By Dawn’s Early Light
Echoes of Liberty, Book 1
Jason Fuesting
Ordered Operations
Contents
Acknowledgments
Ice
Decisions
Intake
Cellmates
Winter
Interrogation
Adjudication
Quarantine
Solitude
Contours
Together
Birds-eye View
Peace in Our Time
Forsaken
Bounty
About the Author
By Dawn’s Early Light
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
ISBN: 9781090703064
Published by: Ordered Operations, Inc.
Copyright © 2019 by Jason Fuesting
Cover Design: © 2019 Cedar Sanderson
Acknowledgments
Thanks, Cedar and Amanda (both of you), without the three of you, this would never have been finished. Thanks to the rest of the crazies and mad geniuses that helped me along the way. Finally, Elizabeth Bannon, that first story I started writing for you so long ago helped keep the dream alive.
Ice
Space was dangerous on a good day, a day when everyone knew what to do. Improvisation only adds to the danger and so far everything had been improvisation. Nobody on the Fortune had a choice, or rather the choice was unsettlingly clear: ice or asphyxiation.
“Nothing’s ever easy,” Eric mumbled to himself as he stared at the displays projected against the inside of his helmet. Radar is green. Ish. Links to all team members, green. Main link back to the Fortune, green. Task status, then O2 checks.
Eric blinked, trying to ease the eyestrain from the hours of watching his men through monochrome green light enhancement. A sparkling green haze, the leftovers from the last three hours, clouded the view around him.
Hours of boredom, stuck in a suit while we pry apart an ice comet.
Eric yawned as he checked the time display.
“Team one, status,” he said.
“Anchors set, connected to the tether,” came the reply.
Eric glanced to his right. Barely visible above a distant ridge of ice, team one’s lead gave him a thumbs up.
Good, almost done.
He glanced at his millimeter wave display and its thousands of moving contacts. A frown creased his brow as he looked at the blinking overload indicator on the display. We really need to find upgrades for these suits. How am I supposed to warn people if my gear can’t track everything?
“Team two,” he started. Flickering red on the radar display stilled his tongue. “Indy, looks like we’ve got another wave of stuff incoming from eleven o’clock. Take cover. Looks small, but it’s going at a good clip.”
“Copy that,” Indy responded.
Dozens of red dots amid the sea of blue contacts winked in and out of his display as his suit’s computer strained against the number of simultaneous objects it could track. Each heartbeat brought them closer. All going the same direction. Wait. Shit. His display lit up with a cascade of yellows following a different vector.
Eric pressed against the ice as he blurted, “All teams take cover!”
Breathing hard, he glanced in team three’s direction. A huge red contact lit up the radar display. That’s almost on top of-- A large shadow streaked through the haze, sending shards of ice and rock debris billowing in its wake. Wow, that was close. That had to be what was causing those yellow returns.
Cautiously, Eric pushed back from the ice and spoke, “Teams, sound off!”
“Team one clear, all we got was a light peppering. No damage.”
Silence.
“Team two?” Eric asked.
Digitally distorted static erupted from his headset. Eric gritted his teeth for several moments before the transmission ended. Eric sighed and pounded the side of his helmet with a fist hard enough to fritz his low-light projection with each strike.
“Say again, team two,” Eric said.
“Team two clear. We got peppered pretty hard but somehow nobody’s hurt. Also, anchor set and tethered.”
“Team three clear. Set and tethered.”
About time, we’re done here.
“Roger, Indy. Prep to return to the Fortune. I’d like to get out of here before something else happens,” Eric replied. His eyes narrowed as he looked over the status of his team. “Sokolov?”
“What?” Richard Sokolov growled.
Eric sighed.
“Stow it, Dick. Getting some odd readings over here, check your O2. Think you might have a leak.”
“Hold on. Nope, gauge says I’m just fi-- blyad!” Static.
“What’s going on?” Eric demanded. Sokolov seldom fell back into his native tongue. The ice cloud obscured the man’s last known position.
“Was looking at the gauge and it just dropped half through the yellow. Yeblya lezha pribor! Who the hell did we loot this shit from?”
“We didn’t,” Indy chimed in. “Your suit’s original to the ship. Probably a hundred years old.”
“Great. Just great,” Sokolov groused.
“Cut it, you two,” Eric grunted. “Sokolov, you reading a little under ten minutes left?”
“More or less.”
“Looks like my monitor is accurate. We should be back long before you’re sucking vac. You good?” Sokolov grumbled. “Everyone, get back to the cable and hook on,” Eric ordered before switching channels. “Desi, Friedrich. Anchors are in, we should be good. Sokolov took a strike. He’s okay, but his suit is leaking. Don’t take your time reeling us in.”
“I can only reel in so quickly. The cradle’s only rated for a certain impact,” Desi’s exotic accent rolled across the radio. Eric knew next to nothing about her past, other than overhearing her mention where she grew up, Orleans.
A vibration through the line from the winch signaled their trip to safety had begun and Eric eyed the haze as it drifted past them. Shifts of three teams each had worked the last eighteen hours to cut this ice comet into four fragments. One by one, each fragment had been reeled in and secured in the bay below him.
Last one. We’ve been lucky. Too lucky. A bead of sweat trailed down the side of his neck, just where he couldn’t do anything about it in the confines of the suit. A sudden chill down his spine sent Eric checking his millimeter wave warning display again. Nothing big, nothing fast.
Eric relaxed as the cable pulled them clear of the debris cloud toward a stretch of what appeared empty black to the naked eye amidst the surrounding star field. Magnified many-fold by the enhancement rig grafted into his helmet, the feeble illumination from the system’s distant star reflected brilliantly off the edges of a pair of bent hull plates amidships. Four square meters of steel plating sealed the rent just inside the shadow cast by the ship. He stared at a stretch of darker steel peeking from the patch. That puncture had vented Environmental Control into the void. What is that? Eric looked closer and then averted his eyes from the frozen smear of blood left by the doomed technician who had almost been lucky. The Fortune had seen better days.
“Mon chéri,” Desi broke his reverie. “The captain ordered an orbit change once the cargo has been retrieved. Lt. Pascal will meet you in the bay.”
“Roger that, Desi.” What now?
His light amplification faded out as lights flickered on in the bay ahead. Eric and his team unhooked and kicked off the comet fragment, reorienting to land boots down. He absorbed m
ost of the landing with bent legs and his boots jerked as the maglocks engaged. While his team of miscreants filed through the airlock, Eric watched the ice comet shard drift into the bay and strike the makeshift cradle the engineers had cobbled together.
Eric winced as vibrations from the bowing cradle shot up his legs. Cracks spidered across the fragment’s surface. Smaller chunks and ice dust leapt from the fragment and bounced off the deck below. After a few unnerving seconds, both the cradle and the comet stilled.
“Guess the engineers earned their pay, eh, Friedrich?”
Eric glanced over his shoulder to find Lt. Pascal.
“I’d say so, sir. Wasn’t sure if the cradle was going to collapse or if the fragment was going to shatter like the first one did.”
Pascal nodded and sighed, “Yeah, what a pain in the ass.”
Eric shifted his weight as he glanced about the hanger before asking, “So, LT, why are we staying out here and not going in with the others?”
“Sensors guys picked up an object nearby,” Pascal replied. Eric felt vibrations through his boots and grabbed for the nearby stanchion as the Fortune’s acceleration pulled at him. “We’re matching orbits and checking it out.”
“Nothing out here but ice, sir. What’s worth burning fuel when we’re low as it is?”
The lieutenant smiled.
Eric asked, “What?”
“You’re right, Friedrich. There’s supposed to be nothing out here but ice. This thing, whatever it is, has too much mass to be just ice. At least that’s what Simon told the captain.”
“So an honest asteroid?”
“Not likely. Our sensors are still jacked up and the cloud isn’t helping. Return’s unusual for an asteroid or a comet fragment at this orbital. We’ll find out shortly. Should be alongside in five or six minutes, so you’ve got time to change out tanks.”
Eric shrugged and walked over to the stowage locker to do as suggested.
Weird, but whatever. Just want to hit my rack, but I guess that’s not happening any time soon.
At least Lieutenant Pascal’s estimate turned out to be accurate. Eric’s clock had just ticked over six minutes when he noticed an irregular arc of black occluding the starscape behind it. Lack of light and reference points made judging scale difficult, but the shadow was easily larger than the Fortune, possibly by several times. The lieutenant glanced back at him and the others that had filtered in over the last few minutes.
“Okay, duty nav is telling me we’ve matched vectors. The plan is pretty simple, go over there and find out what’s special about it. Radar doesn’t show any fast moving debris nearby so random strikes aren’t likely anymore, but be cautious anyway, we’ve already lost too many people. Keep your eyes open, and stay in contact. Friedrich, you’re with me.”
Eric nodded and one by one the men around him disengaged their maglocks and pushed off toward the silent shadow overhead. Eric and the lieutenant were traversing the gap when the Fortune’s dorsal observation lights flickered to life. Only a quarter of the infrared spotlights had activated. Half of those flickered and failed, but the handful of that remained gave more than enough light to amplify. At first glance, Eric was inclined to dismiss the behemoth before them as just another dirty ice ball circling the outer reaches of a barren system, but an odd shadow lurked just below the surface.
Eric toggled his radio and said, “Hey, LT, you tracking that shadow? Our one o’clock?”
“Good eye,” Lt. Pascal commented.
Eric beamed as they adjusted their approach to touch down where it seemed closest to the surface. Pascal unholstered a small pistol and fired a piton into the ice. Tethering to it, he motioned for Eric to do the same. “Fortune, how do you read?”
“Signal is loud and clear, Pascal,” the Fortune’s communications officer replied.
“I’ve got my men covering elsewhere, but I believe we’ve found your artifact.”
“Any ideas, lieutenant?” a rough voice cut into the channel.
“Nothing certain. Whatever it is, it’s big and appears to be embedded in the ice, Captain.”
“Continue your investigation, Pascal,” Captain Fox replied.
“Aye, sir.”
Over the next fifteen minutes, Pascal directed the others to join them as their own searches came up dry.
“Fortune, I believe we’ve located the thinnest part of the ice, but we’ll need equipment to get through,” Pascal transmitted.
Eric’s heart beat a bit faster as he waited for the reply. This thing is huge. What the hell is it?
“Pascal, have your men return to the Fortune. We’re sending Ensign Winters and a few others from engineering over. You’re to remain to coordinate.”
Lieutenant Pascal looked over at Eric, “Permission to keep Friedrich with me?”
Another pause.
“Granted, but he’s your headache, Pascal,” Captain Fox replied.
Eric rolled his eyes. The officers always acted like having him around was a chore, but they never passed up the opportunity to have him nearby.
Lieutenant Pascal glanced at him. “Before you ask, and I know you’re going to, Winters spent a decade as an asteroid miner. Foreman by the time he quit, if I recall. If anyone can crack this quickly and safely, he can. There’s a reason he led the planning effort for cracking that last one.”
Moving shadows across the ice surface caught his eye and Eric looked up. Several vac sleds traversed one of the spotlights just forward of the aft cargo transit bay. According to his few acquaintances in maintenance, the sleds were difficult to work on and spent more time under repair than they did under operation.
“Lieutenant Pascal, Ensign Winters and engineering team on approach. I figured we could bring a few air tanks in addition to our gear so you two can top off.”
“Roger that, Ensign. Good thinking,” Pascal replied.
Thanks to the extra reaction mass, the sleds approached much faster than his team had and were spiked and tethered in half the time it had taken Eric’s group to arrive. While his team unstrapped their equipment, Winters attached a corded black wand to his tablet and slowly waved it about while pacing a circle around Eric and Lt. Pascal
Eric’s radio crackled as Ensign Winters addressed his crew. “Tori, Spinks, set the base up over here, tether it off at least ten meters. Azarov, Church, help them set up the inductance drill when they’ve got the base anchored. Everybody else back off, there’s a hollow chamber underneath us. It might have atmosphere, so there’s a chance we’ll have some decompression when we breach it.”
The team carefully assembled the base, anchored it, and then mounted a large bore drill piece.
“Captain, Pascal. Winters is activating the inductance drill.”
“Carry on.”
The flat bit descended to the surface and slowly rotated against it for several moments before water began to climb its sides and the bit began to descend. Eric noticed most of water slipped up the surface of the drill bit into a collar instead of puffing off into space. He shot an inquiring glance at Winters.
“Hydrophilic surface coating. Draws the liquid to a chamber so it can be reclaimed. The umbilical from the drill to the sled carries more than just electricity, Friedrich,” Winters explained. The ensign’s eyes darted back to the drill. “Careful, slow the bit!”
Before the operators could react, the slow stream of liquid water became a jet and then shards of ice and liquid water burst forth lightning quick in all directions.
“Shit! Kill the power!” Winters yelled over the shocked voices that filled the channel. Eric flung his hands up to shield his face. Ice pinged off his visor and pelted his suit. A shadow passed overhead and more ice pelted him from behind moments later.
The chaos on the channel squelched out, overridden by the ship’s command channel. “Pascal, Fortune. Status?”
“We had a blow-out, Captain. Pocket had atmosphere. Temp and pressure were higher than Winters expected. One minute.”
One
by one, the team called out their status as the ice cloud dispersed. The drill was gone, so was the sled it had been secured to. A ragged hole slightly larger than the drill base remained where their equipment had been. Checking behind him, Eric spotted the battered sled and the drill. The drill had been blown off the ice by the decompression and uprooted its tethers on the way out. Held by the umbilical and the sled’s anchor, instead of shooting straight out, it had followed an arc and imbedded itself in the ice behind them.
“Fortune, Pascal. No injuries to the crew, though we’re patching two suit leaks. The drill and the sled it was attached to might be a loss though.”
Captain Fox sighed over the radio. “At least the crew’s safe. Carry on.”
While the team gathered at the bore, Ensign Winters smirked and said, “Now you see why I got out of ice mining, Friedrich. Too fucking dangerous.”
“Hey, that thing still had the price tags on it when we pulled it out of the crate. Do you think it’s still under warranty?” Church asked. His question brought several chuckles.
“Fortune, Pascal. Looks like the blow-out opened up a chimney of some sort, too narrow to traverse. Bends out of sight about three meters in. We’ll need some time to widen it.”
“Pascal, Fortune. You’ve got three hours before we need to leave.”
“Acknowledged, Fortune,” Pascal replied.
Eric stared down at the darkened hole, imagining what might lay at the other side. Nothing’s been all that dangerous so far. Could be something valuable, maybe I can get a bonus for going above and beyond? Wait, or what if there’s nothing down there? We could be back home three hours sooner if I do this. Either way, that works.
“Sir,” Eric said before Lieutenant Pascal could issue orders.
By Dawn's Early Light Page 1