by Unknown
“Prime Minister Sun.” Oswald hoped he had masked his surprise as he shook hands. “I took great interest in your meetings with the Centauri ambassadors during that last cease-fire.”
“Thank you. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Oswald,” the prime minister replied in perfect English. “They, and I, prefer Ay-Yon, as they are not actually from Centauri.”
“Alpha Centauri is where they first spilled our blood, Mr. Prime Minister,” Oswald replied, not unkindly. “They will be Centauri until this war ends one way or the other.”
“Perhaps,” the prime minister replied calmly, “the war might end if we knew them as the Ay-Yon.”
“Perhaps.”
“I think you know Major Darren Baker and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Gryphon.” Anahita motioned to the next two people in line. “They’ll be in your squadron too, keeping you safe.” Anahita’s smile drooped slightly as she said it.
“In that case, the more the merrier.” Oswald reached his hand out to Gryphon. “Good to see you, Paul.”
“And you, Pierce. We’ll make sure to keep the Centauri off your back, mate.” The man’s Australian accent was thick and friendly; the comet of a space combat veteran rode above several rings of ribbons. Next to it was a small golden star. It was officially the Earth Force Survivor Star and was given to those rare few who had survived the destruction of their rocket. It was known among the ranks as the Lucky Star.
Oswald turned to Baker and noted that he had earned a Rocket pin since last they flew together. They had never been close but worked together well.
“Service.”
Baker glanced at Oswald’s rocket and replied “Service,” as they shook hands. “Good to see you again.” Baker was trim and so tall it was rumored he had needed a special waiver to get space duty. “I feel better about the mission already.”
“Me too.”
“This is Major Terrance Luskin,” Anahita continued. “He will be in charge of the recovery team, which will consist of a twelve person EF Ranger squad. What they will be recovering is why we're here.”
Oswald and Luskin nodded to each other politely. Anahita drew a breath and began to turn to the next person.
“It’s been a while, Pierce,” the last person in uniform stood, preempting Anahita’s introduction. Vivid burn scars covered the man’s bald head, face, and neck down below his collar. He wore thin white gloves that Oswald figured covered disfigured hands. A Rocket, Comet, and Lucky Star adorned the man’s chest. “And I’m not quite as pretty as I once was.” Cheeks stiff with burn scars slurred the man’s speech slightly and strained against his smile, but could not hide his twinkling eyes. “But I’m still prettier than you.”
Oswald laughed. “I could never forget the biggest jerk instructor at the academy. You’ll have to try harder to hide that mug of yours, Will. Service.”
“Service. Well, being a jerk obviously worked on you.” Will Zaphrim shook Oswald’s hand and slipped back into his chair. He wore the General’s stars and the tab of the Earth Force Special Service.
Anahita motioned to the last man around the table. He was muscular and wearing a well cut business suit that accented his bulk. “This is George Denlogov. He is Earth Force’s resident Q-puter and jump tunnel expert. He’s been working hard on your jump coordinates."
“Nice to meet you,” George said with a slight Slavic accent as he shook Oswald’s hands. Oswald took his seat and Anahita took a stack of secure cases from Will and handed them out.
“Gentleman, please open your flight packages and we’ll get down to business. If you’ll note, these orders are ultra-lock level classified.” Anahita eyed the three flight commanders in turn.
Oswald, Baker, and Gryphon passed the small cases before their eyes and each opened up to reveal the standard stack of forms for flight plans, objectives, known obstacles, and other pertinent notes.
“There will be no discussion of these orders outside of this room until mission start,” Anahita started the well-worn Earth Force mission briefing golden rule. “And only on a need to know basis when in flight. Please review them and we’ll get started. Anyone need a drink?”
She allowed the three flight commanders about five minutes to peruse the orders, taking in the various murmurs, muttered complaints, grunts, and Baker’s bouncing eyebrows.
“OK everyone,” Anahita said, setting her chai on the table. “Please go to page one and let’s get this started. Basic mission goal is to get Roland to Delta Pavonis, procure an item of interest, and get back to Earth. As you can see under the asset list,” she and Oswald exchanged a furtive glance, “Roland will be escorted by Charger and Triumph, commanded by Mr. Gryphon and Mr. Baker respectively. I will also be pulling a drone squadron from planetary defense to provide cover.”
“So we’re expecting a fight out to the gravity well?” Gryphon asked.
“Always,” Anahita smiled. “But this mission is the highest priority mission Earth Force has. We’ve kept our preparations as quiet as possible but I doubt they’ve gone unnoticed. The Centauri have been watching from somewhere and jumping in at the perfect time to attack. We usually have remote weapon platforms waiting at the thresholds, but they’ve been pressing hard lately.”
“I suspect they have managed to sneak in at least three sensor stations in the last six months,” Will said. “In the last year we’ve found eight, and usually in short order. But even the Special Service can only see so much.”
“We’ve been pretty spread out lately,” Oswald agreed. “I’ve not seen a squadron this large scraped together since Barney’s.”
“True,” added Baker. “So what will Roland be recovering? I see a payload list that includes ORBAM, landers, and EF Rangers. I take it that they’ll be going in hot? Are we talking hostages? Rescuing or taking? Orbital assault munitions are no joke.”
“Delta Pavonis is listed as nearly twenty light years away. Have we ever made such a long jump?” asked Gryphon. “I thought our jumps didn't go that long.”
“Theoretically speaking,” George answered, “a jump tunnel can be established at any distance for a micro second, just enough to jump. Distance is irrelevant. The issue is the calculations and being able to gather relevant navigation data to adjust the plot. The distance, as far as we know, is only limited by the accuracy of the astrogation info. If you have the info though, the calculations can be run by the Q-puters.”
“In answer to your question,” Will said with a reassuring smile, “two jumps of that distance have been made successfully.”
“Back to Baker’s question. What does UXA stand for?” Oswald asked, tapping a sheet in front of him. “I might be a bit rusty on the vast array of EF abbreviations and mnemonics, but that one escapes me completely.”
“It stands for Unknown Xenomorphic Artifact, Pierce.” Anahita stared straight into his eyes. “You are going to an alien world to recover an artifact that we are hoping will give us the ability to find the Centauri home-world and put it to them for a change."
Oswald stood slowly, disbelief and anger building in his face. “How long have we known?” He turned his accusing eyes to Will and repeated, “How long have we known?”
“About ten years,” Will replied smoothly. His scarred face betrayed no emotion. “The Special Service has been there twice to gather data. Now you are going there to get the artifact.”
“We accidentally detected the artifact,” interjected George, “sometime after we discovered the jump tunnel effect. Who knows how long it has been transmitting before then. The tricky part of any jump equation is that our observed information is years out of date. But this artifact is emitting a jump adjusted real time signal. We know the galactic position of Delta Pavonis right now.” He thumped his forefinger on the table. “It is probably the safest interstellar jump we can make. At least concerning astrogation that is.”
“Are we sure it’s alien?” Baker asked. “I mean not human? Not Centauri?”
“Yes,” Will replied. “The few biological s
amples we recovered from previous missions were definitely not human or human derived.”
An uneasy silence filled the room as those who were aware of this amazing fact gave time for those just learning about it to fully absorb it. A steward, showing professional disinterest in the discussions at hand, stepped in quietly and deposited a tray of drinks on the table. He glanced at Anahita, who dismissed him with a smile and nod. Tense silence followed the young man out the door.
“Well bugger me,” Gryphon said in his quiet voice, which was much louder than most peoples' quiet voice.
“Roger that.” Will’s smile pushed through his scarred face. “This is just the beginning,” he tapped the side of his burned head with a white gloved finger, “Give yourself a few days to really think about it and the true mind-screw comes.”
“What’s the planet like, Will?” Oswald was tempted to ask Anahita to go get the booze, but settled on a cup of tea from the tray. “Since I assume I’m not going to get to go down.”
“Only if the Rangers all get wiped out,” Anahita lifted her palms apologetically. “Then you’ll have to land Roland and send your crew out. And if all of Roland's children get wiped out, you can strap on your six gun and complete the mission. That’s why the boosters were added. Just enough to land and take off once.”
“So to be honest,” Will added grimly, “If you do have to go down, the chances of you lifting back off that rock is pretty slim.”
“Despite being a G class star,” Major Luskin said, “Delta Pavonis has no Earth-like planets. The astrography teams verified five planets, no gas giants, and possibly two undiscovered planets in the outer solar system are indicated by orbital effects.
“The planet of interest is somewhat larger than Mars with a gravity of 3.9 meters per second squared. There is a remnant atmosphere but the terrain is rocky and shows no sign of indigenous life. Four large settlements are scattered across the surface, indicating that the builders were not from Delta Pavonis V.” Luskin set the paper down on the table and popped a small mint from the tray into his mouth.
“Like your crews, my squad and I have been drilling for over a year in mock-ups of these cities. A Martian training area would have been ideal but recent Centauri advances made it too risky.” He shrugged and popped another mint. “But we spent time on Luna too, and I think that helped immensely, sir.”
“And there you have it, Pierce,” Will said cheerfully.
“So essentially,” Oswald replied after a moment. “We’re going to go steal an artifact from an ancient, star-faring, alien colony?”
“That place is long dead,” Will objected. “The only things there now are some sort of biomechanical automatons and computer defenses.”
“We’ve only been twice,” Baker added, his brow raised. “How could we possibly know that?”
“Each time we’ve been our teams tried to communicate in every manner we know how; RF, IR, sonics, jump pulses, everything.” Will tapped the table with his finger. “All we’ve received are automated defenses when we approach zone-alpha, as labelled on the tactical map.”
“Sounds like communications to me.” Oswald grinned wryly at Will then Anahita. “Are we looking for another war? We seem to be having enough trouble with the one we already have.”
“Look, Pierce,” Anahita said as she leaned forward. “It isn’t really up for debate. These are our orders and believe me when I say our need is desperate. You commented on this being a large squadron. You know why? Do you know when the last update to the memorial list was?
“It is a numbers game. We give as good as we get, often times better,” she motioned to the Rocket on his chest. “But we cannot keep the fight going at the rate we’re losing spacecraft and crews. Earth Force is nearly bankrupt. The nations—those who actually support us— are balking at the bills due with defending a planet. Roland cost more to build than some nations' GDP for the last decade.”
“Allow the Ay-Yon to bomb a few major cities and we’ll see how that tune changes,” Prime Minister Sun stated. If Gryphon or Luskin had said it, Oswald would have chalked it up to grim military humor. He wasn’t sure how to read the implacable Asian face and still didn’t know when he finally turned away from Sun.
“We need to know where the Centauri home-world is—or at least find a main staging area,” Anahita continued. “We know nothing about their deployments. We need to be able to put them on the defensive and disrupt their ability to jump into Sol whenever they want. It is hoped the artifact will help us learn how to track jump tunnel origins and bring the fight to them.” She shrugged slightly. “We can’t win otherwise.”
Oswald let out a loud breath and twisted away from the table, staring at the blank wall next to him. Anahita sat watching him while Gryphon and Baker continued bickering over their flight packages.
“I need to use the toilet.” Oswald didn't really. What he needed was the chance to cool his rising anger. He was back a few minutes later, his face still red from the cold water he had scrubbed with. He sat heavily and motioned for them to continue, not looking at Anahita.
“Very well,” she smiled wearily. “Let’s talk payload, gentlemen.” She hated the haggling—flight commanders often had their own ideas of what their rockets needed, even if they had no idea about the full mission parameters. She had learned long ago to allow some leeway in her flight package equations. Flight commanders tended to be very stubborn and had a way of messing up her carefully laid out delta-V equations.
Chapter 3 The crews of the NBR-57 Roland, NBR-101 Charger, and NER-32 Triumph stood in formation at parade rest with their small flight packs slung across their backs. The flight commanders and their auxiliaries stood a few paces out in front. Anahita was giving the traditional mission controller speech to the departing crews; those already on duty in space were listening over the wireless network.
Oswald knew that Anahita was a fine speaker, keeping to the point, and able to occasionally work in a pretty good joke. As a matter of courtesy he tried to at least pretend to listen to such speeches, but today his attention wandered almost immediately each time he tried to focus on what she was saying.
Everything truly important would be kept from the rest of them. There were aliens. We were losing the war. Your mission is the most important mission Earth Force has. Sharing that news would be his job. Hers was a speech of niceties and morale designed to inspire pride and prejudice. Whatever the prime minister might think, Oswald’s job was to destroy the Centauri.
“Ay-Yon indeed,” he muttered. Major Hashi McFarran, Roland's auxiliary flight commander, shot a quizzical glance at Oswald. He grinned at his aux and surreptitiously shook his head in reply. Oswald caught a few more snippets of Anahita’s speech and drifted off again.
She had been right of course—he hated these orders with every cell in his body and mind. His whole career, his whole life, he’d wanted to explore, had dreamed of discovering, alien ruins. Or better yet, a truly alien species. The Centauri didn’t really count as far as he was concerned as they were just humans, and jackass humans at that.
But what secrets did Delta Pavonis hold? Besides those that would be used to fight the war. The star system had long been held by some as the most likely to have Earth-like planets and alien life. Every system Earth had explored had been lifeless with little hope of being able to establish a colony. But here was an alien colony. No hoaxes, no conspiracies. A colony that obviously held secrets to opening the galaxy to humanity. What might Earth Force find if they sent dedicated scientific teams to explore and analyze the place? Instead of running away like a child stealing a candy bar from a store, mankind could discover clues about the race that left the place behind, about the universe. Maybe something that would allow humanity to transcend such wars.
It was quite possible that more effort had been made than what Will and the Super-Secret Special Space Service had let on. A place with actively hostile advanced security systems would be hard to work with. He and the crew of Roland would soon fin
d out just how hard it would be.
“Sir!” someone in the ranks behind him hissed. Oswald snapped from his thoughts, trying to see if his subconscious mind had somehow logged whatever it was his conscious mind had missed while daydreaming.
"Lieutenant Colonel Pierce Oswald," Anahita repeated into the microphone after politely clearing her throat. "Please come forward."
Oswald felt himself blush, snapped to attention, and strode towards the speaking platform. Behind Anahita three orbital shuttles were attached to their lowered launch rails, hissing clouds of steam and ready to start taking the gathered crews to their waiting rockets. Oswald stepped onto the podium where he and Anahita exchanged crisp salutes.
"It is my great privilege to award Lieutenant Colonel Pierce Oswald promotion to full Colonel. His service to Earth Force both in the battle space and in the halls of our institutions has been exceptional. Most people here know of Colonel Oswald's record against the Centauri; few can match his tactical acumen and leadership." Anahita handed him a thin metal plate with the certificate of promotion set with holographic display, a set of colonel bars, and shook his hand. "Congratulations, Colonel."
The crews below applauded and some cheered. Lieutenant Colonel Gryphon shouted something Oswald couldn't quite catch but he was sure it was congratulatory, possibly raunchy, and distinctly Australian.
"Thank you, General," Oswald said returning the handshake. He forced a tight smile; if the Earth was doomed what would his rank matter except that the Centauri would torture him with more interest. With a final salute he spun about on his heel and posted back in front of his crew. Baker flashed him a thumbs-up from across the yard.
"Now I will leave you to your flight commanders, your crew fellows, and to whatever good will God or fortune will grant."
Oswald did a right face and stepped crisply until he stood before the center of Roland's crew. Gryphon and Baker did the same. The formations stood just far enough apart to prevent cross talk as the flight commanders addressed their crews.