Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) (36 page)

“Staging platform is free floating and stationary,” Ensign Yosef reported. “The Aurora is launching her jump shuttles.”

“Very well.” Cameron could feel her nerves tingling. She was both excited and nervous. Running the operation was a huge responsibility, one that she felt ready to perform. Despite the fact that the local field commanders would be making their own decisions for the most part, they were all counting on her to not only keep them properly informed, but also to make recommendations based on the
big picture
to which only she was privy.

Cameron’s mind wandered momentarily back to the Fleet Academy and its myriad of training simulations. They had thrown every conceivable challenge at the cadets, and after passing them time and time again, Cameron remembered feeling like she was ready for anything fate could throw at her. She realized now that she had been wrong.

* * *

“Senior Chief,” Nathan said as he approached Marcus.

“Yes, sir,” Marcus answered, turning away from the technician he had been talking with as the young man departed to tend to his duties.

“Nice work you did with the staging platform.”

“Thank you, sir. Just making do with what we got,” Marcus stated. “Could’ve used a few more toilets, what with fifteen hundred men being crammed in there.”

“None of them will be in there for more than an hour.”

“Let’s hope,” Marcus added, knowing full well that so many things could go wrong.

“Anyway, good luck to you,” Nathan stated as he continued on toward the insertion teams forming up in the forward end of the main hangar bay.

“Just keep them from punching any more holes in our sides, Captain. That’s all I ask.”

“I’ll do my best,” Nathan promised as he continued forward.

At the forward end of the main hangar bay, the ten insertion teams were gathered in their respective groups of eight. Outfitted in their complete space jump rigs, augmented with the Corinari’s automated chute navigation system, they could barely move under the normal gravity being generated by the hangar deck’s artificial gravity system. In another moment of brilliance, Senior Chief Taggart had devised the simple solution of converting a few ordnance trailers into taxis for the eighty space jumpers. Using two of the converted trailers, he could haul twenty jumpers per trip the length of the hangar deck to the starboard transfer airlock, enabling him to haul all eighty of them in only four trips. Once in the transfer airlock, the gravity would be lessened so the jumpers would be able to move about as if they only carried a normal parachute rig on their backs. The space-jump suits themselves were normally part of the pilot’s seat, only being worn while sitting in the fighter itself. It had never been designed to be used in such a manner.

Nathan watched as the trailer packed with fully suited space -jumpers rolled past him, being towed by a deck tractor and heading aft. He could see the faces of the men about to jump off the Aurora’s deck at one hundred kilometers above the surface of Takara. Although each of these men were well trained in high altitude parachute jumps and jumps into enemy territory, none of them had ever jumped from space. As stoic as they were, the fear and doubt was evident in even the bravest of them.

As he approached, he watched the next group of twenty jumpers take their seats on either side of the converted trailer. As they each sat, a technician standing on the trailer behind them would snap their suits against the horizontal bar running behind them using the same fasteners that attached the hard-shell parachute pack to the seat in the cockpit of the fighters in which the suits were designed to be used. Once the last man was secured, the tractor began pulling the next group toward the aft end of the hangar.

The last group of twenty jumpers, teams nine and ten, were standing at the forward end of the bay. Corinari technicians were performing last minute checks on each of the jumpers, making sure they were ready to go. The last two teams, with the exception of Jessica, were composed entirely of Karuzari operatives.

“How is it in there?” Nathan asked Jessica as he approached.

“Lousy,” she complained. “This thing weighs a ton, and it was designed to be worn over a skin-tight jump suit, not the costume they’ve got me wearing.”

“Costume?” Nathan wondered. “I thought you were going down in imperial uniforms.”

“There’s no women in their military, remember?”

“Then what are you dressed as?”

Jessica rolled her eyes in disgust, not wanting to tell him. “Some kind of a serving wench or something. The damn skirt is all bunched up around my ass.”

Nathan smiled. “I hope it isn’t as short as the one you wore to the last Founder’s day party. The idea is to
not
attract attention.”

Jessica feigned a smile. “Funny.”

Nathan turned serious for a moment. “Listen, Jess, if there were any way I could keep you here…”

“What, are you getting all weepy on me here? I thought I warned you about that.”

“Right.”

“Besides, other than this stupid outfit I’m wearing under here, this is going to be a blast. I mean, come on… I’m jumping out of a spaceship and falling all the way to the surface. That’s going to look awfully good on the old resume, huh?”

Nathan smiled again. “Yeah, I guess it will. Let’s just hope somebody gets a chance to read it one day.” Nathan stared at her face for several moments as she continued fidgeting about, trying to get her bunched up skirt to fit more comfortably.

Jessica noticed Nathan’s stare. “The words you’re looking for are, ‘Good hunting.’”

“Of course,” Nathan answered. “Good hunting, Lieutenant Commander.”

“Thanks, you too. Now, can you close my visor for me?”

Nathan reached up, pulled her visor down, locked it in place, and stopped to look in her eyes once more. Knowing that no one was looking, Jessica winked once and puckered her lips as if blowing him a kiss, then smiled. Nathan patted her on the shoulder and moved on.

He moved past several more of the Karuzari jumpers. Many of their faces he recognized, having seen them in the corridors of the asteroid base. They all had the same look of determination, the ones he remembered from Marak and the others that had come aboard the Aurora just after they defeated the Campaglia when they first ended up in the Pentaurus cluster. These men had resolute conviction, a belief so strong that they were willing to sacrifice their very lives for their cause.

“Captain,” Jalea nodded as he approached her.

“Good luck, Jalea,” Nathan offered with only the appropriate amount of sentiment. Her mysterious hold over him had long vanished. For a moment, he wondered exactly when that had occurred, quickly concluding that it had been the interrogation of the imperial Ghatazhak prisoner that had made him realize the depth of her duplicity. She, too, believed in the cause of the Karuzari, but there was something much deeper within her that was her true motivation. She had lost both her parents and later her husband at the hands of the Ta’Akar empire, and Nathan had always wondered how much of that fueled the fires within her.

“Mister Dumar,” Nathan nodded. “I trust you are ready for this.”

“It may surprise you to know, Captain, that this is not my first space jump,” Dumar answered.

“No, it would not surprise me,” Nathan admitted. He paused for a moment. “I hope we will have more time together in the future,” Nathan stated.

“Time, Captain?”

“I suspect that you, just like Tug, have many interesting tales to share.”

“Indeed,” Dumar agreed. “Keep those ships away from Takara, and perhaps we will all live long enough to finally exchange all of our stories.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Nathan moved next to Tug who, as expected, sat next to Dumar. He had noticed that as Tug and Dumar had become closer, Jalea and Tug had become more distant. He could also tell that Jalea did not care for the influence that Dumar had on Tug, probably because it took away from her own influence over him. Nathan often wondered if he himself had any influence over Tug. He doubted that was the case, as Tug had always appeared to know exactly what he wanted at all times.

“Mister Tugwell,” Nathan said as he stopped in front of Tug.

“Captain Scott.”

“I have said it before, and I’ll say it again. I suspect that you still have many interesting stories to share with us.”

“I promise, Captain, should we survive this day, I will share all of them and more.”

“Just promise me that once you have completed your mission, the empire will fall as predicted.”

Tug could see the lingering doubt in Nathan’s eyes. “Captain, on your world, do your leaders tell you everything? Or do they hide certain aspects of their plans, making only those who require such information have it?”

“Of course we do,” Nathan told him. “They call it ‘need to know’. For example, we did not know about the existence of the jump drive until moments before our first test of it. Even our captain did not know.”

“Then trust in the fact that what I and Mister Dumar know is sufficient justification for the risk we are all about to take, even if neither he nor I can share it with you at this time.” Tug raised his arms, placing them on Nathan’s shoulders. His arms were heavier than normal due to the additional weight of his jump suit, and their weight was clearly felt on Nathan’s shoulders. “We do not withhold the information from you to deceive you, Captain, but to protect you should we fail at our task. You must believe me.”

Nathan looked at the old man’s face. He could see the decades of pain and sacrifice in his friend’s face, but today, he saw something else as well. Hope. Nathan cocked his head to one side and smiled. “I do believe you, old man, but you’re asking me to send hundreds, possibly thousands of men to their deaths. You’re even asking me to risk the billions of people on my own world.”

Tug looked at Nathan, studying him for a moment. He could see the desperation in the Captain’s eyes. He knew that Nathan would go through with the attack. His honor left him little choice. However, the captain’s honor was all the more reason that he should know exactly what they were all fighting for. “Hand me your data pad, Captain,” Tug requested, extending his hand.

Nathan looked at him quizzically. Tug gestured yet again with his extended hand, and Nathan withdrew his data pad from his hip pouch and handed it to Tug.

Tug took the data pad and typed in a short message. He tipped the data pad slightly to his left so that Mister Dumar could see the message as well. Dumar looked at Tug as if questioning his decision to share the information with Nathan. Tug nodded and Dumar nodded his agreement back to him. Tug then handed the data pad back to Nathan.

Nathan stared at the data pad for several seconds before looking back at Tug’s smiling face. “Son of a bitch,” Nathan muttered.

Tug held one finger to his lips, signaling for Nathan to keep the information a secret. It was an unnecessary gesture, as Nathan was well aware of the implications.

Nathan stepped back, a smile on his face, as the technicians led the last of the jumpers to the trailer and locked them into place. It was the most genuine smile he had worn in many days. He looked at Jessica, who wore a suspicious look after witnessing the silent exchange between Tug and Nathan. She looked at him and mouthed the word, ‘
What?
’ Nathan continued smiling and winked at her, making her even more curious.

The time had come, and Nathan turned, left the main hangar bay, and headed for the bridge.

Chapter Nine

Jessica stood at the end of the line directly behind Jalea, Dumar, and Tug. With her auto-visor set to its darkest setting, she could barely make out the silhouettes of the others in front of her, despite the bright lighting within the starboard transfer airlock. With its outer door open to space, Jessica could see out across the flight apron to the slope of the main drive section directly aft. The two Karuzari teams were lined up in two rows of ten, ready to depart as soon as they got the word.

“
Five seconds to jump,
” Naralena’s voice announced over the helmet comms.

Jessica remembered the last time she had walked out onto the flight deck. Her assault team had been assigned to board a disabled Jung ship just outside the Sol system. That action had not gone well, and she had barely made it back to the ship in time.

“
Four…
”

She had never been able to accept the astronomical odds of encountering an enemy ship at the exact location of their first jump…

“
Three…
”

…let alone two of them.

“
Two…
”

Someone had sold them out. It was the only answer that made sense.

“
One…
”

Jessica closed her eyes tightly.

“
Jump.
”

Even with her auto-visor at its darkest setting and her eyes tightly closed, she could still see the jump flash to some extent. As the flash cleared, the entire ship began to vibrate slightly.

“
Jump complete. Stand by.
”

Jessica reached up and set her visor back to auto-mode. The visor quickly adjusted to the current lighting conditions, allowing her to see normally again. The line had not moved. They waited for the bridge crew to verify that their position over Takara was correct for their space jump. The Aurora had jumped in at less than half the required speed to maintain a low orbit over Takara, so she was literally falling from orbit toward the planet below and had only minutes before she would be overcome by the heat of reentry. It was a risky move, but necessary, as their suits were being used without their ejection seats, which meant they had insufficient thrust to slow themselves down to an acceptable reentry speed. She could feel her heart racing, her breath quickening. Her respirations were the only sounds within her suit.

“
Teams nine and ten… jump, jump, jump,
” Naralena announced.