Edge of Redemption (A Star Too Far Book 3) (2 page)

He slung his small bag over his shoulder, looped his dress jacket over the other shoulder, and walked slowly out of the airlock. He’d have enough time to grab a quick bite.

At the end of the hall a slender passage was filled with personnel. Naval uniforms blended with Marine armor with an occasional civilian. The air smelled of crushed stone and a hint of resin.

William’s stomach rumbled. Ever since the starship crash on Redmond, he’d been unable to stop eating. His hands drifted down and patted the expanding bulge that was his stomach. Then he patted his bag: protein bars, a wheat biscuit, two packets of strawberry jam, and a slightly funky piece of yeast protein. He needed to make sure. Starvation was always on his mind.

A
ding
sounded that his tablet had connected to the local data stream. He pulled it out and saw the command ping. The message was simple: report to Admiral Sanjhi. He thought for a second and shrugged. Just another Admiral he didn’t know.

He passed through the crush and found a VeggieBit stand. He nommed a quick bite of noodles and saturated vegetables. Topped off and full, he dabbed a wet spot off his uniform and made his way to the Naval quarter.

The entire station looked like it was carved out of an unwilling asteroid. Gantries and passages linked dark nodules of iron and chondrite. The walls were spackled in light gray foam. A chill seemed to creep everywhere like a frigid winter day.

He found the core of the Naval section and passed in slowly. Men and women rushed away from the main assembly area. William’s eyes darted to the Marines standing at rapt attention. An anxious feeling rose in his full stomach.

“Marine?” William asked in a low voice. “What’s going on?”

The Marine cleared his throat and pressed himself tighter against the wall. He looked across the passage to the other Marine. “Clear?”

The opposite Marine snuck a glance and nodded.

“The Admirals are at it again,” the Marine said.

“At what?” William asked.
Again?

Loud voices and shouts boomed from the passage. The Marines snapped even tighter to the walls and looked forward. William wanted nothing more than to turn around and come back later. But orders were orders.

He shouldered his bag and walked through the portal. The passages, still rough from cutters and grinders, were almost totally empty. Closed doors and unlit spaces bracketed the passage.

A wide area opened before him. An area filled with more Admirals than he’d ever seen in one spot. They scowled and glared at each other. They stood in three groups. One group stood against a rough carved wall, another group off to the side, with a third group holding the center of the room.

He turned and looked behind him. On one hand he wanted to run, find a place where he could get a nanite patch and zone out. On the other, he wanted to watch...and his orders
did
require him to report.

William saw Admiral “
Gruffalo”
Dover, posturing in the middle of the room. The man was intimidating when he was friendly, William couldn’t imagine being on the receiving end. Behind him a dozen Admirals stood.

Opposite from him paced Admiral Hollins, known for giving the recorded speech that every cadet watched upon receiving a commission. In the recording his face was paternal, warm, welcoming.

Admiral Hollins snarled and spat onto the floor. “You have your orders, now follow them!”

“I’ll be damned, you son-of-a-bitch,” the Gruffalo said.

William looked up and saw other spectators on a mezzanine. Commanders, Captains, Lieutenants and officers of other flavors watched as if spectators at an arena.

“Going to run us out?
Push!
Push, you weasel!” Admiral Dover stepped closer, his hands balled into fists.

Admiral Hollins crossed his arms. His eyes snapped up and took in the crowd. A cautious look spread across his face. “Resign.”

Admiral Dover stopped. Neither man said a word. Stillness settled across the hall as if there was not a molecule of atmosphere to transmit sound. Both Admirals were locked in the moment.

William looked from one to the other. Who was bluffing? He’d seen posturing before, dancing around the bulls. But this was something else, it wasn’t jockeying for command or even a promotion. This was something beyond insubordination. Hollins had left an out for Dover—the Gruffalo could walk. But at what price?

Admiral Dover’s shoulders dropped and his body relaxed. The fight drifted away in the silence. He turned and glanced to the others behind him. Wooden faces stared back.

“I resign,” the Gruffalo said in a low voice, barely a whisper.

William felt a chill run through him. A dozen Admirals?
Resigning?
Then it dawned on him: the Admirals standing with the Gruffalo were all born off Earth.

Memories of his last Captain came back to him. Khan, a bigot who despised him because he wasn’t born on Earth. She implied that he’d not stand with Earth but join with the attacking Colonists. It still pained him to think of it. He bore the scars of where she’d shot him for disobeying an order. Later he’d take possession of her ship after she lost it to the Sa’Ami. Then his crew held the Sa’Ami, held them against all odds... And now it was all falling apart.

Now it was happening again, except now it was Flag Officers.

Admiral Dover turned and walked through the crowd. Pain was etched across his face. Sweat ran down his cheeks and stained the collar on his working uniform, the steel gray cloth turned black.

He passed William and looked up in surprise. A look of shame spread across his face as he dropped his eyes and walked down the passage. Behind him the dozen Admirals he stood with repeated the same words: “I resign.” Each walked out silently.

Admiral Hollins watched. His face had a surprised look, like he’d bluffed a hand of cards and still lost the pot. He glanced up and noticed the crowd. The surprise drifted away and was replaced by a calm professionalism of a man who’d made a decision.

William watched Admiral Hollins walk out. The room had the feel of a boxing ring. Of a bout where it ended in a technical knockout in the second round. No one wanted to leave, still expecting the fighters to keep going. Voices drummed up and the crowd dispersed. Marines walked back into the room and took up posts.

He stood in stunned silence. It took a moment to process what he’d just seen. The faces he saw were all men and women who’d served a lifetime in the name of the colonies, not just Earth. And now they were being tossed aside. He felt cut loose, adrift from everything he’d ever believed in.

*

T
he officer he reported to was a chubby Commander with cheeks perched on his face like peaches. He smiled and squinted at William. “Sit, Lieutenant, sit!” His voice was friendly. A bowl of orange rock candy was on the desk.

The room was tight and raw. No one had bothered to come through and add any coating to the walls. It, like the rest of the area, had the feel of a coal mine turned into a cheap hotel. The only decoration was a picture frame with a cracked corner. Inside was a picture of a beach stretching to nowhere. William recognized the photo, it was from the paradise colony Haven.

“Admiral Sahji will be here shortly, he had to meet with Admiral Hollins,” the Commander said. “Have you been through the yard?”

“No sir, I just arrived from Bosporus.” William eyed the candy.

The Commander’s eyes widened. He leaned in closer and glanced out the door. “Is it true?”

William smirked. “I’m uh, I’m not sure what you mean, sir.” He wasn’t sure what was open knowledge and what was rumor. He knew couriers had arrived before he did, but didn’t want to spread rumors.

The Commander leaned back and smiled slyly. “I’ll wait for the Admiral, but was there really a Queen?”

William tried not to laugh. A gossip? “No, no, I don’t think so. I didn’t think they were a monarchy.”

“Well, who knows, right? You send someone off into the stars and god forbid what sort of habits they’ll pick up in a few generations.”

William smiled back and nodded. The conversation was taking a turn somewhere he didn’t want to go. Not after watching a pack of Admirals resign. His desire for the orange candy soured.

He drummed his fingers on his pants and watched out the door. The Commander peered back to his console and made small talk. Every time he leaned back, his chair crunched against the milling lines in the floor. Crunch. Shift. Crunch. Shift.

William thought of the voyage. He had a data packet from Admiral Mesman with a glowing recommendation. He recognized the glaring hole from his previous Captain on the letter. Did Mesman send something else with the couriers? Would he be relegated to supervising docking operations or some such useless task? The very thought made him nervous.

“Sit, sit!” Admiral Sahji said before he even entered the room. William snapped out of his daydreams and realized he hadn’t been paying much attention to the Commander.

“Mr. Grace.” Admiral Sahji shook his hand. He straightened himself out and sighed. “Damned dirty business this is.” He looked around for a chair and, upon not finding one, stepped out into the hall with apologies flowing behind him. He returned with a gray plastic box and sat upon it with a wink.

William looked over the Admiral and wondered where he stood. He didn’t recall seeing him with either of the three parties. Nor did he know anything about him.

“Ahh, well, what do you think of our little hole in the wall?”

“A bit more spacious than the ride back, sir,” William said.

Admiral Sahji smiled at the Commander. “Can you call up the sheet please?”

The Commander turned to the console with another crunch. One wall lit up and a display cast upon it. The entire view was rough as the light played out across the tool marks. On it a schematic floated for a ship William had never seen before.

“This will be your new command, Lieutenant,” Admiral Sahji said proudly. “I’ve been working with Core on this. It’s a no frills warship. It’s not a colony tender. All our ships in the past had to fulfill dual roles. Not this one.”

William looked to the Admiral and back to the screen. The ship on the wall was ugly. Even accounting for the distortion in the raw tool marks. The body wasn’t plates, or even cast alloy, but a rumble of stone, like concrete.

“We use an asteroid for a shell, bind it with nanite, burrow out the insides, and then add what we need. Fairly substantial savings on material, but most importantly time too.” Admiral Sahji looked around the room and nodded, smiling. “I bet it will look something like this room.”

William managed a polite smile.

The Commander leaned towards William and sounded slightly embarrassed. “We haven’t actually finished them yet, Lieutenant.”

“But they’re almost done! Very soon.” Admiral Sahji said. He turned his eyes back to the screen and looked at the rock potato on the wall. He seemed like the proud parent of the ugliest baby on the block.

“How long, Admiral?” William asked.

Admiral Sahji tore his gaze from the screen and looked back to William. “Soon.”

“Soon?”

“Soon,” the Commander said.

“So uh, what can you tell me about them, Admiral?” William asked. Both the Admiral and the Commander seemed pleased just to admire something that was finally leaping out of the computer and into space.

“Quad batteries of Gracelle mass drivers. Single keel mount railgun, probe launcher, and two missile launchers. K142 Haydn drive, a zero point three percent efficiency boost.” The Admiral nodded to the Commander with a smile. “Hmm, crew quarters for a dozen, and supplies enough for a four month tour.”

“Four months?” William spat out.

For the first time in the conversation, the Admiral squirmed in his seat. Glances were exchanged once more. Pleasant smiles returned. William looked between the two with his mouth slightly agape.

“Four months is barely enough time to travel to the frontier, let alone back,” William said. “I’ll need a resupply ship following just to get anywhere and remain on station.”

He peered closer at the print. Shared crew quarters, no paneling, zero amenities. It had a bare minimum of gravity systems—even the grav shield complement was low. The passages between occupied areas were zero-gravity. It was everything a warship needed to be and nothing more.

“Here is your data packet with the crew list,” Admiral Sahji said quickly, as if eager to change the subject. “Things are a bit tight at the moment. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have another Captain to brief.”

The pair stood and moved to the door, leading William out.

“What’s her name?” William asked.

“Who?” the Commander asked.

William looked at the print on the wall. “The ship.”

Admiral Sahji shrugged. “I’m not sure, they’re Ganges Class pocket cruisers, you’ll have to speak with the Admiral about the naming convention.”

“Thank you, sir,” William said. The two men shook his hand and wished him well. He walked on the rough floor and scanned the tablet in his hands. The complete ship specifications was listed along with his crew manifest.

A dozen. A dozen crew. He could hardly believe it. Barely enough to make a decent watch. The ship would have an XO, a junior officer, three maintenance personnel, three Engineers and three Marines. Sweet Jesus, he thought. A second glance showed that two of the Marines doubled as cooks. He keyed the next tab and saw his crew.

The first bit of good news came when he saw Huron’s name, the ship’s Engineer from his last tour. When he’d last seen him, Huron was arguing physics with other Engineers on the way back. The wounds he suffered in the Bosporus system were mostly healed.

A few of the names were filled, but most were blank. His orders were to report to the shipyard the following day and see the actual ship. The schematic he stared at was generic enough to show basic details. As he gaged the mass, he saw that it had only a small additive cell. It was as far away from self-supported as a ship could be.

Materials would be tight. They’d also have to spread crews out for the biggest bang. The
Malta
, his last command, barely had the same spread of weaponry. As he saw it the ship, had the frame of a yacht with the weaponry of a frigate. They were mass producing and maximizing assets. He liked that, but it would take some getting used to.