Sullivan Saga 3: Sullivan's Watch
Read Sullivan Saga 3: Sullivan's Watch Online
Authors: Michael K. Rose
SULLIVAN’S WATCH
A NOVEL BY
MICHAEL K. ROSE
EDITION NOTICE
SULLIVAN’S WATCH. Copyright © 2013 Michael K. Rose
Cover Design by Alexia Purdy
All rights reserved. Except for fair use as determined by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to any actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First Digital Edition: 25 December, 2013
This Edition: 08 July, 2014
- SULLIVAN’S WATCH
- EDITION NOTICE
- I: CONTACT
- II: ENGAGEMENT
- III: CONSEQUENCES
- IV: INTO THE BREACH
- V: FRAGMENTS
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ALSO AVAILABLE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I: CONTACT
ADMIRAL RYAN LONG asked for the message to be repeated. It had come from one of the observational posts orbiting Mars, and while Long was fairly certain he had heard it correctly, he wanted clarification. He listened again and bit his lip. There were protocols for this sort of thing, but when the unbelievable finally did happen, Long found himself responding on instinct rather than by the book.
Long tapped on the computer in front of him and checked the current distance between Earth and Mars. It would take almost fifteen minutes for his message to reach Mars and another fifteen for a reply. It frustrated him that in hyperspace, ships could span the distance between two planets in the blink of an eye, but real-time communications were still limited by the speed of light.
“Damn it,” he said. He needed the information sooner than that. He pressed a button on his screen. “Scramble a squadron of F-88s. I want a report from Mars ASAP. Patch them directly into me once they return.”
The confirmation reached him a few seconds later. The F-88s were the only fighters capable of hyperspace travel. In fact, they were the smallest hyperspace-capable ships ever built, but even so, they were more than twice as large as the standard F-66 fighters. What they lacked in overall maneuverability was made up for by their hyperspace capabilities. The ships could be launched, arrive in Mars orbit and be back within a few minutes.
Admiral Long watched on his monitor as the fighters left the docking bay and disappeared in a flash of blue light. He turned his attention to the large bay window spanning the length of the
Vigilant
’s bridge and glanced down at the globe of the Earth. It looked so peaceful from orbit, and even though the visions of Jesus and Allah and Krishna and countless other deities seemed to have subsided for the moment, the entire planet was still on edge. On top of the near chaos that had been spreading across the planet over the past few weeks, now there was this. If the report was confirmed, it would certainly lead to further panic. There was no way news of a strange ship over Mars could be kept from the people on Earth; there was too much travel and communication between the two planets. But whatever the fighters reported, Long had an obligation to keep at least the men and women aboard his ship calm.
He reached forward and replayed the message from the Martian observational post. What did a “large, unidentified ship” mean, anyway? Long knew for a fact that no military ships would have been in orbit above Mars without him knowing about it, at least no ships operated by the Stellar Assembly Armed Forces. And none of the non-Assembly planets had the resources to build a ship of that size without the SA knowing about it. One of the large passenger liners was a possibility. It could have made an emergency drop from hyperspace, startling the people at the observational post. But if that was the case, why hadn’t they said so? They would have certainly been able to recognize a passenger ship. An uneasy feeling crept its way into Long’s mind. He shivered. Even if the people—if they could be called people—aboard this ship were friendly, he didn’t think humanity was prepared to handle this. Not now.
The light indicating a message began flashing. It was the commander of the fighter squadron. They’d returned sooner than he’d expected. Admiral Long pressed the receive button.
“Admiral, this is Commander Olson.”
“Go ahead, Commander.”
“I’m sorry to report, sir, that Mars is under attack.”
“By whom?”
“Unknown, sir.”
“Did you engage?”
“No, sir. The attacker’s ship is too large for a single squadron to handle. I thought it best to report back to you as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Commander. Dock your ships as quickly as you can.”
Admiral Long sounded the emergency alarm. He hit the ship-wide intercom. “All hands to battle stations. Repeat: all hands to battle stations.”
He turned to the helmsman beside him. “I want us a hundred thousand klicks out from Mars.”
“Yes, sir.”
He turned to one of the stations behind him. “Are those F-88s in?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Lay in the course, Lieutenant,” he said to the helmsman.
The massive carrier accelerated out of Earth orbit. After half a minute, blue light began flashing in front of the big window at the front of the bridge. A final, bright flash filled the bridge then blinked out. The
Vigilant
had crossed over into hyperspace.
Long watched the clock counting down. After a few quiet seconds, they emerged from hyperspace. The red planet could be seen a hundred thousand kilometers away.
“All stations report,” Long said.
He listened as the reports came in from the men and women around him. There was a debris field surrounding the planet. Neither the orbital posts nor any of the colonies on the surface could be contacted.
“And no sign of an unidentified ship?”
“No, sir. No sign of any ship. No ships, no satellites. Only the debris field.”
“Put the video from those F-88s on my screen.”
As the carrier cautiously approached Mars, Long studied the video from the fighters. The enemy ship was unlike any he had ever seen. It was long and narrow, jet black in color, and all along its hull were spaced a series of rings. Long guessed they were doors leading into docking bays or perhaps weapons ports.
There was no other structure that might indicate the presence of a bridge or crew section and no windows that he could see. What he took to be the ship’s nose was gently rounded. The other end tapered to a point. Nowhere did he see any type of standard propulsion system. Long didn’t know where the ship had come from, but one thing was certain: it hadn’t been built by humans.
A flash of white light lit up the screen. Long could see the flash was coming from the ship’s nose, but Commander Olsen had been approaching from behind it so didn’t get a good view of what was happening. Admiral Long guessed Olsen had recorded the ship firing some sort of weapon. Several more flashed followed, then the view changed as Commander Olsen and his squadron banked to the right and prepared to jump back into hyperspace.
Long stopped the recording and turned his attention back to Mars. All the inhabitants of Mars lived in half a dozen colonies. The planet, lacking a breathable atmosphere, necessitated a compact living arrangement. From orbit, the cities didn’t look that impressive: just a handful of domes, solar arrays and other structures; much of the Martian colonies lay underground.
“Sir,” said the officer next to him, “we’ve scanned all the colonies on this side of the planet. They’re gone.”
“Gone? Let me see.”
The magnified images from the surface appeared on the screen in front of Long. He put his finger on the screen and scrolled the image. All the surface structures were destroyed, reduced to rubble. Half a dozen craters had been blasted into the ground, exposing the underground structures to the harsh environment. “This is Syrtis?” he asked, recognizing the dark volcanic rock surrounding the destroyed colony.
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me see Tharsis.”
Another image appeared of a smaller settlement. It, too, had been destroyed.
“Launch the lifeboats,” said Long. “The colonies’ emergency systems would have sealed off each section where there was a breach. There still might be survivors in areas that weren’t directly hit.” He turned to the helmsman. “As soon as those lifeboats are away, take us back to Earth, Lieutenant.”
Long gazed at the images of the destroyed colonies as the carrier jumped back into hyperspace. There had been over two million people on Mars. An alien ship had attacked them and, before anyone could respond, seemingly vanished. Long wiped a hand across his brow. Had they vanished, or simply moved on to the next target? He didn’t know if god existed, but he said a silent prayer that the same thing hadn’t happened on Earth in his absence. Within seconds, he would know for sure.
THEY HAD SAT in silence for several minutes as Kate absorbed what Sullivan had just told her. Frank Allen was alive—or at least, seemed to be—and, if it wasn’t a trick, his warning meant what Sullivan had suspected all along: the hyperspace entities, whatever they were up to, did not have the interests of humanity in mind.
“I have no choice,” Sullivan said. “I have to go to Earth.”
“Don’t you think you should wait?” asked Kate. “Frank couldn’t tell you what was going on there. Until we know that, there’s nothing you can do.”
“He told me to go, Kate. I have to believe he wants me there for a reason.”
“If it was Frank at all.”
“I know. I’ve thought about that.”
“What if it was one of the entities? What if they’re just trying to get you into hyperspace to finish you off?”
“They could have done that at any time after Frank and I completed their task on the parallel Earth. They could have killed me right at that moment.”
Kate shook her head. “No, they couldn’t have.”
“Why not?”
“Because Frank was with you. And they wanted him to cross over for some reason. If they’d killed you, he wouldn’t have.”
“You’re making the assumption that they even needed his permission to take him.”
Kate’s expression grew thoughtful. “Rick?”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever actually see the entities kill someone?”
“No. But Liz damn near stopped my heart. She reached right into my chest, and I could feel those icy fingers squeezing tighter and tighter.”
“But what was she actually doing? How was she doing it? They don’t have physical bodies.”
“They do in hyperspace.”
“Are you sure? I mean, what if everything she was doing to you was psychological, making you believe she was stopping your heart? What if they can’t really kill someone at all? At least, not without their cooperation, the way Frank gave his?”
“I don’t know, Kate. If what Liz did to me was all just in my mind, it’s a hell of a trick.”
“But if it is just a trick, that means you can go back into hyperspace, you can go to Earth, and they can’t stop you.”
“But if it’s not a trick, they’ll kill me as soon as the ship crosses over.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t….” Kate closed her eyes, trying to fight back the tears. She knew Rick was leaving her again, no matter what she said. If she fought him, it would only make the time they had together uncomfortable. “Rick, do you really believe it was Frank who came to you?”
“I do.”
“And we know he wouldn’t tell you to go into hyperspace if it was dangerous, right?”
Sullivan smiled. “I thought you didn’t want me to go.”
“I don’t, but you’re going to anyway. And if you’re going to do it, I want you to be prepared.”
Sullivan got up from the couch and paced the room. “I don’t know what I’m going into. How can I be prepared for it?”
Kate also rose and stepped over to him. She put her hand on his cheek and leaned her head against his chest. “By accepting the situation as it is. By being at peace with what you have to do, no matter what it is.”