Novum: Exile: (Book 2)

by Joseph Rhea

Jake looked at her. “What the bilge did we do?”

  “The bigger question is, what will we do now?” she replied.

  “We can’t dock anywhere,” Ash said. “But we can’t just sit out here on the border, either.”

  “Why can’t we just turn ourselves in?” Vee asked. “We didn’t do anything wrong.” She looked around the bridge. “Did we?”

  “An entire city is gone,” AJ said. “Who knows how many people were killed? A thousand? Two thousand? They will lock us up until they find a reason to blame it on us.”

  Ash looked as though he were about to make another comment when Jessie interrupted. “Captain, we have a ship just coming into passive sonar range.” She had her earphones on again. “It’s on our stern quarter and closing. My console says it’s either a Nereus or Ophion-Class vessel.”

  “There’s a lot of difference between an Ophion and a Nereus,” AJ said as she headed towards the command console. “I need something more specific.”

  “I know,” Jessie said. “The signal looks a little funny to me. Permission to do an active ping?”

  “That will give away our position,” Ash said.

  “After that last message,” AJ replied, “I need to know who’s out there. Could be a friend, and we could use a friend about now.” She looked at Jessie. “Do it.”

  A few seconds later, Jessie spoke up. “It’s not a friend; it’s a Pontus-Class vessel using acoustic dampers to distort its signal.”

  “Pontus-class ships are huge,” Jake said. “Anyone besides the Colonial Guards use them?”

  AJ shook her head. “No one else can afford one.”

  “We’re being hailed,” Vee said.

  Jake put a hand to his forehead. “Tell me it’s not the Scimitar.”

  Vee nodded. “Looks like your old friend, Captain Steele, has been following us.”

  “Drown it,” Jake cursed and then turned to Ash. “Tell me you have a way out of here.”

  “Already on it,” he replied. “I’ve plotted a course due east that will skirt the edge of the border.” He paused to smile. “They would be fools to try to board us out there.”

  Vee nodded. “Course laid in and ready to go on your orders, Captain.”

  “The Scimitar has increased speed and is heading straight for us,” Jessie shouted. “Looks like they got tired of waiting for a reply.”

  “Have they gone bubbly?” Jake asked

  “Too dangerous using supercavitation this close to the border,” AJ said, “but they can easily outrun us with normal thrusters.” She turned to Vee. “Get us out of here.”

  As the Rogue Wave came up to full power and banked hard to the left, Jake had to grab onto the helm console to keep from falling backwards. The old girl still has some fight in her, he mused, then realized he was quoting his former captain again. Coal would have been thrilled to be in his shoes at that moment, but all Jake could think about was just surviving the next two minutes. He glanced back at Jessie who looked deranged with her oversized earphones and eyes shut tight. “Status?”

  “Gaining on us quickly,” she said then opened her eyes and looked up at him. “You know we can’t outrun them, right?”

  “Drown it,” Ash cursed. “I really thought this would work.”

  “Well, we certainly can’t stay this close to the border for much longer,” AJ said. “Ideas, anyone?” When no one spoke up, she added, “I’ll take anything. Something crazy, even.”

  “We don’t have any weapons,” Vee said.

  “Wouldn’t help if we did,” Ash countered. “The Scimitar would blow us out of the water.” He looked at Jake. “We can’t outrun them and we can’t outfight them, Sir.”

  “Captain!” Raines said from the rear.

  Jake turned to see the Scimitar filling up the aft viewport.

  “They’re trying to ram us!” Jessie yelled.

  “Steele might be crazy, but she’s not insane,” AJ said. “She wouldn’t risk damaging her ship.”

  “Then what’s she doing?” Jake asked. He turned to Vee. “Can we go any faster?”

  “We’re at full thrust,” she replied, “and I know what she’s doing. She’s trying to push us across the border.”

  “She’s doing a pretty good job of it,” Ash said looking at his display. “We are already inside the red zone.”

  Jake looked back at the approaching ship. The Scimitar was above them and just off their port side now, close enough that he could see people in the viewports. There was no way to outrun it and no place to go but toward the border.

  “You asked for crazy ideas,” he said to AJ.

  “You have one?” she replied.

  “Whatever you’re going to do, better do it now,” Ash said. “We are just about to cross the border.”

  “What’s your idea, Jake?” AJ repeated.

  “We do nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “We test Jane’s hypothesis,” he said.

  “The transponder!” AJ yelled.

  “Drowned it!” Raines yelled as he stood up and pulled a small box from his pocket. “In all the commotion, I didn’t have time to determine if the signal could breach our hull.”

  “What?” Jake yelled. “You mean the border sensors might not pick it up?”

  “Four torpedoes in the water,” Jessie yelled.

  “Drown you, Steele!” Jake cursed.

  “Not from the Scimitar,” Jessie said. “These are coming up from the sea floor and heading right for us.”

  “Border defenses,” Raines said, looking down at the box in his hand. “I’m sorry, Captain. I’m sorry everyone.”

  “Scimitar is breaking off,” Ash said.

  Jake looked back and saw the huge ship veer away from them. “Can we follow them?”

  “Too far in,” AJ said then looked at Vee. “Hard to starboard, Helm. Take us across the line.”

  As the floor of the bridge tilted to the right, Jake knew what she was trying. The torpedoes were launched from the border, and they were already on the far side. Their only hope was to outrun them, hope that they would deplete their fuel before reaching them.

  “You bought us a few seconds,” Jessie said, “but the torpedoes are still gaining.”

  “How long?”

  Jessie pressed a switch, and an automated voice said, “Eight seconds to impact. Seven seconds…” Jessie pulled off her earphones and pulled her feet up in her chair. “We’re not going to make it.”

  “Six seconds.”

  “Everyone hit the deck!” AJ yelled.

  As most of the crew dropped to the floor, Jake looked at Jessie’s earphones and then at the transmitter in Raines’s hand. Without saying a word, he ran back, grabbed the box, and slammed it on Jessie’s console. He then flipped the ship’s intercom and pressed the box against the microphone. “Everyone quiet!” he yelled and then turned up the volume to maximum.

  “Three seconds. Two…”

  As the voice counted down, Jake could feel his heart racing inside his chest. When it reached “zero,” the silence on the bridge was deafening. Everyone had clinched expressions, preparing for the inevitable, preparing for the end.

  But nothing happened.

  Wood was the first to speak. “Why are we still alive?” He was lying on the floor as well.

  “I don’t know,” Jake said as he climbed to his feet. “AJ?”

  She was the only one still standing, holding onto bars built in to the command console. “We made it,” she said. “We’re actually on the other side of the border.”

  “The Scimitar?” Raines asked. “Did they…”

  Jessie turned off the microphone and put her earphone back on. “I’m picking up the Scimitar. She’s holding station just inside the border. Looks like they made it back undamaged.”

  “Pity,” AJ said, then looked at Jake. “That was pretty fast thinking. How did you…”

  Jake shrugged. “The transmitter puts out a low-power acoustic signal, and I figured that it might trans
mit through the hull if I boosted it up a bit.” He looked at the blank faces in the room and answered their unasked question. “You do know the bridge is the only place on the ship that has an exposed hull, don’t you?” He winked at Jessie. “Anyway, I can’t take credit. It was all information you people gave me.”

  “But you used that information in a crisis,” AJ said, placing her hand on his chest. “That’s what a good captain does, and it’s why you belong here, Jake.”

  Ash made a loud kissing sound, and in one swift motion, AJ backhanded him across the face. “Hey!” he yelled, holding his reddened cheek. She hadn’t hit him that hard, but it was hard enough that he wouldn’t forget the lesson.

  “So now that we’re out here,” Raines said, “what are we going to do?”

  Vee had turned the ship around and was now facing the invisible border. In the distance, the running lights of the Scimitar were just visible. “They’re just sitting out there,” she said. “Why don’t they come out and get us?”

  “Because they don’t have a key on their ship,” Wood said matter-of-factly.

  “The Colonial Guards don’t know about these?” Jake asked as he picked up the box. “They work for you.”

  Wood shrugged. “The guards are just people, and people can’t be trusted.”

  “Unbelievable,” Jake said, even though, to himself, it actually was believable based on what he had learned that day.

  “So, they’re just going to sit there and wait for us to come back?” Vee asked.

  “Why not?” Ash said. “They have a lot more power and supplies than we do.”

  “We seem to be out of options again,” AJ said then turned to Jake. “Captain?”

  “What?” he asked, suddenly aware that his entire crew was staring at him.

  “You obviously have some skill in finding your way out of impossible situations like this,” she said. For the first time since he met her, she actually looked as though she trusted him.

  Jake looked down at the deck plating. It was a stupid idea, and he was probably crazy for even thinking it, but as AJ said, they were out of options, and this was at least an option.

  “So, where do we go, Captain?” she asked again.

  “The only place we can go,” he said. “West.”

  Chapter 16

  AJ was the first to figure out what he meant. “You’re not serious,” she said.

  “I am, actually,” Jake admitted.

  “You want us to leave the colony?” she asked. “Leave Civica?”

  “I don’t think that we have a lot of choices,” Jake said.

  Ash appeared the most distressed. “Yes we do. I’m sure there is somewhere we can hide until this blows over.”

  “Blows over?” Raines asked. “How long do you suppose it will take for them to forget us: the people they think are responsible for destroying an entire city? Months? Years?”

  “Let’s not forget the Scimitar,” AJ added. “They aren’t going away any time soon, and we can’t hope to make it back across the border with them watching us.”

  “None of it matters,” Wood said, climbing to his feet. “Civil war is upon us. Each side will blame the other for what happened in New Braska, and more people will die. Soon there will be no safe port for anyone.”

  “I guess finding that pureblooded Beta is now a moot point,” Jessie said. “Or the sphere. None of that matters now.”

  “Not necessarily,” Wood said. “If the Beta is real, then there is a very good chance that it is the first of an invading army. Perhaps an advanced scout sent here to find our weaknesses.”

  “I think it found one,” AJ said. “Our own fears.”

  “Regardless,” Wood continued, “if there is a Beta army out there and it attacks us now while we are busy fighting each other, it will be a slaughter.” He looked at Jake. “I think you’re correct, Captain Stone. Our best course of action is to locate the exact spot where the salvager picked up the birthing sphere. We need answers to our questions.”

  “What questions?” Jessie asked.

  “Where did it come from?” Wood said. “Why was it sent here? Who sent it?”

  “What if we don’t like the answers?” Vee asked.

  Raines answered her. “We most likely will not like the answers, dear, but we still have to ask the questions.” He scanned each of the faces on the bridge, ending with Jake’s. “I’m afraid that I must agree with Dr. Wood this one time. The fate of our colony could very well rest in finding out what’s out there.”

  “Is it even possible to travel four thousand kilometers beyond the border?” Jessie asked.

  “Good point,” Ash said, looking relieved. “We don’t have the fuel to make it that far, even with full batteries.”

  Raines shook his head. “That’s not exactly true.”

  “What do you mean?” Jake asked.

  “We could use the reactor.”

  “In the hold?” AJ asked. The engineer nodded.

  “Isn’t it, you know, unstable?” Vee asked.

  Raines stroked his chin. “I can’t guarantee exactly how long it will last, but I believe that if I can tap into it to power the thrusters for the first two thousand kilometers, we should have just enough to make it that far with the fuel we have aboard. That is, assuming that we don’t push the ship too hard. Our standard hauling speed is the most fuel-efficient, so I would recommend that.”

  Ash looked as though he were going to pass out. “Hauling speed on this ship is only ten kilometers per hour. It would take at least sixteen or seventeen days to go four thousand kilometers.”

  “From the western border,” Raines said. “However, from our current location, it’s more like twenty to twenty-one days.”

  “Won’t that use up our life support, not to mention our food supply?” Jessie asked.

  “In terms of life support, the air scrubbers are, admittedly, pretty old. I searched for replacements in the last two outposts we visited but couldn’t find what I needed.”

  “But will they last?” AJ asked.

  “I’ll have to do some calculations and carefully monitor things along the way, but I think I can make them last. Now in terms of provisions, we would obviously have to ration things a bit, but we did fill up with corn products before we left, so we are in better shape for a journey like this than we otherwise might be.”

  “Corn?” Jake whispered to himself and realized that rationing might not be so bad after all, at least for him.

  “So the ship might be ready for a journey like this,” Vee said, “but are we?”

  “A one-way, three-week trip into the unknown, with old carbon scrubbers, not enough food, and a power supply that just might explode and kill us all?” Ash joked, though his face looked pale. “What’s to get ready for?”

  “It might not be one-way,” Raines reminded them. “If there is nothing but a refueling station out there, then we could presumably recharge our batteries just like the salvager did and return.”

  AJ walked up and stood beside Jake, looking out of the forward viewport. “I believe in you, Jake,” she whispered, “and as you said, we don’t have a lot of options.”

  He nodded and then addressed the crew. “Listen, everyone, I won’t force anyone to go with me. If any of you want to go back, head to the shuttle right now. I’ll give you the transmitter, and you can surrender to the Scimitar. Blame everything on me, say whatever you want, I don’t care. But if you want off this ship, you should leave now.” His eyes turned to Vee and Jessie. “That goes for everyone, so choose.”

  “I’m in,” Vee said.

  “So am I,” Jessie said.

  Jake glanced at his navigator, but he was busy at his console. “Like you could make it out there without me.” He glanced back at Jessie. “Besides, where my sister goes, I go.”

  Jake walked past the crew to the chart table then turned and leaned against it. He had a flashback of being in that same position talking to Stacy the night before she died. A part of him wanted to c
ontinue dwelling on the past, continue torturing himself for letting her die. But the reality was, before she died, this ship was her home, and she was happiest while onboard with her crewmates. They were her family.

  He looked down at the well-worn deck plating and realized that the Rogue Wave had become his home too, and this crew was the closest thing he had to a family. They might very well die on this trip, but at least they would die together.

  “Are you ready, Jake?” a voice behind him asked. He turned to see Jane standing at the top of the stairs. She had asked him something similar when he first took command of the Wave. Looking back, he hadn’t really been ready for what was to come, but that didn’t stop him. And now, against all odds, his parents might still be alive, and in a few weeks, he would know for sure.

  “I think this time I really am,” he said, and in saying the words, realized that he was telling the truth. He turned back to the faces surrounding him—his crew, his family—and said, “Let’s go.”

  THE END

  The journey will soon continue with

  Novum: Rubicon

  Learn more at

  JosephRhea.com/Novum3

  About the Author

  Joseph Rhea is a scientist, science fiction author, computer game designer, and believer in moving humanity forward, not backward. He was advised by his high school English teacher to pursue a life of writing. Instead, he chose a career in engineering and science, driven by a need to explore the world and help create new technologies. Now, three decades later, he has come full circle as a new voice in realistic science fiction.

  Learn more at JosephRhea.com

  Books by Joseph Rhea

  Standalone Novels:

  Cyberdrome

  Novum Series:

  Novum: Genesis

  Novum: Exile

  Novum: Rubicon

  Novum: Revelation

  Novum: Apocalypse

  Learn more at JosephRhea.com