Blood War 1: Last Stand of the Legion: Rift (14 page)

LYTEN SYSTEM

RIFT

VON FLEET CORPORATION

VF 1

The VISIONARY

THE CHAIRMAN'S PERSONAL VESSEL

Carroll was astonished at the size of the Corporations flagship waiting for the shuttle that had picked him up. He had heard of the Visionary
- naturally everyone in the Corporation knew of the ship, but he had never seen it before. He was staggered by its size; it was literally as large as a battleship. All manner of sensors and communication equipment dotted its outer hull. He watched as landing lights began to flash as a huge hangar door slowly opened.  The shuttle slid easily into the bay filled with other shuttles.

Carroll sat there staring out the window as the shuttle was secured and the hanger bay was repressurized. He had been on a Confederation battleship once or twice for meetings or equipment tests. What he saw outside would not only rival those battleships but the crew appeared just as efficient and professional. The shuttles passenger door finally slid open. Two corporation troopers were waiting for him. Carroll noted they were no less imposing than the two that had picked him up. He stepped down the shuttles ladder and
, flanked by the four guards, he was led off the hanger deck and through a maze of passageways.

The comparison to any Confederation battleship stopped the minute he stepped in the first passageway. It was carefully and professionally lighted to draw focus to the paintings, photographs and videos by some of
Sol’s most famous artists that lined each passageway. The passageways were carpeted in the finest natural fibers Carroll had ever seen. There were highly polished, real wood handrails lining the bulkheads. The passageways were at least twice the width of a battleship as if space did not matter. Men and women moved through the halls, not giving Carroll or his security escorts a second glance. Some wore the Von Fleet corporate military uniform and were probably part of the crew of the ship. The rest appeared to be dressed for a day at the office. So Carroll guessed that the ship also served as a traveling headquarters for the Von Fleet Corporation. The true power and richness of the Von Fleet was on display. Anyone boarding this ship would be struck by the fact that Von Fleet was more powerful than most of the planetary Systems that belonged to the Confederation.

To think that he was at the center of the most important deal and held the most sensitive secret began to sink in to Carroll. He found himself walking a little
taller; not looking like he was under arrest, instead was being protected by the guards around him. He belonged here among the elite. Nothing had changed. He had changed.

The guards escorted him to a tube that
whisked them up a number of decks. When he stepped out of the tube, his escorts did not exit with him. Instead he found two new guards standing in front of two wooden doors. Wooden doors in a space ship! He was astonished at what that must have cost.

As he walked to the door they
both reached over and opened the doors. Carroll entered the most luxurious room he had ever seen on any planet, much less on a spacefaring vessel. It just became more and more amazing and to think he was part of this world now.

The Chairman sat behind a huge wooden desk. The same holo's he had on Sol surrounded him. The only thing that was missing was the view
. Instead, the display was set to a window view of space where tens of thousands of stars glittered behind him. He smiled and motioned him to a chair.

"Come in Carroll
, please. You've earned it. How do you like my little ship?"

"I'm amazed Mr. Chairman. I could not have
conceived of such luxury in a spaceship."

"It is nothing Carroll. I just like to be comfortable when I travel and one does need to keep in touch and be able to get a little work done while
away from the office."

"Yes sir. I am sure you do."

Those wizened old eyes seemed to take everything in; it was as if he were scanning him for competence or loyalty with just a glance.

"Please sit down."

Carroll sat in one of the chairs in front of the Chairman’s desk. He ran his hand over the wood of the arms. He had never felt something so perfectly made from a natural material. The Chairman reached over and pressed a button.

"Captain
, our guest is on board."

"Aye, aye sir."

"Sir, my family. I..."

"Please
, do you think I would be so forgetful? They are very comfortable in your stateroom which is on this deck, of course."

The last comment meant more to Carroll than the fact that his family was safe and on board. He was on the same deck as the Chairman. The same deck! That could only mean he was satisfied with his performance and had been accepted. He was part of the
innermost circle of the most powerful corporation in the known worlds. He was speechless. The risks and the worry had all been worth it. All the years on Rift in backwaters of the Confederation had paid off. All his sacrifice had been worthwhile. He could hardly wait to hear what would be next. What kind of reward.

"Thank you
, Mr. Chairman."

"Our clients operations are well underway and so far they are going exactly as expected."

Behind the Chairman the view of the stars began to change as the ship began to move. Suddenly Rift came into view, as the planet’s red surface began to dominate the window view. Carroll noticed bright flashes coming from the dark side of the planet where the Fleet Anchorage would be now in the planets orbit. Then there was a huge explosion, no mistaking it, an explosion. Red and green streaks crisscrossed in space. He could even see fighters' as well as other types of ships come into view occasionally. That is when he realized he was watching a battle in space, a battle he helped make possible. He could only stare; he was not the only one who was paid a price for his new success.

"It is quite beautiful from here, is it not Mr. Carroll
?"

"Yes, yes sir."

"Do not let it concern you. It was inevitable. The Xotoli were going to attack with or without our help. Given our assistance we will be richly rewarded. In fact you are about to be the beneficiary of one of those rewards."

"I don't understand
, Mr. Chairman."

"We just set a course for Sol by way of Ceti where we will pick up another passenger. We should be there tomorrow night."

It normally took a week to move through space from the wormhole to Ceti where you would then have to wait for your turn in the normal trading traffic queue. Once you arrived at Ceti you then had to travel the distance from the Ceti wormhole back to Sol. A conventional trip took weeks for that kind of transit, that’s without taking normal shipping traffic and Confederation ships using the entrance.

"I don't understand."

"Our new clients have a technology that can open a wormhole at will. So they have given us permission to use this new route."

"But sir
, why would they need a wormhole from Rift to Ceti?"

"You will see soon enough. Now why don't you go to your stateroom and change for dinner. It will be ready soon. The Chef has some real lobster from Earth on the menu."

"Don't we have to prepare for the transit? I know we don't have to go into stasis like the old days but we do have to strap into our seats for the transit."

"No dear boy
. Now go along and get ready."

Carroll stood
, walked out through the huge wooden doors, too stunned and overwhelmed to notice the stars and Rift disappearing behind them into the blacker than black inside of a wormhole.

LYTEN SYSTEM

SWIFT BOAT TS 111

PATROL SECTOR ALPHA

Chief Kim slowly regained consciousness. The direct hit by the missile had knocked him out despite his helmet. For a few moments he did not know where he was
- all the lights were out and his console was completely dark. As he slowly stopped seeing double, he remembered where he was and what had happened. The ship was still intact despite a direct hit by a missile.  They made the Old Girl to withstand a tremendous amount of damage and still keep flying. His survival pod had activated sealing him into his compartment with all his controls. It had not deployed. He glanced at the readout for the rest of the crew. Everyone was sealed in his or her pods except Kindall, her pod had not deployed. His console showed her vitals were straight lined. The missile must have hit her position directly. The hull was breached at her station. It was open to space. That meant the damage to the hull was too large for the nano sealers to work. Everyone else showed green so they had survived.

Once he knew the fate of his crew he checked the status of the boat. Every system had three and even four redundant back-up system
s. He touched the systems check panel and they all came up green. He was amazed. The boat had simply shut everything down after it had made sure that enough of the crew had survived to fly it. It had not deployed their survival pods into space knowing that it could still fly and fight. The power plant was online but in shutdown mode. All he had to do was reach over and press the startup, the boat would go through a systems check and they would be back in the fight. Then he realized he had no idea what was going on around them. He had no situational awareness and if you made decisions before you had enough information it could get you killed. Next he did what he should have done first.

"This is Kim
, sound off."

"Uh...Chief this Odaka I am ok. Systems are
.... I don't believe it but they are all green but powered down."

"Ludwig here. The same Chief
, a little groggy but still good. All green. Powered down."

"This Lee
, Chief. The same all green and powered down. My pod has been activated but not deployed."

"Roger that. Good to hear from you guys
, it was getting lonely up here."

"Chief," Lee said. "What about
Beigia. She did not check it?"

"
Kindall is gone. She took the missile hit directly on her position."

"Shi!"

"Gan ni niang!"

Chief Kim noticed that Lee was quiet. He knew that he and
Kindall had been close. He did not ask but he thought they were sleeping buddies. Neither had let it interfere with doing their jobs so he had not said anything. He needed to snap them out of their grief and see if they could get back into the fight.

"It is never easy to lose a shipmate but knowing
Kindall she would want a little pay back, don't you think?

"Roger that."

"Check."

"Absofuckingloutey Chief."

"First things first. We need to know what is going on outside this boat. Odaka, if we turn on all our sensors we will light up like a Christmas tree and anything within a parsec will detect us. A long time ago some of us old timers were sitting around and figured something out. I am going to turn the power on and then off several times at random intervals. I will tell you just before I do and you can bring up the systems you need to look around and get some idea of what we are facing. Once you are ready I will turn it on for a few seconds longer for you to do a sweep and then shut it down once you get a good look. The idea is to look like a dying ship whose power is shorting out. Think you can do it, Odaka?"

"No sweat Chief. Ready when you are."

"Everyone be prepared for attack should we be in the middle of them."

"Check Chief."

"I'm braced, Chief."

"Good Odaka
, here we go."

"On."

Chief Kim counted to himself.

"Off."

"That about right, Odaka?"

"Yeah
, Chief. I got a couple of my systems ready. Keep it about there."

Chief Kim flipped the power on and off three more times at varied intervals.  Odaka said
,

"Ready
, Chief. I am going to need about twice as long as you have been giving me to set things up."

"Ok, if they are around this will be the one. Crew brace, brace, brace."

Chief Kim flipped the switch and left it on for a full ten seconds before he switched it off. It was a long ten seconds as he and the rest of the crew braced for the impact of another missile. Nothing. Chief Kim let out his breath when he turned the power off. He had not realized he had held his breath.

"Odaka here
, Chief. You are not going to believe this Chief, but I got nothing. They are gone. All I got was some debris in our sensor range. We got a few of them and some of our own debris."

"Check. Prepare for a cold power start up and get your systems ready."

Chief Kim went through his start up procedure as the others did the same.

"Chief
, this is Lee. Can you switch Kendall's systems to my position?"

Lee was proving
the old rule that the sailors who gave you the most trouble during peacetime were the ones you wanted at your side during a war.

"Check Lee. She would have liked that."

"I know. Thanks Chief."

As he
went through his systems start up procedure, Chief Kim asked himself the big question. Now what? They certainly could not tangle with that fleet again unless it was on their own terms and Chief Kim doubted the aliens would let that happen. That left one destination that made any sense.

"All green
, Chief" Lee said. He was the final one to check in since he was covering two positions.

"All right we are going to return to
D50 and see what happened."

"We're not going to let them get away
, are we Chief?" Lee said.

"
One step at a time Lee. We will get payback for Kindall don't worry. Now all hands prepare for a war patrol. I want sensors out, all weapons sitting on green. All your weapons are free. Let's see what happened to D50."