Into the Black: Odyssey One (62 page)

The sensor glitch, however, brought a smile to his face.

“That’s not a glitch, son.” He said a moment later, “That’s a Tachyon Surge.”

“Sir? But… It didn’t match any of the profiles we have in the computer and…”

“It didn’t match the profiles because we don’t have one for a full size vessel transitioning in-system.” Wolfe said with a smile.

“Sir?” The Ensign’s eyes widened, his voice rising just a little as a smile started to form. “You mean…”

“Let’s roll out the welcome mat, boys.” Wolfe said, a little louder so everyone in the large command center could hear. “The Odyssey just came home.”

Wolfe permitted himself a slight increase to his smile as the command staff, the younger ones anyway, let out a bit of a cheer. The Station’s XO let it go for a few seconds, then quickly quieted them down while Wolfe examined the information the sensors had recorded.

His single array of sensors weren’t enough to give him an exact lock on the source of the surge, but even as his base had obeyed protocol and transmitted the data back to Earth, Earth and the other outposts and ships in the area had transmitted their findings to him. It took the better part of a half hour, but by the end of the little storm of signals, he had the transition point pinpointed.

Eric’s gotten cautious in his old age,
Wolfe thought as he locked the entry point right down on the Heliopause, the furthest reach of the Sun’s influence in interstellar space. That put the Odyssey about three days out by its fastest cruise, unless Eric planned to use some fancy flying to brake that monster of a ship.

He could have brought it in as close as the Heliosphere and cut a day off that number, at least according to all the numbers Wolfe had seen, but Eric was the one on the gun so it was his call.

That extra day of waiting was going to be one hell of a long time though.

*****

“Wolfe here. This better be good.” Commodore Gregory Wolfe muttered as he thumbed opened the communication terminal in response to the insistent tone.

“Sorry to wake you, Commodore, but we have a message pulse from the Odyssey here.”

Wolfe threw his covers one way, grabbing for his clothing as he hit the deck. “I’ll be right there. Wolfe out.”

As he dressed, he checked the clock and nodded. Almost twenty six hours to the minute, just the amount of time for a signal to reach them by radio pulse. He finished getting dressed, checking his uniform only briefly in the mirror, then headed up to the command and control deck.

Once there he accepted command and settled in to his secure terminal station in order to access the message.

What he had expected to be little more than a greeting from an old friend, with maybe a few bits of fascinating trivia to be shared just between them, turned out to be something entirely different. Wolfe paled slightly at the security encryption notating that the message was coded and tight beamed directly to him, not broadcast to Fleet Command.

He decoded it quickly as the computer could, and started to read through the initial summary.

“Holy shit.” He whispered a moment later, hand slamming down on an alert.

A few seconds later a groggy voice was on the line, “Commodore?”

“Sorry to wake you, Johnson, but I need a secure link to Fleet Command. What’s the latest on the security of the FTL Pulse system?”

“Intel says that it’s still secure, Commodore.”

“What do you think?” Wolfe demanded softly.

The voice hesitated a moment then came back, “Commodore… what kind of importance are you attaching to this stuff? Your mom’s secret recipe for chilli or the plans for the fourth generation adaptive armor?”

“Try something more along the lines of God’s phone number.” Wolfe replied.

Johnson actually gulped slightly falling silent for a long time. “Commodore, I think I’d use one of the laser systems.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. Alright, go back to sleep.”

“Are you kidding me Sir?”

Wolfe just shut the line and punched up another channel, linking him to the communications officer. “Jeff, you’d better get me a coded tight beam to Fleet Command.”

“Ah, Yes Sir.” The answer came back quickly, “The Admiralty Base is behind the Earth at this time, Commodore… Do you want to use a satellite bounce?”

Wolfe hesitated, and frowned. “How long until we can bounce a signal right off of them directly?”

“Four hours, Sir.”

Four hours. As much as he hated to waste the time, four hours just didn’t mean squat in the scheme of things. Wolfe sighed and nodded, “I’ll wait. Thanks, Jeff.”

“No problem, Commodore. I’ll have it queued for you, Sir.”

The channel was cut and Wolfe went back to the report.

“Eric, my old friend, when you step in it, you really step in it.” He muttered softly, opening the file to the first page of the complete report and starting to read.

*****

“Will we arrive soon?”

Captain Weston looked up as the soft words penetrated his thinking. He nodded, smiling to the slim woman. “Yes, Ithan Chans. We’ll be entering Earth Orbit shortly.”

“Earth.” Milla said in return, her lips quirking up. “And you say that this is really what you named your world? It is not… a distraction so that we may not recognize the real name?”

Eric chuckled softly, “I’m afraid not. It’s been Earth for a long time now.”

Milla shrugged, “Better than simply ‘The World’ I suppose, though not by much.”

Eric laughed again, shaking his head. “We like it.”

Milla smiled, noting that the Captain had grown a lot more relaxed since they had reentered his home system. He was smiling a little freer now, and laughing some as well. It was interesting to see the changes wrought, but she thought that there was still something tense underneath it all.

She couldn’t be certain, though, and perhaps it was just her imagination.

“Captain.”

Eric looked up, “Yes Ensign?”

“We’re about to start braking maneuvers, Sir, and we’ve just established a real-time link to Admiral Gracen.”

Eric tensed up, but nodded. “Thank you, Ensign. I’ll take it on the Bridge in a minute.”

“Aye Sir.”

*****

“Captain Weston.”

“Admiral.”

The Admiral’s stern face had grown no softer in his absence, and Eric couldn’t help but note that there was a hard edge of steel in the aristocratic tilt of her eyes.

“Am I to believe that this report you filed is true, Captain?” She asked finally, when it became obvious that Eric wasn’t going to start.

“Yes Ma’am.” He told her, “All accounts in the report are verifiable, and will be attested to by my crew.”

“And these… aliens you have on board?”

“Diplomatic Envoy and his staff, Ma’am.” Eric said clearly. “I’ve accepted their credentials and promised them a diplomatic reception.”

“I see.” Her voice was chilly, to say the least. “And you don’t believe that somewhere in all of this, you might have perhaps overstepped your authority?”

“That’s for you to decide Ma’am.”

“It is indeed.” Gracen replied, a hint of distaste on her lips. “Very well. I will prepare the reception for your guests. Please, transmit anything we should know about them that might be useful in arranging their stay.”

“Will do, Admiral.” Eric said, “Though I’d say that the most important thing would be to avoid taking them to any boxing matches.”

“Pardon me?”

Eric permitted himself a slight smile, “They have a cultural thing about violence, Admiral. They don’t much appreciate it.”

Gracen’s eyebrow went up, “An odd thing for a people under the gun.”

Weston shrugged, “I didn’t say it was a reasonable thing, Ma’am.”

Gracen nodded, “Very well, I’ll be certain that our people know that.”

“Very good, Ma’am.”

“In the meantime, Captain,” Her voice grew a little darker. “You had best prepare for your debriefing… I don’t believe that it will be a simple matter.”

“No Ma’am.” Eric replied, “I didn’t believe that it would be.”

“In the meantime,” Gracen said grudgingly, “I suppose we should make the most of the opportunity you bring us… Certainly, since it may have an incredible cost in the long run.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Eric nodded.

“What would you suggest we discuss with your… Envoy?”

“Power Ma’am.”

“Power, Captain?”

“Yes Admiral.” Weston said firmly. “If you can do it, get their power generation systems. They’ll need information on our Class Three or higher Lasers, and maybe our adaptive armor… Second Gen would do, I’d say.”

“Those are classified technologies, Captain.”

“Those are what they’ll need to mount a credible defence against their enemies, Admiral.” Weston corrected her slightly, “And if we can get their power generation systems… we’d be able to Transition anywhere, Ma’am… Our Lasers would be ten times as powerful… You get the idea?”

Gracen let out a deep breath, “Yes Captain. I suppose I do. Anything else?”

“I’ll draw up a list, but I believe that my CMO would like to ensure that you discuss medical exchange, and they also have the ability to generate asymmetrical energy fields.”

“Indeed.” Gracen said, nodding slowly. “Very well, draw up your list… I’ll be sure that our negotiators look at it very carefully.”

“Yes Ma’am. Oh, one more thing…”

“Yes Captain?”

“If we decide to get more involved, Admiral…”

“That is a big ‘if’, Captain.”

“I understand that, Ma’am.” Eric said, “But if we do… I’d suggest we offer them some Green Berets as advisors. They need help setting up their ground forces…”

Admiral Gracen nodded, “And that is what the Green Berets are trained to do. Very well, I’ll be sure that it’s brought up. For now, Captain… prepare.”

“Aye Aye Ma’am.”

*****

Diplomatic receptions, Debriefings by a board of admirals, and a great deal of work later, Captain Eric Weston found himself sitting in the office of Admiral Amanda Gracen, waiting for one more ‘debriefing’.

“Captain Weston.”

Eric came to his feet, stiffening to attention. “Ma’am.”

“Take a seat, Captain.” The Admiral told him as she circled the room and settled in behind her desk. “This is an informal meeting.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He said, sitting down again.

“I’ve gone over your statements, and those of your crew, as they were given to the board.” She told him, leafing through some loose papers. The Admiral was a woman who appreciated the intangibles of paper, it seemed. “However I’d like to speak with you about it informally, if you don’t mind.”

“No Ma’am.” Eric said immediately.

“A lot of the Admiralty is perturbed that the Captain of our Flagship would involve us in a war, Captain.” She said coolly, looking him in the eye. “In fact, there has been more than a little talk of a court martial.”

Eric felt a chill, but forced himself to nod. “Aye Ma’am. I can’t say that I’m surprised.”

“And yet you did it anyway?”

“Admiral…” He hesitated, and then shook his head. “Yes Ma’am. I did it anyway.”

“Why?” Her voice was cool, yet challenging.

Eric hesitated, and simply took a breath, “Because it wasn’t a war, Ma’am. It was Genocide. I couldn’t stand back and watch, Admiral.”

“Noble.” She told him, lips pursed. “Perhaps not the brightest star in the sky, but noble. I probably shouldn’t tell you this just yet, but you may come out of this better than you deserve.”

“Ma’am?” Eric asked, confused.

Gracen snorted humorously. “The initial conferences have left a lot of the brass… impressed. They want the technology these ‘colonials’ have to offer. Did you know that Mr. Corasc was approaching his second centennial by our standards?”

Eric nodded.

“Well, we have a few politicians that see themselves ‘serving their constituents’ well into the next century.” Gracen said, a little distastefully. “Beyond that, there have already been a few leaks to the press… So, Captain, you’re something of a hero in the Confederation. First Contact and all that junk… The Block has already started a press campaign to discredit you, of course, but it won’t have much effect on the home front for the near future.”

“So,” She went on, “We aren’t likely to be able to Court Martial you… It wouldn’t be good PR, or so I’m told.”

Eric winced, not certain he liked that being the only reason he may keep his career.

“That’s neither here nor there, at the moment however.” She told him flatly. “I want you to tell me about these… Drah-sin?”

“That’s how the Colonials pronounce it, yes Ma’am.” Eric replied while frowning. “To be honest, there’s not a lot to tell. We have some bodies of the soldier drones on the Odyssey, but once they cooled down it seems like they just petrified, Ma’am.”

“Petrified?”

Eric nodded, “Their internal organs… as near as my people can tell… are suspended in a molten solution that’s extremely high in Silicon. When they die, they just turn to rock… We can’t tell the organs from the rest of the body after that.”

“I see.”

“To be honest, though, Ma’am…” Eric hesitated, “The Drasin don’t scare me much.”

The Admiral looked at him, features perplexed. “Aren’t you the one who brought back the images of the planet… what did you call it? Port Fey?”

“Yes Ma’am.” Eric swallowed.

The images from Porte Fuielles were disturbing, as were those from the first planet they had encountered the Drasin on. Days after the attack on Porte Fuielles, the Odyssey had made another sweeping pass through the system, intent on seeing the true aftermath of the Drasin attack.

The world had been stripped clean by then, the Drasin literally erasing all evidence of humanity from its surface, along with most traces of life itself. It was well on its way to being a Martian like landscape by the time they had left the system a second time.

The other, however, wasn’t merely a nightmare. It was a terror of epic proportions.

The Drasin in the first system had used the intervening weeks from their first attack to multiply completely out of control. When Eric had ordered a pass made with Carnivore drones, all that had been left of the planet was a rapidly breaking up sphere of dead and dying Drasin drones. The things had literally eaten up the entire world in their endless quest to propagate, until the remnants of the planet broke up under a series of volcanic eruptions.