by Jeff Kirvin
“Half the launch bay is missing!” Jack said. “The ship’s coming apart!”
Another delay, then, “I know! The reactor has taken too much damage. The tunnel drive is totaled, and we have no AG or insystem propulsion! The remnants of the tunnel effect are tearing the ship apart!”
“Get down here!” Jack said as he eased his armored form into the control chair. “We’re leaving.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Jabari answered, “get the other shuttles out first. It’s all I can do here to hold the ship together. I’m tied into the pilot’s neural interface couch. Envoy’s a lot bigger than the transport mechs I jacked in training, but she’s manageable. As soon as I leave, Envoy will shake apart!”
Jack stared at the radio, then turned his attention to another control panel. As a safety feature for just such occasions, the shuttles all had an emergency override feature than allowed the entire group to be controlled remotely from any shuttle. Jack engaged this feature, then began moving the shuttles out of the launch bay in something resembling an orderly manner. In the microgravity, a slight touch on the thrusters was all that was needed to get most of the ships clear of Envoy.
As Jack tended to this task, he noticed the tremors shaking the Envoy increasing in intensity and frequency. With or without Jabari’s intervention, the ship was shaking itself apart.
Finally, only Jack’s shuttle remained. He turned to the radio again. “Jabari!”
There was no reply.
“Sergeant Major!” Jack shouted into the microphone.
Nothing. Robyn put her hand on Jack’s shoulder just as another mammoth quake racked the ship. “She’s gone,” Robyn said. “Let’s make her sacrifice mean something.”
Jack nodded, and fired the thrusters that would take the shuttle out of the ruined launch bay and into space.
Clear of the ship, Jack brought the rear camera view up on the monitor. Great holes had been ripped out of Envoy’s once unbroken sphere, and gouts of fire shot from rents in the hull. The great ship quivered, shook, and collapsed in on itself, leaving only a small and irregular hunk of metal smaller than one of the shuttles.
Turning his attention back to the front viewscreen and the view of Earth, Jack moved aside and let Robyn pilot the shuttle home.
Inquisition
Volume 5
The Story So Far: Humanity’s first interstellar ship, the Envoy, has been destroyed following a disastrous first contact with a theropod-like alien species. Major Jack Killian and Lieutenant Robyn O’Reilly of the Terran Republic Marines were able to return to Earth and save nearly half the colonists, but the mission was a devastating failure and a massive setback in the 200-year old program to relocate some of Earth’s twenty billion humans. Someone is going to have to answer for that.
***
“Right this way, Major.”
It was the first time Jack had ever been subjected to a formal inquest, and he wasn’t sure what to expect. Even after Mars, there’d been nothing like this. They’d barely given him time to change into his dark brown dress uniform after landing before they ushered him into an elegant courtroom. He was told to stand behind a podium facing a long table with four seats, then he was left alone.
The far door opened and a sergeant came through. The man snapped to attention and then shouted, “Marine! Ten hut!”
Jack stood at attention, moving only his eyes as the members of the panel that would question him walked into the room and took their seats.
The first was James Staten, the President of the Terran Republic. Staten was a tall man with an almost regal bearing. Jack had worked closely with him on Mars and thought well of him. The man was a civilian, but he was strong. He had handled himself well on Mars and had fought to get Jack on board the Envoy. Jack took his presence as a good sign.
The next person through the door was Elaine Takemura, the president’s science advisor. Takemura was a genius, generally regarded as the next Hawking or Singh. She was dressed in a severely tailored black suit, and moved almost like a bird, with quick, precise motions, uncomfortably reminding Jack of the Saurians.
Behind Takemura was Thomas Gosnell, the president’s political advisor. Jack had met him before and didn’t like the man. He may have been a political genius that got his boss reelected after Mars, but Jack still thought of him as a toad. The man was short and fat, and despite his obvious wealth wore an ill-fitting brown suit. Jack tried to shake off his feelings. He wasn’t the first soldier that disliked politicians.
Last into the room was General Orlando Cheung, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As all four took their seats, General Cheung said, “At ease, Major.”
Jack relaxed his stance just a bit, falling into parade rest. He clasped his hands behind his back and waited.
President Staten took out a small pair of reading glasses, an archaic affectation that voters seemed to like. It had always bugged Jack. Staten consulted a slate on the desk in front of him, bringing up some text. “Jack, good to see you again,” he said, looking up from his notes.
“You too, sir.”
“Let’s not beat around the bush, Jack,” Staten said. “Somebody fucked up out there.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’ve read your report,” the president continued, referring to the brief notes Jack had managed to compile on the way down to Earth from Envoy’s tunnel point just inside Luna’s orbit. “It doesn’t paint a glowing picture of Captain Chenzokov.”
“No sir, it doesn’t.”
Gosnell looked increasingly irritated in his seat. Staten seemed aware of it, but content not to acknowledge him just yet.
“But in point of fact,” Staten said, “we have managed to confirm very little of what you report. Chenzokov never sent us any word of aliens and none of the colonists we’ve talked to so far ever saw one. We’re going to need a little more to go on, Jack. The Envoy was the work of two hundred years, the pinnacle of human achievement. Now it’s a ball of scrap metal. The public is going to want some answers.”
“It’s all in my report, sir. We set down on New Eden, started scouting colony sites. At our first location, we observed an intelligent, technological alien race with dinosaur-like characteristics. I informed Captain Chenzokov, and he decided to make first contact on his own and against my advice. The aliens reacted badly and we had to bug out.”
General Cheung leaned forward. “Reacted badly, Major?”
“It was weird, sir. The Saurians were cautious, but not overtly threatening as we approached. They had their weapons pointed to the sky rather than trained on our vehicle, even though the big mechs could have taken us out without waiting for us to make a move. They were quiet, just waiting. It wasn’t until Captain Chenzokov rounded the back of the vehicle and came into view that they reacted.”
“And for the record, what was that reaction, Major?”
“They went apeshit, sir. They fired on us immediately, screaming and hooting like it was the end of the world.”
Elaine Takemura spoke up. “I’m not sure we can make any suppositions from their vocalizations, Major, without knowing what their language is like. What seemed like screaming to you may have been little more than tactical direction. I am interested in the timing, however. You say they didn’t open fire until they actually saw Chenzokov?”
“That’s correct, ma’am.”
“Did Captain Chenzokov do anything they might have found threatening?”
“Not that I could see, ma’am.”
“Interesting. So you would say that the reaction they expressed towards our technology was radically different from the way they reacted to seeing us in the flesh?”
“That was my observation, ma’am.”
“Major,” said General Cheung, “tell me more about what happened once you returned to the Envoy. What did you observe about the alien vessels?”
“Dangerous, sir. I couldn’t judge their size very well, but they were big. They seemed use the same tunnel effect
we use, and also used it to incorporate a mass driver.”
Cheung nodded. “And their first shot missed you?”
“Yes, sir. I guessed from the sudden gravity spike what they were doing. It occurred to me that if I could put the gravity field of the Envoy between us, it might alter the trajectory of the asteroid.”
“Excellent call, Major. That seems to have made the difference in making it home,” said General Cheung.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Major Killian,” said Takemura, “how long did it take to execute the tunnel?”
Jack had to think about that. “Less than a minute, if I recall, ma’am.”
“And the aliens were both watching you the entire time?”
“Presumably, ma’am.”
“And you tunneled straight to Earth, is that correct?”
Where’s she going with this? Jack wondered. “Yes, ma’am.”
Takemura turned to Staten. “Mister President, there might be a problem. If the aliens thought to observe and measure the direction and intensity of our tunnel, they might have been able to determine where it terminated.”
“So the aliens might know our location?” said Staten.
“They would not know it’s our home system, but they might want to check it out eventually.”
Gosnell snorted again. The president sat back, nodding to him.
Gosnell leaned forward, his jowly flesh lapping over his collar. “Major Killian, you didn’t get along very well with Captain Chenzokov, did you?”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. What did that have to do with the Saurians? “No, I did not. But I don’t see—”
“In fact,” Gosnell interrupted, “we have numerous accounts from technicians, colonists, even your own troops that you argued frequently with the captain. Is that correct?”
“We had differences of opinion, and we voiced them. Sir.”
“Differences of opinion.” Gosnell sat back in his chair, the wood creaking. “You were actually against the Envoy Project from the beginning, weren’t you, Major?”
“I support the initiatives of the Terran Republic, Mister Gosnell.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Because you see, I was worried about that. I seem to remember you having gone on record as saying that, what was it?” He tapped his finger a few times on the slate in front of him, summoning up the quotation he was looking for. “Ah, here it is. You said, and I quote, ‘Colony domes can still work. Using Envoy to search for habitable planets is a mistake.’ End quote. That sounds to me like you were opposed to the Envoy Project.”
Jack took a deep breath. “No sir, not at all.”
“But in your own words—”
“I was against limiting our search to worlds that had no need of terraforming. I felt it was slow and inefficient.”
“I’ll thank you not to interrupt me, Major.
“You were against the Envoy, but somehow you convinced us all to let you on board. We knew you were dangerous after you nearly got the president killed on Mars, and still we gave you a second chance.
“And now, you’d have us believe that you just happened to fail again, even more spectacularly, and you just happened to be one of the few survivors despite being at the heart of the conflict and you just happened to make it home while the man you despised and the project you opposed are both dead?”
It took all of Jack’s self control not to leap over the podium and kill Thomas Gosnell. It would be so easy, so satisfying, to snap the man’s corpulent neck. But instead he centered himself and looked to the president.
Staten was focused on his slate. Jack didn’t know what he could possibly be reading, but the president seemed oblivious to the proceedings.
“Major Killian? Is that what we are to believe?” Gosnell asked.
“No, sir,” Jack said. “I stand by my report.”
“Your report,” Gosnell repeated. “You mean this fiction about aliens and starships? Please, Major. Don’t insult us by making us discuss this further.”
“It’s not fiction, sir.”
Gosnell sneered, making his face even less pleasing. “Then why did Captain Chenzokov never communicate any of this to us? Why is this the first we’ve heard of it? Doesn’t it stand to reason that a man about to make first contact with an alien race would have called home for advice?”
Jack wondered if Gosnell had ever met Chenzokov. “It would, sir. But I’m not surprised Chenzokov never did. He had a flair for the dramatic, and I’m sure he wanted to wait until he could claim the glory for himself.”
Gosnell shook his head. “Not very sporting, is it, Major, to speak ill of the dead? Captain Chenzokov isn’t here to defend himself.”
Finally Gosnell stood. “But that’s the point, isn’t it, Major. The dead tell no tales, right? So when you and your Marines tried a military coup and it went bad, you had to make sure there were no witnesses.”
So that’s what this is about, Jack thought. Gosnell wants to set me up as the fall guy. “There was no coup, Mister Gosnell. As much as I may have wanted to remove Chenzokov from power, I did my job as a Marine and as Envoy’s head of security.”
Gosnell snorted. “Don’t try to hide behind the flag. We all know what happened out there.”
“There was no coup. I was there. You were not.”
“I know you were, Major. And I—”
“And with all due respect, sir,” Jack continued. “Humanity has a new enemy. The Saurians are out there, they might be able to find their way here, and I think we all have more important things to do than cover our political asses while trying to throw some Marines under the bus.”
“I warned you not to interrupt me, Major.” Gosnell addressed the rest of the panel. “I move that Major Killian be placed under arrest, on charges of murder, attempted murder, mutiny and treason. This man has scuttled decades of work, wasted trillions of dollars and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of good men and women that only wanted to serve the Terran Republic.”
President Staten said nothing for a long moment. Gosnell turned to him, breathing hard from the exertion.
The president looked up from his slate. “I’m sorry, Jack, but charges have been made. We have to see this through. MPs, take Major Killian into custody, bearing validation of the charges against him.”
***
Commander Amanda Vogel was having a rough day.
The TRS Hyperion was cruising through the asteroid belt, ten days out of Io Station. They were looking for a pirate vessel that had been hijacking ore shipments back to Mars. The belt had been a haven for ore pirates for generations, but Amanda was proud to say that there had been a noticeable decline since the Hyperion was dispatched to roust them out.
This one was tough, though. Hyperion was a frigate, predating the tunnel drive or even rotational gravity. The old boat was sturdy enough, but she lacked the sensor packages on the newer boats. Amanda had to get a lot closer to her prey to see them than the distance at which some of the newer, wealthier pirates could see her.
This one was cagey. They’d had just a few contacts over the past few days, but nothing solid. Just when she thought they had something, it vanished into mist.
She pounded her fist against the armrest of her command couch, forcing her torso against the harness in the microgravity. Then she made herself relax, shaking her head and feeling the short russet hair sway a bit next to her head. Have to get that cut soon, too, she thought.
“Conn, Radar!” shouted Petty Officer Beaumont, her ECO. “Contact, bearing two seven three, mark three four up plane.”
Wow, Amanda thought. How’d we miss that? The directional bearing the ECO had given was almost directly left of the Hyperion, and a bit above them, 34 degrees above the plane of the solar system. “Roger, Radar. What do we have, Mister Beaumont?”
“It looks like our boy, ma’am. Hard to say for sure, but it’s the right size and shape and doesn’t move like a rock.”
“Excellent. Helm, prepare to come about. We’r
e not losing him again.” Patrolling the belt wasn’t as glamorous as people back home thought it was, Amanda knew. It wasn’t like the vids. The rocks were scattered hundreds of miles from each other even at their densest, usually hundreds of thousands of miles away. Hyperion didn’t have to dodge anything, but it was a challenge to pick the enemy spacecraft out of the radar clutter. It wasn’t all that difficult for a canny pirate to make his metal boat look like just another iron rock.
“Helm, aye, ma’am.”
This is more like it, Amanda thought. Now we’ve got the bas—
“Commander, incoming message, Gold channel,” said Ensign Perez, her communications officer.
“Not now, not now,” Amanda said. “Helm, all ahead full. Let’s get ‘em.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
Amanda felt the change in inertia push her back into her seat. The Hyperion had kicked in her fusion engines and they were accelerating at full speed.
“Conn, Radar!” shouted Beaumont. “Contact is rabbiting!”
The pirate yacht had stopped pretending to be a rock and was fleeing. This was the part Amanda loved the most. The chase. Running down the bad guys. And if the son of a bitch had a hold full of ore, he wouldn’t be able to accelerate or turn as fast as the Hyperion. It would all be over soon.
“Conn, Radar! Target is accelerating. He’s getting away, ma’am.”
Or not, Amanda thought. Why wasn’t this ever easy?
Amanda brought up her tactical display and looked at the field of battle. There was precious little to work with, only a few asteroids remotely close to her or the enemy. But she saw something.
“Helm, adjust course, one two degrees to port.”
“That will take us off his tail, ma’am.”
“I know, just do it.”
“Aye, ma’am.”
Amanda turned to Ensign Wilcox at Weapons Control. “Weapons, I want two firing solutions, and I need them now. Feeding the data to your station.” Amanda touched her intended targets on her console and sent the data to the weapons station. She saw Wilcox’s bushy eyebrows go up, but he got to work.
“Weapons, you may fire when ready.”