by Ryk Brown
“They either knew we would be there,” Jessica said, her mind racing, “or they were already preparing to invade.”
“Our detection grid doesn’t reach that far out,” Cameron added, “at least not accurately enough to pick out ships against any other objects in the Oort. Especially if they were matching the speeds and trajectories of other objects.”
“And if either one of those two possibilities are true, it would be suicide to return in our present condition.”
“If they were prepping for an invasion,” Jessica said, “don’t you think they would’ve had something bigger than a couple of patrol ships out there?”
“Maybe,” Nathan admitted, “but the Oort is an awfully big place. And they might have only put patrol ships out there to be sure that we didn’t spot them too quickly and jump away again.”
“It could also have just been dumb luck,” Cameron reminded him.
“Yes, it could have been. But I’m not willing to take that gamble, at least not until we’re in a better state of readiness. If we returned home now, we could be jumping into a whole new hornet’s nest. If we stay here, at least for awhile, we can not only get our ship fixed up, but we might even pickup some cool new tech to show the folks back home,” Nathan said with a smile. “To that end, I think it best we continue to ally ourselves with the Karuzari. At least until we determine the validity of this power source.”
“If what you’re saying is true,” Cameron argued, “then the Jung could be invading Earth at this very moment, while we’re sitting here talking about joining some local rebellion.”
“Even if we had started jumping our way back home from day one,” Jessica interrupted, “we’d still be a couple of months out from Earth.”
“But if it was just a coincidence that we ran into those two Jung patrol ships, the invasion may not have happened yet.”
“And if that’s the case, then a few more days out here getting ourselves repaired won’t make much difference, will it?” Nathan said.
“Listen up,” Jessica barked, trying to take command of the argument. She could tell that Nathan and Cameron could spend the entire day hashing this out if they were allowed to. She was a bit shocked, as it was no way for a captain and his XO to behave, especially in front of command staff. But she also knew that their already tenuous working relationship had been severely strained not only by Nathan’s sudden advancement to captain, but also by the fact that Cameron disagreed with most of his decisions.
Nathan and Cameron both fell silent, turning to look at Jessica, who now had a bit of a sheepish look on her face as she realized that she too had just overstepped her bounds.
“If I may,” she began, looking to each of them for their silent approval. “Assume for a moment, the worst case scenario. At the time we ran into those two patrol ships, the Jung already had Sol surrounded and were about to strike. If true, it’s already happened, the Earth is fucked, and there’s not a damned thing we can do about it, at least not in our present state. Do we agree on that much?”
Again she looked to them both, getting grudging agreements. “Now, assume the best case scenario. It was just a co-winky-dink. The Jung are still cleaning up and reinforcing after their invasion of Alpha Centauri. Our best intel puts their top speed at ten times light. So even if the Jung had left the Centauri system the day after the invasion, it’ll still be another five months before their forces reach Earth.” Jessica turned her attention to Abby. “Doctor, if we were in port, how long would it take to outfit another ship with another jump drive?”
“I don’t know. It took us years to build the prototype.”
“Best guess, assuming that every man, woman, and child was working on the project.”
“One year, maybe?”
“So that’s not an option. Captain? Again, if we were in port, how long to make us fully up to specs?”
“A few months, I suspect.”
“Okay, possible, but even then, it’s still just one ship against God knows how many. And we’re not heavily armed, even if we had all of our squadrons on board.”
“But the jump drive does give us a huge tactical advantage,” Cameron reminded her, hoping to prop up her point of view on the matter.
“True, but it’s also an advantage that can be taken away with a few lucky shots. Or worse yet, captured and used against us.”
“So, are you saying we should, or we shouldn’t go back?” Cameron asked. She was beginning to get confused, as Jessica was showing support for either case.
“I’m saying that we have time to decide. Making snap decisions isn’t going to make our or the Earth’s situation any better. And if the captain’s right, and we can pick up some advanced tech, that might make all the difference in the world. Or in our case, the Sol system.”
“It only makes sense to stay here for awhile, and see what develops,” Nathan concluded.
Cameron wasn’t convinced. “I just don’t know, Nathan. All I can think about is the people back home. It just feels like we shouldn’t be risking our necks out here. We should be doing it back home.”
“But we are risking our necks out here for the people back home. Just because they are so far away doesn’t make it any less so.” Nathan looked at Cameron. He could see the doubt in her eyes. It wasn’t her usual stubborn streak this time, and she wasn’t scared; he knew better. Cameron had already proven herself in battle as much, if not more so, than any of them. She was scared that they were making the wrong decision—that they were putting the Earth in further jeopardy. “Look, Cameron. We all know that I can make it an order. But I don’t want to have to do that, especially not in this case. I really want your support on this.” Nathan flashed her a smile, that same one that had always gotten him out of trouble with his mother as a boy. “You know I’m not smart enough to pull this off without you.”
Cameron looked at Nathan and his goofy smile. “Well, at least you understand that much,” she said, leaning back in her chair in resignation. “All right then, I’m with you.”
Jessica clapped her hands. “Great! What’s the plan, skipper?”
Nathan’s smile faded for a moment as he turned to Jessica. “Would you stop calling me skipper?” Jessica shrugged apologetically, holding both hands up with her palms forward, a goofy grin on her face. Nathan returned his attention to the group. “We make two jumps to get to a position just outside the Darvano system, say about one light day.”
“Why two jumps?” Cameron asked. “Darvano is only nine point five light years away.
“Two reasons. First, the good Doctor suggests that we don’t push the limits of the drive unless we have to, at least until she has more time to review the performance data collected over the jumps to date. Second, I’d prefer to arrive at any destination with enough power in the drive to do a quick escape jump, in case we jump into yet another bad situation.”
“Makes sense,” Cameron agreed.
“Once we get there, we locate the hideout Tug spoke of and plot a jump to get as close as possible so that we can sneak in undetected.”
“That might require more than one jump, Captain,” Abby warned. Nathan looked at her quizzically, forcing her to better explain. “It would take hours—maybe even days depending on how erratic the trajectories of the objects in the asteroid belt are—to gather enough data to make a close in jump. It might be better to jump in next to a planetary body, or a moon—something with a bit more stable and predictable orbit. From there, we can get a more accurate and more up-to-date trajectory mapping of the belt before plotting a jump deeper into the belt itself.”
“Makes sense. But I want to get the ship into that hideout as soon as possible. The longer we’re sitting out in the open, the more chance there is of being spotted.”
“Captain,” Jessica interrupted, “I’m not too crazy about the idea of flying this ship into some kind of cave without checking it out first.”
“You think it might be a trap?” Cameron asked.
“The thought h
as crossed my mind,” Jessica said.
“Yeah, mine too,” Nathan admitted. “Suggestions?”
“We could send that hot-shot Josh in first,” Cameron suggested with a wry smile. “Put him and his copilot into the shuttle and let them recon it out first.”
“Not a bad idea, Commander. Jess, maybe you should go along with them.”
“Sounds like a hoot,” she exclaimed.
Nathan smiled. “Wear your flight restraints… Trust me.”
“Will do, skip— Sorry, Captain.”
“Okay. So they do a fly through inspection first, then we follow them in. Once the ship is secured inside the hideout, we’ll send a team over to power everything up so that we can get busy repairing the ship. I especially want to get the hull patched up so we can have access to our forward sections again. More than seventy percent of our living quarters are in there and between the wounded and the extra guests, we’re running out of space.”
“What about supplies?” Cameron asked. “If Corinair is as advanced a world as Tug says, we might be able to get some decent supplies this time.”
“Yeah, like something besides molo,” Jessica complained.
“We still have credits to spend, and a bunch of raw ore that we can sell,” Cameron added.
“I was thinking about that,” Nathan said. “As much as I know you like to gather intel in the field, Jessica, I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to go down to the surface on this trip. I think we’d stand out too much this time. Besides, according to Tug, you cannot get past the Port Authority without proper ident-chips.”
“I guess I can sit this one out,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Besides, I’ve been thinking. If this secret base of theirs has comm-gear, maybe we could do some signals intelligence gathering.”
“Good idea. Meanwhile, we’ll send Tug and Jalea down to the surface in the shuttle. They can sell off the rest of our ore and buy us some supplies. We’ll leave them on the surface for at least a day or two so they can also make contact with any rebels that may be hiding out on Corinair.”
“And what, bring them back here?” Jessica objected.
“Hey, we need all the help we can get at this point. I’m hoping that some of them might also help with repairs as well. So far, they all seem to be pretty good with tech.”
“Let’s just be sure we don’t end up outnumbered on our own ship,” Jessica warned.
“From Jalea’s estimates, I don’t think that many of them survived. I’d be surprised if they find more than a handful of them.”
“How long do we plan to stay in the Darvano system?” Cameron asked.
“No longer than necessary, of course. But hopefully long enough to at least get all the major repairs done. We’ll have to play it by ear.” Nathan looked around the room. “Any more questions? All right. Let’s get ready to make our first jump—in say, thirty minutes?”
Abby nodded in agreement, as did the others.
“Great, dismissed,” he announced. As they got up to leave, Nathan activated the comm-panel on his desk to hail the comm-officer on the bridge. “Can you send Josh and Loki to my ready room?”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Josh and Loki arrived at the entrance to the bridge. Having been forewarned of their arrival, the guard at the hatchway escorted them the few meters down the short corridor that led into the aft port side of the bridge.
“Whoa,” Loki muttered as he gazed upon the bridge, and the main view screen that wrapped around the entire front half the room and up over the helm and navigation consoles.
“This is nice,” Josh whispered back to Loki. Despite the fact that most of the Aurora’s technology was less advanced than that found on even the older ships used on Haven, the layout of the bridge left him in awe. “I’d love to get my hands on the flight controls of this baby, eh, mate?” he added, jabbing Loki in his side with his elbow.
“This way, gentlemen,” the guard stated, reminding them of why they were here. Josh and Loki turned to see the guard standing behind them, his arm outstretched to point toward the door to the captain’s ready room, just inboard from the entrance they had just passed through. “The captain’s expecting you.”
Josh and Loki followed the guard, looking back over their shoulders to catch a last glimpse of the bridge on their way out. The guard swung the hatch open and they stepped inside the ready room.
“Gentlemen,” Nathan greeted them nonchalantly. “What took you so long?”
“Sorry, Captain,” Loki began, “but we had just pulled the computer core from the harvester when you called. Once pulled, you only have ten minutes to get it hooked back up to power, or you lose all its base programming.”
“That’s understandable. Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the two chairs in front of his desk.
Josh felt a bit uncomfortable. His flying technique had gotten him and Loki into hot water on more than one occasion. And right now, it felt similar to the time they had been called into the Haven Port Authority Flight Controller’s office. They had gotten scolded for nearly an hour that day, and had just about lost their flight status. “Have we done something wrong, Captain?”
“No, not at all. I have a couple of missions I wanted to discuss with you. That’s all.
Josh started to relax a little, as did Loki.
“Missions?” Loki asked, not quite sure what the term meant.
“You know, flights? What do you call them?”
“Flights, I guess,” Loki answered with a shrug.
“What kind of missions did you have in mind, Captain?” Josh asked.
“The Karuzari have a base of some type inside a hollowed out asteroid. We would like to use it as a place to hide while we conduct repairs.”
Josh’s eyes lit up. “This place must be pretty big, if you can fit your whole ship inside it.”
“Apparently, it’s an entire facility of some sort.”
“Captain?” Loki asked. “Why do you need us to fly in?”
“We need someone to recon the entrance, the main port, and the exits, before we take the ship inside.”
Josh could see that his friend was getting suspicious. “You expecting trouble?” he asked the captain.
“I wouldn’t say expecting,” Nathan said. “Let’s just say we’re being overly cautious and leave it at that.”
“Say no more, Captain,” Josh told him. “We quite understand. Never trusted the Karuzari much myself, either.”
“It’s not so much a matter of trust at this point,” Nathan corrected. “As I said before, it’s more a matter of caution. We have too much at stake to risk haphazardly.”
“Yeah,” Josh agreed, changing to a more somber tone. “The chief told us all about the Jung and such. You blokes certainly have your plates full.”
Nathan smiled at the expression. “Yes, we do at that.”
“Captain?” Loki interrupted. “You said missions,” he added, emphasizing the plural.
“Yes. Later, we’ll also need you to make a couple of runs to the planet surface. First to deliver Tug and Jalea, along with most of the ore your team collected. And then to bring them and a load of supplies back to the ship a day or two after.”
“The surface? The surface of what? We’re not going back to Haven, are we?”
“No. We’ll be going to the Darvano system.”
“Darvano? But that’s nearly ten light years away. That’ll take weeks,” Loki exclaimed.
“Not for us, remember?” Nathan reminded him.
“You’re gonna jump?” Josh asked, unable to hide his excitement.
“Yes.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t mind seeing that. I don’t mind tellin’ ya,” Josh stated. Although not as easily excited as his friend, it was obvious that Loki was also excited.
“We’re going to jump in about five minutes,” Nathan told them. “Would you like to hang around and watch?”
“Oh, you bet,” Josh stated, Loki’s head nodding rapidly up and down.
“Very well, then. Follow me,” Nathan said as he rose from his desk.
Josh and Loki followed Nathan out of the ready room and back out onto the bridge.
“You guys just stand back here,” Nathan told them, pointing to the back of the room in front of the burnt-out comm station that had been offline since they had first encountered the Ta’Akar.
Nathan moved down from the upper platform that held the tactical station in the center, the jump control console on the right, and the new temporary comm-station on the left. “Are we ready to jump?”
“Jump drive is fully charged and ready. Our first jump is plotted and verified,” Abby reported.
“Where will the first jump take us?”
“Exactly five light years from here, to a point pretty much in the middle of nowhere, sir. But definitely deep within the Pentaurus cluster.”
“Helm ready?” Nathan asked as Cameron stepped down from the upper level and moved in front of him to sit at the helm console.
“Helm is ready, sir.”
“Are we gonna feel anything?” Josh asked Jessica, who was standing at the tactical console directly in front of him.
“No,” she said, turning her head slightly to cast a disapproving look at his question.
Nathan heard Josh’s question. “Commander, you know, maybe we should always warn the crew and passengers when we are about to jump. I mean, there is no sensation involved—not like when we’re accelerating or decelerating. It might be better for the crew to be aware of any abrupt change in location.”