by Kris Powers
“What’s good?” Elliot asked his hosts.
“The house draft is pretty good,” Joshua replied.
“They have a pretty good chardonnay, too,” Madison said.
“House draft,” Elliot said to the attendant. Joshua ordered the same and Madison ordered a dry, white wine. The order arrived shortly thereafter.
"So Eli, what have you been doing for the last year?” Joshua asked before lifting a tall glass of golden ale to his lips.
"Finishing what I signed on to."
“I thought you’d have moved on to something else by now, like command of a battle group,” Madison said.
“No, not for me. I’m thinking of moving to HQ once this is over.”
“You mean to a desk job?” Joshua inquired.
“Is there something wrong with a desk job?”
“There isn’t if you’re an old man,” Joshua replied.
Elliot looked at him with a stern face before breaking into a heartfelt laugh for the first time in what felt like years.
“You’re a smartass,” Elliot said.
“That’s what Madi tells me.”
“It’s true. I really do,” Madison said and drank from her glass.
“I’d hate to admit it, but I really missed you two.”
“Likewise,” Madison said and raised a glass for a toast. All three of them clinked their beverages and took a sip of their beverages before returning them to the table. “So when does my husband get a battleship to command? Hell, when do I finally get a command?”
“In three months they’ll be ready for trial runs. The rest of the fleet will be phased out over the next twenty years after that,” Elliot replied.
“I’d hate to say goodbye to this ship,” Joshua said and looked around the large bar.
“Don’t worry Josh,” Elliot said. “She was last off the line and will be the last to exit the stage. Besides by then you’ll be what, fifty—five, and probably an Admiral?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Eli,” Madison began before Elliot heard a beep from the small, dark piece of technology that clung to his earlobe.
“Sorry,” Elliot interrupted and activated the earpiece. He listened for a moment, nodded, and then acknowledged the order. “I’ve got to go.”
“You just got here. You haven’t even finished your drink!”
“I’ll see if I can get back,” Elliot replied, and left the officer’s lounge.
On the dark side of Earth, Nadine Hanover stood in a damp holding cell deep beneath the Headquarters of the Modern Enterprise Religious Aggregate. She had not bothered to wear her contact lenses, since the prisoner was aware of her true nature. The woman cowering in the corner of the room futilely thumped at her head with clenched fists. She couldn’t bear to look into Nadine’s all white eyes and instead stared at the floor while her mind was raped for information.
As the woman began to sob uncontrollably, Nadine withdrew her consciousness from the wretched lump on the floor. Now that Nadine had what she needed, she turned away and left the room, closing the heavy door behind her.
She walked through several dim, depressing corridors before reaching the lift that would take her into the main portion of the building. Nadine thought briefly of her father as the lift passed Detention Level E.
MERA's central complex was an impressive construction of distinctly Gothic buildings sitting on the east coast of what was once known as Russia. Great arches and towers surrounded a central stone building with a unique twelve—sided dome sitting at the top of the structure.
The elevator deposited Nadine on the top floor. She passed through grand corridors adorned with wooden fittings and low, wrought iron benches. Finally, she stopped at a relatively small set of dark mahogany doors closely guarded by two sentries armed with particle rifles.
Nadine nodded to them and confidently strode through the entrance to the inner chamber of the Council of Twelve. A group of a dozen elderly men and women were dressed in long, dark robes. They sat in high—backed mahogany chairs within the twelve sided stone room.
“I take it your interrogation is finished?” Prime Counsel Catherine asked. She had once been beautiful, but that was decades ago. High cheek bones now sagged next to a hawkish nose and a small wrinkled mouth sat over a wizened chin. In contrast to her aged, white skin, her silver—white hair glistened from careful attention.
"May I present my findings?" Nadine asked.
The wrinkled old female speaker of the group smiled through her pristine teeth.
"Go ahead."
"The agent Lisa was sending intelligence to the Alliance, as you suspected. We would be best advised to tell the Coalition's Encoding Branch that Code Four Seventy One has been leaked to the Alliance,” she stated.
"Is that all?” Councillor Alexander asked.
"Yes. We caught her before she had the opportunity to do any real damage."
“And what of Lisa?” Catherine asked.
“I had to cause some minor brain damage to ensure that she wouldn’t remember me.”
“What would you recommend we do with her now?” Catherine asked in a rare act of consultation.
“She won’t remember anything. I’d recommend letting the Alliance have her back. They’ll think twice after trying this again once they’ve seen the results of planting spies at MERA Headquarters.”
"A practical suggestion," Catherine said.
“If you feel it’s unwise, she can be sequestered here indefinitely.”
“No,” Catherine said, “you misunderstood me. The suggestion was a good one. The Alliance will not try this again after seeing one of their spies lobotomized. I would enjoy seeing their faces once she’s found wandering the streets of New York.”
“If there is nothing else, my alter ego should have finished her report to you by now. I should return to my command of Battle Group Alpha Two.”
“We need to speak with you on a few points before you go,” Catherine said. “We have new orders for you.”
“Of course, my Teacher.”
"I saw a coming calamity last night as I wandered in the future,” Alexander said. “At a crucial point a member of the military will be called on to take part in some very sensitive negotiations. They won’t assign you to that position.”
“No they won’t, but we aren’t going to give them a choice. We are elevating you to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Diplomatic Branch of the Coalition's fleet. The current General will be removed."
“Thank—you, my Teacher.”
“Be careful, Nadine. You will meet a dangerous man in these negotiations,” Catherine said.
“May I ask who he is?”
“Vice Admiral Elliot Fredericks.”
“Is he a Defensive?” Nadine asked.
“Very astute, my student. Yes, he is a Defensive and he studied under Michael DePietro, among others. I’ve never known any Aggressive who has been able to pierce his mind,” Catherine replied.
“I’ll be careful.”
“He has concealed his identity from the rest of the Alliance military, the same as you have from ours. You won’t be able to point him out by black irises,” Catherine said.
“I understand.”
“In the meantime, something near the borders of the Solar System has attracted our attention. We thought the Alliance had destroyed some of our sensor platforms, but as it turns out, there is an anomaly out there of unknown origin,” Catherine said.
“That’s incredible.”
“Isn’t it? We have the possibility of first contact with another intelligent species. Even if this isn’t the case, we need someone out there we can trust.”
“When should I leave?” Nadine asked.
“Immediately,” Catherine replied as a guard gave her a link with coordinates. “Take a shuttle back to the battle group and depart for the coordinates indicated on that link. Return and report to us once you have done a proper analysis.”
Nadine nodded and left the room
at a motivated pace. Once the doors closed, Catherine focused her attention on Alexander.
“I wish you could have been more specific. That one is incredibly valuable to us. One day, she will replace me as Prime Counsel.”
“I believe I interpreted the symbols correctly,” Alexander said.
“And Nadine must be there when the, what did you say they were, Alexander?”
“Cats. They were docile cats,” Alexander replied.
“When these “cats” come to Earth.”
“What are these cats supposed to be, Alexander?” Napoleon asked from his left.
“They could be a play on the idea of pets. Perhaps servants of some kind that arrive here and cause upheaval,” Alexander said.
“Well, this will ensure we are well prepared,” Catherine said. “Now, it’s time we returned to our schedule.”
The Twelve returned to their regular activities, deciding on legislation and policy for the Coalition.
MERA, the Modern Enterprise Religious Aggregate, and the Cooperative can trace their roots back to several different religions of the twentieth century that eventually found it necessary to amalgamate into their current form. MERA was an agreed upon unification of the old Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic faiths and became the dominant eastern religion. The Cooperative came from the old Buddhist, Native and Hindu religions and formed the dominant western religion.
No one knows exactly why so many major religions decided on this action but it has been speculated that internal monetary problems forced the mergers.
A Retrospective on Twenty—Third Century Religion
By Crassus Bixby
Chapter II
This was a problem that Lathiel was unsure he could overcome. A large, heavy alloy beam had fallen across his chest, pinning him to the floor of the demolished command center.
“Ranik?” Lathiel called out in a hoarse voice. He realized how dehydrated he was and wondered how long he had been unconscious. He craned his neck to look around him and saw a few flashes of flame flickering against the far wall where the main monitor was. As best as he could see, a long crack ran down the center of the screen. He looked over to his console and noticed that it had been battered by something heavy. The likely perpetrator had him pinned to the floor.
“Ranik?” Lathiel called out again. The rest of the room was a post—apocalyptic battle scene from the old legends of his race. The walls were warped from quakes and blackened by fire. He wished that he had listened to his family now and had continued the work his grandfather had begun. His family studied Null Space in an attempt to learn its secrets from afar.
He would have happily spent more time analysing data with his father and brother but the war had intervened. He had taken up the defence of his people by leading the expedition to repair and reactivate the doomsday weapon that their ancestors had abandoned a millennium ago.
Lathiel knew that this immense, ancient weapon wouldn’t fire again. Never would their ancestors come to rescue them again in their time of need. Presently, he heard the sound of movement from somewhere to his left.
“Ranik? I hope it’s you,” Lathiel said to the sound of moving debris nearby.
“Cousin,” Ranik replied. His head became visible once a piece of melted plastic fell out of the way.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m better than the rest of this place,” Ranik rasped through a dry throat. “I could use a drink.”
“Can you move?”
“Yes,” Ranik replied and struggled up off the floor. He walked to where the young Ferine’s voice originated. He took a look at the beam across his chest for a moment before shaking his head. “Youth never manage to stay out of trouble.”
“Just move the beam, please.”
Ranik let out a brief chuckle and then placed both hands on one end of the severed support. He huffed with effort, realizing just how heavy the beam really was.
“Maybe you should go and get some help,” Lathiel said.
“You don’t want to know what’s left of the rest of this place. I don’t think there’s anyone else alive in here to help.”
Lathiel fell silent at the news and watched as Ranik wrapped both of his arms around the beam and pulled upwards. To his relief, the beam moved off his chest with barely a scrape to his spotted skin. Ranik hefted the collapsed support in the safest direction, which was unfortunately Lathiel’s station. The beam’s added weight was more than it could handle and the console crumpled to the floor.
“Thanks,” Lathiel said. The yellow eyed Ferine lent him a hand to help him up. “Is anything still working in here?”
Ranik looked around the room before responding. “I don’t think so.”
“We need to get to a working station and assess the damage.”
Ranik took a scanner from his belt. He was gratified to see that it still functioned and moved it around in a semicircle to gather data. “There’s some power readings in that direction,” Ranik said, pointing toward a wall.
“The medical bay is there. Let’s go,” Lathiel said. It was then that he realized that the fire he saw flickering on the wall wasn’t coming from the doorway but from the lift entrance beyond it. Tongues of flame licked the cracked doors of the elevator.
“It is coming from the med—bay,” Ranik confirmed from the information displayed on his scanner. “Five decks below us.”
“It’s the stairs whether we like it or not,” Lathiel said, nodding towards the burning elevator shaft. They wrenched open a pair of doors next to the lift and saw a stairway coiling down into the dark.
They felt their way to the floor ten flights of stairs below them. Both of them were too concerned with falling down the concrete steps to indulge in conversation. Lathiel finally heard the sound of success from Ranik’s lips and shortly afterwards a ray of light pierced the darkness.
His slit irises immediately tightened in the sterile white light of the medical bay. As his vision adjusted, a doctor came to greet them. She looked them up and down for any obvious lacerations or broken bones.
“Are you two in need of medical attention?”
“No, we’re fine. You seem to have the only power in the entire complex,” Lathiel replied.
“Emergency generators,” the doctor said.
“Do you have a transmitter?”
“Yes, down the hall, third door on the left,” the doctor instructed, pointing to a corridor to her right. Lathiel followed the doctor’s directions at a brisk pace.
“I won’t keep you, doctor,” Ranik said and followed Lathiel to the room she had indicated. He stopped outside the door and listened to the crackle of static as a communications console was turned on.
“This is Helas Base broadcasting on the emergency bandwidth,” he heard Lathiel say. “We have taken heavy damage and require assistance.”
“She’ll see you right away,” O’Toole said the moment Elliot walked into the lobby of Admiral Peterson’s office.
“Did you miss me?” Elliot asked once the doors to her office had closed behind him.
“Very funny, Eli,” Maria replied, narrowing her green eyes. “We’ve had something come up relating to those Coalition sensor arrays.”
“I thought it might be something important.”
“One of our ships is out there right now. It was in the area so I told them to take a look. It’s a science vessel: the ASV Amazon. They’ve detected a distortion out there. It’s not natural and no, as far as we know the Coalition isn’t behind it and neither are we.”
“So what’s the plan?” Elliot asked.
“Fleet Admiral Nelson has already contacted me. He wants to dispatch the Third Battle Group. I need an admiral to command it.”
“Isn’t there an admiral already commanding the battle group?”
“He’s on leave and unreachable.”
“I see.”
“And you are free at the moment,” Maria said.
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes. I’ve got no
one else available,” Maria said.
“I can’t.”
“You will. That’s an order. Choose a cruiser to command and leave. The Coalition already has a head start on us and I don’t want the Amazon confronting an entire battle group alone.”
Elliot stood up to leave the room. “Would you like anything while I’m out? Some coffee? Maybe some compassion?”
Maria chuckled and looked back to a fan of links in front of her. “I ran out of compassion a long time ago. Good luck, soldier.”
Elliot lumbered to the nearest shuttle and thought of a cruiser to command the fleet from. It would have to be a newer ship with a good crew. A mischievous smile crossed his face. Elliot turned on one heel and began walking towards the shuttle that would take him back to the Endeavour.
"Was it something I said to Eli?" Joshua asked after spending nearly a half hour in silence with his wife.
“You weren’t much help in making him feel welcome,” Madison replied, “but he was called away.”
“What did I do?”
“Does cold shoulder mean anything to you?”
“He deserved it,” Joshua replied.
“You know how hard it is for him. Lily’s death changed all of us.”
“You would bring that up,” Joshua said. “Why do you think he was called away so fast?”
“Probably something to do with the Horizon Project.”
“Do you have any idea where that’s going?”
“Let me see,” Madison said and pulled a link out of her pocket. She accessed the information in just a few seconds. “Three months, five days until completion according to the latest update.”
“That was fast.”
“I’ve been keeping tabs.”
“You’re checking up on Eli?” he asked in surprise.
“He’s a friend! It’s my way of seeing how he’s doing.”
“How long have you been up to that?” Joshua asked.
“Since he left the Suffolk.”
“Wow. You’d have to be an expert by now. What’s the new fleet like?” Joshua asked, leaning back in their booth.