Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (36 page)

“Count me in,” Josh said without hesitation.

“Hold on,” Loki insisted. “He’s talking about jumping into the middle of the Jung’s home system.” Loki looked at Nathan. “That is what you’re talking about, right?”

“It is,” Nathan replied.

Loki leaned back on his bunk. “I knew we were in trouble when you showed up at our quarters,” he said, shaking his head.

“I’m not ordering you,” Nathan reminded him.

“I’m in,” Josh repeated.

“Shut up, Josh!” Loki exclaimed. He looked at Nathan. “Why us?”

“You guys already know how to fly a Jung shuttle,” Nathan said.

“I’m sure there are a few other Alliance pilots who have flown Jung shuttles by now,” Loki protested.

“Come on, Lok,” Josh begged.

“Shut up, Josh.”

“Other pilots? Yes, but not ones whom we can trust to pull it off and come home with the recon data,” Nathan explained.

“Oh, jeez,” Loki moaned. “You had to go and say it that way, didn’t you, sir.”

Nathan looked Loki in the eyes, his voice dropping. “Look, Loki, nobody knows I’m here. Nobody knows I’m asking this of you. So nobody will know if you turn me down.”

Loki looked at the ceiling, then back at the captain. “
I’ll
know, sir.”

“Come on, Loki,” Josh begged again. “It’ll be fun. We’ll be heroes. Everyone will want to buy us a drink and hear how we pulled it off.”

“That’s assuming we make it back,” Loki reminded him.

“Pffft!” Josh dismissed. “Piece of cake, easy as pie, a walk in the park.”

Nathan looked at Josh, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Don’t ask,” Loki told the captain.

* * *

Josh and Loki stared out the forward windows of the Jung fast-attack shuttle as the main cargo pod ramp slowly opened, revealing the dark void of space.

“Holy crap,” Loki muttered. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Neither can I,” Gerard said, as he stood behind Loki, peering over his shoulder.

“Doesn’t look any different than any other chunk of space,” Josh commented, unimpressed, as he checked his flight systems display. “You ready to go?”

“No,” Loki replied emphatically.

“All right, then,” Josh said. “Rolling forward.” Josh pushed the taxi control stick on the center console forward, causing the shuttle to roll toward the open end of the massive cargo pod. The shuttle continued out onto the ramp, and Josh moved his hand to the throttles. He pushed the lever on his control yoke upward with his left thumb. “Translating up.”

The Jung fast-attack shuttle lifted gently off the cargo pod’s loading ramp as it drifted away from the pod.

Josh fired the forward thrusters. “Thrusting forward.”

“Nothing on sensors,” Loki reported nervously. “Just a few chunks of ice and rock in the area.”

“How’s our course look?”

“Looks like it’s clear all the way to our arrival point.”

Josh glanced at the sensor display in the middle of the center console. “Are we clear yet?”

A blue-white flash of light from behind them cast a brief, eerie light into their cockpit.

Loki looked at Josh. “I guess they didn’t want to hang around any longer than they had to.”

“Firing the mains,” Josh announced, pressing the burn button on the throttle. A dull rumble emanated from the back of the shuttle. “Throttling up to full power,” Josh said as he pushed the throttle forward to the stops.

“We’ve got a good burn,” Loki reported.

“How long until we go to FTL?” Josh asked.

“We burn for fifteen minutes,” Loki replied. “Then we shut down and transition to FTL for two days.”

“Two whole days coasting through the Jung home system,” Josh commented in amazement. “Damn, we’re a long way from Haven, aren’t we, Lok?”

“You know something,” Loki said, “I really miss Haven right about now.”

Gerard patted Loki on the shoulder. “I’ll be in the back,” he said, as he turned aft. “Might as well collect as much signals intelligence as I can before we go to FTL.”

* * *

Jessica walked down the corridors of the Cobra base on the asteroid orbiting Tanna, looking for her older brother’s office. The place was full of technicians and Cobra crews going about their daily business. It reminded her of the inside of the Karuzara asteroid base, which wasn’t too surprising since the Karuzara crews had excavated most of the facility.

“Excuse me,” Jessica said, stopping a passing technician. “Captain Nash’s office?”

“Around the corner to the right, sir,” the young man directed, in an obvious Tannan accent.

“Thank you,” she replied. She made her way to the corner and turned right as instructed, finding her brother’s office a few more meters down the hall. She pressed the buzzer.

“
Enter!
” Robert’s voice called from inside.

Jessica pushed the door open and found her brother sitting behind his desk, studying a data pad.

“Jess!” Robert said in surprise. “What are you doing here?” he asked, rising from his seat to greet her.

“The Aurora is picking up a load of propellant to bring back to the Karuzara,” she explained. “They carved out some more storage caverns and wanted to stock up while things are quiet.” She hugged him after he came out from behind his desk. “So, I thought I’d drop by and say hi.”

“It’s great to see you,” he said. “How long are you going to be here?”

“Takes a while to transfer all that propellant. I was told five or six hours, minimum. I thought I’d go down to the surface and see Synda while I was here as well.”

“Well, it is great to see you,” Robert repeated, moving back to his seat. “Please, sit. How is everyone back home?”

“They’re good,” Jessica said, taking a chair opposite his desk. “Everyone’s working at the base. Mom is watching all the grandkids during the day, and cooking up a storm at night, like usual.”

“I can’t wait to get back home and see them,” Robert said wistfully as he sat down.

“Well, that’s part of the reason I’m here,” Jessica said, alluding to an ulterior motive for her visit hesitantly.

Robert looked suspicious. “What’s up?”

“You’re being reassigned,” she told him.

Robert’s suspicion turned to shock.

“You don’t look happy,” she said, noticing his change in expression. “By the way you reacted when you first got handed
this
assignment, I figured you’d be overjoyed to get a new assignment.”

“Uh… I guess you just caught me by surprise.”

“Are you sure that’s all?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve grown to like this assignment. Things have been going pretty well here. The Tannans are great people. A little set in their traditions, but… It’s been a really good experience overall, I guess.”

“And from what I’ve seen, you’ve done a hell of a job getting the Tannans trained. They’ve racked up more than two dozen kills without a single ship lost.”

“Yeah, like I said, they’re a great bunch of guys to lead.” Robert sighed. “To be honest, I’m going to miss them.”

“Well, pack your bags, Bobert,” she said, handing him a data chip. “You’ve got new orders.”

“How much time do I have?”

“A shuttle will be here in three days to take you to your new command,” she told him, smiling.

“Command?”

“Yup. Dumar is giving you a frigate.”

“No shit?” Robert laughed.

“No shit.”

* * *

“If it makes you feel any better, we’ve already collected a ton of really good intel,” Gerard told Loki. “The ship movements and patrol patterns within the system alone are worth the risk.”

“I’d feel a whole lot safer if we had a jump drive installed in this thing,” Loki said.

“This thing is as fast as any ship they’ve got,” Josh chimed in from the other side of the makeshift crew cabin. “So as long as we go to FTL before they shoot us, we’re golden, right?”

Loki looked at Gerard, who said nothing. “Right?”

“Well…yes and no,” Gerard admitted. “Yes, any ship they might send after us would likely not be able to catch us. No, as in they might have FTL intercept weapons…something that goes
faster
than their ships…like their comm-drones.”

Loki looked concerned. “Wait, we’ve never
seen
any such weapons, so why would you think they would have something like that?”

“Makes sense to save something like that for defense of your most valuable asset. Better not to advertise such capabilities, lest your enemy knows what to expect.”

“And why didn’t you bring this up earlier?” Loki asked accusingly.

“Honestly, I didn’t think about it until just now,” Gerard admitted.

“Relax, Loki,” Josh said, getting up from his bunk. “We’re already deep inside their system. If they haven’t spotted us yet, they probably aren’t going to.”

“Until we come out of FTL, you mean,” Loki reminded him.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure they’ve spotted us by now,” Gerard said.

Both Josh and Loki looked at Gerard in surprise.

“Come on, guys. Surely you assumed they have some sort of passive FTL detection network? Sensors scattered throughout the outer edges of the system? Maybe linked to mini-FTL comm-drones to alert command of incoming threats?”

“Uh…then why haven’t they attacked us?” Josh wondered.

“We’re in one of
their
shuttles,” Gerard reminded them.

“Squawking a transponder code from a battleship that
should
be in the Tau Ceti system,” Loki exclaimed, “fifty-eight light years away!”

“Relax, I sabotaged the transponder,” Gerard said. “It only transmits an ID code at random, and at varying strengths and frequencies. Even then, only at random. To the Jung, it will look like the transponder is malfunctioning. Besides, we’re a single shuttle. We’re no threat. If they have detected us, I’m sure they’ll hail us after we come out of FTL.”

“And then what?” Loki wondered.

“I lie to them.”

“Solid plan, there, Gerard,” Josh commented, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “It’s almost time, Lok,” he added, heading forward.

“Is that seriously your plan?” Loki asked Gerard.

“Pretty much.”

“So, we come out of FTL, they ask us who we are and what we are doing. You lie, while we collect sensor data, then we go back into FTL, and hope they don’t chase us and blow us all to hell. That’s your plan?”

“Did you guys seriously
not
think about any of this
before
you volunteered for this mission?” Gerard asked.

Loki sighed. “Yeah, that’s how we usually make decisions.” Loki rose and headed forward to join Josh, moving through the hatch into the shuttle’s cockpit.

“We’ve got about a minute before we drop out of FTL,” Josh warned as Loki took his seat.

“And we become visible to every ship in the system,” Josh said as he donned his comm-set. “How many of them did you say you had already detected?” he called back to Gerard over his comm-set.

“
Eighty or ninety…so far,
” Gerard replied.

“Great.”

“Thirty seconds,” Josh warned.

“I can see that, Josh,” Loki replied.

“Just let us know if we need to do anything while we’re at sub-light,” Josh reminded Gerard. “Like, go back to FTL.”

“My finger will be on the button and ready, that’s for sure,” Loki added.

“Understood
,” Gerard replied.

“Five seconds to dropout,” Loki announced.

“Please, Loki…” Josh said.

“Three…”

“Enough with the countdowns.”

“Two……one…”

The shuttle’s mass-canceling fields shut down, and the ship reverted to its normal sub-light speed.

“FTL fields have shut down,” Loki reported. “We’re now traveling at twenty percent light.”

“
Passive sensors are online,
” Gerard announced from the cabin over their comm-sets. “
Whoa. I’m getting tons of detail about their homeworld. Holy crap! Look at that moon! It’s got some sort of man-made ring encircling it.
”

“Encircling the moon?” Loki wondered, finding it hard to believe.

“
The whole damn thing,
” Gerard affirmed. “
It’s some sort of space port, or shipyard… I don’t know what it is, but it’s huge. How are we looking up there?
”

“I’ve got at least fifty ships on the traffic display,” Loki replied. “So far, nothing is turning toward us.”

“
Jesus,
” Gerard continued to exclaim. “
Their world is very heavily populated. I’m seeing very little open space. About forty-percent of the surface is covered with water, most of it deep oceans. But their continents are literally covered with cities. There’s got to be at least a hundred billion people on that world.
”

“Ships, Gerard,” Loki reminded. “All we care about are ships.”

“
Wait, we’re being hailed,
” Gerard warned.

Loki suddenly felt his mouth go dry.

Gerard said something in Jung over the comms, which neither Josh nor Loki could understand. There was a pause, then Gerard spoke in Jung again, this time saying a lot more than before.

“What the hell’s going on?” Josh asked.

“
They asked who we are, and why our transponder wasn’t working properly,
” Gerard explained.

“What did you tell them?” Loki wondered, his finger hovering over the button to engage the FTL fields.

Gerard again spoke in Jung over the comms. The exchange lasted more than a minute, with several pauses as he listened to the incoming messages. Gerard’s voice began to sound tense, his tone becoming more adamant, as if he were arguing with someone.

Josh and Loki stared at each other, too afraid to speak. Loki looked at the time display on the center console. “We’ve been out of FTL for one minute, now,” he warned. “Talk to me, Gerard.”

“
Stand by!
” Gerard said quickly, immediately returning to his conversation in Jung over the comms.

“Fuck,” Josh swore. Even his nerves were starting to frazzle.

Loki kept his eyes on the traffic display, watching for any sign that one of the many ships on the screen was turning to intercept them.

“
Okay!
” Gerard exclaimed. “
Go to FTL!
”

Loki quickly scanned his display, checking that they had a clear line out of the system before pressing the button to activate the mass-canceling fields. A few seconds later, the shuttle slipped back into FTL, but Loki kept his eyes on the traffic display, just in case.

“What the hell just happened?” Josh demanded.

Gerard came through the hatch, coming to stand behind Loki. “I told them we were on a scientific survey mission of the Oort cloud, comparing the composition of objects from varying locations. When they asked about our transponder, I told them we were having problems with our comm-stack. I even started messing with the voice transmission to make it garbled.”

“What the hell was all that arguing?” Loki wondered.