Legacy (First Colony Book 3)

by Ken Lozito

  “Sir, Dr. Allen is requesting to speak with you at your earliest convenience,” Sean said.

  Connor checked the time. “Tell him I’ll follow up with him in a few hours.”

  Dr. Allen had been the Vigilant’s chief medical officer and Connor knew Allen wouldn’t reach out to him if it wasn’t important. On the other hand, if Dr. Allen had an urgent matter, he would have said so.

  They reached the corridor to the Command Center.

  “Sir, there’s something I need to bring to your awareness,” Sean said.

  Connor stopped walking and glanced at his security detail. “Give us a minute.”

  The armed soldiers walked farther down the corridor, giving them some privacy.

  “What is it?” Connor asked.

  Sean frowned. “This may be nothing, but it’s just something I’ve noticed. I think Colonel Cross is hiding something.”

  Connor’s eyebrows rose. Even in the CDF, it was no small thing to accuse a superior officer of hiding something, but Connor knew Sean Quinn had good instincts.

  “Go on,” Connor said.

  “I’m not sure, exactly. She seemed a bit distracted, like she had something else on her mind. Don’t get me wrong. Colonel Cross is good at her job and I don’t think she’s being negligent in her duties, but there’s something on her mind,” Sean said.

  Connor frowned. “We’re all under a lot of pressure. If this anomaly is the Vemus, it’s enough to unsettle anyone.”

  “That’s just it, sir. I noticed it while she was giving us the tour before the anomaly appeared on PRADIS. I just wanted to make you aware. Perhaps she’ll . . . I don’t know . . . tell you about it,” Sean said.

  Connor pressed his lips together. “Alright, I’ll keep an eye out for it, but if you notice something while we’re in there,” Connor said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the Command Center, “you need to either let me know or ask Colonel Cross about it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Sean said.

  Connor suppressed a frustrated sigh. It wasn’t Sean’s fault. Connor blamed the former governor, Stanton Parish, for this development. In addition to facing their next encounter with the Vemus, his officers were keeping a close eye on everyone Connor came into contact with. It was Captain Alec Toro’s failed attempt to assassinate Connor aboard the Vigilant that had prompted this response. While Connor didn’t doubt Colonel Cross’s loyalty, the fact that Sean had raised the concern was a symptom of the repercussions of their dreadful experience aboard the Vigilant, which had cost the life of the ship’s commanding officer.

  They entered the Command Center, and Connor looked over at Colonel Cross, who had her blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun. She spoke to her operations officer and looked as Connor expected—completely focused on her duties.

  Colonel Cross looked over at him as he approached.

  “Phoenix Station will be in the direct path of the anomaly in the next six hours, General,” Colonel Cross said.

  Phoenix Station was big and moved as slow as molasses, not having been built for speed. They’d thought that anything detected would be far enough out to give them ample opportunity to reposition.

  “Understood. What’s the status of Lunar Base?” Connor asked.

  “Dark-Star status. They have one overdue salvage mission. Colonel Hayes has dispatched a second team to investigate, sir,” Colonel Cross replied.

  “Any change from the anomaly?” Connor asked.

  “Slow and steady as she goes, General,” Colonel Cross replied.

  They couldn’t afford to sit there and wait for whatever the hell this thing was to show its teeth, so Connor had ordered that stealth recon drones—or as they were commonly referred to, SRDs—be deployed. Stealth was a bit of a misnomer because the drones worked by using a tremendous burst of speed that put them on an intercept course. The engines would then cut out and the drone would only make slight course adjustments. What they got was a very fast flyby of the anomaly, and the drones would transmit scan results and high-res images.

  Connor looked at the PRADIS scope and saw that the SRDs were on a staggered approach from different vectors. They were moving at the ultra-high speeds that could only be achieved by unmanned spacecraft. Only a human presence aboard a ship necessitated that the ship slow down so people didn’t die.

  “The SRDs’ preliminary scans don’t reveal much,” Sean said.

  “That’s why we equip them with high-res optics so we can get actual eyes on the target,” Connor replied.

  “If that is the Vemus, they could have their fleet flying in a tight formation to fool PRADIS into thinking it’s one large astronomical body. Either way, we’ll know in a few minutes,” Colonel Cross said.

  She stepped away as a call came to her personal comlink. Connor glanced over and noticed she was speaking in hushed tones.

  “Is everything alright, Colonel?” Connor asked when she came back over to him.

  “It’s fine. Just a report in from one of our weapons R&D engineers, sir,” Colonel Cross said.

  Connor nodded and looked back at the main holoscreen. Sean was right. Colonel Cross was definitely hiding something. R&D engineers normally didn’t have a direct line to the commanding officer. They would go through proper communications channels. The question remained: what was Colonel Cross hiding, and would it impact her ability to carry out her duties?

  Connor decided to wait. They were about to receive an update from the first SRD to pass the anomaly. The remaining four SRDs would be close behind.

  “We have an incoming transmission from the SRDs,” Lieutenant Daniels said.

  Connor turned toward the comms officer. “Put what you’ve got on the main screen.”

  They waited while the incoming transmission completed and then images began to appear on the main holoscreen. The first series of images showed a circular object the lead SRD had photographed from farther out on its approach. The cyber warfare suite then analyzed and grouped the images together from all the drones they’d sent. As the SRDs came closer to the anomaly, the images had the appearance of a large asteroid over twenty kilometers across. Connor peered at the images, looking for some indication that the celestial body was something other than a naturally occurring piece of space rock.

  As the SRDs drew closer to the anomaly, the computer system grouped images by the drone designation. SRD-1 was the first to fly and provide images of the rear of the anomaly. The back of the asteroid seemed to have been cut off, and it appeared as if they were looking into a deep, dark cave. There was no light, so they couldn’t see inside.

  “Which SRD had the full scanner array?” Connor asked.

  “SRD-3, sir,” Colonel Cross answered.

  “Prioritize the SRD-3 feed, Lieutenant,” Connor said.

  Lieutenant Daniels entered a few commands and the SRD-3 feed came to prominence.

  Connor kept his eyes on the main holoscreen. Everything in his gut told him that this was the Vemus, but he wouldn’t do anything until he had undeniable proof. They were resource-stricken as it was, and he couldn’t afford to send any missiles out there until he was sure it was the enemy.

  The SRD-3 feed cut out. Rather than start barking out orders, Connor waited for Phoenix Station’s crew to do their jobs.

  “SRD-3 is no longer transmitting. Putting the partial transmission up on the screen, sir,” Lieutenant Daniels said.

  SRD-3’s sensor sweep had been about to give them a view of the dark side of the anomaly when it suddenly cut out, but there was no indication that the SRD had been fired upon.

  “Tactical, show me where our remaining SRDs are in relation to number three. Is there any overlap so we can see what happened to it?” Connor asked.

  He knew there was no chance to change the SRDs’ approach because there was already a significant delay in the data transfer from the edge of the star system, not to mention the speeds with which the SRDs were moving away from them. No, they were essentially looking at a window into the past. Whatever had
happened to the SRDs had already happened.

  “I believe I have something, General,” Lieutenant Daniels said and showed them the feed from SRD-4. “It’s in the upper left quadrant of the feed.”

  The feed showed a close-up view of the rocky asteroid surface, and Connor could barely see something small flying through the edge of the camera feed. Lieutenant Daniels replayed it and zoomed in on the spot. Connor watched the grainy image of something flying past that seemed to slam into something invisible. There was no flash. The SRD simply broke apart.

  “What happened to it?” Sean asked.

  “Were there any spikes detected in the scanner array?” Colonel Cross asked.

  “No, ma’am,” Lieutenant Daniels said.

  “There wouldn’t be,” Connor said, drawing their attention back to him. “It was destroyed before the array could have detected anything in the first place.”

  “How do you know that, sir?” Sean asked.

  “It’s the Vemus. They used some type of X-ray laser to take out the SRD. The drone didn’t actually hit anything, but a focused shot could easily disable the drone,” Connor said.

  Colonel Cross frowned. “If that’s true, why wait for the SRD to get so close? Why not take it out sooner?”

  “They didn’t want to show their hand. A short high-power pulse is all it would take. It likely didn’t target the other SRDs because they were just taking pictures. Number three was actively scanning it when it passed,” Connor said.

  “So when the drone got to something the Vemus didn’t want us to see, it had to take action,” Sean said.

  “Correct. We forced their hand. Now we know they’re coming,” Connor said.

  “How do you think they’ll react, sir?” Colonel Cross asked.

  Connor drew in a deep breath. “They’re still pretty far out in the system, but my bet is they’re going to speed up.”

  “Look at the size of that thing. Twenty kilometers across. How many of them could there be?” Sean asked.

  “Work with tactical. I want to find out all we can about them. We run the numbers and devise firing solutions based on what we get. Remember, we’ve got to be smart about this. There’s not a single weapon that can take out something of that size. We need to wear them down layer by layer until there’s nothing left,” Connor said and then looked at Colonel Cross. “Call in your reserves. We need all hands for this.”

  “Yes, General,” Colonel Cross said.

  “Comms, send a preliminary report to COMCENT, along with all SRD data,” Connor said.

  Connor swung his gaze back toward the main holoscreen. The Vemus had tracked them to this star system, sent in an invasion force, and collected data about the colony. Now they were coming. He hesitated to even think of what they’d seen on the images as a ship, but he didn’t know what else to call it. The Vemus ship was larger than any city they had on New Earth, and it was heading right for them.

  Chapter Ten

  Captain Jon Walker had only just returned from a Phoenix Station supply run when he got the call from Major Shelton. The deep-salvage team led by Daniels had missed two check-ins. His brother was part of that team and was now among the missing CDF crew. Colonel Hayes had specified that Jon was to lead the rescue team and go in search of the overdue salvage team. Jon wasted no time calling in key members of his squad to be part of the away team. The combat shuttle was stocked with the extra supplies required for a rescue mission and headed out almost immediately.

  Six hours later, they still hadn’t found a trace of the missing salvage team.

  “Nothing on our scope, not that it would do much good here,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  Daron Chester had been assigned to Jon’s squad shortly after Jon arrived on Lunar Base. The two of them had become fast friends.

  “We’re following the path Daniels took,” Jon replied.

  “Yeah, but why don’t we just head to their last known check-in point and start searching there?” Lieutenant Chester asked.

  He gave Daron a sideways glance. “You really don’t know?”

  “No, I just love the sound of your voice. Just brightens my day,” Lieutenant Chester said mockingly. “No, I don’t know. That’s why I asked . . . sir.”

  Jon snorted. The tacked-on formality was a nice touch. “We follow the path they took. If we skip around, we run the risk of missing something vitally important.”

  “Like what?” Lieutenant Chester asked.

  “What if they were returning to Lunar Base and had an issue? Or their ship was damaged somehow? Or anything else you can think they’d encounter in the middle of a debris field like this? We’d miss them while we just skipped ahead,” Jon replied.

  Daron thought about it for a minute. “I guess you’re right.”

  “I am right, and if I’m not, we can continue moving forward with our search knowing for a fact that we didn’t miss them rather than just hoping we didn’t,” Jon replied.

  They’d been following the path Daniels had taken through the debris field, and there was so much enemy-ship wreckage that Jon wondered how Brian could hope to find anything. They flew amidst the ruins of battleship carriers and heavy cruisers, which were on a slow but steady course away from New Earth in a field of space known as no-man’s-land. The salvage team had staggered their flight path through this wreckage.

  “Explain to me again what they were doing out here,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  “They were looking for live Vemus samples. My brother’s a field biologist, and the team that’s studying the Vemus needs live samples for analysis,” Jon answered.

  Lieutenant Chester shivered. “The whole situation gives me the creeps. This thing took out all the people back home and then traveled sixty light-years to get to us here. And your brother wants to get up close and personal with one?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. He just needs a sample. They want to understand how the Vemus work so we can protect ourselves,” Jon said.

  “Really think we can do that? Protect ourselves, I mean,” Lieutenant Chester asked.

  “No idea. I don’t know how any of that stuff works, but I hope there’s something our scientists can find that was missed,” Jon answered, craning his neck back. “Sims!”

  A few moments passed and Corporal Sims came to the cockpit.

  “You wanted me, sir?” Corporal Sims said.

  “Yes,” Jon said. “Chester is wondering whether we can really protect ourselves from the Vemus.”

  Sims’ narrow eyes peered at him for a moment. “You mean the infection that leads to becoming the Vemus?”

  “That’s the one,” Jon said.

  “Sir, I’m not sure—”

  “I’m not asking you to answer me definitively. I know you’re not a biologist, but you are a medic. So what’s your opinion?” Jon asked.

  Corporal Sims swallowed. “I really don’t know. The write-ups they sent out about it say the Vemus is a parasite that uses a virus to spread itself. You have to come into direct contact with a parasite to be affected by it.”

  Lieutenant Chester frowned. “What does the virus do?”

  “No idea. My suggestion is not to let it touch you if we find ourselves in the presence of any Vemus forces,” Corporal Sims said.

  Daron swung around in his chair to look at the medic. “Don’t let it touch you,” Daron said with a hint of sarcasm. “You’re a big help.”

  Jon snorted and Sims shrugged.

  Chester grumbled. They were all worried about the Vemus. Sims’s advice was as good as any. A few minutes later, an active response to their scans appeared on the combat shuttle’s heads-up display.

  Jon adjusted their course and headed for it. They flew toward a large piece of wreckage that was the size of a CDF heavy cruiser like the Vigilant. As he studied it, he couldn’t begin to guess what part of a ship the wreckage could belong to, but it must have been from a battleship carrier.

  They found the salvage team’s shuttle attached to the hull.

  J
on decreased their velocity.

  “Looks like they found an exterior hatch left intact,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  The salvage team’s shuttle was located near an airlock. Jon tried to open a comlink to the shuttle, but he didn’t get a response. He switched over to the personal comlink channel and still didn’t get a response.

  “This is the place. Now, do we go inside or do we fly around this thing and see if there’s anything more to learn?” Jon wondered aloud.

  Sergeant Roger Lee came to the cockpit and looked at the heads-up display. “I’m not sure if flying around the outside will tell us that much, but you never know. It shouldn’t take long to make a quick sweep.”

  Jon nodded in agreement. He decided to play this by the book and do a bit of recon by flying around the outside of the Vemus ship wreckage. Specialist Hank Horan attempted to reach the salvage team as they went, but there was no response.

  Their previous approach had showed that the wreckage was the size of a heavy cruiser, but as they circled it they learned it was significantly larger. The broken innards of a battleship carrier came into view on the HUD. Glowing lights were strewn from the twisted metal framework where the ship had been ripped apart.

  “They still have power,” Sergeant Lee said.

  “And judging by the size, there should be several intact layers to explore,” Jon said.

  “You say that like it’s a good thing,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  Jon frowned at him.

  “Not to worry, Captain. That’s what the big guns are for,” Lieutenant Chester said.

  “Alright. Suit up. We’re going inside,” Jon said.

  They finished their circuit around the wreck and still couldn’t raise the salvage team.