Shroud of Eden (Panhelion Chronicles Book 1)

by Marlin Desault

  Aurora

  ~~~

  The crews of the expeditionary fleet assembled on Aurora’s hangar deck to mourn their loss. An honor guard bore the two symbolic, empty coffins, draped with the flag of the Panhelion, to the airlock in remembrance of their deceased shipmates whose bodies were lost when their ship was hulled.

  Scott Drumond officiated. “We are here to pay our last respects to Commander Klaas Van der Meer and Lieutenant Robert Rausch, who died courageously in battle.”

  He offered a short prayer:

  “We therefore commit the bodies of our fallen brothers-in-arms to the heavens,

  to rejoin the stardust from whence they came.

  To the stars they now return, to be reformed unto light and life again.

  For those who sleep among the stars shall be changed,

  and made like unto the glorious heavens,

  in accordance with the mighty ordinance of our universe.”

  The assembly came to attention, and Scott ordered the caskets committed to space. After a short requiem played over Aurora’s intercom, he dismissed the crew.

  The senior officers of the four ships gathered in Aurora’s wardroom for a wake dedicated to the two fallen warriors. In deference to Scott’s abstinence, non-alcoholic drinks and coffee stood available in the wide recess in the bulkhead. On the wall, screens decorated with black ribbon displayed images of Klaas and Rausch. A variety of liqueurs flowed from several crystal vases.

  “Your first wake, Ariela?” Scott held her elbow. “The battle and now this. Do you find these events hard to endure?”

  “A terrible waste of life,” she whispered with a downward glance. “Such fine men to have their lives cut short. I now understand why my ancestors left Earth to start a new culture, one in which they strove to evolve violence out of existence.”

  He put his arm around her shoulders. “You have second thoughts about coming with me to Earth?”

  “Some. If I said otherwise you wouldn’t be fooled.” She rested her head on his chest. “I keep hoping all this conflict will be over when I get to Earth.”

  “I hope so as well, but we still have a tyrant to depose, and I can’t say we won’t face battle again.”

  Da Silva spiked his cup of maté with a shot of Cachaça. “They were undisciplined, but damn fine officers in combat. A great loss, and I will miss them.”

  Tanner wrinkled his nose and snickered. “Tiago, I can’t stand the stuff you drink, not even the smell.”

  “Eh, amigo, don’t be so quick to dismiss it. You drink rum, yes? Well, this is much the same, only a little stronger.”

  Scott joined the two.

  Da Silva held out a cup. “Chefe, have some of my national drink—a little something especial, the finest of the fine. I always keep some for special occasions, and this is a sad but special occasion, is it not?”

  “Damn, Scott.” Emeka turned her mouth down and rolled her eyes. “You drink that Brazilian worm, and you’ll be lost to us for a few day-watches.”

  “No offense.” Scott held up the palm of his hand. “I appreciate the offer, but no thanks.”

  “You forget, Tiago, he doesn’t take alcohol.” said Rigus Bauer.

  “A pity. It opens a man’s soul.” The tan-skinned officer and son of a Martian settler glanced down and shook his head.

  Scott took Bauer’s arm and led him to a quiet corner of the room. “Rigus, what’s the mood of your officers? Will they support us when they learn we want to depose Camus and restore the Panhelion?”

  “If we put the question to them the right way, I think they will, but a good speech from you with compelling reasons would help bring them around.”

  Scott thanked Bauer and made his way across the room. His demeanor took a decidedly serious turn when he faced Tanner. “How long before we can repair Vesper? If they only have sublight propulsion, they’ll need close to six thousand Earth years to get back, give or take a few hundred, although with time dilatation, it would be less for them.” His face curled in a sardonic twist. “I know, I’m being facetious.”

  Tanner lowered the cup from his mouth. “Or we cram her crew into our three remaining ships.”

  After a sip of his Niobian tea, Scott shook his head. “Won’t work, Poland. We need Vesper’s firepower to defeat Camus. We’ve got to get her operational and back home. I’d like you to personally see to her repair. What’s the score on our spares?”

  “Between our three ships....” Tanner put down his cup. “Plus what spares Vesper has, and with a few weeks work, we’ll have her drive-ring functional again.”

  “You have to do it in less,” Scott shot back. “The Khepri might return anytime, and we’ve Aurora’s engines to repair as well.”

  Tanner nodded. “We can start the repairs on Vesper in a few hours, after we run out the lattice beams. We’ll see to Aurora’s repairs while we’re working on Vesper.”

  Meter by meter, the crawler pulled itself along the length of carbon-fiber cable feeding across the struts erected between Aurora and Targelion. A cable of equal length held Targelion and Vesper together. At the far end of the cable, crews in space gear worked flaring seam joiners, as they swarmed around the damaged Vesper repairing the gaping holes in the warp ring and fuselage.

  The Fleet Engineering Officer chattered on about the repairs to Scott and Tanner as they rode in the observation cabin of the crawler.

  Nervous about the pace of repairs, Scott glanced over the scene outside the transparent panel. “When will the raft up be complete?”

  The officer pointed below the crawler. “By the end of even-watch, the final cables and struts will be strung across from Vesper to Aurora. By night-watch, all three ships will be bound together and ready for final repairs.”

  “The sooner we get these repairs done and the cables unhooked, the better. With three ships tied up like trussed sheep, we’re damn vulnerable if the Khepri decide to jump us again.”

  “The repairs to Aurora are mainly to the internal electrics of the engine pods,” the engineering officer explained. “The work crews will finish the outside repair by shift end. We can begin powered tests in a few days, as soon as we drop the lattice and cables.”

  Scott craned his neck to one side and then the other. “I don’t see Plexaure about.”

  Tanner stretched out his arm, forefinger extended. “About ninety kilometers over there, you can just see a small spot of light. She’s standing guard against a possible Khepri return. We have indications the enemy are on the prowl, just outside our laser detection range.”

  Scott scowled at the engineer. “Rafted up like this, Aurora can’t help fend off a Khepri attack, at least not until she’s cut loose from Vesper.” He shifted his glance to Tanner. “Put on a third shift. I want repair crews on the job twenty-four hours a day.”

  The crawler reached Aurora’s docking bay. In the weightlessness, the three pulled themselves along the handrails.

  Once inside, Scott turned to Tanner. “Poland, at the end of this watch, I want all officers in the wardroom to discuss how many of their crew are willing to help depose the Imperium. Before we engage in a firefight with the home fleet, we’ve got to know if any of our crew have objections of conscience.”

  “We also have Lieutenant Zirkel to deal with,” Tanner added. “She’s still confined to the brig.”

  Scott winced, remembering the murder of his deceased friend. “She stays in her cell until we take care of Camus, then we convene a court-martial.”

  With standing room only, the senior officers of the expeditionary fleet assembled in Aurora’s wardroom.

  Scott raised his arms and the murmuring ceased. He squared his shoulders and addressed the assembly. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a matter of importance before us.”

  Satisfied he had their attention, he spoke in a clear voice. “When you were commissioned, you swore an oath to faithfully support and defend the Panhelion and its elected government. Events now test your fealty to that oath. Admiral Camus
has dissolved the Panhelion and the elected Senate. As Regent of the New Imperium, he answers to no one but himself.”

  Scott scanned the silent officers before him. “As soon as repairs and space trials are complete, your captains and I intend to lead our fleet back to our solar system, where we will restore the government to the constituted Panhelion and its elected representatives. Will you, in good conscience, join us in this quest—in this historic undertaking? If you cannot, make your objection known now. If you do not wish to join us, it will not be held against you, but you will be confined and well cared for until we return to the solar system.”

  The officers conferred in muffled voices. First one, and then the rest, cheered in agreement.

  He put hand to brow in salute. “My brother officers, I commend you for joining me and your captains in this noble venture.”

  An hour later, Scott gathered the four captains in Aurora’s CIC observation booth. The success of their rebellion hinged on one last detail.

  “Fellow commanders.” He invited them to sit. “Our ship’s officers, to their credit, have agreed to join us, but we still have to deal with the question of the warrants and sub-officers, as well as the remainder of the enlisted crew. I’m open to your suggestions.”

  Emeka spoke first. “We can’t count on them all joining us. Some have siblings or even parents serving in the home fleet. As part of our operation, they may be faced with firing on family.”

  “Emeka has a point.” Scott rubbed the back of his neck. “What do we do with them?”

  Da Silva frowned for several seconds, then his face brightened. “We take them out of the fight, set them planet-side somewhere where they’ll be safe and won’t compromise our mission.”

  Scott hesitated before he spoke. “Anyone have a suggestion as to where?”

  Bauer slid his cup forward on the table. “Yeah, we maroon them on Ganymede after we neutralize the military post there. They have plenty of accommodations, provisions, and not much traffic. We then make our foray into the solar system and dispose of Camus.”

  Scott scanned from face to face in turn. “Any reason why we shouldn’t follow Bauer’s suggestion?”

  “With one exception.” Emeka tipped her head up to catch Scott’s eye. “We make the same offer to the officers. Some of them may have second thoughts.”

  “An excellent point.” Scott pushed away from the table. “Are we all agreed?”

  An affirmative nod circulated around the table.

  He took Bauer aside. “I gather from your comment you’ve decided to fight with us.”

  Bauer smiled. “I was impressed by how you took on the Khepri. I think you can do the same with Camus. So yes, I’m with you in this venture.”

  The repair crews lumbered outside Aurora’s airlock, hurrying to disassemble the last lattice-work and to rewind the cables. Now untethered, Aurora was finally free to maneuver under her own power.

  Vesper, her warp ring restored, began a slow drift to fore, away from Aurora and Targelion.

  Scott issued his last command before the fleet entered warp. None of the ships would see or communicate with each other until they returned to normal space at the far edge of the Kuiper belt surrounding the solar system.

  “Ships of the Panhelion expeditionary fleet, in this hour of need, Earth calls her sons and daughters to our gallant cause. Transition to superluminal, and Godspeed.”

  Earth

  ~~~

  In the palace of the Regent of the solar system, Admiral Joe Schwartz gawked in disbelief at the opulent appointments decorating the inner office of Andre Camus, Regent of the New Imperium. The decorative gold bas-relief on the walls struck him as gaudy, but Camus had raised him to the exalted level of admiral the week before, and for such a prize, Schwartz would overlook the temptations of Lucifer himself.

  Since his canonization as Regent, Camus received his staff officers while seated in his great chair. His new uniform of office, a white tunic, sported regal gold and silver brocade trim. With great pomposity, the Regent conducted affairs of state from behind a gleaming table of cultured obsidian with gold inlay, all situated on an elevated dais.

  Schwartz conceded a polite bow, then held up his e-projector. “Here’s the complete report of our expeditionary fleet action against the Khepri. The aliens stood no chance against the Niobian weapon. In a few days, the fleet, now at the Khepri frontier, will transition to warp-space on their return to our system. Once they complete the seven-month flight in warp-space, they arrive in our system.”

  Schwartz delighted in delivering good news to the supreme authority of the solar system, and this report, he expected, would at least elicit a verbal pat on the back.

  The Regent scowled down from his high position on the dais. “I’ve read the damn report. Entangled Communications sent me a copy two hours ago. It doesn’t say the Khepri were annihilated, only that they lost five ships in the battle. A pin prick! We’ll have to fight them again. I wanted total victory, and I got a sop. As soon as the fleet comes out of warp, I want the senior officers brought up on charges.”

  “But... your Regency, we lost only a corvette, the Pegasus. The single loss of a minor ship against the Khepri’s loss of five capital ships can only be interpreted as a major victory.” Schwartz swung his hand with the doc-projector and its offending report behind his back. “The crews completed repairs on the damaged ships before the fleet left the Khepri frontier.”

  Camus projected an e-document on his desk. “And now I have to wait seven months to bring them to trial. Have that disciplinary board convene as soon as those cowards return. Now, what about this news of a rebellion in the Martian settlements? This kind of thing can spread. I want it stopped. Have Hesperus move to an orbit where she can make an example of one the Martian habi-domes.”

  “You want Hesperus to threaten one of their domes?”

  “No, you fool. I want her to destroy one of their domes.” Camus leaned forward and stabbed his index finger on the table as he spoke. “But I don’t want to interrupt precious element shipments to Earth. Tell Hesperus to obliterate a dome not used for their refining operations, but rather some structure that will make those settlers damn uncomfortable. I want them to suffer a vivid reminder of how we treat those who resist our authority.”

  “And if they incur casualties? Can we afford the negative publicity that will follow?”

  “Schwartz, I can’t be concerned about publicity. If we don’t step on this egg, we’ll have to chase the chicken around the barnyard. I want to send a message that will end this rebellious fervor once and for all.”

  His underling shifted his gaze to the floor. “Understood, your Regency. I’ll prepare the attack order for your signature.”

  With crossed arms, Camus glared at him. “Don’t be silly. I can’t be personally involved in such an action. You sign the order.”

  Schwartz bit at his lip and nodded his acquiescence.

  The Regent of the Solar System stared down his nose at Schwartz. “While we’re on this subject, give me a rundown on the disposition of our home fleet. Just present me with the locations of the heavy forces.”

  “Sir, Crius holds orbit overlooking Earth. With Eurybia as her backup, they also cover the lunar colonies. Astræus is on extended assignment near Jove. With the addition of the Hesperus over Mars, you have the full account of our home fleet. Most of our smaller ships are attached as support to the heavies, and the rest, except for those in reserve or repair, hold lesser strategic locations around the system.”

  “Eurybia!” Camus shouted. “I’m interested in Eurybia. My spies tell me the lunar settlers have cultivated an underground movement railing against the regency. I’ve given this a great deal of thought, and have a plan to stop those subversives as well, but it requires assistance from Astræus, and she’s too far away to give immediate help. Order her back from Jove and tell her to prepare for action against the Lunarians.”

  Schwartz looked on with a grin. “You want to make an exa
mple of one of the lunar habi-domes, destroy one of those as well?”

  “No, can’t you get anything right, Schwartz? Christ, I don’t know why I made you an admiral. Listen, don’t do any independent thinking. Just do exactly as I tell you. I want a company of our shock troops... no.... Let’s make it two companies, one from Eurybia, and one from Astræus when she arrives. Order them to land on Luna and arrest the local authorities. Make sure the shock troop commander understands I may require him to take additional, drastic measures.”

  “Yes, your Regency. Anything else?”

  “No, just get out of my sight and make sure you don’t botch my orders.”

  Aurora

  ~~~

  Seven months later, at the outer edge of the Kuiper belt, a burst of broad-spectrum energy announced Targelion’s exit from warp-space, followed by Vesper and Plexaure. Aurora made her exit last, thereby completing the return of the expeditionary fleet.

  “Good to be back in our home system.” Scott’s face broke out in a broad smile as he chatted with Tanner. “Have the others form up on us. From here on in, our ships communicate only by line-of-sight laser communications. I don’t want Camus listening to our transmissions. Put the fleet on radio blackout.”

  In Aurora’s communications center, Scott and Tanner discussed the details of the coming operation with the senior comm officer, while the warrant officers monitored the laser, radio and ECCO equipment.

  The laser operator relayed a message.

  “The shuttle from Vesper has arrived, and Base Ganymede’s signaling us,” Tanner said. “They received news of our victory over the Khepri and have been waiting for us. They want to know if we’ll send some of our crew down to celebrate with them.”

  “Answer them by laser,” Scott replied. “Tell them we’d be delighted to have a few members of our crew join them in the festivities. Also, tell them our E-M radio is out for maintenance. I don’t want them calling us on a mode that Earth Comm Center might overhear.”

  Moments later, he and Tanner welcomed Emeka as she emerged from her shuttle. They escorted her to the Aurora’s communications center.