Empire's Birth (Empire Rising Book 9)

by D. J. Holmes

  “What are we looking at sensors?” Emilie asked to turn everyone’s attention back to their duty.

  “It’s a white dwarf Captain. There are seven planetary bodies. One gas giant and six rocky worlds closer to the star. None are in the habitable range though.” The sensor officer clearly sounded disappointed at that.

  “No matter,” Emilie replied. “There could still be a lot of other interesting things. Launch the survey drones. Program them to circumnavigate the system’s mass shadow to look for other potential shift passages. Then take us in to the system, plot a course to take us past as many of the worlds as possible. Let’s take a closer look at our discovery.”

  For the next two hours Emilie watched with interest as Intrepid’s sensors gathered more detailed data on the system. Though she had visited more than a hundred different solar systems during her naval career, none held as much of a fascination as this one. This was hers. She had discovered it. Already she was thinking of names for the different moons that orbited the gas giant. Historically, the responsibility of naming new systems and planetary bodies fell to the governments of whatever ship discovered it. However, the suggestions of the crew of the ship that made the discovery were taken into account. Given the state of the British government and the UN, Emilie thought there was a decent chance the names her crew came up with would stick.

  As Intrepid passed the second planet in the system her sensors carried out a detailed scan of the surface. To many of the officers’ disappointment, there were no immediate signs of valstronium deposits or any other precious minerals. Such a discovery would normally lead to a small but significant bonus to the entire crew’s pay. The sensor data didn’t lessen Emilie’s joy though. Precious resources or not, it was a newly discovered world. She was among the first Humans to ever set eyes on it. That gave it a beauty in its own right.

  “Captain, I’m getting some interesting readings from the next planet,” Intrepid’s sensor officer reported.

  “Rare minerals?” Jones asked.

  The sensor officer shook her head. “No, it’s not from the planet surface. There’s something in orbit.”

  That made Emilie sit forward in her chair. “Something natural, or an artificial construction?”

  “It’s hard to tell at this range. There’s no energy readings. But there are light reflections coming from something in orbit. The reflection wavelengths suggest a metallic component.”

  Emilie shared a glance with Commander Alvarez. He had been quietly allowing Intrepid’s bridge officers to get on with their duty. But this was exactly why he was here. “What do you think?” Emilie asked him.

  Alvarez shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  Emilie nodded. “Take us in,” she said as she turned to her navigation officer.

  “It’s definitely not natural,” the sensor officer reported fifteen minutes later. “But whatever it is, it’s small and very irregular.”

  “How so?” Emilie queried.

  The sensor officer altered the view on the main holo-projector. “This is the shape of the anomaly. It’s the best estimate from this range at least. Who would build a station or a ship like that?”

  Emilie could see what she meant. The ship was roughly cuboid but its edges were all frayed and fragmented and there certainly wasn’t any symmetry to be seen.

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean very much,” Alvarez commented. “If this is the construction of an alien race, who knows how they think or like to design things?”

  “And there’s still no sign of intelligent life in the rest of the system?” Jones asked.

  “Nothing our sensors are detecting,” the sensor officer replied.

  “That is strange,” Jones responded. “If it is a ship or station, why is it here in the middle of nowhere?”

  Half an hour later the answer to Jones’ question became clear. “It has to be wreckage,” Emilie decided when Intrepid’s visual sensors were finally able to show them an image of the anomaly. It was definitely not a naturally occurring object. Whatever it had once been though, its fragmented edges and unusual shape suggested it was no longer whole.

  “I’m starting to pick up trace energy residues from the anomaly,” Maguire said. “They’re consistent with energy weapon discharges.” She pivoted in her seat to face Emilie. “Karacknid energy weapons.”

  “Cease all active sensors,” Emilie responded at once. “Put us into stealth mode. Navigation, bring us to a halt. Don’t get any closer to that object.” As her orders were carried out Emilie kept an eye on the passive sensor readings of the system. A Karacknid fleet could be hiding behind any of the planets. Even out in the open if they wanted. They had already shown their stealth capabilities were impressive.

  “What are you thinking?” Alvarez asked in a low voice.

  “It could just be some wreckage, or it could be a trap,” Emilie replied. “If it is an alien ship that was destroyed by the Karacknids, then we’ve stumbled into a war zone. One we probably don’t want to get caught in the middle of.” A thought occurred to her. “Maguire, is there any way to tell how long ago the object was destroyed?”

  “It’s wasn’t recent,” Maguire replied. “Not within the last few weeks at least. Beyond that, the residual energy traces can’t tell us very much. Not at this range.”

  “All right,” Emilie said as she came to a decision. She turned back to Alvarez. “I guess this is why you are on this mission with us. I want you to put a team together. Take a shuttle over there and see what you can find.”

  Alvarez smiled. “Aye Captain. It will be good to finally get to do something. I’ll get my people ready,” he added as he stood.

  Emilie understood. Alvarez was used to serving her uncle on his command staff. He had always had a long list of duties to see to. Sitting and watching Intrepid’s crew explore shift passage after shift passage had probably been deadly boring. “Contact Lieutenant Shaw, bring her and a couple of marines with you as well,” she called out after Alvarez. She had no idea what they were going to find, but it was always good to have a marine around. Emilie knew that from experience.

  After Alvarez nodded to acknowledge her command, Emilie turned back to the holo-projected image of the debris. Whatever it was, it held the promise of a vast array of possibilities for her mission and her species. If they had stumbled upon a new enemy of the Karacknids, then they may have just found a new ally. Or they could have just jumped into a system the Karacknids already controlled. In which case they may have already discovered their end of the wormhole. That would not be a good thing. Suddenly Emilie saw her mission in a whole new light. The stakes were even higher than she had imagined.

  Chapter 13

  There are many alien races that hold client state status within the Empire. Twenty-seven to be exact. Some do so as a result of geography, for our territory completely encompasses theirs. Others as a result of war, for we could not allow them to retain their sovereignty. The final and largest group have voluntary submitted themselves to our oversight and protection. In all three cases, to maintain client state status each civilization must adopt the Imperial Charter that ensures client state citizens enjoy the same freedoms full citizens of the Empire do.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  Commander Alverez rolled his shoulders as he sat in the shuttle and stole a glance at Lieutenant Shaw. He envied her poise. She and the two marines with her looked just as much at home in their EVA combat suits as in their off-duty slacks. Though he had trained in the use of EVA suits - every US naval officer had to if they wanted to graduate officer training, he was far from comfortable in them. And we haven’t even reached the anomaly yet, he thought, hiding a sigh from those around him. With Emilie having pulled Intrepid back from the wreckage, the shuttle’s flight time was forty-five minutes. Thoughts of Emilie made him smile. She was no longer the young COM officer she had been when they had served on board Golden Hind together. Her time commanding one of Scott’s new corvettes had matur
ed her. And she had jumped ahead of him in seniority. Initially, when he had heard she was being given another ship he had resented it. He was still waiting for his own chance. Then Admiral Somerville had called him to a private meeting. The Admiral had promised him his own command when Intrepid returned. Somerville had then asked him to look out for his niece. Does he know? Alverez asked himself, not for the first time. His thoughts turned his cheeks red. Quickly he turned away from Shaw. The marine Lieutenant and Emilie were close. He didn’t want her guessing his thoughts. Technically there was nothing going on between himself and Intrepid’s Captain. Alverez had thought there had been the potential for something during their time in the Outer Defense Fleet, though knowing who Emilie’s uncle was had made him hesitate. Then they had been separated for a couple of years while they had all been on the run from the UN. He had thought the time apart meant they would have both moved on. But then Golden Hind had been destroyed by the Karacknids. Alverez knew he was lucky to be alive. He had been pulled from the wreckage unconscious. And Emilie visited me several times while I recovered. Despite being run off her feet.

  You need to ask her for a meal you fool, Alverez said to himself as he remembered the quiet conversations they had shared by his bedside. Since coming on board Intrepid he had kept to himself. Partly because he had known Emilie would have had no time for him, and then, as the mission progressed, partly out of boredom and resentment. While she and her Lieutenants were actively leading Intrepid on her mission of discovery, he had been sitting around twiddling his thumbs. But now that you’re actually doing something, your thoughts are going to her, he pointed out. Fine, he thought. I’ll ask her.

  “Just so we’re clear,” Shaw said, putting an end to Alverez’s imagination. “My marines are going in first.”

  Alverez glanced at his team, specifically at Walker. The reserved man sitting to his left was a special forces marine on detachment to Alverez’s intelligence team. Walker could whoop Shaw and her two marines with one hand tied behind his back. Ever so slowly Walker nodded. “Of course, Lieutenant,” Alverez replied as he turned back to Shaw. “That is what you are here for.” There was no point getting into a pissing contest with Shaw’s marines in the middle of a mission. If Walker was happy, so was he. “Walker will follow you in, and then the rest of us will pick up the rear.”

  “The far rear,” Seth Hassan agreed. “You guys can check the whole structure out and then give us the all clear. I’m ok with that.”

  Alverez shook his head. Hassan was supposed to be a computer whiz kid. He hadn’t seen any evidence of it yet. But one thing was clear, the kid wasn’t too fond of risks. He had asked for Alverez and the others to retrieve whatever data cores they could and bring them back to Intrepid for him to look at. “We’re not waiting that long,” he warned Hassan. “And you won’t be at the very rear. I’ll be behind you to give you a prod or two if you need it.”

  Hassan rolled his eyes. “I was joking boss, we’re ready to rock and roll, aren’t we ladies?” he asked as he raised his eyebrows to Spence and Matthews.

  Alverez rolled his own eyes. First at Hassan’s bravado, which seemed to only appear in the company of the opposite sex. And then at the women’s response. Both looked away from the eighteen-year-old, taking care to avoid eye contact with him. Spence had PhDs in xenobiology and xenolinguistics, while Matthews specialized in Applied Physics. Alverez had been keen to learn that neither women were too uptight and proper – in his experience many PhDs were. It usually came from thinking too highly of oneself. From the tension in the way both of them were holding themselves, it was obvious they were nervous. It’s their first-time going EVA outside of training, Alverez reminded himself. And their first mission of any kind. Admiral Somerville had recruited Hassan, Spence and Matthews out of civilian life and assigned them to Intrepid. All three had readily accepted. That hadn’t surprised Alverez, after the Karacknid’s attack on Earth, everyone had been more than willing to do their part. That had been four months ago though. He suspected the reality of where they were and what they were doing was finally sinking in. At least I don’t have to worry about Walker, Alverez thought. The British special forces marine was a veteran of several combat engagements, two of which were still classified above Alverez’s clearance.

  “We’re ten minutes out,” the shuttle’s pilot called. “We’ll circle the wreckage a few times, get some more detailed readings on it and then find the best place to set you guys down.”

  “Understood,” Alverez replied on behalf of his team. From his seat just behind the pilot, he watched as the small speck the shuttle was heading towards quickly got bigger. “It’s pretty impressive,” he couldn’t help but say. “How big is it?”

  “It out masses Intrepid by a factor of four,” Matthews answered. “If it was a UN warship, it would be classed as a battlecruiser.”

  “And that’s just a damaged section,” Hassan said as he let out a whistle. “How big was the whole thing?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Alverez reminded him. “So keep your eyes open.”

  “Do you think it is a warship?” Hassan asked too quickly for Alverez’s liking. He obviously hadn’t taken his warning seriously.

  “Perhaps, though given its size it may just be debris from a freighter, or even an orbital station.” Alverez answered. He guessed the latter was the least likely, there didn’t seem to be any good reason to put a station in orbit around the system’s fourth planet, there was nothing of interest on the planet. At least nothing Intrepid’s sensors had picked up, but it was still a possibility.

  “My money’s on the freighter option,” the shuttle’s pilot called out. “Look at her.”

  When Alverez looked back out the shuttle’s forward view screen he saw what the pilot meant. It was crystal clear they were looking at the remnants of some kind of spaceship. One that had come under heavy attack. There were several large holes burnt right through its superstructure and out the other side. As the wreckage rotated in space, its innards became fully visible. It was obvious the ship had once been a freighter for there were large empty spaces that could only have been cargo holds. What else was clear was that the wreckage was far from complete. “Just how big would it have been?” Alverez found himself asking.

  “Without knowing the kinds of designs its builder favored, that’s impossible to know,” Matthew answered. “But I’d estimate we’re looking at no more than a tenth of what this ship once was. Look at its end there. That must have been its nose. There are no engines nor reactors, they must have been destroyed outright.”

  “Or sucked down into the planet’s atmosphere,” the shuttle pilot suggested.

  “Indeed,” Matthews agreed.

  “This looks like as good a spot as any,” the pilot suggested as he pointed to a large open section in the ship’s hull. We can set you down there and you can see if there is a way in.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Alverez replied after studying the opening for a couple of seconds. Even if the ship had external access ports remaining, it was very unlikely their shuttle would be able to dock with them. They would have to find another way in. For once Karacknid energy weapons were going to make life easier for them.

  Far quicker than Alverez thought safe, the pilot spun the shuttle around and backed into the hole. The familiar sound of the rear access ramp opening soon followed. “There you go,” the pilot said. “Good luck in there. Bring me back a souvenir.”

  “Let’s move,” Shaw said to her marines.

  Alverez let them stand first and move to the back of the shuttle before he followed. When he got there, Shaw and one marine had already pushed off from the shuttle. They slowly floated across the twenty meters to the ship’s hull. When they were a few meters out, they spun around and then activated the magnets in their boots. With a soundless clunk, they both stuck to the alien ship. Thank goodness the ship is metallic, Alverez thought. I wouldn’t want to be doing this if it wasn’t.

  Moments after Shaw g
ave a thumbs up, the third marine and Walker pushed themselves off. Then Matthews and Spence followed. “Now it’s our turn,” Alverez said to Hassan. When the kid turned and looked up at Alverez, the fear in his eyes was unmistakable. “Don’t worry, it’s easy,” Alverez assured him. “If you’re worried, just aim to touch down beside Walker. I’m sure if you miss your maneuver his enhanced reflexes will ensure he catches you.”

  “Right, good thinking,” Hassan replied. “I’ll do that.”

  “On three then,” Alverez said. “One, two… three.” Feigning as if he was going to push himself off, Alverez hesitated for a second to make sure Hassan was actually going to do it. When the kid pushed himself off, Alverez quickly followed suit. Moments later they were both standing on the alien ship’s hull. Hassan had even managed to land on his feet by himself. “Lead on,” he said to Shaw over the COM channel as he waved her forward.