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

by Ryk Brown

  “As do I, Mister President.”

  The president turned and headed back to his vehicle as Miri bid Deliza farewell, as well.

  “We will monitor the comm exchange point for word from you,” she assured them. “Safe travels.”

  “Thank you,” Deliza replied. She waited for Miri to get into the vehicle before turning and heading for the Seiiki.

  The last of the ground crew came down the cargo ramp and climbed into their now empty trucks, and drove away.

  “We may have a problem,” Josh told Deliza as she came up the ramp. He looked up the ramp at the cargo bay, which was packed full of supplies provided by the NAU as a gesture of support.

  “We’ll just have to jump back to Tanna and offload it,” Deliza said.

  “It’s going to be cutting it close,” Josh warned. “I really wish you would’ve given us a heads up on this.”

  “I didn’t know until we were already on our way here,” Deliza replied. She reached the top of the ramp, taking in the full view of the cargo. “Maybe we can move some of it inside?”

  “The inside is stuffed, as well,” Marcus said. “There’s hardly enough room to get around.”

  “We’re barely going to be able to get off the ground,” Josh added. “If they don’t give us permission to jump clear of Earth’s gravity well instead of burning propellant to get there, we’ll be lucky to have enough to land on Tanna, let alone get back up and recover the jump sub.”

  “I’m sure we can transfer propellant from one of the ships on Tanna,” Deliza assured him.

  “Better we get the jump clearance,” Josh insisted.

  “I’ll make a call and see what I can do,” Deliza promised. “Meanwhile, let’s get buttoned-up and ready for departure.”

  * * *

  Aiden could barely keep his eyes open. He had been staring at the Cobra-D operations manual for hours, after spending a full day running drills in their actual ship. The Cobra-D was the most automated version to date. It literally could fly itself, if given permission. It even had the ability to jump back to base on its own, should the crew become incapacitated.

  It was a gunship with training wheels.

  Aiden put his data pad down and rubbed his eyes, rising when a knock came at his door. He opened the door and found Kenji standing in the hallway. “What’s going on?”

  “Just checking on you,” Kenji replied, entering Aiden’s room. “You studying the manual, like you promised?”

  “Yes, mother, I’m doing my homework,” Aiden mocked as he plopped down on his bunk.

  “What’s the problem?” Kenji asked, noticing his friend’s frustration.

  “It’s too damned automated,” Aiden insisted. “I could literally fly an entire mission without ever touching the flight controls!”

  “Auto-flight can respond faster than we can, Aiden. Using it gives us all a better chance of staying alive.”

  “If it’s so damned good, why do they even need crews? Why not just use drones?”

  “Because drones can’t fix themselves,” Kenji replied. “And they can’t take over if the auto-flight fails, or if the ship encounters a situation the auto-flight isn’t programmed to handle. It doesn’t have an AI, you know.”

  Aiden suddenly sat up. “That’s what I’m talking about! How am I supposed to manually fly a ship with any level of competency, if they never let me do it to maintain competency?”

  “You’ve already demonstrated competency at manual flight, Aiden. That’s why the training sims didn’t emphasize using the auto-flight systems. Hell, you flew the sims better than anyone. Now, it’s about proving you can operate the ship the way command wants you to operate the ship, and that is by using auto-flight. Prove to them you can keep your hands off the flight controls and operate your ship according to procedures, and they’ll let us launch.”

  “They’ll let us launch no matter what,” Aiden insisted. “They need to get the ships into orbit, and they’re short on crews. That’s how I managed to get in, remember? Besides, they’ll just yank me as soon as we dock at the ready base.”

  “I don’t get you, Aiden,” Kenji exclaimed. “You say you want to fly. You say you want to go into space. All you have to do is use the auto-flight and you’re there.”

  “Riding in a computer-controlled warship, right into battle.”

  “You can take manual control whenever you’d like,” Kenji reminded him.

  “And the Alliance will question every instance where I do,” Aiden argued.

  “You’re exaggerating things again.”

  “I don’t know, Kenji.”

  Kenji sighed. “Look, just run through the drills a few more times so that they’re automatic…just to be sure we pass the pre-launch sim testing in the morning.”

  “I can pass them,” Aiden insisted.

  “By a few seconds margin, yes,” Kenji agreed. “But you need to pass them with a much better margin than everyone else. You can’t risk giving Commander Bastyan an excuse to can you.”

  Aiden sighed, looking at the clock on the wall. “It’s zero one hundred, Kenji.”

  “That gives us seven hours before pre-launches.”

  “What about sleep?”

  “We can sleep after we reach the ready base.”

  Aiden smiled. He knew Kenji would keep his position, even if Aiden got canned. He might even take command of Cobra Three Eight Three. Yet he was willing to stay up all night to help Aiden pass their final pre-launch simulation tests. They had only known each other a few months, but Kenji Lowen had become the best friend Aiden ever had. “Alright, let’s do it,” Aiden agreed, rising to his feet. “But can we get some coffee first?”

  * * *

  Jessica stared out across the ocean from their vantage point on the hillside, just north of Harris Cove. It was a typical day on the Florida coast, and it felt good to wear a bikini again. Jessica had grown up on these very shores and she felt at home here, more than anywhere else she had lived.

  Nathan, on the other hand, looked completely out of place in swim trunks and tank top. Between the two of them, any Floridian would peg them as tourists, if not for her faded tan then definitely for his complete lack thereof. Nathan was as pale as could be.

  “I really miss this place,” Jessica commented as she stared at the pounding surf.

  “I can see why,” Nathan said, also admiring the beauty of the ocean. “It’s strange…such complete opposites, and yet so similar.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jessica asked.

  “Oceans are huge bodies of water, with mass and currents, carrying entire ecosystems within them. Those at the poles are completely different than those at the equator. The oceans contain enormous amounts of life, and energy, just like space. We sail ships on, and within, the ocean, just like we do in space. Space has gravity currents. Space has entire ecosystems, each one unique. Each one vastly different than the others, yet many sharing multiple similarities. Different, yet the same, really.”

  “You always get this way when you’re sleep-deprived?” Jessica wondered.

  “I slept fine,” Nathan insisted. “I just haven’t seen an ocean—not a real one, anyway—for a long time. It makes you think.”

  “Over there,” Jessica said, nodding to their right. “That looks like Abby and her family.”

  “I wasn’t sure she’d show up,” Nathan admitted.

  “She’s got a tail,” Jessica added. “Two goons in uniform on the ridge.”

  “You think they follow her everywhere?” Nathan wondered.

  “No, but they probably do if she takes her entire family somewhere,” Jessica explained. “I’m sure Galiardi is worried about her skipping out or, even worse, about Jung operatives.”

  “You think they know what we’re up
to?” Nathan asked.

  “Doubtful,” Jessica said. “Even if Galiardi has spies in your father’s administration that reported us as having spoken to the president, guessing that we’re going to try to recruit Abby would be a hell of a leap. The most I would expect would be increased security everywhere, which I haven’t seen any indications of.”

  “What’s the plan?”

  Jessica looked around, failing to spot any other escorts. “All we’re doing is talking to some people on the beach,” she finally said. “No crime in that, right?”

  “I just figured you’d want to take them out, or something.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Nathan. Besides, we don’t even know if she’s willing to go with us yet. And, for the record, I don’t plan on killing anyone. Not if I don’t have to.”

  “Well, that’s good to know,” Nathan replied.

  Jessica suddenly changed her expression. “Let’s go for a walk on the beach, honey.”

  “Sure, sweetie,” he replied without hesitation. He was really starting to get the hang of this game.

  * * *

  General Telles walked up to the Seiiki as she landed just outside the hangar at the abandoned evacuation center on Tanna, bracing himself against her thruster wash. Before her engines had even begun to spool down, her cargo ramp was lowering.

  The general moved around to the back of the ship, as her engines wound down, just in time to see Marcus and Dalen coming down the ramp dragging large cargo crates. “It might have been better to pull the ship inside,” he said. “You cannot survive more than fifteen minutes outside with these radiation levels.”

  “We don’t plan on being here that long,” Marcus insisted.

  Deliza and Yanni came down the ramp next, carrying the smaller boxes that President Scott had brought for Nathan.

  “President Scott gave us a going-away present,” Deliza said. “Unfortunately that didn’t leave enough room for the jump sub.”

  “I see.” General Telles tapped his comm-set. “Telles to all Ghatazhak. Report to the front of the hangar, immediately.”

  “Where should we stack this crap?” Marcus asked.

  “Bottom of the ramp, Mister Taggart,” General Telles replied. “We’ll take it from there.”

  “Orders, General?” Master Sergeant Anwar asked as he approached from the hangar door.

  “We need to get this ship unloaded as quickly as possible, Master Sergeant…starting with the cargo bay.”

  “We’ll get right on it, sir.”

  General Telles turned to Deliza. “We’ll have her unloaded in no time,” he assured her. “Did you receive word from Captain Scott and Lieutenant Nash?”

  “Only that they are due at the recovery point, on schedule,” Deliza replied.

  “No word on Doctor Sorenson?”

  “They didn’t say.”

  * * *

  Abby knelt on the blanket on the beach, unpacking the picnic lunch they had brought, while her husband and their two teenage children explored the nearby tide pools. She stopped suddenly when her daughter squealed, looking in the child’s direction only to see her older brother waving a sea creature of some sort in front of his sister’s face.

  That’s when she noticed the young couple in swimsuits coming toward her. At first, she thought nothing of them. Beaches here were rarely unoccupied. But she was expecting Nathan and Jessica to make contact with her. That’s when it clicked.

  Abby looked at the couple again, realizing it was Nathan and Jessica. She looked at her husband and children, still undecided on what to do.

  “Why so surprised?” Jessica asked as they approached.

  Abby didn’t respond.

  “What is it, Abby?” Nathan asked.

  “I didn’t talk to them yet,” she admitted.

  “Not even your husband?” Nathan wondered.

  “How did you get them to come?” Jessica asked.

  “They love the tide pools,” she answered, looking past Nathan and Jessica at her family having fun together. “And I’m going to ask them to never see them again.”

  “There are many other wondrous things to see in the universe,” Nathan pointed out. “The planet Paradar has three moons, all in orbits half the distance of Earth’s moon. It has an ocean that wraps around the entire planet. It’s like a giant river that encircles it along the equator. Those moons cause crazy tide patterns. The tide pools there are like ones you’ve never dreamed.”

  “So, I’m supposed to sell them on the idea of leaving their homeworld just because of some tide pools a thousand light years away?”

  “No, you’re supposed to sell them on the idea that going with us will save millions of lives, possibly billions, both in the Pentaurus sector and the Sol sector,” Nathan explained.

  “And what about my husband?” Abby asked. “He’s finally got a career he loves, and now I’m going to ask him to give that up?” Abby looked frustrated. “It’s not fair,” she said, looking up at Nathan.

  “I used to ask myself the same thing,” Nathan said as he sat down on the sand next to Abby. “Especially when I was sitting in that Jung prison cell, awaiting execution.”

  “You’re going to play that card?” Abby asked, “already?”

  Nathan smiled. “I’m not trying to play that card, Abby. I’m just trying to show you it’s okay to feel that way. I could give you the old ‘no one said life was fair’ or ‘you have a responsibility to the human race’…”

  “Or ‘fate has chosen you’,” Jessica added. “I hate that one.”

  “You’re right,” Nathan said. “There’s nothing fair about it. Not for you, not for me, not for Jessica, not for your family…the list goes on and on. It isn’t fair…it just is what it is. Simple as that. Trying to make anything more of it than that is a waste of time. The big bang or God. The chicken or the egg. There is no answer, and there never will be. All there is, is here and now. That’s it. And here and now, you have a decision to make.”

  “How do I know what the right decision is?” Abby asked. “How do I know what’s best for them?”

  “You don’t,” Nathan answered. He looked out at the waves crashing into the rocks on the opposite side of the cove from the tide pools. “Have you ever wondered where I get my answers?”

  “Yes, actually, I have,” Abby admitted.

  “So have I,” Jessica added.

  Nathan put his hand on his chest. “Here. At first, command was overwhelming. Every decision was surrounded by variables and possible consequences. And every decision meant someone would die. Sometimes only a few people, sometimes many. I simply followed my instincts. I simply did what I felt was right, and dealt with the consequences as they came.”

  “But that almost got you killed, Nathan,” Abby reminded him.

  “Actually, it did get me killed. At least, that’s what I’m told. I don’t really remember it.”

  “You’re going to have to explain that to me sometime,” Abby said.

  “Come with us, and I promise I’ll explain everything.”

  “I want to,” she finally admitted. “But…”

  “But is right,” Jessica said. “Your husband’s coming.”

  Nathan stood up, brushed the sand from himself, and offered Abby his hand.

  “Everything alright?” Erik asked as he approached.

  Nathan kept facing Abby, purposefully angling himself to keep his back toward the two men watching Abby and her family on the nearby hill.

  “Jessica?” Erik said, recognizing her as he approached. “Oh my God, what are you doing here?” he said, embracing her. “I thought you joined the Ghatazhak and moved to the Pentaurus sector.”

  “I did,” Jessica replied. “I’m back on business.”

  “Business. What
kind of business?” he asked.

  “I brought a friend,” Jessica said, turning toward Nathan.

  Erik’s eye widened and his mouth fell open when he saw Nathan. “I don’t believe it,” he finally gasped. “Nathan?”

  “Hello, Erik,” Nathan said, stepping up to shake his hand. “It’s good to see you again.”

  “I thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead. The whole world thought you were…”

  “I know,” Nathan said cutting him off.

  Erik looked at his wife, expecting her to appear happy that Nathan was alive but, instead, she looked scared, and a bit guilty. “Abby? What’s wrong?”

  “Our business is with your wife, I’m afraid,” Nathan explained.

  Erik suddenly became suspicious. “Abby, no…”

  “Erik,” Nathan began, “we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important, you know that.”

  “Important to whom, Nathan, you? Jessica? The people of some distant world?”

  “Erik,” Abby said, trying to intervene.

  “What about what is important here?” Erik asked. “What about our lives?”

  “This isn’t about our lives, Erik. It’s about millions of lives.”

  “Those lives are not your responsibility, Abby. I thought we agreed on that.”

  “No, you agreed on that, Erik,” Abby insisted. “You, and my father.”

  “But you’re a scientist. Your job is to…”

  “…Discover truths, I know,” Abby finished for him. “It’s not about being a scientist, Erik. It’s about being a good person. If I hand Galiardi a stealth jump drive, I don’t know what he’ll do with it.”

  “You don’t know what he’ll do with it, either,” Erik insisted, pointing to Nathan. “No offense, Nathan, but there are some who blame you for the Jung having the jump drive.”

  “Why don’t they blame me?” Abby asked. “My father and I invented it.”

  “Abby…”

  “Erik, the other day you asked me if there was anyone I trusted with the stealth jump drive technology.”