by Ryk Brown
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
The Frontiers Saga Part 2: Rogue Castes
Episode #4: Rebellion
Copyright © 2016 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Dedicated to Bradley Haddix
February 1955 – February 2017
Without your son’s talents, the world shared on these pages would not be as vivid.
CHAPTER ONE
A swell of emotion washed over Nathan as the words echoed in his mind. Aurora… Arriving. It seemed like only yesterday that he had left her decks and turned himself over to the Jung.
To Nathan, it had been just over six weeks ago. Six very long weeks, which had, at first, been spent in a Jung medical facility while Jung and Corinairan nanites waged an agonizing war inside of him. Then in a prison cell, hauled out to be displayed for all the Jung citizens to see, as he stood trial for his crimes against their empire. The last thing he remembered was taking his own life, so that Jessica would not have to carry the guilt with her.
Or was it…
In all the excitement, he had not had a chance to think things through… To sort things out, inside his own head. He was Nathan… Nathan Scott, of the planet Earth. But he was also Connor Tuplo, of the planet Rakuen… Which seemed quite odd to him, as he didn’t even know where Rakuen was.
But he did. Or Connor did… Which meant Nathan did… It was all very confusing.
“Nathan,” Jessica whispered, nudging him gently as she stood beside him at the bottom of the Seiiki’s ramp.
Nathan realized he had slipped into his own little world inside his head, tuning out everything around him. As he snapped out of it, he realized that everyone in the massive hangar bay was standing at attention, their right hands up at their temples saluting… To him.
It was both a familiar and unfamiliar feeling. But part of him instinctively knew what to do. He stiffened up, trying his best to stand tall and erect, and raised his hand to return the salute. He imagined he had done so in perfect military fashion. But something in the back of his mind told him otherwise.
“Welcome back, Captain,” Cameron said, finishing her salute and stepping forward to give him a hug.
“Thanks,” Nathan replied, his voice still hoarse and barely audible. He spotted Vladimir, behind and slightly to the right of Cameron. The big, bushy-haired Russian looked like he might start crying at any moment. Nathan took a careful step forward, the subsiding adrenaline from the morning’s events leaving him even more unsteady than when he had first awakened in his new body. He opened his arms for his old friend, who eagerly embraced him.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Vladimir said as he wrapped his arms around Nathan.
“Easy, there, big fella,” Jessica warned Vladimir. “He’s only been alive for about twenty minutes now, so he’s a little on the weak side.”
“What?” Cameron said, suddenly confused.
Jessica glanced over at one of the med-tech teams standing by, and signaled to them. “We need a gurney over here!”
“No, that’s okay,” Nathan insisted in a scratchy, but confident voice. “I can walk.”
“Are you sure?” Jessica asked, unconvinced.
“I walked out of that lab, didn’t I?”
“With our help,” Jessica reminded him.
Nathan looked at her, determination in his eyes. “I want to walk.”
“The captain requires medical attention,” General Telles insisted, as he approached from the open transfer airlock on the starboard side of the hangar bay.
“Of course,” Cameron agreed, still unsure of what was going on.
“He should be kept in isolation as well,” Michi added, stepping out from behind Jessica.
Cameron looked at Michi curiously.
“It’s okay,” Jessica told Cameron, noticing her concerned look. “This is Doctor Sato. She’s been taking care of him,” Jessica explained, as she and Marcus remained on either side of Nathan to help him across the bay.
Cameron stepped aside, looking confused, as they walked past her toward the forward end of the bay. “What’s going on here?” she asked, looking at General Telles. “What did she mean by ‘he’s only been alive for twenty minutes’?”
“I will explain everything to you,” General Telles assured her. “But first, you must take measures to ensure that the Dusahn cannot pursue this ship. I cannot allow them to follow us back to the Glendanon.”
“The Glendanon?” Cameron asked. “How could they possibly…”
“Do you have jump-pursuit evasion tactics?” the general asked.
“No,” Cameron replied. “We’ve never needed them.”
“Uh, we’ve worked out a few tricks,” Josh said, stepping down off the Seiiki’s ramp.
“Nice to see you again, Josh,” Cameron said, “but I think we can figure it out.”
“It might be prudent to allow Mister Hayes and…”
“This isn’t the same ship it was seven years ago,” Cameron insisted, cutting General Telles off mid-sentence. She wasn’t about to let anyone tell her how to run her ship, not even someone with the general’s experience and expertise.
“We’re not suggesting that we fly her, Captain,” Loki added. “But we can give your people some very effective pursuit evasion maneuvers that have already proven effective against the Dusahn.”
“The Dusahn are not only adept at tracking jump ships, but they are quite aggressive as well,” General Telles warned. “If you expect me to allow you to rendezvous with the Glendanon, then I must insist that you follow our evasion protocols.”
“This is our part of the galaxy, Cap’n,” Josh told her. “We know what we’re doing.”
Cameron looked at General Telles, noting his usual, confident demeanor. She then looked at Loki, whom she had always found to be an honest, well mannered, trustworthy young man, with solid navigational and piloting skills. Then she looked at Josh, who had the same cocky, smug little smile on his face, just like on the first day she had met him back in the rings of Haven. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this,” she said with a sigh. She looked at one of the security officers nearby. “Show them to the bridge.”
“We know the way,” Josh explained. “Unless, of course, you changed that too,” he added, looking around a hangar bay that was considerably different than he originally remembered.
Loki nudged Josh to follow the security officer, and both of them fell in behind the man.
“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Cameron told General Telles, as she, Vladimir, and the general followed Josh and Loki to the exit.
&
nbsp; “I will explain everything,” the general promised, “once we are safely underway.”
* * *
Admiral Galiardi stood at the window that overlooked the central plaza of Port Terra. It had taken nearly two years to complete the facility in the southern region of what was once the Karuzara asteroid, the first six months of which had been spent excavating the massive cavern where the complex was later constructed. The trees and gardens at the center of the complex had grown nicely over the years, and with the massive, curved projection dome over the top of the cavern, visitors were hard-pressed to say that they were not on the surface of the world that the facility orbited.
Like all the other facilities bordering Port Terra’s central courtyard, Alliance Fleet Command had been built into the sides of the cavern, with her facades sticking out just enough to give the appearance that the cave continued far beyond its view from central plaza. In fact, even from the top floors, where his office resided, it was impossible to see where the buildings on the far side connected with the walls. So complete was the illusion, that the admiral often found himself spending weeks at a time without going back down to the surface.
Commander Maclay entered from the door, connecting the admiral’s office to the Alliance Command Center next door. “It took some doing, but we finally got confirmation,” the commander said, holding up a data pad. “Just as you suspected, there was a message carried on the last jump comm-drone from the Ghatazhak. One not meant for us.”
Admiral Galiardi turned away from the window to face his subordinate. “Then?”
“You were right. The message went to Winnipeg,” the commander said. “Not directly, of course. It went through about twenty forwarding e-message addresses first, but eventually it ended up at the department of land management.”
Admiral Galiardi looked surprised.
“At which point, the comms tech there put the message on a data chip, and had it couriered to the office of Miranda Scott-Thornton.”
“That was too easy,” the admiral decided.
“Not entirely,” the commander corrected. “There was no official record of the message being couriered.”
“Then how did you learn of it?”
“There was also no record of the message’s disposition. It just disappeared. One of the techs in that office is a fleet reservist. We promised not to activate him in exchange for running an audit on the message logs. Then, when a message turned up missing, we pushed him even harder, and got him to find out where the message went. He really doesn’t want to get activated.”
“Perhaps he will be of use later?”
“Maybe, but you’d have to be pretty stupid to route covert messages through the same office more than once or twice. We’ll keep him on the hook, nevertheless.”
“Good work,” the admiral said. “You were careful to ensure that he tells no one of our inquires.”
“It was made quite clear by his handler, Admiral.”
Admiral Galiardi sighed as he moved to his desk chair. “Still, it is not evidence that the two events are connected.”
“Perhaps not conclusively,” the commander agreed, as he took a seat across the desk from the admiral. “However, the next day, Miss Scott-Thornton took a personal day. As you know, she is on our watch list. She did not spend that day at home.”
“Where did she go?” the admiral asked, curious.
“All we know is that she went to the Winnipeg airport, then returned home about five hours later.”
“Was she at the airport the entire time?”
“No way to know,” the commander admitted. “There are dozens of private shuttle services at that airport, with hundreds of flights per day. More than fifty small shuttles departed and arrived during that time, and more than half of them were round-trips. And half of those did not file flight plans, and were not tracked by IATC.”
“So, how does that give us anything?” the admiral wondered.
“The next day, Lieutenant Commander Melei Chen, a medical doctor on reserve status who was due to be activated and assigned as the Chennai’s CMO, was reassigned as the Aurora’s chief medical officer.”
“I remember her,” the admiral said. “She served with Taylor on the Aurora during their first mission. Maybe Captain Taylor requested her?”
“Nope,” the commander replied. “The request was made by the director of fleet personnel, Rear Admiral Kovacic. Who, I might add, was once Captain Taylor’s executive officer aboard the Celestia. Turns out, he and Doctor Chen had a little thing going back when the Aurora was helping to rebuild the Celestia, just after the liberation of Earth.”
“Maybe he was just doing a favor for an old girlfriend?” the admiral suggested.
“Maybe,” Commander Maclay admitted, “but he didn’t get any calls from her, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t regularly look at the assignment rosters.”
“Did he get any calls that day?”
“Plenty, four of which were from civilian comm-exchanges. We’ve identified two of them, but the other two were bounced all over the place, most likely on purpose.”
“So, the president’s daughter gets a covert message from the Ghatazhak, and takes the next day off. On that same day, Kovacic reassigns Doctor Chen to the Aurora. Two days later, the Aurora departs for the Pentaurus sector.”
“Supposition,” the admiral argued. “Coincidence does not prove cause and effect.”
“No, but I’ll bet if we turn the heat up on him, Kovacic will give up the name of the caller. After all, Dumar gave him both his position and rank. He’s one of the few you didn’t replace when you took command. And we all know what a cushy position it is, what with all the wealthy and powerful wanting favors for their sons and daughters.”
“Better that we don’t tip anyone off at this point,” the admiral decided.
“But without proof…”
“Sometimes speculation is more powerful than proof,” the admiral explained.
“But Admiral, if the president of Earth is undermining the decisions of the Alliance council, and acting counter to your security recommendations, especially when the entire Sol sector is on alert and the Jung threat is at its highest… Those are treasonous acts, sir. Surely you have the right to act on them.”
“Even if Kovacic told you that Miss Scott-Thornton called him and requested the transfer, and even if she admitted that she asked Lieutenant Commander Chen to give a message to Captain Taylor requesting that she disobey orders and go to the Pentaurus cluster, the president’s daughter would simply fall on her sword to protect her father.” Admiral Galiardi thought for a moment. “No, we cannot take action on this, at least not yet. However, there is value in this information. At least now I know that I have been right. The Scott administration cannot be trusted to protect the people of Earth.”
The seriousness of the admiral’s statement struck the commander, although he tried not to show it. “What is our next step?”
“I take it you trust those who have dug up this information for us?” the admiral asked.
“Of course,” the commander replied.
“Keep the circle of those you trust as small as possible,” the admiral warned him. “There is a chance that we will have to take actions that will be controversial, and we must be sure of the loyalties of those under us.”
“What is it you plan to do, Admiral?”
“My job, Commander,” Admiral Galiardi replied. “Same as you.”
* * *
“Captain on the bridge!” the guard at the Aurora’s port entrance announced as Cameron entered. General Telles followed her in, with Josh and Loki two steps behind.
“Report,” Cameron requested as she headed for the command chair at the center of the bridge.
“We’re currently half a light year out,” Commander
Kaplan replied, standing from the command chair and stepping aside to make room for her captain, “four point five light hours off the primary shipping route between Darvano and Savoy. The ship is still at general quarters, and all weapons stand ready. The first of our Eagles have just jumped in and are inbound for landing. We are expecting the rest of our birds shortly.”
“I’ve got the conn, Commander.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll return to combat,” Commander Kaplan replied, taking a moment to cast a suspicious eye on each of their visitors. “Gentlemen.”
“Holy crap,” Josh muttered, possibly a bit louder than he had thought. His eyes widened as he took in the updated Aurora bridge.
“Things have changed,” Loki added.
“Like I said,” Cameron told them as she led them to the center of the bridge. “It’s not the same Aurora you two piloted nine years ago.”
“Talk about information overload…”
“That’s an understatement,” Loki muttered.
“Captain, the sooner we get started…” General Telles reminded her.
“Of course,” Cameron replied. “Lieutenant Dinev, Ensign Bickle; Mister Hayes and Mister Sheehan have developed maneuvers designed to prevent the Dusahn from tracking jump ships. At the behest of General Telles, I would like you to use them…for now.”
“Yes, sir,” the helmsman, Lieutenant Dinev replied.
“Hi there,” Josh said, stepping up to the lieutenant with a lecherous smile on his face. “Josh Hayes, chief pilot of the Seiiki, and you are?”
“Josh,” Cameron warned him.
“What?”
“Loki Sheehan,” Loki said, reaching out to shake the navigator’s hand.
“Pol Bickle,” the young ensign introduced himself. “So what have you got?”
“It’s pretty simple, really,” Loki explained. “It’s just an algorithm I developed that pretty much guarantees you never make the same maneuver twice in any series, and maximizes the odds against the Dusahn being able to pick up your old light in time to catch up to you.”