Fire on the Frontline Read online

  It’ll be okay, he tried to convince himself, then turned on his heels and started walking back across the CNC. “Mary, you have the bridge. I’ll be in the ready-room,” he stated as he made his way toward the door at the end of the bridge. It slid open as it detected Jeryl (it’d only open for him), and The Seeker’s Captain strolled inside.

  Jeryl sat in front of his private workstation which was a toned down version of everything he had at his disposal on CNC, and turned the console on. He started accessing the encrypted files Ashley had transmitted.

  “Captain Jeryl Montgomery. Clearance code, JMTS81292,” he said, and the AI immediately started decrypting all the files for him as it detected his biometric signals and recognized his access code.

  “Let’s see what we have,” Jeryl started, his eyes scanning everything he saw on the holographic projection of all the files. There seemed to be a lot of maps. Some were of the whole planet, others were of specific regions. Jeryl opened one of them, clicking his tongue as he saw the red dots sprinkled across Galea’s surface; presumably, these would be the spots where the Udenar wanted their drilling and mining to be done. But what exactly where they mining?

  Jeryl put the maps aside and started opening what looked to him like reports. They were written in Udenar script, and Jeryl had to order the AI to provide a translation. The AI then projected the English translation atop the original Udenar script.

  Most of what was in the reports was useless: a lot of updates about Galea’s population control, troops’ deployment, and patrols made on the star system. Jeryl went through more than two dozens of these reports. He didn’t want to stay idle while he waited for Ashley and Tira, so at least this made him feel as if he was getting something done.

  Then, a specific sentence popped out of the screen.

  No signs of X436.

  That sentence seemed to appear in a few reports concerning specific locations, so Jeryl immediately made a search for X436, telling the AI to comb through all the data Ashley had sent.

  Then, things got even more interesting as the computer showed reports that included both No signs of X436 and Traces of X436 found.

  X436—that had to be it! But one question remained all the same: what the hell was it?

  “Computer, connect me to the New Washington Admiralty. I want to speak with Admiral Flynn. Make it a secure line.”

  “Contacting Admiral Flynn,” the AI replied dispassionately, and Jeryl drummed his fingers against his workstation as he waited. With some luck, Flynn could still be at his office.

  “Glad to hear from you, Captain. Do we have any good news for me?”

  “That depends,” Jeryl replied, leaning back on his chair as he stared at Flynn’s holographic projection. Despite being old enough to be Jeryl’s father, the rough Armada veteran still had an air of youth about him. “We successfully infiltrated the planet, and managed to steal all the information stored on some local servers. Now we’re just waiting on our operatives to come back from Galea, and we’ll leave the star system.”

  “Got it. Hand me whatever information you have, Jeryl.”

  “As we speak,” Jeryl nodded, and tapped a few keys on the holographic keyboard. “From what I’ve seen in there, they seem to be looking for something called X436. Does it ring any bell?”

  “Unfortunately, it does,” Flynn sighed, pursing his lips tightly. “X436 is the codename the Tyreesians have used for the mineral they use on their teleporter technology. Armada Intelligence has been going crazy with that ever since the Tyreesians successfully managed to pull that tech off.”

  “And why the Udenar? What’s their role in this?”

  “Galea is too close to Union borders. I figure the Tyreesians would want someone as their scapegoat if things went south. Besides, no one will expect the Udenar to be on the lookout for some scarce mineral. They’re using smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that Galea has a lot of that mineral they’re looking for.”

  “And what mineral is it?”

  “I’m not sure, Jeryl. Human Confederation refer to it as Bachnian crystal, but I don’t think they’ve discovered its use on teleportation matters.”

  “I’ve never heard of that.”

  “Of course you haven’t, Jeryl,” the Admiral sighed again. “These are Intelligence matters, and you know how they always keep their cards close to their chest.”

  “So…you’re escalating this to Intelligence?”

  “I have to Jeryl. But I already know what they’ll want to do concerning Galea.” Flynn sighed again, almost as if pained him to continue. He rubbed his temples with his thumbs, then looked straight at Jeryl.

  “Tell me.”

  “They’ll want you to glass the whole colony, Jeryl.”

  “What?! There’s no way I’m going to do that—there are thousands of civilians down there!” Jeryl said, balling both his hands into fists.

  “And yet, that’s what Intelligence will want. And they’ll make it happen, Jeryl, mark my words. This isn’t the first time we’ve came across a colony out of Union space that had Bachnian crystals. As far as Intelligence is concerned, if we can’t mine it ourselves…no one should be able to do it. This is an arms-race, Jeryl, and Intelligence won’t allow anyone to figure out teleporter tech before the Union does. Even if that means destroying entire colonies.”

  “This is madness…”

  “I know, but my hands are tied. And soon, yours will be too. This is the frontline, Jeryl, and as far as Intelligence is concerned, this is a fire you need to put out. After that, your orders will come. Most I can do is buy you a day or two.”

  “A day or two, huh? And then I’m to rain down destruction on Galea.”

  “War isn’t easy, Captain.”

  “We’re not at war.”

  Flynn laughed grimly.

  “We’re always at war.”

  Chapter 23

  Jeryl

  It was hard for him not to run.

  Jeryl walked across the flight deck, making his way toward Hunter 9 as Ashley and Tira climbed down from the cockpit. The two women had gotten rid of their worker clothes, and had changed back to their flight suits. They seemed exhausted—Ashley more than Tira, which was surprising—but they seemed fine overall. Even though Jeryl knew that he shouldn’t be worried anymore, he still felt all the anxiety from waiting pulsing in his bloodstream.

  Right now, all he wanted to do was take Ashley in his arms and forget about the whole galaxy for five minutes.

  I should’ve never sent her down there, he thought to himself. As captain, he’d always have to make the tough calls…but why did those tough calls always seem to involve the life of his wife?

  “Good job,” he greeted the two women as they saluted him. “You got it done without having to fire a single shot, I’m impressed. At ease,” he continued, smiling at them. “You’ve done a tremendous job. Now that you’re back, I’ve already informed Ferriero and…” Jeryl paused for a moment, conscious that he had almost used Docherty’s name, and only then continued. “We’ll be out of this star system soon. In the meantime, I want you to eat and get some rest.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Tira replied with a grin on her face.

  She’s a tough one. She likes winning more than anything else, Jeryl thought.

  “Dismissed,” he finally said, nodding at them. Tira nodded back with that victorious grin still on her lips, and then strolled out of the flight deck, holding her helmet between her hip and her elbow.

  “So, did we get anything useful?” Ashley asked Jeryl promptly, closing the distance between them and looking around to ensure they were alone. A few flight engineers and mechanics were still milling around, but no one seemed to be paying attention to the captain and his first officer.

  “Yeah, you did,” Jeryl nodded, and then motioned Ashley to follow him. He started walking across the flight deck, making his way toward one of the elevators. “Apparently, the Udenar are mining some crystal used in teleporter tech. Bachnian crystals, specificall
y.”

  “So…they’re actually working with the Tyreesians? That’s odd.”

  “I wouldn’t say with…they’re probably working for the Tyreesians. If anyone found out what was going on at Galea, they’d want to deny any involvement. Moreover, nobody would associate the Udenar with teleporter tech. The Tyreesians really don’t want anyone to figure out how they do it. The way I see it, the Tyressians are probably just paying the Udenar to get this done without having to get their own hands dirty.”

  “So, what now?”

  “Now…” Jeryl paused, taking a deep breath as he tried to figure out the best way to tell Ashley about what they’d have to do. “I’ve already contacted Flynn, and he told me this falls under the Armada Intelligence umbrella. They’ve been knee-deep in trying to figure out teleporter tech, and…well, according to Flynn, they’ve been glassing whatever planet has these Bachnian crystals.”

  “What? That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “If the planet isn’t within Union’s territory, and if someone is already on track to figure out the crystal’s location and use, some covert operation will be mounted and the planet will be destroyed. Their logic is, if the Union can’t mine, study, and process it…then nobody else should. Intelligence wants to avoid anyone getting a leg up on the Union. We’ll develop that tech sooner or later, I guess…but Intelligence wants us to get there before the others do.”

  “And, really, is glassing a whole colony the best thing they could come up with?”

  “I know, Ash, but…soon enough, we’ll have to do it. If not us, the Armada will send someone else to do it. Flynn told me he could buy us a couple of days before presenting his findings to Intelligence, but I have no idea what we can do with that time.”

  “We can’t do this, Jeryl…I was down there,” she said, waving her arm around as if she was pointing at a planet in the distance. “There are thousands of civilians, all of them half-starved as they work their way into an early grave. Is this what we do? Help them get inside that grave faster?”

  Jeryl responded with a sullen silence. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but what were his options? He stopped in front of the elevator, and waited as the doors slid into their partitions to allow them in.

  “There’s gotta be something we can do,” Ashley insisted, and Jeryl pressed his back against the elevator’s wall and closed his eyes. He ran one hand through his hair, thinking back to the Earth-Sonali war and to the way he fought tooth and nail to make the Galactic Council a reality. He figured it out then, didn’t he? So why couldn’t he think of a solution for this right now?

  Because I’m tired of making everything worse, a thought echoed inside his head, popping out of nowhere to torment him. Because that’s what always happens when you try to outsmart the rest of the galaxy, isn’t it?

  “But what exactly can we do, Ashley? Going against Flynn’s orders is one thing, but to go against Armada Intelligence…they’d never allow that. If we refuse to glass Galea, they’ll bring in someone else to do it, and then they’ll make sure we just vanish. All of us.”

  “Jeryl, look at me,” Ashley said softly, standing in front of him and then pressing her body against his. Slowly, he opened his eyes and stared at his wife’s face. She had a gentle smile on her lips, one that reminded him of better times. “We are The Seeker, and we always figure things out. So, trust me when I say it…we’ll figure it out. One way or another.”

  Jeryl just let out a sigh and nodded. What could he say to that?

  “We’ll figure it out.”

  Chapter 24

  Ashley

  “You’re right, he’s my everything,” Lydia said, cradling young James in her arms. He cooed happily, waving his little hands in the air as Lydia smiled down at him. She leaned in slowly, then gave him a peck on the forehead.

  “Always loved that name…James,” Ashley said, smiling as she took in the scene. She was sitting next to Lydia’s bed with her legs folded, watching the moment between the mother and her child. She didn’t know exactly why she did it, but she had started visiting Lydia every day. There was something about her that just called out to Ashley.

  “My grandfather was named James,” Lydia responded. “I never got to meet him, as he died really young. But the name stuck with me. It’s simple, I know, but I like it.”

  “It’s perfect.”

  “You like it too, don’t ya?” Lydia asked James, and he just squealed with delight, reaching for her hair with one tiny hand and grabbing a lock of it.

  “By the way, Lydia, there’s something I must bring up.”

  “Sure, anything.”

  “Cassius Ojun, the Human Confederation Chancellor, wants to schedule a shuttle pickup for you. He wants to take you to Centralia, and I think he wants to meet you personally.” Ashley paused for a moment, allowing her words to sink in, and then continued. “But if you don’t want that, I think Jeryl and I can arrange something…might be we get some papers for you and James, and you’ll be able to stay in the Union.”

  “Thank you, Ashley,” she responded, smiling patiently. There was something sad about her smile, but there was some wisdom in it as well. “I appreciate it, I really do. But there’s nothing like home, is there? I know life wasn’t perfect in Galea, but I’d like to go back one day…if that situation gets resolved, anyway.”

  Ashley felt her heart tightening inside her chest, imagining how Lydia would react after The Seeker completed its mission and glassed her planet, but kept these thoughts to herself.

  “But even if it has to be Centralia…I don’t mind. I grew up there, you know? Life wasn’t easy there, but…home is home. And if the Chancellor wants to meet us…well, maybe something good we’ll come out of it. If not, we’ll figure it out as we go along. Right, James?”

  This time, little James didn’t coo or squeal. He just looked up right into his mother’s eyes, and smiled softly. For a moment, Ashley almost thought that even though the child couldn’t understand what his mother was saying, he could somehow understand her thoughts.

  “As you wish, Lydia,” Ashley said gently, reaching for the woman and placing one hand on top of hers. “You’re a free woman.”

  Maybe it’s better like this, Ashley thought. If we bring Lydia back, who knows what Armada Intelligence will do? She’s a non-Union civilian, and she has been on Galea…

  “Still, I’m thankful for what you did. You saved our lives…if it weren’t for you...”

  “Lydia,” Ashley whispered, softly squeezing the woman’s hand. “You saved yourself. You had the guts to escape the Udenar, and you put it all on the line. No matter what you might think, you were the one that did it.”

  “I was just selfish. I left so many down there to die…but I didn’t want to risk it, you know? With James, I just…I just couldn’t stay there. Sure, we had friends, and even the rebel movement tried to help the ones that were worse off. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it—what if I die? Who will look after my son?”

  “I know,” Ashley replied, but in truth, she really didn’t know. She didn’t have a son, and she had never been a mother. While she and Jeryl had talked about it, they had never made the decision to actually go for it.

  Sure, they had lots of practice at making babies, but they never went the full mile. And deep down, Ashley ached for that; for quite some time now, she wanted to have someone in life who’d look up and call her ‘mother’. Someone who would give her a purpose in life…a purpose that didn’t involve a spaceship to commandeer and lives to gamble away with. A purpose that was about life, not about death.

  “You’ll get there,” Lydia suddenly said, almost as if she could read Ashley’s thoughts. The Seeker’s first officer felt her blood rush to her cheeks, and she looked down at her feet to hide her embarrassment. “You’ll see.”

  “Maybe,” Ashley replied, then tried to steer the conversation away from herself. “You never told us…how did you get that old shuttle? Stroke of luck?”

  “No, not at all.
A friend of ours had a farming operation, and he kept his old transport shuttles docked away from the town center. He never bothered to register them properly since he wasn’t using them anymore, so the Udenar missed it. He told the rebels about it, so they got the shuttle running, and told me where it was. They couldn’t do much more, you see? But what they did…it saved my life. Any of them could have taken the shuttle and escaped, but they gave it to me instead.”

  “People there seem nice,” Ashley commented, but then regretted her words. Here she was, commenting on how nice Galeans were, when she knew that The Seeker was supposed to send them all on a first-class to hell in under 48 hours.

  “They are. Maybe you could visit one day, if I ever manage to go back,” Lydia continued, and that just broke Ashley’s heart into two. How would she ever tell Lydia that everyone she had known on Galea was about to be murdered in cold-blood? “The planet’s beautiful. Woods as far as the eye can see, clear air…and even the crops are a sight to see. Fields of wheat that reach for the horizon. Centralia even sent a new fleet of transporters ships last year, just so they could haul the crops to the capital. When it comes to getting to their feet, the higher-ups don’t screw around—they even have the entire fleet run by a centralized AI and—”

  “Wait, what?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m rambling,” Lydia laughed, then turned her attention to James, caressing his cheek with the back of her hand.

  “Did you say centralized AI?”

  “Yeah—for the most part, long-range transport shuttles are automated and run by a centralized AI. Keeps costs low.”

  “Where’s that AI?”

  “Each ship has an AI system, but when they’re down on the planet it all works in tandem with some kind of centralized AI. The ships receive their orders, and in a matter of a few hours they position themselves around all the locations where there are crops to be collected.”

  Ashley didn’t even respond to Lydia. She just jumped out of her seat and ran out of the sickbay.

  Maybe—just maybe—they had a chance to save the lives of all the civilians down on Galea.