Ep.#14 - A Line in the Sand (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “A house,” Lynne replied. “We rented it for a week.”

  “Even better,” Jessica replied. “Just drive us there.”

  “You want to go to my house?” Lynne wondered, becoming more frightened.

  Jessica realized the woman’s fear was about to cause her to emotionally shut down. “Listen, Lynne, I’m sorry I threatened you out there. I promise no one here is going to hurt you. We just need a safe place to lie low for a day or two.”

  “Why?” Lynne asked. “Who are you?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Jessica replied. “Just drive.”

  * * *

  “Anything?” Vladimir asked as he entered the Voss’s command deck.

  “No sign of them,” Loki replied.

  “Are you using long-range scans?”

  “Protocol calls for local passive only during the first rendezvous,” Loki reminded him.

  “I hate protocols,” Vladimir grumbled.

  “It was a pretty tight first window,” Deeks pointed out. “They probably haven’t even found the guy yet.”

  “Yeah, Kit’s not as good at hacking systems as he thinks he is,” Mori joked.

  “The guy could have moved, right?” Dylan suggested.

  “Hell, he could even be dead for all we know,” Josh chuckled.

  Vladimir sighed. “This should have been a quick in-and-out.”

  “All we can do is check back in four hours,” Loki stated.

  “We could send a recon drone,” Dylan suggested.

  “Earth has a really tight anti-surveillance network,” Vladimir explained. “You can’t get within a light day without being intercepted.”

  “Then we send it in further out,” Dylan added.

  “We’d be looking at what happened yesterday,” Vladimir replied, “not what’s happening now.”

  “What about a low-altitude pass?” Josh suggested. “In the atmosphere, just over the area. In and out, quick. They might think we’re a sensor blip.”

  “The Voss is too big to be mistaken for a sensor anomaly,” Loki argued.

  “I wasn’t talking about the Voss,” Josh told him, a mischievous grin on his face.

  * * *

  “I thought you said you were staying in a house,” Jessica said as Lynne turned off the main road into the parking lot of a large resort.

  “We are,” Lynne insisted nervously.

  “All I see is a resort,” Jessica replied.

  “There are rental houses on the far side of the course,” Lynne explained. “My husband is sort of a golf nut.”

  Jessica shook her head. “A thousand light years, and we end up at another golf course.”

  Lynne looked at Jessica, confused.

  “An expression,” Jessica insisted, looking out the front window of the vehicle. “Guard house ahead,” she warned. “They probably have cameras.”

  Nathan pulled his hat down further, slouching down in his seat to appear as if he was sleeping.

  “You never said you were staying at a resort,” Jessica scolded.

  “You never asked,” Lynne replied, feeling the need to defend herself.

  She pulled the car up next to the guard house, and a moment later, the gate slowly opened.

  “Evening, ma’am,” the guard greeted.

  “Don’t say anything,” Jessica whispered in a threatening tone. “Just drive.”

  Lynne did as instructed, gently accelerating the vehicle as soon as the gate allowed.

  “How far to your rental?” Jessica asked.

  “A few minutes,” Lynne replied.

  “Did you see any cameras?” Nathan wondered, readjusting his cap as he sat up again.

  “No, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any,” Jessica warned. “Resorts like this generally have them all over the place.”

  “You’re thinking of SilTek,” Nathan told her. “When’s the last time you went to a golf resort on Earth?”

  Again, Lynne looked confused. “Who are you people?”

  “I’m leaving you behind next time,” Jessica told Nathan.

  * * *

  “A single pass,” Vladimir reminded Josh as they descended the steep stairwell that led from the landing outside the Voss’s common room down to the deck alongside the P-Seventy-Two. “There’s a low-lying cloud layer at about six hundred meters, so if you stay in it, you shouldn’t be visible.”

  “I know, I know,” Josh insisted as he climbed into the Lightning’s cockpit.

  “Have all your sensors recording,” Vladimir continued, “and don’t hang around for more than ten seconds, or they’ll get a hard reading on you.”

  “If they do, they won’t know what the hell I am,” Josh pointed out.

  “Josh.”

  “Ten seconds. Got it,” Josh promised as he powered up the Lightning’s systems.

  “Remember: jump in under the moon’s south pole, skim low, and then jump across to Earth’s atmosphere as soon as you get a clear jump line.”

  “I know, I know!” Josh assured Vladimir. “Now get the hell out of the bay so I can launch!”

  Vladimir immediately turned around and scurried up the ladder, disappearing through the hatch at the upper landing.

  Josh slid the canopy closed over his head, starting the depress cycle at the same time. The lighting in the bay turned red, indicating that the entire compartment was losing pressure.

  “How do you copy, Josh?” Loki asked over comms.

  “Loud and clear, bud,” Josh answered as he prepared his fighter for launch. “You got this bucket on a heading for Earth?”

  “All lined up and ready to go,” Loki replied. “I’ve already calculated both jumps for you, and I’ve uploaded them to your jump-nav computer. You’ll have to do your escape jumps yourself.”

  “Thanks, Lok,” Josh replied. “Pop them doors, will ya?”

  “Opening bay doors now,” Loki replied.

  The wall before him split horizontally across the middle, opening up like a clamshell, revealing the starry blackness of deep space.

  “Clear to launch,” Loki announced as the doors stopped at their fully opened position.

  “See ya in a few minutes,” Josh replied, pressing the launch button and then jamming his foot into the right pedal.

  “Holy shit!” Dylan exclaimed, looking out the port window of the command deck as Josh’s P-Seventy-Two shot out of the port bay like a rocket and disappeared in a flash of blue-white light. “He’s insane!” he added, turning to look at the others.

  “The kid’s got two speeds,” Marcus grumbled. “Fast and faster.”

  “Shit,” Josh chuckled, the Earth’s moon suddenly appearing before him only a few hundred kilometers away and closing fast. “That ain’t even close.” He quickly adjusted his flight path, bringing his fast-moving fighter to less than fifty meters above the lunar surface. “Hope your second jump is closer.”

  Josh watched as the Earth began to peek out over the lunar horizon. Within seconds, the planet was fully visible. Josh pressed the auto-sequencer on his jump-nav computer, allowing it to take control of his flight systems. The ship’s AI adjusted his flight path and quickly recalculated the amount of energy necessary for the jump.

  The jump light flashed on his console, indicating that he was approaching his jump point. When the light stopped flashing and became a steady green, Josh pressed the jump button on his flight control stick, his cockpit instantly awash with blue-white light.

  His ship rocked violently as it suddenly found itself in the thick, lower atmosphere of Earth. Josh glanced out the canopy but, as expected, he was in a cloud and couldn’t see anything. As he set his comms to scan all known EDF comm-channels, his threat board began blasting alert tones, and the display lit up with at least three dozen targets. “Holy fuck!”


  “Command Reaper One Four,” a pilot called over comms. “Positive contact on the jump sub. It’s headed for deep water. Request instructions.”

  “Uh-oh,” Josh said, realizing things were worse than they’d feared.

  “Reaper One Four, Command. Engage and destroy. Repeat; engage and destroy.”

  “Reaper One Four, going hot.”

  “No, no, no…”

  “Two fish, away!”

  Josh pressed a button on his comm-panel, activating the burst transmission that Vladimir had prepared minutes ago.

  “Eagle Five One, Command. Turn to one five two for intercept. New contact; angels one, in the clouds…”

  “That would be me,” Josh said to himself.

  “Command, Reaper One Four. Good kill!”

  “Command, Eagle Five One, turning to intercept.”

  “Time to go,” Josh announced, pulling back on his control stick slightly and pushing his main drive throttle to the stops.

  As his Lightning climbed and accelerated, he quickly transferred the last ten seconds of comms traffic into the burst transmission buffer and sent another broadcast before pressing the jump button to depart.

  * * *

  “What kind of house doesn’t have a garage?” Jessica wondered as they made their way up the walk to the front door.

  “It’s more like a bungalow,” Nathan decided.

  As they approached the front door, the porch light snapped on.

  “You sure there’s no one inside?” Jessica challenged their captive.

  “I swear,” Lynne assured her, sounding a little calmer than before. She opened the door and stepped inside, her presence tripping the automatic, interior lighting as well.

  Jessica looked around, checking the kitchen and living room while Kit quickly checked the other rooms. “Take a seat where I can see you,” she instructed Lynne.

  “All clear,” Kit reported.

  “Get busy making contact with our ride,” Jessica instructed.

  “What is going on?” Lynne asked, almost pleading. “Why are you doing this?”

  Nathan sighed, kneeling down in front of her. “I’m sorry about all this, Lynne, I really am.”

  “Then just let me go,” she begged. “You can stay here, and I’ll go somewhere else for the night.”

  Nathan looked at Jessica, wondering what she thought.

  “Sorry,” Jessica said.

  “We can’t do that, Lynne,” Nathan continued. “But I promise that no one is going to hurt you or your family. In fact, we’ll probably be long gone by the time they get here.”

  “Who are you people?” she pleaded.

  Nathan looked at Jessica again.

  “What the hell,” Jessica said, shrugging her shoulders.

  “This may be hard to believe, but I’m Nathan Scott.”

  “Okay,” Lynne replied, unimpressed.

  Jessica couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, it has been a while.”

  Lynne looked at Jessica, confused, then back to Nathan. “Should I know you?”

  “You probably knew of my father, Dayton Scott,” Nathan explained.

  “The president?”

  “That would be him.”

  Lynne’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

  Nathan shrugged.

  “Yes, you are,” Lynne realized. “You’re dead! I mean, you died! I mean…”

  “I know what you mean,” Nathan assured her.

  “I was a teenager at the time, but I remember my parents watching… You were executed by the Jung! How are you still alive?”

  “Trust me, it’s a long story,” Nathan assured her.

  “This is odd,” Kit said.

  “What is it?” Jessica wondered.

  “There was data in the log buffer,” Kit told her. “According to the logs, the remote had a momentary connection to the jump sub just a few minutes ago, but then it died.”

  “Maybe the jamming was interrupted for a moment,” Jessica suggested.

  “Jump sub?” Lynne wondered.

  “No, I mean it died, like it was destroyed. It was headed for deep water, just like it’s supposed to do if we didn’t recall it on time. Then there was a scramble of data, like everything went nuts. Then nothing.”

  “Could it be a malfunction?” Nathan wondered.

  “It’s possible but not very likely,” Kit assured them. “There’s something else. At the same time, a bunch of data showed up in the logs.”

  “From the sub?” Jessica surmised.

  “No, it didn’t come from the sub,” Kit explained. “The first dump was straight text, the second was compressed audio.”

  “There were two dumps?” Nathan realized.

  Kit pressed a button on the remote, starting the audio file.

  [[[ “Positive contact on the jump sub. It’s headed for deep water. Request instructions.”

  “Reaper One Four, Command. Engage and destroy. Repeat; engage and destroy.”

  “Reaper One Four, going hot.”

  “Two fish, away!”

  “Eagle Five One, Command. Turn to one five two for intercept. New contact; angels one, in the clouds…”

  “Command, Reaper One Four. Good kill!”

  “Command, Eagle Five One, turning to intercept.” ]]]

  Everyone’s expression, except for Lynne’s, suddenly changed for the worse.

  Lynne just looked more confused. “Does that mean something?”

  “It means our situation just went from bad to worse,” Jessica commented.

  “The text message has comms timing instructions from the Voss,” Kit added.

  “I suppose that means something as well,” Lynne surmised.

  “It means there’s still hope,” Nathan replied.

  Lynne glanced about, noticing that their expressions were still sour. “That’s a good thing, right?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Oh, this is not good,” Vladimir groaned, after listening to Josh’s report in the Voss’s common room.

  “Nash knows what she’s doing,” Mori insisted. “Covert ops are her thing, and she’s on her home world. Not to mention that she knows her adversary’s abilities quite well. And Vasya…well, he’s Vasya.”

  “What’s that mean?” Dylan wondered.

  “He’s basically fearless.”

  “Reminds me of someone,” Loki said, looking at Josh.

  Vladimir sighed. “Being fearless is not always a good thing. Without the jump sub, we have no choice but to go and get them.”

  “We have to establish comms with them first,” Deeks insisted.

  “Yes, but our comm window will be very short,” Vladimir pointed out. “So we need to have an extraction plan ready, just in case.”

  “Maybe they can lie low for a while,” Mori suggested. “Wait for a better opportunity.”

  “A few years ago, they discovered a Jung spy was operating on Earth,” Vladimir told them. “EDF spec-ops plugged into every camera on the planet and tracked the guy down to one city, at which point their forces swept through the city in less than a day, knocking down doors and searching every building with heavily armed troops. And this was all done without martial law being in place.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Marcus wondered.

  “We must establish communications with them,” Vladimir decided. “We don’t even know where they are, let alone where the extraction point will be. Unfortunately, they didn’t take any comms gear.”

  “Why the hell not?” Marcus wondered.

  “Too easy to track,” Mori explained. “Besides, they planned to pick up Earth comm-units on the surface.”

  “What good does that do us?” Marcus wondered.

  Vladimir pulled a comm-unit out of
his pocket and placed it on the table. “I brought mine along, just in case.”

  “You have an Earth comm-unit?” Marcus said, surprised.

  “I bought it during my last visit to Earth, before the Aurora went rogue. I used it to call my sisters.”

  “And you brought it along to call them again?” Marcus chuckled. “What part of covert includes calling family?”

  “So all I have to do is jump in and call them?” Josh surmised.

  “Da,” Vladimir confirmed. “Unfortunately, these units are not as advanced as the ones in the Pentaurus sector. It could take thirty or forty seconds for it to connect to the network, if it connects at all.”

  “Why would it not connect?” Dylan wondered.

  “If the EDF knows about this unit, they may have already locked it out of the network.”

  “What are the chances of that?” Loki asked.

  “No way to know,” Vladimir admitted.

  “Forty seconds is a long time to be in Earth’s atmosphere, in an unidentified fighter, during an incursion event,” Mori warned.

  “If he jumps into a remote location it should buy Josh enough time to make a connection, especially if he jumps into a remote canyon. It could be up to a minute before he is detected by their surface surveillance satellites.”

  “Plenty of time to make the call,” Josh insisted with his usual bravado.

  “Once you establish a connection, you could jump to another location to make the call,” Vladimir added. “It would only take a few seconds for the comm-unit to reconnect.”

  “Can I jump while talking with them?” Josh wondered.

  “Yes, but there would be a lag in the conversation every time you jumped. You might miss some critical information.”

  “Sounds easy enough,” Josh boasted.

  “There is one other problem,” Vladimir stated. “This ship’s weapons are not designed for this type of operation. The point-defense lasers cannot be readjusted to minimal output, and they are designed to lay down fields of fire, not to lock onto targets with extreme precision. They would blow up everything around the target, which would result in a lot of collateral damage.”

  “What about the plasma cannons?” Loki wondered.

  “They cannot be adjusted either,” Vladimir replied. “And they are very powerful. I doubt we could shoot down an EDF fighter without killing the pilot, and I don’t think Nathan wants us to kill our own people.”