CHAPTER 6 – HOLIDAY

  DATE: DECEMBER 25th, 6 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

  LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN SPECIAL DELIVERY, DEPARTING SATURN

  LIEUTENANT PAUL KARST

  Paul watched Ariana as she in turn watched Henry and Chantal cuddled together under a blanket slightly apart from the rest of the crew. They were absorbed in the Christmas movie marathon which played on the screen set in the opposite wall. He nudged a little closer to his sister, in an attempt to cheer her up.

  “Don’t you even dare say anything.” She warned in an icy whisper.“Fuck you too, then. See if I deign to care when you feel the need to talk about it later.” Paul replied.

  He was a little miffed at her attitude, even though he understood where it came from.

  “There's nothing to talk about. What I need, is to get off this boat and back into the field.” His sister replied.

  “Look, just because he chose her…” A scowl formed on her face as Ariana cut him off.

  “Is that what you think this is about?! Henry and I were nothing, I was toying with him to gauge his reactions and test his character, and he passed. Plus, Chantal's had her eyes on him ever since she first saw his file. That poor girl is so pent up! She had literally nobody she could open up to and trust enough to let them in. I'm just glad she worked up the courage to act when she saw him."

  "Yeah, I get that, but did you really have to flirt with him that much?" Paul razzed her.

  "You were suspicious of my flirtation with him for a reason, weren't you? You should have trusted those instincts and then let things play out."

  "You lying bitch! I asked you directly about that." Paul was half impressed, half furious.

  "You know what? Fuck you, Paul! I don't need to justify myself to you, and you know how I feel about this subject. You of all people don’t need any explanation as to why my priorities are different than hers. Do you remember the things I confide in you, like, at all?" Ariana hissed.

  Stepped in it now, didn't I? She's right about at least some things... Paul begrudged her the point.

  "I... remember the stories, all of them. I'm sorry."

  "So am I." She said, though her expression said she was far away, likely locked in her memories.

  Paul decided to drop the subject; he knew all too well the depths of the abyss the edge of which they danced atop. He knew that despite being liberated from the Ascension Project for many years now, they'd never be free from the oppressive grip it held on their psyche. She'd had it far, far worse than he ever did.

  “So, if it's not Henry, what is bothering you then?”

  “I... have a terrible feeling about this mission. Embarrassing as it is to admit.... I'm afraid to go... I must be losing my edge.” She said.

  “Nonsense, you're not losing anything. I think you're just struggling to wrap your head around a battle you cannot physically fight against threats you cannot directly face.” Paul replied.

  “Damn it, Paul, you need to stop profiling everyone. Fine, let’s say that you are at least a little bit right... how would you handle it then? What happens if the FTL system fails us and we get trapped, or it just blows up and we all die? I've actually begun to feel attached to my life, lately. At least when fighting a physical enemy I know what to do. This is bullshit... I never wanted to feel hopeless like this again.” Ariana spat out the words like they were poison.

  “Well, a wise man once told me that in this kind of scenario, the best you can hope to do is have a rock-solid faith in your fellow sailors, and in the paranoia and redundancy built into human engineering.” Paul replied drily.

  Ariana scoffed, though he noticed a small, hidden smile underneath anyway. It was gone again as fast as it came.

  “Yeah, that’s the problem, I have precisely zero faith in my fellow humans, nor do I believe in the illusion of safety. Only strength can guarantee that, and my personal strength is useless against this. The thing is, I know a certain amount of existential danger comes with the job. I honestly don't know why this mission in particular has me so shook up.” Ariana said with a scowl.

  “Our job is to save Henry from his own idealism and to eliminate threats to the mission when they present themselves. We will have plenty of opportunities to do so between now and whenever it is our time to die. Whether that happens in an instant in the void between star systems, or by a random bullet makes no difference. At that point, dead is dead, and you won't know the difference anyway. Just know I believe in your ability to sort your feelings out well before they becomes an issue. You're gonna be just fine.” Paul said with as much confidence as he could muster.

  Ariana simply stared forwards into the bulkhead.

  “Thanks for caring.” She said numbly. “Don’t worry about me, I'll be fine, seriously.” She then followed up with her best fake smile.

  Paul said nothing to that and stared at the wall display that had been set to the direction of Saturn receding in the distance. He found he rather enjoyed the sublime beauty of the gem of the solar system over the Christmas movie playing on the other view screen. He had grown up without Christmas and had never understood it. Sadly, that came with the territory of his being trained for war from childhood.

  He suppressed the urge to shudder as memories of his time in the Ascension Project flooded back to him, unbidden and unwelcome. As was his custom in such moments, he separated himself to the lower level and began to exercise to clear his mind.

  Three more days to dock at S33... I can't wait to get out of this tin can and stretch my legs properly.

  The days passed in a blur as the anticipation grew. Soon enough, they caught view of the partially hollowed out asteroid that housed S33. Inside, behind huge doors carved from the surface of the rock sat the most powerful warship yet constructed by humankind. Paul smiled, knowing just how close they truly were to making history and to reaching their goals.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “S33 STC just cleared us to land, taking us in now.” The speakers behind his acceleration couch crackled as they relayed the message.

  The planetoid dominated the view screen as they curved lazily and decelerated through the outer doors, slowed to a perfect hover, and set down on their landing gear. Paul jumped up and caught Henry’s attention by slapping the side of his acceleration couch.

  “Alright, several sections of this station are still under construction, so make sure you follow me and my instructions to the letter. You will have free access to any level with a yellow or green band, you will be supplied with a badge, and you will be given biometric access to most of the facilities, with the exception of the red doors and red banded corridors."

  Henry nodded, listening seemingly intently, and so Paul continued.

  “Tomorrow at oh-six-hundred you need to be ready so we can have your formal introduction to your officers and get your official tour of the ship. Only a few crew have been delayed so far, so we expect you to have a full complement for the shakedown run and her space trials three days from now. I assume you have been keeping yourself occupied planning out how you intend to keep your crews busy and how to get them trained?” Paul asked.

  “I read over the officer dossiers, and it seems you picked well, but I have concerns about just how many inexperienced crewmen we have filling the more standard posts. That's a lot of non-usefuI bodies running around to train up. I'll have to see how we can shuffle some of the more experienced personnel around, see who is cross trained in enough systems that they can help in their off shifts, at least in the primary areas of concern. Frankly, between us, this crew leaves a lot to be desired.” Henry replied, with his eyes narrowed.

  “Remember that we couldn't just yank a bunch of veterans that will be missed all at the same time, so we have been reassigning as many experienced crew members as we can over the course of the last two years. Unfortunately, at least half of them are brand new, just pulled from a list of those with promising educational or technical backgrounds who were deemed low security risks. You have the best people that we could reasonably get for you, bottom line.”

  “How the hell you all are funding this is beyond me. This place is massive!” Henry said as Chantal caught up with them and affectionately held onto Henry’s arm.

  “Most of us get paid a lot less than you would expect, hon, but we accept it because the mission is so important. Plus, most of the raw materials have been mined and processed out here. The superstructure is made from mostly locally processed steel instead of anything too fancy, and the advanced components are simply siphoned off the top from what the NAU has been stockpiling in advance of mass production of fleet carriers at Liberty Station, so it’s not really suspicious. We also have a few reverse engineered carbon bio printers on site too, so we can make TK drive cores and null barrier generators on site. Just don’t let Quan-Tech industries know that we cracked their security protocols.” Chantal added with a smile.

  “Plus, the NAUDF is the inheritor of the Pentagon’s mastery of financial wizardry in hiding the funding to special access programs in plain sight. We all know they aren’t really buying hundred dollar toilet seats or spending fifty bucks on a hammer.” Ariana added in, grinning, as she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

  “Fair enough, so how sure are we that all of this is actually a secret? I'm sure the feds have to have some idea.” Henry said.

  “We aren’t, but we are taking every precaution and acting like it's still secret anyway. Certainly, nobody has called us out on any of this, yet. S33 is likely to remain a secret no matter what though, as the general plan is to release information on S37 first and only after they perfect warp gate tech. S33 is very much devoted to our specific mission and to assemble more of the Indomitable class once the secondary dry dock bay is cut out and finished. Otherwise, this will be your ship's dedicated dry dock.”

  “I think I got it. So here's a question, where am I supposed to bunk for the night?” Henry asked.

  “I know where, I’ll show you right to it.” Chantal said with a predatory smile as she took his hand and dragged him off the ship. Henry followed, nearly dropping his duffel bags in the process.

  “Good luck!” Paul shouted down the gangplank after them. “You’re going to need it.” Paul smirked until he got slapped on the back of the head.

  “Pervert.” Ariana scolded.

  Paul rubbed his head and grinned sheepishly, knowing he was caught red handed. Without wasting time, he grabbed his bags and began to head to his own rack space, ready to sleep in a proper bed again after so long sleeping and working in his acceleration couch.

  When he finally got to his room, he allowed himself a moment to relax before he opened the Q-Comm link to prep his next report on Henry to send up the chain. He then switched the screen to view into Henry’s room, only to see that someone, Chantal probably, had blocked the camera with something. The sound's muffled too. Probably by a pillow, or something.

  Oh well, Paul thought, probably for the best.

  He had a pretty good idea of what the couple were up to anyway, and he didn't need to subject himself to seeing... that.

  With a racing mind and nothing to do, Paul went for a walk to favorite window into the dry docks. He stared appreciatively at the pitch-black form of the Indomitable Will. She had yet to have her refrigerated, vacuum-gapped outer hull applied when last he had seen her months prior. Instead of a awkward grey steel superstructure covered in gantries, she now had the sleek look of a predator.

  Something clicked in his head, staring at her now-completed form, and his anxiety over the coming mission felt somehow lightened. Paul returned to his room feeling rather free, and with little effort was able to get himself to bed for the best sleep he'd had in ages.

  It would be a long time before he would have such restful sleep again.

  MEANWHILE…

  DATE: DECEMBER 28th, 6 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

  LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, S33

  FIREMAN APPRENTICE ANDREW REESE

  Patience, Andrew... Just gotta think it through. the answers will come.

  When the urge to think overtook him like this, he had to walk, so Andrew left the men’s dormitory and walked up-spin to the observation deck. Ed Greene, whom he had carefully vetted on the flight in, had turned out to be everything he had hoped for and more. Shockingly, Sarah and Tanya had turned him down, probably due to his lack of a plan, and the looming threat of extreme punishment for defiance.

  Even with such setbacks, the past few days around the station had shown it wasn't a hopeless cause to find more people who were discontented and looking to do something about it. The problem was they were looking to him for all the answers as to what, exactly to do about it. Without such answers, their excitement invariably withered and died.

  At least I can come back to them when I think of something... hopefully.

  Andrew passed by some prick Lieutenant walking away from the observation window wearing some dopey smile.

  What's that prick got to smile about? He's just as trapped in this suicide run as we are...

  Through the window, the well-lit bulk of the Indomitable Will was visible in her dry dock. To his eyes, she was ugly, a terrible mash up of the symmetrical figure eight shape of the Presidential class drone carrier and the semi ovoid shape of a Victory class Battlecruiser. Scuttlebutt said that she was the prototype for the drone fighter system found in the drone carrier, though she only had one of the flat hexagonal drone bays that was welded to a rear body where the crew was to live and her marine complement would be stationed.

  Another rumor had it that the ship had a working fusion plasma weapon included in a pair of unsightly ridges attached underneath the drone bay, but his vantage point had them hidden from view. If that was true, it was just one more system that could just as easily fail and kill them all.

  We must stop this insane mission, no matter the cost... but how?!

  There will be thousands of crew, so turning a few, even a few dozen will be meaningless... Even if we did, there are five hundred marines on board. Can't take the ship by force... that's as suicidal as the mission itself, if not more so... Andrew squeezed his eyes shut as he pondered their predicament.

  The leadership seems committed, and even if we could get the Captain on our side, there's no way HIGHCOMM would give the order to scrub the mission. There's way too much invested in this already... We'd have to make them believe they're about to lose their investment... That the ship simply isn't ready... That's it! That's our angle.

  A slow smile spread across his face as the beginnings of a plan took shape. He rushed off to find Ed. They were going to have to get busy if this was to work, for time was not on their side.