Cosmic Thunder (Sentinels Saga Book 3)

by Linn Schwab

  “And what makes you think that?” the admiral asked.

  “Because an enemy ship attacked Paradise One while I was there, and the captain of that vessel broke off the encounter without firing a single shot at us.”

  Admiral Sands seemed unconvinced.

  “Look,” Peter said, holding out a storage chip. “I have the video to prove it.”

  “Let’s see it,” the admiral said.

  The two of them walked to a nearby console, and Peter inserted the storage chip.

  “An enemy destroyer,” the admiral observed when the video image appeared on the screen. He watched until the enemy ship veered away. “So what happened?” he asked.

  Peter paused the image. “I’m convinced they aborted the attack on us because they realized there were children on the station.”

  The admiral eyed him with skepticism. “You’re suggesting our enemy isn’t quite as ruthless as they’re made out to be?”

  “Perhaps not all of them are,” Peter said.

  “Alright, Captain Straydel. Assuming you’re right, how do you propose we approach this situation?”

  Peter pointed at the image of the enemy destroyer. “I think we should try to contact the captain of that ship.”

  “You can’t be serious,” the admiral said. “There must be hundreds of enemy destroyers out there. How are we supposed to locate this one specific ship?”

  “We know it’s operating in this area,” Peter argued. “Send me out to look for it. What have you got to lose?”

  “One of the best pilots in my fleet, that’s what. A pilot I may need for an upcoming assault.”

  “But if I succeed, the assault might not be necessary.”

  “Perhaps. Assuming both sides can come to an agreement.”

  “Why wouldn’t they?” Peter said. “This war is a disaster. It can’t be any better for them than it is for us.”

  Admiral Sands leaned back against a wall and crossed his arms. “Perhaps it’s not them we need to be concerned about. Tell me something, Captain Straydel. And be honest with me. Have you ever asked yourself why it is that we don’t just nuke this planet and be done with it?”

  “Of course,” Peter said. “On many occasions.”

  “And what would you say is the most likely explanation?”

  “I’d like to think it’s because we’re too civilized to even consider doing such a thing.”

  “So would I,” the admiral said.

  “You don’t sound convinced. I take it you share Commander Ingman’s suspicion that someone doesn’t want the war to end.”

  “He told you that?”

  “Not in those exact words, but it wasn’t too difficult to put two and two together.”

  “Let’s just suppose he’s right,” the admiral said, “that someone really doesn’t want the war to end. Who should we point the finger at? Who could possibly stand to gain from prolonging this conflict?”

  “It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out,” Peter said. “There have always been people who benefit from warfare. Ship builders, munitions manufacturers, uniform suppliers. There are any number of military contractors whose profits would dry up if the war were to end.”

  “You’re absolutely right, of course,” the admiral said. “But they’re actually not the ones who concern me the most. Their interests are well known to everyone, so any meddling on their part would be extremely risky. It’s the people who aren’t so obvious that worry me. The ones whose motives are not so transparent.”

  “And what might they have to gain?” Peter asked. “Figure that out and you’ll know who they are.”

  “Perhaps. But it might not be so easy. Consider this...” the admiral prompted Peter. “What do you suppose is the most precious resource in the universe?”

  “Planets that can support life, I suppose,” Peter replied.

  “Exactly,” the admiral said. “Only two are currently known to exist. Earth, and of course we both know what the other one is. But what would happen if one of them were suddenly threatened by something its inhabitants had no control over?”

  The answer to that was obvious to Peter. “They’d want to move to the other planet, of course.”

  “And what if that planet refused to accept them?”

  Suddenly Peter saw where this was going. “You’re suggesting our leaders aren’t interested in peace unless they can bargain from a position of strength.”

  “Precisely,” the admiral said. “At least that’s my suspicion. They want to be able to dictate terms. They’re holding out for an unconditional surrender.”

  All at once, Peter felt like he was going to be sick. “This war is never gonna end,” he said. A sudden knock on the door interrupted his thoughts, and a young lieutenant burst into the room without bothering to wait for the admiral’s reply.

  “Admiral,” the lieutenant said, “you’re needed on the bridge. There’s something you’re gonna want to see.”

  The admiral gestured for Peter to follow him and hurried toward the bridge without delay. “What is it?” he asked when he arrived on the bridge.

  Captain Schiffer looked at him and shook his head. “It seems you may have a difficult decision to make. Apparently we’ve been watching what’s in front of us so closely that we haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on behind us.” He pointed at an image on one of the ship’s monitors. “There’s a comet bearing down on us from the rear.”

  “Can we avoid it?” the admiral asked.

  “Easily enough if we act right now,” the captain said. “But Lieutenant Porter seems to think you might want us to stick around.”

  Admiral Sands shifted his eyes to the lieutenant. “If you have a suggestion, let’s hear it,” he said.

  “Sir,” Lieutenant Porter replied, “if my calculations are correct, this comet is headed straight for the center of that asteroid field.”

  “And why should that be of any concern to us?”

  “Well, sir, assuming it has sufficient mass and density, there’s a very strong possibility that it could punch a hole straight through to the other side.”

  “How big of a hole?” the admiral asked.

  “Big enough to pass a fleet of ships through, sir.”

  “We could take them by surprise,” Captain Schiffer suggested. “But if we’re gonna do this, we have to act fast. We need to be in position to follow it through before the hole has a chance to close up again.”

  “How long will the path remain clear?” the admiral asked.

  “Impossible to say,” Lieutenant Porter insisted. “Things are gonna bounce around in there like crazy. There’s just no way to be sure what’ll happen.”

  Admiral Sands took a moment to consider the risk, then signaled his approval with a silent nod. “Move the fleet into position,” he ordered. “If it looks promising enough, we might give it a shot.”

  Peter couldn’t help but feel disappointed that another battle appeared to be imminent. He’d been hoping to go forward with his own plan first, before any more lives were lost in combat. But he realized the admiral was in a tight spot. He simply couldn’t pass up an opportunity like this, even if he thought Peter’s plan had some merit. There was nothing left to do now but go along for the ride, and just hope for a chance encounter with the Cricket.

  * * * *

  When cleanup work in the gun bays was finished, Commander Eldridge called her remaining workers together and praised them all for a job well done. She then released them for the lunchtime meal period, and accompanied them to the cafeteria, where Janine was still searching through the station’s records.

  “Find anything yet?” the commander asked as she took a seat at Janine’s table.

  Janine frowned. “Another mystery. Major Parsons’ final entries refer to something called VC–‌122.”

  “Any idea what that is?”

  “No, not yet. There’s still a lot of entries to go through, though. It seems the major had several keen personal interests, and spent much
of her free time focusing on them. Her archive searches number in the tens of thousands.”

  “Any pattern to her searches?”

  “I’m still working on that. From what I can tell so far, it appears she was interested in historical literature, ancient folklore, and astronomy.”

  “Any reference to Valgrind in her log entries?”

  “None. But she definitely would have been aware of the folklore surrounding it because she accessed some of the same articles I did.”

  A call came over the station’s intercom: “Commander Eldridge, report to the control room.”

  “Come with me,” the commander said, getting to her feet. “There’s a chance we may be close to learning something useful.”

  “Something about Valgrind?” Janine inquired. The two of them stepped onto an elevator together.

  “Perhaps,” Commander Eldridge replied. “Captain Starling may have found just the clue we were searching for. I dispatched her to some coordinates that were stamped on those gun crates. Turns out we don’t have a facility there. Or at least not one that shows up in our system.”

  “That’s interesting,” Janine said.

  The elevator came to a stop, and both of them hurried to the control room. Commander Eldridge walked straight up behind Lieutenant Marlowe. “Captain Starling?” she asked.

  “Yes, Commander,” Veronica confirmed. “She’s standing by at the coordinates you gave her.”

  * * * *

  With the Cricket hovering near the edge of Pangea, Robin waited patiently for an answer from Volaris while keeping a close eye on the rocks nearby. After having nearly destroyed the Wallaby, she wasn’t about to risk damaging a brand new ship. Not without a very good reason anyway.

  “Captain Starling,” the commander’s voice came over the speakers, “you’re at the coordinates on those shipping crates now?”

  “Yes, Commander,” Robin replied.

  “And do you see anything that looks like a Sentinel base?”

  “No,” she said. “The only thing we can see out here is rocks.”

  “Are your scanners picking up any unusual readings? Communications, power sources, heat signatures?”

  Robin ordered Sheri to run a sensor sweep, but the results came back negative. “No,” she said to Commander Eldridge. “Scanners aren’t picking up anything unusual.”

  * * * *

  Commander Eldridge looked at Janine and sighed in frustration. “Perhaps we won’t find anything there after all. Any ideas?”

  Janine shook her head.

  The commander suddenly raised her index finger in the air. “What a minute,” she said, “what was that string of characters you mentioned? VC something?”

  “VC–‌122?”

  “That’s it,” the commander said, “VC–‌122. Lieutenant Marlowe, does that designation mean anything to you?”

  Veronica shook her head and said, “No.”

  * * * *

  Still listening in aboard the Cricket, Mindy suddenly sat up straight. “VC–‌122,” she mumbled, not realizing the mic on her headset was still active.

  “Just a minute,” Commander Eldridge said, then ordered everyone in the control to be quiet. “Miss Mclean, did you have something to say?”

  “VC–‌122,” Mindy answered. “I remember seeing that somewhere.”

  “Do you remember where?” the commander prompted her.

  “Yes. It was on a chart in the hallway outside our room at the academy.”

  “And what exactly was listed on this chart?”

  “I don’t know. It had lots of...” She paused as if trying to remember a word.

  “Lots of what, Miss Mclean?”

  Mindy looked to Robin for assistance and traced an ellipse in the air with her finger.

  “Elliptical orbits?” Robin suggested.

  “Yes,” Mindy confirmed. “That’s what it was.”

  * * * *

  Janine closed her eyes and slapped her forehead. “Of course,” she said, suddenly making the connection. “VC–‌122 is a comet!”

  “Lieutenant Marlowe,” Commander Eldridge ordered, “access the projected orbits of comets in this system, and see if you can locate VC–‌122.”

  With this new information now available to her, Janine pulled out her archive interface and began narrowing her search of Major Parsons’ entries.

  * * * *

  Now that lunch was being served, Virginia realized it was time for her to visit Jason, and escort him to the cafeteria again. To avoid it any longer would just make him suspicious — something she desperately wanted to avoid. The excuse she planned to use for skipping out on breakfast wouldn’t be as convincing if she tried to overplay it. I’ll tell him I went to see Suzanne, she decided. To ask her if she’d consider releasing him without consulting Commander Eldridge. Not entirely untrue, but a bit of a stretch, considering she hadn’t actually made the request.

  As she approached his room, her nerves were on fire, very much like in the moments before her first battle. Despite her best efforts to remain calm and collected, her legs felt weak, her hands were trembling, and her heart was pounding as if she’d been running full tilt. When she opened the door, he was standing there to greet her. She forced a smile, and felt her lips quiver. The two of them just looked at each other for a moment.

  “Well?” he finally said. “How did it go?”

  Virginia felt lost, confused and overwhelmed. What’s he asking about? she wondered. How did what go? Did he somehow find out about my visit with Suzanne?

  It was clear that he could see the confusion in her eyes. “Last night,” he reminded her. “With the commander. You were going to try to convince her to release me.”

  Oh, she realized, he means Commander Eldridge. A mild sense of relief helped calm her slightly. She shook her head. “She doesn’t want to release you just yet. There’s someone she wants you to talk to first.”

  “Talk to?” he said. “You mean like an interrogation? They’re gonna try to get information out of me.” His reaction betrayed a sudden sense of concern.

  Virginia nodded. “Something like that.”

  He swallowed and asked, “So, how soon is this ‘talk’ supposed to take place?”

  “I’m not sure,” Virginia told him. “Later today, maybe. She just arrived here a few hours ago.” Seeing the anxiety in Jason’s eyes made her feel as if she’d failed him completely. “I’m sorry,” she said. Tears flowed from her eyes. To her surprise, he wrapped her in a comforting embrace.

  “It’s okay,” he assured her. “We’ll get through this, Virginia. Everything’s going to be alright.”

  He pulled her close, and before she knew it, he was planting a tentative kiss on her lips. She tensed up for an instant, not expecting this from him, then felt herself slowly melting in his arms. For several glorious, rapturous heartbeats, nothing in the universe mattered but the kiss. It pulled her in, engendering a singular focus which deprived her reasoning centers of blood flow. The effect left her feeling light–‌headed and breathless, intoxicated and desirous of more. And then without warning, it was torn away from her, leaving her confused, puzzled, bewildered. In one heartbeat Jason was kissing her on the lips, but in the next she was spinning across the room, and he was out the door with her key in his hand.

  As Virginia tried in vain to regain her balance, she caught a glimpse of the door sliding shut behind him. “I’m sorry, Virginia,” she heard him say before he sprinted off in the direction of the hangar.

  A flood of emotions poured through her all at once as she struggled to make sense of what just had happened. She ran to the door and found it locked. Her confusion quickly turned to anger. He used me! she realized. He lied to me! In her mind she could hear Commander Eldridge warning her, “Our enemies are masters of lies and deception, and will stop at nothing to gain an advantage. Be careful what you believe, Lieutenant. Remember, our guest is one of them.”

  Enraged and determined to thwart his plans, she tried to
get a message through to the control room. He’d taken her key for a reason, she realized. He’s planning to steal one of our fighters and escape. All she had to do to prevent him from succeeding was warn the control room not to open the airlock. But when she pressed the buttons on the intercom panel, the faceplate came loose and fell off in her hands, revealing a cluster of dangling components. Somehow he’d managed to pry open the panel and sabotage the wiring so she couldn’t call for help. The depth of his planning made her even angrier. This was something he’d been scheming to do from the beginning.

  “LET ME OUT!” she screamed, and started banging on the door. Her only chance of stopping him now was to catch him.

  ARRIVAL 092

  With Virginia’s key in his hand, Jason hurried toward the hangar, following the red line painted on the floor. Battleship laps, Virginia had called them. How convenient that they passed right by his destination. There was virtually no chance of getting lost or turned around. All he had to worry about was being seen. But based on his earlier observations, the station was either largely deserted or woefully understaffed for its size. It was rare to encounter anyone at all, so he felt good about his chances of reaching the hangar. What would happen then was still an open question, though.

  When he arrived at the hangar, he found the doors open. It seemed quiet inside. Nothing visible was moving. His fighter was still sitting very close to where he’d parked it, but that wasn’t his objective. He was after something else. Commander Ingman had sent him to retrieve some avionics, and that was exactly what he was going to do. But rather than returning with a bullet–‌riddled mess, he would bring back a fully functioning set, along with the description and coordinates of an enemy base.

  Maybe they’ll surrender to us, he hoped, if they know the location of this base is compromised. If things turned out the way he was hoping, the war would end soon and he could reunite with Virginia, explaining that he’d done all of this to keep her safe. All that remained now was to complete his escape. And because of what he’d learned from the intercom panel, following Michelle’s impromptu nighttime visit, he had some idea of how things worked in the hangar. If he could power up a fighter, he just might make it.