Redemption: Book 2 of Warner's World

by Dave O'Connor

  “Just leave it Rihan” said Sue. “As I was saying we have some news.”

  “What’s this ‘we’?”

  “Oh you’re right. I better wait for Art to get back.”

  “Now you’re teasing.”

  “OK just pretend you haven’t heard it when he gets back.”

  “Sure” said Rihan with a big smile on her face.

  Now Sue was struggling to choose the right words.

  “Well come on Sue. I’m all ears.”

  Sue blurted out the words “we’re going to get married in May.”

  Rihan leaned forward and gave Sue a hug.

  “You will be my maid of honour won’t you Rihan?”

  “Of course.”

  “There’s so much to plan and I have precious little time before I head back to Fulmar” said Sue. She noticed that Rihan wasn’t that focused. “When are you guys going to tie the knot?”

  “Haven’t really thought about it much” said Rihan and she pondered for a moment. “I wonder…”

  “What?”

  “May you say?”

  “Yes I’m going to see Personnel before I leave to see what dates can be worked out.”

  “What’s better than a spring wedding?”

  “Two spring weddings” came back Sue as quick as a flash. “We could have a double wedding if you like.” Sue pondered for a moment and then added “Oh I better ask Art first. And you need to ask Dave of course.” She spied Dave and Art coming over to them. “Oh look here come the lambs to the slaughter.”

  Chapter 4. Chester 1100, 1 January 2513

  There were a few sore heads and clouded minds entering the ops centre at Raleigh HQ on New Year’s Day but Rihan’s was not one of them. She had been called into work the previous day by McCubbin. Another transport had been taken by the pirates over Turintia. McCubbin wanted to move quickly and tasked her staff to come up with a plan by the next day.

  “Are you finished?” asked Matt. “Come on Rihan we need to be in there now.”

  Rihan hit the commit button and looked up at the Chief of Staff with a satisfied smile “Coming!”

  She and Matt were the last to take their seats in the big briefing room. McCubbin looked impatient. “Are we right to go?” she asked Matt.

  “Yes Maam” and he nodded at Jack Malawi, the intel officer, who fired up the holo display and began his briefing about the latest attack. There were no takers for questions at the end of his spiel, so Jack sat down and Rihan stood up.

  She looked around the room. Apart from the HQ staff, there were officers of the Chicago, Hermes and Rio. Rihan looked across the room to Dave who gave her an encouraging smile.

  Rihan began “Operation Crossbow will destroy the pirate menace in the Orion sector. It will be conducted in two phases – seek and destroy. In the first phase the Hermes will covertly insert our operative, Lt Simons, hereafter referred to as Scavenger, into the Betelgeuse system. Scavenger will be operating under cover with the aim of finding out where the pirates are operating from. During this phase the Hermes will provide support to Scavenger but avoid detection.”

  “Once Scavenger provides the intel on where the pirates are operating from, a new operational plan will be developed for phase two, the destruction of the pirates. It is envisaged that this will involve the coordinated actions of the Chicago, Hermes and Rio under Captain Barsukov.”

  “The operation commences tomorrow at 1000 with the departure of the Hermes for Fulmar….”

  Chapter 5. Over Raleigh 1000, 3 January

  “The ships all yours Aubrey” said Dave.

  “The ships mine” she replied.

  “Warp in 2 minutes everyone. Buckle up” she barked.

  Dave leant back in his chair in the control centre of the Hermes a content man. ‘What a break’ he said to himself. He thought of the absolutely brilliant sex he’d been having with Rihan ever since Xmas.

  Aubrey caught the expression on her boss’s face. “He’s like a Cheshire cat’ she thought. Then she too indulged her own memories of the past ten days and thought ‘what bliss’. The counter on the main display drew her attention back. “Warp in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1” and they were away.

  “Lieutenants Simons, Chalker and Hanlon to the briefing room please” hailed Dave over the ship wide channel.

  In the briefing room Chase brought up the 3D holo display for the Bellatrix System as Dave had asked him. Then he zoomed out to include the adjacent Betelgeuse system. He set the first waypoint at Fulmar where they would drop off Sue. He then looked to Dave. “Where to next?” he asked.

  Dave was searching the database on the display in front of him. “OK it looks like we have three options. There’s Mantam, Xizu and Turga that are known to have had settlements on them at one stage or another.”

  Art was on another terminal doing his own search. “The planet Mantam was abandoned over a hundred years ago when the sun started expanding. It’s no longer deemed habitable.” He double tapped the next item on the list. “Xizu is the second moon around the gas giant Pilla. It was mined extensively up to twenty years ago before solar flares made it too risky. A properly shielded craft could probably still use it.”

  “Ooh” said Art as he accessed the details for Turga. “According to this report dated two years ago there was still an active settlement on this Pilla moon. Apparently the locals refused to be moved when the Fleet declared Betelgeuse a no go area.”

  “Sounds like our best bet” said Dave. “You still don’t want us to drop you off?”

  “No. If I turn up without my own means of transport then I might as well paint “agent” on my suit. It’s not like there’s a commercial shuttle service to this neck of the woods.”

  “Using the shuttle” said Sue “will give Art the best chance of a convincing cover story.”

  “Yeah I know but I don’t like the idea of you going in a strange craft all by yourself. Surely they would expect you to have an offsider?”

  “Maybe…maybe not” said Art. “Look I’ve got my watch certificate and my pilot’s refresher courtesy of the best instructors in the business or have I been misled?” He added the latter with a smile.

  “Alright” said Dave with an expression of mild amusement. “But are you sure you don’t want to take Parinya or Ivan with you?”

  “I’m sure” confirmed Art. Anyway I’ll have a week to familiarise myself with the controls of that old Streamliner.”

  Chase selected the Streamliner from the Hermes asset list and gave it an order to Move to Turga. He checked the ETA for it and advised “It’s going to take 5 days for you to warp to Turga from Fulmar. When do you want the first RV?”

  “Give me four days to scope out what’s happening” said Art. “I may need longer, in which case we can rinse and repeat every 2 or 3 days. Is there a place you can hold up in undetected that’s within a 2 day jump?”

  Chase dragged the Hermes icon to Turga. Activated the display to show warp zone and set the min parameter to 2 days and the max parameter to 3 days. A 3D globe appeared around the icon, but the inner portion was greyed out. Chase perused the objects lying within the unshaded zone. “This should serve” and he selected the outermost planet within the system. “Zimar” he announced.

  Dave turned to Art who said “Works for me.”

  “OK lock it in Chase” said Dave. “Can you work up the final op plan by 1600?”

  “Sure Sir.”

  Chapter 6. Hermes over Fulmar 0930, 8 January

  The Hermes came out of warp over Fulmar at the pre-arranged time. Aubrey handled the handshake with the sleth cap that was their de facto space station and control centre.

  Whisky 1 pushed out of the dock and descended to the planet surface on an easy approach path. They broke into the atmosphere over the scorched brown desert that dominated most of the largest continent then headed south for a region of green. As the craft lost altitude Parinya could see the jungle canopy that extended for at least a thousand kilometres. She was getting a little an
xious trying to find the spaceport amongst the canopy. Finally she saw it and relaxed a little as the warthog maintained the designated glide path.

  “Landing in 2” she announced.

  She brought the craft to an almost dead stop before hitting the vertical retroes for fear of clipping the canopy. She nestled the craft down as she was trying to make out lane markings but then realised there weren’t any. A figure appeared from the edge of the tree line and with the use of some pointers indicated the place she should park.

  Some more figures came over and were there to greet the passengers as they disembarked. Dave was almost overwhelmed by the heat. His visor display showed 51 Celsius as the outside temp. He knew that their suits were rated to 60C but felt disconcerted nonetheless. ‘No wonder we didn’t colonise this place’ thought Dave.

  Gret greeted them and beckoned them to hurry into the structure ahead. Its edge was in line with the jungle’s edge further along the runway. There was a large entrance. A sleth trooper stood guard but otherwise no activity. The structure went back into the jungle, under its canopy, and was perfectly hidden from observation from above.

  Once through the air lock and with his helmet off Dave recognised the same layout as the central structure they went into back on Zuon.

  “Good morning Commander Warner” said Gret. Dave was struck by how well he spoke English. Gret detected Dave’s astonishment and smiled.

  “You’ve been practicing” said Dave.

  “Yes, with Lt Hoyle. He is a...an excellent teacher.” Turning to Sue, Gret continued “welcome back Lt Chalker and to you to Lt Simons. Please follow me.”

  He led them to a large room where Fowlsit and Wenra along with the Federation Ambassador, Her Excellency Kalea Boulos, were waiting. After introductions Boulos said “Wenra we have a request. We need your cooperation. As you know there have been several pirate attacks on transports throughout the Orion sector.”

  Wenra nodded.

  “The Federation Fleet is conducting operations to defeat these pirates and we would like your permission to base the Hermes here for the next two months or thereabouts. It will be for staging purposes only. The Hermes will be conducting operations into adjacent systems. It won’t be interfering in any way within this system.”

  Wenra gave a slight bow and then conferred with Fowlsit in their own language. Fowlsit then responded. “We have concerns” he said. “We may be targeted by pirates after Hermes leaves. So far no contact with pirates. This increases risk.”

  “Honourable Wenra” said Boulos speaking direct to the leader “we acknowledge the increased risk and are prepared to offer compensation.” Turning to Fowlsit, Kalea handed him an ePage with a list of items.

  To Dave’s eye Fowlsit took all this in his stride. He perused the list of construction materials, supplies and services. He again consulted with Wenra in their language and then turned back towards the Ambassador. “This generous but not mitigate risk. We need defences. We need missile batteries.”

  “To be manned by Federation soldiers?”

  “No we operate. Need training.”

  Retaining her composure Kalea said “I will need to confer with the Federation Council and Fleet HQs. But I think it would be fair to say that they would only agree to such a transfer of technology if you also offered to transfer some of your technology.”

  Fowlsit nodded as though he had played this game many times before. “What you have in mind?”

  “Your beam weapon technology.”

  “Of course” said Fowlsit. He again conferred with Wenra. Gret was ordered to leave the room on some errand. He came back a few minutes later, whispered close to Fowlsit who simply nodded.

  Then Fowlsit spoke “Beam technology depends on other technologies. This is going to be too difficult to resolve immediately. We need to set up special group, humans and sleth together, to consider. Yes?”

  “Yes” said Kalea with a reluctant but frustrated expression.

  “But you want permission for Hermes now, yes?”

  “Yes” said Kalea.

  Fowlsit conferred with Wenra and then came back with “How do you say…temporary solution. You supply and operate missile batteries until agreement on technology transfers.”

  “That may work” said Kalea. “But I need to consult with Council and Fleet HQ. This will take several days.”

  “Good. Please do so and meanwhile…the Hermes is welcome to stay.”

  Fowlsit offered his outstretched arm. “Shake…no?”

  Kalea smiled and shook his hand. Everyone smiled. All was good. Refreshments were ordered, consumed and then the Ambassador led the humans through a series of passageways to her office where Dave and Art were given a briefing on how things were setup here for the embassy.

  “Well gentlemen” said Kalea “I must leave you in Sue’s capable hands as I need to contact the Council and Fleet HQ to make the necessary arrangements. I am very pleased with this development. I trust we will be seeing each other again shortly.”

  After their little tour Dave left Art and Sue to say their goodbyes. As he walked slowly back to the main entrance he couldn’t help reflect on how only a few months ago they had been fighting the sleth and here they were now collaborating.

  “Commander Warner” called out Dan Hoyle from behind him. Dave turned and saw Dan’s face with a big smile on it.

  “Dan, you’re looking well.” They shook hands.

  “Yes Sir I am. It’s all worked out very well for me - much better than I expected. I heard about what happened to you and I just wanted to say Sir that I thought you were hard done by. You deserved better. I wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for you.”

  “Why thank you Dan” said Dave and he looked into Dan’s eyes noting the sincerity in them. “How are you coping with this heat?”

  “And the humidity you mean” added Dan. “You don’t notice inside here. So I stay in here most of the time. I try and get out for a walk at least once a day but you have to be real careful out there. I stick to the tracks under the canopy. If you do that it’s tolerable. But you literally fry out in the open.”

  “Yeah it was dammed uncomfortable out there on the way in and we were only under the sun for a few minutes.”

  “We reckon any more than 15 minutes and your history.”

  “So how long are you going to be here?”

  “We’re making great progress with the language protocols but there’s a mountain of work to be done. My posting ends in a year.”

  Dave caught sight of Art heading towards him. “Well hang in there Dan. We have to go now. Take care of yourself.”

  “You too Sir.”

  Chapter 7. Hermes over Fulmar 1300, 8 January

  “Now you are sure about this?” asked Dave.

  “Yes” said Art emphatically. “It may take an extra two days for me to warp direct in the Streamliner but it removes the risk of the Hermes being detected. If that happens I’m toast and so is this mission.”

  “OK then.”

  Art hit the commit button for his operational (op) plan. “Stop worrying Dave. It’s best this way and you know it.” Dave just shrugged his acceptance. “I better get going then” said Art and they left the briefing room.

  Chapter 8. Redneck 45 in Warp to Turga 0410, 14 January

  His alarm went off and Art double tapped his communicator to deactivate it. He might have been lying there but he was already awake. He swung his legs over the edge of the bunk that served as his place of rest. He took his morning shower in the adjacent cubicle of what some generous soul would claim as his quarters. But the architectural engineers that designed the Streamliner were not so generous.

  A few minutes later he eyed himself in the small mirror that was now all steamed up as he shaved himself. He looked tired. He felt tired. But he could also see the resolve in his eyes. He knew he would need that resolve if he were to be successful and survive this mission.

  He thought of Sue. How glad he was that she was out of harm’s way on
Fulmar. A smile appeared as he recalled how Sue and Rihan had ambushed him and Dave back on Chester and how they had agreed to the double wedding. She was the cunning one he thought. He would need some cunning himself now if he were to pass himself off as a ‘runner’.

  He washed his face, dressed and ate some of his favourite cereal alas with the long life milk. The coffee washed it down and hopefully would clear away a few of the night’s cobwebs from his mind.

  Back again in front of the mirror, this time cleaning his teeth, he wondered what the water would taste like on Turga. ‘As long as it’s not as bad as on Borquist’ he thought to himself. ‘That was definitely the worst.’

  He rinsed out his mouth, packed his toiletries away and stared at the mirror once more. “You’re not supposed to be doing this anymore Art” he said aloud to himself. ‘Not now’ he thought ‘just get this done. Time to focus.’

  He made his way forward to the cockpit. He sat in the pilot’s seat. There was no one else to sit in the co-pilots seat. He reminded himself that it was best he was alone.

  He checked the time and then the timer counting down on the display in front of him. Two minutes to go. He buckled up. With his hand on the control that would open the cockpit shields he waited as the counter wound down.

  ‘Coming out of warp in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1’ he said to himself. He hit the control and the shields opened. The light almost blinded him and it was reflected light. The gas giant was a million kilometres away but the bloated Betelgeuse sun was so active, so bright that he went for his pilot’s helmet and pulled down the visor, setting the visor filter to 30%. Even with a 70% reduction the light was still bright. He had to reduce it to 20% before it was comfortable.

  He wasn’t sure if there would be a control station on Turga but if there was they were either asleep or incapable of picking him up. ‘Or playing doggo’ he said to himself as the red light on his control panel flashed indicating an active radar sweep. He activated the pre-arranged flight plan that would put the craft into a high orbit around the moon.