Border Worlds (United Star Systems Book 1)

by J Malcolm Patrick

  He then related Lee’s suspicion while returning to the safe room, and the sudden ambush. That’s likely when the projectiles struck Lee in his back. He practically carried the XO despite his own severe injuries. Unimaginable willpower and grit.

  Aaron suddenly understood the reaction from Vee earlier. If not for Lee’s dogged determination, he might not have made it off Rigel. Lee not only shielded Vee with his body but despite the serious injury, carried him and eluded their pursuers just long enough.

  “I think our attackers were Imperial operatives,” Alvarez said, taking out his personnel device and handed it over.

  Aaron looked at the images and passed it to Delaine. “What do you think?”

  She stared for a long moment at the screen and raised it closer. “I concur with the Lieutenant’s opinion. However, I cannot conclusively say whether they are in fact Imperials.”

  “Let’s look at it from all angles,” Aaron said.

  She nodded. She was the experienced Intelligence officer so she must have understood his implication.

  “First, let’s assume they are in fact Imperial agents. Our mission involves infiltrating the Border Worlds Separatist movement. Why make a direct and hasty attack against us?”

  No one answered immediately. Nor did it appear anyone was about to.

  “I’m not looking for facts people,” he said. “Let’s speculate. We’re not taking a specific action based on our speculation, but it helps to thrash this out among the three of us. Three unique perspectives, of which I am sure Lieutenant Delaine—yours is the most critical.”

  She licked her lips before speaking. “Very well, Commander—”

  Aaron waved his hands cutting her off. “Stop. You know what, enough with these formalities. Next thing we’ll refer to each other by rank over open comms or in public space or some other silly thing. From now on, I’m Aaron, your outlaw boss. He’s Vee, your brother-in-law or something—no more Lieutenants and Commanders.”

  She nodded. “Aye Co—Aaron.”

  Vee descended into a fit of laughter.

  Aaron looked at him. “Vee?”

  He was still laughing. Tears formed in his eyes. Everyone waited until he composed himself.

  “I’m sorry, Aaron, oh my . . . that felt good. It’s just . . . the way the Lieu—I mean uh what’s her name again? Forget it. The way she said your name, her mouth twisted like she had tasted raw eggs.”

  No one else laughed. The lady spy’s features contorted into a look of confusion and pity.

  Aaron sighed. “Right. Clearly, it formed an image. Glad it tickled you. What is your first name anyway, Miss—”

  “My first name is Rachael, si—Aaron.”

  Vee dissolved into a fit of laughter again.

  “Vee, as you were!”

  Alvarez took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Aaron. I’m good, please continue.”

  She cut her eyes sharply away from Vee and continued.

  “If they were in fact Imperial agents,” she began again, “then I submit it makes no sense to attack us. Unless the Empire is the catalyst behind the Separatist movement within the Border Worlds and they wish to avoid exposure.”

  Aaron considered that for a moment. “Is there anything you are aware of which might suggest they are inciting the separatists?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s not even a working theory inside the Intelligence community. Atlas Prime is the core strength of the Border Worlds Alliance and all of their worlds are tech-5. They are one of the strongest independent Conclaves throughout the United Star Systems. We have yet to get an agent on the inside of the Separatist movement. We tried several times, but lost contact with each of them.”

  “Then is it safe,” Vee asked “to discard the thought of Imperial involvement without having infiltrated the separatists?”

  “No,” she said. “However, there are other ways to expose Imperial tampering. We’ve uncovered it before and have become very good at locating their spies and imprisoning or deporting them. USSI has a much less offensive spy network in contrast. Not many agents are deployed in the Empire, though there are some. We believe their operatives within the USS have a high turnover rate since we’ve perfected our measures at detecting them. Without infiltrating the Separatist movement, there are many other ways to have assessed it for Imperial taint. The priority for USSI was to identify their leader. Although they seem to have several spokes-persons, we’ve been unable to identify an apparent leader.”

  Aaron slapped his thighs. “Which brings us full circle—we can’t even speculate a reason for the attack on our team. What about misdirection regarding our mission, put out by your people?”

  “That is not an uncommon tactic,” she answered, “but in this instance, if they did, then they put out something about the mission which attracted Imperial attention. This would mean the Imperials believe the mission’s success would disadvantage them in some way. Which puts us in the crosshairs of our mortal enemy. I am inclined to dismiss such speculation as well.”

  Aaron sighed. “This mission is completely off the books. Other than Shepherd, no one else is aware of it. This has to be said . . .”

  “Could there be a mole within our inner circle?” Alvarez finished the thought for him.

  “It’s not impossible,” Rachael said. “But it’s highly unlikely. Yet, to suggest the United Star Systems is compromised from such a high level? Unless you’re suggesting it’s one of us on the team.”

  “If not a mole, a leak somewhere. Maybe someone got careless handling something related to our mission,” Alvarez said.

  “That’s the danger of speculation,” Rachael said. “It can take us to extreme possibilities and without further information, extreme paranoia.”

  Aaron pondered her words. “With the shenanigans involved in politics, given the state of alert on both sides, and the Border Worlds factor, we could be a piece in a larger part of someone else’s scheme.”

  “I concede it is something to bear in mind,” Rachael said. “It would not be the first time elements within a State used their own people for a grand scheme such as you are suggesting.”

  “Okay,” Alvarez said, “so we keep that in the back of our minds. I guess this is the part where paranoia sets in.”

  Damn, it was a wonder a spy got any sleep. Who could an operative trust? Your own people could disavow you at any moment, an accepted fact of an operative’s life. It’s as though your only ally was your wits. You might feel your cause is just, yet everything is so twisted, upside down, and inside out. You could never be sure on whose behalf or whose interests you were acting. He couldn’t wait to be back on the bridge of a starship patrolling deep space and leave this insanity behind. He had to admire the Lieutenant. It was a tough pill to swallow—the fate of an intelligence officer.

  “Indeed, Vee,” she said, “to avoid paranoia getting the better of us, the best we can do is fact check, dig deep, and toss the ideas around as we are doing now. But there’s never a guarantee.”

  “I don’t envy your job, Rachael,” Aaron said.

  “Neither do I envy either of you. I’ve never been in a spaceship under fire before.”

  “Oh it’s nothing compared to this mind boggling spy thing,” Vee said.

  She half smiled. “Indeed, you say that from a position of experience, you’ve learned to handle it, just as I have learned to handle my duties. So don’t think yourself any less capable than me,” she said.

  Aaron looked at Vee, who was staring back at him.

  “Thanks.” They both said.

  But Aaron wasn’t finished speculating yet. “Now, moving on from Imperial agents. Could they be Border Worlds operatives? Supposedly chosen or cut to look like Imperials? Do Imperial spies even look clean cut? I figured they would change their typical appearance to avoid the obvious.”

  Rachael slipped her hand through her wavy hair and rubbed the back of her head before answering. “Could they be from the Border Worlds? Yes. And yes, regarding
the appearance of Imperial citizens. Especially given that persons with such flawless features are assumed to be Imperials or harbor Imperial ideology. As for the appearance of enemy operatives, which USSI has captured, some resemble you and I, and others look like a typical Imperial. While others are drastically different. They vary from extreme to typical and everything in between. Speculation based only on appearance is also ineffective.”

  “I suppose that makes sense,” Alvarez said. “Maybe we need to get to a relay network and try reaching the SC and consulting with him on this. He might have learned something or have further insight.”

  She shook her head. “I would prefer not to risk exposure, without first encountering further complications. It would take several days before we even received a reply,” she said.

  Aaron nodded. “I agree. We’ll continue to play this out until we have something more and need further guidance from the Supreme Commander.”

  Aaron drew a deep breath. “In one month each battle group would have assembled on either side of the border near the Atlas system. During that month alone, tensions will keep escalating. It doesn’t give us much time to find the answer to our questions. We need to find out who is responsible for attacking ships between the space bordering the Empire and the United Star Systems and who attacked us on Rigel.”

  Beep!

  The console in front demanded attention.

  Aaron frowned deeply as he digested the latest tactical readouts. “The destroyer is accelerating beyond known specs.”

  “How?” Rachael asked.

  “Got me . . . I imagined its captain could squeeze a little more fire from those old engines and we included those calculations in my estimates generously. But he’s not squeezing now. Whoever he is, he’s got his chief jumping up and down on those things pulverizing the life out of them. The only silver lining I see is his engines will have sustained heavy damage by the time he arrives. It would render them incapable of further pursuit. However, he’s going to intercept us before we reach your space chariot.”

  Her features tightened “What are our options?”

  Aaron looked at his former XO, “Vee?”

  “We could coax some more speed too,” he said, checking the readings, “damaging our own engines in the process but it wouldn’t help. Therefore, I’m not sure it’s worth it. The destroyer will intercept us in twenty minutes. We’ll be inside its firing range then. With an emergency breaking maneuver, it’ll be able to slow to combat maneuvering speeds from its current speed.”

  Generally, a starship traversed star systems at high sub-light speeds. Depending on the size of the system a ship could take anywhere from two to twenty hours to complete the trip. From such high speeds a ship needed anywhere from fifteen to ninety minutes to decelerate to combat speeds, depending on her specs. This was necessary to stay within the limits and capabilities of inertia compensators. Ships didn’t engage in combat at these high speeds, if you even managed to pass within engagement distance at those speeds, it would be a brief exchange.

  In contrast to the capability to accelerate and decelerate to star system hopping speeds in less than an hour, maneuvering at combat speeds was simple. Accelerating or decelerating from ten thousand kilometers a second seemed almost instant when compared to accelerating or decelerating from max sub-light speed.

  Unless a pursuing starship was faster than its target, an overwhelmed opponent could always decide to retreat. You didn’t engage in combat in open space to the death when you could flee. Starship combat was not an honorable medieval joust. Combat in space occurred out of necessity. One side was either defending or attacking an objective. In this case, Star Runner needed to dock with Phoenix before the destroyer intercepted.

  The XO finished evaluating the sensor readouts. “Even though he’s moving a bit fast, he’s likely to get a good shot off at us. I’m going below to secure Lee, in case of any sudden maneuvers.” He limped out of his seat and down the ladder to the crew deck.

  “I don’t suppose our chaff would be of any use,” Rachael asked.

  Aaron smirked. “No, they most certainly would not.”

  “The destroyer is transmitting on open frequency again,” she said.

  “Unknown vessel. You are operating in violation of United Star Systems interstellar law. Your unregistered ship is forfeit and liable to seizure. If you do not cut your engines and await instructions for rendezvous, your safety is not guaranteed. This will be your final warning. There will be no further attempts at communication. You have sixty seconds to power down your engines.”

  He looked over at Rachael.

  “I don’t think pretending to be pregnant will work this time,” she quickly said.

  He snorted. “No, just . . . there’s nothing to be done. We either surrender or we’re dead and apparently, this is our final warning. There’s no way for their weapons to disable a vessel this small. A single missile could destroy us.”

  “Surrender isn’t an option. That vessel could likely be compromised by whoever shot at your men on the planet.”

  He hadn’t thought of that. “It’s possible but . . . I’m racking my brain here and I’ve got nothing. This isn’t a warship. Our options aren’t limited—they’re nonexistent.”

  “Then it was nice to make your acquaintance, Aaron.”

  “Was it?”

  She nodded. “It was interesting at the very least.”

  “I’ll take that. And for what it’s worth, I’m sure we would have worked well together.”

  “I thought we already were,” she said, a hint of genuine surprise in her voice.

  He snickered. “Well . . . you are a little . . . rigid.”

  “Rigid?”

  He shrugged. “Like stiff.”

  “I know what rigid means!”

  “Okay, that there,” he said. “See what I mean?”

  She glared at him, and then she laughed until tears streaked down her cheeks.

  When she composed herself, she said. “I now see how Vee felt. That certainly felt good.”

  “Well, I’m glad something tickled you too. It should be my turn to get tickled next.”

  “Perhaps,” she said. “However, as you’re all out of tricks. I have one left up my sleeve.”

  “That’s my little spy!”

  “Don’t push it, Aaron.”

  He pressed his lips together in thin line.

  “I’m sending a signal to XN—sorry—Phoenix,” she said.

  “There’s someone aboard?” Why hadn’t she mentioned that?

  She gave him a curious look. “Of course, you think it flew itself out here?”

  “Well, anything’s possible where you people are concerned. How do I know you didn’t design some sentient AI to go along with your secret ship and the damn thing can’t fly itself?”

  “Point taken. But no. I think you’ll be surprised.”

  “Why didn’t you signal it before?” Aaron asked.

  “As you know that would give away its position and confirm its location to the Destroyer. And you claimed we would reach the coordinates before the destroyer intercepted us, do you recall?”

  “Still it was a critical thing to know.”

  “Not until now,” she said.

  “You’re going to have to reconsider some of your spying rule set for the remainder of this mission.”

  She shrugged. “Spies are flexible. Sending your pre-recorded message now.”

  “My pre—”

  A familiar voice boomed over the speakers.

  “Commander! Is that really you out there? We figured it had to be, it fit the profile but damn, sir, it’s great to hear your voice!”

  It was Yuri “Flaps” Miroslav—the little hotshot pilot was aboard the waiting ship.

  “Flaps! Who else is there with you?”

  “The—”

  Rachael cut him off. “Silence, young man. This is an open frequency, encrypted or not the signal may be picked to pieces later. I’m sending recognition codes
now. The destroyer on your scans will intercept us prior to matching course and speed with you. You will engage engines, come to full power and get to us before them.”

  Well, look who’s giving orders.

  She continued. “If you can disable the destroyer, do so, I am reliably informed one shot could finish us.”

  The minutes felt like hours and then Alvarez returned to the flight deck.

  “Lee’s good. Strapped him down tight. He won’t budge,” he said.

  Aaron nodded and cleared his throat. “Ensign, listen carefully. This is what we’re going to do.” He outlined the plan to the hotshot pilot.

  The destroyer and Phoenix were now at the end of their deceleration cycle from the hard burns to intercept Star Runner. Aaron focused on the countdown. There could be no mistakes. “Now Ensign! Kill engines, full thrusters, bring her bow around.”

  Phoenix’s main engine power scaled back and maneuvering thrusters forced the bow of the ship around one hundred and eighty degrees, now cruising on momentum—her stern was oriented towards the bow of Star Runner.

  An alarm blared and Vee silenced it as he called out. “Missiles in the black. Vectoring in from the destroyer!”

  Aaron gritted his teeth. “Ensign!”

  “I got this, Commander, stand by!” the young helmsman replied.

  Rachael’s face went several shades whiter. “Stand by?”

  A point defense barrage erupted from Phoenix intercepting the destroyer’s missiles along their vector to Star Runner. Each missile exploded harmlessly as it tried to breach that stream of protective fire.

  “Well done, Ensign! Now, stand by for flank acceleration, if you don’t burn off your momentum, you’ll destroy us with your tail.”

  “That would seem to be a terrible way to kill my Commander, slapping him in the face with my ship tail. It would probably also kill my reputation for being the best pilot in—”