A Sword Into Darkness (32 page)

“Well, Ma’am, then we find ourselves in a quandary, because while I might not have the authority, I’m the only one with the means.  And I’m not going to give that up.”

Another pause, longer than the tiny light-speed lag.  She appeared to be thinking, calculating.  “Perhaps I should proceed as has been recommended, and simply shoot you down.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed and a corner of his mouth turned up.  “I don’t think ‘simply’ would be how I’d describe it.  I’m not so arrogant as to believe that you couldn’t shoot this ship down—I have no idea what sort of directed energy or missile technology the DOD might have hidden away, perhaps even some tech used in the
Sword
’s own design.  I think it would be a nasty fight, though, and not one you are guaranteed to win.  In addition, I would fear for the collateral damage—both the physical kind from a statistically probable miss and the political kind when everyone sees the US shooting down her own destroyer.  Madame President, I would think very carefully before listening to anyone advising you to do that.”

She nodded, more quickly this time.  “I had come to much the same decision, though you might be surprised to note that I couldn’t really care less about the political firestorm such an action would unleash.  Believe that or not.  No, we aren’t going to shoot you down and we aren’t going to have you forcibly boarded.  Instead, we are going to employ a much more subtle weapon against you.

“You are a man of honor and duty, willing to even break the law, to endanger your future as a free man if you see that as the course honor dictates.  You sacrificed much in the wake of the
USS Rivero
’s sinking, but the biggest casualty was your tie to the traditions of military service.  Both you and the Navy lost something when you resigned.  I’m happy that you have found another cause to believe in, another worthy task in which to invest yourself, but your desires and your goodwill are not enough.  If this mission is to be undertaken by you, the interests of the United States must be served first and foremost.  Secretary Sykes, if you please.”

Nathan looked at Kris, confusion evident on both their faces.  He looked back to the main screen to see the President move aside and Carl Sykes take center-stage.  Sykes glared at him.  “Nathan Kelley, please stand and raise your right hand.”

Nathan did so, numbly, hardly even thinking.

Sykes cleared his throat and stood at attention, his Air Force training coming to the fore.  He did not bother with a note card.  This was a passage each of the men knew by heart.  “Repeat after me.  I, state your name—”

“I, Nathaniel Robert Kelley—”

“—do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.  So help me God.”

Nathan repeated the oath of office, oblivious to the open-mouthed stare Kris gave him from off-camera.

Sykes relaxed and grinned with more than a hint of malice.  “Checkmate.  I know you, Commander Kelley.  I know how you think, and no matter how you may have been intending to do business, you’ll do it the Navy way now.  You’re my boy, and don’t you forget it.  Now, Ms. Muñoz?”

Kris, fear making her eyes huge, peeked over into the edge of the camera’s field of view.  Sykes smiled wide when he saw her.  “Raise your right hand, Missy.”

13:  “THE LIBERTY LETTERS”

SAT TRANSCRIPTION QUEUE:  XXX SUPPRESSED XXX

DTG RECEIPT:  09 2219Z MAR 2045

DTG TRANSMITTAL:  09 2217Z MAR 2045

TIME-DISTANCE LAG:  000:00:02:1.3 D:H:M:S

FROM:  Nathan Kelley, CDR, USAN

[[email protected]$

USAN.MIL;

[email protected]$USAN.MIL]

TO:  Paul Kelley

[[email protected]$PHILA.PA.GOV]

SUBJ:  Guess where I am?

MSG:  Hey, Pop.

As you’ve no doubt discovered from the 24-hour news coverage and such, I’ve gone on a little trip.  It’s been a whirlwind couple of days (as you might imagine), but now that we’re all aboard, settled, and on our way, I managed to find a little free time, so I wanted to write and let you know the whole truth on everything—the truth that I wish I could have shared with you and Mom before this.

First, let me apologize for that.  I know you’ve had to put up with my secrets in the past, like during the investigation following what happened on the RIVERO, but until recently, there was nothing officially classified about what our project.  Yeah, there was a lot of it that was fairly UN-believable, but there wasn’t really anything I had to exclude you on.  I guess, at first, it was simple embarrassment.  I mean, I had this great job, working for one of the most fascinating innovators in the world, and what was I doing?  Oh nothing insane … like building spaceships to go visit aliens, perhaps.

Sure, some of it was technical or industrially sensitive, so I really wasn’t inclined to say anything (nor would you have been that interested), but as for the Big Idea, as for what I was really doing and why, I never should have kept that from you two.  And now, with the crazy way things have finally come together, you had to hear about what your son’s been doing from the TV and the web rather than from your own flesh and blood.

Well, no more.  Now that we’re underway, further out and faster than anyone has ever gone before, and with so much longer a journey still ahead of us, there’s no reason to hold anything back.  Here it is, the whole truth, some of which is already out there, some of which is covered by misinformation, and some of it yet to come out (sorry about the NDAs the Feds are making you sign, by the way):

The Deltans are real.  We’ve visited them with one probe, and have another on the way, and they are just as real as Christmas.  We don’t know why they’re coming here, but they’ll arrive in about 11 years.  We’re going out to say, “Hi, whatcha doin’?” and, if we need to, swat them on the nose.

To do that, Gordon Lee and I (and a few others, I suppose) built this ship, the USS SWORD OF LIBERTY (DA 1), the flagship (OK, the ONLY ship) of the United States Aerospace Navy.  I guess I didn’t learn my lesson from RIVERO.  So, I’m back in the service, though, technically, it’s a brand new service.

You might hear a couple of different versions of how that came to be, or about crew swaps, about being press-ganged into re-taking the oath, or some crap about us hijacking the SWORD, but allow me play rumor control.

None of that happened.

The DOD, the administration, and Windward have all been in lockstep agreement throughout this process, and while we did take up a different shakedown crew at launch, they were just there for the trials and not the mission.

In fact, that crew was aboard only because they needed to see how things will be run on their ships, which will be laid down any day now.  In the meantime, the SWORD OF LIBERTY, and our main crew, mine and Gordon’s crew, will be taking the long ride out to our future visitors, proudly flying the flag and representing the interests of Earth.  Don’t let what passes for reporters these days tell you any different.

This ship, and the journey we’re all on are marvels in the truest sense of the word.  The things it can do and the punishment it can withstand would simply boggle your mind.  Case in point:  rendezvous.  Ever since this morning, we’ve been accelerating at a steady one-g, and we’re going to keep that up for the next 16 months, non-stop.  Already, after just a day of acceleration, we’re so far out that it takes two minutes for my e-mail to reach you at the speed of light.  We’re moving at over three million kilometers per hour—over 12 times faster than the fastest man-made object ever before—and only getting faster and faster as we continue along.

The intention is to approach just over 3/4 the speed of light for the first half of the journey, then flip around and match speeds with the Deltans on the second half.  As we get further and further out, you’re going to see the lags between messages get longer as well.  Don’t worry about it—it’s just the way things are because of the distance the messages have to travel.  There shouldn’t be any really bad Einstein-ish relativity effects at that speed.

At rendezvous, and pretty much our furthest distance from Earth, we’ll be almost half a light-year from Earth.  We could do it a bit faster than 16 months, but we’re approaching from an oblique angle like the probes, so we don’t accidentally threaten the Deltans with our exhaust radiance or overly highlight our approach.

Of course, that’s just getting out there.  Coming back will take longer, even though it’s a shorter trip.  This ship is pretty swift, but it’s not magical.  When we rendezvous, we’ll have expended over half of our reactor power and available delta-v, so we’ll have to come back on a slower, but more direct route.  Can’t have it all, I guess.

Well, it’s late, ship-time here, I’ve probably overloaded your heads, and I need some rest.  Still lots to do tomorrow.  Now that we’re officially military, I’ve got to take a look at the crew to streamline and formalize the chain of command a bit, and divide people up into department heads, division officers, and enlisted.  Some of these folks were never military before, so it’s going to be quite an adjustment for them.  Then we have to plan the rendezvous and drill, drill, drill.  The ship may be different, but shipboard routine stays pretty much the same.

I’ll write again soon, Pop.  Give Mom a hug for me and, please, don’t worry!  This whole thing may beyond your wildest dreams, but it’s not beyond my biggest plans.  We’re ready for this.  First contact is in the bag.

I love you both.

— Nathan

PS:  Almost forgot!  I’ve met someone.  You’d like her.  More later!!  (Ha!  Mom is soooo going to throttle me.)

XXX EOM XXX