Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (40 page)

             
"Is that a threat, Jackson?"

             
"No, sir, it's a sad reality. I captured an Enclave transmitter when I took the ship depot from them. I just received a transmission from another Enclave group in Prague with devices in place to blow the entire city."

             
"Why should I believe any of this nonsense from a traitor like you?"

             
"Traitor, traitor?" Josiah yelled. "Where were you when our great President Rhodes was allowing his Enclave thugs to try and assassinate my family? Where were you when the President and his Enclave thugs let sixteen million Coalition citizens die and were prepared to sacrifice fifty-three million more? Where were you when the President and his Enclave thugs tortured and crippled my best friend while under the Banner of Peace? Don't talk to me about being a traitor. You had the power to try and stop it, but didn't, now shut up and listen." Josiah took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he played the transmission for the general and sent him the coordinates.

             
"Is this legit, Jackson?" The General asked in fear. Gone was the accusatory bluster, replaced by genuine concern.

             
"Yes, sir, I've bought us about an hour impersonating their dead commander, I only pray you can get your people there in time."

             
"We're ready to go, boss," Jason called over comms.

             
"Get everyone onto the ships and tell
Endeavor
to get us out of here. I'll take one of the shuttles with my command team." As the ships began to take off, the firing increased.
Endeavor
activated all of the ships shields and the planet-based weaponry began splashing off invisible energy fields in a brilliant display of light and color. A cloaked shuttle landed in the depot and Josiah's crew boarded. They were already in the air when Earth's forces breached the facility, finding nothing but dead Enclave soldiers. As they reached the ionosphere, Josiah received another transmission.

             
"Your intel was correct, Captain. We were able to deactivate the devices and detain the Enclave criminals. You saved our capital and millions of people. You still have a death sentence on you if you ever come back, but thank you." To accentuate his thanks, Earth's defense forces stood down and did not try to engage them on the way out.

             
"I understand, General, and I want to let you know, we will be leaving this galaxy in the next few days and Polisia will be completely free from our influence. They are a powerful and wealthy planet and they have powerful shipyards, it might do the Coalition well to begin diplomacy towards bringing them back."

             
"We just might do that, Jackson." The transmission ended and Josiah let out a deep breath. Another miracle pulled off by the crew of
Endeavor
. He met up with Manny and the two fleets prepared to jump to light space. The seam opened into the dimension that holds light space and reality lost focus around them, and Josiah allowed himself a smile at a job well done.

______

              Josiah and Manny's mission was a smashing success. They actually came back with more ships than they went after. If that were not enough, they procured four SSE cargo ships full of useful technology. There was also a huge side benefit to the mission. Josiah was able to stop an Enclave plot that would have destroyed all of Prague. When the authorities learned of Josiah's heroics, they immediately sent a transmission to Polisia to begin negotiations for their reentry into the Coalition.

             
Jesse and Serge had been up for two straight days confirming that what Josiah's teams had recovered was the last of their tech and getting the fleet ready for departure the following day. He reflected sadly that all that remained of the SSE – his legacy – was
Endeavor
, eleven
Leviathans
, twenty-seven
War Hawks
and twenty-two cargo haulers. Jesse planned to bring it all with him, along with the fifteen remaining Special Forces cruisers and three space liners. Two of the liners belonged to Jesse and would be filled with people, and the last one was what he referred to as Carmine's mobile garden. The thought of that made him smile. Carmine had gutted an old liner and filled it with soil three feet deep in some places and almost seven feet deep in others. He had also installed a sun lamp system as well as a water system and began growing tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and several herbs. He was bringing with him everything he would need to open up an Italian restaurant on Donara, and the thought of that really made Jesse smile. He also had a section of the liner dedicated to an apple orchard because he loved apple pie. As Jesse thought about Carmine's ship, he was glad his big friend was coming with him.

             
In all, the fleet would include seventy-nine Milky Way ships leaving Polisia plus one hundred forty-three Kalephi ships returning home. Of the two hundred twenty-two vessels, one hundred ninety-seven of them were warships. Jesse expected that King Dominus would leave two Hyperian battle groups with him for the defense of Donara, probably led by Admiral Sonnadall, which would give him a fleet of eighty-six ships to start off with. He could definitely work with that. One hundred eighty-three thousand people in total were coming with Jesse to his new city in the Kalephi Galaxy, not counting the crews of the Kalephi ships. Polisia was thankful for everything Jesse and Nina had done for them, and were sorry to see them go.

             
The following morning, as
Endeavor
stood ready to open the conduit between Galaxies, Jesse addressed the fleet from the bridge of the
Vanguard
with his wife by his side. "I am humbled to see that one hundred eighty-three thousand of you have decided to take this journey with my family, my friends and our Kalephi brothers and sisters. We have a powerful fleet, a fair amount of resources and equipment, a lot of really smart people and a brand new city waiting for us. The Kalephi Galaxy is not without dangers, and founding a civilization on a new planet will not be easy, even in the beautiful city our great friend, King Dominus has had built for us. Having said that, if anyone wishes to back out, the time is now. While we do possess the technology to come back, I will never be coming back to this galaxy; it is no longer my home. The Coalition I spent the bulk of my life fighting for, bleeding for and sacrificing for, turned its back on me and my family when we needed them most. They turned their back on my closest friends and sided with criminals and thugs who led with threats and empty promises over the dedicated heroes that had saved them twice and asked nothing in return. Everything we built has been destroyed, and while many of you might be able to get past that type of betrayal, I cannot, so this is a one way trip." He paused and gathered his thoughts as he prepared to continue.

             
"I would like to thank Councilor Dana and the ruling council as well as all of Polisia for sticking with us when twenty-eight planets abandoned us. We leave as friends and I know they will be safe in the hands of the ruling council with General Solomon and Admiral Armistead leading their military. Polisia will be one of the leading planets of the Coalition because of these dedicated and talented men and women. To them we say goodbye. Now, if my good friend Captain Josiah Jackson would do the honors and open up the conduit, we will be on our way. Each of our six groups will need the go ahead from their group leader before entering the event. As a reminder, the group leaders are; Admiral Vantilas on the
Hyperian Valor
, Admiral Sonnadall on the
Vengeance
, General Kelly aboard the
Liberty
, Colonel Hernandez aboard
Olympus
, Colonel Jameson aboard the
Camelot,
and myself aboard the
Vanguard
. My group will be entering the conduit last, followed by
Endeavor
.

             
Josiah looked over the bridge of his ship,
his ship
, that's a nice thought. He had Collin at the helm, Bessa on Communications, Reece on weapons, Tanna on sensors, Xanu on damage control and Maria with another soldier, Sergeant Damon Reynolds, for security and to pilot the two shuttles if need be. Doctor Brady Stevens was the new ship doctor in med-bay, Serge and Irina were in engineering and Nina as a guest along with Frost. He knew that once they had made it to their new home, he was going to need to drop off Nina and Serge, but his crew was set. It was basically the same crew it had been, minus Jesse, Kim and Suzy, with the addition of Doctor Stevens, Maria, Damon and Irina.  He had SAMMI let Serge know it was time to open the conduit. Serge turned on the machine and the crew watched in awe as the natural phenomenon was successfully recreated. Josiah watched as each group entered the event and as soon as Jesse's group had gone, he directed Collin to enter the event and the next thing he knew, they were in the Kaldorian system and they were being hailed by several transmissions at once.

______

              "Receiving hails from Chairman Valinor, Captain Reed, General Strong aboard the Hyperian Destroyer,
Tempered Steel
and Admiral Marcos." Bessa called out.

             
"Put Admiral Marcos though along with Chairman Valinor. Something tells me they should talk. Ask Admiral Vantilas to take the transmission from General Strong and put Captain Reed through to me."

             
"Yes, Sir," Bessa replied with a smile. This was the most transmissions she had ever had to deal with at once and he could tell she relished the challenge. Gone was the timid ex-slave, and in her place stood a confident, competent communications officer.

             
"Admiral Marcos," Valinor greeted. "I was told the odds against you were long indeed. I did not expect to see you again. Thankfully, you have arrived in time to help us. One day soon, you will have to sit down with me and explain how you escaped a fleet of two thousand."

             
"We didn't escape, we won," Jesse replied. "Please, tell me what the situation is, and how can we help. If you don't mind, I'm going to conference my council in on this."

             
"No, I do not mind at all, my friend. It truly is good to see you." Jesse waited as each of the group leaders plus General Strong and Admiral Togglasem joined the conference on the transmission.

             
"I've never had a transmission conference with ten people before," Jesse quipped. "Chairman, why don't you give us the overview of what is going on."

             
"It is not good news my friends. Garrinoras’ brother, Tovanoras has raised a fleet almost a thousand ships strong and plans to invade Ginderbar with five hundred and Kaldor with four hundred fifty. He has another fifty to roam the sector in an effort to make sure none of our allies can help us without risking an attack on their world."

             
"Let me guess, he's set up on Zinnebulous and Chawanas."

             
"Indeed, those are the two strategic locations needed to launch an incursion of this magnitude into the Alliance."

             
"We should have let Enosal raze that planet while we had the chance." Jesse angrily mused.

             
"Both planets; Chawanas has been kind to neither of us." Valinor added.

             
"Who are Garrinoras and Tovanoras?" General Kelly asked, and Jesse realized that with everything that had happened, he had actually shared very little of his experience here in the Kalephi Galaxy with his people.

             
"Let me brief my people quickly, Chairman. Circumstances in my galaxy never allowed me to fully share with them what had happened here." Jesse replied. For the next several minutes, he explained to all of his top people who Garrinoras was, and what had happened between them. He then turned the briefing back over to Chairman Valinor.

             
"I know you have been through nothing but battle for the past two years, but do you think you could help us out just one more time?"

             
"Of course, my friend. Admiral Vantilas has already gotten approval from King Dominus to stay here with his remaining ships and my ships will stay as well. I have a few questions before your people begin talking logistics with my people."

             
"Of course, ask away." Tarrick replied with a smile that said a heavy weight had been lifted.

             
“Can my Cargo haulers and space liners land on Kaldor? They are not warships and are full of people and resources we need."

             
"That will be no problem, what else?"

             
"How's Kiah?" He smiled as he remembered his scrappy little friend.

             
"She is wonderful. We recently celebrated her eighth birthday. We were able to narrow it down to a two-week period and she picked the day. She is growing, and happy. She will be very excited to see you, she asks for you all of the time."