Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (27 page)

“The Corinairans are making remarkable progress on the miniaturized version of the jump drive, Captain,” Abby added. “They expect it will be ready for testing in another week or two.”

“If it works, we could make regular contact jumps,” Tug stated.

“Who would you send to the surface?” Nathan wondered.

“I would be the logical choice,” Jalea offered.

“She does have extensive experience in covert intelligence,” Tug pointed out. “And if there are still any Karuzari in the Savoy system, they will recognize Jalea and trust her.”

Nathan looked at Jessica, well aware of her distrust for Jalea.

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Jessica began, “it is a good idea. And it could turn out to be a really good idea, depending on what she learns.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nathan asked. “It sounds like it could be dangerous.”

“No more so than before, Captain. I will be fine.”

“How will we get you into the system?” Jessica asked.

“I can pose as an accountant for the Ta’Akar. They regularly send out investigators to keep their financial partners honest. I have used this ploy before with success.”

“Such investigators are known to catch rides on warships, Captain,” Ensign Willard pointed out. “It would not raise any suspicions if she were to accompany the team that would be going down to pick up the inductees from the garrison.”

“In fact, it would probably serve to strengthen her credibility,” Tug added.

“Ensign Willard,” Nathan said, changing the direction of the conversation, “have you talked to your shipmates?”

“Yes, Captain. Although few were willing to take on such risk, there were enough that felt it was a worthwhile endeavor. I believe they will perform acceptably.”

Nathan scanned the faces of everyone in attendance. “I have to admit that I was hesitant to take the risk before,” he explained. “However, if we can get boots on the ground and get some real intel, especially an early warning of trouble headed our way, it makes the risk that much more acceptable.” Nathan took one last look around the room, looking for any dissenting expressions. “Very well,” he continued, sensing no opposition to the idea. “We’ve only got four days left to pull this off, and we’ve got a bit of work to do. If we’re going to make this work, we need a plan. So let’s get started.”

* * *

Nathan’s eyes widened as he entered one of the many rehabilitation suites in the Aitkenna hospital. There, in the middle of the room, was his executive officer, Cameron. She was dressed in an exercise suit and had some sort of virtual reality equipment strapped to her head, with a long cable running from the headgear to the ceiling above. She was reaching out and grabbing at the air, over and over again, as if trying to catch flies. Nathan watched for several seconds, trying to suppress his laughter, until finally he could no longer control himself. “Oh, God, please,” he begged as he broke into semi-controlled laughter. “Tell me this is some kind of therapy, and that my XO hasn’t lost it.”

Cameron stopped the exercise cold, and placed her hands on her hips. “Drop dead… sir,” she responded as she waited for the technician to come and remove the device from her head.

“What were you trying to catch?” Nathan asked.

“Little floating balls,” Cameron answered.

“Why?”

“Hand-eye coordination testing, sir,” the technician answered as he removed the apparatus from Cameron’s head.

“Ah. Did she pass?”

“She always passes,” the technician assured him.

Cameron flashed a sarcastic smile at him. “What are you doing here?”

“I brought the bodies of the four crewmen I found in the bow. The Corinairans are going to store them in their morgue until we have a chance to arrange a burial ceremony.”

“You should have assigned that task to a junior officer, Nathan,” Cameron scolded.

“And miss all this?” Nathan teased. “Actually, I did. I just hitched a ride. I needed to talk to you.”

“About what?” Cameron inquired.

“Not here.”

A few minutes later they were back in Cameron’s room. As there was always a Corinari guard posted at the door, it was about as secure a location as they would find in the entire hospital on short notice.

“What’s going on, Nathan? Why all the secrecy?”

Nathan handed her his data pad. She pressed her thumb to the biometric scanning window on the device to unlock it. Other than himself, Cameron, Jessica, and Vladimir were the only other people that had access to his data pad. “What’s this, a mission brief?” she asked as she looked it over.

“Yeah, Jessica recommended we compartmentalize it—need to know and all that.”

“Jessica thinks there are already spies on our new crew?”

“No, Jessica thinks there are spies everywhere.”

Cameron’s eyes widened as she read the mission brief. “You’re going to masquerade as the Yamaro? Seriously?”

“It worked before,” Nathan commented.

“We were pretending to be a Volonese cargo ship that no one had ever
seen
before, Nathan. This is not the same thing, not by a long shot, and you know it.”

“Please, Commander, read on before you decide I’m a complete idiot,” Nathan urged.

Cameron flashed another smirk at Nathan as she continued reading. “Do you really think we’ll gain that much time if we pull this off?” she asked a few moments later.

“That’s exactly what I thought, until Jalea suggested that she could remain there to gather intel and make contact with any Karuzari hiding in the system. If we’re unsuccessful, at least she’ll be able to warn us.”

“That doesn’t necessarily make it worth the risk, Nathan.”

“No, you’re right; it doesn’t. But just putting Jalea on the ground there could be worth it. For all we know, word of what happened in the Darvano system may have already leaked out.”

“I thought the Corinairans said that no other comm-drones had been dispatched.”

“Yes, but in all the chaos, it
is
possible that they missed one. According to the logs that the Corinari gave Jessica, there were comm-drones leaving for various systems on a fairly regular basis. Most of them carried routine stuff: financial transactions, commodities reports, personal messages—that kind of thing. It would be nice to know if the closest system to Darvano still hasn’t heard of the events here. It would make us all breathe a little easier.”

“True, it might,” Cameron agreed as she read on. “So you really think you can trust this Willard guy?”

“He’s taking a bigger risk than any of us,” Nathan pointed out. “He’s guaranteed a swift execution as a mutineer if he’s apprehended by the Ta’Akar. If he was smart, he’d find a hole somewhere and hide.”

“Both Tug and Jessica are for this?”

“Yes, but more because it puts boots on the ground to gather intel. I’m not too sure Jessica’s happy about Jalea being the one wearing those boots, but she is the best person for the job.” Nathan noted the look of concern on Cameron’s face. “What is it?”

“I just wish I could be there.”

“Why? I wish I could stay here,” Nathan joked.

“Every time you guys jump away, I’m sure I’m going to be stuck here forever, waiting for the Ta’Akar to come and glass the planet.”

“How much longer do they want to keep you here?” Nathan asked.

“A few weeks at least,” she answered.

“Don’t worry,” Nathan assured her. “I’ll make sure Abby’s finger is on the jump button the entire time we’re in the Savoy system.” Nathan leaned back in his chair, taking a deep breath and changing the subject. “Now, enough about the Savoy mission. I’ve got a few other ideas I want to talk to you about.”

* * *

The Corinairan sun had set an hour ago, and the air had already taken on a chill, made colder still by the winds sweeping across the open grounds of the spaceport. Winter, it seemed, was coming earlier than usual this year. The spaceport was poorly lit this night. Damage to the city’s power generation facilities had made Aitkenna reliant on massive portable generators located throughout the city. Unfortunately, they were not enough to meet the normal demands of the burgeoning population of one of the planet’s largest cities. The spaceport alone had four dedicated generators running, and even that was not enough to light all areas at once.

The poor lighting was to their advantage, however, as no one wanted to advertise their presence at the spaceport. Ensign Willard had been dressed in a standard uniform from the Aurora, while the eight Corinairan volunteers from the Yamaro’s crew had been dressed in civilian attire prior to being smuggled out of the detention facility where the entire crew of the Takaran warship was being held. There were still those among the population of Aitkenna that might blame the crew of the Yamaro for the destruction rained down upon their city weeks ago. All had thought it best to avoid such problems.

“Attention on deck,” Ensign Willard announced as the captain approached the waiting shuttle.

“Ensign,” Nathan greeted as he approached, Sergeant Weatherly and his security detail following closely behind.

Ensign Willard snapped a salute, doing his best to keep up appearances as he tried to emulate the salute used by the crew of the Aurora. “The volunteers are ready for boarding, Captain.”

“Very good. As you were, gentlemen.” Nathan stopped and looked over the group of men, all members of the Yamaro’s crew, all of them also having fought to liberate the Aurora from the hands of the Ta’Akar. “I want to thank you all for volunteering for this mission. Each of you has already done more than your part. Ironically, all of you fired the first retaliatory shots on behalf of your home world. Yet, here you all stand, unrewarded, imprisoned on the very same world you risked your lives to protect. I’m sure you’ve all been told time and time again how it’s for your own safety.” Nathan looked them over once more. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have bought that either.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I cannot promise you your immediate freedom upon your return, nor the freedom of your shipmates. However, I can offer you a chance to work on the Yamaro as free men, or perhaps even on the Aurora as members of my crew. You will not be required to serve in either capacity, and you may choose to return to the detention center if you desire, until this conflict is over. The choice will be yours. But I promise you this much; you
will
have a choice, as will all of your shipmates. On this you have my word.”

There was no response from the volunteers as they stood at ease in a precise line, just as they had been trained by their former leaders, the Ta’Akar. A few hopeful glances were exchanged among them, but no words were spoken.

“Load them up, Ensign,” Nathan ordered. At the slightest of gestures from Sergeant Weatherly, two of his security detail went up the boarding ramp first, checking that the shuttle was secure.

“Gentlemen,” Ensign Willard began, “pick up your gear and board the shuttle single file, and move briskly to the rear. Leave the last two rows empty. Move out.”

The volunteers picked up the gear bags containing the Ta’Akar uniforms that had been taken from the Yamaro’s supply lockers. The armor and weapons they would need to complete the masquerade would be waiting for them aboard the two shuttles that had been taken from the Yamaro and were now sitting in the main hangar deck of the Aurora.

Nathan stood fast against the chilling wind as he watched the volunteers file up the boarding ramp. Sergeant Weatherly moved next to the captain, also watching the men as they boarded. “Those men are either really brave, or they really hate that detention center,” Nathan mused.

“They’re brave, sir,” the sergeant responded. “Trust me; I’ve fought alongside them.”

* * *

“Open space in one minute,” Loki reported.

“Threat board?” Nathan asked.

“Telemetry from Karuzara shows the system is clear, sir,” Jessica reported. “All traffic has been identified. No tracks in the area of Karuzara or Cleo.”

“Very good.”

“Thirty seconds to open space,” Loki updated.

Nathan watched the forward view screens as the last few hundred meters of the exit corridor from the Karuzara asteroid base slid past. It had been weeks since the Aurora had actually been out in space, and despite all the trouble they had run into since leaving Earth more than a month ago, it felt good to get underway again.

“Open space,” Loki announced.

“Switching to live scans,” Ensign Yosef reported.

“Helm, set course for Savoy and increase speed smoothly to ten percent light,” Nathan ordered.

“Aye, Captain,” Josh answered. “Changing course for Savoy. Coming up smoothly to ten percent light. Time to first jump point, ten minutes.”

“Very well,” Nathan confirmed. “Doctor Sorenson, our first jump will take us to just outside the Savoy system, correct?”

“Yes, sir. Twelve hours beyond the system’s heliopause, to be exact.”

“I’d like to linger there a bit before going in.”

“Yes, sir,” Abby answered.

“Captain?” Jessica started to question.

“I think it would be a good idea to take a series of long-range scans before heading into the system. Take a good, long look so we can verify that Ensign Willard’s recommendations are sound.”

Jessica looked quizzical. “You don’t trust him?” she asked.

“It’s not that I don’t trust him,” Nathan explained. “I just think it would be prudent to verify intelligence, even from a reliable source, before acting upon it.” When he did not get a response from Jessica, he turned his chair around to face her. “I’d expect that you of all people would agree.”

“Oh, I agree, sir,” Jessica was quick to say. “I’m just surprised to hear you say it.”

“What can I say? I guess being captain has made me more cautious.”

“That’ll be the day,” Jessica mumbled to herself as Nathan began to turn back around.

“Besides, Commander Taylor insisted on it,” he admitted. “Something about regulations.”

“Yeah, that makes a little more sense,” Jessica stated.

“Ensign Yosef, how much time will it take to get a detailed sweep of the system using passive sensors?” Nathan asked.