by Ryk Brown
“I’ve never even seen the ocean. What’s it like?”
“Big, powerful, full of life, and very dangerous if you aren’t careful.” Jessica smiled. “Now that I think about it, space is pretty much the same way.”
“I can’t even imagine what it must be like to go into space.”
“It isn’t at all what people think it is,” Jessica said. “Sure, the flight up is great. You get to look out the window, experience weightlessness, see the Earth below. Then you get on board the ship, and you’re locked up inside.”
“No windows?”
“Nope. Just view screens and cameras, which I guess in some ways are better than windows.”
“So you were stuck inside the ship the entire time?”
“Me, no. I was the last spec-ops on board. It seems like I got to leave the ship more than anyone.”
“Doesn’t sound too bad, if you ask me.”
Jessica’s data pad beeped. She set her mug of tea down on the patio next to her and picked up the data pad.
“What is it?” Synda asked. “Is it them?”
“Hell, yes,” Jessica exclaimed, as she quickly sent her message.
“Did you send them a message?”
“Damn right I did.”
“So quickly?”
“Are you kidding? I already had it typed in and ready to send.”
“Did they answer?” Synda asked. “What did they say?”
“Hold on,” Jessica told her.
“So is it the Aurora?”
“No, it’s just one of her shuttles,” Jessica said as she stared at the data pad, waiting for a reply.
“How would a shuttle get all the way…”
“They’re answering,” Jessica said. “They’ll be back in four hours to pick me up.” Jessica jumped up and ran back inside.
“Wait, how are they going to pick you up?” She turned back toward the house, rising from her seat to follow Jessica. “How is that even possible?”
* * *
“Major!” Nathan hollered across the Aurora’s main hangar bay. “A word!”
Major Waddell stopped in mid-stride as the rest of his squad continued toward Jumper Two, which had only finished refueling a few minutes ago. He turned back toward the captain.
“We have no idea where she’s going to ask you to set down.”
“I am aware of this, Captain,” the major answered.
“It’s critical you get her back here alive. If she’s calling for immediate extraction, she’s got a damned good reason. I suspect she knows where the Celestia is located.”
“I know, sir.”
“Remember, that’s Earth you’re going to. There may be civilians around…”
“Captain,” Major Waddell interrupted, “she knows what she is doing, as do I. No offense, sir, but you’re just wasting what could be valuable time here.”
“Of course,” Nathan said, looking slightly embarrassed. He patted the major on the shoulder. “Good luck, Major. Get her back safely. Get everyone back safely.”
“That is the plan, sir,” the major stated as he turned away and continued on toward the waiting super-jump shuttle.
Jumper Two’s engines began to increase in pitch slightly as the major ran up the rear cargo ramp, jumping onto the end of it as it began to swing upward. He made his way forward as the shuttle began to turn around and head for the main transfer airlock that led onto the flight apron. He looked at his men as he walked down the center of the shuttle’s cargo bay. Each of the eight men had trained with him on Corinair and had fought with him as they helped the Tanna resistance rid their world of the last of the Jung ground forces. He trusted these men with his life, and they trusted him with theirs.
Major Waddell bent down as he stepped through the small hatch from the cargo bay to the shuttle’s flight deck. He had yet to ride on the Aurora’s newest jump shuttle, the one loosely referred to as the ‘super-jumper.’
The cockpit was small and cramped with only one small fold-down jump seat located directly behind the pilot’s seat. He scanned the flight consoles as he took his seat. It looked like any other shuttle’s flight console, except that there was an extra control pad sticking out just above the center pedestal. It was under the center view screen, yet just high enough that the pilot could get his hands on the throttles underneath. The control pad did not look like it belonged. “That your new toy?”
“Yes, sir,” the copilot replied.
“I’m assuming it works fine.”
“Damn fine, sir. We’ll be in the Sol system in ten minutes, maximum.”
“Good to hear,” the major said as he settled back in his seat. He watched over the copilot’s shoulder, looking out the forward windows of the shuttle as it rolled to a stop inside the transfer airlock. As he waited for the airlock to depressurize, he glanced back through the hatch to the cargo bay. His men were calm and relaxed, just as Corinari troopers should be.
The shuttle began to roll forward once more. The major turned his head to look out the forward windows again as the shuttle rolled out onto the open flight deck on the back side of the Aurora’s forward section. He could see the forward slope of the ship’s massive, main propulsion section towering before them like the side of a cliff.
The flight crew spoke constantly with each other as well as the flight controller on the Aurora. As they rolled out into the open, he could feel the artificial gravity becoming lighter. As soon as their nose passed the red lines on the flight apron, the pilot fired his thrusters and lifted the shuttle up off the deck. As they rose, more thrusters fired, causing them to slide sharply to port. Once they reached one meter in relative altitude, the major felt the artificial gravity fade away altogether, leaving them weightless.
The shuttle continued sliding to port as the pilot spun the ship around one hundred eighty degrees so they were facing the same direction as the Aurora. The major continued looking out the forward windows as the shuttle now was sliding to starboard. Within a few seconds, they drifted out far enough that he could see alongside the Aurora, all the way forward.
The pilot fired his main drive, pushing the major back against the bulkhead behind him and driving his right shoulder into the padding. The side of the Aurora began rushing past them to port as the small, super-jump shuttle continued to accelerate.
The copilot was already typing in a string of commands on the extra control pad as he set up the parameters for the rapid series of jumps they were about to execute.
A minute after the major could no longer see the Aurora to port, he heard the copilot acknowledge the flight controller’s permission to initiate their multi-jump sequence.
“You may want to drop your visor and set it to full opaque, sir,” the copilot warned. “The jump flashes seem to get brighter with each jump when we do them back to back.”
Major Waddell followed the copilot’s advice, dropping the visor on his combat helmet and touching a small button on the side of his helmet that caused the visor to become completely opaque. The first jump flash filled the inside of his visor with blue-white that spilled in from under his chin, as he was not wearing an enclosed pressure helmet. The flash was bright but not bothersome. The major closed his eyes as the next flash came. Even with his eyes closed, he could see the flashes of light, turning the inside of his eyelids a bright pinkish-white. The flashes came only a few seconds apart, giving the super-jump shuttle’s automated multi-jump system just enough time to verify their coordinates and make minute adjustments to the parameters of the next jump.
Major Waddell counted as each jump illuminated his eyelids. He thought about Josh and Loki and how they had experienced the same ride but without the protection afforded by the Falcon’s canopy against the radiation of the jump fields that enveloped the ship with each jump. He concentrate
d on his own body, try to determine if he, too, would feel any of the side effects that Josh and Loki had felt, but there was nothing. He just saw the inside of his eyelids with each jump flash.
Seventeen jumps later, the series of flashes came to an end. The major opened his eyes and looked forward once again. “That’s it?”
“Welcome to the Sol system, Major,” the copilot said, smiling.
Major Waddell looked around, unable to tell any difference in the stars than when they had left the Aurora’s deck, thirty-two and a half light years away. “It doesn’t look any different,” the major said.
“We’re looking at the same exact stars we were when we left, sir. We’re just a little closer to them now.”
“Very little, in cosmic terms,” the pilot said.
“The only thing that has changed really is that star right there,” the copilot said. “That one’s a lot closer now.”
“That’s Sol?”
“Yes, sir.”
The major looked at the control pad that had been added to the flight console again. “That really is an amazing device.”
“Yes, it is, sir.”
“When do we try to make contact?”
“The next window is in seven minutes,” the copilot reported.
* * *
“Every bit of intelligence we have on the Jung’s current positions and resources on Earth are on this chip,” one of the resistance technicians said as he handed the chip over to Jessica.
“Got it,” Jessica answered.
“I cannot stress enough how important it is that you rescue those data cores and keep them safe,” President Scott said. “There is still so much technology stored on those cores that we have not yet been able to develop. If the Jung ever got their hands on them…”
“I got it,” Jessica insisted.
“How much time do you have?”
Jessica looked at her watch. “The next contact window starts in two minutes.”
“How long after you make contact will it take for them to pick you up?” the president asked.
“They can be here in minutes. I just need to tell them where.”
“Of course.” The president signaled the technician, who immediately produced a data pad. “Any ideas?”
“Usually a valley or canyon is best. It prevents the enemy from having direct line of sight on the jump flash.”
“Jump flash?” the president wondered.
“Really bright light,” Jessica explained. “It only lasts a second, but it’s a dead giveaway.” Jessica looked at the map on the data pad. “There are plenty of mountains north of us. Surely there are some good spots up there.”
“Yes, but it will take some time to get there,” President Scott said.
“Can’t we use your Jung shuttle?”
“We do not store it nearby for security reasons. It would take nearly an hour just to reach it.”
“It’s too risky,” the president’s chief of security added. “Around this area, we can get away with it. There are always ships flying around, and there are a few Jung black-ops birds in operation, so we can fly around the flat lands without anyone taking notice. But if we took it up into the mountains… that they would notice.”
“Then it’s got to be someplace we can get to by car or truck,” Jessica said.
“And it needs to be close by,” the president added. “Our source in Geneva has confirmed that the admiral was tortured, so it is reasonable to assume the Jung know of the Celestia’s location.”
“You don’t think the admiral can keep a secret?” Jessica asked, a bit surprised they would automatically assume he could not.
“The Jung have some… interesting techniques for information extraction,” the security chief said. “It’s safer to assume he told them everything he knew.”
“We have already started evacuating the facilities we are sure the admiral knew about,” the president added. “So you see, the faster we can get you back to the Aurora, the better.”
“Then why not just transmit the message?” Jessica suggested. “The new encryption the Takarans came up with is supposed to be unbreakable.”
“Nothing is unbreakable, Nash,” the security chief said. “You know that.”
“You don’t know the Takarans,” she insisted.
“They’re humans, aren’t they?” the security chief said. “Humans make mistakes…”
“If we have to transmit the information, we will,” the president interrupted. “However, if possible, I prefer not to take the risk. For now, let’s concentrate on getting you back to your ship.” The president looked at the data pad. “We need something nearby, a clearing or something. How big is this jump shuttle?”
“About the size of a large shipping container,” Jessica said.
“Maybe in the woods, outside the city,” the security chief said.
Jessica smiled. “I know just the place. Do you have satellite overheads on your data pad?”
* * *
Jessica sat in the front passenger seat of the crew van as it bounced along the dark, dirt roads that weaved through the woods. Synda and Tony sat behind her, and in the back of the van were two members of the resistance.
“You’ll see to it that they get north to the mountains, right?”
“As soon as we get you on your way, we have orders to take them to the train yard a couple hours north of here,” the driver explained. “They can hop a northbound freight train there.”
“How long will that carry them?”
“A couple days, maybe three. The northbound trains are usually pretty empty. The Jung are mining resources up there and hauling it south for processing. Nobody checks the northbound trains, so they should be all right.”
“You’re sure about that?” Jessica asked.
“Look, you heard the chief; it’s the best we can do right now. We’re already packing up to move to another facility. We can’t afford to tie up another vehicle running them even farther north. That’s why they assigned us to run them north.”
Jessica wasn’t happy, and her expression showed it.
“They’ll be fine,” the driver assured her, noticing the look on Jessica’s face.
“Don’t worry, Jessica,” Synda said. “We’ll be fine. We’ve got everything we need, thanks to you.”
“They’re actually lucky,” the driver told Jessica. “If we weren’t already bugging out, there’s no way the chief would have let them go.”
The van pulled to a stop at the edge of the clearing. The driver stared out the front window. The van’s headlights reached less than halfway across the small meadow in front of them, leaving most of the tree line around the clearing in darkness.
“This is it,” Jessica said.
“How did you find this place?” the driver asked.
“A rather dirty, old man tried to collect payment for a ride from me here,” Jessica told him.
The driver smiled. “I have a feeling that didn’t work out too well for him.”
“You’re right,” Jessica said as she opened her door. “It didn’t.”
The driver shut off the lights and turned the vehicle off as the rest of the occupants climbed out.
Synda started to climb out as well.
“Maybe we should stay in here,” Tony said, grabbing her arm.
“No way,” Synda answered. “I want to see this.” She climbed out of the van to join the others. Tony sighed, rolling his eyes as he climbed out of the van as well.
“Do you have the beacon?” Jessica asked the driver.
The driver pulled out a small device the size of his palm from his pants pocket and handed it to her.
Jessica walked into the middle of the small meadow. She paused a moment, looking at t
he tree line in all directions in order to determine the center of the clearing. Satisfied with her position, she turned the device on. As the tiny strobe light on the device began flashing, she placed it on the ground and walked back toward the van. She looked at her watch as she walked. She still had several minutes until the jump shuttle was due to arrive.
“What’s that?” Synda asked Jessica as she returned.
“It marks the LZ for the shuttle pilot,” Jessica explained.
Synda took several steps out, trying to get a better view of the device. “But it’s so faint. How can the pilot even see it?”
“He can’t, but the low-light optical systems in the shuttle can.”
“And nobody else can see it?” Synda wondered.
“Not unless they’re using low-light gear.” Jessica looked at her watch again. “One minute. I’d suggest everyone take cover.”
Jessica moved behind the van with everyone else. She looked up at the night sky. With no moon out, the forest was pitch black, making the hologram easier to spot than usual. Something caught her eye, and she looked quickly to the northern portion of the sky. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” the driver asked.
“I thought I saw…”
Jessica was interrupted by a brilliant flash of bright blue-white light from the middle of the meadow just above the surrounding tree line. The flash was followed immediately by a thunderous clap and a shock wave of air that blew dust and debris outward in all directions. The trees around the edge of the meadow thrashed about wildly from the wave of air displaced by the sudden arrival of the super-jump shuttle. The thunder rapidly subsided to the scream of the shuttle’s four turbines as it descended quickly and touched down directly on top of the holographic beacon, blocking out its emitter.
As the shuttle touched down, bright floodlights located along its sides snapped on, illuminating the entire meadow as well as the surrounding tree line. As the turbines began to wind down to idle, the rear cargo door began to swing outward and lower to the ground.