“So, Fleet was watching my home?”
“Yes, they were,” Commodore Sawyer said. “Every room, all the time. I killed the feeds. Now they only activate if someone is injured or an emergency is declared in your home.”
“Anything else floating around out there? Other footage I should know about?” Alice asked, feeling the full weight of the violation.
“I’ll have my comms officer track everything down, you have my word. This shakeup in Fleet is already causing a strain, however. I don’t have a single modern ship that’s ready to investigate what happened to your people. Freeground ships are too easy to detect so I can’t send them.”
“Is the shuffle that bad?” Alice asked.
“Terran’s disgrace was made public late last night. Since then every Captain worth their command has begun sending unqualified people back to the Ranger’s Training Centre.”
“Why send them there?”
“It’s not a classified site, but it’s still militarized. The Captains are trading crewmembers amongst themselves, using the point system to re-crew. We’re working with them, but it’ll take at least a few days for things to start settling.”
“Talk about a ripple effect,” Alice said.
The footage entitled; ‘Terran’s Disgrace’ appeared on one of the Clever Dream’s displays. “This is hilarious,” Lewis remarked quietly.
Alice tapped the display, pausing the playback and shook a finger at Lewis. “Sorry, Commodore,” Alice said. “So I’m the only Captain with a ship capable? That can’t be right.”
“That’s exactly how it is, I’m afraid. Modern ships were crewed up quickly, many of the people aboard should still be in training. While some trainees are remaining aboard, most spots are being filled by people the captains personally trust. Some of them weren’t even in fleet until today. It’s a mess, but I’ve seen shakeups before. I believe this one will bring more benefits than drawbacks. The problem is, there isn’t a ship with a practiced crew aboard at the moment. Even if there was, I like you for this. You’re also in my direct chain of command, thank God.”
Alice sat back. The earnestness in Commodore Sawyer was a relief. “If you knew something about my Captain Valent and the Revenge, you’d tell me, right? If I asked you directly.”
“I was ordered not to tell you anything,” Commodore Sawyer replied.
“If this is really an encrypted signal, and you know no one’s listening in on you, the repercussions of you telling me exactly what’s going on would be pretty much null. You were told not to inform me, but would that really be breaking your oath of secrecy? I have high clearance.”
Commodore Sawyer smiled a little and shook her head. “They told me you were smart,” she said. “You have clearance, so if you’re having trouble accessing something classified at level seven, you should bring your issue to your superior officer so I can look into it.”
Alice hurriedly looked her father up in the Haven Fleet database and found a void that covered several weeks. “The files just aren’t there, I must be having technical difficulty.”
“Oh, well, I could have a tech look at it, but since it’s at such a high level, I’ll look it up for you,” Commodore Sawyer said. “Well, that’s strange, anyone with a level seven clearance should be able to see it if they aren’t associated with you. They’d see that the Revenge will be here in a matter of days. They are out of danger. Here’s the casualty list,” she said. “I’ll send it to you, but I’d keep it encrypted until we can find out why you were locked out.”
“Thank you, Commodore. This will go a long way to clearing my head. I won’t tell anyone about this.”
“Just going above and beyond to help with a technical issue,” Commodore Sawyer said. “What I really need from you now is your absolutely honest self-assessment. Do you think you can investigate what happened to our people? If not, I’ll have to reach out, pull a cloaking ship from the picket assemble a skeleton crew and possibly captain it myself. That will take time, and I don’t want the trail to get cold.”
“I have a crewmember to pick up, then we can start prep,” Alice said. “I think a mission is exactly what I need.”
“Scout, understand. Do not put the Clever Dream at risk if you don’t have to,” Commodore Sawyer said. “I’ll send your formal orders to you in a few minutes. You depart in four hours.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Alice said.
The channel closed and Alice brought up the causality list, looking for every friend she knew on that ship. “Is Noah listed?” Theodore asked, bracing himself.
“None of our friends, Noah included, are listed as dead, or injured,” Alice said with a sigh of relief. “We’ll see them soon.”
“I’m so relieved,” Theodore said. “Me too, Theo. Let’s pick up Fur-Face, we have work to do.”
Fifty-Three
Golden Age
* * *
‘Overlord,” Lancet said as soon as he entered the round conference room. The senior staff of the Glorious were just leaving after presenting him with a wealth of good news, it was the perfect time for his aide to approach him, Dron thought to himself.
“Yes, Ensign?” Dron answered.
“The Predictive Logic Department have found something they think you should see. They’re unhappy that they have to put all their requests and notifications through me, by the way. It’s something they wanted me to tell you.”
“It’s as it should be,” Dron said. “They would send me thirty notifications a day if I didn’t have some kind of filter. Now, you were saying there was something important?” He sat down at one end of the round table.
“They have found a news broadcast that is, itself going to be the cause of historic change in the sector, perhaps beyond. They request that you make an appearance in the main lab so they can detail it for you.”
“No, I don’t have time,” Dron said. He had a feeling he knew what it was. New alliances were coming. “Did they show you which entry it was?”
“Yes,” Lancet said. “They told me not to show you though,” he was already bringing it up on the main holographic projector. “Would you like to see it anyway?”
“One step ahead,” Dron said. “You have a future, Ensign. Please, show me. I’m sure whatever conclusions I make on my own will be similar to theirs.”
“Yes, Overlord,” Ensign Lancet said as he started the playback.
The holographic head of Hart News’ Barret Johnson appeared large in the middle of the room, and Dron recoiled slightly. “It’s always jarring when they pre-set their heads to be a metre tall.”
“Today in the newly renamed Haven System, that’s Rega Gain for anyone who hasn’t updated their navigational data recently, a powerful alliance has been formed. The whole Triumvirate including Defence Minister Carl Anderson, Minister of Public Welfare Pamela Grey and Science Minister Shawn Lourdes met the head of the displaced Freeground Fleet; Admiral Rice, Interim Prime Minister of the Freeground Nation; Karmen Uba, the Tribal Representative of all Nafalli in the system; Caniili Olaana, and British Alliance diplomats aboard the remains of Freeground Alpha, a little-known space station in this sector that was just saved by Haven Fleet and Nafalli refugees.”
Images of the delegates coming together around a battered table, each piling a banner in the middle as per Nafalli tradition and smiling at each other filled the air over the polished table.
“Large land grants are being given to the Nafalli tribes, much of which was poisoned by a late attempt at finishing the terraforming effort on Tamber. Experts tell me that these tribes will have it cleaned and growing in under two weeks. The British Alliance are being given reserved space for their own station in the solar system and two small land grants including an island near Haven Shore, the city everyone here would like to be living in right now.”
Images of the jungle island and the clean, growing city there appeared before pristine beaches with relaxing people flashed by. “As for the people of Freeground, they will be absorbed into the
Haven Nation, which has only three months to provide them with housing that exceeds the standards they’ve grown used to. What this newscaster finds most interesting is the fate of Freeground itself. A repair and refit effort will begin in the following months, and it will be known only as Freeground. The Triumvirate have stated that it will become the main port for the entire Solar System, a beacon to everyone who wishes to be free of tyranny, oppression and strife. With another Solar Forge coming online soon, it will only be a matter of time before we see its slips open for business. The Nafalli Matron had this to say; ‘I am humbled by the hospitality of the Haven Government; its people and the British Alliance have shown us. I see every reason to be optimistic about the future here.’”
The announcer reappeared. It was as though his head had grown larger. “With so many forces for freedom gathered in one place, I feel confident in announcing the dawn of a golden age in the Haven System.” The replay faded.
Dron saw why his futurists would be alarmed by the broadcast. “How old is this?”
“Less than a day,” Ensign Lancet said. “Eighteen hours and thirty-three minutes.”
Dron thought for a moment. There was no need to consult with the Predictive Logic Department. Their algorithms and special computers wouldn’t tell him anything he couldn’t figure out for himself. They were as good as ancient soothsayers, reading guts and knucklebones. “This will be a beacon to anyone who is at a loss for where to go. It’ll also provide a challenge to the outlier outposts who haven’t joined the Order,” he said. “It’s time we start a golden age of our own. You were right to bring this to my attention, but don’t tell our glorified fortune tellers that. I still want you to be the filter for them. If they start whining again, tell them you are there on my orders.”
“Yes, Overlord,” Ensign Lancet said.
“It looks like I’m going to Dartan early, I won’t be able to wait for this fleet to get back under way. Have my ship prepared. I want to be in transit within the next half hour.”
Fifty-Four
Admiral Jessica Rice
* * *
The captain of the Sunspire and most of its bridge staff were killed in a single blast from the Order Base Ship Glorious. During the trip to Rega Gain System, now renamed the Haven System, Admiral Jessica Rice assumed command. It was the last thing she had that connected her to her daughter, the one she lost because of her own mistakes.
Ayan the First was the light of her life even though Jessica failed her time and time again. Her military career took her away from her daughter as a child, then she didn’t support her properly when she pursued her own career with Freeground Fleet by joining the Academy. Even worse, Jessica failed to find a cure for the disease that killed her. The disease was a direct result of genetic modifications she encouraged while she was attached to an ambitious program that earned her exile from the British Alliance before it took that name. Her first daughter was a success despite her mother failing her at every turn. Ayan Rice lived every dream she had, developed technology that was still in use, and no one who knew her forgot her.
Her failures didn’t end with her daughter’s death. That story continued with the daughter Carl Anderson made in his grief to continue Ayan’s story. He couldn’t bear her loss, so he disappeared into a wormhole for years to develop and create what he saw as the perfect human to resurrect her in. Jessica was against her ever waking. Some of the things she said as she witnessed his hard work were horrific, but it was bitter grief that drove her then.
It took a long time, but Jessica Rice had tamed those emotions, dealt with the sadness and guilt that nearly broke her. Much of it followed her sister into space when she was killed in a random attack when she was coming back from vacation. The little that remained of her was cremated, and Jessica Rice took a walk along the metal skin of Freeground Station with her ashes, committing her ashes to the void of space. Her sister was the gentler touch, a woman who lived with her heart exposed, and she did a better job raising Ayan Rice than Jessica ever could have. That was the turning point in her life.
Jessica told no one, but her plan for retirement began that day. She would help Freeground through the crisis of emigrating citizens, the Loyalist Government and make sure the Fleet was stable. Banding together with a few Admirals, she managed to stabilize and fortify Freeground Fleet, that’s as far as she got before Freeground Alpha had to separate from the rest of the station to run from their enemies. Her plan: to retire then join the woman who was living her daughter’s life, to accept her and help with her cause, was almost derailed.
A miracle happened when Freeground Alpha and the Fleet were in their greatest hour of need. Ayan the Second, or Ayan Anderson as she’d become known after taking her father’s name, and people in a fleet she helped make came to their rescue. Her tears of joy were shed in private, especially when she heard realized that she would have another chance to accept Ayan the Second as her daughter, if she would have her. Perhaps she’d fail her too, but it wouldn’t be for lack of trying this time.
The things she heard about Ayan when she arrived in Haven System were astonishing. She had become an admiral herself, but that was supposed to be a Fleet secret of some kind. Everyone seemed to know anyway. Ayan had been officially named the Queen of the Rega Gain System, and she helped form a democratic government instead of embracing the role. Mystery surrounded her working life, but she was credited with not only working with advisors from Lorander, but for providing new technology to them that she partially developed herself.
When Admiral Rice put her request to have a refit team repair an improve the Sunspire, it was Ayan who personally gave the order to assign it to Line Three of the War Forge, a mobile shipyard that Jessica Rice didn’t even know existed until then. A secret shipyard that Ayan was largely credited for being the master of. Even more interesting were the plans the War Forge Refit Department sent. It took Admiral Rice and her entire science and engineering team - all of whom had to become Haven Citizens then take an oath of secrecy to view, including her - to review and comprehend. The plan was to have the Sunspire refitted in Fabrication Line Three using the tools there and thousands of small robots that would work on the inside. The ship Ayan Rice made her own would become the warship Ayan Anderson rebuilt so it could serve for another generation.
Meeting Ayan Anderson was something she looked forward to with no shortage of nervousness before. Now, knowing how more and more people across the entire solar system were looking up to her and how accomplish she’d become, Admiral Jessica Rice was actually intimidated. Then there was the announcement straight from Ayan herself that was meant only for friends and family. Ayan had adopted a newborn girl named Laura.
It took her an entire day, but with nervous fingers Jessica finally sent a polite request to meet. The reply came back in minutes. “I’d love to spent time with you. When you and your crew are off the Sunspire, I’ll have them put up aboard the War Forge, and you can visit us in my quarters there. Stay with us if you like,” Ayan replied in a voice message.
When the first arms reached out of the gargantuan station to gently take hold of the front of the Sunspire and begin drawing it into the mouth of Line Three, Admiral Rice nodded. “Time for us to go,” she said to Engineering Chief Piper Tapping and her first officer; Commander Dean Shanks. “When we get back, it won’t be the same ship. It’ll be better.”
They stepped through the forward airlock into a waiting shuttle. The trip across to the secure part of the station was short, only a minute, but she preferred a shuttle to the flexible walkways the station used to move the rest of her crew off ship. “I still can’t believe they’re going to do everything in their plan in one day,” Dean said.
“Well, that’s because you’re trying to believe that everything they’re doing was, in fact made in one day,” Piper said. She was off the ship for the first time in months. The Chief she replaced was killed in the same strike as the captain, so she was still new to the promotion, but she was ready, and she le
arned very quickly. “The truth is that almost all the components they’re installing, big and small, are already made on the smaller production lines. It would be done in ten hours, except the Sunspire hasn’t been prepped. All the old equipment is still in place, so they have to remove that first. That’s going to take longer than the installation.”
“Admiral, I’ve been meaning to ask; was it your idea to convert the Sunspire into a carrier?” Dean asked.
“The Lorander design and refit software saw it as the best option for the Sunspire,” Admiral Rice replied. The mooring points on the airlock clicked into place with the station. “After looking things over, I didn’t see a reason why we should go any other direction. The new systems are one twentieth the size of what we had on average, so we’ll finally have the space to have full sized hangars. It’ll be a real command ship now. Finding pilots for all the craft we’ll be loading in will be our biggest problem when it emerges as a Haven Fleet ship.”
“Oh, of that I am aware,” Dean said, nodding. He was almost her age with nearly as much experience. Admiral Rice knew that he’d have his own ship the moment one was ready, but she hadn’t told him that yet.
“Take some time off. I’ll monitor the Sunspire during testing, so you’ll have a couple days.”
“Literally two,” Piper said. “I get one, since I’ll have to be right there once testing starts. Lucky.”
“I’ll look at a hologram of the beach while I look through candidates for Wing Commanders, since we’ll need five.” They filed out of the shuttle. “Going to meet your daughter?” he asked as they made it into the corridor.
“That’s my next stop,” Jessica replied as she shifted the strap of her duffel bag on her shoulder.
“Good luck,” Dean said. “I expect a full report later, and it better be good news, Admiral.”
“Aye, aye,” Jessica said with a salute. Even Dean’s humour had a serious tone, but she liked him. He walked down the hallway with Piper.
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