“You and me, both, Toast. I’m going under, too.”
“I’m with you two. But first, a big meal.”
“Toast, set us to wake an hour before exit.”
“Roger, Cap.”
Herman Cox’s Home
“You snake! You didn’t tell me about the no-fly edict on Olympia!”
In his most syrupy voice, Senator Campbell responded, “Didn’t come up, Herman. You never told me that you were going to leave.”
“Well now, my ship is impounded. The military is thinking about conscripting it out from under me.” Herman hammered his desk in frustration and anger.
“I told you I could be of help.”
“So, help. Free up my ship. Get those military tight asses to let me leave.”
“I can do that. Back to our original discussion. I and my family need a ride off Olympia.”
“Fine! You and your family. No one else. You get authorization for Money Gulper to leave. In return, I get you off Olympia. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“How soon?”
“I need to make some calls. Grease some wheels. Three days. Five at most.”
“Do it!” As in politics everywhere, the one with the money gets to browbeat the one who needs it.
“I’ll start getting my stuff shipped over to your hanger immediately. Have someone there to coordinate.” Senator Campbell ignored the useless order.
“Fine. Tell me when you will be there. I’ll have Josh meet you.”
“Good doing business with you.”
“None of your family gets on board until I have clearance. Understood, Senator?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Herman.”
Oishi Scout Team
The Nightshade scout team waited two days, talking in sign and observing the three alien patrols. The two watched as the frustrated aliens worked up and down the cliffs, finding no signs of their quarry. The four-legged creatures would spend time staring across the chasm or at the cliff face. After repeated communications, all three groups headed back the way they came.
The second day brought a swarm of alien drones, flying the river, scanning the cliff faces, searching the beaches. Taketa and Juro remained within their chameleon shelters, hidden from all visual, radiological and thermal sensors. The drones found nothing. The drones left.
“We wait one more day,” Taketa signed.
“Hai.”
For a solid day and night, the alien drones buzzed the river, its banks, its cliffs. They swarmed the forest above, flew ever-widening patterns, searching for the elusive Sasanian ghosts. The two Nightshades remained wisps in the wind.
The following morning found Taketa and Juro stiff and unrested from the constant drone over-flights.
“Another day,” Taketa again signed.
“Hai.”
The second day passed. This time without drones. Taketa sent his own on scout, found no sign of their three pursuers or any alien drones within sensor range.
“Time to go. We leave the camp here, chameleon on.”
The two deadly assassins took weapons, spy gear and one day’s rations. Pulling on their rucking boots, they activated their light-bending suits and ghosted down the gorge and into the valley.
Stopping at its edge, the two invisible Nightshades lay quietly and set up their equipment. They watched and recorded the rest of the day and through the night. At its darkest, the two Nightshades stealthily made their way back to camp and turned in.
The next day Taketa worked the drone into a high spot in the sky as Juro assembled the radio gear. Juro created the compressed packet containing the previous day’s observations and information gatherings. Then the Mappai sent the burst transmission to the drone. The drone transmitted the information packet to a small antenna tethered to an undersea cable. The cable linked to Suichuu-Shigai. The undersea city’s drone center received the message and passed it on to Nyu Nippon’s Commanding General, Taishou Suzume.
After relocating the drone to avoid any possible backtracking of the transmission, Taketa commented, “Now we wait for further instructions.”
“Always the fun part, Sousui.”
Trotzig Medical Center
“Well, hello. I guess you all know me.” Randy cleared his throat before continuing.
“We’ve come a long way. With the help of Mz. Gregor and Mr. Miller, we’ve got a fairly well-equipped medical center and you, the staff to run it.”
Looking over the room, he saw almost a hundred people in addition to the original twenty-one doctors and corpsmen. Randy pointed to the two aforementioned City Managers.
“Latinia’s governor, Governor Moreno, has donated a helicopter for medical services. He’s not here, but we need to acknowledge his efforts in supporting our little endeavor.”
He waited for the polite clapping to die down.
“Now it’s time to get organized. And that is something I am not very good at. So I’m handing the reins to someone else. Charles Thorne. All you Roth people know him. For the rest of you, Charlie is the Human Resources Manager for the Roth ranch. Charlie?”
Charlie Roth stood, raised a hand and turned in a slow circle. Again, the room applauded. This time with more enthusiasm.
“Starting today, Charlie will become the Chief Administrator of the Trotzig Medical Center. I’m going back to what I do best. Patching up animals. Both the two-legged and four-legged kind.
The room politely laughed.
“And now, I am turning the facility over to Mr. Thorne. Charlie, come up here.”
Charles Thorne, the newly appointed Chief Administrator, formally strode to the podium, took his place beside Randy and cleared his throat.
“I don’t know if I should thank you or blame you, Randy. You gave me headaches when you were a kid. You continued to give me headaches after you got back from your service. And now you’ve given me one gigantic headache.”
“And one I am very willing to give you, Charlie.
Charlie and Randy waited for this round of laughter to subside.
“People. We are coming on hard times, deadly times. Thank you for joining in the fight. Charles Thorne is good at his job. He wouldn’t have been with the Roth ranch for over thirty years if he wasn’t. The Roth family is losing a valuable member. But his talents are needed here. You can trust his administrative skills. You can trust his leadership. We have. And we have never been let down. With that, it’s all yours, Charlie.”
Randy left the stage and the cafeteria. Harriet and Sean followed. They heard Charlie speaking, establishing his position as Chief Administrator.
“Well done, Wrangler. You slipped out of that pretty slickly.”
“Why, thank you, Ma’am. I try to do my best. Now, I’m heading to the parade grounds. No doubt, First Lieutenant Rosser and Master Sergeant Stein have dinged up their recruits.”
“Sean and I are back to building. See you tonight.”
“Tonight.”
Being in public, Randy gave Harriet only a small kiss on the cheek.
Chapter 08
Onboard Griffin
Eight a.m. Captain Marston, his shadow, Gopai, and Mack stood on Griffin’s loading ramp. Master Engineer Varrini stood just off, waiting to come aboard.
“Permission to come aboard.”
“Permission granted. Where is Master Muknai?”
“Apparently the yard couldn’t last more than a day without him. He is busy stopping rushing waters.”
“I’ve been in the same boat, many times. Welcome back, Master Varrini. Shall we?”
“Eh, Master Varrini. I see you brought the replacement boards.”
“Yes, Sir Mack,” the Elonian engineer replied as he handed a container to Griffin’s engineer.
“This won’t take long, Cap.”
Krag led his small group up the ramp, and, after short stops at three junction boxes, up the gangway then onto the bridge. There, they met Vidhee, Buster, Keiko and Sue, the two women already positioned in their ass
igned recliners.
“Gopai, take weapons.” Krag pointed to one of the newly-installed chairs. “Familiarize yourself with the layout. Don’t activate anything. That will come later. Mack, take Command. You’ll have all access there.”
“Aye, aye, Cap.”
“Master Varrini, if you would, please take the observation chair.”
“Thank you, Captain Marston.”
“I will let the five of you get to it, then. I’ll be in my ready room, if you need me.”
With that final pronouncement, Krag left the bridge and spent the next two hours worrying about whatever his crew found.
After the two hours, Krag heard over Griffin’s intercom, “Cap, we’re ready.”
“Be right there.”
After his short walk and entering the bridge, Krag asked, “Well?”
“Old Master Varrini whipped his crew good, Cap. My girl is right as rain. Ready to go out and play.”
“You have the honors, Mack. Take us up.”
“Nah. That’s Keiko’s job. She’s our pilot. Go for it, Wee-One.”
“First time I’ve lifted from a gravity well.”
“You got it, girl. Just run the steps like we talked.”
Krag watched the interplay and approved. Keiko looked at Krag.
“You have the helm, Keiko. Keep it under one-tenth S.O.L. Enjoy.”
He watched a slightly-nervous Keiko perform her first planet-side liftoff.
Keiko fired the basal thrusters, establishing clearance from the landing pad where Griffin had rested for the last three months. She then fired the lower nose thrusters in small bursts, achieving an angle for Griffin and a pre-determined exit vector.
“Griffin requesting flight clearance.”
“Permission granted, Griffin. You are clear for the next one-eighth Sedeca.”
“Master Muknai already got us clearance, Cap. So we’re good to go.”
Keiko took a breath, ran her finger up a slide icon and pressed another. Griffin leaped like a horse breaking from the gate. Krag staggered and grabbed for the back of the command chair. All in their chairs pressed into the cushions.
“Sorry, Krag. Missed that one.”
“No problem Keiko. That was quite a push. Force level?”
“Three, Captain.”
“Three. Griffin used to need six. Hot, Mack, Master Varrini. Very hot.”
“Hot?”
“Ya, Master Varrini. Cool means good. Hot means exciting.”
Varrini shook his head in a very human manner, flattened his ears and stated, “I’ll never understand Humans.”
“The new gravity generator seems to be working. Master Varrini, why didn’t it compensate for the high acceleration?”
“It did, Captain Marston. But its compensation curve, by design, is slower than the acceleration. We don’t want gravity to fluctuate wildly. That could be harmful to the ship and crew. Since the acceleration curve stayed within Elonian, and, I guess, Human tolerances, gravity stayed normal.”
“Master Varrini is basically saying, that for slow takeoffs, the gravity generator doesn’t compensate, Cap.”
“It took a while, but I figured that out, Mack.”
“Achieved escape, Captain.”
“Thank you, Keiko. Mack, any specific plan?”
“Nah. I thought we’d buzz Wisdom Seeker, do a couple of orbits and land. Fool with acceleration and deceleration a bit. Then take her back.”
“Sounds good. Carry on.”
“Lassie, you’re in the navigator pod. So, navigate.”
“Aye, aye, Mr. Mack, Sir!” she grinned.
Throughout this time, at the speed of electricity, Vidhee and Buster checked every piece of electronic equipment on Griffin. They checked every electrical flow, spike and drop. Measured input and output, compared everything to the projected standards and drew conclusions.
After multiple passes, Buster announced, “Mack, Master Varrini, Vidhee and I have determined that the number three fission reactor is not functioning at acceptable specifications. Also, plasma-ion engine number one is experiencing intermediate power drops. We’ve flagged the faulty circuitry and passed the information to your tablets.”
“Thank you, Honorable Vidhee, Legate Buster. I will order the replacements. They will be ready by the time we land.”
“I would have never felt that, Buster, Vidhee. Ya done right by Griffin.”
“Just doing our jobs.”
‘How are you coming with learning the weapons board, Gopai?”
“I’m coming along, Captain.”
“Mack, while we’re up here, set up a test simulation and let Gopai do some dry firing.”
“On it, Cap.”
“Keiko, Sue. On course?”
“Sue has passed me the flight plan, Captain. We’ll have our Wisdom Seeker flyby in two minutes. Followed by three orbits. Then back to base.”
“Thank you, Keiko. Carry on.”
The rest of the flight took the rest of the morning. Sue followed Keiko’s flight path, matching it to her navigation chart. Gopai practiced symbolically shooting things. Vidhee and Buster continued to monitor. Mack and Varrini continued to worry over the control board. Krag just worried. Hid it well, but worried.
After a very careful landing by Keiko, everyone took a sigh of relief.
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but Mum’s little boy is starving. Who’s for lunch?”
“The two replacement circuit boards have arrived, Sir Mack. I’ll switch those in and join you shortly.”
“Gopai, follow Master Varrini. Help him test the installs. Learn something. Me, I’m eating.”
Gopai didn’t quite growl. But his stomach did as he followed the Elonian engineer through the hatch. The rest traipsed to the galley and, after the return of Varrini and Gopai, all enjoyed a lunch permeated with humor, good will and congratulations at a job well done.
The following two hours again saw the crew testing and reviewing everything while Krag sat in his ready room, far less worried.
Onboard Heimdallr
Almost twelve days later, the pods flushed the sleep cocktail from the three crewmate’s bodies and injected stimulators, pulling them out of their sleeps.
Without rising, Torres palmed her eyes and checked her board.
“Hour out, Cap.”
“Thanks, Toast. I’m going full stealth. Don’t know what we will find. Brooksy, no engines. We just drift in.”
“I’ll prep them, though. We’ll be able to push to the stops, if need be.”
“Good idea. Let’s all get podded up for the last hour.”
“Aye, ay, Cap.”
“Toast, if you see anything funny, ping Brooksy straight. Brooksy, punch it. Leave me out of the loop.”
“You’re getting paranoid in your old age, Cap.”
“Just because you’re paranoid. Well you know the rest.”
“Got it, Cap. Sneak and peek. If need be, turn and burn.”
The hour passed. Heimdallr coasted into the Novius system. Torres worked her board, searched the space. Found nothing.
“Odd, Captain. Nothing’s here.”
“No Odin?”
“No Odin, no nothing. No ships. No transmissions. Nothing. It’s like everyone left.”
“Let’s get to Novius. See what’s going on.”
“At standard burn, four hours, Cap.”
“Thank you, Brooksy. Set it on auto. Let’s clean up this pig sty.”
Four hours later, with a squared away scout ship and newly-scrubbed crewmates, Heimdallr dropped into orbit over Novius.
“Toast, tell me what we’ve got.”
“Novius is supposed to support about five point five million people. After two orbits, I’m seeing less than two. A few ships are in orbit. Not anything like what the reports say Novius should have.”
“Bugs get here?”
“No Cap. Novius is just empty.”
“Any transmissions?”
“Between the orbiting
ships. From the ships to ground. I’m picking up a repeating, generic contact request from the Capitol.”
“Go ahead and respond. Tight beam. Let’s not announce our presence, yet.”
“Novius Capitol, this is FSS Heimdallr. Please respond.” The sensor specialist repeated the phrase twice more before she picked up an answer.
“Heimdallr, this is Novius Capitol. I don’t see you on our board.”
“Just being cautious, Novius. Who am I speaking to?”
“Coms operator Doris Rogers, ma’am.”
“Lieutenant Torres here. What happened to everybody?”
“They all left, Lieutenant.”
“Three million people?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Government too?”
“Most of the career people. The Governor, his staff and most of Congress remained. Same for the counties and cities.”
“Why, Doris?”
“You saw the vids. Aliens are coming. There’s nothing here to stop them.”
“Doris, Captain Scott here. Where did they go?”
“Arium, Captain. Mr. Gregor sent out a communiqué that everyone should go to Arium. He’s setting up a defense there.”
“Lawrence Gregor? The intergalactic crime boss?”
“We don’t see him that way, here, Captain. He’s done a lot of good for Novius. Good jobs. Good pay. Good security. He may not toe the line, but he’s done right by us.”
“Sorry. Bad choice of words. So, he’s pulling everyone to Arium.”
“Along with everything that can be hauled, Captain. He’s sent his own freighters, spent his own money to get the people to Arium.”
“One more question, Doris. Did Odin pass through here?”
“No, Captain. But I heard she had headed to Corrinar, hightailing it from that monster fleet we keep hearing about.”
“From what we’ve seen, you’re safe for now. The bugs are focused on Cencore. It will be a while, if ever, that they reach here.”
“Thank you, Captain. That is very good to know. I will pass that on. Help people relax a little. It’s been really stressful for the last six months. With the invasion of Yeni Persia, and all.”
Meeting in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 3) Page 15