Ep.#8 - "Celestia: CV-02"

The Frontiers Saga Episode #8: Celstia CV-02

Copyright © 2013 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.

First Kindle Edition: August 2013

Cover and formatting: Streetlight Graphics

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The characters and events portrayed in this book are a work of fiction or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

CHAPTER ONE

Nathan Scott looked at himself in the mirror as he buttoned up his uniform shirt, contemplating the recent turn of events. Seven hours ago, he had learned that he had failed in his mission. He had not returned the Aurora home in time. The Earth had already been invaded, and now the Jung appeared to have control over the entire Sol system. One of the many colonies of pre-plague Earth had returned a thousand years later to conquer her, and he had failed to get the Aurora and her jump drive back in time to prevent it. The revelation had only served to reinforce what he had always known: that he was not the right man for the job. He should not be the captain of the Aurora, for he had failed to fulfill the one direct order given to him: to get them home.

As he tucked in his uniform shirt, Nathan attempted to ease his guilt with a technicality. He
had
fulfilled that order. They
had
made it back to Earth. Unfortunately, their homecoming had not been what they’d expected. No hero’s welcome, no parades, no reports, or investigations, not even boards of inquiry. Not even a court-martial for sharing the jump drive technology with their new allies. Just an ambush by the Jung, the very threat that had led to the creation of the entire Earth Defense Fleet. Fifty years of massive investments by the nations of Earth to build space-going warships using technologies that had only recently been revealed to them… And it had all failed.

That failure had hit Nathan hard, but thanks to the support of his friends and command staff, Nathan had managed to put his uniform back on and was about to face his responsibilities as the captain of the Aurora once more. His father had been after him his entire life to just that end: to face up to his responsibilities. Even when Nathan had enlisted in the Earth Defense Force, his father had only seen it as a way for him to avoid responsibility by letting someone else make decisions for him. He wondered what his father would think now, seeing him as the captain of the Earth’s sole remaining warship, their world’s last hope for salvation from the hands of the Jung. Would he be proud? Would he be afraid? Would he be nervous? Would he be…

Nathan’s line of thought was interrupted by the terrible realization that his father, possibly his entire family, was probably dead. His father was a member of the North American Senate, by now possibly even president of the entire North American Union. As one of the eight most powerful nations on Earth, the NAU government would surely have been targeted by the Jung during an invasion.

Nathan’s mind raced, and his pulse quickened. His skin became pale and clammy, and a wave of nausea swept over him. All the time he had been wallowing in his own self-pity, it had never occurred to him that his parents, his brother, his sisters…
How could I possibly have been so self-absorbed?

He had to grab the edge of the tiny sink in the captain’s head to steady himself.
They couldn’t be
, he thought.
They had protective details, agents specially trained to protect key members of the government.
The facts ran through Nathan’s mind at the speed of light.
Even senators and their spouses had protective details,
he thought.
If his father had won the election and indeed was the current president of the NAU, then his entire family would have been protected. They could all be in a secret bunker, deep underground, safe from the Jung. They could be waiting for rescue right now
.

Nathan sat on the edge of the toilet seat, as his head began to spin and the walls of the tiny captain’s head closed in on him. Not only were the people of Earth counting on him and his crew, but his entire family might be as well. Yet that thought had only now occurred to him—four months after he had been handed command from a dying captain.

Nathan sprang to his feet, grabbing the counter once more as he heaved what little there was in his stomach into the sink. He stood there, bent over, for several minutes, even though nothing more came up. He turned on the faucet, filling one cupped hand and wiping the cold water on his face. He remained hunched over the sink for several more seconds, waiting for his head to clear before shutting off the water. He grabbed a towel and pressed it against his face with both hands. Finally, he straightened up and looked at himself in the mirror.
This is the face of the man who will save the Earth?
The thought brought the smallest of laughs.
I am not in this alone,
he reminded himself.
I have friends. I have a crew. I have a ship
. Nathan stood up straight and adjusted his uniform shirt.

* * *

Sergeant Weatherly snapped to attention as the captain walked out of his quarters. The sergeant was adorned in Corinari body armor and a Fleet-issue combat helmet. A standard Corinari-issue energy rifle was slung over his shoulder. In addition, a holstered energy pistol and his favorite combat knife hung on his belt.

Nathan looked the sergeant over, somewhat surprised to see him and even more surprised to see him dressed in the unusual combination of combat gear. His eyebrows shot up. “New look, Sergeant?”

“We are at war, sir,” the sergeant answered.

Nathan nodded. “Yes, I guess we are.”

“Are you okay, sir?” the sergeant asked. “You look a little pale.”

“Something I ate,” Nathan said as he headed down the corridor, the sergeant following to his side and one step behind. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I suppose Lieutenant Commander Nash put you back on my six.”

“SOP, Captain, since…”

“Since we’re at war. I guess I’d better get used to it.”

“I’ll try to stay out of your way, sir.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sergeant,” Nathan said. “I appreciate your presence, really. It’s one less thing I have to worry about.”

“Yes, sir.”

They walked silently for several moments until the sergeant finally asked, “Do you have a plan, sir?”

“Well, I planned on going to the briefing. I am the keynote speaker, after all.”

“No, I meant…”

“Oh, the other thing,” Nathan said, realizing the sergeant was referring to the Jung occupation of Earth. “Not yet, Sergeant, but I’m working on it.”

“Yes, sir.”

As they continued down the corridor in silence, Nathan wondered if it might have been better to lie to the young marine, to say something more confident like ‘I’ve always got a plan’ or ‘You know me, I always think of something.’ At the moment, he simply didn’t have it in him.

A minute later, they arrived at the hatch to the command briefing room.

“Don’t worry, sir,” the sergeant said. “You’ll think of something. You always do.” The sergeant smiled at his captain, revealing his confidence in his leader.

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Nathan said, taking note of the encouraging look on the young man’s face.

Nathan took a deep breath and stepped through the hatch.

“Captain on deck!” the guard on the other side of the hatch bellowed.

“As you were,” Nathan ordered as he strode across the compartment, trying to appear as confident as possible. The long table at the center of the command briefing room was full today, with all his senior staff present, including a few who rarely attended such meetings. Today, however, was different. They were deciding how to fight a war against an enemy that probably outnumbered them one hundred to one, maybe more.

Nathan stood at the head of the table for a moment. As he prepared to speak, a million possible openings ran through his mind. His eyes met every set of eyes in the room over the span of a few seconds. These were the people that would save the Earth, not he.

After taking a breath, Nathan spoke. “I’m sure that, by now, you are all aware that our homecoming was not as expected. It appears the Jung have already taken control of the Earth, and most likely the entire Sol system.”

Abby was the first to speak, which was not unexpected, as Nathan had noticed more fear in her eyes than in anyone else’s. “How can we be sure? Maybe they’ve only destroyed the fleet, and the Earth is still free.”

Nathan could see a shred of hope in the physicist’s eyes, hope for her husband, for her children. He knew that, despite their having been sequestered on the research base along with her, Abby had seen little of them over the last ten years.

“Captain,” Lieutenant Commander Nash interrupted, “we do have confirmation that the Jung have occupied Earth. We managed to get a few quick scans of the surface during battle, along with a few dozen images, just before we jumped out of the system.”

Nathan could see the hope leave Abby’s eyes, replaced by fear. He felt guilty that he was glad Jessica had been the one to break the news to her. “What did you find?” he asked.

“We could only see about a third of the planet during our short time in orbit,” Jessica began, “but the NAU capitol building in Winnipeg, the New Britain capitol in London, and the capitols in Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Rome… every national capitol building we had line of sight on was gone. They probably hit all the national capitols on the planet.”

“What about the cities around them?” Cameron wondered, trying to conceal her personal concerns.

Nathan knew that Cameron was from New Britain, although he did not know exactly what city she was from.

“All suffered some degree of collateral damage from the attacks on their capitol buildings,” Jessica said. “However, it also appears that the Jung took out a lot of civilian infrastructure targets as well: power plants, communications, major transportation systems, waste water processing…”

“Why would they attack sewage plants?” Mister Riley interrupted from his seat along the side of the compartment, appearing somewhat confused.

“To make life as miserable as possible for the people on Earth,” Jessica said. “The quicker the masses are dependent on the Jung for their very existence, the quicker they’ll accept their rule over them. It’s simple survival.”

“Filth, stench, and disease are excellent motivators,” Doctor Chen added. “Without sewage treatment, major population areas will become ghost towns within a few years due to either death or relocation.”

“They must have had decent intel beforehand if they knew the location of every national capitol building on Earth,” Nathan said. “What about the United Earth Republic building in Geneva?”

“
It
is still standing,” Jessica said. “Most of the complex
around
it was wiped out, but the building itself appears untouched. From what I can tell, they meant it to remain standing. They’ve already set up new auxiliary buildings, guard towers, and defensive bunkers… The place is a fortress now. I’d guess they’re using it as their seat of power on Earth.”

“Interesting choice,” Vladimir commented, his eyebrows raised in speculation.

“Not really,” Nathan said, turning to look at his friend and chief engineer. “It stands to reason that they would choose an existing symbol of power, one that the world sees as familiar and trusted. I can’t think of a better one than the UER capitol building.”

“What about military installations?” Cameron asked. “Spaceports, missile sites, the Fleet academies? What about Fleet Command?”

“Fleet Command is a crater,” Jessica said bluntly. “Pretty sure they nuked themselves in order to destroy all intel. Every military site we looked for on the images was destroyed as well, but from above, not from within.”

“So once they knew they were done for, they retreated and destroyed their own command center?” Major Prechitt wondered.

“Standard practice in a retreat action,” Major Waddell added. “At least, it is for the Corinari.”

“Anything else?” Nathan asked Jessica.

“No, sir. That’s all we could figure out from what little we have.”

“Any idea how long ago it happened?” Cameron asked.

“Nothing definite,” Jessica admitted, “but from the amount of cleanup that appears to have taken place in the damaged cities we got decent images of, I’d say at least a month, maybe two.”

Nathan sighed. He had been secretly hoping that she would say two to three months, which would have eased his guilt somewhat; even if they had left the Pentaurus cluster immediately after escaping from Haven, they couldn’t have made it back that quickly.

Nathan looked at the faces of his staff sitting around the conference table. “I guess the question, then, is what do we do?”

“We kick the Jung off our planet,” Jessica answered without hesitation. “Then we kick their asses all the way back to Jungville, wherever that is.”

“Sounds good to me,” Vladimir added, equal enthusiasm in his voice.

“Does it?” Nathan wondered. “Does it really?” He looked at the faces of his staff as they stared at him in disbelief. “Don’t get me wrong,” he said, his hands raised with his palms turned toward his staff sitting along either side of the conference table. “I’m all for kicking some Jung ass, believe me. But we’re
one ship
. One ship against, what? A hundred? Five hundred? A thousand? We have no idea how many ships the Jung actually have. All we know is that they have swept across the core and conquered every world they came into contact with, including the Earth. Now, I’m as ready to die trying as the rest of you, but do we have the right to expect that of the rest of this crew? Of the Corinairans? Of the Takarans? Do we have the right to ask any of them to risk their lives against such overwhelming odds?”

The room fell silent. Nathan looked at their faces. He could tell that some of them saw his point, but he could also tell that some of them were shocked that their captain showed any doubt. The one exception was Master Chief Montrose, the chief of the boat. He simply looked angry. “Master Chief?” Nathan asked, noticing the look on the master chief’s face.

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” the master chief asked, obviously exercising his usual self-control.

“Of course,” Nathan urged.

Master Chief Montrose rose slowly from his seat next to Jessica, carefully considering his words. “I’ll try to say this correctly,” he began, “in a manner that you would expect from a master chief in
your
Earth Defense Force.” The master chief cleared his throat. “What kind of a stupid fucking question is that… sir?”