Ep.#4 - "Freedom's Dawn" (The Frontiers Saga) (25 page)

They were led through a doorway that opened onto the mezzanine level overlooking the main operations center. Below, there were three large display screens, each reaching from waist high to the ceiling, more than two floors, and were at least twice as wide as they were high. While the center display showed whatever video feed was the most critical at the moment, the massive displays on either side showed maps: one of the nation of Hakai, the other of its capital, the city of Aitkenna. Each map was littered with color coded dots. Most of them were a combination of dots: brown, orange, and red. The red dots sat mostly at the center of the larger orange ones, which in turn sat somewhat near the center of the still larger brown ones. The dots overlaid on the map of Aitkenna were much larger than the ones overlaid on the map of Hakai.

As they walked over to one side of the mezzanine, Nathan could see the rows of consoles and the workers manning them on the ground level below. In addition, there were numerous additional workers, possibly higher ranking personnel than the operators, moving furiously back and forth as they checked on the subordinates they were responsible for overseeing.

The mezzanine level was similar in layout, but with only a single row of four consoles and their operators, along with one control officer. The Prime Minister stood behind the technicians at their consoles instead of being seated in the row of overstuffed chairs arranged on a small raised platform behind them. The platform reminded Nathan of the command platform back on the bridge of the Aurora, where both his command chair and the tactical station were situated.

“Those must be where the bombs hit,” Jessica said, nodding toward the map of Aitkenna.

“What, the red dots?” Nathan asked. “What are the orange and brown ones, fallout?”

“My guess, red for impact, orange for blast radius, and brown… fallout maybe? Or shock wave damage?”

The Prime Minister was obviously very upset at something that one of his aides was telling him. There was a lot of shouting going on, and Nathan got the impression that something wasn’t going as expected. He noticed that Tug and Jalea were both listening intently to the exchange between the Prime Minister and his aides.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked. “What’s he so pissed about?”

“It seems that several of their missile bases are no longer under their control,” Tug explained. “The Prime Minister is demanding to know how missile bases could be so easily compromised.”

“A good question,” Jessica said, a mixture of sarcasm and accusation in her tone.

Another demand from the Prime Minister resulted in video footage being displayed on the main center display screen. The image was the view from a security camera at one of the missile installations.

“What is that?” Nathan asked Tug.

“I believe it is from one of the missile bases.”

The image showed the brightly lit main gate of the facility. There was a sudden flash of blue-white light near one of the gun turrets, after which the image went dark. A few moments later the camera view switched to night vision, showing surrealistic green-hued images. A vehicle suddenly burst through the main gate, exploded a few seconds later, and caused the view from the camera to switch off.

“Whoa,” Jessica muttered. “Nothing subtle about that.”

“Why did everything just turn off?” Nathan asked. “The lights I mean…”

“I do not know,” Tug said, contemplating the cause.

The view was replaced by a feed from another camera. The image also showed the main gate, or where the main gate had once been. Now it was only a black shallow crater covered with puddles of melted fencing and debris, much of which was still burning. At least a dozen men came charging into view in a loose unorganized fashion. They were obviously civilians, evidenced by their clothing and mixed assortment of weapons, as well as the chaotic method in which they fought. Their numbers and their fire power, however, were obviously enough to overwhelm the guards who had been depending on the automated turrets to protect them against such an attack. The bolts of energy danced back and forth between the two sides, with the majority of the fire coming from the civilian attackers. The firefight was over in less than a minute, and the civilians disappeared into the buildings of the missile complex.

“I believe this was recorded only minutes ago,” Tug theorized.

“It was like someone just turned everything off right before they attacked,” Jessica said.

“Captain,” Tug began. He was deliberately speaking in hushed tones to avoid being overheard, despite the fact that most of the people around them did not speak Angla. “All of the missile bases were provided by the Ta’Akar as part of the defense structure that they put in place when the original Corinairan military complex was dismantled. As I said earlier, the bases were meant to defend Corinair against unknown aggressors until such time as the Ta’Akar arrived to defend them. If these bases are being taken offline at the moment they are attacked, it is likely being done by Ta’Akar agents operating on the planet.”

“You’re saying they have back doors built into the Corinairan systems,” Jessica said.

“Back doors?”

“A secret way to remotely access and take control of a system,” Nathan explained, “one that is usually unknown to the owners of the system.”

“Precisely. All Corinairan military assets are required to have such override capabilities available for use by the Ta’Akar. These are known and tolerated by the Corinairans. But we have always suspected that all Ta’Akar systems have such hidden access channels. This is one of the reasons we always overhauled any systems we liberated from the Ta’Akar,” Tug explained, “to remove the ‘back doors’
as you call them
.
”

“Something else is happening,” Jessica said, pointing toward the main display screen once again.

A different video feed was coming in. At first it was from a single source—a shaky, fairly dark image, lit only by the flicker of burning debris and the frequent blasts from energy weapons. The blasts appeared to be coming from men atop armored vehicles. Soon, the single image was joined by three others. They appeared to be coming from handheld cameras carried by either reporters or civilians. The images were being sent live across the planetary network for all to see.

“Is this live?” Nathan asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” Tug agreed.

“How can that be?” Jessica asked. “Most of this city is in ruins. How can their network still be functioning?”

“The networks of Corinair,” Jalea explained, “just as on most worlds, are quite robust. They are a combination of underground hardlines, ground based wireless, and satellite based networks. It is highly unlikely that all 3 networks would be completely taken down by any attack. At most, there might be additional latencies wherever the hardlines were down and either wireless or satellite based networks had to take over.”

“Captain,” Jessica wondered, “are those armored personnel carriers?”

“Those are Corinairan troops,” Nathan realized. “They’re fighting with their own citizens?”

One of the feeds was being provided by a news reporter on the scene, who was narrating over the video footage being transmitted.

“The reporter is saying the crowds are composed of Karuzari.” Jalea listened intently before continuing her translation. “They are intent on seizing control of military assets in order to reinvigorate their movement.” Jalea turned to look at Nathan. “Captain, Hakai is predominantly composed of Loyalists. Of this I am quite certain. The Karuzari would not be present in this area.”

“Yes, they would probably be hiding in Melentor,” Tug agreed.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Nathan declared.

Nathan watched in horror as the angry mob managed to reach up and grab soldiers, pulling them down off the vehicle into the crowd where they were savagely beaten.

The Prime Minister was furious, barking orders at his aides and the military leaders nearest him.

An image flashed across the screen. A symbol of some kind. It was on a banner being waived by several men.

“What was that?” Nathan asked.

“It is the symbol of the Karuzari,” Jalea admitted.

“Captain,” Tug began, pulling Nathan back away from the guards in order to hide their conversation, “this is not as it seems. It is a ruse; I am sure of it.”

“How can you be sure?” Nathan asked. “I mean, look at it,” he said, pointing toward the screen.

“Captain, too many factors do not add up.”

“Such as?”

“First, as Jalea said, the Karuzari would not
hide
amongst Loyalists; it is unsafe. Second, the Corinari are extremely competent warriors. The members of their military serve for life. What they lack in equipment and weapons, they make up for in training and expertise. You saw the way those soldiers in the video were firing—blindly, and mostly over the heads of the crowd. Even local security forces are more effective.”

“Maybe they were just trying to scare them?” Nathan surmised.

“The Corinari do not use their weapons to scare, Captain. They use them to kill. They do not pull them unless that is their intent. Those impostors were pulled from their vehicles like frightened school children.”

“Yeah, considering how much firepower they had to be carrying, it doesn’t seem like it should be that easy, does it?”

“And finally, the strategy does not follow the edicts of the Karuzari. We do not attack missile bases, especially those not operated by the Ta’Akar. And we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. These people are killing indiscriminately. That is not our way; believe me.”

A Corinari guard standing just within earshot overheard Tug’s comments and quickly drew his weapon and aimed it at Tug. “DO NOT MOVE!” he ordered in perfect Angla.

Jessica was standing a step back from Nathan and somewhat in between Tug and the armed guard. Her left arm instinctively shot out and up, knocking the guards gun upward. An instant later, her right hand swung across, striking the guard hard in the abdomen and causing him to double over slightly, but not as much as she had hoped. The guard’s arms swung upward as a result of Jessica’s blow, his left hand coming free from the weapon still held by his right hand. His torso straightened and his head turned to the right just in time to evade Jessica’s upward thrust with her right hand. He spun around to his right, pivoting on his right foot as his body coiled down into a crouching position. As he came around, his left foot shot out and swept at Jessica’s legs, taking them out from under her.

Jessica landed squarely on her back and found herself looking up into the barrel of the guard’s energy weapon as he held it in both hands, his arms extended forward and down at her as he stood in a half squat over her. “Damn,” she commented, surprised by the guard’s speed and expertise.

At the same time, every other guard in the command center around them also drew their weapons. Several of them moved in front of the Prime Minister in order to shield him from attack. The rest of the guards moved quickly in a highly trained fashion into combat positions.

Nathan’s hands immediately went up when he realized every weapon in the room was trained on them. His mouth hung open as well, as he had never seen anyone get the drop on Jessica in such a manner. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he cried out. “Don’t shoot!”

The senior officer in the room began barking orders in Corinairan. The guard that had first pulled his weapon was being asked his reasons for taking such actions. That much Nathan was sure of even though he couldn’t understand what they were saying. However, when the guard’s answer included the word
Karuzari
, a sinking feeling hit him in the gut.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked calmly of Tug.

“I’m afraid the guard speaks Angla,” Tug admitted. “He is telling his commander that we are members of the Karuzari.”

“Great,” Nathan muttered. More words were being exchanged between the officer in charge, the Prime Minister, and his aide.

“Is this true, Captain?” the Prime Minister’s aide asked. “Are you Karuzari?”

“No, we are not,” Nathan answered without hesitation.

The aide looked at Tug and Jalea. “And your
guides
, are
they
Karuzari?”

This time Nathan hesitated, looking to Tug for any indication of how to answer the question.

“Yes, we are,” Tug admitted.

With a flick of the wrist from the Corinairan officer in charge, the guards moved in and grabbed Tug, Jalea, and Nathan. Two more moved over and picked Jessica up off the floor.

“This one,” said the guard that had taken down Jessica. He moved closer to Tug. “He spoke of the Karuzari as if he were one of them.”

“And you were aware of their affiliations, Captain?” the aide questioned.

“Not at first, no,” Nathan tried to explain.

“But you knew they were Karuzari when you brought them here, to Corinair, did you not?”

Nathan knew that there would be little use in lying to them at this point. “Yes, I did. But the Karuzari are no threat to you.”

The aide translated back to the Prime Minister, whose response was neither a short nor happy one.

“Perhaps you are not the hero of legend the Followers of the Order believe you to be, Captain,” the aide translated back for the Prime Minister. “Perhaps you are, instead, the cause of our ultimate demise.”

Nathan looked confused. “Excuse me?”

“These people are undoubtedly the reason the Ta’Akar have attacked us,” the aide continued. “They mean to punish us for harboring them.”

“How would they even know the Karuzari were here?” Nathan asked. “The Ta’Akar came for us. They contacted me and asked us to join forces with them—”

“Captain—” Jessica interrupted from her position on the floor.

“When I refused, they attacked your world,” he said, ignoring Jessica’s protestations, “hoping that, instead of jumping away, I would stay and defend Corinair.”

“It’s exactly as the legend says—” Jalea tried to slip in.

“No, it’s not,” Nathan disagreed. “We’re not here because of some legend, and I’m not some kind of hero. Hell, I’m not even supposed to be the captain.”