The Epherium Chronicles: Crucible

by T. D. Wilson

  The Armstrong left the last midpoint beacon behind as she moved away and disappeared with a blue flash. She reappeared in open space close to the beacon left by the Magellan halfway between the orbit of the fourth and fifth planets of the Cygni system. Cygni—they had made it.

  The Armstrong’s engines roared to life. The huge ship vectored inward toward the fourth planet, and fighters began to pour out of her docking bays. The diligent crew members on the Command Deck worked to bring the ship to combat readiness. Echoes of voices from different personnel communicating their station’s status and that of the fighters and gunships filled the air. Hood watched all the excitement from his station in silence. They had performed this same drill for the past several jumps before the asteroid field, but now that they were so close, he was being extra careful. “Aldridge, what do we have on scan?”

  “Early results show no other vessels in the system, and I have a strong lock on the beacon,” the Armstrong’s tactical officer said as she looked up from her terminal and smiled. “I have the Magellan, sir. Location and status coming up now.”

  Images of the fourth planet began to appear on the large screen over Hood’s station. The reddish-brown-tinged planet was one large landmass, but there were pockets of water scattered around the surface, the most common in large lakes. The mere sight of the lakes made his earlier deflated spirit soar. Water. If water’s on that planet in abundance, it’ll make a great colony world. He couldn’t wait to see more of what the planet offered.

  Hood noticed a small signal blip in the upper southern hemisphere just east of a range of mountains. The ID code on the screen matched that of the Magellan. “Lieutenant,” he called out to Aldridge, “I want sensor satellites in a grid around the system, and get me a complete sweep. Once we arrive in orbit, I want the planetary grid online.”

  “Aye, sir. Already on it,” Aldridge replied and even from where he was sitting, Hood could hear the sounds of her fingers typing in new commands on her terminal.

  While the Armstrong continued its approach to the fourth planet, several long cylinders containing the satellites were launched from the aft docking bay. Once the satellites cleared the bay, ultrahigh-speed booster rockets sped them toward their specified locations. It took several minutes for the different elements of the grid to come online. Data from the satellites poured in, and Sanchez and Hood waited in earnest for the analysis.

  Sanchez’s terminal chimed and he glanced over at the alert. “The sensor team just reaffirmed their initial scan with no new contacts or gravimetric anomalies. It looks like we have new data on the rest of the planets in the system.” He opened up a terminal window for each planet. “The fourth planet seems to be the only habitable world without a dome.” Hood watched him scroll through the information on the screen and pause at the atmospheric summary. “The atmosphere is just less than twice as dense as Earth’s, with high levels of oxygen content. Nitrogen levels are about the same, but the CO2 is lower by almost half. The air’s breathable and no masks or suits would be needed.” Sanchez checked one final screen. “Gravity is one point two of Earth. We might feel it when we land, but I don’t think we’ll have a hard adjustment period.”

  “Excellent.” Hood balled his fist and the smile on his face reflected his enthusiasm. “What do we know about the others?”

  “Let’s see. First planet is three-quarters the size of Earth, but it’s a scorched world like Mercury. Seismic scans show the planet is unstable on the surface, lots of volcanic activity and ground quakes.” Sanchez closed that window and switched to the next, showing a planet with a dull gray surface littered with impact craters. “The second one is much like Proxima—a dead world with no atmosphere. The surface seems to have weathered several small meteor storms, but high-level scans show large quantities of rich mineral deposits. Iron, copper and even titanium seem to be in abundance.”

  Hood reviewed the scan report. “We’ll need to flag that one for a deeper mining survey.” His eyes caught sight of the window for the next planet in line and his interest piqued. “Third planet is similar to Mars, but about twice the size.”

  Sanchez nodded. “Atmosphere and surface conditions are almost identical. With its proximity to the Cygni star, this could be a terraforming target. I recommend you put this on the list to investigate further.”

  “Agreed.” Hood knew full well that terraforming would take time, but with Mars as a model, the upside for domed colonies on the surface was still encouraging. “What about the last two planets in the system?”

  “Both are gas giants with size approximate to Saturn. Their orbits are much farther out than the closer four, but these are the only planets other than Cygni 4 with any moons. The fifth planet has four, and there are nine on the last one.”

  Hood pressed a button his terminal and an expanded image of the fourth planet appeared on the monitor above his station. Tall mountains and long, deep valleys filled the landscape. Hood felt his breath get taken away when he saw the first clouds. A long band of clouds in a storm front stretched for hundreds of kilometers just south of the Magellan’s location. It was more than he could have hoped to imagine. A living world, and based on what he’d seen, quite capable of supporting human life. He sat back in his chair and watched the bottom right of the screen continue to scroll with new information. His eyes scanned the data, but just for a few moments. He wanted to revel in the beauty of this new world. Several minutes passed and Hood realized he had been just staring at the screen. He took a quick look around, but no one had noticed. Not even Sanchez. He stood from his seat and leaned closer to his XO. “I’m headed back to my quarters to start working on my first communiqué to command. Keep collecting data. I want to send a burst back home within the hour.”

  Sanchez nodded, and Hood left the Command Station, heading for the elevator lift.

  * * *

  Hood arrived at his quarters, removed his uniform jacket and tried to relax. They had made it to Cygni, but his mission was already more complicated than when it began. He still had to ascertain the colonists’ situation. What Epherium had done was wrong, but there was no changing it now. He sat down in his chair, and the terminal on his desk beeped. “There’s never a moment’s peace, is there?” He sighed and answered the incoming comm channel.

  “Sir,” Maya Greywalker said, “I’ve completed my investigation of Project Sandman.”

  Hood noticed the report was already transferred to his terminal. He opened the file and scanned it. Everything McCraken had told them about the secret Epherium project was true, including the use of criminals on the colony ships. He cringed. What did the Embrace do to his uncle and his friends aboard the Magellan? He didn’t want to think about it, but he couldn’t stop. Did it reprogram them as well? Will they still recognize me? “What about Walsh? Is he the only one on board connected to this?”

  “Yes he was, but there are others from Epherium’s list still in service in different commands. I’ve alerted EDF Command per your orders. Hearing about his involvement in this hasn’t sat very well with the brass. He was a respected officer with a distinguished career.”

  Hood nodded. “I figured as much. Good work, Lieutenant. Is that everything?”

  She shook her head. “I found something else. It seems we weren’t the only target. Just before the attack on the Epherium office, several other Epherium facilities on Earth were hit. All were similar infiltrations. I contacted the investigating officers in each case and had them check for data breaches. Data hacks were confirmed at all the locations, but Epherium isn’t talking about what was taken. They’ve marked it all Corporate Classified.”

  Hood scoffed at her last remark. Epherium was covering their butts as always, but were the attackers after the same data, or did each place hold something different? A new file showed on his terminal, some sort of video. Hood opened it. “What am I looking at, Lieutenant?”

  “It’s exte
rnal surveillance footage from a camera across the street from the Epherium office that was hit in San Diego. All the Epherium cameras were dead, just like we experienced, but this one had something. You should see it about now.”

  Hood studied the video. One of the main doors to the facility opened, but there wasn’t anyone there. A moment later, the image of person walking away appeared just for a split second, and then it was gone. He rewound the video and watched it again. “What was that?”

  “I believe it to be one of the perpetrators. I shared the video with some experts at Command. The consensus is that it’s some sort of personalized cloaking technology, but it’s far more advanced than anything they’ve seen. The Cilik’ti had deployed some sort of adaptive camouflage for their vehicles during the war. It’s possible this could be a derivative, but it’s only speculation.”

  Hood sighed. Whoever wanted Epherium’s data wanted it badly and they were taking pretty sophisticated methods to acquire it. “Once again, excellent work, Lieutenant. Have your teams continue their sweeps of the ship. I want to make sure we don’t have any more hidden guests aboard. Hood out.”

  * * *

  It took four short hours for the Armstrong to reach the fourth planet in the Cygni system. Hood ordered the Dreadnaught into high orbit above the Magellan’s location. As the fighters took up screening positions, more satellites left the aft bay and moved to their designated locations around the planet, their multiple sensor arrays angling down at the surface.

  Hood opened a channel at his station. “Major McGregor, mount up. I want you ready to launch in five minutes.”

  The Scottish Marine’s voice bellowed over the comm. “Aye, sir. We’ll be ready.”

  Hood closed the comm channel and stared at the large screen in front of him. The new sensor grid had detected two encampments. The first surrounded the Magellan and images from the satellites showed the colonists had constructed several dwellings. From the look of things, they had used pieces of the ship to reinforce them. It was early morning on this side of the planet and so far there was little activity.

  The second settlement was located two hundred fifty kilometers to the northeast and situated in a rolling valley that emptied into one of the larger lakes in the region. Unlike the first settlement location, the buildings the colonists had constructed were spread out along the walls of the valley and the lake shoreline. Hood zoomed in closer on one of the images and spotted a boat just offshore on the lake.

  Hood laughed. It had been a long time since he’d set foot on an actual boat. EDF naval training focused on the vastness of space now, but many of the basics of command it used were born on the high seas. If all went well, he would have to make time to take a jaunt across one of the lakes.

  “What’s the final count, Raf?” Hood asked his XO. “Have we accounted for all the colonists and crew?”

  Sanchez checked the data on his terminal. “Sensors indicate we’re missing about two hundred and thirty. There’s another small group west of the main encampment, perhaps fifteen of them.” Sanchez expanded the visual of the area west of the mountain range on the larger screen. “The mountains could be masking them, or they might have found some caves. We won’t know more until we get down there.”

  Hood walked over to the Communications Station. “All right, Lieutenant. Let’s wake them up.”

  “Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Juanita Wells, the blonde communications officer, responded with an impish smile. Wells opened a channel to the main communications array that was detected in the main encampment. It took almost five minutes, but an underdressed man whose face showed days of an unkempt beard appeared on the main screen over Hood’s station.

  The man rubbed his bloodshot eyes with his hands. “Darn it, Howe, its early, man. What do you want?”

  “Sorry to disturb you, but this isn’t Howe. I’m Captain James Hood of the Earth Defense Force Dreadnaught Armstrong. We’ve come a long way to find you and I need to talk with your ship’s commander.”

  The man produced a blank stare as Hood spoke and after a few moments, his mouth went slack-jawed. He stumbled backward from the communication gear. The only audible sound that came from the man was a muffled “Holy shit!” He turned and ran out of the room, almost knocking over a chair. Seconds later, yelling could be heard in the background, mixed with growing sounds of commotion.

  Hood chuckled. He’d been certain the first communication would make an impact and he was right.

  Ten minutes after the man had left the room, he hustled back into sight with two other men on his heels. The last one to enter, Hood recognized. It was his uncle, Jonathan, the commander of the Magellan. This time it was Hood’s turn to stare in amazement. He felt as if he was staring at an old photo. Jonathan’s muscular build and a full head of dark hair, unblemished by gray, had the mark of a man in his prime. His uncle, who left to lead the Magellan on the ship’s twenty-five-year journey, hadn’t aged a day.

  Jonathan Hood stared at the screen and the left side of his mouth formed into the wry smile the Armstrong’s captain remembered from his youth. “Jimmy, is that you?”

  Many of the Command Deck crewed stared at Hood, who still hadn’t responded. Feeling everyone’s eyes on him, he broke the silence and smiled back at his uncle. “Yes, Uncle Jon. It’s me.” His voice cracked with joy.

  “Well, son, what are you doing all the way out here?”

  “Your beacon let us know you made it, so we had to call out the cavalry to come find you,” Hood joked.

  Jonathan Hood and the other two men with him conferred and nodded in agreement. “We were beginning to wonder about that. We knew the signal went active, but we didn’t get a return from Earth. Hell, we figured we were on our own.”

  “There’s a story behind that one. I want to cover that in person when I get down there, but I need to send my people down first.” He nodded toward Sanchez. “We have food, medical supplies and material to augment you.”

  The news brought delight to the eyes of Jonathan and his men. “We’ll be ready for them when they get here, Jimmy. Magellan base out.”

  Once the communication channel ended, Sanchez opened a new one to the Marines in the docking bay. “Major, you are a go for drop. Operation code is Harmless. I repeat, operation code is Harmless.”

  “Understood, Commander.” Major McGregor’s boisterous voice echoed over the comm channel as he yelled to his men, “All right laddies. Mount up! Dust off in two minutes. We got friendlies to meet.”

  On his terminal’s screen, Hood watched the six Marine assault shuttles leave the rear docking bay and begin their descent toward the planet. Hood wanted to be on the first ship that landed. Now, joy and sadness competed for his attention. When he was growing up, the sheer excitement of seeing his uncle show up at his home after a long absence would last for days. He envisioned himself stepping off that ramp and giving his uncle a huge hug, but he had to follow protocol. McGregor’s team had to go first. There would be time for a reunion once the all clear was given. Of that he was sure.

  * * *

  The shuttles circled the main encampment during their final approach. The atmosphere was thick with deep cloud formations, but the low wind speeds offered little turbulence and a smooth approach for the shuttle pilots.

  Major McGregor gazed out the view port from his shuttle’s cockpit and could see crowds beginning to gather. The light from the Cygni star was bright, but not oppressive, and offered good visibility for the surrounding area. The pilot called out a landing site just east of the main encampment in an open plain. McGregor agreed with the pilot’s choice and ordered his men to prepare to disembark as the shuttle began its landing cycle.

  Regardless of the friendly operational code he was given, McGregor didn’t relax. He treated every mission the same. To do anything else would reduce his vigilance, and that got Marines killed. He clasped his hands t
ogether hard. His adrenaline was already flowing. He just needed to harness it and focus on the mission.

  The shuttles set down in a standard cover formation in groups of three. With the shuttle ramps on the interior of the triangle, the Marines’ armored vehicles exited the shuttles first and assumed defensive positions, thus allowing the troops extra protection as they disembarked, and the primary guns of the shuttles could be used to pacify any aggressors.

  Even before the ramp of the shuttle finished lowering to the ground, McGregor raced down the ramp and led his men to secure the landing zone. The rich, sweet air he encountered at the bottom of the ramp gave him additional boost of energy. He couldn’t place the scent, but it reminded him of honeysuckle. He filled his lungs with another deep breath. It wasn’t quite like running in an oxygen tent, but certainly better than the recycled air on board the Armstrong. The crowds from the encampment had already begun to arrive, and McGregor ordered his Marines to fall into companies next to their shuttles.