Ep.#8 - "Celestia: CV-02" (4 page)

“Put in more plasma torpedo cannons? Two facing forward and two to each side maybe? Or a ring of plasma cannon turrets, like the ones on the Avendahl?”

“Where would we put the extra missiles?”

“Store them below in the cargo decks,” Cameron suggested. “The forward elevator pads go from the missile deck to the cargo deck. That’s how they get them from the cargo shuttles on the hangar deck up to the missile deck.”

“That’s moving the missiles a long way from the launcher,” Nathan said. “It would take an hour to get them moved back up and into the loader racks.”

“What’s the most you’ve ever launched in one engagement?”

“I don’t know, twenty maybe? Thirty?”

“Then store twenty-four in the loader racks. That’s six rounds of four. We’re probably looking at quick, hit-and-run engagements now anyway. I doubt we’ll ever use them in such scenarios.”

“You could be right about that,” Nathan admitted. “Run the idea past Lieutenant Montgomery and Vlad. See what they say.”

“Yes, sir.”

“It’ll be a big project though.”

“Perhaps,” Cameron said as she took the last bite of her salad. “But I suspect we’ll have some of those.”

* * *

“Captain,” Jessica called from the hatch to the captain’s ready room, “do you have a moment?”

“Of course,” Nathan answered, placing his data pad down on his desk. He had been studying the performance parameters and potential firepower reports for the new plasma cannons installed in two of their torpedo tubes as well as the turret-mounted version that they were planning on testing. It was mind-numbing scientific data, and he welcomed a brief interlude. “What can I do for you?”

“I was going through all of the signals we collected during our brief time in Earth’s orbit,” Jessica began as she closed the hatch behind her.

“You collected signals, too?”

“I didn’t tell you?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Oops,” she said as she plopped down on the couch in her usual fashion. “Yeah, I asked Naralena’s assistant to monitor any and all signals emanating from Earth.”

“How much did you collect?”

“Only a few minutes’ worth, I’m afraid. But there was a lot of data to be found in those few minutes. For starters, I was right. There is an organized resistance on Earth. There were several reports of attacks against small Jung targets on the surface. Nothing huge, but enough that it is probably pissing them off.”

“What else?”

“There’s chatter about us, about us returning that is. Apparently, they did think we were lost. The official word was that we had crashed into Jupiter. It was quite a shock when we suddenly appeared nearby out of nowhere. From what I can tell, they seem pretty excited.”

“Our people might be, but I’m pretty sure the Jung are not,” Nathan said. “What else?”

“There was a signal beamed directly at us.”

“Beamed?” Nathan wondered. The word implied that the message was targeted in order to avoid just anyone picking it up.

“Laser comm. A portable unit, based on the signal strength. Set to wide beam, probably because we were maneuvering and hard to lock onto.”

“I thought those units were designed to automatically lock onto the laser comm array of a friendly ship,” Nathan said.

“Yeah, but as soon as we went to general quarters, Naralena shut down the locking beacon. Standard procedure. Besides, even with the beacon on, those portable units don’t work as well as they’re supposed to.”

“So the message was targeted at us,” Nathan said. “What was the message, and who was it from?”

“It was an action order, sir,” Jessica said, “sent over Fleet channels using our standard rotating encryption codes. Valid authentication codes as well.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?” Nathan asked, not bothering to conceal the irritation in his voice.

“The comm-tech didn’t even know it was there, Nathan,” Jessica said. “He’s Corinairan and has never seen a Fleet comm-signal before. Neither has Naralena, for that matter. Also, it took me a while to decode the message. I haven’t done one since the academy, and we don’t have any code guys on board.”

“What did the message say?”

“Recon, one five zero five seven two, which I’m pretty sure is a date, and then a string of numbers I haven’t figured out yet.”

“Let me see them.” Nathan took Jessica’s data pad from her and studied the message. After a minute, he laughed. “Right ascension and declination.”

“What?”

“They’re used to find stars in the sky in astronomy. I had a telescope when I was a kid. I used to spend hours staring at the night sky,” he explained as he punched the numbers into his console. “Strange, but it doesn’t match anything in the astronomy charts. So they’re not asking us to recon a star system.”

“Why the date?” Jessica wondered. “Is that when they want the recon performed?”

“I don’t think so,” Nathan said. “This date is two months ago.”

“Wait a minute. Do you think that date is when the Jung attacked Earth?”

“Holy crap, you’re right. They’re giving us a viewing angle
and
the distance from the recon target,” Nathan said.

She frowned. “I thought you said the numbers didn’t point to any known star?”

“No, they don’t. The angle leads back to Earth from a point along the angle two light months away from her. Earth is the recon target. They want us to see what happened.”

“Why give us an angle to look from?” Jessica asked.

“Because they want us to see something,” Nathan surmised, “something special.”

“Are you sure?”

“What else could it be?”

“It could be a trap, for one,” Jessica warned. “They could’ve compromised our encryption and authentication codes.”

“Possibly, but why not just use a standard action order format? And why not put the name of the officer giving the order? That would be standard practice on a Fleet action order.”

“Without the issuing officer’s name, shouldn’t
we
be questioning its authenticity?”

“Normally, yes, but—I don’t know,” Nathan said. “There’s something about this that feels legit.”

“Well, I’d be sure to have everything armed and ready if you do go to that point,” Jessica said, “because if it is a trap, there are going to be a whole lot of Jung there to spring it.”

“Duly noted,” Nathan said with a nod. “And be sure that both Naralena and her assistant know how to recognize a Fleet comm-signal. We can’t afford to have any messages going unnoticed for days on end.”

Jessica looked suspiciously at Nathan. “That’s it? No butt chewing?”

“Not today. That’s the XO’s job anyway,” Nathan told her. “Besides, I have a confession of my own.”

Obviously happy she was not in trouble, Jessica leaned forward, her arms on her legs, trying to look serious. “What did you do, young man?”

“I’m afraid I inadvertently kept something from you,” Nathan said, bracing himself for her response. “Something that might be considered a security issue.”

Jessica tried not to laugh at her captain’s defensive body language as she leaned back on the couch again. “What makes you think I don’t already know?”

“Mister Percival is really Captain Dubnyk.”

Jessica laughed. “I guess I didn’t know.” Jessica looked at him. “What the hell, Nathan?”

“Vlad figured it out.”

“Since when does Vlad play detective?”

“He was working on the logs from the failed Jasper colony. He found a video transmission between the leader of the colony and Captain Dubnyk. It was Mister Percival.”

“Okay, so either Mister Percival is lying to us, and his real name is Dubnyk, or his real name is Percival, and he was lying to the colonists.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Why would he lie to us? Why would he want to be Percival instead of Dubnyk? To hide a criminal past? It’s been a thousand years, Nathan. None of the governments that existed back then are still around. Who’s going to arrest him?”

“Good point. But he’s lying about something. Or he’s lied about something.”

“Who hasn’t?”

“Either way, we should try to get to the truth of the matter.”

“And how do we do that?” Jessica asked. “Take a bio-scan and run it against arrest records from a thousand years ago? Which, by the way, we don’t have access to.”

“What if he is hiding something terrible?”

“Like what? Running an unregistered colony mission in an unregistered cargo ship? What was the penalty for that back in 2400? Take away his ship? Check. Strip him of his captain’s license? Check, if he ever had one, that is.”

“What do we do with him then?”

“Look, Nathan, I appreciate that you feel guilty for not telling me right away. And for the record, don’t do that again… ever,” she said as she pointed an accusatory finger at him. “I doubt he’s a threat to this ship. I mean, he’s a feeble old man. If you’re worried about him, just restrict him to his quarters or something. We’re already monitoring his movements. So far, he only goes to the head, medical, and the galley.”

“What about his computer usage?”

“Mostly just Earth history since after the plague. He’s also watched a few old, pre-plague movies—you know, the ones from the Ark. He hasn’t tried to look at anything more sensitive than a deck map so far. You want me to talk to him,” she said as she cracked her knuckles in jest, “get the truth out of him?”

Nathan recognized her sarcasm. “I’ll talk to him… Captain to captain, so to speak.”

“Suit yourself, Skipper,” Jessica said as she rose. “I’ll think about your punishment and get back to you,” she added with a smile as she headed for the exit.

“Thanks,” Nathan said. “And send Mister Riley in. I have some course changes for him to calculate.”

* * *

“Jump complete,” Mister Chiles reported.

“Position verified,” Lieutenant Yosef reported. “Approaching Beta Virginis Four.”

Nathan stared at the image of the massive, Earth-like world that nearly filled the main view screen. “Did we jump in too close, or is that thing really that big?”

“It’s really that big, sir,” Lieutenant Yosef answered.

“How much speed are we going to pick up during this maneuver?”

“Actually, we’re going to decelerate,” Mister Chiles said. “We’re coming around the planet in front of her orbital path, so we’ll be shedding some of our angular momentum to the planet.”

“That was at Lieutenant Yosef’s request,” Cameron told Nathan. “We were going a bit fast for data collection.”

“How much bigger is that planet than the Earth?” Nathan wondered.

“Approximately three and a half times the mass of Earth,” Lieutenant Yosef answered.

“I wonder what it’s like on the surface.”

“Freezing cold, extremely high gravity, and extremely high air pressure,” the lieutenant said, “not to mention that the air is rather toxic.”

“How long will the maneuver take?” Nathan wondered.

“Six point four hours,” Mister Riley said. “Like the lieutenant said, it
is
a big planet.”

“Anybody ever explore it?” Nathan asked.

“According to the database, it was explored robotically during the early days of core exploration. They found the usual resources you’d expect on a rocky world, as well as plenty of frozen water. No complex life to speak of other than microbial. They never paid it much attention.”

“Probably because of its mass,” Nathan said. “Too much propellant getting on and off that frozen rock.”

“Five minutes to our insertion point,” Mister Riley reported. “We will need to do a small course correction just before insertion, sir.”

“Very well.” Nathan looked at his watch. “I assume you’ve got this.”

“Yes, sir,” Cameron answered. “You don’t want to hang around and watch?”

“A six-hour maneuver? No thanks. Besides, I’m still not sleeping well.”

“Maybe you should go by medical and get something to help you sleep,” she suggested.

“Maybe.”

* * *

It had been nearly three days since Nathan had ordered the Aurora to retreat and jump away to safety. Leaving the Earth behind at the hands of the Jung had been one of the hardest things that he had ever done, and ever since they jumped away, he had not been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. He had so much on his mind that all he could do was lie in bed and worry.

Sleep had eluded him during much of their time in the Pentaurus cluster as well. At the time, he resorted to pushing himself to exhaustion so that his body left him no choice but to sleep. However, it had been an unpleasant way to live, one that he didn’t care to repeat. He didn’t care much for pharmaceutical sleeping aides, which usually left him feeling groggy when he woke. Unfortunately, he had little choice this time. He no longer had the luxury of knowing that he would eventually be handing his ship back to Fleet. Now, he was taking his ship to war against a powerful enemy that undoubtedly had them vastly outnumbered. This time, there would be no one to hand the responsibility to. The responsibility was his and his alone. That meant he needed to take better care of himself. He needed to sleep.

Nathan entered the treatment area in medical and spotted Loki sitting in his bed, reading a data pad. The room was dark other than the light over Loki’s head and the soft lighting around Josh’s bed next to him. “How are you doing?” he whispered as he approached his bed.

“Fine, sir,” Loki answered. “A little sore, and my eyes seem to tire easily, but otherwise, I’m doing okay.”

“That’s good to hear,” Nathan whispered.

“Josh isn’t sleeping, sir. He’s in a medically induced coma so that he won’t feel the nanites working in his head. You don’t have to whisper.”

“Right.” Nathan took a seat next to Loki’s bed. “You don’t feel them?”

“Not really, but they said the nanites have already moved out of my head and into my gut, or something like that.”

“I see.”

“I’m sorry about what happened, sir,” Loki said, “to Earth, I mean. After everything you guys went through to get back home, well, that had to suck.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Nathan said.

“It’s gotta be hard for you, sir.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can see it in your face,” Loki told him. “When I was worried about something, my father would tell me I looked like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. I imagine I looked much like you do now.”

“That obvious, huh?”

“Yeah. Of course, you actually
do
have the weight of the world on your shoulders, so I guess you have a right to look the way you do.”

“I’m just tired,” Nathan told him. “I haven’t been sleeping well the last few days.”