Jethro 3: No Place Like Home

by Chris Hechtl

  “Bismark has been identified. She's hailing us,” he said.

  “By all means, put him on,” Renee said, sitting back in her chair and crossing her legs.

  “Firefly this is Bismark, Commander Logan speaking. Glad to see you again, you had us worried.”

  “Sorry, Captain, the ships that we're escorting are a bit slower than us,” Renee replied as the first ship exited hyper.

  Once Firefly was recognized and her surprise sitrep initially processed, the other ships jumped in one by one in one-minute intervals. “Did you say Admiral Irons?” Horatio said. “Wait, Captain...”

  Renee smiled wickedly. “Yes indeed. It's a long story. To answer your first question, yes he was in Beta 101a1. No, he's not with us. Yes, there has been a battle, and some promotions. Captain junior grade,” she said with a smile and nod. Janice snorted softly.

  There was a few moments as the com laser whispered its message across the six million kilometer void and then back again. “Um, er, very well. I think. I'm looking forward to your report, Captain, definitely looking forward to it I guess you could say,” Horatio replied, sounding amused and incredulous. “Only John could pull off something like...” the signal ended.

  “Bismark has cut communication,” Spencer said.

  “That's okay, I think we've made our point,” Renee said. “Are you sending them our logs?” she asked. Spencer nodded, as did the ship's AI. “Good.”

  They were greeted by a surprised and ecstatic Pyraxian naval force. Fighters launched from the carrier fortress, Kittyhawk, and the other ships to form a welcoming escort for the incoming convoy.

  It had been a long grueling trip for them, over two months but they had all made it intact. The skeleton crews were overwhelmed, exhausted, but quite proud of their achievement, and rightfully so Renee judged. They'd earned their accolades, and then some.

  During the trip she had realized why Admiral Irons had transferred Shelby out. Commander Logan had transferred to the Arboth destroyer Xavier to serve as her temporary Captain, but there was another reason. That had allowed her to gain more time in the hot seat, though it put a crimp in the normal smooth operations on Firefly. Captain Mayweather wasn't certain she would get her exec or her other officers back, or if she did for how long. Shelby she was certain was gone; it was just a matter of time. The two-month journey had helped put the final polish on the woman; she seemed ready, settled and eager to take on the challenge. She'd still need time to feel comfortable in the spot light, but Renee knew she could handle it.

  Chief Chowler was acting Captain of the Clydesdale Colombian Express; he was another she wasn't sure would return. She hoped so; Chowler was quite the miracle worker, which was easy at least for manpower. He had one of the four civilian ships that had been stuffed with civilian refugees. Apparently, he'd put everyone to work who'd wanted to work. The cheater, she thought darkly.

  Half a dozen shuttles moved in with relief crews for the overstressed ship's companies once the convoy had settled down into real space once more. A few of her acting Captains seemed resentful, but others like Tr'j'ck expressed relief. Renee knew the other purpose; it was one last paranoid check to make certain it wasn't all some sort of sick Trojan horse. She didn't care; she appreciated the additional warm bodies.

  Once the fleet took on the borrowed personnel all but one of their number moved out on a leisurely two-and-a-half-day journey to the Yard. Oasis was diverted to the prison colony.

  Once she was certain everyone had settled down, Mayweather decided to have a chat with her two remaining senior officers. She'd thought about it before but hadn't really had the chance to buttonhole the two of them since they'd been working different ships and had been tired. Now she took the time and confronted Janice and Purple Thorn. “Okay, now that it's all over, and we're almost home, I need to know. Why did you stay?” Renee asked pointedly, leaning against the desk behind her. “The two of you could have taken a prize crew. Hell, I'd expected you to throw your hat in the ring,” she said.

  “It's been bugging her for months I bet. I'm actually shocked she let it slide this long,” Janice said to the elf with a mischievous smile.

  The elf sniffed, waggling her antenna. “Probably.”

  “Quit it. Now give,” Renee demanded, crossing her arms.

  Janice snorted. She turned to the elf. “As senior to me, do you want the honors of going first?” She bowed ever so politely to the elf.

  The elf shrugged and then bobbed her antenna once more, then flicked them back. “Well, from what I understand Janice didn't have a choice. Even with commander Nata'roka you still needed the best here since Firefly was point,” Purple Thorn said. Renee cocked her head but didn't agree or disagree. She had indeed thought of that. Janice's talents would have been wasted in any other position. Renee frowned, scratching her nose, not sure how to respond.

  “It was clear to us before we left that you needed at least a couple of us to stay here and man the watches. All the other ships in the convoy take their positions, heading and speed from us. You needed the best helm team you've got, which is Janice, Deja, and Nata'roka,” the elf said, motioning to the now blushing Lieutenant Yu.

  “True. And you?” The Captain asked, crossing her arms once more. She raised an eyebrow at the diminutive officer.

  The elf shrugged. “I'm a bit small to take the hot seat.” The Captain frowned. The elf shook her head as her Captain started to protest. “That isn't what I meant. I meant that if I take it, my authority would be questioned, and it would be difficult to project my authority. And I wouldn't be able to get into the repairs like someone else can.”

  “And you didn't want to stand in the way of someone else? You do know sitting on the sidelines isn't a career-enhancer gun,” Renee warned her.

  “Yes I know that. But well...” The elf shrugged.

  Janice snorted. Her Captain looked at her. “It's also the fact that we've got the best guns, and she knows it. She loves her department.”

  “Right, safe in your own little nook you've carved out for yourself then?” the Captain purred, eyes twinkling.

  “Not when you look at me like that I'm not,” the elf replied, flicking her antenna in amusement. “I have a feeling I'm going to be kept on my toes.”

  “Tiny toes that they are. And since you are here, you can take more watches here. As senior officer and since we don't have an exec or chief engineer, guess who gets to oversee our stay?” She asked sweetly. The elf rolled her eyes. “And that way, I can deal with the mountain of paperwork, plus play in the simulator,” she said wickedly.

  “Gee, lucky me,” the elf said dryly.

  “Hey, you wanted to be the homebody,” Janice said with a snort.

  ---( | ) --- ( | )---

  Horatio frowned, not sure he wanted to hear the message but knowing he'd have to do it eventually. He'd had it transferred over by a courier instead of transmitted. He looked at the flash stick, unsure, then sighed and sat down at his desk and plugged it in. The bot within the file accessed his implants so he uploaded his IFF. It took a second to confirm his ID and then an image of the Admiral came up. Horatio studied his friend for a long moment. He looked the same but different. He had a goatee for one, which was different, but the rest of him...it took him a moment to realize the Admiral's old skinsuit had been replaced with one trimmed in the gold of flag rank and the blue of an officer. He snorted.

  He hit play and then tried to get comfortable.

  “Horatio,” the Admiral said. He paused and then shook his head. “Goddess of space this is hard old friend. You have no idea how much I went through to come to this decision. I know it's bitter to not see me with Firefly, but well, honestly, you and I know Pyrax is too much of a snake pit. I'd spend half my time fending off the snakes and scorpions instead of doing my job. I know from the reports Firefly gave me that you've been doing the same. I'm sorry, but you're stuck with it for the duration,” he said.

  “Gee thanks,” Horatio muttered. He'd pretty much
resigned himself to that fact by now. He still wasn't comfortable with it, but he'd grown a bit into it. Besides, he knew he was the only one he'd trust with the role right now. Especially like the Admiral said, with all the snakes in the system.

  “Firefly passed on the invitation from Governor Randall to return to Antigua. Apparently their close call woke them up. So, I'm headed there. I'm planning on picking up the forces I left behind in Hoshi's World and Richalu and then march on Kathy's World. She's under occupation according to our intel as is Protodon. We'll relieve them on our way to Antigua.” He smiled briefly. “That's why I poached as many Marines and sailors from Firefly as I could get away with. I'll need their experience on the journey ahead.”

  “Good luck,” Horatio murmured.

  “Which brings me to the next bit. Commander Sprite did some digging and confirmed a few things I hadn't known. She picked up the new reg changes on Bounty. We found confirmation files in some of the other captured ships so it's legit. Apparently during the later stages of the war there was a general firmware update. It allowed a rapid rise through the ranks and refined the security restrictions in the implants. I'm not at all fond of the security restriction changes; it refocused the damn monitoring bots on just watching for treason with the Xenos. That's...stupid.” He shook his head. “Apparently someone thought it would be better to focus on the external enemy only, ignoring any internal ones. I don't know. It's over and done with though.”

  “And you can't disregard it,” Horatio murmured.

  “The other is something I'm a bit...of two minds about. But it did let me do this. Under my authority and with your proven track record as System Commander and the need for seniority in said post, I'm promoting you to Captain J.G.”

  “What?” Horatio asked. He'd heard something to that effect before but it still didn't make any sense. Him? A Captain?

  Irons smiled, but Horatio realized the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. “Yes, old friend, that's right. Tough. You need the rank and the implant updates that go with them. Firefly has them. I've promoted Mayweather and Firefly for other reasons as well. Both are also Captain J.G.s. You'll be able to bootstrap a Captain's board now, so you can promote Vargess and one or two others as needed in the future.”

  Horatio nodded. He now understood where this was going.

  “You'll need to board Firefly and sleep on board so the commodore,” he paused with a wry smile, “can update your implant firmware. As an engineering Captain and system commander you'll have more key codes too. So will each of them as a ship Captain and a ship AI. Use them wisely. You'll be able to build more power plants, weapons and other things. I'll get to priorities in a minute,” he said.

  “I've stuffed Firefly and the ships with her with as much as I could replicate in the time we had available. I also preloaded each of her replicators with key coded parts to replicate. Their queues are quite full, so get some ships over to transfer some raw material to them and help them clean out their stores. Most of it is reactors, drives, and hyperdrive components, and some industrial gear I thought you could use. It's mainly for ships up to a tin can, though I threw in what I could for the ships you have now.” He frowned and then shrugged. “Commander Sprite wants me to let you know that she worked with a Lieutenant Ball to create over a hundred dumb AI cores. Use them wisely. They also worked out a template for dumb AIs, but they won't be as smart or stable as the cores Sprite sent along. So again, use them wisely.”

  Horatio nodded. He made a note to have Lieutenant Veber look into that.

  “We've learned a lot from the Horathians. Horatio, they are more than just run of the mill pirates. What we ran into here and what Firefly stomped on in Antigua, was their second and third attempts at a task force. We're still going over it, but they are moving to a war footing with a full fleet. A professional fleet,” he warned.

  “Shit,” Horatio said in disgust. He swore for a second or two.

  “You can read the intel extracts and examine the hardware for yourself. It's as bad as you think. The bastards aren't just putting their stolen goods to use, they are also manufacturing now—not just parts, but also ships.”

  Horatio's jaw tightened. He paled, thinking of the implications as John nodded, completely sober. “Yes, that's right. Ships. They are manufacturing small ships, Apollo Corvettes, Manta frigates and a few others, but no doubt they are working on other hulls as they get the kinks out of the processes. Get intel on that.”

  “Damn,” Horatio whispered softly.

  “They can bury you in numbers if they want. Watch out for that. And that short jump Firefly did, they can do the same and stay out of range of your forts. So a balanced fleet is a necessity now. Which is why I've sent along what I could. Do what you can with it. I strongly suggest you stick to the small ships, escorts, platform redundancy. The reasoning is in the written orders,” he said waving a hand.

  “When I get to Antigua I want to set up convoys like the ones you are doing now. We'll exchange material until I can come by Pyrax. And oh, the Ansible. We'll get that running too.”

  Horatio smiled at that idea. Trust John to be a couple steps ahead.

  “We're in the shit, but we can turn it around in time. We've bought the time here in B101a1 with blood. With sweat and tears on your end and in Antigua, we should be somewhere near to parity with the bastards in a year or two. We have to keep them off our backs until then.”

  Horatio nodded.

  “Let's see, firmware update for you with Firefly, got that covered. Oh,” he said snorting. “I promoted Jersey Forth to Lieutenant Colonel. Try to get to the bottom of the crap going on and get it sorted out. We don't have time to get into inter-service rivalries and crap. Figure it out.”

  Horatio nodded. He'd send Hephaestus back to Agnosta now that John had sent along his care package. That and a note should help smooth things over. But they'd need a house cleaning in Pyrax. It was obvious the Marine side wasn't holding up its end.

  “I also sent along everything you need to get Prometheus and her escorts flying. Commander Shelby Logan has agreed to take her place as Captain. I've cut orders for her and Firefly.”

  Horatio frowned. He didn't like that. He opened his mouth to object but then paused. It would be useless he realized.

  “Prometheus should head south to Seti Alpha, then work her way around to Epsilon Triangula. I've left a small naval reserve group there, most of them are medics,” he said.

  “Thornby will love that,” Horatio murmured.

  “I want Firefly to go to the Janus system, then head up to Antigua. Her orders are to find the Kiev 221, lay some groundwork with the locals, attempt to make contact with Centennial, and drop spy sats in every system. Once she picks up Kiev's trail she's to find her and return her to Pyrax, under escort if necessary. Kiev has a shipment for you, I'm worried that it is overdue,” John said sounding concerned.

  “She is a bulk freighter, so slow despite being overhauled. But she should have gotten to Janus by now. I may have passed her when I left Antigua; we took the same first leg but at different times and hyperbands,” John explained. Horatio nodded. “I did pick up her Ion trail in B450a, so they aren't there. I've told Renee to look in the cul-de-sac systems if necessary.”

  Horatio closed his eyes. He didn't like the idea of sending his largest most powerful unit off looking for that ship. It could be months, and it would be like looking for a needle in a very large hay stack.

  “Horatio, trust me, it's necessary. I found out another one of those firmware updates...the one involving the security updates?” John said. Horatio opened his eyes. “It authorizes any engineering officer, hell, even noncoms to unlock coded equipment.”

  “Oh shit,” Horatio said, eyes wide. “You are kidding me!” he said.

  John nodded. “Yes. I'm still not up on the details, I haven't had time to go over it with Commander Sprite. But from what she told me, it is possible to get around them. I hard coded it to you, but apparently they had some problems with t
hat during the war. Intended recipients ending up dead,” he said with an annoyed look. “So, they made it open ended for any engineer in case of that situation. That doesn't necessarily mean that if anyone gets the shipment they can get into it; they still need a fleet implant signature...” he shrugged helplessly.

  Horatio remembered that some of the damn pirates had had implants that had been recycled. He now wondered about that. He couldn't see how they could get around all the coding but....He shook his head. No, not good.

  “Get intel to go over those ships and their databases with a fine tooth comb. The same for the prisoners. We need every scrap of intel we can get—ships, locations, the works. Get the intel you pick up to Antigua on the convoy runs, or hell, in a courier if you've got it.”

  Horatio nodded, making a mental note to get that going right away.

  “The crews of Gypsy Rose and Minerva Alabama want their ships back. Horatio, they are prizes, but hell, those people have suffered enough. I'm not going to rape them twice. Make certain they and their ships are cleared, and if they still want to go, let them, but just them. The other ships I suggest you use or sell,” he warned. Horatio nodded. He knew the importance of freighters though; in a wartime situation there was never enough to go around. He'd have to consider that carefully.

  “There is a lot more, I can't cover it all here, we're going flat out. So, I've written...” he paused and smiled. “Or I should say, I had Commander Sprite,” he said smiling teasingly, “write out supplementary orders for you. Go over them carefully. Good luck, goddess speed and long live the Federation Horatio.”

  “To you too Admiral,” Horatio said as the image froze. “Long live the Federation,” he said softly. He turned as he shut the video off. He had work to do.