continue to get more information from this person. If she discovers anything else relating to this frigate, include it in the message.”
“Yes, Jalea, right away.”
* * *
“Good morning people,” Nathan greeted as he sat down at the head of the conference table in the command briefing room. “We’ll start with you, Tug, since you’ve been having so much fun with your new jump interceptor.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Tug began. “As you are probably all aware, we have been putting the miniature jump drive through rigorous testing over the last few days. I am happy to report that it has performed exactly as expected.”
“What’s the official range?” Nathan wondered.
“Although we have not pushed it to its limits as of yet, it appears that the maximum safe range is one light year. The minimum range is one light minute.”
“One light year?” Nathan said. “That’s not very far.”
“In order for the jump to occur,” Abby explained, “the jump drive must dump massive amounts of energy into both the inner and outer fields at precisely the correct moment in order to cause the transition to occur. To do this on the Aurora, we use energy storage banks combined with the output from two anti-matter reactors. Tug’s interceptor uses simple fusion reactors. They are extremely efficient, but they cannot generate enough energy at once to jump any farther than a single light year.”
“Can’t we install energy banks in the interceptor to increase her jump range?” Nathan asked.
“There simply is not any room for them,” Tug said.
“Captain,” Abby interrupted, “I should remind you that the use of storage banks is why the Aurora has to take the time to recharge between long jumps. The interceptor will not have this restriction, therefore it could jump considerable distances within a short period of time.”
“We could send it all the way back to Earth,” Nathan contemplated.
“It is a bit early to make such an assumption with any level of confidence, sir, but theoretically, yes. It could reach Earth in a matter of weeks.”
“Still,” Nathan said, “it does open up some interesting possibilities.”
“That’s an understatement,” Jessica commented, “we could send a message stating that we’re alive, that the jump drive works.”
“Exactly,” Nathan agreed. “Tell them to start building more.”
“Maybe include details of some of the weapons and shield technologies they have here as well,” Jessica added. “That might give them an edge against the Jung.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Captain,” Abby warned. “We still have a lot of testing to conduct. I would not recommend making such a journey at this time. It is simply too risky.”
“Can the interceptor be operated by a single pilot?” Nathan asked.
“Yes,” Tug answered. “Although we have been conducting our tests with Mister Cauley as second seat, his job has been limited strictly to the monitoring of the system for scientific and developmental purposes. I have been piloting the ship as well as plotting and executing the jumps.”
“The entire implementation was approached with the single pilot concept in mind, Captain,” Abby explained. “Much of the interface was designed by Deliza and her team and will eventually be implemented aboard the Aurora, as we discussed.”
“You should be proud of your daughter,” Nathan said to Tug.
“I have always been proud of both of my daughters,” Tug stated.
“So what’s next for the new jump interceptor?” Nathan asked.
“I will be conducting a solo jump to the Savoy system in order to establish contact with Jalea. It has been three weeks since she was inserted into Ancot city. She may have something to report by now.”
“Why solo?” Jessica wondered.
“The system was designed to be operated by a single pilot,” Tug reminded her. “It is also possible that Jalea may already be in need of extraction, in which case I will need an empty seat.”
“Well, let’s hope that’s not the case,” Nathan stated. “Cheng, how are things coming along in your neck of the woods?”
“All ship’s systems have been repaired, Captain, and we are nearly halfway through installing the systems that were still crated up and stored,” Vladimir reported proudly. “The Corinairans have been most helpful. In fact, all crates that were stored in the fighter alleys have either been installed or moved into the cargo bays.”
“Excellent, but don’t let up,” Nathan said. “We’re going to need those cargo bays to store add
itional ammunition and consumables. How are things coming with the forward compartments?”
“I am happy to report that the forward section will be ready for habitation in a few days.”
“That’s good news,” Nathan stated. “We still have two more shifts of volunteers waiting to come aboard. The flight crews have been bunking in the Karuzara dorms so they can take turns using our flight training simulators, but we really need to get the rest of the volunteers on board so they can get trained.”
“Well, at least the galley is fully functional now,” Jessica commented. “Maybe now we can start eating a normal meal once in a while.”
“You know, Jess,” Nathan started, “with most of the crew being Corinairan, we’re probably going to be eating more like them from now on.”
“Oh, are you kidding me?” Jessica protested. “They don’t even know how to make a decent sandwich. They wrap the meat and cheese up in some dough and bake it. That’s not a sandwich.”
“Oh, da!” Vladimir exclaimed. “It is like perazhok! It is wonderful!”
“Wonderful my ass,” Jessica disagreed, “there’s no lettuce or tomato in it.”
“Well, wonderful or not, you’d better get used to it,” Nathan warned. “Maybe if you’re nice to the cook, he’ll let you make your own sandwich.”
“Can’t we just install a mini-fridge in my quarters and let me keep my own food in there?”
Nathan smiled. “Master Chief, how go things on the flight deck?”
“Nicely, Captain. As Cheng said, the fighter alleys are clear, so we finally have a chance to start getting organized in the main hangar bay. Since Marcus has been pretty much running that deck since you took him on board back in Haven, I have been allowing him continue to do so. He is not exactly Corinari issue, if you understand my meaning, but he is a good enough fellow, once you get past his gruffness. Besides, he has taken that hangar bay on as his own, which I believe is good.”
“Do you anticipate any problems once the Corinari aerospace groups start moving in?”
“Maybe a few, Captain, I am not going to pretend otherwise. I expect it will be difficult for many of the Corinari to take orders from a civilian like Marcus, despite the fact he seems to know what he is doing.”
“Would it help if we enlisted him and gave him a rank?”
“Captain…” Jessica interrupted.
“Perhaps,” Master Chief Montrose agreed, “but you would have to make him at least a chief. And since you people have the peculiar custom of assigning people to seemingly arbitrary ranks, why not just make him a senior chief so he will out rank most of the Corinari that might be working under him?”
“Oh come on,” Jessica disagreed. “Marcus? A senior chief?” Jessica threw up her hands in resignation, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms to wait until someone decided what to do.
Vladimir smiled as he watched Jessica unravel before his eyes. “I think it is very good idea. I like Marcus. He is very reliable, in my opinion.”
“Has everybody lost their minds?” Jessica wondered aloud. “Captain, you do realize that you’re stepping way outside regs here. There’s no way Cameron is going to go for this.”
Nathan turned and looked hard at Jessica. “Commander Taylor will be fine with it, Lieutenant Commander.”
Jessica straightened up slowly in her chair. Her captain’s tone made her realize she had crossed a line.
“Ensign Willard,” Nathan continued, purposefully leaving the topic of Marcus, as he considered it decided, “I hear you are leading your shipmates in their efforts to integrate the Yamaro into her new home within the asteroid,” Nathan said. “How is that going?”
“Quite well, Captain. The men are happy to return to their familiar quarters. Many of them are still performing the same functions as they were when the Yamaro was a space-faring vessel. Those that cannot do so have taken on new roles, such as construction, fabrication, and even mining.”
“Mining?” Nathan asked.
“Yes,” Willard answered. “Although the asteroid was considered fully mined and ready to be de-orbited to Corinair for harvesting, there is still a considerable amount of material left within the asteroid. We expect to be able to harvest a few more metric tons without destabilizing the outer shell of the asteroid itself. That material will go a long way toward the expansion of our interior spaces within the asteroid, as well as the creation of additional fabricators.”
“And how is the refit of the asteroid going?”
“Fine, sir. We have closed off the entrance to the inner chamber and now have a tunnel from the exterior that leads directly into the Yamaro’s starboard hangar bay. We have also removed the bulkheads between the starboard and port bays, making it into one massive bay. We have sealed and pressurized the interior of the asteroid’s main cavern, and have begun to assemble a construction platform that extends out into the inner chamber from the port hangar bay airlock.”
“So you have a pressurized, micro-gravity shipyard?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, sir,” Ensign Willard answered. “It will greatly speed up the refit of shuttles and other small spacecraft.”
“Impressive,” Vladimir stated. “I must visit this and see it for myself.”
“How are things going with the fabricators?” Nathan asked.
“Rather than remove them from the Yamaro, we have been using them to construct new fabricators. Once the Yamaro’s weapons systems have been removed, there will be room to create additional fabrication shops. We have created two more pairs of fabricators, both large and small, and another pair is nearly complete. One of the new pairs has been shipped to Corinair. I believe they have tasked it to continue making new pairs to increase their production capacity. The other one we have tasked to do the same, allowing us to start utilizing the existing pairs to begin the production of mini-jump drives at the request of both the Corinairans and the Karuzari.”
“We feel it is imperative that we get an early warning system in place as soon as possible,” Tug elaborated. “Advanced notification would greatly increase our chances of successfully defending this system against another attack.”
“What about the third pair?” Vladimir asked.
“As soon as they are completed, they will be delivered to you, Lieutenant Commander,” Ensign Willard promised.
“Da!” Vladimir exclaimed, slapping the table triumphantly. “Harasho!”
“How long will it take to fit these Corinairan shuttles with mini-jump drives?” Nathan asked.
“Using one pair of fabricators, it takes about one week to create the parts for a mini-jump drive,” Ensign Willard explained, “and another week to assemble and install it. I would imagine that it would require another day or two for testing as well.”
“Two weeks, huh?” Nathan wondered aloud. “So it will take some time to get a reliable early warning system in place.”
“At least a few months,” Tug stated. “However, even a single ship jumping about and taking scans can provide us with at least a few hours warning. It is not much, but it is better than being completely taken by surprise.”
“Agreed,” Nathan stated, wanting to wrap up the meeting. “We’ll be taking the ship out of Karuzara in a few hours to conduct our first test launches of a Corinari interceptor using the launch tubes. If it works as expected, we’ll have at least a wing or two of fighters on board within the week. Master Chief, round up Marcus and meet me in my ready room as soon as possible. Lieutenant Commander Nash, please remain. Everyone else is dismissed.”
One by one the attendees filed out of the room, all off to begin their work for the day. Nathan waited until they had all left before speaking. The guard looked inside the room, and Nathan gestured for him to close the door.
Nathan looked at Jessica, who was leaning back in her seat, nice and relaxed. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked.
“With me? What the hell is wrong with you?” she retorted. “You can’t just snap your fingers and make people
members of the fleet. Come on. Marcus, a senior chief?”
“Straighten up, Lieutenant Commander,” he barked. Jessica immediately sat up straight in her chair. “I’m the captain of this ship, and I’m the highest ranking member of the Earth Defense Fleet in this area of space. I’ll enlist and or promote anyone I damn well choose. Hell, I signed an alliance between the Earth and a government nobody back home has ever heard of before. I even shared top-secret technology with them. You think I’m worried about the repercussions from a few questionable field promotions? Hell, if that had been an issue I wouldn’t have promoted you or Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy.”
“I was just trying to…”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you thought you were trying to do, Lieutenant Commander,” Nathan interrupted angrily. “If you have a problem with my decisions, you are more than welcome to take it up with me… in private. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well, Lieutenant Commander. Dismissed.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jessica responded in perfect military fashion. She rose from her chair, saluted, turned, and left the room. Inside she was fuming. It had been awhile since anyone had dressed her down in such a fashion. Coming from Nathan Scott, despite the fact that he was the captain, made it all the more difficult.
Her anger continued to boil as she left the briefing room and headed to her office. She couldn’t stand the idea of Marcus becoming a member of the Earth Defense Force, let alone a senior chief. She had known a few chiefs in her short time in the fleet. Each of them had been incredible individuals to be feared, respected, and listened to. Those men had years of experience and unimpeachable honor and commitment. Marcus didn’t deserve to wear the same rank as those men. He hadn’t earned it, and she doubted he ever would.