The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy)

by Sweeney, Stephen

  “Admiral, I understand how it must look from a very high level,” Parks started, “but we’ve cross referenced what was written in Taylor’s journals with both our own and Gloucester Enterprises’ flight records, and all signs point to this being accurate.”

  “And you’re saying that the reason we were unable to locate the TSB before is because the Elpis’ Gift was renamed The Journey Man, and then to XXX-118-GE-01991#JM, prior to dispatch?”

  “That’s correct,” Parks said.

  Jenkins rubbed at her eyes, as though trying to massage away her bloodshot pupils. She then tapped at her computer screen for a time. “The HD 21563010 system is over four thousand light years from here, at the very northern tip of the Northern Provinces themselves, with an estimated average journey time of five hours,” she read. “That’s ten hours there and back.”

  “Or six, in a fast ship,” Parks said.

  “I hope you’re not suggesting that we send the White Knights to retrieve the Elpis,” Jenkins said, failing to conceal a scowl.

  “No, Admiral,” Parks said. “It would take far too long for them to tow it to Sol. It would be easier for us to take another vessel there, load up the bomb and bring it back that way.”

  Jenkins looked utterly flabbergasted. “Admiral, have you gone mad? No, don’t answer that. There is no way that I’m going to authorize anyone to go on some wild-goose chase, with the Enemy yards from our doorstep.”

  “Admiral—” Parks tried again.

  “The answer is no, Admiral,” Jenkins snapped.

  “Very well, Admiral,” Parks said. “Sorry to have wasted your time.”

  Jenkins stifled a yawn, then said, “We’re reconvening the strategic planning in one hour.”

  “Then, with all respect, may I suggest you take some time to get some sleep,” Parks said.

  “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Jenkins said. “Now, please prepare some other suggestions for dealing with Dragon. Lovejoy has signalled that he has been unsuccessful in tracking down the nukes. He will be back within the next two hours. However, Admiral Lynch and Governor Parsons have formulated a possible solution involving the use of distributed, segmented disruptor arrays, to exploit the phase shift patterns in Dragon’s upgraded shielding. If I’m honest, I haven’t got a clue what that means, but it appears to be our only workable solution up to now, and the tech teams are all getting behind it, so we’ll exploring that first. Dismissed.”

  *

  “Great, now what the hell do we do,” Dodds said, as the group made their way from Jenkins’ office.

  “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you,” Parks said, “but I don’t intend to sit on my hands and wait for the Pandorans to come and get us.”

  “So, what do you suggest?” Estelle said.

  Parks smiled suddenly like a mischievous schoolboy. “How many of you are up for borrowing a ship and going for a little joyride?”

  XVII

  — Elliott Parks’ Finest Hour —

  Though he had suggested it, Parks could see quite clearly a number of obstacles standing in the way of his plan. He began treading the corridors of the orbital station, sending the Knights and Grace away for a short time, to cook up their own ideas. Meet back in fifteen minutes, he’d said. Don’t all stand together in a big group while you brainstorm either, he’d urged them, it would only draw attention to them and security might decide to flag them as a potential flight risk, especially after those who had recently deserted. Having understood, they split off into three pairs – Todd and Taylor, Dodds and de Winter, and Koonan and Grace. Parks hoped that when the allotted minutes were up, they would have come up with solutions to each of the problems.

  He too considered those problems as he walked. In order to reach HD 21563010 they needed a ship. That was a given, no alternatives there. Complicating that was the security lock down that Jenkins had put in place, following the theft of the last remaining nuclear warheads. The restriction applied to the entire station and to all staff, even to him and his fellow senior commanders. Only Jenkins could authorise free movement outside the station. Apart from security patrols, no ships were allowed in or out of the orbital station. The same went for all vessels in the space outside. He had no idea what would happen to anyone jumping into Sol. Most likely, they’d be arrested and locked up until the Pandorans made their final appearance. But then again, there probably wasn’t anyone left to come.

  He paused briefly by a window to study the scene outside. Few craft, only a handful of security shuttles moving between the larger vessels that were all holding position. He caught sight of the Troll Hunter, the warship that had ferried Lynch, Parsons, and a host of others from the Alba system. He’d heard that, despite its purpose, it was supposed to be quite luxurious on the inside. That’ll please you, Mr. Parsons, Parks smiled to himself. Now you’re stuck in here with the rest of us. It’s either a cramped little single bed or an uncomfortable office chair for you from now on.

  He returned to the task at hand and continued pacing. Damn, this would be tricky. They had to get hold of a ship and a crew. The ship didn’t need to be big, but it did have to be capable of handling itself in a dangerous situation. That pretty much ruled out anything they might’ve borrowed from Gloucester Enterprises and other modified private vessels that had been loaned indefinitely.

  Of course, there was only one ship that he would feel comfortable with for an errand such as this – Griffin. The old girl had proved herself more times than he could remember over the past eight years. But therein lay another problem. It was Griffin, one of the most well-known and well-respected vessels in naval history. They would be keeping a close eye on her. The chance of him managing to take command of that ship and effectively steal her from Sol was next to zero. No, that would never work. As much as he didn’t want to, he knew he had to scratch Griffin from his proposed list of vessels, as well as any other major CSN warship. That left a very small list indeed.

  He glanced at his watch. Ten minutes gone already. They had less than an hour now. Jenkins would likely want him to join her sooner, to go over some flakey plans that had been concocted in his absence; probably something that also involved disabling or capturing Dragon, too, if the government minister had somehow managed to convince the President that it was a goal worth pursuing for the long-term benefit of the Confederacy. The way Parks himself saw it, Taylor’s idea of acquiring the missing prototype TSB was the only real shot they had at destroying Dragon and defeating the Pandoran fleet.

  Come on, Elliott, think. Resources available to him were ones he was having difficulty drawing upon. He was stumbling at the starting blocks. He needed just that one little spark to set things in motion, as it always did. The idea for Black Widow had come that way – after he had seen a glass of water fall off a table, shattering as it hit the floor, causing two thick, sizeable shards to leap out and embed themselves in the legs of officers sitting close by. The water had seeped into an exposed electrical outlet, shorting it and shutting off a number of nearby holographics. As blood had dripped from the wounds and people had started to clear the floor of the broken remains, wary for their fingers, Parks had thought about how ejecta and proximity could be used as a weapon. It would’ve worked for Sudarberg, it could work here. It had been easy back then. All they’d had to do was hide the assets and disguise them as something they weren’t, luring the Enemy into a false sense of security …

  … making them feel as though everything was normal.

  At that moment, the click came. The pieces slotted into place, all the threads joining up. The path that had been so cluttered in his mind abruptly opened up, leaving only a few lesser problems standing in his way. So long as he could get past those, his route was as clear as the long corridor ahead of him. He broke it down into a four step process – find a ship, get to the ship, take control of said ship, and get out of Sol without anyone stopping them. He knew just the ship for the task. He glanced again at his watch. The fifteen minutes were up.r />
  He returned to the Knights, finding them on the main flight deck, as had been agreed. “We need a ship,” he said, “one capable of offering good armaments, good defences, and with the ability to launch shuttles.” Though he had already made up his mind, he threw the question out to the others, on the chance that they might have formulated a far better solution.

  “Shuttles?” Dodds said. “What for?”

  “Assuming we find the Elpis, we’ll need to get aboard her and verify that the TSB is present. We can’t very well tow her all the way back here, only to open her up and discover our target is missing. We shouldn’t assume that we can attach boarding chutes, either. So, suggestions?”

  “How about Griffin?” de Winter offered. “It’s a ship we all know and has a crew that we can trust.”

  “Reasonable thinking, de Winter, but we’re not taking Griffin,” Parks said. “I’d rather not deprive the Earth defence forces of a capable carrier, should the enemy arrive in our absence. It also feels a little like the wrong tool for the job.”

  “So we can’t take the ATAFs, then?” Dodds said.

  “Absolutely out of the question,” Parks shook his head. “Any other suggestions, people?”

  Blank faces. He’d figured as much. “Right, Grace, what can you tell me about Cratos?” he said, turning to the woman.

  “Cratos?” Grace started. “Admiral, if Griffin was the wrong tool for the job—”

  “Do you know if it’s been officially integrated into the frontline forces, following its covert operations? Or are they still reworking the internal identification systems?”

  “I couldn’t tell you for sure without contacting someone onboard,” Grace frowned.

  “Find out,” Parks said, jabbing a finger at her in emphasis. “Use whatever you can to contact someone on the ship that you trust. Whatever you do, do not give them any indication that we mean to take the ship out of Sol. Once you’ve established which team Cratos is declaring it’s playing for, let me or one of the others know. Got it?”

  Grace nodded, moving off to go about her task.

  Step one complete, Parks thought to himself.

  “Okay, potentially we have a ship,” de Winter said. “The only problem is how to get over there.”

  “Leave that to me,” Parks said. “Dodds, when we were on Griffin, each of you three had a PDA-like device that you used to keep in touch with home. Do you have that unit with you now? It was about this size,” he added, gesturing with his hand.

  “Our Kyllinis?” Dodds said, glancing to the device that Koonan held by his side.

  “Whatever it was called,” Parks said. “Does it support secure transfer protocols? Specifically IPv12 multipart voice, over SVTP?”

  “I … I’m not sure,” Dodds said, looking at the others. Neither Taylor, de Winter, or Todd seemed to know, Dodds and de Winter briefly murmuring something about add-ons and software plugins.

  Parks turned to Koonan. The big man said nothing, affecting to know no more than the rest. His eyes suggested otherwise. “Mr Koonan?”

  “Not in the standard firmware,” Koonan said. “But I’ve installed a custom version to enable a range of additional encryption and decryption methods.”

  “I need to get a message to Griffin, without it being intercepted or easily picked up by station services,” Parks said. “Does your device support the protocols I just mentioned?”

  “It does,” Koonan said, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

  “May I?” Parks said, extending his hand. There was some further hesitation from Koonan, before he handed the Kyllini over. Parks had a hunch that Koonan wouldn’t be allowing him to go too far with the device. It was most likely one of the only ways in which he was able to talk to his wife and children. Parks would soon deal with that. “I’ll need a crash course in the usage,” he said. “Nothing fancy, just how to create, send and receive messages, and open voice channels.”

  “You can create a message by going here, and then here,” Koonan started, before guiding him through the various screens, options and notifications. They were quite crude in places, clearly the result of the hacked on extras. Still, a brief scan of the protocol options available indicated that it provided just what Parks was after.

  “Make yourselves scarce for five,” Parks said. “And don’t worry, Commander, I’ll keep my nose out of your personal messages.”

  The Knights dispersed, leaving Parks to saunter round a flight deck that remained far quieter than he could have expected while he made the call. Routing it through the orbital station’s comms system, he connected to Griffin, and from there, to Omar Wyatt.

  “Wyatt,” the man’s voice came.

  “Mr Wyatt, it’s Admiral Parks,” he said.

  “Admiral?” Wyatt sounded a little confused. “Are you okay? Why are you coming through on an encrypted channel?”

  “There’s no time to explain right now,” Parks said, “but I have something very important to ask of you. Are you alone?”

  “I am right now,” Wyatt said after a momentary pause, clearly picking up on the low volume of Parks’ voice. “But I’m not sure for how long.”

  “Good. I need a favour from you, Mr Wyatt. This is probably going to be the hardest thing I’ll ever ask of you, and something that flies in the face of everything you were ever trained for, but I need you to help me get over to Cratos.”

  “That’s not possible,” Wyatt started, “Fleet Admiral Jenkins has put all the Earth defence forces on lock down—”

  “Except for authorised security teams,” Parks interrupted. “And that’s where you come in. I need you to help me and the White Knights get aboard a scheduled security-cleared shuttle so we can get over to Cratos.”

  “What?” Wyatt said.

  Parks looked about himself, trying hard not to look conspicuous as he continued talking. He knew someone would be watching him from one of the many galleries above. They’d not be able to hear him, though. He turned his back on them. “You must have contacts over here amongst the coastguards,” Parks went on, “someone you trust and with whom you maintain a good relationship. I need you to contact them and arrange for us to be smuggled aboard a patrol, as part of their next shift.”

  “But, why?”

  “It’s too complicated to explain right now,” Parks said, “but the short version is that we’ve found a way to take down Dragon. However, it’s not a method the fleet admiral is prepared to entertain.”

  “So … you’re disobeying orders?”

  “Yes,” Parks said bluntly.

  There was silence from Wyatt for a time and Parks wondered if he’d lost connection. “I … I don’t know, Admiral,” Wyatt said. “Like you said, what you’re asking goes against everything that I’ve ever worked for. I’m the head of security on Griffin. I’ve got a duty of trust to uphold—”

  “I know, I know,” Parks interrupted again, “but this is crucial. This may be the only chance we have of destroying Dragon and defeating the Enemy. I’m going to be honest with you – we don’t have the firepower or numbers to do so otherwise, despite what the fleet admiral may believe. Nukes gave us a small chance. Now, we have none at all.” He heard his own words, regretfully aware of how very true they were.

  “I’ve never disobeyed an order before, Elliott,” Wyatt said, his voice full of reluctance.

  “Then please do so now, just this once, Omar. Please.” Parks had accepted before placing the call that it would be difficult to convince Griffin’s head of security, but he never expected to hear himself beg. He glanced over at the Knights, seeing them standing around idly, Koonan eyeing him closely. He wanted to tell them to disperse a little more. They were hovering too closely together. He returned to the conversation with Wyatt. “I need you, Omar,” he finished.

  Stone silence. Parks wondered if the man truly had disconnected this time.

  “I’ll see what I can do, Elliott,” Wyatt said.

  “I’m very grateful, Omar,” Parks said. “Time is of the esse
nce. I need a reply within the next twenty minutes. Please leave the channel open.” He felt as though he was pushing his luck.

  “I’ll let you know either way,” Wyatt said.

  It was the longest twenty minutes of Parks’ life. He paced up and down the inner part of the deck, pretending to be interested in the shuttles resting there, as well as the state of the Rooks and maintenance equipment. He summoned de Winter and Dodds over to talk about munitions and the ATAFs’ loadout, intent on making out to anyone monitoring him that he was here for a genuine reason. Everything okay, sir? a deckhand had asked him. He continued to play the part, discussing whether a single torpedo would be of use to any of the Knights, in place of a standard cache of micro-missiles. He next asked about the Rooks. When would they be ready for deployment? What would their loadout be?

  Grace returned, confirming that Cratos hadn’t yet been integrated into the frontline forces. Things were taking longer than had been anticipated, due to the changes that had been made to assist its covert operation. Good, Parks thought. One less problem. He looked at the Kyllini, seeing the connection still open. He checked the volume. It was all the way up. He tried not to pretend he was hearing Wyatt’s voice on the other end, telling him everything had been dealt with. He saw his hands were shaking.

  Parks moved over to the spot where the four would-be escapees had been arrested, hoping it would look as if he was still investigating their crime. He noted his own accomplices lingering in out-of-the-way places, each with looks of varying apprehension on their faces. Todd and Taylor, standing close to one another, appeared to be holding hands; Koonan was seated alone on a stack of crates, looking over something white and crinkly in his hand, probably a letter from his wife; Dodds, de Winter and Grace were all waiting together. There was something about the way the three were standing. Both de Winter and Grace seemed to be vying for the man’s attention, de Winter somewhat less subtly and more aggressively than Grace. Dodds looked to be playing a fine balancing act. If there was some sort of love triangle evolving there, Parks hoped that they would leave it here at Sol and not drag it all the way out to HD 21563010.