Chapter 9
The Next Move
“Sir,” Captain Sutter started over the intercom to Colonel Stoddard after its customary beep-beep, “we just received a coded message from Captain Baas. Mission complete, all accounted for.”
Stoddard, who was resting comfortably in a large, pillowed sofa in his living quarters, reading a book, lifted his eyes in surprise and said, “What? That was fast. How long have they been back?
“Less than an hour.”
“Did he say how Kynan’s doing?”
“He’s lost a bit of weight, which was expected, but other than that, there’s no major issues. Their medic looked him over.”
“Those kids are amazing. Did they run into any problems?”
“Well, yes. It sounds kind of complicated, though.”
“Explain,” Stoddard said flatly.
“They don’t know how the Alliance figured out they were there. They just showed up on the planet and ambushed them. Captain Baas says it was really eerie, like they were tipped off or something.”
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what he’s saying, sir. He said that they’d tapped into the Alliance’s satellites and base station, and there was absolutely no indication from any of their network traffic that there was an ambush planned, nor did they track any ships going down there to drop people off.”
“That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“No, sir, it doesn’t, but there is good news. They captured an enemy pilot. Several Galactic Hawks gave chase after the extraction, and during the ensuing fight, they hit one of them, disabling it in front of the gate they were trying to create. They had no choice but to continue opening the gate, and the disabled ship went through with them.”
“Interesting,” Stoddard replied while wrinkling his face. “Alright, send them the coordinates to the rendezvous point with our Hermes. The quicker we make this transfer, the better.”
“Yes, sir. Out,” Sutter said before signing off.
So much for sleep, Stoddard thought to himself as he rubbed his prickly face. Better shave before I head back out.
He put the book he was reading down on the couch and stood up. Just as he did, an alert from his door sounded, and he said, “Open.” He knew instinctively who it was, so he didn’t bother to turn around to face the door as Jim Roper entered. “You must have been on the bridge,” Stoddard said over his shoulder as he walked towards his bathroom.
“I was,” Jim replied as he took Stoddard’s place on the couch and examined the book that was on it. His face was still a little swollen and bruised, but it was healing nicely. “The Cost of Victory by Kyran Price, eh? Do you ever read any modern tomes or just the classics?”
“You know me,” Stoddard said while lathering his face with shaving cream. “I prefer the old. Not strictly speaking, but you know.”
“Yeah, I do. It sounds like our kids’ little adventure ended on a rough note. I’m curious to know who tipped them off.”
“Kaevan, maybe?”
“Maybe. Trying to lure us out or something. Who knows? Captain Baas had a strange tone in his voice. That was rather interesting.”
“What do you mean? Like, mad at us, strange? Or like we kept something from him that we shouldn’t have?”
“No, not like that. I guess you could say it sounded uncharacteristically stressed.”
“Well, getting into a dogfight’s not exactly un-stressful.”
“That’s not what I mean. He almost sounded like he was, well, choked up.”
“Choked up? He had a frog in his throat?” Stoddard asked as he washed off his hands and grabbed his razor.
“That’s what it sounded like,” Jim said, nodding his head.
“Hmm. That is strange,” Stoddard replied before moving the sharp blade down his face. “It’s probably not our concern, though. So, they got a prisoner, do they?”
“Yeah, he’s a Russian bloke. Doesn’t speak a word of English, or so he’s trying to convince them.”
“Do you know of any Alliance pilots who don’t speak English?” Stoddard asked sarcastically.
“No,” Jim said with a snort. “Everyone that I’ve ever interrogated or duped spoke it.”
“I’m sure you can break him,” Stoddard told him. “We need to find out where Sanchu is. Stick him with Prolapheline if you have to.”
“It might take more than that.”
“You can always try to turn him if you want.” Stoddard ran his razor under water and then put the blade under his nose to shave his upper lip.
“It could work. I could put him in the suite for a few days. Give him a bird’s eye view of what freedom’s all about. Maybe convince him that we can get his family out and they can live happily ever after in the Federation.”
“Be careful with that. Don’t make any promises you can’t keep because he’ll clamp his mouth shut if you don’t deliver.”
“I’ll mind my ‘P’s’ and ‘Q’s’,” Jim replied with a nod. “Don’t worry about that.”
Stoddard cupped water into his hands and splashed his face with it, washing away the excess hair and shaving cream. He then grabbed a nearby towel to dry himself off. “He could become a valuable ally if you ended up turning him…and a valuable asset,” he said as he patted his neck.
“There’s definitely a scheme in there somewhere. I just don’t know if we have the time to do it. It’s the ‘asset’ part that’s most appealing, though.”
Stoddard smiled. He always liked Jim’s thinking.
“Anything new on Silkwood?” Jim asked, changing the subject.
“Nothing. All I know is that he’s missing. I’ve got a bad feeling that he’s dead.”
“Yeah, so do I. They’re going to blame us for it. You know that, right?”
“Of course. I suspect they already do,” Stoddard replied as he turned his head and looked at Jim. “We can add that to the list of things we’ve got to worry about.”
“Yeah, well, I’m concerned we have someone playing against us,” Jim admitted. “What if we’re taking the wrong approach to this?”
“What do you mean?” Stoddard asked curiously.
“What if we’re wrong about Kaevan? What if he actually is a double-double agent who’s actually working for the Alliance?
“Then our problems are ten times worse than we’ve ever imagined. If he’s actually working for the Alliance, then it’s possible he knows about Payra, which, I hate to say it, would explain a lot. I always assumed they didn’t tell him anything about it because of his double agent status. It made sense.”
“Right,” Jim agreed. “But if he does know, it’s like you said, our problems just became ten times worse.”
Stoddard nodded his head. “I guess that’s all the more reason to get that pilot to defect. A happy defector is a chatty defector.”
To that point, Jim couldn’t agree more.
*************
“Captain Baas and Cadence still haven’t come off of the bridge,” Kara observed. She was sitting with her father and Ben in the Zephyr’s kitchen. Kynan was eating his first decent meal in several months. He was particularly enjoying the starchy mashed potatoes and gravy.
“Yeah, that does seem kind of odd,” Ben agreed. “You’d think he’d at least want to come out and greet you on his ship, Kynan.”
Kynan took a drink of water to wash down a bite of food and then said, “You’d think so. But I imagine he’s probably pretty busy getting us to our next destination. And I’m sure he’s discussing a few things with Colonel Stoddard. That or they have a pre-designated rendezvous point that he’s trying to get us to.”
“Couldn’t Cadence take care of that?” Kara asked. Kynan shrugged his shoulders in response.
“Are you going to go down and talk to that pilot?” Ben asked him.
“No. I don’t have anything to ask him. I wouldn’t mind beat’n his arse though.” Kara and Ben both laughed at the idea. The pilot had tried to kill them after all. “They’ll transfer him over to Colonel Stoddard,” Kynan continued. “I’m sure Jim will have some use for him.”
They all turned their heads in unison to the sliding door as it opened, and they all felt mildly disappointed when Jedrek passed through it. He stopped in his tracks as if he could sense their disappointment, and then he stuck out his hands, and with a playful grin and deep drawl, he said, “What, were you expecting Elvis or something?”
“Who’s Elvis?” Ben and Kara asked simultaneously as Kynan laughed at the centuries-old gibe.
“No,” Kynan finally replied. “We were just talking about Captain Baas and his wife. We haven’t seen them yet.”
“Oh…right…I haven’t seen him either. Kind of strange, eh?” Jedrek agreed as he walked over to them and grabbed a green apple out of a fruit bowl on the table.
“Do you think something’s wrong?” Kara asked.
“Nah, they’re probably just getting us to where we need to be next,” Jedrek replied before biting into his apple.
“What’s going on with the prisoner? Is Rangi guarding him?”
“Rangi’s doing a weapons check on the ship’s guns,” Jedrek said through a mouthful of apple. “The pilot’s sedated and locked up. He’s probably dreaming of hot Russian chicks right about now. He’s not going anywhere.”
Just as Jedrek took another loud bite out of his apple, the sliding door opened again. They all turned their heads and watched as a haggard-looking Captain Baas walked through it. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was slightly pale. He looked like a haunted man who had recently been visited by the ghosts of his horrid past. But he also looked like he was trying to hide it.
Kynan stood up and walked over to him. Though he could tell there was something wrong, he decided not to say anything about it. Instead, he held out his hand in appreciation and said, “Captain Baas, it’s good to see you again. Thank you for rescuing me.”
The captain grasped Kynan’s hand and, in a voice that everyone could tell was fake, he tried to excitedly say, “It’s my pleasure, Kynan. Good to have you aboard. I’m sorry I couldn’t get down here sooner. I’ve been coordinating a new rendezvous point with Colonel Stoddard’s crew.”
“No worries, Captain,” Kynan replied. “How long until we get there?”
“We’re actually here now, deep in the DL. We just made contact with a Hermes Grade Two that’s going to be locking up with us at any minute.” As if on cue, a vibration went through the ship indicating that something had bumped into it. “That would be them. Shall we go meet ‘em?”
“Absolutely,” Kynan said, and they all left the kitchen for the port lock.
They walked to the other end of the ship and found the doors to the port lock already open, with the pilot and copilot of the Hermes standing there, talking to Rangi. Ben recognized them as the two who’d transported him to the Zeus from LG4.
“Lieutenant Colonel Whelan,” the short male pilot said in a squeaky voice as he looked at Kynan. Now Ben knew why he didn’t talk much. “It’s good to see you’re okay.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant Sands,” Kynan replied as he shook the other’s hand. “And Lieutenant Baxter,” he said to the female copilot, shaking her hand, “how are you doing?”
“Busy, sir, you know how it is,” she replied.
“That I do. So, what’s the game plan?”
Lieutenant Baxter reached into a pocket on her sleeve, pulled out a small data-ball, and handed it to him. “It’s all in there, sir. We also have a strange, black suitcase-like box in here for you. It looks pretty banged up, like it’s been dropped and burned more than once, and it weighs a ton. Colonel Stoddard said you’d know what to do with it.”
Kynan nodded his head in confirmation. “Yeah, we think it’s a field lab,” he said offhandedly.
“You think?” Lieutenant Baxter asked. Kynan didn’t elaborate – he just shrugged his shoulders. “Well, we’ll need some help moving it off our ship.”
“Hold on a second,” Gedeon interjected. “Aren’t they all going back with you?”
“Not all of them,” Lieutenant Baxter replied. “From what I understand, Ben is to remain with you for a while.”
The aura around Gedeon did a 180 as he heard this, and it didn’t go unnoticed to Ben, who was standing next to him. Ben turned his head and looked at the man. His eyes looked as though they were starting to water a little, and a smile wanted desperately to break through the gloom.
“How ‘bout compensation?” Jedrek asked without looking at the captain, who turned his head and glared at him.
“Colonel Stoddard has already wired triple the amount he paid you for this mission. He’s pretty confident you won’t want to wire it back.”
“Ohhhh…” Jedrek exaggerated in approval. “Well then, guess I’ll go back to work getting the ship prepped.” He turned and left with a big smile on his face. Paydays were always good days.
“I’ll help you with that box thing,” Rangi said. He moved past them into the Hermes with Lieutenant Sands.
“Well, let’s go see what’s on this data-ball,” Kynan said as he made a motion towards the Hermes small EOC. “Captain Baas, will you please excuse us for a few minutes? And if you wouldn’t mind, have them take that box to Ben’s quarters.”
“I can do that,” Gedeon replied, a little too eager – something definitely changed.
“Great, thanks. We’ll meet back with you in a few minutes. LT,” he said, looking at Lieutenant Baxter, “why don’t you accompany Captain Baas for a while until we’re done. You understand.”
“Yes, sir,” she said with a nod, “the ship’s all yours.”
Kynan, Kara, and Ben walked into the Hermes and passed Rangi and Lieutenant Sands, who were awkwardly carrying the large suitcase-like box. It was three feet wide, four feet long, and at least two feet thick. Rangi was half a person taller than Lieutenant Sands, which made the scene look comical.
“Let’s just set it outside the doors, and I’ll go get a hover jack,” they overheard Rangi say after they walked by.
After they got to the EOC, they all gathered around a black mechanized conference table and took a seat. Kynan inserted the data ball into a slot on the side of the table, and a 3D holographic image of Col Stoddard appeared.
“Kara and Ben, I congratulate you both on a successful mission,” Col Stoddard’s image said with a respectful bow of his head. “I know how difficult it must have been, but I had every faith and confidence in you both, and you proved me right. Kara, you really are your father’s daughter. Kynan, I know you’re proud.” Kynan leaned over and squeezed his daughter’s hand, confirming that he was. She smiled back at him.
“Ben,” Col Stoddard continued, “I’m sure Kynan has told you a little about your past. You cannot talk about it to anyone for your own safety. That having been said, I have another mission for you. This one’s not as dangerous as the last one, but it’s just as critical, if you really want to understand who you are. I want you to go to your parents’ secret outpost on Earth’s moon. It was, as far as we understood, an observation post. Your parents made it clear that you were the only person who could gain access to it. It’s because of your DNA.
“The outpost is located on the far side of the moon in a lunar mare called the Mare Ingenii.” As Stoddard spoke, a perfect 3D holographic image of the moon and the area he was describing replaced his own image. At first, the mare looked like a black circle surrounded by dark and light hills of grey. The features became more distinct as the image zoomed in closer. “It sits in the Ingenii basin. This mare contains a lunar pit, and at the base of the pit is a lava tube. The mouth of the tube is about fifteen feet in diameter. It’s pretty big, but not nearly big enough for a ship to pass through.”
The image continued to follow the track that Col Stoddard was verbally laying out. “Inside the tunnel, relatively close to its mouth, is the first entrance.” The image zoomed in on an upright, tubular, metal-like door with the same color scheme as the surrounding moon dirt.
“Through this door is an elevator. It will lead you to a small, pressurized, and environmentally safe room with another sliding door. Next to this door is a hand pad that you must touch with your entire hand. This hand pad can scan both your handprint and your DNA. Only you can open this door.
“Your destiny lies in there, Ben, as does your parents’ legacy,” Stoddard continued as his image reappeared.
“You’ll be receiving a large, black, suitcase-like box. We can’t open it. Something about it garbles scanner and X-ray images. Based on the little data we’ve been able to retrieve, we believe it’s some kind of field lab. The reason it’s all banged up and burned is because we found it in the wreckage of your parents’ ship. There wasn’t much worth salvaging, but this box was obviously made to withstand an explosion that could destroy a ship, so it must be important.
“There are three small holes on one side of the box. It looks like a key or a device goes into those holes. That’s probably how it opens. See if you can find the key.
“Kynan, I can’t force you to do this, but I would strongly suggest that you allow Kara to assist Ben on this mission.” Kara looked at her father with a hint of alarm on her face. It was a natural expression of the fear of being separated from her father so soon after she’d been reunited with him. “She’s very smart, and she can help him. And quite frankly, I think that she’ll be safer with him for the time being. She can’t go back to COTA right now, and I really need you back here with me. But it’s your call.
“Godspeed, Ben. I’ll see you on the dark side.” Stoddard’s image disappeared.
The three observers sat silently for several heartbeats until Kynan broke it. “Kara, it’s your choice,” he said.
Kara sat silently, shaking her head. “Kara,” Ben started, “you’re not going to offend me by going with your father. He’s more important than I am.”
Kara looked over at him with tears filling her eyes. “No, Ben, I’m not worried about offending you. And I’ll bet you anything he’ll say you’re more important, because you are.” She blinked her eyes, causing a tear to run down her right cheek.
“You’re right, Kara, he is more important,” Kynan said. “And you’re not offending me by staying. It’s what I would expect.”
“I’m not worried about offending you either, Dad. You’re not easily offended. I just don’t want to lose you again. I don’t know why you can’t come with us,” Kara finished, confirming her decision. Ben looked at her curiously, but she continued to look at her father as another tear streamed down her face.
“Colonel Stoddard’s a smart man, Kara. If I ever had any doubts about a decision I was making, I would always defer to him. What’s more, Ben is going to need you.” He leaned over and hugged her tightly. “There aren’t too many people in this entire universe who are as smart as you are. If there’s anyone I would trust helping Ben, it’s you.”
“I love you, Dad,” Kara managed to say through a large lump in her throat.
Kynan released her and then cleared his own frog from his throat and said, “Okay, kids, it’s time for us to go talk to the crew.”
Ten minutes later, they were in the Zephyr’s living quarters, sitting on couches and chairs with the Jack crew. Cadence was noticeably absent.
“Do you want to bring Cadence in on this?” Kynan asked Gedeon.
“Ah, no,” Gedeon replied hesitantly. “She’s, um, she’s kind of busy at the moment.”
“Did you guys get into a fight or something? We haven’t seen her since we got back.” Jedrek blurted. He didn’t mean to make it sound as callous as it came across, but the captain didn’t seem to be bothered by it.
“Not exactly,” Gedeon replied. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. She’s just…busy.”
“Fair enough,” Kynan said. “Kara and Ben are going to stay with you. Colonel Stoddard’s sending them on a mission to Earth’s moon.” The Jack Crew looked around at each other as if surprised. All except Gedeon Baas. “We need you to take them to the Mare Ingenii at thirty-three point seven degrees south, one hundred sixty-three point five degrees east. I’ve mapped out the exact coordinates on this data ball.” He handed the data ball to Gedeon.
“There’s imagery on there as well, so you’ll know exactly where to go,” Kynan continued. “You have space suits they can borrow, right?”
“The exosuits we have are space-rated, as are the masks,” Rangi said. “They can use those.”
“Excellent. I can’t get into the specifics of their mission, but they’ll need you to provide them with cover, just in case.”
“So, you don’t want us going down there with them?” Rangi asked.
“I’m afraid not. Besides, I think they proved themselves pretty well when they found me,” Kynan said diplomatically.
“That’s cool,” Rangi said, even though he sounded a little disappointed.
“One more thing. I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, but I need you to disable the cameras on their helmets. They’ll be going radio silent once they get on the moon as well, unless or until they need you.”
The captain looked at him with concern written all over his face. “Kynan, I get that this is all probably some kind of super-secret military stuff, but how are we supposed to defend them or keep track of them if we can’t see them?”
“The same way you did on Crucis One. You’re just going to have to trust them.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. On Crucis One, they at least had oxygen to breathe. If they get stuck or their suits rupture, we could have real problems. Ben knows that all too well,” the captain said, referring to the incident on Planet Hell.
“I’m sorry, Captain, but I have to insist on this.”
“You’re the bank,” the captain replied, shaking his head.
“After they’ve found what they’re looking for, you can send Colonel Stoddard a coded message again, and he’ll give you the coordinates to a new rendezvous point.”
“Okay. When do you want us to leave?”
“The sooner the better. I know you’ll want to get some rest first, but try not to be more than a day or so.”
“Fair enough,” the captain replied.
Kynan stood to his feet and looked around at everyone appreciatively and then nodded at Ben and Kara to follow him out. Everyone in the room followed suit except for Gedeon.
“Rangi, can you stay back for a second?” He asked as the others piled past him.
“Sure thing, boss. What’s on your mind?”
“One second.” Gedeon waited for the door to slide closed, and then he said, “I want you to activate the cameras and audio on their helmets when we arrive on the moon.”
Rangi looked at him quizzically. “Is something going on? It sounded like Kynan didn’t want us having any part of it. That’s kind of breaking his trust, isn’t it? Integrity is one of the five pillars of valor. It’s not something we dismiss.”
“You’re right, it’s not,” the captain replied while staring at him deadpan in the face. His bloodshot eyes were turning redder by the second.
Rangi picked it up quickly. “Oh no. What is it, Captain?”
“Something gravely important,” the captain replied.
And it was…