Frontiers Saga 12: Rise of the Alliance (37 page)

“Lieutenant Commander!” the guard yelled over the joyous sounds of the reunion. “I hate to ruin your party, but you guys are waking up the entire section.”

“Of course,” Jessica replied. “Of course. I’m sorry.” She turned back toward her parents and her brothers. “How long will it take you guys to pack up your stuff?”

“What stuff?” her mother wondered. “We’ve barely got anything.”

“Why?” her brother Drew asked. “Where are we going?”

Jessica turned to Lieutenant Telles. “What’s the ETA on the cargo jumper?” she wondered. The moment the words left her lips, she noticed a brilliant blue-white flash in the distance back the way they had come. “Never mind,” she said, turning back to her family. “Everyone, you’ve got five minutes to grab your stuff and move out.”

“To where?” Drew repeated.

“Porto Santo,” she declared happily.

Jessica’s youngest brother, Nick, looked confused. “Where the hell is Porto Santo?”

CHAPTER NINE

All across the North American Union, people waited outside in the evening twilight in breathless anticipation. They had been through so much the past eight months; the Jung occupation, the battle for liberation, and the ruthless bombardments of their world. Although the sudden influx of assistance and aid from first Tanna, and then from the Pentaurus cluster had helped, it was only a small bandage over a gaping wound. It eased the pain, but provided very little in the way of hope, and hope is what they needed the most. For despite the wonder of the jump drive, and the devastating firepower brought forth by the Aurora and the Celestia, they were but two ships against a vast armada. Two ships with barely enough personnel to properly crew them, and barely held together by the dwindling resources of Earth. They needed more than just bandages, food, and fabricators. They needed strength. They needed numbers. They needed… To believe.

For this reason they were gathered, instead of preparing to huddle in their tents for the night. For if the rumors were true, they would witness a sign… Proof that they had a reason to believe. Proof that there was, in fact, hope.

“Ten seconds,” someone yelled. Many of them checked their own watches as the hour approached. Finally, at exactly zero hundred hours, Earth Mean Time, the sign came. A blue-white flash revealing a small, rocky object traveling across the evening sky. The crowd erupted in cheers as a close-up shot fed from a high-powered digital camera tracking the object appeared on every information display screen in the refugee camp. People hugged one another, crying in joyous celebration as the rumor became reality. Help had arrived.

“The Karuzara asteroid is now in stable orbit over the Earth,” Mister Navashee announced from the Aurora’s sensor station.

“Unbelievable,” Lieutenant Eckert mumbled.

“I have Commander Dumar on comms,” Naralena announced.

Nathan sat in his command chair, staring at the image of the Karuzara asteroid in orbit over the Earth directly ahead of them. “Amazing,” he gasped. “Put him on.”

Commander Dumar’s image appeared on the main view screen, standing proudly in the control center of the Karuzara asteroid base. “
It is good to see you again, Captain Scott.
”

“You don’t know how good, Commander,” Nathan answered.

“
Your ships may begin docking procedures whenever they are ready,
” Commander Dumar told him. “
I will have our flight operations center transmit procedures and frequencies to your people. We shall begin repairs and upgrades to your ships as soon as you are safely docked within our main bay
.”

“You have more than one bay now?” Nathan wondered.

“
A lot has changed on the Karuzara since last you saw her, Captain.
”

“Indeed? I look forward to learning of the changes, Commander. Perhaps you can tell me all about them over dinner?”

“
I would be honored if you and your staff were to join me,
” Dumar insisted.

“We shall be there, Commander.”

“
Excellent. Dumar out.
”

“He wasn’t kidding, Captain,” Mister Navashee said. “I’ve detected at least ten plasma turrets as well as a few dozen laser turrets. I’m also picking up entrances that were not there before, several of them big enough for a boxcar to fit through. Comm and sensor arrays, weapons-tracking systems; I’m pretty sure I’m picking up the trace signature of a ZPED, although it’s difficult to tell through all that rock. It’s even got less mass than before.”

Nathan smiled. “This is going to be an interesting dinner.”

* * *

“Captain Scott,” Commander Dumar gr
eeted, his arms open wide as Nathan and his entourage approached. “I am so pleased that you could join me for dinner.”

Nathan accepted the commander’s vigorous, two-handed handshake. “The pleasure is all mine, Commander.”

“Commander… My apologies,
Captain
Taylor. It is good to see you as well,” Commander Dumar said as he shook Cameron’s hand. “I see the nanites have done their job quite nicely.”

“Indeed they have,” Cameron stated. “I’m just glad the little buggers are no longer crawling around inside me.”

“Of that I am sure,” Dumar agreed as he turned to Vladimir. “Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy. I trust you have been keeping up with the damage inflicted on to your vessel by our good captain here?”

“I have done my best,” Vladimir answered. “However, Captain Scott does make it difficult at times.”

“Well, now that you have access to our facilities, I’m sure you will be able to do far more in less time.”

“I should expect so,” Vladimir agreed, shaking Dumar’s hand.

“We have new faces, I see,” Commander Dumar said.

Nathan turned and gestured toward the two Scout ship captains. “Allow me to introduce Captain Poc, and Captain Roselle.”

“Ah yes, the commanding officers of the Scout ships,” Dumar said as he shook hands with Captain Poc.

“A pleasure, Commander.”

“Mine as well.” Dumar shook Captain Roselle’s hand next. “Captain Roselle, I assume.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Commander.”

Commander Dumar looked confused. “I was under the impression that there were three Scout ship captains.”

“Captain Nash was unable to attend,” Nathan explained. “He begins jump drive testing tomorrow and is overseeing some last-minute preparations.”

“And what of his sister, the lieutenant commander?”

“She is on Earth, helping her family get settled on Porto Santo.”

“Well, nevertheless, I’m sure that we shall all benefit greatly from all of their years of experience. We are lucky to have found them.”

“Lucky indeed,” Nathan agreed.

Dumar turned and gestured toward the large dining table in the middle of the room. “Please, everyone, be seated.” Dumar turned and headed toward his own seat at the head of the table. “The chef has prepared a mixture of Takaran, Corinairan, and Ancotan delicacies for us tonight. It will be a special treat for me as well, as we have all been dining on quite simple fare since our departure from the Darvano system.”

“Why is that?” Nathan asked. “Surely you have enough food with you.”

“A simple precaution,” Dumar explained. “A bit overzealous, perhaps, but without the opportunity to test our jump drive arrays prior to departure, we had no way of being certain how long the journey might take, or where exactly we might end up.”

“I assume your people had computer-modeled the performance of the system prior to departure,” Cameron said.

“Of course, of course. As I said, it was a bit overzealous to be sure. As we became more assured as to the actual performance of the system, and as we grew closer to Earth, we did loosen up some of the restrictions and began to include a bit more variety. However, with all that has happened on Earth, it still seemed prudent to save as much as possible for those who really needed it.”

Nathan smiled. “Commander, no offense intended, but I don’t remember you being such a… Well, a
happy
person.”

Dumar also laughed. “No offense taken, Captain. Perhaps it was the times in which we met, or possibly it is just that I am so very glad to have successfully delivered this base to your people, where it is needed most. I promise, my serious side shall return tomorrow.”

“Maybe you can keep just a little of the
happy
Dumar with you,” Nathan said. “I rather like it.”

“I shall endeavor to do so,” Commander Dumar replied as the waiters delivered the first course of the evening’s meal. “I trust that you were able to interface your ships with our automated systems?”

“The Aurora had no difficulties, as all of her computers were replaced with Takaran systems,” Nathan explained.

“And the Celestia?” Dumar wondered.

“It was a bit more of a challenge,” Cameron admitted. “I noticed that you have widened the entry corridor.”

“And added additional airlocks as well,” Dumar explained.

“Airlocks?” Nathan wondered. “I hadn’t noticed any.”

“The entire corridor is now made up of a series of airlocks that open and close automatically as you traverse its length,” the commander explained. “You start at a vacuum, and work your way up to normal pressure by the time you reach the innermost airlock.”

“A rather elaborate system, don’t you think?” Captain Poc commented.

“Perhaps, but it allows us to forego the normal delay of waiting for a single, massive airlock to go from zero to normal pressure—which we can still do if necessary. This allows us to have several vessels in transition at once, each without having to waste time and propellant, stopping and starting along the way.”

“How many ships did you think you could fit in here?” Captain Roselle wondered. “From the looks of your main bay, it is barely big enough for the few ships we have.”

“As we have been mining the interior of this asteroid for resources to feed our fabricators, we have been concentrating on connecting the network of smaller caverns, combining them into larger ones to be used as service bays. We have created a separate operational hangar for the Falcons, complete with their own access tunnels. Our plan is to eventually convert the main hangar into a hub to which many other hangars connect.”

“I thought this asteroid had already been hollowed out and was waiting to be transferred to Corinair,” Nathan said.

“Actually, the process had only been half completed on this asteroid,” Commander Dumar explained. “As with most asteroids in the Darvano system, the core was where the most concentrated deposits of valuable ores had been located. After the core had been excavated to a size large enough to accommodate the cargo ships used to haul away the ores, they started hollowing out smaller caverns, creating a honeycomb-like structure that would help to maintain the asteroid’s structural integrity, while still decreasing its mass. However, as with many such projects, it was abandoned early on by the holders of the original mining rights due to its lack of the more valuable, sought-after materials of the time. It is for this very reason that the Karuzari had selected it as the location for their secret base. Since no one thought it valuable, no one would be coming to claim it and finish the job of extraction.”

“But it does have the materials we need, right?” Vladimir asked.

“Mostly, yes. There are a few rare-ores that we shall have to find elsewhere,” Dumar admitted, “but even if we have to import them all the way back from Darvano, it should not be a problem.”

Captain Poc shook his head.

“Something wrong, Captain?” Commander Dumar wondered, noticing the captain’s body language.

“Sorry, no,” Captain Poc said. “It’s just that it’s still difficult to get used to… The idea that importing something from one thousand light years away would ‘not be a problem.’”

“Yes, I quite agree,” Commander Dumar assured him. “Trust me, Captain, I still find it unbelievable at times, and I just jumped an asteroid across a thousand light years!”

“Captain Roselle’s ship has just made its first jump,” Nathan said, “and Captain Poc’s ship will be ready for jump testing in a few days.”

“Excellent, then you will be starting your reconnaissance missions in short order?”

“We were hoping that we could get their weapons and shields installed first,” Nathan said, “however, I suspect that there is not enough time.”

“Yes, with only two weeks until the Centauri platform arrives, it is highly improbable. We can probably get their laser turrets installed, but no more than that, I’m afraid. Surely, you do not plan on having them participate in the attack on the approaching platform, Captain.”

“No, we do not. However, I am concerned that this facility might be damaged or even destroyed by the platform, in which case it would be longer still before they could receive the remainder of their upgrades.”

“Do not concern yourself with the safety of this station, Captain. We are rapidly building up our own defenses, and our size and density makes us a difficult target to destroy. Besides, we can always jump away to protect ourselves. My people have already calculated every possible jump point along our orbit that would put us on a trajectory to eventually intercept another object whose gravity well we could utilize to alter our trajectory to come about and return.”

“Of course,” Nathan agreed.

Captain Poc tasted his appetizer. “An interesting flavor and texture. What do you call this?”

“That, Captain, is molo,” Nathan explained.

“Ah. The main staple of Haven,” Captain Poc realized. “I remember reading about it in your reports.”

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Lieutenant Commander Nash on this one,” Captain Roselle said, pushing his plate of molo aside.

“A cross between mushrooms and tofu, don’t you think?” Cameron said.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Captain Roselle agreed, “neither have been on my list of favorite foods.”

“Many consider it an acquired taste,” Commander Dumar commented.

“I’m surprised that you brought it along,” Nathan said.

“Despite its pungent taste, it is quite nutritious, keeps well, and grows rapidly.”