Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (21 page)

Jessica placed her data pad on the table in front and looked straight ahead at the applicant. “One last question, Mister Dumar,” she said. “Can you ship out this afternoon?”

* * *

“I will meet you at the spaceport, sir,” Chief Montrose promised Jessica before he turned and exited Cameron’s hospital room.

“Thank you, Chief,” Cameron said as the door closed behind him.

“He’s an interesting type,” Jessica commented as she plopped down on Cameron’s couch. Corinairan hospitals were more like the hotel rooms back on Earth than the hospital rooms she had seen. The Corinairan medical community believed that healing was as much a psychological process as it was a physical one. To that end, most of the rooms were made to be as comfortable as possible. In fact, a lot of the long-term care on Corinair was done in the patient’s home rather than in a hospital. But the nanites still coursing throughout Commander Taylor’s body required periodic monitoring and reprogramming which, although not impossible, was difficult to accomplish away from advanced care facilities.

“The chief’s a good man,” Cameron insisted as she sat down and lay back against the inclined head of her bed.

“He sure keeps a close eye on you, that’s for sure,” Jessica commented.

“Yeah, sometimes he’s worse than my father, but he’s been a big help,” Cameron admitted. “I doubt I could have gotten through all those interviews without him. He sorted through the weaker applicants all on his own, cutting thousands in a matter of days. He is very dedicated. The scary part is he really believes that we, or more specifically
Na-tan
, will defeat the Ta’Akar.”

“What, you don’t?”

“Let’s just say I’m not as confident about Nathan’s abilities as everyone else seems to be.” Cameron sighed, relieved to finally be done with her responsibilities for the day and be able to relax. “These people don’t know Nathan like we do.”

“I don’t know, Cam,” Jessica argued. “He’s changed a lot in the past week.”

“How so?”

“Well, for one, he’s acting all captain-like,” Jessica said. “Hell, he’s even got us saluting him—at least in public.”

“Really?”

“Don’t get me wrong; I mean, he’s still Nathan, you know? He’s just different.”

“Different how?”

“I don’t know,” Jessica said. “It’s like he’s thinking about things more, instead of just making it up as he goes.”

“You think he’s finally taking things more seriously?” Cameron asked in disbelief.

“Maybe, or maybe it’s just because nobody’s tried to kill us for a while,” Jessica admitted. “Either way, he’s behaving more like a captain than
I
ever would have expected.”

“Let’s just hope it lasts,” Cameron stated.

“So what about you?” Jessica asked. “When are you getting out of here?”

“Still a few weeks, as I understand it. As long as I’ve got these nanites swimming around inside of me, I can’t be away from the hospital for more than a few hours at a time, or the buggers start doing something they’re not supposed to do.”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted in frustration. “All I
do
know is they have to check my progress and update the nanite programming every few hours.”

“Well, when do they take those things out of you?”

“They’re already coming out of me,” Cameron explained. “When one of them finishes their assigned task or gets low on energy, they head for my kidneys to make their exit.”

“Jeez, it’s just creepy, the thought of having millions of those things inside of you, knitting away at your insides.” Jessica shuddered at the thought. “What does it feel like, anyway?”

“Most of the time you don’t feel it, at least not like before,” Cameron explained. “When I first woke up, it was awful. It was like I was being poked with a million tiny needles from the inside. If it wasn’t for the pain meds, I would’ve freaked. Now, it’s just an occasional shooting pain here and there.”

“Are you still on the pain meds?”

“No, not for a few days now.”

“How are you sleeping?” Jessica asked. There was a pause, a long one. Jessica knew what it meant, as most of the crew had experienced some difficulty sleeping due to the events they had lived through. And Cameron had been through more than most.

“Not too bad,” she said in a less than convincing fashion. “Some nights are better than others.”

Another long pause told Jessica that it wasn’t an issue to be pushed. “Well, just hurry up and get well,” she told Cameron. “We’ve got a whole new crew to train, and if we leave it all up to Nathan and Vlad, we’ll have a ship full of idiots.”

Cameron smiled ever so slightly through her fatigued expression.

“I’ve got three hours until I’ve got to head back,” Jessica stated, trying to change the subject. “How’s the room service in this joint?”

* * *

Decades of training and experience had made it impossible for Travon Dumar to sit in a confined space with anyone sitting behind him. From the back of the shuttle’s main cabin, he felt more at ease, as he could easily keep an eye on everyone aboard.

He was on the first of two shuttles heading for Karuzara where the Aurora was docked. Between the two shuttles there were one hundred volunteers. When combined with the surviving members of the Aurora’s original crew, the ship would have nearly two full shifts available. There were two more waves of volunteers due over the next two weeks as well, after which the ship would be fully staffed.

Training would undoubtedly be difficult, as time was short. Everyone knew that the Ta’Akar kept irregular patrol schedules so as to keep their subjects better in line. He looked over the rows of volunteers in front of him, noticing every type imaginable. They had come from all walks of life, with different skills and experience. Many of them had served aboard Ta’Akar ships during their mandatory service, but even more had not. He wondered if either had an advantage over the other, as he had no idea how different these people from Earth might run their military vessels.

The people of Corinair had a long history of being a proud, strong-willed people. Their strength and courage had earned them considerable respect from the field commanders of the Ta’Akar Empire during the invasion of the Darvano system over thirty years ago. However, nearly two generations and several decades of incessant brainwashing by Ta’Akar propagandists had bred much of the fight out of them. He could only wonder if these volunteers had what it took to stand up against the ruthless dictatorship that was the Ta’Akar.

Travon Dumar had no love for the empire. He had lost that long ago. He also had no expectations of returning safely to Corinair. He had sent his family away to the safety of a mountain retreat only he had known about. There was ample wealth to see to their needs, and from that location, they might even survive should the Ta’Akar achieve their goal and fully occupy the planet.

He had disbanded his unit and destroyed all evidence of its existence. The fires that had consumed it would be attributed to just another of the many conflagrations that had been burning in Aitkenna for days on end after the Yamaro had attacked the planet. He had even murdered the only other person who knew the secret he now carried with him. He had no plan, no idea, what he was going to do once he got to the Aurora, aside from one goal—find Redmond Tugwell.

The shuttle passed through the tunnel leading into the Karuzari asteroid with ease. The idea seemed so simple as to be considered genius. The belt was littered with such hollowed out shells, all waiting for their turn to be de-orbited and sent to a new orbit high above Corinair where their remains would be broken up and completely harvested once and for all. It was also somewhat embarrassing that the Karuzari had managed to establish this base under his very nose. He had searched his memory for days on end when he had heard the news of the secret Karuzari asteroid base, and he could not find a single clue he might have overlooked. These Karuzari were not stupid; of this he was sure. After all, they had managed to fight a guerrilla war for three decades and had reduced the strength of their enemy by more than half. It had been an accidental bit of intelligence that had led the Campaglia to the Taroa system, where they would have squashed the rebellion once and for all, had it not been for the Aurora.

Travon Dumar had taken his posting in the Darvano system in order to remove himself from the corruption and nepotism of the regime of Caius the Great. Yet here he was, about to be thrust into the middle of a struggle that could ultimately decide the very fate of the empire. He neither wanted to be here, nor could he walk away; that was the irony of the situation.

He looked out the window of the shuttle as the tunnel walls gave way, widening into a vast inner cavern. A minute later, he could barely make out the gray and white shape of the Aurora moored at the Karuzara docks in the middle of the lower half of the cavern. He looked in amazement at the ship as her back half, obviously the main propulsion section, passed beneath them and slid to their aft. The ship didn't look terribly different from any other he had seen. She had rather smooth lines, punctuated by various protuberances here and there, as well as the seams between outer hull plates.

The main propulsion section seemed to drop away suddenly and the shuttle fired her thrusters to initiate a rapid change in altitude in relation to the ship below her. Travon put his face to the small window, straining to look forward along the curve of the shuttle’s hull to see the ship they were about to land on. A deck, an apron of some sort, with markings meant to assist the pilot in lining his ship up for a safe landing, were painted on the deck below. Lights inside the lines were flashing in a sequential pattern, moving from the aft end of the apron forward, shifting closer to the center line as they progressed. The shuttle fired more maneuvering thrusters, rolling slightly from side to side and yawing to starboard, then finally sliding laterally until she came to rest on the exterior landing apron of the Aurora. The shuttle shook slightly as the ship touched down. There was obviously a bit of gravity generated on the deck in order to make it easier for the pilots to keep their ships on the deck while rolling forward. As they rolled in under the aft canopy, he could feel the gravity increasing until it was at a level close to normal. He wondered what normal gravity was for the people of Earth. For that matter, had they chosen to use their normal level of gravity, or a level that was normal for the Corinairans who would be filling out the Aurora’s crew roster?

The brightness of the lights outside the shuttle increased as it rolled inside the center transfer airlock. The lighting in the main cavern of Karuzara had been somewhat dim, but adequate for navigation. Here, however, they appeared to prefer much more light.

As the shuttle rolled to a stop inside the transfer airlock, Lieutenant Commander Nash stood at the front of the cabin and turned back toward the passengers. “May I have your attention,” she ordered. A quiet quickly fell over the cabin, the sound of the ventilation fans inside the cabin being the only sound left. “As soon as the airlock pressurizes, a Corinari inspection team will come aboard and perform a security check. Please have all ID chips, bio-scan info cards, and personal belongings ready for inspection. If you do not cooperate you will be forcibly detained, and I do mean forcibly. Is that understood?” Before anyone in the cabin could answer incorrectly, the Lieutenant Commander continued. “The correct answer would be, ‘Yes, sir.’” She looked them over again. “Is that understood?”

Everyone in the cabin responded with a resounding, “Yes, sir!”

“Very good,” she told them. “Remain in your seats until your name is called. When you hear your name, remove your bag from under your seat and step forward. As the guards clear you, exit the shuttle and form up outside in the transfer airlock. Once the shuttle and passengers have been cleared, the inner doors will open. Is that understood?”

Again the group answered, “Yes, sir,” together as one.

Travon Dumar smiled. He recognized Corinari security procedures when he saw them. He wondered how much of this was their idea and how much of it was on the orders of Lieutenant Commander Nash. Again, the idea amused him. He peered out his window again as the outer door of the transfer airlock slammed shut. The lighting in the transfer airlock suddenly became a pale blue, with green strobe lights flashing on the walls. A similar method was used on Ta’Akar ships to indicate that an airlock was currently re-pressurizing—yet another similarity between their peoples. As the pressure in the airlock increased, so did the audible hiss of the air being pumped into the room. At first, it was barely audible over the sound of the internal ventilation fans as well as the excited voices of the volunteers as they chatted amongst themselves in anticipation of what lay ahead. But within minutes the hiss was quite distinct, if one was listening for it.

A few minutes later, the hissing outside the shuttle stopped and the lighting changed from pale blue to a clean amber white light that was distributed evenly throughout the airlock. The green strobe lights had also stopped flashing. A small door opened in the main inner airlock door, and a column of ten heavily armed Corinari troops entered the airlock, followed by a sergeant carrying a data pad. The small door instantly closed after the sergeant entered. Moments later, two of the guards and the sergeant cracked open the hatch to the shuttle and stepped inside to begin the inspection.

* * *

“Attention on deck!” Jessica called out as she entered the room just behind the captain. Everyone in the room immediately stood at attention as Nathan stepped up onto the stage and took the podium. “At ease,” he announced. He looked to his left at Chief Montrose who had entered behind him. “Good evening, everyone. I’m Captain Nathan Scott, commander of the UES Aurora. For those few of you who do not speak Angla, Chief Montrose will be translating.”

Nathan paused for a moment as he looked around the room. The majority of the volunteers were male, by appearances between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, with a few older ones scattered about. There looked to be a handful of women as well, most of which seemed a bit younger. The average age of the volunteers surprised him, as most of the new cadets coming out of the three fleet academies back on Earth were in their mid twenties. He himself had been one of the oldest cadets in his class, having completed his graduate work before pursuing a commission in the Earth Defense Fleet.