Scrapyard Ship 3 Space Vengeance (5 page)

Jason shrugged. “No, not really. But I didn’t see there were any other viable options.”

The admiral stepped through the portal. A moment later Jason saw his father reappear as he stepped through the second portal. Jason asked him how he felt.

“
Much better, thank you for asking. I feel like I can actually think clearly again.” The admiral walked over to Granger and held out his hand. Granger shook his hand and they spoke quietly for several minutes. Other than the occasional word here and there, Jason couldn’t make out what was being said.

A line had formed and Ricket and Dira were directing people into the left portal. The relief on their faces when they exited the portal told Jason he’d made the right decision. He felt life could finally get back to normal. The admiral was back at his side and he put a hand on Jason’s shoulder.

“
Son, I want to thank you.” He gestured towards the portals. “I’m not so sure I would have lasted much longer.”

Son? Jason couldn’t remember the last time his father had called him that. “Well, it’s really Granger you want to thank. This setup was his doing.”

“
That’s not exactly what he says, but just the same, thank you.” The admiral changed subjects. “We have visitors coming in tomorrow morning. I need you to be at the outpost.”

As Jason left the hold he looked back one more time. Not once since she had come through the second portal had Dira looked his way.

* * *

Jason awoke early the next morning and was again relieved to feel back to normal, and still human. He’d been pinged several times already with reminders that there was a morning meeting at the outpost and not to be late.

But this morning was all about Mollie. He’d had little time to spend with her lately and nothing was going to stand in the way of him having a little dad and daughter time.

She’d arrived at his cabin with a hundred questions, but Jason kept mum to where they were going or how they were going to get there.

“
What should I bring?” she asked, looking for a hint in the way he was dressed.

“
Nothing. Here, hold this for a sec, I packed us a lunch.” Jason finished putting on his shoes.

Molly looked in the small satchel to see what he’d brought.

“
Why are you being so secretive? I hate surprises.”

“
Yeah, sure you do.”

“
I’m supposed to go to work today; Jack will be upset.”

“
I’ve cleared it with Jack.”

They left the cabin and headed astern. At the DeckPort Mollie scowled. “If you don’t tell me, I’m not going.”

“
Okay, I guess I’ll have to go by myself.”

When they emerged on the flight deck her expression changed from frustration to confusion. The Pacesetter, already prepped, was sitting in the middle of the bay with its canopy open.

“
Wait, we’re going in that?”

“
Is that okay?”

“
Yes, that’s okay. That is more than okay!”

Mollie sat in the forward seat. Her helmet was a little big on her but she didn’t seem to notice. All strapped in and the canopy secured, Jason entered the coordinates. After a quick conversation with his XO, they phase-shifted to the Chihuahuan Desert above.

“
Ready to go?” Jason asked.

“
Stop asking me that, Dad—wherever we’re going, let’s just go already!”

With that, Jason steered the Pacesetter off the ground and headed south, then nearly vertically straight up, toward the stratosphere. Mollie screamed. Quickly, her fear turned to excitement, though the screams continued. The edge of the stratosphere changed from light to blackness and then back to light again as they descended. Jason watched as her helmet spun this way and that as she took it all in. When they reached near-ground level again, the world had turned white. Miles and miles of white. Skimming the Antarctic planes at two hundred miles an hour, Mollie became quiet. The landscape, barren and beautiful, demanded it. They approached a coast of jagged white cliffs—contrasted against small inlet pools the color of aquamarine. Fifty feet below, too many penguins to count shuffled here and there as they swam and romped around.

“
Oh my God! They are soooo cute!”

They phase-shifted to an open area below. Jason climbed down the ladder first, telling Mollie to sit tight for a moment. Stowed away in the Pacesetter’s storage compartment were sub-zero coats, snow pants and boots. The cold was almost unbearable. Now properly outfitted, with teeth chattering, Jason pulled a thermos from the compartment and poured Mollie and himself a steaming cup of hot chocolate. They headed off to play with the penguins.

* * *

Four hours later, with Mollie back with her mother, Jason used the Pacesetter to phase-shift back up to Earth’s surface and then flew on to the outpost. After requesting permission to land, Jason made a complete circuit around the perimeter of the outpost. Below was a flurry of activity. Troops were moving from one location to another. Equipment was being transferred out of the belly of a C5 U.S. military transport plane from origins unknown. The outpost’s fleet of two hundred plus Craing warships was in the process of being painted over—from a drab brown color to battleship grey, navy blue, or stark white.

Jason set the fighter down at a designated field location near one of the two runways. The last time Jason landed here, he’d been greeted with an armed militia. Now, a small contingent of five men, apparently a mixed bag of Army, Navy, and Marine military services, stood at attention and waited for Jason to join them. They saluted and Jason couldn’t help but notice they were all excited and holding back smiles. This is how he’d initially imagined the outpost—a place where the best of the best could serve their country. Some would be among the elite few who’d travel into the far reaches of space.

“
Welcome, Captain Reynolds. I’m Sergeant Matheney; we’ll be escorting you to your meeting with the admiral and the Joint Chiefs.”

“
Thank you, Sergeant.”

It was then that Jason noticed the top of the closest flagpole. A new flag fluttered there in the afternoon breeze. A striking red, gold, and blue design for the Earth Outpost for the United Planetary Alliance—the EOUPA flag. Each of the men had a matching EOUPA patch on the upper arm of his uniform as well.

Jason fell in step with the group as they headed for the larger of the two outpost buildings. Before entering, he stopped and turned toward the right-most flagpole. At the top of this pole was the flag of the United States of America. Jason stood a bit taller and saluted the flag. He turned to join the others and entered the building.

* * *

The admiral’s office, or, more accurately, his suite of offices, took up the complete top floor of the Outpost Systems and Command Building. Military police were positioned at the ground floor elevator, as well as at the elevator exit on the top floor.

A ruckus came from the end of the hall. Jason instantly recognized his father’s deep voice, as well as the voices of several others. He entered the admiral’s large wood-paneled conference room. Apparently, someone had just released the punch line to a funny joke. All of the five men present were laughing so heartily they hadn’t noticed Jason’s presence. The first to look up and see Jason was Secretary of Defense Ben Walker. The laughing subsided and the others, General Brian Carter, Vice Admiral Harold Brightman, and General Eric Slayton, acknowledged Jason with somewhat subdued politeness. The room was thick with cigar smoke and the smell of expensive Scotch. Jason saluted them and the five men stood and returned his salute.

Jason moved toward the open chair near his father’s, situated at the head of the table. Before sitting down, he shook the men’s outstretched hands.

It was Ben Walker who spoke first. “Captain Reynolds, Jason … we all owe you a great debt of gratitude.”

The room had become quiet and each man, now serious, had his eyes locked on Jason.

“
Thank you, sir. I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve made my share of stumbles along the way.”

“
Oh, we’ve noticed,” General Slayton chided.

“
All right, let’s all sit and get down to business,” Admiral Reynolds said, taking his own seat. A tumbler with several fingers of Scotch slid across the mahogany tabletop, stopping right in front of Jason’s right hand. Jason nodded his appreciation toward Vice Admiral Brightman.

“
Although we’re all pretty much up to speed, why don’t you give us a quick synopsis of the course of events that occurred over the last few weeks, up to the destruction of the three Caldurian vessels?” Admiral Reynolds said.

“
Three? I thought it was only two Caldurian vessels that were destroyed,” the Secretary of Defense muttered, confused.

Admiral Reynolds raised his hand. “We’ll get to that. Jason, go ahead.”

Jason stared at the table for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts on everything that had happened over the last few weeks. He then began to speak: first relating the meeting he’d had with the three Craing overlord prisoners at the outpost, and learning from them two important factors. “First,” Jason continued, “In response to our unexpected victory, defeating five hundred Craing vessels on the outskirts of our solar system, the Craing readied their response. They had three Caldurian vessels of their own. Called the Emperor’s Guard, these newer, more technologically advanced warships were being readied to assault Earth. Second, we learned of the Craing’s ability to use something called the Loop. By way of a stabilized wormhole they had created close to their home worlds, they were able to move about and dominate other civilizations throughout the universe. The bottom line was something needed to be done, right there on their home turf, to even the odds. But even with FTL technology, a trip to Craing space would take over one hundred years. We then came up with another idea on how to get there, but it would be risky.”

Jason paused and took a sip of his drink. The room was quiet and he had their full attention. “You’re all familiar with the Zoo on board The Lilly. Well, it just so happens that one of the habitats there is on Halimar, which is one of the Craing worlds. The habitat, which we call HAB 12, is out of phase from our own perspective, so once in there, we needed to find another portal to access the Craing planet. We had less than a week to find the portal, destroy the Loop and stop the Craing from sending the Emperor’s Guard. After losing a substantial number of our team, we made it onto their planet and destroyed the Loop. We were unsuccessful at stopping those three Caldurian ships from entering the wormhole, though. While all this was going on, The Lilly was en route to another star system to deliver the three overlords to discuss asylum for their people. With minimal crew and security forces, The Lilly never made it there. Tricking The Lilly’s crew with a phoney distress signal on a space freighter, and assisted by a traitor crewmember on board The Lilly, the pirates boarded the ship and took hostages.”

“
Yes, we read in your report that your ex-wife was held by their leader, um … what’s his name?” General Slayton asked.

“
Captain Stalls. A real piece of work and someone we’ll need to keep tabs on. He has no less than two hundred warships at his command—any one of which could wipe out millions here on Earth. We re-entered the ship from HAB 12 and regained partial control of The Lilly. It was more of a stand-off, really, which lead to Stalls and his band of pirates releasing the hostages and abandoning the ship.”

“
So, we not only have the Craing to deal with in open space, we have this band of killer pirates, as well?” Vice Admiral Brightman asked.

“
Afraid so. Anyway, once we made it back here, Earth was already engaged with the three Caldurian ships of the Emperor’s Guard.”

“
Now, let me stop you there, Captain. They weren’t actually attacking us outright,” Brightman said.

“
That’s correct; they were looking for something or someone. Caldurians had, or have, access to what amounts to unlimited wormhole travel. While the Craing were able to utilize their Loop wormhole to access a limited number of outpoints throughout the universe, the Caldurian technology has no such restrictions: travel seems to be instantaneous to anywhere. The Craing had limited information about that kind of capability and were desperately looking for answers to acquire it. Somehow, they got the idea that the answers lay deep here, within the Earth’s crust.”