Deep Space Endeavor (19 page)

“Yes, yes,” he excitedly exclaimed. “I’ll begin at once, and thank you.”

“My pleasure, catalogue any problems or questions you have, and on my next trip through Kaldor, I will help where I can, if I’m needed.”

S
he was thankful Jesse had allowed her to share the tech with Kaldor. He hadn’t even questioned her judgment as to who she should give it to; his faith in her discernment was that strong. As she waved goodbye to the doctor, she was surprised to see the Mayor and his wife approaching the ship. Seeja was carrying a wrapped gift as they waved in greeting.

"Hello
, Mayor Valinor, hello, Seeja, what brings you out to the spaceport today?" Suzy smiled as she brought the Valinors into the landing bay.

"We're actually here to see Jesse, is he busy?" Seeja excitedly replied.

"He's not doing anything that can't wait," she pressed the comm against the wall and called out, "Colonel, you have guests in the landing bay."

A few moments later Jesse walked in and smiled when he saw the Mayor and Seeja. "Hello, please, come up to the common room. What can I do for you?"

"Well, we're here about Kiah," the Mayor replied.

After almost twenty minutes, the conversation was coming to a close. The crew had steered clear of the c
ommon room and kept Kiah occupied knowing how important the conversation was. Jesse was a little reluctant to give Kiah up, but understood she could not stay on
Endeavor
long-term. He was also really excited that she would be going to a couple like the Valinors that would love her and be able to take care of her.

"Ultimately, it's got to be her decision," Mayor Valinor added. "The last thing we want to do is take her from
Endeavo
r if she really doesn't want to go."

"We were hoping you could convince her though," Seeja add
ed in anticipation of what she hoped was about to happen.

Jesse called Kiah in to the common room and let her talk with the Valinors for almost twenty minutes, during which time Seeja gave her the gift she had brought. Kiah's eyes lit up as she could never remember getting a gift before. She opened a plush canine of some sort and held it tight to her body. She smile
d from ear to ear and then hugged Seeja.

"Kiah," Jesse began. "I have some great news for you. Mayor Valinor and his wife would like to adopt you and become your parents. You would live with them, and they would take care of you. You would have a family again, isn't that great?" Jesse smiled, knowing he would have to sell this plan to Kiah. The Valinors wouldn't make her come with them but he knew they wanted her, and everyone including Jesse knew she couldn't stay on
Endeavor
with all the danger she would likely encounter.

"But what about you
, Jesse, wouldn't you be sad?"

"Of course I would, but I would also be happy because I know that you will be loved and taken care of. You will have a mom and a dad. I would
miss you, but I have to let you go with them because it's what's best for you."

"I really want to, but I'll miss you, too. Will you come visit me?"

"Of course I will."

"Will you bring Commando with you?"

"I think that can be arranged."

Kiah leapt into his arms and started to tear up as she said goodbye. She hugged and pet Commando for a while, then gave Suzy and the rest of the crew each a hug as she left with her new
, obviously overjoyed, family. Mayor Valinor looked to Jesse and thanked him again and Seeja embraced him and then they were gone. Jesse knew he would miss that little girl, but he also knew she would be better off, which was the reason for the mixed emotions. As they were almost out the door, Kiah let go of Seeja's hand and came running back to give Jesse one more hug. Then, she left with her new family.

______

The following morning, Jesse had the entire crew, which now totaled nine, in the common area. Even Shadow and Commando were there, excited as they sensed everyone's anticipation.

He began, “The last time I tried to come up with
some motivating words, they were almost the dumbest last words in history.” Suzy and Kimi stifled a laugh, Josiah shook his head and the newer members of the crew just looked around with puzzled expressions, wondering about the inside joke. He continued, “But this time, the stakes are different. We’re not about to die, and I don’t have a concussion, so here goes.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Let’s go find some treasure.”

The crew cheered as they laughed, the wolves bounced around in excitement and Jesse gave the order. “Take us out, Lieutenant,” and with that they were on their way to what Josiah had called the adventure of a lifetime.

______

Mayor
Valinor could not believe how much meeting Colonel Jesse Marcos had changed his life. Not only had he and his crew saved his life, but they had also cobbled together a vid that painted him and his wife as heroes. Tarrick had always thought himself to be a good man, but not a hero. Not only that, but they had agreed to give him the designs and schematics to the incredible medical technology that had saved his wife’s life. When he asked how much it was going to cost, Dr. Baker just laughed as she informed him that Jesse didn’t want payment. But most importantly, he had given them Kiah, he couldn't wait to adopt Kiah. She was home with Seeja now, or out shopping for new clothes, he wasn't sure. He just knew his life would be forever changed for the better having this amazing little girl in their lives.

He
now had two main orders of business. He had left Eliphaz in charge while he took a few days off following the ordeal, so he could recover and spend some time with his family. But now that he was back, public priority one was to begin reform on the way orphans were treated in Kaldorian society. His scheduled adoption of Kiah should be a good first step. Priority two was to enact laws that would allow for a better standard of living at the outposts. He was surprised to learn that his decision to send ships into orbit and soldiers to rebuild the outpost was a very popular one. He believed that the vid had shown people how hard life could be on their own planet while they lived a life of luxury. Many people had sent transmissions to the Mayor’s office offering assistance and making helpful suggestions. That had heartened him greatly, reinforcing his belief that he was doing the right thing.

On a personal note, his mission to see how far Topanar’s corruption had spread was also going well.
He had found a dozen law enforcement officials that he knew he could trust. He had then conscripted them into a special unit, reporting only to him. They had already begun to uncover evidence that could put Sub-Mayor Topanar in prison for a long time. He didn’t want to move on the information until he at least had an idea of how far the corruption had spread. Colonel Marcos’ idea to not alert Topanar to his suspicion was sound. Not letting his enemy know that he knew of his corruption had enabled him to uncover a lot more of the problem than he might have been able to do otherwise.

He could not believe the sheer amount of illegal activity the Sub-Mayor had a hand in. Kaldor City had no known criminal organizations, but if they did, Eliphaz Topanar would
have been at its head. He hit a button on his desk and called out, “Miss Aznuah, please contact Agent Sandstorm and have him report to me as soon as possible.”

“He’s on his way, S
ir,” the secretary curtly responded.

______

The treasure hunt was a full two weeks old and thus far spectacularly uneventful. They hadn’t run into anymore pirates, which was good news, but they also hadn’t run into anything useful or exciting. This adventure of a lifetime was likely to take just that: a lifetime. Collin was at the helm and Suzy was on the bridge with him, learning more engine nuances from Collin. He had already had her in the engine room twice to learn how to tweak the engines for maximum efficiency. Now he was lecturing her about the engines the same way she always lectured him about medical information and taking care of himself.

The thought of a grease-stained Suzy switching careers to become a ships mechanic made Jesse smile.
 
As he was smiling, he heard a voice ask, “What are you smiling about, Colonel?”

He hadn’t seen or heard
Cassie come up to the couch. He had assumed she was with everyone else, gathered around the common room table, which had become the center of all treasure hunting activities. He needed a break, so he had come over to sit on one of the couches and relax. Now the lovely Captain Reed was here sitting next to him.

“I was just thinking about Suzy fixing ship engines for a li
ving.” He replied with a smile. "Collin has been bugging her about helping him with the engines ever since she fixed them on her own a week ago. How's the treasure stuff going?"

"Slowly," she groaned, "I needed a break. I hope you don't mind me joining you here."

"Of course not, I was bored, too. I guess we could be bored together." They both chuckled a little bit as they relaxed on the couch, waiting for lunch time.

______

Lunch was just about ready, and everyone was around the table except Josiah. Collin had put the ship on autopilot, activated the cloak and was sitting next to Kimi, arguing about which continent on Earth had the best footballers. None of the Kalephi galaxy guests had any idea what they were talking about, but they seemed to be enjoying the lively debate. Collin began to explain the game of football or soccer as it was also called to the new crew members.

"Josiah and t
he Colonel played it in secondary school. They won their city championship twice." Suzy smiled as she joined the conversation.

"That was a long time ago
, I'm too old for that sort of thing now." He winked at Cassie and Kora as he took his seat.

"Says the man that played
not one, but two rec leagues games in one day, just three days before we left for this mission." Suzy playfully added.

As they were eating, Josiah came into the room at a run. He was dripping with excitement, and yelling, “I found it.”

He, of course, had everyone’s attention. “It’s the maps,” he continued. “We thought we had three separate maps, but we didn’t. It’s all the same map.”

The rest of the crew still looked a bit confused, and Kora asked, “What do you mean?”

“When you place all three maps on top of one another” Josiah continued, his excitement barely contained, “And then you shine a light through it…..”

“It makes a different map,”
Cassie excitedly yelled

“Exactly!
We have a location,” Josiah exclaimed.

“For the treasure?” Kimi excitedly asked.

“I’m not sure if it’s a location for the treasure or just another clue,” Josiah admitted. “There should also be an artifact in a nearby location. The pirates no doubt have copies of the same map fragments we have, so it’s only a matter of time before they find it, if they haven’t already. Consequently, we should be on our way.”

Collin looked over the map to deduce
the coordinates. “No problem, according to our star charts, this looks like a short jump in light space.” He said, as he made his way to the bridge to set in the coordinates.

______

As Collin left the common room to head to the bridge, Jesse began to think of the wonder of light space. Light space had only been discovered four hundred and thirty years earlier by Dr. Stephen Hightower in an accident that sent him almost a hundred light years from Earth in under a minute. Fortunately for the good Doctor and his crew, he was able to figure out what had caused the accident. He then recreated the circumstances to get them home. They had only been gone a couple months before Hightower and his crew returned. After figuring out how to duplicate the circumstances, Hightower learned how to control the circumstances and the first Faster Than Light, or FTL, drive was created.

Light space is ach
ieved when the ship’s FTL drive opens a seam in reality; the ship is then drawn into a dimension outside of normal space time, and the drive seals the seam on the way in. When the drive is powered down, the ship returns to real space, sealing the seam on the way out. It has been best described as taking a short cut through space time.

Jesse never understood why it was called light space because one would actually be travelling much faster than the speed of light once light space was entered. Faster than light space would be a more accurate name for it, but Hightower called it light space for whatever reason, and the name had stuck.
No one was about to argue with the man that discovered it? At least the drives were known as FTL drives, so scientists could find some solace there.

Hightower’s discovery couldn’t have come at a better time for Earth. Earth was a dying planet. It was the mid twenty-second century, and Earth’s population had grown to almost twelve billion people. There were no longer enough natural resources to support a population of that size. Earth was only a few generations away from becoming uninhabitable. It had a fleet of cargo ships to make supply runs back and forth to the moon. The moon had become a valuable source of metal resources, and a sizeable colony had been developed there.