Ep.#1 - "Escalation" (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes) (7 page)

“I’m sorry,” Loki said as he pressed the escape jump button.

* * *

The combat jump shuttle began to shake as it came out of its jump and its windows cleared
again. Jessica peered out at the landscape below as they approached the spaceport outside of Lawrence. Burgess had been her home since she left Earth seven years ago. It was nowhere near as industrialized as most worlds in and around the Pentaurus Sector, but it had enough to provide for its measly population of two million people, most of which preferred to live without the trappings of modern society.

There were only a dozen cities on the entire planet, and even those were relatively small. A large portion of Burgess’s population preferred to live away from the busy areas, traveling into town only when they needed supplies.

Burgess was the perfect world for the Ghatazhak. Their leaders had welcomed them with open arms. The Sherma system, although far more accessible since the spread of jump drive technology in recent years, was still well removed from normal routes. They still had occasional problems with raiders, but the presence of Ghatazhak on their world had proven an effective deterrent. Especially with their base of operations being located right next to the planet’s capital city.

Jessica continued gazing at the ground below as they passed over the farms surrounding the city. Agriculture was one of Burgess’s major exports, as it had fair weather and regular rains year round. Since much of the planet was mountainous, wherever there was relatively flat land, there were farms. Even her parents had taken up farming after migrating to Burgess, along with her brothers and their families.

It was a difficult adjustment for Jessica, however. But it had been worth it. Ania loved it here, and Jessica’s training with the Ghatazhak had helped to get her post incident stress disorder under control.

All in all, Burgess was more home to Jessica than Earth had ever been. It was a place that she cared about, full of people whom she respected and felt at home around. She had grown to know the Ghatazhak, and found them to be surprisingly warm and friendly people, once you got them to take off their combat gear, which wasn’t an easy task.

The shuttle descended smoothly through the broken cloud layer, passed over the outer perimeter, then settled down onto the tarmac, and began rolling toward the Ghatazhak hangar. Sergeant Torwell activated the controls, causing both the starboard and port side doors to slide open. The aroma of sweaty Ghatazhak was suddenly replaced with the warm, moist air of Burgess, along with the faint aroma of burnt propellant from the shuttle’s engines.

“Fuck,” Sergeant Torwell exclaimed as they rolled past a seriously damaged shuttle. “What the hell happened to them?”

Sergeant Todd looked at the burned shuttle as they rolled past, then glanced over at Jessica. “Notice the scorch marks on the side?”

“Energy weapons fire,” Jessica replied.

“That ship was shot down,” Sergeant Todd concluded.

“They were damned lucky to get down,” Jessica added.

The shuttle rolled to a stop in front of the Ghatazhak hangar, and Jessica climbed down out of the ship. She spotted Telles walking toward her. “General,” she greeted, offering a casual but proper salute.

“The mission went well, I trust?” General Telles inquired.

“No casualties, and we got paid in full, so, yeah, I’d say it went well.”

“
No
casualties?” the general said, one eyebrow raised. “That’s not what I heard.”

“Well,
we
didn’t have any casualties,” Jessica defended. “And there were no civilian casualties. At least none that I know of. Only bad guys got hurt, I swear.”

“Relax, Lieutenant,” the general said as he turned to escort her and the rest of her team inside. “We’ve got bigger problems.”

“Something to do with that shot-up shuttle on pad seven?” Jessica assumed.

“Indeed,” the general replied. “The occupants of that shuttle are inside, and they wish to see you.”

Jessica stopped in her tracks. “Me?”

General Telles gestured toward the door, indicating she should continue inside.

Jessica cast him a suspicious look, then went through the doorway. When she stepped into the office, her jaw dropped open. “Loki!” she exclaimed in disbelief. She reached out and embraced him warmly. “How long has it been?”

“Five years, I believe.” Loki turned to reveal Deliza standing behind him.

“Deliza!” Jessica cried, giving her a warm hug as well. A realization came over her. “Is that
your
shuttle outside?”

“I’m afraid it is, Jess,” Loki replied.

“What the hell happened? Who fired on you?”

“You’re not going to believe this,” Loki warned. “It was the Jung.”

“What? That’s impossible,” Jessica said, a look of disbelief on her face. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve seen my fair share of Jung fighters, Jess,” Loki replied. “I’m quite sure.”

“Where?” Jessica asked. “Where were you when this happened?”

“Corinair.”

It was not the answer she had expected, nor hoped for. “Corinair.” There was a pause. “Where was the Avendahl?”

Loki looked down for a moment, then stared into Jessica’s eyes again. “The Avendahl is gone, Jess. Destroyed by a Jung battle group. They’ve taken the entire Darvano system.”

“What?” Jessica was in complete shock. “The Avendahl? But, she was the biggest… I mean… Jesus, she was almost as big as a battle platform.” Jessica’s mind was racing. “How many ships?”

“I don’t know,” Loki admitted. “Six or seven at least. And they all had jump drives.”

“Jump drives,” Jessica repeated. “The Jung have jump drives?”

“That’s why we’re here, Jessica,” Deliza said. “We need your help.”

CHAPTER THREE

“Nyet, you do not need to eat again,” Vladimir insisted. “You are getting fat. All you do
is lie around here all
day long, sleeping and eating.”

Cosmos looked at Vladimir, and meowed again, in the same, screeching tone he used whenever he wanted something.

“Things are going to change when we get to Earth,” he told the cat. “You’re going to go outside, climb trees, hunt birds…like a real cat.”

The door chime sounded. Vladimir left his bedroom and headed across the living area toward the door, Cosmos following at his heels. Vladimir bent over and scooped up the cat with one hand, pulling him into his side as he opened the door.

“Commander,” Cameron greeted him as the door opened.

“Captain.” Vladimir dropped his cat gently to the floor as Captain Taylor entered and closed the door behind her. “Go, be useful,” he instructed his cat. “Go shed on my clean clothes or something.”

Cameron looked around the messy quarters skeptically. “I assume your cabin isn’t always this disorganized,” she commented as she entered.

“Are you kidding? This is clean for me.”

“And you wonder why you’re still single,” Cameron said dryly. “I take it you haven’t changed your mind, then?”

“No, Captain, I have not.”

“Vlad, it’s me. Enough with the captain crap, okay?”

“Sorry, but isn’t that why you’re here? To try to talk me into staying?”

“Yes, but not as your captain, as your friend. You’ll get bored on Earth. You know that.”

“No, I won’t,” Vladimir protested as he continued packing his belongings.

“You love to fix things, keep them running, make them better…”

“Which I will still be doing,” Vladimir remarked. “Only I’ll be doing it on the surface, in a nice, controlled environment, with all the resources I need.”

“R and D isn’t for you,” Cameron insisted. “You belong here, on the Aurora.”

“I’ve been
here
, on the Aurora, for nearly a decade, Cameron, just like you. It’s time for a change. And now that they’re finally getting around to a major overhaul on this ship, it’s time for me to go.”

“Who’s going to get everything working properly once the overhaul is finished?” Cameron asked.

“Not me,” Vladimir responded. “I won’t be qualified, and we both know it.”

“You’ll learn the new systems, Vlad, you know you will. The refit will take
six months
. That’s more than enough time for you to learn everything.”

Vladimir stopped packing. “No, it’s not,” he said with a sigh. “They are replacing everything. The engines, the jump drive, the reactor plants…even the data and communication systems. All the stuff that I have been holding together for the last nine and a half years, Cameron.” Vladimir returned to his packing. “I will learn my way around all those new systems, but I will do so in a research lab, on Earth. And I will sleep in my own dacha at night. I will eat real food. Breathe real air, feel real sunshine on my face,
every day
.” Vladimir sighed again. “Ten years in space is enough for me.”

“Galiardi won’t be in command of the Sol sector forever, Vlad,” Cameron reminded him. “He’s getting up there in age, you know.”

“It’s not just Galiardi,” Vladimir told her, “it’s the life. It’s the tedium. The drills, the meetings, the patrols… It’s just not the same…”

“As when Nathan was in command?”

Vladimir looked at Cameron. “It’s not you, Cam. You’re a fine captain, and a close friend. You know that. It’s just…”

“I know,” Cameron sighed. “I miss him too.”

“When Nathan was alive, this all felt like a grand adventure. Each day was exciting, with new challenges to face. And we faced them together. Now…” Vladimir paused again, as he remembered his long-lost friend. “Like I said, it’s just not the same anymore.”

Cameron had nothing to say. She knew exactly how he felt. She remembered her time as Nathan Scott’s executive officer, and the grand adventures they had all shared in the Pentaurus cluster. “You know,” she said as she sat down, “I despised Nathan when I first met him.”

“Yes, I know.”

Cameron looked at him, her brow furrowed at his quick answer.

“He complained about you a lot in the beginning,” Vladimir explained.

“He did?”

“Yes, but I think you made him try harder. Even if it was only to beat you.”

“I see.”

“But, later, he admitted that you made him think more before making decisions,” Vladimir added.

“It was always his biggest fault, acting impulsively,” Cameron remembered.

“It wasn’t impulse,” Vladimir corrected, “it was instinct. And it was also one of his greatest strengths.”

“It also got him killed,” Cameron pointed out.

“And saved us all,” Vladimir quickly corrected her. “It all depends on your point of view.”

“You’re right.” Cameron sat silently, watching Vladimir pack. Finally, she spoke again. “Did you ever believe it?”

“Believe what?” Vladimir replied without looking up.

“That he was
Na-Tan
?”

“He was,” Vladimir said without missing a beat. “At least he was for those who needed him to be. That’s all that mattered.”

“I suppose,” Cameron said, a pensive look on her face. She took in a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. “What time are you leaving?”

“I’m catching the afternoon shuttle out.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner? My treat?”

“What, salad?” Vladimir laughed. “No thank you… Unless, of course, you would like to give your old friend a goodbye romp in the sack?” he added with a lascivious sneer.

“Seriously? You’re hitting on your captain?” Cameron laughed, rising to her feet to give her friend a heartfelt embrace.

“This could very well be your last chance…”

“In your dreams,” she told him as they hugged. She pulled away from him suddenly, sneezing. “You are taking the cat, right?”

“Of course.”

* * *

“After you finish shutting down, go and help Neli prep the passenger cabin for the next boarding,” Captain Tuplo instructed Josh.

“Come on, Cap, Neli
can handle that herself,” Josh complained.

“Everyone helps with everything,” the captain said firmly as he climbed up out of his seat in the Seiiki’s cockpit. “It’s either help Neli, or help Marcus in the cargo hold,” Captain Tuplo said. He looked at Josh, waiting for a reply. “Well?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Not your strong suit,” the captain said, patting Josh on the shoulder, then turning to exit.

“Where are you going?” Josh asked.

“To see if I can rustle up some extra paying cargo for the run to Rama. We’re going to have some extra room in the hold after we offload the cargo bound for this port.”

“I thought I was a pilot, not a steward,” Josh grumbled as he finished shutting down the Seiiki’s systems.

“And I thought I was a ship owner, not a salesman,” Captain Tuplo said, exiting the cockpit. He descended the few steps from the cockpit to the main deck, just as Neli was coming out of the galley. “I’ll be at the cargo master’s office if anyone needs me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Josh will help you turn the cabin around before the next boarding. I want to get underway as soon as possible,” he added as he opened the main boarding hatch. “This damn port charges by the hour.”

“I’ll get everyone on board and ready to go as quick as I can, Cap’n,” Neli assured him.

“And do me a favor, Neli,” the captain added as he deployed the boarding gangway. “Make sure Marcus doesn’t block access to the engineering crawl spaces. I know he’s just doing it to piss off Dalen.”

“I’ll make sure,” Neli promised.

Captain Tuplo stepped out of the hatch and made his way down the gangway to the tarmac. The skies were clear, and it was mid morning at the Ladila spaceport. As usual, the port was bustling with activity. Unlike Palee’s spaceport, this one was the definition of efficiency, with flights arriving and departing every few minutes. Ladila had always been a popular world, with temperate climates throughout most of the planet, and very stable and predictable weather patterns. The Paradar system was further away from the Pentaurus cluster compared to others; hence its slow development. However, since the proliferation of jump technology, many had migrated to work in the numerous resorts that had sprouted up all over the planet, and Ladila had become one of the more popular vacation destinations in the Pentaurus sector.

Unfortunately, the owners of her spaceport were well aware of that fact, and charged more for landing at their facility than nearly anywhere else in the sector. Ship captains had little recourse, since a run to the Paradar system always meant a full load of passengers, each willing to pay a premium for the convenience of jumping to paradise in an instant. There were even plans to set up a dedicated jump shuttle service between some of the primary Pentaurus worlds and Ladila, providing hourly flights, thus allowing people within the Pentaurus cluster to simply jump over for dinner and a show, rather than booking an entire vacation.

Of course, such a contract would not go to the likes of Connor Tuplo and the Seiiki. Those services would require dedicated passenger jump shuttles, designed for that one task. But that was fine with Captain Tuplo, as the idea of constantly jumping back and forth between the same two destinations, day in and day out, did not appeal to him. He preferred being in control of his destiny. He liked being able to pick and chose his runs as he saw fit. His dream was to someday take his ship further out into the galaxy, and provide his services to worlds that had not yet been connected by jump-capable ships. Perhaps find a group of heavily populated worlds that were just far enough apart to make interstellar commerce logistically difficult, yet still within his single jump range. He had heard rumors that there were likely hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of human-inhabited worlds out there. Considering there were at least a dozen such worlds in the Pentaurus sector alone, and they had all stemmed from a single, colonization mission that had left Earth nearly a millennium ago, it was a believable scenario indeed.

The Ladila spaceport was a series of rings, all of which were connected to a central terminal. Each ring had its own cargo master, and each cargo master was linked to one another. It was not uncommon for ship captains to book more cargo than they could safely carry, just in case. They all operated with very slim profit margins, and no one ever wanted to lift off even a single kilogram under their gross takeoff weight. It was a game the cargo masters knew well, and they played it to their own advantage whenever possible. Captain Tuplo had gotten into the habit of understating his gross takeoff weight. It gave him the ability to seemingly take a risk, and help out a cargo master looking to get goods left behind off his schedule. It was slightly less than honest, but it hurt no one and gave the captain an extra margin of safety. Of course, it also meant that, on occasion, the Seiiki
was
leaving profit behind by taking off under her gross weight. More often than not, the additional bonuses for taking stale cargo off the cargo master’s hands made up for the loss.

Connor walked into the cargo processing center and headed straight for the cargo master’s office. Although he could have simply transmitted the amount of space and weight available to the cargo master’s office without ever leaving his ship, he liked getting out and walking around, even if it was only within the spaceport complex. It also helped to make personal connections, from time to time, with the people who could send paying cargo his way. It was normally a job for Marcus, as he had a way with such men. However, Ladila was a special case for Captain Tuplo, as it was one of the few worlds where everyone seemed to be courteous and friendly. It was also one of the few worlds where he actually felt comfortable leaving the safety of his little ship. If it weren’t for the exorbitant hourly port fees, he would try to make his layovers on Ladila. Unfortunately, a single overnight stay would take him a week’s worth of runs to make up.

“Marl Joson,” Captain Tuplo said as he entered the cargo master’s office. “Since when did you start working the day shift?”

“Since old man Aberlon got transferred to terminal four,” Marl replied, offering his hand in greeting. “How are you doing, Connor?”

“Keeping ahead of the curve…barely.”

“Just like the rest of us. What can I do for you?”

“I was hoping you had some stale cargo that needed to go to Rama,” Connor said.

“How much are we talking about?” Marl wondered.

Captain Tuplo pulled his data pad out of his pocket and set it on the counter. He turned it on, called up the current load plan on the Seiiki, then turned the data pad around and slid it across the counter to the cargo master.

“Not much, I see,” Marl commented as he studied the data pad. He looked at his display screen. “I can give you a few pods full of poray beans. It won’t get you to max weight, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Don’t you have anything heavier?” Captain Tuplo asked.

“I’ve got some thruster cores shipping out for overhaul. But you’ll have to shift things around a bit to make them fit. Still won’t get you to max weight, though.”

“Give me the cores
and
the poray beans, then,” Connor suggested.

The cargo agent entered the data into his system. “That will put you over gross, Connor.”

“I just won’t take on any additional propellant then,” Captain Tuplo said. “The prices are too damned high here anyway.”

“As you wish,” Marl replied. “Just give me a minute.”

Captain Tuplo turned and looked up at the flight status displays, noticing that the view screen showing the flights scheduled from both the Takar and Darvano systems were not displaying any information. “Hey, what’s up with the flights?”

“I don’t know,” Marl replied. “They’ve been like that for nearly an hour.”

“The last jump comm-drone didn’t show up,” one of the other workers in the cargo office commented. “They haven’t updated since nine.”

“That’s odd,” Captain Tuplo said. “Aren’t those drones usually on time?”

“It happens every once in a while,” Marl assured him. “I’m sure it’s just a malfunctioning drone. The next one will get here in a few minutes, and the board will update.” Marl handed the data pad back to Captain Tuplo. “You’re all set. I even transmitted the added cargo specs to your ship for you.”

“I can hear Marcus swearing already,” Captain Tuplo chuckled. “Thanks.”

* * *

“If they’ve taken Corinair, then they must have taken Takara as well,” Jessica surmised.

“Simultaneously, I would expect,” General Telles said. He stood, leaning against the counter in
the hangar’s outer office. They had been debriefing Loki for several minutes, trying to garner every bit of information possible from him while it was all still fresh in his memory. “And you’re sure the Avendahl was destroyed? She didn’t just jump away at the last second?”

“No, sir. I double checked,” Loki insisted. “She was trying to jump, but she was hit by at least a dozen jump missiles as she was attempting to escape. She never flashed… She just came apart.”

“Do you remember how many of her jump fighters made it to the Glendanon?” Jessica pressed.

“I heard Jaker Four Five say twenty or thirty, but I don’t know how many of them actually made it back to the Glendanon before she jumped out. Last I heard, two Jakers were trying to defend the Glendanon against some gunships, to buy time for the rest of the fighters to get aboard before she jumped away.”

“We need to find the Glendanon,” Jessica commented.