Ep.#9 - "Resistance" (31 page)

“Logical,” Nathan agreed with a nod.

“Also, had we refused to participate, I believe, based on your past history, that you would have attempted the attack on your own.”

“You’re probably right about that,” Nathan said, leaning forward once more.

“Many more people would have died, perhaps even yourself. We could not permit that to happen.”

“You might be right about that as well.”

“Captain,” the lieutenant said, his tone becoming more personable for the first time since he had been revived, “I did not come here to debate the morality of how the Ghatazhak achieve their objectives. That is the purview of philosophers and historians.”

“Funny you should say that…”

“I am aware of your educational background,” the lieutenant interrupted. “I came here to warn you that the next time you send the Ghatazhak into battle, it may not go as well as it did in the Herculis system. That is all.”

“Duly noted, Lieutenant,” Nathan said. “Thank you.”

The lieutenant returned to a more formal stance, his gaze again fixed straight ahead.

“Will there be anything else, Lieutenant?” Nathan asked.

“No, sir.”

“Dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir,” Lieutenant Telles said as he turned around and headed out of the compartment.

Nathan watched as the lieutenant exited. A moment later, Sergeant Weatherly stuck his head in through the hatch to make sure everything was okay. He looked at the captain. Nathan rolled his eyes.

“Reminds me of a few Marines I used to know,” the sergeant joked as he stepped out of the hatchway.

“I wasn’t going to say it,” Nathan said.

* * *

“What are you doing out here?” Synda asked as she stepped out onto the patio.

“Attempting to make contact,” Jessica answered.

“That’s what I thought. I brought you some tea.”

“I’m more of a coffee drinker myself,” Jessica said.

“So was I,” Synda said as she sat down on the steps next to Jessica. “Ever since the Jung came, coffee has become difficult to find, and when you do find it, it’s way too expensive.” Synda handed a steaming mug to Jessica. “Tea, however, can be made from just about anything.”

Jessica accepted the mug, mostly because it was warm. She sipped carefully at the hot beverage. “Not bad. A little weak, isn’t it?”

“Sugar is also hard to come by these days, even for these guys,” Synda said, pointing over her shoulder at the house behind them. “I don’t even want to ask if they have any lemons.”

“It’s fine, thanks.”

“How often do you have to do this?”

“Every few hours.”

“For how long?”

“Until someone answers.”

“That’s a lot of time out here,” Synda said as she pulled her collar closed against the chilly evening breeze. “Aren’t you afraid someone will see you?”

“The laser comm is under that box over there,” Jessica said, pointing at the cardboard box on the ground next to the patio. “The trick to not getting caught is to not look like you’re doing anything wrong. If anyone is looking, or if a satellite is looking down from overhead, I just look like some gal sitting on the patio reading her data pad.”

“Clever,” Synda said, sitting down next to her on the steps.

Jessica pushed the send button on her data pad screen.

“You’re not worried someone will pick up that signal?”

“It’s unlikely. The laser beam widens so minutely that, even after a few million kilometers, the signal field is only about one hundred meters across.”

“Even so, wouldn’t it be easier to just wait for them to signal you?”

“How would they know where I am?”

“How do you know where they are?”

“You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?” Jessica said, turning to look at Synda.

“How else am I supposed to learn?”

Jessica rolled her eyes and nodded. “I’m following a predetermined comm-schedule. I know exactly where to aim the signal beam during each comm window. If they are out there, they will pick up my hailing signal, lock onto my beam’s point of origin, and aim their beam directly back at me. Easy as that.”

Synda looked up at the night sky. “Still seems like something out there might pick up your signal by mistake.”

“It’s possible, but again, highly unlikely. I’m pulsing the signal. It’s only on for a second, and it randomly pulses at intervals between five and ten seconds. Someone or something would have to be at the right spot, at the right moment, and even then they would have to remain there for several pulses to get a fix. Things in space don’t stay still.”

“Then how will your friends find the right spot?”

“They’ll be approaching along the same line as the outbound signal beam.” Jessica looked at Synda. “For someone who wanted to join the EDF, you sure don’t know much.”

“I never got in, remember?” Synda said. “How am I supposed to know anything?”

“Usually, people who apply already have some sort of skill or degree to help get them in the door. What were you planning to do?”

“Anything they would have let me,” Synda said. “It doesn’t matter now anyway.” She looked out at the distant mountains. “All I want to do is get some gear and disappear into those mountains.”

“Yeah, that does sound nice,” Jessica said. “Although I’m more of a beach girl myself.”

“I’ve never even seen the ocean. What’s it like?”

“Big, powerful, full of life, and very dangerous if you aren’t careful.” Jessica smiled. “Now that I think about it, space is pretty much the same way.”

“I can’t even imagine what it must be like to go into space.”

“It isn’t at all what people think it is,” Jessica said. “Sure, the flight up is great. You get to look out the window, experience weightlessness, see the Earth below. Then you get on board the ship, and you’re locked up inside.”

“No windows?”

“Nope. Just view screens and cameras, which I guess in some ways are better than windows.”

“So you were stuck inside the ship the entire time?”

“Me, no. I was the last spec-ops on board. It seems like I got to leave the ship more than anyone.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad, if you ask me.”

Jessica’s data pad beeped. She set her mug of tea down on the patio next to her and picked up the data pad.

“What is it?” Synda asked. “Is it them?”

“Hell, yes,” Jessica exclaimed, as she quickly sent her message.

“Did you send them a message?”

“Damn right I did.”

“So quickly?”

“Are you kidding? I already had it typed in and ready to send.”

“Did they answer?” Synda asked. “What did they say?”

“Hold on,” Jessica told her.

“So is it the Aurora?”

“No, it’s just one of her shuttles,” Jessica said as she stared at the data pad, waiting for a reply.

“How would a shuttle get all the way…”

“They’re answering,” Jessica said. “They’ll be back in four hours to pick me up.” Jessica jumped up and ran back inside.

“Wait, how are they going to pick you up?” She turned back toward the house, rising from her seat to follow Jessica. “How is that even possible?”

* * *

“Major!” Nathan hollered across the Aurora’s main hangar bay. “A word!”

Major Waddell stopped in mid-stride as the rest of his squad continued toward Jumper Two, which had only finished refueling a few minutes ago. He turned back toward the captain.

“We have no idea where she’s going to ask you to set down.”

“I am aware of this, Captain,” the major answered.

“It’s critical you get her back here alive. If she’s calling for immediate extraction, she’s got a damned good reason. I suspect she knows where the Celestia is located.”

“I know, sir.”

“Remember, that’s Earth you’re going to. There may be civilians around…”

“Captain,” Major Waddell interrupted, “she knows what she is doing, as do I. No offense, sir, but you’re just wasting what could be valuable time here.”

“Of course,” Nathan said, looking slightly embarrassed. He patted the major on the shoulder. “Good luck, Major. Get her back safely. Get everyone back safely.”

“That is the plan, sir,” the major stated as he turned away and continued on toward the waiting super-jump shuttle.

Jumper Two’s engines began to increase in pitch slightly as the major ran up the rear cargo ramp, jumping onto the end of it as it began to swing upward. He made his way forward as the shuttle began to turn around and head for the main transfer airlock that led onto the flight apron. He looked at his men as he walked down the center of the shuttle’s cargo bay. Each of the eight men had trained with him on Corinair and had fought with him as they helped the Tanna resistance rid their world of the last of the Jung ground forces. He trusted these men with his life, and they trusted him with theirs.

Major Waddell bent down as he stepped through the small hatch from the cargo bay to the shuttle’s flight deck. He had yet to ride on the Aurora’s newest jump shuttle, the one loosely referred to as the ‘super-jumper.’

The cockpit was small and cramped with only one small fold-down jump seat located directly behind the pilot’s seat. He scanned the flight consoles as he took his seat. It looked like any other shuttle’s flight console, except that there was an extra control pad sticking out just above the center pedestal. It was under the center view screen, yet just high enough that the pilot could get his hands on the throttles underneath. The control pad did not look like it belonged. “That your new toy?”

“Yes, sir,” the copilot replied.

“I’m assuming it works fine.”

“Damn fine, sir. We’ll be in the Sol system in ten minutes, maximum.”

“Good to hear,” the major said as he settled back in his seat. He watched over the copilot’s shoulder, looking out the forward windows of the shuttle as it rolled to a stop inside the transfer airlock. As he waited for the airlock to depressurize, he glanced back through the hatch to the cargo bay. His men were calm and relaxed, just as Corinari troopers should be.

The shuttle began to roll forward once more. The major turned his head to look out the forward windows again as the shuttle rolled out onto the open flight deck on the back side of the Aurora’s forward section. He could see the forward slope of the ship’s massive, main propulsion section towering before them like the side of a cliff.

The flight crew spoke constantly with each other as well as the flight controller on the Aurora. As they rolled out into the open, he could feel the artificial gravity becoming lighter. As soon as their nose passed the red lines on the flight apron, the pilot fired his thrusters and lifted the shuttle up off the deck. As they rose, more thrusters fired, causing them to slide sharply to port. Once they reached one meter in relative altitude, the major felt the artificial gravity fade away altogether, leaving them weightless.

The shuttle continued sliding to port as the pilot spun the ship around one hundred eighty degrees so they were facing the same direction as the Aurora. The major continued looking out the forward windows as the shuttle now was sliding to starboard. Within a few seconds, they drifted out far enough that he could see alongside the Aurora, all the way forward.

The pilot fired his main drive, pushing the major back against the bulkhead behind him and driving his right shoulder into the padding. The side of the Aurora began rushing past them to port as the small, super-jump shuttle continued to accelerate.

The copilot was already typing in a string of commands on the extra control pad as he set up the parameters for the rapid series of jumps they were about to execute.

A minute after the major could no longer see the Aurora to port, he heard the copilot acknowledge the flight controller’s permission to initiate their multi-jump sequence.

“You may want to drop your visor and set it to full opaque, sir,” the copilot warned. “The jump flashes seem to get brighter with each jump when we do them back to back.”

Major Waddell followed the copilot’s advice, dropping the visor on his combat helmet and touching a small button on the side of his helmet that caused the visor to become completely opaque. The first jump flash filled the inside of his visor with blue-white that spilled in from under his chin, as he was not wearing an enclosed pressure helmet. The flash was bright but not bothersome. The major closed his eyes as the next flash came. Even with his eyes closed, he could see the flashes of light, turning the inside of his eyelids a bright pinkish-white. The flashes came only a few seconds apart, giving the super-jump shuttle’s automated multi-jump system just enough time to verify their coordinates and make minute adjustments to the parameters of the next jump.

Major Waddell counted as each jump illuminated his eyelids. He thought about Josh and Loki and how they had experienced the same ride but without the protection afforded by the Falcon’s canopy against the radiation of the jump fields that enveloped the ship with each jump. He concentrated on his own body, try to determine if he, too, would feel any of the side effects that Josh and Loki had felt, but there was nothing. He just saw the inside of his eyelids with each jump flash.

Seventeen jumps later, the series of flashes came to an end. The major opened his eyes and looked forward once again. “That’s it?”

“Welcome to the Sol system, Major,” the copilot said, smiling.

Major Waddell looked around, unable to tell any difference in the stars than when they had left the Aurora’s deck, thirty-two and a half light years away. “It doesn’t look any different,” the major said.

“We’re looking at the same exact stars we were when we left, sir. We’re just a little closer to them now.”

“Very little, in cosmic terms,” the pilot said.

“The only thing that has changed really is that star right there,” the copilot said. “That one’s a lot closer now.”

“That’s Sol?”

“Yes, sir.”

The major looked at the control pad that had been added to the flight console again. “That really is an amazing device.”

“Yes, it is, sir.”

“When do we try to make contact?”

“The next window is in seven minutes,” the copilot reported.

* * *

“Every bit of intelligence we have on the Jung’s current positions and resources on Earth are on this chip,” one of the resistance technicians said as he handed the chip over to Jessica.

“Got it,” Jessica answered.

“I cannot stress enough how important it is that you rescue those data cores and keep them safe,” President Scott said. “There is still so much technology stored on those cores that we have not yet been able to develop. If the Jung ever got their hands on them…”

“I got it,” Jessica insisted.

“How much time do you have?”

Jessica looked at her watch. “The next contact window starts in two minutes.”

“How long after you make contact will it take for them to pick you up?” the president asked.