Far Space (46 page)

“Question is,” Yates began, “Whose side are they on?”

USS Saratoga

Jupiter Space

Mitchell shielded his eyes as the main display erupted into a flash of sparks and debris spewing across his bridge.

The shrill sound of venting atmosphere filled the compartment.

“Course locked,” Osprey shouted. “Contact in fifteen seconds!”

Mitchell nodded, reluctantly removed his hat, and pulled on his emergency helmet. Whatever had broken the display had also holed them. With their sealing uniform and the helmets, he and his crew should last at least long enough to make contact with the visitors.

“After we impact, get to escape pods,” Mitchell ordered, clicking his helmet into place. Silently, he added, if you can.

Watching the alien ship grow large on his console screen, Mitchell was suddenly overcome by a primal urge he had never felt before. He wanted to kill everyone onboard that ship.

“YAAAA!” Mitchell shouted and braced himself for the inevitable impact.

The Saratoga shuddered from bow to stern and twisted to port like a toy in a bathtub.

Reaper 16 Crew

Jupiter Space

“Crap!” Ian shouted as a spacecraft surrounded by an aura of brilliant fire flashed past. Approaching from behind, he had not seen it until it was right beside him. “Come back!” He waved madly at the craft streaking away from him toward the winking explosions near Europa. His gesture had no effect on the receding ship. But, it did put him into a crazy spin.

It was the first ship they had seen since bailing out of the Reaper right before it entered the wormhole to Earth.

“Careful, Captain!” Ghost shouted over the local net as Ian manage to stop his spin with a thrusts from his suit’s control pack.

Ian looked over at Ghost hanging five meters away, attached by a thin cable. Ian opened his mouth to reply but was brought up short by yet another surprise.

Ghost looked from the new alien ship to Ian. “Who was that anyway? Didn’t look like anything the squids have…what’s wrong, sir?”

Ian simply pointed past the pilot.

Ghost pivoted enough to look in the direction Ian was pointing. “That’s new.”

Ian had no idea who they were, but they sure knew how to make an entrance.

Behind Ghost, twenty identical alien ships had simply appeared. They sped off after the earlier arrival. Swirling around each other, the ships left contrails of white flame like comet tails.

Speechless, Ian had to squint against the brilliant light from the ships plasma coronas. “I wish you could see this Jennifer.”

USS Saratoga

Jupiter Space

“Holy Mother!” Growler shouted.

Mitchell opened his eyes, wondering why he and his ship were still in one piece. One look at his monitor gave him the answer.

The Soosuri battleship was gone.

The Saratoga rattled and shook as it passed through the debris cloud – all that was left of the huge alien ship.

The camera caught a white flaming arrowhead trailing streamers of fire attacking another of the Soosuri ships. Swooping past, the new alien ship spouted blinding gouts of flame which engulfed the larger enemy ship.

“Gravimetric disturbances all around us!” Osprey said. “Whoever they are, there are a lot of them!”

“Growler, get me a read on the squid fleet!” Mitchell ordered.

“Sensors are having a little trouble sorting things out,” Growler called back. “Wait, got it…all alien, make that, enemy ships have been destroyed.”

Osprey looked up from his display to Mitchell. “It’s just us and the Comets.”

The flaming arrowhead spacecraft gathered together and sped off in the direction of Europa. Their tails of light weaving around each other, the formation of glowing ships swept through the attackers bombarding Reagan.

Mitchell looked at Growler, whose mouth was hanging open. “Tac.”

After a moment, Growler reported, “Jupiter Space…secure, sir.”

“Unless you count them,” Osprey said, pointing at his display showing the white ships racing in an arch to the far side of Jupiter.

“I think I’ll assume they’re friendly for now,” Mitchell said. He looked back as his monitor showed all of the lightships disappear in a single brilliant flash.

Reagan Space Corps Base / SOF Ops Cell

Europa

“They saved us,” Jennifer said. On the displays, she watched as Jupiter Space was cleared of hostile ships. The scene from Earth Space was the same. The flaming ships tore through the Soosuri ships. A few of the Soo turned and attempted to flee unsuccessfully.

The SOC grew silent as the bombardment ceased and the tortured Europan ice around the base began to settle.

“Saratoga calling Reagan, Saratoga, Reagan,” a voice from the comm station speaker called. “You still there, Reagan?”

Jennifer looked from Yates to Williams. “You gonna answer that?”

“They’re calling the CSOC Floor, not us,” Williams said.

Yates looked from the hatch leading to the main Ops Floor and nodded Williams. “Better pick up. I think we’re it.”

“We’re here, Saratogo…some of us at least,” Williams reported.

Jennifer looked at the monitors. The newcomers had all vanished as mysteriously as they had arrived.

“Saratoga, Reagan…any idea who our visitors were?”

Yates and Jennifer exchanged looks.

Jennifer shrugged.

Yates picked up a mike and called back, “We were hoping you could tell us, Saratoga.”

“Saratoga, Reagan…no clue.” Mitchell looked around at his battered bridge. “We’re sweeping for survivors.”

As transmission ended, Jennifer’s eyes met General Yates’.

“If Ian could have held out just a few…” Jennifer started.

“I know it doesn’t help now,” Yates said. “But he died doing his duty. He died trying to protect you.”

“I know,” Jennifer sniffed and smiled.

“He also died knowing the truth you discovered,” Yates said and laid a hand on Jennifer’s shoulder. “That’s all that matters now. After a lifetime of searching…of turmoil and mistakes. You reminded us of the truth.”

Jennifer laid a hand on the General’s arm. “Ours is a God of new beginnings.”

Reaper 16 Crew

Jupiter Space

Ian and Ghost pulled the tether holding them together until they were face-to-face.

“Well,” Ian said, searching the starry sky beyond Jupiter and Io for any sign of the brilliant ships, “that was cool.”

“Yeah,” Ghost said. “Charge of the Light Brigade.”

Ian gazed in the direction of Europa. The flashes of battle had ceased after the light ships had passed. The Soosuri had obviously been destroyed. That much was certain due to the sheer number of explosions he and Ghost had seen. The question remained: did the destruction extend to the human fleet?

As if reading Ian’s mind, Ghost said, “Wonder if anyone’s still out there?”

“Let’s hope.”

USS Saratoga

Jupiter Space

“What’s that?” Mitchell said, leaning over the Osprey’s shoulder. Two icons had appeared on the local space tactical display.

“Hits from our active IFF sweep.”

Mitchell glanced over the board again. “I thought we accounted for all our ships.”

“Those are personnel rescue beacons,” Growler added.

“How long have they been out there?” Mitchell asked, eyeing the clock on the wall. Nearly forty minutes had passed since the Comets disappeared.

“I’m not sure, sir,” Growler said.

“Vector the nearest ship for a pick-up,” Osprey ordered.

Crew of Reaper-16

Jupiter Space

“Nice view at least,” Ian said, taking in the massive gas giant taking up a good portion of the sky. It would probably be the last thing either of them would see before their air scrubbers failed in less than thirty minutes. Ian had tried using his radio call for help from any ships which might still be out there. But, the suit system lacked enough range to talk to anyone except Ghost. Also, the short range devices were highly susceptible to interference from the storm of radiation roaring out from the heart of Jupiter.

“I’ve seen better,” Ghost’s voice crackled back as he reached the point in his slow rotation where the banded planet came into view.

Ian could not help but laugh as Jupiter’s volcanic moon came into view. Io hung high above the orb of Jupiter from where he floated. He gazed at Europa, a bright orb shining beyond Io. His thoughts drifted back to Jennifer.

Had he and Ghost done any good? Did the sacrifice of the Reaper, and shortly, their lives, help her at all? Was she even alive? When they had abandoned their Reaper before it jumped to its final suicide mission, the odds had seemed overwhelmingly against the human defenders. What was the point of it all if the flame ships just destroyed everyone anyway?

Why would God show Jennifer those things on the Soo world if we were all just gonna bite it? Ian snorted.

“Problem, Captain?” Ghost asked.

“I was just thinking it didn’t do us a lot of good to jump out of our Reaper if we’re the only ones left out here,” Ian said.

A new voice said, “Yeah, that’d suck.”

Ian turned, looking for the source of the transmission.

Ghost used his jets to turn himself around. As he did, the telltales on the front of his suit starting blinking.

“That’s it for my propellant,” Ghost noted.

“Luckily you won’t need it,” the voice said.

Ian looked over at Ghost.

The SOF pilot was grinning madly.

“Robin, either you’re an angel come to take us to heaven,” Ghost said, “or you have a ship real close by.”

“At your six,” Robin’s voice replied.

Ian used a gentle nudge from his backpack thrusters to turn around.

A Reaper was approaching them from the general direction of Io.

“My God, that is possibly the most beautiful sight I have ever seen,” Ghost breathed.

“Why thank you, although in this particular case, I’m surprised it’s not your number one choice,” Robin said. “Hold on a sec, I’ll bring the airlock to you.”

Beautiful, Ian thought. He took a deep shuddering breath and said, “Thank you, Lord.”

“You said it,” Ghost replied.

Reagan Space Corps Base, Europa

Jupiter Space

“Six with one blast,” Ghost said, rubbing his jaw, “Not too bad.”

“So, any idea who our new friends are?” Ian asked. He and Ghost had made their way to the SOC after Robin had brought them back to Europa just a twenty minutes ago. Finding Jennifer alive, he had turned his attention to the mystery of the flaming ships and their intervention.

“What I would like to know,” Yates said, “is why they helped us at all.”

“Yeah, and why disappear like they did?” Robin said.

“They just showed up, took care of the attacking ships and disappeared,” Williams said.

“But why wait until we were almost wiped out?” Ghost asked.

“They could have taken care of the Soosuri anytime they wanted,” Ian said. He rewound a few images on the display from the recent encounter and froze the picture on one of the light ships. “Why did they wait so long? Was their timing deliberate or did it just take them a while to get here?”

The small group was silent for a moment.

“Maybe they were trying to tell us something,” Jennifer finally said.

“The galaxy is a dangerous place?” Ian ventured, squeezing his wife around the waist.

“They could have just sent a note,” Ghost muttered.

“No,” Jennifer said. “It was more than that. They let us reach the brink of utter defeat at the hands of the Soosuri, who happen to share common religious beliefs. The Soo attacked because they wanted to keep that fact hidden. Maybe the Soosuri didn’t want us spreading further into space because of what we had discovered.”

“So,” Yates ventured, “the lesson had to do with what you found.”

“Perhaps,” Jennifer said, “and maybe more.”

“I don’t understand,” Ian said.

“Look at what the Soo did to us in just one attack,” Jennifer said. “They nearly destroyed every spaceship we have. Without intervention, humanity might have been knocked out of space for decades. Life out here is fragile.”

“The fragility of life,” Yates repeated. “Maybe they wanted us to see Near Space was too small for humanity.”

“Too small for humanity and for the truth,” Jennifer clarified.

“So what do we do?” Ian asked.

“We go on living,” Jennifer said, “and leave Near Space. We need to find out who else is waiting for us out there and why the Soosuri are so intent on stopping us.”

“It’ll be dangerous,” Ian said.

“Only if you’re by yourself,” Jennifer said, squeezing Ian around the waist. “And we’ve found out we definitely are not alone anymore.”

Twelve months to the day after the Second Battle of Near Space, as the defeat of the Soosuri had come to be known, Ian found himself on the bridge of the USS Saratoga with Jennifer and General Yates watching the final assembly of the first extra-solar colonization fleet.

“Impressive,” Yates muttered.