Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier (7 page)

The new shield system was in, it wasn’t a major change, and
according to sensors I was right about the effects.  The new triple
shields were six times more powerful than the old ones.  It boggled my
mind that it could take sixty missiles, and they had to hit all within a
second, to destroy the ship.  I enabled the change for the command ship as
well and thought about bringing in the lab ship, we had nothing else in the
works really, until the next time I got a new project. 

Then I decided just to leave it there, it was a good
platform for a highly hazardous lab out there in the void for next time,
hopefully there would be a next time.

Strangely, with all that was happening that thought was
extra depressing.  I was back to just my admiral job, and keeping an eye
on my company.  Creating was a joy to me, and I had no idea when
inspiration would strike, or even just interest in investigating something
else.

“You look like someone shot your dog.  Let’s go home
tonight, relax, kick back.  Have you talked to Nathan lately?”

I looked at Kristi in surprise.  The idea of leaving
the ship right now hadn’t even occurred to me with what was going on, but I
supposed that was foolish, going home after my shift shouldn’t matter.

“I talked to him last night.  He won’t be eligible for
leave again for months, and he’s deployed right now.  Best case scenario
is I can visit him at the base when his current mission is completed.”

Kristi frowned, “That sucks.  But still.  Wine,
hot tub, wine, dinner, wine, really bad sci-fi moves on Netflix… in the hot
tub, and of course, wine.  Should take care of everything.”

I smiled despite myself, “Fine, after you doctor Wilder.”

Kristi waved her arm, “No, after you doctor princess Jones.”

I snorted, she was right, I needed to wind down.

The next
morning
I felt a lot
better.  I was also glad I was an alien, because Kristi had a massively
nasty hangover, we did overdo it a bit on the wine, and she looked absolutely
miserable as I flew the sports shuttle up to our ship.  Of course, being
her best friend I was very understanding.

“What a beautiful morning,” I said cheerfully.

She glared at me, “Damn aliens.”

I tried for innocent hurt, but completely failed as I
giggled.

“Sorry.”

She snorted, and then held her hand to her head as if it
hurt.

“Liar.”

When we entered the hangar, I saw an extra shuttle there,
and wondered what was going on.  I didn’t have long to wait once we got
out.

One of the marines said, “Miss Avdonin is in your office
ma’am.”

I sighed and nodded, suddenly not feeling the beauty of the
morning.  I knew I’d done a lot for Earth, and was by most a hero even if
that made me a little uncomfortable.  But I also knew politics was a bitch
sometimes.  This couldn’t possibly be good news.

Kristi even looked concerned past her misery.

When we got into my office, Nadia looked over with a smile that
didn’t reach her eyes.  She also didn’t look like she’d slept in days
which made me feel a little guilty.

Nadia said, “We need to talk off the record.”

I nodded as the butterflies in my stomach all took off.

“Al, discontinue recording in my office for the duration of
Nadia’s visit please.”

Nadia frowned, “It’s a mess.  A compromise was reached
last night, wheeling and dealing, politics,” she spat out the last word in
disgust.

“Okay, what’s the damage?”

Nadia sighed, “The Americans made an offer.  They offered
to foot the bill for all the upgrades you submitted, and pay for the lion’s
share of the remaining fleet, if the other six groups in the USFS would allow
them to colonize the new planet as an American territory, with the assurances
they wouldn’t seek another until the other six got a colony of their own.”

“I see, and the others went for this?”

Nadia shook her head, “Yes and no.  The other leaders
decided to wring more concessions for it, because of its value.  Most of
those don’t have anything to do with you, however, Russia made a demand that
directly affects you, and I wanted to tell you personally, before the orders
come in, which should be in about an hour.”

I had a really bad feeling, and Nadia confirmed my fears
with her next words.

Nadia said, “They demanded that their admiral, Sergei
Abramov become admiral of the fleet for the USFS.  So, we are cutting your
contract short,” she looked slightly ashamed, but I didn’t blame her.

I frowned, “I see, is there anything else?”

She nodded, “There was, at first it was planned to take this
ship, with payment of course, since you’ll be a civilian again and shouldn’t be
in command of a ship with weapons.  However, that was shot down.

“It seemed very ungrateful for all you’ve done.  You
have a special status for putting us in space, and protecting us once we got
there, that no other citizen will be allowed.”

I frowned, “That is appreciated, but seems… rather nice.”

Nadia barked a laugh, “Yes, there are other reasons,
although I would have been fine with just the one.  I really do hope we
can still be friends after today.”

I could feel her sincerity, but couldn’t do more than
nod.  I didn’t have many friends really.  Kristi was my best and
closest friend, and the others could be counted on one hand, and two of those
weren’t from Earth.  Point was, I couldn’t afford to throw them out.

She continued, “The other reasons are just as valid but more
selfish.  You have consistently come up with better, stronger, and faster
technology.  Letting you as they say in America, keep your toys, and play
making new ones, seems to be the course of wisdom for the planet.  The
last reason stemmed from fear as well as being selfish.  They felt you
would think it a slap in the face, and simply take your toys and go somewhere
else, or worse, sell them to the other races in the treaty.

“You will of course be removed from the command structure,
no more morning orders, reports, and all that.  But you won’t be cut out
of any systems.  Much like a security company has access to the buildings
they protect, you will have access to upgrade the ships, access to maintain the
new stealth sensor net, etc.  So I suppose if you get curious, you still
have access to raw data.  So consider yourself at this moment, a top
secret contractor to all the countries involved in the USFS.

“Of course, you may tell us to shove it, and go work in
Denver, and sell your ship.  But we all hope you won’t, or at least,
you’ll continue doing both.”

Sell my ship?  Not happening.  I would take care
of my company, but I wasn’t giving up space just because I wasn’t an admiral
anymore.  In fact, running a company, being an inventor, exploring new
things and ideas was all I wanted to do.  I never cared about the power I
had as admiral of fleet, it was a responsibility to protect the Earth.

I was so worried I would be fired, but now that it happened
I felt lighter, free in a way, like someone took a great weight off of my
shoulders.  Not all of it, I still felt a need to keep pushing the edge of
technology, just in case Earth did run into an enemy.

After all, the phrase
pinnacle of technology
was a
lie.  Nothing was unbeatable, and there was always more to learn, always
another impossibility to overcome.  I just hoped my best work wasn’t
behind me, most scientists didn’t get more than one or two breakthroughs a
lifetime, never mind as big as the two I had have been.

“Well, I won’t tell you no.  And yes, taking my ship
would have pissed me off.”

Nadia snickered.

“Anything else, or was that everything?”

Nadia shook her head, “Wasn’t that enough?”

I sighed, “I suppose it is.  I’ll wait for the orders
before I start the upgrade on the ships.  You want to get a peek at the
new planet?” I asked with a teasing lilt.

Nadia shook her head, “I can’t take off for the day, too busy. 
I need to be back down in an hour.”

I smiled, “But… I can have you there in five minutes. 
My wormhole generator came on line early this morning.  That’s a whole
fifty minutes of peeking.”

Nadia grinned, and this time, it reached her eyes. 
Somehow not losing her as a friend seemed like the best thing that happened to
me this morning.

“If you insist Alicia.”

So, we went to take a quick look, maybe getting back to just
the science was for the best anyway…

When the orders came through, I initiated the upgrade for
the fleet.  The upgrade was designed to not impact operations at
all.  For instance, in the case of the battle cruisers the eight new
plasma cannons would be in place and active, before the old eight were touched
at all, just in case we were attacked during the upgrade.  There were
other similar things going on to prevent any ship downtime.

However, I was aware that where humans are involved,
mistakes are possible, so I was doing half the fleet at a time, and of course,
all new ships would be built to the new specifications.  As I suspected,
the missiles wouldn’t be getting the triple shielding, but the attack shuttles
would.  Even on the older power sources, it would still triple the shield
power, so it was worth doing, and would make them more effective in battle.

Al reported, “A hundred ships, and admiral Sergei’s command
ship, just went to light speed.”

I frowned, “See if you can figure out what’s going on.”

I felt suddenly nervous, it wasn’t my problem anymore, but
it wasn’t easy to shut off.

Al said, “According to scanning data from the probes, three
of the systems in the old Knomen empire, all separate species, just sent a
combined six hundred ships toward the Knomen home world.”

I frowned, “ETA on enemy ships?” 

I knew our ships would get there in a day.  Half a day,
or immediately, when the upgrades were complete.

Al replied, “Thirty-two hours.”

I frowned, Sergei would have five to one odds against him,
with the twenty carriers stationed there.  But then, they’d have sixteen
hundred attack shuttles as well, not to mention Shield missiles, and a few
missile boats.  The upgrades wouldn’t be completely done, but the shields
would be, so they’d be at triple strength, but not yet at six times strength
when the dark energy reactor came online.  They’d only have the old plasma
cannons as well.  Still, whoever was attacking would most likely lose, as
long as they didn’t have any nasty surprises or new technologies.

Whoever they are, they are either out for revenge, or want
to ensure the Knomen can never rise again.

Al said, “New data coming in I think you might want to know
about.”

I shook my head, “What now?”

Al said, “The Seltans are gathering close to Leira, there
are close to a thousand ships present, and it looks like those numbers are
growing.  Fifty more ships have left Earth space at FTL, and I am
detecting several other small fleets from allies moving toward Leiran space.”

Holy crap.  I’d figured the Seltan were waiting until
something broke out here before trying to attack Leira again, but I had no idea
how closely they must have been watching to act so quickly.

“How many treaty ships.”

Al answered, “Including ours, twelve hundred and nineteen,
so far.”

I frowned, “Have all treaty worlds sent ships yet?”

Al said, “Yes.”

I tilted my head, “Then why the qualifier?”

Al was silent for a moment, “I estimated there was a
seventy-eight percent chance you would make the number twelve hundred and
twenty-one.”

Would I?  I did have my own fleet of two after
all.  That’s entirely crazy, I was a scientist.  I wasn’t even in the
damned military anymore, and I’d be crazy to get involved.  Kristi had
been oddly silent on the other side of the room.

I smiled, “Kristi, want to go pick a fight?”

Kristi giggled, “Okay.  But we should’ve built our
death star first.”

I shook my head in bewilderment, “Death star?”

Kristi laughed, “You don’t remember?  Last night when
we got really drunk on wine.  Something about thousands of plasma turrets,
and eight levels of shielding, a huge ship half the size of the moon powered by
a dark energy reactor.  Full of millions of anti-FTL missiles,
Shield
missiles, and attack shuttles controlled by
A.I.  You even talked about a city, and farms.  It was a completely
self-sufficient world in and of itself.  I thought you might wind up
conquering the universe, but you passed out in the middle of Empire Strikes
Back instead.”

I… didn’t remember that at all.  No juggernaut ships
for me, but apparently I hadn’t forgotten the concept, it had even grown. 
I shook my head, hopefully she was just getting me back, for me teasing her
this morning about the hangover.  Surely I didn’t really… I shook my head,
again.

“Al, go ahead and follow the ships heading to Leira, slow
down and match after we catch up.”

Al said, “Engaged.”

Kristi’s eyes widened, “Oh.
My
.
Goodness.  Did your A.I. just reference and make fun of star trek?”

Al asked, “Was it not amusing?”

I laughed, “Yes, a little.”  Just a little shocking as
well…

The hundred ship Earth fleet heading to Knomen would get
there eight hours before the enemy fleet.  Eight hours after that, the
attack would start.  And we and the other fifty Earth ships, would still
have at least a day to get to Leira.  With the updated ships, I could get
there before that happened, hell, I could be there now.  But I wasn’t
going to face a thousand plus Seltan ships with only the Leiran ships there, of
which there was an impressive four hundred of right now.

The Seltan ships were still showing up, gathering at the
edge of sensor range, and were in excess of that twelve hundred ships we would
have.  With the fifty Earth battle cruisers, we would have a thousand
attack shuttles, along with three thousand Shield missiles, plus whatever
emplacements the Leirans had, but if the Seltan kept building up I wasn’t sure
even that was enough.

I had a feeling they would attack the same time the Knomen
were hit, though I’m not sure why I had that impression.  Either way, we
would be late as well.  I didn’t like that concept at all.

“Al, what is the most efficient rendezvous point for all the
ships that won’t get to Leira before the Knomen battle starts?”

Al was silent for a second, “I assume you mean all the ships
from our side of the Knomen, all the ones past Knomen will reach Leira in that
time frame, four hundred and fifty ships.  The last three fifty will
arrive late as they live on our side of the old Knomen empire.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean, what’s the most efficient
rendezvous point for those three hundred and fifty ships?”

Al replied, “Just past the Knomen home world.  Some of
the races are past the Knomen world already, but so much slower than even our
old ships, that it would be faster if they turned around and came back.”

I nodded.  I also hoped Earth wouldn’t be mad at me for
revealing the tech already.  I compiled a message to those three hundred
and fifty ships, with instructions to meet us and where, and I’d open a
wormhole to get them the rest of the distance.  I just hoped we had that
long, if I was wrong about the Seltan’s intentions it would be bad, they could
attack sooner after all.  Even now.

I sent the message.  I wondered for a moment, if any of
the other races would even believe me.  Or worse, fear me for once again
throwing the galaxy’s balance of power out of alignment.

Al said, “You have an incoming message from vice admiral
Anthony Flores.  Apparently he is now the admiral over exploratory
fleet.  Upper admiral Kara Barnes was promoted to vice admiral home
fleet.”

That made sense, they’d need to once they promoted Sergei to
fleet admiral.

“Answer it.”

Anthony said, “What are you doing?”

I smiled, “Hi Anthony, well the board left me my toys, so
I’m getting ready to hit the playground.”

Anthony replied, “Are you insane?  This isn’t a game.”

I sighed, “Of course it isn’t.  You should know me
better by now, banter is stress relief.  Did you sit on a stick or
something?”

Anthony sighed, “Fine, but what about that message you
sent?”

I didn’t know quite how to answer him.

“A gut feeling, that we won’t make it in time
otherwise.  I’m probably wrong, but if we can get there faster, we
should.  Don’t tell me you wouldn’t already be there if the upgrades were
finished.”

He grunted, “Fine, but be careful.  You’re too
important to Earth, and our future, to throw yourself away in a skirmish. 
Especially now that you don’t even have the responsibility as admiral of
fleet.  That said, I can’t order you, I can only ask you.  Watch your
ass out there.”

Was I crazy?  Why did I feel the need to do this
really?  Was it the adrenaline rush, was I a danger junkie now?  I
didn’t think so, although I’d be hard pressed to completely deny it, but it was
more than that as well.  It was the same reason I said yes to fight in the
first place, to protect my adopted home, and now everyone that was a part of
the treaty.

To prove I wasn’t like the rest of my people.

Was that shallow and stupid?  I didn’t know, but I knew
I couldn’t just sit back, especially when for the next couple of days, as I had
the two most powerful ships in the known galaxy under my command.

I said grudgingly, “I’m not going to play hero, or martyr,
but I won’t sit it out either.  Jones out.”

It was the truth too.  I had Kristi with me, I would
never sacrifice myself in an empty gesture, and I sure as hell wouldn’t
sacrifice my best friend…