Slipspace: Harbinger Page 9

  Admiral Marr’s face tensed with anger, but after a deep breath he relaxed. “Had you enrolled into the fleet, I would have supported you. But I am not comfortable with you in a fighter on the front line. Do you know the fatality rate of fighter pilots during the war?”

  “87.36% of all fighter craft launched against the enemy during the war were destroyed. Do you really think I don’t know the statistic? We cleared the minefields, blew apart the Ralgon advance patrols paving the way for your fleets. You want to protect me, fine! Sideline the corps to protect me, and don’t call us for support. But go in without us, and watch the next minefield rip your precious fleet to pieces.”

  Marr sighed as Labonne turned back to her work. “It hurt me that you took your mother’s name when we separated.”

  “What choice did I have? As I said, I didn’t have much of a father. My mother changed her name back, I followed suit.”

  “Jenna...”

  Labonne took a step back to review her new roster. It met with her approval.

  “Jenna...” the Admiral started again.

  Labonne turned again. “I prefer ‘Colonel’,” She paused. “Actually, sir, I don’t have the time for this right now, and more importantly, I don’t care. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a squadron to launch.”

  She turned and walked out of the squad room, leaving her father to stand there alone.

  October 14, 2832

  15:00

  Mjöllnir

  IT TOOK effort to keep Schrider from betraying joy at the news. Cody Amado had hastily called a meeting of his senior officers to relay the orders given to him by his superior; find and investigate Prime. They had deemed Prime a “Leviathan” and while the designation fit as a pure descriptor, it could not be any less accurate of a title. Still, the glee of knowing that soon Prime would smash this ship to pieces sat quite well in Schrider’s mind.

  “One question, if I may, Captain,” Schrider asked, playing the part as expected.

  Captain Amado made eye contact, the dark circles lining his lower lids betraying his fatigue and stress. “Of course.”

  Schrider now had the attention of the entire room. Best put on a good show.

  “With due respect to Admiral Marr,” Schrider lied, “what exactly does he expect us to do? After all the Leviathan,” Schrider had to stop from shuddering at the inane term they had chosen to describe the perfection that was Prime, “may have been responsible for destroying an entire colony and station. What can this one ship hope to accomplish?”

  Other than a swift death?

  Captain Amado gave a quick response. Obviously, he had been prepared for this question. “I have no intention to get into a direct engagement with the Leviathan. At least not without a fleet of support. Our mission is recon and intelligence gathering.”

  “We observe, analyze, and report back,” Commander Amado finished.

  “In the meantime,” the Captain continued, “Admiral Marr will be taking command of the Artez system. He will oversee the recovery operation and make a recommendation to Central Command as to what to do with the system once it’s been cleared.”

  This gave Schrider pause. “Are they considering re-settlement?”

  The Captain may have detected concern in the tone of the question but, undoubtedly, he did not understand the true nature of the worry.

  “As I said,” he replied. “That will be up to Central Command after the Admiral makes his recommendation.”

  Schrider sat back in the conference room chair. With Marr in charge, the matter would be settled. Prime’s agents in Alliance Central Command would see to it. For as strong as he wished to be, Marr was easily controlled, even if he did not realize it.

  The Artez Brood would be safe and with that safety brought them one step closer to seeing the Alliance burn.

  CHAPTER SIX

  October 16, 2832

  00:30

  Mjöllnir – Captain’s Office

  CODY AMADO RUBBED his eyes and took another sip of his coffee. The numbers in Melor’s reports had started playing tricks on him an hour ago. From what he could tell, Melor’s report indicated that the Mjöllnir ‘s systems were operating at either one hundred percent, or ten percent. That damn decimal just kept moving all over the place. The former seemed far more likely. They hadn’t been through enough scrapes yet to see enough damage and even if they had, the environs around him were not that of a ship barely functional. He thumbed the report with his approval.

  Setting the handheld down, his hands were free to again rub his eyes. Too much work to be done. He had to push on. His stomach growled, but he ignored it. No. He had to push on, dammit. Had to focus. Work needed doing and he would not let whatever killed Artez claim the Mjöllnir next. No. Work. Reports. He had to focus. What was next? Right. Nira’s status report.

  He reached for the tablet, but his hand fell on the bare spot on his desk where the stack of reports had been. Where was it? Had he read it already? He looked at his checklist. He hadn’t marked it off. In fact, it was the last one he needed. He checked his desk again, moving papers and documents as he searched. Maybe it had slid under a different pile. Maybe it had fallen on the floor?

  He checked.

  Nothing.

  Of course, she hadn’t delivered the report yet. It wasn’t as if he needed it or anything. Not as if he wasn’t in charge of a ship of ten thousand that might be dead in a few days if he missed the smallest detail today. Nope. Of course, it would be his wife that failed to do what he asked. He activated the comm.

  “Cody to Nira.”

  Silence.

  He repeated the call. Again, no response. Checking the clock told him why. It was after midnight. She would be asleep. He stopped to think, the very idea of thought feeling as impossible as suddenly sprouting wings and flying. Had he seen her working on it this morning? Yes. Yes, he had. She had left before him. The report was on the coffee table. Had she left it there assuming he’d know enough to pick it up and take it? Maybe.

  Cody left his office and made his way through the ship. At this hour, the night shift had watch and things were mercifully quiet. The express tube whisked him aft and as he rode, he forced himself to keep his eyes open. No. He couldn’t close them now.

  He keyed into his quarters and the lights in the room came up to half their full intensity. Even so, it was enough. She wore an emerald dress, one if her own design that she had yet to show him, cut from the fabric he bought her for their anniversary. The Goddess that was his wife lay across the couch and the fabric of her dress pulled tight across her upper body, but draped freely over her hip and legs, accentuating the natural curve of her glorious body. If he didn’t have so much work to do, yes, he would tear that dress off her right there on the couch. Her breasts, pushed out by the framing from her bare arms crossed under her bust, dared him not to stare like an oaf. Long slender fingers teased at strands of her golden-brown hair that did a poor job obscuring the tattoo of her family’s crest just under her right collar bone. Her violet eyes, a stark contrast to the emerald and her natural skin tone, bore into him and for the moment he was powerless. Her mouth curled into a warm smile.

  “I take it you like what you see,” she cooed.

  Cody tried to swallow, but then realized that his mouth had fallen agape. “You...you’re gorgeous,” he offered.

  Nira offered an inviting nod and sighed in contentment.

  “You’re awake? When I called, you gave no answer. I thought you were asleep...” His voice trailed off as his face wrenched in confusion.

  She motioned to the end table where her darkened comm link sat. “I turned it off.”

  “Why? I needed your report. I was trying to call you to get it.”

  “I know. But you need to come home and rest.”

  Her words washed over him, their intent and meaning lost. “The report?” Cody asked.

  Nira leaned forward with a smooth grace, making no attempts to conceal her body. She took the tablet off the coffee table,
right where he had seen it this morning. She sat back in the couch, the unit still in her hand.

  “It’s right here. Would you like it?”

  “Yes.” Cody’s head swam as he fought to remain focused.

  Nira’s mouth turned into a wry smile as she held it out in front of her, teasing him. “Then come get it.”

  He stepped forward, but she pulled it away at the last second. His shoulders fell in disappointment and she offered it once again. Again, he reached, and again she snatched it away.

  “Nira....”

  “Oh, all right,” she pouted. Her hand extended out. For a third time, he reached for the device, but this time her wrist flicked to the left and it took flight, landing just beyond the doorway to their bedroom. “Oops,” she said with mock regret.

  Cody shook his head; she was in one hell of a mood. She was throwing down the gauntlet and he would test it. Without further word, he turned to the bedroom, but was stopped in mid-step by Nira’s soft hand clamping around his wrist.

  “You don’t get a free pass, flyboy.”

  Nira stood up, her bare feet pressing into the carpet. She stood only as high as his chest, but she reached up and pulled him to her level. Before he processed, the warmth of her lips pressed against his and it was all he could do to stop from collapsing. Her hand found the small of his back and pushed him down, forcing him onto her lap.

  He sighed in contentment as his arms tightened around her, holding her in place. It felt so perfect, so comforting. But he couldn’t right now. He had work to do and the work demanded priority. He slowed down. “Nira, I can’t. I have to get back.”

  She shrank away. “Back to what?”

  “Back to my office.”

  “Why?”

  Cody sighed. “I have a lot of work to do…”

  Nira’s eyes narrowed. “Cody, your duty shift ended almost eight hours ago. You’ve been working around the clock since we arrived. If you’ve spent two hours in bed each night, I‘d be stunned. You need to rest.”

  “Nira...”

  She put her finger to his lips, silencing him instantly. She pushed into him and spoke in a whisper. “You’re exhausted. Come to bed with me and rest. Sleep.”

  “But the ship...”

  “...is secure.”

  “The crew...”

  “...is doing its job.”

  “But I...”

  “...you,” she interjected forcefully, “will do no one any good in this state. You can barely think, and you need to sleep.”

  He swallowed down his own anxiety, but gave no response.

  “Cody, please. At this point, I don’t even care about the physical intimacy. I’m worried about you. You’re going to run yourself into the ground. Please don’t make me turn this into official action. You are in no condition to command this ship right now.”

  He shook himself awake at those words. Was it true? Was he unfit? Would she pull him off duty? No. She was bluffing. She wouldn’t do that to him.

  “You planning to carry that threat out?”

  “Try me, Captain.”

  The firm tone in her voice brought goosebumps to his skin. She might be right. Hell, she probably was right. But even if he wanted to... he couldn’t. He couldn’t subject himself to that torture.

  “Nira.” He struggled to keep his eyes open and his head up. “It’s not just the work. I don’t want to sleep.” He paused. “Every time, I try and lay down.... Every time I so much as close my eyes... I’ve never had nightmares before, Nira. But every time I lay down, I see faces. I see the dead. I see them dying, the colony collapsing, the surface burning. I wasn’t even there when it happened. But whenever I close my eyes, it’s like they’re coming... for me...”

  His voice trailed off as the tears came again. That which he had worked so deliberately to hide from his crew, rushed forward, finally free of the emotional wall he had erected days ago, a wall now so corroded by his fatigue that he couldn’t hold back if his life depended on it. “They’re coming for me,” he said between his tears, “because I failed them.”

  Nira’s arms snaked around him, pulling him tight to her. “You didn’t fail them, Cody. There was nothing you or any of us could have done. We will find who did this and we will bring them to justice so our dead can rest in peace. But if you’re going to be the man that leads that hunt. You need to sleep.”

  “But...” he started to protest.

  “They won’t come. Not while you have me to protect you.”

  October 15, 2832

  02:30

  Mjöllnir - OpCom

  FOR CASSANDRA AMADO, there were several good reasons why she enjoyed working the night watch. Not the least of which remained the fact that her brother would not be there to look over her shoulder and she could pretend, even if only just for a few hours, that the ship was her command and not anyone else’s. The ship should have been hers anyways.

  She stopped, and forced herself to breathe, shoving that thought out of her mind. The therapist back on Earth had told her that holding this grudge would do her no good. She had to accept her place in the world, and understand that even though it was not where she wanted to be, this was the reality of her situation and if she wanted to improve upon it, she would need to take an active role in doing so. It was a sentiment reinforced by the therapist aboard ship.

  Up until recently, forgiveness had been difficult, if not impossible. But after seeing Artez and the recovery operation, something had come over her. Nira had set up a temporary morgue out of one of the cargo bays. The damn place had cold as all get out, but still, Cassie had taken it upon herself to tour the space and walk the rows and rows of dead waiting to be transferred to the Admiral’s ship for return to the appropriate next of kin.

  Hundreds of them in this morgue alone, to say nothing of the others Nira had set up and not even mentioning the tens and hundreds of thousands who had still not been recovered. How many of them had been on one end or the other of an argument as their last conversation with someone else? How many had held a grudge for an error in judgment? And how many had just assumed that would always be the case, not knowing there would be so many dead the next day?

  Death could come at any moment for any of them and if she forced herself to think about it and consider, she did not want to die, or to lose her family while this wedge still existed between them.

  Especially a wedge she had created.

  Her parents had tried so hard to connect with her. Cody had, too. And every time it had been her to shove them away. No wonder they had stopped.

  Cody hadn’t though. He had been trying right up until she told him to go shove his ‘charity’ assignment.

  Some charity. A quarter of a million dead and a colony destroyed.

  The silence was getting to her. Not enough going on around her to force her to focus on her work.

  She slipped her headset on and switched over to monitor the ship-to-ship communications. At least the chatter would provide something to listen to.

  Finally settling in, she set to work. Cody had ordered the ship get underway with its search of the Artez system immediately after they had finished transferring the investigation to the Admiral. Aler had provided some likely starting points for the search and Cody had asked her to review them and provide her recommendation. He would want that in the morning.

  “Mjöllnir, this is Bellerophon. We have secured the last of your transfers and are assuming control over search and rescue operations.”

  Cassie gave no response to the communications her ear piece picked up. She would let the watch officer handle it.

  “Roger, Bellerophon, thank you for the relief.”

  The data points appeared inside the holo and she began her analysis as the watch officer called her from across the room. Cassie gave no reply other than to tap the ear piece, indicating she had heard the report and silence within OpCom returned. Perhaps she should have acknowledged the would-be report verbally.

  The first set of data points s
howed some promise and Cassie set out the ship’s sensors to start their work. If someone had asked her in that moment what she was looking for, she would not have been able to answer them, but as she turned her attention to the data coming back from the coordinates near the Artez star, something piqued her interest. Drilling into the detailed results, Cassie found the anomaly. Through all the background noise and the interference from the star itself, an EM spike shot out. A less-experienced mind would dismiss it as a coronal mass ejection, and in truth, that might very well be exactly what she was looking at. But the profile of the spike seemed just a bit unnatural to her.

  From this distance, the Mjöllnir should have been able to get more detailed data, but with the interference from the star, they’d have to be right on top of it. Moving that close to the star on a whim would be inadvisable and Cody would never approve. There was, however, another option.

  She switched her ear piece to its active transmit state and keyed her mic.

  “Mjöllnir to Gryphon flight.”

  “This is Gryphon lead,” Labonne’s voice responded. “Go ahead, Mjöllnir.”

  “Colonel,” Cassie began. “I’d like you to take your wing and detour to the coordinates I’m transmitting now.” She paused to send the data. “It could be nothing, and likely is. But I am detecting an EM spike in that area that doesn’t fit what we’d expect to see in a natural occurrence. I’d like your eyes out there to see if it’s worth following up.”

  A protracted silence hung, leaving Cassie to wonder how many curses Labonne was uttering. They had been on patrol for a bit now and had been scheduled to dock up now that the transfer to the Bellerophon was over. This so-called detour would add at least another hour to their flight logs.

  “Understood, Mjöllnir. We will check it out.”