When the Stars Fade (The Gray Wars) (4 page)

             
Cameron grinned
.“
Not possible, sir. Ther
e’
s an open bar
.”
He became serious, extending his hand to his superior
.“
I
t’
s an honor to meet you, Commodore
.
”

             
The commodore smiled, taking the offered hand
.“
It was very nice to meet you, Lieutenant Davis
.
”

             
The pilot saluted and ran off toward his friend. Hiro sighed. The young officer could
n’
t have been more than a few years out of training. Too young for a Mars veteran, but h
e’
d worn combat pins on his uniform.
Fighting raiders maybe
, Hiro thought.
Or handling some of the brushfire wars in Europe. There are no innocents in uniform.

             
He turned back toward the OpCenter, clearing his thoughts. It was going to be one of those nights.

*              *              *              *              *

              Raymond pushed his digidisk player aside to make room for more files. When he worked, if his essays were done, Raymond could sit and listen to music his whole shift. Not that he shirked responsibility. But, given the three hundred and twenty-three satellites on automated routines in the space above him, the facility could almost run itself. If a problem arose, the alarms were loud enough to wake the dead. Tonight, however, he was as alert as ever. His supervisor paced in the back of the room, speaking sternly into her phone. Sh
e’
d been on the line with Director Chavez, the TSI big boss, for the last hour. Ray leafed through the various reports, relieved to see the same stamp on each one: NCFA, no cause for alarm. Ray collapsed into his chair, letting out a deep breath.

             
“I
t’
s like this every year
,”
Olivia said, pocketing her phone as she walked over. She had her tablet cradled in one arm while her other hand pushed information to the adjacent computer screens
.“
The satellites are old, and the relays even older
.
”

             
“What did Chavez say
?”
Ray asked.

             
“Observe and Report
.”
She shook her head
.“
His best guess was a blown relay somewhere near Io. Those have
n’
t been serviced since the administration change
.”
She made a face as the strange signal sounded over the speakers again.

             
Ray rubbed at his eyes; h
e’
d been staring at monitors all night and they were burnt out
.“
Have you ever heard anything like this
?
”

             
“No
,”
she said softly
.“
But tha
t’
s no reason to panic
.
”

             
Raymond shook his head
.“
Should we call Sector Patrol? Maybe get a flight in the air to investigate
?
”

             
She rolled her eyes
.“
And send them where? The signal is
n’
t just in one location, and we ca
n’
t very well ask them to jus
t‘
look around
.
’”

             
“So what am I supposed to do
?
”

             
“Yo
u’
re job
.”
She collected her equipment and threw it into a messenger bag. Hoisting the leather satchel onto her shoulder, she walked off toward the door at the rear of the room
.“
Get the Observers back on mission and keep an eye out for anything else. If i
t’
s what I think, w
e’
ll get a burst transmission from a hauler soon
.
”

             
“And if i
t’
s an invasion
?
”

             
Olivia sighed
.“
Then w
e’
ll see the Blue exits before they arrive. Do
n’
t forget, Fleet has its best ships up there
.
”

             
Raymond stared at his supervisor in disbelief
.“
And yo
u’
re just going to leave me here
?
”

             
She stopped with her hand on the doorknob, nostrils flaring slightly
.“
Raymond, I just got off a double shift at the lab before I had to come all the way out here to hold your hand through all this.
I’
ve been up for thirty-six hours
.”
She shot him a withering look
.“I’
m going to bed. Do
n’
t bother me
.”
She was out the door before he had a chance to respond.

             
Raymond did
n’
t move for a full minute. His chest still felt tight from the excitement and stress of the entire ordeal. Still, he had to admit that the worst seemed to be over. He had a mission of his own, and there was still a routine to follow. Logging into the TSI server, Raymond activated the Observer Control Master (OCM) and let the computer begin roll call for the satellites overhead.

             
Tha
t’
s enough excitement for one day,
he thought. Before he let himself relax, Raymond turned the audio for the relay transcript back on. He closed his eyes, listening to the strange signal repeat itself over and over.

             
Tim....Tim....Tim....

-                           
II                            -

October 13, 2236

              Each Observer satellite resembled a black beachball with antennae jammed in at odd angles. Barely the size of a chair, and with a brain just smart enough to work a camera, the drones were the first line of defense against a variety of unexpected company.

             
Established years before the Mars Rebellion, the Observer Cloud had originally been intended to detect asteroids on approach to Earth. After a rock the size of a passenger jet destroyed a small city in Europe, TSI devoted a fortune to designing and launching the robotic tripwire. Unable to stop such an object unless spotted millions of kilometers out, the network of satellites grew until they dotted the skies over every major planet in the Federate.

             
An unexpected benefit of the Observers came half a century later, during the final year of the Martian conflict. The nodes around Earth were already under heavy surveillance, and the Martian colonists knew it. Desperate for a win, the rebels launched a bold and audacious plan. Using stride drives, an armada of warships left on a path for Earth. The journey took three days, and would have been a powerful blow against the Earth Council had a single Observer not spotted the battle group hours out. Fleet launched a vicious counter attack that drove the rebellion back home. Within weeks, the war ended and the tenuous peace began.

             
Halfway into the startup sequence, a single Observer satellite received a signal from the OCM to report status. The command started an automated functions check, and within seconds the tiny device bounced around in space as its seven propulsion jets fired off in sequence. Suddenly the Observer stopped, overriding the check. Something triggered its tiny brain to focus on a small, distant point in space. A mote of light twinkled where moments before nothing had been. The satellite had, over the course of its life, mapped and remapped its designated quadrant of space until the image was seared into its circuits. This small sparkle was an anomaly, triggering a series of preset warnings to be sent across the Observer network.

             
Moments later, three other Observers reported additional sightings, and the images were sent back to the OCM for analysis. The satellites had located a strange signal roughly two hundred kilometers from the moon: a monotone chirp that sounded eerily similar to a navigation marker.

*              *              *              *              *

              Raymond jumped as an alarm came on inside the building. He had
n’
t even noticed falling asleep. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at the computer screen. A number of satellites had issued reports of anomalies consistent with a spacial disruption. Raymond double-checked the coordinates, relieved to see they were nowhere near the Earth gates. An invasion force would have to arrive as close as possible to the station, otherwise the
y’
d never survive more than a few minutes. This strange signal seemed more and more like a transport ship using an old traffic code.

             
It had taken Olivia a full six hours to explain, but Raymond figured he understood enough about the science of space travel to be absolutely terrified. Given the advances in quantum mechanics, quantum physics, and something called AeroSpacial Disturbance Theory, there were now three ways to cross distances in space: Standard, Stride and Blue.

             
The first was simple and had been around for hundreds of years. Normal engines and rockets could propel any vessel at what was known as Standard speed. This was good for travel between stations, in orbit, or from a planet to a moon. Ships used their rockets and zipped about, agile as figure skaters. For longer journeys, intrasystem travel required Strider drives. At Stride speed, the time it took to cross the Solar System dropped from decades took days. Precise calculations were required to avoid slamming into an asteroid at Stride speed, but given the network of relays in the system, it was a fairly painless process. Not every ship had the Slush Erbium Drive
s—
or sled
s—
built in, so smaller craft often had to hitch a ride.

             
The final form of travel, and infinitely more dangerous, was Blue. Discovered only a century before, and more regulated than any other form of travel in history, Blue Space allowed interstellar travel and became the backbone of the Colonization movement. The first probe sent into Blue Space sent a report back via FTL one week late
r—
from over a hundred lightyears away. Utilizing node
s—
building-sized relay stations around the colonie
s—
ships could pinpoint their destination within a few kilometers and arrive hundreds and billions of kilometers away in a manner of days, if not hours. The only requirement fo
r“
saf
e”
travel was a linked terminal at both ends of the journey. Otherwise a ship could exit Blue space literally anywhere in the universe.

             
What made Blue jumps terrifying was the fact that, aside from the evidence that it worked, no one in any field of science understood the how. Ships ripped into the fabric of space, emerged unscathed, and all of it happened without solid proof that it made any logical sense. TSI devoted one quarter of its budget every year to plunging the depths of Blue Space in search of answers, but so far had come up empty. That thought alone convinced Raymond that he would never, in a million years, travel through th
e“
Blue Tunnel
.”
Especially with the stories one heard about civilian ships that never exited and simply floated in another dimension for eternity.

             
Curiosity kept Raymon
d’
s mind racing. He found himself at the telescope controls, not entirely sure why he was there. The powerful lenses responded to his commands, rotating until they faced the indicated coordinates. The entire room spun on a disk, bringing the table-sized glass plates to bear. Raymond tapped out sequences on the keyboard, setting the view on a brilliant expanse of nothing at the edge of the planetary plane.

             
The massive monitor displayed the star-filled sky, but little more. Raymond saw comets streak by in the distance, the strobe lights from two weather stations on far orbit, and the red and yellow pulse of a relay station. Nothing. And then, something.

             
No
, Raymond thought.
What is that?
He leaned forward and tapped a button on the keyboard to increase the focal length. A small point of light came into view, barely the size of pinprick. As Ray watched, the dot expanded rapidly, becoming as wide as a hangar and pouring blue rays out into Lunar space. The tunnel of energy was joined by a dozen more as exits from Blue Space formed just outside the moon. A cold fist gripped Raymon
d’
s chest as he fought to catch his breath.