Frontline sf-4

by Randolph Lalonde

  “It's all right. One way or another we both came out fine. Jonas, or whoever that was talking in my sleep has another thing wrong. He wants to protect me from his pain but that's just part of who he is, without it nothing would be the same. The worst bit is that there's something in here,” he said, pointing to his temple. “telling me to do something and I have no idea how.”

  Alice was relieved that he didn't blame her for leaving him alone on the Samson years ago, it was something she worried about often. “Maybe we should think about heading to Zingara station after we've met up with Oz and Jason. I know it's a couple sectors away, but there might be answers there. Until then, it's just a matter of waiting I guess. I'll tell you if you start growing extra components or giving off radio signals.”

  He sighed and nodded. “Something to think about once the wormhole generator is working again. Besides, I guess it's too much to ask to get an operator's manual, no one else is born with one.”

  Alice couldn't help but chuckle. “Now you know how I felt for the first few months after making the transfer.”

  “Sometimes I forget. Still feels like you're the daughter I was looking for while I made my way across the outer fringes most of the time.”

  “I don't mind that one bit.”

  “Good, it's a hard thing to shake. Still, it makes me wonder about what I did while I was a blank slate. My, I mean Jonas' psych professor at the academy once said that the true test of a person is what they do when they think no one's looking. When I had a completely blank slate the first thing I did after getting the Samson running was land her on Radic and start bounty hunting locally. After a month I had turned in about a dozen bail jumpers, debtors and I even trapped some kid, couldn't have been more than sixteen, who was trying to avoid giving testimony. Three months later I was taking jobs from Radic City's crime lord.”

  “But you moved on.”

  “Only after I had enough money, that's all it was. I did it all for cash, whatever was on the board and didn't involve outright slavery I would do. One hundred and forty one crew members were killed while I was running the Samson and after a while I was just numb to it.”

  “Jake, Vindyne planted a directive in your head along with the databases they gave you. It was made to compel you to find work, to be someone else's servant. The system said that it would take a serious trauma to break you out of it. Somewhere along the line that's happened, and from what I've seen since I came aboard you're free.”

  “That might explain some of the jobs I never wanted in the first place but took anyway. I could have found work hauling cargo, the Samson had the hookups for it and it would have taken me just a couple days to get the engines up to par. When I was left on my own, running without a moral compass I chose the most available route and didn't want to know the details behind the jobs. Now I have all these memories and the moral code that comes with it. Jonas wouldn't have taken half the jobs I finished, so many of those people had a good reason to run and I'm the one who brought them in, right or wrong.” he leaned on the thick transparent section of hull behind his desk. The nebula outside bathed the room in dim gold.

  Alice watched him from where she sat. The security recordings of him capturing bounties came to mind, she had watched at least twenty of the ones that had surfaced on the Newsnets since he made his first recruiting speech for the Aucharians. She had never thought of who his prey was, what their crimes were. Most of the recordings had been stripped of those details, and the ones that did bear the identities of his targets made them out to be hardened criminals.

  “Reconciliation,” Jake said quietly. “Jonas was a good man, better than I ever was. Ever since I found his memories in my head I've felt like I've been carrying this weight around and the thing I'm most thankful for inheriting from him is his ability to just bury it. I tell you that man must have been good at just pretending nothing was wrong even if the whole place was coming apart.”

  Alice couldn't help but smile a little. “He couldn't hide anything from me or Ayan. She didn't know him nearly as long as I did, but she got him pretty quickly.”

  He leaned his head against the window with his arm as a cushion. “Now that's something I'd never have seen coming. Ayan. When it comes to her and everyone from the First Light I feel exactly the same. I miss Oz, Jason, and especially Minh and Ayan. Then I try and remind myself that I'm Jake Valance, this black hearted hunter and it does no good.”

  Seeing him so frustrated made her wish she could just pull the right thing to say out of the air or consult a few hundred interactive psychological texts as she would have as an artificial intelligence and just guide him to resolving his own issues but she only had one answer for him. “Time. You're grieving, it takes time.”

  Jake sighed and turned around, leaning on the backrest of his desk chair. “You're right, but there is no time, not here. I wouldn't give up the Triton or the crew either, this is what I want to be doing.”

  “What if you could have the best of both worlds? Maybe you could take one of those Uriel Starfighters for a test flight. I can hold down the fort, we're only training anyway.”

  Jake thought for a moment, looking down at the dark, blank surface of his desk. “Maybe.”

  She couldn't help but be surprised. Alice was sure he'd reject the idea immediately. A smile grew on her lips. “I'll get Laura to take your shift on the bridge, she was wondering if she could take one of mine for a while now anyway.”

  “Well, Oz and Jason are still out there too. I'd rather be here when they arrive so I'm pinned to the deck for at least that long.” Jake took his gun belt from the peg beside the ladder and started putting it on.

  “Not going back to bed?”

  “No, I'm wide awake. Think I'll go down and work on the Samson awhile,” he said as he put his long coat on.

  “I'd join you but I have department training reports to go through. Laura's going to be glad you're staying close to the bridge with Oz and Jason still out there. She doesn't let on much, but she's worried.”

  “So am I. I'm just wondering if this idea for me to take a ride isn't some plot of yours to take the Triton for yourself.”

  Alice flashed him a broad grin and winked. “There's only one way to find out for sure.”

  Constructing The Needle

  The mountain hangar bay had been repaired and the rear section, where most servicing and maintenance was performed, was opened up once again. The rush of attackers in the city at the mountain's foot had ground to a temporary halt, and after a well deserved night's sleep Terry Ozark McPatrick had gone to the hangar and taken a seat on an old antigravity tank. A large red sheet had been tied around its main cannon, marking it for scrap.

  He reclined against its cannon mount, sipping his breakfast from a spill proof cup as he watched Minh and Ayan work with a repair crew to build something that was cobbled together from parts gathered from every corner of the hangar and beyond. It was a long, narrow ship with the guts of an old fighter cockpit at the front and seating for three passengers lined up behind. Aside from some cargo space at the rear, those were all the comforts that would be afforded Minh, Ayan, Oz and Jason.

  The hangar deck personnel were building an encasement of heavy armour several centimetres thick around the seating space and installing inertial dampeners that were made for ships twenty times the small transports' mass. They were just finished lowering the Warpig's afterburners into place at the front of the small ship. It was a strange little flyer with no rear thrusters and very high powered solid fuel engines at the front, pointing away from the cockpit.

  “This is the last place I thought I'd find you,” Jason said as he climbed up on the tank beside him and settled in to watch the team work under Minh and Ayan's direction.

  Lalonde, Randolph

  Spinward Fringe Frontline

  Oz smiled at his long time friend and nodded. “I guess it would be, I'm no gearhead.”

  “Seems like everyone else is though. You should see the rail cannon that's go
ing to launch that thing.”

  “I'll pass, this ship is scary enough. Besides, I think I'm here more to keep my eye on the people building it. I still can't believe Minh is here, let alone Ayan.”

  Jason looked to where Minh was crawling out of an access trench under the ship and talking to Ayan. It was something neither of them could hear from where they sat, but it had the young woman laughing. “I know. What do you think of her?”

  “It's her. It may not look exactly like her, but from what she tells me about the Doc disappearing into a wormhole to bring her back, it all makes sense.”

  “There's something about her that is unmistakably Ayan, at least from what I've noticed.”

  Oz nodded slowly. “I only had to talk to her for a minute to know it was her. There's no doubt, and I've only seen her happier once.”

  “On the First Light. I think you could say the same about most of us. The only time that tops it for Laura and I is our wedding day.”

  “What about the honeymoon?”

  “And the honeymoon,” Jason confirmed with a grin.

  “I enjoyed my time as a Captain on patrol.”

  “You know I tried to convince Laura and Ayan to take a few Special Projects initiatives to you. Would have been a good excuse to spend some time aboard.”

  “What happened?”

  “Fleet Intelligence promoted me, told me we wouldn't be able to join you since you were already out there running silent. So, they ended up on the Midland implementing the new dual drive and a few other things.”

  “I can see why Command didn't want the Roi De Ciel off the line, we didn't exactly need speed while we ran silent. Special Projects did send us some important upgrades though.”

  “I know. Do you miss it?”

  “Commanding a cloak ship? All the time. I didn't realize I would until the Sunspire was under way though.”

  “Really? I thought you were feeling at home with the resistance here,” Jason said in mild surprise.

  “I do. There's nothing like having your boots in the dirt, securing tunnels and blowing buildings that might interfere with the shielding apart. Urban and tunnel combat comes with a rush all its own, but given the choice, I think I'd take command of a cloak ship any day. There's nothing like coming out of nowhere, right on top of a Vindyne cruiser and forcing their surrender. Besides, the crew gets really tight when you're running silent for that long.”

  “I see your point. Too bad we didn't serve together on that tour.”

  “You had just been married and I know Laura wouldn't leave Ayan or Special Projects.”

  “Yup, hopefully we'll be able to get this mission off without a hitch so we can send messages to the Carthan government and the Triton. ”

  Oz laughed and shook his head.

  “I said something funny?”

  “No, it's just Alaka. He and his family has a lot of faith that we can do this. I mean, I think we can get it done, the enemy won't see us coming and we'll be moving so fast that nothing will be able to hit us, but getting out after is another question entirely. When the Triton or other help arrives we might be in a hole somewhere hiding from automations and the West Watch. That's if Minh doesn't blink in the wrong millisecond and kill us all.”

  “I don't think Minh will be blinking while he pilots that thing.”

  “I hope not. We're crossing several hundred kilometres in a few seconds. To anyone watching the mountain it'll look like something exploded, then our little ship's going to look like a great big fireball crash landing.”

  “Now you're starting to scare me.”

  “You can thank Alaka's eldest son. Now he's a gear head.”

  “What's it like being in the trenches with Alaka, anyway?”

  “Let's just say that if he crossed the line and joined the other side, I'd seriously consider finding a way, any way, off this planet. He's quiet, quick, can snap a West Keeper's neck with one hand and recognizes where everyone he's leading is most useful faster than I think I could.”

  “That explains why he had you boosted to lead your own platoon after our first day here.”

  “And why you never saw direct combat. He and the Sergeant recognized your skills the first time you talked shop.”

  “Figures, I talk shop a lot,” Jason nodded. “Something Laura complains about, especially since I never get specific.”

  “That would drive me nuts. I like knowing all sides, even when we're just talking.”

  “So does she,” he chuckled. “Every once in a while she just gives me this look. I'm not going to miss having a few dozen Fleet secrets bouncing around in my head every day.”

  “You must miss her.”

  “I do, we've spent time apart before but not like this. We need to get this message out.”

  “I know. I just wonder what Laura's response will be when she sees Ayan and Minh.”

  “Oh, I know what her response will be to that, it's Jake Valance I wonder about. If he has Jonas' memories, and if that plays out anything like it has with Ayan, well,” Jason shrugged. “Honestly? I know what I'm hoping for but not what to expect.”

  Oz nodded his agreement; “Ayan misses him, I mention his name, Jake's or Jonas', and it's like a physical blow. She seemed less emotional before somehow.”

  “She was ill, more focused on reassuring everyone else than anything I think. Now she's healthy and I still see the military brat we all knew and loved but she's more expressive now, seems more alive.”

  “And if Jake doesn't react to her at all,” Oz sighed before continuing. “It'll be bad.”

  “We'll be there for her.”

  “So will Minh. He keeps her laughing, hell, he keeps everyone laughing.”

  “But he's keeping up with her engineering skills and he's changed so much. Before he seemed off balance somehow, now there's something very level about him.”

  “Like he's found some kind of peace,” Oz added, watching Minh disappear into the hull of the twelve meter long ship. “I guess being isolated for so long will break or make you.”

  “Could you imagine?” Jason asked, shaking his head. “All this time. He said he turned the old reactor chamber into some kind of garden, the holo he showed me was amazing.”

  “I'm just glad he's with us. As much as I like to call him crazy, I saw what the Warpig looked like after it hit the deck. The only thing left of it was the cockpit and afterburners. You could tell that he had intentionally kept the ship turned just so the last things to be hit were those two sections.”

  “You know what he said to me when I mentioned it to him?” Jason asked with a grin.

  “No, what'd he say?”

  “'That's why I like to fly a ship with a great big ass!'” Jason quoted, doing his best imitation of the enthusiastic pilot.

  Oz laughed and nodded. “From most pilots that kind of humour might make me nervous, but from him it's just a sign that he's having a good day.”

  “For Minh, I think every day has been a good day since they rescued him.”

  The Message

  The fabrication section of the Triton was easily the loudest place Captain Valance had ever seen or heard. Located above the main hangars it was so large, cavernous that an air temperature and pressure differential whipped the air into a mild gusting wind. Long hoist arms reached over top the mouths of the two materializers at work. They were three meters tall and eight wide with long strips of heavy transparent belting to separate the space where energy was converted to matter from the rest of the massive compartment.

  Some things never changed; heavy equipment still moved on wheels or treads, a good strong length of carbon fibre cable was still better than an antigravity cart for moving awkward and heavy components around and people were still at extreme risk if they didn't know what they were doing inside the fabrication and assembly area of the ship. Jake was careful. He had actually never seen a place that could do so much, that in the space of an hour could convert energy and recycled metals into the cockpit of a Uriel fighter or
a room full of furniture. Further down he could see the transparent barriers that cordoned off a section of the deck for the fabrication of more delicate parts and materials. There were clean rooms down there, smaller materialization suites and a vast collection of shop machinery.

  Deck Chief Vercelli had the fabrication deck running like clockwork. All the processes and safety measures that were practiced had been set out by him and Engineering Chief Grady. When Jake signed off on them he hadn't yet grasped how critical they were. The deck was marked with yellow, black, blue and red boxes and pathways. The yellow and red sections were the most dangerous, the first designating areas where heavy equipment was in occasional operation and the second type of marking was for generally unsafe areas where there could be energy discharges, falling objects or other dangerous activities. The blue sections were safe areas for moving from one section of the deck to another and the black portions of the deck were marked off for temporary storage.

  The high durability, multi layered reinforced carbon nose of a Uriel fighter was being wheeled out of one of the materializers just then and Jake couldn't help but be in awe as the predatory, sharp angled section was guided to the assembly point where other portions of the hull waited to be put together. In less than a day the Triton would have another brand new heavy fighter.

  Chief Vercelli noticed him. “They're fine looking ships once we get them assembled. What brings you down here Captain?”

  “I just thought I should come down and see this part of the ship. I've never seen a mass materializer this size before and after getting the last parts for the Samson I had to see where they came from.”

  “Everything up to spec?”

  “That's just it; the Samson is made mostly from spare parts and what you and Liam sent down just looked too new. Nothing matches, now I'll have to do the whole ship.”