Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (5 page)

GAXOLA II

FLEET DESTROYER LYRE

SOL STANDARD 12/2

0131 HOURS

The Lyre was in orbit around Gaxola II.  The laws of physics said you were not supposed to push a destroyer that hard and still have it in one piece, but the Captain had and the Lyre was waiting to recover the platoon.

"Lieutenant Dasan Daniel Sand reporting.  Mission complete. We have a sled with the children.  They are all present and accounted for.  Request medics standby in the Bay."

"For the children?"

"Negative. For us."

All the members of the platoon had to be helped out of their ships.  Several troopers were taken directly to sickbay. Aijuba was among them. Campbell was unconscious and had to be extracted from his ship.  All would be fine with rest and care.

Two medics were helping Dasan into sickbay when the Captain walked up to him. 

"Lieutenant, your performance and that of your platoon
reflect the highest standards of the Legion.  I am putting you and your platoon in for awards for performance above and beyond the call of duty. I have also applied for an official battle designation. This combat will now be known as 83 Eastings and your platoon will be awarded a battle ribbon no one else in the Legion will be eligible to wear. "

The official designation for the battle was a significant addition to an officer's folder. It would put Dasan ahead of most other officers in the Legion in the next round of promotions.

"Thank you," Dasan said. But somehow all that recognition was not what was important. "I would like to see the children."

That was all that mattered to him now.  He had to see the children.  He could relax then, when he really knew they were safe. The two medics helped him to the sick bay where the children
were recovering from their ordeal. They had been taken out of status for exams. A number of children needed to be examined by doctors so they were taken to sickbay. They looked tired and scared but all were healthy and uninjured.  Some sat quietly; others ran and played amidst the medical equipment in sickbay.

Dasan saw Aijuba lying on a medical bed, up on one elbow. She was watching the children as they scurried about around her stretcher. She was quite a sight with her white blonde
Mohawk and service tattoos cascading down her face, smiling the soft smile a mother smiles as she watches her children.

The medics were helping Dasan toward a bed when a little blonde girl ran up to him.

She had huge gray eyes that seemed very serious now.

"Are you the man who saved us?"

Dasan tried to kneel down but started to fall.  The medics caught him, and then helped him to his knees so he was at eye level with the child.

"I was with a bunch of people who came to save you
," he said.

"Those were very scary things. You must be very brave."

Before Dasan could say anything the little girl handed him a small blue handkerchief.

"My mommy gave this to me. She said it would protect me from bad things. I think you need it more than I do."

Dasan started to say something but could find no words worthy of her sentiments. All he could think of were simple words of thanks.

"Thank you."

Their eyes met for a long moment and Dasan saw the gratitude in her eyes. She smiled and put her arms around his neck. That one look changed him forever.  He knew now what the sacrifice, the loneliness, and the physical toll had been about over the long years. In that single moment Dasan's life was defined for him, who he was, and what he was going to do with his life was decided.  It was the look in a little girl’s gray eyes and the feel of her small arms around his neck that made it clear. The gratitude for what he and the others had done now had a physical presence. Now he knew what the sacrifices of the past years meant; they meant a little girl with grey eyes would grow up.  She would have a life because of what he and his platoon had done. Dasan felt a satisfaction and pride he had never felt before, his life made sense now. His oath and what it meant was ingrained in him as never before. In that instant he became a professional warrior, willing to fight to protect all of the little girls with grey eyes from forces foreign and domestic as his oath had said. When the little girl was led away Dasan looked up, Aijuba watching him. Their eyes met and she gave him a crooked smile of understanding then lay back down on the stretcher.

GAXOLA II

FLEET DESTROYER LYRE

SOL STANDARD 11/13

1520 HOURS

It was a full twenty-four hours before the platoon could be properly debriefed. They all spent the night in the sick bay. Most, including Dasan, were given a regiment of Dearal and Udent to repair the damage the long patrol and the drugs had done to their circulatory system and hollow organs. The plasma they floated in during flight to protect their bodies from the tremendous g-forces, also took its toll on their bodies. The knife always cuts both ways. Given the extraordinary length of their mission, the damage could be permanent unless they were immediately treated.  Once they had rested and were finished with their treatments they were debriefed by the Intelligence Officer.

"You did not get all of the children."

"What!" Dasan said.

"Using the roster we have for Gaxola II the numbers do not match up. We debriefed the children as best we could. We think they got away with as many as a hundred and twenty children."

"We used the roster that was downloaded before the patrol."

"I know Lieutenant
, but we discovered there was a newer one, the one you had did not account for some new arrivals. We didn't receive it until a few hours ago."

"We had them. There weren't any more ships. I thought..."

The Intelligence Officer could only shrug her shoulders.

"God, why?"

"We have no idea."

After the debriefings Dasan brought the platoon together.  He saw to it that each man and woman had a red tear added to
his or her service cascade. Only then did he allow them to be put into status. He too, had a red teardrop added to his service cascade.

Then Dasan reported to the Captain's Quarters. He had decided he did not want to wake up a civilian. He had requested the career ceremony from the Captain. She was waiting for him in her dress uniform
and to her left stood Aijuba, also in her dress uniform. Her ribbons reached more than half way up her chest. Aijuba came to rigid attention.

"Lieutenant Dasan Daniel Sand reporting."

"At ease, Lieutenant. As you know I must ask you questions."

"You understand going career
means the minimum enlistment is twenty-five years? That does not include the time you have already served."

"
Yes, ma'am."

"You understand that at
the end of your first twenty-five year enlistment you can retire with full citizenship and voting rights, however the Confederation can require you to stay in at their convenience and for as long as they deem it necessary?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do you understand that you may be allowed to re-enlist at the end of your first twenty-five years for a full fifty year career? You will judged by your accomplishments and only those expected to rise to Flag rank will be allowed to re-enlist."

"Yes ma'am."

"You also understand that your enlistment can be terminated for cause by the Confederation at any point in your career?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Captain Lule looked very pleased as she recited the questions every career officer had to answer.

"Then it is with great pleasure I ask you raise your right hand and repeat after me."

Dasan came to rigid attention and raised his right hand.

"
I.. please say your full name."

"I Dasan Daniel Sand
."

"Of my own free will and without coercion
."

"Of my own free will and without coercion
."

"Do solemnly swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the Confederation against all enemies both foreign and domestic. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Confederation and will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which I am about to enter with my life should it be necessary. So help me God
. You may say your own religions’ God's name if you want," Captain Lule said.

Dasan repeated the oath.

"Then it is with great pleasure that I welcome you Lieutenant Sand to the career Legion service of the Confederation."

Captain Lule handed Dasan the career stripe he would wear on the sleeve of his uniform. Dasan took the stripe and saluted the Captain she smartly returned the salute. Dasan then turned to Aijuba and saluted. She returned the salute with the flourish that only old Legion
naries could carry off.  He returned the salute with a sense of pride and purpose he had not felt before.

The loss of the children would haunt Dasan for the rest of his life. It would haunt all of the human inhabited worlds for a much longer period of time.

Twenty-Five Years Later

LYTEN SYSTEM

ASTROID M51

LISTENING POST ALPHA

INDI WORMOLE ENTRANCE

SOL STANDARD 12/07

1200 HOURS

POST UNIFICATION YEAR 94

"I just did the last run. It is your turn," Olivia Tam said.

"That is not true. And you know it," Jamie Patlec said with a smile. He knew that Olivia was the Chief Technician for the station and he would complete the latest sensor sweep. It was his job, but he did like to give her some grief before he completed his assigned task. The only light in the room was from their displays and the large hologram that displayed their area of responsibility.

The two sat in the control room of the Listening Post Alpha. They were about to cross the path of the
Indi wormhole and it was their turn to run the sensors to check for any unauthorized vessels. M51 was an asteroid that had been mined, reaping several trillion dollars of iridium, palladium and rhodium by Ecomcon who then sold it to the Confederation. It was a sweet deal, Olivia thought and just where she hoped to land after her enlistment was up. With her qualifications she could land a mining job without much trouble and add a couple of zero's to her current pay. So she did not mind sitting the four week rotations on 51 because, very soon her enlistment in the Navy was going to pay off big time.

The Confederation used the mining tunnels left after the minerals had been removed
to build quarters for those who would man the listening post. Olivia and Jamie sat in a dome. It was the only part of the station above the asteroid’s surface; the rest of the station was below ground in the old mining tunnels. There were six of these stations in stationary orbit at the wormhole entrances in the Lyten System, ensuring each entrance would always be monitored. Alpha's job was to monitor the wormhole leading to the Indi system.  It was time to run a routine scan. No, traffic was scheduled so Jamie expected to find anything. No unscheduled traffic had been found in over fifty years and then it had been a tanker that had forgotten to get clearance for the wormhole transit. 

"You can be replaced you know," Olivia said.

"But the next guy would not be nearly as much fun as I am. You would miss me.'

Olivia arched an eyebrow at him.

"I doubt it," she said with some conviction.

Jamie smiled and turned to his screen. He keyed in the proper numbers and began to run through the sensor settings to be sure they were correct before he took his reading. Olivia glanced over at him. In spite of herself she found him attractive. He was a Ceti
, tall and blonde.  She usually did not like them, preferring the darkly handsome Groombridgers or her own breed, but he had a certain charm. He was her subordinate, but when you were stationed on an overgrown rock for weeks at a time, everyone begins to look good. What else was there to do on your off time? But she would have to think about him a little more before she decided if she was going to sleep with him during this rotation.

Jamie suddenly frowned as he worked through the sensor readings.

"Listen, you are not nearly as good looking as you think you are," Olivia said.

"I have multiple Tangos. Inbound our position."

Olivia's smirk suddenly disappeared.

"That is not funny," she said.

The blue and green of the sensors screens illuminated Jamie's face; he did not look like he was kidding. Olivia turned and glanced at her screens. It was filled with incoming, unidentified spacecraft spilling out of a wormhole portal.  She reached for the verification system on her screen. When she touched the screen the three-dimensional display in front of her blinked once rebooting then displayed the same number of incoming targets.

"
Ta ma de
!" Olivia said. "Who the
cao
are they?"

"I thought they were an unscheduled trading convoy or Task Force 7 returning
early but they did not come through the Indi wormhole."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at the position and readings, it's not the wormhole - it is almost A.U. away from Indi."

Olivia looked closely at the screen
and saw he was right. She had missed it in her surprise at the size and number of ships.

"Are we looking at a Krasnikov tube?" Jamie asked.

"A constructed wormhole? That is a hypothetical construct. I've only heard of them being built in a laboratory but they could only sustain the structure for a few seconds. Nobody has been able to construct one of any size, much less one that could provide a portal large enough for a military fleet."

"Well these guys either constructed something like that or they are appearing out of nowhere. Who are these guys?"

Jamie frantically worked his sensors as he tried to obtain details of the incoming targets.

"I've never seen a target this big. There are two now that are at least twice the size of a battleship. What could they be?"

"I don't know but designate the first as 3456 and the second as 2348."

"Check."

Jamie touched each on his screen and typed in the numbers that correlated to their relative positions to M51. More and more ships continued to pour out of the new wormhole. Close to a hundred vessels suddenly appeared out of nowhere in what appeared to be a fleet attack formation. This had to be an inbound attack fleet, but who and from where? More and larger craft continued to emerge from the new portal; ship after ship in perfect military formation. This was an attack. They had to be headed for the fleet anchorage on Rift.

Olivia glanced at the display. She was going to have to send a warning to Fleet Headquarters. She could not believe what she was seeing. Never had she imagined she would send an attack warning. She had never really considered that they might someday be attacked. It was beyond her imagination in spite of all her training. She reached for the console that would allow her to warn the Fleet Headquarters of the impending attack.

"Jamie, run the numbers of their present course and speed and give me an approximate ETA for their arrival at Rift."

As Jamie ran the numbers
, Olivia decided to estimate the types of vessels using size and positions of Confederation ships in a Task Force. It looked like more than twenty destroyers, at least eight battleships and then those two big targets, but what was puzzling were all of the other vessels that were tucked in behind the screening warships. She could not even guess at what those might have been.

That is when the door behind her burst open. Maeka
, another of the technicians at the station stood silently in the doorway.  Olivia, startled, spun around away from her displays. Maeka and Olivia were friends.

"Maeka
, what in the....."

She never finished her sentence. Olivia's head exploded into a fine red mist. Maeka turned the weapon in her hand onto Jamie. Jamie had just enough time to notice that she was covered in blood before she fired. It must be the blood of the rest of the personnel at the station
, was Jamie's last thought before she blew his head off.

Maeka calmly walked to the console and turned off the alarms.
She then walked over to the wall of the control center. With claws that came out of the ends of her fingers she tore a symbol into the wall. Satisfied, she walked over to Olivia's body and put her hand into the spreading pool of blood. She then pressed her bloody handprint on the wall next to the symbol.

She pulled a device from her pocket and attached it to the communications console.

"It is done."

"You are late."

"No, no alarm was given."

"Why the delay?"

"I was curious. I wanted to test a female. They are weak, not like us. I chose one I had bedded and tested her. It did not take long before she begged me to die but I continued the test. Humans are weak. We will not have a problem with them."

"Stop speaking that foul language and report properly."

"Sorry, it's has been a long time since I spoke our parent’s language."

She spoke a language no human had every heard into the communication console.  An inhuman sounding voice answered her. She walked to the airlock
compartment and changed into an exit suit. Then she opened the hatch to the asteroids surface and stepped into the airless wasteland of the tiny asteroid. She did not bother to close the airlock doors and the air in the station escaped the station in a hurricane rush.

Maeka walked away from the station and waited. Above her the attack fleet could now be seen with the naked eye. Ships moved
inexorability past the tiny asteroid toward Rift and the Fleet Anchorage, undetected because of Maeka's actions. A small landing ship separated from the fleet and landed close to Maeka.  She climbed aboard and the ship returned to the formation overhead. The device Maeka had placed on the communications console exploded destroying the tiny listening post.