Rise of the Empire 1: Olympus (17 page)

“Good, that is an amazing discovery, and I have no doubt that it will be remembered in the history books, but you said you have one more thing to tell me. I doubt that it could be more amazing than what I just heard” Tomas said.

Seo-yun’s expression immediately changed from serious to amused, which immediately told Tomas that he was wrong, this will be even more amazing.

“I so enjoy to prove you wrong.” Seo-yun said while smiling and batting her eyelashes at him, which in turn made him smile with her.

“Go on
then, prove me wrong.” Tomas said.

“Well, you know that we got a lot of medical knowledge from the alien ship.” She said, and Tomas nodded. “Well, the knowledge itself was worthless to us, as it was all about alien physiology, so it was
of low importance, but one of our geneticist was looking through it in his spare time, and something he saw in there, on one of the races that the Union encountered gave him an idea. So he worked on it in his spare time for the past few years, until finally a year ago he had a breakthrough. He went to his team leader and showed her his work, and she in turn showed it to me. I gave her the permission to focus all our available resources on it, and then we had another breakthrough a few months ago. The final test results came in yesterday, so now it is confirmed. We have been able to create an artificial gene, that when introduced into human DNA, causes our cells to stop decaying, stop dying, in other words it stops entropy. With this gene we can remove death. Each one of us with this gene, will live forever, barring that we don’t have a violent death or die from disease.” Seo-yun said grinning.

Tomas looked at her with mouth and eyes wide open disbelieving what he heard, he thought that she must
be pulling his leg, but he knew her better than that, she never joked with her work. Living forever, he tried to wrap his head around the concept, it was unbelievable.

“That, that… That is
insane.” He finally said.

“Yes it is.” Seo-yun said still smiling.

“My god, what are we going to do?” Tomas asked uneasily.

“What do you mean?”

“
This could change everything.”

Seo-yun’s smile slipped at the expression on Tomas’s face.

“How?” Seo-yun asked.

“This could change everything it means to be human. Imagine what it would do to religion, or how
it will influence people lives. Or what it would do to Earth if we give this to them. The Earth is already overpopulated, if people stop dying… It could lead to the collapse of our entire race at the worst, at best it will redefine the human existence.” Tomas said gravely.

Seo-yun looked at Tomas, understanding dawning in her eyes.

“We will need to be very careful about how we introduce this.” Tomas said.

Seo-yun started to protest but he cut her off.

“I’m not saying that we don’t share it, I just think that we need to be aware that this will impact our entire race, and before we introduce this kind of an upheaval to our culture, our way of life, we must be ready to face the consequences.” Tomas said.

“You are right.” Seo-yun said, and knew that with this one discovery, more than any other before, Olympus
will yet again change the world.

February 2103

Adrian and
his teammates waited inside of the training base’s landing bay for the transport ship to dock. Their team had passed the training, after that first stumble Bethany and Adrian managed to clear the air between them and started to work together on tactics for the team battles, instead of leading alternatingly, they led together. It proved to be the right choice, after that first loss they had won every other match, bringing their team to the top spot. After the deadline, Force Commander Pierce informed them that only the top three teams passed, and the third one just barley. The other teams were crestfallen, but the Force Commander informed them that they could stay one more year and try to pass with the next class, that they could keep their ranks of cadet tier 1 and join the fleet at that level, or chose another path in the fleet, they always needed people. Some stayed behind, while others chose to remain cadets, and try to work their way up the ranks through service. From those that passed, only team 9 was told to board the transport that would take them to their new assignment, they weren’t told yet what ranks they acquired by passing the test. The other two teams were told that they would remain on the base for another week. Team 9 had little time to celebrate, they spent only a few hours at the stations bar, and then they had to go to sleep, in order to wake up and be on time to board the transport tomorrow morning. They didn’t even know where they were going.

After the
ship docked and they boarded it, they were told that the ship was going to the Mars station where they would be told their assignments and ranks. One of the transport ship’s crew showed them to their quarters for the trip. They spent the next month on the ship as it traveled from the training station to the Moon. They spent their time mostly in the recreational facilities that the transport had, and the rest inside of their room discussing what their next assignment would be. Most of them wanted to be placed on a transport or a cargo ship, with all of them agreeing that a post on a mining ship would be the least favorable. Adrian on the other hand believed that there was a good chance that they would be posted to serve on one of the Olympus’s warships, but the others didn’t even know that those existed, and Adrian couldn’t tell them. So he agreed with them.

After they arrived at the Moon station, they were immediately met by a woman in fleet unifor
m, with the rank of Adjutant who sent them instructions on where they needed to check in. They were split, with most were sent to the offices in charge of transport ships, save Alexander who was sent to the medical, and Adrian and Bethany who were only given the instructions on how to get to the office where they were supposed to check in. They said their goodbyes and agreed to meet later that day.

“I wonder why we weren’t sent with the others.
It doesn’t even say where we are going, just the instructions on how to get there. I hope they don’t plan on assigning us to a mining ship.” She said. Adrian didn’t need to wonder, he knew exactly where they were going, he went there often when he was on a break from the Academy and had the time for the trip to the base orbiting the Moon.

“We are going to the Laura Reiss’s office.” Adrian said.

“And how do you know that?” Bethany asked frowning.

“I was there before.” Adrian said.

Bethany stared at him, but when he didn’t elaborate she gave up and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

When they arrived, the secretary in front of the office instructed them to go in. Adrian entered the office with Bethany following close behind. The office was the same as it had always been. Laura sat behind her desk reading reports. Or rather Fleets Master Laura Reiss, Adrian
corrected himself, he couldn’t keep referring to her as he usually did, at least not in public. When she noticed them she stood up and walked around the table to stand in front of them. Both Bethany and Adrian stood at attention, Laura studied them for a moment, and then reached out and hugged Adrian, surprising him. A moment later she let him go, without him even having the chance to return the gesture.

“Congratulations on passing Adrian.” She said smiling brightly. Adrian looked at her and couldn’t help but smile as well. Laura was the closest thing to a mother he ever had, and even though
he had forgone the possibility of being adopted when he accepted to come to Olympus, he felt as if she was his family, and even without her last name he felt a close bond with her.

“Thank you.” Adrian said, and then he remembered Bethany, he glanced at her and saw that she had a startled and confused look on her face. She of course didn’t know about his connection to Laura.

Adrian coughed uncomfortably and looked back at Laura, she looked at Bethany and her face reverted to her commanding form.

“Cadet Jones, congratulations on passing the training.” Laura said.

“Thank you ma’am.” Bethany responded tightly, Adrian had no doubt that he would need to explain some things later.

Laura nodded and then turned to her desk where two black boxes that sat there. She picked them up and turned back towards them.

“I know that both of you are wondering why you are here. The answer is simple, I wanted to inform you of your earned ranks and your assignment in person.” She opened the boxes and retrieved two sets of Low Prime insignia. “Both of you are granted the ranks of Low Prime in the Olympus Fleet.” She pinned the ranks on both of their shoulders. They were stunned they never expected such a high rank, at most they would be given the rank of Adjutant. Their faces must have conveyed their thoughts because Laura smiled. “There was much debate over what ranks were to be given to those who passed the training, you have all exceeded our expectations, most the others have gotten the ranks of Station Handlers or Adjutants, but the two of you were the only ones to get the Low Prime ranks. There was a lot of arguing over that decision, some even wanted to give you a higher rank, mostly because your scores in the simulations at the Academy, and those during the past year far surpassed those of our fleet officers. But in the end we decided that while you were impressive at the Academy, you still lacked experience.”

Bethany and Adrian were speechless, they couldn’t have known how their scores measured up to others who weren’t at the Academy.

“As for your assignment. Both of you are going to be posted at the same ship, at least for a little while, the ships name is Athena. Most of the ship’s crew is currently on leave, and had transported out to Mars, the ship is going through upgrades and there isn’t much to do, so Adrian you will to assume position as the acting Ship Master, and Bethany as the acting High Prime. When the Athena’s Ship Master and High Prime return, Adrian you will assume the position of Low Prime, while you Bethany will transfer to Neith, which should be arriving at the same time for its scheduled upgrades, its crew, like that of Athena will be going on leave, and you will assume the position as Ship Master. This is so that you may gain some experience commanding a real ship, though there won’t be much to do.” Laura finished with a grin.

Stunned once more the only thing Bethany and Adrian could do was to stare at Laura. A moment later the name of the ship they were posted on clicked with something Adrian learned years ago.

“Athena?” Adrian asked. “Isn’t that…”

“Yes.” Laura responded. “We have high hopes for the two of you. And now I believe it is time you go and report to your new posts.”

With one last smile she sent them off. After they left her offices Bethany turned on Adrian.

“You know the Fleets Master?” She asked in whisper.

“Yes.” Adrian said.

“Care to elaborate?” Bethany asked.

“It’s complicated.” Adrian said. Bethany just kept looking at him until he relented. “She kind off adopted me.” He said finally.

“Adopted you.” Bethany looked at him strangely, and then a look passed over her face that Adrian knew very well.

“No! She never favored me! I didn’t even know her before I was invited to join the Academy.” Adrian said quickly.

Bethany looked shamefaced. “Sorry.” She said.

“It’s ok.”

“What was it that she said to you at the end, something about the ship? Do you know it?” She asked.

“I know of it.” Adrian said.

Again she looked at him funny.

“You seem to know an awful lot.” She said. But this time it was in a playful tone.

“Yeah.” Adrian said a
little embarrassed. “Athena and Neith are warships.”

It took Adrian a few steps to realize that Bethany wasn’t walking with him, he turned and saw her staring at him incredulously. “Warships!” She yelled.

Adrian shushed her, and walked to her.

“Warships?” She asked in a whisper.

“Yes, they were built a few years ago, so that we may have something to protect ourselves with. Just in case.”

Bethany’s incredulous expression soon turned to excited.

“We are going to serve on a warship.” She said smiling brightly.

“Yes.” Adrian said. He turned and led the way to the where the ship was docked, Bethany following excitedly.

Chapter Nineteen

March
2103

“Are you sure this will work?” President Lucas Von Holt of Concordis asked
Admiral Jan Weiss. They were in Berlin, inside his office. The rest of the room was filled with the other leaders of Concordis. The representatives of the council of three, Maria Hughes, Emerson Tully and Yuri Petrov , the Minister of the Economy Amelia Turner, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Vitkovic and the Minister of Defense Victor Ross.

“Our plan is solid.”
Admiral Weiss said.

President Von Holt sighed. “Are we absolutely sure that
there is no other alternative?” He asked the room.

“We have tried everything in our power, but the bastard won’t budge.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitkovic said tiredly.

“He is right Mr. President. Tomas Klein won’t change his mind, he will never sell us his technology. And we can’t keep going like this. He keeps us under his control, we are too dependent on them, and we can’t afford to stop doing business with Olympus.” Minister of the Economy Turner said.

“Could we find another solution maybe? Sometime in the future? Olympus had always dealt fairly with us, none of you showed me any proof that they plan on changing that.” President Von Holt said.

“It doesn’t matter, they are dealing fairly with us yes, but they keep all the power. Each year they are gaining more and more of a technological edge on us. If they shared their technology we could have brought an end to most of our problems, overpopulation, hunger, disease.” Minister of Defense Ross said.

“Tomas Klein offered to use their technology for us.” President said.

“Yes, but with Olympus in charge, they want to keep all the control, we wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near their technology, and in the end they would be seen as the saviors by the people.” Minister of Economy Turner said.

“Mr. President it is our belief that he wants to control the entire world, every move he made since even before Olympus
was created suggests that, as his final goal.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitkovic said.

“Well if that is the case, why are we not under Olympus rule?”
President asked.

“We don’t know sir. But the truth is that we are even now in his power, and we can’t afford not to act. If we are to regain our self-sufficiency we must do this now.”
Admiral Weiss said.

“Are you 100% sure that your plan will work as you presented?” President asked.

“Yes sir. Olympus has no assets to prevent it, and if everything goes according to plan, we will come out as heroes. Even if they suspect something they won’t be able to act, public opinion will be on our side, we have news stories ready to go live.” Admiral Weiss said confidently.

“It’s the “if everything goes according to plan” part that has me worried.” President said, he looked across the room at the council representatives. “Are you all in agreement? Are we going through with
this?” He asked.

The three looked at each other and then each said a clear “Yes.”

President Lucas Von Holt took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Very well then.” He opened his eyes and looked at the people around him. “Put your plan into action, and hope to god that it works, because if you fail that will be the end of Concordis.”

***

Seven days later

Captain Reginald Smith sat in the command chair aboard the bridge of Concordis military vessel Bismarck, the bridge was almost an exact copy of a navy carrier bridge, with a few stations removed and a few added, a bit larger perhaps, and of course without any windows, there was a big screen mounted inside the front wall, it could show the images from the outside of the ship, the ship had some of the more advanced optical cameras and telescopes created. The Bismarck was the first of her kind, a herald of a new age, the age of spaceflight. Captain Smith had been serving or commanded a naval vessel for the most of his life, and when plans for the Bismarck came, he was on the very short list of its potential captains. She and her two sister ships were ugly ships by any criteria, but then, they didn’t need to be pretty. They were there to protect Concordis interests in space. The weaponry of the ship was crude by some standards and yet in a way sophisticated. There were many ideas about weapons in space, but with no experience they had decided on a more proven concepts. Rocket propelled missiles where a simple solution, they were guided and each had 50 kilotons of explosive. They weren’t the biggest they could make but the brass decided that it was enough. Their range was just around 150.000 km at their max effective range. Those who served aboard them had taken to calling the ship a missile boat, which they were in a way. They handled like pigs, and looked like uneven grey boxes. There were many antennae on the hull, sensors, communication relays and such, though those were concentrated on the bottom of the ship towards the end and their drives were improvement on those that were used almost a century ago to get a man on the moon.

Captain Smith looked around the bridge, he was familiar with many of the crew, and was quickly becoming acquainted with the rest. They were all good men and women, loyal to their country, which was the reason why
they got this assignment.

The Bismarck’s mission was complicated, and also top secret, they were to dock with Olympus Cloud station, then two squad
s of marines, dressed in such a way as to not appear to be from Concordis, would board the station, Captain Smith didn’t know their part of the mission, but he was assured that there would be no casualties. The Cloud station only had a handful of security officers, there had never been any need for more, and he was assured that they would surrender rather than risk injury to the civilian population of the station. The Bismarck was to play a part of a vessel hijacked by a dissident group. After docking they would transmit demands to Olympus, and stall until the marines finished their mission. The Bismarck’s two sister ships are even now following behind them, on orders to keep their distance, when Bismarck docks with the station, the Dauntless and the Viking would come into range and offer their help to Olympus, the Bismarck, after the marines accomplished their mission, would surrender into Concordis custody, the treat of two Concordis ships changing their mind. It was devised in such a way to fool the public eye, and they already had the dissidents that they plan to frame in custody. Captain Smith wasn’t 100% comfortable with the mission, but he was a soldier, and he followed orders. He knew that their mission objective was something important to the survival of Concordis.

Lieutenant
Kraus turned in his seat at the communications station towards the Captain who watched a display in front of his chair, display showed the Bismarck’s current course, speed and a number of other important stats.

“We are being contacted by the Station Captain.” Lt. Kraus said.

“Follow the plan, ignore them.” Captain said.

The Captain then turned back to his display, trying to imagine what was going through the minds of those on the station. His first officer, Commander Olga Pavlov interrupted him by leaning over from her chair beside him.

“Are we sure that they have no defensive capabilities.” She whispered as to not be heard by the rest of the bridge. Captain Smith scowled at her for such blatant distrust of their superiors, but managed to subdue the impulse to scold her in presence of those serving under them, and this was their first real mission in space, and he understood that she like probably everyone on board were a bit afraid.

“The intel is solid Commander, our ambassadors to Olympus have been living on the station for years and they didn’t notice anything that looked like a weapon system, nor did our spies find anything that suggests that they have defensive capabilities.” Captain Smith said in a whisper.

Commander Pavlov nodded her head and leaned back in her chair, looking at the displays in front of her chair.

“Contacts from Viking and Dauntless.” Lt. Kraus said.

“Ignore them, just as planned.” Captain said.

It was a delicate dance they were playing, their ship must appear as if it was taken over, and the two other ships in pursuit, they were a long way behind them, Bismarck was given two hours before the other ships were sent into pursuit. And in a few minutes Bismarck will dock with the station, and proceed with their mission. Captain Smith had no doubt that Olympus had contacted Concordis government demanding an explanation, and hopefully they were already told that the ship was hijacked and that it would be best for them to abide by our demands until the two other Concordis ships arrive. A moment later Captain saw the ships that were either docked or in the vicinity of the station getting away from the station.
They learned that this is a rebel vessel now, and are removing their ships from their path, good.
Captain Smith thought, with no other ships in the vicinity there will be almost no chance for someone to try and be a hero, though in truth there wasn’t much they could do, their ships were not warships.

Captain instructed his first officer to turn on the front screen to the view outside, and he watched as his ship approached the docking point of the station, his fingernails biting into
the chairs armrest.

***

Major Denis Taylor did not look forward to his mission, but he was soldier and he followed orders, just like his team. They were currently sitting inside the Bismarck’s cargo bay, and were waiting for the go signal to enter the station, and begin their mission. The mission was highly classified, they were here for the data that was stored on one of the servers on the station. Taylor didn’t know what the data was nor did he care, he was here to do a job, he didn’t need to know everything. His squad mate opened a comm channel and informed him that the Captain had relayed their demands and instructions to the people on the station. Hopefully the security wouldn’t try to play soldiers and get themselves killed. Major looked up as he got the go ahead from the ships communication officer. The go ahead also meant that their communications countermeasures were deployed. Concordis might not be on the same level technologically as Olympus, but they still had some tricks under their sleeves, the plan was to deploy a comm dampening device built into the ship as soon as they docked, it had only a short range but enough to cut off the station from the other Olympus facilities. It only stopped radio waves, but seeing as the Earth was in the way of other Olympus stations, they wouldn’t be able to establish contact with laser comms. He got to his feet and took team through the corridor and into the station. His team was split into two squads, each with a different goal, the team that Major Taylor led was to secure and attain the server, while the other one had a delivery to the engineering. He did not like that part of the mission, but he understood the necessity for it. The team split immediately after entering the station, they already knew the layout. Taylor’s team managed to run through two decks without encountering anyone. Taylor thought that the Olympus personnel listened to the Captains demands, but as they got to the deck containing the servers, they encountered resistance.

One of his team went down, struck by a bullet in the chest, another grabbed him as he fell and dragged him back behind the wall. As Taylor crouched down, he noticed that the man was still alive, and that there was no blood on him. He looked closely and noticed the impression the bullet made as it struck him, but it didn’t penetrate the armor.

“Looks like the rumors are true, they got some kind of stun ammo. Don’t let them hit you. Morris, throw a few gas bombs in there.” Taylor said.

Morris moved into position and threw two canisters of sleep gas, their armor had air breathers installed, while the security personnel had only light armor. Immediately after they started hearing coughing. The intel said that there were only six security officers on board the station. There were more in the early days of the station, but as there was no need for them, the number was reduced to a handful. So there couldn’t be more than six of them inside, and probably less, if they split so that they could try and stop both teams.
The Cloud station’s population was also reduced from what it was before. As Olympus transferred its interests to the moon, people moved from the station. There was supposed to be barely three hundred people on it now. The security personnel of Olympus were good, he would give them that, but they were not prepared for this kind of assault.

A few moments later
the coughing stopped, and Taylor moved his team inside, they found three security officers on the ground, the gas was not lethal, but they would awake with a killer headache.
They won’t be waking up at all,
Taylor corrected himself. He moved deeper inside the room, where the Olympus servers were located. He motioned for Hughes, their computer expert to get on the job of disconnecting the server core.

“Taylor to Novak, report.” Taylor called the other team leader.

“Light resistance, package in place.” Novak responded.

“Good, secure the perimeter, meet us at the ship in
an hour.” Taylor said.

Hughes kept working on isolating the server and separating it. Olympus software was high grade, and as such they didn’t have the time to try and crack it, so they would be bringing the core with
them. Taylor told his team to secure the area, and informed the Captain that everything was going according to plan.