Alliance: Legacy War Book 3

by John Walker

  “And because they’re a corporation,” Desmond continued, “I’m guessing they have some kind of insurance policy for their loved ones, am I right?”

  Salina nodded. “Essentially, yes.”

  “That’s how they can fight to the death and not seem to worry about it.” Desmond turned to Vincent. “If they know their families will be taken care of after they die in the line of duty, then I could see someone committing to the job so entirely. However, I’m guessing their bureaucracy requires a flight recorder … or whatever it takes to prove they didn’t just kill themselves.”

  Vincent scoffed. “Typical. But why not accept our help on the planet’s surface?”

  “Secrets,” Salina said. “Gil explained that they are highly protective of their technology and protocols. One of the reasons they are after him is because of all he’s seen. He never signed up with their doctrines and they didn’t like that. Apparently, their captain pushed a contract on him several times but he refused to sign.”

  “Like he would’ve adhered to anything like that,” Desmond added. “From the way Cassie described his state when they found him in that bar, he wasn’t exactly a model citizen. Hell, he was excavating forbidden planets. They should’ve known better than to push a rogue toward the civil niceties of a job offer. Even if it had a pension.”

  Zach snorted. “We’re emerging from hyperspace in two minutes.”

  Desmond braced himself, double checking that all departments reported green. He vaguely wondered why Cassie wasn’t on the bridge but she probably rode out the rest of the trip with the two Pahxin doctors. They’d been talking a great deal and no doubt she was gathering intel for her own division, the Applied Intelligence Association.

  Before their previous mission, she revealed something her superiors wanted to keep secret, a trump card to ensure their needs were met. Somehow, they granted her the authority to take command of the Gnosis should their needs arise. She immediately told Desmond but revealing the power didn’t take it away.

  Much as he wanted to trust her after the message, he found himself full of doubt. After all, she may have let him know as a means to convince him of her positive intentions, only to use it later and with the ability to tell him he was warned. Desmond wanted to tell his senior staff but he didn’t want to cause unrest with the agent.

  Especially with Vincent. The man clearly felt something for the woman and he wasn’t bothering to hide it. If she had been part of the crew properly, Desmond would’ve frowned on it but it didn’t seem to be causing any problems, at least not yet. The two of them remained professional and appeared to have only shared a meal, little more.

  The ship shook as Zach took them out of hyperspace, immediately bringing the view screen online. Desmond peered at the familiar star formations of home then turned to check their position on his own computer. Before he could bring up the data, Salina announced they had a message coming in.

  That was fast. “Send it to my personal.” Desmond put in an earbud, speaking softly. “This is Captain Bradford.”

  “Welcome home, Captain. I’m Commander Arling of the Tribute. We received your nav coordinates before you departed the previous system and we’ve come to meet you. Admiral Reach is on board and would like to take a shuttle to dock with you on our way back to Earth. We are thirty minutes from your current location.”

  Desmond felt a sense of dread creep into his chest. If the admiral had come all the way out to meet them, he probably had bad news. Of course, pessimism may not be the best thing to indulge given the circumstances. They already found data to support the worst possible scenarios for any culture in the galaxy. He didn’t need to add unfounded worry to it.

  “Of course,” Desmond said. “We’ll rendezvous shortly and welcome the admiral aboard.”

  “Sending you coordinates now,” Arling said. “See you soon. Arling out.”

  The Tribute was a small destroyer, one of the ships that survived the Tol’An attack and held them there until the Gnosis could arrive. Commander Arling was new enough to the position that Desmond didn’t know him. It made sense. Admiral Reach talked about rotating personnel through the fleet to give them experience.

  The military needed people familiar space travel and combat. They wouldn’t get it from simulators and training manuals. Even with the Orb data, soldiers needed to sit in the seats and feel the action. Desmond wouldn’t have traded his missions for anything and felt confident he could meet most challenges or obstacles.

  “What’s up?” Vincent asked. “Is the admiral really out here?”

  Desmond nodded. He called out the coordinates to Zach. “Apparently, he can’t wait for us to get home. Even three hours. I hope that’s a good sign.”

  Salina piped in, “They may have word from the Pahxin but I’m not finding any evidence of that on any channel or even the secured database. I have a high clearance as well.”

  “I wonder if he’s planning on sending us right back out,” Vincent said. “We’ll need a resupply at the very least … and those fighters have to be repaired.”

  “I’m sure we’ll at least get that courtesy,” Desmond replied. “Put a meeting together in the briefing room. Put Cassie and Salina on it but leave the Pahxin doctors out for now. If we need them, we’ll know where they are.”

  “The data’s compiled for high-level consumption,” Salina said. “We’re ready to present, even right now.”

  Desmond considered his computer screen for a moment before responding. “That’s good but get down and talk to Cassie anyway. I want to ensure we’ve covered everything adequately. You guys know there’ll be a lot of questions and we need to be able to answer them. We’ve had plenty of time to read through what we found.”

  Salina stood. “If he brought Doctor Harper, we’ll be in for a real grilling. I feel like we should send the data over to them right away.”

  Desmond shook his head. “No, it’s not secure enough and considering all the civilian satellites we have to deal with, lord knows what they’ve drummed up to capture that kind of data. If some amateur got a hold of it, we could create a level of mass hysteria not seen since the Black Death.”

  “That seems a little dramatic,” Vincent said. “Surely, they know we’ve been gallivanting around to other systems … visiting alien worlds. They can’t possibly think we’ve just been prospecting dead rocks.”

  “They might not know the Gnosis even left the system,” Desmond replied. “Depending on how twitchy the military has been. Of course, one of our own people might’ve leaked it on shore leave but I kind of doubt it. Our missions may well be a total secret until we have great news to share.”

  “You know how it goes,” Zach jumped in. “We play everything close to the chest until there’s something to celebrate. Then, providing it paints us in the best possible light, we tell the entire world. Everyone gets to find out how amazing we are and how our actions will benefit them. The only time it happens the other way is if a reporter gets the story first.”

  Desmond smirked. “Eloquently stated, Zach and accurate. Alright, folks. Get to work and inform the ship we have a VIP coming aboard. I don’t mean to stand on ceremony but the admiral hasn’t visited us before. Let’s make a good impression.”

  ***

  Cassie ran into Vincent on her way to the briefing room. They had roughly twenty minutes before the admiral would show up. His shuttle already docked in the hangar and his escort was on the way. Desmond met them down there so that left the others to prepare the room and ensure they had everything they needed.

  “How’s it going?” Vincent asked. “You ready for this?”

  “I suppose,” Cassie replied, looking at his face for a long moment. “You’re nervous.”

  “The fact that the admiral flew all the way out here doesn’t bode well.” Vincent shrugged. “I expected to see him on Earth, you know? I have a bad feeling something tragic has happened … Like, maybe bad news from the Pahxin or even another attack. Though Salina told me she ran a scan
of home and everything seems fine …”

  “This job has taught me a valuable lesson,” Cassie replied. “Don’t assume facts. Dread leads to anxiety and no one has time for it. We end up doing our jobs badly at that point because we’re too caught up worrying about what might be. Imagination might be our greatest gift but it can also be our undoing.”

  “I admire your calm.” Vincent smiled, clearly trying to shake off his gloom. “Oh well, I’ll try to take a page from your book in this case. How much are we going to be able to tell him?”

  “Everything.” Cassie tapped the panel by the briefing room door and they entered. A crewman was putting out pitchers of water and glasses along with some fruit. Her stomach growled at the thought and she realized she hadn’t made it to lunch. This is going to be exciting. Taking a seat, she tapped into the main screen. “We’ve got the whole briefing prepared.”

  “I brought the resource allocation report.” Vincent gestured to his tablet. “Along with the various briefings from the folks who conducted the away missions. Did you see the biological readouts from those mutated people? I’m not an expert on anatomy but whatever happened to them really brought about some serious physical enhancements.”

  “Yeah, at the expense of self-preservation, compassion, mercy and diplomacy.” Cassie tapped at her screen and brought her presentation up. “That place is forbidden for a reason. Maybe someday they’ll rise above all that and evolve but it’ll take quite a while. If they don’t kill each other in the process.”

  “Or the planet dies completely,” Salina said from the door. “Those storms will likely get worse and start hitting even the currently safe parts of the continents. I know they live underground, but their food sources will likely die out. I believe we saw the end of a species, not the beginning of a new one.”

  “Cheery, as always,” Vincent replied. “Welcome to the party, Salina. Glad to have you.”

  “Thank you, Commander.” Salina took a seat. “I hope that the admiral has brought good news. I’m choosing to believe he’s here because he simply couldn’t wait to tell us something positive.”

  “That’s a stretch,” Vincent said. “But I’ll go with it. Better than the pessimism I was indulging.”

  Cassie chuckled. “Regardless of why he’s here, we have a lot to go over. If he allows us to hit it all … this is pretty in the weeds. I tried to make the first part high-level but who knows if it’s high enough? I can tell you this. The AIA is going to want the deep dive we did with Gil and Thayne. There’s a lot of meat in those details.”

  “Indeed.” Salina squinted at the screen, reading the first slide. “I’m still comfortable with it but the real people we need to sell this to are the Pahxin. They need to know what the Tol’An fears. It may well change the way they deal with those criminals. Perhaps they’ll try to parlay and work together … get them to stand down and rejoin society properly.”

  “Unlikely,” Cassie said. “I spoke with Thayne about how they were acting and I can tell you, they’re far too fanatical to take orders … or give up for that matter.”

  The door opened and the three stood up. Desmond entered first followed by Admiral Reach and Doctor Harper. The escorts remained outside, turning to face away as the door slid shut. “Take your seats,” Reach said. “I don’t think we need to stand on ceremony with this type of briefing. We have a lot to discuss and I didn’t want to wait for you to get back to Earth.”

  Desmond continued, “The Pahxin have replied to our initial communication and the admiral can tell us what was said.”

  “Excellent.” Cassie exchanged glances with the others before going on. “I trust it was good news?”

  “Somewhat,” Reach replied. “Please, let’s start with your mission before I get into the message we received. I’m sure you all had quite the adventure. Multiple solar systems, the neutral space station … Do tell.”

  Desmond began the debriefing by explaining what happened on the space station when they went to pick up Doctor Gil Vaedra. This brought up the Kalrawv Group and what they represented, along with the details they’d picked up from their two Pahxin guests. The corporate mercenaries had plenty of data but they were technically the least of Earth’s worries.

  Next, they spoke about the planet they visited and described the mutants well as the strange weather patterns. The loss of their marine and the near destruction of their shuttle came up as well as the procurement of the first breadcrumb of data. It led them to an adjacent system which, for all intents and purposes, was totally void of life.

  Cassie and Salina took turns explaining the data they found and what it meant before handing the reins back to Desmond to talk about the conflict and the toll it took on their men and equipment. The admiral looked grave during that part, frowning throughout the description of how far the Kalrawv Group was willing to go.

  “You guys saw quite a lot of action out there,” Reach said. “One thing Doctor Harper’s folks have been working on is long range communications. The ability to talk to you when you’re so far from home. Our research suggests that it was possible, a long time ago but how they did it … We’re still stuck.”

  Harper stepped in, “Yes, we’ve found plenty of references and some obvious cases where such technology was used but applying it to our current technology … Let’s just say we’re having to do some rethinking of how we broadcast signals.

  “As you know, with few exceptions, we’ve simply improved existing concepts with what we’ve learned. We may have gone as far as we can with communications.”

  Reach nodded in agreement. “When we received word from the Pahxin, they commented about how surprising our method was. And we thought it was pretty genius the fact we got it there so quickly. The FTL concepts we applied, with Doctor Rindala’s help, made us think we were on the right track.

  “Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. We are working on a way to support you better in the field and that includes fast tracking another ship. It’s almost done. They’re on to the test phase of the various systems. Hyperspace will come last, but we’ll hopefully have it fully operational inside of a month.”

  “That’s quite a while,” Desmond said. “And I doubt we have the luxury of waiting.”

  “You don’t.” Reach sighed. “In fact, we’re going to be sending you back out sooner than you think … and I’ll be coming with you. I believe it’s time I tell you about our chat with the Pahxin. It may soon finally be time to announce to the world everything you’ve accomplished and seen but we’re not quite there yet.”

  ***

  Desmond stiffened at the idea of taking the admiral out of the system. As a flag officer, and one of the highest value individuals in the current space program, he seemed like someone they could not afford to risk. While they had certainly proven the hyperspace drive worked safely, there were other risks involved in long distance travel.

  High command either trusted the technology more than Desmond would imagine or they were simply that desperate to ensure their next mission had high-level representation. Whatever he had to tell them must’ve been intense because he paused again and had already built a considerable amount of drama around the announcement.

  “The Pahxin communication came a day ago,” Reach said. “They were intrigued by our actions so far and want to speak. We have coordinates to a mostly neutral location, a space station where we can talk. The species that runs it is like a galactic version of Switzerland and will provide us accommodations in a non-biased environment.”

  “So we’re doing an ambassadorial run?” Vincent asked.

  Reach turned to him, “Do you have a problem with that, Commander?”

  Vincent shook his head. “Not at all, sir. I’m just surprised they were ready to meet so soon.”

  “Our communications were too slow,” Harper said. “That’s why we really started to analyze our efforts. If we’d mastered real time or, at least close to real time, conversation then clearly we would’ve negotiated from afar. As it stan
ds, they recommended the coordinates and we agreed to meet them there at what amounts to the beginning of next week.”

  Desmond hummed. “So we have time to resupply, repair our ships and take some downtime before heading back out. What’re the chances of hostility?”

  “Small,” Reach replied. “Though I don’t necessarily trust your Pahxin passengers just now … not enough to have them in this talk at least. Especially the new one you picked up. From what I understand, he operates outside their laws?”

  “He’s an adventurer,” Desmond explained, “but I don’t think he’s a bad person. Still, they might want words with him. He visited one of their ‘forbidden’ planets and I understand why it has such a designation. The place was outright hostile, in every way possible. The Kalrawv Group figured it out pretty fast.”

  “We won’t turn him over or anything,” Reach said. “But I want to make sure we get off on the right foot first. They can come along to the meeting. In fact, Thayne has been specifically invited but we’ll keep this other guy in reserve. If there is any hostility, we’re going to want to leave in a hurry … Though if the Pahxin start it, I’m not sure what we’re going to do.”

  “Because they can just follow us,” Vincent added. “And then Earth would be in trouble.”

  “Let’s keep it very real here.” Reach leaned forward, hands clasped on the table. “If the Pahxin wanted to, they could come to our planet and kill every form of life we know. They could take the two Orbs tomorrow and there’s not a damn thing we could do to stop them. The Tol’An, while dangerous, do not command their resources.”

  “They can raid,” Desmond said, “but not commit to a prolonged assault. In other words, this bid for peace has to work or we’re in a lot of trouble.”

  “The best-case scenario is a partnership.” Reach paused, letting out a deep breath before continuing. “But if they simply don’t want anything to do with us, that’s better than the worst that can happen. How long before the Gnosis is ready to leave again?”