Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (11 page)

             
"Sun is fine, Raina saved her life, and took a fair amount of shrapnel doing it, but Kimi, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It was your mom that dove on the fragment grenade to save both of them. Her wounds were too severe; Jason said she died instantly. I'm sorry.

             
"No, there must be some mistake, Jesse. No!" She hit his chest with her fist over and over again as she broke down and cried in his arms. After what seemed like an eternity, she looked at him with tears still running down her face and asked. "Where is Sun now? I have to be with her."

             
Jesse took her by the hand and replied. "She's still at the hospital; Manny has been consoling her while Zoe is recovering."

             
"Zoe?"

             
"Yeah, from what I hear, she almost didn't make it."

             
"Who else was killed?"

             
"No one, but several were hurt pretty badly. Bessa was touch and go for a while, Raina, Jason, Reece and Ariel all needed time in the pod and the rest had a fair amount of bruises and lacerations. Kimi, the Enclave tried to take all thirteen of them. They killed all of the camp security forces and several civilians just to get to them. I'm so sorry that I wasn't there to protect your family."

             
"Me, too," she quietly replied. She leaned her head on Jesse's shoulders as they made their way to the
Vanguard
and added, "What are we gonna do now Jesse, Sun and I are all alone now."

             
He gently lifter her chin with his fingers and looked her right in the eyes. "As long as I'm around, you'll never be alone, Kimi, and I'm not going anywhere."

             
"But you have Lana to worry about now, that wouldn't be fair to you."

             
"Kimi, it's my greatest desire to be there for you and Sun. I'll give up field work if I have to and Lana will be happy to be there with me; she already loves Sun. My relationship with Lana will never change how I feel about you. If anything, it only reminds me more of how much I want to be there for you. I'll do whatever you need me to do or be whoever you need me to be to help you though this. If you need to be in my arms all day, consider it done. If you need some time alone, done. Nina can take care of everything related to the recovery while I take care of you. Just let me know what you need." As he finished speaking, she leaned into him for comfort and considered what he had just said. She wished it hadn't taken them so long to get to this point, but she was glad they were there now because she needed him now more than ever.

             
"I do not know what I need yet," she quietly replied as their shuttle landed in the
Vanguard's
main shuttle bay.

             
"That's fine, too. I'll be here when you do." They quickly made their way to med-bay and Sun broke into tears once again when she saw her sister. They both cried in each other's arms for a while as Manny and Jesse stood back to give them some space.

             
After several minutes of silently holding her younger sister, Kimi looked to Manny and said, "Thank you for taking care of Sun."

             
Manny smiled, compassion filling his eyes and replied, "It was my honor, Kimi, any time you need someone to help with her, I'm only a transmission away."

             
Kimi reflected on how much Sun loved Manny. Ever since he and Josiah rescued her mother and sister from the Asian Dawn compound seven years ago, she has loved the big soldier. She still smiles every time he calls her Sunshine. Kimi held her close for a long while. Jesse left the room to give them a little space; he would come back in a few minutes. He found Lana sitting in Raina's room, holding her hands while she slept. Dmitri was also sitting in the room, sporting the bruises that said he had been in a fight. It was a very somber atmosphere made just a little lighter by the crate containing three sleeping snow wolf pups. "We'll give them a couple days to get to know us because they're so young, then we'll begin their training. Commando seems to have affection for them, so he'll be helpful in the process. We're gonna need to come up with names for the other two before we start training them as well, so think about that, too."

             
Lana looked up at her father, tears in her eyes and wearily replied. "Thanks, dad, I will. I'm sorry I took you away, if you had been here, Kimi's mom might still be alive."

             
"I wish I was here, too, Lana, but this is not your fault. This is all on the Enclave and when I catch up with them..." He looked at his worried daughter and decided not to finish that thought. "Lana, we're in for a difficult season now. I loved our time together, but we may not be able to do it again until everything is settled. I can't take a break anymore for a while, not if it means our friends will be in danger."

             
"Dad, this isn't your fault, either." She let go of Raina's hand and embraced her father fiercely. After a long moment, she sat back down by her injured friend's side.

             
Jesse looked at his daughter and his sister's nephew and added, "When Raina's up and about, the two of you are really going to need to be there for Sun. You too, Dmitri. I know you guys are a bit older, but she has no one except Kimi now."

             
"We will, Dad." Lana replied while Dmitri nodded an ascent. "You should get back to Kimi now; I'll come find you in a little while."

             
"Alright, I'll see you in a bit. Take care of our little hero; she was injured saving Sun's life."

             
"We will, Dad." She smiled as she looked up at him and he was again so thankful that fate had dropped this gift into his life. He spent the rest of the night holding and comforting Kimi and Sun. When morning came, Suzy took over for him. Bessa was recovering well and Zoe had woken up. Everyone else would be released today and return to duty tomorrow.

             
Jesse took a quick shower, downed an energy drink and prepared to meet with the newly formed Polisian military council. The council was to be led by Jesse and consisted of seven members: Jesse, Admiral Collingsworth, Admiral Sonnadall, General Kelly, the newly promoted Colonel Manny Hernandez, Admiral Talus Armistead of the Polisian Defense Fleet and General Karen Solomon of Polisia's planetary peace keeping force. He looked around the room, grateful for such talented individuals. He felt a little awkward commanding Admirals and Generals, but the reality was they had technically given up their rank when they left the Coalition and they wanted him to be the leader. Still, the absurdity of it hit him as he readied himself to speak to this newly formed military council.

             
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't have much time today, so let's get right down to business. The addition of the legendary General Kelly and his forces to Polisia has given our morale a serious boost, not to mention adding twenty-seven vessels, which brings the size of our fleet to one hundred sixty-six."

             
"These aren't ordinary Coalition ships, either," The General added. "They are SSE in every aspect except shell. Aside from the
Leviathans
and
War Hawks
, these were the most powerful ships in the Coalition fleet."

             
"We will also be able to launch multiple covert missions with the amount of Special Forces Marines we now have with us," Admiral Collingsworth added.

             
"True, but this gives me an idea." Jesse had everyone's attention. "The General can't possibly be the only one not satisfied with the Coalition's treatment of us, Polisia and the fact that Rhodes is practically giving the store to the Enclave. Let's quietly reach out to people we know we can trust and try to get them to switch sides. It must be completely off book, or Rhodes will find a way to plant traitors in our fleet, and that is the one place we can't have them. Every ship we get to support Polisia is one more ship we won't have to fight when they come for us."

             
"Great idea, Jess," Manny added. "I know that all of the SSE ship crews are being replaced by Enclave crews and they are either being sent back to the planet or reassigned to new ships. A lot of those people resent the Enclave and they resent the Coalition for giving them our best ships. We should be able to get several captains to turn in our direction."

             
"Good, let's work on that. We also need to be working out a way to get some of our ships back from the Enclave, before they figure out how to reverse engineer them. I have to send
Endeavor
on a mission of utmost importance, and then I need to get back to Kimi. If you'll all excuse me." Jesse fired off a crisp salute and then exited the room, knowing that six brilliant minds would be working on solutions to their dilemmas.

______

              Jesse and Nina sat in a conference room with Josiah, Jason, Maria and Reece. There was one very important detail that had been overlooked when Nina hit the self-destruct on Sea Side Enterprises.

             
"When my sister was forced to destroy our company, there was one detail she overlooked." Jesse began. "She didn't know I had a lab beneath my sub-basement. Thankfully, she removed all of the gold and other assets from the sub-basement when she had the house rigged to blow, but she missed the lab beneath. Locked away in that lab are the designs for everything I've ever built, and everything I've ever attempted to build. It's all on one hard drive and seven notebooks. Those designs include SAMMI, our cloaking tech, all of our ships including
Endeavor
, Helga and so much more. It would be catastrophic if that information were to find its way into Coalition or Enclave hands."

             
"But what can we do about it? Your house is nothing but rubble and it's still probably being closely guarded." Jason asked.

             
"That's true," Jesse replied. "But, there is underwater access from the lake. I'll give you all the codes. Security is on a separate power system, so it's probably still running. We'll need you to land in a cloaked shuttle and then dive the lake. All four of you have under water experience, which is why I'm sending you. Tanna can pilot the shuttle while Collin, Xanu, Charlie, Cartwright and Tate remain aboard
Endeavor
. Cartwright and Tate can lead recovery teams right from
Endeavor
should anything go wrong. Eventually, they're gonna clean out the rubble of my home and when they decide to rebuild, they'll find it, so this is one loose end that has to be tied up." He looked to his left and smiled at his old friend, Maria. "And, Maria, thanks for helping us on this."

             
"No problem, Jess, I'm with you guys now, all the way. We can't go back to the Coalition. Rhodes has us on a shoot-to-kill list."

             
"That's because of me, and I'm sorry for that."

             
"No, it's because of us. Either way, it's not a problem; and don't worry, we'll get all of your tech stuff back."

             
"Thanks, and one last thing," They all looked at him. "Don't let Collin at any of this stuff; it's a black hole from which he might never return." He laughed as his team left the meeting. He had to get over to Kimi and Sun, and then help Lana with the pups. He was so busy he almost forgot to check on Serge and Irina's progress with his galaxy drive. They were just about through the research and the next phase would be looking over his schematics. He had finished his designs and run the data; he was sure it would work. Kimi was on his mind as he entered Serge's lab, so he decided to get right to it.

             
"What do you think, Serge?"

             
"I think I never in my wildest dreams would have thought this possible. To travel between galaxies with less effort than Polisia to Earth? My mind is having trouble even processing the concept."

             
"Forget the concept and focus on the science."

             
"Yes, yes, the science is sound. How did you ever even come about learning this was possible?"

             
"The old fashioned way." he laughed.

             
Serge fixed him with a quizzical expression as he asked, "What does that mean?"

             
"By accident." Jesse admitted.

             
"What kind of accident could produce these results?" Irina asked as she approached, notebook in one hand and the strong smell of Brazilian coffee coming from a chipped mug in her other.

             
"I was on a planet called Trinnus, studying a moving city. Serge, you have to see this place. The entire eleven-kilometer city center constantly rotates so that by every third or fourth day, it makes one complete rotation. I was amazed by it and asked King Dominus if I could study it. While I was underground, I was picking up energy readings that seemed familiar. I had already been obsessing about the conduit, so I had been studying
Endeavor
's readings and then it hit me: the energy signature was the same as the signature in the conduit. I asked the head technician for the city where that energy was coming from and he told me it was a mineral that produced it. I checked the records, and the same mineral is found in abundance in both the Polisian and Kaldorian systems. That's when I began to make these designs. I reasoned that if the energy signature could be reproduced, there was no reason we couldn't reproduce the gravitational force necessary to open the conduit. To that end, I designed the two machines that would work in tandem to create the artificial conduit."