Fire on the Frontline Read online

  Chancellor Cassius Ojun was still an enigma. He seemed the perfect politician. He catered to the blue collar majority while satisfying the corporate class. There was something there that didn’t add up with his rise to power. Flynn couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something was off.

  Jeryl rolled his eyes and snorted in frustration, “Those Udenar will notice their missing fighters. What then?”

  “If they cross the border again, you have authority to engage. Until then, sit tight.”

  Flynn knew that would be a hard order for Jeryl to follow. He was a man of action. Anything less drove him crazy. The angry furrow had already begun to form between his eyebrows.

  “Yes, sir,” Jeryl replied in a low voice.

  “Tell me more about this woman.”

  The change of subject worked to distract the captain. His face brightened as he spoke, “I don’t know much yet. The woman was starving and half-crazed with fear. She passed out as soon as she got a little food down. According to her, the Udenar conquered the entire planet nearly overnight and turned the natives into slaves. The coup was too swift for anyone to call for help. They’re keeping the appearances up, though. Apparently they have Galea’s governor reassuring the Human Confederation government that everything’s fine.”

  “Conquer the small planets first, building up to the more influential ones. It’s risky, but I get it. Going from small-time pirates to planet stealers, I don’t get.”

  “We only have a piece of the story. There’s got to be more to it.” Jeryl had the glimmer of an idea in his eyes but didn’t elaborate. Flynn didn’t ask. He knew his friend would talk when the idea wholly formed.

  “Undoubtedly.”

  The Udenar were a small race from the far edge of the Outer Colonies. Their position was prime for trade with the Human Confederation, Sonali Combine, and Tyreesian Collective. Instead, they chose to close themselves off and attack trade routes whenever they saw an opening.

  They smuggled and raided whatever they needed, but not enough to catch the eye of the Galactic Council. Otherwise they were secretive but not a threat—until now. Flynn couldn’t help but wonder how long they had been amassing the weaponry and manpower for such a feat. A small farming planet like Galea could not be their end game. If it was, there had to be a higher purpose. Maybe he gave them too much credit.

  “Keep me informed?”

  “Of course.”

  Flynn powered down the slipstream with a worried frown. His gut told him the situation would escalate rapidly and Jeryl would be caught in another fight before Flynn could find the answers he needed. Unfortunately, there were channels to go through. He wasted no time putting in his request to speak to Chancellor Ojun. With any luck, the Chancellor’s assistant would contact him before the end of the day.

  The headache had thankfully subsided when his tablet chirped two hours later. He picked it up and saw a message from the office of the Chancellor. They couldn’t be inconvenienced with a slipstream conference. Although the Schism ended long ago, relations between the Terran Union and Human Confederation were still strained. An Admiral didn’t rank high enough to get their attention.

  Thank you for your concern. We have the situation well in hand, the message read.

  Realizing he would get nowhere fast, he put in his request to speak personally to the President of the Terran Union. That would take some time, but he wouldn’t be stonewalled. The most he could do was wait and hope Jeryl kept himself out of trouble. Flynn smiled. That would not happen. He would actually wait to see what kind of trouble Jeryl got into.

  It was the end of the day, but Flynn still had his ignored documents to comb through. He reached into the bottom desk drawer and pulled out a half-empty bottle of vintage bourbon. He poured a good four fingers into his old coffee cup and took a healthy gulp as he looked out the window of his office.

  A new Chancellor on the Human Confederation, the Tyreesian keeping to themselves, and the Udenar making a power play. And on the middle of it, Captain Jeryl Montgomery. These are interesting times, the Admiral thought, and then allowed himself a smile.

  Jeryl always knew how to keep things interesting.

  Chapter 8

  Jeryl

  Jeryl couldn’t fall asleep.

  Even though his eyelids seemed as heavy as lead, sleep didn’t come easy. He simply couldn’t stop thinking about the Udenar, Galea, and Lydia and her son. He knew something was off the moment he saw the Udenar raiders pursuing Lydia’s shuttle, and that feeling was spreading in his mind like cancer, leaving a foul stench in its wake.

  A situation like this shouldn’t be that hard to figure out, but three days had passed after Jeryl’s meeting with the Admiral...and still there was no progress. Knowing Flynn, Jeryl knew that there was only one reason for the radio silence—someone was stalling. Whether that was the result of a Terran Union or Human Confederation policy, Jeryl wasn’t sure; all he knew was that whatever was happening in Galea mattered.

  “Jeryl?” Ashley whispered, turning on the bed and throwing one arm over his naked chest.

  “I’m here,” he replied softly, his open eyes never leaving the ceiling.

  “Can’t sleep?”

  “Not really.” He ran one hand through her hair, his fingertips brushing against her naked shoulders. Looking at her, he felt the urge to pull her against his body and try his best to forget all about Galea and the Udenar.

  But he couldn’t. Dozens of questions kept floating inside his head, demanding all of his attention. Sighing, Jeryl sat up on the bed and swung his legs out of it. Just like always, being captain of The Seeker was taking precedence over his role as a husband.

  “There’s something I must do,” he told Ashley, his voice just a gentle whisper, but she had already turned her back to him. He couldn’t tell if she was asleep or just pretending, but he figured that knowing the answer to that question wouldn’t really help.

  He made a mental note to carve some alone time for him and Ashley—God knew they needed that—and then started putting his uniform on. By the time he was ready, he no longer felt tired. It was almost as if there was something magical about his uniform. Whenever he had it on, he felt as if he could go on forever.

  Crossing the room as silently as he could, Jeryl stopped before he opened the door and looked back over his shoulder, his gaze settling on Ashley’s shape. He stood there in complete silence for a few seconds, just taking in the way the shadows draped over her half-naked body, her silky hair covering his now empty pillow. Almost tempted to go back to bed and join her, he sucked in a deep breath and opened the door.

  A few minutes later and he was walking down The Seeker’s maze of corridors, making his way toward the medbay. He had read all the briefings and reports, but he still hadn’t talked with Lydia one on one—something he wanted to do as soon as possible. Sure, it was late and she was probably asleep, but Jeryl didn’t feel bad about waking her up. Her health had been improving by leaps and bounds ever since Mahesh started taking care of her.

  “Sir?” A young nurse raised her gaze as Jeryl entered the medbay, surprised to see the Captain waltzing inside there.

  “I need to talk to Lydia,” he said, making sure to keep his voice down. Even though he wanted to wake up Lydia, he didn’t want to scare the poor woman—God knew she had gone through a lot.

  “She’s actually awake,” the nurse replied, and then started getting up, putting her tablet down on the desk in front of her.

  “No need,” Jeryl said with a wave. “I know where she is.” With that, he marched down the main room and went straight to the bed right at the end. As there were no cribs aboard The Seeker, the medical staff had pushed another bed against Lydia’s so that she could sleep while keeping her son close.

  Lydia was sitting on her own bed, an old book propped up on her lap. Her hair was tied in a bun, and she actually looked her age. It was amazing what three days of rest could do to a person. Despite still being thinner than she should, she had star
ted to regain some of her natural beauty, the lines in her face much smoother than when Jeryl had first seen her.

  “Captain?” Lydia asked, putting the book down.

  “Just call me Jeryl.” Grabbing a chair from the corner, he set it close to the bed and sat down by Lydia’s side. “Can’t sleep?”

  “Not really.” She smiled gently, tucking a stray lock of hair over her ear. “To be honest, I feel like I’ve spent these past three days asleep. I just can’t do it anymore. You?”

  “I don’t sleep much these days,” Jeryl replied, and then glanced at the cover of Lydia’s book. “Walden? That’s an old one.”

  “One of the nurses let me have it. I actually read it when I was younger...and I always liked books. Much better than a screen. Besides,” she added, patting the book with her delicate fingers, “I’ve always loved this one.”

  “Nature, right?”

  “Nature, yes,” she laughed softly. “I’ve always loved the outdoors. That’s why I moved to Galea, actually.”

  “You’re not from there?”

  “No. I was born in Centralia. But it just wasn’t for me, you know? I wasn’t made for the city and, besides, I didn’t want him to grow up there.” She glanced at James, who slept peacefully under a tiny blanket, and then turned her gaze back to Jeryl.

  “I heard it could be a hard place.”

  “For those with no money, sure. Not that I had any money on Galea—farming is a thankless job, after all—but at least we weren’t living in a city. And Galea is a nice place. Or, well…it used to be.”

  “Right,” Jeryl nodded. “The Udenar.”

  “Yes,” Lydia nodded back, her tone a sad one. “On any given night, you could look up and see thousands and thousands of stars up in the sky. You can’t do that in Centralia, you know? Even if you’re not in a city, most places are covered with smog. Galea’s like that now.”

  “That’s a shame. Galea sounds like a beautiful place.”

  “You’d like it. Well, you would have liked it. Now that the Udenar brought all that machinery...the planet’s unrecognizable.”

  “You told Ashley, the officer you talked to before, that the Udenar had set up some kind of mining operation, right?” Jeryl asked, leaning toward Lydia, eager to take in all of her words.

  “Yes,” she nodded again, “They’re mining. What exactly they’re mining, I have no idea. But I guess there’s something of interest to them there—they started drilling just a few days after setting up shop. Confiscated all our farming bots and had us rewire them to help in the mining, and almost everyone down there has been put to work.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Whatever they need us to. Being their servants, operating their machines, or serving as practice for their aim.” As she said that, Jeryl could almost swear the lines in her face were starting to deepen once more, a shadow of worry and sadness taking over her eyes. “They’re ruthless. I don’t even think they want to stay in Galea—they just want to mine whatever it is they’re mining, and then I figure they’ll leave.”

  “You also said they’ve kept the government in place.”

  “The government?” Lydia almost laughed at Jeryl’s words, but then she settled on a disturbed smile. “If you want to call it that. It’s basically just a small-time governor and a few assistants to run the whole planet. All I know is that the Udenar keep him at hand so that whenever the higher-ups on the Confederation call, he’s there to assure them everything’s fine. Not that they’d care anyway.”

  “Not a fan of the Confederation, huh?”

  “Not really. Mostly, they’re just a bunch of self-serving hypocrites. I actually like the new Chancellor, Ojun, as he seems to care for the little guy...but I doubt that a single man will be able to do any good. Too many interests at play.”

  Leaning back on his seat, Jeryl sighed. He knew the Confederation wasn’t exactly what you could call a successful government, but sometimes he couldn’t help but be surprised by how bad things were there. Although a reunification between the Union and the Confederation was unlikely—not to say impossible—that was something Jeryl wouldn’t mind seeing before he checked out for good.

  “The Union won’t help, I know that, Jeryl,” Lydia suddenly said. “But you’ve saved me and my child, and I’ll always be grateful for that.”

  “Why do you say that? That the Union won’t help?” he asked her, taken aback by her statement.

  “Because no one ever cares for the little guy. And if my own government won’t care, why should yours do?”

  “There’s always someone who cares, Lydia,” Jeryl found himself saying. Slowly, he got up to his feet. “Now try and have some rest.”

  With that, he smiled at her one final time and left the medbay, his own words echoing inside his head.

  There’s always someone who cares...even if that someone has to be me.

  Chapter 9

  Ashley

  There were three raiders on Ashley’s tail.

  Her breathing was shallow, and the grip she had on the raider’s main controls was firm. She had her eyes trained on the small viewscreen right in front of her, and she processed all the information and blinking lights faster than she had ever believed to be possible. Inside her Hunter’s cockpit, Ashley felt right at home.

  “Alright, let’s have some fun,” she whispered to herself as she forced her raider to make a sharp turn to the right. She felt as if her body was glued to the seat, and she could almost swear she heard her bones rattling inside her. But despite all that, she felt alive. Happy.

  “Steady, steady,” Ashley mumbled, watching as her screen warned that one of the raiders behind her had locked its weapons. She kept her Hunter moving fast toward her right, and then reached for the side with her left hand. She felt the hard contour of a lever there, and then curled her fingers tight around it. When she felt the time was right, she pulled the lever as hard as she could and engaged the raider’s reverse thrusters, forcing the ship to decelerate fast. She gritted her teeth, feeling as if someone had shot her with a cannonball in the chest, but kept her eyes focused.

  The three raiders that were pursuing her flew past in a hurry, and then she released the thruster’s lever and went for the weapon’s control, unleashing all of her Hunter’s fury on the other ships.

  “Gotcha.”

  ALL TARGETS DOWN, a message read on her screen, superimposed over all the other information.

  “Better luck next time, guys,” she laughed, opening her comm channel.

  “Not with you around, Hunter One,” one of other pilots responded, and the others joined in agreement.

  “Good job anyway,” Ashley commented, pleased with the squadron’s performance. “Let’s head back,” she continued, and then rejoined the other three raiders in a close formation pattern. Now moving at a steady pace, the four ships started making their way toward the hulking shape in the distance, The Seeker.

  Ashley led the way, all of her adrenaline slowly receding from her bloodstream. It felt good to be out in space, even if just for a couple of hours. Whenever she had the opportunity, she always carved the time to join the Hunter pilots during training. As first officer of The Seeker, she wasn’t really supposed to be inside a raider cockpit, but she was so good at it that Jeryl simply couldn’t deny her the pleasure.

  After docking inside The Seeker’s hangar, she took her time before exiting the cockpit. She sat there all alone, and took a deep breath as she tried to prepare herself for the day ahead. One quick shower and she’d be putting on her first officer uniform and joining Jeryl at CNC again. Lately, it seemed that he never stayed away from The Seeker’s bridge for more than a few hours at a time; she couldn’t even remember the last time she had woken up next to him.

  “Ash?” She jumped in her seat as she heard someone call out her name, followed by a loud knock on her raider’s fuselage.

  “You scared the shit out of me,” she hissed, stepping out of her raider to meet Jeryl’s gaze. He was standing
at the bottom of the climbing ladder that lead to her cockpit, looking almost too annoyingly perfect in his Captain’s uniform.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to,” he shrugged, and then took Ashley’s helmet out of her hands as she climbed down the ladder. “Couldn’t resist to join them, huh?” He asked, pointing with his chin as the other three pilots dragged their feet across the hangar, looking tired and defeated.

  “I couldn’t resist to beat them, that is. But what are you doing down here? I thought you were already back at the CNC?”

  “Just came from there. The Armada has sent us a pile of reports concerning pirate activity in Drupadi territory, and I need your help to look at it. We might be called in to investigate.”

  “You’re shitting me,” Ashley protested, one hand on her hip. “The Udenar have started acting crazy, a whole planet’s population is under shackles...and the Armada wants to send The Seeker into Drupadi territory?”

  “Not much we can do about it, Ash,” Jeryl sighed, locking his eyes with hers. His words sounded sincere, but Ashley knew him too well. Jeryl wouldn’t come all the way from the CNC to the hangar just to tell her she had to look at some bullshit reports. No, Jeryl wanted Ashley’s opinion—or maybe her support on something. He just wasn’t comfortable being straightforward about it.

  “You went to see Lydia, didn’t you?” She asked him, cutting straight to the chase.

  “I did,” he nodded, and then sighed again. Pursing his lips, he turned on his heels and pressed his back against the raider’s fuselage. He was looking straight ahead, but his gaze was blank. Ashley could tell that Jeryl was torn.

  “The Armada will never authorize us to look into it, Jeryl. You know that,” she whispered, pressing her back against the raider and joining him. “I know you’ve been waiting to hear back from Flynn, but—”

  “But we never will,” he said, finishing her sentence. “I know that. And even if the Admiral does get back to us, I doubt we’ll hear what we actually want to hear.”