Athena Lee Chronicles 7: The Martian Inheritance (4 page)

“Commander? Minerva did you just promote me?” I had not expected to get a promotion out of this.

“You can blame central command and our father for that one Athena. We both knew it was coming so enjoy it. Lieutenant Mutai, you and Athena will be playing politician for a short while. You may be called upon by Dar and her merry men so keep your eyes open.” She looked around the room at the gathered men and women. “There are a great many more details to iron out but I will allow you to do all that once you’re on board ship. Keep in mind the honor of the Pan-Pacific League is at stake and act accordingly. Dismissed.”

I left my seat and walked over to my sister. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that Min.”

She gave me a half hug, “I know you didn’t. We wanted it to be a surprise. You and Dar take care of yourselves and come home alive. We love you.”

‘I love you too, Min.” I left the room and went back to our quarters to pack. Dar was already there stuffing her duffle.

Chapter 5

Commodore Vakulinchuk was very angry. He and his loyal Marines had barely escaped the demise of the Ajax, his flagship. The very fact that a bunch of rebels could so easily destroy his fleet and stop an asteroid from hitting their planet infuriated him. His true employers would be very angry with him! He had tried to contact them and explain but for some reason his contact was not answering. The direct approach was needed, but it could be risky. The Empire’s military could be after him for treason. Only the political contacts that Grigory had carefully cultivated over the years could, keep him out of prison. If only Julius had answered his calls he wouldn’t be in this situation. Now he had to talk to the Senator himself. Damn all politicians anyway!

“Sir, we are approaching the Capital planet. So far our codes are holding up.” The sergeant was a large man who barely fit in the cockpit of the scout ship. He had worked for the commodore for more than fifteen years.

“Thank you Sergeant Pétursson. Follow the plan if we’re hailed.” The commodore was staring at a vid screen on the ship. A list of his contacts were scrolling across the screen. Checking the planetary vid news he could find nothing about his involvement in the Hong Kong withdrawal from the Imperial Senate. In fact he could find very little information at all. He placed a call to Senator Colman’s office. Maybe he would be able to tell him if he was in the clear or not.

“Good afternoon, Sherpa industries, Lou Ann speaking. How can we help you today?”

“Uh, I need to speak to Senator Colman.”

“I’m sorry sir, I’m afraid you have the wrong number. We don’t have anyone by that name here. Is there anything else I can do for you today?”

This woman sounded entirely too perky to be real. “Look, Lou Ann is it? I really need to speak to the Senator, put him on the damn communicator!”

“No need to get rude,sir! As I said before there’s no Senator here.” Like with many calls before she knew exactly what to say. Her handlers had told her to treat it like a training session.

“What’s your address? Just to make sure of my number.”

“Sir, we are located in the former Capital Rights building on Main Street Parkway in Capital city. It’s a large building with Grecian columns out front you can’t miss it.”

Grigory stared at his screen in shock. That was the Senator’s office location, but where was the Senator? “Lou Ann, how long has your business been in that location?” It was fairly easy to play a ditzy blond on the comm, she had the looks for it. With a little training she would go far in the organization.

“Only a few months, there was an awful fire and this building came up for auction. After repairs this place is much nicer than the warehouse we were using.” She smiled at the communication system as the caller disconnected. That was just too easy, she couldn’t wait to finish her training.

Rechecking his contact list, Grigory tried calling the Senate Sub-committee for Naval Appropriations offices, maybe they would know where he could find the Senator. “Good afternoon, Senate main directory how can I help you?”

“I need to be put in contact with Senator Colman please. This is a matter of some urgency.”

“Senator Colman? Sir, there is no Senator by that name registered here. Are you sure of the name?”

“I was just talking to the man not six months ago. Senator Colman, the head of the Naval Appropriations sub -committee.”

“I’m sorry sir. I was not here six months ago. However I can tell you that the current head took office around that time. I heard that the former head was killed in an air car accident. Him and his whole family. It was tragic. Shall I connect you with Senator Kovac, his replacement?”

“No thank you. Forget that I called.” What in the nine hells was going on?

“Major Niers? Can I speak to you please?”

The large man left the stern of the ship and came forward. “Did you call me Sir?”

“Yes, Peter, I tried contacting Senator Colman. His office is gone and according to the Senate Offices, the Senator and his family were killed in an air car crash! Do you know what is happening?”

The big man had been the Commodore’s ‘minder and fixer’ for many years. Unlike the Commodore, Peter had been groomed and specially trained for his position. He had lived and breathed the Cabal his whole life. The Commodore had been brought in for a specific reason and although his family had been members, they had since fallen out of favor. People like the Commodore who seek revenge are easily manipulated.

“Sir, I think that the ‘group’ may be cleaning house over this Hong Kong debacle. The Senator may have broken one of the primary rules. Only something like that causes complete erasure.”

“Erasure? Do you mean they killed them all on purpose? The senator had been a member for ever, his own father was a founder!”

“Sir, the rules are there for a reason. You should know that by now.”

“What about us? Will they hunt us down too? Where can we go? I can try calling one of …”

The Major grabbed him by his arms and shook him. “Calm the Frak down, Sir!” The Major just shook his head. This assignment was turning out to be a real cluster-frak.

“Sir, if they wanted us dead, we would be dead. Now, stop calling the planet. Sergeant Pétursson?”

“Sir!”

“Contact orbital control and cancel our landing position. File a new flight plan to the Rus sector. Once we leave orbit and are beyond pursuit range, change coordinates and take us to the Mars Colony, Sol System, Sector 1.”

“Sol System Sir? That is a long jump Sir!”

“Yes, plot it now! We have supplies enough to get there, just barely.”

“Major, Peter. Why the Mars colony?” The commodore looked puzzled.

“Mars is the only place that we can run to with almost guaranteed safety. The Cabal has a mission base there too. We really are everywhere. It’s more of neutral ground than anything else. The local laws are very restrictive. Make sure you read the highlights before we get there. The best part is no extradition. Total freedom, just obey the local laws.”

“OK, Peter. You’ve never steered me wrong yet.” The commodore leaned back in his chair and stared out the porthole into the nothingness of space.

Chapter 6

As I approached the docking slip of the James Cook I realized that I’d been on Freedom Station for far too long. I belonged in space, not tied down as the engineer on a station. I stopped just inside the main hatch. “Permission to come aboard?” The ensign on duty was aware and watching me.

“Permission granted. Your orders please, Ma’am?” He looked really young for an ensign.

“Of, course Ensign…”

“Ensign Tremblay, Ma’am.”

I handed the hard copy of my orders to the ensign. He quickly checked them over and logged them into his system. He turned back to me and asked, “Ma’am, do you need directions to quarters?”

“No thank you Ensign. I’ve served aboard the James Cook before.” I left the entryway and entered the lift to the crew area.

I wasn’t on board this time as part of the regular crew, so I was bunking in the guest officer’s quarters. My girlfriend Dar was staying down in Marine country with her special squad. Compared to my quarters on the station, this room was almost closet-like. I had just enough room to turn around. ‘You won’t be spending any time in here anyway’ I muttered to myself.

__

The Captain looked up as I entered the bridge. He looked a lot better than the last time I’d seen him. He was more cheerful and some of the stress lines on his face had disappeared. I guess being a full time-- teacher and trainer agreed with him.

“Lieutenant…I mean Commander! Welcome home and congratulations on your promotion.” He surprised me by crossing over to me and giving me a big hug.

“Yes, Sir. I still keep forgetting about the promotion. It came as something of a surprise.”

“I can see that Athena! Let’s go to my Ready Room and talk about your duties. Commander Blomkvist, you have the bridge.”

“Yes, Sir. I have the bridge.” The commander was a rail thin man with sandy brown hair and a thin goatee beard. That shocked me until I remembered that the PPL allowed it.

Following the captain, I entered the Ready Room to the right of the bridge. Immediately I noticed the difference. The room was half-again as big as it used to be. The table now had place settings for twelve rather than the standard eight. I stepped over to the left wall and knocked on it. Interesting.

“Does it meet your expectations Commander?”

Oops! Forgot about the captain! “Sorry, Sir. I forgot you were there.”

“It’s fine Commander, I remember how you are. When I had the room rebuilt they made it just a bit larger and armored the walls. We did have cadets on board and wished to protect them. Plus, I remembered your exploits and thought we should protect the ship from you.”

Feeling uncertain how to respond to that, I eventually replied to the Captain. “I wasn’t that bad was I Sir?”

“I’m just kidding with you Commander! However, I
have
been in far more actions than before I met you. Have a seat, we need to discuss both your new assignment and your role on board the ship.”

I sat down at the table across from Captain Gorshin as he continued. “Athena, in private, feel free to call me Frank.”

Wow, what an honor. “OK, Frank.”

“I have been informed about your upcoming mission along with that of Lieutenant Zakaszewski and her team. Lieutenant Mutai has been delayed. Something about a prisoner on the planet. We will go into more detail after we leave the station and are safely out of Communications range. I trust my crew, but we’ve trusted them before and then had problems with operational security. Here on the ship, your duties will be to assist Commander Erlang in running engineering. The commander is an old hand from the old PPL navy and an excellent teacher. He runs a tight department and we are lucky to have him on board. We have almost an entirely new crew since the last time you were here. Many of the ‘old salts’ went to work for Captain Wang or went over to the New Shipyard project.”

“I spoke to Captain Wang last week about his newly improved ship. He sounded excited.”

“He should be. The quality of cadets that we’ve been getting is excellent. Most people forget that this planet was one of the foremost in supporting the Old League. Many of the cadets that we trained here will be excellent officers. We have a few of them with us for this trip.”

“I met one, Ensign Tremblay was his name. He still had lots of shiny to rub off of him.”

The Captain started to laugh. “Yes, Tremblay. He tries very hard.” The Captain sobered for a moment. “His parents were killed when a chunk of falling Imperial spacecraft hit their farmhouse. Tremblay was still on board the ship when he got the news. After their funeral he refused the offered leave time and asked if he could stay on board. He’s a good kid.” The Captain sighed. “Some of the cargo bay handlers are still with us along with the quartermaster. I hope you still have your pencil handy because the man still won’t give up anything without a hard copy form being filled out.”

“Yes, I remember Commander Heller. I’m sorry to hear about Tremblay’s family. It sounds to me like the crew is ready to go?”