Coming Home (Free Fleet Book 2) (37 page)

“Oh?” I asked as Rick expanded the hologram and modified it. “Oh,” I said, nodding appreciatively as Rick grinned like the proverbial cat with the canary.

After a few more hours we emerged.

“Alright, take a break. I’ll run the shop for a few hours. Go check on our people,” I said to Rick as he gave a two finger salute before wandering off.

I sat back in my chair as I looked over the goings on of my Fleet. We continued to near the jump point while I worked on my side project.

I figured I’d tell Eddie when we were in AIH so he had less time to throw a fit over the idea.

I looked over reports from Henry on the readiness of the Commandos. They were even eager, though this wasn’t out of blood lust or war mongering, just a sense of duty to their friends, family, and people they knew on Parnmal station.

After a few hours, I wandered my way to the sparring rooms of the Commandos and I went through a few rounds with the men and women there. It felt good to be down where the meat met the metal. These people were different from everyone, even most of the other people of the fleet. They were the ones that would see death coming and charge it down a corridor in another warship. Their humor wasn’t kind and neither were they, but there was a kind of camaraderie that couldn’t be explained, that linked all of them together and would make them die for the one to the left or right of them, even if they didn’t know them much.

I divided my attention between roaming the ship and seeing my people to checking on the condition of my other ships.

Time passed quickly and I found myself on the bridge as the wormhole generators hummed. They started their now reduced six hour charging cycle. Helm and navigation were already inter-linked across the fleet and with one another.

My personal comms chirruped with a private channel.

“Commander Salchar, this is Chief Brusk. I found a Mr. Edwards looking around my weapon mounts.”

“Send him my way with a pair of guards,” I said as I wondered what happened to the last pair.

“With pleasure, sir,” he said, cutting the channel and I opened a private channel with Mr. Edwards’ guards. Their vitals were fine as I accessed their mecha readouts.

“How is the prisoner?”

“Been in his room for the past five hours, Commander. We were aiming on getting him when we made jump.”

“Could you check on him?”

“Yes, sir.” A few moments later. “Sir, it seems that he’s escaped. We’ll search him down.” The Commandos voice was harsh.

“It’s okay, Commando, come to the bridge. We’ve got Mr. Edwards in our custody again. I just wanted to see how he got out.”

“I will take full responsibility.”

“It’s not your fault, Commando, you didn’t know what you were dealing with before hand. Now you do. Report to me soon.”

“On our way, sir.”

I'm just not going to get a break with this guy.
Edwards had treated me and mine as we were a doormat, essentially. He had been found trying to get into every area we told him not to be in. He raged about the food, and then complained that we weren't feeding him when he didn't accept it.

The man had no regard for anyone but himself. He couldn't care less what we thought of him, and he only saw our attempts to stop him getting into secure areas as some kind of impingement on his rights, which he still quoted from the United States. After trying to reason with the man, I'd given up and given him guards. Guards which he'd learned to dupe.

I turned to Dave.

“Seems that Mr. Edwards slipped his room and got onto the gun deck.”

Dave's face turned sour, an expression I had rarely seen.

“We're going to have to put that guy in the brig for his own good,” Dave said and I nodded.

“We'll see what information he's gathering then we'll decide.”

Calerd and Dave tensed behind my seat as Edwards was guided in front of me with two gun monkeys in their specialty gun crew Mechas.

Edwards straightened his back, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently as he stood in front of me, still wearing a suit instead of the battle suit provided to him.

“Are we wasting your time, Mr. Edwards?” I said lightly, but there was no missing the iron in my voice.

“Yes, I was sent here to evaluate this ship and this fleet; not to be pulled around this ship at your whim, like some kind of warlord.”

“What gives you the authority?”

“The United States and the entirety of planet Earth,” he said defiantly.

“You see, I don’t hear anything about me or one of my subordinates allowing you to do that. Calerd, if you had someone walking around your base, trying to take the plans of your nuclear weapons, what would you do?” I asked, my eyes not leaving Edwards.

“Restrain them, place them in complete isolation, and then send them off to be interrogated and their information spilled.”

“I thought as much,” I said as I raised an eyebrow to Edwards.

“You want to compare rail guns to a nuclear bomb?” Edwards asked, his face showing how ridiculous he thought it was.

“Are you an idiot?” Marleen asked, voicing my thoughts from her place at tactical. Her helmet was off, her head recessed in the armored shoulders that held the exoskeleton.

“Comparing them to a nuclear device-” Edwards said, as if talking to a three year old and getting clearly angry by the reddish tint his face was taking on.

“Is stupid if you're talking about Earths nuclear devices. With a single rail gun round I can take out the majority of America. Few rounds of Plasma, and I can cook cities.”

Edwards pulled out his touch pad.

“Thank you for that information.” He put the protective cover back over it with a slap.

“Giving those kinds of weapons to a jumped up gamer turned dictator with delusions of grandeur and ships crewed by brainwashed minors is ridiculous. The fact that this fleet, which is falling apart at the seams as seen by the disgusting state of the engine rooms and gun decks, only highlights this point. This fleet belongs in Earth's possession, not yours, James Cook. It's time you went back to being a drunk gamer that loves attention, money, and fame.” He smirked as he looked at me as if he had won.

I barely stopped myself from squeezing my armrest into uselessness. I kept my face clear as everyone stared at Edwards.
So this is where the expression you could hear a pin drop comes from,
I thought, letting that pause calm me as I looked at Edwards. I barely remembered being James Cook anymore. I no longer had to think I was playing a role. I
was
Commander Salchar. The man that fought battles in a hospital gown, without an arm and would take on forces that greatly over powered him without blinking.

“I do hate pretentious pricks like you. You think that you’re everything in the damned universe. Well, Mr. Edwards, you might not give a shit about me or my people, but I will show you what we do before we die.”

Edwards flinched away from my eyes as I continued to look at him.

“We might very well all die on this mission. The odds for our survival are slim to none. So, Keith, let me give you the fine print. No one gives a shit what you say. We’re dead already. Look around you.” I did so myself, seeing the eyes of every bridge member.

With my words they seemed darker and deadlier than I'd ever seen them. They'd all known that they'd probably die on this mission.

I'd heard the gossip as I walked Resilient.

But now I'd vocalized their doom, it seemed to cross from the realm of possibilities to reality. Edwards looked somewhat cowed by their faces as he looked back to me.

“That language is unaccept-”

I talked over him. “Do you think I would take brainwashed people into battle? What use would it be if they followed just me? I have relied on them more than they have ever relied on me. 
They
 are the Free Fleet. I’m just the guy that got stuck with all the damned paper work. Their smarts is what has kept this fleet going. You want to see the true power of our fleet. It’s not our damned guns. It's our people.”

A grin passed over me.
No, don't say that, that's a terrible idea!
“So now, Edwards, you will keep to me like my damned shadow.”

Then to his security detail.

“He’s yours now, secure him to his seat.” The gun crew moved out of the way and the Commandos picked up Edwards none too gently by each arm as he yelled threats before being put into a chair behind me and it's harness was pulled down and locked out.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for securing him, and pass on Chief Brusk my regards.”

They nodded, leaving as Edwards' previous guards took positions on either side of the man, who was still making a ruckus in his locked seat.

“If you do not shut up, I will have you gagged, Mr. Edwards.” I looked at him with cold, uncaring eyes.

“I'll have you court marshaled for this! I'll have you thrown in prison!”

“Because I restrained you, and you call us children.” I shook my head.

“Commandos, put his hood up.” One of them pressed the activation button on the neck. Edward's complaints disappeared and I turned to focus on the goings on of the bridge.

“Hopefully, that’s the end of that!” I said and a few grins appeared.

The rest of the time was uneventful as Rick returned and I finished up the daily routine of paper work.

Him mostly complaining and coming up with ideas of what he wished he was doing, which he relayed to me as often as he did things that needed my attention. Then we sat back and monitored the goings on of the fleet and ship as we waited for the wormhole generators to complete their work.

“Worst part of the job, waiting,” Rick said, completing a test that accompanied his sleep teaching implants to make sure he was actually understanding what the implants told him.

“Yeah, damn, it’s the worst, all this preparation and moving takes time, it’s dumb really. We’re so used to things being instant or quick on Earth yet with our technology it would take us decades to get from Earth to the jump boundary. Getting to other planets, centuries. Yet here we are, complaining about a few hours and a few days.”

“No one accused humans of being the brightest bunch,” Rick said with a grin.

“Ain’t that the truth,” I said, sparing a glance toward Edwards. Rick's smile widened as he let out a half laugh-half exhale.

“Chaleel will be good to visit,” he said.

“Hopefully they’ve got those planetary elevators back up. I hoped that they would be able to keep trade going. We’ve got trade agreements with Parnmal and them, so I hope that could bring more traffic to Parnmal. Though, I hope that no one went there once the Syndicate moved in.”
So many plans destroyed by the damned bastards, always making us react to them.

“What would Parnmal trade, though?” Dave asked.

“Technology, minerals, schooling are a few, I wanted to see how it would grow by itself. I already passed a port fee. Each ship pays per tonnage and for transportation if they use ours.”

“Smart, no matter what, we get something,” Rick said, nodding.

“Spent enough time in Korea to look into the future, not at the right here and now. Sometimes it seems like the here and now throw us curve balls.”

Rick made an unhappy noise as we continued to watch the countdown reach toward zero. Connolly made it onto the bridge as the general alert was sounded and everyone secured themselves and any equipment that could move.

“Wormhole established,” Helm said as enough power to power quite a few countries ripped a hole from Earth to another star system.

“Other ships are confirming wormhole links,” Nav said, all of the ships lined in formation, our generators working together to make a wormhole for the entire fleet.

“Entering wormhole area,” Helm said as the ships began orbiting the spherical wormhole, quickly getting closer to it before we plunged through it. The Resilient shook slightly as we entered the hole in the fabric of space.

We extended our sails in order to catch bands of charged particles. The sails had been ripped off by the Syndicate for the rare materials that they were made from. Eddie had seen to their replacement and was able to ramp down power plants as well as collect a minute amount of anti-matter. Resilient had kept the facility quiet from the Syndicate, Eddie helping. It was always useful to be able to have immediate power when needed.

The secrets the two had kept had been immense. I still didn't know a lot of the ones Resilient kept, and I doubt she did herself

As we transited, the other ships followed in formation as Navigation took us into rich areas of charged particles Sensors found. Resilient passed the commands to the other ships continuously.

For two days we watched the rainbow of colors, like liquid mercury, switching out our navigators.

I had Keith follow me everywhere I went, from sparring with Commandos to taking tests when I was told to by my sleep teaching supervisor.

Keith learnt to sleep in his chair—as I didn't sleep, my changed body making sleep less necessary.