Mission Origin View (Final Days Trilogy) (3 page)

Station Viking
had first been used as a deep space communications outpost and was now the largest space port on the planet. The
Roger B. Chaffee
ensured that any attempted attacks from space would be detected early and prevented. The destroyer
had been on station for two months as part of a six-month rotation period with other destroyers.

Captain Mary Bowser had just returned to her quarters on the
Chaffee
when her cabin communication system chimed. “Bowser here,” she said as she began removing her jumpsuit for what she hoped would be a long, hot shower. She’d been on duty for sixteen hours and needed a break.

“
Jackson here, Captain. I just received an urgent message for you from MSSC,” Communication Officer Ensign Jeffery Jackson said. MSSC was the acronym for Mars Strategic Space Command.

“
Pipe it to my quarters,” Mary ordered.

“
Sorry, Captain, the message is classified as ultra top secret for you only. You’ll have to take the message in the combat control center,” Jackson said.

With a sigh,
Mary began pulling her jumpsuit back on. “Very well, I’ll be in the Triple C in two minutes.”

“
The message will be waiting for you on communications link alpha one. Jackson out.”

Mary
entered the Triple C and ordered the officer on duty to leave. She used a holographic console and pulled up the message. An instant later she was looking at a recorded message from her commander, Admiral Shockley.

“
Hello, Captain. I have new orders for you,” the hologram said. “You’re immediately relieved of command and will turn temporary command of the
Roger B. Chaffee
over to your first officer, Commander Canfield. You’ll board the next transport to Earth, which leaves at zero five hundred, and will report to Admiral Frank at Mount Mitchell as soon as possible. Good luck, Captain. Shockley out.”

The transmission ended.
Mary sat, momentarily dazed by the message, and then the usual reassignment questions crossed her mind. Was she in trouble? Why the sudden transfer of command? Was she going to be assigned a desk job, or was she being given a more important command? She finally just stopped thinking about it. She’d find out soon enough.

Mary pulled up another holograph
ic menu and selected a communications link to the
Chaffee
’s bridge. “Commander Canfield?”

“
Canfield here, Captain.”

“
I want you and all the ship’s officers in the Triple C as soon as possible. We’ve just received new orders.”

“
Yes, Captain, right away.”

USS
Fallujah
, Earth Orbit

1600
—February 9, 2372

Australia could be seen through the windows
embedded in the air lock doors. Chief Petty officer Jason O’Brian watched the continent slowly pass by and was daydreaming of his upcoming thirty days’ leave. Suddenly the outer air lock door opened, and Petty Officer Third Class Joseph Sipes appeared, blocking O’Brian’s view of the Great Barrier Reef.

Joseph
was returning from a space walk to examine a hull impact the ship’s
computer had reported a few hours earlier. The huge man, in a navy-blue space suit, pulled himself into the air lock and manipulated a holographic console to close the outer door. As soon as the outer door was closed, the air lock began to equalize pressure with the rest of the ship, and the gravity panels began to activate, allowing the big man to slowly descend to the deck. Once the air lock was pressurized and gravity was fully activated, the inner air lock door opened. Joseph walked toward the opened door while taking his helmet off.

“
Chief, I don’t know what hit us, but it was big,” Joseph said as he approached O’Brian.

“
Figured that out from the video feed,” Chief O’Brian said.

“
Chief, contact supply and have ten hull panels waiting for me outside hangar fifteen. I’ll go grab my tools and top off my air tanks. I think I can have the damaged hull fixed by eighteen hundred.” Joseph said.

“
It’s going to get fixed, but you’re not the one who’s going to fix it,” O’Brian said. “The bridge just chimed me and told me to have you report to the captain in his cabin as soon as possible.”

Joseph
stopped and stared at O’Brian, looking dumbfounded.

“
Just don’t stand there, Sipes. Get out of your pressure suit, get into your uniform, and report to the captain. Now!” O’Brian snapped to break Joseph’s trance.

***

Petty Officer Third Class Joseph Sipes took up more space than the average crewman aboard a ship. As he walked down one of the ship’s corridors toward the captain’s cabin, two crewmen who walked abreast had to walk single file to pass him.

Joseph hesitated for a few seconds while standing outside the
captain’s quarters, then knocked on the door.

“
Enter!” Captain Nelson yelled, a response that made Joseph feel even more uneasy.

Joseph entered and saw Captain Nelson sitting at a desk
, which was tucked into a corner of his cabin. Nelson was probably the oldest captain still in command of a ship. He was thin, his silver hair buzzed short, and in his presence everyone knew the older man was experienced and in charge. Joseph approached the captain’s desk, stood at attention, saluted, and then reported. “Sir, Petty Officer Third Class Joseph Sipes reporting as ordered.” The captain returned the salute, and Joseph stood at parade rest.

“
Sipes, you have orders,” the captain said. “I didn’t receive your orders in the usual way; these were sent to me ultra top secret and can only be viewed when we’re both alone in my cabin.”

Captain Nelson manipulated his desk console and entered his
navy identification code. Nelson then brought up a holographic display console and asked Joseph to enter his navy identification code. After the codes were entered, the ship’s computer turned on a DNA scan beam and authenticated their identities. The system then displayed a holographic view of the orders.

To: Captain Nelson,

 
Captain, Marine Assault Carrier USS
Fallujah

From: United States Navy

  
Naval Intelligence Command

Subject: Classified: Crewman Transfer Orders

Petty Officer Third Class Joseph Sipes, current assignment Hull Maintenance Technician USS
Fallujah,
is ordered to report to Admiral Frank, USECC Mount Mitchell, North Carolina.

Priority transit card is being created and will be used to secure transportation needed to arrive at new station as soon as possible.

As Nelson and Joseph read the orders, the captain’s console created a priority transit card and ejected the two-inch-by-three-inch plastic card from the console’s card media slot. Captain Nelson took the card and handed it to Joseph.

“
I’ve only been given two transit cards in my career,” Captain Nelson said with a hint of envy. “Sipes, this assignment must be a big deal. Get your gear and be on the next shuttle off the
Fallujah.
Good luck, Son!”

USECC, Mount Mitchell

0935
—February 10, 2372

Lieutenant Klaxton was the first to be escorted to the same conference room in the USECC that
had been used two weeks before to approve Mission Origin View. Gideon still had no idea why he was in an empty conference room below a mountain. He took a seat at the desk and waited.

A
half-hour later the conference room door opened, and a naval petty officer third class entered. When the sailor saw Gideon, he stood at attention and snapped off a salute. Gideon returned the salute.

“
At ease, sailor,” Gideon said, then asked, “Are you here to tell me what’s going on?”

“
No, sir,” Joseph answered. “I hoped that you knew why I was here, sir.”

“
I guess we’ll find out together,” Gideon said as he motioned for Joseph to take a seat. “Might as well make yourself comfortable, sailor.”

Joseph
was a big black man, probably the largest sailor Gideon had seen. After a brief discussion, Gideon found that Joseph was a starship hull repairman who’d served on several ships and had been in many space battles.

A few minutes later,
Navy Captain Mary Bowser and Marine Captain Rezin
Neubauer
arrived. Both Gideon and Joseph stood and saluted the newcomers. After introductions and discussions among themselves, Gideon realized these captains were also going to be part of whatever was happening.

Captain Bowser
was a petite woman with short jet-black hair. She looked to be in her early thirties, but said she had just turned forty-seven. She had been in the United States Navy since her graduation from Annapolis. She had served on several Earth ocean vessels early in her career and had worked her way up to captain a space combat vessel. She had combat experience on the ocean and in space.

Marine Captain Rezin
Neubauer looked like a typical marine captain. He was average height, muscular, dark-brown eyes, with short light-brown hair. Gideon noticed the captain wore numerous campaign ribbons, several service metal ribbons, and a Purple Heart ribbon with three oak leaf clusters.

***

By 1000 the conference room held fourteen naval personnel and five marines. They were talking among themselves trying to figure out what was going on. Finally the conference room door opened, and everyone stopped talking.

Senator Rimms entered
, followed by Admiral Frank. The sailors and marines saw the admiral and stood at attention. The senator walked to the podium as Admiral Frank followed.

“
Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen,” Senator Rimms said.

Everyone sat.

“I’m Senator Rimms, Senate Armed Services Chairman, and this is Admiral Frank, your new commander. He’ll now brief you on your new assignment,” the senator said as he stepped aside and allowed Admiral Frank to approach the podium.

“
Sailors, marines…you are now officially assigned to Mission Origin View. This mission is classified ultra top secret. Your mission is to take a team of scientists safely to a point in space where they’ll use highly advanced long-range optical and sensor devices in an attempt to discover how life originated on Earth,” Admiral Frank said as he looked at the sailors and marines seated at the table. He saw blank stares looking back at him, and he assumed each sailor and marine was trying to grasp the significance of what he or she had just heard.

Admiral Frank continued
. “Over the next two days you’ll be briefed here on your individual and group responsibilities and then be transported to Phobos. You’ll have two days to become familiar with your ship, the SRS
Stephen Hawking,
and then you’ll embark on the mission.

“
I know everyone has questions, and that’s why we’ll be briefing you individually and in specific groups. When you arrive at your assigned quarters, you’ll find a briefing schedule loaded on an ATCCS that’s been specially designed for this mission. Your ATCCS will be worn on the forearm of your mission uniform, and you’ll be scheduled for a wireless communications device to be implanted in your ear this afternoon. The implant allows verbal communicates with your ATCCS. Dismissed!”

Everyone stood at attention as Admiral Frank and Senator Rimms left the room.
A few seconds later, everyone slowly left the conference room, and marine guards escorted him or her to his or her quarters.

***

Gideon arrived at his quarters: one room, a cot, a small desk, a chair, and a locker. Men, women, civilians, officers, and enlisted shared a latrine down the hall.

Gideon saw
one plain, unmarked white jumpsuit and four green mission jumpsuits hanging in his locker. He pulled one of the green mission jumpsuits out and examined it. It was a traditional, lightweight, dark-green marine starship uniform with his last name stenciled above a small pocket on his left chest. Gold second lieutenant bars were stenciled on his collar. Patches were also on his jumpsuit. The patches were attached using micrometal velcro. A ship patch was located above the pocket on the right side of his chest, while a mission emblem patch was attached to his left shoulder. An American flag patch and a marine unit patch were attached to his right shoulder.

On a shelf above his jumpsuits were standard
-issue underwear, socks, a pair of boots, and his new ATCCS.

Gideon tossed his new jumpsuit on his cot
, picked up the ATCCS, and examined it. The ATCCS was wider, had a larger display, and was thinner than the normal wrist version. He also noted the artificial intelligence (AI) computer chip, imbedded in the wrist band, was smaller. The ATCCS would attach to either forearm of his jumpsuit using micrometal velcro. Gideon laid the device on the small desk and turned it on using the standard push-button interface; it started immediately and displayed his name, rank, and a briefing schedule. His first briefing would be at 1300.