New Frontiers- The Complete Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  “I’m going, Carter. You can’t stop me. This was the president’s end of the deal, remember?”

  “What are you going to accomplish by going with them?” Carter yelled at him to be heard above the noise of rotors and the amplified voices of platoon leaders snapping orders at their troops. “You’re not a SEAL! You’re a starship captain!”

  “This discussion is over,” Alexander replied, his voice magnified by the external speakers in his helmet.

  “You think the enemy is going to pass up the chance to kill Alexander, the Lion of Liberty?”

  Alexander rounded on the ambassador and planted an armored palm against the other man’s chest. Carter bounced away violently and shot him an angry look. “Watch it! You could have broken my ribs!”

  “Then maybe you should get back below decks before you get hurt. You think I don’t know how to handle myself on the ground just because I’ve been sitting in an acceleration couch for the past ten years?”

  “You’re not trained for this,” Carter insisted. “You’re—” Carter’s comm band trilled with an incoming call and he answered it. “Hello? Mr. President, it’s a pleasure to… I see. Yes… I understand. I’ll be there as soon as I can. No, one of the jets can take me. It’ll be faster. Alexander? I’m here with him now. Yes, I’ll tell him.”

  “What was that about?” Alexander asked, his curiosity piqued.

  “You have to come with me. We have a situation developing, and the president needs you to join him immediately.”

  Alexander snorted and shook his head. “Whatever it is, it can wait.”

  “It can’t.”

  “Yes, it can. Rescuing my wife was my condition for joining your devil’s advocacy program, and if you don’t live up to it, I sure as hell won’t live up to my end of things. I’ll see you when I get back.” Alexander turned on his heel and jogged away.

  “Admiral!” Carter screamed after him. “You’ll be court-martialed for this!”

  “Good!” Alexander roared back. “Saves me the trouble of deserting!”

  * * *

  The quadcopters set down in the middle of a paddy field full of Confederate farmers wearing conical rice hats. Alliance corsair-class automechs stood all around the perimeter of the field, their cannons tracking land and sky.

  Inside Alexander’s quadcopter, buckles clattered and clacked as the SEALs stepped out of their docking stations. The team commander called out, “Let’s go! Let’s go! Double time!”

  Alexander rushed out the back of his quadcopter amidst the thump-thump-thumping of giant rotors. Data streamed into his helmet via comms and colorful heads-up displays. Friendly soldiers were highlighted green, names and ranks floating up above their helmets as they ran out the back of the quadcopter and splashed through the paddy fields. Their armor shimmered, adaptive camouflage changing from gunmetal gray to jungle greens.

  “Admiral, please stick close to me,” Commander Vargas said over comms. “Your safety and that of the missing colonists is my top priority.”

  Alexander nodded and commed back, “Roger.”

  He armed his suit’s integrated weapons and set his shoulder-mounted cannons to auto-fire on incoming drones, grenades, and AP rockets. The automechs already had a good perimeter secured, but there was always a chance that something might slip through. Carter might be a pain in the ass, but he was right about one thing—the chance to kill Alexander, the Lion of Liberty was too tempting to pass up.

  Here’s hoping they don’t know I’m here, he thought, watching as a dozen platoons rushed out into the paddy field amidst confused and shell-shocked rice farmers.

  Alexander ran behind Commander Vargas to the edge of the field where four jungle-green corsair-class automechs stood waiting to escort them through a tunnel of shattered trees and trampled ground cover. Alexander watched their armor shimmer and appear to liquefy, affording them a wraith-like invisibility.

  “Engage stealth mode and step lightly,” Commander Vargas said over the comms.

  Alexander toggled stealth and he felt his steps slow as his powered armor adapted to keep him from making too much noise. There was no hiding the corsairs’ ground-shaking footsteps, but at least that would draw attention away from the ground troops following behind.

  Alexander had to resist the urge to run for it. It was torture to think of his wife in enemy territory, not knowing if she was okay or whether she’d been mistreated. But he had to remind himself that she wasn’t his anymore.

  In the distance Alexander heard shouting in a foreign language, followed by the sound of gunfire. A swarm of Allied drones went racing over the treetops. Then came the thud-thud-thud of cannon fire and the golden flicker of tracer rounds slashing down.

  Comms crackled in Alexander’s helmet—Commander Vargas ordering them to get ready for action, followed by an order to adopt a new formation. Ghostly shadows swarmed around Alexander in a protective circle.

  The shouting stopped and they came into a smoke-clouded clearing. The jungle was shredded, and burning here and there in smoking clumps of blackened vegetation. In the distance Alexander saw a concrete structure with a rusty steel door. Then Alexander noticed all of the bodies. Asian skin tones mixed with bloody reds. There was a scattering of severed limbs, and a few charred rice hats. None of them appeared to be wearing Confederate uniforms, and Alexander didn’t see any weapons lying around the bodies.

  “What happened here?” he asked over comms. “These people weren’t armed.”

  “You don’t know that,” Vargas replied. “They were in the engagement area. If they had good intentions they would have run.”

  Alexander looked away and tried to keep his eyes on the door, now marked on his HUD as their objective. A pair of SEALs ran out and began cutting the door open with high-powered lasers. Commander Vargas came on the comms snapping orders, all the while Alexander heard the booming footsteps of the Corsairs and the whirring of Allied drones racing overhead.

  In the distance cannon fire sounded counterpoint to that of smaller handheld weapons. There was fighting going on not far from their location.

  The SEALs finished cutting open the door and then kicked it in. Alexander saw a dark tunnel and a staircase leading down below ground. This was some kind of fallout shelter.

  What are allied prisoners doing here? Alexander wondered as he reached the door. Vargas and four other SEALs preceded him down the stairs, while the remainder of the team followed. Dust swirled in the yellow beams of ancient lights. The metal rungs echoed and groaned as they marched down the stairway. At the bottom they encountered another metal door and again they were forced to cut through.

  Alexander frowned, wondering how they knew the prisoners were here if they hadn’t even opened the bunker yet. He got on the comms to Vargas asking exactly that.

  The commander replied, “We have a short-ranged tracker implanted in the captain of the shuttle that went missing. His beacon is broadcasting from here.”

  Alexander grimaced, realizing that meant they didn’t know anything about who else might be with him, or even if the captain himself was still alive. Caty might not even be here.

  High-powered lasers crackled and hissed. Alexander watched the SEALs trace a molten orange line across the door, and his visor auto-polarized to protect his eyes from the glare. The line became a closed circle and then the SEALs kicked in the door. The piece they’d cut fell inward with a bang, and SEALs rushed through the gap.

  Vargas called out in an amplified voice, ordering everyone in the bunker to raise their hands and remain calm.

  Alexander felt himself carried inside by the press of soldiers behind him. A huddled, bedraggled mass of civilians with dirty faces and tear-streaked cheeks appeared all around the room, all of them highlighted yellow on his HUD to indicate that their friend/foe status was unknown. Then facial recognition took over and began painting them green one by one, until all of them were identified as Alliance citizens.

  They’d found the colonists, and apart fro
m how dirty they were, they all appeared to be fine. Alexander saw the soldiers around him relax their guard somewhat. Vargas walked up to one of the civilians, and Alexander saw from the HUD overlay that his name was Captain Fuentes. Scanning the crowd anxiously, Alexander read names in a hurry, trying to find one that read Catalina de Leon. She couldn’t have changed her name already… unless she’d filed for a divorce in absentia and remarried.

  Then he saw her. He didn’t even need to read her name to know it was Caty. Blond hair, blue eyes, small nose, full lips—and the baby boy sitting in her lap was added confirmation. Alexander ran toward her, his heart pounding and his veins buzzing with adrenaline. He toggled his external speakers and called out to her. “Caty!”

  She looked up suddenly, her eyes wide with shock. She saw him coming at her in full body armor and her surprise turned to fear. She curled protectively around her son. Then he mentally retracted his visor, allowing her to see his face. The smell of sewage and rotting food hit him like a punch in the gut, but he managed to smile for her sake.

  “Alex!” she screamed, stumbling to her feet. “Is that you?” Her face scrunched up and she began to cry.

  He stopped within arms’ reach of her. “Are you okay?” he asked, studying her from head to toe and looking for injuries. He reached out with an armored hand, as if to stroke her cheek, but stopped himself, and looked around suddenly. “Where’s… the father?”

  She shook her head and bit her lip, her tears coming steadily now. “David didn’t go with us. It’s a long story.”

  The boy in her arms began to cry, too, and Alexander regarded him with a sympathetic look. “Come on, we need to get you out of here,” he said. “We have air transports waiting.”

  Caty nodded, and then Commander Vargas reiterated that, saying, “Let’s go everyone! If any of you is in need of assistance, check in with Corpsman Torres over there—” Alexander noticed Vargas pointing to where a huddled group of medics were already busy conducting first aid for injured colonists.

  People climbed to their feet, trading shell-shocked looks with one another. The reality of their rescue hadn’t sunk in yet. Not the welcome he’d expected. Turning back to Caty he asked, “Did they hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “No, they’ve been protecting us.”

  Alexander’s eyebrows floated up. “They who?”

  “The rice farmers. They hid us down here to keep Confederate soldiers from finding us.”

  Alexander remembered the dead farmers in the clearing around the entrance of the bunker and he grimaced. On the one hand the president was trying to convince the Confederate people that the Alliance wasn’t evil, and on the other hand, Alliance soldiers and drones were shooting first and asking questions later.

  “What’s wrong?” Caty asked.

  He shook his head. “Nothing.” Looking away, he saw the other colonists busy shuffling toward the open door. A bright circle of daylight streamed in from the stairwell, illuminating drifting clouds of dust. Reaching out, he wrapped an armored arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the light. “Come on. It’s time to go home.”

  CHAPTER 51

  There was no concealing Caty’s shock as they ran back to the quadcopters. The same farmers who had been protecting her and the other colonists had been gunned down without hesitation.

  Now sitting in the cockpit of one of the quadcopters, behind the pilot and copilot, Alexander leaned across the aisle between their seats to reassure Caty that everything was going to be okay. It was almost impossible to hear over the noise of the rotors, but their headsets and microphones muffled the noise and enabled them to speak via comms.

  “What happened to… David?” Alexander asked, anxious to know why she was alone. “Why didn’t he go with you?”

  Caty gave him a broken smile and shook her head. The quadcopter hovered up and away amidst an escorting cloud of drones. She began to explain, starting from the message she’d sent to him, where she’d asked him not to contact her again because contact with him was provoking David. Then she explained about the abuse, the alcoholism, and how helpless and trapped she had felt.

  Alexander felt himself growing progressively more furious with every passing second. He was horrified and seeing red. His stomach burned with an acid rage.

  He would hunt David down and make him pay if it was the last thing he did.

  Then Caty got to the part about joining the colony fleet and going to Wonderland to start a new life. That was when she’d discovered that David was illegal in the northern states and he couldn’t go, and that was why he’d never changed despite multiple behavioral adjustments. He didn’t have standard gener implants to adjust. The adjustments reports were all forgeries.

  That revelation was one too many. The lies, the abuse… it was too much. David’s a dead man, he thought.

  “You’re very quiet,” Caty said, reaching for his hand.

  He was still wearing armor, so he didn’t feel her touch.

  “Alexander?”

  He shook his head, snapping out of it. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

  “It’s okay. I wish you had been there, but I know it’s not your fault. You didn’t have a choice.”

  Alexander tried to process all of what she’d said to him, and suddenly he realized that if David wasn’t in the picture anymore, there might still be a chance for the two of them. “Caty…” He held her hand loosely in his. “I didn’t move on until you contacted me, telling me to stay away. And even after that, I never really moved on. I don’t know where you’re at right now, but if there’s any chance that we might still be together, I promise to make up for all those years I was away, and I promise that I’ll love Dorian as if he were my own son.”

  Caty’s face crumpled; her blue eyes grew moist and sparkled like the sun shining on the deep blue sea below. Her lower lip trembled. “Oh, Alex.” She shook her head. “I must be dreaming.”

  He smiled back at her.

  “You’re done with the Navy now, right?”

  Alexander hesitated. “I signed on for another six months so that I could look for you.”

  Some of Caty’s excitement faded and she nodded soberly. “And after that?”

  “After that I’m a free man.”

  “You promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Caty unbuckled; leaning across the aisle, she kissed him. Despite the fact that she smelled terrible and her breath was no bouquet of roses, Alexander felt a familiar spark in that kiss, and a warm rush of hope swept away any lingering doubts about him and Caty picking up where they’d left off. She was everything that he’d been missing for so long. Dorian squirmed in her lap and began swatting their faces with his hands.

  Alexander withdrew and looked down on him with a wry grin.

  “Hey there little guy.”

  Dorian regarded him with lips parted and eyes wide, as if fascinated by him.

  Looking up at Caty, Alexander asked, “How did you get pregnant, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “My implant failed,” Caty explained.

  “And the father didn’t have one, so it was bound to happen sooner or later.”

  “I didn’t think of that…” Caty said. “That’s true.”

  “He’s going to pay for what he did to you.”

  Caty’s expression became guarded. “What are you going to do?”

  Alexander felt a flash of jealousy and anger. Was she trying to protect him? “After what he did to you, what do you care?”

  “I care because I know you, and I don’t want you to go to jail, Alex. Revenge won’t fix anything.”

  He shook his head. “This isn’t about revenge. It’s about justice. By law, illegal immigrants are to be conscripted on sight. After that, if a stray bullet hits him in occupied enemy territory, you won’t see me crying.”

  Dorian fussed in his mother’s lap, and Alexander turned to look at him, forgetting for a moment to make a baby-friendly face. Dorian took one look at him
and started screaming.

  “You’re scaring him!” Caty said.

  “Sorry.” Alexander let his anger out in a sigh.

  Caty shot him an accusing look. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. I’m sure David will get what’s coming to him without you hunting him down.”

  Alexander nodded but said nothing, looking instead out to the horizon. He wasn’t going to leave David’s fate to chance.

  Justice would be done.

  * * *

  As soon as they reached the W.A.S. Hancock Alexander whisked Caty and her son away to his quarters so that they could eat a hot meal and get cleaned up. After they both ate, he had the ship’s doctor come up and check them out so that they wouldn’t have to wait in line for hours with all of the other colonists.

  The doctor gave them a clean bill of health, but injected them both with a booster shot of nanobodies just in case.

  Now, as Alexander sat waiting for them to get washed up, there came a knock at the door, followed by a voice over the intercom. “Admiral de Leon, it’s Ambassador Carter.”

  “Come in,” he said, already sighing.

  The ambassador strode in wearing a heavy frown. “Have you heard?”

  Alexander shook his head. “Heard what? I just got back.”

  “Wilson’s confession.”

  Alexander remembered that had been the breaking news just before he left.

  “Right. What was that about?”

  “He’s claiming—posthumously—that the entire trip to Wonderland was a fake.”

  “What? That’s ridiculous.”

  “Exactly.”

  “People aren’t actually believing that are they?”

  “Even if people don’t fully believe it, hearing something like that from the man who used to be in command of the entire Alliance fleet is enough to make them wonder.”

  “Well…” Alexander considered that for a moment. “If I recall, during the first Cold War, some people claimed that the moon landing was a fake, too, and that was equally ridiculous.”

  Carter’s eyes lit up. “Exactly! I’d forgotten about that.”