Ep.#5 - Balance (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “Oh yeah.” Josh looked down to his right and opened the panel. Inside was the red lever, right where Loki said it was. “Here we go,” Josh declared as he twisted the lever and pulled.

  There was a distant, mechanical clunk sound and the ship again began to move, gravity pulling it down the steadily increasing decline. The scenery outside began moving past the windows more quickly as the ship picked up speed. He could feel the ship shaking as the dolly, on which it rode, barreled down the launch rails. He glanced at the jump sequencer, noting that it was counting down as expected. “This is wild,” he commented with amusement. “But I thought it would be moving a lot faster than this.”

  “You don’t need much forward momentum to jump to orbit,” Nathan commented. “Just enough to ride up the incline at the end and off the rails so that the dolly will fall away from you before you jump.”

  “What happens to the dolly?” Josh asked as he watched the bottom of the hill race toward him at an ever increasing rate.

  “It falls into the recovery lake below,” Nathan replied.

  “Just like you will if your ship fails to jump,” Loki added.

  “Twenty seconds to the jump,” Josh reported, one eye on the jump sequencer. “Coming to the bottom of the run!” Josh could feel his adrenaline rising, despite the knowledge that it was only a simulation. It just felt so real, he felt himself leaning back in his chair, preparing for the jump. “Bottom of the run! Starting up the ramp!” He watched the forward window as the ship started up the final hill, the sky coming into view. “Oh shit!” he exclaimed, as the tracks disappeared under him and the ship became airborne. A second later, the simulated windows turned opaque and the jump sequencer reached zero. The jump light on the console lit up, indicating that the jump drive had fired. One second later, the windows cleared again and the blue sky was gone, replaced by the starry black void of outer space. “Jump complete!” he exclaimed with excitement. He reached forward and fired his main engines, pushing his throttles to full power. “Good burn on the mains! Launch is complete! Initiating a turn to port and preparing an escape jump! What a fucking ride!”

  Nathan looked at Jessica and Vladimir. “So, I guess Josh won’t be a problem.” He turned to Loki. “Do you want to go next, or should I?”

  * * *

  Robert sat on the white sandy beach, listening to the waves crashing against the shore. He had been sitting in this spot for as long as he could remember, which was strange because he couldn’t recall how he had gotten there.

  He looked around, suddenly realizing that he had no idea where exactly he was. The spot looked familiar, much like the beaches he had grown up around. But those beaches had never been empty. Even during storms, there were always the die-hards that would be out there, bonfire blazing, music blasting, and alcohol flowing. But this beach was absolutely empty. Nothing. No signs that anyone had ever set foot there. No foot prints, no garbage, no burnt out wood.

  Robert turned to look behind him, to see if he could retrace his steps. To his surprise, there were no foot prints leading to the spot in which he sat. There was a breeze, but it certainly wasn’t enough to erase his tracks, at least not in…

  Just how long have I been sitting here?

  A flash of light far out on the water caught his eye. A sail? He couldn’t tell. It came again. A blue-white light? A flash, or a reflection? It came several more times over the next few minutes, yet it did not appear to change position.

  A buoy?

  At least it was a sign of something. Robert looked up at the sky; brilliant blue, with only a few fluffy white clouds drifting by. Birds floated about, riding endless currents of air as they scoured the beach for sustenance.

  He noticed that he was not wearing a uniform. Instead, he was dressed in swim trunks, tank top, and flip-flops, with sunglasses and a cap to complete his ensemble. The color of the water, the temperate climate, the pristine sands… Wherever he was, it was a tropical environment, that much he was sure of. Then why am I so cold?

  Robert could feel the sun beating down on his skin. If anything, he should be hot. But he felt cold, quite cold in fact.

  And what is that beeping sound?

  Robert looked around for the source of the sound, but it seemed to be coming from all directions. He stood up, wrapping his arms around his body to ward off the frigid temperatures.

  This can’t be happening, he thought. This doesn’t make sense.

  Robert’s eyes popped open, the repeated beeping finally waking him. He looked around. The SAR shuttle. Running cold. It all came back to him.

  A message.

  Robert sat up, leaned forward and pulled his flight seat back into position. The comms panel showed a new message, one that had been transmitted from a nearby jump comm-drone only moments ago. He accessed the message and entered the encryption key. The message played out across his screen as it decoded, one word at a time.

  Time to go, he thought, reaching for the reactor console to begin the startup process.

  * * *

  Nathan climbed up the access ladder into the Seiiki’s cockpit, squeezing in beside Loki who was sitting at the auxiliary station just behind Neli. “How’s it going?” he asked no one in particular.

  “They’re doing pretty well,” Loki replied.

  “We’re not doing anything,” Marcus insisted. “Just watching the displays, and watching the windows fog up and clear, and fog up and clear, and fog up and clear, and…”

  “I get the idea,” Nathan said.

  “How was your VR training?” Loki asked.

  “Did three cycles. Flubbed one, but only because Vlad threw a low power issue in the jump drive at me at the last moment.”

  “Did you end up in the lake?” Loki wondered.

  “No. I tried firing the mains like Josh, and ended up slamming into the far shore.”

  “Survivable?”

  “Hell no.”

  “You realize what you did wrong?” Loki wondered, already knowing the answer himself.

  “Yup, after I was already dead. Electrically accelerated propulsion systems don’t work very well when your main power is low.”

  “Who’s up now?” Loki asked.

  “Josh is doing another run, then it’s your turn,” Nathan explained. “Jess is running the sim, so they shouldn’t be as hard. I don’t think she knows how to throw curve balls at us.”

  “Where’s Vlad?” Loki wondered.

  “He and Dalen needed to get back to work on converting the Seiiki back into the Mirai.” Nathan turned to Marcus. “He could use your help, if you don’t mind taking a break from piloting.”

  “Sure,” Marcus replied. “Watching this ship jump again and again is boring. And it makes my teeth hurt even worse from up here.”

  “You can take a break, as well,” Nathan told Loki. “I can keep an eye on Neli for awhile.”

  “Sounds good,” Loki agreed, rising from his seat.

  Nathan moved out of Loki’s way, staying as far to the port side of the cramped cockpit while first Loki, then Marcus passed by and headed down the access ladder to the main deck below. He moved into the pilot’s seat on the left, and sat down. He looked around at the display, letting out a sigh. “It seems like forever since I’ve sat up here.”

  “I guess so,” Neli replied. “Jump forty-seven, in thirty seconds.”

  “So, how are you holding up, Nel?”

  “I’m okay, Connor… I mean, Nathan.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t mind being called Connor, if it makes you feel better. I still am Connor Tuplo, after all. I think in some way, part of me always will be.”

  “It was just a slip of the tongue, really,” Neli insisted. “I don’t mind calling you Nathan. It is your real name, after all.” She looked at him. “Now that you’ve shaved and
all, you do seem more like Nathan than Connor. Are you letting it grow back?”

  “Not on purpose,” Nathan admitted. “I just haven’t had a chance to shave lately.”

  “You might want to keep a little stubble going. It makes you look older.”

  “I’ll remember that.” Nathan looked over the flight data displays. “Are you getting the hang of this?”

  “Not really,” she replied. The windows turned opaque and the jump sequencer triggered the next jump. “Jump forty-seven, complete.”

  “You don’t need to announce all the jumps, you know.”

  “Marcus said the same thing. It must run in the family. But Loki taught me to, so…”

  “Loki likes procedure.”

  “So do I,” she admitted. “At least when I’m doing this. To be honest, this scares the hell out of me. Jumping light years at a time, over and over again. I’m always afraid we’re going to come out in the middle of a star, or in front of a black hole or something.”

  “Yeah, not fun,” Nathan commented, remembering the last time he made the journey from the Pentaurus sector back to Earth. “Don’t worry, Neli. We’re flying a completely charted jump course. There won’t be any surprises.”

  “Still, announcing each jump makes me feel better. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No problem,” Nathan replied.

  “Position has been confirmed. Jump forty-eight has been calculated. Jumping in one minute.”

  Nathan sat quietly, his eyes darting around the displays, checking that his ship was functioning properly and that the multi-jump system was doing its job. The Seiiki rarely did more than ten or twenty jumps in a series. She’d never had the need. At least not until recently. But her auto-jump system was working perfectly, thanks to Vladimir’s efforts since joining his crew. In fact, his ship had never been in better shape.

  For a brief moment, he wondered what it would be like if the situation was different. His crew, with the addition of Vlad, Jessica, and Cameron, jumping all over the lost colonies of Earth in the Seiiki, bringing jump drive technology to everyone. He wondered what the galaxy would be like, if every human civilization had jump drives. He imagined vast networks of jump ships, moving people and goods between every inhabited world in the Milky Way.

  Or beyond? After all, if the jump drive could be made to jump repeatedly, over hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of jumps, could they travel to yet another galaxy?

  Nathan laughed to himself. It was a ridiculous idea. The Andromeda galaxy was something like two point five million light years away. With the Seiiki’s limited jump range, it would take more than a billion jumps, at a jump every few minutes, to get there. They couldn’t even get there within their own lifetime.

  An automated ship, maybe? With SA pods?

  “Jump forty-eight, in thirty seconds,” Neli announced.

  Nathan shook off his silly daydreams of intergalactic exploration, turning his attention to the task at hand. A quick scan of his displays told him everything was as it should be for the next jump. Once again, the windows of the Seiiki turned opaque and the jump drive activated.

  “Jump forty-eight, complete,” Neli announced. “I’m showing an overheat warning on the starboard jump field generator’s energy transfer bus.” She looked at Nathan. “Should I pause the jump sequencer?”

  “As soon as it verifies our position, yes. It’ll cool down in about ten minutes,” Nathan assured her.

  “Is it supposed to do that?” she wondered.

  “It isn’t really designed to do so many jumps in a row.”

  “We were trying for fifty jumps before taking a break,” she admitted.

  “It might help if we dialed down the jump range a bit, and took a few minutes to accelerate.”

  “Marcus was the one doing the piloting,” Neli admitted.

  “No problem. I’ll do it.” Nathan made some quick calculations in his head and then checked them on the flight computer. To his surprise, his mental calculations were correct. A few touches to the flight displays, and the auto-flight systems, and the Seiiki’s main engines were burning at fifty percent. “We don’t want to accelerate too much, or we’re going to have to burn more propellant to slow down when we get to the rally point.”

  “Where exactly is the rally point?” Neli wondered.

  “Need to know basis,” Nathan replied. “Besides, I doubt you’d recognize the name even if I could tell you.”

  “You people love your secrets, don’t you?”

  “Actually, I pretty much don’t,” Nathan admitted.

  “Position is verified,” Neli reported. “Pausing the jump sequencer.” She looked at him again. “That comes as a surprise.”

  “I hate secrets. Growing up, my family was full of them. Always putting on a proper front for the media. Hiding all our ugly truths from public eye. I just hated it.”

  “You had ugly truths?”

  “Everybody does,” Nathan insisted. “Even if they don’t want to admit it.”

  “What’s yours?” Neli asked.

  Nathan looked at her.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

  “No, that’s alright.” Nathan thought for a moment as he looked at the stars outside his window. “I guess my ugly truth is that I don’t want to be a leader. I’ll do it. I can’t help myself. It’s who I am, even if it’s not who I want to be.”

  Neli was surprised. “Who do you want to be?”

  Nathan thought for another moment. “You know, I’ve always been jealous of the guy that can just go about his business, happy in his little bubble of a world. You know the type. The guy who doesn’t really have any great aspirations. He just wants a happy life. The kind of guy whose only excitement is watching sporting events or something.”

  “Your average, working-class guy, then,” Neli said.

  “Yeah. They always seem so happy, like all the terrible things going on in the galaxy don’t really exist.”

  Now it was Neli who thought for a moment. “Did you ever imagine that guy might be looking at you, wishing that he had your life?”

  “If they knew the truth, they wouldn’t.”

  “Don’t be so sure, Nathan. Everyone wants to be a hero.”

  “I’m not a hero, Neli. I’m a figure head. I’m a poster boy for the rebellion. A recruiting gimmick.”

  “You regularly put your life at risk for others,” Neli reminded him. “Isn’t that what heroes do?”

  “So do you,” Nathan replied, trying to deflect the spotlight from himself. “You, and everyone else aboard.”

  “We’re just following your lead, Nathan.”

  Nathan looked at her. “Why?”

  “Well… To be honest, I don’t know. Marcus and Josh believe in you. Dalen, well, he’s young. He just wants excitement.”

  “And you?”

  Neli shrugged. “I go where Marcus goes.”

  Nathan smiled. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

  “It’s not always an easy thing to do,” she admitted. “But yeah, I guess I do.”

  “Yeah, he takes some getting used to,” Nathan agreed.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” Nathan assured her.

  “Do you know anything about Marcus, from before you met him? As Nathan, I mean.”

  “Not much. I know he raised Josh when Josh’s mother died. And I know he has gone by more than one name in the past. And I know that he has been involved with some nefarious types in the past, but that’s it. But none of that really matters, because what I do know is that I can trust him with my life, just as you can.”

  “I’m not so sure.”

  “I am. As gruff as he likes to come across, there’s a good guy deep inside of him.” />
  “Really deep,” Neli commented. “The temps are back to normal on that energy transfer bus.”

  Nathan shut down the main engines. “Go ahead and start the jump sequencer again,” he instructed.

  “What about our speed?” Neli asked. “Do I need to adjust anything?”

  “The auto-sequencer will reassess our flight data and adjust the jump drive to maintain the same distance per jump based on our new speed.”

  Neli shook her head.

  “What?” Nathan asked.

  “I always imagined this as being a lot more complicated.”

  “It’s not,” Nathan admitted, “until something goes wrong,” he added with a grin.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The windows on Robert’s shuttle cleared as the ship came out of its final jump in the series. Before him lay the once inhabited planet, Tanna, shrouded in the same swirling haze of dust and ash that had clouded its atmosphere since the Jung had wiped almost all life from its surface nearly eight years ago.

  The sight of the world he had once fought, and failed, to defend stirred up more emotions in him than he had expected. He had spent months on Tanna, training crews to fly the original Cobra gunships being built there. He had grown close to those men, and to the Tannan culture itself. Those three months on Tanna had been the most he had spent on the surface of any world since he had first left Earth in an FTL scout ship more than twenty years earlier.

  The Tannans had been a proud people, with a unique culture. They had been some of the warmest, most genuine people he had ever known. And now, the survivors of their world were scattered among the core worlds. All that was left of their culture were the various “Little Tanna” neighborhoods that popped up in every city in which the survivors had settled.

  Robert had meant to visit at least one of those neighborhoods over the years, but had never gotten around to it. Now, he wished he had. The last emergency workers left the surface six years ago, so he didn’t know what he was going to see when he broke through those clouds.