Star Odyssey - Rain's Gambit
Page 27
He shook his head. “No. No, it is not. We are going to have the funeral ceremonies out here before we set off. The ones who next of kin requested returned home and we have bodies for will be brought back for the memorial yards. The others will be sent off here along with a memorial monument built by the Eaons to commemorate their own losses.”
She made some notes on a tablet then set it down. “Ok. Adrian?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful coming home.”
“Yeah. Always.”
“Jack out.”
When her image faded, he realized there was a moment for him to say something and he had missed it. He sighed. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” He bopped his forehead in rhythm with his chanting. He roughed up his hair some as the lights got brighter and the table rose back up from the floor.
Stepping out onto the bridge, he gave everyone a nod. “Funeral processions will be in the fighter bay at 1200 hours. Anyone who wants to go is excused from duty to attend.”
He left the bridge to go change in his dress uniform. As he slid the white outfit on, he looked at himself in the mirror. He was one of the lucky ones. He knew that much. He used to think it was because of skill or better technology. However, that was back when he younger and stupider. He knew better now. Now it was just a matter of luck and faith in him.
He stepped out of his quarters noticing everyone else in his or her whites. The wait for the lifts was long. He let everyone else go first and then took his own lift last. It was a silent ride down. When he finally stepped into the fighter hangar, it was shoulder to shoulder. All the families, all the crew. Everyone had gathered there.
He supposed in a way they were all family. Connected together by the ship. By the Alliance. By him. He stepped forward down a path cleared by the crowd. One hundred and twelve capsules lay draped in Alliance flags. The captain’s had been set separate, hers was empty. Present more as a symbol since he’d been debating on having her buried back home on his family’s ranch.
He took his spot at the podium and cleared his throat. “Back on Earth in the middle of the twentieth century, there was a great war. Terrible wars that spread everywhere they can. Like the war we fought during the Dominus War and the kind we were able to defeat here before it started. These wars threaten all freedom. Not just mine. Or yours. Or his. Hers. All of our freedoms. As a great generation of my people fought and died on ships like this one, it was customary for the captain to send off the dead. That honor has befallen me. We are assembled here today to pay our respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life.”
He turned as the hard doors to the fighter bays lowered, revealing a small star that had begun to form — the result of the singularity compressing the gasses denser until they had reached a sparking point. The Eaon monument was nearby in its orbit.
“The birth of a new star. A star born from the sacrifices and effort of the entire ship and crew, but most especially our honored fallen before you today. They did not feel these sacrifices vain or empty. Nor would we second-guess their heroism at these profound proceedings. Of my crew, I can only say this. I have never worked with better people.”
“Honors. Hut!” Jarod Tiaahl barked.
One of the crew had a set of Scottish bagpipes playing Amazing Grace, an old Earth song used in situations like this as the glossy black tubes were undressed of their flags and then launched by the catapult into space, bound to fall into the newly forming star’s gravity.
“A famous astronomer once remarked that living beings are made of star dust. Then I can think of no more fitting a resting place than in the warm embrace of a youthful sun.”
Adrian saluted silently as the entire crew and family saluted as well. His eyes tracked the launches until they traveled so far into the black of space that he lost sight of it.
“Godspeed.” He turned and faced the ship’s worth of bodies. Crew, families, even some children here and there. “Thank you. Dismissed.”
As everyone began to file out of the ship, he sighed heavily. Linara patted him on the back, somehow finding her way out of the crowd. “I’ve never been to a ceremony like this. I would say you handled it very well though, Commander.”
His smile was vacant, his mind elsewhere. “Thanks.”
“I bet you’re excited to start making preparations to go home.”
He nodded. “Yeah. We should be ready to go as far as I understand. The warp core is ready to go online; the quantum drive is ready for a spin up. All we need to do is push the button, so to speak.”
“When we get home, you should spend some time relaxing. Unwind a little. You’ve been wound so tightly, it would do you some good.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Anyone back home waiting for you?”
He blinked feeling his face flush red and warm. Linara laughed at him playfully. “If that expression is anything to go on, I would say that’s a yes and a no.”
“Yeah. Pretty much right there.”
“Is she aware?”
“Of?”
Linara gave him the look. “Don’t play coy with me, Commander. Does she know you can’t wait to be home to see her?”
He shrugged. “Maybe? Maybe not? I dunno.”
She poked him in the arm. “Then you have to tell her when we get back. Or I’ll never let you live it down.”
“Goodness,” he said as Linara turned to walk away. She had that look that said, “I own you now.” He sighed. Eventually, the bay had cleared enough that he was able to get back to his room and change back in into his standard duty uniform. He zipped his jacket up as he stepped out of his room, tugged his sleeves down and smoothed the front of it out. Once he felt like he was presentable, he stepped out. As he got on the bridge, all of his senior staff were gathered. They all exchanged eager looks with him.
“It’s been a long, hard-fought, painful, and costly road. Nevertheless, we made it through to the other side. Together.”
Mary Jo, Jarod, Trident, Sol, and Dekav all exchanged smiles with each other.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like I was in too deep on more than one occasion. A wise woman once told me to trust my people and let you trust me. That in the end, some things were just too big for skill or luck alone. That I had to have faith and believe. I wasn’t a believer at first, but in retrospect, I’m glad I am now. To you all, I say thank you.”
Dekav looked up from the chair he’d been sitting in, Adrian’s former chair. “Commander, I believe I speak for everyone here when I say, no, Commander. Thank you.”
He nodded with a humble grin. “Fair enough.” He clapped his hands together. “So! Who wants to go back home, eh?”
“I do.”
“I do.”
“Aye. It’s about time we head home.”
He smiled turning to the main screen. “Bring us about and lay in a course for home. Maximum warp. Execute.”
The massive sleek and smooth hull of the Odyssey came about, its primary warp nacelles building a charge as the Alcubierre warp core powered up and then propelled the ship into the distance by warping and compressing the fabric of space. Destination: Earth.
The End
Appendix
Crew Roster of the U.S.S. Odyssey in Rain’s Gambit.
Admiral Jaquianna “Mad Jack” Howell – CO of Alpha Fleet, (Lavran/Stollan)
Captain Lara Garrett, CO of the Odyssey (Human)
Commander Adrian Rain, XO of the Odyssey (Human)
Lt. Cmdr. Jarod Tiaahl, Chief Tactical and Operations officer, 2nd XO (Tenean)
Lt. Cmdr. Ben Zezai, Squadron Lead (Moreallian)
Commander Mirrell Dorren, Chief medical officer (Human)
Lt. Solamen Kaine, Chief of Security (Artesian)
Marine Captain Alex Valentine, Marine Detachment CO (Human)
Sargent Rickert Dillon, (Human)
Corporal Seth Werner, (Human)
/> Lt Tia Axoi, Chief Engineer (Human)
Lt. Jg. Mary Jo Hunter,Chief science officer (Human)
Linara, Primary bar keep in the mess hall in tenaport (Shaellan)
Dekav, Asylum seeker of the HWE ( Eaon)
Acknowledgments
A series is a large and complex undertaking; one that I knew from the outset would be greater in its scope and more demanding in its execution than any of my previous projects. I am, therefore, grateful for the support and encouragement of my dear friend Mina Carter who had been a constant pillar of information, support, and creativity for me. Who chipped and pushed at me to do more than roleplay on message boards and emails.
As for where it all began, I have to thank all my many friends I have creatively written with when I was younger. Those formative years spent imagining different people in different places living in worlds vastly different from this one were what laid the foundation for what Star Odyssey would become.
Thank you to all my friends and family who encouraged and supported me in expressing my art in written form. For taking my first steps into a strange and alien world that was new to me.
I also want to thank Eric Shonkwiler, for being a great best friend another source of creativity.
About the Author
TJ Jones has written some books. He hopes to write more books. He even did a horrible comic book a while back. Honest, it was awful.
As of this writing, he is currently on day 4,745 (and counting) of captivity to the US Military and National Guard.
Follow him on his website and Facebook at
jonestj.com/
mail@jonestj.com
Backmatter
Thank you for reading Rain’s Gambit, Book 1 of Star Odyssey. The story continues in Judgement, Book 2.
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