Chapter 39
Laughter and loud voices filled his ears. Sheridan turned his head and saw that he was sitting in a hot tub with his friends from the Academy. Across from him smoking a cigar and holding a bottle of champagne in the other was Harry Williams. There were two beautiful girls in the tub, looking as if they had all had too much to drink already.
With a loud pop, the night sky was lit up by fireworks. “Happy New Year, Mike,” said Williams as he poured champagne into everyone’s glasses.
Aspen . . . they were in Aspen for New Year’s, thought Sheridan. He was confused. It had been nearly two years since they were in Aspen. What was he doing there?”
A young, blonde-haired girl with a wide smile held out her glass. “Happy New Year, Mike.”
Who was he to complain? If was back in Aspen, so be it. He held up his glass. “Say, good looking, what’s your name again?”
“Cole, Alan Cole,” replied the girl. Her voice had gained an English accent and now she sounded like a man.
Sheridan leaned forward to get a better look at the odd-sounding girl. Her face began to fade away to be replaced by a Master Sergeant Cole looking down at Sheridan.
“Don’t move, sir,” said Cole. “We thought you were a goner when we found you.”
Sheridan looked around and saw that he was floating in a pool of hot water. Steam filled the bone-cold air. Two survival pods sat nearby on the icy ground. His reached for the hard drive in his pocket, only it was not there. Panic gripped his mind.
“Looking for this, Captain?” said Cole holding up the drive in his hand.
“Thank God for that.”
“We checked your pockets before putting you in the pool.”
“How did you find me?”
Cole handed the drive to a Marine standing guard. “Purely by accident. Private Phillips thought he saw something moving about and went to check. If he hadn’t been so nosy, you’d be long dead.”
“How long was I out?”
“Just over four hours. If we hadn’t landed near these hotspots, we’d all be dead by now. The heat given off by these pools barely keeps the temperature above freezing.”
Sheridan sat up. “How many made it?”
“With you, we now have thirteen. The other pod crash landed into the side of a glacier. No one survived.”
Sheridan’s thoughts turned to Williams. For a few minutes, he told Cole what had happened from the time he abandoned the Kurgan vessel until the time he was found.
“Bloody hell!” exclaimed Cole. “How many people do they have back home? They could be anyone from the President all the way down to your bloody next door neighbor.”
“We need to tell the fleet before any more sleeper agents are activated.”
“Easier said than done. We haven’t heard a thing on the communication devices in the pods. Hell, even some Kurgan gibberish would be welcome right now.”
“Don’t say that too loud, Williams called for a recuse vessel. The Kurgans could be on their way here for all we know.”
“Well, whoever is coming our way, I hope they get here soon. We have just over twelve hours of oxygen left before people start dying.”
“Master Sergeant, I just heard something in my helmet,” said Private Phillips.
“I didn’t hear a thing,” said Sheridan.
“Neither did I,” added Cole. “Phillips, are you sure that you’re not just imagining things?”
“There it is again, only clearer this time,” said Phillips, growing more excited by the second. “It’s the Lexington calling us.”
“Well, don’t just stand there talking to us,” said Cole. “Tell them who you are and make sure that they understand they need to send a shuttle craft to our location, ASAP.”
“I guess our comms equipment isn’t up to spec,” mused Sheridan.
“Don’t forget sir, the survival suit and all the high-tech toys built into it was made by some bloke sitting back home on Earth getting fat and rich selling crap to the military,” said Cole. “Now rest until the shuttle arrives. I’m going to round everyone up so we can get the hell out of here the second that ship lands.”
The sensation of laying under clean sheets in a warm bed was a welcome one. Sheridan rolled over and opened his eyes. For a moment, he did not know where he was. The room was clean and brightly lit. Beside his bed was a computer that monitored his vital signs. An IV dripped a saline solution into his arm, helping him to recover from the bout of hypothermia he had suffered.
“Ah, good, you’re awake,” said a doctor as she entered the room. She looked to be in her late twenties with short brown hair and chestnut-colored eyes. “I thought you might be coming around soon.”
Sheridan went to speak but found his throat was drier than the deserts on Illum Prime. “Can I have a drink of water, Doc?”
“Sure,” replied the doctor as she filled a cup with cold water and handed it to Sheridan.
Sheridan shot the water back in one gulp. He held out his cup. “More please.”
The doctor smiled and gave him another full cup. “Before you try asking me any questions, perhaps I can put your mind at ease. You’re on the Lexington, and we are currently making our way back to the fleet. Your Marines are here as well and are resting comfortably. I’m sorry for your losses. However, you did manage to bring some of them home and you should be commended.”
Sheridan reached over and grabbed the doctor’s right arm. “The hard drive . . . where is it?”
The doctor shook her head. “I’m sorry, Captain, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Please, Doc, it’s urgent. I need to see Master Sergeant Cole right away.”
“All right, I’ll see if I can find him.”
Ten minutes passed before Cole strolled into the hospital room with a smile on his face. “That’s one pretty doctor. I think I might get sick and have to come down here for a checkup.”
Sheridan ignored the comments. “Master Sergeant, where is the hard drive with the Kurgan codes on it?”
“I gave it to Commander Solomon, the ship’s XO. Why?”
“Tell him not to examine it,” Sheridan’s voice grew serious. “In fact, he’s not to try and plug it into any of the ship’s computers.”
“How come?”
“I may be acting a bit more paranoid than normal, but I can’t come up with one reason why Williams simply didn’t smash it to pieces when he had the chance. Why hold on to it?”
Cole shrugged.
“Please speak to the XO and tell him that the hard drive should be locked away in a secure location until the counterintelligence section back at the fleet can examine it.”
“Got it,” said Cole. He turned and picked up a phone off the wall.
Sheridan placed his head back down on his pillow. His eyes felt like they were made of lead weights. He could feel sleep calling to him. Yet there was something deep in his subconscious that would not let him drift off peacefully. Abruptly, he sat up in his bed and looked at Cole. “The ship, the Kurgan rescue ship, did it ever appear?”
“No, why?”
“Have a computer specialist check the hard drive for a tracking device. Just in case they are using us to lead them back to the fleet.”
“Good Lord, you are full of conspiracies today, Captain.”
Sheridan shot Cole a stern look.
“Okay, got it, you don’t want them to use the hard drive but you want them to check it for a tracking device.”
“I know I may sound crazy but after all we have been through since this war started, I will never again underestimate our enemy.”
Cole got a hold of an officer on the bridge and passed along Sheridan’s message before hanging up. He turned to say something but saw that Sheridan was fast asleep. He walked over and pulled his sheets up to cover him. “Sleep tight, Captain. I’m not sure I could have killed my best mate.”
He walked to the door and turned off the light. Cole took one last look before stepping out into
the corridor. He knew that Michael Sheridan was a tough and resourceful officer, but he was also human. Cole would have to watch for signs of post-traumatic stress developing in the young officer. He’d seen many a good man brought down by PTSD. Talking about the event was the key to helping defuse the stress and anxiety. Cole made it his mission to make sure that Sheridan did not suffer in silence when he was there to help and guide his friend through it.
Chapter 40
Sheridan stood silently watching out the viewport. The steady procession of medical shuttles leaving Illum Prime did not bode well for the forces still fighting to capture the capital. He’d heard that the Kurgans had built a warren of tunnels branching out from the city. Unlike on Derra-5 where they sought death in mass suicide charges, the Kurgans were fighting a battle of attrition.
The door behind him slid open. Sheridan saw the reflection of his father on the window.
“How are you feeling, Michael?” asked Admiral Sheridan.
“I’m fine, Father,” he replied. Since arriving back on the Colossus, he had been subjected to a battery of interviews by the ship’s medical staff. After two days of it, he refused to go back.
“I thought you’d like to know that the hard drive you brought back is clean. The counterintelligence and advanced computer departments both went over it millimeter by millimeter and did not find a tracking device or anything else wrong with it.”
Sheridan took a seat. “That’s good news. I guess I was being a bit neurotic after finding out that Harry was a Kurgan operative.”
Admiral Sheridan took a seat as well. “Michael, you were right to be concerned. I’m still having a hard time believing that Harry Williams and his entire family are sleeper agents.”
“I know. It kinda makes you wonder who you can trust.”
“Well, you can trust me,” said his father, patting Sheridan’s hand. “Fleet Headquarters has acknowledged the information sent back to them on Harry. I suspect that there will be a mass rounding up of descendants of the original crew of the Mercury, to see if they are also sleeper agents.”
Sheridan wearily shook his head. “I have no doubt that all of them will be Kurgan operatives, even if they don’t know it.”
“After you told me about Harry, I had the staff see if Andrews was related to anyone on the Mercury.”
“And?” asked Sheridan remembering how Private Andrews had turned on his fellow Marines on Derra-5 and had nearly killed him.
“He was. He had a relative who was a crewman on the ship when it was taken by the Kurgan forces.”
“That would explain a lot about Andrews’ behavior. However, I still don’t understand why Harry would keep the hard drive with the codes on him. If I were in his shoes, I would have smashed it into a thousand pieces to prevent it from falling into enemy’s hands.”
“While you were still recovering in the infirmary, Master Sergeant Cole and I had a discussion about that. He feels that Harry wanted to show his new masters what you had taken and to return it to the Kurgans as a sign of loyalty to the Empire.”
Sheridan scrunched up his face. “You could be right. Who knows what he was thinking at the end.”
Admiral Sheridan placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Michael, I know that you’re still tearing yourself up inside for what you did to Harry. Don’t put on a brave face and say that you’re not hurting inside, because I can see it in your eyes. You did what you had to. He would have killed you or handed you over to the Kurgans without batting an eye and you know it.”
Sheridan nodded and looked away. His expression turned sad.
His father decided to change the topic to something far less depressing. “I asked Tarina’s CO if she was available for dinner tonight. Regrettably, she is slated for a mission and can’t make it.”
Sheridan’s heart sank a little deeper. He had hoped to see her. “That’s okay, Dad, we can have a quiet dinner by ourselves tonight.”
“I’d ordered food for three, so I hope you don’t mind if Master Sergeant Cole joins us.”
“No, not at all. I’ve barely spoken to him these past few days.”
At precisely nineteen-thirty hours, a steward wheeled in a trolley with the evening meal on it. Cole arrived a minute later dressed in a clean uniform. He had never sat at a table with an admiral before but couldn’t refuse when asked to come for dinner.
Sheridan saw the uncomfortable look in Cole’s eyes and chuckled. He’d grown up the son of a senior officer in the fleet, so he was used to being around high-ranking officers. Cole, however, was for the first time in ages clearly out of his element.
“Evening, sirs,” said Cole with a wink at Sheridan.
“Please come in, Master Sergeant,” said the admiral.
Cole stepped inside the room and looked around. “Nice quarters.”
“The one perk of being a Vice Admiral is that you get a nice room all to yourself,” replied Admiral Sheridan. “Unless you’re a ship’s CO, XO, or chief petty officer, you have to bunk up with someone else.”
Cole looked over at his friend. “How you doing, sir?”
“Not too bad,” Sheridan replied honestly. “I’d rather have Tarina come for dinner, but you’ll do.”
“Oy, I don’t know if I should be insulted or not,” protested Cole.
“You have most definitely been insulted by my son, Master Sergeant,” said the admiral. “Come let us all sit down and eat. Dinner tonight is fish with rice and vegetables.”
Cole rubbed his hands together. “Sound delicious.”
“Don’t get too excited, Master Sergeant, it’s the same meal the rest of the crew is getting tonight, I just get mine catered to my room.”
“Still, no standing in line. I’m not going to complain.”
They sat down and ate their meal. Cole took delight in quizzing Admiral Sheridan about how his son was when he was growing up. For his part, Michael sat and shook his head at each tale. When they were done, Admiral Sheridan poured three cups of coffee and invited his two dinner companions to join him in his small living area.
“Sir, what can you tell us about the fighting on the surface?” asked Cole. “There’s a lot of rumors floating around the ship. All of them say the same thing, that we’re having a hard time finishing off the Kurgans.”
“It’s true,” said the admiral. “General Denisov in his last report called the capital city a slaughterhouse in which his soldiers were being ground to pieces. He asked for the release of chemical weapons to finish off the Kurgans. It was, of course, refused. He was told by his superiors to continue the fight. They even went so far as to tell him not to worry, that it would soon be over.”
Cole shook his head. “No disrespect, sir, but a staff officer sitting fat and happy back on Earth has no clue what is happening out here. In fact, he’s probably more dangerous than the Kurgans to our forces.”
“I concur, Master Sergeant, and have said so to Admiral Oshiro. He’ll soon be here to see how things are going. I doubt he’ll change his mind about the use of chemical weapons, but he might allow General Denisov to conduct a siege and starve out the remaining Kurgan forces in the capital.”
Michael Sheridan took a sip of coffee and then said, “Sir, now that you have the enemy codes, what is your next move?”
His father smiled. “Captain Killam has locked himself away in his quarters. He’s a bit eccentric that way. He’ll go over every piece of information until he has a plan that will lead to the destruction of the enemy’s two remaining carriers.”
“What’s to say that the Kurgans haven’t reinforced their fleet in this sector?” asked Cole.
“According to the information on the hard drive, the Kurgans are having a hard time in the Goliath system and have moved several carriers there to bolster their hold over several resource-rich planets. For now, the Kurgan Fleet in our sector remains unchanged.”
“Any idea when Captain Killam will emerge with a plan?” asked Sheridan.
“If he keeps to his usual routi
ne, I expect him to emerge from his room sometime tomorrow afternoon with the nucleus of a plan. After he briefs me and gets the go-ahead, that’s when he drafts in the operations and planning staff to help him flesh-out the details.”
“Odd way of doing business, if you ask me,” observed Cole.
“It works, so I don’t question it.”
The monitor on the admiral’s desk chimed. He stood up and answered the call. It was from Commander Roy, his aide. “Sir, I was walking past Captain Killam’s quarters when he cracked his door open and handed me a note.”
“Please read it.”
“Admiral, I will brief you tomorrow at noon in you quarters. Please have Captain Sheridan in attendance.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks,” said the admiral, ending the call. “Did you hear that, Michael?”
“I did,” replied Sheridan. “Why on Earth would he want me here while he briefs you on his plan?”
Admiral Sheridan shrugged. “I want both of you to come for lunch tomorrow, and we’ll all find out together.”
Cole leaned over in his seat toward Sheridan. Quietly, he said, “I warned you about being liked by senior officers. He’s got something harebrained in store for us. Just you watch.”
“Would you rather we screwed up from time to time?” replied Sheridan.
“I’d rather be down on the planet fighting the Kurgs than heading off on another suicide mission.”
“Gents, there’s no need to whisper. I have excellent hearing,” admonished the admiral. “We’ll see tomorrow what Killam is scheming. Until then, I suggest that you two get plenty of rest. You may just need it.”
The next day, Sheridan and Cole arrived a few minutes before noon. There were sandwiches and finger food on a silver serving tray for lunch. Captain Killam was already there chatting with Admiral Sheridan.
Colossus (The Kurgan War Book 2) Page 17