Ep.#9 - "Resistance"

The Frontiers Saga Episode #9: Resistance

Copyright © 2013 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

CHAPTER ONE

“Captain on the bridge,” the guard at the hatch announced as Nathan stepped out of his ready room.

There was no response from his bridge staff. They were all busy going about their duties. It had been over two hours since they had briefly engaged Jung forces in Earth orbit. More important to Nathan, it had been over two hours since they had left Lieutenant Commander Nash in the midst of an extremely hot space jump down to the surface of their homeworld in an attempt to make contact with the underground resistance forces on Earth.

“Commander,” Nathan began, addressing his executive officer.

The captain’s tone was more direct than usual, which caused Commander Taylor to eye her captain for a moment before speaking. “Jump drive is fully charged, Captain. We can jump whenever you like.”

“Lieutenant, have you had a chance to analyze the sensor logs from Lieutenant Commander Nash’s space jump?” Nathan asked his science officer.

“Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Yosef answered. “There were no signs of suit failure, debris, or abnormal flare-ups in her plasma wake. In fact, we were still receiving intermittent signals from her suit telemetry when we jumped away.”

“So it’s still a matter of if she survived the interior temperature,” Nathan said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Any chance the Jung detected her jump?”

She shook her head. “Doubtful, sir. If I hadn’t known where to look, I wouldn’t have seen her.”

Nathan took a breath as he considered Jessica’s fate. Jessica was both physically and mentally strong, more so than most of the crew. She was also his friend, which made it all the more difficult for him to not give her well-being undue concern. Putting people he cared about in harm’s way was one of the many things he disliked about command. This time, however, it was different. There was little hope of eventually handing command off to someone more qualified. The fate of his world now rested squarely on his shoulders.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Cameron said under her breath.

Nathan shot a quick, thankful glance the commander’s way. “Flight deck status?”

“Currently red, sir,” Cameron answered.

“Set general quarters,” Nathan stated calmly. “Mister Riley, prepare to jump to the outer edge of the Barnard system.”

“Plotting jump to the outer edge of Barnard, aye,” the navigator answered.

“We’ll jump to the edge and take a peek before we jump in deeper,” Nathan told Cameron.

“I’ll be in combat.” She turned to exit.

Nathan took his seat in the command chair at the center of the bridge. All around him the bridge staff was preparing for a jump into possibly hostile space, a task made all the more dangerous by the simple fact that they were dangerously low on propellant and had to keep maneuvering to a minimum.

Nathan stared at the spherical main view screen that wrapped around the forward half of the bridge and over their heads. Synchronous feeds from external imaging systems all seamlessly blended together to give them as good a view as if they were standing outside the ship in the vacuum of space. Though the view was normally of little use, it did serve to remind him of the enormity of the environment in which they operated.

Dozens of voices chattered in the background as compartments from throughout the nearly fifteen-hundred-meter ship reported their readiness to the Aurora’s communications center. Naralena and her two Corinairan comm technicians busily responded to each and every call as the ship prepared for action. It was a task the crew of the UES Aurora had perfected over countless drills, thanks to their executive officer.

As he had requested, tactical and system maps appeared on the main view screen situated in separate windows that seemed to hover in space to either side of the forward portion of the spherical screen. Soon, they would also have a tactical enhancement system that would mark the location of targets within their field of vision, keeping him aware of the location of objects that he could not yet see on the screen with the naked eye.

“All hands report general quarters, sir,” Naralena announced from the comm station at the back of the bridge. “The XO is in combat, and the chief of the boat is in damage control. Flight deck is yellow.”

“Very well.”

“Jump to outer edge of Barnard plotted and locked,” Mister Riley reported from the navigator’s chair.

“Jump when ready, Mister Riley,” Nathan ordered.

“Aye, sir. Activating auto-nav.” Mister Riley turned his head toward the helmsman to his right.

The helmsman slid his hands down his console, moving them clear of the flight controls on the various touch screens built into the helmsman’s side of the flight console. The jump drive’s auto-nav system took control of the ship and made the necessary adjustments to the ship’s course and speed in order to ensure a perfect jump. In this case, the ship was already on the correct heading, and the jump had been calculated based on the Aurora’s current speed. It only took a split second for the auto-nav to initiate the jump count.

“Jumping in three……two……one……jump.”

As the jump fields initiated along the external hull of the ship, the main view screen automatically filtered out the intensity of the flash. Blue-white waves of energy poured out of the emitters along the forward section of the hull, quickly engulfing the ship and surging into an intense flash of light. The entire process took less than a second. The stars shifted an almost imperceptible amount, so little that Nathan would not have noticed had he not been staring at them during the jump.

“Jump complete,” Mister Riley reported.

“Verifying position,” the sensor operated said. After a few seconds of inspecting his displays, he announced, “Position verified. We are on the outskirts of the Barnard system, approximately eighteen light days from the star.”

“Threat board is clear,” Mister Randeen reported from the tactical station.

“Plot an escape jump, just in case,” Nathan told his navigator.

“Aye, sir.”

“Begin your scans, Mister Navashee,” Nathan ordered his sensor operator.

“Aye, sir,” Mister Navashee answered. “Performing passive, long-range scans of the Barnard system.”

“Escape jump plotted,” Mister Riley said.

“Very well.” Nathan rested his right elbow on the arm of his command chair, rubbing his upper lip with his index finger as he waited for a report from his sensor operator. Getting into the Barnard system and using one of its three rocky worlds to perform a gravity assisted turn was crucial if they were going to get to the 72 Herculis system. The last thing they needed was for the Jung to be present in the Barnard system.

“I’m not picking up anything unusual, sir,” the sensor operator reported, “no signs of traffic, no comm-signals, no unusual heat signatures. The system appears empty, at least, as of eighteen hours ago.”

“Very well. Mister Riley, find your gravity assist target and plot our next jump.”

“Aye, sir.”

The navigational chart for the Barnard system appeared on the main view screen in front of them.

“Barnard has three rocky planets close to the system’s red dwarf star,” Mister Riley said. “Barnard Two is on the far side and won’t be in a clear jump line for several days. Barnard One will be passing behind the star in about a week, but is still in the jump line. It won’t require any significant amount of propellant to put us on course for her, but seeing as how she’s closest to the star, we’ll be passing pretty close to the red dwarf when we come around the planet and jump out.”

“What about the third planet?” Nathan said, pointing at the image on the right of the display.

“Farthest from the star and cleanest exit path after our turn, but we’ll burn a bit of propellant lining up with her.”

“Any chance she’ll move closer to our current flight path in the near future?”

“In about four months.”

“Recommendation?”

“I’d choose Barnard Three, sir,” Mister Riley said. “It will cost us some propellant, but there’s almost no risk involved. Choosing Barnard One takes us uncomfortably close to that star. The estimated mass of the star is based on one-thousand-year-old data using technology of unknown precision. If it’s too far off, we could end up using more propellant than we bargained for.”

“Three it is, then,” Nathan agreed. “Plot your jump and change course when ready.”

“Aye, sir, plotting jump for Barnard Three.”

Nathan leaned back in his command chair as he waited for his navigator to prepare their jump plot. As much as he liked Josh and Loki, the B shift flight team had performed admirably over the last few weeks. With Josh still recuperating from his injuries and Loki about to go down to the surface of Tanna to make contact with the resistance, the Aurora’s other two flight teams had been putting in a lot of hours.

“Jump plotted and locked, Captain,” Mister Riley reported.

“Execute when ready.”

“Activating auto-nav. Performing course correction burn.”

Nathan tried not to wince at the sound of the main propulsion system burning up their precious remaining propellant. It seemed an odd thing to even have to consider the cost of propellant for each maneuver. The Aurora’s design profile had called for extended duration missions outside of the Sol system. Accordingly, her propulsion system had been designed to use a fraction of the amount of propellant used by the Defender-class ships for the same maneuvers. Had it not been for their encounter with an unforeseen black hole during their journey back from the Pentaurus cluster, they would still have most of their propellant. Jumping across the galaxy had used almost no propellant beyond that needed for minor course corrections in between jumps.

One thing was obvious to Nathan: they were going to be using gravity-assist maneuvers to make course changes whenever possible for the foreseeable future. With no homeworld to support them and provide them with resources, rationing would be in order across the board—not only propellant, but food, water, and all other consumables as well. There was no way of knowing how long it might take to liberate the Earth, nor how long they would be at war with the Jung.

“Course correction complete,” Mister Riley reported. “Jumping in three……two……one……jump.”

On the screen, the jump field emitters again sent their blue-white light out across the Aurora’s hull like colored water spewing forth from dozens of faucets. In the blink of an eye, the light from each emitter converged and surged up into a brilliant flash, subdued only by the main view screen’s digital filters.

“Jump complete,” Mister Riley reported. “Orbital insertion in two minutes.”

The barren world of Barnard Three loomed on the view screen before them. It was small—maybe half the size of Earth at best—and was covered by the blue-gray haze of its tenuous atmosphere.

“Might as well gather as much data on that planet as we can while we’re here,” Nathan told Lieutenant Yosef at the science station.

“Already on it, sir,” she answered.

Nathan had observed an overall improvement in the mood of the young lieutenant ever since he had promoted her to the head of the Aurora’s science department. She had spent four months serving as their sensor operator, a job for which she was significantly overqualified. She obviously enjoyed getting back to her original duties.

Nathan continued staring at the image of the planet in front of them. It slid slowly to starboard as the Aurora fell into orbit.

“Entering orbit,” Mister Riley reported.

“Is that water ice down there?” Nathan asked Lieutenant Yosef as he noticed the white patches covering the poles of the planet as well as much of her upper latitudes.

“Mostly,” the lieutenant answered. “There was probably liquid water on this world long ago either due to a more active star or the thermodynamics of the planet itself. I’m reading gorges and canyons that were probably carved out by flowing water.”

“Good to know it’s there,” Nathan said, “in case our recycling systems ever fail us.”

“Water
is
one of the more abundant resources in the core,” Lieutenant Yosef said. “That much we
do
know.”

“Of course,” Nathan answered, turning forward. “Mister Riley, how long will it take us to complete our gravity assist maneuver?”

“Just a few minutes, sir. It’s a small planet, and we only have to make a twenty-four point seven degree course correction.” Mister Riley looked down at his console briefly. “We’ll reach our next jump point in two minutes and forty-eight seconds.”

“Very well.” Nathan rotated in his chair to face aft. “How are we looking, Mister Randeen?”

“Threat board is still clear.”

“I’ve taken the liberty of scanning everything in line of sight nearby, sir,” Mister Navashee reported from the sensor station. “It doesn’t look like anyone has ever bothered to set foot on any of these worlds. Can’t say as I blame them, really. Pretty barren.”

“On the contrary,” Lieutenant Yosef said. “Everything you need to survive is down there. That world
is
habitable.”

“Are you kidding? Who would want to live on that frozen hunk of rock?” Mister Navashee said. “Remember BD+25?”

“I said it was habitable, not hospitable,” the lieutenant said with a shrug.

“If it has so many resources, why haven’t people from Earth ever been here?” Mister Chiles asked from the helm.

“Gravity well,” Nathan said. “It’s cheaper to mine from asteroids where the surface gravity is only a fraction of a full G.”

“Coming up on our jump point, sir,” Mister Riley announced. “Fifteen seconds.”

“Very well. You’re clear to jump, Mister Riley.”

“Ten seconds.”

The gravity assist maneuver in the Barnard system had gone without incident. Nathan was pleased to know that one of the closest systems to Earth was unoccupied. It might someday serve as a strategic rally point. It was a bit obvious, and he had no doubt that the Jung would eventually check this system for the presence of Terran assets. Still, it
was
a seven-month journey from Earth for the Jung, while it was instantaneous for the Aurora.