Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series (34 page)

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Authors: J.S. Hawn

BOOK: Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series

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“And will we have this problem again if we run the systems at full power too long?” Jonathan asked.

Okai turned to Hilper who shook her head. “If we can bring the systems up one at a time, we can pinpoint the power faults and reroute the system. It will take time though.”

“How long?” Jonathan asked.

Okai and Hilper looked at each other then Okai said, “Um... well maybe two weeks possibly three.”

George groaned but Jonathan nodded. “Okay prioritize life support and make sure we don't freeze or suffocate and then go system by system. Get our lidar and com array up. You can leave them powered up after they’ve been tested right?”

“Yes sir.” Okai said nodding.

“Right, get the com suit functioning then move system by system. Once you’ve tested each system power it down. We don't want any EM leaks giving away our position,” Jonathan said.

Okai nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Alright then get started, George on me,” Jonathan said demagnetizing his boots and kicking off.

George followed grumbling something under his breath.

“Get it out now George, I don't want the XO to be seen complaining especially since we're in for a cold stretch,” Jonathan said.

“Sir, can't we turn on a little heat?” George asked shivering.

“Unfortunately no, not until we can assess our situation. We are in a system that last we knew was being overrun by hostile forces. In our current state with no power and very little EM, we look like a dead hulk floating in space. Anyone who starts pinging this field with scanners though will detect it if we have life support powered up. So we stay at Quiet II and we endure. Once the com suit is back online, you tell Heath to keep them on passive and listen. Get an idea of what’s going on in the wider system. Once Okai and Hilper have finished fixing things, then we can decide our next move.”

George nodded his face sullen. As Jonathan looked at him, he was startled to see a bump appear on his friend’s right shoulder. Frigate poked his head through George's collar and stared at Jonathan with his wide green eyes before retreating back into George's coat.

George rolled his eyes.

“To be frank John, the reason I am eager to get power back on is to get this little bastard to quit sleeping in my clothes.”

Jonathan despite his own physical misery started to laugh, but the laughter died in his throat. The little Gremlin was only clinging to George because Able Spacer Jung had been one of
Fury’s
46 crewmen who were killed when the Colonials had scored their only hit. Another 30 were wounded, but all were recovering. In all,
Fury
lost 76 men to take out a ship manned by close to 1,800. Not a bad trade in the cold calculus of war, but those deaths still pained Jonathan.

“So John,” George said. “I see the wisdom in putting one foot in front of the other. Get the sensors back up and see what's out there, get the power fixed so we don't blow out another gasket when we push the old girl over the edge, but what beside immediate survival is the long term plan?”

Jonathan smiled at his old friend, “The plan is George that we get fixed up and we find a way home.”

George pursed his lips and thought for a moment, “Okay Skipper, best get to work then.”

The End

Forthcoming

Jonathan Pavel will return in
The Hard Way Home
coming Spring of 2017. Until then please enjoy the other works of J.S. Hawn listed below.

Other Works by JS Hawn

All Available on Amazon Kindle

The Jonathan Pavel Series

First Command
Heart of Steel

The New America

Riding to Arkansas

Stand Alone Works

Two-Thousand Forty Four a Short Story

Dramatis Persona (Character List)

RSNS Sound of Fury
Officers and Crew

Executive Officer-
Commander George Pai, Solarian Navy Reserve

Tactical Officer- Lt. Commander Benjamin Elman

Assistant Tactical-
Lt. Alan Sing

Engineer-
Lt. Commander Harold Okai

Assistant Engineer-
Lt. Kendra Hilper

Electronic Warfare and Communications-
Lt. Commander Tai Heath

Navigator-
Lt. Ernest Tang, Solarian Navy Reserve

Ship's Surgeon- Commander Dr. Christopher Perkins, Solarian Navy Reserve

Chaplain- Reverend Mary-Beth Hightower (New Anglican Church)

Marine CO-
Alicia Kern

Quartermaster-Warrant Officer
Jung Hu

Bosun-
Master Chief Petty Officer Terrance Knowles

Ship’s Gremlin-Frigate (Marvin Jung Able Spacer 1st Owner)

Solarian Government and Military High Command

Government

Premier of the Republic-Tomas Banjour

Minister of Foreign Affairs-Enoch Tao

Minister of Defense-Jian Orbuckle

Minister of Public Safety-Atherton Gao

Premier’s Chief of Staff-Benjamin Rutledge

Director of Office of Military Intelligence-Loretta Cain

Ambassador to the Free Worlds League-Traq Din

Solarian Navy

Admiral of the Fleet-Marcus Ho

1st Admiral of the Fleet and Chief of Fleet Operations-Admiral Douglas Whitaker (POV)

Commander Fifth Fleet
-
Vice Admiral Harry Hopper

Commander Third Fleet-Vice Admiral Chou Meyers

Solarian Marine Corps

Commandant of the Marine Corps-Marika Enido

Office of Military Intelligence (OMI)

Director of the Office of Military Intelligence-General Loretta Cain

Special Branch-Colonel ‘Lawrence’ Garrett

Freeport Station Chief-Major Claudia Min

Solarian Army

Marshal of the Armies-Field Marshal Bernard Chung

Army Chief of Staff-General Lorilie Khan

Colonial Government and High Command

Elector-Girard Dufrane

Ruling Triumvirate

Minister of the Interior-Ellen Funto

Minister of Defense-Louis Dupont

First Among Equals of the Consulship-Simon Kisane

Ceti Commonwealth

First-Chairman of the Commonwealth Politburo-Conrad Ragiv

Ames

Additional Information

AE Calendar System

Following the successful founding of mankind's first extrasolar colonies, a movement began among various segments of society to adopt a new calendar system. The old Anno Domini system seemed antiquated in the face of humanities’ migration to the stars. No doubt, many of the original ‘rationalist’ groups who sought to abolish the old system also wanted to cut mankind's ties with the supposed ignorance, and intolerance of religion associated with the old calendar. This way of thinking, ultimately prevailed in 2536 AD when following the signing of the Solar Unity Treaty, the Solar System was unified under the United Nations Transolar Authority. This was the first of several governments to lay successive claim to mankind's birth world, to commemorate the glorious unification of mankind’s birth world for the first time in its history. The UNTSA committee of Timekeeping Standardization and Calendar Synchronization announced a new calendar beginning in the Year 1961 with New Year’s Day being April 12th. The reasoning for this is the commemoration of the flight of Vostok-1 and Yuri Gagarin the first man in history to leave Earth's atmosphere. The New Calendar would be called After We Left Earth, although it was later shortened to After Earth or AE. Attempts to rename the months also ultimately failed, but the new dating system stuck and spread throughout mankind's far-flung colonies. Ironically, for those who sought to remove religious connotation, the calendar system actually gave rise to a new one. The Stellanauta church, which grew in popularity among Spacers and Colonists, announced in 460 AE that it had canonized Gagarin and fifty other of mankind's early astronauts as Saints. The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and various other religious sects soon followed. As of the 8th century AE, Yuri Gagarin, a man known in life as a devout atheist, is widely considered the first saint of mankind’s new era. Evidence, some say, that history truly has a bizarre sense of humor.

Language

Language in the 8th Century A.E. is a by-product of the continuous evolution of the spoken and written word. Just as numerous tongues arose on Earth as a by-product of population migration, so has mankind's diaspora to the stars created new languages and preserved several old ones. Many of these tongues would be both familiar and completely alien to 21st century ears as they generally consist of a merging of vocabulary, alphabets, and grammatical rules. Commerce and communication has produced several widely spoken standardized tongues. This includes, Old English, Chinglish, Chundi, Afroench, Spanglish, Spanlish, Guesa, Eurpolies, Slagich, and Arish. It should be noted that although individual dialects will differ, these languages are considered lingua franca among the nations of the 8th century, and serve as a common tongue for commerce, and diplomacy.