by gerald hall
Then Alec heard the first notes of the wedding march being played.
“I guess that is our cue, Angela.” He said as he held out his arm for Angela to hold onto before beginning to walk together towards where Pastor Beverly was standing in front of so many friends and well-wishers.
After they reached the pulpit, both Angela and Alec turned around to face the audience. Then they saw the groom appear and begin his walk towards his future bride.
Jonathan wore a black double-breasted suit with silver highlighting that closely resembled the style worn by many people who worked with Galactic Expeditions. He proudly walked up the aisle, not showing any signs of the painful injuries that he had suffered at the hands of the Truists.
Pastor Beverly then spoke to the husband and wife to be, quoting Scripture and talking about the importance of love and selflessness in a relationship. The vows that Angela and Jonathan used were quite traditional for a Christian wedding. But the most important part for all was when Pastor Beverly finally presented the newly wedded couple to the audience and said to the delightful applause of the entire audience.
“You may now kiss the bride.”
After the wedding dinner and parties were all over, Angela and Jonathan retreated to their quarters to spend some private time together. Little did they know that a little miracle was about to happen during the course of the night’s festivities.
Chapter Forty One:
Belair Syndicate Headquarters
Proxima Centauri B
Proxima Centauri Star System
June 11, 2322
Lindsey Buckman was not a very happy woman when the commander of the Belair Syndicate’s military division, Rear Admiral Anton Clinton arrived at her office.
“Admiral, what is the status of the Syndicate task force that I have ordered assembled for the operation against the Kepler Colony outpost?”
“Ma’am, we have gathered the bulk of our available naval forces along with a substantial occupation force for the attack on the Kepler daughter colony. We have stripped our forces from every other area to put this amount of strength together. I remain very concerned about weak this leaves us throughout our interstellar holdings.” Admiral Clinton explained.
“Those fools at Earth Fleet would not listen to reason when I contacted them myself about the privateers that the Kepler Colony sheep hired to harass our people. Earth refused to revoke the letter of marque that they had issued to those privateers against us, claiming that they had done far too much ‘good’ in the Orion Arm against interstellar pirates.”
“But this is only one small privateer group, Ma’am. Do we really need to focus this much force against them, at the risk of all of our other interests?”
“Yes, Admiral. We do.” Lindsey snarled. “Because we have been unable to overcome these Kepler obstructionists and the brigands that they have hired indirectly, we will have to defeat them in a more direct manner.”
“With the amount of ships that we have assembled, we should be able to the job then, based on our current intelligence on our adversaries. We are also deploying our new drone fighters, per your instructions. But I do have one question, Ma’am?”
“What is it, Admiral?”
“Did the privateers obtain any examples of the combat drones that were at the warehouses at Kepler-1544?”
“Yes, Admiral. A relatively small number of our light combat drones were stolen from us by those damned privateers. But the thieves will not have had time to train pilots to run the craft effectively. Our drone controllers will be able to swarm their targets quite easily.”
“I certainly hope so, Ma’am. I always worry about relying upon an unproven technology in a battle as important as this one is to you and the rest of the Syndicate.”
“You military types always worry about not having enough of this or that. We spend billions of credits on your ships and guns every year. What has it all accomplished? I have seen nothing but failure after failure against these inferior bands of castoffs and has-beens. It is a wonder if you have any backbone at all.” Lindsey brusquely commented to the Admiral’s great discomfort before continuing.
“But this time, I will be going with our forces to ensure that everyone’s backbone is properly stiffened for the upcoming attack. We are going to win this fight and the campaign to come, one way or another. Am I perfectly clear, Admiral?” Lindsey declared.
“Yes, Ma’am. My people and I will do our very best to win this fight.” Admiral Clinton formally replied, stiffening to the position of attention while doing so.
“Remember, Admiral. Failure is not an option here. I’m sure that you already know what the price of failure is around here. I would not want to see what happened to our manager at Kepler-1544 also happen to you.” Lindsey coldly added.
The manager of that facility had been found dead in his office a couple of weeks after the privateers had successfully raided his warehouses. The official Belair Syndicate report stated that the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, there were more than a few rumors floating around that claimed that the late manager was found with an entry wound to the back of his head.
Of course, Syndicate headquarters officially denied those rumors. But something ominous that the Admiral saw in Lindsey’s eyes told him a completely different story. An involuntary shiver immediately ran down the Admiral’s spine as he realized that his life was literally on the line here.
Chapter Forty Two:
New Hope Station
YBP 1194 Star System, M 67 Star Cluster, Orion Arm
July 28, 2322
“We just got back from the Kepler outpost. They have reported that their intelligence sources have uncovered some very disturbing news. It appears that the Belair Syndicate is massing its military forces to attack one of our client’s key daughter colonies. Our client is requesting our assistance in defending their people.” Alec informed his key leaders shortly after Alacrity returned. It was clear to everyone that he was very worried.
“So do you need for us to do, Boss?” Colin quickly asked.
“First, how are our defenses here now?” Alec asked.
“All of the station’s old defensive positions have now been reactivated. We also installed a few additional concealed emplacements using the obsolescent weapons that we took from our ships during the process of upgrading our shipboard weapons. We now have a pretty fair ability to shoot down spacecraft and even incoming missiles approaching this station from any direction.
Everyone here on the station that isn’t part of a ship’s crew and can reach up to grab a targeting joystick has received training on operating our defensive weapons. Interior defensive systems have also been repaired and are ready in the unlikely event that enemy personnel get inside of the station.
Our station AI is named Joan. I imagine that you have already encountered her avatar by now. She is another daughter program that was bootstrapped from Rita. Joan can also operate everything remotely even without human intervention until ballistic and missile weapons require reloading of their ready-use magazines. Weapons magazine reloading will still require people to get involved to accomplish those tasks.
We also have pieced together enough additional fighters to provide supplemental support of our defensive batteries, even if all of our battlers are deployed. The bottom line is that we can take care of ourselves here.” Colin proudly explained.
“Well, that’s good because we are going out with Golden Phoenix and every battler that is available to assist our clients in this fight. We will also need every spare fighter to come with us to provide support. Our Q-ships will also be coming to thicken Phoenix’s defenses as well.
Alacrity and Fireball will be remaining here at the station along with our cargo shuttles just in case they are needed.”
“How about our boarding troops, Sir?” Major Compton asked.
“Obviously, we are going to need all of them that we can mobilize, especially our personnel with powered armor suits and
all of our combat bots.”
“You know that this is a trap, don’t you, Alec?” Major Compton calmly asked.
“Yes, I do. But the Belair Syndicate has no idea that we have our combat tender or that Lion either. The ex-Lu’non battler will also be quite a surprise for the Syndicate too. Our boarding troops are well equipped, well trained and now, very experienced. We are going to have one hell of a punch available in this battle, Major.
The Lord willing, we are going to deliver a blow that will cripple the Syndicate’s expansion efforts for decades.”
“I certainly hope so. Because if we fail, it is going to gut the core of this team of yours, Sir.”
“Well, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. OK?” Alec replied.
“We will do our best, Sir.” Colin responded.
“Concerning our new station AI, I have indeed encountered her new avatar. What I don’t understand is Rita and her ‘sister’ AI’s fascination with twentieth-century movie actresses. They are incredible to look at certainly and can make a person feel very appreciated, I suppose. But I am afraid that they are going to be all too distracting sometimes.”
“Oh, I’m sure that they have enough ‘sense’ to tone it down when necessary, Sir.” Colin smiled.
Elsewhere in the station, Angela Murrel had been suffering from bouts of nausea for the past couple of weeks. At first, she thought that it might have been the result of the food from the station’s central dining facility. It served primarily food grown in the station aquaponics garden areas, rather than food imported from the Kepler colonies. But when the nausea persisted, she finally went to see the station’s primary care physician, Doctor Serena Lofton.
Doctor Lofton first examined Angela’s vital signs, then did a few quick blood and urine tests. After excusing herself from Angela’s exam room for a few minutes, Doctor Lofton then brought in an ultrasound scanner to further examine the still-nauseated technician’s lower abdomen.
After only a minute or so of working with the ultrasound, Doctor Lofton looked up at Angela and said with a mysterious smile.
“I think that I have found the cause of your nausea, Angela. Fortunately, there is nothing at all wrong with you. In fact, I think that congratulations are in order. You are pregnant.”
Angela’s mouth flew wide open. This was supposed to be impossible. The doctors who examined Jonathan after his captivity had all said that he would never be able to father a child after the tortures that he had suffered at the hands of his Truist captors. But, there had been no one else but Jonathan that Angela had been intimate with since before she even became involved with The True Way.
“This is incredible, Doctor. Can you tell me how far along the baby is?” Angela asked, tears of joy running down her cheeks.
“You are still in your first trimester, I would say based on my findings. But that shouldn’t be for much longer. Incidentally, that also means that your morning sickness should be subsiding quite soon as well.
I would still recommend that you avoid space travel for the next several months because of radiation exposure and other risks to your fetus.”
“Thank you, Doctor. You have just given me the best news that I have heard in quite a long time.”
“It was entirely my pleasure, Angela.”
Angela was practically floating when she returned back home and saw her husband there.
“Sweetheart, I just came back from the medical clinic with some incredible news. I’m pregnant!”
“That’s wonderful! But how can that be? Didn’t the doctors say that I couldn’t father a child after what was done to me during my captivity under the Truists?” An utterly amazed Jonathan asked.
“I know. But I guess that miracles do happen even out here far away from the rest of mankind. God certainly does work in mysterious ways. I just thank the Lord for this miracle in our lives.” Angela said as Jonathan wrapped her closely in his arms.
The next day, Jonathan and Angela went up to the station’s command center to see Alec. The command center was a beehive of activity as a result of the pre-mission planning going into the first major combat deployment of the Golden Phoenix and several of the newly acquired battlers.
Alec’s office was a room sat on a platform overlooking the rest of the command center. The walls of the room were normally transparent, but the ballistically protective material could be made completely opaque to viewers from the outside at the push of a button. When the couple arrived, they could see Alec looking at a large holodisplay of a star system that Jonathan thought looked somewhat familiar. When Jonathan and Angela announced their presence, Alec turned and quickly turned off the display before welcoming them inside.
“Jonathan and Angela, I am very pleased to see that you both survived your honeymoon.” Alec joked before continuing. “Obviously, you have something important that you want to talk to me about. Usually, you can’t get Angela pried out of the maintenance bays without the use of a prybar.”
“Well, Sir. I don’t know if you heard about this but Angela and I are going to be parents.”
“That is great news for both of you. But I have a feeling that there is much more to this than a mere announcement to the boss.”
“I’m afraid that you are right, Sir. The doctor has told Angela that she shouldn’t go on any space flights for a while in order to protect our unborn child. I would also like to stay here with her at the station to help her along. Obviously, this child is extraordinarily important to us since we were not expecting that we would ever have a child together.”
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t do that, Angela. I have enough people now that I can cover your shipboard duties adequately. Besides, I rather doubt that you will stay idle on this station for very long from what I have learned about you. You would go absolutely stir-crazy without something constructive to do.
Jonathan, I know that your insight on the many worlds of the Orion Arm is very valuable while we are deployed on operations. But, I’m sure that there is also sufficient work here that you can also do while you stay with Angela. I have to take care of my people. But more importantly, we have to take care of each other.” Alec explained before reaching out and embracing both Jonathan and Angela.
“Thank you, Sir. You don’t know just how much this means to both of us.” Angela said in a tearful voice.
“I’m sure that you will do your best to stay busy while you are grounded, Angela. But please be sure not to overdo it. When the Phoenix gets back from this operation, I want to hear about how well your unborn child is doing.”
“Of course, Sir.”
“Well, I need to finish working on this battle plan here. We will be leaving tomorrow morning for our next deployment. If you would please excuse me now.” Alec said with a pleasant smile.
Suddenly, Jonathan finally realized what Alec was looking at on his office holodisplay when he and Angela arrived earlier.
“That was the Kepler Colony Beta Prime star system that you were looking at when we arrived, wasn’t it, Sir?”
“Well, perhaps I can help you a little, if you don’t mind, Sir? I do have some familiarity with that particular system. Galactic Expeditions did some survey work of the system several years ago.” Jonathan asked.
“Of course, Jonathan. I can certainly use all of the help that I can get.” Alec quickly replied.
“Jonathan, I guess that I will see you later at home.” Angela said with a little wave of her hand, before turning to leave.
“Wait a second, Sweetheart.” Jonathan quickly said before taking a pair of steps towards his wife, holding her in his arms and kissing her.
“I love you.” He said with a loving smile on his face.
“I love you too, Jonathan.” Angela replied before they finally let go of each other so that she could leave to go home and he could begin to help Alec planning for the big mission.
As Angela left the station command center, she looked and saw the office holodisplay return to life while her husband and
Alec were already deep in discussion about what was being shown.
She understood. Her family was important to herself and Jonathan. But the larger family that encompassed the more than a thousand people now living and working inside of this hollowed out asteroid was also very important as well. Both Jonathan and Angela would have to be ready to make sacrifices for that larger family if necessary.
The next few days were a flurry of activity as the privateers prepared for the most extensive combat deployment that the MMG had ever conducted. As many of the residents boarded the ships that they would be fighting from, the rest of the station’s population prepared to continue necessary operations.
After the departure of Alec and his combat tender, Angela went up to the station command center to work during a late night shift where few, if any other, personnel were also there. With so many personnel gone on this very important mission, many of the remaining privateer personnel had to assume additional duties that they had not normally performed. For Angela, this included pulling watch duty at the command center a couple of times a week.
Angela stepped up to the main monitor immediately after she arrived and formally said, “Engineering Officer Angela Murrel reporting for watch duty.”
“Hello, Angela. How are you feeling today? I understand that you are expecting a child. I want to express my congratulation about you and your husband’s good fortune.” Joan, the station AI said warmly replied.
“I am doing very well, Joan. Thank you for your concern. My morning sickness has largely subsided now fortunately.”
“I am very pleased to hear this. You have been very helpful to Captain Martinson in his mission. My sisters and I are very appreciative of those people who have shown such value like yourself, your husband and other people like Colin Sampson.” Joan explained in her rich, cultured London accent.
“I have seldom seen an artificial intelligence that is as dedicated to a particular human being as yourself and the other AI’s here. Is that always a feature of the Libertad-designed AI’s?”