Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (13 page)

“Really?” asked Spartan in feigned
surprise. “And what is the third?”

“
Combat veterans.
There are some that think the use of this technology is hubris. By
using this technology, something that we found rather than created,
we are creating reliance upon it, and also dabbling into things
that could bring back the rumours of Hyperion.”

A tap at the door
stopped their discussion for a moment. Teresa stood up and walked
to the door. She stepped outside for a moment and was gone for
almost a minute before returning and closing it behind her. Rather
than speaking, she walked over to the computer system on the wall.
She tapped it and brought up a projection of the Prometheus-Orion
Spacebridge. It was an unfamiliar sight to Spartan who had spent
most of the last eighteen months organising the security systems of
a dozen ships and four different colonies; the Network was closely
guarded by Alliance personnel only, and he was quite happy it
stayed that way.

“
This is the
experimental Spacebridge that Admiral Anderson is working on. Very
few people outside of this room and the staff working on it know
that the data used to construct it and the coordinates for its exit
point were discovered at the Hyperion dig site. The bridge has been
created, and ANS Beagle has gone through and established a stable
path back to Prometheus. It will be going public shortly, but not
until an issue is resolved.”

Jack looked at the others in surprise
but noticed they seemed unfazed.

“What the hell is this? Why didn’t
I...”

Spartan grinned at him.

“Because you never needed to know.”

He then looked to Teresa and the
image.

“What is it?”

A device on Director
Johnson’s wrist started to beep, and he lifted his hand to be
excused for a moment. He looked down, and in just a few seconds,
his face turned ashen from whatever news he had just heard. He
looked up to Teresa.

“
I must commend your
intelligence network Ms Morato. It appears you beat my own
department.”

He stood up and walked to the
model.

“May I?” he asked.

Teresa nodded
and
stepped to the side. Johnson zoomed
in on the image of ANS Beagle that was now far away in the Orion
Nebula.

“
A short time ago, a
terrorist unit set off a device aboard the main vessel, killing a
number of people. Information coming in says it was Lieutenant
Jenson, an officer that had previously served on your old ship, the
Santa Maria. I’ve been recalled to Prometheus to head up the
investigation, and to assist the Admiral with the security of this
new territory.”

He paused for a few seconds as he
considered his next move.

“
Look, I know this
is a little unorthodox, but I have doubts about almost everybody.
Hell, that’s my job, right now. We have an entirely new region of
space with planets, moons and stations to consolidate. I could do
with an independent eye on this one. Help with establishing
security procedures, personnel and patrols, but more importantly, I
need somebody outside of the system to help with this
investigation. Who knows how far it could go? Your company is
already providing security for Alliance facilities, is it
not?”

The room fell silent at this last
point. Johnson could sense they weren’t quite sure how to respond
to his request.

“
I also have a
request from the Admiral. He wants you and your company here to
assist. It looks like our presence in Orion is going to be
long-term.”

“Isn’t that what Alliance military
forces are designed for?” asked a suspicious Jack.

Johnson smiled.

“
Of course, and who
was instrumental in helping create the Alliance Marine Corps? There
are times where private security is preferable to the installation
of permanent military garrisons. If nothing else, something tells
me that Orion is going to become the new frontier, and one that is
ripe for exploitation. If you don’t go, I can assure you there are
others, like Terra Corps that will jump at the chance. Not
interested?”

Spartan looked to Teresa who smiled
right back at him.

“
If it’s a chance to
get away from Epsilon Eridani, then you can count me in. I’ve
already had enough of this place.”

Director Johnson smiled at her
response.

“
Good. Get a small
team together, and meet me at the spaceport.”

With that last
message, he was gone.

Spartan looked at
his young son and his wife, both who seemed excited and a little
confused at what had just happened.

“
Well, you’d better
pack your bags because we have work to do, and it looks like it
might take us to a new star system.”

Jack stood up and headed for the door.
Spartan reached out to grab him.

“Keep this between us now, okay?” he
said seriously.

“
What about Wictred?
He’s been helping me with this. He could help.”

Spartan nodded.

“
I have no doubt
about that. Let me speak with Gun first. We have things to discuss.
Until then not a word to anybody, and that includes Wictred.
Understood?”

Jack agreed, but it
wasn’t without protest. Once he’d left the room, it was just
Spartan and Teresa left. She walked up to the door and hit the
internal electronic lock mechanism. It clicked shut with a dull
thud, locking them both in the room. She turned back to face him
with a look on his face that he knew all too well.

“
We should be
getting ready to leave,” he said as firmly as he could
muster.

Teresa moved closer and then pushed him
back to the table.

“
Not just yet, we
have a little time, don’t we?”

Without waiting for
an answer, she leaned over his prone body and placed her lips on
his.

* * *

The fleet of five ships moved into a
high orbit over the largest moon. Two of the frigates had stayed
behind to guard the numerous civilian ships and engineer teams
coming through the Spacebridge. This left just two Crusader class
cruisers and three frigates to continue on to start a preliminary
investigation into the gas giant, its moons and the unusual signal
that had been detected when ANS Beagle had first arrived. Before
leaving the Spacebridge, the two cruisers had been reinforced with
more crew to bring their complements up to full strength.

Inside the CIC of
ANS Dragon
, and in front of the tactical
display, stood Commodore Lewis, two of his science officers and
Colonel Daniels, the newly arrived commander of Alliance Marine
Corps. A detailed model of the moon lay in front of them, as well
as lines that indicated the paths of the scores of other moons and
debris circling the great planet. The moons were dwarfed by the
great bulk of the planet gas giant of whose diameter exceeded an
entire astronomical unit.

“Explain that to me again?” asked the
Commodore.

The most senior of the science team,
Commander Garret Blackford altered the image to show the shapes on
the surface of the moon.

“The surface shows an artificial
construction near this region of craters. The reconnaissance drone
isolated the source of the radio signal to be coming directly from
the centre of this shape.”

The dark collection
of shapes expanded until just one hexagonal looking site filled the
screen. It was grainy, and substantial noise had obliterated much
of what they were looking at.

“
Well, that’s great.
All I’m seeing are shapes on the surface, and you’re telling me
that some, if not all, of this site is artificial?”

“
It is more than
that, Sir,” explained the second of the two men. “We have faint
traces of expelled fuel on a landing trajectory with the body.
Somebody has been there and in the last day.”

Commodore Lewis looked intrigued at
this information. Commander Blackford continued his briefing.

“
It isn’t just the
surface of the moon. Of this Star System, we’ve established the
following information. There are eight planets orbiting this red
subgiant and there is a distant companion star, an orange main
sequence star approximately three hundred astronomical units away.
The nearest planet to the sun is the gas giant we are approaching.
The remaining planets are an odd mixture of mainly ice planets,
including a heavily volcanic world, and one that seems to have
methane oceans. There are also three rock worlds with potentially
interesting properties for establishing refining operations. The
jewel though is the fourth planet, already named by the AANC
(Alliance Astronomical Naming Commission) as Luthien. It has a thin
but corrosive atmosphere, point seven Earth gravity, iron silicate
structure and...

“
Commander, we
appreciate your interested in the rest of this system, but for now
we have a specific mission around the first planet...this moon, no
matter how insignificant it might appear.” He explained with an
almost disappointed tone to his voice. It was perfectly
understandable though. There were a number of more interesting
targets to visit, but while exploratory drones and science vessels
moved into the system to explore, he had been given the role of
investigating the signal from a mere satellite, a moon of the gas
giant.

The Commodore
examined each of the planets on the display, but apart from mild
interest, he appeared less than excited at the
information.

“Is this what we travelled over a
thousand light years for?”

Commander Blackford
grinned at his comment.
Wait
till he hears this, then.

“
That is just window
dressing, Sir. Look at this.”

He pointed to an image of dark shapes
in space.

“
We’ve also found
traces of debris in orbit around the moon. The recon drone is
moving towards the largest of the objects, but our best guess is
that they are the remains of something that was built out here.
There are low-level traces of radiation from several segments. We
need to perform detailed scans, but our first assessment is that
they are the remnants of a vessel of some kind.”

Commodore Lewis leaned back slightly
with a sceptical look on his face.

“
You do understand
that we have never been here before? This is new territory, ripe
for exploration and exploitation. We built this Spacebridge to
explore a new, virgin territory, and you’re telling me there are
signs of a derelict vessel here?”

“
Well, Sir, we did
select these coordinates based on the Hyperion Rift data. Is it
that far-fetched that we would discover something, other than
this?”

Commodore Lewis
didn’t really want to answer the question. Like many military
people, he had wondered at the reasoning behind establishing their
very first long-distance Spacebridge into the unknown. There were
star systems mere light years away with known planets that would
have made better sense in every way. Yet the word from Alliance
Central Command was that establishing a connection to Orion was of
the highest priority. He tapped the image of the moon and turned to
the rest of his crew.

“
Look, the
assumption with this transmission is that it is something to do
with the arrival of ANS Beagle and possibly her own saboteurs. We
are missing one of the pair, and there is a chance, however
unlikely, she may have escaped to the moon and is broadcasting a
distress signal.”

Commander Blackford shook his head.

“
No, Sir. My best
guess is that this site below is a derelict station or post of some
kind. With the distance to the surface, and the relatively thick
atmosphere of the moon, it isn’t going to be easy to understand
much more.”

Colonel Daniels tapped the screen and
zoomed the image back out.

“
I don’t see the
problem here. This territory is being officially claimed by the
Alliance. If we want this place for our own, then we need to
establish a presence at any potentially useful site. I have two
ships’ worth of marines, nearly a thousand marines at my command,
and ready to perform any operations deemed necessary by Alliance
High Command. On board ANS Dragon, I have Vanguards, mules and
drone carriers. We are well armoured and proof against pretty much
any environment. I can drop a small recon team in, get your recce
done, and secure the site for further evaluation.”

Commander Blackford
lifted his hands in the air as protest. Though he was part of the
Alliance military, his primary job was physical science in the
advanced research programmes on Prometheus.

“
Sir, is it really
necessary to deploy ground forces? All we have so far is a
repeating signal on a moon and some orbital debris. My
recommendation is to release more drones into the system. Until we
have more to go on, it might be unwise to risk sending people to
the surface.”

Commodore Lewis
paused and looked back around the CiC. Only the senior officers
were present, and every one of them was busy scanning and analysing
the data coming directly to the flagship. He looked back to the
main display and the image of the debris field.

“
Look, nobody
expected to find a signal here, let alone any other kind of
artificial construction. I need information, and I need it fast.
Get every drone and reconnaissance vessel we have into space and
scanning. I want the derelict investigated thoroughly, but more
importantly, I need to know about the source of the
signal.”