Frontiers Saga 10: Liberation (12 page)

“Very well,” Nathan said. “We can’t spare the jump shuttle right now, as we need every shuttle we have to support the Celestia’s repair efforts.”

“The Falcon is still space-worthy,” Major Prechitt said. “Full of holes, but space-worthy. Assuming, of course, that Mister Hayes doesn’t try to attack anything…”

“Jess, brief Loki on the contact procedures for the resistance. Have them launch and make contact as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“Jump complete,” Loki reported.

“Why can’t they just transmit a signal to the resistance from Jupiter?” Josh wondered as he checked his flight displays. “If they’re using a laser comm, it’s not like it’s being broadcast in all directions.”

“The laser signal spreads out a bit over distance,” Loki told him. “By the time it hit Earth, it would be too easy to intercept.”

“Yeah, but it’s encrypted, isn’t it?”

“I’m just following orders, Josh. You should just be happy that the captain is still letting us fly.”

“How many times do you want me to apologize?”

“A few more wouldn’t hurt,” Loki answered. “Hail transmission is complete. Pitch up three degrees and come forty to port.”

“And why all this jumping around?” Josh wondered as he adjusted the Falcon’s course. “Why can’t we just sit here and wait for their response?”

“Because that’s what the Jung would expect us to do.”

“Wouldn’t they expect us to do what we would expect them to expect us… you know what I mean.”

“I’m just the navigator and systems operator, Josh. Lieutenant Commander Nash gave us the comm procedures, and our job is to follow them.”

“Course change complete,” Josh reported. “So you’re saying that I’m overthinking this?”

“Yes.”

Josh’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s a first, eh?”

“Jumping in three……two……one……”

The Falcon’s newly updated jump management system automatically turned Josh’s helmet visor opaque to protect his eyes from the blinding jump flash. It was an odd sensation. One moment, he was looking at his instruments, and the next moment, he was staring at the opaque, silvery inside of his helmet visor.

“Jump.”

The familiar blue-white flash washed over the Falcon’s cockpit. A second later, Josh’s visor became clear again, allowing him to see his console once again.

“Jump complete,” Loki reported. “Retargeting laser comm-array.”

“How long are we supposed to wait for an answer?” Josh asked.

“Ten minutes at this position,” Loki answered. “Then we move to the next position and hail them again.”

“So we jump, hail, jump, listen… then repeat? How many times do we repeat?”

“Three times or until someone answers. If they answer, we use a different set of waypoints to carry on the exchange,” Loki answered.

“And if no one answers?”

“Then we jump back to the Aurora and report in.”

“What happens if we jump back and the Aurora’s not there?”

“They’ll leave a jump marker behind,” Loki told him.

“A what?”

“I forgot to tell you. Lieutenant Montgomery developed a jump marker. It’s just a tiny buoy, about the size of your fist. If we get back and the Aurora is gone, we just transmit a jump marker hail in all directions and the device will answer us with the Aurora’s destination and time of jump.”

“Cool, but what happens if someone else finds it?”

“You have to transmit the current key for it to respond, and it’s so small that it’s nearly impossible to detect. Besides, it fries itself after it transmits its data.”

“That’s a pretty good idea,” Josh said. “That’s always bothered me, you know? Wondering if the Aurora will be there when we get back. Every time we jump, that goes through my head.”

“Mine, too.”

* * *

Lieutenant Montgomery and two members of his team entered the Celestia’s bridge. “Commander,” he said to Cameron as he entered, “from which console would you like to control the weapon?”

“How complicated will the weapon be to operate?” Commander Taylor asked.

“The system is mostly automated,” the lieutenant stated. “The operator only needs to assign targets and priorities. The weapon receives tracking information from the ship’s sensors, as well as course and speed data from the Celestia’s flight computers. Once targets have been assigned and prioritized, the weapon will track the highest priority target and notify the operator when it has locked onto the target and is ready to fire. At that point, it is a simple press of the button to fire the weapon.”

Cameron looked at her executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Kovacic.

“Either tactical or sensors,” the lieutenant commander said. “Not much else left other than the flight console and comms.”

“You may interface the weapon with the tactical console,” Commander Taylor instructed the lieutenant.

“As you wish, Commander,” the lieutenant answered, bowing his head smartly the way Takaran officers always did when accepting direction from their superiors.

Lieutenant Commander Kovacic watched as the Takaran lieutenant took a step back and then pivoted around in perfect military style to proceed to the tactical console. His two assistants followed him in similar style, leaving the lieutenant commander and his captain standing in the doorway to the Celestia’s ready room.

Lieutenant Commander Kovacic followed Cameron as she turned and entered the ready room. “Are they always that formal?” he asked.

“The Takarans were a monarchy,” she explained, “with a complex hierarchy of noblemen. Their society had very strict rules about such things. Failing to show proper respect to a superior was not well tolerated, from what I’ve heard.”

“You said they
were
a monarchy,” the lieutenant commander stated. “So what are they now?”

Cameron sat down behind her desk. “I’m not really sure, to be honest. Their new leader was planning on disbanding the monarchy and the system of nobles and replacing it with a parliamentary system, but we left before that took place.”

“These are the guys you defeated, right?”

“We helped to dethrone an illegitimate leader, allowing the rightful leader to take his place.”

“What, like the real king or something?”

“A
prince
, actually. I know, the idea of a king may seem unusual to us, but there were several such governments still in existence on Earth when the plague struck. The Takarans may have been an offshoot of one of those governments. They have had a monarchy for nearly nine hundred years, and for most of that time, it worked well for them.”

“I guess I just assumed all of that died out with the plague,” the lieutenant commander said.

“Based on what we’ve learned thus far, we suspect there may be many more civilizations out there that originated from Earth or one of her core worlds. It seems people fled the core worlds in droves to escape the bio-digital plague. It became somewhat of an overnight business—hastily conceived colonization missions into deep space. We discovered an ill-fated one on our way back.”

“Yeah, I read the reports. I have to admit, it’s a bit hard to imagine—people from Earth spread out for thousands of light years.”

“Yes, it is hard to imagine.”

“So do you trust these guys?” the lieutenant commander asked, one eyebrow raised in doubt. “You guys
were
at war with them. You even attacked their capital and destroyed many of their ships. Now you’re just going to trust them?”

“I understand your concerns, Lieutenant Commander, but the Takaran scientists and technicians that came with us were selected by Prince Casimir himself,” Commander Taylor explained. “If he says they can be trusted, that’s good enough for me.”

“Just checking, sir. That is my job, right?”

Cameron smiled. “Yes, it is.”

* * *

“Jump flash,” Mister Navashee reported from the Aurora’s sensor station. “It’s the Falcon, sir.”

Nathan and Jessica both turned toward Naralena at the comm center at the back of the bridge.

“Falcon reports they were unable to establish contact with Earth’s resistance, sir,” Naralena reported. “They’re requesting instructions.”

“How long until the next contact window?” Nathan asked.

Jessica looked at her data pad. “A little over three hours.”

“Have the Falcon land and top off. Then they can relieve the Talons on lookout duty,” Nathan instructed.

“Captain, the resistance cell that I made contact with would not miss a comm window, not without reason.”

“Such as?”

“If they aren’t making contact, it’s because they can’t,” Jessica said, “which means they’re either on the run, captured, or dead.”

“We missed several contact windows,” Nathan pointed out.

“True, but we have limited opportunities. They don’t. Don’t forget, we were ambushed during our evac, which means they either followed us or they had someone on the inside. Either way, it all adds up to one thing. The cell I contacted was probably compromised.”

“They’re the ones that told you where the Celestia was located. If they were captured, that would explain those gunships. The conundrum is why they only sent two gunships,” Nathan said. “If they didn’t have faith in their intel, it’s possible they didn’t want to risk significant assets.”

“Even if they did have faith in their intel, they were probably expecting an unarmed ship. Regardless, we’re still going to need to make contact with another cell,” Jessica insisted.

“Why? We found the Celestia.”

“We’re going to need crew as well,” Jessica reminded him. “There have got to be a lot of EDF people still alive down there. According to the resistance cell I made contact with, most of the Intrepid’s crew made it out before she went down. Word has it they made it down to Australia. If we could covertly make contact with them, we might be able to pull off a couple of evac jumps and bring some of them back to crew the Celestia.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Nathan admitted. “We barely have enough crewmen to fill a full shift on each ship, let alone key relief staff.” Nathan looked at Jessica. “You do realize that you got lucky last time. You managed to make contact fairly easily. You might not be so lucky next time.”

Jessica smiled. “I wasn’t planning on using luck this time.”

* * *

Tony entered the bridge, his eyes growing even wider when he saw the image of the Celestia sitting on the surface of Metis, hovering above them, and inverted. He paused and turned his head to the side to try to make sense of what he was seeing when Sergeant Weatherly called to him.

“This way, Mister Guerrero.”

Tony turned and looked at the sergeant, surprised by the use of his last name. “Yeah, sorry,” he apologized as he followed the sergeant into the ready room.

“Tony,” Jessica greeted, “I heard Synda finally woke up. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to go down to medical to see her.”

“She sleeps most of the time,” Tony said. “They keep her pretty doped up because of the nanites.” Tony turned and pointed back at the hatch. “What was that other ship on the view screen out there?”

“That’s the Celestia,” Nathan told him.

“I thought she was destroyed when the Jung attacked.”

“No, she escaped as the Orbital Assembly Platform was destroyed.”

“And she’s sitting on a moon? That’s Jupiter, right?”

“Yes, that’s Jupiter,” Nathan confirmed. “And that moon the Celestia is sitting on is Metis.”

“So, the Aurora was reported lost but wasn’t, and the Celestia was reported lost, but wasn’t… What about those other ships that were lost… what, twenty years ago or something? Are they still alive as well?”

“What ships?” Jessica wondered.

“I think he’s talking about the Defender and the Valiant,” Nathan told her. “No, Tony, what reportedly happened to those ships was true, at least as far as I know,” Nathan admitted.

Tony’s eyebrows raised and then lowered. “They said you wanted to see me about something.”

“Yes,” Jessica said, “why don’t you take a seat.” Jessica pointed at one of the chairs in front of Nathan’s desk.

Tony looked at Jessica and Nathan as he took his seat, suspicion in his eyes. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“The resistance cell we made contact with isn’t answering our hails. We suspect that something has happened to them.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“We need to establish contact with another cell, preferably several of them. I was hoping you could help us make contact through those mobile routing servers again.”

“Sure, but you’d have to be on the surface to do it.”

“That’s kind of what I figured,” Jessica said, her face cringing slightly. “Are those mobile routing servers all over the globe?”

“For the most part,” Tony said, “at least, in all the most populated areas, anyway.”

“So they’re in Australia as well?”

“Sure, at least in the major cities. Why?”

“That’s where we were hoping to make contact next,” Jessica explained, “in Australia.”

“Why Australia?” Tony asked.

“Most of the Intrepid’s crew bailed out as she was going down over Sidney.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember that. Didn’t it crash into Sydney?”

“Yes. We’re a little shorthanded, crew-wise. We thought the local cells in Australia might be able to round up members of the Intrepid’s crew for us to use on the Celestia.”

“Makes sense.” Tony thought for a moment. “So you’re going back to Earth?” Tony looked at both their faces.

“I am,” Jessica said, looking directly at him.

“You want me to go back with you, don’t you?” He looked at Jessica, then at Nathan. Neither of them responded. “What about Synda?”

“Synda’s going to be recovering for weeks,” Nathan said. “She needs to stay here.”

“Will I be able to come back,” Tony wondered, “so I can stay with her, help her out?” He looked at both of them as if pleading his case. “She needs someone to take care of her while she recovers, right?”

“Sure, you can come back,” Jessica promised, “same way we came back last time.”

“Only with less shooting, right?” Tony asked.

“Definitely with less shooting,” Jessica answered.

“Okay, I don’t see why not.”

“The mission isn’t without risk,” Nathan pointed out. “Maybe you can teach Jessica how to access this mobile network.”

“It’s not that easy,” Tony explained. “You actually need to have some hacking skill in order to get in. They made it that way on purpose. I mean, I might be able to teach you how, but if you fail, the system will lock out your device, and you’ll have to find another one.”

“How likely am I to fail?” Jessica asked.

“It took me six tries to figure it out. I’m no major league hacker, but I do have some skills. It would probably be much quicker to have me go down there with you.”

Nathan and Jessica looked at each other. Nathan looked back at Tony. “You’re not a member of the EDF, so I cannot order you to go. In fact, it’s probably against regulations for me to even ask you to go.”

“I get it,” Tony said. “Really, I do. Besides, how dangerous can it be? We’re just going to jump down to the surface in one of those jump ships of yours, right?”