Ep.#9 - "Resistance" (33 page)

* * *

Jumper Two rolled into the Aurora’s main hangar bay, her engines spinning down as she came to a stop. Three medical rescue teams, along with Doctor Chen and Doctor Galloway, ran to the shuttle from the equipment elevator corridor on the side of the bay.

The cargo ramp came folding down from the back of the shuttle, already more than halfway down by the time the shuttle stopped. Two Corinari troops came down the ramp carrying one of the wounded comrades, followed by two more carrying the second injured man.

Nathan came through the forward hatch of the hangar bay, Sergeant Weatherly following behind him. Nathan was slightly winded after having run down from the bridge at the shuttle’s call for a medical response. He ran out across the massive hangar bay toward the shuttle at the aft end as the Corinari troops placed their wounded brothers on the first two medical gurneys. His pace slowed as he spotted Jessica and Major Waddell carrying a wounded young woman that he did not recognize. They were followed by a young man who was dressed as the young woman was, in civilian Earth attire. He could tell that both Jessica and the young man were upset, as was the major. Something had obviously gone wrong.

Jessica and Major Waddell placed the young woman on the third medical gurney. The medics pushed the civilian man aside as they went to work, calling for one of the doctors to help them tend the seriously injured young woman.

Doctor Galloway turned away from the Corinari trooper with the leg wound. Seeing the condition of the young woman, she turned to the medics and issued instructions before moving to her side.

“She is from Earth?” Doctor Galloway asked Jessica as she assisted the medics in cutting away the young woman’s clothing.

“Yes, yes, she’s from Earth,” Jessica exclaimed, uncharacteristically rattled by the extent of Synda’s injuries.

“The nanites,” the doctor said as she held out her empty hand to one of the medics. “They will cause her great discomfort.” Her statement was intended to be one of warning to Jessica. The medic slapped a preloaded pneumo-ject into the doctor’s open hand.

“Will they save her?” Jessica asked.

“I do not know,” the doctor admitted. “There is some hope, however.” The doctor placed the pneumo-ject against the inside of Synda’s exposed thigh and pressed the button, injecting millions of Corinairan nanites into Synda’s femoral artery. “Without them, she will die. This I know.”

“Fuck!” Jessica exclaimed, her right hand going up to her forehead.

“Is she going to be all right?” Tony demanded as he tried to stay as close as possible to Synda without getting in the way of the medics and the Corinairan doctor. He looked at Jessica. “These nanites, they’re going to save her, right?” He looked around in despair, hoping someone would reassure him. His eyes darted back and forth, up and down, taking in the details of the foreign environment of the Aurora’s main hangar bay. The enormity of where he was and what was happening to him and his friend was beginning to overwhelm him. “Please! Tell me she’s gonna be okay!”

Jessica turned away, unable to face the young man.

Tony watched in anguish as the medical staff intubated his friend and started intravenous lines in order to replace the patient’s lost blood volume with synthetic substitutes. He looked toward the shuttle as the Corinari troops carried their two dead comrades down its cargo ramp, setting them on the additional gurneys that had been rolled in.

Nathan could see that Jessica was in no condition to comfort the young man. Neither was Major Waddell, who seemed rightfully more concerned with his deceased men.

“They’ll do everything they can for her,” Nathan told the young man as he pulled him aside to prevent him from interfering with the rescue teams. “What’s your name?”

The young man looked at him, tears in his eyes. “Tony.”

“Tony, I’m Captain Scott, commander of this ship. What’s your last name?”

“Ship? What ship?” he wondered, confusion on his face.

“You’re on board the UES Aurora.”

“What? The Aurora?” He looked even more surprised. “You mean, she wasn’t making that stuff up?” he asked in disbelief.

“I expect not,” Nathan assured him.

“Where are we? Are we near Earth?” He looked at Synda. “Maybe we should get her back to a hospital.”

“No, we’re not anywhere near Earth at the moment, but our doctors are far more advanced; believe me,” Nathan promised.

“We were only on that thing for a few minutes,” Tony insisted. “How far could we be?”

“Quite a ways, actually.” Nathan smiled. “It’s a long story,” he told Tony, pulling him farther aside as the medics began rolling Synda’s gurney toward the hatch at the forward end of the hangar bay. “I’ll explain it to you later,” Nathan promised, noticing an argument starting between Jessica and the major. Nathan signaled one of the security personnel standing nearby. “Escort Tony here to medical, and see to it that someone takes care of him.”

“Yes, sir,” the security guard answered.

Nathan leaned in closer to the guard. “And keep him isolated from everyone for now.”

“Of course, sir.”

Nathan turned back to Tony. “Tony, I’d like you to go with this gentleman. He’ll take you to medical so you can be near your friend. I’ll check on you later, all right?”

“Sure, I guess,” Tony answered, looking as if he had given up and was resigning himself to the situation.

Nathan turned toward the shuttle and headed off Jessica and the major at the bottom of the cargo ramp.

“You were gonna shoot them!” Jessica said to the major as Nathan approached.

“I should have,” Major Waddell insisted. “If I had, those two men might still be alive…”

“Oh, that’s bullshit, and you know it!” Jessica exclaimed.

“What’s going on here?” Nathan asked as he came up to them.

“You let an emotional attachment to those two noncombatants cloud your judgment at a critical moment…”

“More bullshit! If they had been captured…”

“Which is precisely why we should have killed them,” the major reiterated.

“Nobody is killing anybody!” Nathan yelled over them.

“I think you’re forgetting who’s in charge around here, Major!” Jessica insisted.

“I’m pretty sure I am!” Nathan said. “And I’m ordering you both to take it down a notch!”

“
Captain, XO,
” Cameron’s voice called over Nathan’s comm-set.

“Go ahead, Commander,” Nathan answered.

“
Jump drive is fully recharged, sir, and flight ops reports ready for red deck. Are we clear to make our next jump?
”

“Yes, Commander,” Nathan answered. “Set the deck red and execute the next jump.”

“
Aye, sir,
” Cameron answered over the comm-set. After a brief pause, she asked, “
Is everyone okay?
”

Nathan looked at Major Waddell. “Casualties?”

“Two dead, two injured,” the major said, his tone somewhat more restrained.

“And one wounded civilian,” Jessica added.

“Two KIA, two wounded, and one wounded civilian,” Nathan reported over the comm-set. “Nash and Waddell are fine,” he added.

“
Very well, sir. Second jump is complete. Seven hours until the next jump.
”

Nathan looked at Jessica. “What the hell happened?”

“We were ambushed at the extraction point,” Jessica told him. “We were completely surrounded.”

“How the hell did they know where the extraction point was?” Nathan asked.

“I’d like to know that myself,” Major Waddell added.

“I don’t know.” Jessica sighed. The adrenaline coursing through her body was taking its toll on her nerves. “They must have followed us. The Jung probably already knew about the resistance base. Galiardi must’ve cracked. They could have been watching us for the last week, for all I know.”

“How did they get so many troops into position so quickly?” the major sneered.

“We were there for about ten minutes before you showed up,” Jessica explained, ignoring the major’s tone. “If they did follow us from the hideout, they would have had to deploy pretty quickly. To do that without being noticed, they had to be well trained.” She looked at Waddell, an accusatory look on her face. “What I want to know is how those interceptors found us so quickly.”

“Interceptors?” Nathan asked.

“One of them was trying to put a missile up our ass. We barely jumped away in time.”

“They probably detected us on our first jump,” Major Waddell said. “We had to jump in over the north pole, then jump again down to the extraction point. Our approach angle was unfortunate. Your planet’s moon was in the way of a single, direct jump. To get around it, we had to jump first to high orbit, then to the surface. We had hoped the interaction between the charged particles in the solar wind and the planet’s electromagnetic field would mask our jump flash.”

“What?” Jessica said.

“I believe he’s talking about the Aurora Borealis,” Nathan said, smiling.

“You’re kidding.”

“It apparently did not work,” the major admitted. “The interceptors must have been nearby for them to arrive so quickly.”

“That was a risky call, Major,” Nathan said.

“Perhaps. At the time, I felt that haste was called for. In retrospect, it appears that I was correct.”

“For all we know, they weren’t even expecting the extraction. Maybe they were just hoping to capture us, to interrogate us and learn what our cell was up to.”

“In which case, my decision not to wait for a single jump entry angle saved you,” Major Waddell said with one eyebrow indignantly raised. Jessica glared at him in return.

Nathan recognized Jessica’s body language and decided to end the confrontation. “Major, see to your men. I’ll expect an after action report from you as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir,” the major answered, snapping a salute before departing.

Nathan turned to Jessica. “Now, what were you saying about Admiral Galiardi?”

“Apparently, he was captured a week or so ago. They don’t really know for sure. One of their operatives saw him at a hospital in Geneva all beat up or something. I guess he’s on death’s door.”

“If Galiardi is captured, who’s in charge?”

“I don’t know,” Jessica said, lying through her teeth. “That’s not important, though. I know where the Celestia went.”

“Where?”

“Metis.”

CHAPTER TEN

“We’ve been working on this thing for days now,” Luis said as he handed Devyn the data pad. “Are we even close to making it work?”

“What’s the matter? Are you getting tired of me already?” Devyn quipped.

“No, of course not. It’s been great having you here, especially after just talking on the comms for months. I’m just starting to wonder if we’re not wasting more oxygen trying to fix this thing than if there was just one of us on duty at a time up here. I mean, we’ve got to be burning up O2 working our asses off all day long in this cramped little corridor.”

“We’ve got plenty of oxygen, Luis,” Devyn said. “It will take weeks, if not months, before we need to haul the oxygen candles up from the aft section. We’re just lucky I was able to find parts down in the cargo bay. You know, Kovacic should feel pretty stupid right about now, being a supply officer and not knowing there was a cargo bay full of parts and equipment still waiting to be installed.”

“Yeah. If we ever get back to Earth, I’m planning on giving him a lot of ribbing about that.”

“As well you should…” Devyn stopped mid-sentence and froze. “Did you hear that?”

Luis also froze, listening intently. “I don’t hear…” He listened again, hearing a faint beeping sound coming from the bridge. “Oh, crap!” He dropped his tool and wiggled his way around the various pipes and conduit in the narrow utility space alongside the Celestia’s bridge, making his way toward the hatch at the far end. He reached the end and exited, turning to his right and entering the bridge. He paused, listening again to determine which console the beeping was coming from. After two more beeps, he headed for the sensor station.

“What is it?” Devyn asked as she came out of the utility corridor.

“Sensors have picked up a contact,” he said as he frantically worked the console. “It’s small, a scout ship or maybe a shuttle of some kind.”

“Is it one of ours?” Devyn asked hopefully.

“I don’t think so,” Luis admitted. “The configuration is all wrong, and the energy readings I’m getting are way… Well, they’re just weird.”

“Weird how?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Where did it come from?”

“That part’s even weirder. There’s no track. It’s like it just appeared out of nowhere.”

“That’s impossible. There must be a malfunction.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Luis insisted as he transferred the track to the tactical station. He moved quickly from the sensor station to the tactical console behind the command chair. “Whatever it is, it’s already here.” Luis activated his displays and patched one of the Celestia’s many external cameras into the display on his console. “What the hell is that?” He strained his eyes, trying to see more detail on the tiny screen. “Screw this,” he mumbled as he activated the main view screen.

“Wait,” Devyn objected. “Aren’t you afraid they’ll pick up the emissions from the view screen?”

“They already know we’re here,” Luis said as he picked up his comm-set. He thought for a moment, setting it back down. “They might pick that up.” He activated the ship’s internal intercom system instead. “Engineering! Bridge! I need Kovacic, now!” The main view screen came to life, showing a small shuttle above them. It had already turned on its searchlights and had begun aiming them directly at the Celestia, blinding his view. He quickly switched cameras to get a better view.

“Hello! Tilly! Are you down there?” He called over the intercom.

“What is that thing?” Devyn wondered as she stared at the image of the small ship. “Where did it come from?”

“I have no idea,” Luis said as he waited impatiently for someone to answer his hails on the intercom.

“
I’m here! I’m here!
” Tilly answered over the intercom.
“What’s up?
”

“I need Kovacic!”

“
I sent for him! What’s going on?
”

“We’ve got company.”

“
Oh, fuck.
”

“‘Oh, fuck’ is right,” Luis agreed, “because it isn’t one of ours.”

* * *

“That’s her,” Jessica said as she peered out the side cockpit window over the copilot’s shoulder. “Damn, she looks just like the Aurora, doesn’t she?”

“Never thought I would see a ship that size sitting on the surface of anything,” Major Waddell stated.

“EDF shuttle calling the Celestia. Do you copy?” the copilot called over the comms.

“She’s covered with dust,” Major Waddell added as he tried to see from behind Jessica.

“EDF shuttle calling the Celestia. Do you copy?” the copilot turned his head and looked back over his shoulder at Jessica. “It’s no use, sir. She’s not answering.”

“She’s probably shut down, gone cold to hide,” Major Waddell commented.

“She looks dead,” the major mumbled.

“The Earth resistance said the Celestia had orders to go cold: no comms, no sensors, as little emissions as possible—preferably none at all.”

“How are we supposed to make contact?” the major asked.

Jessica turned to the copilot in front of her. “Take us down, parallel with the boarding hatch. Down there,” she instructed, pointing at the Celestia forward section. “There’s almost no gravity down there, so you shouldn’t have any pull to fight. We’ll put the cargo ramp in platform position. Then back us in close, no farther than a meter or two. We’ll jump across.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jessica turned around to exit, facing the major behind her. “Grab your helmet, Major,” Jessica said. “We’re going for a walk.”

* * *

“
Are you sure it’s not one of ours?
” Kovacic asked over the intercom.

“There’s no way, sir. It’s just too strange,” Luis answered from the Celestia’s tactical station. “It has to be a Jung shuttle.”

“
Why would they send a shuttle?
” Kovacic asked. “
I thought shuttles were for orbital flights. Who the hell takes a shuttle all the way to Jupiter?
”

“Maybe it’s one of our people,” Devyn said. “Maybe they stole it to make contact with us. Or maybe they defeated the Jung and that was all that was left.”

“
You’re a tactical officer,”
the lieutenant commander said. “
Any of that seem plausible to you?
”

“More optimistic than plausible, I’m afraid,” Luis admitted. “At the speed a shuttle flies, it would take them years to get here.”

“
Maybe Jung shuttles are faster,
” Kovacic said.

“I’m looking at her now, sir, and I’m not seeing enough of a propulsion system to support…” Luis stopped mid-sentence as the image of the shuttle on the view screen changed its attitude. “It’s doing something. It’s moving.”

“
Where?
”

“It’s sliding to port and descending. Wait, I’m switching cameras.” Luis switched to one of the Celestia’s port side cameras. The shuttle appeared at the very top of the view screen, moving down the screen as it slowly rotated its nose away from the camera. “It looks like a cargo shuttle, sir. It’s got a big rear hatch on…” Luis stopped again as the hatch on the back of the shuttle began to open, slowly swinging outward and down from the top edge of the shuttle.

“
You cut yourself off,
” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic said over the intercom. “
What did you say?
”

“Its rear hatch is opening, sir,” Luis reported as he watched the shuttle descend. The image of the small ship began to grow in size. Luis looked down at his display, checking the distance between the contact and the Celestia. It was decreasing. “It’s moving closer.” He looked back up at the screen. The rear hatch was now completely opened, sitting parallel with the longitudinal axis of the enemy shuttle and revealing the opening into the back of the spacecraft. He could not see inside the ship, as it was too dark within the tiny craft. Then a body appeared, stepping out onto the ramp. It wore an EVA suit of some kind, but it was a design he had never seen before. Then another person stepped out behind the first, followed by four more. The last four carried weapons.

“Oh, God,” Luis exclaimed.

“
What is it?
” Kovacic asked.

“Sir, I think they mean to board us.”

* * *

Jessica looked down at the surface of Metis, nearly eighty meters below her from her position on Jumper Two’s cargo ramp, as the shuttle floated over the surface of the small moon. The Celestia seemed massive from her current perspective as the shuttle slowly backed toward the ship. As she peered out through her visor, she couldn’t help but feel like she was looking at a gigantic, sleeping dragon lying peacefully on the crater floor.

The shuttle’s maneuvering jets shot out tiny spurts from thrust ports on either side of the aft cargo hatch, leaving her hanging motionless next to the Celestia. Jessica walked out to the end of the cargo ramp, its weak, artificial gravity just strong enough to keep her from floating into space. The gravity of Metis was so weak that, from this altitude, its mass had almost no measurable effect on them.

The end of the shuttle’s cargo ramp was at least ten meters away from the four-meter-deep depression in the side of the Celestia’s hull containing her port boarding hatch, as well as her massive cargo hatch located directly below.

“Huh,” Jessica said over her suit-comms. “I thought there would be a ledge there.” She turned around and looked at the six men in pressure suits standing at the shuttle’s cargo hatch. “Guess I forgot about the cargo hatch below.” She started walking back toward the shuttle. “Any chance we can get a little closer?” she asked over the comms.

“
With that ship powered down, her hull could’ve picked up a static charge. I’d like to avoid that if possible.
”

“No matter,” Jessica said as she reached the men at the hatch. “There’s no gravity to speak of out here anyway, right?” She winked at Major Waddell, who was standing in his pressure suit in front of her, then turned back around and took several unnatural-looking, running strides toward the end of the ramp, jumping off into space. She floated easily across the ten meter gap, bumping softly against the Celestia on the other side. She grabbed the edge of the grappling bracket just below the boarding hatch, holding firmly so she would not float off. She activated her mag-boots and placed them firmly on the hull of the ship, locking them in place. She bent back in order to look up at the shuttle now hovering over her. “Come on over, guys,” she called over the comms.

“
Perhaps we should run a safety line,
” Major Waddell suggested.

“Let your boys do that. We need to get inside and make contact ASAP.” She watched as the major ran clumsily across the ramp and jumped out. He floated across more quickly. In mid-flight, he fired tiny maneuvering jets in the suit’s thick, midsection ring, rotating his body so he was falling feet first toward the Celestia. He landed with a bit more force than Jessica had, but he landed more gracefully and on his feet.

“Show off,” Jessica said as she stepped aside to make room for the next man.

“
Training,
” the major replied, a grin forming behind his visor.

One by one, all four of the major’s squad came over in the same manner, also landing on their feet. “I guess you guys practice this kind of stuff on occasion,” Jessica said.

“
We have made considerable use of the Aurora’s zero-gravity training room,
” Major Waddell said.

“Open that panel next to you,” Jessica told him. “There’s a crank in there to manually open this hatch. Would you mind?”

Major Waddell opened the hatch and unfolded the crank handle. He began turning the crank, causing the boarding hatch to split down the middle and slowly slide away into the hull of the ship.

Jessica looked down into the unlit airlock below. “Give me that crank handle,” she instructed the major.

Major Waddell removed the handle and passed it to Jessica, who in turn pushed it downward toward the airlock below. The handle floated down toward the opening, drifting slightly toward the dark gray deck of the airlock as it passed all the way through and bounced against the inner hatch.

“This will be interesting,” she said as she sat down on the hull with her feet dangling down into the airlock. She bent her legs to her right, placing the soles of her boots against the dark gray deck and allowing her mag-boots to take hold. She slid off the hull into the open hatchway, transitioning into a squatting position with her body now oriented to match the Celestia. After standing and turning to her right to face out the hatch, she looked at the five men staring down at her, each of them at a ninety degree angle to herself. “Okay, this is weird.” She looked at their faces. “Are you guys coming?” she said as she turned and headed inward.

* * *

“Sir, the port side boarding airlock’s outer hatch has been manually opened. Whoever it is, they are inviting themselves in. I think we need to be ready,” Luis said over the intercom.

“
It’s only a few men so far, right? You said the ship was small. How many men do you think it can hold?
”

“In EVA suits, ten or twelve. But that’s not the point…”

“
It is the point, Ensign. We need to find out who they are and what they want.
”

“I think it’s obvious who they are, sir.”

“
You said you had never seen that type of ship before, correct? Then how do you know it’s a Jung ship?
”

“You’re right; I don’t, but…”

“
There is no manual override for the bridge airlock. The only way in there is to cut it open. If they do that, then it’s safe to assume they’re hostile.
”

“You’re assuming they’re coming here,” Luis pointed out.

“
If they wanted to get to engineering, wouldn’t they use the aft boarding hatch?
”

“Assuming they know where it is. And if they were EDF, they’d damn well know where every hatch was located.”

“
That’s a good point, I have to admit,
” the lieutenant commander said.

“Nothing so far indicates that they’re our people: not the ship design, not the weapons some of them are carrying, not their EVA suits… nothing.”

There was a long silence on the intercom.

“
I’ll have Tilly set the charges,
” the lieutenant commander finally said.

“That’s all I’m asking, sir,” Luis answered.

“
But I’m not destroying this ship, Metis, and probably half of Jupiter until I’m damned sure there’s no other choice.
”

“I concur wholeheartedly, sir. Besides, there’s got to be a much larger ship nearby. That shuttle couldn’t have made an interplanetary trip all by itself. If we can wait long enough, she might show herself.”

“
It would be nice to take a big fat Jung target out with us when we go, wouldn’t it?
” the lieutenant commander agreed. “
I’ll contact you when the charges are all set.
”

“Yes, sir.” Luis switched off the intercom and leaned back in his chair.

“What do we do now?” Devyn wondered.

“We sit and wait,” Luis answered with a sigh. “And we hope you’re right… that they’re really our people using Jung gear,” he added, feigning optimism for Devyn’s sake.

* * *

“It’s like walking through a ghost ship,” Jessica said as they made their way through the Celestia’s dark, unpressurized command deck. “I can’t help but feel like I’m looking at our own ship, abandoned and falling apart.”