CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest
CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest
CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest
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EPISODE VI<br />
<strong>CROSSFIRE</strong><br />
- A T L A N T I S D S V -<br />
The year is 2043,<br />
Mankind is once again at war.<br />
Beneath the surface,<br />
We defend the future...<br />
- 1 -
~ A T L A N T I S D S V ~<br />
- 2 -
CAST OF PRINCIPLE CHARACTERS<br />
The United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO)<br />
Sir James Cathgate - Admiral, ret. Secretary General of the UEO<br />
Fleet Admiral Jonathan ‘Jack’ Riley - Commander-in-Chief, UEO Forces Pacific<br />
Fleet Admiral Travis Sinclair – Commander-in-Chief, UEO Forces Atlantic<br />
Admiral Anise von Schrader – Commander of the North Sea Intelligence Service<br />
Vice Admiral Mark Ainsley – Chief of Staff, UEO Forces Atlantic<br />
The UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110 Carrier Battlegroup<br />
Captain James Banick – Commanding Officer, UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110<br />
Commander Jonathan Callaghan – Executive Officer, UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110<br />
Lieutenant Commander Jack Phillips – Communications Officer, UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110<br />
Major Adrian O’Shaughnessy – Marine Commandant, UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110<br />
Commander Madeline Callaghan – Commanding Officer, UEO Fall River SSN-314<br />
Pilots of Carrier Sea Wing One, UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110<br />
Captain Corinn Roderick – CO, CSW-1, Callsign ‘Archangel’<br />
Commander Edward Richards – CO, VF-107 ‘Rapiers’, Callsign ‘Minstrel’<br />
Commander Jane Roberts – Rapier One, Callsign ‘Deadstick’<br />
Commander Dustin Coyle – CO, VF-115 ‘Dark Angels’, Callsign ‘Bouncer’<br />
Lieutenant Sarah Cunningham – Rapier Eight, Callsign ‘Two Birds’<br />
Lieutenant Samuel Rogers – Rapier Nine, Callsign ‘Stones’<br />
The UEO Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200<br />
Captain Lauren Hornsby – Commanding Officer<br />
Commander John Razak – Executive Officer<br />
Wing Commander Gavin Mackenzie – CO, CSW-2, Callsign ‘Trawler’<br />
Commander Thomas Parker – CO, VF-123 ‘Ghosts’, Callsign ‘Sideburn’<br />
The Officers of the Nycarian Empire<br />
Captain Anniel Rhodes – Special advisor to UEO Office of Naval Intelligence<br />
- 3 -
C R O S S F I R E<br />
“...A single tear slipped down her cheek as she squeezed the trigger, the gunshot<br />
echoing throughout the long halls and passages. In the moment before her life ended, time<br />
seemed to stop...”<br />
PROLOGUE<br />
T H E S I N C E R E S T F O R M O F F L A T T E R Y<br />
Twenty One Years Ago...<br />
UEO sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> 4600, The North American Coast, somewhere in the Pacific<br />
Ocean. November 13 th , 2021…<br />
“...We‟re at a hurricane shelter near Interstate 95, where traffic has ground to a halt<br />
following rumours that UEO personnel at <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong> are trying to get their families out<br />
of the city after receiving reports that this area may come under attack. This comes after<br />
earlier reports that firepower seen near Pearl Harbor today was not a live firing exercise, but<br />
in fact an act of war... People have abandoned their stolen cars and are jamming in here but<br />
the shelter is running out of room. This is Shirley Jones, back to you in the studio...”<br />
The bridge of the UEO sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> 4600-II was unerringly quiet as all eyes<br />
waited, glued to their monitors, looking for the elusive enemy that lurked in the sea beyond<br />
the great submarine. Chief Petty Officer Miguel Ortiz was the first to see it, his free hand<br />
flying over the remote WSKR controls as his other clutched the headset loosely at his ear.<br />
“Captain, I‟m picking up something dead ahead.”<br />
Nathan Hale Bridger was at his shoulder a moment later, his hand coming to rest on<br />
the sonar operator‟s chair firmly. “Concentrate WSKRS forward,” he ordered.<br />
Slowly, the WSKR panned over the seabed, revealing something truly unusual. While<br />
the ground maintained its texture, something – a shadow – shifted against it.<br />
“Captain, I think it‟s unmorphing,” Ortiz said of the tell-tale signs of an optical<br />
camouflage system. The enemy submarine detected the hovering WSKRS and their<br />
movements before it had even fully registered in Captain Bridger‟s mind, the camouflage<br />
system dropping to reveal the sleek, manta-like form of the advanced, rogue SSN beneath.<br />
Bridger was half way to the Conn by the time the submarine had completely<br />
resolved. “All ahead full,” he ordered, reaching Commander Jonathan Ford‟s station a<br />
moment later. He leaned over to stare at the XO‟s board. “Launch a flight of torpedoes at<br />
bearing two nine seven. At twelve hundred meters, reverse them, and begin active seeking.”<br />
The XO regarded his Captain with uncertainty. “They‟ll miss the Marauder.”<br />
Bridger continued to stare at the enemy submarine. “Not if we bring the Marauder to<br />
them.”<br />
Ford‟s expression spoke to his doubts, but obligingly carried out the Captain‟s orders.<br />
Two torpedoes shot away from sea<strong>Quest</strong> as Ortiz looked up again. “She‟s accelerating.<br />
Torpedo doors opening.”<br />
Bridger exhaled slowly. “Prepare intercepts.”<br />
Swinging about, the Marauder SSN bore down on the massive UEO Deep<br />
Submergence Vehicle, its wings dropping as it entered an attack profile. With a screeching<br />
howl, the torpedoes shot away from the sleek attack submarine, their rocket motors quickly<br />
powering them to over a hundred knots.<br />
“She‟s launched, torpedoes incoming,” Ortiz reported.<br />
- 4 -
Bridger didn‟t hesitate. “Fire intercepts. Break to port!”<br />
The Marauder continued its advance, its torpedoes all the while rapidly closing with<br />
the mammoth submarine ahead of her. sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s own intercepts closed with the<br />
Marauder‟s weapons. At such close range, the detonation was enough to rock the UEO<br />
flagship as it continued to pull away.<br />
Ortiz shook his head. “She‟s trying to follow us.”<br />
“...She‟s turning torward our torpedoes,” Ford nodded, whispering slightly as he<br />
realised that the Captain‟s gamble was steadily beginning to pay off. “Torpedoes active in<br />
five. In four...”<br />
...Closing further, the Marauder finally broke off, its new course peeling it away wildly.<br />
The torpedoes hadn‟t even gone active as they approached the submarine‟s rear – a perfect<br />
blind spot in its baffles that should have all but guaranteed a clean kill.<br />
“She‟s breaking off,” confirmed Ortiz.<br />
Bridger looked at his sonar chief in shock. “What?!”<br />
“Torpedoes are active,” Ford followed.<br />
The Marauder continued to pull away, its sensors never even having detected the<br />
two torpedoes that screamed through its wake harmlessly to disappear in to the murky sea<br />
beyond.<br />
Ortiz looked on in disbelief through the eyes provided by his WSKRS probes. “She‟s<br />
running! It looks like she knew they were there!”<br />
Captain Bridger couldn‟t believe it as he saw plainly what Ortiz‟s sensors were telling<br />
him. “She can‟t be running...”<br />
A shrill alarm at Ortiz‟s station brought Bridger back. “She‟s counter-firing,” Ortiz<br />
confirmed. “Torpedoes in the water.”<br />
“Hard to port, fire intercepts!” Bridger ordered again, his mind racing to second-guess<br />
an opponent who had thus-far outplayed him at every turn.<br />
Once again, more intercepts shot away in to the black, but not before the torpedoes<br />
had once again broken inside the UEO submarine‟s defence perimeter.<br />
“Brace yourselves,” the Captain ordered.<br />
...The intercepts hit them at the last possible moment, a heavy blast rocking the<br />
submarine once more. The chaos it caused as the deck lurched heavily under him was<br />
enough to make him wonder if they had indeed struck home.<br />
“They hit our intercepts,” the XO confirmed as Ortiz looked up from his station once<br />
more.<br />
“She‟s gone, sir,” the Chief sighed. “Heading over the mountains, toward the<br />
mainland.”<br />
Bridger was still troubled. “All ahead full. Henderson, try to keep up with them.”<br />
sea<strong>Quest</strong> was superior in almost every way to the predator she hunted, but still the<br />
SSN made good pace as the Captain watched it receded in to the darkness. “What the hell<br />
is going on, here?”<br />
Commander Ford regarded his Captain apprehensively, gesturing to his instruments<br />
with a hopeless flick his hand. “How the hell did that sub know what you were going to do?”<br />
Bridger sensed the approach an uncertain and delicate figure. Decades of service<br />
told him that it was not the wide, confident gait of a military officer, and only two people on<br />
the ship had access to his command deck that were not actively enlisted in the military. One<br />
of those people was Lucas Wolenczak, who sat quietly beside Ortiz. The other, was the<br />
ship‟s physician – Doctor Wendy Smith.<br />
“There‟s somebody on that sub,” Smith said, swallowing a nervous lump in her throat.<br />
Bridger had no time for the inferred subtlety as he still struggled to comprehend the<br />
skirmish. “Who?”<br />
Smith seemed as uncomfortable with the answer as Bridger was to receive it. Lucas<br />
Wolenczak stood up from beside Ortiz and looked down at the Captain.<br />
“If what Sea Science told me is right, that sub is carrying the most powerful computer<br />
ever designed for artificial intelligence,” he suggested.<br />
- 5 -
Bridger looked at Smith sceptically. “...And you‟re saying that intelligence isn‟t<br />
artificial anymore. It‟s real. It‟s modelled after my personality?”<br />
Smith was distant in her answer. “...Yeah.”<br />
Wolenczak spoke up again. “You know it could be, but based on only a portion of<br />
your personality, because it received only a part of the download before it shorted out. Now<br />
that would mean that somebody would have had to have a computerized profile of your<br />
personality in the first place, but that‟s impossible.”<br />
Nathan Bridger was silent, and never once looked away from his blank, troubled<br />
stare beyond them all.<br />
Wolenczak suddenly felt ill. “...Isn‟t it?”<br />
“I‟m not so sure.”<br />
The wardroom of the sea<strong>Quest</strong> was the sort one found in an executive office.<br />
Carpentered, stained timbers and paintings adorned every wall, and models of ships and<br />
submarines both past and present from the captain‟s history of service sat in perspex<br />
cabinets around the sideboards. Bridger paced slowly, his back to the communications<br />
screen. “About twelve years ago, just about the time when I was working on this program<br />
that the Marauder sub is now using, NORPAC was running tests on its Captains, and I was<br />
one of them. Remember that?”<br />
Admiral William Noyce, the commander-in-chief of the UEO Navy, looked nervous in<br />
his two-day old suit. The Admiral hadn‟t slept since the crisis had started, and had been<br />
attending a joint sitting of the General Assembly and Security Council when the flag went up.<br />
Next to him, the Secretary-General, Thomas McGath, dared not say a word.<br />
“Yes,” Noyce confirmed, working his hands together, betraying his uncertainty. “We<br />
were trying to create an artificial intelligence module to advise captains in combat.”<br />
Bridger continued, well and truly committing himself to a warpath. “Yeah, well I was a<br />
different guy then, Bill. I was bucking for Admiral, at any cost.”<br />
Noyce shrugged as an aid emerged from off-screen to present him with an unseen<br />
order that was signed without so much as a question. “And you were the best combat officer<br />
the navy had, Nathan. You‟d have my job now if you hadn‟t resigned.”<br />
Bridger huffed at the Admiral‟s oversight. “That‟s beside the point – the point is, I<br />
spent about twenty hours in a scanner where they examined all my mental processes. What<br />
happened to that disk?”<br />
“The project failed. We couldn‟t create an intelligence complete enough to be useful<br />
in combat, so we build a Martinson Screen instead.”<br />
Bridger leaned forward slightly, growing insistent. “What happened to the disk? Now,<br />
I think it‟s been programmed in to that sub. Did Sea Science have anything to do with my<br />
disk?<br />
The Secretary General and the Admiral looked at each other with a dawning<br />
realization, and fearful uncertainty. Noyce paused and thought carefully before he looked<br />
back at sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s captain. “No, they couldn‟t have.”<br />
Bridger pressed harder. “What about the injured programmer? What‟s his<br />
employment history?”<br />
Noyce looked down, checking a set of notes beyond the view of what the camera<br />
could pick up. “Well, we know he was with Sea Science Limited, and before that he was with<br />
Nemesis Computer... and before that he was...”<br />
The Admiral‟s voice trailed off, stopping completely as he hit the proverbial brick wall<br />
– the problem Bridger had been searching for.<br />
Bridger paused for a moment before he asked the obvious. “He was what?”<br />
Noyce cleared his throat. “He was... an intern in our artificial intelligence lab.”<br />
Bridge was disquieted by this as his gaze drifted off again. “I knew it,” he said sadly.<br />
“I could be responsible for destroying all of us.”<br />
Noyce said nothing as sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s intercom chirped overhead. “Captain, the WSKRS<br />
are picking up some movement ahead of us,” said the voice of Commander Ford.<br />
- 6 -
Bridger didn‟t blink, continuing to stare at his two superiors. “We‟ll talk later... if we‟re<br />
still alive.”<br />
Bridger‟s walk back to the command deck was long and spent in deep thought. The<br />
corridors of the thousand-foot-long submarine passed as little more than instinct as his mind<br />
raced through any number of possibilities. The ship still stood at general quarters, and the<br />
walk was completed alone, with the entire crew having secured stations away from corridors<br />
that could have flooded at a moment‟s notice.<br />
The two massive clam doors were still open when he arrived, and he took a breath<br />
before stepping through the maw to face the music. Ford remained at his station as Bridger<br />
arrived. “Status?”<br />
Ford turned from the Captain to look at the screens. “It looks like the Marauder‟s<br />
reversing course, as though it were hunting us.”<br />
Bridger checked the displays that showed the Marauder closing with his boat, and<br />
then narrowed his eyes for a moment before looking at his watch. “In my program as I<br />
remember it, they should be launching a missile at about eighteen hundred hours.”<br />
Ford didn‟t break his gaze, but followed the simple deduction. “...But it‟s afraid we‟ll<br />
find it before then.”<br />
“So it‟s going to try and destroy us first.”<br />
There was a pause as both officers absorbed the development, and then Ford<br />
stepped up. “What are your orders?”<br />
Bridger resigned, shaking his head. “I can‟t give you orders. It knows me too well.”<br />
Ford had known Bridger long enough to realise he was not a man who stepped down<br />
from command lightly, and baulked at the inference. “I don‟t have the combat experience you<br />
have,” he objected.<br />
The Captain countered. “But you‟re a good warrior, Jonathan, and you‟re good<br />
enough to beat the download and this submarine.”<br />
Bridger paced back to the centre chair – his – and tapped it impatiently.<br />
“You‟re going to give the orders.”<br />
Ford hesitated as the entire Bridge crew looked on expectantly. Meeting Ortiz‟s eyes<br />
a moment later, Ford unstrapped himself from his chair and walked back to where Bridger<br />
still stood, assuming the Conn, and breaking every rule he‟d ever set for himself about using<br />
the Captain‟s chair. “Mister Brody,” he started, looking at the ship‟s tactical specialist. “Take<br />
the attack board and arm all weapons.”<br />
Ortiz warned; “It‟s making its move.”<br />
Ford nodded as he checked the navigation chart, and instantly knew his next order.<br />
“Ok, get us in ambush position behind that seamount.”<br />
Ford looked at Bridger over his shoulder with a small smile. “...If you saw me ducking<br />
behind that plateau, what would you do?”<br />
Bridger said nothing, merely listening as he kept his eyes glued on the folly.<br />
“...You‟d go around the other side, and you‟d be waiting for me when I get there,<br />
wouldn‟t you?”<br />
The Captain smiled his approval, and thumped the back of the chair. “Henderson!”<br />
barked Ford. “Take us over the top, and down her throat.”<br />
sea<strong>Quest</strong> was a monster as she advanced, and slowly started to crest the ridge.<br />
Henderson‟s manoeuvres were skilled, more than once skirting the thirty-two thousand tonne<br />
giant mere meters from the rocky outcroppings below. “Seamount‟s got us masked,” Ortiz<br />
noted. “I‟ll lead us over with a WSKR.”<br />
Ford was defiant. “No, it‟ll know we‟re right behind it. We‟ve got to do this blind.”<br />
...sea<strong>Quest</strong> continued to rise, and Ford waited until the last possible moment as the<br />
big submarine‟s arrowhead prow finally pulled past the final crest of the submerged ridgeline.<br />
“Now!”<br />
- 7 -
Henderson pulled back on the yolk and swung the bow around to come down directly<br />
on top of the waiting Marauder. Apparently surprised, the enemy SSN darted from its<br />
position like a frightened bird, heading straight for the plains.<br />
“Target!” Ortiz barked. “Target, dead ahead... and she‟s looking the wrong way!”<br />
Bridger held his breath as Ford tried to bury his kill. “Fire torpedoes!”<br />
sea<strong>Quest</strong> roared as nine rocket-propelled torpedoes burst from their tubes, locked on<br />
in hot pursuit of the fleeing Marauder. “Torpedoes away,” confirmed Brody quietly, all the<br />
while hoping the XO‟s gamble had paid off.<br />
Far below sea<strong>Quest</strong>, a tiny object began to stir. Triggered by the massive sonar<br />
signature of the UEO submarine above, its combat sensors went active, and its small,<br />
spindly, spider-like legs detached themselves from the sea floor. Floating up to the <strong>DSV</strong>,<br />
they didn‟t notice it until it was too late.<br />
“Commander Ford, I‟m picking up something very strange,” Ortiz mused, watching<br />
the small object rise from the floor beneath him.<br />
Once again, the screens showed it clearly – the small, unknown contact steadily<br />
rising like a mine, tripping multiple proximity alarms, and sending a cold sense of dread<br />
through Ford‟s stomach. “Full back emergency!”<br />
“We can‟t avoid it.”<br />
No one on the bridge knew what to expect, knowing only that bracing would be<br />
pointless. If it were a mine, then a detonation in such a position would create a hard,<br />
imploding vacuum that would snap sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s back where she lay in less than a second.<br />
When the object hit the hull... nothing happened.<br />
Only Bridger knew what was happening. “Freeze controls,” he ordered firmly. “Hold<br />
the boat steady.”<br />
Lieutenant Tim O‟Neill, sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s communications officer, slowly removed his<br />
headset as he stared at the main screen to the image being provided by the submarine‟s<br />
external sensor probes. “What... is that?”<br />
For all his terror, Ford was in awe – being utterly unable to comprehend or explain,<br />
again, what he was seeing. “It‟s a nuclear captor mine,” he explained. “It led us right in to it...<br />
But I‟ve never seen anyone risk that before.”<br />
Bridger sighed sternly. “I have.” Again, the Captain had failed. “I used that in the<br />
Aegean campaign. I forgot it, but it remembered.”<br />
“And now?” O‟Neill asked nervously.<br />
“And now, it‟s going to explode. What happened to our torpedo run?”<br />
Ortiz, Wolenczak beside him, was about the calmest crew member on the bridge.<br />
“Missed it by miles.”<br />
O‟Neill fumbled with his headset as his hand flew over his radio set again. “Captain? I<br />
think I‟m getting a message from the Marauder.”<br />
Bridger shot forward, stepping ahead of Ford‟s chair to stand at the centre of the<br />
bridge. “Put it on the front screen.”<br />
The Captain looked on as the screen resolved in to a dark mirror. A twisted, broken,<br />
fragmented mirror of a version of himself he hadn‟t seen in over a decade. The rolling blue<br />
sky behind the unmistakable, flickering figure seemed an unstable storm, but the main in the<br />
black suit was a reflection that Bridger never wanted to see again.<br />
“Bridger,” it said. “Captain Bridger?”<br />
“Yes,” he replied with uncertainty.<br />
The image of seemed confused, and even hesitant as it continued to flicker<br />
erratically. Whatever program was running the AI, it was breaking down, and quickly.<br />
“Something is damaged in my memory banks... I‟m rerouting it now.” There was a pause,<br />
and then the face looked him directly in the eye. “And I know who I am.”<br />
Every set of eyes on the bridge stared in shock at the image on the screen, a few<br />
flicking their gaze between it and the captain. “...I‟m you: Captain Bridger” said the AI.<br />
Bridger shook his head. “No, you‟re going to destroy a city of five million people.<br />
You‟re not me.”<br />
- 8 -
The AI continued to flicker, unstable, its signal degrading. “It‟s just that we have<br />
different orders,” it explained. “So we‟re taking different paths.”<br />
Lucas quietly stepped up to Bridger and whispered. “If one of us could get aboard...”<br />
The Captain ignored him. “-I‟d like to come and speak to you. Do you think I can do<br />
that?”<br />
The AI agreed without hesitation. “I‟d like that very much,” it said, everything about its<br />
mannerisms only further serving to make the distinction unnerving. “That‟s why I haven‟t<br />
destroyed your vessel.”<br />
James Brody approached his Captain, standing opposite Lucas. “Don‟t do it, „Cap.<br />
Keep it talking while I get a SEAL team aboard.”<br />
Bridger grabbed Brody‟s arm gently, giving the man a warning gaze. “No, no. I can‟t<br />
risk it.” He turned back to the AI. “I‟ll be right there. Out.”<br />
The AI continued to stare through the screen as the image steadily shrank, and then<br />
the Captain faced his crew. “While I‟m stalling for time, you get Piccolo in the water and<br />
disarm that mine.”<br />
Without a further word, Bridger marched from the command deck and disappeared in<br />
to the corridor.<br />
The trip to the Marauder submarine was fast as the tiny, one-man speeder known as<br />
a Stinger shot through the water, its twin engines providing little more than thrust vectoring<br />
as it‟s big, shark-like tail thrust side to side and drove the captain of the sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> to a<br />
meeting with his own history. The Marauder SSN hovered like a predator, its torpedo tubes<br />
tracking the crippled, immobilized <strong>DSV</strong> as the Stinger docked with its underside airlock. Only<br />
once it was secure did the SSN pull about and begin heading back for the mainland at<br />
speed.<br />
As Bridger stalked the corridors, he noted that the interior of the craft was cramped,<br />
betraying the purpose of its design as the first, completely unmanned combat submersible<br />
the UEO had ever built. The lighting was dim, and the atmosphere was both cold and damp<br />
– whatever life support systems that operated having been designed with the most minimal<br />
of functionality. “Where are you?” he called.<br />
“I‟m at the end of the passageway,” replied the AI calmly. “On the main screen... and<br />
don‟t try to touch anything, the results would be unpredictable.”<br />
True to the AI‟s description, Bridger found that the short corridor opened in to a small<br />
command and control center – a simple, single bank of controls sitting on a console at the<br />
base of a large view screen. Bridger did his best to absorb the console‟s controls, searching<br />
for any clue of how to override it. “...The results might be my healing you,” he suggested<br />
hesitantly.<br />
No sooner had his hand hit the first control, the console shorted – a shower of sparks<br />
raining over the deck as the face of the AI – himself – appeared on the screen, unmoved. “I<br />
don‟t need to be healed,” it said. “I am healed. I went through a great deal of pain and selfexamination<br />
to become-“<br />
“-Just what I am,” Bridger interrupted. “‟And I don‟t want to change‟. Isn‟t that right?”<br />
The AI smiled. “You see? We‟re the same! You know my words.”<br />
Nathan Bridger was surprised. “No, no, no. We‟re not the same,” he paused.<br />
“...Years ago, I thought I was self-healed, but I wasn‟t. I had to leave the service to do that,<br />
and I did it. And I changed.”<br />
The AI was stern, its face growing dark. “That‟s impossible. I‟ve never changed, and I<br />
never will.”<br />
The computer stopped, appearing to face an adjacent console. “...Set course, zero<br />
nine six. All ahead two-thirds.”<br />
A female voice filled the room at that, for the first time the AI appearing to be more in<br />
charge than Bridger had assumed. The voice belonged to the ship‟s combat computer.<br />
“Executing course correction now.”<br />
Bridger hesitated again. “Wait, wait, wait. You said we were going to talk. Are we<br />
going to talk?”<br />
- 9 -
“We have talked,” the mirror replied flatly. “And now I‟m going to complete my<br />
mission.”<br />
Captain Bridger laughed in sickened disbelief. “Wait a second. Is that why you didn‟t<br />
finish us off? You didn‟t want to kill me?”<br />
The mirror looked bemused at the question – as if the answer were obvious. “How<br />
could I?” it asked. “I‟m you. And you are me. But as I healed, I realised that if I brought you<br />
here, I could destroy your vessel and ensure that you were safe at the same time.”<br />
The AI paused for a moment, and then ordered calmly, “...Commence destruct<br />
sequence.”<br />
Bridger refused to believe it. “No... You can‟t do that! It‟s the sea<strong>Quest</strong>! It‟s our crew.<br />
You can‟t do that to them.”<br />
The mirror stared back at him ruefully. “I‟m sorry, but I already have.”<br />
“You realise, you‟re just a piece of me. Even twelve years ago I wouldn‟t have<br />
launched against a city of five million people!”<br />
The AI was growing impatient, and further denied it. “But I have specific orders.”<br />
“But just think it through,” pleaded Bridger again. “If those were really your orders,<br />
why would I be trying to stop you?”<br />
The AI snapped back. “That isn‟t for me to say. My duty is not to question my orders.”<br />
Bridger realised that his reasoning wasn‟t going to work. The AI had already trapped<br />
him once, and was quickly managing to trap him in his own argument. “Alright, your duty was<br />
to fulfil those orders, and I said that before... but I didn‟t mean like this!”<br />
“Nearing launch coordinates,” the cold, clinical voice of the submarine‟s computer<br />
announced. “Request permission to arm missiles.”<br />
“Permission granted,” the mirror said matter-of-factly. “Prepare to launch missiles.”<br />
It had taken Piccolo nearly ten minutes to disarm the mine – time which the sea<strong>Quest</strong><br />
didn‟t have. The great <strong>DSV</strong> gave chase, her engines driving well past their own safeties as<br />
Ford desperately tried to make up the lost ground. In minutes, the Marauder would enter<br />
missile range of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong>, and five million people would die.<br />
“Marauder sub will be in range in five minutes,” Ortiz said.<br />
Ford‟s chest knotted. It was going to be close. Beside him, the towering GELF named<br />
Dagwood looked on mournfully. He spoke as would a child. “We really are going to shoot the<br />
captain?” he asked.<br />
Ford struggled to look at him. “We don‟t have a choice, Dagwood. There are too<br />
many lives on the line.”<br />
“But isn‟t he our family?” the GELF asked with innocent surprise.<br />
Jonathan Ford stopped at that. Dagwood had been created by engineers seeking to<br />
create the ultimate soldier – bred to experience none of the remorse a normal man might<br />
feel for his enemies. Standing a little under seven feet-tall, the man was a monster... but at<br />
the same time, quiet and deliberate in every possible way. The GELF‟s capacity for genuine<br />
compassion still surprised him in that way, and there wasn‟t a day that went by where<br />
Dagwood hesitated in any action that might hurt another. In his own way, he was a failure...<br />
and so too was the weapon they hunted. While Dagwood couldn‟t even contemplate the<br />
killing of another, the murderous Marauder AI on the other hand – just another product of the<br />
same industry that had created the GELF - was prepared to obliterate five million people,<br />
purely to satisfy an order it could never understand.<br />
The coast of El Salvador was quiet, save for the sleek, lethal SSN that cut through<br />
the sea towards the North American west coast. She led sea<strong>Quest</strong> by nearly twenty miles,<br />
and there was little the UEO flagship could do to run it down.<br />
“T-minus two minutes and counting,” updated the cold, feminine AI once again.<br />
Bridger was desperate. “Look, this was supposed to be a practice manoeuvre. Not a<br />
real attack, in a real war.”<br />
The mirror betrayed nothing in its expression. “I‟ve searched my memory. Nothing<br />
indicates that.”<br />
- 10 -
“Oh, come on!” Bridger cried. “Even I wasn‟t that stubborn! I wasn‟t that stubborn<br />
before Robert died!”<br />
That stopped the AI. “What do you mean „Robert died‟?”<br />
Bridger saw the opening, and realised his mistake. His son had been dead only a few<br />
years – long after the aborted Artificial Intelligence program had finished. It couldn‟t have<br />
known. “...You know about Robert.”<br />
The mirror smiled warmly, as if recalling a fond memory that it had almost forgotten.<br />
“Of course I do. He‟s my son. How dare you say he died – he‟s at the academy. I heard from<br />
him last week. He was thinking of quitting until we talked.”<br />
Bridger reeled as the pain came flooding back – a pain he‟d long since buried in the<br />
deepest recesses of his mind. “Yes, you talked,” he accused, pointing a finger at his face on<br />
the screen. “You wanted him to continue! But you told him the decision was his, right? And<br />
he continued. And then there was a war. And he was killed!”<br />
Bridger swallowed a lump in his throat, facing a conclusion he‟d never wanted to ever<br />
return to. “We killed him.”<br />
“That‟s impossible,” the AI countered again. “There hasn‟t been enough time.”<br />
“Oh yes there was,” the Captain snapped. “Check the time on your navigational<br />
charts! There was time, and now you want to start another war!”<br />
“Firing in fifteen seconds,” the computer said.<br />
The AI on the screen looked pained, and Bridger pressed it further against the wall.<br />
“Cancel your firing sequence! Stop the module!”<br />
“I have my orders,” it repeated blindly.<br />
“Well, do it for Robert,” Bridger pleaded. “Do it for us! Don‟t make us a mass<br />
murderer...”<br />
“Firing.”<br />
...The Marauder‟s silos opened quickly, and with another high-pitched scream sent<br />
ten hypersonic missiles rippling out in to the ocean towards the surface. Ten nuclear<br />
warheads, each with a warhead of 200 kilotons, directed at a city of five million people.<br />
Bridger could only shake his head. “No... No!”<br />
“Missiles away.”<br />
Breaking the surface, the missile‟s scramjets ignited, rapidly propelling the ten<br />
warheads to a speed better than mach fifteen as they settled low against the waves, evading<br />
whatever surface-based radars might have been searching for them. Their flight time would<br />
be measured in minutes.<br />
Aboard sea<strong>Quest</strong>, Chief Ortiz watched his monitors in shock, his stomach churning<br />
as he felt an urge to throw up. “She‟s rippling missiles, six away...” he started forlornly. Then<br />
his voice became a whisper as he counted them. “...Eight... Ten. Ten missiles... in the air.”<br />
Officers and crew across the command deck descended in to shock, only a few<br />
among the command staff managing to maintain their composure as the world started to<br />
end...<br />
“It‟s not too late,” Bridger said. “You can stop these missiles.”<br />
Now it was the AI‟s turn to look pained as is frowned deeply. “I feel very strange.”<br />
“Of course you feel strange!” the Captain snapped. “Your program is running down!”<br />
“...What?”<br />
“The war game is over!” Bridger continued. “As soon as the missiles are launched –<br />
the missiles strike, and you cease to exist. Search your memory. Do you see any future?”<br />
The AI stopped, its face disquieted. “...No.”<br />
“Then let me change that,” Bridger offered. “Let‟s complete the download, then you<br />
can really be me. The me that I really was.”<br />
“It doesn‟t matter. I‟ll still fulfil my orders.”<br />
- 11 -
“I‟ll take the risk! I don‟t believe I was the man who could have let this city die.”<br />
There was a long pause as the AI considered it, and then looked himself in the eye.<br />
“...Is it true about our son?”<br />
“Yes,” Bridger breathed helplessly, sensing a light of victory. It would have to be<br />
enough.<br />
“Complete the download,” instructed the AI.<br />
Nathan Bridger didn‟t need to be told twice, leaping forward to furiously work at the<br />
controls as the AI started to break down. The screen flickered – a chaotic mess, unreadable,<br />
the mirror of himself having begun to die.<br />
“Impact in sixty seconds,” the ship‟s computer announced.<br />
“No. Listen to me, you‟re just a machine. You could stop them!”<br />
Bridger continued to work as the AI continued its calm, collected countdown.<br />
“Fifty seconds.”<br />
“Command override,” Bridger ordered. “Unlock codes as follows!”<br />
“I‟m sorry, commands must be directed through the main system bus. I am not<br />
programmed to accept voice commands.”<br />
“I don‟t care!” snapped Bridger impatiently as he continued to work the console.<br />
“Unlock code two three-“<br />
“The command cannot be processed.”<br />
He ignored it. “...Two six – two nine!”<br />
By the time Bridger looked up again, the image of himself had returned to the<br />
monitor, but this time the flickering had stopped, and it was in complete control.<br />
The mirror looked at the computer next to Bridger. “Missile destruct. All missiles.”<br />
Bridger could only look on, incomprehensibly absorbing what he was seeing as the<br />
missiles – the city looming just a few miles away – started to detonate, one by one. At the<br />
end of it, against the golden twilight of dusk, the city of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong> stood still.<br />
Bridger looked back at the mirror and smiled. “You became me.”<br />
The AI was ashen. “I wish I hadn‟t.”<br />
“Why?”<br />
“I see the only reason I was built was to destroy. But I feel pain... I grieve for Robert.”<br />
The mirror continued to stare blankly as a silent, unspoken command was processed<br />
by the SSN‟s attack computer.<br />
“Initiating self-destruct sequence. All personnel should abandon ship.”<br />
“You don‟t have to do this,” Bridger offered.<br />
The AI merely smiled, but shook its head. “It‟s not suicide. „I‟m just a machine‟. Even<br />
if I was a damned good one.”<br />
Nathan Bridger looked at himself once more in silence before the mirror whispered<br />
back. “Go.”<br />
...The Stinger shot away from the Marauder seconds before its remaining warheads<br />
detonated in their tubes, tearing the submarine apart from the inside out. Nothing but scrap<br />
remained. For days and even weeks after - UEO Intelligence trawled the coast of El<br />
Salvador claiming every last piece of wreckage. Stored in a missile silo deep in the<br />
Californian deserts, no one ever saw the submarine again. Of the computer core and what<br />
remained of it... there was no sign.<br />
“They‟re talking about giving you a medal for this one, Nathan,” Admiral Noyce<br />
beamed from the wardroom monitors.<br />
Bridger would have none of it. “Bill, I don‟t want a medal. I want your assurance that<br />
you won‟t try to deploy these weapons again. Because if you do, I‟m going to resign from<br />
sea<strong>Quest</strong> and take my case to the press.”<br />
Noyce wasn‟t fussed, but urged for reason. “It‟s already happening. Take a look at<br />
the news tonight. There‟s no way they can talk their way out of this one.”<br />
Bridger leaned back slightly, regarding his old friend with a sceptical smile. “Mhmm.”<br />
- 12 -
“-And maybe that‟s for the best,” Noyce continued. Underscoring Bridger‟s position,<br />
Noyce‟s tone softened. “So, what can I do for you and your crew, Nathan?”<br />
Bridger smiled slightly, leaning forward. “Well, some shore leave would be nice. The<br />
lines home are being burnt out.”<br />
Noyce returned the smile, and nodded his assurance. “You got it.”<br />
„...It‟s been three years since the day <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong> was attacked by a UEO<br />
submarine running a controversial Artificial Intelligence program that military officials claimed<br />
suffered a catastrophic systems malfunction. Last week when Secretary-General Thomas<br />
McGath announced a joint sitting of General Assembly and Security Council to occur today<br />
at the UEO Headquarters in Fort Gore, conjecture that an end to the debate may be near<br />
was rife in an outraged global community. The inquiry in to the attack has sharply divided the<br />
council on the question of whether or not future developments in to advanced, sentient A.I.<br />
programs should be outlawed entirely. Despite vehement support from the military in favour<br />
of such programs, the debate in recent months has tipped in favour of those opposed. As<br />
one councillor put it – with no enemies abroad and most of the developed world now being<br />
signatories of the treaty, the UEO should be taking measures to curtail weapons<br />
development at every sensible turn. Today the debate was finished in a thirty seven-totwelve<br />
vote in favour of the proposed sanctions, and work will now start on drafting<br />
legislation that the military fears will devastate the future of both unmanned and information<br />
warfare. Coming only weeks after the Security Council voted against a twenty-billion dollar<br />
appropriations bill funding a new sea<strong>Quest</strong> after the ship was lost with all hands two years<br />
ago, this latest action has been just another in a series of blows against a military that is<br />
already fighting to retain its credibility. The UEO Navy - in the words of Admiral William<br />
Noyce - is „being systematically and comprehensively dismantled‟.<br />
This is Shirley Jones, Reporting live, from <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong>...‟<br />
~<br />
- 13 -
N E W O R D E R :<br />
T H E M A N O N T H E M O U N T A I N<br />
N’Djamena (Fort Lamy), Chad. Central Africa. January 8 th , 2027...<br />
Naren Tahlman‟s life was full and accomplished for a man of only twenty five. In truth,<br />
the story of the average human life is probably far more interesting than any story that can<br />
be told within the pages of fiction. Naren was fairly typical of the average Nycarian: born in to<br />
a middle-class white society in <strong>Cape</strong> Town, he‟d been afforded many opportunities in his<br />
childhood that were not common to South Africa.<br />
He‟d once travelled to the Himalayas in Nepal solely to experience the world outside<br />
of his besieged homeland, but his days in school had never been too kind.<br />
Of course, this was the same for any child of Africa growing up in the middle of the<br />
Third World War. The word “bully” for Naren took on a very interesting meaning when the<br />
playground menace was not a half-wit with too little food and too much time so as to beat<br />
him for his lunch money: but daily air-raid sirens that signalled the threat of being blown to<br />
pieces by bombs dropped from planes he never saw. Indeed, South African children had far<br />
worse things to worry about than playground politics, and it had been an unpredictable<br />
pattern of swing sets and minefields alike that had defined so much of his upbringing.<br />
He‟d been to university of course, and had been one of the most talented batsmen on<br />
the school‟s A-grade cricket team. If it hadn‟t have been for the bomb that destroyed their<br />
training ground during the summer of 2021, he may well have had a chance at playing for<br />
the world-renowned Proteas – the South African national cricket squad. Of course... from<br />
what he had heard since, the sport of cricket was hardly the game it used to be at the turn of<br />
the century... before the weltschmerz.<br />
He‟d lost his virginity during only the tenth grade, and even that had been anything<br />
but the expected roll-in-the-hay that usually defined coming of age. Naren and a girl named<br />
Sara had been hiding in a biology classroom when the air raid siren had sounded that day.<br />
The panic to find their clothes when the bell started to ring for the evacuation still made him<br />
smile to that day...<br />
...Even though Sara had been killed just three days later. They‟d been in a glade next<br />
to the great Table Mountain when an exploding landmine had him cradle the poor girl in his<br />
arms. This kind of horror defined Naren‟s history to such an extent that he found he had to<br />
cling to the better memories like the classroom if only to move on.<br />
In short, which one of those memories had been going through Naren‟s head at the<br />
same time that the 7.76 millimetre bullet had turned his skull in to a fine, red mist, Captain<br />
Narius Rhodes could only wonder for the rest of his days.<br />
Rhodes shook his head as he went through the casualty report, and struck the name<br />
from his list of troops in A-Company. The sound of gunfire was distant now as the NAAF<br />
(Nevarian African Armed Forces) continued its retreat.<br />
The gray haze that coved the city of N‟Djamena extended for hundreds of miles.<br />
Shells had rained for days on the city from a battery of NAAF artillery pieces that sat<br />
somewhere on the distant, murky horizon. For an entire week, the city had been smashed<br />
apart in an attempt to all but obliterate the Nycarian rebels who assailed it. The killing ground<br />
between the Nycarians and the NAAF was now a valley of rubble that used to be the city‟s<br />
central residential district. Such a brutal, pointless battlefield hadn‟t really been seen since<br />
Verdun.<br />
This was not a simple war over land or aggression, nor was it a civil conflict brokered<br />
by conflicting political interests. This was, in its own way, ethnic cleansing.<br />
The NAAF strategy was clear: if the Nycarians didn‟t withdraw, they would be<br />
ruthlessly crushed by standoff ordnance. Inevitably of course, in the face of such an endless<br />
and callous barrage, the rebels were given little choice but to fall back with every new<br />
offensive: their lines being pushed further and further back to the city‟s limits.<br />
- 14 -
The eighth day however had seen a drastic and very final change to the pattern. As<br />
the NAAF pushed forward and prepared to overrun the last of the Nycarians, the exact<br />
reverse answered them. Over-confident, the NAAF commander committed his troops in to<br />
the city wholesale, and soon found them over-extended. In response, the Nycarians rallied<br />
and pushed straight through their lines to strike at communications, supply and command<br />
posts that formed their enemy‟s vulnerable rear echelon. With their troops cut off, leaderless<br />
and surrounded by the Nycarians, it didn‟t take long for the NAAF to surrender, and the few<br />
troops that were not committed to the assault were forced to withdraw in to the wastes of the<br />
cold north. Those that surrendered suffered worse fates<br />
Rhodes trudged through the remnants of an old dug-out with the list of names still<br />
clutched in his hand. He‟d now been without sleep for over seventy two hours, and every<br />
step towards the command post was agonizing.<br />
General Marteen Carthedin stood over a large table that had been hastily erected<br />
from a sheet of wrought iron and a pile of debris. An old map was laid out and Carthedin was<br />
marking the advance of the soldiers of his Ninth Regiment. The Battle of Fort Lamy was<br />
over, and had been a crushing victory for the Nycarians. It was not only a victory, but it was<br />
the first time that the Nycarian Militia had ever engaged the NAAF in open battle and won.<br />
Finally, the war of subterfuge, resistance and flight had come to an end – and the NAAF<br />
would fight on the Nycarian‟s terms. Morale was the highest it had been since the war had<br />
begun, and now Carthedin had been put in a very difficult position.<br />
Rhodes waited at the edge of the dug-out until the General looked up, and offered a<br />
weak smile as he saw the haggard lines under the man‟s eyes. Rhodes instantly withdrew<br />
the paper in his hand behind his back and hid it from view.<br />
“Why did he have to die, Narius?” Carthedin asked flatly as he walked from behind<br />
the makeshift desk. “We were so close...”<br />
Narius Rhodes bowed his head. Carthedin had been the commander of the Nycarian<br />
resistance for less than twenty four hours since their leader – General Neureon Vuender-<br />
Weist-Hezuin – had succumbed to his wounds. Neureon‟s last act had been his greatest gift:<br />
the battle of Fort Lamy had been his plan. Carthedin‟s execution of that plan as the General<br />
lay on his deathbed had been flawless, but it had nonetheless delivered their most decisive<br />
victory, sending the otherwise organized forces of the NAAF in to a pitiful retreat for their<br />
lives.<br />
“We won, Marteen. That‟s all that matters, and I can think of few better to take<br />
command in his stead.”<br />
Carthedin rounded the table and approached Rhodes, looking up at the weathered<br />
flag that still flew proudly above the command dugout. “Nonetheless, Narius, you of all<br />
people must appreciate that we must move quickly to seize this momentum. Word of<br />
Neureon‟s passing has already spread to the others, and what we‟ve won here hangs by a<br />
single thread.”<br />
Despite his own mourning, Rhodes could not help but smile at this friend. “And to<br />
think just a moment ago you weren‟t sure if you could do this,” he jibed. “We‟re with you,<br />
Marteen. We always have been. Without trying to sit on the shoulders of Neureon, you‟ve<br />
got your own feet to stand on, and proudly at that. There isn‟t a single man here that<br />
wouldn‟t give everything for you, but you have to give them something to believe in.”<br />
Carthedin nodded to two silent aids that had been standing nearby, and they<br />
obediently disappeared in to a nearby trench. Carthedin ushered Rhodes aside and then<br />
looked out across the blasted hellscape that used to be the centre of Fort Lamy.<br />
“Narius... We have to find Sanaa.”<br />
Rhodes pulled his lips in to a tight line, and an awkward smile. “One problem at a<br />
time, Marteen. I count Sanaa as much a daughter as I do Anniel, but we cannot let our<br />
personal feelings get in the way of what we‟ve done here.”<br />
Rhodes did not obviously understand what Carthedin had meant, although he soon<br />
easily picked up on the great fear in Carthedin‟s voice. The General continued. “I‟m going to<br />
ask something very difficult of you, Narius... I don‟t imagine it‟s going to be an easy burden<br />
to bear.”<br />
- 15 -
“As always, my friend. You only need ask.”<br />
“Nonetheless, what I‟m about to tell you cannot pass beyond this conversation.”<br />
Rhodes nodded grimly, and Carthedin turned to face him. “Her lineage as the<br />
daughter of Neureon Vuender-Weist-Hezuin notwithstanding, her importance as a Nycarian<br />
is far greater than you could know.”<br />
The outlanders had continued to watch the Nycarians long after the battle had been<br />
won. Sitting amongst the craggy rocks of the mountainside the group sat in silence, watching<br />
and waiting for several long hours. As the sun rose higher in the dust-filled African sky, they<br />
finally began to pack up their belongings. No one could guess who they really were by their<br />
non-descript camouflage fatigues and second-hand weapons, and none of them wore any<br />
distinguishing emblems or insignias.<br />
For the entirety of the eight days of the Battle of Fort Lamy, they had been there as<br />
silent adjudicators of a contest that the world would never know. One of the outlanders stood<br />
high on top of an outcropping, his weapon slung lazily over his shoulder as he scanned the<br />
ruined city with his binoculars. He‟d been standing in nearly perfect stillness for over ten<br />
minutes when one of the other outlanders approached him. “We‟re done,” the outlander said<br />
plainly. The statement took his companion by surprise. He had been fairly sure he‟d<br />
managed to approach in total silence, and the man with the binoculars had not even<br />
removed them from his eyes to address him. His focus unbroken, the man on the<br />
mountainside seemed eerily aware of absolutely everything that surrounded him.<br />
“The last of the NAAF has pulled back, sir,” noted the aid quietly in agreement. “The<br />
Nycarians are moving forward, as well.”<br />
“I know,” said the outlander on top of the cairn. “The NAAF isn‟t likely to sit in Ghana<br />
too long after this. We‟ll need to move quickly if we expect to finish them. The sooner we<br />
take care of that, the sooner we can leave this rock.”<br />
The Lieutenant stepped back as the outlander climbed down from the rock, the<br />
binoculars now around his neck. The aid met his fierce, grey eyes and felt the same uneasy<br />
pang of anxiety that he‟d gotten whenever he looked at him since they arrived in Africa. At<br />
the same time, he saw a reassuring sense of control there that had managed to stay his<br />
questions to that point. Whatever the Captain was planning, he knew what he was doing<br />
only too well. “What do you mean, sir?”<br />
The Captain – the “outlander” – paused for a moment as he passed, and turned to<br />
look back at the younger officer, exhaling a lungful of warm air that sent wisps of frost in to<br />
the cool, evening sky. He took a beat, and then stepped six inches closer to make his intent<br />
clear. “Get Commander Hask for me, Lieutenant”<br />
The Lieutenant hesitated before replying. “Of course, sir.”<br />
Nodding his approval, the Captain turned and headed back to the encampment as<br />
the Lieutenant headed away to his errand. “Good. Once you‟ve done that, help the others<br />
break camp.”<br />
Nearing the encampment where the rest of his men were packing up in silence,<br />
another came up to him, almost invisible against the dark landscape in his black fatigues.<br />
The Captain didn‟t wait for him to inquire of what he wanted. “Ngunntini - I want him dead.<br />
Tell Drael to make sure he uses 7.62 ammunition, and make it look sloppy. Leave the body<br />
with the rest of the Nevarians... The Nycarians will find it, and assume they killed him in a fire<br />
fight.<br />
“Is it wise to get rid of Ngunntini so soon?” the Commander asked bluntly, without any<br />
of the deference shown by his other colleague.<br />
The Captain betrayed nothing as he headed to the four-wheeled desert patrol vehicle<br />
and began packing away his supplies. “Mbotmi Ngunntini has served his purpose, Hask.<br />
With him out of the way, the NAAF will fall apart, and the Nycarians will have their victory<br />
that much sooner.”<br />
“After that little display, you really think Carthedin needs the help?”<br />
The Captain snorted. “Carthedin needs nothing of the sort, and that‟s entirely the<br />
point. His and Neureon‟s actions here have been far more cunning that I predicted...” The<br />
- 16 -
Captain paused for a moment as he considered that with a smile. “Remarkable, really... We<br />
shouldn‟t underestimate them again.”<br />
The Commander was clearly growing impatient as he rolled his eyes and sighed. “If<br />
the purpose is to hold the Nycarians back, I don‟t exactly see how removing the NAAF‟s<br />
commanding officer is going to help the situation.”<br />
The Captain threw his back down in to the rear of the four-wheel-drive DPV hard and<br />
rounded sharply on the Commander. “Don‟t question my orders, Commander.”<br />
“With respect, sir, we‟ve been here for two years without having anything explained to<br />
us and have not questioned a thing. It might help if we knew what we were working towards.”<br />
The Captain stared at the commander in silence for several long seconds.<br />
“Regardless of our actions, Carthedin will get his victory, so that is no longer the issue. We<br />
cannot risk a leak as severe as Ngunntini. He has to be silenced.”<br />
“What of the girl?”<br />
The Captain continued to stare. “She is what we‟ve been working towards,<br />
commander. The Nycarians are far more than soldiers, they are weapons. We achieved our<br />
goals months ago, and now we simply have to let time do the rest. We‟ll bring Sanaa with<br />
us.”<br />
Grimly, the Commander nodded, and trudged off to continue packing up the<br />
encampment. “We leave in five minutes. Pack the vehicles. Get moving.”<br />
The young Lieutenant silently continued to move the last of his pack in to the rear<br />
truck, and then looked back down the mountain at the dwindling fires that still burned<br />
throughout Fort Lamy. For two years he had worked for this without ever once questioning<br />
the reasons why, or to what end. Now, seeing the devastation that had been wrought across<br />
the city, he finally began to feel a sickening sense of dread.<br />
“Lieutenant Callaghan!” called the Captain.<br />
He turned. “Yes, Captain Ezard?”<br />
“Do I need to repeat myself?”<br />
In silence, Ryan Callaghan shook his head and picked up another bag. “No sir.”<br />
Something very dark was coming.<br />
~<br />
- 17 -
I<br />
N E W O R D E R<br />
“131121/010”<br />
Fort Grace Naval Command, 20 miles south-east of San Angeles. The Pacific<br />
Ocean. August 4 th , 2042…<br />
The gleaming spire of Fort Grace glinted under the afternoon sun on the surface of<br />
the Pacific - the sprawling dockside being a bustle of activity where thousands of marines,<br />
sailors and officers milled. Fort Grace was a huge facility spanning a hundred square miles<br />
across the ocean floor and served as the operational headquarters of the entire UEO Pacific<br />
Fleet. The relatively small extent of the surface docks were but a shadow of the immense<br />
base which extended beneath the surface to the city of San Angeles just twenty miles away:<br />
the tip of a monolithic, imposing iceberg. Ringed by hundreds of defence turrets, sensor nets<br />
and subfighter bases, it was one of the most heavily fortified naval installations anywhere in<br />
the world.<br />
Wing Commander Corinn Roderick walked along the length of the eastern docks,<br />
staring up at the towering bulk of the submarine that sat in its moorings beside her. The<br />
Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200 was now the only ship of her class; the UEO‟s flagship, and the single<br />
greatest warship in the Pacific. For nearly two years, she had held a thin blue line against an<br />
unstoppable tide of violence. The Alliance of Macronesia, despite every effort, had<br />
maintained its offensives and force concentrations across the sprawling Pacific fronts, and<br />
for a cost in life that climbed by the dozens – if not hundreds - every day, nothing had been<br />
gained.<br />
The islands of Japan – once having fallen to the Chaodai in the early stages of the<br />
conflict – had been liberated through the heroic, determined efforts of the UEO Marines and<br />
the scattered remnants of the fourth fleet and now served as the staging base of the entire<br />
western Pacific fleet. But even that success had been undercut by the war‟s most shocking<br />
turn...<br />
In Roderick‟s eyes since that day, the new Secretary General of the UEO, Sir James<br />
Cathgate, had steadily driven the fleet from success to failure. The counter-offensives in to<br />
the Marshalls, Carolines and Philippines had ground to a halt with the changes of national<br />
defence policies, and the war was being increasingly driven by political agenda. The most<br />
frustrating issues for UEO military commanders were the apparently arbitrary and unwanted<br />
force rotations at the front line – the most experienced and best equipped UEO fighter<br />
squadrons and battlegroups found themselves relieved and pulled back in reserve, only to<br />
be replaced by comparatively inexperienced North Sea Confederation units. Normally, the<br />
assistance of the UEO‟s European allies would be welcomed with open arms, but rather than<br />
directing the war in a spirit of cooperation, Cathgate had increasingly taken away operations<br />
and jurisdiction from UEO units, and left their commanders confused and unsure of their<br />
responsibilities. Uncertainty had taken hold within the UEO ranks, and much of the<br />
frustration was beginning to be directed at the NSC forces that now ran the front line.<br />
For her part, Roderick was only grateful. For two entire years, she had led the 115 th<br />
fighter squadron, the „Dark Angels‟, through the worst of the war. The squadron had become<br />
a symbol of the UEO‟s pride, never knowing defeat, even amidst unimaginable loss. Pearl<br />
Harbor, San Diego, Ryukyu Trench, Challenger Deep and Kuril Trench: all names that had<br />
become synonymous with the most hopeless of odds, and useless of struggles. Then there<br />
was <strong>Atlantis</strong>...<br />
For weeks, newscasts had reported on the ship‟s loss, the same images of its final<br />
moments being replayed over and over again from London to Beijing and Melbourne to <strong>New</strong><br />
York. The shock had hit the UEO harder than any other loss to that day, and the<br />
repercussions were still being felt across the theatre. The Dark Angels had been there for<br />
- 18 -
every single one of those engagements, and each time had walked away surrounded by a<br />
shadow of death. It was as if death hunted them – watching and waiting for them to slip<br />
before deciding that their luck deserved to run out.<br />
Roderick thought it odd that it was the very reason why her pilots were seeing<br />
progressively less combat as the war dragged on. It wasn‟t that the fighting was getting<br />
easier, it was that command was increasingly seeing them as a tool of morale, and orders<br />
had them kept behind the front line as a „support‟ unit, out of harm‟s way. They had earned<br />
and defended their laurels many times over, and had nothing more to prove.<br />
And so she found herself in San Angeles – arguably the safest place in the entire<br />
Pacific Ocean, surrounded by a thousand nautical miles of submarine fortifications,<br />
protected by the cradle of the Pacific Fleet.<br />
She stopped as she came to the boarding tower at the end of the pier, and looked<br />
around at the gathered crowds. Her white shore uniform stood out brightly against the sea of<br />
stark black and navy blue jumpsuits, and it didn‟t take long for someone to recognise her<br />
amongst the throng. “Quinn!”<br />
She turned towards the towering hull of <strong>DSV</strong> Aquarius again, and strained to make<br />
out the source of the voice in the crowd. She smiled when she recognised him and took off<br />
her uniform cap before he jogged up and took her in to a warm embrace. At only five feet<br />
tall, Roderick was virtually swallowed by the taller, heavily built man, but for the first time in<br />
as long as she could remember she simply didn‟t want to pull away.<br />
“Gavin,” she said after a moment, pulling back for just long enough to stare up at him.<br />
“It‟s so good to see you...”<br />
Wing Commander Gavin Mackenzie, the commanding officer of the Aquarius sea<br />
wing beamed brightly as he stared down through Roderick‟s eyes. She was still young, but<br />
her eyes seemed so old – two years of war had weathered the once bright and fiery Irish<br />
soul. He felt a twinge of sadness as he saw the pain there, and smiled in comfort. “It‟s been<br />
a while,” he noted quietly, finally pulling back and letting his hands fall down her shoulders to<br />
her forearms. It was a motion that made her want to recoil. “Thanks for stopping by.”<br />
“I had no excuse,” she offered lightly. “I know you don‟t have long, but I had to see<br />
you off. I‟m sorry I couldn‟t make sooner.”<br />
“Hey, that‟s ok. Don‟t apologise,” Mackenzie‟s face darkened. “...How‟ve you been?”<br />
Roderick didn‟t break her gaze, and smiled weakly. She was strong, despite<br />
everything she‟d been through, but her once-masked eyes betrayed her thoughts before she<br />
even answered. “I‟ve been ok. Keeping busy, I suppose.”<br />
It was about the vaguest answer she could ever give, and Mackenzie smirked.<br />
“Bullshit,” he said bluntly. “You‟re bored out of your brain. Ever since they pulled you off the<br />
line, all you‟ve done is train nuggets, and you want action.”<br />
Roderick stopped, her expression changing to one of regret as she thought about it.<br />
“I was actually thinking the opposite,” she said truthfully. “I‟m tired of all this, Gav. It‟s just<br />
that now that I‟ve got time on my hands, I have no idea what to do with it.”<br />
Mackenzie‟s heart skipped a beat as he realised his hand had slipped further to hold<br />
hers, and he pulled away softly. She caught the glint in his eye and felt flushed. He smiled<br />
bashfully. He loved Corinn like a sister, but he had never seen her as anything more. Two<br />
years of war had taken their toll – her porcelain face was tired, her dark eyes drawn and her<br />
once-proud and strong shoulders slouched. But god, despite it all she was still beautiful. He<br />
could never tell her that... “I can think of a thing or two,” he winked innocently, but Roderick<br />
backed down, her hand finally pulling away.<br />
“I can‟t,” she strained apologetically, before looking back up at him with a weak<br />
smile. “...I don‟t have that much time on my hands. At the end of the week we‟re being<br />
shipped out to the Commonwealth.”<br />
Mackenzie‟s face twisted in to a mixture of disappointment and surprise. “The<br />
Philippines?”<br />
Roderick swallowed a lump in her throat and smiled again, although it was obviously<br />
forced. “I came to say goodbye because I‟m not sure how long the tour‟s going to last. Wing<br />
Commander Carrol was killed last week. They need a new CAG.”<br />
- 19 -
Mackenzie‟s face paled at the prospect. The fighting in the Philippines was bad, this<br />
was no secret, and no position on that front was safe or secure. Roderick was being given<br />
what, for any other squadron, would be a suicide mission. “And you accepted?” he said<br />
slowly, his voice lowered to a growl.<br />
Roderick‟s face was again pained. “It was ordered, not requested. But hey - there I<br />
was thinking they might give me a desk. I guess they think I‟ve still got something left.”<br />
“What about the Angels?”<br />
She nodded curtly. “They‟re coming with me. Don‟t know how much Admiral Morgan<br />
had to do with this, but at least they‟re not being broken up. God knows Morgan needs all<br />
the help he can get.”<br />
“Walking on old graves,” he noted with a grim, weak smile.<br />
There was a twinkle in Roderick‟s eye as she smiled again, and took his hand again,<br />
this time with a confidence he‟d rarely seen. “No... I think the ghosts left him a long time<br />
ago.”<br />
Captain Lauren Hornsby stood on the flying bridge of the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>, looking<br />
down over the surface docks with a watchful eye. Her gaze had come to rest on the lone<br />
officer in white along with their companion at the end of the pier, and she smiled as she<br />
realised who it must have been. Beside her, Commander Thomas Parker, the squadron<br />
leader of the VF-123 Ghosts, smiled slightly. Hornsby looked at him with a wary stare.<br />
“Something the matter, Commander?”<br />
Parker looked up in surprise, but couldn‟t repress the smile. “Sorry, Captain... Not my<br />
place to speculate.”<br />
Hornsby raised a delicate eyebrow. “Then why don‟t you ask?”<br />
Parker paused for a moment and then smiled lopsidedly, realising he was being<br />
baited. “There are some things, Captain, that one doesn‟t ask the Wing Commander.”<br />
Hornsby smiled mischievously. “Good answer,” she said bluntly. “The less we know,<br />
the better, as far as I‟m concerned. Emotional baggage around here is the last thing any of<br />
us need right now...” She stared blankly down at the dockside and past the two fighter<br />
pilots, her eyes darkening under a furrowed brow. This time it was Commander Razak‟s turn<br />
to interrogate her, the Aquarius XO having her exchange with Parker from the other side of<br />
the observation deck.<br />
He walked over silently and placed his hands on the guard rail. “Captain?”<br />
Hornsby‟s eyes flickered to watch him for a moment and then gazed back out over<br />
the surface of the Pacific. She closed them and shook her head. Razak had known for a<br />
while that the details of their mission had been troubling Hornsby for a while, but to this point<br />
the Captain hadn‟t openly let it show. It was a subtle lapse for an officer known for being so<br />
guarded, and Razak doubted that anyone else would have noticed it.<br />
“Are you alright?”<br />
She opened her eyes again and glared at Razak fiercely. “You know my concerns,<br />
John. Let‟s leave it at that.”<br />
Razak nodded gravely, straightening his uniform and checking the deck behind him.<br />
“As you wish, ma‟am.”<br />
Hornsby looked back as well, noting the attention of several of deck officers. It was<br />
attention she didn‟t want, and she sighed and straightened. “Enjoy the view while it lasts,<br />
gentlemen. I‟ll be in my office.”<br />
Razak watched the Captain disappear down the staircase in silence until Parker<br />
spoke up from the rail. “What was that all about?” he whispered with a frown.<br />
The XO turned and smiled nonchalantly. He betrayed nothing. “Nothing, Commander.<br />
I think the Captain‟s just had a long week.”<br />
Gavin Mackenzie held Roderick tightly one last time before he she let him go, and<br />
pulled back quietly. An embarrassed, inward smile briefly flushed her cheeks as she<br />
straightened and tried to put on a more formal guise. Mackenzie was unreadable for a<br />
moment and in the back of her mind, a million thoughts and questions still tumbled. It was a<br />
- 20 -
struggle not to blurt them out, and she saluted sharply to cover it. “Good luck, Wing<br />
Commander,” she said curtly while almost fumbling with Mackenzie‟s rank.<br />
Mind made up, a part of her saw a missed opportunity, and it was matched by the<br />
brief glimmer of disappointment in Mackenzie‟s eyes. He returned the salute after a long<br />
moment of hesitation, and then offered a reassuring smile. Her heart skipped a beat.<br />
“See you „round, Quinn.”<br />
Roderick nodded and smiled again, swallowing another lump that had risen in her<br />
throat. Mackenzie turned and walked away without ever once looking back, his stride<br />
purposeful as he approached the boarding towers and returned the salute from a pair of<br />
Aquarius‟s marines. Roderick continued to watch from the dockside for another hour. She<br />
stayed and watched the great <strong>DSV</strong> break from her moorings slowly and shrink on to a bloodred<br />
western horizon. Before too long, the great ship slipped beneath the waves and<br />
disappeared.<br />
It was the last time anyone at Fort Grace would ever see her.<br />
~<br />
Five days later, UEO Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200, 550 miles inside the Alliance border,<br />
the Polynesian trench. August 9 th , 2042…<br />
A giant, spread-winged manta moved silently through the abyss, her huge flanks<br />
sweeping carefully around the walks of the trench line as she advanced under the cover of<br />
the submarine hills. A UEO <strong>DSV</strong> was capable of speeds that passed two hundred knots:<br />
their navigational fins and bioskin working in tandem to produce an almost perfect slipstream<br />
and propelled by six giant engines that were each, on their own, the size of a UEO SSN.<br />
For now, Aquarius would do no more than few knots at best. A submarine of her size,<br />
irrespective of how advanced her decoys and countermeasures may have been, was a<br />
massive target that stood out on even the smallest of sonar arrays with all the prominence of<br />
a mountain range. Not even the fish were disturbed by her passage as she continued to<br />
prowl the depths, yet the tension amongst those on her command deck couldn‟t have been<br />
any more painful.<br />
Commander John Razak had watched the movements of Hornsby‟s boots as she<br />
continued to pace the upper bridge deck, the slight „clank‟ as boot heel met steel grating<br />
having all the precision of a well-made watch. It was a nauseating rhythm, and one that he<br />
had been watching for what seemed an hour. In reality, it had only been several minutes.<br />
The Captain‟s eyes continued to look downward, tracing the line her feet followed where two<br />
of the deck gratings met along a frame, heel-to-toe.<br />
After a time, the ship‟s tactical officer, Lieutenant Commander Davis Akara, also<br />
found himself watching the Captain intently, first as he noticed Razak‟s blank stare to the<br />
Captain‟s feet, and then being drawn in as the next victim of the oddly-hypnotic pattern.<br />
Eventually, Hornsby stopped as she sensed the two sets of eyes cast on her, and she<br />
looked at Razak quizzically. “Problem, Commander?”<br />
Razak pulled back in surprise, his jaw agape as he struggled with the thought.<br />
“What? Oh. No, Captain...”<br />
“No ma‟am,” added Akara hastily, drawing the Captain‟s gaze from the XO to the<br />
lower deck.<br />
“Nothing to report, Davis?”<br />
“Uhh, no... Not really.”<br />
Hornsby nodded, and then continued her pace across the deck, pulling a lock of<br />
stubborn blonde hair from her eye to drape it behind an ear. The ship‟s progress was<br />
agonizing, moving at a speed of barely ten knots as they neared a place which no UEO ship<br />
had visited in exactly thirteen months. The last time that had happened, the ship in question<br />
had never returned. The threat posed by Macronesia‟s massive Atlas missile defence<br />
- 21 -
system had left a dark shadow over the Aquarius, and the importance of remaining<br />
undetected had become a default second-to-none.<br />
This was where <strong>Atlantis</strong> had died, and the ghosts would never leave. Why the ship‟s<br />
orders had brought the Aquarius there, Hornsby had never been able to find out, and every<br />
inquiry in the purpose and pursuit of the operation had been flatly rebuked by anyone with<br />
even a hint of authority. She didn‟t appreciate being led around blindly by her nose, and had<br />
simply been assured that a rendezvous would take place. With who, and why, remained<br />
mysteries.<br />
A shrill chirp from the sonar stations turned all three officer‟s heads (two of them<br />
mercifully) at once.<br />
“Captain?”<br />
“Mister Mackenzie?”<br />
Lieutenant Kathleen Mackenzie was an oddity – and one that Hornsby had never<br />
been particularly pleased with. This was because she was the sister of the Aquarius‟s most<br />
impetuous Wing Commander. In normal circumstances, the fleet would have prohibited the<br />
two officers from serving together in the same command... but with demands being what<br />
they were, Hornsby had not been willing to part with one of her most experienced senior<br />
staff, and as head of ship operations, she almost never left the bridge. “Hypersonar contact<br />
in the trench, ma‟am. Range twenty-two miles, dead-ahead. We caught it as we rounded that<br />
last turn.”<br />
“IFF? Matching records?”<br />
“None, ma‟am. Solid mass, depth approximately sixteen thousand feet.”<br />
Hornsby felt a rush of familiarity, and a momentary silence filled the command deck.<br />
She hesitated before issuing her next orders, swallowing a lump that had risen sharply in her<br />
throat. “Deploy WSPRS forward, send Curly in for a visual identification... keep Larry on<br />
direct laser relay. I don‟t want to give our position away with active sonar.”<br />
Mackenzie nodded solemnly. No one was saying what was on their minds, but it was<br />
already clear, and there were very few things in the world that could give a sonar return so<br />
quickly from that depth...<br />
“It‟s her...” said an oddly distant, haunting voice from Hornsby‟s side. The Captain‟s<br />
eyes shifted to meet the purple glow of the ship‟s AI. The AI stared at the view screen at the<br />
front of the room, as if gazing in to the darkness at something that her human comrades<br />
could not yet distinguish.<br />
“Ari?”<br />
“A personal matter, Captain, I apologise,” the AI replied curtly, meeting the Captain‟s<br />
gaze momentarily.<br />
Hornsby pursed her lips. She‟d managed to get used to the continuous presence of<br />
Ari in her tenure as Captain of the Aquarius, but there were still times where the too-human<br />
mannerisms caught her off-guard.<br />
Aquarius‟s tiny, unmanned satellites – named Curly, Larry and Moe – moved about<br />
their larger mothersub like fireflies, their spotlights painting the hull as they moved back and<br />
forth, always scanning, watching and protecting her in the abyss. Obediently, they<br />
disappeared in to the blackness of the trench far below, and the tense game of waiting<br />
continued anew.<br />
Aquarius herself never halted, still moving over the black pit below her on her way<br />
through to the mission. That this passage of ocean remained the only way that submarines<br />
could traverse the south pacific west-to-east without being detected sat uneasily with<br />
Hornsby, and the presence of patrols remained a distinct possibility. Even without the three<br />
“Whispers” probes – Wireless Sea Protection and Reconnaissance Satellites – Aquarius still<br />
had three WSKRS – Sea Knowledge Retrieval Satellites – to cover her approaches.<br />
The Polynesian trench was one of the scars left behind from two decades of<br />
ecological chaos, first as the result of a catastrophic geothermal meltdown off the Australian<br />
coast in 2019, and then by Macronesia‟s use of subduction weapons to annex most of the<br />
South Pacific basin. When they claimed the expansive Tongan prospects, the use of so<br />
many of the weapons had reduced layers of bedrock that had sat undisturbed for a million<br />
- 22 -
years to slag. The damage was irreversible, and for the next ten years, a great, uncharted rift<br />
had steadily formed between American Samoa and French Polynesia over three miles deep.<br />
For a time, it had been a serious concern to geologists who feared a dramatic shift in plate<br />
tectonics around the Pacific, but it had never come. Now, a trench some fifteen hundred<br />
miles long remained as a testament to the unnatural forces that had so ravaged the region. It<br />
remained the UEO‟s one and only lifeline in to the Macronesian Alliance, and one that was<br />
fraught with risk.<br />
To those aboard, it felt as if Aquarius stood alone - too stubborn to submit, and too<br />
proud to give in as the endless black of the trench reached out of the maw as if wanting to<br />
engulf her insignificant form and swallow her for the rest of time.<br />
Hornsby closed her eyes as the WSPRS continued their long plunge to the bottom,<br />
some ten thousand feet below. Minutes passed, and an eerie silence had settled over the<br />
ship‟s command decks as every eye sat watching the monitors intently.<br />
To the eyes of the probing WSPR satellites, she loomed out of the darkness like a<br />
ghost – battered, scarred and tortured. Grey shafts of light from the hovering probes shone<br />
down around her ruin, and it was this that so defined the sight. Hornsby raised her head<br />
slightly as she watched the shadow in the darkness materialize in to a ghostly, unwelcome<br />
form. Sitting just a few meters from the edge of the rocky abyssal, the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> lay<br />
broken: her great prow jutting across the rock precipice to throw a shadow in to the abyss<br />
below. Her upper decks appeared to glow under the piercing gaze of the WSPRS flood<br />
lights, the dramatic silhouette of the great battleship staring her down sending a chill through<br />
Lauren Hornsby‟s spine.<br />
For Ari, it was an entirely different experience as the sensors and sonars of the <strong>DSV</strong><br />
and her accompanying satellites probed and analysed the wreck. She saw things in real time<br />
that no other member of the crew could have imagined.<br />
“Extensive damage to her upper decks,” Ari reported quietly. “This is strange...”<br />
Hornsby turned again. “How? Ainsley‟s action report stated that most of the upper<br />
decks were destroyed, didn‟t it?”<br />
“Yes, Captain... And that‟s consistent, but her hull is intact.”<br />
Hornsby frowned. “Put it up.”<br />
The screen changed, and the WSKRS data displayed was displayed in its aggregate<br />
entirety. <strong>Atlantis</strong> was initially invisible against the mud and seafloor, her huge flanks and<br />
wings covered by layers of detritus that had settled long after her final plunge. A virtual<br />
overlay dissolved in to view as the data was pieced together, revealing a familiar shape. The<br />
jutting arrowhead prow was the first and most recognisable part of the hull, jutting out over<br />
the immense precipice of the rock face, her canards lagging out from behind as the grid<br />
swept back over the hull, widening to its thick mid-ships bulk. There, two huge, swept wings<br />
seemed to hang, rather than diverge, from its shoulders. Details started to become apparent<br />
as the mesh was refined, and the extent of the damage of the upper decks became<br />
apparent. Entire bulkheads had been torn away from the dorsal hull, leaving shattered<br />
frames and decks visible beneath the debris and mud that had fallen to fill the great wound.<br />
Yet despite the ugly scars... she was very clearly intact. To Hornsby‟s eye, something<br />
seemed unusual about the pattern of debris that had settled atop the dorsal hull, but she<br />
could not figure what it was.<br />
“There has to be about seven thousand pounds per square inch of pressure out<br />
there,” remarked the Captain, studying the suspiciously stable structure before her. “She<br />
should have imploded during the descent.”<br />
“Seven thousand, three hundred and thirteen, to be precise,” Ari corrected. “And it<br />
seems improbable to me that the ship could have survived an uncontrolled descent the way<br />
it has.”<br />
Hornsby folded her arms as she continued to stare, captivated by the ghostly image<br />
before her and then quietly hit the intercom. “Anniel,” she asked. “I‟d like you to come to the<br />
bridge.”<br />
Hornsby started to pace slowly in front of the Conn as her staff continued to gather all<br />
the information they could. <strong>Atlantis</strong> made for an abysmal sight, her prow jutting out in to the<br />
- 23 -
murky darkness ahead of a hull that had already been covered in mud and debris. The<br />
depression she lay in was probably formed when the 240,000 tonne submarine collided with<br />
the seabed, kicking up hundreds of tonnes of sediment. The vast wings of the submarine<br />
comprised an area the better part of two football fields by themselves, and their downward<br />
slope and considerable mass – designed to keep the great vessel‟s trim stable at close to<br />
transcavitational speeds – had done her a service in keeping the keel upright. If the ballast<br />
tanks within those wings were deliberately breached and flooded as Ainsley‟s report had<br />
always held, then she had been saved by that final act. Hornsby doubted much would have<br />
been left of the ship if she had listed and gone down at an angle. The impact of one of those<br />
massive wings, ahead of a quarter of a million tonnes of titanium, carbon composites and<br />
steel, would have almost certainly destroyed her.<br />
The delicate, almost deliberately covert footsteps behind her were something that<br />
Hornsby was going to need to get used to, she decided with a half-smile. The footsteps<br />
stopped well-short of the Conn. It was a subtle but deliberate decision that Hornsby knew<br />
was being made as a respectful consideration before she slowly turned.<br />
The woman wore a black, high-collared tunic uniform trimmed in gold piping,<br />
although it gave Hornsby a momentary pause to note she wore the jacket open, the top<br />
button of the white blouse unfastened comfortably. For a Nycarian, it practically passed as<br />
completely casual attire.<br />
“What do you make of this?” Hornsby asked her, turning on a heel to stand next to<br />
the woman.<br />
Anniel raised an eyebrow as she straightened and looked at the indicated sensor log<br />
with a slowly narrowing gaze. “Interesting,” she started. “The hull has sunk on an even keel.”<br />
“Mhmm,” Hornsby agreed with a half-smile. “Go on.”<br />
The Nycarian looked briefly at Hornsby, realising full well the UEO Captain was<br />
weighing and judging her every comment. She was welcome to those examinations, but it<br />
did nothing to faze her. “According to Admiral Ainsley‟s report, and the findings of the inquiry,<br />
the destruction of the starboard ballast tanks should have led to an uncontrolled sinking... If<br />
my knowledge of the hull composition and construction is correct, the loss of equilibrium<br />
would have resulted in a catastrophic loss of hull integrity at a depth of approximately five<br />
thousand feet.”<br />
Hornsby smiled at Ari, who maintained a particularly smug grin from her small<br />
pedestal next to the Conn. “She‟s after your job, Ari,” Hornsby prodded.<br />
The AI sniffed, but the Nycarian continued to stare at the plot.<br />
...It started as a high-pitched whine that turned in to a shrill, piercing stab of noise,<br />
echoing and bouncing through decks and corrid throughout the Aquarius moments later. The<br />
crew stopped, looking at each other in surprise at the distinct, unmistakeable sound.<br />
“Active hypersonar ping,” Mackenzie confirmed as it lingered on.<br />
“Origin?”<br />
Mackenzie was about to reply when the monitors around the bridge began wink out.<br />
They were steady at first, but then other, secondary systems began to stutter.<br />
Davis Akara barked an alarm from tactical, and he was very quickly followed by<br />
almost every other station officer on the bridge.<br />
It happened too fast for anyone to realise, or even report. Next to Hornsby, on the<br />
small, unassuming pedestal adjacent to the plot, Ari stammered.<br />
“Captain... Something is... very...”<br />
Then the impetuous AI, too, flickered. For a moment, genuine surprise covered Ari‟s<br />
face before she dissolved in to static, the image buffers projecting light on the haze of water<br />
vapour unable to process her routine information fast enough as the main computers were<br />
overrun by a flood of data that surged through them. It seemed the most unlikely of<br />
scenarios: Ari, a living, sentient computer built on the DNA of a human mind, permanently<br />
hardwired in to the most sophisticated system of slaved neural-fibre supercomputers,<br />
capable of processing the battlespace of an entire theatre down to most comprehensive of<br />
fine detail in real time, blacked out. Firewalls failed, countermeasure programs were<br />
- 24 -
destroyed, and for a moment, the finest neural computing system ever designed by the UEO<br />
died.<br />
The bridge was plunged in to darkness and silence for several long seconds. Senior<br />
officers gritted their teeth and gripped hand rails as they waited for an expected barrage of<br />
torpedoes and enlistedmen looked to them for orders. Neither would come as a lone, gentle<br />
blue light flickered from the holographic pedestal, and the AI appeared, appearing to be on<br />
her knees, turned away from the bridge staff, head low, with arms limp at her sides.<br />
Lauren Hornsby slowly walked around the pedestal as an eerie sound carried on the<br />
command deck.<br />
A deep, wounded sobbing. The AI‟s shoulders heaved with each breath, and tears<br />
welled under her pale, white cheeks, glistening in the light. Akara stood from his station to<br />
look back in wonder. They seemed... real.<br />
“Captain-“<br />
Hornsby silenced him with a single, raised index finger.<br />
The purple, monotone hue of the AI that they had all become so used to witnessing<br />
had disappeared, now an icy, lonely blue.<br />
As Hornsby completed her long, half-lap, the AI looked up at her, a single tear rolling<br />
from her cheek to spatter on the pedestal.<br />
The AI‟s mouth hung open for a moment as her gaze met Hornsby‟s, and there was a<br />
frightening unfamiliarity there which made the hairs on the back of the Captain‟s neck stand<br />
on-end.<br />
“Help... me...”<br />
~<br />
- 25 -
“030639/3536”<br />
Extract from the personal journal of Mark A. Ainsley.<br />
Dated 17 October, 2042…<br />
“...Wing Commander Corinn Roderick may well be the last person to have ever seen<br />
the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>. When I learned of the loss, I felt as though a part of me was lost with her.<br />
Even now, two months since she disappeared, I have no answers.<br />
I will always wonder what happened to Lauren Hornsby and her crew, and I doubt<br />
that any answer can ever truly bring about an end to my bereavement. Despite this, my<br />
professional relationship with Captain Hornsby does not compare to the great personal loss I<br />
feel of Commander Thomas Parker. He leaves behind a wife of three years, and son of just<br />
five months old: my daughter and grandson. I would like to believe that saying he died<br />
defending them would be enough. To give everything in the defence of something greater<br />
than one‟s self is a noble sacrifice that should be as much celebrated as it is mourned, but<br />
even this I cannot know with any certainty.<br />
For over thirty years, I have trained those under my command to detach themselves<br />
from emotional responsibility – to understand that they cannot be blamed for that which lies<br />
beyond their control. The hypocrisy of this does not escape me as I consider that my<br />
grandson will grow up without ever knowing his father – a fine man and a gentleman who I<br />
only too proudly and without hesitation call my son. It brings no small amount of tragedy in<br />
knowing that Michael Parker will grow up without ever knowing the example and guidance of<br />
such a man. By contrast, it is with unrivalled anguish that I witness how such fine deeds can<br />
be tarnished by the distortion of the noblest of our ideals...”<br />
~<br />
- 26 -
Almost Six Months Later. The Present Day...<br />
Fort Grace Naval Command, 20 miles south-east of San Angeles. April 3 rd ,<br />
2043…<br />
The centre of Fort Grace was nothing more than a solid, obsidian-walled armoured<br />
bunker complex on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. A remnant of the Third World War, the<br />
facility had been progressively upgraded over the years that had passed since to include<br />
rings of defensive emplacements, docking facilities and subfighter hangars. In contrast to the<br />
surface facilities a couple of miles away, the only access to the command centre was by<br />
submarine transport or the twenty-mile long sea floor Mag-Lev tube that ran from San<br />
Angeles itself. For eighteen months, Fort Grace had served diligently and capably as the<br />
headquarters of the UEO‟s Pacific Fleet: hundreds of war-subs and thousands of subfighters<br />
called the base home in a theatre that was struggling to manage with overburdened logistics<br />
and supply demands. Even eighteen months after the loss of Pearl Harbor and San Diego,<br />
the UEO had struggled to bring their other bases to the level of capability needed to support<br />
the ever-growing Pacific fleet. With Japan now once again in UEO hands, bases in<br />
Yokohama and Kure had been rapidly brought back in to service, but Fort Grace had<br />
remained at the very centre of fleet operations in the theatre.<br />
One reason for this was the increasing presence of North Sea Confederation forces<br />
throughout the Pacific. Nearly half of the UEO‟s Pacific-based forces were now drawn<br />
directly from the North Sea Confederation, and with this increase in force had come<br />
increased demands on the few fleet bases that existed across the Pacific.<br />
At any one time, Fort Grace was host to at least half a dozen carrier taskforces,<br />
sometimes being forced to deal with as many as ten, as it had done during the staging<br />
preparations for Operation Clipper over a year before.<br />
It was not just the new materiel demands that had been troubling Fleet Admiral Jack<br />
Riley, but also the demands of those behind the forces themselves. When the North Sea<br />
Confederation had committed to supporting the UEO‟s war against Macronesia, no one had<br />
foreseen the political entanglements that would result. A move that was supposed to bring<br />
about a swift end to the war had spiralled in to a drawn-out war of attrition with Macronesia:<br />
the UEO/NSC coalition being unable to counter the massive defence battery which had held<br />
the Pacific in an iron-grip for that same eighteen months.<br />
A weapon named Atlas.<br />
It was the same battery which had destroyed the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>, and now the Alliance<br />
was making rapid progress on a second such system, located in the middle of the most<br />
heavily fortified stronghold in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor.<br />
A clock was ticking down to a deadline that had been set by Secretary General Sir<br />
James Cathgate. Zero hour was midnight, August 1 st , 2043 - just four months away. It<br />
coincided with the projected time that the Alliance would bring the massive weapons system<br />
online.<br />
This was the burden that weighed heavily on Fleet Admiral Jack Riley in the<br />
headquarters complex of Fort Grace. It didn‟t help that it was compounded by the headache<br />
being created by the twelve other Admirals who stood around a great oaken table arguing in<br />
the middle of the war room. The question of Pearl Harbor was a point of great contention<br />
amongst the General Staff of the Pacific Fleet, and it seemed to Riley that no one was<br />
capable of agreeing on even the most simple of subjects. Rank only applied to a point – an<br />
Admiral, regardless of the number of stars on their collar, was a powerful individual that was<br />
afforded respect... most especially when they belonged to a separate chain of command.<br />
“That‟s enough,” Riley snapped sharply, glaring at two UEO and NSC Admirals who<br />
were seconds away from tearing each other apart from across the table. “You people need<br />
to learn the actual definition of the words „war room‟. I am not having this command centre<br />
turned in to a circus because you can‟t decide who has the biggest torpedo tubes.”<br />
- 27 -
The argument turned silent instantly as every pair of eyes locked on the Fleet Admiral<br />
and one or two of the UEO staff tried unsuccessfully to hide bemused smirks. Riley didn‟t<br />
break his poise under their gaze, instead turning his lip in to a curled sneer. “When I say I<br />
want Pearl Harbor by August, I don‟t expect you to tell me it can‟t be done, and I most<br />
certainly don‟t expect the point to be argued. It‟s an order. Now give me options.”<br />
The NSC Admiral, an officer of the German Navy named Dietrich von Kesselring,<br />
was one of seven NSC commanders in the room. It hadn‟t escaped Riley that the number of<br />
UEO officers at these meetings had steadily decreased in the past eighteen months, and<br />
most of the NSC officers that had been assigned to his General Staff had come at the orders<br />
of the new Secretary General. It had coincided with a major decrease in the number of UEO<br />
ships and taskforce commanders on the frontline – something which Riley suspected to be<br />
an ultimately under-handed and insulting attack on his command by Sir James Cathgate.<br />
“Admiral, I respect the orders, however I question whether this can be done in such a<br />
short time period without unacceptably high casualties,” said Kesselring in his usual cold and<br />
stern tone.<br />
Admiral Andrew Hayes, Riley‟s chief of staff – and the other half of the argument –<br />
smirked inwardly and opened his mouth to say something before the Fleet Admiral shot him<br />
a warning glare. He stopped and then reconsidered his thoughts. Hayes had held his<br />
position for as long as Riley had been the commander of the Pacific Fleet, and shared his<br />
frustrations. Unlike the Fleet Admiral however, Hayes was not as patient, and became a<br />
Pitbull when his authority was challenged. “Jack, we don‟t have much choice in the matter.<br />
The Secretary General was quite clear... All options on the table, the third fleet‟s our best<br />
shot. It isn‟t numbers we need here: It‟s firepower.”<br />
“No, Admiral Hayes, it isn‟t. What we need is time,” countered Kesselring dryly.<br />
“October, November, we may be able to do something, but not before. If you send a fleet of<br />
five battlecruisers to Pearl Harbor now, you will lose five battlecruisers.”<br />
“I don‟t know if you‟d prefer me to say it in German, because I‟ve tried English a<br />
dozen times - We don‟t have until November,” sighed Riley as he removed his glasses and<br />
rubbed his eyes with the Secretary General‟s orders ringing in the back of his head.<br />
Admiral Hayes pursed his lips and straightened, gesturing to the satellite photo of<br />
Pearl Harbor in the centre of the desk, pointing specifically to the huge underwater missile<br />
base being constructed on what remained of the off-shore fortress of Saratoga naval station.<br />
“This is our only real target,” he offered slowly. “This deadline is being driven by the<br />
construction of that battery, correct?”<br />
“Yes. If they finish it, then they will have the capacity to hit any target from Tokyo to<br />
San Francisco, and we won‟t have to worry about retaking Pearl Harbor, because we will<br />
have lost this war. It‟s that simple.”<br />
“Then forget about Pearl Harbor,” suggested Hayes, holding up his hands. “We only<br />
need to destroy the battery. Even if we just delay the completion of the facility, we can press<br />
the Secretary General for more time in taking the islands.”<br />
Kesselring raised an eyebrow, but remained silent as he listened to Hayes, giving<br />
him only inches. Now they were getting somewhere. “How?”<br />
General Bradley Colburn, the commander of the Combined UEO/US First Marine<br />
Division, spoke up from the end of the desk. The audacious marine, normally not known for<br />
reservation, had remained quiet during the heated exchange between Hayes and<br />
Kesselring, apparently savouring every moment. Colburn had been in command of the UEO<br />
Marines based on Hawaii in person when the Alliance had invaded in 2041. When the order<br />
had been given to retreat from the islands, it had been his command that had taken it most<br />
bitterly. “Joint operation: Force Recon and NSF through an orbital insertion. We drop in,<br />
plant charges, and get out again before they ever know we were there.” Colburn smiled. “I‟ve<br />
been looking forward to kicking those bastards in the balls since we lost it to start with. Just<br />
give me the word.”<br />
Riley shook his head. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Brad, but short of a<br />
tactical nuke, there isn‟t anything you have that is going to put the entire battery out of<br />
commission. We tried conventional weapons with the one sitting off the Australian coast. It<br />
- 28 -
didn‟t work, and the Air Force haven‟t shut up about their losses since. It‟s too heavily<br />
fortified, and too deep. As for your preferred insertion, Whitechapel is still months from being<br />
anywhere near ready for trials, and even if you made it in, we have no way of getting your<br />
men out.”<br />
Colburn hesitated only for a second. “That‟s a risk I‟m willing to take, sir, and with<br />
respect – it‟s a risk we‟ve taken before.”<br />
Hayes wasn‟t finished. “I was thinking something more direct, General,” he corrected<br />
calmly, gesturing to the large holographic map which showed the location of the third fleet.<br />
“A large, carrier-based subfighter attack may be fast enough to break through their defence<br />
nets and hit the base before withdrawing to the north. We‟ve done that before as well.”<br />
“Yes, with a fully-loaded <strong>Atlantis</strong>-class <strong>DSV</strong>,” said Colburn darkly. “We don‟t have that<br />
capability anymore.”<br />
It hung for a moment, and never did Riley feel as if he had wanted those ships as<br />
much as he did at that moment. In 2041, the <strong>Atlantis</strong> had led a most spectacular assault over<br />
a thousand nautical miles behind enemy lines to attack and destroy nearly a third of the<br />
Alliance‟s fleet carriers. It had been the single most one-sided victory that the UEO had seen<br />
during the entire, blood-soaked first year of conflict, and had been bookended by what was<br />
regarded as singularly the most tragic loss – the destruction of San Diego by nuclear<br />
weapons. It had cemented what the <strong>DSV</strong>s were capable of, and the demand by theatre<br />
commanders for their presence in any given operation had exploded.<br />
Now, despite the greatest hour of need, they had nothing to turn to. <strong>Atlantis</strong> had been<br />
destroyed, and Aquarius had disappeared. For three months, the UEO fleet had scoured the<br />
trenches and ravines of the Pacific for any trace of the massive submarine, but none could<br />
be found. Aquarius was gone, taking with her the best hopes of the entire Pacific Command.<br />
Admiral Hayes sighed. “Admiral Kesselring is right, General. Without Aquarius, we<br />
can‟t risk a fleet engagement with the scale of the fortifications around Pearl – and forgive<br />
me for saying it – but even if we did send in a subfighter wing - the potential loss of a<br />
seawing is considerably easier to bear than the loss of an entire battlegroup.”<br />
Kesselring stiffened and glowered. “I‟m not committing NSC pilots to a suicide<br />
mission, Admiral Hayes.”<br />
Hayes matched him and levelled his gaze, his stare cold and unappreciative of the<br />
German‟s stubbornness. “...Then maybe, Admiral Kesselring, if you think your pilots can‟t<br />
hack it, you should take a page from the General‟s book and let us do something for a<br />
change.”<br />
“That‟s enough, Andrew,” chided Riley before the argument could be fired up again.<br />
“This may be the only shot we have, and if you make this happen – both of you – then I think<br />
the Secretary General could be convinced to revise his deadline.”<br />
“You realise Jack that they‟re both right - this would be a suicide mission,” said<br />
General Colburn mournfully. “Whoever goes in there is not coming out again. And I don‟t<br />
think we have a single commander in the entire Pacific who‟s ever pulled something like this<br />
off.”<br />
Jack Riley paused and cast his eyes across the map before him slowly - one man<br />
being at the forefront of his mind... “You‟re correct, General, we really don‟t.”<br />
Whitehall, London. North Sea Confederation. April 4 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
The gentle murmur of quiet conversation and the ambient sound of a string quartet<br />
pervaded the reception hall. Waiters and dignitaries drifted and danced in between crowds,<br />
occasionally giving way to a rise in the clinking of glassware or nurse and polite laughter.<br />
The sheer number of politicians and diplomats in the room at that moment was<br />
enough to make even the most battle-hardened Generals want to melt in to the shadows and<br />
disappear back in to their bunkers. Admirals were still soldiers and the false platitudes that<br />
- 29 -
dominated such functions rang of indignation and dishonesty, and the awkwardness<br />
between the staff officers of the UEO and the Russian Confederation was painfully obvious.<br />
The Third World War had been over for more than thirty years, yet the bitterness remained.<br />
In some cases, the more senior officers of the two militaries had once probably called each<br />
other enemies during the early days of their career, and it was those officers that were the<br />
easiest to spot. They remained distant, often regarding each other from across the room with<br />
no more than a courteous nod of recognition, but always remaining silent.<br />
In contrast to their military counterparts, the diplomats seemed to be enjoying every<br />
moment of the high-brow limelight, but they were not the only ones who called such<br />
occasions their hunting ground. Every one of them were watched from the alcoves and<br />
balconies above by shadowy, grey men and women of no noted political interest whose sole<br />
job was to report on whatever largely unnoticed drunken quip that might escape one of the<br />
politicians‟ lips. These were the spies of the NSIS, ONI, CIA and GRU. None of it was<br />
particularly out of the ordinary at such functions, and no one was really giving it a second<br />
thought.<br />
The formal reception for the new Russian ambassador to the North Sea<br />
Confederation was only an hour old, but for Vice Admiral Mark Ainsley, it was already feeling<br />
like the addition of hard labour to a long and painful prison sentence that came without<br />
parole. For a year, Ainsley had served as the Chief of Staff to Fleet Admiral Travis Sinclair,<br />
all the while watched by the highest levels of the Atlantic command. On the face of it, it was<br />
a post which effectively made him the second most senior UEO officer in the entire Atlantic<br />
fleet. The only problems were that the Atlantic fleet barely existed anymore, and it was so far<br />
from the front line that command intended to keep him out of harm‟s way... or as they saw it,<br />
to keep him from causing any more trouble.<br />
Sinclair had told Ainsley how he saw it as an ignoble way to end a thirty year career<br />
that had made the former <strong>Atlantis</strong>-captain one of the most celebrated commanders in UEO<br />
history. That he should pay for someone else‟s mistake stank of idealistic bureaucracy.<br />
Ainsley saw it as a peaceful and blessed change of pace that had come far too late, and an<br />
easy road in to paid retirement. He was hardly going to argue the point with those who put<br />
him there and so long as they remained happy about it, then so would he.<br />
Ainsley shrugged slightly in a vain effort to loosen the tight, starched collar of his<br />
dress uniform, and when that didn‟t work, he took another mouthful of the Dom Pérignon that<br />
he had been nursing for the better part of twenty minutes. One of the other UEO staff<br />
officers, General Ethan Willems, exchanged a knowing smile with Ainsley from across the<br />
hall and then disappeared in to the crowd once again.<br />
The knowing smile was directed at the petulant, flustering gasbag in front of Ainsley:<br />
an NSC Admiral, Harold Lewis, who had both literally and figuratively formed a battleline with<br />
his words. Lewis was the Commander of the North Sea Confederation‟s Mediterranean<br />
Fleet, and around him had gathered a significant crowd of NSC, UEO and Russian officers<br />
and diplomats – including the Ambassador - who had been steadily attracted by the<br />
animated conversation.<br />
“Tell me, Admiral Lewis,” asked the Russian Ambassador in nearly perfect<br />
pronunciation. “This war in the Pacific has gone a very long time, as you say. What steps<br />
has the NSC taken to improve the situation?”<br />
Ainsley swallowed another mouthful of the Champagne, although the question made<br />
it taste bitter. He remained silent, all the while having no particular desire to get any more of<br />
Lewis‟s attention.<br />
“The problem in the Pacific, Mister Ambassador, is and always has been the sheer<br />
size of the theatre,” Lewis offered simply. “The North Sea Confederation – Europe – has<br />
always had a relatively small – but all the while very capable - military when compared to<br />
say, the combined UEO or Macronesian fleets.”<br />
The answer was a double entendre, and not in any way that the present UEO officers<br />
appreciated. Lewis continued to be very animated; offering elaborate hand gestures at every<br />
key word or phrase and for the last five minutes had steadily annoyed Ainsley to the point of<br />
distraction. Yet no one dared interrupt the NSC Admiral in his commentary. “For the last six<br />
- 30 -
months, Mister Ambassador, we‟ve worked very closely with the Secretary-General to take<br />
on a more active and direct role in the administration of regional strategy.”<br />
The Ambassador raised a curious eyebrow and briefly caught Ainsley‟s deathly gaze<br />
before he followed through. “What of the UEO commands?”<br />
Lewis looked at Ainsley for several long seconds, as if he seemingly expected a<br />
challenge to the question. Ainsley gave up nothing, and continued to lock eyes with Lewis<br />
until the pompous NSC commander finally looked away to venture his own answer. “Unless<br />
my colleagues here wish to answer in my stead, I can only suggest to you, sir that after<br />
nearly three years of this conflict and the most exceptional of pressures, the UEO fleet has<br />
been stretched to its utmost limit. Our involvement in theatre strategy means that many<br />
previously dead-locked fronts can be opened through the engagement of the Alliance far<br />
more directly than was previously possible. Much of that problem, of course, has been due<br />
to some, shall we say controversial decisions by the higher UEO commands to withhold<br />
many fleet assets from the front.”<br />
Ainsley nearly choked and Lewis caught his gaff through a prying, watchful eye. The<br />
UEO Admiral saved him the trouble of asking, and finally spoke up – despite every warning<br />
gaze from the other UEO officers around him. Lewis had thrown down a gauntlet, and<br />
Ainsley was not about to let it sit there unanswered. “Admiral Lewis... While I wouldn‟t think<br />
to disagree on the point of the UEO fleet being stretched thin, I must observe that your<br />
knowledge of the front is truly... insightful, sir.” The compliment was a thin veil which<br />
momentarily let Ainsley see the blood run out of Lewis‟s face. He paused only a second<br />
before asking; “Tell me sir, and please forgive my memory on the matter - In which theatre<br />
did you serve...?”<br />
Ainsley held his gaze masterfully, betraying nothing of the fact that he knew full well<br />
that for over thirty years, Harold Lewis had commanded nothing more than a desk, moving<br />
from one administrative assignment to another. Lewis held the Dom Pérignon in his mouth<br />
for a second longer in an attempt to give himself the moment necessary to formulate his<br />
answer. He swallowed.<br />
Instead of answering, Lewis bowed ever so slightly and smiled, while offering a hand<br />
towards Ainsley in introduction. “Ambassador Sobolev, forgive me – may I introduce you to<br />
Vice Admiral Mark Ainsley, the UEO Chief of Staff to Fleet Admiral Sinclair, whom you met<br />
previously.”<br />
The Ambassador beamed and lightened slightly as he heard the name and shook<br />
Ainsley‟s hand warmly. “Admiral, I‟ve so wanted to meet you. It‟s a pleasure.”<br />
“The pleasure is mine, Ambassador.”<br />
Lewis‟s timing was perfect and cruel. “Surely you of all people, Admiral Ainsley,<br />
should appreciate that the UEO cannot be expected to carry the weight of this conflict as has<br />
been demonstrated thus far alone. Even your command has suffered from the demands of<br />
this conflict, through no fault of your own, of course...”<br />
Ainsley ignored the ingratiating jibes and caught the grimaces on the other officers‟<br />
faces. There had been few officers in the NSC command more pleased by Ainsley‟s<br />
reassignment than Lewis had been. It had been the orders of his then-superior officer and<br />
now-Secretary General Sir James Cathgate that had led to the destruction of the <strong>Atlantis</strong><br />
<strong>DSV</strong>, and it had been Ainsley who was in command. Cathgate and Lewis had been among<br />
several to call for Ainsley‟s removal from active service after the disaster, but for whatever<br />
had happened throughout his career to put him in that position, Ainsley still had powerful<br />
allies. With the weight of two Fleet Admirals behind him, there had ultimately been little<br />
opposition to his new post. Lewis had resented the decision ever since, as his own<br />
Mediterranean fleet was one particular NSC force that had suffered drastic force reductions<br />
with more and more ships being diverted to the Pacific.<br />
“Admiral Lewis, I remind you sir, that this uniform notwithstanding, I am still an officer<br />
of the Royal Navy. The UEO enjoys every aspect of its relationship with the North<br />
Sea Confederation, and I – along with many others - would take it as a personal<br />
slight, sir, were you to suggest that the UEO navy‟s commitment in this conflict was...<br />
half-hearted?”<br />
- 31 -
Ainsley let the statement hang for a moment as he raised his glass to his lips again,<br />
but paused to lock eyes with Lewis once more. “Not that you would make such base<br />
implication, of course.”<br />
“Indeed,” said Lewis dryly, his voice only a few notes above a growl.<br />
No one dared say a thing to break the tension between the two Admirals that hung<br />
rank in the air for several long seconds. Not even the ambassador tried to continue with his<br />
previous line of questioning, and his staff shifted uncomfortably.<br />
Ainsley smiled apologetically and then grimaced at his glass after taking another<br />
mouthful. “Forgive me, gentlemen,” he offered lightly. “I suspect this Champagne is going to<br />
our heads all too-quickly. I think I‟ll get some air.”<br />
Admiral Ainsley excused himself to the ambassador and the other officers, leaving<br />
Lewis only with a warning gaze across the crowd of gathered officers.<br />
Stepping away from the group quickly, he moved quickly to the balcony outside.<br />
Casting his eyes around the room on his way, they briefly came to rest on a pair of women –<br />
notably not in uniform – who were swept up in a lively conversation that looked like it was far<br />
more entertaining than the drivel he had just endured. He smiled as he traced the line of one<br />
of their backs, wrapped in blue satin from ankles to shoulders, with brown hair that was done<br />
up in curls in a high bun at the back of her skull. Samantha Ainsley was so caught up in her<br />
conversation with Lisa Sinclair that she wasn‟t even aware of her husband‟s passing. With<br />
his mood being what it was, he decided against interrupting her and quietly stepped outside<br />
and stared out at the courtyard below.<br />
There was one set of eyes, though that did catch Ainsley‟s retreat to the balcony, and<br />
having witnessed most of the exchange between he and Lewis, was only too curious and<br />
eager to poke at the wounds.<br />
“Admiral, you look like you could use something a little harder than champagne...<br />
Perhaps a duelling pistol,” said the familiar, velvet-glazed German accent of Admiral Anise<br />
von Schrader.<br />
Ainsley turned to face the commander of the North Sea Intelligence Service and<br />
smiled as he saw her, despite it being forced. Three years of war had not been kind to<br />
Schrader and she looked much older than when Ainsley had last seen her. She was fifty-two<br />
years old, and Ainsley remembered vividly how barely two years previously she had still<br />
been full of youth and charm. Her alabaster skin and delicate cheeks had become thinner,<br />
and increasingly more grey was creeping in to her silken, black temples. Her eyes had lost<br />
the mischievous glint that had defined them from the day Ainsley had met her in the<br />
academy, and her smile – while genuine – somehow came across as sad and mournful.<br />
“Admiral von Schrader,” greeted Ainsley with a sigh.<br />
“Oh, Mark,” she said, shaking her head in defeat. “I‟m never going to get you to drop<br />
rank, am I?”<br />
“...Anise,” he warned with a slight growl, frowning in disapproval. “I‟m in no mood.”<br />
“Sorry,” she said plainly, turning so she could lean against the balcony next to him.<br />
Her face softened as she turned her eyes to his. Ainsley saw vulnerability there, and for<br />
once, didn‟t retreat. “Where did we fall apart, Mark?” she asked. “You know there was a time<br />
you would have come to me with anything. I know we‟re over, and we have been for a very<br />
long time – I get that.”<br />
She stopped for a minute and looked across the floor of the ballroom at Samantha –<br />
Ainsley‟s wife. “...That shouldn‟t change the fact we‟re still friends.”<br />
Ainsley sighed and looked down at his glass, but he didn‟t drink it. “I‟m sorry, Anise,”<br />
he said whilst shaking his head. “It‟s not you, it‟s what you do.”<br />
“What I do?” she repeated with surprise. “Now what‟s that supposed to mean?”<br />
“The NSIS,” he clarified. “I feel like I‟ve been left behind. I‟ve not been back here in a<br />
very long time, and everything has changed.”<br />
“Except you,” she nodded with a quiet smile. “Not everything has changed, Mark. A<br />
few assholes like Lewis, maybe, but the best things always stay the same.”<br />
- 32 -
“Then it‟s just a shame that its people like Lewis who are running the show,” he said.<br />
“If his knowledge of warfare extends to logistics, then it‟s no wonder his fleet‟s shrinking.<br />
God help us if he starts running things in the Pacific.”<br />
Schrader laughed. “You‟re right, you haven‟t changed a bit,” she scoffed. “You still<br />
can‟t see an inch past the uniform and may as well be married to your career.”<br />
“I‟ve never seen myself with a choice otherwise,” he retorted, and failing to see the<br />
humour. “I‟ve lived and breathed Navy for thirty-six years, Anise. It‟s who I am.”<br />
Schrader stopped and looked across at Samantha again. “How does she deal with<br />
it?”<br />
He smiled. “Sometimes, she doesn‟t. We‟ve had our fair share of scraps, but we‟ve<br />
known each other for nearly forty years, and been married for thirty of them. I suppose at the<br />
end of the day we‟ve both come to understand it‟s not how often we see other, but what it<br />
means to us when we do. For better or worse, that‟s always been enough.”<br />
Schrader smiled and raised her glass slightly towards Ainsley. “Then to your<br />
continuing retirement,” she offered lightly.<br />
Ainsley smiled. It was something he would happily drink to. “Cheers.”<br />
Schrader swallowed hard and paused awkwardly before what she said next. “I was<br />
sorry to hear about Thomas,” she chanced. “I know he was like a son to you...”<br />
“Mmm...” His eyes drifted off, lost in the distance of the crowd.<br />
“Jessica must have taken it hard.”<br />
“Of course she did,” he almost spat. “In the back of my mind I always knew that this<br />
was a possibility, and that if it were to happen I might be able to explain it to her in a way that<br />
she could understand, but... not knowing what happened... I can‟t even do that.”<br />
Schrader hung her head and swirled her glass absent-mindedly. “I‟m not supposed to<br />
speak about what goes on at the office Mark, but for what it‟s worth, we scoured the<br />
Macronesian fleet reports for weeks afterwards, searching for anything that might suggest<br />
Bourne‟s involvement. We didn‟t find a thing. If she went down, it wasn‟t to an Alliance<br />
torpedo.”<br />
Ainsley nodded solemnly. “That‟s what concerns me. I take it you got my note?”<br />
Schrader said little, and merely smiled. “I‟ve had some contacts look in to it. You‟ll<br />
hear from them in a couple of days if they have anything to report.”<br />
“Them?” repeated Ainsley with uncertainty.<br />
“Professional colleagues,” she stated simply, as if it would explain everything and<br />
clearly unwilling to elaborate further. “I think you can trust them. I‟m just sorry to say I don‟t<br />
think they can bring you the closure you wanted.”<br />
“I understand,” he said softly. “Thank you for trying, Anise. I know I had no right to<br />
ask.”<br />
Smiling, she patted him gently on the arm. “You had every right to ask.”<br />
An uneasy silence settled between the two officers for a moment before Schrader<br />
turned slightly. “There‟s something else,” she said quietly.<br />
“Hmm?”<br />
Schrader turned for a moment to make sure they were alone, and then nodded.<br />
“About four months ago, you told tech services that you were receiving... unintelligible<br />
messages in your office.”<br />
Ainsley stopped at that and looked up. “Yes. They told me it was probably just<br />
service errors. Never found out what the problem was for certain. Happened two or three<br />
times, if I recall.”<br />
“Four,” Schrader corrected.<br />
Ainsley shrugged for a moment before he stopped and looked over at his companion<br />
with a slowly-dawning realization. “And why exactly is it the North Sea Intelligence Service<br />
checking my calls?”<br />
Schrader continued to stare ahead over the balcony to the River Thames beyond.<br />
She was to the point. “The messages were flagged, Mark. They weren‟t just white noise.”<br />
“What are you talking about?”<br />
- 33 -
Schrader smiled and shook her head. “Ainsley, for someone with your reputation, you<br />
are slow to catch on. You work in a building shared with MI6. Every call that goes in to or out<br />
of Vauxhall Cross is monitored.”<br />
Ainsley rolled his eyes. “Now they tell me.”<br />
Schrader rounded on him. “Ainsley, there was more to it than a simple systems glitch.<br />
The calls were flagged because they contained classified UEO Signals Corps encryptions.”<br />
Ainsley straightened, feeling his stomach knot as he considered several thoughts –<br />
none of which were particularly pleasant – at once. “And how is it that the NSIS would be<br />
privy to codes used by UEO Signals?”<br />
Schrader ignored the question as she reached in to her dress jacket and removed a<br />
sealed envelope. “There was a message buried in each of the calls you received. NSIS<br />
managed to decode it, but only to an extent. The messages were a series of numbers, but<br />
none of my people could work out what it meant. The strange part of is that each message<br />
seemed to be derivative of a single, originating code.”<br />
The UEO Admiral frowned as he took the offered envelope and opened it, reading<br />
what had been printed on the page inside. Four blocks of nine and ten digit numbers, exactly<br />
as Schrader had said. “They‟re just numbers. Without some kind of context I couldn‟t tell you<br />
what they mean,” he said plainly. “I suggest you check your ciphers.” Schrader could tell<br />
from his expression that he meant what he said, and nodded.<br />
“Well, whatever the numbers mean, we believe you were the one meant to receive it.<br />
Yours was the only office to receive these calls, and it‟s got more than a few people curious.”<br />
“What do you want me to do about it?”<br />
“Mark, I called in a lot of favours to chase up your problem. I even trod on toes that<br />
aren‟t supposed to exist, so I‟m not asking much. I just want you to think about it, and if<br />
something comes to mind – you let me know.”<br />
Ainsley looked at the letter again, and then nodded with a half-smile. “No promises,”<br />
he said simply. “Something tells me your contacts in Signals are better than mine.”<br />
Schrader pushed herself off the balustrade “Mark... The Signals code embedded in<br />
those calls hasn‟t been used in eleven months. It took us nearly four months of code<br />
breaking to even find the correct cipher, and another month after that to decode it. The only<br />
reason we know about it now is because we stumbled across it when we were investigating<br />
holes in the UEO defence budget about six years ago. There is only one place on the entire<br />
planet where that message could have been encoded.”<br />
Schrader looked over her shoulder again and Ainsley strained to see what she was<br />
trying to look at through the crowd. “What‟s so special about this code?”<br />
“Ainsley, most military encryption protocols are dynamic, five-block encryptions: This<br />
was a quadratic, floating point cipher. For most defence signals bureaus, that kind of thing<br />
doesn‟t even exist. It‟s impossible to break unless you know the algorithm‟s variables. The<br />
only computer that has ever been able to encode information to that level of encryption is an<br />
AHAI.” Schrader paused. “...And last I checked, the only Human-AIs that have ever existed<br />
were aboard <strong>Atlantis</strong> class <strong>DSV</strong>s.”<br />
Ainsley frowned “Aquarius was lost over six months ago. That‟s not possible.”<br />
Schrader gave Ainsley a warning gaze as she finally turned away. “Now you‟ve got a<br />
reason to think about it,” she said bluntly. “You tell me what this means, and you‟ll get your<br />
answers.”<br />
“Admiral von Schrader, why can‟t you leave my staff alone? Shouldn‟t you be starting<br />
a new cold war with the Russians?” called the clipped, authoritative voice from the door.<br />
Ainsley and Schrader straightened and smiled slightly as UEO Fleet Admiral Sir Travis<br />
Sinclair emerged from the ballroom. The cuffs of the man‟s sleeves were a sea of gold braid,<br />
and his chest virtually a rainbow of coloured ribbons and medals.<br />
The commander-in-chief of the UEO Pacific fleet smiled as he approached them both<br />
and held up a hand as he sensed them both moving to salute. “No formalities, both of you,”<br />
he warned.<br />
“Of course, Admiral.” Ainsley countered, nodding politely.<br />
- 34 -
Sinclair looked at Schrader and raised an eyebrow. “Anise, I mean not to intrude, but<br />
may I have a brief word with my Chief of Staff?”<br />
“Certainly. I‟ll catch you later Mark.” She smiled slightly before adding with a coy grin,<br />
“Try not to let him draft you.”<br />
Sinclair and Ainsley watched Schrader depart and disappear like smoke in to the<br />
crowds inside. Ainsley smiled at this before turning back to the Fleet Admiral, sighing.<br />
“That woman is irrepressible,” Sinclair growled with an edge of amusement. “And as<br />
for you – will you at least try to look like you‟re having a good time? I know champagne and<br />
dress whites aren‟t exactly your soiree, but it comes with the position.”<br />
Ainsley smirked and then regarded the Atlantic fleet commander with a smile that<br />
matched Schrader‟s. “As I recall sir, I wasn‟t given much of a choice.”<br />
“You could have retired.”<br />
“And give Cathgate the pleasure, sir?”<br />
Sinclair laughed. “Cathgate is a bastard, yes, but an easier job is one thing he could<br />
do with of late. I‟d really prefer not to make it any harder for him than it already is.”<br />
Ainsley smiled weakly. “Perhaps. And may I say Sir Travis, congratulations again on<br />
the knighthood. It‟s been a while coming, I think.”<br />
“You‟re one to talk, Ainsley. But just between us, I believe your favour still runs high<br />
in certain circles. His Majesty doesn‟t overlook that which is overdue.”<br />
Ainsley paused for a minute and then smiled again at the Fleet Admiral. “...You mean<br />
when it‟s politically appropriate, sir?”<br />
Sinclair stopped at that and smiled apologetically. “...Such is the curse of our level of<br />
service, Mark. You have always said what you mean, and you mean what you say. As a staff<br />
officer, I could never ask nor want anything more; truly, it‟s an outstanding thing. But there<br />
are some circles very near us who find it confronting and sometimes even abrasive. If you<br />
ask me, and I dare not say it aloud, it‟s these people who often don‟t have the wit or brains to<br />
fire back when you land one across the bow.”<br />
Ainsley laughed and looked over at Harold Lewis who had somehow decided he<br />
preferred the company of a smaller audience, this time entirely of NSC officers. “Admiral<br />
Lewis struck a delicate nerve, sir, I won‟t lie.”<br />
“It was ungracious of him to make such comments,” Sinclair offered quietly. “The<br />
annoying thing for me is that this kind of bickering extends all the way to The Hague and<br />
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong>. How the hell we are ever supposed to win this war while we‟re at each<br />
other‟s throats I‟ll never know... although, there could be hope yet.”<br />
The comment stood for a moment unnoticed by Ainsley until the final words<br />
eventually sank in. Something in Sinclair‟s voice was awry, and it made him turn.<br />
“Sir?”<br />
Sinclair smiled slightly, but looked as if he wasn‟t going to enjoy what came next. “I<br />
have a problem, Mark.”<br />
“Anything I can help with?”<br />
Sinclair laughed. “Not likely. You caused the problem. I don‟t know what strings<br />
you‟ve pulled, but they worked at Fort Grace. It seems your name came up in a staff meeting<br />
yesterday, and it‟s put me in something of a bind.”<br />
Ainsley continued to stare in puzzlement, entirely unsure of where Sinclair was going.<br />
“I don‟t have a clue what you‟re talking about, sir.”<br />
“Well if that‟s the case then I wish I knew what was going on over there,” he said<br />
bluntly. “Riley wants you back in the Pacific, Mark. His orders were not specific, only that<br />
you‟re to report to him on the Constellation at the earliest possible convenience.”<br />
Ainsley was frowning and he looked across the hall at Samantha again who<br />
continued to laugh and talk happily with the other guests. “That‟s rather vague, sir,” he said –<br />
not letting any of the anger that was building in the back of his mind show. “When did this<br />
come in?”<br />
“About an hour ago, in a priority message encrypted to me on the battlenet,” the Fleet<br />
Admiral replied. “The NSC has organized a flight for you and Sam in two days from RAF<br />
- 35 -
Welford, subject to your arrangements. If I didn‟t know any better, I‟d say there was a<br />
conspiracy around here to get rid of you.”<br />
“If there is, I wouldn‟t know anything about it. There was nothing specific to the<br />
orders? It‟s a rather long way to get someone to travel without giving them the foggiest idea<br />
what it‟s about, sir. This is... irregular.”<br />
This time the junior officer‟s irritation was clearer, and Sinclair shook his head. “The<br />
only other thing I can tell you, Mark, is that the orders were open-ended. I don‟t expect you‟ll<br />
be back this way any time soon.”<br />
Ainsley rubbed his face and cursed under his breath with a long sigh. “I don‟t need<br />
this, not now...”<br />
“I‟ve already appealed the order, Mark,” Sinclair offered. “It seems Riley is pulling the<br />
rug out from under me on this one, and he wasted no time in repeating it when I asked. He<br />
used the authority of the joint Pacific Command in lieu of his own, so I‟m afraid there isn‟t<br />
much I can do.”<br />
Ainsley shook his head and smiled at the irony. “You know, a year ago I couldn‟t<br />
have thought of anything I wanted more than to stay in the Pacific, and the whole world<br />
seemed determined to keep me from it. Now, just as I‟ve started enjoying home again, they<br />
pull this.”<br />
Sinclair bowed his head and nodded slowly. “Sometimes it pays to be low-key. Our<br />
creed, Ainsley – run silent, run deep.”<br />
“I built a career out of it,” he countered. “You‟d think I would have learnt it a bit<br />
better.”<br />
“I‟ve been giving some thought to your replacement,” Sinclair said, trying to move the<br />
conversation from the low-key note. “No easy task, I promise you... But I may know just the<br />
man.”<br />
“Forgive me for saying sir, but that didn‟t take long,” Ainsley suggested with a smile.<br />
“Well, hear me out, Ainsley. He‟s a real people-person. Loves to organize things, but<br />
doesn‟t usually have the time to do them himself. Rather perfect, I think, for dealing with the<br />
rest of my officers.”<br />
Ainsley smirked as he gestured towards the balcony doors and slowly started to walk.<br />
“Anyone I would know?”<br />
“Quite well, I should think. His name‟s Harold Lewis.”<br />
“I appreciate the irony, sir,” said Ainsley with a broad grin. “He should have had the<br />
post years ago.”<br />
Walking through the doors and back in to the ballroom, the two officers listened as<br />
there was a soft rise from the quartet in the corner, and a familiar waltz – the Blue Danube –<br />
began to play.<br />
“You always did get the last laugh, Ainsley,” finished Sinclair as they drew closer to<br />
the crowd of women who had paused for a moment to listen.<br />
“I‟ve always tried, sir.” Ainsley changed the subject quickly as he drew closer to<br />
Samantha. “Admiral, you will need to forgive me, I have other, rather more personal duties to<br />
attend to.”<br />
“I couldn‟t agree more.”<br />
Both officers split quietly as they approached the women and gently sidled up next to<br />
them. Ainsley smiled at Sinclair across the small circle of people and rested a hand on his<br />
wife‟s arm.<br />
“Darling,” he said quietly, turning to face her. “I‟m afraid I‟ve been rather unattentive...<br />
Would you care to dance?”<br />
“Well, here they are,” said Sam with surprise. “We were thinking you‟d abandoned<br />
us.”<br />
“Shall we?<br />
“I‟d love to.”<br />
The two couples separated with a brief exchange of goodbyes, and the Admiral led<br />
his wife to the floor where already many of the officers and diplomats had begun to dance.<br />
- 36 -
“Claire Lewis... I can‟t stand her,” she said quietly as he held her close and smelt the<br />
perfume rising from her cheeks.<br />
“Darling,” he managed after a moment‟s hesitation. “There‟s something we need to<br />
discuss...”<br />
UEO Headquarters, Fort Gore, <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong>, Florida. NORPAC<br />
Confederation. April 6 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
The headquarters complex of the UEO stood like a giant, glass and stone citadel on<br />
the Florida foreshore, stretching high above the low-rise skyline, surrounded by a myriad of<br />
large dock facilities, wharves and office buildings. As was usual for the first thing of a<br />
Monday morning, the entrance milled with reporters and journalists who were all eager to<br />
interrogate the Secretary-General on his way in to the office for the first day of the working<br />
week.<br />
The motorcade that pulled up to the building was the same as it was every week –<br />
the first of many as councillors, Admirals, Generals and diplomats who would arrive over the<br />
course of the hour were shadowed heavily by UEO-stamped Hummers and armed marines.<br />
The security arrangements that surrounded the Secretary-General and his staff since<br />
the shooting of his predecessor nearly two years prior had undergone serious revision, and<br />
most of those revisions had come at the direct order and supervision of James Cathgate<br />
himself.<br />
All of it seemed a horribly moot point when considering the throng of people who<br />
waited to speak to the man, any one of which could have been his would-be assassin. None<br />
of this escaped Fleet Admiral Jack Riley or Admiral Andrew Hayes who waited pensively at<br />
the side of the crowd, occasionally sending warning gazes towards reporters who looked as<br />
if they were about to bombard the pair with a torrent of questions.<br />
“Andrew,” drawled Riley slowly under his breath without ever drawing his eyes from<br />
the roadside. “Remind me next time I am meeting the Secretary-General to wear a suit. We‟ll<br />
stand out less.”<br />
Hayes smirked. “I‟m not sure it would make much difference, Jack. They can smell<br />
fear.”<br />
Riley stifled his laughter long enough for the motorcade to pull up to the curb-side<br />
and quickly moved with Hayes to the second limousine in line. As usual, the door opened<br />
and Sir James Cathgate stepped out and faced the mob.<br />
Well in to his late fifties, Cathgate had long-served in the North Sea General Staff<br />
and had been a rising star in The Hague for many years. He was no stranger to the game of<br />
politics, and smiled all-too warmly as he approached the gathered reporters.<br />
It was a smile that made Riley‟s stomach turn uncomfortably, and one he‟d seen<br />
many times before – usually before the drubbing of someone‟s career. It was obvious to<br />
most of those in what was left of the UEO command that officers such as Riley and Hayes<br />
had maintained their positions out of political convenience. It would have been a nearly<br />
suicidal move for Cathgate to remove them as he had done so many others, but ever since<br />
being appointed to the lofty position, the Joint Command of the UEO military had been kept<br />
on an increasingly short leash. Riley and Hayes‟s careers hung by threads... and that thread<br />
was firmly attached to Cathgate‟s patience.<br />
“Thank you,” hushed the Secretary-General, raising his hands to silence the gathered<br />
media. This attention had been a long time coming, and every one of the UEO command<br />
staff knew it. “I‟m afraid I don‟t have long, so I won‟t be taking any questions,” he battled to<br />
say over the continuing noise. The rumours of major UEO fleet movements circling around<br />
the defences of Pearl Harbor were no longer a secret, and it had been a continuing point of<br />
frustration for not only Cathgate, but also Riley, that there were apparently very few ways of<br />
keeping the media‟s attention diverted from military activities.<br />
- 37 -
Cathgate waited until the constant calls for answers died down and then cast an eye<br />
across the gathered journalists. “In the last week, my office has received many inquiries from<br />
all of you in regards to the disposition of UEO and North Sea military forces in the central<br />
pacific. Since 2041, Pearl Harbor has become a major staging area for the Alliance fleet, and<br />
Macronesian activities within that area of responsibility have steadily pushed out towards<br />
some of the more heavily fortified of our lines. The only statement that I will give you at this<br />
moment is that we take the continued security of the front line as our highest priority, and the<br />
fleet has, by extension, been required to make several changes to its usual deployments. I<br />
will be more than happy to offer you a more comprehensive explanation of these movements<br />
after military operations have been concluded in the area, but for the time being I ask that<br />
you continue to respect the security of the servicemen and women who are protecting the<br />
UEO from continuing Macronesian aggression. I ask that you report on the activities of the<br />
fleet with responsible regard for these considerations. Thank you.”<br />
With a carefully measured glance to the marines who had been waiting next to the<br />
limousine, Cathgate backed away from the disappointed crowd and began to head inside.<br />
Without needing to be told twice, the marines stepped in to block the path of the journalists,<br />
and both Hayes and Riley made good their escape to follow the Secretary-General inside.<br />
Upon arriving at Cathgate‟s office, Riley and Hayes were asked to wait for several,<br />
frustrating minutes in the ante room by his Secretary. Both officers refused to sit, instead<br />
standing quietly at ease, their caps clasped in their hands in front of them in absolute<br />
silence. After a time, the intercom on the Secretary‟s desk chirped. Cathgate‟s clipped voice<br />
instructed that the two Admirals be allowed in, and with only an apologetic smile, the<br />
Secretary regarded the two men and nodded quietly.<br />
Walking in to the office, Riley and Hayes found Cathgate sitting in silence behind his<br />
desk, already signing a set of General-Assembly dispatches that had been left for him. In the<br />
time they‟d been waiting, Cathgate had prepared a pot of tea which sat on the opposite side<br />
of the desk along with three empty cups.<br />
“Gentlemen, good morning,” said Cathgate, standing up to greet the two as if he had<br />
been sitting there an hour. He cordially shook hands with each of them before gesturing to<br />
the two high-backed chairs opposite him. “Sit down, please. Tea?”<br />
“No sir, thank you,” declined Riley as Hayes shook his head.<br />
“I know the journey from San Angeles is long, so thank you for coming on such short<br />
notice. I‟ve scheduled a full briefing for sixteen-thirty this afternoon with the rest of the<br />
Atlantic command. If the situation weren‟t so urgent, I‟d have gone to San Angeles myself to<br />
save you the trip.”<br />
“Well, sir, it‟s certainly been a while since you paid us a visit,” mused Riley as he<br />
settled back in to the chair and looked around the office. It had changed a lot from the<br />
traditional, well-tended furnishings of his predecessor, Nathan Bridger, and was now<br />
adorned with shelves of books and files, and nothing more than a sideboard with a few bits<br />
and pieces to help Cathgate get through the day. “But likewise, it‟s been a while since I‟ve<br />
been to the <strong>Cape</strong>, so I thought it best to handle this in person.”<br />
“Very good, then,” said Cathgate flatly as he poured himself some of the tea. “This<br />
situation is beginning to get out of hand, so I‟m looking forward to hearing your solution... For<br />
the time being however, what is it I can do for you both this morning, gentlemen?”<br />
“Perhaps we‟d best start at the beginning, sir,” suggested Hayes politely. “We do<br />
have a solution to the Pearl Harbor issue, however far from ideal it may be. But before we<br />
bring it to the rest of the joint chiefs, we felt it wise to first discuss our intentions with you.”<br />
Cathgate allowed nothing as he stirred the tea and continued to stare blankly at the<br />
two Admirals. “...And?”<br />
Riley levelled. “A carrier task force, perhaps two or three carriers, plus their escorts,<br />
could slip across the front line and get close enough to Pearl to launch a combined,<br />
synchronized subfighter attack against the target. Between the carriers, we should be able to<br />
hit them with anywhere up to a hundred strike craft which will get in, drop their weapons and<br />
immediately disengage to the north.”<br />
- 38 -
Cathgate let out a long breath and then nodded slowly. “I assume you realise that this<br />
would be a practical death sentence for one hundred pilots. The suggestion of withdrawal is<br />
academic at best.”<br />
“We realise that sir, but given the alternatives, I‟m really not sure we have much of a<br />
choice in the matter. We can‟t risk capital ships in a frontal assault.”<br />
“It also does nothing about retaking the islands, Admiral,” Cathgate interjected<br />
sharply. “My orders were fairly straight forward, and I-“<br />
Riley never had much patience for Cathgate‟s presumptions, and wasn‟t about to<br />
hear this one out. “Sir, if you‟ll permit me, the argument of taking Pearl Harbor is also<br />
academic, as that is not what this is about. COMPAC does not believe that we can take<br />
Pearl Harbor without unacceptably high casualties and the commitment of most of the<br />
combined Pacific Fleet. If we only destroy or disable this battery before it can be brought<br />
online, then it will buy us the time we need to mount a more comprehensive and feasible<br />
offensive at a later time.”<br />
Cathgate stopped and thought for a moment, before nodding his consent. “Very well.<br />
Understanding the consequences of failure in this endeavour, I‟m assuming you already<br />
have an idea as to what you need to do this.”<br />
Hayes, the chief of staff, nodded. “Of the potential options sir, and having conferred<br />
with the rest of my staff, we believe that it would be the Third Fleet that is in the best position<br />
to carry out the operation. More specifically – the Commonwealth Battlegroup.”<br />
“Reason being?” Cathgate countered, already having an uncomfortable feeling of<br />
where the discussion was headed.<br />
“Reasons being that they have the most complete sea wing. If you look at many of<br />
our other strike groups, they‟re starting to use slingshots instead of torpedoes, sir. Wing<br />
Commander Roderick has managed to keep her units intact, so far, which brings another<br />
point – she is the most experienced fighter commander we have still in the fleet, and she‟s<br />
done this sort of thing before.”<br />
Cathgate didn‟t divert his eyes. “She‟s also about to be promoted, as I understand it.”<br />
“...A point which bears no practical significance, sir. She can command a fighter wing<br />
from an operational position just as well as she can from a cockpit.”<br />
Cathgate sighed and then smiled slightly as he closed his eyes for a moment.<br />
“Admiral Hayes, Admiral Riley... While I have no objection for the moment, if I were to ask<br />
who you had in mind to lead this little expedition, I have the distinct impression that I would<br />
be disappointed.”<br />
Riley locked eyes with the Secretary-General, and didn‟t dare blink. “Mister<br />
Secretary, Mark Ainsley is the best man we have for the job, in either the Atlantic or the<br />
Pacific. While you may not always agree with his methods, the last person we need leading<br />
this attack is someone who is so bound by political considerations that he can‟t think when<br />
being shot at.”<br />
Cathgate was shaking his head. “No, I don‟t think so, Admiral. Ainsley is a loose<br />
cannon and insubordinate. He‟s also been out of command for a long time. I can think of<br />
dozens of other candidates more than qualified. What about Matthew Simmons, or... Harold<br />
Lewis?”<br />
Hayes nearly choked at the mention of the name Lewis, and had to bite his tongue to<br />
stop himself from taking the obvious bait. Riley caught this as well, and calmly pushed the<br />
suggestion aside. “Mister Secretary, Matthew Simmons is a fine officer and his knowledge of<br />
logistics and strategy is without peer in the Third Fleet, but I cannot afford to pull one of my<br />
best flag officers from strategic command of an entire theatre on a matter of political<br />
convenience. As for Lewis... well sir, to be perfectly frank with you, if I wanted an accountant<br />
to run this operation, I‟d have gone to the department of finance down the hall. And I cannot<br />
think of a single occasion where Ainsley has acted against orders – either yours or anyone<br />
else‟s, sir, so you will forgive me when I say that I find it a gross affront to his record and<br />
reputation to suggest that the most decorated career officer in the world is anything other<br />
than deserving of my utter respect. He has over twenty years experience in command, and I<br />
- 39 -
do not question for a moment that a couple of year‟s vacation will have - at the absolute<br />
worst - merely given him some perspective.”<br />
Cathgate straightened, nodding in slow hesitation and grudging acceptance. “I will<br />
not say that you‟ve convinced me, Admiral. But I will go along with this for now, and I will<br />
expect almost daily updates on progress.”<br />
“That‟s reasonable.”<br />
“Yes it is,” Cathgate said, lowering his voice to something sterner, and with a<br />
considerably blunter intention. “Because I do not ever expect to hear from you again the<br />
suggestion that my decisions are based on political convenience, am I clear, Admiral?”<br />
Riley sat back slightly, being unfazed by the implication of threat. In truth, nothing<br />
would please him more than to see Cathgate try to act on it. “I wouldn‟t think to undermine<br />
you, Mister Secretary, but yes... you are clear.”<br />
Cathgate stood up and looked down at them both as if he were a school headmaster<br />
disciplining two squabbling children. “Good. I remind you, Riley, that this is on your head. If<br />
Ainsley fails, then the consequences will be your responsibility. You‟re both dismissed.”<br />
Hayes and Riley got up in silence and started to head to the door. They didn‟t get far<br />
before Cathgate stopped them again. “Oh, there is one more thing...”<br />
“Yes?”<br />
“The only details that you are permitted to tell Ainsley are those pertaining directly to<br />
the operation. Regardless of his position in this undertaking, under no circumstances is he to<br />
know about our contingency. I trust you still understand the need for security in this matter?”<br />
Riley and Hayes looked at each other uncomfortably and then back at the Secretary<br />
General. “Yes sir, we do.”<br />
Several hours and several heated debates had passed before they‟d finally left<br />
Cathgate‟s staff briefing and found the relative peace and quiet of their temporary offices.<br />
Hayes tossed his cap as if it were a Frisbee and watched it land softly on the couch along<br />
the side of the room. Riley sat down in the tall, leather chair behind the provided oak desk<br />
and sighed. “Andrew... why is the world run by assholes?”<br />
“The only thing worse than sitting in a room with Cathgate is sitting in a room with his<br />
staff,” the more junior officer asked. “If one more person tries to ask for „more time‟, I will<br />
tender a strategic requisition recommending we nuke the Macronesians and be done with it.”<br />
“Andrew... Please,” scolded Riley as he rubbed his eyes.<br />
Hayes apparently didn‟t hear, or didn‟t care. “No, really. Can we do that? It would<br />
make things so much easier. No mess, no fuss. I have this theory that there is no problem in<br />
this world, Jack, that can‟t be solved with an appropriate application of firepower. We stood<br />
by and did nothing when they vaporized San Diego, and all we‟ve done since is fuck around<br />
in the bushes trying to remember where we put our balls. What happened to the UEO, Jack?<br />
When did we lose it?”<br />
Riley sighed. “Give Ainsley a chance, Andrew. It‟s hard enough to defend him from<br />
the goons in that office. He‟ll come through.”<br />
Hayes allowed himself a small chuckle. “In his own way, he always does.”<br />
~<br />
- 40 -
II<br />
S W O R D S M A N ’ S F O L L Y<br />
“150940/179”<br />
Five Months Ago...<br />
UEO Commonwealth Battlegroup, the Philippine Sea. December 8 th , 2042…<br />
“This is Warseer... Flight two: Head‟s up. Tally-ho on bandits closing on your position<br />
from two-two-zero. Distance: five miles, depth: devils three. Rapiers Five and Six are cleared<br />
to engage.”<br />
“This is Five: understood. Six – follow my lead.”<br />
The slate-grey Raptor subfighter shot through the darkness at nearly four hundred<br />
knots. The only form of guidance that the pilot had was the sonar-assisted HUD that<br />
highlighted the bleak world around him with varied and changing indicators and outlines. It<br />
was the same as always – a UEO cruiser had been hit and left to drift by Chaodai<br />
subfighters, and the Commonwealth had sent fighters to protect it while it limped from the<br />
combat zone. Then, when the fighters had arrived, the Chaodai had come back and tried to<br />
take both the wounded animal and its protectors. This time, the Rapiers had been there<br />
waiting for them, and were punishing them dearly for the transgression.<br />
Another of the Chaodai Xiao-Yu class fighters disappeared in a ball of blue fire under<br />
the Raptor‟s guns as it cleared the last embankment of the seamount and found its kill zone.<br />
Commander Edward Richards, callsign Minstrel, pulled back quickly on his stick and throttle,<br />
sending the fighter in to a tight loop back over its own tail. His wingman, „Deadstick‟, shot<br />
past at speed in pursuit of two other Chaodai fighters that had been held off only by her<br />
continued persistence and accuracy.<br />
“Rapier One: Scratch one bandit. Rapier two, I‟m on your six. Cleared hot,” he<br />
ordered calmly. His Raptor‟s nose came about again and he kicked in his throttles to settle in<br />
on Lieutenant Commander Roberts‟ tail.<br />
The two Raptors sat side by side for a time as Roberts worked to get above the<br />
leading Xiao-Yu. Richards did his best to keep the second of the fighters pinned, but in the<br />
years since Ryukyu Trench, he had still not worked out the measure of the Chaodai‟s pilots.<br />
For a brief moment, he considered how the Xiao-Yu fighters ducked and weaved through the<br />
submarine mountains differently to their Macronesian allies, and it was in that second that he<br />
missed the second flight of Chaodai craft that had pulled out of the adjacent ravine and on to<br />
his tail.<br />
Commander Edward Richards never saw his assailants until it was too late, and the<br />
first searing rounds of subduction fire shot passed his Raptor in to the darkness beyond.<br />
Warnings lit up the cockpit dash and Richards tried to evade, although it was a reaction that<br />
came too late, and too panicked. With the two fighters behind and above him on both wings,<br />
there was nowhere to go, and the first round punched through his starboard wing,<br />
obliterating hydraulic lines and destroying frame work. At first, Richards‟ controls were only<br />
sluggish as he pushed the fighter in to a steep dive for the sea floor, all the while unaware of<br />
the heavy cavitation that was streaming from his ruined right wing. The board showed<br />
nothing but red, and he could only pray that the sluggish rattle in his stick was superficial.<br />
It took several seconds for the damage to turn to disaster as the immense pressures<br />
placed on the shattered frame finally took their toll, and the wing disintegrated.<br />
The stick went limp in Richards‟ hand as he was jerked hard in to his seat. The fighter<br />
spun out of control, the damage spreading with each passing second further and further up<br />
his ruined fighter‟s fuselage. “Rapier two, I‟m hit and going down,” he managed hoarsely<br />
through the crushing force of the corkscrewing dive. “Get out of here, Jane.”<br />
“Negative, Lead, I‟m coming back for you.”<br />
- 41 -
“Rapier Two that was an order!” he barked as he continued to wrestle futilely with the<br />
controls. “I‟m dead stick. Got to eject,” he said calmly, accepting the inevitability of his<br />
situation. His depth continued to fall rapidly, and the seafloor was less than ten seconds<br />
away. “Warseer, mark my position. Grid one-five-three, zero-two-seven. Two thousand and<br />
falling. Eject, Eject, Eject!”<br />
With the last of his energy, Richards strained to reach the handle and pulled it out,<br />
hard. The explosive bolts holding the cockpit module of his fighter in to place detonated and<br />
the powerful rocket motor beneath the capsule ignited, sending the entire cockpit blasting<br />
away from the doomed fighter in a flat spin.<br />
Richards didn‟t realise the second error in his urgency until it was once again too late.<br />
Already on the verge of blacking out, he glimpsed the horizon on his dash board and felt a<br />
stab of panic. He had ejected up-side down, and the seafloor was approaching far quicker<br />
than he had originally anticipated. Even if his wayward cockpit module survived the crushing<br />
pressure of the ocean outside, it would soon be tinfoil across the seabed of the Pacific<br />
Ocean, and there would be nothing to distinguish him from plankton.<br />
As it happened, it wouldn‟t even come to that as the Xiao-Yu that had destroyed his<br />
fighter completed its long, banking turn and started to make another pass to confirm its kill.<br />
Chaodai pilots did not take prisoners, nor did they leave survivors. It was the one<br />
underpinning fact of the western front that had made the conflict so vengefully unforgiving.<br />
And so - the wayward, defenceless cockpit module lit up the Chaodai pilot‟s sensors like a<br />
Christmas tree, and he angled down and bracketed the would-be coffin in his gun sights.<br />
Two precisely-timed pot shots later, and weird, distending bolts of subduction energy ripped<br />
through the lower parts of Richards‟ cockpit, destroying the plasma engine and igniting its<br />
fuel lines.<br />
The cockpit did not, however, explode as the carefully regulated fuel lines cut-off and<br />
sent a backwash of superheated plasma back through the outtakes. The inferno that<br />
engulfed the floor of the cockpit cut through both composite plate and titanium alike. The<br />
heat that washed through the cockpit felt like the surface of the sun as oxygen was sucked<br />
out of the air to fuel the fire below. Blinding pain was the last thing Edward Richards felt, and<br />
from beneath his mask, he screamed...<br />
...The pain that coursed through the pilot was like nothing he had ever known as<br />
muted voices filled his ringing ears and flickering lights washed across his blurring vision.<br />
Passing in and out of consciousness, he struggled to make out the faces of those that<br />
crowded over him, and strained to understand their words.<br />
“Pulse is erratic... blood pressure is falling, sixty over forty...”<br />
“He‟s in severe shock. We need to stabilize him now or we will lose him...”<br />
The world still a blur, and feeling the rattle of something beneath him, he tried to look<br />
up, but felt only a strong force hold him down. Slowly, he began to notice that everything<br />
below his hips felt numb, and a sense of tingling engulfed his legs.<br />
“...Christ, where is Doctor Reed?! I want the OR ready for surgery as soon as we get<br />
him in.”<br />
“Fifty-five over thirty nine. Doctor...”<br />
The world was rapidly beginning to spin as the gurney continued to race down the<br />
corridors, the flickering lights that passed overhead now finally making some form of sense.<br />
Richards‟ chest felt like it would explode as he considered what may well have been his last<br />
earthly thoughts. He was going to die. He found the one last face in the crowd of those<br />
above him that made him smile. They seemed an angel to Richards in more ways than one<br />
as he considered that the long black hair matted around her face was doing little to hide the<br />
tears that rolled down her cheeks. Indeed, if this was his last mortal thought, then the<br />
sweetness of it would last an eternity.<br />
“Quinn...” he rasped, the world steadily slipping away.<br />
“Stay with me, Ed,” the angel urged, her voice drawing more and more distant. “I<br />
didn‟t give you permission to die...”<br />
- 42 -
~<br />
The Present Day...<br />
Reverence class Battlecruiser UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110. One thousand<br />
miles south-east of Japan, the Marianas Sea. April 8 th , 2043…<br />
The black-hulled SF-38/A Raptor II came up the recovery ramp of the sea deck softly,<br />
its skids sliding gently with a practiced touch across the recovery ramp: the spray of sea<br />
water behind it settling around the fighter as a fine, gentle mist. The fighter was not<br />
especially old, but like its pilot, the scars of battle and wear were plainly apparent. Two years<br />
had taken their toll on the Raptor, and the once-shining black paintwork had long ago been<br />
worn down to a dark blue-grey. The polish that defined the well-known scheme had lost its<br />
lustre, reduced to a matt-granite that was pock-marked by scratches, stains and small dents<br />
that mechanics had given up in trying to remove, for lack of both time and patience.<br />
Nevertheless, the reception the surfacing subfighter received was spectacular, and<br />
no sooner had it broken the water, warning lights had been turned on in every part of the<br />
hangar as fire hoses began to soak it down from nose to tail. Dozens, if not hundreds of the<br />
Commonwealth‟s crew crowded the deck as the fighter came to a stop, every single one of<br />
them noting the colourful array of uncountable kill scores that had been painted over the<br />
nose. Some of these markings had to be painted over older ones that had faded with time<br />
and wear because there simply wasn‟t enough room.<br />
All of them had come to see the end of an era, and the passage of one of the<br />
greatest pilots that the world had ever known, in to history. The shower of hoses didn‟t stop<br />
as the flight marshal held the two glowing paddles aloft and crossed over his head. He held<br />
them there for several seconds as the two powerful turbines that drove the Raptor whined<br />
down to a stop. After a time, the canopy cracked open and the pilot stepped up and calmly<br />
climbed down the ladder that had been placed next to the fighter to the sound of a deafening<br />
applause. Helmet under arm, the pilot stuffed her gloves inside it and signed the Raptor off<br />
on the clipboard that was presented to her by a smiling, bulk-armed crew chief that slapped<br />
her on the back and then gave her a long hug that virtually lifted her off the deck.<br />
The air was rife with cheers from every level of the hangar, from the flight deck to the<br />
highest gantry as a champagne bottle was brought up to the front by another of the<br />
squadron‟s officers. The bottle, having been shaken vigorously by the deck crew thoroughly<br />
doused the laughing pilot from head to toe. After twelve years in the seat, over four thousand<br />
sorties and three hundred and ninety-eight confirmed subfighter kills, Wing Commander –<br />
now Captain – Corinn Roderick, had finally hung up her riding boots.<br />
She fought to keep tears from her eyes as she worked her way, saturated, through<br />
the crowds of pilots and tech crews that had supported her for so many years, her long-time<br />
executive officer, Commander Dustin Coyle, only a few steps behind. The cheers continued<br />
for the entirety of her walk from the hangar deck, a hundred hands slapping her on the<br />
shoulders, back, and even some other inappropriate places. Of the later, she recognised the<br />
ranks of pilots from both the Dark Angels and Rapiers that had formed a guard of honour<br />
from her Raptor to the exit of the hangar over a hundred feet away. Nearing the door, she<br />
recognised the senior staff of the battlecruiser Commonwealth, central amongst them the<br />
ship‟s Captain.<br />
“Company! Present Arms!” Captain James Banick barked noisily. As she<br />
approached, the assembled officers – all of them in dress uniform - snapped to attention<br />
sharply and saluted her. They held it until she stood in front of them and returned it.<br />
“Congratulations, Captain Roderick,” Banick said slowly as he dropped his salute.<br />
“Not „til tomorrow, sir,” she said with a coy smile. “I‟ll enjoy the dolphins as long as I<br />
can.”<br />
- 43 -
Roderick risked a glance over his shoulder to try and find the one man she was<br />
looking for, but once again, her heart was missing, just as he was.<br />
Sitting in the shadows on the dismantled intake cover of a stripped-down Raptor,<br />
another pilot watched in silence. If Roderick‟s eyes betrayed a sense of premature age, then<br />
his were filled with pain. He applauded like the rest, unable to work the slight curl of a smile<br />
from his lips. In spite of it – he felt no joy in the moment. He sat back against the fighter and<br />
sighed, hearing the metallic clank of his left leg as it hit the side of the panel beneath him. A<br />
lot had changed in his world since the war began three years before. Hell, the whole world<br />
had changed.<br />
He laughed inwardly as he caught his own selfish question, and then cringed as he<br />
felt a new rush of pain shoot through his thigh. The stump below his knee had long since<br />
healed since his brush with mortality, but the bruising that had been brought on by the new<br />
prosthetic hidden beneath the leg of his jumpsuit had only continued. Through all the<br />
sessions of therapy and the long road to rehabilitation, he had never given thought to the<br />
bigger picture of where he was eventually going. He could no longer fly, of course, and he‟d<br />
almost given up the thought that he might ever be back in to the seat of a Raptor.<br />
And so came to a close not one career, but two. Wing Commander Roderick – the<br />
most celebrated fighter pilot since Gabriel Hitchcock – left the fleet in the same way that she<br />
came in. Celebration and full honours were given to her in accordance with the oldest naval<br />
traditions, but to the other... there was afforded only a quiet, respectful silence.<br />
He had not walked away from a subfighter to the sound of applause or cheers. He<br />
had been pulled away, bathed in fire and agony, to the sound of screaming misery and<br />
panic. Roderick was retiring to the company of ghosts, and he was first amongst them.<br />
Commander Edward Richards, former commander of the VF-107 Rapiers, would<br />
have once been there with her, to walk her away from that fighter and hold her high. Now he<br />
could barely stand, and every step he took came with the same pain that he had felt when<br />
he‟d been ripped out of the cockpit, his legs a ruin of incinerated flesh and bone that doctors<br />
had been unable to salvage. After weeks of surgeries and treatment, his right leg had been<br />
saved, but they could do nothing to save his other. From just below the knee down, his left<br />
leg was now a crude reconstruction of metal and composites, and still the pain remained.<br />
Counsellors had told him that with time and appropriate therapy, that pain would fade<br />
and he would know how to deal with what was left. What they had meant by that could have<br />
seemed a cruel irony depending on how he chose to take it. What was left of the pain? Or<br />
could it be what was left of his life?<br />
Against odds, he had survived the massacre of Ryukyu trench. Roderick had saved<br />
him then, but she couldn‟t do it again.<br />
“Hey, Boss,” said a voice from the deck below. Richards stared down blankly to see<br />
the crew chief that was assigned to the Rapiers. “You alright?”<br />
“Yeah, chief...” he sighed. “I‟m fine.”<br />
“You know, I‟m not gonna lecture you, Ed,” said the Chief hesitantly. “And I‟m not<br />
going to spout the obvious to you either, but she shouldn‟t be walking that gauntlet alone.”<br />
“You my mother now, Craig?” he retorted.<br />
“Nope, but she‟d be awful shattered if she saw you like that.”<br />
“Whatever,” Richards spat as he tried futilely to get more comfortable by sitting on his<br />
side.<br />
“Well, ok, I tried the nice way,” said the Chief with a shrug. “But will you move your<br />
ass? I need to get in that intake... Champagne or not, these things don‟t fix themselves.”<br />
Richards looked at where he was sitting again, and then smiled inwardly as he pulled<br />
himself off the shelf of the intake and quickly stumbled. The chief gripped his arm hurriedly,<br />
but Richards had none of it and shrugged him off. Taking a moment to steady himself, he<br />
looked across the hangar at Roderick who was still receiving well-wishes from the rest of the<br />
sea wing.<br />
“...Fine.”<br />
- 44 -
Commander Jane Roberts had watched in silent approval as the celebration<br />
continued around the Wing Commander, although she knew that something was missing. Ed<br />
Richards‟ absence from the proceedings had not escaped her, or any other pilot in the<br />
Rapiers squadron. In the five months since he‟d been shot down, Richards had become<br />
distant and detached from the squadron he once commanded, and it had steadily grown to<br />
irritate Roberts as morale within the unit began to suffer. She cast her eyes over the hangar<br />
and found the missing pilot next to one of the squadron‟s fighters, leaning against the intake<br />
as a crew chief went about his work on the engines. He, along with the other technicians<br />
who worked on the deck-that-never-slept, continued to watch the proceedings from afar.<br />
Roberts‟ smile slowly faded as she saw this, and eventually she shook her head at<br />
exactly the wrong moment as she sensed a shadow falling beside her. The starkness of<br />
Roberts‟ black flight suit contrasted boldly to the white dress uniform of Commander Dustin<br />
Coyle and he smirked as he looked across the hangar to where Roberts had been staring.<br />
“The amusing thing for me about seeing you beat him up over it is that you‟re doing<br />
exactly the same thing.” Coyle looked down at Roberts, and the smirk turned in to a warm<br />
smile. “Jane, you‟ve got to give him a break,” he said as his hand slipped down to her elbow.<br />
Something in Coyle‟s hand tensed as he realised what he had just done and felt the warm,<br />
smooth ivory beneath his fingers. She‟d rolled up her sleeves. He felt her instinctively recoil<br />
and then quickly withdrew, looking back across the hangar at Richards.<br />
“It‟s going to take a while.”<br />
Roberts looked down at the floor for a second and then looked back at Coyle. For two<br />
and half years, he‟d always been there, but between their two squadrons, they had remained<br />
worlds apart. She thought little of his slip and simply smiled in return. “The Rapiers will miss<br />
him,” she said simply. “I remember when the Wing Commander left us, we... It took a while<br />
to get used to him. Ed was everything Hitchcock wasn‟t: Brash, impatient, even insensitive,”<br />
she confessed. “I didn‟t know what Roderick saw in him to give him this assignment, and it<br />
took so long for me to understand it.”<br />
“He changed a lot,” Coyle agreed. “I‟ve never seen him so distanced since he came<br />
back.”<br />
Roberts sniffed. “That‟s just it. I don‟t think he did come back. He left a part of his<br />
mind in that fighter... The best part, I think. I‟ve been there too.”<br />
“Forty-one, I remember,” Coyle said, sitting down on a crate of ammunition next to<br />
him, finally putting his back to Richards and facing Roberts completely. “Marinduque. You<br />
lost Tom Reynolds.”<br />
“I was messed up for months,” she said, her eyes vacant as she stared in to the<br />
distance. “Even when we lost <strong>Atlantis</strong>, I still wasn‟t all there. You lose something that<br />
important to you, and it fucks with you, Bouncer.”<br />
Coyle looked down at his younger companion and nodded slightly. “Well, I know it<br />
doesn‟t help now, Dead Stick,” he offered confidently, wryly using her call-sign as the<br />
embarrassing moniker that it was originally intended to be. “But I couldn‟t think of anyone<br />
more qualified to take command of the 107 th . They‟re lucky to have you.”<br />
Roberts watched as Roderick was surrounded by the other pilots of the sea wing as<br />
she began to walk from the hangar and then turned back to Coyle. “Same to you.”<br />
Captain Banick laughed lightly as he watched Roderick run a gauntlet of pilots that<br />
had lined the way from her fighter to the hangar exit. She was carried high on the shoulders<br />
of her crew chief, and even then, she still looked short compared to the barrel-chested, oakarmed<br />
mechanic. He applauded as she passed one final time, and held his gaze for several<br />
moments as she disappeared in to the hall. The crowds began to disperse quickly after that<br />
– the moment having died down as crews returned to their duties. There was a part of<br />
Banick that felt that it should be annoyed that for nearly five minutes, nothing productive had<br />
happened on his ship‟s flight deck at all. It was lapses like that that got people killed, and<br />
with their present assignment and alert levels, it was a lapse that really shouldn‟t have been<br />
afforded. Still... Roderick deserved the moment - God knew, she had earned it. Her<br />
promotion was bittersweet in many ways – the position she would go on to hold as the<br />
- 45 -
commander of Fighter Group Four from the carrier Constellation was perhaps long overdue,<br />
serving as Fleet Admiral Riley‟s theatre commander for all fighter operations in the eastern<br />
Pacific, but there could be no doubt that like Hitchcock before her, the fleet was losing one of<br />
the best pilots it had ever seen.<br />
Banick pulled his ball cap out of his back pocket and put it on peak-first as he had<br />
always done since taking command of the Commonwealth. It was a small thing - and a<br />
change since he had been on the <strong>Atlantis</strong>. There he had always put it on from back to front<br />
as Captain Ainsley had done, but in hindsight, it was uncomfortable and awkward as it had<br />
forced his hair forward on to his brow. Truth be told, this was one of probably thousands of<br />
things that had changed about James Banick since that time. Now it seemed like another<br />
lifetime ago, and he couldn‟t be happier to be rid of it...<br />
He repressed a scowl at that singularly unpleasant thought as he saw his XO round<br />
the corner of the hangar and quietly slipped through the crowd to salute the captain in his<br />
ever-understated way. Commander Ryan Callaghan had fallen in to the role of Executive<br />
Officer like a hand in an old glove, and it was a wonder to Banick that he hadn‟t held the<br />
position much sooner than he did. Callaghan had been perhaps the one constant in Banick‟s<br />
career that hadn‟t tried to change, and that too made Banick happier for it.<br />
Banick noticed the folded piece of paper in Callaghan‟s left hand, and he hadn‟t even<br />
finished raising his eyebrow when the XO had handed it to him, his lips pulled in to a tight,<br />
thin line. “I have a distinct impression you‟re going to love this,” he said under his breath and<br />
with no attempt to contain his sarcasm as he looked around the hangar.<br />
Banick unfolded the leaf and scanned down the page slowly – his eyes growing ever<br />
narrower as he did so. He was silent for several long seconds as he reread the message not<br />
once, but twice to be absolutely certain it was clear. It was, and he sighed loudly as he<br />
slipped the page back to Callaghan and ran a hand over his unshaven chin.<br />
Callaghan smiled as he saw this, and tried to hide it before Banick caught his eye. It<br />
was too late, and the Captain‟s eyes told the question before his tongue did. “Something to<br />
add to this, do you?”<br />
Callaghan stopped trying to hide his roguish grin and simply shook his head. “That<br />
thing you just did. He did it as well.”<br />
“Don‟t even fucking try it, Ryan,” spat Banick with venom. “I already have to find a<br />
new Wing Commander, don‟t add XO to the list.”<br />
Callaghan‟s brow furrowed. “Ouch. Language, sir. You‟re in a touchy mood today.”<br />
“I wasn‟t. But this changed that pretty quickly. When did it come through?”<br />
“Just now,” said Callaghan, folding the paper away in to his pocket. “It came straight<br />
from the Constellation herself. Fleet Admiral Riley also requested that we send Raptors and<br />
a shuttle to escort him here.”<br />
“What, the Constellation‟s run out of fighters, now?”<br />
Callaghan paused at that, and gave Banick his best sceptical smile. Banick stopped<br />
too, and closed his eyes as he shook his head. The bitter truth of the matter was that most of<br />
the fleet was running out of fighters, and commanders were getting increasingly hesitant to<br />
spread them any thinner than they already were. “Right. Yeah, I keep forgetting... Alright.<br />
Fine. Arrange it with the FOC, and prepare one of our launches.”<br />
“Sir, we can‟t send them through Alliance lines, they‟ll have to take the Bering Strait.<br />
That‟s a three and a half thousand mile haul.”<br />
Banick turned, and stopped half-step to give Callaghan an icy stare. “Then I suppose<br />
you‟d better send the Rapiers. They‟ve had enough downtime as of late to get their hours<br />
back up.”<br />
Callaghan paused, not quite believing his Captain‟s disregard. Finally, he nodded,<br />
and watched as the Captain disappeared down the corridor. The XO felt another presence<br />
beside him, and turned enough to recognise Commander Dustin Coyle. “What was that all<br />
about?” the fighter pilot inquired.<br />
Callaghan shook his head, and was already walking down the hall when he replied.<br />
“Two-birds, Stones and Roadrunner... Have them report to the pilot‟s briefing room in five<br />
minutes.”<br />
- 46 -
...Captain Corinn Roderick stared in to the mirror, and her hand slipped up to her<br />
collar to find the two tridents wrapped in golden laurel leaves. She smiled as she unfastened<br />
the rank pins and set them down on the dresser next to the old blue deltas. Picking up the<br />
black, velvet box, she set the two old rank insignias inside carefully and closed the lid. It was<br />
probably the last time she‟d ever do so.<br />
Sighing, she unzipped the jumpsuit half-way, and put the small black box in to the<br />
draw before walking back to the basin to splash her face with water. The computer on her<br />
desk started chirping an alert for her VOIP intercom, and she quickly grabbed the towel from<br />
the basin and went over to hit the receiver. The screen switched from the default, spinning<br />
screensaver of the ship‟s crest to an office over two thousand miles away. She grinned again<br />
in surprise as she recognised the familiar, mischievous beard, and sat down with a laugh.<br />
“Well, it took you long enough!” she said.<br />
Fleet Captain Gabriel Hitchcock smiled in return. He still didn‟t look any older than<br />
when she‟d last seen him in person, but grey was visibly creeping in to the man‟s temples.<br />
She recognised the view out the windows behind him as being the central courtyard of <strong>Cape</strong><br />
Cortez‟s administration complex. There we still students milling there, and for a moment, she<br />
had to check the clock on her wall to remind herself of the time. “I pulled Commonwealth‟s<br />
flight roster from the battlenet,” Hitchcock grinned, leaning forward. “Your routine‟s<br />
reasonably predictable, Quinn. I hope no one in the Alliance has that one worked out, or else<br />
you‟re in trouble.”<br />
She laughed again. “You always were a bastard, Gabe.”<br />
“Congratulations, Quinn,” he said with sincerity. “And at the same time – you have my<br />
condolences.”<br />
“A desk can‟t be that bad, surely,” she said, frowning. “You‟ve managed.”<br />
Hitchcock smiled, and ran a hand through his greying temples. “My father didn‟t go<br />
grey until he was 50. I‟m still 42, Quinn.”<br />
Roderick shrugged. “I didn‟t tell you to become the Commandant of the <strong>Cape</strong>. You<br />
have no one to blame but yourself for that one.” Hitchcock laughed, but Roderick frowned.<br />
“Speaking of promotions – when did they make you a Fleet Captain?”<br />
“Last month,” he replied. “They‟ve given me a new job, too. That‟s why I‟m calling.”<br />
“<strong>New</strong> job?” she repeated.<br />
“Yeah, I‟m still running things at Cortez, but they‟ve got me attached to Fighter<br />
Command. Seems something‟s going on that they‟ve called in a lot of staff for. No one‟s<br />
saying anything, but... I haven‟t seen such a big shift in fighter activities since I was still on<br />
the <strong>Atlantis</strong>.”<br />
“Anything I can help with?”<br />
He seemed uncomfortable. “I got your new orders this morning. I can‟t say I‟m<br />
surprised, but I have no idea what it‟s about.”<br />
Roderick frowned. “Gabe, my orders for the Constellation were signed last month.”<br />
“No, I meant these ones,” he said, holding up a piece of paper that Roderick could<br />
see bore the seal of the UEO‟s fighter command. “Why are the cancelling the transfer?”<br />
Roderick straightened. Whatever Hitchcock had been told, she knew nothing about it.<br />
“What do you mean cancelled? Gabe, I have no idea what you‟re talking about.”<br />
“This was just sent through Fighter Command,” he said. “They‟ve rescinded the order<br />
for you to report to the Constellation. Further orders pending.”<br />
Roderick‟s face twisted in to a confused grimace. “When? This is the first I‟ve heard<br />
of it.”<br />
Now it was Hitchcock‟s turn to be confused. “I assumed you knew?”<br />
“No, I didn‟t. What‟s going on, Gabe?”<br />
“I was hoping you could tell me, Quinn. But there‟s something else... Last week you<br />
sent a message to ONI asking for information about a fighter attack south of the border.<br />
Macaw bank.”<br />
“How did you get it?” she asked, almost accusingly.<br />
- 47 -
Hitchcock shook his head, and held up a hand. “They forwarded it to me. Brass got a<br />
look at it before they did, and they want to run an investigation on it. You really pissed<br />
Intelligence off on this one, Corinn. I don‟t know why, but now it‟s out... they‟ve pulled every<br />
report on it fleet-wide.”<br />
“Why?”<br />
“Well that‟s what I want to know,” Hitchcock countered with a laugh. “If I had to<br />
guess, then it‟s probably got something to do with what the Australian resistance is doing,<br />
but that still doesn‟t explain ONI‟s involvement. If you hear anything, try and keep it quiet, but<br />
I‟d appreciate any updates.”<br />
Roderick stared at Hitchcock for several long seconds and then paused. “...Gabriel,<br />
there‟s something you‟re not telling me. I can understand why ONI would want to know, but<br />
what‟s Fighter Command‟s interest in this? What‟s so important?”<br />
Hitchcock smiled weakly. “I‟m sorry, Quinn. That‟s all I know.”<br />
“I see.”<br />
“Take care of yourself, Quinn. And watch your six.”<br />
The image of the fighter commander winked out, to be replaced by the seal of the<br />
UEO Subfighter Corps, and Roderick looked down. Gabriel Hitchcock had been one of her<br />
closest friends for a decade. And he had just lied.<br />
Seven hundred miles east of Fort Grace - the San Angeles Plains, Pacific<br />
Ocean. April 9 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
The ocean floor that separated the city of San Angeles from the Hawaiian Islands<br />
was a single, immense mudflat. Over ten thousand square miles of endless, flat seabed<br />
containing only a precious few colonies made the area one of the least geographically<br />
interesting places on the entire planet. San Angeles itself lay at the very edge of these<br />
plains, marking the only major population centre for nearly a thousand miles in every<br />
direction. The colonies of <strong>New</strong> Reno, Monterey and Roosevelt were the only other harbours<br />
between Hawaii and the Californian coast, and with populations that only came to about a<br />
million when combined, it left San Angeles – a city-state of about five million – the most<br />
obvious and lucrative port of trade in the Western Pacific.<br />
For this reason, the flats were impossible to approach undetected, and traffic that<br />
entered the region was under the most intense scrutiny at all times between ports. While<br />
piracy and smuggling were non-existent in the northern Pacific since the UEO had been<br />
formed, the presence of a major Alliance fleet base at Pearl Harbor had San Angeles, and<br />
Fort Grace, at the highest possible levels of alert since the third world war.<br />
It was no surprise then that the fleet warships that prowled this massive sea lane<br />
formed in itself, one of the most massive military formations in the Pacific. The battlecruiser<br />
Constellation sat at the middle of a battlegroup of over thirty submarines, mostly UEO, but<br />
with a significant number of attending North Sea vessels.<br />
The flagship of Fleet Admiral Jack Riley had prowled the border between the Alliance<br />
front line and the UEO‟s San Angeles defences for almost sixth months, a forbidding<br />
presence that stalked the eastern pacific as if searching for a fight, and daring the Alliance to<br />
leave the safety of their moorings in Pearl Harbor.<br />
It wasn‟t far from the truth as Fleet Admiral Riley seemed to mimic the movements of<br />
his fleet, pacing back and forth over the command deck while gazing apprehensively up at<br />
the main tactical plot. Alliance units were moving slowly along the border, lying in wait for a<br />
UEO attack that would probably never come. This pattern of „stand-off and readdress‟ had<br />
grown common in the eastern Pacific as both sides tried to move forces through to the west,<br />
and in to the growing conflict in the Chaodai Confederation. The UEO had committed to an<br />
offensive a year earlier in the fall of 2042, and the losses had been severe, with the carriers<br />
- 48 -
Liberty, Rampant and even the massive Reverence class battlecruiser Ark Royal being<br />
counted among the losses. It was the single greatest toll exacted against the UEO carrier<br />
fleet since Pearl Harbor, and had cost the fleet the tenth carrier battlegroup, and its entire<br />
sea wing.<br />
The UEO task force – sent on an a misbegotten raid to try and cripple the Alliance<br />
command facilities at what used to be called Fort Saratoga – had been met by over three<br />
times their number in Alliance cruisers, attack submarines and fighters. The battle had been<br />
decided in less than two hours, with the flagship Ark Royal sinking to a concerted and<br />
determined attack by Alliance fighters. The attack had come at the absolute insistence of the<br />
Secretary General, who had driven the move behind a „need‟ to demonstrate that they were<br />
still working towards a „positive resolution of the conflict‟.<br />
The political rhetoric aside, it had served to severely demonstrate the extent of the<br />
Alliance fortification at Pearl Harbor. A simple raid on the outer defences had ended in<br />
disaster, and no one had the courage to try the same thing again. <strong>New</strong>ly-promoted Fleet-<br />
Captain Luke Rawlings had been the quiet right hand of Admiral Riley for two years since he<br />
had raised his flag on Constellation, and he had commanded the submarine, watched over<br />
her and protected her since she was commissioned in 2039. Riley had seemed to have<br />
made a point of keeping Rawlings in the centre chair since he had come aboard and<br />
Rawlings had grown comfortable with the ship. It had grown on him, and he in turn had<br />
grown on it to the point of it fitting like a glove. The Fleet-Captain sat in silence at the back of<br />
the bridge, watching the Admiral with a casual eye as he went about the usual business of<br />
signing off department reports and reading the most recent contact and action sheets from<br />
his fighter squadrons. What was an easy but tense day for the ship was invariably a day in<br />
hell for the pilots who brought their patrols to the very edge of the border, and it was almost<br />
on a daily basis that a skirmish occurred.<br />
Jack Riley was the man behind it. For months since the loss of Ark Royal, he had<br />
steadily ramped up the number of ships and battlegroups along the border, and predictably,<br />
the Macronesian Alliance had responded. The build-up was played out like a game of poker:<br />
bluff, raise and call, wondering when the other person would fold.<br />
Rawlings studied Riley for a moment before checking his watch. It was 1440. He<br />
cursed silently as he saw how time had slipped away and then quickly turned to his XO,<br />
Commander Jennifer Millner. “XO, you have the Conn. I‟ll be on E-Deck.”<br />
She nodded and looked up at the rest of the bridge crew. “XO has the Conn,” she<br />
announced loudly. Riley turned at this, and looked at Rawlings. The Captain tapped his<br />
watch; Riley smiled, and without further word waved him out of the bridge.<br />
The Fleet-Captain returned the salute of the two marines who stood guard at the<br />
bridge entrance and slipped in to the corridor. It felt like days since he‟d left the command<br />
deck he reflected silently, and rounded the stairwell to E-Deck, two decks below his feet.<br />
It was a short walk to the officer‟s quarter, which during the midday watch was about<br />
as populated as a ghost town. Normally the corridors of the battlecruiser were filled with the<br />
sounds of milling crew members, or even quiet conversation. Now, somewhat oddly, all<br />
Rawlings could hear was the gentle hum of the ship‟s machinery – a sound and feeling he<br />
was so accustomed to that it never normally crossed his mind. Rawlings reached a<br />
hatchway down the end of the corridor and paused before wrapping lightly on the frame.<br />
“Enter,” said the voice inside mutedly.<br />
Admiral Mark Ainsley sat quietly on the lounge at the center of the room, sorting<br />
through a number of papers that had been conspicuously marked as “classified”. Even from<br />
the door, Rawlings could see the recognisable crest of the Office of Naval Intelligence that<br />
sat on the corners of the pages, and knew it best not to pry.<br />
“Afternoon, Captain Rawlings,” Ainsley offered as he turned and slipped the pages<br />
back in to a briefcase.<br />
“Good afternoon, sir,” he returned sharply as he descended the small set of stairs in<br />
to the day cabin. “I understand your launch is leaving soon, sir. I came to see if there was<br />
anything you needed before you disembarked?”<br />
- 49 -
Ainsley smiled as he stood up. “There is one thing. I might need a pair of duelling<br />
pistols, if the armoury can spare them.”<br />
Rawlings looked down for a moment and hid a twisted smile. He‟d been caught offguard<br />
by the Admiral‟s gaff, but had nonetheless been expecting it since he‟d arrived on his<br />
ship. The Captain nodded sagely. “Even with a change in command, Commonwealth‟s<br />
Captain hasn‟t really changed, sir. He might go by a different name, but he is as stubborn as<br />
I remember.”<br />
Ainsley picked up his briefcase and checked the room one last time. “Well, he was<br />
always headstrong...”<br />
Rawlings waited patiently for the Admiral, but couldn‟t bite his tongue. “Permission to<br />
speak candidly, sir?”<br />
Ainsley paused and looked at Rawlings with a raised brow. “You wouldn‟t be where<br />
you are now if you spent your career holding your tongue, Captain. Speak your mind.”<br />
“Captain Banick is new to his post, but his service under you was exemplary, sir,”<br />
Rawlings observed. “What changed?”<br />
“I taught Captain Banick almost everything he knows about command,” Ainsley<br />
answered without hesitation. “And that, perhaps, is the entire problem... Now will you be so<br />
kind, Captain, as to accompany me to the sea deck?”<br />
~<br />
“Rapier Nine, Rapier Ten, keep it tight. Constellation STC this is Two-birds, holding at<br />
devils-zero-one-zero, point-five miles on two-one-five. Requesting intercept vector to escort<br />
detail, acknowledge.”<br />
Three SF-38 Raptors banked around the port side of the Constellation, flying a tight<br />
delta formation with the leader. Rapier Eight - call-sign “Two Birds” – kept a steady speed of<br />
one hundred and fifty knots. The pilot took a moment to look out the starboard side of her<br />
canopy up at the massive bulk of the battlecruiser beside her. Riley‟s flagship was identical<br />
to her home carrier in almost every respect, but it didn‟t do anything to make the sight any<br />
less impressive.<br />
“Two-birds, this is Black Star STC. Standby.”<br />
“Two-birds, acknowledged.”<br />
Two-birds waited for several long seconds as she led her escort flight under the bows<br />
of the battlecruiser. The shadow that was cast over her from the battlecruiser‟s long, knifeprow<br />
brought a shiver down her spine, making the great submarine seem even more<br />
dangerous than it already was. She‟d been with the VF-107 Rapiers for only six months, yet<br />
the entire time it had felt like coming home to something she had always belonged to. It was<br />
no coincidence that the squadron considered her something of a lucky charm, as her history<br />
with the squadron was something that had made her name well known in the halls of <strong>Cape</strong><br />
Cortez ever since she had graduated.<br />
Some claimed that Lieutenant Sarah Cunningham had been destined for the elite:<br />
Her baptism of fire had given her a rare and similarly remarkable five-kill “ace-in-a-day”<br />
status during an ultimately-disastrous training cruise aboard the <strong>DSV</strong> <strong>Atlantis</strong>, and that had<br />
been before she had even graduated. For the two years since, she‟d been under the<br />
instruction of Corinn Roderick herself, and as soon as her name had appeared at the<br />
promotions board for her O-3 rating, she had been short-listed for rostering in the famous<br />
squadron. With the losses they had had taken so heavily defending their ship, the need for<br />
experienced pilots far outweighed perceptions of favouritism.<br />
Despite this, Cunningham was fast becoming as jaded as some of the hardest<br />
veterans in the fleet. Her introduction to the navy had been unfairly brutal, and it was by the<br />
same token that her wingman, Lieutenant J.G. Samuel Rogers – Callsign “Stones” - had<br />
joined her.<br />
- 50 -
Two years previously, Cunningham had flown straight through the enemy‟s lines to<br />
rescue Rogers when the two of them had been separated. Disobeying her orders to hold fire,<br />
she obliterated an Alliance subfighter, never once realising that the mistake would result in<br />
the destruction of her flight leader – Commander Dustin Coyle – as he was unable to<br />
manoeuvre away from the tumbling wreckage. Coyle had survived, but the mistake had<br />
earned the two pilots callsigns that would stay with them for the rest of their careers.<br />
“Two-Birds, this is Black Star STC: Your escort detail has begun. Assume heading<br />
one-nine-zero to intercept at two miles.”<br />
Cunningham squawked her acknowledgement and checked her instruments. The<br />
contact that came up on her sonar matching the bearing and distance was non-descript, and<br />
its identification number had not changed. As escort duties went, this was one of the worst.<br />
After flying cover for the speeder for over eight hours from the Sea of Japan, she had gotten<br />
barely three hours of stand-down before getting back in to the cockpit on the Constellation<br />
for the trip home.<br />
“Alright, Stones, Roadrunner, we‟ve got our orders. Assume one-nine-zero on my<br />
wing,” she ordered sternly.<br />
She banked around hard, bringing the fighter in almost a full circle to double back on<br />
its own course. The two other Raptors of her flight obediently followed suit. Her radio<br />
squawked as she heard the voice of Rapier Ten, Lieutenant Edwin Bruckmeyer, callsign<br />
“Roadrunner.”<br />
“Acknowledged, lead. One-nine-zero on your lead. Were you told exactly who we are<br />
breaking our backs for out here?”<br />
Cunningham rolled her neck, producing a series of rapid and grisly cracks that made<br />
her sigh with some relief. “That‟s a negative, Roadrunner. He‟s got stars, and that‟s all that<br />
matters.”<br />
“Well, next time they can bring their own god-damned escort. Three thousandfucking-miles.<br />
What a joke.”<br />
Cunningham sneered. “Rapier Ten, check your traffic and keep it clean, you<br />
understand me?”<br />
“-Rapier flight, this is Dragon-six-delta. We‟ve got you at zero-point-five miles and<br />
closing. Confirm visual.”<br />
Cunningham sighed and looked outside. They were in shallow water, and the sun<br />
beating down through the calm waves above spoke of the conditions on the surface.<br />
Visibility was good for a few hundred meters, and it took several seconds for the nimble,<br />
sleek UEO transport speeder to come in to view. She smiled. “Roger that, Dragon-six-delta.<br />
Confirm visual. Good to be with you. How‟s our cargo, over?”<br />
“Sittin‟ tight, Two-birds. Ladies first: take lead and I‟ll follow you home.”<br />
Cunningham smiled slightly and pushed up her throttles. “Wilco. Take heading twoeight<br />
at three-five-zero knots.”<br />
Ten hours later, fifty miles south of the Commonwealth Battlegroup. April 9 th ,<br />
2043…<br />
~<br />
The approaches of the Marianas Trench had long been a breeding ground for<br />
smugglers, pirates and those who would prefer to go unnoticed. For that reason, it was<br />
almost completely devoid of shipping lanes as civilian and contracted freighters remained at<br />
shallow depths to take routes that avoided the massive abyssal ravine. The only major port<br />
in the area, Challenger, was named after the eponymous trench and was the only routine<br />
stop that merchants would make on the east-bound sea lanes between Palau Ridge and the<br />
Japanese mainland. It was not at all uncommon for freighters trying to shorten the journey by<br />
negotiating the ravine to fall victim to piracy and smuggling.<br />
- 51 -
This was the proving ground of fighter aces on both sides of the border, and saw<br />
more skirmishes in six months than the entire war had in the two years preceding. The wing<br />
of Chaodai fighters that ducked through the ravines of the trench served as a poignant<br />
example of this testimony. It had been common practice for a decade that fighter pilots in the<br />
UEO, Alliance and Chaodai alike used the trench as a training ground, pushing themselves<br />
to faster and tighter passages through challenger deep, and using the massive trench to go<br />
deeper and further with every new attempt. Some, records held, had pushed it too far...<br />
This wing of Chaodai fighters – some thirty strong – were taking a passage known as<br />
“Swordsman‟s Folly” as quickly as they could drive it, and broke apart to dart amongst and<br />
between the tributaries of the ravine with each new turn to hide their number. On this<br />
occasion, they were not training - and were rapidly bearing down on a UEO battlegroup just<br />
fifty short nautical miles away. Their discipline in this task was nearly perfect – not one of<br />
them broke radio silence, yet the coordination of their advance was deliberate, methodical<br />
and quite clearly practised.<br />
The lone eye that sat near the start of the Folly went completely unseen by the<br />
fighters as they approached its position. The thump and roar of the fighters‟ engines as they<br />
rounded in to the first straight woke the eye from its quiet rest and it slowly picked itself up<br />
off the seabed to look towards the sound. For a few moments, it watched without reaction as<br />
the Chaodai submarines screamed up the ravine, its eye scanning each in turn, and waiting<br />
until they had passed to quickly rise from the seabed and float to the top of the ravine.<br />
The WSKRS probe dispatched from the Commonwealth to monitor the trench was<br />
named “Alvin”, and its „eye‟ continued to watch the fighters as they travelled deeper in to the<br />
ravine, shielded from the UEO‟s sensors by the sonar-blinding shield walls of the submarine<br />
canyon.<br />
Alvin‟s burst of communications was short, and the small AI-driven probe had been<br />
too eager to report what it had seen. Even as it slowly began to settle back in to its sentry<br />
position, the second group of Chaodai fighters had rounded the same straight and in one<br />
quick burst of laser fire, ripped the defenceless WSKRS probe to pieces.<br />
The Sonar operator on the bridge of the Commonwealth jumped slightly as the<br />
monitor for Alvin‟s status feed froze and chirped in alarm as the signal was terminated. He<br />
tried twice to re-establish the connection unsuccessfully, and then attempted to check the<br />
data log he‟d just been sent.<br />
At the Wing Commander‟s suggestion, the Sonar operator had sent Alvin to the Folly<br />
to keep an eye on it. It had never dawned on the ensign to ask why it was called such a<br />
peculiar name, only that when the Wing Commander had a hunch, it was usually a good<br />
one.<br />
He shook his head, and then turned. “XO?”<br />
Commander Callaghan looked up from his station on the command deck and walked<br />
over without a word. The ensign waited until he had leaned down. “Problem?”<br />
“Possibly sir. I had Alvin out at the pitchforks, near Swordsman‟s Folly?”<br />
Callaghan frowned. “Yeah, I know it. And?”<br />
“Alvin had just started to send me something when I lost the feed. As in, lost, sir. I<br />
can‟t get it back.”<br />
Callaghan straightened, and checked the monitor in question. “K.O?”<br />
The ensign looked grim. “Sir, you know as well as I how the Chief babies those<br />
probes. I haven‟t seen a drop out like that in sight six months.”<br />
The Commander sighed “I know. I was just hoping you might tell me some good<br />
news. How long will it take you to move one of the other WSKRS in to position to confirm?”<br />
“At least ten minutes,” the ensign offered without hesitation.<br />
Callaghan paused for a moment, and then looked at the ensign expectantly. “Too<br />
long. Make the call, ensign.”<br />
“Sir?”<br />
Callaghan didn‟t break his gaze. “Do we sound it, or not?”<br />
The ensign hesitated for a long second, and then managed, “General quarters, sir?”<br />
- 52 -
“As I said, ensign... Make the call.”<br />
Callaghan was already walking back to the command deck when the ensign finally<br />
shook his head and keyed the 1MC. “General Quarters, General Quarters, set condition one<br />
across the ship. Alert-Five prepare for launch. Captain Banick, report to the bridge.”<br />
The battle klaxons started wailing as soon as the ensign had finished his<br />
announcement, and Callaghan fell in to his chair to begin acknowledging stations as they<br />
checked in.<br />
It took nearly a minute for the ship to report as battle-ready, at which time Captain<br />
Banick walked on to the bridge with Now-Captain Corinn Roderick close in tow. Bells rang as<br />
the clam-doors began to close, and sealed shut with a solid “thump” and snap-hiss. “What<br />
do we have?” Banick asked as he walked up the stairs to the command deck. Callaghan was<br />
already standing up to head in to the CIC that was directly next to the command deck<br />
through folding glass doors.<br />
He stepped in line with Banick and Roderick as the three officers entered the Combat<br />
Information Centre, and the doors closed behind them. “Unknown, sir. Sonar just lost contact<br />
with one of the WSKRS in the Folly, and we‟ve been unable to bring it back online.”<br />
Banick looked at the large glass chart at the centre of the CIC, which had noted on it<br />
the locations and positions of the Commonwealth and its battlegroup. Less than fifty miles<br />
south of them, Challenger lay as a massive, open hole in the Earth. The Chaodai carrier they<br />
had been hunting for a week was said to be operating out of the Abyssal, where its ability to<br />
launch attacks and then hide again had dogged the UEO fleet for the better part of a month.<br />
Commonwealth had been called in to deal with it, but so far had only driven the enemy<br />
warship further in to hiding. Swordsman‟s Folly was the last in a series of ravines that<br />
opened in to the low plains immediately south of Commonwealth – a notoriously winding and<br />
complex passage that made tracking the movements of fighters with any degree of reliability<br />
all but impossible.<br />
“I take it we‟ve had nothing on our own sensors then?” Banick asked.<br />
“No sir, not a thing. But without that WSKRS, that‟s one hell of a huge hole through<br />
which you could slip almost anything. They could be on top of us and we‟d never know it.”<br />
Roderick nodded silently, but didn‟t seem convinced. “It was your call then?”<br />
“No ma‟am, it was Ensign Drusetti‟s, but I supported it.”<br />
“Good enough for me,” said Banick. “Have the Dark Angels move in from CAP to<br />
cover the alert fighters. Have them do a sweep of the approaches of the Folly, but do not<br />
engage unless ordered. I want to know size and disposition, nothing more.”<br />
One of the CIC operators removed his headset and turned to face the Captain. “Sir,<br />
Fall River and Tripoli have reported battle ready and have taken position on our quarters at<br />
one mile. Alert fighters are launching now.”<br />
~<br />
Commander Dustin Coyle cleared the starboard-bow of the Commonwealth and<br />
pulled in to a tight banking turn that brought him straight on to the wing of a red-pinstriped<br />
Raptor from the 173 rd fighter squadron – the Griffons. “Griffon three, this is Dark Angel one,<br />
check your nine, I have your wing.”<br />
“Commander Roderick? Your voice seems to have gotten deeper. Balls finally<br />
dropped?”<br />
Coyle smirked and kicked up his throttles to break out ahead of the flight of Raptors<br />
making up Commonwealth‟s five-minute Alert-squadron. “Na, they just got larger. You now<br />
have my wing. Take up formation on my six and try to watch who you‟re shooting.”<br />
Griffon Three‟s laughter was cut short by the firm but collected voice of Warseer – the<br />
SEWACS in charge of flight operations.<br />
“Alright – Bouncer, Nimbus, cut the chatter. We‟ve lost contact with a WSKR near<br />
Swordsman‟s Folly, and the Captain wants us to find out why. Dark Angels – you have point.<br />
- 53 -
Griffon squadron, cover their ingress and watch the approaches. Without WSKRS cover,<br />
we‟re blind in this trench, so keep it tight.”<br />
Coyle keyed his radio and wagged his wings as the rest of his flight settled on his tail.<br />
Not far away, the second flight of the Dark Angels were making at speed to the northern arm<br />
of the ravine. “Understood, Warseer. Inbound at three-seven-zero knots, firewalled.”<br />
“This is Griffon Lead... Bouncer? Twenty says you can‟t beat the Swordsman‟s time.”<br />
Coyle smiled inwardly. “Thirty says I shave two and a half seconds off it, Hitman.”<br />
“The only thing you‟ll be shaving off is your own glorified paintwork, Bouncer. On your<br />
six at zero-point-three miles, throttles answering three-seven-zero. You have the lead.”<br />
Banick and Callaghan looked down with raised brows as they began to register the<br />
steady tapping in the CIC. The orders that were still being issued by the CIC operators<br />
seemed insignificant next to the uneven, sporadic noise of Captain Corinn Roderick‟s<br />
fingernails on the railing in front of her. Callaghan smiled as Banick gently leaned over to<br />
whisper in her ear. “Are you ok, Captain?”<br />
Roderick realised her error and stopped, but still didn‟t blink as she continued to stare<br />
at the tactical plot, and lied smoothly. “It‟s just the new uniform, sir. Still too much starch,<br />
that‟s all.”<br />
Banick nodded. “Apparently this doesn‟t get any easier, so you may as well try to get<br />
comfortable.”<br />
“...Yeah.”<br />
One of the officers in the CIC turned to face the command staff. “Captain, we just got<br />
a solid return on those contacts we picked up earlier. Incoming from zero-three-five, distance<br />
is ten miles at two-nine-zero knots. Four contacts, UEO transponder codes.”<br />
“Shit,” Banick said simply taking his hat off and slapping it on the console in front of<br />
him. “His timing always was perfect. Have they hailed yet?”<br />
“No sir, not yet. But I‟ll give you one guess what I.D. had them as.”<br />
“Then let‟s hope they‟re in a hurry.”<br />
~<br />
...Coyle angled his fighter down towards the twin, rocky outcrops of the ravine ahead<br />
and pulled back slightly on his throttles. The Raptor whined as the engines spooled back<br />
from full thrust and rolled through the rocky peaks with ease. The ravine ahead was a<br />
completely blind passage that branched off in to no less than eleven different canyons, and<br />
whatever was in there was not going to be easy to find. He kept his trigger covered lightly<br />
with his thumb as he began counting down the distance to Swordsman‟s Folly. “This is Dark<br />
Angel One... I just crossed the first marker, still no contact. Five miles to the Folly. Dark<br />
Angels five and six: take approaches two and three and then double back at the first turn. I‟ll<br />
press on with Hitman and do a half-pass of the main passage, understood?”<br />
“Roger, Bouncer.”<br />
“Acknowledged.”<br />
The two formations of fighters – some twelve in total – broke out of their deltaformation<br />
in to three groups and swooped down in to the trench. Coyle held back for a<br />
minute to watch their ingress and then followed suit down the main channel, Dark Angel<br />
Three flying formation off his wing as Griffons One and Two held off by a few hundred yards.<br />
The trench was pitch-black, and a nightmare to fly for any inexperienced pilot. Aided<br />
only by the ghostly outlines provided by his HUD, Coyle smiled slightly as he pushed his<br />
throttles back up to 80 percent, and watched his needles climbed past three hundred knots,<br />
the steady roar of his engines causing the fighter to rattle as cavitation kicked up around the<br />
fuselage. The channel got narrower as he went further in to it, and before long the clearance<br />
on either side of his wings had narrowed to less than twenty meters. The pass was notorious<br />
for the fact that the distance between the rock walls got as low as five meters before it<br />
started to widen again, and that was where the trick lay – a pilot had to slow down to take<br />
- 54 -
the gap, rolling his subfighter on to its wings through a course of more than a kilometre in<br />
order to safely clear it. How much the pilot slowed down, of course, dictated how long it<br />
would take him to accelerate out the other side. Making matters worse, the chasm was<br />
essentially a tunnel, with the very top of the canyon being so rugged and unpredictable that it<br />
was impossible to pull out once you had committed. This was the portion of the ravine that<br />
was now infamously known as “Swordsman‟s Folly”.<br />
In its earliest days, <strong>Cape</strong> Cortez had run advanced training through the perilous<br />
canyon, but a fatality in 2033 meant that the course was officially declared out-of-bounds.<br />
<strong>Cape</strong> Cortez maintained a simulated version, of course, which cadets could run at their<br />
leisure in the safe confines of an academy simulator room, but no pilot felt that it was the<br />
same ever since.<br />
Something flashed through Coyle‟s HUD for a moment, and disappeared as soon as<br />
he cleared the first straight. “Hello...” he said to himself curiously, checking the sonar log to<br />
confirm the brief contact. “This is Bouncer, possible bogey-dope further down the trench.<br />
Warseer, please advise.”<br />
“This is Warseer. We have no contacts on scope, Bouncer. Proceed with caution and<br />
confirm tally, but do not fire.”<br />
“Understood,” Coyle replied warily, un-safing his cannons. “Dark Angel Three, fall<br />
back to my six and cover me. Decelerate to two-seven-zero and wait for them to clear the<br />
Folly. We‟ll tag them as they come through.”<br />
Neither side registered each other until they virtually collided on a sharp turn near the<br />
Folly‟s entrance. The first flight of Chaodai Xiao-Yus flew over the Dark Angels fighters at<br />
three hundred knots and Coyle‟s sensors went berserk. “Shit! This is Bouncer! Tally-Ho on<br />
Bandits. Incoming Xiao-Yu-class subfighters at speed three-one-zero. Requesting<br />
permission to engage!”<br />
~<br />
...Sarah Cunningham listened to the radio traffic with an increasing sense of dread as<br />
her fighter powered as fast as it could towards the Commonwealth, the engines red-lined at<br />
three hundred and eighty knots. The shuttle, only capable of a relatively modest three<br />
hundred was falling behind, and she intended to keep it that way as she tried to head off the<br />
attackers. “Warseer, this is Sword-Eight, inbound from zero-two-zero. ETA Is two minutes.<br />
Requesting intercept vector to engage.”<br />
“Two-birds: Warseer. That‟s a negative. We don‟t have time to get you refuelled. Hold<br />
your present heading and prepare to land.”<br />
Cunningham cursed and looked at her fuel gauge. She was running on fumes, and<br />
any talk of a combat intercept was now completely out of the question. “Understood,<br />
Warseer. Request time to turn-around?”<br />
“Also a negative, Two-birds. The take off ramp is presently full. Get your bird stowed<br />
and stand down.”<br />
Cunningham swore loudly and pounded the canopy in frustration to such a point that<br />
her fist actually hurt as her knuckles racked against each other painfully, producing entirely<br />
unnatural sounds. The radio squawked again, and this time a new voice piped up on the<br />
channel. “Commonwealth: Advise we do not have time for landing. Request you prep the aft<br />
airlock for immediate docking.”<br />
Cunningham frowned as she heard the voice. It seemed familiar, although she didn‟t<br />
recognise it as being the pilot of the speeder. Warseer beat her to the chase. “This is<br />
Warseer – identify yourself, Dragon-six-delta. Who is this?”<br />
“Warseer, I.D. is transmitting to you now and I say again: Prep that airlock.”<br />
~<br />
- 55 -
...Roderick closed her eyes for a second as she listened to the radio traffic and<br />
watched the tactical plot - a silent prayer going through her mind as she absent-mindedly<br />
gripped the small cross that was around her neck. She listened as Warseer cleared the<br />
fighters to engage, and brought the shuttle in<br />
Banick picked up a headset from the console dash and put it on. “Bouncer, this is<br />
Commonwealth-actual. How many bandits?”<br />
“Unknown, Commonwealth. I‟ve got at least four in this sector alone, Dark Angels five<br />
and six report similar contacts from multiple headings. Warseer is relaying to you now.”<br />
The three officers watched silently as multiple contacts lit up the tactical board,<br />
closing from almost every southern approach vector out of the ravines. Banick didn‟t bother<br />
counting them – there were too many for a pair of half-strength fighter units to deal with in<br />
time.<br />
“Twenty miles and closing,” Warseer reported.<br />
“They‟ll hit us in four minutes,” Callaghan said after running the numbers through his<br />
head. “And that‟s conservative unless Coyle can hold them.”<br />
Roderick moved like a gun that had just been fired and moved from the plot to the<br />
EVA station a few meters away, virtually jogging up the steps as Callaghan threw her a<br />
headset that she caught and quickly put on. “Bouncer, this is Archangel. You need to get<br />
them out of that trench any way you can. You don‟t have time to pick them off.”<br />
“Archangel, with respect, if even one of those fu-“<br />
“-Dustin, this is not the time to argue with me! Now give them something else to think<br />
about and get those bastards out of that trench! And that‟s an order!”<br />
Roderick removed the headset and tossed it on the console as she leaned over the<br />
flight director‟s shoulder. “How far away is that shuttle?”<br />
“They‟re on final approach now for airlock two. They‟ll be here any second.”<br />
Roderick nodded and then turned to Banick and Callaghan. “Do you remember what<br />
we did at Marinduque two years ago?”<br />
The Captain and his XO paused for a moment and then went wide in realization of<br />
what she meant. Banick slapped Callaghan on the shoulder and immediately started back to<br />
the bridge deck. “Callaghan, with me. Captain Roderick? Coordinate our fighters from here.”<br />
The UEO battlecruiser continued to form up with her escorts as she slowly<br />
approached the ravine crossing. The shuttle that slipped between the escorting SSN Fall<br />
River and the cruiser Tripoli was dwarfed by the three capital ships as it pulled alongside the<br />
battlecruiser‟s aft quarter and steadily approached the external airlock. It took only a few<br />
seconds for the pilot to manoeuvre his craft in to position, although the docking was anything<br />
but smooth. The speeder hit the airlock hard, the magnetic locks immediately gripping it and<br />
forming a soft-seal nearly instantly. It took only five seconds for the speeder‟s airlock to<br />
pressurize and the passenger was already bolting through the door before the speeder had<br />
even really settled. The speeder was not staying, and its engines continued to be heard<br />
through the Commonwealth‟s hull as they spooled up again, the airlock sealing once more<br />
and closing quickly to allow it to leave just as quickly as it had arrived.<br />
The man who now walked quickly down the battle-ready port side corridor of the<br />
battlecruiser left many marines turning in wide-eyed wonder at what they had just seen, the<br />
mess of gold braid on his shoulders and cuffs betraying his rank and adding further to their<br />
confusion.<br />
Bells rang as the clam-doors of Commonwealth‟s bridge opened with the whine of<br />
hydraulics, and the man stepped on to the command deck, still in full-dress frock. Captain<br />
James Banick almost fell over as he saw the sight, and Admiral Mark Ainsley walked up the<br />
stairs to the command deck and turned straight to the tactical plot as if the more junior<br />
Captain were not even there.<br />
“What‟s the situation?” he asked simply.<br />
It took Banick and Callaghan a moment to gather their thoughts as the Captain<br />
regarded Ainsley with an equal measure of both bewilderment and annoyance. He bit his<br />
- 56 -
tongue, and obediently provided the report. “Chaodai subfighters just broke through<br />
Swordsman‟s Folly, Admiral, but with respect, sir, the situation is well in-hand.”<br />
Ainsley turned at Banick, but the Captain was already walking to the main plot.<br />
“Tactical, load all batteries. We‟re only going to get one shot at this.”<br />
“Aye sir, batteries one through sixteen arming. Tracking solutions on masters one,<br />
two three and-“<br />
“No time for that,” Banick interrupted. “They‟re subfighters. We‟re not going to shoot<br />
them down individually with Mark 92s. All warheads to one-hundred percent charge,<br />
suppression barrage on bearing spread one-six-zero to two-two-zero. Set weapons to<br />
remote detonation. Copy this to the Tripoli.”<br />
The tactical officer looked worried as he carried out the instructions. “Aye, sir.”<br />
Ainsley continued to watch in silence, sensing Banick‟s eye drift to him in the corner<br />
of the command deck, as if baiting him to ask the question on his mind. The Admiral merely<br />
smiled as he recognised what order Banick was issuing, and simply clasped his hands<br />
behind his back. The tactical officer emphatically pulled the last safeties on the weapons<br />
releases, and turned back to Banick.<br />
“All batteries loaded and armed, warheads answered one hundred percent charge,<br />
Captain. Alpha strike ready on your mark.”<br />
~<br />
Commander Benjamin Harker, callsign “Hitman”, juked hard as one of the Chaodai<br />
fighters on his tail put two rounds of laser fire straight through his flight path, impacting<br />
harmlessly on the rock walls ahead of him. He tried again to target the leading fighter ahead<br />
of him as its wingman countered by trying to draw a bead on his own tail. “Bouncer, this<br />
one‟s stubborn. Where are you?”<br />
“Coming up on your two, Hitman, Hang tight.”<br />
Harker frowned for a minute and checked his two-o‟clock – almost dead ahead.<br />
There was absolutely nothing there except for the ever-narrowing rock walls of the Folly. He<br />
then realised what the Dark Angels commander was doing, and felt his stomach turn.<br />
“Bouncer, this is Hitman, understood. Just make it quick.”<br />
“ETA is one minute.”<br />
Harker shook his head as he unsuccessfully fired a volley of shells across the Xiao-<br />
Yu‟s nose. The enemy pilot rolled in a tight circle, and accelerated harder in to the trench.<br />
“Fuck, at this rate he‟s going to make the Folly. Griffon Two, Dark Angel Three - are you two<br />
still with me back there?”<br />
About half a mile behind him, the two other pilots were engaged against a second<br />
flight of Xiao-Yus that had held back to try and pin down the UEO CAP fighters. It had<br />
worked to an extent, but had also tied up nearly a third of the Chaodai subfighters that were<br />
making for the Commonwealth.<br />
“Copy that, Hitman. This is turning in to a hell of a shit-fight. I don‟t think we‟re going<br />
to do this in time.”<br />
“We don‟t have to,” Harker responded grimly. “They‟re using the Folly to get through<br />
Commonwealth‟s defence screen, so we‟ll use that if we can. Bug out and see if you can<br />
take some of them with you.”<br />
“I sure hope you know what you‟re doing, Hitman.”<br />
“Tell that to the boss, Bouncer.”<br />
The ravine was getting narrower by the second and Harker was finding it increasingly<br />
difficult to keep the trailing Xiao-Yu off his tail. His Raptor was doing over two hundred knots,<br />
barely half of what it was capable of, and it still felt too fast for the increasingly<br />
claustrophobic confines of the canyon. Another burst of laser fire grazed his port wing,<br />
causing several alarms to wail noisily, and making the entire fighter rattle in protest. He<br />
silenced them quickly, and then checked his position before cursing, and realising his<br />
predicament.<br />
- 57 -
“Shit. Dark Angel One, I‟ve just hit the first marker. I‟m committing to the Folly.”<br />
“Hitman, don‟t you even dare. You won‟t make it at that speed.”<br />
Harker barked as he pressed his throttles up. “I‟m counting on the fact that they won‟t<br />
either, Bouncer. Now get your ass down here!”<br />
Above him, the walls of the ravine seem to shrink away. Barely half a mile to go and<br />
his throttles were now answering a speed of over two hundred and forty knots. No pilot had<br />
ever done the Folly at more than two hundred and ten, yet the Chaodai pilot either didn‟t<br />
know it, or simply didn‟t care as they brazenly matched Harker for every turn.<br />
“Cocky bastard,” he muttered to himself.<br />
“Hitman, this is Bouncer, I‟ve just entered the Folly. I‟m dead ahead of your position. I<br />
hope you‟re on your way through, because this is about to get real tight...”<br />
Harker looked up to see the last of what little light made it to the canyon disappear as<br />
the rock walls closed up. The walls on either side of him seemed a blur, and every touch of<br />
the stick seemed to send the Raptor off wildly towards oblivion. This was Swordsman‟s Folly.<br />
“Bouncer, I‟m in. Going high.”<br />
“Understood. I‟ll pass right under you. Weapons are free...”<br />
Harker‟s chest wanted to explode as he flipped the Raptor up ninety-degrees and<br />
entered the inescapable chasm. Proximity warnings blared from every alarm, but he dared<br />
not take his hands off the throttle or stick to silence them as the world continued to spin<br />
around him. Time seemed to slow down in the final seconds of his run, with every detail<br />
coming to him in near-perfect clarity.<br />
“Three...”<br />
The blue contact ahead of him turned red and lit up his sonar as a collision warning,<br />
but he didn‟t blink as Coyle audibly counted down the seconds until his pass. Harker was in<br />
such a trance that they didn‟t even register in his mind. Seconds seemed like minutes as<br />
more shots flew past his fighter, missing it by inches as the Chaodai pilot was forced to<br />
divert his attention on simply flying his fighter, lest he crash in to solid rock walls at speeds<br />
so fast that he wouldn‟t even register his own demise.<br />
“Two...” Coyle said, his voice a distant blur in Harker‟s mind.<br />
In the end, no one would ever know how fast Harker‟s Raptor was actually travelling<br />
when it did the infamous run. Not even Harker, who hadn‟t adjusted his throttles since he set<br />
them, seemed to register it as every ounce of his concentration went in to guiding the Raptor<br />
through the ill-formed, would-be tunnel.<br />
“One...”<br />
Coyle‟s fighter appeared under Harker‟s fighter as a black, shapeless blur, its guns<br />
blazing the entire way as it ripped up the walls of the Folly, sending flying rock and debris in<br />
to the path of the pursuing Xiao-Yu.<br />
A large chunk of granite slammed in to the enemy subfighter, as its wingman<br />
struggled to make it through the gap. It didn‟t, and Coyle pulled high over the wreckage as<br />
the second fighter careened out of control and slammed in to the walls of the trench, littering<br />
itself over the seabed like a shattered egg shell. Coyle however, wasn‟t done.<br />
“Mark!”<br />
A single torpedo left Coyle‟s Raptor and shot away down the approach of the folly.<br />
The Chaodai fighters that were still using the channel to mask their approach were<br />
completely unaware of what waited for them as the six-hundred-pound plasma warhead<br />
impacted the wall and detonated, vaporising tonnes of rock and causing hundreds more to<br />
collapse from the high-vaulted ceilings.<br />
The Dark Angels‟ Raptor snap-rolled and pulled out of the trench at break-neck<br />
speed as the Folly‟s entrance collapsed behind him. The Chaodai fighters that continued to<br />
shoot past him realised what the UEO pilot had done and one by one, began to pull out of<br />
the trench, increasing speed to make their final run on the Commonwealth.<br />
The distance to the UEO battlecruiser was now less than three miles.<br />
Harker laughed euphorically as his fighter burst out of the Folly‟s end and accelerated<br />
through the final straight. The seconds it took him to recover were all the Chaodai fighters –<br />
now above him and having left the submarine canyon – needed to seize their moment.<br />
- 58 -
Bolts of laser fire streaked down in to the trench, and cut across Harker‟s path as he<br />
pulled out of the last marker, inside the Commonwealth‟s defensive perimeter. His laughter<br />
turned to static as the lead Chaodai fighter‟s shots struck home and turned the UEO Raptor<br />
in to a tiny, but rapidly expanding white-hot nova, the echoing “boom” shuddering for miles.<br />
“Griffon-lead is down!” Warseer barked. “No ejection detected...”<br />
“Fuck!” Coyle strained to look back over his shoulder, but saw nothing of the other<br />
pilot. He seethed for several seconds, and then doubled back towards the carrier, following<br />
what was left of the Chaodai fighters in.<br />
~<br />
Roderick closed her eyes as she heard the call, and swallowed the lump that had<br />
risen in her throat. She could now do nothing but watch as the enemy fighters continued to<br />
close...<br />
Next door, Banick counted down the seconds.<br />
“Two miles!” announced the tactical officer. “Bandits have left the trench and are<br />
inside our engagement zone. Shall we open fire, sir?”<br />
“No, hold fire,” said Banick calmly. “On my mark.”<br />
Seventeen remaining Chaodai subfighters – their number having been mauled by the<br />
UEO CAP – bore down on Commonwealth at better than three hundred and fifty knots, and<br />
assumed their bombing formations. The Defiance-class cruiser Tripoli held its position<br />
diligently, but continued to hold its fire.<br />
“One mile!” barked the tactical officer, his voice now showing a measure of<br />
uncertainty.<br />
“All batteries: repeating salvos, fire at will,” Banick ordered, his voice still calm as he<br />
continued to stare at his watch. What happened on the tactical screens no longer held his<br />
interest as the deck shook beneath his feet...<br />
Sixteen torpedo batteries across the Commonwealth‟s forward hull seemed like the<br />
gates of hell to the approaching subfighters. The howling scream of plasma engines as each<br />
battery dispensed half a dozen E-Plasma torpedos lit up enemy sonars like a Christmas tree.<br />
No matter how impressive the sight, to the Chaodai it seemed little more than a last second<br />
act of desperation by the UEO carrier to avoid the inevitable. Tripoli added to the score, her<br />
own batteries emptying themselves on the approaching enemy fighters. None of them<br />
appeared to notice that the weapons were following ballistic trajectories, and failed to realise<br />
their error until the weapons „harmlessly‟ began to pass around them...<br />
Banick looked up as his stopwatch hit zero.<br />
“Mark.”<br />
With a flick of his finger, the tactical officer hit the kill-switch on his console, and all<br />
one hundred and twenty six torpedoes detonated in a single massive explosion over an area<br />
of just less than half a mile. The Chaodai fighters attempted to break out of the conflagration,<br />
but it was not the detonation of the warheads that would destroy them.<br />
The resulting implosion from the mass-vacuum left behind by the UEO salvo was<br />
titanic. The shockwave hit the Chaodai fighter line with all the force of a small nuclear<br />
weapon, disintegrating the attacking formation wholesale, and with not a single survivor left<br />
to tell.<br />
For the next day, Chaodai fleet reports would hold that the massive detonation<br />
detected near the Marianas trench signalled the death of the UEO Battlecruiser<br />
Commonwealth as the attacking fighters did their work in finishing the under-strength UEO<br />
battlegroup. The explosion was felt for hundreds of miles in every direction, and several<br />
communications would ultimately be exchanged between the Battlecruiser‟s CIC and<br />
regional commands, assuaging paranoid Admirals and senior Captains of their fears in what<br />
the intercepted enemy dispatches had reported.<br />
It was assumed for some time by the Chaodai, of course, that their fighter wing was<br />
simply the victim of a tragic, but triumphant attack from which they did not return.<br />
- 59 -
Stunned silence filled the Commonwealth‟s bridge as the crew watched the awesome<br />
display of firepower settle, leaving not a trace of their attackers. Banick sniffed slightly as he<br />
casually took several steps backwards to be in line with the Admiral.<br />
“Nice trick,” Ainsley said simply, nodding his quiet approval as the bridge crew began<br />
to whoop in delight, congratulating each other and cheering all the while.<br />
Banick didn‟t get a chance to respond as Roderick entered from the CIC and looked<br />
aghast at Ainsley, her jaw nearly falling slack. “My god...”<br />
Callaghan smiled as he turned around and watched Roderick run at Ainsley and stop<br />
short of practically knocking him over. She very quickly realized her error and jumped back,<br />
saluting hastily as she regained her footing.<br />
Ainsley grinned and returned it before Roderick cleared her throat. “Ur, Permission to<br />
speak freely, Vice Admiral?”<br />
“As always, Captain, speak your mind.”<br />
Roderick grinned and leapt on Ainsley without any further warning. Her embrace still<br />
managed to catch the Admiral off guard despite his expectations, and he stumbled slightly<br />
as he caught her. “Jesus, it‟s good to see you...” she said, her voice muffled behind his back.<br />
She finally released him and stepped back in shock, continuing to stare up at him with<br />
stunned eyes. “I... What are you doing here?!” she asked, her voice steadily breaking in to a<br />
laugh.<br />
Ainsley looked sadly at Banick and the Captain pursed his lips. “Perhaps this is a<br />
conversation best continued in my office, sir?”<br />
Ainsley silently nodded and followed Banick through the CIC with Roderick and<br />
Callaghan close in tow. “Lieutenant Melling, secure from battle stations. You have the Conn,”<br />
ordered Banick as he walked.<br />
The XO paused for a moment as an ensign from EVA control approached the base of<br />
the command deck. “XO, the shuttles from Fall River and Tripoli that the captain requested<br />
just arrived on the flight deck. Shall I bring them up?”<br />
Callaghan smiled and nodded. “Thank you, ensign. If you could?”<br />
“Of course, sir.”<br />
The short walk through the CIC to the Captain‟s office gave Ainsley enough time only<br />
to remark to Roderick, “The tridents suit you, Captain.”<br />
She smiled as she brought a hand up to the small, black roundels with gold UEO<br />
tridents inlaid in to them on her collar. “Thank you sir. Although I think it‟s still going to take<br />
some getting used to.”<br />
~<br />
- 60 -
III<br />
N E W G UARD<br />
“090941/1219”<br />
The Marianas Sea, UEO Commonwealth Battlegroup. April 9 th , 2043…<br />
Banick flew through his office door purposely and strode past the ship‟s seal that<br />
hung from the wall on his way to the desk at the end of the room. Ainsley may not have<br />
realised it, but the swift and dramatic move had been a very deliberately played gesture on<br />
Banick‟s part. This was his ship, and he intended to let those with him know it. He reached<br />
the desk and spun around only so he could sit on its edge and waited until Callaghan had<br />
followed Roderick and Ainsley in, not speaking until the door latched shut.<br />
Roderick looked around apprehensively and then put her hands on her hips. “Am I<br />
missing something?” she asked simply, watching Callaghan quietly step up beside Ainsley<br />
with his best possible poker face. (It wasn‟t enough.)<br />
“Have a seat, Captain. I‟m certain the Admiral can explain it better than I can,” Banick<br />
suggested.<br />
Ainsley gave Banick a blank look for a minute and then shook his head. “Well, this<br />
isn‟t exactly the reunion I was expecting, but as you wish, Captain - I‟ll get to the point.”<br />
He reached in to his jacket pocket and withdrew a folded letter which he promptly<br />
handed to Banick on the desk opposite him. “As you seem intent on keeping this formal,<br />
Captain, I‟ll do you the courtesy of returning the service. These are my orders.”<br />
He watched for a moment as Banick opened the letter only for a second before<br />
silently slipping it on to his desk, at which point Ainsley continued. “Effective immediately,<br />
under the orders of Fleet Admiral Jack Riley, I am to take command of this Battlegroup until<br />
such time that our combat operations in the Eastern Pacific are concluded.”<br />
Roderick frowned and looked from the Admiral to Callaghan and Banick who shared<br />
the same, blank expression. “You two knew about this, I assume?”<br />
Banick simply nodded, and Ainsley continued before either of them could say a word.<br />
“...As part of those orders, Captain Banick was instructed to keep the news and purpose of<br />
my assignment a strictly need-to-know basis. These orders also pertain to you, Captain<br />
Roderick.”<br />
“I don‟t think I understand, sir,” she said simply.<br />
“Effective immediately, your transfer order to the Constellation has been rescinded.<br />
You‟re to remain at the head of this battlegroup‟s fighter wing, directly under my command.”<br />
Roderick gauged Banick‟s dry and motionless reactions carefully and then nodded<br />
slowly as the office door knocked loudly, and an ensign poked their head through the frame.<br />
“Sorry to interrupt, sirs, but the Captains of the Fall River and Tripoli are here, as you<br />
requested.”<br />
Banick stood up from the desk as the Admiral turned, and gestured for the junior<br />
officer to bring them in. A second later, and two officers – a Captain and a Commander<br />
respectively – stepped through, one of whom made Ainsley smile slightly. Both officers<br />
snapped to attention and saluted sharply.<br />
“Admiral Ainsley, this is Captain Sean Barker, UEO Tripoli,” Banick introduced, his<br />
hand extended to the more senior of the two new officers. Ainsley returned the salute and<br />
nodded. “At ease, Captains.”<br />
“It‟s a pleasure sir,” replied Barker sternly, returning the nod curtly, but offering<br />
nothing more.<br />
Ainsley then turned to the second of the two officers as Banick continued. “And you<br />
of course know the Commander of the Fall River,” he said simply, taking a step back.<br />
“Commander Hayes,” Ainsley beamed. “It‟s been a while. Congratulations on the<br />
command.”<br />
- 61 -
Commander (full) Madeline Hayes, the former helm officer of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> smiled<br />
and looked over at Ryan Callaghan just a few feet away. “Actually, sir, if you‟ll forgive me...<br />
It‟s actually Commander Callaghan, now. I changed the name about six months ago.”<br />
Ainsley stopped in his tracks and looked over at the Commonwealth XO, Ryan<br />
Callaghan, who smiled wryly and shrugged, holding up his left hand to reveal the ring that<br />
sat on his fourth finger. “Well... I see you‟ve changed more than just the drapes.<br />
Congratulations. Admiral Hayes failed to mention this when last we spoke.”<br />
Madeline narrowed her eyes and cocked her head. “He assumed you knew, sir...”<br />
Banick stepped forward again and regarded the two commanders with a cautionary<br />
gaze and then looked at Ainsley once more. “Admiral, as this ship has just stood down from<br />
action stations - I‟m sure there will be time for reunions later?”<br />
“Apparently so. Thank you both for coming, but as Captain Banick has been so fast<br />
to remind me, this is not a social visit. Effective immediately, I am in taking command of the<br />
Commonwealth Battlegroup. These orders are classified level-one, so only fleet command<br />
staff will be informed of the details. What I am about to tell you therefore cannot leave this<br />
office. Am I understood?”<br />
The assembled officers nodded in agreement and Ainsley sat down and sighed. “For<br />
nearly two years, fleet command has worked to the immediate goal of retaking what we lost<br />
in Hawaii. This is as much political as it is strategic. Pearl Harbor represents the most<br />
strategically important location in the entire Pacific, and is similarly the most symbolic. It took<br />
almost the entire Macronesian fleet to take it from us, and as you‟re all duly aware, we‟re<br />
having a hell of a time trying to take it back.”<br />
“As the Ark Royal found out to her misfortune,” muttered Callaghan solemnly.<br />
“What you were not aware is that the Secretary-General has imposed a time limit on<br />
this objective. He ordered Fleet Admiral Riley to take it back by no later than August first, this<br />
year.”<br />
Without exception, every officer in the room stopped, and met Ainsley with nothing<br />
but silence. Ainsley waited for what he knew was coming, and was not disappointed.<br />
“It can‟t be done,” Banick said bluntly. “There isn‟t an officer in the fleet who wouldn‟t<br />
know that. It would take the entire fleet six months of preparation just to organize such an<br />
attack, and that doesn‟t even count how long it would take the Marines to do their thing on<br />
the ground.”<br />
“Fortunately for us, Captain Banick, Admiral Riley was able to press your position on<br />
the Secretary General with some degree of success, and he has now conceded that what he<br />
was asking was not possible.”<br />
“And how exactly does that apply to us?”<br />
Ainsley got up and walked to Banick‟s desk to access the controls for the screen that<br />
hung from the wall next to him. “Captain Barker, will you please get the windows?”<br />
Obediently, the commander of the Tripoli reached back and pressed a button next to<br />
the door. The photovoltaic glass walls of the office promptly turned opaque, blocking the<br />
office from the view of the CIC next door. Ainsley brought up a map of Pearl Harbor on the<br />
screen and zoomed in on what used to be the submarine fortress of Saratoga Naval Base.<br />
“In 2041, after we lost it, the Macronesians began using Saratoga as a major staging<br />
area. Last year a team of Naval Special Forces running a demolitions Op on Hawaii found<br />
this-“<br />
Ainsley brought up the battlenet‟s database and punched in an access code. The<br />
computer thought about it for a moment, and then displayed the information he‟d requested.<br />
The officers drew closer to the screen as they saw where the photo had been taken.<br />
“These are recon photos taken from what used to be UEO headquarters. That<br />
structure you can see on Ford Island, near the Ares fleet yards, got ONI‟s attention and for<br />
months they tried to work out what it was for.”<br />
The photo in question showed what appeared to be a large Macronesian command<br />
base, central amongst the buildings being a massive satellite antenna.<br />
“A tracking base?” asked Madeline simply.<br />
- 62 -
“Yes, that‟s what the commandoes reported. You would, however, be wrong. Shortly<br />
after these photos were taken, the NSF boys took it upon themselves to demolish that<br />
satellite antenna, and ONI assumed nothing more. In truth, we‟re probably having this<br />
conversation with no small amount of thanks to those SEALs, because when they blew up<br />
that command post, they set the Alliance back in what they were doing by nearly a year.<br />
They completely redrafted their construction plans, and relocated the site near what used to<br />
be Fort Saratoga, three miles off shore. We‟ve been unable to touch it since.”<br />
Ainsley hit another control, and a set of schematics were displayed on screen. One<br />
by one, the gathered officers closed their eyes, steadily recognising what it was. “You all<br />
know – most of you with personal experience – what the Alliance‟s Atlas missile system is<br />
capable of. When we lost <strong>Atlantis</strong> to this system in ‟41, they had only a single battery<br />
operational off of the Australian coast. That battery has an effective range of just over two<br />
thousand, five hundred nautical miles, and has kept us from taking this war to them. As we<br />
speak, Macronesia is constructing a second such system... on Fort Saratoga. Cathgate‟s<br />
deadline just happened to coincide with its projected date of completion.”<br />
Barker‟s shock was whispered. “If they finish that battery they‟ll hit everything from<br />
Japan to the West Coast.”<br />
“That‟s correct,” Ainsley nodded grimly. “It will mean nothing less than the end of the<br />
war, and the UEO will be forced to surrender unconditionally to the Macronesian Alliance.<br />
My orders are to stop that from happening.”<br />
Banick grimaced. “That‟s quite melodramatic, Admiral, but how exactly does the Fleet<br />
Admiral propose we are going to do that?”<br />
Ainsley glared at his former XO, the glint in his eye warning him not to test his<br />
patience much further. “...That is where Captain Roderick comes in. Admiral Riley believes<br />
that an all-out fleet engagement against Saratoga will only end badly, and has suggested<br />
that a mass fighter attack - similar to that which we executed in the Philippines two years<br />
ago – may be sufficient to knock out that battery. If we can prevent Macronesia from bringing<br />
that missile battery online, then we will have bought the rest of the fleet the time it needs to<br />
prepare for a feasible, sustained assault against the Hawaiian Islands.”<br />
Roderick straightened and looked at Ainsley in a mixture of disbelief and sadness.<br />
“Admiral, you have got to know that this would be a suicide mission for the pilots involved.<br />
How can you ask me to give that kind of order?”<br />
Ainsley closed his eyes. “Sadly, Captain, I‟m not the one asking. Fleet Admiral Riley<br />
has ordered it, and I am in no position to countermand him. As to why he asked for you? I<br />
can only imagine it‟s because you are one of the only senior fighter commanders in the fleet<br />
to have done this before, and he thinks you can do it again.”<br />
The office door rapped again and Banick cut in. “Enter!”<br />
The door opened and Ensign Drusetti emerged from the CIC, his face ashen. “Sorry<br />
to disturb. Captain Roderick? I think they need you on the flight deck.”<br />
Roderick sighed as she closed her eyes. “Where‟s Richards?”<br />
“No one knows, ma‟am. He didn‟t report in.”<br />
Roderick shook her head and looked apologetically at the other staff. “Captain,<br />
Admiral? If there‟s nothing else?”<br />
Ainsley nodded sadly as he looked at Drusetti in the doorway. “There is more, but<br />
that will have to be all for now, Captain. See to your pilots.”<br />
She smiled weakly and quickly paced for the door as Banick got up off the desk again<br />
and sighed. “Admiral, if that‟s all for the time being then I need to see to my ship and debrief<br />
with Captain Barker. Ryan can see to your needs.”<br />
“That will be fine.”<br />
Banick nodded before Madeline stepped forward. “Captain, if you don‟t mind, I can<br />
show the Admiral to his quarters.”<br />
Banick exchanged a wary gaze with his XO and then nodded. He waited until Ainsley<br />
had left the room before turning to Barker. “Captain Barker, if you will wait in the CIC for a<br />
moment, I‟d like to have a word with my XO.”<br />
“Sure, Jim. I‟ll be outside.”<br />
- 63 -
Banick stepped behind his desk and sat down heavily. He rolled his neck as he<br />
tapped his desk for a moment thoughtfully. He watched through the corner of one eye as<br />
Barker left the office, and then spun to look up at Callaghan. “Say it,” he almost spat.<br />
The XO didn‟t wait to be told twice and leaned to plant his hands on the oak desk.<br />
“...Could you possibly have made that any more awkward?” he asked plainly.<br />
“Answer me just one question, Ryan. Of all the ships in this fleet - why this one? Why<br />
did he have to come here?”<br />
“You‟re making this harder for yourself,” Callaghan answered bluntly, ignoring the<br />
question entirely. “He probably doesn‟t want this assignment any more than you do, so don‟t<br />
go burning bridges before he‟s even reached the bloody shore.”<br />
The Captain‟s reply was almost a snarl. “He did that himself.”<br />
~<br />
Ainsley and Madeline Callaghan walked slowly down the main corridor of B-Deck as<br />
the ship‟s crew stood down from battlestations around them. Ainsley laughed as she<br />
explained. “Honestly, I didn‟t exactly have many options after that. The fleet‟s been strapped<br />
for trying to find experienced command-rated officers, and they wouldn‟t let me stay on the<br />
Commonwealth, so I could either resign, or accept command.”<br />
The Admiral smiled at the former helmswoman and shook his head. “It really has<br />
been a year and a half, hasn‟t it?”<br />
“Yes sir. Although it seems an age when you‟re on the frontline. How was London?”<br />
“Cold and miserable, like home always is,” he smirked. “Well, maybe just cold. I‟m<br />
pretty sure the things that make London miserable are the politicians.”<br />
The two of them rounded the staircase from the bridge deck and began walking down<br />
through C-Deck‟s main port side passage towards Commonwealth‟s aft.<br />
“The observation has to be made, Commander, it has to be very confusing for people<br />
when you and your husband are in the same room.”<br />
She laughed as they returned the salute of two marines who were standing guard<br />
beside the main bulkhead hatch. “I think that‟s probably the real reason we aren‟t allowed to<br />
serve together sir, but if it answers your question, usually I use the name „Hayes‟ when I‟m<br />
on duty to keep things simple, but Jim normally runs a pretty casual command. He seemed<br />
pretty up-tight back there... It was weird to hear him use rank.”<br />
Ainsley paused at that thought and nodded. “Somehow, Commander, I don‟t think it<br />
was anything you did.”<br />
“No, I didn‟t think it was,” she dared, looking up at him with curiosity. “I don‟t mean to<br />
presume, sir, but Ryan did tell me what Jim – that is, Captain Banick – had to say. They‟re<br />
pretty close when they‟re not trying to stop the ship from falling apart. I wonder if I might ask<br />
if there‟s any truth to it?”<br />
“Well, I‟m not exactly how he tells it, Commander, so I‟m not sure I can comment. Far<br />
be it for me to add fuel to the fire...”<br />
“That‟s not what I meant.”<br />
“I know it‟s not. But frankly, Madeline, I have nothing against him. He‟s got himself an<br />
extraordinary command and one of the finest crews I could imagine, and he should be proud<br />
of that. I‟m not here to take that from him.”<br />
She stopped in front of a hatch way and checked the sign on the door. She looked<br />
back at the Admiral and smiled. “I know you‟re not, sir. But it‟s good to have you back just<br />
the same.”<br />
She opened the hatch, and looked inside. “Well, here we are. C-Deck, frame sixty,<br />
corridor C5, Admiral‟s stateroom.”<br />
She held the door as Ainsley stepped through the hatch and hit the lights. His bags<br />
had already been left next to the sofas in the centre of the room, and he smiled as he walked<br />
in. “Well, I suppose this is home.”<br />
- 64 -
~<br />
Corinn Roderick stepped on to the flight deck, her stomach still fluttering in anxious<br />
anticipation. The deck crew were still busy bringing subfighters in from the recovery ramp as<br />
ordnance was unloaded refuelling was completed. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw the<br />
line of three bodybags at the side of the hangar, and she whispered a prayer again as the<br />
corpsmen did the rounds and marked the dead. After two and a half years of war, one could<br />
sometimes think she‟d get used to it, but the truth was that it never got easier, and she was<br />
finally beginning to understand why so many pilots chose to quietly enter retirement before<br />
their time was really up.<br />
Every day, new names were added to the list of lost comrades, and today was no<br />
exception. Roderick moved forward and her heart sank as she saw one particular husk of an<br />
SF-38 Raptor on the other side of the deck. The craft was a complete ruin, its wings an<br />
unrecognisable mess of shredded metal, and its fuselage broken in two like a shattered<br />
spine. Its markings were unmistakeable. The black fuselage, razor-wings and crooked halo<br />
identified it as one of her own – the Dark Angels. She looked around hurriedly, and finally<br />
saw Commander Dustin Coyle signing off his own fighter not far away. He‟d already seen<br />
her, and walked over slowly, his helmet in-hand as if it were a ball and chain that he had to<br />
drag across the deck. His shoulders, normally broad and imposing, were slumped and<br />
depressed, and the dark rings around his eyes spoke clearly to his anguish.<br />
“Dustin... Who?”<br />
“We lost five, including three Angels,” he rasped. “Three others wounded.”<br />
He looked back at the line of bodybags and then shook his head. “Seabury, Pickford<br />
and Anderson,” he said grimly. “SAR is still searching for any sign of Shalders‟ or Harker‟s<br />
bodies.”<br />
Roderick slumped. “Shit... Do the rest of the Griffons know?”<br />
Coyle huffed and turned around to look at the mass-gathering of pilots in the corner<br />
at the other end of the hangar deck. “What do you think?”<br />
“Bouncer, they just lost their squadron commander. Where the hell‟s Richards?”<br />
“Fucked if I know. Haven‟t seen him since yesterday.”<br />
Roderick fumed quietly for a moment. “What about Roberts?”<br />
Coyle smiled weakly. “Relax, she‟s doing what she can for the rest of them. She<br />
couldn‟t find the Wing Commander. She got here a few minutes ago.”<br />
Roderick saw the younger Rapier commander, Jane Roberts, amongst the crowd of<br />
Griffons. Like wounded eagles, not one of them held themselves up with any pride. Morale<br />
was already waning, and several more days like this could finish them.<br />
“Fuck it,” Roderick said, turning quickly and storming from the hangar. Something in<br />
the back of her mind told her exactly where to go...<br />
...Edward Richards lay on his back practically swimming in his own sweat as he<br />
strained to push up on the weight above him. His feet ached, and it annoyed him that six<br />
months before, this would have been a simple, run-of-the-mill exercise.<br />
Foot, he corrected to himself silently. After so many weeks in bed, the muscles in his<br />
good leg had atrophied, and his other, aided by the metal shaft they called a “replacement”,<br />
couldn‟t really do anything except provide balance, with the pain of it pressing against the<br />
stump of his knee being too much to hold much at all to begin with.<br />
The ship‟s gymnasium was empty, of course, and he virtually screamed as he tried to<br />
push the seventy-pound, steel block back in to place on the slide for the last time. His knee<br />
trembled under the strain. Inches were all that it would take...<br />
His knee gave way, and the weight came back, pushing his legs down with it.<br />
He cursed as he straddled the press and closed his eyes. His lungs burned with<br />
every breath he took – a sensation that he now hated with a very particular and unique<br />
passion.<br />
“And how many was that, then?” said the familiar, scolding voice from the door.<br />
- 65 -
Richards hadn‟t even heard Roderick enter. Indeed, she hadn‟t, as he lolled his head<br />
sideways to find her leaning against the door frame, her arms folded in front of her and a<br />
look on her face that probably could have killed small children.<br />
“Nineteen,” he said with defeat.<br />
“And how exactly do you think strain-induced trauma is going to help your situation?”<br />
“Well Jesus, Quinn, I don‟t fucking know!” he yelled helplessly, throwing his arms in<br />
to the air, and not moving from his back. “You‟re the one who seems to have all the goddamned<br />
answers, why don‟t you tell me? What will help?”<br />
She nodded knowingly, and paused for a moment as she thought about it, and then<br />
walked in, closing the hatch behind her. “Reed failed you on your physical again, didn‟t he.”<br />
She‟d said it as a statement, not a question, and Richards smiled sarcastically. “You<br />
think?”<br />
Richards stopped for a second and looked back up, pulling himself up vertically<br />
without much effort, evoking some degree of surprise from Roderick next to him. He turned<br />
to face her, but didn‟t stand.<br />
“Hitman‟s dead,” she said casually, and showing no regret in the blunt statement.<br />
“What?”<br />
“Ben Harker. Bought the farm in that skirmish you just missed. Coyle tells me he‟s in<br />
little pieces all over the Folly. All the king‟s horses, all that crap. Just thought you might want<br />
to know,” Roderick suggested callously. She suddenly turned very dark, and seethed<br />
through cold eyes. “You know, considering it‟s supposed to be your fucking sea wing!”<br />
Richards seemed to tremble as he exhaled slowly and stared blankly in to the wall.<br />
“Who else?” he asked distractedly.<br />
“Well none of your swords, if that‟s what you‟re worried about. But I suggest if you<br />
want to know, then you get your useless arse down there and actually fucking find out!”<br />
Richards nodded as he stood slowly, bracing the prosthetic against the bench as he<br />
did. He didn‟t say a word as he walked across the gym to the locker room and pulled out a<br />
towel. Roderick continued to wait, rolling her eyes to the heavens to spite his pride before<br />
slowly following him.<br />
“I heard we had a three-star arrive,” Richards remarked casually.<br />
Roderick nodded, but didn‟t say a word.<br />
“You know I don‟t blame the Captain, if the story is true,” he continued. “I think I‟d be<br />
pissed too if someone pulled the rug out from under me like that, disappeared for two years,<br />
and then rocked up trying to steal my command...”<br />
She glared at him, warning him not to continue, but he ignored her and went on. “And<br />
you know the weirdest thing?” he said, beginning to laugh. “Apparently he was replaced by<br />
Harold-fucking-Lewis. I mean shit, how expendable are you if a useless piece of shit like that<br />
takes your place as the chief of staff for the combined god-damn Atlantic-fucking fleet?”<br />
Roderick shook her head and continued to stare in shock. “You‟re a piece of work,<br />
you know that?”<br />
She was already walking out when Richards slammed the locker shut and laughed<br />
hysterically. “Hell, babe, if there‟s a mutiny – then I‟ll be first in line, „cause mark my words,<br />
this is a one-way ticket straight to hell.”<br />
~<br />
- 66 -
T H E G I R L A T T H E E N D O F T H E W O R L D : I<br />
Nycarus Laboratories, Fort Sulima, the Sierra Leone Coast. August 3 rd , 2025...<br />
The sands of the Sierra Leone coast were truly as desolate as one could imagine.<br />
Once considered an Eden of natural beauty and resource wealth, the diamond coast had not<br />
been that same image of untamed wilderness for over fifteen years.<br />
Decades of war, and more recent ecological disasters had turned the once verdant<br />
coastal region in to a massive tidal basin for the Atlantic Ocean. The ruins of the country‟s<br />
major cities and ports could still at times be seen peaking above the cresting waves of the<br />
sea, long abandoned in a mass exodus that supposedly went as far west as Niger. Bathed in<br />
a perpetual haze of grey, the sands now spoke only of the most horrific of war stories in an<br />
otherwise barren land that was all but completely devoid of human habitation, with one<br />
notable exception.<br />
It was an unassuming sight at first glance – the old, worn-down bunkers of Third<br />
World War armies that had been abandoned to the peaks of the mountains.<br />
The bunkers were, at one point, buried deep within the forests of those very same<br />
peaks, but the forests had long since been burned to ash and the mountains now formed an<br />
eerily spectacular line of sheer-cliffs that bordered the great basin.<br />
The massive promontory of rock which supported the bunker complex had been<br />
forgotten to all but a very rare few, although very occasionally, local tribesman would speak<br />
of the moaning souls of the dead that drifted out of the dark mountains, carried by the winds<br />
of the Great Sorrow.<br />
In a few years, those sounds would disappear - the tribesmen telling only that the<br />
coming of a great „rebirth‟ set the tortured souls free of their mountain prisons to begin life<br />
anew on the other side of the great plains through which the winds had carried them.<br />
That day however was not this one, and still this does not dispel the tales of primitive<br />
man as pure fiction. Indeed, the souls of the lost did cry, and the winds did indeed carry<br />
them to the ears of tribes in lower Equatorial Guinea.<br />
The sounds of the sick and dying were not uncommon in the Nycarus laboratories,<br />
nor were they the fictional campfire stories of local shamans who had been all but forgotten<br />
by the civilized world. The sterility of the place - with its spotless white walls and ceilings -<br />
was betrayed by the sounds of things too unnatural for the human body to produce of its own<br />
accord. Indeed, the projects occurring inside the laboratory, one could say, were hardly<br />
human at all.<br />
Doctor Thecus van der Weer was a monster, he told himself, yet this made his work<br />
no less important. The cost of one human soul was far outweighed, in his mind, by all that<br />
could be gained from the wretched caricatures of human form in front of him. To see the<br />
scope of his work to its fullest extent was a truly strange experience. Some patients were<br />
little more than slowly-disintegrating husks of skin and bone that resembled shadows inside<br />
their worn cloaks. Where they had gotten the cloaks, he didn‟t know – nor did he particularly<br />
care. All he did know was that for whatever reason, the gene stabilization therapy that they<br />
had been receiving was being rejected by their immune systems, and one of several dozen<br />
side effects (a modest number, compared to some early results) was a highly developed<br />
sensitivity to light in their optic nerves.<br />
With refinement, that particular side effect could well be turned in to a significant<br />
breakthrough that could later be incorporated in later patients.<br />
They stood in complete and bizarre contrast to those who now took it upon<br />
themselves to care for them. Having received similar doses of the catalyst, their would-be<br />
carers – they too, patients – stood tall and healthy, their minds sharp, honed and even - in<br />
some ways - enhanced beyond what they had originally arrived as. These were the ones –<br />
the „potentials‟ - that would go through to the next rounds of treatment.<br />
- 67 -
Van der Weer made several notes on his clipboard as he moved through the ward<br />
and took careful attention of three patients whose conditions had somehow improved since<br />
his last inspection. He made note of them too, and then signalled the waiting orderlies to<br />
take them away. This was as much for their protection as it was for the insurance of his<br />
continued progress – it was vital that such promising patients be kept in isolation from the<br />
others.<br />
Van der Weer finished his round of the eastern wing and then quickly walked back to<br />
the observation room, swiping his access card through the reader next to the door as the two<br />
massive militia guards stepped carefully behind him to level their weapons on the patients. A<br />
precaution, he was assured. After so long in captivity under the brutal heel of Mbotmi<br />
Ngunntini‟s militia, they had learnt the bitter price of disobedience, and now simply<br />
cooperated. The Doctor abhorred the methods used by the militia to maintain discipline, but<br />
he could not deny the result.<br />
He sighed and removed the surgical mask as he ascended the small staircase to the<br />
observation area, and found the outlanders who continued to stare through the glass. The<br />
more senior of them (or so he had been led to assume) turned and regarded the doctor with<br />
a singular look of apathy. “Doctor, your results continue to be... inconsistent.”<br />
He nodded in acknowledgement, not denying what was so clearly obvious. “Yes, and<br />
that was to be expected. The data your scientists gave me was incomplete, and as I‟ve<br />
already told them, it will take time to find a formula that will yield a stabilizing genome for the<br />
catalyst.”<br />
The outlander nodded, and looked back in to the ward where the patients continued<br />
to loiter. “Some seemed promising,” he observed plainly. “What is their condition?”<br />
Van der Weer flicked through his clipboard until he found the psychology report from<br />
that morning, and then looked out at the ones who were being processed for isolation by the<br />
guards. “Physically healthy in almost every respect,” he shrugged. “Mentally... I can‟t explain<br />
it. The tests have revealed an unbelievable increase in neural activity. The gene splicing is<br />
almost completely perfect.”<br />
“But?”<br />
“But I still haven‟t been able to find a matching sequence for the last-“<br />
The outlander interjected quickly. “-Doctor, unlike those I answer to, I do not possess<br />
such a keen knowledge or interest in the genetic sciences. Simplify it.”<br />
The Doctor pursed his lips and considered it for a moment. “...Well, the problem we<br />
are still having – and I doubt it can be solved with any degree of ease – is that the human<br />
DNA in this case is less... dominant, if you will, when compared to the catalyst that it is being<br />
introduced to. Given that we can‟t design a new catalyst, the side effect is that it tends to<br />
take a certain amount of „chemical priority‟ during the gene therapy that we cannot control.<br />
The result is never the same from subject to subject, because we are – as you know – all<br />
different.”<br />
The outlander took the clipboard from the Doctor and handed it to his aid, who<br />
promptly walked away to take the report to their superiors as they did every day. “At this<br />
point, Doctor, I am beginning to wonder if this project is a waste of time. Controllable or not,<br />
this level of variation in results is completely unacceptable.”<br />
Van der Weer paused and nodded slowly. “There is one notable exception,” he<br />
confided. “Perhaps you should follow me...”<br />
The walk to the dilapidated, decaying western wing of the complex was long –<br />
deceptively so, for a structure that on the outside looked quite small. With only a cursory<br />
inspection, it would have been impossible to tell that the mountainside bunker contained will<br />
in excess of over 5,000 people, and only the smallest fraction of them were those who<br />
worked there.<br />
The Outlander followed the Doctor past multiple holding cells - watching with some<br />
disdain the subjects therein. The pens seemed to go on forever in the underground labyrinth,<br />
and they finally passed through a security checkpoint in to an area that was anything but the<br />
slum that they had just witnessed. Bare, worn concrete walls turned in to sterile white<br />
- 68 -
plaster, and the floors went from barren rock to polished tiles before they had even realised<br />
it. It was a particularly bizarre transition for the Outlander as they checked behind them to<br />
look at how it had changed. Van der Weer stopped them at the second checkpoint.<br />
Three heavily armed guards – clearly not members of the militia, judging by the<br />
calibre of their equipment – stood on either side of the security screen, watching the<br />
outlander with suspicion. Their fingers visibly moving to cover their triggers as the Doctor<br />
walked straight past them to speak with the Sergeant. After a few words of quiet<br />
conversation that went unheard by the outlander, the Doctor turned. “If you will wait one<br />
moment...”<br />
The Outlander looked at each of the guards warily as the Doctor disappeared down a<br />
side corridor for several long minutes with the Sergeant close in tow. The two guards<br />
remained, and never once broke their gaze from the new-comer. Moments before, the<br />
Outlander had been the one in charge. Now, it seemed, he was anything but.<br />
Finally the Doctor returned with another man, his uniform nothing more than a black<br />
jumpsuit, bearing the familiar black and gold deltas of an Intelligence Officer. This put the<br />
Outlander off guard, as he had no idea who the man was – and had never seen him before.<br />
Van der Weer approached and extended a hand towards the man in gesture. “This is the<br />
adjutant in charge of this operation,” he said simply, and not daring to introduce him by<br />
name.<br />
The Intelligence Officer didn‟t have to explain further for the outlander to know – that<br />
much like himself – he worked for Section Seven, but by his remarkably junior rank, they<br />
also knew better than to assume he was the one in charge. Such postings were not issued<br />
lightly, but there could be no doubt that the Lieutenant had the ear of someone far more<br />
powerful than himself. “Gentlemen, if you will follow me,” the officer suggested simply, not<br />
bothering to ask their names. It had become a convention around the facility that names<br />
were unimportant, and in some cases and circumstances, their use was even strictly<br />
forbidden.<br />
The walk further in to the western wing was almost as long as the one that had taken<br />
the Outlander there to begin with, and the trip was taken in almost total silence. Unlike the<br />
rest of the facility – which had a perpetual atmosphere of sickness and death - this part of<br />
the base was eerily silent. The four men continued down the corridors for some time,<br />
passing doctors, guards and several other officers as they walked, but none said a word.<br />
They finally arrived at their destination – at the end of a long hall guarded by two<br />
more soldiers that brandished the unmistakeable armaments of UEO marines. The<br />
unassuming door had a simple red light above it, and van der Weer had to key in his access<br />
code. The outlander noticed the security camera watching him, and after a few seconds, a<br />
loud buzz sounded as the door was unlocked from the adjacent security station, and the light<br />
turned green. Silently, van der Weer and the Lieutenant entered the room, and the outlander<br />
followed them inside.<br />
For all the security, the sight that awaited him came as nothing less than a complete<br />
surprise. The room they were in was an observation area, with a single sheet of reinforced<br />
glass stretching across the entire length of the room, looking directly in to a bare,<br />
unremarkable cell that had been furnished with just a bed, basin, toilet and security camera.<br />
Dressed only in an old set of medical scrubs, a young girl was curled up in the corner. She<br />
was thin, and clearly emaciated after what had clearly been months of maltreatment.<br />
The outlander stepped forward and looked in to the room quietly. He said nothing as<br />
the Doctor proudly explained. “This is Subject N-295277145,” he started. “She is one of our<br />
best results. In fact, to be precise, she is the best result we‟ve ever had.”<br />
“How so?” asked the Outlander flatly, continuing to wonder about the appalling<br />
conditions in which the girl was being forced to live.<br />
“She is the only subject to reach a stage-five catalyst,” the Doctor said, as if it would<br />
explain everything. “In all other patients, without exception, the genetic instability of stage<br />
four has resulted in a... catastrophic failure of synapse control. In the best cases, acute<br />
epilepsy onsets at about ninety-six hours, and the worst case-“<br />
- 69 -
“Doctor... Get to the point.”<br />
The Lieutenant spoke up, clarifying succinctly. “...In this case, the subject has<br />
displayed no such symptoms. Her neural reactions are... beyond anything we‟ve ever seen<br />
from this project. There has been no physical augmentation, of course, but we‟re reluctant to<br />
explore that option. She is far too valuable to risk through – if the Doctor will forgive me –<br />
massively untested and invasive surgical techniques.”<br />
The outlander nodded, as he slowly came to understand. “She‟s the key.”<br />
The Doctor shrugged and nodded. “Well, in a manner of speaking... Yes. I suppose<br />
you could call her that.”<br />
The outlander closed his eyes and nodded. “How long has she been here?”<br />
The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, since we administered the stage-five<br />
treatment.”<br />
“That‟s not an answer.”<br />
“A year.”<br />
The outlander drew a deep, sharp breath and turned to face them both. “The Captain<br />
sent me here to ensure that this... remarkable milestone of progress was being<br />
safeguarded,” he said bitterly. “She‟s malnourished, dehydrated, and living in conditions that<br />
I wouldn‟t even consider using to describe a zoo.”<br />
The Doctor frowned and shook his head defensively at the outlander. “Lieutenant<br />
Callaghan, control is paramount if-“<br />
The outlander wheeled and pointed an accusing finger at the doctor. “That is enough,<br />
Doctor!”<br />
There was a pause and the other Lieutenant pursed his lips as the Doctor blurted out<br />
his companion‟s name. Callaghan continued. “No matter how you try to spin it, this girl is a<br />
human being – and I want her transferred. Effectively immediately, I am taking custody of the<br />
patient until such time that I can deliver her to Captain Ezard aboard the Proteus personally.”<br />
“Please, Lieutenant, this is unacceptable. We cannot guarantee controlled research<br />
unless the patient remains here.”<br />
Callaghan shot the Doctor a foul look. “All I‟ve seen since I have been here, Doctor<br />
van der Weer, is something resembling a freak show. If you honestly think to call that<br />
„controlled research‟, then we have a very serious issue that I might be inclined to take to<br />
Captain Ezard, personally. Prepare her for transfer to the Proteus, now.”<br />
Van der Weer continued to stare at Callaghan for long seconds before he turned to<br />
the other Lieutenant and nodded hesitantly. “Do it.”<br />
Callaghan‟s eyes didn‟t blink until the Lieutenant was nearly at the door, and he<br />
called him back. “...And Lieutenant?”<br />
“...Yes sir?”<br />
Callaghan sniffed. “I suggest once you‟re done, you might seriously consider the<br />
Doctor‟s position as untenable. If Captain Ezard were to learn about how this part of The<br />
Project was being conducted, I imagine it would reflect rather... poorly... on your own<br />
contributions.”<br />
Callaghan sighed as the Lieutenant departed, and walked up to the glass to look at<br />
the girl in the corner. She seemed impossibly fragile, and for a moment, her brilliant blue<br />
eyes met his from under a veil of dirty, brown hair, staring through the one-way glass pane<br />
as if it were not even there. “What‟s her name?” Callaghan asked simply.<br />
“Sanaa. Her name is Sanaa.”<br />
~<br />
- 70 -
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110 Nine hundred miles south-east of Japan, the<br />
Marianas Sea. April 10 th , 2043…<br />
“...From the sea we came, and to the sea we shall one day return,” the Chaplain<br />
continued, his voice echoing in the vast interior of the ship‟s hangar. The silence, it occurred<br />
to Quinn Roderick, was an entirely off-putting sensation for this part of the ship. The flight<br />
deck never slept, yet the stone, grim faces of three hundred members of the<br />
Commonwealth‟s flight crew seemed to underscore that which had, in only two weeks on the<br />
Marianas front, become an all-too frequent ritual.<br />
At dawn, every day, it was the same thing over and over again. Before flight<br />
operations could interrupt any opportunity to honour the dead, they would send them to the<br />
deep, before sweeping away both the grime and bitterness alike to start the cycle all over<br />
again.<br />
The burial of her pilots had a sickening symmetry to it. It was from this very deck that<br />
they had left the ship, never to return, and it was from the same deck that they would be<br />
buried. Five shrouds covered caskets in the center of one of the hangar‟s six vertical drop<br />
shafts, two covered by the blazing orange livery of the VF-173 Griffons, and three shrouded<br />
in the black-winged halos of the Dark Angels. Shalders, Harker, Seabury, Pickford, and<br />
Anderson.<br />
Roderick had never known Ben Harker as well as she would have liked. In the<br />
relatively short time she‟d been aboard the Commonwealth, Harker had often held the<br />
nightwatch to her duties as the Wing Commander, but it was undoubtedly his loss that would<br />
hit the sea wing the worst. His death had all but decapitated his squadron, the Griffons, and<br />
the addition of the squadron XO – Rod Shalders - to the butcher‟s bill now meant that the<br />
squadron‟s cadre of command officers had been all but decimated.<br />
The fate that awaited the already under-strength Griffons would likely see them<br />
folded in to another squadron, and Roderick knew from bitter experience that it would be<br />
difficult to see through.<br />
For her part, the pain she felt came from the three coffins directly next to the two<br />
Griffons. Lieutenant Commanders Jake Seabury and Brooke Anderson, along with<br />
Lieutenant Jack Pickford were amongst her oldest colleagues, having been with her since<br />
the squadron‟s inception over three years prior. Anderson had been out of the academy<br />
barely a year when the war had broken out, and Roderick had practically been her mentor in<br />
the years that followed.<br />
Roderick‟s gaze caught that of Sarah Cunningham across the way, and she<br />
instinctively pulled her gaze down again, and gripped the tiny silver cross in her hand even<br />
tighter before closing her eyes. Cunningham saw the look that had washed through her face,<br />
and could only wonder if the elder Captain had seen something in Anderson that she now<br />
saw in her. It sent an unwelcome chill through Cunningham‟s spine as she looked down at<br />
Anderson‟s casket and realized just how similar they‟d been. For reasons that Cunningham<br />
couldn‟t entirely explain, she felt sick, and tears began to well in her eyes.<br />
Roderick watched in silence as five groups of Commonwealth‟s marines folded the<br />
shrouds with grim precision as three sharp volleys rang out from the firing party that lined the<br />
side of the drop shaft. Not a word was spoken as the marines then placed the flags in a neat<br />
pile and passed them to the master-at-arms who sharply saluted before spinning on his heel<br />
and marching towards Captain Banick.<br />
The deck rumbled for a moment under the feet of the gathered crew as the drop shaft<br />
slowly began to descend, the sea doors closing behind it as it disappeared in to the<br />
darkness below. The heavy doors sealed with a heavy “thump” that almost seemed to make<br />
the Captain respond by snapping to attention as he saluted to accept the offered shrouds<br />
from the master-at-arms. Waiting until the bugler had finished his mournful recital of Taps,<br />
the Commonwealth‟s captain then turned on his heel and marched from the flight deck.<br />
Quinn nearly choked as she realised she‟d been holding her breath as the cross had<br />
begun to dig in to the soft skin of her palm. She slowly released her grip and swallowed the<br />
- 71 -
lump that had risen in her throat, feeling a rush of warmth and pain alike as blood made its<br />
way back to the tips of her fingers.<br />
With a sigh, Roderick took the cross and hung it back around her neck, quickly<br />
burying it again underneath her dress uniform collar. She sniffed slightly as the master-atarms<br />
dismissed the gathered crew, and seemingly instantly to her eyes, the makeshift<br />
memorial was transformed in to the usual throng of activity that so defined a carrier‟s<br />
operations. The dress uniformed honour guard of marines – like spectres – had vanished in<br />
to the crowd, and it suddenly dawned on Roderick just how grimly efficient the crew had<br />
become at holding and then dispersing such services.<br />
“That was tough,” said the quiet, almost understated voice of Dustin Coyle beside<br />
her, and she nodded sharply, unable to speak without the risk of breaking down.<br />
Nonetheless, both officers found themselves staring across the now-empty drop shaft to<br />
stare at the most unlikely of men. Commander Ed Richards hadn‟t moved from the place that<br />
he stood during the ceremony, and continued to stare down at the floor as if the caskets had<br />
never left. His uniform cap was folded neatly in his hand before him, and he didn‟t show<br />
even the slightest discomfort for the unseen wounds he wore beneath his trousers. Indeed, it<br />
would have been impossible to tell through the polished boots and immaculately-pressed<br />
uniform that he was missing a leg at all if it were not for the walking stick that he held in his<br />
free hand.<br />
“And wonders never cease,” Coyle mused through gritted teeth as he continued to<br />
watch Richards across the way.<br />
“This isn‟t fair,” said Roderick, as if to no one in particular. “We can‟t keep doing this.”<br />
“What?”<br />
Roderick looked at Coyle and shook her head. “Dustin, morale on this ship is already<br />
rarer than Banick having a sober day. We can‟t keep holding these bloody funerals on a<br />
daily basis. That‟s what‟s killing us, not the Macs.”<br />
“We‟ve managed so far,” Coyle offered, although his lack of conviction was only too<br />
clear. Roderick looked back at Richards who was steadily working his way back to the<br />
corridor, his prosthetic leg dragging lazily behind the other. Even Richards, a man so proud<br />
he refused to face the reality of his own injuries, couldn‟t stand it.<br />
“I got another request today from Commander Marsden on the Royal Oak,” she said,<br />
her voice seeming to drift as she watched Richards leave. “Apparently another Alliance<br />
fighter patrol went missing around the Macaw Bank again.”<br />
“Another one?” Coyle asked with surprise. “That has to be the third one this week.”<br />
“At least.”<br />
Coyle frowned. “One thing I‟ve been wondering is why do they keep asking you about<br />
this? Why don‟t they sent it to Intelligence?”<br />
Roderick shook her head, but bit her tongue. “Intelligence is denying they have any<br />
knowledge of it, but apparently whoever is attacking these Macs, their fighters... well, seems<br />
funny, but they keep being described as „black ghosts‟. The Alliance seems to think it might<br />
be us, but what few descriptions they have of the fighters don‟t add up. They just show up,<br />
wipe out the whole unit, and then disappear in to thin air. There‟s not even any traceable<br />
radio traffic.”<br />
“So they‟re UCSVs?”<br />
Roderick smiled. “Well, if they are, they‟re the best unmanned drones ever made.”<br />
Coyle grinned. “Nice to know our reputation still precedes us.”<br />
Roderick found herself staring past Coyle as she found the ashen shade of white that<br />
flooded the face of Sarah Cunningham in the crowd, and saw the bottomless wells of<br />
sadness that had built up in the young Lieutenant‟s eyes. A second later, and Cunningham<br />
was stumbling away – almost in a dazed stupor.<br />
Roderick had seen that very particular look only a few times before, and she closed<br />
her eyes, and silently whispered a prayer...<br />
- 72 -
Sarah Cunningham was halfway down the port side access way when Rogers caught<br />
up with her. She walked with a fast step that Rogers knew to be uncommon, and he stepped<br />
up his pace. “Hey, Sarah,” he called.<br />
She didn‟t stop, and continued to push through the oncoming crowds of flight deck<br />
crew before throwing a hard turn and disappearing through a door that rapidly closed behind<br />
her. Rogers stopped only for a moment to look up at the signage above the hatchway. It was<br />
the pilot‟s locker room. Drawing a breath, he pushed his way through the door and no sooner<br />
had he entered the room did he turn away.<br />
Cunningham wretched in to the basin as tears ran down her cheeks, her hands firmly<br />
planted like pillars on either side of the frame. Like the other pilots of the sea wing, she‟d<br />
attended virtually every memorial aboard the ship since she‟d arrived, and at first it had been<br />
hard. It was true that to lose five pilots in a single sortie was extreme, but with worse days on<br />
record – including the one where they themselves had nearly lost their commanding officer –<br />
it had to be said that Rogers had never seen Cunningham lose her composure so<br />
comprehensively since they‟d still been in the academy. Over an extended period of time,<br />
combat had a way of making death a simple fact of life... but this time something had shaken<br />
Cunningham to her very core.<br />
Rogers slowly walked to where she stood, shaking but unmoving over the basin, and<br />
slowly put a hand to her shoulder as she splashed her face with water and then tried in vain<br />
to clear her eyes. “Hey,” he managed – for lack of absolutely anything else to say. Slowly, he<br />
pulled her back so that she was almost leaning against him. “That‟s it, steady...”<br />
“Rogers, I don‟t know what to do,” she rasped, her eyes staring through the mirror in<br />
front of her.<br />
He drew a hesitant but sharp breath as he wrapped his hands around her waist. “Just<br />
take it easy. What‟s wrong?”<br />
“Anderson...” Cunningham recalled, as memories came flooding back. “She...”<br />
Rogers had little earthly clue where Cunningham‟s mind had gone. “Slow down.”<br />
Cunningham pulled away from Rogers slowly, and leaned against one of the lockers<br />
beside her with a loud clatter. “It could have been us, Sam,” she said, her eyes still vacant<br />
and lost. “She was us. I remember it clear as if it was yesterday... sitting in that briefing<br />
room.”<br />
“When? Where? What are you talking about?”<br />
“On the <strong>Atlantis</strong>!” she cried. “Anderson stood up and... She never wanted us there.<br />
The way she looked at us during that briefing was like she knew this was going to happen.”<br />
Rogers stopped as he remembered what it was that had so taken Cunningham.<br />
Nearly two years before, they had sat for the first time in a briefing room aboard the <strong>Atlantis</strong><br />
<strong>DSV</strong> as little more than cadets, and Lieutenant J.G. Brooke Anderson had been the only<br />
pilot in the entire Dark Angels squadron to stand up to stare Corinn Roderick in the eye to<br />
tell the commander she was wrong. Later that day, three cadets had left on a sortie that<br />
would make history, and only two would come home...<br />
“Oh,” he said, the realization now hitting him. “No, Sarah, no... Of course she didn‟t.<br />
We‟ve been over this.”<br />
“Then how do we? How do I know that tomorrow you won‟t be in one of those<br />
caskets?”<br />
That stopped Rogers for a moment, but before he‟d even had a chance to get his<br />
thoughts in order, he was thrown back against the locker, out of sight of the rest of the room,<br />
and suddenly felt the soft, warm lips of Sarah Cunningham against his. That is, he would<br />
have, assuming her attempt to ram her tongue down his throat hadn‟t almost knocked out his<br />
teeth.<br />
Rogers held her back for a split second only long enough to manage a futile “what?”<br />
before she started to unbutton his shirt. “I‟m not losing you,” she gasped angrily, her fingers<br />
fumbling as they worked to remove his clothes.<br />
“Sarah, what the hell are you... Wait, stop this.”<br />
She glowered at him as his hands met hers and he flipped her around to pin her<br />
against the wall, her eyes burning in to his. He met them, and spoke slowly. “Stop it.”<br />
- 73 -
Reluctantly, he let go of Cunningham‟s wrists, and she paused briefly before, in one<br />
swift, well-aimed stroke that could have only come from a skilled marksman, snapping her<br />
hand across his face.<br />
Sam worked his jaw for a moment, feeling fire lance through his cheek. Cunningham<br />
turned on a heel and stormed out of the room.<br />
It had all happened so quickly that Rogers was simply left to stare at the door she<br />
had left by in a stunned daze, his jaw still absently lolling from side to side as the impact of<br />
her hand continued to seer.<br />
Indeed, it had happened so quickly that he had been completely unaware of the<br />
open-mouthed shock that was Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Schrader not ten feet behind<br />
him. Slowly and carefully, the elder Rapier pilot walked up the aisle of lockers to step around<br />
Rogers and look him slowly up and down, the look on his face being a mixture of abject<br />
terror and total confusion. Schrader‟s head turned to look at the door and then snapped back<br />
to the Lieutenant. He opened his mouth to say something, but words had clearly failed him.<br />
Rogers understood the intention, and simply shook his head. “I have no idea...”<br />
Corinn Roderick stood over the duffel bag that contained the entire sum of her life for<br />
the previous six months, and steadily went about the task of unpacking. Ainsley‟s arrival<br />
could not have been much more tightly timed even if the man had planned it, but with the<br />
sheer number of senior officers now on the Commonwealth the likelihood of being moved to<br />
larger quarters in lieu of her promotion seemed drastically unlikely. She paused for a<br />
moment as she got to a photo frame that had been buried under some clothes and smiled as<br />
she brushed dust from the frame to look at the two smiling faces beneath the glass. A small<br />
flutter in her stomach brought her home again as she looked at the fifteen-year-old image of<br />
Patrick Roderick, beaming proudly with his arm almost draping from her shoulders like some<br />
kind of misbegotten mantle setting, herself the image of youth with a smile so bright it could<br />
have melted the heart of anyone she looked at. It was a face she hadn‟t recognised for a<br />
very long time, and she put it back on the desk.<br />
Her dress uniform remained laid out on the bed where she had left it after the<br />
memorial service, but she hadn‟t bothered to remove the many insignias and ribbons that<br />
were adorned. The time it took to redress a service jacket simply wasn‟t worth the effort<br />
when it would only be needed again in less than twenty four hours. The insanity of that fact<br />
hadn‟t escaped her, and it was that reason alone that brought Jane Roberts to her door.<br />
A rapping of knuckles against the door frame outside made Roderick turn, and she<br />
called out. “Come in.”<br />
Half a second later, and Commander Roberts opened the door and looked around<br />
the room for a moment to find the Captain standing over the study against the bulkhead. “Is<br />
this is a bad time, Captain?”<br />
“No, not at all, Jane. Come in, please.”<br />
Roberts quietly closed the door behind her as she entered the quarters and slowly<br />
walked to the middle of Roderick‟s quarters, the personal affects furnishing the room being<br />
few in number, but exact in their measure. The occasional photo, violin stand, album or diary<br />
provided a very limited look at the life of the sea wing‟s most guarded commander. “We‟ve<br />
got a problem, Quinn,” Roberts said bluntly. “Morale is already in a slump. If Captain Banick<br />
keeps pushing for these morning services every day, there‟s going to be a mutiny.”<br />
Roderick smirked. “...Again with mutinies,” she muttered inwardly. “I know.”<br />
“So... aren‟t you going to do something about it?”<br />
Roderick stopped, and sighed deeply. “I heard about the incident with Two Birds and<br />
Stones. Is Cunningham alright?”<br />
Roberts raised her eyebrows at that and folded her arms. “So, Schrader already<br />
spoke to you?”<br />
She shook her head. “No. But sapped morale has a way of propagating rumours<br />
faster than I‟d like.”<br />
Roberts pressed further. “Then you‟ve got to see we need to do something about<br />
this. Five is the worst all week. How many is it going to be tomorrow? Banick can‟t keep<br />
- 74 -
shoving bodies out airlocks like they‟re some kind of trash. It‟s wrong, and he seems to be<br />
the only one who doesn‟t see it. The pilots are starting to crack. First it was Richards, now<br />
Cunningham... The next one could be in the middle of a dogfight and decide it‟s all too<br />
much.”<br />
Roderick nodded. “I already tried speaking to the Captain.”<br />
“You did?”<br />
“Yeah,” she continued, her voice slipping in to a venomous, sardonic drawl. “He said<br />
that it keeps us sharp, and helps maintain discipline.”<br />
“That‟s bullshit, and he knows it.”<br />
Roderick turned back to the bag to pull out more of her belongings and nodded. “I‟ll<br />
speak to the Admiral. Hopefully he can talk some sense in to him.”<br />
Roberts stopped, and cocked her head with a bemused smile. “You trying to cause a<br />
mutiny now?”<br />
Roderick‟s head snapped around to stare at Roberts icily. “Don‟t you start, too.”<br />
“Absolutely not, Captain,” Roberts assuaged, her smile not disappearing.<br />
Roderick turned back to her belongings but didn‟t reply. Roberts took this as a cue,<br />
and changed the topic, looking at the piles of clothes from other bags that had been put back<br />
on shelves. “Scuttlebutt says you‟re sticking around a while longer. „That right?”<br />
Roderick stopped what she was doing and nodded. “A man like Ainsley doesn‟t just<br />
show up unannounced and take command of a carrier group without explaining himself<br />
unless things are bad, Jane,” she suggested, her voice betraying that there was more she<br />
wouldn‟t, or couldn‟t say. “And it‟s probably for the best anyway. Richards is in no state to<br />
take command. If I were to leave now, things would only get worse.”<br />
Roberts raised an eyebrow. “Well that‟s about the most cryptic thing you‟ve said all<br />
week.”<br />
“If I knew more than that, I‟d tell you.”<br />
“Would you?”<br />
“No.”<br />
They both stopped, looking at each other for a moment. Roberts studied the lines of<br />
Roderick‟s face, and nodded slowly. “That bad, huh?”<br />
~<br />
The sequence displayed on the holographic monitor atop the desk was puzzling to<br />
Admiral Ainsley. Four sets of numbers, seemingly without meaning that had been delivered<br />
with the strangest of intentions and with a purpose he could not fathom.<br />
030639/3536<br />
090941/1219<br />
150940/179<br />
131121/010<br />
He‟d been staring at the numbers for hours, and was no closer to understanding<br />
them now than when he‟d started. Alpha-numeric substitution had yielded only gibberish, but<br />
of course the NSIS had told him that much in their efforts to break it. Serial numbers<br />
remained a possibility, but a search of UEO databases had revealed everything from<br />
weapons identification numbers to the barcodes on canned soup. Had NSIS screwed up<br />
their cipher? Certainly, the fact the code had originated from a UEO Signals encryption could<br />
have lead to inaccuracy on Schrader‟s part, but it would likely be hours – if not days before<br />
Admiral Hargreaves and the rest of the Office of Naval Intelligence would respond to his<br />
query, if at all.<br />
Unsurprisingly, Signals were notoriously protective of their ciphers, even from those<br />
who were in the know and even ciphers that were no longer in use. To an intelligence body,<br />
suspicion was something entirely different from a closed case.<br />
- 75 -
Ainsley leaned back in the tall office chair and closed his eyes. Of the remaining<br />
Intelligence ciphers he had access to, every single one of them had either not fit the pattern<br />
or couldn‟t make any further sense of it. What disturbed him the most was something that<br />
had stuck in the back of his head since he‟d learnt of it.<br />
The Signals Corps ciphers used aboard the <strong>Atlantis</strong> were impossible to replicate<br />
outside of the ship‟s SOC. It was the one single facet of the <strong>DSV</strong>‟s intelligence operations<br />
that had made it such an invaluable tool in the management of the UEO‟s battlenet. The<br />
fleet‟s largest vessels were capable of sending the most sensitive information without fear of<br />
interception purely because it was supposed to be impossible to break without knowledge of<br />
the algorithm that created it. Schrader had explained that much, but had underestimated just<br />
how much the Admiral understood.<br />
The algorithms alone used to encode a <strong>DSV</strong>‟s strategic transmissions were not<br />
enough to decode the same message. The formula was a constantly changing and ever-fluid<br />
fractal cipher which was never the same at any two moments in time. For Schrader to have<br />
managed to decode even this much of it, she would have had to have known the exact<br />
moment at which the messages were sent, and not merely received.<br />
It led Ainsley to one inescapable conclusion, but one he could not face with any<br />
degree of rationality. It had been sent from a <strong>DSV</strong>. The only questions that remained were<br />
which one, and how Schrader had known. Schrader was playing him – he knew that, and he<br />
would go with it only to the point of where he got his answers, but to what end Schrader was<br />
drawing him out, he could only guess.<br />
Ainsley grabbed the numbers displayed on the holographic monitor out of thin air,<br />
and with a quick flick of his hand sent them spiralling away through virtual space, the display<br />
disappearing with it just a few moments later. He continued to stare across the room,<br />
following closely the patterns of blue light that were splashed against the floor and walls by<br />
the window behind the desk. Commonwealth was now running deep, but her exterior flood<br />
lamps went some way to pouring light from the otherwise black abyss beyond - an endless<br />
pit of darkness which even after thirty years, still fought to become Ainsley‟s master.<br />
His intercom chirped several times before he finally acknowledged it and slapped the<br />
receiver quickly. “Yes.”<br />
“Admiral, am I interrupting?” the Yeoman assigned to him by Banick asked<br />
cautiously.<br />
“No, Petty Officer, it‟s fine. There a problem?”<br />
“No sir, but Captain Roderick would like a word if you have a moment.”<br />
Ainsley smiled slightly and got up from his chair to walk to the sideboards where a<br />
steaming pot of coffee still brewed. “Send her in.”<br />
“Yes sir.”<br />
Ainsley had only just finished pouring the first mug when the door to the office swung<br />
open and Roderick stepped inside the hatchway and closed it before presenting with a sharp<br />
salute. The Admiral regarded her with a knowing smile, and nodded curtly. “At ease,<br />
Captain. Coffee?”<br />
She thought about it for a moment before smiling and nodding. “Thank you sir, yes.”<br />
Ainsley kept pouring and without even thinking dropped two cubes of sugar in to the<br />
mug before adding milk. As an afterthought, he looked at Roderick with a raised brow. “Still<br />
white with two?”<br />
“Perfect, thank you, sir.”<br />
Ainsley nodded and finished preparing it before slipping it on to a plate and passing it<br />
to the Captain opposite him. He turned and leaned against the sideboard, gesturing for her<br />
to take a seat as he sipped his own. He swallowed and sighed before smiling.<br />
“I imagine you‟ve got a few questions,” he said simply. “It‟s been a long two years.”<br />
Roderick nodded from the seat in front of Ainsley‟s desk. “Too many, I would think,<br />
sir. It hasn‟t been the same without you.”<br />
“Requirements of the service, Quinn. It‟s nice to see the Angels are still ok after all<br />
this time. It was a bit quiet there for a while.”<br />
- 76 -
She pursed her lips. “The Secretary-General tried pretty hard to keep us off the line,<br />
sir. But since the Aquarius... well, you know. I guess we‟ve been pushed pretty hard since.<br />
Lost our fair share, too.”<br />
“So I‟ve noticed.”<br />
She nodded. “Actually, that was the reason I wanted to speak with you, sir.”<br />
“Then spit it out, Captain.”<br />
Roderick hesitated for a moment before turning up her nose slightly. Whatever she<br />
was going to say wasn‟t easy for her. “We‟ve been on this line for about two weeks since our<br />
last rotation, sir, and I‟m not going to try and pretend things have been easy. We‟ve lost<br />
more pilots in the last fourteen days than we have in the previous six months combined.”<br />
Ainsley shrugged. “Commonwealth is the only carrier between here and Palau. We‟re<br />
spread thin until Enterprise arrives. You‟re the only thing between Japan and the entire<br />
Chaodai 6 th Fleet right now. I‟m not exactly surprised.”<br />
“Admiral, I don‟t want you to misunderstand me. I am not taking issue with our duties.<br />
This is a war and people die – I‟ve long since accepted that. I don‟t need to be lectured on<br />
it.”<br />
Roderick‟s tone was hard, and Ainsley straightened slightly at the sign that he‟d<br />
inadvertently struck a nerve. Roderick was quick to realise her own mistake, and looked<br />
away apologetically. “...I apologise, sir. That was uncalled for. But like I said, it‟s been hard,<br />
and if you‟ll take my meaning Admiral, I‟m probably coping with the situation better than<br />
anyone right now.”<br />
A flicker of a smile appeared at the corner of Ainsley‟s mouth, and he began to<br />
understand. “Ah.”<br />
There was silence for a few seconds as Ainsley drank his coffee again. “And how<br />
often does Banick hold services?”<br />
“Daily, sir. It‟s been like this since the Chaodai moved up a second carrier group two<br />
weeks ago. We‟ve been losing one or two people every day. Today was the worst we‟ve had<br />
it in nearly three months.”<br />
“Then I‟d say we have a problem.”<br />
“Yes sir.”<br />
Ainsley worked his jaw for a moment before looking to the mirror. The darkness<br />
outside gave him nothing more than his reflection, which served to send a chill down his<br />
spine. “I take it you‟ve spoken to the Captain?”<br />
“I tried, yes. But right now Captain Banick is trying hard to run the ship as tightly as<br />
he can. When I spoke to him yesterday morning after the last service it was about the most<br />
stubborn I think I‟ve seen him. And I mean that with as much respect as I can afford, sir.”<br />
Ainsley closed his eyes. “I suspect you caught him at a bad time, CAG. I‟ll see what I<br />
can do.”<br />
Roderick smiled genuinely for the first time in days, and Ainsley could tell that the<br />
emotion had become unfamiliar to her.<br />
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. And it‟s good to have you back.”<br />
Roderick stood, looking down at her coffee for a moment before setting it aside. She<br />
snapped a sharp salute. “Sir.”<br />
Ainsley returned the salute, and then nodded to the unfinished, steaming mug on the<br />
sideboard. “You may take that with you, Captain. I‟m sure it won‟t be missed.”<br />
Roderick nodded a quick smile as she picked up the offered mug, and quietly made a<br />
hasty retreat, leaving Ainsley alone once more.<br />
The Admiral rapped his fingers for a moment as he let a long, drawn breath, and then<br />
purposefully marched to the desk, hitting the intercom, this time to the bridge, once again.<br />
“Bridge, lieutenant Stewart here.”<br />
“This is Admiral Ainsley... Lieutenant, are you able to raise me a secure line to<br />
Captain Hitchcock on the sea<strong>Quest</strong>?”<br />
“Of course, Admiral. Should I patch it through to your quarters?”<br />
“No, my office please, lieutenant.”<br />
“Standby, sir.”<br />
- 77 -
Ainsley walked around the desk again and sat down, accepting the routing request<br />
being put through to his computer from Stewart‟s communications station on the bridge. The<br />
spinning crest of the Commonwealth hung on the screen for several minutes, in which time<br />
he stared at the mysterious numbers again, pulling them apart in his head to rearrange them<br />
in different combinations, as if expecting an obvious revelation that he had missed.<br />
He became so engrossed in them that he completely failed to notice the face of<br />
Captain Katherine Hitchcock wink up on his monitor. Her stunning blue eyes, stared through<br />
him for long seconds before she smiled lopsidedly. “Admiral Ainsley?”<br />
He shot around and met her gaze, for a moment forgetting what it was he‟d been<br />
doing. “‟Morning, Captain Hitchcock... I trust I haven‟t woken you.”<br />
“Not in the least, Admiral. We run a ship‟s clock, not zulu time.”<br />
“Good. So how‟s the South Atlantic this time of year?”<br />
Hitchcock smiled a very peculiar and coy smile. “I can‟t say I‟m at liberty to say, sir.”<br />
Ainsley smiled back, flexing his hands in front of him. “I‟ve got a favour to ask.”<br />
“Favour? That‟s funny. Last I checked you finally accepted a promotion... You could<br />
just order me.”<br />
“You haven‟t heard the favour yet, Captain,” Ainsley suggested, giving her a knowing<br />
and warning gaze, all at the same time.<br />
“Anything you need, sir.”<br />
“NSIS?”<br />
“...Shit.”<br />
Ainsley clicked his fingers. “Now you know how I feel.”<br />
“What have they got you on this time?”<br />
Ainsley picked up the page so Hitchcock could see it, gesturing to it before setting it<br />
down again. “I‟d like you to run an encryption through your SOC. I‟m curious to see what<br />
Descartes gets from it.”<br />
That stopped Hitchcock, and she narrowed her eyes. “Admiral, out of curiosity, just<br />
what kind of encryption needs an AI to decipher it?”<br />
“That, Captain, is exactly what I‟m trying to find out.”<br />
~<br />
At the start of the day‟s second shift, the bridge of the Commonwealth was a flurry of<br />
activity as dreary-eyed night-shift officers were relieved by a swarm of fresh faces that<br />
nursed mugs of coffee and tea.<br />
“It‟s been quiet all day,” said Callaghan, gesturing to the tactical plot with his free<br />
hand. Swiping it over the holographic, 3D landscape, he shifted the map along to show the<br />
approaches to Swordsman‟s Folly, and then pushed it away to zoom out, showing the entire<br />
theatre. As he did so, the display flickered momentarily, and Banick shook his head. “These<br />
new holo-displays are dicky,” he remarked flatly of the ship‟s new interactive holographic<br />
monitors. “Try and get maintenance to take another look at it after second shift.”<br />
Callaghan continued to stare at his Captain expectantly, and Banick sighed. “Sorry,<br />
you were saying?”<br />
Callaghan hesitated a moment before turning back to the plot. “...It‟s been quiet since<br />
we took out that last attack yesterday. For what it cost us, it seems they‟ve given up trying<br />
for the time being.”<br />
“I doubt it,” put Banick bluntly, planting his hands on the guard rail and surveying the<br />
board. “Their last one nearly had us, and they had to know we were hurt by it. Why aren‟t<br />
they trying to finish us? They‟ve got us at three-to-one.”<br />
One of the other combat specialists in Commonwealth‟s CIC looked up at that and<br />
eyed the Captain. “There is a possible explanation, sir,” he offered.<br />
“Enlighten me, Mister Jackson.”<br />
“Traffic intercepted by SEWACS, sir,” Jackson elaborated, forwarding a report to the<br />
display in front of Banick. “Caught it in the last half hour. Seems that explosion we caused<br />
- 78 -
yesterday was picked up by a Chaodai cruiser on the other side of the abyssal. They‟re<br />
reporting it as the breakup of a carrier, sir. Looks like they think they‟ve killed us.”<br />
“That‟ll be the day,” Banick muttered with an inward chuckle.<br />
“Yeah, well the reports are spreading quickly, sir. We‟ve already got three requests<br />
from our own commands asking confirmation of our status.”<br />
Banick rolled his eyes. “Let‟s keep the rumour mill going for a change. The longer we<br />
can keep the Chaodai guessing what the hell‟s going on, the longer we might get a break.<br />
Even so... Mister Jackson, as you seem to be on top of things - send a status update to the<br />
regional commands along with casualty reports. May as well let them know we‟re still here.<br />
We can‟t dodge paperwork forever.”<br />
Jackson laughed lightly as he headed for the door to the bridge. “Yes sir.”<br />
Banick looked back at vertical chart at the center of the tactical plot. The display<br />
showed almost the entirety of the Marianas trench, sitting quietly to one side being the<br />
Commonwealth and her accompanying battlegroup. The image was made up from the<br />
combined data of SEWACS, WSKRS, satellites, proximity probes and information from other<br />
allied units in the region, and the picture it painted was positive. Commonwealth was alone –<br />
the nearest Chaodai battlegroup being over 400 nautical miles away, moving parallel to the<br />
carrier‟s course. Commonwealth had moved on from her previous position at the northern<br />
approach to the Folly, and the fighters sent to check that area had long since carried on.<br />
They were alone. “Just the same,” Banick put forward. “I don‟t want us to get caught with our<br />
pants down. Double the CAP, move the Alert-10 to Alert-5.”<br />
Callaghan nodded as he brought up the dispatches from the CIC with his hand and<br />
corrected the order in four quick strokes. As quick as he‟d been given the order, it was sent<br />
back out. “XO?”<br />
Callaghan looked up as an ensign entered the CIC from the bridge next door, quietly<br />
ushering him aside as the Captain went about his morning reports.<br />
“Sir, the Admiral‟s asked to see the Captain in his office, as soon as possible.”<br />
Callaghan looked awkward, and turned a careful eye to Banick a few feet away.<br />
“Ensign,” he whispered. “The Captain‟s just begun his shift. I‟ll inform him in-“<br />
“No,” interjected Banick. “If the Admiral wants to speak to me, I‟ll see him now. Let‟s<br />
make this as smooth as possible. Mister Callaghan, you have the Conn.”<br />
“Aye, aye, Captain.”<br />
Callaghan and the ensign watched the Captain walk out of the CIC without so much<br />
as a backward glance, and the XO gritted his teeth, regarding the ensign with an apologetic<br />
smile. “I didn‟t actually expect him to hear that...”<br />
~<br />
“...I just got Banick‟s report,” said the face of Fleet Admiral Riley. “While the losses<br />
are regrettable, I suspect yesterday‟s action may well have given you something of a<br />
reprieve for the time being, Mark.”<br />
“Understandable,” Ainsley mused. “One doesn‟t let off a hundred thousand pounds of<br />
ordnance without someone hearing it.”<br />
“My thoughts exactly. If Intelligence reports are to be believed, it seems the Chaodai<br />
have the Commonwealth blown to pieces across the sea floor... and all the same it‟s nice to<br />
know you‟re still there.”<br />
Ainsley nodded slowly, the hesitation being readily apparent. “Captain Banick‟s crew<br />
did well. I can‟t say I‟d have handled the situation any differently.”<br />
Riley leaned forward. “Ainsley, I know you and Banick have your differences as of<br />
late. Hell, he probably thinks you‟re trying to snake his command, and given what‟s ahead of<br />
you I don‟t exactly blame him for his anxiety.<br />
Ainsley smiled lopsidedly. “I imagine he will be telling me all about that when he gets<br />
here, Jack.”<br />
- 79 -
The Pacific Commander-in-Chief unhappily lamented. “Well, he always was a<br />
pitbull... So far as this business as Schrader goes, you know I can‟t officially authorize any<br />
action that goes beyond the jurisdiction of your command. If Jason wants to play hardball,<br />
I‟m afraid there isn‟t much I can do to change his mind.”<br />
“Jack, you and I both know that Hargreaves has his hands in places that aren‟t<br />
supposed to exist. If I could simply get some kind of indication that that message was<br />
properly decoded-“<br />
“Jesus, Ainsley,” Riley spewed. “Do the words „political shitstorm‟ mean anything to<br />
you? If we suggested the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence was above the level...<br />
Plausible deniability exists for a reason, and I‟m on thin ice with the Secretary General as it<br />
is. I‟m sorry. If you bring me something tangible, I‟ll see what I can do, but right now all<br />
Schrader has is a bunch of numbers from a Signals cipher that she thinks she understands.<br />
If Cathgate sees me stepping on Intelligence toes...”<br />
Ainsley held up his hands and took a step back. “You‟re right, Jack, I‟m sorry. I<br />
shouldn‟t have asked. I‟ll let you know if I find anything more.”<br />
“Just try not to piss anyone off while you‟re at it, Mark. We‟ll be in touch.”<br />
Riley‟s face evaporated, being replaced by the slowly-turning crest of the United<br />
Earth Oceans, leaving Ainsley staring through the image only to sigh. After a moment, he<br />
turned off the holo-display, and then hit the intercom. “Yeoman, I‟m all finished here. Could<br />
you could send Captain Banick in now?”<br />
“Yes sir.”<br />
Ainsley continued to stand, leaning against the edge of the desk as the hatch cracked<br />
open and Captain James Banick stepped in to the room. “Captain. Thank you for coming.<br />
Please, take a seat.”<br />
“Thank you, Admiral, but I‟d rather stand,” he replied curtly.<br />
“Very well. Can I get you something? Coffee or tea?”<br />
Banick shook his head. “Thank you for the offer, sir, but I‟ve already had it. Was there<br />
something you needed?”<br />
Ainsley raised an eyebrow, still surprised by Banick‟s cursory attitude, and walked<br />
back behind the desk to sit down, settling back to make himself comfortable. “Yes. I‟m<br />
concerned about your shift rotations.”<br />
Banick stiffened, his feathers riled. “With respect, Admiral... the day to day operations<br />
of this ship is solely my authority.”<br />
“That‟s not what I‟m talking about, Captain. For the last two weeks, this ship has been<br />
on an active front line engaged against superior Chaodai forces, and yes – you‟ve been<br />
taking losses.”<br />
Ainsley paused for a moment. “What concerns me is the nature of the memorial<br />
services this ship is holding on its flight deck before first bells.”<br />
Banick narrowed his eyes. “Sorry, Admiral, I‟m not quite sure I follow.”<br />
“Morale on this ship, Captain, is the worst I have seen on a UEO warship in living<br />
memory. Asking the entire crew to observe the ceremony of a full-honours burial every<br />
morning before they‟ve even had their coffee is not congenial to the fighting spirit of your<br />
command.”<br />
Banick exhaled softly and folded his arms. “Admiral, you‟ve only been here a very<br />
short time. A lot has changed in two years, and with further respect, things aren‟t the same<br />
as they were when-“<br />
“That‟s enough,” Ainsley snapped, his voice neither changing in volume or tone, but<br />
his eyes locking with the Captain in front of him. He‟d made every effort to be courteous to<br />
his former executive officer, and patience was rapidly beginning to wear thin. “Banick, for<br />
whatever reasons, I seem to have lost your respect – that‟s fine. But whether you like it or<br />
not, I‟m still your superior officer, and you could at least ways pretend to show some degree<br />
of deference.”<br />
Banick bit his tongue, visibly recoiling, and Ainsley went on. “Within twelve hours of<br />
being aboard this ship, I‟ve already read four reports of crew who‟ve snapped, and heard<br />
- 80 -
personally from one of your officers on the state of this ship‟s morale. Don‟t bullshit me. I‟m<br />
not an idiot.”<br />
“Admiral, if my crew had an issue, they would have brought it to my attention,”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “-Which is a statement in direct conflict with what Captain Roderick<br />
told me not half an hour ago. From what I understand, she approached you yesterday<br />
morning asking for a reprieve from this sort of flag waving, and you declined that request<br />
outright.”<br />
“This is not a democracy. The opinion of a single officer-“<br />
Ainsley nearly exploded. “She‟s your fucking CAG! Captain Roderick came to you<br />
with an official report on the mental health of your sea wing telling you – and I quote:”<br />
Ainsley picked up a sheet of paper that was sitting atop his desk, and read from it<br />
word for word. “...That „the state of readiness of pilots and flight deck personnel based on<br />
mental health and morale is in a state of such doubt that that I am forced to question the<br />
status of this sea wing as a fighting unit, and will be given little recourse but to terminate<br />
active rosters based upon a professional assessment of being combat ineffective pending an<br />
official review from the ship‟s physician.‟”<br />
Ainsley stopped, and slid the page over the desk towards Banick. “Last I checked,<br />
Captain, when the wing commander of a carrier‟s sea wing is prepared to call her entire wing<br />
combat ineffective, the Captain should be obliged to act on that officer‟s recommendations.”<br />
Banick stepped forward, his tone suddenly gaining a very dangerous edge. “Admiral,<br />
I‟ve been losing members of my crew for the last month. At the very least, I owe it to their<br />
memories, for their sacrifices, to honour them. What would you have me do? Throw them out<br />
the nearest airlock and carry on like it never happened?”<br />
The Admiral shook his head and stood up, beginning to pace around the desk.<br />
“Banick... my God. This is a war, and in war rules need to be flexible. I appreciate your<br />
sentiment, and believe me, I sympathise with you more than you could know. But you cannot<br />
drive this crew to such distraction if it‟s going to mean that this ship ceases to operate as a<br />
unit. Especially now. I‟ve told you the orders that I‟m here to carry out, and I am not<br />
questioning your authority in the running of this ship‟s day-to-day operations, but if we are<br />
going to have any hope in hell of pulling this stunt off then I need your people at their very<br />
best, and given we‟re so short on time, that‟s going to have to start now.”<br />
Banick twitched. “Understood, sir.”<br />
Ainsley sighed and stared back out the window of the office. “Jim... I‟m not your<br />
enemy in this. This ship – your command... you got here on your own merits, and I recognise<br />
that. She‟s the finest ship left in the fleet, and that‟s no small part in thanks to the way you‟ve<br />
commanded her. I‟m not here to take that off you.”<br />
The Captain finally softened for a moment, but his bitterness was still clear. “I<br />
appreciate that, sir, and will that be all?”<br />
Ainsley turned for a second to meet Banick‟s unwavering gaze. “No.”<br />
Banick continued to stand at ease, waiting for the Admiral‟s elaboration.<br />
“My understanding of yesterday‟s action is that the Chaodai fleet is reporting us as<br />
dead, is this correct?”<br />
“Yes. I only found out myself a few minutes ago. The noise we created yesterday has<br />
more than just the Chaodai thinking we‟ve foundered. CIC‟s been getting status requests<br />
from every regional command from Tokyo through to Fort Grace.”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “Good. We‟ll use it to our advantage while we can. As long as the<br />
Chaodai think they‟ve put us down, they‟re unlikely to send out anything in force. I suggest<br />
you reduce the CAP, and try to give your pilots some time to turn around.”<br />
Banick nodded. “That was my intention, sir.”<br />
“Good. For now... Just remember that this crew is dangerously close to snapping,<br />
and I need you to turn that around. She‟s your boat, Captain, and I will do as little or as much<br />
as you need to make that job easier, but I will not permit this command to fall apart. We don‟t<br />
have the luxury of being inflexible in this... as much as you probably wish we did.”<br />
- 81 -
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110 Nine hundred and eighty miles south-east of<br />
Japan, the Marianas Sea. April 10 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
No sooner had the day‟s last bell been rung, Sarah Cunningham was confronted with<br />
no less than seven of the sea wing‟s pilots. The old magazine she was reading from the seat<br />
of her desk chair dropped just enough for her eyes to peer over and stare them down. Their<br />
expressions were a mixture of bemusement, smugness, mischief and repressed<br />
amusement. Four Rapiers and three Dark Angels: Schrader, Tomlinson, Richthoffen, Coyle,<br />
Sakai, Chavez, and central amongst them – Samuel Rogers.<br />
Coyle examined Cunningham from head to toe. Sitting unassumingly in the chair,<br />
cross-legged and looking every bit the picture of a high school teenager with a bad dress<br />
sense in her long, black pilot‟s jumpsuit.<br />
“Something I can help you with?” she said accusingly.<br />
Coyle ignored the question, the all-too-suspicious line of pilots continuing to snigger<br />
and failing to hide their bemused expressions. The Dark Angels‟ XO turned to Rogers and<br />
asked simply, “...So, she really tried to make a pass at you?”<br />
“Yep.”<br />
Coyle turned in mock surprise to Cunningham and shook his head. “Jesus, Twobirds,<br />
I thought you had better taste”<br />
“Bastard”, spat Rogers snidely.<br />
“Stick it, Stones,” Coyle retorted.<br />
Cunningham put the old rag down and got up. “Do you people have any real point for<br />
being here? Or do you just want to fuck off now so I can forget this?”<br />
“Forget it?!” guffawed Schrader – the big German seeming to grow even larger as he<br />
leaned forward.<br />
Rogers revealed a hand that had been folded away behind his back and produced a<br />
single black blindfold, hanging loosely between two fingers. “Nope.”<br />
Cunningham took a step back, but found she had nowhere else to go...<br />
...Banick was halfway across the bridge deck from the CIC as reports were still being<br />
thrust in his direction. Each one he signed off without question or glance, passing them back<br />
to nameless officers as he finished his day‟s shift, Callaghan not once breaking step beside<br />
him. “No,” Banick said simply.<br />
“And why not?” his XO countered, not understanding his hesitation.<br />
Banick laughed, possibly for the first time that day. “Because I‟m not in the mood. I‟ve<br />
already been torn out on my own boat by Admiral Ainsley, and... you know better than most<br />
that I really shouldn‟t even be near the stuff.”<br />
The two officers passed through the bridge doors, returning the salutes of the<br />
watching marines as they made their way down the central B-Deck corridor. Callaghan<br />
pursed his lips, and waited until they were out of earshot of the rest of the crew. “Sorry, I<br />
didn‟t mean it like that. No one said you have to drink, Jim... But you really should at least<br />
put your head through the door and say hi. That‟s all I‟m asking.”<br />
“Look, I‟ll think about it,” he said, holding up the reports that he‟d been left with. “But I<br />
still need to file these with the Admiral. I‟ll meet you there, but... just don‟t make me regret<br />
this.<br />
“Of course not. I‟ll see you there soon.”<br />
Banick nodded as he started to head down the next side corridor towards the<br />
Admiral‟s office, and then stopped to turn. “...And Ryan?”<br />
“Hmm?”<br />
“Where the hell did they get the alcohol to begin with?”<br />
- 82 -
The XO hesitated, and smiled slightly. “I never asked, sir. But with the week we‟ve<br />
just gone through, I‟d let them have it this time. I‟ll make sure Major O‟Shaughnessy‟s boys<br />
keep an eye on it.”<br />
Banick thought about it for a moment, and then nodded with an inward smile.<br />
“Probably wise.”<br />
...Cunningham was blind as she was guided – dragged, perhaps more accurately –<br />
down the corridors and passages of the ship, with ever increasing urgency and lack of<br />
control. “Guys, this really isn‟t funny,” she protested, feeling the heavy grip of Coyle‟s hands<br />
pinning her arms to the small of her back.<br />
“Oh stop whining,” Rogers said from somewhere behind her.<br />
“Where the hell are you taking me?”<br />
The explanation didn‟t help. “It‟s a surprise.”<br />
“You do like surprises, don‟t you, Two-Birds?” added Coyle over her shoulder,<br />
unnervingly close to her ear.<br />
She started to laugh, but it almost came out of panic – the words in her ear making<br />
the hair on the back of her neck stand on-end...<br />
The door knocked.<br />
“Enter,” Ainsley said, putting the last of his papers in to the briefcase atop the desk.<br />
With a clunk, the hatch cracked open and Banick stepped inside, closing it carefully<br />
behind him, Ainsley noting the day‟s final reports folded away under his arm. He looked at<br />
his watch – it was 5:40 – and Banick was ten minutes late.<br />
“Captain,” he said curtly, thinking better of noting Banick‟s tardiness. As it happened,<br />
he didn‟t even need to concern himself with it.<br />
“Sorry I‟m late, sir. A few last minute things on the bridge to take care of - the new<br />
flight roster wasn‟t quite as seamless as we‟d hoped.”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “Not surprised. We‟re down five pilots.”<br />
Banick held out the pile of papers, and Ainsley took them in the same manner the<br />
Captain had received them. He‟d read them later. “Your report?”<br />
“Not much to say, Admiral. The Chaodai decided against pushing the Folly again...<br />
given their last attempt, they‟ve turned north. They left our area of operations about two<br />
hours ago.”<br />
“That makes them Ticonderoga‟s problem then.”<br />
“Yes sir. For the time being, things around the Marianas are quiet. Best guess is<br />
they‟ll try the Sea of Japan. I don‟t imagine Morgan will have many problems this time.”<br />
Ainsley smiled slightly, even if the thoughts that came to mind threatened to open the<br />
fleet‟s oldest wounds. “I‟m not sure he‟ll appreciate the irony. Morgan‟s been itching for a<br />
chance of payback with those bastards since Ryukyu. I‟ll make a note to give him my best.”<br />
Banick smiled – a gesture which Ainsley found so shocking for the day‟s events that<br />
he had to forcibly ignore it lest he fail to keep his tongue in check. “Already taken care of.<br />
I‟ve made sure the Rapiers have got point on tomorrow‟s rosters. If Morgan has any<br />
problems, we‟ll send him whatever he needs.” Banick paused for a moment and then added<br />
as an afterthought. “...I just hope Richards‟ men don‟t go blind in the mean time.”<br />
That stopped the Admiral, and he stopped filing and turned with a half-smile to face<br />
Banick. “Blind?”<br />
The Captain sighed, and held up his hands. “Yeah... They‟re throwing a bash in the<br />
pilot‟s mess for Lieutenant Cunningham. Birthday – 22 nd I think. Seems like yesterday when<br />
she dragged herself aboard <strong>Atlantis</strong> like a drowned rat and didn‟t know how to tell the rightway-up<br />
in a dogfight. But still far too young...”<br />
Ainsley stopped at that and thought for a moment, his eyes narrowing ever so<br />
tellingly. “Birthday...”<br />
Banick backed up. “I won‟t be partaking. I‟m just going to pass on my regards.”<br />
- 83 -
For a moment, it seemed that Ainsley had not heard what the Captain had said as he<br />
stared blankly across the room, a small question forming in the back of his mind. Banick<br />
didn‟t have the opportunity to press on.<br />
“No, very good,” Ainsley deflected, brushing it aside before it had been asked. “You<br />
go on. I‟ll drop by soon.”<br />
Banick knew enough of Ainsley to tell that something had suddenly piqued his<br />
interest. “Something wrong?”<br />
“No.” The reply had no hesitation. “Nothing wrong. That will be all, Captain.”<br />
Banick paused for a moment before nodding slowly, and then saluted – holding it just<br />
long enough for Ainsley to return it before he turned on his heel and marched to the door.<br />
The Admiral thought for a moment, heading to the computer terminal as the numbers<br />
returned to the fore.<br />
All thought of the papers Banick had left disappeared as he opened the file he‟d<br />
hidden away on the holo display‟s desktop. He stared at it for only a moment, and then<br />
rubbed his stubbled chin.<br />
“Well... Happy Birthday, Lieutenant Cunningham.”<br />
...The rapturous cheers and applause that erupted as the blindfold was pulled away<br />
from Cunningham‟s eyes was almost deafening in the modestly-sized, but appropriately filled<br />
pilot‟s mess. The big, colourfully painted banner that read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” across the<br />
rafters was flanked by pilots, deck crew and other officers of the battlegroup who stood on<br />
tables and pooled around whatever stools could be gathered. Schrader pushed her in to the<br />
crowd before she‟d even had a chance to inevitably belt him in the arm for the stunt.<br />
Lost for words as a large tankard was thrust in to her hands, she watched as Dustin<br />
Coyle jumped up on the table in the center of the mess and bellowed in a voice that most<br />
marine drill instructors would have been proud of. “Oi!”<br />
He had to wait a few seconds as the noise dinned, none of the pilots being<br />
particularly brave enough to question the request of the Dark Angels‟ commanding officer –<br />
by all the rights the new “Top Gun” of the sea wing as the illustrious Corinn Roderick stood<br />
aside. Roderick of course was there, but she had done her best to remain discreet at the<br />
side of the mess, amongst others of the fleet‟s more senior command cadre. This was not<br />
their moment – it was a celebration of something much younger.<br />
Coyle continued to wait for a moment even after silence had settled. “Ladies and<br />
Gentlemen,” he said in a serious, un-playful tone. “Raise „em.”<br />
He watched as every hand in the room raised its glass high, and nodded, bowing his<br />
head. “Shalders, Harker, Seabury, Pickford, Anderson - a moment‟s silence for absent<br />
friends.”<br />
For just the second time that day, the Commonwealth was deathly silent, with only<br />
the hum of the engines deep within the ship to bring tension to an otherwise still air. The<br />
creed amongst pilots was simple – fleet commanders could hold as many formal ceremonies<br />
as they liked, but at the end of the day, they would mourn their own. Pilots would honour<br />
them with sorrow and honest, unrepentant booze, and it was one of the fleet‟s quieter, but<br />
nonetheless notable „traditions‟ that squadron commanders managed to produce illicit<br />
rations for the occasion. It was commonly held that where they got it, how they got it, and<br />
where it was hidden had become skills that defined the post of a wing commander more than<br />
their experience in the cockpit – and every time, they delivered.<br />
Coyle took a mouthful of his drink and threw it back, raising his glass slightly - exactly<br />
a minute after he‟d called it. “Thanks,” he said simply. “Now... The reason we are here...”<br />
He pointed at Cunningham, and turned his finger upside down to curl it towards him,<br />
ushering her forward. “Get up here.”<br />
She was clapped, cheered and jeered as she walked through the parting crowd, and<br />
was hauled up on to the table next to Coyle. She had only been aboard the Commonwealth<br />
for four months since her promotion to Lieutenant and posting to the Rapiers, and she knew<br />
– to her embarrassment - that meant that Coyle was going to make the most his opportunity.<br />
Coyle was grinning as he put a heavy arm around her shoulder and rattled her slightly. “After<br />
- 84 -
the crap we‟ve had today, she probably thought we forgot,” he snickered. “But nonetheless...<br />
I‟d like to tell you all a story, about some bratty twenty year-old cheerleader who was<br />
probably holding sticks between her legs long before she joined our beloved corps.”<br />
The Rapier and Dark Angel pilots in the crowd chuckled at the wry, base joke,<br />
already knowing where he was going with the tale. The more senior fleet officers watching<br />
looked on, bemused and curious as to how he could have gotten away with such comments.<br />
“I cannot tell you how long I‟ve been looking forward to this,” he grinned “...About<br />
eighteen months ago... Eighteen? Yeah, that‟s about right. Longer than most of you pukes<br />
have had wings, either way, I was sitting in the briefing room on the <strong>Atlantis</strong> when these<br />
three, fresh-faced, sickeningly-cute academy pups are put in front of us, and our very own<br />
Wing Commander – Now Captain, god bless her, she will be missed – Quinn Roderick, tells<br />
me that these kids are going to be flying with Halo callsigns.”<br />
More laughter, and Coyle wasn‟t done. “Of course, they hadn‟t even graduated, and I<br />
figured they‟d be fish food inside a day.”<br />
He paused. “In fact it was more like twelve hours,” the laughter that followed was<br />
underscored by the red that suddenly flushed through her cheeks as she pursed her lips.<br />
“Archangel didn‟t think anyone had noticed, but I have to tell you... Anyone who has ever<br />
been torn apart by our beloved CAG knows two things. First is that it‟s very loud, and second<br />
is that if you value god‟s gift of procreation, you never again want to miss a pilots briefing on<br />
her watch. In this case, our Sarah slept through it.”<br />
Some pilots winced, and Roderick simply tried to stifle her own laughter by covering<br />
her mouth with her hands. Beside her, Jane Roberts simply gave the elder fighter<br />
commander a sharp nudge to the ribs. Coyle sped things up. “...Sufficed to say that while all<br />
of you know the story of the famous duo of <strong>Cape</strong> Cortez students who became aces in a<br />
day-“ the crowd cheered. “Few of you know how they got their names. If I can be serious for<br />
a moment, the fighting to defend the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> was possibly the most fierce I have seen<br />
in eighteen years of flying, and one of those three cadets went down in history as being the<br />
first ever pilot to make five kills before they had even been given their dolphins. Tim Reiter<br />
died to save the sorry ass of the only other cadet to achieve the same - his squad mate...<br />
and she stands before you now.”<br />
There was a nervous pause, and a few applauded. Others simply raised their drinks.<br />
“Not only did Cunningham become an ace – she became the youngest ace this planet has<br />
ever seen, a bare twenty years old. But because I am not here to kiss her extraordinarily<br />
well-formed ass, let me tell you the last part of that story.”<br />
Coyle stopped again and looked around him for a moment before he found his target,<br />
and grinned, his teeth baring down like those of a White Pointer. “...He probably thought I‟d<br />
left his part in this out, but I want Samuel Rogers to step forward please.”<br />
Obligingly, Rogers emerged from the crowd and stood in the circle that had formed in<br />
front of the table that had become Coyle‟s stage, holding up his hands hopelessly.<br />
“Some of you might wonder why I am the one standing up here doing this rather than<br />
their commander, Deadstick... well I‟ll tell you why. It‟s because I am the only one here who<br />
is truly able to give them shit for the dumbest mistake that I have ever seen, and in this case<br />
experienced.”<br />
The Dark Angels and Rapiers – already happily lubricated by several rounds of<br />
drinks beforehand – were now in stitches of barely-contained laughter. “Cunningham‟s fifth<br />
– and sixth - kill will go also down in history as the second dumbest thing I have ever seen.<br />
She bore-sighted a Mac Lysander when I was virtually on top of it, while flying on my wing,<br />
and took the initiative to blow it to greener pastures... without telling me first.”<br />
The laughter that followed that one was telling of what had just been said, and Coyle<br />
nodded with some measure of admitted embarrassment. “Yes, I was Cunningham‟s sixth kill<br />
that day. One shot – two kills. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lieutenant Sarah “Two<br />
Birds” Cunningham – twenty two, gorgeous and single-“<br />
“That‟s not what Rogers said!” blurted out Schrader, to further laughter, and Coyle<br />
flipped him a one-fingered salute.<br />
- 85 -
“...and her partner in crime – Samuel Rogers, who is the only pilot I know to have<br />
had the... Stones... to disobey a direct order from Corinn Roderick. Which incidentally takes<br />
top honours to become the most stupid thing I‟ve ever seen.”<br />
Coyle stepped back, and turned towards Cunningham, applauding mockingly before<br />
jumping down to leave her alone atop the table.<br />
“Speech!” the pilots cried.<br />
Still flushed red, Cunningham smiled. “Thanks, Bouncer... I love being reminded how<br />
much you love me. I‟ll keep this short...”<br />
...Away from the celebrations, still locked away in his office, Ainsley stared at the<br />
numbers again, and felt a flutter of recognition.<br />
idiot.”<br />
030639/3536<br />
090941/1219<br />
150940/179<br />
131121/010<br />
... 030639<br />
“Zero three, zero six, three nine,” Ainsley whispered to himself. “Oh, Mark... you<br />
~<br />
- 86 -
IV<br />
A P P A R I T I O N S<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Marianas Sea. April 10 th , 2043…<br />
Ainsley sat in the officer‟s wardroom alone, a pot of tea brewing beside him, sending<br />
wafts of steam drifting through the holo display on the desk in front of him. It was twenty-two<br />
hundred hours, the night watch having settled in to the wrong side of the clock. At shallow<br />
depth, no light came through the wardroom‟s windows at this time of night, and in the dim<br />
light every one of his other senses were firing, the gentle hum of the engines – normally an<br />
unrecognisable din that had become a part of him over the years – was now a noticeable<br />
throbbing, with rhythm and beat that a trained sonar operator could have learnt any number<br />
of details from. In such silence, the entry of someone in to the wardroom became something<br />
as noticeable as a torpedo detonation, and Ainsley turned. “Thanks for coming,” he said.<br />
“Missed you in the mess hall,” Banick replied simply. “Something came up?”<br />
“You could say that,” Ainsley suggested, pouring a cup of tea from the steaming pot.<br />
“Tea?”<br />
“Will this take long?”<br />
“...I don‟t know.”<br />
Banick finally nodded. “Yeah, alright. Thanks.”<br />
Ainsley smiled as he produced a second cup from the sideboard and filled it, sliding it<br />
over the great oak desk along with a tray of milk and sugar.<br />
“There‟s been something bothering me. Truth be told, I haven‟t been thinking about it<br />
that long, but then I suspect I wasn‟t supposed to.”<br />
Banick sat down next to the Admiral and picked up the mug. “Well that‟s about the<br />
most confusing thing you‟ve said all day.”<br />
“Yes, well, I‟ve spent all day staring at it.”<br />
“What is it?”<br />
Ainsley flicked the display around with his hand, the motion sensors in the newlyissued<br />
holographic interface tracking his fingers and responding to it as if he‟d flicked a<br />
switch. The numbers flickered up in front of Banick and he frowned.<br />
“Admiral von Schrader gave this to me before I left London. NSIS picked up four<br />
transmissions that were sent to my office, encrypted with UEO Signals codes. When they<br />
finally managed to decode them, they got these four number sequences.”<br />
“I don‟t follow.”<br />
“Neither did I until about two hours ago. They‟re dates.”<br />
Banick raised an eyebrow and scratched the back of his head. “Ok... They‟re dates.<br />
What are the dates for?”<br />
Ainsley raised a finger. “That‟s would took me two hours to work out. As soon as I<br />
knew they were dates, I worked out this second one fairly quickly.”<br />
Banick read it. “090941... Ninth of September, ‟41...”<br />
“Sound familiar?”<br />
Banick sighed and closed his eyes. “It should...”<br />
Admiral Ainsley stood up and started pacing. “Yeah, so whatever the rest of those<br />
dates refer to, I have to assume they have something to do with the day we lost the <strong>Atlantis</strong>.”<br />
“Admiral, can we slow down here? Something I still don‟t is why this is even<br />
important. Why is NSIS looking into this? Why did they get you to look into this?”<br />
“I can‟t answer that,” he confessed.<br />
“...Alright, fine. Forget I asked. But why are the dates important? Why not simply put<br />
them in the right order?”<br />
“I did,” Ainsley admitted. “21, 39, 40 and 41. There‟s no logical progression there.”<br />
The Captain shrugged. “I didn‟t expect there would be. You asked the computer to<br />
cross reference them with the date of <strong>Atlantis</strong>‟s sinking?”<br />
- 87 -
Ainsley nodded slowly. “That‟s what concerns me. I did. And it withheld the results<br />
from me.”<br />
“What?”<br />
“Apparently it‟s classified.”<br />
Banick stood up and shook his head. “Admiral, I appreciate that you want my help<br />
with this, but unless you can tell me why NSIS is so interested in this – I‟m not sure I can.”<br />
Ainsley looked down for a moment and thought about it. He smiled. “What I‟m about<br />
to tell you doesn‟t leave this room,” he ordered.<br />
Banick‟s arms were folded as he looked at the Admiral expectantly. “Done.”<br />
“Good. When NSIS picked up these messages, I told you they were encrypted with a<br />
UEO Signals protocol. What I couldn‟t, and should be telling you, is that the cipher they used<br />
was the sort used exclusively aboard <strong>DSV</strong>s.”<br />
Banick stared blankly through Ainsley for a moment, as if he didn‟t quite believe what<br />
he‟d just heard. Finally, he suggested, “What about the sea<strong>Quest</strong>?”<br />
“That was the first thing I checked. I made the call to Captain Hitchcock personally.<br />
The protocol identifier attached to these codes doesn‟t match anything sea<strong>Quest</strong> has ever<br />
transmitted from her SOC.”<br />
“Why is this cipher so special?”<br />
Ainsley sniffed. “Schrader told me that the reason this code is unique is because they<br />
needed something with the sophistication of an AHAI to keep track of a floating point<br />
encryption. Annie is the only thing on the planet capable of encoding and then decoding a<br />
fractal algorithm, and to have any hope of decoding it otherwise, you would need to know the<br />
exact time and place from which the message was sent, accurate to the second.”<br />
Banick frowned. “But... NSIS doesn‟t have any AHAIs. sea<strong>Quest</strong> is the last one we<br />
have. How did they decode it?”<br />
Ainsley smiled and pointed at the code on the holo display. “That‟s what concerns<br />
me.”<br />
“Annie...” Banick repeated, looking at the code again. “Ninth of September, 2041...”<br />
Ainsley sighed, and shook his head.<br />
Banick thought otherwise, and frowned. “That‟s not right...”<br />
“What?”<br />
“You‟re assuming these dates refer to events, rather than a record of events, as the<br />
order would suggest. By records, <strong>Atlantis</strong> wasn‟t lost on the ninth. She was reported lost on<br />
the tenth when Admiral Morgan signed off on it. That is the entry that would have been made<br />
on the official record.”<br />
It hit Ainsley like a bolt of lightning. “Annie. We lost Annie on the ninth.”<br />
Banick spun the display around again and quickly typed in a search of records.<br />
“Thirteenth of the November, 2021...” he said with a measure of finality. “Action report filed<br />
by UEO sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> 4600-II by Captain Nathan Hale Bridger. Reported the destruction of<br />
the autonomous SSN code-named Marauder...”<br />
Ainsley turned from the window at the side of the room. “Marauder wasn‟t the name<br />
of the submarine... it was the name of the AI project it was running.”<br />
Banick nodded. “She launched ballistic missiles against <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong> the same<br />
day. I remember it set Artificial Intelligence development back twenty years when the<br />
Security Council banned development of autonomous smart-AI.”<br />
“That‟s the key,” said Ainsley excitedly. “ANNIE was the first such AI they managed<br />
to develop since the attack. Run a search on the other two dates, 2039 and 2040. Cross<br />
reference it with records on ANNIE‟s development.”<br />
Banick shook his head as he tried to fill in the requests. “I don‟t like your chances. If it<br />
bounced back as classified the first time, I don‟t see what you‟re going to get now.”<br />
“No, you‟re right. Try something broader. Check low-level classification records for<br />
the entire DSX project, checking only those dates.”<br />
Banick stopped at that and looked at his former commander even more sceptically.<br />
“That will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”<br />
“Maybe, but at least we know what the needle looks like.”<br />
- 88 -
Banick huffed when he entered the search data and then sat down. “Right, well that‟s<br />
a big haystack. It‟ll take a few minutes to finish the search.”<br />
Ainsley nodded, and turned back to the window, even though there was nothing to<br />
see. Banick watched for a moment, and then walked over to where the Admiral stood.<br />
“Staring in to the abyss... Hoping it will stare back?”<br />
Ainsley laughed a little, and didn‟t turn. “I‟ve done my fair share of staring in to that<br />
mirror, Banick. It stopped staring at me a long time ago. Did it help? For you?”<br />
The Captain looked at Ainsley with a measure of surprise at an implication he hadn‟t<br />
expected in the least. It was a subtle gesture on the Admiral‟s part... almost a peace offering<br />
he didn‟t think possible. The suggestion simply being that whatever failings he may have<br />
once seen in Banick, had disappeared. “I... Well you know, to be honest? I never looked.”<br />
Ainsley bowed his head slightly with a careful smile. “Because you were afraid of<br />
what you might see?”<br />
...On the other hand...<br />
Banick thought about it for a moment before he jumped on the bait. It wasn‟t like<br />
Ainsley to go from something so subtle, to something so blunt and so quickly, and more<br />
poignantly, it had been a question – not an accusation. Instead, he smiled. “No, because I<br />
wasn‟t ready for what I was going to see. I know I had a problem, I thought I was dealing<br />
with it, and for a time, I was wrong.”<br />
“And yet here we are.”<br />
Banick went to answer, but was cut short by the shrill chirp from the console behind<br />
them. Ainsley turned and went through the records quickly, but shook his head.<br />
“Fifteenth of September, 2040... third-layer bioskin integration, control plane tests,<br />
fusion core magnetic field calibrations. You weren‟t kidding. This is a haystack.”<br />
“Wait...” said Banick, stopping Ainsley from going any further. “Here. Check that –<br />
personnel reports. They only filed those once a week.”<br />
Ainsley nodded as he opened the file, and it didn‟t take long to find his match. “Oh...”<br />
“What is it?”<br />
“This one‟s not a personnel report – it‟s a death notice posted to the ASDB, copied to<br />
biomedical R&D.”<br />
“Who?”<br />
Ainsley nodded, and looked back over his shoulder at Banick. “Doctor Anne Ballard...<br />
Project director of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> Neural Network Intelligence Project. Hell... Look at the file<br />
photo.”<br />
Banick felt a chill run down his spine. It was ANNIE, and the resemblance was more<br />
than uncanny. “I knew they had to base ANNIE‟s neural pathways on an actual, developed<br />
human brain, but I had no idea about this.”<br />
“Cause of death... result of...”<br />
Ainsley stopped, feeling his eyes glaze as a sudden, and surreal realization started to<br />
dawn. “Jesus. Condition caused decay of synaptic pathways ultimately resulting in terminal<br />
loss of neurological function. Banick, I think this is the same thing that killed Annie...”<br />
“How can that be right?”<br />
Ainsley shrugged with surprise. “We assumed that Section 7 had put a virus in<br />
Annie‟s computer core – what if it was a genetic condition that was contracted when they<br />
imprinted the Doctor‟s neural pathways on to Annie‟s core?”<br />
“Possible, but that seems unlikely. Doctor Ballard died two months before <strong>Atlantis</strong><br />
was commissioned. Wouldn‟t the condition be at the same stage of development in ANNIE?”<br />
The Admiral looked back at the photo of Ballard. The date stamp on it was merely<br />
two weeks before the report of her death, yet she looked the picture of health. Something<br />
wasn‟t adding up. “We don‟t know enough to say,” he concluded. “This last date is what has<br />
me confused – there‟s no match at all. The day may as well not have even existed within the<br />
project‟s history.”<br />
Banick circled the desk, past the twin flags of NORPAC and the UEO that flanked the<br />
imposing ship‟s crest on the wall. “Something‟s changed.”<br />
“What?”<br />
- 89 -
“The numbers, Admiral. Have a look. When you rearranged the codes so that the<br />
dates were in order, the second set changed.”<br />
Ainsley stepped back and looked at them, his head slowly lolling sideways as he<br />
thought about it a few seconds longer. The order now read;<br />
131121/010<br />
030639/3536<br />
150940/179<br />
090941/1219<br />
Three four, three four...<br />
“Three, then four,” Ainsley said. “I‟m not a cryptographer, but NSIS would have<br />
needed to be blind and stupid not to work this out,” he stared. “Zero one zero, three five,<br />
thee six... Two lots of seven numbers. Lat and Long. 10 degrees, 35 minutes, 36 seconds by<br />
179 degrees, 12 minutes, 19 seconds. The only thing left is to work out is compass<br />
headings.”<br />
Banick was already staring at the large ocean chart on the wall of the wardroom,<br />
tracing the lines with his finger. “179 degrees east or west is going to put you within 2<br />
degrees of the same longitude, so there‟re only two options. Assuming ten degrees north,<br />
you‟re in the middle of the Pacific basin, and there is nothing there for nearly six hundred<br />
miles in every direction. If you go south, it puts you either south of the Kosciusko<br />
Tablemount or dead-on the Macaw Bank...”<br />
By the time Banick had finished dictating, Ainsley was already at his side. “The<br />
compass wasn‟t designed merely to get you „close‟ to something, Banick. If the coordinates<br />
match the Macaw Bank, then that‟s where we‟ll go.”<br />
Banick rounded on Ainsley quickly, the look in his eye aghast. “Absolutely not!”<br />
Ainsley pointed at the chart with an accusing finger, but he was not gesturing at the<br />
Macaw Bank – rather something further south. “Captain, the Macaw Bank is a mere five<br />
hundred miles from where <strong>Atlantis</strong> went down. If this message was meant for me, then that<br />
cannot be a coincidence.”<br />
Banick straightened, and pointed at a line on the map that fell a long way north of<br />
where either of them had been looking. “The Macaw Bank is over a thousand miles inside<br />
Alliance lines, and nearly seven hundred miles inside the effective range of that damned<br />
missile battery that killed us last time! I will not send this ship on a suicide mission on your<br />
whim without higher orders from Fort Grace. I don‟t give a damn what the NSIS want!”<br />
Both officers were now so heated that they both neglected to notice the entry of<br />
Captain Roderick, who now stood in the open door, watching in silence. Before Ainsley could<br />
respond, and before either man could do something they would later regret, she quickly<br />
interjected. “Am I interrupting?”<br />
They both turned, and Banick cleared his throat, vainly attempting to straighten his<br />
uniform as Ainsley stepped back and looked briefly at the chart again. “Captain Roderick,”<br />
Banick said with surprise and a half-greeting. “I thought you were at the party?”<br />
“The wrong one, apparently,” she replied warily as she stepped in to the wardroom,<br />
looking first at the masses of data shown on the central holographic interface, and then the<br />
chart over which they‟d been arguing.<br />
“Is there something we can do for you, Captain?” Ainsley asked, his tone indicating at<br />
the very least that he didn‟t appreciate the interruption. Roderick brushed that aside, having<br />
no desire to choose sides in their argument or even get involved.<br />
“No. But as Commander Coyle so enjoyed reminding me an hour or two ago, you<br />
might want to know that arguments on a submarine have a tendency to be overheard,<br />
respectfully, of course.”<br />
“Captain, I appreciate your concern but this isn‟t the best time,” Ainsley suggested<br />
warningly.<br />
“No, I don‟t imagine it is. Even so... The Macaw Bank is an interesting conclusion,<br />
sir.”<br />
- 90 -
“Do you know something we don‟t, Captain?” Banick asked, a measure of curiosity<br />
becoming apparent.<br />
“No more than anyone else in the sea wing, sir, but you might want to know... I had a<br />
report come across my desk a couple of weeks ago from Fleet Intelligence that suggested<br />
the Alliance had been suffering attacks in their own lines.”<br />
“We know this. The <strong>New</strong> Australian resistance has been increasingly active since<br />
Adamson took over.”<br />
“That‟s not what I mean, Admiral. This was something else – specifically around the<br />
Macaw Bank. Intelligence said that Alliance fighter patrols were being ambushed by<br />
something... they hadn‟t seen before. Whatever hit them was fast and usually disappeared<br />
before anyone had a chance to get an ID. It‟s happened twice more in the last week in nearly<br />
a four hundred mile radius of the Macaw Bank, but they haven‟t found a thing.”<br />
“Ghost stories now, Captain? Aren‟t we a little old for that?”<br />
“They‟re not ghost stories,” she retorted snidely. “But whatever is going on down<br />
there, it was enough to scare intelligence – because despite the attacks, they‟ve stopped<br />
reporting them, and when I made inquiries, they denied that it had ever taken place.”<br />
Ainsley stepped forward again, looking once more at the chart. “Then what makes<br />
you think this attack wasn‟t isolated, and continued?”<br />
“Because I have other sources besides Fleet Intelligence, sir. Rumour mills in the<br />
Subfighter Corps are fed by this sort of news. If there is a group of mercenaries, pirates or<br />
anything that can pull off repeated attacks against elite Macronesian fighter groups and<br />
evade their navy on their own soil for an entire month and get away with it... it gets people‟s<br />
attention. I dealt with about four requests for information about this from other fighter group<br />
commanders on the Enterprise, Royal Oak, Constellation and St. Patrick personally. I still<br />
have the reports from them if you want to read them yourself.”<br />
“That doesn‟t explain why ONI would have pulled the report from the battlnet,” Banick<br />
pointed out.<br />
“No, it doesn‟t. Where did you get this information about Macaw?”<br />
The look that was exchanged between Banick and Ainsley on that note spoke a<br />
thousand words, and Banick held up his hands in defeat as the Admiral shook his head. “I‟d<br />
ask that you keep whatever you know about this to yourself for the time being, Captain<br />
Roderick. I‟m not entirely sure what to make of it myself at this point, but I would appreciate it<br />
if you could forward me those reports. Anything you know would be helpful.”<br />
Roderick just stared at Ainsley for several moments, trying to work out what the man<br />
was hiding, but eventually gave up, and shook it away. “Yeah, of course.”<br />
“Thank you. That will be all, Captain. If you would excuse us?”<br />
Unhappily, Roderick assented and left with the wardroom without further word,<br />
closing the door behind her on the way out. Banick walked around the desk again and<br />
returned to his seat, sipping the mug of tea that he‟d left there as Ainsley stared at the chart<br />
for a few seconds longer.<br />
“So... Shall I assume we will be setting a course for Macaw Bank?”<br />
~<br />
T H E G I R L A T T H E E N D O F T H E W O R L D : II<br />
Two hundred miles south of the <strong>Cape</strong> of Good Hope, May 31 st , 2029...<br />
Callaghan stood on the bridge of the <strong>DSV</strong> Proteus with a watchful eye, the science<br />
staff and other Nycarus personnel who were overrunning the submarine having found it<br />
necessary to convert half of the ship‟s central command centre in to an extension of their<br />
inhuman laboratories elsewhere on the ship. Why, he never thought to ask – the fact that<br />
- 91 -
Captain Ezard had granted it however was enough reason for him to simply allow them their<br />
work, even if he did so with a hand not six inches from his sidearm. In truth, the longer he<br />
remained on Ezard‟s project, the more he disliked what he saw. Among the other things he<br />
had learnt never to ask was why the project existed at all. His selection to be part of this<br />
operation was because his loyalty was never questioned – his belief in the UEO, and what it<br />
stood for being unshakeable and his will to defend it second to none. Only the foolishly<br />
idealistic would think that hard things weren‟t necessary in its defence, as the reality of the<br />
world painted a picture of powers that would happily see the UEO destroyed, perhaps first<br />
amongst them the Alliance of Macronesia...<br />
...Although the UEO General Assembly would never openly admit it. Sometimes, the<br />
UEO, in its idealism, had to be protected from itself.<br />
And so it fell to a few. Those few who were willing to put all other considerations<br />
second in place of the one, incontrovertible truth that the world was a cruel, sometimes<br />
unfair place where the only rule was to survive, no matter what the cost.<br />
It was a strange symmetry, thought Callaghan, that they wound find such a literal<br />
definition of that ideal in the smouldering ruins of the African continent. That those downtrodden<br />
and wretched souls such as those who lived in South Africa could be the salvation of<br />
the stagnating and too-proud UEO was ironic to say the least, yet this was the way it was<br />
going to be.<br />
The loss of the Nycarus Labs in Sierra Leone had put the entire project on-edge,<br />
although Captain Ezard and his staff knew far more about that issue than was openly<br />
admitted. Three years before, lines of communication with the labs had been cut as soon as<br />
they had learnt the extent of the uprising, championed by someone by the name of<br />
„Neureon‟. Like terrorists, the Nycarians demands had been simple – leave, or die.<br />
This left the Proteus the last bastion of Ezard‟s great plan.<br />
Callaghan surveyed the bridge around him once more before he gave a cursory nod<br />
to one of the Ensigns who sat at operations. The officer gave Callaghan a knowing smile,<br />
and he then turned and left the bridge, walking down the pristine hallways past a few<br />
marines and a dozen scientists before coming getting on the mag-lev tube, and riding it<br />
down to the sea deck laboratories.<br />
As the doors slid open, Callaghan was greeted once again by the eerily-white walls<br />
of a Nycarus lab. The design seemed alien to Callaghan when compared to the usual,<br />
industrial lines of a UEO <strong>DSV</strong>‟s hydrosphere facilities. What should have been a missile prep<br />
room was now a smooth, sleek laboratory with every medical facility the geneticists working<br />
there could ever need. He could imagine the catwalks that ringed the vast chamber once<br />
having encircled a series of massive ICBM silos common to the sea<strong>Quest</strong>-class design.<br />
Now, where the missiles should have been was a single great cavern on the lower floor of<br />
which was the main control facility for the operation. Above it, suspended eerily from<br />
scaffolding in frozen, steaming tubes of glass and ice, were rack upon racks of those<br />
“Nycarian” subjects that had proven to be successful... and their number was practically<br />
legion. True to his word, Doctor van der Weer had delivered results after a string of costly<br />
and grotesque failures in Sierra Leone. The project was now entering its final stages for van<br />
der Weer, and what defined a “Nycarian” was becoming a formula, rather than a series of<br />
cooperative errors. Heightened awareness, incredible intelligence, intuition, improved motor<br />
control, stamina and perfect senses had created a more impressive weapon that any one on<br />
the project could have imagined.<br />
Where the infamous „Daggers‟ of the early 21 st century had been a polar extreme of<br />
the Nycarians, representing a kind of untempered strength that could breed shock troopers,<br />
a finer mastery of the human brain and its functions had always eluded the GELF engineers.<br />
In the end, it did not matter how much muscle tissue you wrapped a skeleton in or<br />
how dense you could make a bone – a human was still an inherently fragile form, and the<br />
most basic assault rifles could rend flesh from bone in an instant. Bodies were an<br />
instrument. But an instrument was still only second-place to that which was man‟s greatest<br />
gift: the weapon of the mind. Of those weapons, Nycarus was the final word.<br />
- 92 -
Callaghan rounded the stairwell from the catwalk and planted his boots on the guard<br />
rail, sliding down the ladder to the operations deck below. He forced his way through the<br />
working throngs of lab-coated technicians and scientists, and approached the central area of<br />
the room, a raised deck upon which were banks of monitors, diagnostics charts and master<br />
systems displays. The woman central amongst those working there paced impatiently, the<br />
white coat sweeping behind her slightly as she did, all the while oblivious to those around<br />
her as she furiously worked on some kind of problem on her data pad. Callaghan called out<br />
as he approached. “Doctor?”<br />
She held up a hand as she continued to pace, and Callaghan walked up the steps to<br />
wait beside the centre display. “This isn‟t a good time, Lieutenant,” she sighed, looking at<br />
him briefly with piercing blue eyes.<br />
Callaghan didn‟t know how old the Doctor was, but she was young, her long, brown<br />
hair pulled back in to a pony tail, and her face having a spritely energy to it that was all but<br />
unheard of amongst the project‟s other members. Their backgrounds were many and varied<br />
– from Intelligence, to the Marine Corps and Navy Special Forces, Section Seven recruited<br />
from every avenue of the UEO that suited their purposes, but of the young Doctor on the<br />
Proteus, Callaghan couldn‟t imagine her origins. She wore the uniform of a Lieutenant,<br />
bearing the black division deltas of Intelligence. (In this regard, there was no distinction<br />
between Section Seven and their conventional counterparts in the Naval Intelligence Service<br />
– the insignia was the same.)<br />
“Captain asked me to check in,” he explained simply, thinking it would be enough.<br />
She snapped back at him, not caring for his job or where it had come from. “Well,<br />
then you can tell the Captain that he‟ll have to wait. I‟m not done with the results.”<br />
“There‟s a problem?”<br />
She finally stopped pacing, and looked at him with exasperation. “I honestly don‟t<br />
know. Either one of these idiots botched his lab tests, or we have an issue.”<br />
Callaghan raised an eyebrow. “An „issue‟, Doctor?”<br />
She threw the data pad down on to a desk, and walked past him. “Fine. Follow me.”<br />
The Doctor led Callaghan across the control room floor to a terminal near two cryo<br />
tanks and sat down in the chair before rolling up her coat sleeves. “Look at these results,”<br />
she said, quickly pulling up a file on the screen that showed two graphs. Callaghan stared<br />
blankly at it for several moments, all the while reading the graph data.<br />
The impetuous Doctor looked up at Callaghan for a moment, and then blinked once<br />
as she registered the expression on his face. “Well, as you clearly didn‟t excel in math during<br />
the academy, I‟ll explain-“<br />
“No need,” Callaghan said, ignoring the jibe. “These graphs should be the same.<br />
They aren‟t.”<br />
“Well done, Captain Obvious.”<br />
Callaghan shot her a look. “...I do read your reports, Doctor Ballard, I understand it.<br />
What I don‟t understand is why no one told me we‟d started insemination.”<br />
Doctor Anne Ballard looked troubled as she pulled her lips in to a thin line, and then<br />
hit a control on the monitor, closing the graph as quickly as she‟d brought it up. “My office,<br />
Lieutenant. We need to talk.”<br />
Again, Callaghan followed the Doctor across the floor to a small room adjacent to the<br />
lab. From what Callaghan could tell of its location, by design it was probably the starboard<br />
small-arms locker before the ship‟s refit had converted many of the facilities to suit the needs<br />
of the Nycarus project. Now the former-arms locker served as Doctor Ballard‟s office, as it<br />
conveniently looked over the entire lab floor.<br />
Callaghan closed the door behind him and watched as Ballard took her coat off and<br />
threw it on a hook against the wall. She then circled her desk, and dropped in to the chair.<br />
“Lieutenant, the problems I am beginning to have with this project are not scientific. They are<br />
administrative. Captain Ezard has gone over my head and ordered tests that I don‟t believe<br />
we are ready for. Artificial insemination of patients is just the tip of that iceberg.”<br />
- 93 -
“I don‟t understand,” Callaghan shook his head, sitting down in a seat opposite the<br />
doctor. “What could we even gain from it? We know it‟s not possible for the catalyst to be<br />
transferred genetically by reproduction.”<br />
Ballard huffed as she stared at the ceiling. “That‟s the problem, Lieutenant. As Doctor<br />
van der Weer designed it, the catalyst could not reproduce through the transference of<br />
genes, but it‟s mutated, and I don‟t know why.”<br />
Callaghan stopped at that, and thought about the graph he‟d seen once again. “So<br />
you‟re saying that the Nycarians can transmit the catalyst to their offspring?”<br />
“Exactly, lieutenant. And it gets worse.”<br />
Ballard typed something in to her laptop computer, and then spun it around so<br />
Callaghan could see it. It brought the same graph results up again. “In the most basic terms,<br />
this graph shows the distribution of the same catalyst across human DNA in two subjects.<br />
The first is the original recipient, and the second shows the catalyst when spread from that<br />
recipient by reproduction to a child. By all rights, what we know of reproduction says that the<br />
balance of the catalyst should at least show some kind of correlation between their parents<br />
and their child. In this case... there are anomalies.”<br />
Callaghan closed his eyes for a moment. “Where did this data come from?”<br />
Ballard missed Callaghan‟s implication, and was to the point. “Patients sixty five and<br />
eighty nine showed a good deal of genetic compatibility. Eighty nine was inseminated, and<br />
this graph shows development of the fetus after eight weeks. This was the point where the<br />
catalyst stabilized, and normal development continued, with some unpredictable anomalies.”<br />
Callaghan‟s stomach turned at the thought, considering the cold manner in which<br />
Ballard had just sterilized the argument. “What do you mean anomalies?”<br />
“That‟s what I can‟t work out. The most obvious possibility is that the examiner<br />
contaminated his work. But I did a second test myself, and it came back the same. That<br />
graph you saw represented only a very small change in a few proteins – and I‟m talking less<br />
than point zero five of a percent within just those proteins, out of potentially billions. But at a<br />
genetic level, that is massive. It will take further examination, but if the test is consistent over<br />
the course of several generations of the catalyst... the mutation will become selfpropagating.”<br />
“You‟re telling me it‟s evolving.”<br />
“Yes, I am.”<br />
...Doctor Thecus van der Weer watched Patient One intently. The masterpiece of a<br />
life‟s work – determined to see no harm to his one, greatest triumph. She sat at the center of<br />
a sterile, modestly furnished room, a single window her only view to the great ocean beyond.<br />
Everything inside was pristine – from the white of the walls to the white carpet and white<br />
robes she found herself in... Yet her flair for creativity was astoundingly in opposition. She<br />
sat at the desk in the middle of the room, pencil in hand, as she sketched with all the skill of<br />
Giotto, Degas or even Da Vinci. Images with meanings or designs that he couldn‟t – and<br />
probably would never understand – so intricate and detailed and flawless. Van der Weer<br />
loved her like a daughter: her talent was an extension of the greatest gift he had even given<br />
her.<br />
The white of the walls was blocked by that which she created every day, her<br />
drawings adorning every surface but the window through which she spent a great deal of her<br />
life staring. The images were of things she hadn‟t seen in person for years – the Great Plains<br />
and mountains of Africa, birds, animals and even things that only existed within her brilliant<br />
imagination, but all with such devotion to detail that it was impossible not to understand them<br />
– even if sometimes you didn‟t really know what they were.<br />
“Art”. That was her name. Sanaa Vuender-Weist Hezuin was now the legacy of an<br />
entire people, and it was only fitting that that was how the Swahili origins of that name<br />
translated to the simple, but inelegant English tongue. Her long hair spilled down past her<br />
shoulders, framing a slender, elegant face with eyes that bore in to Thecus‟s very soul.<br />
- 94 -
A tear slipped down van der Weer‟s cheek as he considered that which he had been<br />
told by way of an order he was never supposed to overhear. Today was the day he would<br />
say goodbye.<br />
Van der Weer sniffed slightly as he removed the old revolver from his lab coat,<br />
opening the chamber to double-check the six slugs that sat inside. Satisfied, he locked it<br />
shut and felt its weight. He hadn‟t needed the weapon in over twenty years from when he<br />
watched his home – his wife and daughter – bombed, by advancing armies that ground the<br />
city of Harare in to the ground. The girl before him now was the only family he had known<br />
since.<br />
He looked at the clock on the wall as he heard the approach of boots in the corridor<br />
outside. It was eleven o‟clock. He closed his eyes as he turned, and hid the weapon behind<br />
his back. The long seconds that followed seemed an eternity before the door to the anteroom<br />
swung open, and four heavily armed, black-clad outlander Marines stepped inside, an<br />
officer following them – his black rank slides those of a Captain, and his haunted, grey-blue<br />
eyes burning in to the Doctor in front of him.<br />
“Doctor van der Weer,” he said with little surprise. “I must ask you to stand aside.”<br />
Van der Weer stared through the man named Samuel Ezard blankly. The darkness<br />
he felt in the man‟s soul outstripped even his own blackened heart. Yes... death would be a<br />
favour to this one, he thought. He simply shook his head. “Don‟t take her,” he rasped,<br />
another tear rolling down his face.<br />
Ezard stepped forward, his eyes monetarily glancing to each side of the Doctor, and<br />
his hidden hands. “It‟s not open to debate. This project is too important.”<br />
Van der Weer‟s eyes clenched shut tightly for a moment as his lip trembled, a lump in<br />
his throat visibly rising... along with the Smith and Wesson in his left hand.<br />
The marines‟ weapons snapped up, but Ezard did not move as he looked for a<br />
moment at the barrel of the weapon that was aimed squarely between his eyes. He smiled,<br />
but it was a cold gesture that merely sent a chill down the Doctor‟s spine. “Doctor, put it<br />
down. I promise you, she won‟t be harmed.”<br />
“N...No,” he stammered. “I won‟t let you take her. You can‟t.”<br />
The outlander smiled still, and nodded slowly, almost in a manner that tried to be<br />
reassuring. “Yes, I can.”<br />
There was a tension in the air as van der Weer‟s finger moved over the trigger, his<br />
trembling turning to sobs. Ezard stepped forward. “If you were really going to shoot me,<br />
you‟d have done it already. Give me the weapon, Thecus.”<br />
The Doctor shook his head, but Ezard continued to walk forward, holding up a hand<br />
to steady his marines. As it turned out, he would never need them, as he gently reached up<br />
and took the Doctor‟s hand... along with the revolver.<br />
Ezard backed away, the gun in his hand, leaving the Doctor to continue sobbing in<br />
the centre of the room. He looked down at the old pistol, smiling slightly as he examined it.<br />
“Nineteen thirty seven, point four-five... Quite lovely. I haven‟t seen one of these in a long<br />
time,” he mused.<br />
The Doctor looked at Ezard, his face a contorted mixture of grief and uncertainty.<br />
Ezard didn‟t keep him waiting for the answer long as he spun the weapon in his hand,<br />
gripping it perfectly before shooting him once between the eyes. The shot rang sharply in the<br />
ante-room, but being soundproofed and baffled, never carried for either the girl or anyone<br />
else to hear. The Doctor‟s head snapped back and he fell backwards, revealing the bloody,<br />
gore-smeared mess against the back wall. Ezard grimaced as he saw this, and then<br />
gestured for the marines to deal with the body.<br />
The outlander sighed as he turned and stared in to the room beyond, finding the girl‟s<br />
eyes strangely locking with his as her hand continued to draw, not once missing a stroke. He<br />
smiled at her. “We have a lot to do...”<br />
~<br />
- 95 -
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, en-route to the Marshall Islands. April 11 th ,<br />
2043…<br />
Ed Richards pushed his leg against the pedals at his feet, cringing slightly as the<br />
prosthetic responded in complaint by jarring against the stump of his knee. Despite the<br />
discomfort, he kept it on the floor of the Raptor‟s cockpit as long as he could. After a few<br />
seconds, his leg was trembling from the pain, and after attempting to do this for half an hour,<br />
he‟d begun to sweat.<br />
This time, he didn‟t give up the strain, the pain working against him the entire time.<br />
Finally, with a grunt of defeat, his knee gave way, and the pedal came back up, jarring it<br />
against the bottom of the cockpit instrument panel with a sudden and painful thump.<br />
At last, he exhaled slowly, and collapsed back in the cockpit chair.<br />
He almost jumped in his seat as he did so, and found a head sitting over his<br />
shoulder, staring down much in the same way an owl would.<br />
“Jesus!” exclaimed Richards, instinctively jumping away from the face next to him.<br />
“Roberts! What the hell!?”<br />
Commander Jane Roberts smiled wryly as she pulled herself further forward along<br />
the top of the fighter‟s fuselage, where she still lay prone, her head resting on her arms<br />
folded in front of her. Her jumpsuit stripped to the waist and in little more than a sleeveless<br />
tank, Roberts finally rolled over and pulled herself upright, spinning around again to swing<br />
her legs down in to the cockpit next to Richards.<br />
“How long were you sitting there?” Richards exhorted.<br />
“About ten minutes,” she grinned. “My turn to ask a question. What are you doing in<br />
my bird?”<br />
“No, no. What were you doing watching me?”<br />
“To be fair, I wasn‟t... initially,” she countered. “I was doing a pre-flight. We‟re on CAP<br />
in about an hour. Faster I get it done, sooner they move it to the ramp. So... How‟s the leg?”<br />
Richards stopped at that, and then hauled himself out of the cockpit, clambering for<br />
the ladder. “Fine,” he said. “Never been better.”<br />
“Hey, wait,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.<br />
For a change, he didn‟t pull away.<br />
“Jane... Please. I don‟t need you on my back as well as Roderick.”<br />
She didn‟t let go. “No, you don‟t. But your job‟s not going anywhere, so don‟t rush.”<br />
“Yeah,” he forcibly laughed lightly. “So they keep telling me.”<br />
Richards clambered down the ladder of Roberts‟ fighter, and started for the hangar<br />
exit before stopping for a moment, and turning on his good heel. “Jane?”<br />
She stood, planting her boots on the Raptor‟s port side canard. “Yeah, chief?”<br />
“Keep a light on for me,” he said, a smile crossing his features for the first time in as<br />
long as Roberts could recall.<br />
She smiled in return. “Always.”<br />
Roberts continued to watch as Richards walked from the hangar, a few members of<br />
the deck crew standing from their aimless milling around ammunition crates to hastily render<br />
panicked, but nonetheless sharp salutes. Richards returned them, and Roberts smiled as<br />
she considered that it was still given proudly. For whatever Ed Richards would become, he<br />
would always have that respect.<br />
Roberts dropped low from the fighter‟s canard, landing softly with bent knees. She<br />
continued her walk around of the fighter before a heavy shadow fell over her. Lieutenant<br />
Commanders Wilhelm „Reaper‟ Schrader and Jeffrey „Teabag‟ Tomlinson emerged from the<br />
maintenance alcoves of the Rapiers‟ hangar, their helmets and gloves under-arm.<br />
Noticing Roberts, the two pilots saluted lazily, pausing briefly only so she could return<br />
them. Roberts thought back to the group of flight crew only moments before and frowned.<br />
“Something the matter, Commander?” Schrader asked.<br />
“No, Will, no problem,” she lied. “Carry on.”<br />
Roberts watched them walk on, and then leaned against the Raptor‟s intake.<br />
- 96 -
Ed... We need you back...<br />
“Captain Banick?” turned one of the radio operators on Commonwealth‟s bridge. The<br />
officer was Lieutenant Commander Jack Phillips, the former communications officer of the<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>, who was one of many refugee crew members to find themselves assigned to<br />
the Commonwealth upon her commissioning.<br />
Banick and Callaghan looked up from their consoles on the command deck down<br />
across to the radio operators. “Mister Phillips?”<br />
“We just picked up something off the B-net. Report of contacts around fifty miles<br />
south.”<br />
“Hostile?”<br />
“Report originated from the Reverence CIC, sir. Sounds like they‟ve got trouble.”<br />
“Put it through.”<br />
Obligingly, Phillips piped the call through the bridge speakers, and Banick<br />
straightened.<br />
“...peat. This is the UEO Reverence. We are under attack. Requesting... ...port from...<br />
lied vessels in this re... ...damage to all decks. Repeat... this is the UEO Rev...”<br />
Banick closed his eyes. “Mister Phillips, call Admiral Ainsley and Captain Roderick to<br />
the bridge. Sound general quarters and lay in a course for Reverence‟s last reported<br />
position.”<br />
“Aye, aye.”<br />
The Bridge lamps turned blood red as battle klaxons started ringing across the ship,<br />
and Phillips relayed the Captain‟s orders.<br />
“General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands man your battle stations. Admiral<br />
Ainsley, Captain Roderick, report to the bridge.”<br />
Banick was already walking through the CIC‟s doors when the announcement<br />
finished and Callaghan took the Conn. A minute later, and the ship had secured as Ainsley<br />
walked on to the command deck with Roderick – and even Richards – close in tow.<br />
“Admiral on Deck!” Phillips barked, prompting Callaghan to turn at his post.<br />
“Sir, distress call from the Reverence. She‟s reported coming under attack. Number<br />
of hostiles and status unknown. Captain‟s ordered an intercept course and we stand at<br />
quarters.”<br />
“Thank you, Commander, as you were,” Ainsley replied. “That‟s Captain Ford‟s ship...<br />
Have we established contact with them?”<br />
“Negative, Admiral,” Callaghan shook his head. “Communications are patchy at best.<br />
Best guess is that the Alliance started targeting laser relays when they hit her.”<br />
Ainsley walked up the stairs to the command deck and stood at Callaghan‟s side at<br />
the guard rail. “How far away are we?”<br />
“Fifty miles, sir.”<br />
Ainsley started to head toward the CIC. “Send WSKRS ahead and try and plug any<br />
holes in that communications net. We‟ll need to coordinate with Reverence when we get<br />
closer. For the time being, maintain radio silence and launch the sea wing. We‟ll coordinate<br />
with any other local battle groups through SEWACS. Mister Callaghan, you have the Conn, I<br />
will be in the CIC. Richards, Roderick... With me.”<br />
“When it rains it pours,” Roberts said as she pulled on her helmet and keyed her<br />
comms. Not all of the squadron were saddled up, but she could already see that the<br />
squadron‟s First Flight was being hauled on to the hangar drop shafts. The existing combat<br />
air patrol would remain on station – even despite having been in the water for more than four<br />
hours – and would link up with the Rapiers as soon as they hit the water.<br />
“We have a gift for timing, Deadstick,” said the voice of Schrader.<br />
“I‟m not sure Captain Ford will agree with you, Reaper.”<br />
Roberts‟ fighter came to a halt on the number-one drop shaft, and she signalled to<br />
the cat officer below who responded with a swift thumbs-up. “This is Deadstick, board is<br />
green. Lock and load.”<br />
- 97 -
“Rapier 1, drop bays are clear. Launching in ten...”<br />
Roberts nodded, pulling her helmet visor down before grabbing her throttles. Unlike<br />
the <strong>Atlantis</strong>, Commonwealth‟s flight deck was a compact design, and the drop shafts were<br />
angled away from the centreline at nearly 45 degrees. On the bright side, this meant the<br />
Raptor could throttle up while still inside the carrier‟s hull, the clamps holding the fighter‟s<br />
skids to the elevator floor releasing once its turbines registered 100% power. Five seconds<br />
after that, the Raptor would already be doing two hundred knots.<br />
Roberts took a breath as the fighter was lowered from the flight deck, the tungsten<br />
lights of the overhead gantries being replaced by the moonpool‟s own flood lamps below. As<br />
soon as the doors over her head had sealed, the pressure was equalized, and the gaping<br />
pressure doors of the inner hull opened to reveal the black beyond.<br />
“Captain Banick, what do we have?” Ainsley asked, stepping through the folding<br />
glass doors of the carrier CIC.<br />
Banick turned for a moment to register the Admiral‟s entry, and nodded back to the<br />
tactical plot which had now resolved to show the position of Commonwealth and her battle<br />
group‟s positions entering the Marshall Islands. “Still trying to get some kind of information<br />
on what we‟re dealing with, but at this point it looks serious... We‟re talking about more than<br />
fighters.”<br />
“Battle group?”<br />
“Possibly. That‟s the problem... Reverence has the firepower to hold off a few<br />
cruisers, but if they‟ve brought in fighter groups, she‟s in trouble. At flank speed we can meet<br />
up with her in... twenty five minutes.”<br />
“Good enough,” Ainsley nodded. “That‟ll put Roberts and her people there in a little<br />
over ten. She just needs to buy us time. What else do we have in the area?”<br />
Banick shook his head. “It‟s a mixed bag. We‟re the closest, but not by much.<br />
Monarch has signalled us her intentions to sweep around from the west and we should be<br />
able to coordinate to hit them simultaneously. sea<strong>Quest</strong> has got two fighter squadrons enroute,<br />
but they‟re at least thirty minutes out. Enterprise has got a unit of Stormhawks as well,<br />
but again – they‟ll be at least half an hour.”<br />
Ainsley studied the chart quickly, absorbing the locations of the other UEO battle<br />
groups and trying to form a loose order of battle. “Good. We still have Roulette out there?”<br />
“Absolutely,” Banick affirmed. “Roulette and Warseer are our SEWACS on station.<br />
Long range communications are still out of the question, but we can coordinate the other<br />
carriers through them.”<br />
Ainsley turned in surprise. “We?”<br />
Banick nodded. “We‟re the only ship on the grid flying three stars. That gives you the<br />
flag, sir. Admiral Carpenter‟s aboard the battlecruiser Repulse in company with the Monarch.<br />
He‟s offered whatever assistance he can, and sends his compliments.”<br />
Ainsley smiled. “Good to know. Carpenter‟s probably the best battleline commander<br />
the NSC has.”<br />
Roderick regarded Ainsley cautiously. “‟Battleline‟, sir?”<br />
He nodded, his smile becoming slightly more wry. “James is from the old-school<br />
navy,” Ainsley explained. “If he had his way, we‟d still be using battleships. He‟s a good man.<br />
It‟ll be nice to have the NSC on-side for once.”<br />
A few snickers went up from around the CIC, prompting Ainsley to stare down the<br />
officers in question with fair warning before turning back to Banick. “Send to the other<br />
carriers: I‟m assuming command and forming a strike group until this is resolved, and<br />
instruct them to maintain radio silence with the Reverence. Ford will already have to know<br />
we‟re in the area, so he doesn‟t need to be told at the risk of losing our position and number.<br />
We have the advantage, and I want to keep it. Captain Roderick, I‟m putting you in charge of<br />
fleet fighter operations. You can have anything you need – just make sure Roberts can keep<br />
the enemy fighters busy for long enough for us to engage in full.”<br />
Roderick nodded without further word, and led Richards around to flight operations.<br />
- 98 -
“How long will it take to recall the rest of the battle group?” Ainsley asked of the<br />
Commonwealth‟s other supporting ships. Banick grimaced as he checked the board again.<br />
“They‟re at least an hour out, sir.”<br />
Ainsley winced. “This will be over by the time we link up with them. We‟ll need to<br />
make do with what we have.”<br />
“Fighter groups Sword and Halo - this is Roulette. Be advised: Lamp shade. Orders<br />
from actual are in. We‟re coordinating directly with local assets and reinforcements from<br />
Hammerhead are inbound. Approach headings have been forwarded.”<br />
Roberts obliged, pushing her throttles up to maximum power. The fighter shuddered<br />
slightly in protest as the needle gauges climbed, and soon the fighter has passed three<br />
hundred and fifty knots. Checking her bearing, she frowned. The use of the term „Lamp<br />
Shade‟ meant that nothing transmitted could use regular callsigns for fears of enemy<br />
interception. „Sword‟ and „Halo‟ she knew referred to Rapiers and Dark Angels respectively,<br />
while „Hammerhead‟ was fleet command‟s callsign for the sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>. She squawked<br />
back. “This is Sword-One, understood. What‟s the situation?”<br />
“Priest battlegroup is under attack by enemy forces, bullseye on waypoint bravo.<br />
Status is unknown. You will sanitize the local area of enemy fighters until Kingpin can<br />
coordinate a counter-strike. All our orders will be coming from Irish, do you understand?”<br />
Roberts smiled, although given the report, it felt like a forced gesture. “Five by five,<br />
Roulette. Sword and Halo, did you copy that?”<br />
“Affirmative, Sword-One,” Roberts heard, recognising Commander Coyle‟s voice.<br />
“Halo will follow your lead.”<br />
Commonwealth powered through the deep, flanked by Tripoli and Fall River, the trio<br />
of subs were making their top speeds of around 160 knots without even breaking a sweat. At<br />
this speed, the old adage of running deep and silent was nothing more than a whimsical<br />
luxury that couldn‟t be afforded. The only saving grace that any of them had was the sonarshadowing<br />
islands of the Marshalls themselves to mask their approach. This worked both<br />
ways, of course, and it would fall to the two SEWACS control subs to tell the carrier and her<br />
escorts what lay in wait ahead.<br />
Ainsley continued to draw out waypoints for the fleet on the CIC chart table, all the<br />
while following in real time the advance of the Monarch and sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s bombers from the<br />
west. While the Rapiers and Dark Angels would arrive in less than five minutes, it fell to him<br />
to make Monarch‟s arrival time with Commonwealth‟s in such a way that what was presently<br />
a poor and rushed position could be quickly reversed.<br />
“CIC to the Bridge, reduce speed to one five zero and track on course one-sevenfive.”<br />
Ainsley ordered through his headset as he started walking around the charts.<br />
„One five zero on track one-seven-five, aye.”<br />
“Relay that to Tripoli and Fall River,” added Ainsley to the CIC staff.<br />
“Admiral, we‟ve just been relayed sonar data from the Monarch‟s SEWACS. I‟m<br />
feeding it through our sensor track now.”<br />
“Thank you, Mister Garrett,” replied Ainsley as he looked down at the updating<br />
charts. He exhaled slowly, and his stomach sank.<br />
“Well, that‟s a problem,” said Banick simply.<br />
Ainsley nodded. “Son a bitch... Relay this to Roulette and give our pilots a heads up.<br />
This won‟t be pretty.”<br />
Rapier One rolled around the embankment leading in to the southern edge of the<br />
Marshall Islands shelf, the fighter keeping low to the sea floor to weave between the rocks,<br />
and evading whatever sonars may have been searching for it.<br />
With the embankment fast running in to the plain they‟d lose their cover sooner,<br />
rather than later as Roberts had hoped, but it was the best she could do.<br />
“Reaper, watch that turn,” she said as she nearly overcompensated in clearing the<br />
island shelf.<br />
- 99 -
Her fighter‟s sensors chirped as they began to pick up the Reverence and her<br />
assailants less than ten miles away. No sooner had that happened, the radio squawked in<br />
her ear again. “Sword, Halo – heads up. Patching through tactical data from actual, now.<br />
You‟re not going to like this. It‟s a tally-ho on two Macronesian Saracen class fleet carriers<br />
and four Octavian class heavy cruisers. Returns on approximately four squadrons of SA-33<br />
Broadsword heavy fighters. Possible enemy stealth fighter activity – be on your toes.”<br />
Roberts cursed. “Shit. Roulette: Sword - what‟s the status of the Reverence?”<br />
“Intact, but not in good shape. She‟s trying to pull back, but she‟s trapped between<br />
those cruisers. Her fighters are trying to cover her withdrawal, and they‟re paying for it.<br />
Suggest you get in their fast, Deadstick. Possible contacts another fifteen miles out...<br />
unconfirmed at this stage, but definitely not friendly.”<br />
Roberts nodded, and cracked her right hand as she eased her grip on the flight stick,<br />
her knuckles popping after the tension with which she‟d held it for so long. Snapping the<br />
fighter up, she powered up the Raptor‟s ECM suite and entered the abyssal plain. “Let‟s do<br />
this quickly then. Roulette, get a hold of Irish and find out if we have permission to engage.”<br />
Roderick was frustrated by the need to go through the SEWACS every time an order<br />
had to be issued. The scale of the force that was coming down on the UEO Reverence, just<br />
a few miles away, was beyond what anyone in the CIC had expected. Encounters against<br />
the Alliance‟s brand-new Saracen class carriers had been rare, and what little they knew of<br />
them had them at least on par with the older Honorious class, and possibly even<br />
approaching the capabilities of the UEO‟s own Reverence class ships – such as the<br />
Commonwealth, Monarch and the Reverence herself – that now found herself facing not<br />
one, but two of the new Alliance flagships.<br />
“Irish, this is Roulette. Sword-One is requesting permission to engage,” Roderick‟s<br />
headset blared.<br />
She cringed slightly and turned down the volume before checking her charts.<br />
Richards was only a few feet away, watching patiently, and listening to every word that came<br />
through the SEWACS comms. “Standby, Roulette,” she ordered.<br />
“Richards... Thoughts?”<br />
He shook his head, staring at the chart and the numbers of Broadswords that lay<br />
ahead of barely twenty-one Raptor class subfighters: the Rapiers, running at full number,<br />
accompanied by the Dark Angels who were still three down after the previous day‟s<br />
engagement. “No choice,” he concluded. “The longer she waits, the harder it will be. You<br />
know that.”<br />
Roderick knew where Richards‟ hesitation lay, but issued the order anyway.<br />
“Roulette, Irish – cleared to engage.”<br />
The radio chatter that followed had to be silenced before it threatened to drown out<br />
any semblance of order in the already-crowded CIC, and Commander Richards rubbed a<br />
hand over his bristled chin, his eyes betraying concern.<br />
“You alright?” she asked.<br />
“No,” he confessed. “I‟m really not.”<br />
She put a hand on his shoulder, and whispered under her breath. “It‟s not easy, is it?”<br />
“I just can‟t stop thinking about Ryukyu,” he shook his head. “Now I know how Gavin<br />
felt.”<br />
“Hey,” she scolded. “That was then. This is now. Let‟s focus, shall we?”<br />
“Yeah, I am. That‟s the problem. If Jane‟s looking at Shadowfires, then this is going<br />
to be costly.”<br />
Roderick‟s jaw visibly tensed at that, and Ainsley caught it out the corner of his eye.<br />
“Captain Banick... Range?”<br />
Banick looked down from his data pad at his instruments. “Eighteen miles.”<br />
Ainsley stopped, and thought for a moment before looking up at the weapons station.<br />
“Can we get a reliable torpedo guidance lock at this range?”<br />
“Not wirelessly, sir, no.”<br />
“But Roulette could, couldn‟t they?”<br />
- 100 -
The weapons station commander nodded. “Aye, sir. It wouldn‟t be as accurate as our<br />
own systems just because of integration, but we‟d be in a ballpark.”<br />
“Margin of error?”<br />
“Too hard to say. Close enough to rattle them.”<br />
Ainsley smiled. “Good enough. Captain Roderick, tell Roberts to keep her distance –<br />
let her throttle back and bring it in slowly. Keep her out of Reverence‟s engagement zone for<br />
two minutes.”<br />
Roderick nodded. “Yessir.”<br />
Ainsley looked at the board. “Weapons – load Mark 98‟s in batteries one and two and<br />
rout targeting information from SEWACS. No charge on the warheads, electromagnetic<br />
detonation only.”<br />
“Aye. EM-Charge only. Target?”<br />
“Alliance fighter groups. Nothing specific.”<br />
Banick frowned, and leaned over to whisper in Ainsley‟s ear. “Admiral... what are you<br />
doing?”<br />
“Little trick you reminded me of, Captain. Tactical?”<br />
“Batteries loaded, sir.”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “Batteries one and two, all tubes: Fire.”<br />
Commonwealth‟s bow momentarily erupted in fire as a dozen torpedoes rippled in to<br />
the sea, the howling banshee-screams echoing as they accelerated away from the cruiser,<br />
and then disappeared in to the black.<br />
“Admiral, SEWACS reports fighter intercept in one minute and forty seconds,”<br />
Roderick reported.<br />
“Torpedo impact?” Ainsley countered.<br />
Weapons turned. “One minute, twenty six.”<br />
“That‟s cutting it fine,” Richards muttered to himself.<br />
Roderick smiled. “He knows what he‟s doing.”<br />
“Inbound: friendly torpedoes from bearing zero-two-nine, range ten miles at six-zerozero<br />
knots,” Roulette reported.<br />
Roberts checked her displays and felt her heart rate jump, a dozen markers, moving<br />
so fast that there was nothing the Raptors could do to avoid them... if they had been the<br />
targets, of course. Roberts couldn‟t see the missiles through the black as they shot by, but<br />
she heard their passage – the shriek of their rocket engines a telling hallmark. Her sonar<br />
pinged away rapidly with each torpedo return. Once the torpedoes had passed her<br />
formation, she pressed her throttles up again.<br />
“All fighters, this is Piper. Form up by flights and take out their stealth fighters as<br />
soon as you‟ve reached the engagement zone.”<br />
Roberts frowned. It was Richards‟ voice. “Negative, Piper. No contact with stealth<br />
fighters at this time.”<br />
“Just do it, Sword-Leader.”<br />
She gritted her teeth as the fighter banked around, and she caught the first flashes of<br />
the subfighter battle ahead of her. Below, a dark, receding shadow silently slipped away in to<br />
the deep. It was the Reverence.<br />
Roulette‟s voice followed a few moments later. “Torpedo impact in five... four...<br />
three... two... one...”<br />
To Roberts, it appeared as though nothing had happened as the Commonwealth‟s<br />
torpedoes rapidly disappeared from her sensors one at a time. A second later, and two<br />
dozen other contacts appeared – all of them hostile. The IFF return identified them as SA-<br />
35s... Shadowfire stealth fighters.<br />
“Impact,” reported the SEWACS calmly. “Killzone is clear. Sword and Halo flights,<br />
you are cleared to engage.”<br />
Roberts grinned broadly beneath her mask as she realised what Commonwealth had<br />
just done. She started to laugh. “Understood, Sword – follow my lead. Halo – follow Bouncer<br />
and try and get those Broadswords off the Reverence. Bring the rain!”<br />
- 101 -
Richards nodded as he watched the torpedoes disappear, only to be replaced by<br />
multiple enemy subfighters on the tactical display. Most submarine systems were shielded<br />
from EM radiation, but the active-camo systems of the Alliance fighters had no such<br />
protection, and probably never would simply because of their complexity. The torpedoes<br />
may not have exploded, but the detonation of their electrostatic warheads alone had<br />
knocked out every active camouflage and sonar-decoy system within a two mile radius:<br />
including every one of the Macronesian stealth fighters.<br />
He looked at Ainsley in quiet awe, but the Admiral had already set about the task of<br />
managing the rest of the fleet. It now fell to the skill of the UEO pilots to finish their job, and<br />
Commonwealth could do little to change whatever outcome that might be.<br />
“First priority is the Reverence,” Banick ordered. “Load all batteries with intercept<br />
rounds and cover her withdrawal. Cycle pulse cannons to full power and begin targeting their<br />
fighters.”<br />
“Aye, Captain.”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “Good. Communications, get me a line to Captain Ford.”<br />
The CIC waited pensively for a moment as the radiomen went about the order. It took<br />
agonizingly long seconds to do it, as jamming and damage to their sister ship had made it<br />
anything but a simple task.<br />
Banick and Ainsley looked at the radio operator nervously, and he offered an<br />
encouraging smile as he re-routed the line first through the Commonwealth‟s orbiting<br />
WSKRS probes, and then relayed it by laser through the flanking Fall River. Finally, he gave<br />
a thumbs-up as static momentarily filled Ainsley‟s headset. The Admiral nodded his approval<br />
to the radioman, and pulled the set on properly.<br />
“Reverence-actual this is Commonwealth, what‟s your status?”<br />
“...Commonwealth, this is Reverence-actual.” Ainsley breathed a sigh of relief as he<br />
recognised Captain Jonathan Ford‟s voice. A quiet applause rose in the CIC for a moment<br />
before Ainsley held up a silencing finger.<br />
“Enemy jamming has out open comms scrambled, Commonwealth. Is this line<br />
secure?” asked Ford.<br />
“It is,” Ainsley confirmed. “This is Admiral Ainsley, I‟ve assumed command of local<br />
forces until we get you out of this. Just keep that part quiet for the time being... I‟d prefer the<br />
Alliance not know too much about what we‟ve got for them.”<br />
“Understood, sir. Seems kind of appropriate that you‟d be the one to pull us out of<br />
this one. Good to have you back.”<br />
Ainsley smiled. “We‟ll save that for later, Captain. What‟s your situation?”<br />
“Hull breaches across all lower decks, Admiral. Hydro-pressure seals on the sea<br />
doors have flight operations closed. We can‟t launch or receive fighters at this time.<br />
Weapons stocks are at fifteen percent. We‟ve lost two engines, and can‟t make much better<br />
than four-zero knots. We‟ve sustained a ten degree list to starboard and can‟t equalize<br />
without risking ballast control.”<br />
Ainsley grimaced. He hadn‟t expected it to be that bad, and had been hoping<br />
Reverence might still be able to lend support. For the time being, that left the<br />
Commonwealth on her own. Banick‟s jaw tensed at this news.<br />
“Understood, Captain. Continue your withdrawal... VF-115 is covering you. SEWACS<br />
will update you on any changes. Be advised that all open traffic is lamp shaded.”<br />
“Will do, Admiral. Give them hell for us.”<br />
“My word on it, Captain. Commonwealth: out.”<br />
Ainsley killed the link and returned quickly to the plot, watching as the two welldefined<br />
lines of subfighters, both Alliance and UEO, began to dissolve in to a swirling,<br />
unpredictable melee. He knew merely from the approving nod that Richards gave as he<br />
surveyed it that the initial news was good, and put his attention elsewhere.<br />
“Torpedoes in the water!” bellowed one of the side stations. “Bearing zero nine zero!<br />
Range, four miles!”<br />
Ainsley ignored it. That was Banick‟s job, and he did it well enough.<br />
“Time to impact?”<br />
- 102 -
“Twenty seconds!”<br />
“Standby intercepts,” Banick replied coolly.<br />
Ten torpedoes howled through the deep, rapidly closing with the UEO battlecruiser. It<br />
was a futile gesture, with Commonwealth being able to track many times that number in<br />
short order and dispatch them without much further action.<br />
“Independent tracking, Captain,” Ainsley said simply. “Track IFFs and set systems to<br />
auto-engagement. We don‟t have the time to do this by numbers.”<br />
The tactical officer looked at Banick for a moment, the unspoken question hanging<br />
for a bare split second before the Captain nodded his consent. “Do it.”<br />
Over the next few seconds, Commonwealth‟s massive bank of computer AIs<br />
calculated the positions of every non-friendly target for ten miles in every direction. A second<br />
after that, and her batteries opened fire with a level of measured firepower and precision that<br />
would have been all but impossible for her human crew. The ship‟s AI calculated intercept<br />
vectors, speeds, evasion probabilities and flight times, cataloguing all of them in real time as<br />
it chose how best to distribute the battlecruiser‟s considerable firepower.<br />
Her batteries fired without abandon, targeting each individual torpedo and those<br />
headed toward her badly outgunned sister ship that now slipped quietly through to<br />
Commonwealth‟s rear guard.<br />
The Alliance by now had reacted to the cruiser‟s arrival on the perimeter of the<br />
engagement, and began moving to engage. Ainsley watched the massive flagships with<br />
growing anticipation and curiosity. IFF returns on the board flagged the two Saracen class<br />
carriers Alfred Deakin and Robert Menzies, which had been encountered only three times by<br />
the UEO fleet over the course of the previous six months, and none of those occasions had<br />
resulted in a battle such as this.<br />
Indeed, the Alliance‟s record of battle against the UEO‟s largest class of battlecruiser<br />
was not a gleaming account, yet tellingly as a change in tide, Deakin and Menzies dutifully<br />
answered Commonwealth‟s challenge as they left their pincer holding positions that had so<br />
tormented Reverence, and advanced to meet their new adversary. Like cats that had been<br />
met with an invasion of their territory, the rumble of their engines coming to power was<br />
audible through the hydrophones of Commonwealth‟s sonar operators. As the range<br />
between them closed, the Saracens opened fire.<br />
Roberts snapped her fighter up on to its wings as she tore down the long broadside<br />
of the retreating Reverence. The wounded carrier listing heavily to starboard, she led her<br />
trailing assailant straight through Commonwealth‟s defence screen without so much as a<br />
thought for the torrents of point defence fire that lit up the sea around her.<br />
The Alliance Shadowfire stealth fighter and its wingman ducked and weaved through<br />
Robert‟s line, trying to draw a bead that could finish the UEO Raptor – a target that would<br />
never easily present itself.<br />
A few hundred yards behind them, Rapier Two closed the distance, his HUD tracking<br />
the camouflage-deprived fighters with an ease that Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm<br />
Schrader could only dream of every other day in his life. His finger eased over the trigger as<br />
the Shadowfire neared the centre of the reticule, and a split second before it hit the ring,<br />
squeezed down hard.<br />
The twin Hades guns spun up, rattling the cockpit as they spewed dozens of 25millimetre<br />
explosive slugs through the ocean to rip down the Macronesian fighter and rend it<br />
wing from wing. Skilfully, he rolled through his own attack and peeled around the ailing<br />
enemy subfighter, screaming past at better than two hundred knots. With his wingman gone,<br />
decimated as he was pulled in to the huge cavitational wake of his killer, the leading fighter<br />
finally decided it was time to admit defeat.<br />
Schrader‟s head seemed to snap on its shoulders as he watched the fighter break off<br />
its pursuit of Roberts and disappear in to the fog. “Run, asshole,” Schrader muttered to<br />
himself. “Rapier leader, scratch one bandit. His friend‟s bugged out and your six is clear.”<br />
“Understood, two, thanks for the save,”<br />
- 103 -
Both pilots were interrupted by the sharp call of their SEWACS. Roulette was almost<br />
panicked in his calling of the battle‟s shots, and Roberts quietly wished for the collected and<br />
impossibly calm presence of the more-familiar Warseer.<br />
“Rapiers, Dark Angels – those carriers have our number and are closing fast!<br />
Estimate you‟ve got three minutes before they start hitting Commonwealth. Wrap this up<br />
fast, because we‟re in for it.”<br />
Roberts toggled her sonar to switch over to a battlefield view. She grimaced as she<br />
saw what Roulette had been referring to. Two Saracen class carriers, accompanied by a<br />
squadron of Octavian heavy cruisers were about to drive straight down Commonwealth‟s<br />
throat, and more to the point, they had in tow over forty supporting subfighters. Roberts had<br />
not seen an engagement of this scope in over twelve months.<br />
“Rapiers two and three,” she ordered. “Form up at my three and nine, five hundred<br />
yards dispersion. Track on my six.”<br />
“Five by five.”<br />
Roberts rolled around wide again to come back down on the Commonwealth‟s<br />
heading. Five subfighters were breaking in and out of the sea floor‟s jutting rockscape,<br />
making it all but impossible for the larger carrier to get a clean shot. Her own sonars suffered<br />
the same problem, being unable to attain a torpedo shooting solution through the rocky<br />
outcroppings of the island shelf. She swore to herself and threw the throttles forward. “Five<br />
bandits, six O‟clock low. Padlocked, no joy on guidance. Guns, guns, guns.”<br />
“This is four. I‟ve got your twenty, lead. Heads up on friendly intercept at zero-fourfive.”<br />
Roberts didn‟t blink as she tracked the five enemy fighters through their approach on<br />
Commonwealth. At the rate that the leader‟s wingmen were falling back, she knew the UEO<br />
fighters had been spotted and would soon find themselves flanked by all four of the leader‟s<br />
wingmen. That wasn‟t her concern. Somewhere ahead of her, Samuel Mason and his own<br />
flight of fighters were coming in hard, and now she simply had to stay out of their way.<br />
“One minute thirty!” Roulette reminded her sternly.<br />
“Two and three, tag the stragglers, ignore the leader,” Roberts barked over Roulette‟s<br />
impatience. “Give them something to think about.”<br />
Roberts dove to the side of the island shelf, her fighter nearly skipping along its<br />
embankment as her engines kicked up two massive plumes of sand in her wake. The first of<br />
the Alliance fighters was far too slow in countering, and she blew it to pieces just half a<br />
second later as it filled her gunsights. “Splash one.”<br />
Her two wingmen, Rapiers Two and Three, made their own presence felt in similar<br />
fashion. Given time by their leader‟s demise, two of the other fighters managed to evade the<br />
initial barrage laid down by their assailants, only to pull straight in to the engagement zone of<br />
the shadowing UEO battlecruiser.<br />
Commonwealth punished them as two streaks of laser fire came out of the dark and<br />
obliterated the Alliance fighters in a heartbeat. Only two remained, and having seen what<br />
awaited them at the hands of the UEO flagship, were now making every possible effort to<br />
stay in the cover of the reef. Two more laser shots ripped up coral and rock in their wake,<br />
and Roberts pulled back on her throttles to give the carrier its space.<br />
“Fuck. Commonwealth, check your fire! Friendlies!”<br />
The moment that it had taken Roberts‟ fighter to decelerate had given the two<br />
Alliance fighters all the room they needed. In the cover of the reef, the UEO Raptor‟s speed<br />
meant nothing, and the Macronesians knew it.<br />
Mason‟s Raptor shot past so quickly that Roberts didn‟t even have time to register its<br />
livery, but the British pilot never fired.<br />
Instead, two torpedoes – those of his wingmen – followed him through the<br />
embankment - their guidance systems plugged in to his own targeting systems as he ran<br />
over the reef and illuminated both of the Alliance subfighters with a single sonar buoy that<br />
was dumped from his fighter‟s tail.<br />
- 104 -
Roberts smiled as she watched the two torpedoes disappear in to the reef, slamming<br />
both enemy fighters in to the seafloor like angry fists that reduced them to nothing more than<br />
shrapnel.<br />
“Rapier four here. Scratch two bandits. Commonwealth your approach is clear.”<br />
“Thank Christ for that,” Roberts muttered. “Much longer and I thought they‟d start<br />
ignoring IFF. Nice job, four. We owe you.”<br />
“Rapiers – Roulette: enemy carriers are in the engagement zone. Be advised...<br />
Commonwealth‟s killzone is open. Marine space in sectors three, five and seven is now<br />
closed. It‟s all theirs now. Keep their perimeter clear – fire at will.”<br />
Commonwealth was now less than three thousand yards from the two Alliance<br />
carriers – point blank range. Her prow jutting in the endless deep, the two Macronesian<br />
submarines slowly diverged, never once pulling their bows off of Commonwealth‟s position.<br />
Flanking them, four Octavian heavy cruisers slowly heaved-to, their torpedo batteries coming<br />
to bear as subduction rifles locked on to each and every one of the battlecruiser‟s main<br />
systems.<br />
“The cruisers are locking on, Captain,” the tactical operator reported. “Menzies is<br />
launching strike craft.”<br />
Banick nodded. “Do we have shooting solutions on the flagships?”<br />
“Guidance lock achieved on all tubes, Captain. Batteries one through sixteen locked<br />
and flooded.”<br />
Banick got a curt glance from Ainsley, and he in turn nodded to the lieutenant. “All<br />
batteries - suppression fire. Independent fire at will.”<br />
Commonwealth‟s bow rumbled and screamed as her sixteen batteries put nearly one<br />
hundred heavy plasma torpedoes in to the sea. At a range of barely three thousand yards,<br />
their flight time would be a mere twelve seconds. Any subfighter that might have been<br />
immediately in her path would have been obliterated by the mere ignition of so many rocket<br />
engines, and nothing could long stand against the concentrated firepower of a UEO<br />
Battlecruiser.<br />
Banick watched in morbid curiosity as the Alliance carrier continued to sit there,<br />
unmoved in the face of what was so rapidly headed her way. In three years of war, Banick<br />
had never seen such suicidal intention, and felt that he was now seeing the impossible.<br />
Ainsley continued to stare at the charts, uninterested in that which was unfolding<br />
before the Captain‟s eyes, and Banick baulked as he saw the Alliance carrier‟s response.<br />
Rippling intercepts, the Menzies cut down the UEO weapons like a scythe. Laser fire from<br />
the carrier‟s wings ripped down the most isolated weapons while concentrated torpedo<br />
detonations ensured that no more than a dozen weapons made it inside the carrier‟s<br />
defensive perimeter. Soon, they too were cut down to barely a handful of weapons which<br />
finally impacted – one, two, then three – with the Macronesian ship‟s hull, bathing it in fire.<br />
When the chaos had cleared, Menzies continued to stare down the Commonwealth,<br />
inching even further forward as her sea wing made redoubled and to Banick‟s eyes<br />
seemingly impossible efforts to keep the UEO sea wing at bay. Two of the fleet‟s best fighter<br />
squadrons could do nothing but stay out of the killzone, watching as the two titans began a<br />
lethal and unexpected duel.<br />
“I did not expect that,” Banick whispered to himself in awe. The Captain watched<br />
helplessly as the massive Saracen class carrier replied – putting dozens of weapons in to<br />
the water that were shortly thereafter joined by even more from her accompanying escorts.<br />
First Deakin, then the Octavians – one by one.<br />
“Torpedoes in the water. Thirty... no... forty- fifty rounds! Impact in ten seconds!”<br />
Banick‟s eyes were wide as he pointed at the screens and screamed. “All hands<br />
brace for impact! Relay to Fall River and Tripoli - all intercept batteries – fire at will!”<br />
As Commonwealth‟s intercept batteries fired, Ainsley continued to say nothing as he<br />
slowly turned to communications. What could be done was being done, and nothing he said<br />
could change the short-term outcome. “How long until Monarch arrives?”<br />
“Three minutes out!”<br />
- 105 -
“Five seconds to impact!”<br />
...The Alliance attack was heavy and sustained. In the last few seconds it took the<br />
enemy missiles to reach his carrier, Banick thought back to the battered form of the<br />
Reverence herself and quietly cursed his position. One by one, his intercepts struck down<br />
the alliance torpedoes – but there simply hadn‟t been enough time. The first round slammed<br />
in to Reverence‟s keel hard, ripping apart the bioskin and buckling support frames. The<br />
second exploded forward of the ship‟s missile hatches, opening the port side corridors on Bdeck<br />
to the sea. The section was lost instantly as pressure doors came down, but not before<br />
a third and fourth torpedo blew apart the adjacent bulkhead – taking with it the port side<br />
quarter torpedo battery.<br />
The bridge rocked violently as alarms blared in every quarter. The deck continued to<br />
rumble under Banick‟s feet as the ship started to list, and he pointed an accusing finger at<br />
the engineering master status consoles. “Seal off those sections! Equalize ballast tanks<br />
starboard!”<br />
“Already done, sir,” the engineer confirmed, shaking his head as the battlecruiser<br />
rippled off another salvo of torpedoes in reply. “We can‟t do this for long, Admiral. They‟re<br />
targeting main and secondary systems. We just lost fire control for batteries one through four<br />
along with main ballast control on tanks five and six port side. We need to pull back.”<br />
“Agreed,” Ainsley conceded calmly. “All engines back one third, but keep our bows<br />
on them. Rotate all batteries to intercept rounds and lay down a suppression barrage.”<br />
Banick walked to Ainsley‟s station next to the main plot and leaned over to whisper,<br />
although it came out as a growl. “Admiral, respectfully, we are outgunned and well inside a<br />
preferred firing posture. That carrier can hold us off without any help from those cruisers. We<br />
should pull back in full and regroup with the Monarch.”<br />
To both Ainsley and Banick‟s surprise, it was Richards that interjected, shaking his<br />
head from flight operations. “Captain, the Admiral is correct. I‟m betting Captain Ford nearly<br />
did the exact same thing. But their cruisers haven‟t moved.”<br />
“Mister Richards, I assume you have a point.”<br />
The Wing Commander did not disappoint. “Those Octavians haven‟t moved, sir. If we<br />
give them a blind quarter by withdrawing, they‟ll move forward and overwhelm us. We can<br />
take a few torpedoes, but we won‟t survive a sustained assault from thirty-two heavy<br />
subduction rifles at close range. The only reason they haven‟t done so already is that they<br />
know if they try to get any closer, we‟ll bury them in ordnance before they can even get<br />
intercept locks. They lose every advantage by closing now, and if they split up we‟ll pick<br />
them off.”<br />
Ainsley smiled inwardly, nodding all the while. “Your wing commander is entirely<br />
correct, Captain. We‟ll hold until Carpenter can form on our line.” Ainsley looked over his<br />
shoulder at Richards once again “How far away are the Enterprise bombers?” he called.<br />
“Five minutes, Admiral. They‟re coming in hard – I‟ve got the Dark Angels covering<br />
their ingress.”<br />
Lurking not far from Commonwealth, a two-ship formation silently slipped between<br />
the Alliance fleet pickets by way of an Island strait, all but unseen by watchful eyes of the<br />
Macronesian task force that was now so focused on the Commonwealth and her fighters.<br />
Moving as if they were giant steel blades through the deep, the battlecruisers NSC Repulse<br />
and UEO Monarch – another sister of the Commonwealth and Reverence - were truly<br />
regents of war.<br />
Admiral Sir James Carpenter had watched the entire painful exchange between the<br />
Commonwealth and the two Saracens intently, and knew things would not end well for the<br />
UEO flagship unless they arrived soon. His own command, a Renown class battlecruiser,<br />
was perhaps more fitting of the title when compared to its UEO cousins, having completely<br />
eschewed a flight deck in favour of what was the heaviest payload of torpedo armaments for<br />
any ship in her weight class.<br />
Carpenter hadn‟t hesitated when he deferred to the authority of Mark Ainsley. Indeed,<br />
many other officers in the NSC fleet would have baulked at the decision given the UEO<br />
- 106 -
commander‟s past, but the fact remained that Carpenter and Ainsley had history – the sort<br />
that only a decade of joint service could truly cement, even if it had been filled with its ups<br />
and downs.<br />
The battlenet feed transmitted to the Repulse from Commonwealth‟s CIC had been a<br />
general direction with nothing in particular standing out as a meaningful order, but this was<br />
what Ainsley had been counting on - he knew how Carpenter thought, and Carpenter in turn<br />
was a man who knew how to read Ainsley‟s frequently unexplained intentions. Repulse and<br />
Monarch had been travelling a course westward towards Kapen Atoll and the Fire Corals.<br />
With the engagement being conducted in an open basin just south of that position, the<br />
simplest course of action would have been to continue on that course to make a rendezvous.<br />
This however had not been the order. Carpenter looked down at the sheet of paper in<br />
his hand once again and re-read the Commonwealth‟s message. Aside from a general<br />
situation report and status detailing the strength of local fighter groups, there had been a<br />
single word: “Jemo.”<br />
And so Carpenter had the Repulse committed to a stretch of water known as Ratak<br />
Ridge – a blind sea wall some fifty five miles long between Kapen Atoll and the tiny island of<br />
Jemo through which no sonar could penetrate, taking them south, and away from the<br />
battlefield leaving not a single trace of a clue for the Macronesian Alliance that they were<br />
even in the area. The entire supposition depended on Commonwealth‟s ability to hold<br />
against a superior force for line longer than Ainsley would have ideally wanted, but<br />
Carpenter knew the man‟s style, and couldn‟t mistake the instruction for anything else.<br />
Admiral Mark Ainsley didn‟t simply want to save the Reverence, he wanted to utterly<br />
crush those who had tried to sink it in the first place, and if that was the way he wanted to<br />
play it, then James Carpenter was not about to argue the point – having languished under<br />
other superiors who seemed content with simply holding the line, and defending what<br />
territories the UEO had left. In his opinion, Ainsley was the sort of officer who could win the<br />
war, and no one seemed interested.<br />
“Admiral, we‟re coming to the end of the ridge. We‟re going to need to dive if we‟re to<br />
stay below it, sir,” said the big, Welsh brogue of Repulse‟s Captain, George Bassett.<br />
“Well then, I‟d say Ainsley‟s been waiting long enough. Break radio silence and send<br />
to Monarch – deploy all fighters and begin intercept. Helm, prepare for incoming change of<br />
course, hard starboard on heading three-one-zero.”<br />
“Aye. Course on three-one-zero. Monarch is answering,” the OOD confirmed, a hand<br />
to his ear as he listened to the orders between the two warships.<br />
Carpenter nodded his approval as he felt the deck shift slightly as the bulk of his<br />
battlecruiser began to sweep around the ridgeline south of Jemo‟s southern-most point. He<br />
gripped the overhead railing above the command pulpit as he stepped up to the tactical<br />
officers. “Open all outer doors. As soon as you have contacts, I want shooting solutions on<br />
all batteries forward.”<br />
“Aye aye. All tubes flooded and outer doors are open.<br />
Carpenter leaned back again as the two cruiser rose from the depths to bring their<br />
bulks in to plain and clear view of the Alliance fleet. The sight was as awesome as it was<br />
intimidating as the two ships – each weighing over fifty thousand tonnes – presented their<br />
full batteries at the flanks of the Macronesian line just three short miles away.<br />
“Contacts, designated masters one through five. Two Saracen class fleet carriers and<br />
four Octavian battlecruisers – range, three point two miles and closing. We have shooting<br />
solutions.”<br />
“How long until guidance lock?”<br />
“Thirty seconds!”<br />
Ainsley closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as the two Battlecruisers<br />
appeared as a blip on the battle plot, barely four miles from Commonwealth‟s port side flank.<br />
The deck rocked under his feet again as a third wave of torpedoes slammed in to the<br />
battlecruiser‟s hull, the damage being limited by the bulkheads that had already been closed<br />
- 107 -
from previous strikes. It didn‟t prevent the scene from the engineering auxiliary stations<br />
being chaos, but Banick‟s grim composure also assured him that it still wasn‟t crippling.<br />
To Commonwealth‟s rear, the Reverence had finally completed her long turn and<br />
was forming up not far from the flagship‟s hind quarter. With this action, and the sudden and<br />
unexpected arrival of the Monarch and Repulse to their south-east, the Alliance fleet slowly<br />
pulled back, opening the range and giving the UEO fleet a much-needed breath.<br />
Ainsley turned sharply. “Signal the fleet,” he ordered firmly. “Target those heavy<br />
cruisers and-“<br />
“Admiral!” shouted the sonar operator, their face a contortion of apology and shock.<br />
“We have incoming! Forty-five torpedoes, range seven miles and closing from heading threefour-zero!”<br />
“Track!” the Admiral barked.<br />
“Possible contacts at nine miles, same heading! Designated masters six, seven, eight<br />
and nine!”<br />
“Four contacts,” mused Banick with a frown. “ID or IFF?”<br />
“Still confirming!”<br />
“Fire intercepts,” the Captain ordered. “Admiral?”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “We‟ll deal with them when we know more. Signal the fleet to target<br />
those Octavians, time-on-target. We aren‟t going to get a shot at the carriers while they are<br />
still there. Permission is granted to fire at will.”<br />
...Jane Roberts watched in awe as she passed under the bows of the<br />
Commonwealth, its batteries opening up once again with the Reverence just sixty meters on<br />
her starboard side. Even battered as she was, the ship made a good account of herself as<br />
she too added a weight better than sixty weapons to the barrage.<br />
The Alliance fleet was pinned, and had nowhere to go but back, having little hope of<br />
stopping so many incoming torpedoes from two fronts. Commonwealth and Reverence‟s<br />
weapons broke straight through the intercept fire offered by the cruisers, and while many<br />
were cut down before they had even started their final approach, the combined fire of both<br />
battlecruisers simply proved too much.<br />
The first of the Octavians was struck hard, no less than sixteen weapons finding their<br />
marks in the free for all that pounded her hull to collapse. Reeling, the ship slowed and she<br />
fell out of line with the rest of her formation, a heavy list to starboard in the course of only a<br />
few seconds telling of the extent of damage. Those who weren‟t killed by the detonations of<br />
so many torpedoes certainly didn‟t survive long as the ship‟s hull started to buckle. With such<br />
a catastrophic loss of integrity, it was a predictable end.<br />
The heavy cruiser seemed to bulge momentarily as her seals expanded under the<br />
collapse of her internal pressure hull, and then in a rapid staccato of chattering drums,<br />
imploded like an eggshell. The ruined cruiser was unrecognisable as it rapidly started to<br />
accelerate to the bottom, its sister ships visibly altering their course to avoid the turbulent<br />
debris field.<br />
Roberts‟ fighter wing brought low under the cover of the Commonwealth‟s fire,<br />
picking a lone pair of Broadswords that were struggling to retreat in the wake of the UEO<br />
armada‟s arrival. She flicked the safeties off her three remaining torpedoes and bracketed<br />
each of them as targets. “Rapiers Two and Three, Bandits at eight O‟clock low, cover me.”<br />
“Wilco.”<br />
Sensing danger, the two Alliance fighters split up, one of them going wide. Roberts‟<br />
computer lost track on it the second it had left her fire lane, and she shook her head and<br />
throttled down on the leader. The HUD went red, and she depressed the trigger, sending a<br />
single torpedo screaming away in to the darkness. Three seconds later, and a bright flash<br />
from the abyss, along with the disappearing sonar contact confirmed the Broadsword‟s<br />
destruction. “Splash one. Rapier Two, do you have a twenty on his wingman?”<br />
“Affirmative, lead. Heading on two-seven zero to disengage. Shall we let him go?”<br />
“If you have the shot, take it,” she ordered bitterly. “But do not leave formation.”<br />
“Understood.”<br />
- 108 -
Roberts looked over her shoulder as Schrader‟s fighter pulled back from her tail and<br />
went wide. A few seconds after that, a torpedo slipped in to the water and rocketed away in<br />
to the dark. It went wide at first, following the fleeing Broadsword, and it took several long<br />
seconds to it to find its mark. Being tracked by the SEWACS orbiting high above, there was<br />
little the Broadsword could do as its decoys failed to make even the hint of an impression on<br />
the ASF-7 Foxhound missile, and the pilot had already bailed out by the time the weapon<br />
slammed in to his fighter and reduced it to a pyre of flaming metal.<br />
“Good kill,” Schrader announced simply. “This area is clear, lead. Orders?”<br />
“Rapier flight one, this is Roulette. Command has incoming hostiles on bearing three<br />
four zero. Local jamming has no IFF. Requesting close-range ID.”<br />
Roberts gritted her teeth as she pulled the fighter around again to cross back under<br />
the Commonwealth‟s killzone. “This is flight one. Understood. Rapiers one and two, form up<br />
and stick close. Let‟s see what we‟ve got.”<br />
Dustin Coyle picked up the sensor contact on the edge of his combat sensors just as<br />
Roulette gave Roberts her marching orders. His squadron of nine black-hulled Raptors<br />
surrounded the six-strong formation of SF/B-6 Stormhawk bombers that advanced<br />
inexorably towards the field of battle. The squadron in question was not new to him, the VT-<br />
106 Tigerclaws having previously served aboard the <strong>Atlantis</strong>. Now, they bore the proud<br />
heraldry of the UEO Enterprise, a “Big E” encircled by the UEO laurels.<br />
The contacts on Coyle‟s sensors were an enigma but were closing at an alarming<br />
rate. The bombers raced through the darkness, moving as quickly as their massive, booming<br />
engines would carry them, although the accompanying Raptors still had to pull back to stop<br />
themselves from overshooting.<br />
“Two minutes,” he said firmly and simply, watching as the sensor ghosts of<br />
Commonwealth and her accompanying fleet drew nearer by the second. Exactly ten nautical<br />
miles remained. Calmly switching his sonar back to auto-engagement, Coyle slowly pushed<br />
his throttles forward in anticipation. “Stripes lead, this is Halo lead. We are ten miles.<br />
Weapons are free, wait for targeting information from Commonwealth-actual and increase to<br />
three-three-zero knots. We‟ll cover you.”<br />
“This is Karnage, acknowledged. Take the lead.”<br />
Coyle didn‟t wait to be invited further, slamming his throttles forward to be<br />
immediately kicked back in his chair. The Raptor rapidly left the formation of bombers in its<br />
wake as the remainder of the squadron raced to catch up, and the first of their opponents<br />
made themselves known. The computer bleeped as the first flight of Broadswords on<br />
Commonwealth‟s perimeter entered the squadron‟s engagement zone and were highlighted<br />
on the HUD. Coyle checked the range. “Dark Angel One – Bandits two O‟clock high. Flight<br />
one is engaging. Flight two, on my six. Flight three, cover the bombers.”<br />
He didn‟t wait for a reply as he snapped the fighter up quickly to race towards the<br />
shallows. Having detected his approach, the Broadswords rolled away, beginning a wide<br />
circle that brought them straight down at the approaching Raptors. Coyle had none of it as<br />
he followed suit and angled the nose out wide to course in towards the Macronesian fighter‟s<br />
rear. As the two formations closed at a combined speed better than five hundred knots,<br />
Coyle rolled the fighter on to its side and pulled back on the stick, beginning a hard turn on to<br />
the Broadsword‟s tails. The three enemy fighters saw the manoeuvre, and rolled back hard<br />
in the opposite direction to try and throw the UEO fighter before it had completed his<br />
intercept. Coyle was better, never having broken his eyes from the pursuit as he continued<br />
to guide the Raptor through its paces. On one hand, he was navigationally blind as he<br />
locked eyes with the fighters that were now above his canopy, but on the other... he never<br />
lost sight of them.<br />
Rolling the stick back, the Raptor inverted again and came back toward its own path,<br />
steadily weaving through the Broadsword‟s evading scissors as it got ever-closer to their tail.<br />
All the while, Coyle never even noticed the G-indicator climbing past “six” each time he<br />
turned, having gotten so used to the manoeuvres over the years that the action had become<br />
an indelible, motor response – his leg and stomach muscles clenching to control the flow of<br />
- 109 -
lood as he continued to take long, easy breaths that came as naturally as the sweat that<br />
formed on his brow.<br />
This was a dogfight. For Coyle and his wingmen, minutes became seconds as each<br />
sweeping bank turned in to another and a racing heartbeat became the slow-ticking clock by<br />
which he would be judged. Coyle slipped in to the Broadsword‟s wake with a heavy thump<br />
that rattled the fighter as it closed. The angle was poor as the Broadsword continued to<br />
leave his decreasing angle of attack, and he brought the fighter‟s nose in once again.<br />
The enemy fighter disappeared in a blur and flash as it rolled its wings back level and<br />
pulled up fiercely in to a steep inside loop that rapidly disappeared behind Coyle‟s head, and<br />
he corrected by pulling the Raptor in to an even deeper climb. His head throbbed as his<br />
vision began to dim through the corner of his eyes. He had no idea how many G‟s he was<br />
pulling at that moment in time, and in truth he would never know as his eyes continued to<br />
meet the Broadsword that ploughed ever-deeper in to the heart of the fleet action now just a<br />
short mile away. Water had become choppy, illuminated occasionally by the bright flash of a<br />
detonating plasma torpedo, and Coyle finally found his bead. Experience was a simple thing<br />
– a split S-turn being a common textbook evasion manoeuvre employed by pilots across the<br />
world. 99 times out of 100, the pursuing fighter pilot wouldn‟t be able to hope to judge the<br />
correct angle to re-enter the intercept, and that brief period of correction might have been all<br />
the time the accompanying wingmen needed to blow them out of the water.<br />
Coyle was that other time. That one-in-a-hundred. This war had been long, and his<br />
service was dotted with a list of engagements the likes of which few pilots would ever know.<br />
Experience was a teacher – the most honest one that had ever come to be.<br />
Coyle came out of his turn with his HUD bore-sighting the Broadsword with an<br />
understated precision that never once had he taken the time to consider. This was combat.<br />
His heart skipped a beat – a very deliberate beat – the one that told him to squeeze the<br />
trigger.<br />
Coyle was already rolling before he was even consciously aware that he had fired.<br />
The SA-33 disappeared in to a blue fireball that incinerated its pilot, blinded its wingman, and<br />
faded in to the dark. In the last second it took the wingman to recover and pull out, Coyle‟s<br />
own company stepped up and completed the same drill: two precise volleys of cannon fire<br />
tearing it apart as the entire flight of Raptors burst out of formation on four separate bearings<br />
before completing long turns to settle back in to their positions.<br />
The entire encounter had lasted a mere twelve seconds, and picking another enemy<br />
fighter, the VF-115 Dark Angels prepared to do it all again...<br />
Six miles away, Jane Roberts was facing a new problem as her fighter started blaring<br />
half a dozen warnings that were all silenced with a single, commanding stroke of her thumb.<br />
The five large contacts on her sonar were being analysed as quickly as the tactical computer<br />
could process it, and she began to nervously glance at the threat indicator as the range<br />
ticked down. She knew it was a futile attempt. If the all-seeing eyes of the orbiting SEWACS<br />
couldn‟t identify what was ahead of her - then her fighter‟s comparatively tiny suite of sonars<br />
had no chance at all.<br />
She forgot about the sensors, and returned her eyes to the darkness ahead, and the<br />
intermittent but hopeless efforts of the fighter‟s HUD to lock on to something. She saw it<br />
before her sensors did, and the shadow melting out of the dark was enough to send a chill of<br />
dread recognition down her spine, sending the hair on the back of her head on-end.<br />
She‟d rolled and dived for the seafloor as the first lances of heavy laser fire ripped up<br />
her fighter‟s trail, dotting a path of scattering laser fire through her engine wake. The three<br />
fighters in her charge did not follow, instead immediately opting to break off their ingress on<br />
her order to scatter in to the dark. Feeding the gun camera footage back to the SEWACS,<br />
Roberts looked up as her fighter screamed across the seafloor in a long loop that brought it<br />
around the arrowhead formation of five Chaodai Komodo class strike cruisers.<br />
As the remaining Octavians closed their ranks around the slowly receding fleet<br />
carriers, Commonwealth and Reverence continued to pour torpedoes in to their line. This<br />
- 110 -
time, the Alliance was prepared – fighters and cruisers alike swatting down the torpedoes<br />
before they even got close. Adding to the UEO problems, Ainsley stared at the approaching<br />
phalanx of Chaodai war cruisers with a snide measure of disdain. The success or failure of<br />
the engagement now had a clock on it, and the enemy fleet carriers weren‟t going anywhere.<br />
With the Alliance in front of them and the Chaodai just minutes away, the situation had<br />
become a deadlock in which there could only be one resolution. “We need room to breathe,”<br />
he muttered to himself. “Communications, get me the Captains of the Reverence, Monarch<br />
and Repulse.”<br />
Ainsley was waiting only a few seconds before the communications officer gave him<br />
a thumbs-up, and the faces of Jonathan Ford, Patrick Mays and James Carpenter resolved<br />
as ghostly images above the battle plot. “Gentlemen, this would be easier if I explained it<br />
personally,” Ainsley started, folding his arms behind his back. “In about five minutes we‟re<br />
going to be in over our heads. Captain Ford... How‟s your ship?”<br />
“Floating, Admiral,” Ford replied dryly. “The rest is too early to say.”<br />
“Best speed?”<br />
Ford shook his head tellingly, and Ainsley nodded in consigned defeat.<br />
“Then withdrawal is not an option. Captain I‟m going to have to ask your crew to hold<br />
a while longer.”<br />
“We‟ll do what we can,” Ford assured confidently.<br />
“Admiral Carpenter, Captain Mays, we‟ll join you when you arrive and continue to<br />
wheel about to meet the Chaodai head-on. Their carriers will be forced to pull back or we‟ll<br />
run them down.”<br />
A flicker of a smile crossed Carpenter‟s face as he nodded once sharply. “Not one for<br />
subtlety, are you, Ainsley?”<br />
Ainsley didn‟t share his opposite‟s humour. “We are not losing this field. Assume a<br />
strike formation abreast and force that flank.”<br />
“If we get too close to those cruisers, we‟ll be cut apart by their subduction<br />
armaments.”<br />
“Leave that to us,” Ainsley assured. “Commonwealth- out.”<br />
Ainsley killed the transmission and took in the entire CIC. “Captain Banick, close us<br />
to two thousand yards. Tactical – full suppression barrage forward, target the starboard<br />
cruiser. And where the hell are my bombers!?”<br />
...The Stormhawks crested the peak of Ratak Ridge and pushed their throttles<br />
forward as they completed a rolling displacement turn to come in sharply directly above the<br />
remaining Alliance warships. Plunging out of the darkness and surrounded by the blackhulled<br />
Raptors of the Dark Angels, the predators charged, ignoring torpedo, shell and laser<br />
alike to dive straight through the barrage of defensive fire that was so concentrated against<br />
Commonwealth‟s attack.<br />
The Alliance fleet simply didn‟t have the numbers to counter both. With their screen<br />
so far having been directed in full against the Commonwealth to stop the battlecruiser‟s<br />
considerable firepower, there was nothing left to give back to the rapidly approaching<br />
bombers.<br />
When the UEO squadrons appeared above the ridge, the Alliance commanders were<br />
faced with an unwinnable decision: to redirect their defensive fire from killing the<br />
battlecruiser‟s torpedoes, or allow a full squadron of bomb-laden UEO strike craft to pummel<br />
them with impunity.<br />
Slowly, the Alliance cruisers pulled back, swinging their bows around to face both the<br />
bombers and the approaching UEO battleships as best as they could. Two of the<br />
Stormhawks disappeared in plumes of white flame as lasers and intercept torpedoes struck<br />
out of the dark to cut them down. The remaining four bombers snapped left and right to<br />
widen their approach pattern, and forcibly diverted even more of the incoming fire.<br />
Commander Patrick “Karnage” Hawke winced as he saw his two wingman<br />
incinerated by the barrage, and targeted the first of the heavy cruisers ahead of him. “Still<br />
with me back there, Karl?” he asked his back-seated Weapons Officer.<br />
- 111 -
“Yep, Relaying target to the squadron,” he replied coolly. “Weapons are hot and<br />
tracking.”<br />
Hawke jinked the lumbering bomber around a loose roll as the distance closed. Five<br />
thousand... Four thousand...<br />
His thumb covered the trigger as the Heavy Cruiser loomed out of the darkness<br />
ahead, hesitant to pull it until the very last possible moment. It was the only way to<br />
guarantee the possibility of a kill. The numbers turned red as the bomber hit two thousand<br />
feet, and Hawke depressed the trigger firmly as his HUD indicated a point-blank lock.<br />
The fighter burst upwards with blinding speed as two massive anti-ship torpedoes –<br />
the stable HMB-12 2000-pound “Slammers” – that rocketed away in to the dark, and<br />
slammed in to the helpless Octavian at more than six hundred knots. Four more followed, all<br />
of them breaking through hull plating to lodge themselves deep in the ship‟s broken<br />
framework.<br />
The Stormhawks were already gone by the time their weapons detonated exactly two<br />
and a half seconds later. The chain reaction happened in slow motion, beginning as the hull<br />
shifted and expanded, rippling in and out five times as its hull plates buckled and fell away.<br />
Bubbles rose from a thousand tiny holes in the ship‟s pressure hull as it started to settle in to<br />
the murky black before the inevitability of physics took hold. In one titanic, echoing crash, the<br />
hull was crushed and what little remained of the mangled corpse rapidly disappeared in to<br />
the depths of the Pacific.<br />
Sensing the death of their remaining support, the Menzies and Deakin, along with<br />
their last remaining cruiser rapidly started to recede in retreat as torpedoes from the<br />
Monarch and Repulse rained in without pause. For their lone remaining escort, the decision<br />
to go after the UEO bombers proved to be just as costly, as the sheer weight of ordnance<br />
started to overcome her. First only a few torpedoes got through. Three, then four weapons<br />
fired by the UEO and NSC battlecruisers struck home against the side plating of the<br />
Octavian, knocking out power relays, maintenance sections and other minor systems. A<br />
trickle became a deluge, and then the ocean itself became a tidal wave of ordnance.<br />
Deprived of support, disoriented and outgunned, nothing could save the cruiser as it<br />
attempted in vain to blow her ballast tanks and rise to the surface of the ocean. A few<br />
launches and support craft managed to leave the ship‟s small hangars, but few of her crew<br />
could have survived what followed. Two dozen torpedoes, perhaps more, exploded at fullyield<br />
and engulfed the hull in fire. The conflagration obscured sight and sensors alike, and<br />
when it cleared, little was left that could ever identify the ship for what it had once been.<br />
Monarch and Repulse never paused in their advance as they crossed through<br />
Commonwealth and Reverence‟s port flank, the latter warships heeling around hard to settle<br />
in to a line abreast of their saviours. For a moment, the pair of Alliance carriers, and the lone<br />
heavy cruiser beside them seemed an insignificant obstacle for the line of UEO<br />
battlecruisers. As Repulse and Reverence took pause, Commonwealth and Monarch never<br />
relented, pausing only a moment for their CICs to coordinate a combined strike from their<br />
total weight of batteries. Targeting data was exchanged as the Alliance carrier tried futilely to<br />
back off: its intercepts cutting down what few weapons were fired from Commonwealth‟s<br />
escorting battlegroup.<br />
At the exact same moment as the weapons officers aboard the UEO cruisers saw<br />
their guidance locks turn green, the last Macronesian cruiser pulled out of formation and<br />
began a final charge toward the UEO battle line. A salvo of torpedoes fired from<br />
Commonwealth‟s forward batteries, the cruiser coming about again to put her bows straight<br />
in to the barrage. Intercepts shot from tubes across her hull, screeching out to destroy the<br />
UEO torpedoes precisely and aggressively until not one of the weapons remained. The UEO<br />
battlecruisers continued undeterred, the Monarch adding to Commonwealth‟s fire with a<br />
rippling cascade of torpedoes bursting from the ship‟s batteries to home in towards the<br />
Alfred Deakin. In one last act of defiance, the last Alliance cruiser suddenly ploughed hard to<br />
starboard, her bows plunging across the UEO line, directly in to the path of the hell storm<br />
laid down by the UEO flagships.<br />
- 112 -
It was a shocking, but deliberate act of supreme sacrifice the likes of which Ainsley<br />
had never seen. An uncountable number of torpedoes buried themselves in to the massive,<br />
exposed keel of the winged heavy cruiser, ripping it asunder piece by piece. So many<br />
torpedoes tore in to it that she flooded completely and instantly, and didn‟t even have time to<br />
implode as had her sisters. The missile strikes continued, the ship stubbornly lingering for<br />
several seconds that all but saved the carriers beyond. Those officers on the UEO side felt<br />
something stir in them as they witnessed the actions of those who knew they could not win,<br />
and had given everything to make their deaths matter.<br />
Matter it did, as the two Alliance carriers continued to pull away with ever-increasing<br />
speed, the sacrifice of the cruiser and the fighters that stubbornly remained behind to<br />
continue their futile duels against the combined forces of three UEO Carrier Sea Wings.<br />
“We‟ve lost guidance lock on the carriers, Captain,” the tactical officer reported.<br />
“Attempting to reacquire-”<br />
“Belay that,” Banick cut in. “What‟s the status of those Chaodai cruisers?”<br />
The tactical officer looked up from his console and shook his head, the shadow of his<br />
brow casting a telling a darkness over his eyes. “Still coming. They‟ve assumed battle<br />
formation and have deployed fighters.”<br />
Admiral Ainsley was staring blankly at the plot, and the fading sonar return of the<br />
dead Macronesian cruiser. “The Chaodai never retreat, Captain... Mister Jones, what was<br />
the name of that heavy cruiser?” he asked, raising his voice over the din of the CIC‟s combat<br />
chatter. The officer in charge of the operations post looked surprised as the Admiral called<br />
for him, and hesitated for several seconds. The Admiral then looked up. “I asked you a<br />
question, Lieutenant,” he snapped impatiently.<br />
“I... I don‟t know, Admiral,” replied the operations chief apologetically.<br />
Ainsley straightened, and Banick took a step back to look at the officer before adding<br />
firmly, “Then find out, Lieutenant.”<br />
Banick forgot about it quickly as he looked back at the fast-approaching Chaodai war<br />
cruisers. “Helm, bring us about to zero-seven-zero, steady at six-two knots.”<br />
“Aye, Captain.”<br />
Roberts couldn‟t believe her eyes as the groans of tortured hull metal, tearing and<br />
contorting, continued to ring throughout the sea around her. The massive Alliance heavy<br />
cruiser still reeled in its death throes as the four UEO juggernauts passed silently overhead,<br />
the great silhouettes standing out starkly against the light of the ocean‟s surface. It had been<br />
a slaughter, but it was not over as her fighter continued its long run back through and around<br />
the UEO taskforce. There were now dozens, if not close to a hundred subfighters assuming<br />
formations around the great battlecruisers – the combined weight of three battle groups, plus<br />
those that had arrived from the nearby sea<strong>Quest</strong> and Enterprise. She took a breath as the<br />
rest of the VF-107 Rapiers settled in around her fighter, and then led them up to come back<br />
around on the UEO fleet – slipping in to place effortlessly at the head of the fighter formation.<br />
She looked across at the black-hulled fighter next to hers and saw the number<br />
beneath the canopy.<br />
“Bouncer; Deadstick - what‟s your count?”<br />
After a moment, the radio crackled in her ear. “Deadstick; Bouncer – no casualties.”<br />
Roberts nodded in relief and then looked back at the approaching mass of Chaodai<br />
subfighters on her sonar, just two miles distant and closing fast.<br />
“This is Roulette – bingo fuel. Returning home. All flights be advised, Warseer is<br />
assuming battlefield control. Good hunting.”<br />
Roberts felt a small rush of relief with that news, but nonetheless keyed her radio<br />
again. “Understood, Roulette. Thanks for the help. See you back at the barn.”<br />
“This is Warseer to all strike units. Tally-Ho on thirty-five bandits, closing on heading<br />
zero-seven-zero at speed one-five-zero knots. All fighter group commanders assume attack<br />
formations and engage. Cover the taskforce until ordnance delivery has been achieved. This<br />
is going to get loud.”<br />
- 113 -
Roberts rolled her neck and it cracked noisily under the weight of the helmet that felt<br />
like it had been on her head for hours. Resettling herself in the seat, she slipped the helmet<br />
visor up to wipe the sweat from her brow before returning it to its down and locked position<br />
to take hold of the throttles again. Pushing them up, the engines whined and the fighter<br />
shuddered forward. “Warseer, this is Sword-One, good to hear you. Throttles open,<br />
engaging on zero-seven-zero. Halo, Cavalry groups - on my six. Pick your targets.”<br />
Ainsley continued to watch as the line of fighter squadrons advanced from the cover<br />
of the battlecruisers and bore down on the approaching Chaodai fighter fleet.<br />
“Range?” he asked.<br />
“Two miles, shooting solutions acquired; relaying targeting data to the fleet. We‟ll<br />
have guidance locks and target solutions in one minute.”<br />
Banick nodded his approval as he walked around the plot, his hands clasped at the<br />
small of his back. “Tactical – magazine stocks?”<br />
“Forty percent, Captain. Ninety six weapons loaded, fifty seven on the racks.”<br />
Ainsley winced. Their attempts to sink the carriers had cost them over half of their<br />
ordnance, and he doubted that the Reverence was in a much better position. “What about<br />
secondaries?”<br />
The tactical officer winced at the prospect. “If we start taking from the interception<br />
stores, we could be in trouble sir. Intercept stocks are at thirty percent – eighty eight<br />
weapons remaining.”<br />
The Admiral shook his head. “Instruct the fleet to hold fire until ordered,” Ainsley held<br />
up a hand. “We can‟t afford to make this protracted.”<br />
The next minute passed painfully slowly as the two fleets of cruisers closed. The<br />
Chaodai were committing themselves to suicide – five Komodo class strike cruisers were not<br />
a match for four UEO and NSC Battlecruisers, but the enemy was undeterred by what faced<br />
them, and continued to advance, dispersing only slightly to try and break up the barrage they<br />
would inevitably face.<br />
“For God‟s sake,” Banick shook his head in amazement, whispering in awe.<br />
“Withdraw...”<br />
Roderick swallowed a lump in her throat as she watched the stubborn Chaodai<br />
advance. “They‟re not pulling back,” she said to herself inwardly.<br />
“Gavin told me a story once,” Richards said to her quietly as the giant formation of<br />
UEO fighters prepared to engage their most dangerous foes.<br />
...Commonwealth took the lead as the formation of UEO battlecruisers steadily<br />
assumed an overlapping wedge formation. The batteries across the fleet opened their outer<br />
doors one by one, their targeting sweeps finished as the final guidance locks were<br />
transferred to torpedo warheads.<br />
“Guidance lock achieved, Admiral,” the tactical officer reported coldly. Ainsley<br />
nodded, although his back was to the officer as he paced thoughtfully in front of the plot.<br />
Richards bowed his head. “...The Royal Gurkha Rifles, from India, back in the Third<br />
World War, apparently marched fifty miles in one single night to try and retake an airfield<br />
from the Russians.”<br />
Ainsley finally turned on a heel and nodded to the tactical station quietly, his voice<br />
soft, and a single word: “Fire...”<br />
“When they got there the following morning - the enemy just surrendered. They didn‟t<br />
want a fight any more than the Gurkhas wanted to draw their war knives.”<br />
...As one, the combined fleet of UEO Battlecruisers opened fire. One by one, the<br />
batteries locked in to place and fired, before the next tube would rotate in to position and fire<br />
again. The sight was akin to a fountain – a single, growing, cascading wall of whitewash<br />
pouring from the protruding, jutting bows of the four great warships. In the first volley alone,<br />
sixty four torpedoes entered the water with a high-pitched scream that reverberated for<br />
twenty miles in every direction. A second later, and sixty more weapons entered the sea...<br />
Two seconds after that, the number of weapons bearing down on the Chaodai cruiser line<br />
had passed two hundred. Then two hundred and fifty... and then three hundred.<br />
- 114 -
“...The Russians had heard stories that should a Gurkha ever draw their blade, it<br />
could not be sheathed before it had drawn blood.”<br />
...Three hundred and seventy five torpedoes from four battlecruisers bore down on<br />
the Chaodai fleet with a tremendous howl. Facing the inevitable, the great wall of Chaodai<br />
subfighters did everything in their insignificant power to stop the flood, attempting to shoot<br />
down what they could, and when that failed, throwing themselves one by one directly in to<br />
the missile‟s paths. The detonations started like a drum – a warsong that would be<br />
remembered for the rest of the war as dozens of Chaodai pilots gave up their lives to defend<br />
against a force that could not be resisted. The cruisers added their own weights of intercept<br />
fire, shooting down swathes of the weapons as they began their terminal phase.<br />
For the UEO fighter pilots in the water, the sight was unreal as the Chaodai fleet<br />
continued to advance as one – their pilots destroying themselves in insane acts of ritual<br />
suicide as a wall of fire washed over them to crash in to the fleet they protected.<br />
Richards took a breath “...It was a lie.”<br />
Two hundred and five torpedoes found their marks against barely five enemy<br />
warships. The first string of impacts turned the ocean in to a maelstrom of destruction – the<br />
sea becoming a single, massive, turbulent shockwave that obliterated scores of smaller<br />
subfighters that were unfortunate enough to be within the blast radius. It continued for five<br />
long, painful seconds as every set of eyes in the UEO fleet watched in horror and awe at<br />
what their ships had wrought. Of the five heavy cruisers that stood against them, none<br />
remained. Of the subfighters, there was no sign.<br />
Richards sighed, his breath a harshly drawn underscore to the symphony of<br />
destruction that even aboard the Commonwealth, echoed down the halls and carried to the<br />
deepest recesses of the ship. “The Gurkhas took the airfield without ever firing a shot,” he<br />
concluded. “That‟s the power of myth, Quinn.”<br />
Absolute silence hung in the CIC for long seconds after the barrage finished. The<br />
UEO fleet was silent now as it approached the mass grave it had created, and every face<br />
was set hard in stone. Banick didn‟t say a word as Ainsley paced around the table, his eyes<br />
locked on the wall ahead of him as he took a deep, hesitant breath. “Status?”<br />
Silence followed for long seconds as the tactical officer looked back down at his own<br />
displays. “...Targets destroyed.”<br />
“Begin recovering our fighters,” the Admiral replied distantly. “Leave the CAP, but...<br />
bring the rest in.”<br />
“We‟ve got a new set of contacts to the west, sir,” the weapons officer offered again.<br />
“Alliance IFF... three launches, light fighter escort.”<br />
Ainsley looked at Banick for a moment as he considered it, only for the Captain to<br />
stare back to the deck. Ainsley nodded once, and then slowly shook his head. “Search and<br />
rescue teams. Leave them be. There‟ve been enough deaths today.”<br />
The operations officer straightened. “Admiral... I have the name of that heavy cruiser.<br />
I checked our acoustic log with battlenet records – she was the ANS Brisbane, sir. Crew of<br />
one hundred and eighty officers and men.”<br />
Ainsley nodded again, and then straightened to his full height before correcting his<br />
uniform. “Thank you, Lieutenant...”<br />
He paused, and then turned with wide gait to address the entire CIC. “What you just<br />
saw, you may never see again,” he said solemnly. “Take a long, hard look. Your enemy is<br />
human, and capable of every heroic and noble action that defined the greatest fighting spirits<br />
in the history of warfare. Do not take that for granted.”<br />
He let the statement hang heavily for a moment, and then bowed his head. “A<br />
minute‟s silence, for the officers and crew of the ANS Brisbane.”<br />
Ainsley‟s words were heard on every bridge from the Commonwealth to the Fall<br />
River and Repulse. Without question, for the next sixty seconds across an entire taskforce of<br />
two thousand seven hundred and forty one officers and sailors – not one said a word.<br />
It was past midnight by the time the final orders of battle were resolved in the UEO<br />
fleet. The last flights of exhausted fighters returned to their flight decks, damage control<br />
- 115 -
teams tendered their last reports, and rostered crews slowly started to be relieved after<br />
laborious shifts that had persisted for hours past when they had been scheduled to finish.<br />
Admiral Ainsley finally walked out of the CIC at exactly three minutes past twelve,<br />
almost swiping a steaming mug of coffee from an aid that had done the rounds as he walked<br />
through the folding French doors and stepped on to the command deck for the first time in<br />
nearly eight hours. The Admiral rolled his neck, eliciting several sharp cracks before rolling<br />
his shoulders and uncomfortably loosening the zip at his jumpsuit‟s neck.<br />
Aside from the stars on his shoulder, there was nothing remarkable about an<br />
Admiral‟s uniform. It was the same basic pattern that it had been for the previous thirty years<br />
– a black mandarin-collared jumpsuit over a white T-shirt or turtleneck. Ainsley was now<br />
hugely regretting his decision at the start of the day to wear a turtleneck in lieu of his usual<br />
garrison uniform.<br />
Banick looked over his shoulder from the command plot, sensing the Admiral‟s<br />
departure from the CIC and then excused himself to Callaghan before walking back to meet<br />
him before he could leave. “Admiral, the final casualty report,” the Captain reported, handing<br />
Ainsley a datapad with a short list of names.<br />
Ainsley swallowed the mouthful of coffee with a painful and unprepared gulp as he<br />
read the names, and then nodded. The fleet had gotten off lightly. A dozen pilots had been<br />
killed, ten more had managed to eject, and Commonwealth had escaped with only a handful<br />
of wounded. Reverence herself had fared the worst, with Captain Ford reporting the loss of<br />
fifty seven of his ship‟s crew, and many more wounded. The maimed battlecruiser still limped<br />
alongside the Commonwealth – she would keep her company only for the next few hours as<br />
the flagship continued to head west, eventually rendezvousing with her own battlegroup that<br />
would see her safely back to Fort Grace.<br />
“Has engineering tendered their report?” Ainsley asked in turn.<br />
Banick nodded. “Our damage was light. Our hull skin has already sealed the<br />
breaches, and hull siphons have cleared those sections of flooding. I don‟t imagine we‟ll be<br />
using the C5 access way any time soon, but... we should be able to get those torpedo<br />
batteries operational again in a few days.”<br />
The Admiral nodded as he handed the pad back to Banick and reached the top of the<br />
stairs, stopping to turn and lean against the command deck‟s railing. “We‟ll need to resupply.<br />
I don‟t want to be going through enemy lines without a full magazine. What‟s the nearest<br />
fleet tender?”<br />
Banick pursed his lips. “Admiral, we‟ve just taken a beating and it‟ll take us nearly<br />
half a day to link up with a fleet tender and complete a full underway replenishment. I‟m not<br />
sure if going through with this is wise.”<br />
Ainsley nodded nonchalantly. “Maybe. Maybe not. But we can‟t be sitting on the<br />
border without weapons, Captain, and the nearest friendly colony is nearly two hundred<br />
miles away so I suggest we get a hold of Fleet and arrange a rendezvous, quickly.”<br />
Banick sighed, seeing the Admiral‟s point without much point in arguing and then<br />
looked up at one of the overhead charts on the command deck monitors. “The Lake Huron,<br />
Third Fleet Logistics, could probably link up with us in about three hours,” he said.<br />
“Best clear it with them,” Ainsley said as he checked to see whether the incoming<br />
Officer of the Deck had arrived. “Lieutenant Galen?”<br />
“Admiral?” asked the fresh-faced arrival happily.<br />
“Have the Monarch and Repulse finished taking on wounded?”<br />
The Lieutenant stopped at that, having not finishing going through the status reports<br />
since his arrival. He quickly scanned his computer screen, and then nodded. “Just finishing<br />
now by the looks of things.”<br />
“Alright. Send my compliments to their captains, and then have them released. Signal<br />
the Reverence that we‟re breaking formation and lay in a course west towards the Jarvis<br />
colony. Best possible speed.”<br />
“There is one more thing, sir,” Banick added, holding up another data slate.<br />
Ainsley took the offered padd and reviewed it quickly. “The after action report?”<br />
- 116 -
Banick nodded. “With your permission, I‟d like to forward it to Alliance Central<br />
Command in Melbourne. It details the actions of the Brisbane, sir.”<br />
Ainsley paused for a moment before nodding solemnly. “A superb thought. Please<br />
see that it‟s done.”<br />
The Admiral disappeared from the bridge soon after, leaving Banick alone with<br />
Callaghan on the upper deck of the Battlecruiser‟s bridge. “You didn‟t ask him,” said<br />
Callaghan quietly.<br />
“I‟ll see him in the morning. We all need time to think right now, Ryan.”<br />
“He explained it to you, yet?”<br />
Banick shook his head. “Not a single word.”<br />
Rapier Eight was the last of the Commonwealth‟s fighters to return to the ship as the<br />
VF-108 Cavaliers finished launching to relieve the veteran squadron from its overwatch<br />
CAP. Cunningham tossed a salute across the way to the last of the departing Cavaliers as<br />
she finished clambering down the ladder that had been propped up against its side. With a<br />
deep sigh, she removed steadied herself against the fighter‟s nose gear as she sat down,<br />
and then lay on the deck, letting the helmet she‟d been wearing for the last seven hours roll<br />
out of her hand. Closing her eyes, she let the exhaustion finally wash over her, her head a<br />
swimming mess of every manoeuvre, every evasion and every kill. That had been<br />
bookended by a six hour Combat Air Patrol as the fleet picked up its survivors, secured the<br />
region and then completed a sweep of whatever forces the Alliance had chosen to leave<br />
behind. “Happy Birthday, Sarah,” she muttered unhappily to herself as she unzipped the<br />
front of her flight suit.<br />
She continued to lie there in silence for several minutes until she felt the decks shake<br />
slightly under her as a heavy pair of boots approached and sat down next to her. Her head<br />
lolled over to look at the side-ways pilot next to her, squinting as she thought aloud. “My<br />
head hurts.”<br />
Lieutenant Samuel Rogers smiled a little as he played with his gloves, straightening<br />
the fingers, and trying to press out the creases that time and wear had left in them. He said<br />
nothing at first, instead putting his feet atop his own helmet. “So apparently, Richards came<br />
through,” he said.<br />
“Yeah, I got that,” Cunningham replied as she rubbed her tired face, feeling her<br />
hands slick with the grease and muck that had gathered on her cheeks and forehead over<br />
the course of the last six hours. Rogers stood up slowly after a minute or two, gathering his<br />
helmet from the deck to stuff the gloves inside. He‟d already started to walk away when<br />
Cunningham called out. “You gonna help me up?”<br />
He stopped, grinning slightly as he turned and looked down at her. “That‟d be about<br />
right. I‟m always pulling your ass off the floor.”<br />
She rolled her eyes as he extended a hand. She gripped it, and he heaved her up off<br />
the deck, his other hand steadying her as she stood. The two Lieutenants turned after a<br />
moment to see Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm Schrader, Rapier Two, approaching quickly<br />
from the holding bay‟s doors. He was a tall man, heavily built with a chiselled, brick-jaw and<br />
short-cropped blonde hair. They straightened as he approached, his flight gear still underarm.<br />
“You two alright?” he asked.<br />
“Yes sir,” Rogers replied sharply. “Problem?”<br />
“Debriefing, five minutes,” he ordered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.<br />
As quickly as he‟d entered, the squadron XO left again, his gait wide and his stride<br />
long – showing none of the exhaustion that was still rife in the two junior pilots.<br />
“How does he do that?” Cunningham asked as she picked up her own gear.<br />
Rogers smiled. “German efficiency.”<br />
~<br />
- 117 -
V<br />
T H E G H O S T S O F O UR P A S T<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Marianas Sea. April 11 th , 2043…<br />
By Oh-Seven-Thirty, the squadron commanders of the First Carrier Sea Wing were<br />
standing in the Flight Operations Centre, having been called in as soon as they‟d reported<br />
for duty a half an hour earlier. The smell of freshly brewed coffee was a common scent in the<br />
FOC during the waning hours of any shift, and that was especially true at the start of the day.<br />
Red-eyed flight directors sat slouched around a gaggle of freshly showered fighter pilots with<br />
no comprehension as to why they‟d been called there, and all of them wanted to be relieved.<br />
Roberts and Coyle, along with Mikhail “Cossack” Buran of the 108 th “Cavaliers” and<br />
the unfortunately promoted Lieutenant Commander Nathan “Killjoy” Tannen of the 173 rd<br />
“Griffons” were the four fighter squadron commanders on the Commonwealth. Standing with<br />
them were the commander of the Battlegroup‟s only SEWACS squadron, Commander<br />
Rebecca Raincastle and her operational chief – an unremarkable man bearing blue fleetdivision<br />
rank slides and the squadron patch of VAW-2, the “Longshots” – Commander<br />
Jackson Allenfort. He was better known to those present by his callsign, “Warseer”.<br />
The gathered officers heard a door close noisily as voices drifted up the corridor,<br />
inaudible above the hum of the ship‟s engines and radio chatter from the control pit of the<br />
FOC below them. A few seconds later, and they watched as Captain Corinn Roderick<br />
stepped in to the room, with Ed Richards walking awkwardly at her side.<br />
Both officers looked exhausted, as though neither had slept throughout the entire<br />
night – but more to the point, Roberts‟ eyes were drawn up to the man‟s collar to the rank<br />
slides he wore, and narrowed them slightly as she saw the change almost immediately. Two<br />
stars, flanking a pair of „kissing dolphins‟, set over two gold bars: the insignia of a Wing<br />
Commander.<br />
“Good morning,” Roderick said as she sipped from a well-worn black mug. It still had<br />
the word “CAG” printed across its front, although the letters had long since begun to fade.<br />
Roderick looked haggard – the appearance of dark rings under her eyes lending some<br />
degree of credit to the reputation of her spectacular, deep brown eyes being able to<br />
famously burn holes in whoever they stared at. Lately, those eyes hadn‟t had the same<br />
spark of fire, and that morning, they were dull and emotionless.<br />
“Ma‟am,” they all replied in various tones and manners.<br />
“Congratulations, sir,” Roberts said, looking at Richards and glancing momentarily at<br />
the dolphins on his shoulders.<br />
Richards flashed a quick smile, but hid it just as fast under his own mug. Roderick<br />
looked at him, and then back at Roberts and the other gathered commanders. “That‟s the<br />
first thing I called you here for,” she explained. “Admiral Ainsley cleared it last night. As of<br />
today, Wing Commander Richards will be assuming all responsibilities for the<br />
Commonwealth‟s arm of the First Carrier Sea Wing.”<br />
The gathered pilots nodded their approval, and Roderick went on. “As you probably<br />
guessed, Admiral Ainsley‟s recent arrival has changed my immediate plans. My orders to<br />
leave for the Constellation have been rescinded indefinitely and I am to coordinate all<br />
taskforce fighter operations.”<br />
“Taskforce?” Allenfort asked with a raised eyebrow, his arms folded in front of him as<br />
he sat on the plot table.<br />
Roderick nodded. “Admiral Ainsley is forming a new task group under the orders of<br />
the Fleet Command. I‟m afraid I can‟t give you mission-specific details at this point, but for<br />
the time being... we have more immediate problems to deal with.”<br />
She looked around the FOC, and then ushered them in to the officer‟s briefing room<br />
next door. The commanders obediently filed in, and Richards closed the door behind them<br />
as they took seats around the big, polished Piano-black table in the middle of the room.<br />
- 118 -
Roderick walked around them all to go to the head of the office and the seat that sat in front<br />
of the wall chart. “What‟s the issue?” Coyle asked as he settled back.<br />
“The Admiral‟s sending the ship to the Tongan Prospects.”<br />
Allenfort and a few others sat forward in surprise, suddenly very aware of what had<br />
just been said. The Warseer commander‟s jaw was open. “That‟s over five hundred miles<br />
behind enemy lines,” he said. “Inside Atlas range.”<br />
Richards remained silent although Roberts recognised the tight line he‟d pulled his<br />
lips in to as being a repression of an altogether bitter thought. The Captain just nodded.<br />
“Yes, it is. That‟s not something we can really do anything about, but it does present us with<br />
something of an opportunity.”<br />
Roderick keyed in something to the console on the desk where she sat, and the<br />
mirrored, black table surface warped and started to glow as a holographic map was<br />
projected above it, showing a vast area of water north of <strong>New</strong> Zealand – the Tongan Trench.<br />
The so-called “Tongan Prospects” were a string of heavily populated and industrialized<br />
colonies that dotted the areas surrounding the trench itself, and were infamous as being<br />
symbolic of the Macronesian Alliance‟s industrial might. The massive mineral wealth found in<br />
the area had made the Alliance rich, and turned the loose political alliance in to a military<br />
superpower. Over seventeen million people inhabited the prospect‟s colonies – the vast<br />
majority of them related to some of the largest seafloor mining corporations on the planet.<br />
The map highlighted an area of the Pacific not far from that expanse, a single tiny<br />
island – the Macaw Bank.<br />
“Some of you might have been hearing whispers about attacks on Alliance military<br />
vessels in this region, and that we have absolutely no idea who is behind them, why, or<br />
where they came from. It‟s not much of a rumour considering that we lack first hand<br />
intelligence, but... the reports have been coming up with multiple Wing Commanders in the<br />
Third Fleet.”<br />
“Ghost stories,” muttered Tannen. “So no one‟s witnesses an attack first hand, we<br />
have no idea where the rumours came from, and whoever did start reporting on it has no<br />
explanation as to who, where and why it‟s happening? That‟s... a big leap, Captain.”<br />
“He has a point,” Coyle agreed.<br />
“Normally, I‟d agree with you both. I don‟t like scuttlebutt anymore than the next<br />
officer on this ship, but something came up with the Admiral that got me thinking. A set of<br />
latitude and longitude coordinates, which specifically pointed to this location.”<br />
“Where did he get that?” Roberts asked,<br />
“That‟s the interesting part,” Roderick explained. “Every report I‟ve read on these<br />
attacks has come from somewhere in fleet intelligence. Usually those reports are pulled only<br />
hours after they‟ve been put online. The only explanation I‟ve ever got from that was that the<br />
report was inaccurate, and redacted pending correction – anything else I asked them was<br />
flatly rebuked. When I asked the Admiral where his information came from, he dodged the<br />
question.”<br />
“And by dodged,” Coyle started slowly, “You mean he told you to keep it to yourself.”<br />
Roderick blushed a little. “The Admiral didn‟t give me an order to do any such thing.<br />
He merely requested that I keep things quiet, but his implication was clear enough.”<br />
“That‟s why we‟re going to the Prospects, isn‟t it?” Roberts nodded slowly.<br />
Roderick smiled. “Wherever Ainsley got his information from, it was enough for him to<br />
go beyond the orders of our current mission to order this ship across five hundred miles of<br />
enemy lines to have a look. That said, given what we‟ve heard... I have to treat those reports<br />
as credible.”<br />
“So, the Admiral‟s keeping us in the dark?” Allenfort asked.<br />
“The world is too big for coincidence of this sort, Commander,” Roderick replied<br />
coolly. “I can only assume that whatever Ainsley is expecting to find, it‟s related. Starting<br />
now, I want a double CAP with SEWACS support twenty four hours a day.”<br />
“...So we want to find these people?”<br />
“No,” Roderick shook her head with surprise. “But Admiral Ainsley does.”<br />
- 119 -
Even at ten o‟clock in the morning, there was very little to tell the time of day on a<br />
submarine. In a calm sea, in tropical waters, it was still possible for some things to be seen<br />
outside of the ship‟s view ports even at depths of about a thousand feet. No turbidity or<br />
currents, in a sheltered basin, aided by the ship‟s own flood lamps could provide illumination<br />
for nearly a hundred meters, at times making for some truly spectacular sights. The<br />
darkness in the Admiral‟s office that day was telling of the conditions outside. A massive<br />
storm now raged above Commonwealth, belting the eastern Marshall Islands with a force he<br />
hadn‟t seen in a very long time. Somewhere out the windows, past the murky fog that had<br />
settled in the archipelago, Ainsley knew the Reverence still kept company, and would<br />
continue to do so for several long hours to come. Occasionally, he‟d look up as the room<br />
shook while a unit of subfighter passed by the battlecruiser‟s flank, but otherwise, the only<br />
sound that permeated the room was that of Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, Opus 27, No. 2.<br />
In front of him, a pile of sixty nine letters remained unsigned as he continued to listen<br />
to the sonata, idly working his way through the fleet reports that had been tendered by the<br />
captains of the taskforce. The pile looked unremarkable at first glance – all of the letters<br />
being worded exactly the same way, bearing the seal of the UEO Pacific Command, printed<br />
in duplicate, with the names of sixty nine individuals whom he had never met. It was a cold<br />
and cruel way of dealing with the loss, but this was the way it had always been.<br />
After a time, Ainsley turned to his computer and brought up the four dates again to<br />
stare at them in curiosity. The final one was that which held his attention the most. 090941 –<br />
The Ninth of September, 2041. Banick had been correct in his assertion that the date did<br />
not, as Ainsley initially suspected, relate to the sinking of the <strong>Atlantis</strong>. With that realization<br />
had emerged a pattern that had since preoccupied the Admiral since he‟d „broken‟ the riddle<br />
– it was Annie.<br />
Each number, a date corresponding to a specific event in the development of<br />
Artificial Intelligence, bore a significance that ultimately led back to the <strong>Atlantis</strong> AI. Only the<br />
third number – that of a date in 2039 – remained a mystery; and Ainsley suspected many of<br />
his answers lay within its solution.<br />
The door chimed, and he looked up from the monitor, a hand subconsciously moving<br />
to hit the escape key which in turn hid the dates from view. “Come in.”<br />
The door to the office cracked open, allowing light from the bright corridor outside to<br />
spill through and almost silhouette the person entering the office. James Banick had never<br />
been the most remarkable of figures, being neither heavy in build or particularly imposing in<br />
stature, and in that, he was recognisable.<br />
Ainsley leaned back. “Captain?”<br />
Banick stepped out of the shadows and in to the soft lights provided solely by the ring<br />
of studio lights that illuminated the desk from the ceiling. “We‟re about to clear the Marshals<br />
AOR,” he said flatly. “Thought you might want to know we‟ve finished replenishment<br />
operations with the Huron.”<br />
“Good,” Ainsley ordered. “Then we should be at Macaw in the next day... Was there<br />
something else, Captain?”<br />
Banick continued to stare ahead, shifting slightly where he stood. “Yes sir.<br />
“I was hoping I might speak to you about this mission, sir.”<br />
Ainsley put the pen in his hand back down on the desk and looked back at his old<br />
executive officer with a wary gaze. “You‟re still not happy, are you?”<br />
Banick just shook his head, staring at the deck. He was hesitant. “Admiral, you‟ve<br />
already made yourself quite clear. I‟m not here to question those orders, but I‟d appreciate it<br />
if you could put in to context how it‟s going to help us take back Pearl Harbor.”<br />
Ainsley worked his jaw for a moment as his eyes burned in to the Captain before him.<br />
In truth, he wished he had an explanation. At the very least, Banick deserved one – but<br />
Ainsley didn‟t know what to tell him. “I can‟t tell you that, Jim,” he said quietly.<br />
Banick stepped forward, wrapping his hands over the back of the chair opposite the<br />
Admiral. “Admiral, with respect, you‟re ordering me to place my ship in a position that puts<br />
both her and her crew at extraordinary risk. You‟ve offered me absolutely no explanation as<br />
- 120 -
to how this action can contribute in any meaningful way to the recapture of Pearl Harbor. If<br />
you were in my position... what would you do?”<br />
Admiral Ainsley allowed an inward, half-smile. There wasn‟t a day that went by where<br />
Ainsley didn‟t recall vividly the destruction of the <strong>Atlantis</strong>, and Banick knew it. “You already<br />
know what I‟d do,” Ainsley countered firmly. “I followed my orders, irrespective of the cost.”<br />
“Even though you knew full-well what those orders might mean for your command?”<br />
Ainsley turned, and stared through the dark viewports at the black ocean beyond. All<br />
he saw, though, was his own reflection in the glass. “Twenty four hours,” Ainsley sighed.<br />
“That‟s all I want.”<br />
“And if we haven‟t found anything by then, you‟ll return to the mission?”<br />
Ainsley rounded on the Captain, restraining himself only at the last second as he<br />
raised an accusing finger, and then stopped. “...We haven‟t left the mission,” he said with<br />
acid. “Even I have my orders, Banick. Try not to forget that.”<br />
“We‟re out here chasing rumours and shadows,” Banick snapped back. “You have<br />
absolutely no way of knowing that message you got wasn‟t a trap. For all we know, that‟s<br />
exactly how we lost the Aquarius.”<br />
Ainsley snapped. “I want answers!” he spat, his voice shouting through the darkness<br />
and silence to make the Captain step back. “Aquarius, <strong>Atlantis</strong>, sea<strong>Quest</strong> – all of them gone<br />
and not one of them for a single explanation that makes any sense, or has given me a single<br />
reason to sleep better at night. We were used, and now whoever did those things is using us<br />
again. I want them, Banick. And by the time I‟m done, I will have their hide nailed to my wall!”<br />
Ainsley‟s fist slammed in to the desk hard, making the china set on the side rattle<br />
noisily, a teacup sliding off the table and smashing across the floor. Banick‟s eyes glanced at<br />
it for a moment, and then locked back with the Admiral – the man‟s grey eyes cutting a hole<br />
through him with a look he‟d only seen a few, dark times. “Do you really think that now, after<br />
so long, we‟re any closer to knowing the truth than we were when we started?”<br />
“We have to be,” the Admiral rasped - his knuckles cracking as he squeezed his fist<br />
closed. “Get us to Macaw, Captain. Best possible speed.”<br />
~<br />
T H E G I R L A T T H E E N D O F T H E W O R L D : III<br />
One hundred miles off the west coast of Africa, August 9 th , 2030...<br />
Anne Ballard stared at the computer monitor, trying to force her eyes to focus. It had<br />
been three days since she last slept, her mind still a swimming mess of disjointed thoughts,<br />
concepts and realizations that made her ache. The results of the last test were impossible to<br />
read any other way – the last introduction of the catalyst had caused a cascading decay of<br />
neurological functions in 95% of subjects.<br />
...Including Subject One.<br />
It had taken forty six hours of constant genetic chemical analysis to find a solution to<br />
that problem, but the possibility existed that it may well exacerbate the issue. The mapping<br />
of the human genome was well known, but the strain of DNA used in the catalyst was still a<br />
complete mystery. The compartmentalization of the project team meant that not one person<br />
knew everything there was about the engineered properties of the strain, and she was<br />
beginning to doubt if there was anyone who knew anything at all.<br />
The possibility existed in her mind that the strain hadn‟t been engineered at all, but<br />
Thecus van der Weer had since disappeared – taking all of his notes with him. If anyone<br />
knew, it would have been him.<br />
This brought Ballard back to her original hypothesis, and a gamble that would either<br />
advance the project well beyond its expected outcome, or leave everything in ruin. The<br />
decay in the genome brought about by the catalyst‟s introduction was a result of the strain‟s<br />
- 121 -
dominant nature over human DNA. Over time, the process of human cell reproduction was<br />
being „re-programmed‟ with the information of the strain. Brain chemistry changed, neural<br />
activity increased, but without a control agent, that process would eventually lead to a<br />
terminal failure of the body‟s most basic functions.<br />
It had taken nearly three years, but Ballard finally had her smoking gun. The vial on<br />
the desk in front of her, loaded in to the back of a long, hypodermic needle, was the answer.<br />
Like pieces of a puzzle – every advance in the catalyst‟s structure had added a new level of<br />
complexity to the equation, but the equation thus far had made no sense. One plus two, plus<br />
three, plus four, in this case, only made nine. There was always something missing.<br />
Yet, every experiment needed its control. There had to be something by which to<br />
measure the weight of results. Introduced to a subject who had already undergone four or<br />
five stages of genetic manipulation, this one would produce little more than another bracket<br />
to the maths. She had to know what it could do on that which was „clean‟.<br />
Ballard squeezed her hand hard she looked at the syringe again, and closed her<br />
eyes. It had been seven years since she‟d been diagnosed with her condition and it had<br />
never – to this point – interfered with her work, but the parallels could not be denied.<br />
She was dying. Over time, her neurological functions would inevitably fail as they<br />
continued to misfire and decay. Ten years at best, is what they had told her. And the end<br />
would be painful. She experienced some of that even then as chronic migraines, headaches<br />
and pains pulled at the insides of her skull.<br />
The vial in front her might not cure her condition, but it might slow it down enough to<br />
give her a little longer. Five years ago it might have been enough, but the damage was<br />
already done.<br />
She took a breath as she stood and removed her coat, hanging it from the hook on<br />
the wall. She wore little more than a tank underneath, and she grabbed the alcohol swab<br />
and dabbed her arm before grabbing the needle.<br />
Priming it, she drew a breath sharply and felt fire lance through her arm as she<br />
squeezed the syringe. The sensation was unreal as it coursed through her veins, and her<br />
vision started to blur. Her head spun as she removed the needle, and let it drop to the desk.<br />
Anne Ballard felt the world turn as her eyes continued to blur and fade. She stepped<br />
back from the desk after a moment, and began to wonder if she had made a terrible mistake.<br />
Finally, the headache returned – hitting her like a hammer on the inside of her skull. She<br />
never even realised what was happening as she passed out, and collapsed to the floor.<br />
Nine Days Later, August 18 th , 2030...<br />
The girl threw herself at the mirror, a violent „crack‟ as the glass splintered making<br />
Doctor Ballard wince as the retched soul continued to thrash around the cell, losing her<br />
mind. She put a hand to her mouth as Sanaa eventually collapsed to the floor, the<br />
convulsions and spasms slowly subsiding to leave her sprawled – bruised, shaken and<br />
exhausted – across the white, tiled floor. The display had lasted over half an hour, and the<br />
entire time, Captain Samuel Ezard had simply watched in silence, emotionless, and<br />
seemingly uncaring for anything except a result.<br />
He regarded the doctor, unimpressed, but didn‟t say a word. Ballard took a breath<br />
and shook her head. “She‟s been like this since we administered the treatment,” she<br />
explained. “She won‟t eat, sleep or talk. She just starts these tantrums, repeating the same,<br />
unintelligible nonsense over and over again. Eventually she just collapses, from sheer<br />
exhaustion. It we don‟t find a way to stop this, she‟ll probably enter synaptic shock... and<br />
then we‟ll lose her.”<br />
“The subject‟s survival is paramount, Doctor,” Ezard said dryly, his voice grinding<br />
over the words like gravel. “Find a solution, by any means.”<br />
Ballard looked uneasy. “Captain... We‟re running out of patients. We lost twelve more<br />
in just three days from the last stage of the catalyst. That‟s twice what it was at stage four.<br />
This isn‟t working.”<br />
- 122 -
“And if it doesn‟t work, then everything we‟ve done here in the last six years is going<br />
to be for nothing,” Ezard snapped.<br />
“You don‟t need to explain it to me,” hissed Ballard, refusing to bow to Ezard‟s<br />
demand. “I know what she represents. What I need is flexibility.”<br />
Ezard stopped, looking back at the girl on the floor as she retched again, dry hacking<br />
an empty stomach on to the floor. Her eyes burned in to him through the glass again, and he<br />
turned back on the doctor. “You have whatever you need.”<br />
Standing behind them both, having not said a word, Ryan Callaghan continued to<br />
look on at the freak show before him, nodding curtly as Ezard brushed past and disappeared<br />
in to the hall. Callaghan folded his arms and breathed deeply as Ballard shook her head<br />
again. Quietly, the Doctor forwarded out of the room the way Ezard had, but stopped at the<br />
bulkhead frame, casting a guilt-full eye at the Lieutenant. “Wait thirty seconds. You‟re<br />
already cleared, and the guards won‟t interfere...” she whispered, reaching in to her pocket.<br />
“You‟ve got five minutes.”<br />
Ballard produced a small needle – its canister loaded, hidden from the view of the<br />
room‟s cameras by her own hand. She slipped it in to Callaghan‟s hand as the Lieutenant<br />
looked at her with understanding. “What‟s this?”<br />
“I didn‟t tell Ezard,” she said. “He can‟t know. Not now.”<br />
“Doctor,” Callaghan stopped her with a hand firmly on her shoulder before should<br />
could leave. “What is it?”<br />
She looked at him, her eyes pained. “It‟s the stage six catalyst.”<br />
“Doctor, the stage six doesn‟t work. If we give that to her now, it‟ll kill her.”<br />
“It works,” she promised.<br />
“And how do you know that?”<br />
“Wait thirty seconds,” she said again. “Then do what you have to. Trust me, Ryan.”<br />
Ballard continued walking, and Callaghan stood in silence for several long seconds at<br />
the girl in the cell, through the two-way mirror. He felt the vial in his hand as he continued to<br />
wait, his heart beginning to pound in his chest. There were no cameras in this room – Ezard<br />
had been deliberate in that decision. The best way to ensure security was to make sure<br />
something simply didn‟t exist.<br />
He walked to the door to the cell and put his hand on the scanner. It hummed for a<br />
moment and the door unlocked with a heavy „clack‟ that vibrated through the deck. He<br />
opened the door slowly, exhaling as he smelt the sterile, disinfected air. The girl‟s head shot<br />
up, her face obscured behind a veil of matted, unwashed hair, and he held up a cautioning<br />
hand as he walked towards her slowly, keeping the vial out of sight. She was already wise to<br />
it as her eyes locked on his hidden hand, and she steadily backed away towards the wall.<br />
Could she have seen...?<br />
Callaghan stopped, and slowly nodded his understanding. “Hello, Sanaa,”<br />
She scrambled backwards until she was against the wall, and he slowly produced the<br />
needle so she could clearly see it. “I want to help you.”<br />
Her eyes went wide for a moment as she saw the syringe, filled with the familiar, offwhite<br />
liquid that she had endured so many times before. Callaghan took another step<br />
forward, the glimmer in the fierce eyes at the end of the room speaking of the enormous<br />
intelligence that dwelt therein. He could use that, but after so many years he had to wonder if<br />
there was anything left of the girl‟s mind at all.<br />
He looked around and found the plain chair next to the mattress, upturned and<br />
unused. He carefully walked to it, and pulled it back up right to sit down slowly. “They never<br />
use your name do they,” he asked quietly, his question drawing nothing more from the fierce,<br />
brilliant eyes. “You probably don‟t even know what a name is...”<br />
“Sanaa...” she whispered, the sound escaping her lips as little more than a note of<br />
recognition.<br />
“Yeah, that‟s what they told me. You remember, don‟t you?”<br />
She looked down, her brow trembling slightly as she slumped forward.<br />
“You know, Doctor Ballard wants to help you,” he said. “She thinks this... will make it<br />
stop hurting.”<br />
- 123 -
Callaghan held up the syringe again, twirling it in his fingers. Seconds were ticking<br />
down that he didn‟t have, and he leaned forward. “I‟m Ryan-“<br />
-She rambled. “-Callaghan. UEO Section 7 serial number A-151205. Assigned to<br />
command staff of Nycarus project, 2024. Date of enlistment-“<br />
“Wait, stop,” he said, sitting up again in shock. “How do you know all this?”<br />
“You always listen,” she whispered again, looking at him quietly, her eyes finally<br />
meeting his. “They said they couldn‟t take the catalyst because I was different and that it<br />
would kill them. All the others... they‟re dead. But I‟m not. I listen, too...”<br />
Callaghan stared at her in amazement as she looked down at the floor again. “Yes...<br />
but I never mentioned any of that,” he said softly.<br />
She looked up again, her arms hugging her knees close. “I listen,” she said again.<br />
“Files, names, talking... All just puzzles. They can be solved.”<br />
He nodded, but didn‟t know what to say. She continued to stare at him.<br />
“They call it the catalyst...” she said, eyeing the syringe in Callaghan‟s hand again.<br />
“But they‟re all dying...”<br />
“Yes,” he said truthfully. “They‟re all dying.”<br />
“But not me,” she said. “I‟m not allowed to die.”<br />
“Will you let me help you?” he asked, drawing a slow breath.<br />
“You have to,” she said. “I‟ll only get sick if you don‟t. Just like the others.”<br />
He nodded, and then got up to walk over to her where he sat down, and gently took<br />
her arm. He swallowed and exhaled slowly as he pulled up the girl‟s sleave to reveal the<br />
bruised railroad tracks on her arm, and momentarily closed his eyes.<br />
He squeezed a small amount of the fluid the syringe after he uncapped it, and then<br />
found the vein.<br />
“It‟s not your fault,” she said, staring in to the distance, beyond the cell walls.<br />
He shook his head as he worked. “There was a time I believed in this,” he said. “But<br />
seeing everything here...”<br />
“They didn‟t tell you,” she said. “But I know.”<br />
“What do you mean?” he asked her in turn.<br />
“They‟re all dying,” she said simply, turning to face him again, her eyes wide and<br />
alert.<br />
“A few survived,” Callaghan sighed. “Several thousand, maybe... They‟re all ok, now,”<br />
he tried. “Ngunntini, the rebellion... it‟s all over.”<br />
“No, it‟s not,” she shook her head. “I listen. I hear things.”<br />
“What do you mean by that?” He asked her again. “I don‟t understand.”<br />
She looked away again. “All dying. Only the answer, never the solution.”<br />
Callaghan allowed himself a small inward smile as he capped the syringe and<br />
pressed the cotton to her skin. “On that one, I think I agree.”<br />
He stood slowly as she continued to stare across the room. “I‟ve got to go,” he said,<br />
looking at the clock on the wall. “I‟m sorry, Sanaa... I wish there was something more I could<br />
do.”<br />
“All dying...” she whispered again as Callaghan walked for the door.<br />
“No solution... only the answer.”<br />
~<br />
Callaghan pushed through the doors of the Proteus‟ science labs and marched<br />
straight through to Doctor Ballard‟s office, several of the working scientists turning to look at<br />
him strangely as he strode through purposefully, trying hard to ignore the rows of sick and<br />
dying patients who never had names. Only numbers.<br />
And those numbers went in to the tens of thousands.<br />
He brushed the plastic screen aside as he left the „clean‟ area of the lab and entered<br />
the administration wing, his eyes scanning the room for any sign of the Doctor. One of the<br />
- 124 -
other senior researchers caught his gaze and pointed to her office, gaining a curt nod in<br />
reply. He walked to the door, but didn‟t knock as he pushed his way through again, and<br />
closed the door behind him.<br />
“What the hell was that?” he asked the Doctor demandingly, finding her sitting behind<br />
the desk again, her coat on the wall behind her. Ballard looked up, meeting the Lieutenant<br />
distantly.<br />
“You‟re going to have to be more specific, Lieutenant.”<br />
“The girl. You know exactly what I‟m talking about, Anne.”<br />
“The stage six catalyst works,” Ballard said simply, leaning forward in her chair and<br />
swivelling the monitor around so he could see it.<br />
Callaghan looked at the graph. He‟d seen a similar one before, but the decline across<br />
its length had spoken volumes to the project‟s problems. This time, it had plateaued – still in<br />
decline, perhaps, but at a much slower rate. There were no details as to who the graph had<br />
been measured from, but it clearly showed tissue growth and catalyst levels were reaching a<br />
level that could almost be called equilibrium.<br />
“I don‟t understand,” Callaghan pressed. “Why didn‟t you tell the Captain?”<br />
Ballard scoffed. “If Ezard knew about this, he‟d take control and all this would be for<br />
absolutely nothing, Callaghan. We‟re on the verge of solving some of the biggest questions<br />
of genetic science, and all we need is time. He‟s watching me too closely. Sanaa is the<br />
answer. Do you think Ezard has any use of the practical science behind this project? He<br />
wants a weapon.”<br />
“Where did this come from?” Callaghan asked, nodding at the display.<br />
Ballard hesitated before she answered. “A patient.”<br />
Callaghan stared at her blankly. “Sanaa is the only one who has shown any<br />
continued signs of stability in the entire program, and it couldn‟t be from her – so who was<br />
it?”<br />
Ballard swallowed, and looked down for a moment. She nodded, and then looked<br />
him in the eye. “It‟s me.”<br />
“What?”<br />
Ballard shook her head. “I had to have a control agent, Callaghan. I had to know<br />
what it would do.”<br />
“Jesus Christ,” Callaghan reeled, turning on his heel. “Anne, you... Do you have an<br />
idea what you‟ve just done?” He pointed accusingly at the rows of gurneys outside. “How<br />
many people has this project killed already? Are you insane?”<br />
“That‟s why I couldn‟t risk it,” she said sadly.<br />
Callaghan looked back at the graph, and suddenly it clicked. The decline in the graph<br />
had started before the catalyst was introduced. “Wait... Have you done this to yourself<br />
before?”<br />
She smiled. “With some of the „results‟ we‟ve had to date? No, of course not.”<br />
“Then how can that graph be from you? You‟ve got so many of the markers the<br />
Nycarus patients do it isn‟t even funny. You‟d have to be-”<br />
Callaghan stopped, and Ballard smiled weakly as she looked back at the monitor. “I<br />
had to try it,” she said. “It was my only chance.”<br />
“I‟m so sorry,” he said finally, his voice softening. “...How long?”<br />
“After this? Ten years, tops. It‟s a sight better than what I had ten days ago, Ryan.<br />
I‟ve known about my „condition‟ for about seven years.”<br />
“You‟ve never told anyone?”<br />
“No, of course not,” she said. “There‟s nothing that can be done, so there‟s no point<br />
in fussing about it. In ten years, probably less, my nervous system is going to fail, and<br />
there‟s nothing I can do about that. I guess I figured if I can help what‟s happening here, then<br />
maybe... I‟d have a chance.”<br />
She swallowed, and pressed her hand to her chin uncomfortably as her eyes began<br />
to well. “I guess it didn‟t quite work that way.”<br />
She sniffed slightly, and then got up quickly to excuse herself. “I‟m sorry, I can‟t talk<br />
about this.”<br />
- 125 -
“No, I‟m sorry,” Callaghan said again. “Is there anything I can do?”<br />
“Just keep it to yourself,” she said, wiping her eyes.<br />
“Do you think it‟s going to help Sanaa?”<br />
Ballard sighed. “...I hope so.”<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, Mata’utu, west of the Tongan Trench. April<br />
12 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
“All hands, man your battle stations. Rig ship for silent running,” announced the 1MC<br />
across the ship. The atmosphere on Commonwealth‟s bridge was tense once again as the<br />
command staff considered their position. Five hundred miles behind enemy lines, sitting<br />
barely a hundred miles from the most heavily populated Macronesian submarine colonies,<br />
no one even wanted to sneeze.<br />
Admiral Ainsley rolled his knuckles as he examined the plot. SEWACS had already<br />
picked up no less than twenty Alliance patrols since they‟d entered the Tongan Prospects,<br />
the ship‟s helmsmen having manoeuvred the battlecruiser through the sonar-masking, dense<br />
island chain with a level of skill and precision he‟d not seen since he was on the <strong>Atlantis</strong>.<br />
Banick‟s crew were well-drilled, and he was counting on that now more than ever as they<br />
took every possible action to avoid the Macronesian fleet... and a lethal barrage of Atlas<br />
ballistic missiles that would be only minutes behind them. Crossing open water in<br />
Macronesia was a recipe for disaster for any ship trying to reach the southern ocean as a<br />
vast network of proximity sensors, sonar buoys and patrols identified virtually everything that<br />
traversed the sea lanes. Terrain was difficult to use properly, but remained the only option<br />
for anyone attempting to avoid detection. It was easy to use such techniques in something<br />
as small as a speeder or attack submarine, but the reality was that a Reverence class<br />
battlecruiser displaced sixty thousand tonnes, and did not come to new headings and<br />
speeds with the response one would expect of a subfighter. It was like balancing on a knife –<br />
a single mal-adjusted course correction or poorly anticipated change in speed would make<br />
the ship show up on sonars for miles in every direction.<br />
Ainsley traced a line from the tiny island of Mata‟utu north-west through the shallows<br />
of the Waterwitch Bank and Adolph Seamount, finding the Macaw Bank barely two hundred<br />
and sixty four miles away. At her present speed of sixty knots, Commonwealth would reach it<br />
in a little over four hours. While she could undoubtedly get there faster, it wouldn‟t be without<br />
the risk of her massive aqua-return drives betraying their position.<br />
Banick looked apprehensive at the Conn, and Ainsley left him to his thoughts. He<br />
regarded Ryan Callaghan across the chart table with a knowing smile. Silent running was<br />
almost a joke on a submarine of Commonwealth‟s size, and the best they could hope for<br />
was to simply reduce its acoustic signature by locking things down and shutting off any<br />
„essential‟ systems – from backup reactors through to the galley stoves. Conversation would<br />
additionally be limited purely to what needed to be said. Orders, reports and<br />
acknowledgements would continue as normal, but the fact of the matter was that with a<br />
roster of seven hundred officers and crew, the din created by so many conversing ship<br />
mates would produce as much noise as a small rock concert.<br />
Callaghan exhaled slowly as he felt the temperature rise. Another uncomfortable fact<br />
was that the air conditioning plant on a ship of this size produced a substantial amount of<br />
noise as well, and it had to be shut down. In a little as a half an hour, they‟d know which of<br />
the bridge staff had forgotten to put on extra deodorant before they‟d reported for duty.<br />
“Instruct the CAP to push on ahead,” Ainsley ordered quietly. “About fifty miles.”<br />
Callaghan nodded, and relayed the order through to the FOC. In the end, her<br />
escorting fighters could be even more of a problem as their powerful engines screamed<br />
- 126 -
through the deep, drawing any manner of attention to their location – and by extension – any<br />
ship that they were travelling in company with.<br />
“Helm, status?”<br />
“Steady on course three-one-five, speed sixty knots,” the helmsmen replied flatly.<br />
“ETA four hours.”<br />
Ainsley nodded, and then looked across to Banick. “Start the clock.”<br />
He looked up to the top of the chart table and watched as the digital clock there<br />
reset, and started counting down from “-03:59:00”. Drawing a breath, Ainsley sipped his<br />
coffee again, and settled in for the long haul...<br />
...Jane Roberts stuck close to the seafloor, the fighter skipping over embankments of<br />
dead coral as it completed a long circuit around the battlegroup perimeter. Like sharks, the<br />
twelve Raptors of her squadron circled Commonwealth, watching, waiting and looking for<br />
trouble. She sighed as he stomach grumbled unhappily, and contemplated the chocolate bar<br />
sitting in her jumpsuit‟s breast pocket. Before she had a chance to reach for it, the radio<br />
cracked in her ear.<br />
“Sword, this is Warseer. Orders from Actual – Proceed fifty miles north-west and<br />
begin screening their approach vector. Roulette will provide local EW.”<br />
“Wilco, Warseer. All flights - spread out... one mile separation. Proceed to Waypoint<br />
Delta independently. Let‟s try not to give the Macs an easy target.”<br />
“Agreed,” Warseer added. “Be advised – weapons are free. We cannot allow any<br />
confirmed enemy contact with Actual under any circumstances. If they manage to get her<br />
position, it‟s over. All targets are legal.”<br />
Roberts nodded slowly. She‟d expected that when she‟d asked the deck chiefs for a<br />
full weapons load. At that moment, her fighter was nearly a full tonne over its missionstandard<br />
weight, sporting four ASF-8 “Cobra” torpedoes, and an additional two, heavier,<br />
thousand-pound BM-9 “Harpoons”. This was in addition to a thousand rounds of 25mm<br />
“DUSEX” explosive depleted uranium slugs. The rest of the squadron was much the same.<br />
Pushing her throttles up, she cleared her wings left and right before finishing her<br />
circuit to come around tight under the ventral hull of the massive Commonwealth. She<br />
looked up at it as she passed, feeling the cold of darkness as its huge bulk cast a shadow<br />
that blocked out the sunlight from the surface just a few hundred feet above. In waters this<br />
shallow, any engagement was going to be tight...<br />
The next two hours passed in total silence. Even the Rapiers dared not say a word,<br />
fearful that any off-the-cuff radio chatter might and could well be heard from any number of<br />
nearby bases. Roberts knew from the official board of inquiry that it had been that which<br />
ultimately doomed the <strong>Atlantis</strong> – an innocuous remark from a Dark Angels pilot, picked up by<br />
a hovering Alliance SEWACS that traced its origin, and with it, the identity of the pilots in<br />
question. It hadn‟t taken long for them to put two and two together, and <strong>Atlantis</strong> was gone<br />
just hours later.<br />
Roberts never even saw the unit of fighters that shadowed her for the next eighty<br />
three miles, watching, examining, and studying every move. The squadron commander<br />
regarded the Rapiers carefully, instructing his own fighters to hold well back as they<br />
shadowed them on their way to the Macaw Bank. The sleek, dark sea-blue hulls of their<br />
strange, yet familiar subfighters blended perfectly in to the sea - once even managing to get<br />
close enough to the Rapiers to make out the markings on their tails. They were all but<br />
invisible to the UEO sonars, and if they had wanted to, they could have destroyed the entire<br />
UEO squadron in seconds before departing without a trace they had ever been there.<br />
Not a single marking was born on any of the shadowing craft – not squadron, number<br />
or nation being discernable from even the closest of inspections. They simply didn‟t exist.<br />
But this was not common even of mercenaries – that is, assuming they were.<br />
Mercenaries, pirates and criminals typically bore falsified markings and paintwork to obscure<br />
their origins and evade civil law enforcement. At the same time, the likelihood of a private<br />
organization having such uniform craft was utterly unheard of.<br />
- 127 -
For eighty three miles they watched and listened, steadily identifying each and every<br />
one of the UEO Raptor II‟s... and inevitably, their origin. The pursuing fighters were all-too<br />
aware of the Battlecruiser that trailed them, but no message was transmitted. Once their<br />
business was done, the twelve, shadowy craft simply melted in to the fog and disappeared...<br />
leaving as silently as they had arrived.<br />
Thirty minutes after this, an Alliance patrol en-route to the Macaw Bank about<br />
seventy miles west of the UEO battlegroup inexplicably disappeared. Four SA-33<br />
Broadswords of the Macronesian 4 th Fleet‟s 243 rd Fighter Squadron had only enough time to<br />
broadcast their location before they were utterly eradicated, their attackers remaining<br />
unknown.<br />
...The alert reached the Commonwealth‟s CIC and bridge communications stations<br />
minutes after the distress call had gone out, leaving both tactical and operations officers<br />
scratching their heads in confusion. Whatever had happened, it had been enough to pull<br />
almost every major Alliance warship out of position to respond for forty miles in every<br />
direction. What this meant for Commonwealth remained unclear.<br />
Ainsley walked in to the CIC moments later to receive the report, and he didn‟t even<br />
need to ask as the CIC watch officer handed him a sheet of paper with the print out.<br />
Roderick and Richards stepped in to the room behind him as he turned to lean against the<br />
main plot. He read it quickly, and then passed it to Roderick without a sound.<br />
Taking one look at it, Roderick pursed her lips and walked to the flight operations<br />
station on the upper level. “Captain Banick, please report to the CIC,” Ainsley said as he<br />
keyed the intercom to the bridge. A few seconds passed during which the Admiral took in the<br />
battlegroup‟s disposition. Roberts‟ fighters still led them by a good fifty miles, and the report<br />
on Macronesian fleet activity had everything moving well away from the battlecruiser‟s<br />
projected course.<br />
Banick entered the CIC a few seconds later and approached the tactical plot in<br />
silence. “What do we have? He finally asked quietly as he stood next to the Admiral.<br />
“Another happy coincidence,” muttered Ainsley, gesturing to the board that showed<br />
the projected courses of the Alliance patrols away from the carrier group. “Report from a few<br />
minutes ago had an Alliance patrol forty miles west sending a distress call. All they got off<br />
was their position, and then they just... disappeared.”<br />
“Just their position?” asked Banick with surprise. “That‟s a little... convenient, isn‟t it?”<br />
Ainsley smiled. “...I thought so.”<br />
Roderick and Richards watched the board, the location of the attack being<br />
highlighted on the display and she traced the line of Commonwealth‟s advance to that of the<br />
attack. She frowned as she saw a pattern, and then looked at the original courses of the<br />
Alliance patrols around that radius. Within half an hour, Commonwealth would have had to<br />
manoeuvre through at least four of them if it had any chance of getting to the Macaw Bank<br />
without being detected, else she be forced to break across a vast stretch of basin north of<br />
the Adolph Seamount. If she‟d planned it herself, a better diversion could not have been<br />
orchestrated.<br />
“Something wrong, Captain Roderick?” Banick asked her, catching her deep frown as<br />
she ran through the numbers.<br />
There was. The only approaches to the attack‟s location intersected the flight path of<br />
their CAP. They could not possibly have hit it without having come within spitting distance of<br />
Roberts‟ pilots, and their supporting SEWACS. Commonwealth‟s own sensors,<br />
supplemented by her WSKRS and WSPRS probes were good to at least thirty miles in every<br />
direction, and would have surely detected such an encroachment.<br />
“I don‟t think this was coincidence,” she said.<br />
“In that case we agree on something, Captain Roderick,” Ainsley nodded, bringing up<br />
an enlarged version of the former-Wing Commander‟s working notes on the plot before him.<br />
“The Rapiers would have had to have crossed them...”<br />
“SEWACS reported nothing,” Banick said, narrowing his eyes. “We couldn‟t have<br />
missed it.”<br />
- 128 -
Ainsley nodded slowly. “How far are we from Macaw?”<br />
“Sixty miles, Admiral,” Richards noted.<br />
“Get a hold of Roberts, and tell her to do a full sweep of that seamount. I want it<br />
cleared before we get there. I don‟t know how long those Macs are going to be busy, but I‟d<br />
prefer not to give them too much leeway.”<br />
“Rapiers, this is Warseer. Be advised. Drop to the deck and increase speed to target.<br />
Sanitize the area of any contacts and continue patrol until Actual arrives. ETA is forty five<br />
minutes.”<br />
Roberts obediently pushed the fighter down to the seabed, the eleven other<br />
members following her down as they approached the seamount known as Macaw Bank. The<br />
giant submarine structure loomed on her sonar like a black pillar, blocking out everything<br />
beyond. The sea floor was a sheered rift valley, falling and rising like sweeping hills, the<br />
Raptors ducking over and around them as they tried to mask and interfere with their<br />
approach, denying whatever passive guidance locks might have been tracking on their<br />
positions.<br />
Behind her, Sarah Cunningham smiled a little as she settled in to a rhythm with the<br />
seafloor below her, finding every hill and ravine both quickly and precisely as she pressed<br />
her fighter closer and closer to the embankments, feeling the floor beneath her feet shudder<br />
slightly as the huge amount of turbulence beneath her wings kicked off the seabed and<br />
enveloped the Raptor. Rounding the next turn, something glinted in the shallower waters<br />
above her, and her head shot up to see the shadow pass. It had almost looked like...<br />
“Two Birds to Lead,” she called in. “I‟ve got a possible tally-ho on a bandit at eleveno‟clock<br />
high, bearing three one five.”<br />
...Roberts checked the bearing, both eyeballed and on sonars, but saw nothing. “You<br />
sure about that, Two Birds?”<br />
Cunningham strained to make out the shape again, but saw nothing. “Negative, can‟t<br />
confirm. Request permission to pursue?”<br />
Roberts hesitated for a long moment, and then swore. This wasn‟t something she<br />
could take a chance on. “Granted, Eight. Nine, cover her.”<br />
Obligingly, the two Raptors on the end of the formation peeled off and howled<br />
towards the surface, Cunningham‟s eyes darting through the shadows faster than her fighter<br />
could keep up. Her sonars continued to return nothing more than the black shadow of the<br />
seamount ahead, which had started to cast a long, cold shadow through the water as the<br />
sun sank lower on the horizon. The glare being kicked off the surface was painful, and her<br />
eyes watered as she squinted to make out shapes through the gloom just beneath the<br />
surface. Something sharp glinted ahead of her again, and quickly disappeared once more...<br />
but her sonars continued to lie.<br />
“This is not good,” she whispered inwardly.<br />
“Two Birds this is Warseer. I have negative contacts. Area seems clear.”<br />
Cunningham thought for a minute as the waves above her head continued to fly<br />
passed. She looked again at the shadow on her sensors, and kicked the fighter over to close<br />
with it. “Warseer, do you have any coverage on the back side of that seamount?”<br />
“Negative, Two Birds. Macaw Bank is too shallow – we‟re completely blind northside.”<br />
“Damn it,” she muttered again. “Request permission to make a high speed pass.”<br />
Roberts looked up at the shadow of Cunningham and Rogers‟ fighters above her<br />
head, and then looked forward to the looming seamount on her sensors, still several miles<br />
off. “Do it.”<br />
Cunningham didn‟t need to be told twice as she threw her throttles forward, and was<br />
pressed back hard in her seat, chasing the shadow in to the rising mountain. Her sonars<br />
continued to return little more than the haze of the distant fog, and her finger slowly came to<br />
cover her guns as the fighter began to move in to the dark-side of the bank.<br />
“Covering your six o‟clock, Two-Birds,” Rogers reported flatly.<br />
- 129 -
Rounding the apex of the mountain, the sensor returns on the rest of the squadron<br />
steadily dropped off, one by one.<br />
“Ghost stories,” she repeated to herself as she steadily rounded the embankment.<br />
“Wonderful...”<br />
Cunningham‟s eyes went wide as the sonar went berserk, returning a contact less<br />
than half a mile in front of her. She swore as she pushed the nose of the Raptor in to a steep<br />
dive to the sea floor, the massive bulk of the object flying by at better than three hundred<br />
knots. “What the fuck,”<br />
Her head snapped around in time to catch the ominous, black hull melt in to the<br />
darkness behind her. “Rapier Nine!” she barked, “Get the hell out of here!”<br />
Commonwealth approached the bank slowly as every alarm in the Flight Operations<br />
Centre and CIC started blaring. Both Cunningham and Rogers had emerged from the<br />
shadow of the mountain again, but they were not alone as the massive, unmistakeable bulk<br />
of a warship pulled out of its hiding place to sweep around the ridge line to meet the UEO<br />
battlecruiser.<br />
The order for the rest of Commonwealth‟s fighter squadrons had already gone out as<br />
Ainsley finally saw what the WSKRS returned to the ship‟s screens. Tactical officers were<br />
calling out shooting solutions and firing orders to every one of the ships batteries as he,<br />
Callaghan and Banick stood in silence watching in amazement.<br />
“Batteries one through twelve are tracking, guidance locks in ten seconds!”<br />
“Laser batteries armed. No IFF!”<br />
“Firing-point procedures, all tubes – target designated Master Forty Three...”<br />
All three of the officers recognised the lines of the vessel before them, appearing<br />
from the shadow of the mountain like a ghost straight from their past. Ainsley‟s voice rose<br />
above the din sharply.<br />
“Belay those orders!” he cut in. “Stand down all weapons!”<br />
“Admiral?”<br />
“Do it, Lieutenant!” Banick added, his eyes not breaking from the ghostly image on<br />
the screen in front of him.<br />
The ship was in full view now, stem-to-stern being easily as large as Commonwealth<br />
herself at around two hundred and seventy meters. Her lines were similar in many ways, if<br />
perhaps a little unrefined by customarily „organic‟ UEO standards.<br />
But this surprised none of them. Vessels of the North Sea Confederation were<br />
typically bulky, utilitarian designs, and the Escort Submergence Vehicles were absolutely no<br />
exception.<br />
“I‟ll be damned,” Roderick whispered to herself, her mouth gawking in shock.<br />
“Still no IFF,” repeated the tactical officers as they ran the schematic. “...Design is<br />
consistent with North Sea Confederation Polaris class <strong>DSV</strong>. There‟re a few anomalies I can‟t<br />
work out.”<br />
“Don‟t bother,” Ainsley said, shaking his head. “That‟s the NSC Vengeance,<br />
lieutenant. You won‟t find her in any fleet rosters.”<br />
“She‟s hailing us,” Banick muttered.<br />
“I thought she might be,” Ainsley replied, suddenly feeling a very familiar and very<br />
sickening feeling in his gut. “...Put them up.”<br />
Ainsley watched as the CIC‟s main screen dissolved to black, and then cut back in to<br />
show the stern, chiselled face of a man he thought had been dead for two years. Captain<br />
William Stiles bore a lop-sided grin, his straight-cut, black uniform being lost against the dim,<br />
blue light of his ship‟s bridge behind him.<br />
“Captain Smith,” Ainsley drawled slowly, deciding to use the name Stiles had tried<br />
posing with last time they had met. “I saw you die.”<br />
“So did the Alliance, Admiral,” Stiles countered wryly. “I‟d appreciate it if you<br />
instructed your subfighters to stand down.”<br />
Ainsley held that thought for a moment, as the idea crossed his mind that his silence<br />
might very well cause the Rapiers to save him a great deal of pain and effort. After a<br />
- 130 -
moment, he looked off to Roderick and nodded once before turning back to the screen.<br />
“Captain... Without putting too finer point on it, what are you doing here?”<br />
“Waiting for you,” Stiles said simply, as if the answer were obvious. “You took your<br />
time, I might add. We couldn‟t have waited much longer. Keeping the Alliance patrols off<br />
your trail‟s been not the easiest of tasks.”<br />
Richards and Roderick exchanged a wary glance, but Ainsley pressed on. He‟d worry<br />
about the details later. “I think given circumstances, Captain, you‟d better come aboard so<br />
we can discuss this in person.”<br />
“Agreed,” Stiles nodded. “I‟ll be there in five minutes.”<br />
His image disappeared, and Ainsley pointed at the operations officers opposite the<br />
chart table. “Tell Captains Hayes and Barker I want them over here as soon as they can,” he<br />
ordered. “Captains Banick, Roderick, Commander Callaghan, meet me in the wardroom in<br />
five minutes. And let‟s keep this one off the battle net, people... Just for the time being.”<br />
Commonwealth and Vengeance kept company with each other closely in the shadow<br />
of the Macaw Bank, the cruiser Tripoli and SSN Fall River next to them being utterly dwarfed<br />
in scale. For the next several minutes, fighters and shuttles transferred between the four<br />
vessels, and the Rapiers settled in to a closely guarding holding pattern around them. Of the<br />
shadowy subfighters who had followed them there, there was no sign.<br />
Ainsley and Stiles walked down the long port side passage of the Commonwealth‟s<br />
forward decks on their way from the hangar until they came to the bulkhead sealed just aft of<br />
the thirtieth frame. Ainsley stopped there as he remembered the damage Commonwealth<br />
had taken just two days prior. “You still didn‟t answer my question, Will,” Ainsley said as he<br />
took the cross corridor towards the battlecruiser‟s starboard side. He didn‟t say it of course,<br />
but he had deliberately taken the port side corridor knowing he‟d have to reroute down a<br />
longer passage in order to get to the wardroom. That would give him more time alone with<br />
Stiles, who he knew would try to dodge the questions at every possible turn. “And I‟d really<br />
like to know what happened after Marinduque.”<br />
Stiles shook his head. “We survived, but our orders had us headed elsewhere. I wish<br />
I could tell you more than that, Ainsley, but I‟m afraid there‟s a lot that‟s still classified.”<br />
Ainsley was dour. “Why do I get the distinct impression I‟m about to feel like I‟m<br />
beating my head against the missile bulkheads?”<br />
Stiles regarded the Admiral with a knowing smile. “You know me that well?”<br />
...Roderick and Richards entered the wardroom before anyone else by several<br />
minutes, having wasted little time in leaving the bridge after Ainsley had given his orders.<br />
Roderick entered first, and Richards closed the door behind him before rounding and<br />
almost exploding. “What the hell is going on, Quinn!? Who is that guy? And what‟s with his<br />
ship?”<br />
Roderick shook her head, exhaling sharply as she wiped the sweat from her brow.<br />
The ship was still sweltering, and she reached in to her pocket for an elastic band with which<br />
to tie back her hair that was now matting at the back her neck. “About two years ago,” she<br />
explained. “When Hitchcock led the assault on Marinduque Island, we met up with a North<br />
Sea Confederation <strong>DSV</strong> named the Vengeance. That‟s her outside. At the time, we thought<br />
she‟d been destroyed when the whole island went up with that subduction attack. By the<br />
time we recovered, she was just... gone.”<br />
“Why didn‟t I hear about this?”<br />
“This is when you were still out after The Abattoir, Ed,” Roderick elaborated on<br />
Richards‟ brief stand-down from duty in 2041. “And Intel omitted everything about the<br />
Vengeance from the reports. NSC command didn‟t want anyone getting wind of her before<br />
they‟d committed to the war officially.”<br />
“Great...”<br />
The door to the wardroom swung open again and Banick, Hayes, Callaghan and<br />
Barker entered, looking at the two fighter pilots with a measure of surprise.<br />
- 131 -
“Captain Roderick, I‟d remind you that what happened at Marinduque is still<br />
classified,” Banick berated her sternly, having heard her from outside.<br />
She flushed a little, and nodded apologetically. “Yes sir. Sorry sir.”<br />
“It‟s alright. I‟m eager to find out just what the hell is going on as much as you are, I<br />
don‟t blame you. But as the Admiral said... let‟s try and keep things quiet for now.”<br />
“Do you have any idea what‟s going on, sir?” Madeline Hayes asked, having seen<br />
nothing of what had transpired on Commonwealth‟s bridge.<br />
“I wish I did,” he grumbled. “Coming out here was a mistake. I just hope the Admiral<br />
is more forthcoming about things now that this little mess is out in the open.”<br />
The officers were waiting only a few minutes before Ainsley led Stiles in to the room,<br />
the two officers circling around the table as the rest of the staff stood up and waited for the<br />
Admiral to take his seat. The sat down only when he did. “Before I arrived on the<br />
Commonwealth,” Ainsley started slowly, “I met with Admiral Anise von Schrader in London,<br />
the head of the NSIS. A few months ago, my office in London received several messages<br />
from an unknown source, and what I didn‟t know at the time was that these messages<br />
contained a series of numbers that – with Captain Banick‟s help – I only recently worked out.<br />
They were dates, attached to a broken set of latitude and longitude coordinates leading to<br />
this location.”<br />
No one said a word, and Ainsley finally turned to Stiles, his tone suddenly taking on<br />
an accusing note. “...Prior to that, I had the NSIS looking in to a personal matter of mind as a<br />
favour. All Admiral Schrader told me was that some „professional colleagues‟ were looking in<br />
to it, and that I‟d be hearing from them in a few days. It now dawns on me, Captain Stiles,<br />
that the timing of all this is a little too good to be true.”<br />
“I thought his name was „Smith‟?” whispered Captain Barker to Hayes beside him.<br />
The Commander of the Fall River smiled in return. “It‟s a long story.”<br />
Stiles sat in silence for a moment, a small smile curling at the corner of his mouth. “I<br />
concede the point, Admiral,” he admitted with a curt nod. “Admiral Schrader did contact me,<br />
and I am the one who was sent to meet with you – on both matters. The personal matter she<br />
asked me to follow up for you we can discuss later, but for the time being, there is a larger<br />
issue.”<br />
“I don‟t believe for a minute, Captain that the NSIS didn‟t know what those messages<br />
meant. It took me only three days to work it out when your analysts had it for weeks. What<br />
was the purpose of it?”<br />
“We need your help,” he replied plainly. “Recently some things have come to light for<br />
the NSIS that have left us... in a difficult position. I regret that I am not able to discuss that<br />
much further for reasons of security, but you will learn of it in due course... For the moment,<br />
I‟m asking you to trust me. Our goals are very much in line with one another.”<br />
“Those goals being?” Ainsley pressed.<br />
“Your orders are to destroy the Atlas missile battery presently being constructed at<br />
the former UEO Naval Base of Pearl Harbor,” he explained in an effort to supplicate his<br />
presumption. “In truth, the NSIS knows as little about the origin of the messages you<br />
received as you do. By now you have doubtless worked out that the encryption used in the<br />
message‟s cipher originated from a command protocol that was used exclusively on UEO<br />
<strong>DSV</strong>s – specifically by so-called “Human A.I.” sentience. The solution to this cipher is<br />
dependent on knowing both where and when the signal originated, something of a<br />
Heisenberg principle, if you will, that prevents enemy Signals offices from intercepting and<br />
reading such transmissions. This is knowledge the NSIS does not have.”<br />
Roderick cocked her head. “So how did you break the cipher if you didn‟t have the<br />
information?”<br />
Stiles hesitated, and looked at Roderick with a face that betrayed next to nothing.<br />
“...It was given to us.”<br />
“By who?”<br />
“Something else I can‟t say,” he confessed. “The important thing is that we didn‟t<br />
send the message, and we have reason to believe that both you, Admiral Ainsley, and we,<br />
were meant to receive it.”<br />
- 132 -
“Are you saying we were manipulated in to meeting here?” the Admiral concluded<br />
grimly.<br />
“Something to that effect, yes.”<br />
Roderick smiled inwardly, but didn‟t say a word as she bit he tongue and looked<br />
away.<br />
“Something the matter, Captain?” Stiles asked her.<br />
She looked at him for a moment, and then flashed a glance at Ainsley, whose<br />
expression was as unreadable as Stiles‟ had been only moments before. “Yes, as a matter<br />
of fact there is.”<br />
“Speak your mind, Captain. The table‟s open,” Ainsley suggested.<br />
“Captain Stiles, I‟m not in any way as well connected to the Intelligence community<br />
as you are, but I do know a bluff when I see it. For weeks, I‟ve been getting reports of<br />
attacks on Alliance convoys in this very region, specifically, the Macaw Bank. What you said<br />
before, on the bridge, strikes me as a little odd, sir, because such an attack happened just a<br />
little while before we found you... conveniently less than a hundred miles from here.”<br />
Stiles levelled with her, accepting her challenge calmly as he met her icy gaze.<br />
“Captain Roderick. Believe me when I say, I wouldn‟t know about the nature of those attacks<br />
any more than you seem to. I‟m aware of them, but I fail to see what relevance that has to<br />
this discussion.”<br />
“Respectfully sir, I believe you do know.”<br />
Admiral Ainsley stared her down from behind Stiles, but the NSC Captain simply<br />
smiled, refusing to take the bait. “I‟ll rephrase, if you prefer something more direct, Captain. I<br />
make it my business not to know. Plausible deniability in my line of work is an important<br />
thing to keep in perspective, and as I made no secret of when we began – there are things I<br />
am not at liberty to discuss.”<br />
“But why here, sir?” she urged, making her point more directly.<br />
“That‟s what we‟d like to know, Captain, and that‟s why we‟d like your help. I will not<br />
deny, for the sake of your curiosity, that we have been running combat operations in these<br />
waters for some weeks, but that someone else knew that is what concerns us. We need to<br />
find out how they knew, and how we can fix that.”<br />
“So you have a leak?” Barker suggested.<br />
Stiles smiled again, straightening his cuffs. “As I said... it‟s something like that.”<br />
“You said our interests are aligned,” Ainsley tried “I presume you want something in<br />
return?”<br />
“Admiral Schrader suggested that I should take you to meet someone,” Stiles said.<br />
“She said that once you saw for yourself, you would be more willing to discuss our options.<br />
All I‟m asking at this stage, sir, is that you do as the Admiral has suggested, and follow us to<br />
that meeting. Once there, I can also provide you with answers to the questions you asked<br />
her to examine for you.”<br />
Ainsley leaned forward, his eyes darkening. “Are you seriously trying to blackmail<br />
me, William?”<br />
He shook his head. “No, Mark, if I wanted to do that I simply would have threatened<br />
to expose your position to the Alliance if you didn‟t follow me, and would never have come<br />
aboard. I‟m just explaining how this can work.”<br />
Banick chuckled inwardly, looking at Callaghan with a knowing smile. “...He‟s starting<br />
to remind me of Keelan.”<br />
Stiles eye flickered at that, and he regarded Banick coolly. “...If it helps, Captain, she<br />
sends her regards.”<br />
Banick and Callaghan were unsettled by that, and Ainsley cut in before it went any<br />
further, eyeing-off each of the officers carefully. “Ok, that‟s enough. We‟re on the same side,<br />
last I checked. Captain Stiles... right now the real situation is this – we‟re sitting five hundred<br />
miles behind the enemy front line, at the base of a seamount, in the middle of a rift valley.<br />
Whether we follow you or not this is not the best place to be. We‟ll follow you, but at the end<br />
of it, we‟re going to expect answers.”<br />
Stiles nodded in agreement. “And I promise you, sir... You will have every last one.”<br />
- 133 -
...Sarah Cunningham looked down through the canopy to the massive shape of the<br />
NSC “ESV” below. She‟d heard whispers of the North Sea Confederation building their own<br />
„Deep Submergence Vehicles‟ supposedly named the “Polaris” class, but nothing concrete<br />
had ever surfaced. As best she knew, Polaris herself was the only active ship of the class,<br />
and it left her feeling very uneasy about the one now beside her. The lines were a curiosity –<br />
a tapered, arrowhead bow heading back to a narrow „neck‟ separating the forward planes<br />
from an enlarged mid-section that had to be the ship‟s hydrosphere.<br />
To say it was a ringer for the sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong> was an understatement.<br />
“Rapiers - Warseer. Be advised we‟re mobile. Orders are to escort Commonwealth<br />
and Vengeance, waypoints and nav data pending. Flight Ops is coordinating with the<br />
Vengeance CIC presently. Stand by.”<br />
“More escort, fantastic,” moaned Rogers over the radio. Cunningham allowed herself<br />
a small smile as she waited in anticipation for the inevitable rebuke from Roberts.<br />
“Rapier Nine, cut it.”<br />
There it was.<br />
Cunningham continued to wait as she watched the two massive submarines slowly<br />
heel about, the escorting Tripoli and Fall River pulling back momentarily to allow them<br />
passage. There had been no more shuttles moving between the flotilla of warships since<br />
Stiles, Hayes and Barker transferred to the Commonwealth herself, and whatever was<br />
happening... it was clearly being decided from a single place.<br />
“Rapiers, heads up. Transferring navigational data to you now. Assume flank escort<br />
immediately.”<br />
The squadron immediately broke up in to three groups, with Roberts leading the first<br />
flight to the head of the fleet. This left Schrader on the fleet‟s right, and put Tomlinson‟s flight<br />
three – including Cunningham and Rogers in their positions to Vengeance‟s immediate port<br />
quarter. Cunningham cut her throttles to twenty percent, feeling the fighter decelerate<br />
rapidly. Nav data had the fleet moving off at a speed of seventy knots, and she matched it<br />
easily before coupling the waypoint data to her autopilot, letting go of the controls.<br />
She watched as Jeffrey Tomlinson‟s Raptor slipped in to formation ahead of her, his<br />
engines visibly winding down as the trails of cavitation steadily disappeared from his wake.<br />
The flight leader waggled his wings twice, and continued to sit at her ten o‟clock at a<br />
distance of barely fifteen meters. Cunningham double checked that her fighter was slaved to<br />
Tomlinson‟s own autopilot system, and then sighed. This, by definition, was hands-free BFM,<br />
and from here out, all the twelve pilots could do, was wait.<br />
That was until Roberts decided otherwise.<br />
“Very sloppy,” the squadron leader observed. “All units disengage your autopilots. I<br />
don‟t know when you forgot Basic Flight Manoeuvres, but this isn‟t good enough. We‟ll do it<br />
by the numbers, until you get it right.”<br />
“Oh, fuck that,” a voice replied. Cunningham wasn‟t sure, but it had sounded like<br />
Rapier Ten, the American Lieutenant J.G. Edwin Bruckmeyer.<br />
There was silence for an awkward moment, and Cunningham cringed – just as she<br />
was certain every other pilot in the squadron was doing – as she imagined the storm cloud<br />
brewing over Rapier One‟s cockpit.<br />
Cunningham watched as the communications status display showed Roberts<br />
disappear from the squadron frequency momentarily, undoubtedly referring it to the nearby<br />
SEWACS. As Roberts‟ signal returned to the board, it was Warseer that gave the order.<br />
“Roadrunner, you are ordered to break formation and return to base.”<br />
There was silence for another moment, and then Rapier Ten responded. “...Yes sir.<br />
Breaking formation, RTB...”<br />
Roberts watched in her rear-vision mirror above her head as the Raptor that was<br />
trailing her broke away, and peeled off towards the Commonwealth. No one said a word, but<br />
the implication was clear, and Cunningham just shook her head as she obediently took hold<br />
of the throttle and stick again, and disengaged the autopilot with a quick flick of her right<br />
- 134 -
index finger. “This is eight,” she reported flatly, feeling weight return to her controls. “Orders<br />
acknowledged. Hands-on, throttle and stick.”<br />
For the next hour, every one of the squadron‟s pilots were made to hold their<br />
formations, calling every turn, manoeuvre and course change as they happened, never<br />
straying more than a few feet from their relative positions. It was hard work, requiring a level<br />
of focus and concentration uncommon for most pilots. For Edwin “Roadrunner” Bruckmeyer,<br />
it would be a lot worse than that.<br />
Admiral Ainsley was still in the CIC reading the waypoints that were being steadily<br />
relayed to the ship by Vengeance‟s bridge when Captain William Stiles strolled through the<br />
clam doors on to the bridge, garnering several unsure looks from the UEO staff. Most of the<br />
Commonwealth‟s officers were still in their tan „shore‟ uniforms in deference to the usual<br />
black jumpsuits, and that contrasted starkly with the black-clad NSC officer who now stood<br />
amongst them. The uniform was braided in silver, and he wore the blue, white and gold<br />
roundel of the NSC – 12 gold stars of the European Union, surrounding the old white<br />
compass used by the long-since defunct NATO. It didn‟t take long for one of the junior<br />
offices to notice him and his rank insignia, directing him through the glass doors on the port<br />
side that led straight in to the adjacent CIC.<br />
Stiles thanked the officer, and quickly passed otherwise unnoticed over the command<br />
deck, crossing in front of the ship‟s great crest, and entered the glass-walled combat<br />
information centre.<br />
He stepped lightly down the short, three-step drop to the chart floor and sidled up<br />
next to the Admiral slowly. Ainsley‟s eye drew a cautious gaze from the chart back to his old<br />
comrade, and he raised his brow. “Bill, where exactly are we going?”<br />
Stiles pursed his lips for a moment as he looked at the plotted course of the<br />
impromptu battlegroup that steadily weaved its way east, further from the Alliance patrols,<br />
but drawing ever nearer to the Tongan Trench. “Sorry, Ainsley.”<br />
“This is one hell of a limb you have me out on,” the Admiral muttered. “If you were<br />
anyone else...”<br />
“Having doubts?”<br />
“Doubt isn‟t the word I‟d use,” Ainsley countered. “Concerns, yes. You still haven‟t<br />
told me who you‟re answering to. I don‟t believe for a minute that Schrader has a hand in<br />
this.”<br />
Stiles chuckled lightly. “Mark, you know Anise just as well as I do. There isn‟t a thing<br />
that happens on this planet without her knowing about it. She knows a lot more than she lets<br />
on.”<br />
“Yes, but this isn‟t her style,” Ainsley argued. “Come to think of it, it isn‟t even your<br />
style.”<br />
William Stiles smirked. “If it makes you feel any better, we should be arriving in about<br />
an hour. Vengeance has already made arrangements with our contacts.”<br />
“Yes, I‟m sure she has.”<br />
“So how have you been, Mark?”<br />
The Admiral scoffed. “It‟s been two years, Bill. I thought you‟d died. How about you<br />
start with the stories?”<br />
Stiles looked affronted. “Mark, we both picked our careers. I‟m only following my<br />
orders, just like you. I‟m sorry we had to meet again under these circumstances, but... right<br />
now we can‟t exactly afford to be sentimental about this kind of thing.”<br />
“The law holds no meaning when following it defeats the spirit of its intent,” Ainsley<br />
growled. “There‟s a reason I don‟t trust black ops.”<br />
A few of the CIC staff were beginning to look at the two officers with curiosity, and<br />
Ainsley eyed each of them before ushering Stiles in to Banick‟s office, next door.<br />
He held the door as the NSC captain entered, and then let it latch shut. He hadn‟t<br />
even turned around when Stiles shook his head. “Do me a favour and listen, or at least hear<br />
what they have to say. There‟re things going on in the world right now, Mark, that aren‟t<br />
doing your war any favours.”<br />
- 135 -
“You don‟t think I know that?” he replied flatly. “Why is it ever since I‟ve got back<br />
everyone‟s turned in to some kind of idealistic jackass? Banick‟s barely speaking to me,<br />
Richards is half way to mutiny, Roderick wants to throw in the towel and topping it off, you‟re<br />
suddenly making about as much sense as a Nycarian on ice.”<br />
“Well that‟s a scary thought,” considered Stiles with a worried frown. “...Point being,<br />
this war has gone on a long time, Ainsley, and it‟s going to continue a while longer at the rate<br />
its going. I can‟t blame your staff for being on edge. Everyone has an opinion on how this<br />
war should be run... Bloody hell, you‟re about the most idealistic person I know, the only<br />
thing they can never work out about you is how that changes every time you have an<br />
argument.”<br />
“Am I that predictable?”<br />
“Well, put it this way, not many people have time for „shades of grey‟ anymore. It<br />
either is or it isn‟t, and nothing in between.”<br />
That stopped Ainsley, and he narrowed his eyes as he attempted to work out what it<br />
was that his old friend was trying so hard to hide.<br />
“Banick‟s not made this easy, has he,” Stiles fronted.<br />
“No, he hasn‟t. I don‟t ever remember him being so stubborn.”<br />
“Not since he lost Natalie...”<br />
“I didn‟t realise you were aware of that,” Ainsley noted poignantly. When Stiles had<br />
disappeared, it had been only minutes after Natalie Canebride had been killed in action.<br />
“You didn‟t think I‟d come here without doing my homework on the man did you?”<br />
“I suppose not.”<br />
“Banick‟s been caught out by indecision before. It‟s only going to be natural that he‟ll<br />
put his back to that now,” Stiles argued.<br />
“Being flexible does not mean you need to be indecisive,” Ainsley grunted, shaking<br />
his head as he started to pace.<br />
Now the NSC Captain grinned. “Perhaps you should tell that to your Secretary-<br />
General.”<br />
“You gave him to us,” Ainsley snidely drawled, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.<br />
“And you can keep him!”<br />
At that, Ainsley finally laughed.<br />
Ryan Callaghan signed off on the report filed by engineering maintenance and put<br />
aside with the rest so the Yeoman could collect the pile on his next round. He settled back in<br />
his seat and picked up the lukewarm mug of coffee from the small side table before taking<br />
an awkward mouthful. He grimaced, and put the coffee aside again.<br />
The worst thing about following the NSC Vengeance was that he had no idea where<br />
she was leading them, and minutes had seemed liked hours as each waypoint passed them<br />
by, leaving another in its place.<br />
It was tedious, but it was the anticipation that he found most frustrating. The course<br />
taken by the small flotilla of allied warships was a weaving and unpredictable path, but one<br />
that was heading towards a place that most of Commonwealth‟s crew would care to forget.<br />
The only bright side, he thought grudgingly, was that it would take them back towards<br />
friendly waters. Callaghan signed another report as a familiar stride of boots shook the deck<br />
slightly under his planted feet, not overly heavy, but nonetheless marked and precise –<br />
audibly walking a fine line that brought a slight smile to his face. A gentle hand traced his<br />
shoulders as it passed behind and sent a chill down his spine. There would, of course, have<br />
been a problem if Ryan hadn‟t learnt the patterns and rhythms of his wife after so long.<br />
Madeline beat a professional retreat as she rounded the chair and came to stand<br />
next to the Conn‟s control consoles, a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips, matching<br />
his. “How‟re you doing?” she asked quietly.<br />
Ryan met her confidently enough, but his eyes betrayed the uncertainty there, and<br />
she tore through the veil of silence with all the subtlety of well-swung sword.<br />
- 136 -
Callaghan got up from the chair and smothered his face in his hands, beginning to<br />
pace in front of his chair distracted and unsure of how to resolve his predicament. He<br />
muttered it under his breath. “This is going to get worse before it gets better, Madeline.”<br />
“You really don‟t see this ending well, do you?”<br />
Ryan paused and looked around at some of the other bridge officers. None of them<br />
had seemed settled since the arrival of the Vengeance. Lieutenant Commander Phillips‟<br />
gaze met his from communications awkwardly, and the Commonwealth XO was forced to<br />
look away.<br />
“I was hoping Stiles might have been able to mediate this,” he suggested. “But until<br />
they start trusting each other, and stop leaving us in the dark...”<br />
Ryan‟s frustration showed, prompting Hayes instinctively to reach out with her hand.<br />
“Hey,” she purred. “We‟re all on the same side. For whatever differences the Admiral and<br />
Jim have, they know that as well.”<br />
“Madeline, you weren‟t here when we pulled Reverence out of the fire. Jim was<br />
questioning every second order that the Admiral issued. We can‟t afford that and you know it<br />
– not when we‟re out here alone.”<br />
“That‟s not what I‟d heard,” she parried. “But if the Captain needs reminding of where<br />
he stands – you should be the one to tell him – not the Admiral.”<br />
“That‟s not going to go down well...”<br />
“He‟s stubborn, and has been for a very long time, Ryan. It‟s going to take someone<br />
closer to him to remind him of that. Jim‟s bucked authority his entire life, and right now, the<br />
Admiral is about the last person on earth who‟d be in a position to tell him.”<br />
Ryan was silent, and Hayes looked around before dragging him in to the corner of<br />
the command deck, out of sight. “This isn‟t the time,” he hissed sharply.<br />
“Damn it, Ryan!” she spat. “You know I‟ll support any decision you make. But<br />
someone needs to make a stand in this. Be it the Admiral or the Captain, one of them needs<br />
to clear their head here, and that might mean taking sides.”<br />
Callaghan paused, and rounded on her with fierce eyes. “I didn‟t realise there were<br />
sides to choose from.”<br />
Madeline stopped at the implication and looked hurt. Callaghan regretted his words<br />
immediately as he watched her back away, all the while faintly aware of the wandering eyes<br />
that pried from the open Combat Information Centre behind him. “That‟s not what I meant,<br />
and you know it,” she said quietly. “I should go.”<br />
Hayes had already turned and taken three paces before he called out to her. “Please<br />
wait,” he asked gently. It had been a suggestion, and not an order, and it brought her about<br />
on a heel.<br />
“I‟m relieved in twenty minutes,” he offered. “Meet you in the mess?”<br />
There was a flicker of a smile at the corner of her mouth, and she nodded. “You<br />
might want to notify Fall River I won‟t be back for a couple of hours,” she suggested as she<br />
turned to leave.<br />
“...and make it your quarters, not the mess hall.”<br />
“They‟ll want to know why,” he countered, folding his arms.<br />
She turned her head to look back at him, her shoulders slowly following the<br />
deliberate, guided and almost sultry movement as she started backwards. “...That‟s<br />
classified.”<br />
~<br />
It had become almost instinctive for Sarah Cunningham to feel uneasy whenever her<br />
fighter sat in its holding bay, its engines not even idling as the only power being fed to it<br />
came from the APUs. She had reckoned that it wasn‟t a healthy reaction by any means, as it<br />
had come from acclimatizing to an unending schedule and circus of drills and combat, where<br />
the only times she would sit in or even see her fighter would be when it was prepped and<br />
- 137 -
waiting for her on the flight line, fuelled and armed, with its engines snarling and growling at<br />
her with all the malicious intent of an angry cat - hungry, and baying for blood.<br />
The silence and stillness of the fighter as she sat in the cockpit felt tardy, unprepared<br />
and vulnerable. It felt wrong. It would take several minutes to bring its systems to full power,<br />
and even longer to shift it to the drop bays where it could be of any use should the call come,<br />
and this made her uncomfortable.<br />
In the short time she had spent in the fleet, the fighter had become an extension of<br />
her. It represented more than a weapon – it had become the one, undeniable truth of her life.<br />
The fighter would never lie to her. The reality of combat, and the way the Raptor responded<br />
to her deft instruction and command was felt in every vibration, rattle, whine and jolt of its<br />
fuselage. In its own way, it told her everything it felt, and she felt the pain of every wound<br />
inflicted on its hull, and the sense of betrayal that came from failing to protect it, when it had<br />
done so much to protect her. Neither could function without the other, and the loss of either<br />
in battle would undoubtedly kill the companion.<br />
The Raptor never lied.<br />
This was its creed.<br />
And yet Cunningham continued to sit, staring at the sensor logs, faced with evidence<br />
that the fighter had, in fact, lied. The SF-38 was not a perfect creature, with flaws like any<br />
other fighter. One of those flaws was a small, blind gap in its sonar coverage to the fighter‟s<br />
aft, just below the centreline. It was here that the turbulent wash of the two engines<br />
interfered with the craft‟s ventral array, and it was normal not to be able to pick up any<br />
definable sonar signatures in that area.<br />
This fact had nearly cost Captain Corinn Roderick her life two years previously when<br />
a skilled enemy pilot had exploited that flaw, blindsiding her to shoot her down in the deep<br />
South Pacific near Tierra Del Fuego. Pilots were now painfully aware of the shortcoming,<br />
and took measures in combat to minimise the risk of such an incident being repeated.<br />
But this was something else entirely.<br />
The sensor logs were incomplete. Even in the absence of solid returns to that blind<br />
spot, there should have been a registration of the fighter‟s own engine wake, noise and<br />
general interference, and true to expectations there was - but for a single, anomalous „hole‟<br />
in which nothing had been recorded at all.<br />
“Chief,” Cunningham asked, disquieted by the find. “I thought we realigned the<br />
number three array on Friday?”<br />
The fighter crew chief assigned to VF-107 looked up from his work on the exposed<br />
bow sensor dome, the fighter‟s nose cone standing upright on the deck beside him. “What?”<br />
“It‟s out of alignment by at least half a degree,” she explained, cross checking the<br />
telemetry from the flight log to the test data the fighter was now giving her.<br />
“You‟re kidding,” he said, his shoulders deflating after having spent nearly two hours<br />
of his day working on it.<br />
“Wish I was,” Cunningham sighed, handing him the data pad that she‟d wirelessly<br />
linked to the FMC.<br />
The Chief‟s mouth was open as he looked at the inexplicable data. Cunningham‟s<br />
was the third of the squadron‟s Raptors that had returned exactly the same result.<br />
“That‟s the third bird today,” the Chief said, his mood rapidly turning sour. “How the<br />
hell can three sonar arrays get knocked out of alignment so quickly? Have you checked<br />
number three‟s acoustic array?”<br />
It had taken a while, but Cunningham had finally started following suit from the<br />
squadron commander. For years, Jane Roberts had made it her business to remain as<br />
involved with her fighter‟s maintenance as she could, although her promotion to squadron<br />
CO had drastically reduced the time she could dedicate to it since. Still, despite having been<br />
in the routine for at least a month, there were aspects of the fighter‟s mechanical and<br />
electrical operations that she had barely begun to understand. The crew chief‟s knowledge<br />
of the fighter was thorough and comprehensive, with not a single system being unfamiliar to<br />
him.<br />
- 138 -
Cunningham obediently pulled up the sensor logs for the secondary, slaved acoustic<br />
array that was tied to the main hypersonar and compared it with the first log. Any subfighter<br />
pilot understood the basic concepts of acoustic navigation and targeting, and in this case,<br />
Cunningham didn‟t see the point of the Engineer‟s request – all the secondary systems<br />
should have registered would be the noise of her own engine baffles.<br />
As expected, the log was perfect.<br />
“That‟s not right,” the Chief said, sitting down on the stripped-down Hades cannon<br />
that had been removed from the fighter‟s nose. The gattling gun was as large as a park<br />
bench under his not-inconsiderable weight, and it didn‟t even budge.<br />
“What do you mean?” she asked, moving on to the rest of the Raptor‟s systems.<br />
“The whole point of slaving the acoustic sensors to the Hypersonars is that we only<br />
need to align each array once,” he explained. “All our active and passive sonars are<br />
directional acoustics, and only have sensitivity on the same bearing as the laser they‟re<br />
slaved to.”<br />
Cunningham stopped what she was doing and frowned. Standing up from the cockpit<br />
chair, she planted her leg on the dorsal fuselage. She slid down the starboard canard as if<br />
she‟d been wearing skates, and vaulted to the deck softly before ducking under the nose to<br />
look over the engineer‟s shoulder.<br />
“Then... Shouldn‟t we be seeing the same gap in the acoustic data?”<br />
The chief nodded. “Well, sound isn‟t going to leave the same marker as the laser<br />
data, but yeah, for the most part I would at least expect to see a loss of sensitivity in the<br />
same area of the sweep. But this is a clean log – according to this, there is absolutely<br />
nothing wrong with the system.”<br />
“Mechanical fault?” she suggested.<br />
“On three fighters?”<br />
“...I take your point.”<br />
“This isn‟t right, Lieutenant,” he said grimly. “I‟ll do a full work up on the array, but... I<br />
can‟t really explain this.”<br />
Cunningham idly turned to her fighter and examined a small scuff on the edge of one<br />
its panels. “Can we run the log through the ship‟s CIC and see if they can do a full profile<br />
breakdown? Isolate the different frequencies?”<br />
“What for? That could take hours, Lieutenant.”<br />
The Chief‟s voice was more distant than it had been seconds before, and when<br />
Cunningham turned, he found the man lying prone, his head disappearing inside one of its<br />
opened ventral torpedo bays.<br />
Cunningham exhaled slowly as she swung under the bulk of the fighter‟s<br />
considerable nose, and knelt down next to its port intake. “Chief, this could be important.”<br />
The crew chief held out his hand blindly from where he lay. “Would you pass me that<br />
torque wrench, please?”<br />
Cunningham looked around, noticing the tools sitting on the case of 25mm<br />
ammunition beside her. She passed it down to him, and he began adjusting something<br />
unseen inside the weapons module. “So, aside from working out that you‟ve wasted hours of<br />
the CIC‟s time chasing ghosts, what do you think they‟ll find?”<br />
“I‟m hoping nothing at all, chief. Just a ghost, like you said.”<br />
“Great. Now can you pass me that rag?”<br />
Cunningham shook her head, and walked away.<br />
~<br />
The thrum of the ship‟s engines deep below was the only sound to disturb the quiet<br />
of Commonwealth‟s evening watch. In the hangar deck out the windows adjacent to her<br />
desk, Corinn Roderick could see the last of the alert fighters being secured on the drop bays<br />
while others were tagged, lashed to the deck and covered for the night‟s duration. Tools<br />
were stowed, the deck was swept, and crew chiefs signed off on their day‟s work.<br />
- 139 -
The only other sound was the steady scratching of her pen on the paper in front of<br />
her – the endless stream of thought and consciousness spilling out in neat lines of<br />
spectacular, swirling running writing. The computer on the other side of the desk was turned<br />
off, the daily report slates having been reviewed, signed and tendered.<br />
The tea that simmered in the black, porcelain mug bearing the faded letters “C.A.G.”<br />
was cold, and she‟d long since forgotten about it in the quiet din.<br />
Roderick continued to write, the page in front of her possessing her complete and<br />
undivided attention. It was almost unheard of that one could sneak up on someone whose<br />
life and senses had been twisted to become an almost perpetual state of subconscious<br />
reception. Her instinctual ability to kill someone with the motor-reflexed twitch of a finger<br />
upon the trigger of a Hades gattling cannon was cruelly juxtaposed to an almost empathic<br />
connection to everything and everyone around her. It was a rare trait possessed by a socalled<br />
„elite‟ few subfighter pilots who had the skill, ability and most of all, luck, to have<br />
survived the worst that combat could muster.<br />
Despite her desk posting, those senses were as sharp as they had ever been, and it<br />
was doubtful they would ever truly dull.<br />
It was the knowledge of this facet of the Captain‟s life that surprised Edward Richards<br />
most as he knocked for a second time on the door frame, and then receiving no invitation or<br />
acknowledgement, cautiously walked in to the room and slid the sealed envelope on to the<br />
wooden desk before her.<br />
Roderick had heard his approach when he was still walking up the hall outside her<br />
office, and in her own very particular way, had acknowledged him simply by ignoring him.<br />
“I‟m sorry,” Richards said after long seconds of silence, and continuing ignorance of<br />
his commanding officer. She‟d simply kept following the words she wrote, never once looking<br />
up to even meet his polished boots – let alone his eyes.<br />
The former Rapier commander turned on his good heel, and began to walk out<br />
before she finally put down the pen and looked up. “You think this will solve anything?” she<br />
called after him, picking up the plain envelope and spinning it on two delicate fingers.<br />
In spite of himself, a half-smile escaped Richards‟ lips. “You haven‟t even opened it,”<br />
he countered.<br />
“I don‟t have to. The only thing I didn‟t know was when you‟d finally decide that<br />
moody tantrums weren‟t enough to get your point across. As bad habits go, this is one of<br />
your more melodramatic ones.”<br />
Richards rounded sharply and raised a hand to point at her accusingly, stopping<br />
short of the final motion when he saw the cautiously raised eyebrow on the Captain‟s<br />
otherwise unmoved features.<br />
“You were ignoring me,” he said plainly.<br />
Roderick shrugged, and then leaned back in her chair before tossing the envelope,<br />
spinning like a Frisbee, across the room. Without ever having broken her gaze with<br />
Richards, and with a slight rustle and thump, the letter landed in the waste paper bin next to<br />
her office door, drawing Richards‟ gaze in unexpected bewilderment at the accuracy of the<br />
missile.<br />
It had cleared all twenty feet cleanly, and with all the grace of a landing swan.<br />
“If ignoring you makes you tender a resignation, perhaps I should‟ve saved us all the<br />
immaturity and had you discharged months ago?” she asked, shifting her weight and waiting<br />
expectantly for him to finally decide to sit down.<br />
A familiar part of Richards started to return, and realisation set in that he‟d been<br />
bore-sighted and was now staring a missile lock in the face. She was reading him like an<br />
open book, and it made him uncomfortable.<br />
“What did you think this would achieve?” Roderick asked him. “You think you can just<br />
quit every time you feel like it‟s too much for you? And expect, like last time, that once your<br />
little vacation is over you can just come back in that door and pretend nothing ever<br />
happened?”<br />
“This is different,” he hissed. “I‟ll never fly again. Even if I was capable of it, Reed<br />
would never pass me on physical. You know that as well as me.”<br />
- 140 -
Richards started to pace, not sure where to turn and what to look at. The frustration<br />
boiled in his veins – he wanted to hit something, hard.<br />
Roderick eased off on her attack. “You know for just a few minutes the other day<br />
when we were in the CIC, you had me convinced you could do this, Ed. What‟s going on?”<br />
“For god‟s sake, Quinn, it‟s happening again,” he dismayed. “I can‟t watch this a third<br />
time. First the Rangers, then the Rapiers... I should be with them. Not hobbling around like a<br />
cripple.”<br />
Roderick didn‟t look sympathetic. “And feeling sorry for yourself? You really think<br />
you‟re the only pilot in the UEO to have a lost a squadron?” she asked bitterly. “What about<br />
everyone else on this ship? How do you think we‟d be if I accepted every resignation that<br />
crossed my desk?”<br />
Richards twisted his face in to a scowl in a return of the bitterness she clearly<br />
showed. “Coming back was a mistake.”<br />
Roderick continued to lock eyes with him as her hand reached down behind her desk<br />
and pulled open one of the drawers. Without looking, she removed a pile of unopened letters<br />
and began laying them down on the desk, one at a time, each one hitting the timber with a<br />
dull slap. She read each of them in turn. “Shalders, Harker, Seabury, Pickford, Anderson.”<br />
“What, you‟re going to try and guilt me with next-of-kin letters now?”<br />
“They‟re letters of resignation,” she returned flatly. “I rejected every single one of<br />
them.”<br />
“What are you talking about? I never heard anything about any of them tendering<br />
resignations.”<br />
“Then pull your head out of your arse and smell the roses, Richards, because this is<br />
the reality of where you are! Two thirds of the people on this ship have tried the same thing<br />
at one point or another, myself included. We can‟t just quit. This is a god damned war and<br />
we are losing it, so I suggest you get your shit in to gear and stop acting like a child.”<br />
“Will that be all then, Captain?”<br />
“You‟d better hope so, or the next time you try this, then the only thing you‟ll be<br />
resigned to is a month in the ship‟s brig. Am I perfectly clear, Wing Commander?”<br />
He straightened, swallowing the seething rage in his throat. “Crystal, ma‟am.”<br />
“You‟re relieved of duty. I‟m transferring command of the sea wing to Commander<br />
Coyle until further notice. I am also ordering you to see the ship‟s counsellor, every day, until<br />
I am satisfied that whatever „issues‟ you might have aren‟t going to affect your duties as they<br />
have to this point.”<br />
Richards‟ lip twitched, but he remained silent.<br />
Roderick stood up behind the desk and nodded to the door. “You are dismissed.”<br />
~<br />
- 141 -
VI<br />
T R U T H I N L I E S<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 13 th , 2043…<br />
The bank of monitors across the rear wall of battlecruiser CIC contained every piece<br />
of tactical information for an entire battle group‟s worth of warships, from individual torpedo<br />
stock and munitions load outs to the duty rosters of each and every tactical officer, and even<br />
standby target logs for the taskforce‟s not-insubstantial arsenal of nuclear SLBMs.<br />
The appearance, then, of a single sensor profile analysis request was rare, and the<br />
watch officer of station CC12 did a double take when it appeared in his inbox. By all rights,<br />
the request was more deserving of the Commonwealth‟s maintenance department than the<br />
combat systems command.<br />
“Ensign Parish?” repeated Commander Callaghan for the third time over the rattle<br />
and hum of the busy control deck, glaring at the operator with impatient malign.<br />
“Still a few minutes away, sir,” the ensign replied, watching the sonar track on the<br />
mysterious contact that had been watching them silently from the trench ahead, slowly<br />
pulling back so as to stay out of the cruiser‟s more powerful high-band sweeps. Whoever<br />
they were, they had been happy to be detected, but were refusing to be identified.<br />
“Let me know when you have him,” Callaghan ordered.<br />
“Aye, XO.”<br />
Parish‟s partner-in-crime at CC12, Petty Officer Jeong Osbourne, gave him a<br />
knowing smile as she lifted one of her ear phones away to whisper to him. “I think he‟s<br />
having one of those days,” she idly probed.<br />
“I think the Captain is having one of those days,” Parish countered, his voice a<br />
gravelly sneer so it couldn‟t carry.<br />
Osbourne‟s smile cracked in to a wide grin. “Exactly.”<br />
Parish shook his head as curiosity started to get the better of him, and he opened the<br />
request in his inbox to read the attached maintenance report. That in its self struck him as<br />
odd – only an engineer or a crew chief would have attached such a form, and it probably<br />
wouldn‟t have been forwarded to the CIC unless a supervisor had thought it necessary.<br />
A newbie‟s mistake, Parish considered, before reading the signatures and frowning.<br />
It had been signed twice – once by Crew Chief Adams, and a second time by Commander<br />
Jane Roberts, CO of VF-107.<br />
Parish fumbled with the thought of what to do with it for a moment, and had started to<br />
forward the message to the CIC‟s watch master when his status displays reset – his inbox,<br />
work space and the report he‟d been processing all disappearing to be replaced by a<br />
constant stream of tactical data and weapons tracking reports.<br />
He looked at Osbourne next to him, and didn‟t get a chance to ask the question<br />
before the rest of the CIC started to lock down. The gentle blue lighting evaporated as a<br />
wash of crimson settled over the command centre, and Callaghan started barking – his voice<br />
somehow managing to rise above the whine of an alert klaxon.<br />
“TACREP?”<br />
The watch master turned in his pulpit and gripped the railings. “Contacts bearing onenine-five,<br />
range: fifteen miles.”<br />
“That‟s almost on top of us. How the hell did they get through our sensor perimeter?<br />
Sound General Quarters, get Captain Banick and Admiral Ainsley up here.”<br />
...The Admiral was already working his way through the port side access corridors of<br />
D-Deck when the call came through, stepping aside occasionally as marines thundered<br />
down the halls, their weapons and kit clattering loudly as their boots panged off of the grates.<br />
They paid him largely no heed as they secured the ship for battle, with only the Corporals<br />
and Sergeants offering a nod of recognition as they hustled their fireteams.<br />
- 142 -
“...Captain Banick, Admiral Ainsley, please report to the bridge,” the 1MC echoed.<br />
Ainsley ignored it a he continued his long walk to the bridge, and before long, had<br />
become aware of a figure shadowing him, his paces steadily drawing him closer. He figured<br />
by the gait it would be Banick, the slightly off-beat rhythm of his step having been a<br />
noticeable quirk he‟d picked up since his femur had been shattered two years previously by<br />
a Chaodai bullet. The bone had been replaced by a synthetic bionic, but he had never quite<br />
had the same bounce to his step.<br />
Ainsley‟s PAL chirped from his belt as he rounded the top of the staircase on C-Deck<br />
and slapped the call button for the Mag-Lev carriage. He held the door for Banick just a few<br />
steps behind him, and then answered the page. “Ainsley, speak.”<br />
“Admiral, it‟s Callaghan. We‟re not exa-“<br />
Static filled the channel rapidly, and the XO‟s voice dissolved in to a sea of noise.<br />
“Callaghan?”<br />
The static continued, and Banick regarded his former Captain nervously. “Jammed?”<br />
Ainsley was incredulous. “On internal communications?”<br />
Banick pulled out his own PDA and tried connecting to the ship‟s intranet. After a few<br />
seconds, it gave him a curt time-out error.<br />
“How the hell would does someone jam our internal communications?” Banick asked,<br />
countering Ainsley‟s query.<br />
The Admiral‟s face was dark. “I‟m less concerned about the how, and more worried<br />
about the why at this point, Captain.”<br />
At last, the Maglev doors hissed open and the two officers exited the carriage outside<br />
the main bridge. The marines stationed outside the massive clam doors saluted as they<br />
passed through the portal and walked across the command deck to the CIC.<br />
“Admiral on-deck!” barked the Officer of the Watch.<br />
“Captain Banick has the bridge. As you were,” Ainsley dismissed them, deferring<br />
authority to the man immediately behind him. Both officers approached Callaghan at the side<br />
of the CIC, noticing that the XO had put his headset down and had since picked up a<br />
hardline next to the main navigation table. Neither Banick nor Ainsley interrupted whatever it<br />
was he was engaged in, and continued to wait until Callaghan pursed his lips.<br />
“Get them launched,” the XO ordered down the line. “Communications be damned, I<br />
want them in the water. We‟ll use point-to-point relays if we have to. Bridge out.”<br />
Callaghan put the phone back on its cradle and sighed. Neither the Captain nor the<br />
Admiral needed to ask the obvious question and Callaghan wasted no time in offering his<br />
explanation. “All wireless communications are down. We don‟t know how, or why. Hard lines<br />
are down, and FOC is doing the best it can to get our birds launched. Still waiting on target<br />
information.”<br />
“You mean we have no idea who‟s attacked us?” Banick cut in.<br />
“You‟re assuming we are being attacked, Captain,” Ainsley returned. “I imagine if<br />
they were trying to board us, we would have known about it by now.”<br />
“Captain!” called Lieutenant Phillips from the communications station. “I‟ve managed<br />
to track the source of the jamming – it‟s internal, but it‟s not coming from us.”<br />
“What do you mean?”<br />
“Still confirming sir, but... I think it‟s Vengeance. She‟s flooded her uplink with a<br />
packet storm, and its being replicated across every system.”<br />
“...He‟s got our command codes.” Banick‟s face turned dark as he uttered it.<br />
“Stiles?!” Ainsley spat. “Point-to-point on the WSKRS relay. Now. Get me that ship.”<br />
“It‟ll take me a minute to set up, sir.”<br />
In the darkness, Commonwealth continued to close the distance with the shadows –<br />
blind, deaf and impotent. Vengeance remained off her port quarter, despite the narrowing<br />
confines of the submarine trench ahead, but for the few subfighters that slowly began to<br />
spew from the battlecruiser‟s open launch bays, it was a grim picture.<br />
„Bouncer‟ checked his sensors as soon as he was clear of the battlecruiser‟s shadow,<br />
and felt his stomach run cold. Commonwealth was surrounded. Ahead of her, a single,<br />
- 143 -
massive contact loomed in the darkness – sitting quietly, waiting and watching, and not<br />
giving off a single recognisable signal. Hypersonar was next to useless at range, and they<br />
were running silent - making the craft‟s sensors job of returning a solid ID virtually<br />
impossible. Further to the problem, closing at a slightly more open distance of eighteen<br />
miles, a cluster of even more contacts was drawing nearer from the intersecting Tongan<br />
trench.<br />
Factoring in the Vengeance herself, sitting like a threatening dagger on<br />
Commonwealth‟s flank, and it became very clear that the UEO battlecruiser was being<br />
herded, and explanations were few as to why. The Dark Angel leader‟s stomach continued<br />
to twist in to a knot as he considered the limited options open to him, but was at least<br />
reassured by the appearance of the rest of the squadron surrounding the ship‟s fore quarters<br />
in a protective shield.<br />
He simply prayed it wouldn‟t be needed.<br />
A rumble from outside his fighter rattled his cockpit and he looked left, over his<br />
shoulder, to see the full-canopy HUD illuminate the trace outline of a second Raptor pulling<br />
alongside. After a few moments, data began sprawling up next to it, identifying it simply as<br />
„“SWORD-01:DDSTK‟<br />
It was Roberts, and the first of the Rapiers. He bumped up the HUD-assisted<br />
illumination and made out the figure of the Rapier commander staring straight back at him,<br />
signalling with her hand. This made him smile, despite the circumstances, as he watched her<br />
signal „Two flights – deploying forward. Will cover at four miles.‟<br />
He gave her a simple thumbs up, and then watched as Rapier One, along with 7<br />
other fighters advance in to the gloom ahead – their engine trails lighting up the abyss for<br />
only a few moments before they disappeared in to the black.<br />
„Commonwealth to Dark Angel Lead, please acknowledge.”<br />
Coyle breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his computer acknowledge the nearby<br />
WSKRS satellite that had begun painting him with a laser. “Good to hear your voice,<br />
Admiral. Does someone mind telling me what‟s going on?”<br />
...Ainsley toggled a switch next to the phone and piped the fighter group commander<br />
through the CIC speakers. “Likewise, Commander. All radio frequencies are jammed. At this<br />
point, consider Vengeance to be hostile. We‟re trying to get a hold of them, but they‟ve not<br />
exactly made this easy. If it‟s any consolation, they‟re as deaf as we are. Point-to-point is as<br />
good as we‟re going to get.”<br />
“At least it‟s something, Admiral. What are our orders?”<br />
“Sit tight, Commander. We don‟t want to turn this in to a shooting match, and frankly,<br />
I don‟t think they do either... Or else we would have probably heard it by now.”<br />
“Sure do wish I had that in writing, sir.”<br />
Ainsley smiled despite his own misgivings, and gave Lieutenant Phillips an urging<br />
glance. “Let‟s give them the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Do not engage unless<br />
you are fired upon, and that‟s an order.”<br />
“Understood, Admiral.”<br />
“Ainsley, out.”<br />
The Admiral sighed as he set the handset back in its cradle and appealed pleadingly<br />
with Phillips. The Lieutenant nodded affirmatively as the last of his WSKRS probes settled in<br />
to their relay positions and Banick gestured to the main screen.<br />
Phillips punched up the hail, and the command staff continued to stare in anticipation<br />
at the blank wall at the front of the command deck. The communications officer tried a<br />
second, and then a third time, and then finally regarded them all with forlorn defeat.<br />
“I‟m sorry, sir. Vengeance isn‟t answering out hails.”<br />
“Damn it, Bill,” muttered the Admiral beneath his breath, thumping the railing in front<br />
of him.<br />
Long seconds passed before the sensor chief swivelled in his chair. “We‟ve got<br />
something. One shuttle and two SF-38 Raptors, no IDs, dead ahead and closing at one-fivezero.<br />
No targeting sweeps, no weapons locks.”<br />
- 144 -
“Open the outer doors,” Corinn Roderick ordered as she walked quietly up the<br />
command deck stairs. “Send down marine fire teams to the flight deck, with your permission,<br />
Captain?”<br />
Banick gave Roderick a momentary, icy stare before he caught Ainsley‟s affirming<br />
gaze through the corner of his eye. “Do it.”<br />
“Commander Callaghan, you have the bridge,” the Admiral muttered again. “Captain<br />
Roderick, Captain Banick... Come with me.”<br />
~<br />
Major Adrian O‟Shaughnessy sniffed the air slightly as he followed his marines in to<br />
the hangar decks, service pistol holstered and safed as the heavily armed troops fanned out<br />
and assumed firing positions around the hangar. Several members of the squads armed with<br />
slightly longer variants of the M31 rifle clambered up catwalk steps to take elevated positions<br />
along the width of the deck, their weapons trained on the moon pool‟s recovery ramp.<br />
O‟Shaughnessy was not a man easily put on-edge. He‟d seen some of the worst<br />
things that the war could throw at the UEO, and had walked away on his own legs to tell the<br />
tale every time. Some members of the Commonwealth‟s marine detachment considered the<br />
man blessed, and equally, others saw him as the bearer of a curse with all he‟d been<br />
through. He was one of a good portion of the battlecruiser‟s crew to have come from the<br />
survivors of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>, and had brought with him the best and worst kinds of<br />
experience.<br />
He was an unassuming man by the standards of the troops he accompanied – each<br />
a brick-jawed, trunk-necked monstrosity with grim, sharp features that had probably never<br />
once broken a genuine smile. For all his pragmatism, Adrian O‟Shaughnessy was a cautious<br />
man who never liked surprise, and that was why he had called for Commonwealth‟s single<br />
platoon of Force Recon.<br />
It was a true oddity then that he wore the same skull, wings and diamond as they did<br />
– a well-worn and weathered badge of his own service with the secretive elite of the UEO<br />
Marine Corps so many years before.<br />
The waters of the moon pool bubbled and surged as the bulky, hawk-nosed launch<br />
rose from the carrier‟s submerged hydrosphere to set the decks awash when it broke the<br />
surface, the two Raptors that had accompanied it on its brief journey nowhere to be seen. Its<br />
identity as a UEO shuttle was clear as soon as it broke the surface – its smooth flanks and<br />
clean topsides an obvious contrast to what he knew to expect from agricultural and utilitarian<br />
Macronesian launch craft and shuttles. His eyes scanned the hull of the launch instinctively,<br />
but could find not a single mark of identification. It had been stripped clean of all numbers,<br />
insignia and names.<br />
It took long, uncertain seconds for the craft to settle on the deck as it was pulled<br />
clear, by which time Ainsley, Banick and Roderick rounded the corner of the hangar<br />
entrance and approached the line of marines. Pilots and deck crews had started to mill<br />
around the pool, waiting and watching in uncertain anticipation.<br />
...In the great, endless black, the tiny squadron of WSKRS probes fanned out and<br />
settled in to a long life line between the Commonwealth and her unknown shadow nearly a<br />
dozen miles ahead. Their probing eyes locked on to the mysterious vessel and painted it<br />
with a thousand different kinds of identification calls, sensor sweeps, acoustic pings and<br />
communications challenges, their small but sophisticated AIs swiftly eliminating the many<br />
possible mathematical calculations until they cross referenced each of their findings, and<br />
profiled it to their on-board databanks.<br />
The single laser communication it took to relay all this back to the Commonwealth hit<br />
the CIC like a bolt of lightning as the tactical plot in the centre of the CIC processed the data<br />
in turn. The large, holographic red delta marked “UNKNOWN” that occupied the virtual<br />
trench ahead of CVBN-110‟s position was updated with countless lines of scrawling data and<br />
- 145 -
information before its visual model took on a new and completely unexpected form. A quick<br />
flash of haze and shimmer of light, and the delta shimmered away. The image that replaced<br />
it ripped the air from Ryan Callaghan‟s lungs.<br />
The eyes of the CIC directors went wide as they saw it too - completely dominating<br />
the centre of the board as a thousand alerts and data flags prioritized the massive vessel<br />
and began disseminating the information all over the Combat Information Centre. The ship‟s<br />
unseen AI acted on the data long before the computers coupled to it could finish their<br />
categorization of the log. Encryptions fell in to place, and the entire combat database of the<br />
ship‟s most sensitive control room was firewalled from every one of Commonwealth‟s other<br />
systems. No one outside the room would have seen it.<br />
Callaghan‟s mind raced, and then understood why the Vengeance had jammed their<br />
communications capability. “Full sensor and communications black out!” he barked, pointing<br />
at the watch master.<br />
With a swift stroke of his hand, the watch master confirmed the data log request that<br />
isolated the information to the CIC, and the glass doors connecting them to the bridge folded<br />
closed as the photovoltaic crystals that made up the panels dimmed and turned completely<br />
black.<br />
“Until we hear from the Admiral,” he said to the shocked staff, “What you just saw will<br />
not leave this room.”<br />
...The hatch on the sea launch continued to drip as the officers watched, and the<br />
marines‟ rifles kept a trained bead. O‟Shaughnessy looked at Ainsley through the corner of<br />
his eye, and the Admiral stepped between two of the soldiers in front of him and straightened<br />
– Banick and Roderick not two steps behind him.<br />
A sharp hiss of equalizing atmosphere preceded the hatch breaking its seal against<br />
the smooth, flush hull and it swung away before a pair of soldiers appeared inside the door,<br />
each of them staring at the line of commandoes that waited for them. The soldiers‟ uniforms<br />
were black, and their weapons not a standard UEO issue. Like their shuttle, they wore no<br />
insignia or names, but seemed otherwise unmoved by the marines outside.<br />
After a moment, one of the two soldiers stepped back from the door and disappeared<br />
back in to the cabin, ahead of a new figure that quickly replaced him to step out to the top of<br />
the boarding ladder.<br />
Absolute silence ruled on the hangar deck for three long seconds before Ainsley<br />
started walking forward, and waved down the raised rifles of the marines who surrounded<br />
him. A second, and then third figure emerged from the shuttle and Ainsley studied them both<br />
with equal suspicion and anger. General Henry Adamson – former Chief of the Macronesian<br />
military was flanked by a nervous aid that he recognised as Captain Thomas Blake. It was<br />
the first of this trio that held the Admiral‟s attention, and he locked eyes with the short,<br />
blonde woman, his throat choking with rage, and his stomach churning over bile.<br />
Captain Lauren Hornsby, alive and well, stopped as she reached the bottom of the<br />
ladder and regarded the man before her with a very particular smile.<br />
“Hello, Mark.”<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 13 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
She hung in the abyss as a threatening visage of other-worldly power, the spotlights<br />
of her accompanying WSKRS probes beating down in long, rippling god-rays that draped<br />
obsidian shadows from massive, winged flanks like curtains billowing in an icy breeze. The<br />
bright blue spotlights that threw operatic, even orchestral shadows over her dramatic lines<br />
gave the appearance of a ghost.<br />
- 146 -
And a ghost she was.<br />
The UEO Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200 dwarfed the battlecruiser that sat in the shadow of her<br />
giant arrowhead bow, the Vengeance having settled back in Commonwealth‟s wake to<br />
create an uncomfortable blockade which wouldn‟t allow the UEO cruiser to leave.<br />
It was the third contact that had illuminated Commonwealth‟s sensors that had kept<br />
her on her toes. Despite the position the UEO battlecruiser now found herself in, it was that<br />
cluster of contacts that had risen the most eyebrows in the CIC. They hadn‟t moved since<br />
their arrival, and had continued to sit silently, waiting and watching, as the bizarre<br />
rendezvous unfolded.<br />
Callaghan stood at the Conn of the CIC in silence, continuing to stare down at the<br />
monolithic, holographic form of the Aquarius, the stream of sensor data continuing to pour<br />
out next to it. The jamming from Vengeance had continued, but the WSKRS were steadily<br />
confirming that neither the NSC vessel, nor the massive <strong>DSV</strong> above them, had any<br />
immediate hostile intentions. There had been no targeting sweeps and torpedo tube doors<br />
remained closed.<br />
And still, there she was. 242,000 tonnes of ghost. Something snide was nagging at<br />
Callaghan‟s mind. No distress call, wreckage or debris had ever been reported, and after an<br />
exhaustive search lasting two months, no trace of the great warship could be found. Naval<br />
command had officially declared her lost with all hands, and Callaghan, Banick, Ainsley and<br />
the surviving crew of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> had gone to Arlington to lay them to rest.<br />
That nagging slowly turned to a sense of betrayal, and his fists balled as he<br />
restrained himself from hitting the glass pane of the navigation chart beside him.<br />
The handset at the side of the Conn rang loudly, and Callaghan‟s balled fist shot out<br />
and lifted it from its hook, only too grateful to have something to grasp with other than his<br />
own frustration. “Combat,” he answered sharply.<br />
“Callaghan, it‟s Richards... Situation?”<br />
“Full lockdown, Wing Commander,” he replied under his breath. “We‟re standing by<br />
pending word from the Admiral.”<br />
“I‟m on the bridge. There‟re a few nervous people out here, Ryan.”<br />
Callaghan looked out the corner of his eye to the folding, opaque doors.<br />
“Coyle‟s in charge and you‟ve been relieved,” he said bluntly.<br />
“Yeah, well, Coyle isn‟t here. I am.”<br />
Callaghan nodded hesitantly to a marine who stood inside the frame. The soldier<br />
kept his hand on his sidearm as he opened the side door and carefully watched the Wing<br />
Commander walk in, his leg still noticeably dragging in his wake. The door latched shut<br />
behind them with a snap-hiss.<br />
Richards‟ jaw twitched, hiding his clenched teeth as he walked down the short flight<br />
of stairs to the combat floor, his arms folded as he stopped next to the plot. A long, trembled<br />
sigh finally wheezed from his lips as he stared at the map and the massive form of the<br />
Aquarius.<br />
Richards said nothing as he exchanged a knowing look with Callaghan and pulled on<br />
a headset from the rack before him. The Wing Commander‟s cold eyes locked with those of<br />
the communications officers. “Put me through to the CAP.”<br />
“We‟re under lockdown, sir. No communications in or out,” replied the watch officer,<br />
interjecting before the radiomen could even open their mouths.<br />
Richards rounded on the officer and shot him a look that he had used only a few<br />
times in his life. Those who had been on the receiving end of this expression had gone on to<br />
regret it. “Have you ever seen what a hotshot pilot without orders and a loaded magazine<br />
can do for international relations, Lieutenant?”<br />
The sweat that was beading across Roberts‟ forehead was beginning to run down<br />
her face and in to her eyes. She blinked it away beneath the visor as she repeated the silent<br />
prayer in her head. Aquarius was virtually on top of them, and the entire squadron could only<br />
wait for the word... one word or another, at this point, none of them cared which. Anything<br />
was preferable to sitting there with targets being painted on them from almost every angle.<br />
- 147 -
The combat sonar blared target track warnings from multiple sources – some of them<br />
obvious, and others being almost untraceable as the computer struggled to triangulate their<br />
positions. With communications down, every broadband laser channel that the squadron<br />
used to coordinate their sensor net was utterly scrambled. In the pitch black of the abyss<br />
outside, it was about the worst situation any of them could imagine. Target feeds lagged,<br />
sonar tracks were outdated by the time they were processed, and their lack of wireless<br />
comms had forced them in to a holding formation that made the entire unit a sitting duck. At<br />
any moment, either the <strong>DSV</strong> before them, or the myriad of shadows that tracked them from<br />
the darkness could swat them from the deep... and with the state of their sensors, they‟d<br />
never even see it coming.<br />
“Sword, Halo... this is Minstrel. Please acknowledge,” said the scrappy, virtually<br />
unintelligible voice.<br />
Roberts keyed her radio so quickly she almost disengaged the safeties on her<br />
fighters cannons. “This is Deadstick!” she barked. “What the fuck is going on!?”<br />
Static filled the line for several, long moments, but it was not the type of white noise<br />
that Roberts knew came from a dead line. It was the sort of sound she expected to hear from<br />
a garbled background as someone kept their thumb on the key.<br />
“Deadstick,” the voice said finally. “Count it out.”<br />
It took a moment for the Raptor pilot to process the order as her eyes darted over the<br />
instrument panels. Despite its terse, garbled tone, Roberts could hear the calm, collected<br />
nature in which the instruction was made. Realisation began to set in as she exhaled slowly,<br />
and routine took hold.<br />
“Devils Five,” she reported, beginning with the depth gauges. “Fuel: two point five,<br />
Payload: six stowed, two hot, one thousand rounds.”<br />
“Say your heading.”<br />
She blinked again. “Two-eight-zero, holding pattern alpha, one point five miles on<br />
bearing two eight zero. Steady at one-five-zero.”<br />
“State your situation.”<br />
The world began to slow as Roberts mind turned over. Her pulse slowed, her grip on<br />
the stick slackened, and the terror slowly made way for cold, objective logic. Unknowns<br />
became variables, hard targets became objectives. Something, somewhere in the very core<br />
of her psyche, clicked.<br />
Richards kept watching the plot as his squadron suddenly changed. Its awkward<br />
defensive posture shifted only slightly, but it was enough to bring a smile to his face. The<br />
twelve Raptors came about, bearing back on the big <strong>DSV</strong>, now below them, and the flanks<br />
of the wide „flying-V‟ of Raptors fanned out to bracket the ESV in her wake.<br />
“This is Rapier Lead,” Roberts returned, her voice now a cold, dead pan. “Target<br />
confirmed on heading zero two zero, range one point five. Possible bandits at six miles and<br />
holding, intentions unclear.”<br />
Richards didn‟t notice the wry smile that cracked at the corner of Callaghan‟s lips,<br />
and those of several others around the CIC. Richards nodded his approval. “Deadstick, I<br />
doubt very much they want a fight. If they did, they‟ve had plenty of opportunity before now.<br />
Hold your position, keep your head cool, and stay on mission. You‟ll be the first to know if we<br />
get the word.”<br />
“Understood, boss.”<br />
“Good hunting. Minstrel out.”<br />
Richards took the headset off and continued to stare at the main plot, his eyes fixing<br />
on the squadron of Raptors and darting to the other clusters of unknown contacts beyond<br />
Commonwealth‟s identification range. Callaghan slowly moved from his position at the CIC<br />
Conn down to Richards‟ side, his hands clasped firmly behind his back. “Nicely done,” he<br />
muttered quietly.<br />
“She just needed to be reminded.”<br />
“WSKRS relayed that to all flight leaders via SEWACS, Commander,” Parish<br />
reported. “Warseer reports the CAP has responded and is awaiting your orders.”<br />
- 148 -
Callaghan pursed his lips. The laser relays aboard Commonwealth‟s WSKRS probes<br />
were getting the word out well enough, but if the situation became dire, quick and efficient<br />
command and control would be almost impossible.<br />
Callaghan and Richards‟ eyes shot up to the door as it hissed open, giving way to<br />
five figures. Banick walked in first, giving his XO an icy stare before Ainsley and Roderick<br />
followed him, stepping aside quickly next to the marine whose hand tensed over the trigger<br />
of his rifle. It was a subtle gesture. Soldiers on guard would typically cover the grip of their<br />
firearms with their index fingers well clear of the trigger. The quick shift was barely<br />
noticeable, but it didn‟t take Callaghan long to see the reason for it as a black-clad man in<br />
the uniform of an Alliance General walked through the door. Its red and gold eagle insignia<br />
had been removed, leaving only his rank pins, service ribbons and crest of the ANS<br />
Reprisal, but even Henry Adamson‟s unexpected entrance could do nothing to prepare the<br />
UEO officers for the last of them. Captain Lauren Hornsby‟s eyes quickly found Callaghan<br />
and his companion before an uneasy smile crept on to her features. Her steps were<br />
confidant, but markedly guarded as she walked down the flight of steps and approached the<br />
plot.<br />
“Commanders,” she greeted casually, picking up the headset from in front of a<br />
deathly silent Richards. His face had twisted in to a sneer as Hornsby put the headset on<br />
and adjusted the microphone. “Communications, I‟m routing my radio protocols to you,”<br />
Hornsby said as she typed in her command codes. “Please use them to hail the<br />
Vengeance.”<br />
Parish and Osborne gave Banick and Ainsley an uneasy glance across the CIC, and<br />
the Captain hesitantly deferred to the Admiral. Ainsley looked uncomfortable as he offered<br />
only a curt nod.<br />
“Osiris to Vengeance-actual,” she said coolly, her radio callsign drawing a raised<br />
brow from the senior staff. She wasn‟t waiting long.<br />
“Vengeance-actual. The word?”<br />
“The word is given,” she replied. “Stand down.”<br />
Hornsby removed the headset, turned cautiously on her heel, and eyed Ainsley. “I‟ve<br />
held up my end,” she said.<br />
“Your end of what?” Banick interjected, stepping forward. “Admiral, I‟d appreciate an<br />
explanation here.”<br />
Ainsley ignored him for a moment as he turned to the operations desk. “Ensign?”<br />
Osborne‟s hands flew over her controls, and Ainsley eyed the overhead monitors as<br />
she switched her sensor and communications feeds live to the CIC deck. “Jamming is<br />
easing, sir. Their outer doors are closed, no targeting sweeps detected.”<br />
“Stand down from general quarters, secure all stations and isolate our sonar data<br />
from the battlenet. I want a complete blackout on all non-secured long-range communiqués.”<br />
“Admiral!” snapped Banick, walking across the CIC briskly before lowering his voice<br />
to a harsh whisper. “With all due respect, you have no authority to-“<br />
The Admiral didn‟t miss a beat as he locked eyes with the Captain. “Special Order<br />
sixteen: „Any and all matters communicated to or from the operating fleet command<br />
pertaining to operational secrecy or taskforce security will be the sole responsibility of the<br />
flag officer‟. And make no mistake, Captain, as long as I remain the flag officer, and as long<br />
as Aquarius is part of this fleet, no communications traffic in or out will be relayed to UEO<br />
command without my consent. Am I perfectly clear?”<br />
Banick straightened. “If that‟s how you‟ll have it, sir, under Article 1024 I will require<br />
this order in writing.”<br />
Ainsley smiled slightly as he calmly reached to his pocket, and unfolded a piece of<br />
paper which he lay on the chart table.<br />
“You wouldn‟t happen to have a pen, would you, Captain?”<br />
Banick was astonished as he read the order on the page, marked notably by the<br />
letterhead of the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>. He shot Hornsby an icy glare before turning back to Ainsley.<br />
“I‟d like to lodge a formal protest.”<br />
- 149 -
“Your protest is noted, Captain,” Ainsley said in a manner far-too-kind. “I‟ll be sure to<br />
report it next time I speak with CINCPAC... which considering our situation, might not be for<br />
quite a while.”<br />
Banick went to speak, his lip curling in to a sneer before the Admiral interjected.<br />
Banick wouldn‟t have known it, but Ainsley was trying his hardest to do the Commonwealth‟s<br />
commander the biggest favour of his career. “If you have a problem with that, Captain, you<br />
are most welcome to spend that time with Captain Hornsby in the ship‟s brig.”<br />
Hornsby wheeled like the hammer of a gun, and all eyes met Ainsley as the Aquarius<br />
captain‟s jaw gaped. “I‟m being detained?”<br />
“Master at arms,” called Ainsley, ushering the senior NCO of the marines over.<br />
“On what charge?” Hornsby challenged urgently as the burley marine held her hands<br />
behind her back and removed his handcuffs.<br />
“As soon as I work out what the hell is going on, Captain, I‟ll let you know, but in the<br />
mean time, maybe you‟ll contemplate the legal statutes surrounding desertion in a time of<br />
war,” Ainsley mused. “Sergeant Major, take Captain Hornsby to the brig.”<br />
~<br />
The puzzle began to unravel quickly after that. An immense wealth of sensor data<br />
had started to pour in to Commonwealth‟s computers when the jamming ceased and data<br />
links with the surrounding WSKRS, WSPRS and SEWACS were restored. The murky sea<br />
appeared to open as solid returns were made on the Vengeance, Aquarius, the escorting<br />
fighters, and – more interestingly – the shadowy group of unknown submarines that had<br />
been waiting at distance. They‟d watched and waited throughout the entire, terse exchange<br />
before the word had been given to stand down, and then they had slowly closed the distance<br />
and were now manoeuvring in to formation behind the trio of comparative-dreadnoughts.<br />
Their long, segmented, even dated hulls – jet black beneath layer upon layer of anechoic<br />
tiles – were in opposition to the great, sleek forms of the UEO and NSC vessels they<br />
accompanied, and only one of their number came even close to matching them in size. Their<br />
appearance was rag-tag, and the majority of the flotilla appeared to have been cobbled<br />
together from submarines as old as the dissolution and Third World War before it.<br />
The <strong>New</strong> Australian Resistance, otherwise proudly calling themselves the „Republic<br />
Navy‟, were probably all that remained of those organized forces who had been willing to<br />
stand up to the dictatorship of Alexander Bourne.<br />
General Henry Adamson was a career military officer, and at one point had been one<br />
of the single most loathed names in the meeting rooms of the UEO command. The former<br />
head of the Alliance military, Adamson had become the defacto leader of the resistance<br />
almost on strength of character alone. He was a figurehead, and an easy one to rally<br />
around. Whatever job propaganda had done to elevate his position didn‟t take away from his<br />
history. Ainsley was certainly not about to contest the point, having crossed swords with the<br />
man personally.<br />
Adamson followed Ainsley down the port side access corridor of Commonwealth‟s<br />
command deck towards the briefing room. It was a walk made in complete silence, far more<br />
awkward for the General than it was his UEO counterpart. After a while, Adamson turned to<br />
look at Ainsley. “I can understand your hesitation,” he said.<br />
“Hesitation to what?”<br />
“Trust her. I can‟t say I‟d react any differently if our positions were reversed.”<br />
Ainsley stopped in his tracks, and wheeled to face the General squarely. “And what<br />
exactly, General Adamson, is your position in all of this?”<br />
“You‟ve seen my fleet,” the Australian countered. “I‟m using Collins-class boats, for<br />
Christ‟s sake. I can‟t fight Bourne by myself, and from what Hornsby tells me, neither can<br />
you.”<br />
Ainsley huffed as he continued walking. “Now there is something we can agree on.”<br />
- 150 -
“I think you should listen to her, Ainsley. There is more going on here than you<br />
realise.”<br />
Now the Admiral laughed. “Yep, and I‟m going to find out just what the sum of that is<br />
before I do another damned thing. I wonder if you could do me a favour, and have that<br />
bastard Stiles get over here.”<br />
Ainsley continued down the hall, leaving Adamson watching in his wake. “And where<br />
are you going?”<br />
“To make a call.”<br />
UEO Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200, the Polynesian Trench. April 13 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
Lieutenant Commander Davis Akara had watched the movements of John Razak‟s<br />
boots as he continued to pace the upper bridge deck, the slight „clank‟ as boot heel met steel<br />
grating having all the precision of a well-made watch. It was a nauseating rhythm, and<br />
minutes had passed like hours. The XO‟s eyes looked downward, tracing the lines his feet<br />
followed where two of the deck gratings met along a frame, well astride.<br />
“Is something the matter, Davis?”<br />
Akara smirked. “Nothing at all, XO.”<br />
“Damn it!” Razak smashed his fist against the small, holographic pedestal on the<br />
conn. “This was foolish, she should never have gone over there...”<br />
“Commander...”<br />
“-At the very least, we should have sent a full detachment of marines with her, or<br />
brought Ainsley to the Vengeance.”<br />
Akara got up, and climbed the stairs from hits tactical station to the command deck.<br />
Lieutenant Mackenzie had been standing silently behind Razak. “John,” Akara said quietly.<br />
“Captain Hornsby knows what she‟s doing. You need to give her time.”<br />
A shrill chirp from communications brought all three officers around. Mackenzie<br />
finally sighed in relief. “Communications, your report?”<br />
“Ma‟am, it‟s the Commonwealth. She‟s hailing.”<br />
“About bloody time,” Razak muttered. “Put them up.”<br />
All three officers turned and faced the massive, curved view screen at the front of the<br />
<strong>DSV</strong>‟s bridge. The image of a man more worn than any of them remembered filled it, tellingly<br />
wearing the gold tridents of a UEO captain.<br />
“Commander Razak,” James Banick said with uncertainty. Akara sensed a<br />
discomfort there as well, as if something had transpired that had pulled the rug from under<br />
his feet.<br />
“Hello, Captain Banick... It‟s been quite some time, sir.”<br />
“Indeed. Commander, and I look forward to hearing about exactly where you and<br />
your ship have been, but for now, I require the Aquarius to stand down all weapons and<br />
sensors.”<br />
Akara didn‟t need to hear Banick twice as he moved to the tactical station, and<br />
checked the ship‟s weapons. He looked at Razak, waiting for the word.<br />
Razak frowned, and walked down the stairs to take a position next to Akara‟s bank of<br />
tactical monitors, risking a sideways glance to check the loadings on Aquarius‟s forward<br />
batteries. “I don‟t understand, Captain, who‟s giving this order?”<br />
“Admiral Ainsley, and if I were you, Commander... I wouldn‟t spend too long thinking<br />
about it.”<br />
“I see...” mused Razak, moving his hand from view behind the console to where he<br />
could indicate the WSPRS controls and intercept tubes. “Where‟s Captain Hornsby?”<br />
Banick‟s jaw tensed. “Captain Hornsby has been placed in custody.”<br />
“What? Why?”<br />
- 151 -
Banick‟s expression didn‟t soften. “When she‟s charged, I‟ll let you know.<br />
Commonwealth out.”<br />
The screen returned to the forward WSKRS view, and Razak thumped the console<br />
again. “This was a mistake.”<br />
“You‟re in command, sir,” Akara nodded. “Your orders?”<br />
The XO sighed as he rubbed a hand over his stubbled chin. “We do what the man<br />
says. Stand down weapons and combat sensors... But keep intercepts on standby, and set<br />
all WSPRS forward.”<br />
“Yes sir.”<br />
Razak was heading for the door when Lieutenant Kathleen Mazkenzie turned to him<br />
sharply. “XO?”<br />
Razak spun on his heel. “Kat?”<br />
Mackenzie looked at the note on her screen again before returning her gaze to<br />
Razak unsurely. “I think you should look at this, sir.”<br />
The XO marched across the deck and planted his hand on the back of Mazkenzie‟s<br />
chair looking at the display over her shoulder. It didn‟t take long for his heart to skip a beat.<br />
This was his „out‟, and reading the command ID attached to the message, a small smile<br />
slowly started to appear. “Lieutenant Mackenzie, please send the CAG to my office.”<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 13 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
“Bullshit,” Riley baulked, his face twisting in to the bemused look of a bad smell.<br />
Mark Ainsley smirked.<br />
The Fleet Admiral stared through the holoscreen in silence for long seconds, his jaw<br />
working in a slow, circular motion. “Is she intact?”<br />
“Very much so, sir. Wherever she‟s been for the last nine months, Hornsby‟s not<br />
saying.”<br />
Riley let out a long, relieved sigh as he collapsed back in to his chair. The man<br />
looked exhausted, and this had come as the best news he‟d received in as long as he could<br />
recall. “Sweet Jesus... Aquarius... after all this time?”<br />
“Admiral, I need guidance,” Ainsley urged. “I‟ve already tried calling Admiral<br />
Schrader, and no one seems to know where she is. I wager someone in Intelligence knew<br />
what was going on down here well before Commonwealth picked up the trail, but we‟ve run<br />
the course and I‟m flying blind.”<br />
“We need to tread carefully, Mark,” Riley said slowly. “Has this been reported?”<br />
“Absolutely not. I‟ve ordered a complete lockdown on all incoming and outgoing<br />
traffic without authorization. Commonwealth is off the grid.”<br />
“Keep it that way. We‟ve just been handed an ace, and the quieter we can keep that<br />
piece of information, the better. As long as we have the Aquarius, and the longer we can<br />
keep the Alliance knowing that, the better off we are.”<br />
“What about Hornsby?”<br />
“Speak with her and find out what she knows. I doubt she could have done this by<br />
herself.”<br />
“I‟ve remanded her to the brig, Admiral,” Ainsley explained. “Until I know who she‟s<br />
been answering to, I have little choice but to consider her AWOL.”<br />
“Then take command of Aquarius if you must, but so long as Commonwealth is off<br />
the radar, I need you as my eyes and ears. Our plans might well have changed... but it<br />
would be best if we restricted the flow of information as need-to-know. And that includes the<br />
Secretary-General.”<br />
“Shall I assume I have your authority to do what may be needed in this, Fleet-<br />
Admiral?”<br />
- 152 -
Riley noted the pragmatic use of his rank, and nodded sagely. For a moment, his<br />
honed, experienced air of command appeared to show a weakness that was more than<br />
uncommon and betrayed his burgeoning apprehension. “To its full extent, Admiral.”<br />
Ainsley let out a sigh. Riley was sticking his neck out further than most in the General<br />
Staff would ever be willing, and he suspected that the weight of consequence that might<br />
come with that initiative might well cost the man more than just his standing. Whatever Riley<br />
was expecting to come from this, he was willing to keep Ainsley – and the Commonwealth -<br />
as far away from the epicentre as possible.<br />
“Good luck out there, Ainsley,” Riley said at last - finally allowing a small hint of a<br />
smile.<br />
“You too, sir.”<br />
~<br />
Jane Roberts marched down the long access corridor from the hangar to the<br />
stairwell, and took each flight by double-steps as she bounded up two decks on her way to<br />
the B-deck flight command centres. Her webbing and gear still dangled from her flight<br />
harness and she wiped a matted lock of black hair out of her eyes as she spun in a waltzstep<br />
around a clerk who was taken off-guard by her ascent to rapidly step aside.<br />
Dustin Coyle was only a few paces behind her, himself still pumping with adrenaline<br />
that was only being further fuelled by an anger of what his squadron – and the Rapiers - had<br />
just endured. The two officers rounded the final junction and paused for a moment for a trio<br />
of flight controllers on their way out of the command centre who in turn saluted as they saw<br />
the pair before quickly disappearing down the hall.<br />
Standing in the centre of the FOC, Commander Rebecca Raincastle looked haggard.<br />
She was the commander of the battlegroup‟s SEWACS squadron, and was still struggling to<br />
take stock of the strike wing after the debacle that had just passed. Coyle tensed as he<br />
passed her on his way through. While he knew it wasn‟t her fault, the lives of twenty four of<br />
the best pilots in the fleet had just bee pressed against the wall for reasons no one seemed<br />
able to understand or explain, and he desperately wanted answers.<br />
“Roberts, Coyle,” she said quickly as the storm-bearing fighter pilots forded through<br />
the command centre.<br />
“Not now,” Roberts hissed.<br />
“Sorry, Jane... Captain Banick wants to see you both in his office as soon as you‟re<br />
done.”<br />
“Yeah, I bet he does,” Roberts shot back as Raincastle fell in step beside her. “What<br />
the fuck happened out there?”<br />
“We still don‟t know,” Raincastle acknowledged. “Admiral Ainsley has a full<br />
communications and sensor blackout in effect. Bridge hasn‟t said a thing.”<br />
Roberts stopped abruptly and almost collided with the SEWACS commander in the<br />
process. “Well maybe you should find out!” she snapped. “Your birds dropped the ball out<br />
there, and our people almost died for it. So get out of my way, and do something useful.”<br />
Raincastle‟s mouth fell agape as Roberts turned and headed for the briefing rooms.<br />
Coyle put a firm but reassuring hand on her shoulder as he followed her out, looking back<br />
apologetically as he passed.<br />
Coyle didn‟t say a word as the two pilots strode in to Roderick‟s office to find both the<br />
Captain, and Commander Richards, waiting near the end of the room.<br />
“Captain, we sure would like to know what‟s going on,” Roberts cut in sharply.<br />
“Stand easy, Commander,” Roderick ordered, raising a steaming, black mug bearing<br />
the razor-winged crest of the Dark Angels. She sipped it as she walked back to her desk and<br />
sat down, letting Richards remain at the side.<br />
Roberts and Coyle attempted to relax, but failed to wipe the tension from their sweatcovered<br />
brows. Richards smirked slightly as he pulled a towel from the sideboard beside him<br />
and tossed it across to Roberts. The pilot snatched it from the air and offered him a half<br />
- 153 -
smile of thanks as Roderick pushed aside several files. She stared at them both for several<br />
long seconds, and then offered an approving nod. “Good job, both of you.”<br />
“Thank you, ma‟am,” they replied sharply in unison.<br />
“Few other pilots would have kept their heads in that situation... And we probably<br />
wouldn‟t be having this conversation, otherwise.”<br />
Roberts and Coyle didn‟t break their gaze and Roderick glanced sidewards at<br />
Richards. “Now... Speak your minds.”<br />
Roberts gave Coyle and assuring nod to take a lead, and the Dark Angels‟<br />
commander pursed his lips. “Ma‟am, despite the communications blackout, we know what<br />
we saw. It‟s going to take a small miracle to prevent this getting out.”<br />
Roderick nodded. “I expect as much... But I‟m going to have to ask for some<br />
discretion just the same. This situation is delicate, and I can‟t have you throwing fuel on this<br />
one.”<br />
“Captain, it might be too late for that,” Richards said dryly. “If Ainsley is siding with<br />
Hornsby-“<br />
Roderick glared at Richards icily, and then eyed the two officers on the other side of<br />
her desk. “I want all of you to understand: we aren‟t choosing sides.”<br />
Richards bit his lip, and Roderick looked at each of them again before sighing in<br />
resignation. She knew Richards was right. The rift between Ainsley and Banick was clear,<br />
and Hornsby‟s appearance had only fanned the flames. A dangerous game was being<br />
played out by someone who had so far been content to remain in shadow – and everyone,<br />
including Banick, Hornsby, Ainsley and even Adamson - was being used for an end that had<br />
been concealed.<br />
The only thing that has become clear was the level of mistrust that was steadily being<br />
rooted within the highest levels of Ainsley‟s supposed command. “I admit,” Roderick<br />
continued, “The tensions between some of this fleet‟s staff are looking like we‟re going to be<br />
put in to a position of some difficulty-“<br />
“-You mean we‟re going to be asked to choose sides,” interrupted Roberts<br />
sardonically.<br />
“It is my intention, commander, that we won‟t need to. I have to assume that Aquarius<br />
is still operating some kind of a sea wing, and that means she has a CAG.”<br />
“You want to find out who?”<br />
A light rapping came from the Roderick‟s office door, making the captain smile as the<br />
other pilots‟ heads shot around to meet the noise. A junior ensign, one who Roberts and<br />
Coyle were not familiar with poked his head around the door frame nervously and saw<br />
Roderick sitting in the desk chair between the two fighter commanders.<br />
“Should I come back at another time, Captain?” the ensign asked apprehensively.<br />
Roderick shook her head an ushered him in with a wave of her hand. The officer<br />
marched up beside Roberts and saluted sharply, which Roderick again returned casually.<br />
“Ensign Jules Parish, reporting as ordered, Captain Roderick.”<br />
“Stand easy, ensign,” she said coolly. “Your timing is good, thank you.”<br />
Parish nodded politely before regarding Roberts, Coyle and then finally Richards with<br />
a nervous smile. Roderick produced a data slate from beneath a pile of papers, and set it in<br />
front of her.<br />
“Ensign Parish is assigned to Ops in the CIC,” Roderick explained. “Commander<br />
Roberts had Chief Adams lodge a service request for some sonar data the Rapiers logged<br />
during their last sortie.”<br />
Roberts nodded, an eyebrow raising curiously as she eyed Parish with a measure of<br />
suspicion, having nearly completely forgotten about the find in the chaos of the last day. It<br />
impressed Roberts that Parish had actually managed to follow it up as quickly as he did.<br />
“Sufficed to say, I asked the Ensign to meet you to discuss what he found. Mister<br />
Parish?”<br />
The ensign looked taken aback by the unexpected invitation and after a moment‟s<br />
hesitation and an impatient shuffle from an increasingly irritant Commander Richards, he<br />
nodded and gestured to the monitor at the side of Roderick‟s office. “May I, Captain?”<br />
- 154 -
There was no objection, and Parish made a quick key stroke on his data slate that<br />
soon resolved on the display. The slowly spinning roundel of the Commonwealth dissolved,<br />
and was promptly replaced with an uplink to Parish‟s CIC station, and the associated sensor<br />
log, which appeared initially as little more than an audio wave form.<br />
“It took me a little while to isolate the distinct frequencies in your logs, Commander<br />
Roberts,” he explained briefly. “But to spare you the details, I eventually cross referenced the<br />
individual tracks to fleet records that displayed similar anomalies.”<br />
Parish made another adjustment to his slate, and the wave form split in to three<br />
different patterns before isolating the top-most track. Parish zoomed in on the required time<br />
code, and highlighted a section that was nearly completely devoid of data – a sensor hole,<br />
filled with nothing more than ambient noise. Making another stroke on his instrument, the<br />
sonar track was super-imposed on what appeared to be a three dimensional representation<br />
of a UEO Raptor subfighter, mapped to its sonar arrays and associated data bearings.<br />
Parish then tapped his pad, and let the data play through. The wave form jumped, spiked<br />
and changed slightly as the timeline progressed, but all four pilots noticed the „hole‟ that was<br />
missing on the fighter‟s 180-degree bearing. Parish rotated the display, and overlayed the<br />
second and then third sensor tracks which resolved above and below the first, completing<br />
what had effectively become a spherical map of the fighter‟s sensor recordings, on every<br />
bearing. In some places, Roberts could clearly make out what appeared to be the shadows<br />
of adjacent subfighters, or the rolling topography of the trench around it – but once again –<br />
the hole just below the fighter‟s tail remained.<br />
The title slug at the bottom of the screen identified the Raptor as belonging to Rapier<br />
Eight – Lieutenant Cunningham. As best Roberts could see, the data that Parish was<br />
showing them was the original log that had been sent to the CIC.<br />
“This is a full map of the fighter‟s hypersonar logs,” Parish explained. “In real time.”<br />
“So?” Roberts asked, so far unimpressed. “This is the same thing the Lieutenant<br />
found when she was working with the Chief.”<br />
The ensign regarded the Rapier commander apologetically, and then looked at<br />
Richards and Coyle respectively. “Yes, ma‟am, it is... I thought I would display it in a more<br />
understandable manner for the sake of Commanders Coyle and Richards,”<br />
“Please continue, ensign,” Roderick suggested gently, giving Roberts a warning<br />
glance.<br />
Parish nodded curtly, and then swiped his hand across the slate again, the display<br />
wiping a new overlay, highlighted in blue, across that which was already playing. “To<br />
compare, sirs, this is the same time code on the parallel acoustic array.”<br />
They all noted that the hole had now been filled. The missing data had returned, and<br />
Coyle‟s eyebrow started to rise slowly. Parish went on. “...The problem with this data is that I<br />
have cross checked the alignments of both the primary, and the slaved sonar arrays, and<br />
there is no question they are matched to an extremely accurate degree. There are, as best I<br />
can tell, only two possibilities that remain that explain the absence of data on the laser<br />
bands. The first, is that the hypersonars on three, independently maintained subfighters<br />
have suffered the exact same electronics failure on their aft detection grids, on the same,<br />
matched bearing...”<br />
“...Which is impossible,” Richards noted.<br />
“Well, nothing is impossible, Commander... but a better explanation is that the<br />
acoustic data, too, has to contain a measurable, matched anomaly along the same axis.”<br />
Parish again wiped his hand across the slate, and the hypersonar data – along with<br />
its „hole‟ disappeared, leaving only the acoustics. Parish highlighted the corresponding<br />
equivalent and isolated it from the rest of the track. “This portion of the acoustic sonar log<br />
shows everything you would expect from a functioning array. If you were to break down the<br />
different tracks, you‟d be able to identify engine, enrivonment, contact and ambient logs<br />
without a problem. By all rights, the data is „complete‟.”<br />
Parish paused for a moment, and then expanded his selection to include the adjacent<br />
data. “That data is a reflection,” he concluded.<br />
“A reflection?” Roberts frowned. “As in... an active return, right?”<br />
- 155 -
Parish smiled coyly. “Not... exactly. If it were an active return from the fighter‟s<br />
acoustic array, then a contact would have been identified. This is more like... an echo. In<br />
effect, the sonar is picking up the correct noise, but when compared to the same profiles<br />
from other bearings, it is... delayed, but the very smallest of margins, as if someone was<br />
transmitting the ambient noise of the fighters engine back to the sonar, second-hand. If I‟m<br />
right, then it explains, almost perfectly, why the data on the hypersonar is missing.”<br />
Coyle smirked, and nodded his approval at the ensign. “‟look for the place with no<br />
noise...‟” he mused.<br />
Parish frowned. “Sir?”<br />
The Dark Angels leader shrugged. “There was an old adage among sonar operators<br />
in World War Three that the best way to pick up a missile submarine was to quite literally<br />
search for the point in the ocean that was too quiet, because it was easier to detect their<br />
absence than their presence... so to speak.”<br />
The ensign beamed. “Essentially perfect, sir.”<br />
“So it‟s a stealth fighter,” Roberts dawned darkly.<br />
“At least one, probably more,” confirmed Parish. “I only discovered it after I cross<br />
referenced the theory with what we know of Macronesian SA-35s.”<br />
Roderick stood up and briskly walked to the sideboards of her office next to Richards,<br />
pouring a fresh lot of coffee in to her mug. “The interesting part of that, Commander Roberts,<br />
is that the log would suggest you were being shadowed for as long as half an hour before<br />
they withdrew.”<br />
Roberts sneered, feeling as though a finger of blame was being levelled at her.<br />
Something inside her roiled in silent fury at the possibility she – and her unit – had been<br />
used. Roderick appeared to notice this, and placated her with another, calm smile. “...And<br />
half an hour after that, Commander, is when that Alliance patrol went missing.”<br />
“Ghost stories my arse,” Coyle growled.<br />
Roderick grinned, and it was genuine, probably for the first time in a while. “I‟m glad<br />
we‟re on the same page.”<br />
She let the sentence hang for a moment, and regarded Ensign Parish with a grateful,<br />
gentle smile. “Ensign, I‟ll but putting a note of commendation in with your superior. Brilliant<br />
work.”<br />
Parish beamed, and snapped his heels with a sharp salute. “Aye, ma‟am.”<br />
Roderick saluted in return. “Dismissed.”<br />
The Captain watched, and waited, as Parish left the office and closed the hatch<br />
behind him. She traced his shadow through the frosted glass of the office front and waited<br />
until he had disappeared from view before turning back to her officers, her face was darker<br />
again as she eyed each of them. “I intend to find out who it is who is shadowing us, and I‟m<br />
hoping we might already know who that is. If I‟m right, then we can hold every card that<br />
matters.”<br />
“How are you going to do that?” Richards asked.<br />
Roderick smirked. “I‟ve sent a note to the Aquarius CIC,” she admitted. “Give it a day.<br />
If we‟re lucky, they‟ll come to us.”<br />
Coyle eyed Richards suspiciously, his gaze cold, and untrusting. “Then the only thing<br />
we need to work out is what side we‟re going to choose.”<br />
~<br />
- 156 -
T H E S U M O F T H EIR P A R T S<br />
One hundred and fifty miles off the west coast of Africa, December 24 th , 2030...<br />
Ryan Callaghan smiled broadly as he walked down the starboard C-deck corridor of<br />
the Proteus on his way to the forward project facilities. He kept the flat, colourfully wrapped<br />
box, adorned in indigo ribbon at just the right angle behind his back so as to keep it from the<br />
prying, watchful eyes of the marines who patrolled the corridor, turning as he clear each<br />
patrol with a slight smile, all the while keeping his back away from them.<br />
Section 7 had a policy of „admonishing‟ its personnel on the subject of interpersonal<br />
relationships. Over the years they had operated quietly from the Proteus, Ezard had become<br />
notorious for upholding the institution, and more than one officer had been transferred from<br />
the post for pushing the tolerances of that strict mandate. Where those officers wound up, no<br />
one would dream of asking. It was the territory that came with such a post, and something<br />
they had all come to simply accept. Callaghan had skirted the edge a few times, but even he<br />
was not stupid enough to cross „that‟ line.<br />
He broke step as he entered the main medical facility, striding past Doctor Ballard‟s<br />
office and flashing a slight, knowing smile as he headed for the holding wing. Ballard looked<br />
at him with disapproving, tired eyes and a curt shake of her head, but was unable to repress<br />
a smile as she saw the little package behind the man‟s back.<br />
Callaghan stopped at that, pulling up short to turn on his heel and knock lightly on the<br />
frame of the Doctor‟s office. She rolled her eyes as he side stepped through the door, eyeing<br />
the small package in his hands with a disapproving look of resignation.<br />
“You know if Ezard saw that, he‟d put you on report,” she berated him lightly, still<br />
unable to keep the hint of a slight smile from her face.<br />
“Then lucky for me the Captain is busy... Did he tell you what it was that was so<br />
important before he left?”<br />
Ballard shook her head, rolling her eyes once more. “Do you goons ever tell me<br />
anything to do with security?”<br />
“Point,” he grinned.<br />
Ballard looked skyward again before her eyes were drawn back to the brightly<br />
coloured package in Callaghan‟s hand. Quizzically, her eyes interrogated his with a slight<br />
turn at the corner of her lip, and she folded her arms across her chest tightly. “You got them,<br />
didn‟t you.”<br />
It was a statement more than a question and the Lieutenant nodded. “Took six<br />
couriers and three transfer offices, but yes, I did.”<br />
“Why?” she begged incredulously. “Is it that important to you?”<br />
Callaghan‟s cold, calculating eyes warmed for a moment at the question, and his<br />
shoulders appeared to slacken. “Anne, seriously, it‟s Christmas Eve.”<br />
Her lips pursed. “Do you think any of them realise that?”<br />
“I think they realise more than we know.”<br />
Ballard paused, and pulled out a data slate from her desk that she slipped across the<br />
bench to Callaghan. “This might interest you,” she said with another, surprisingly warm smile<br />
creeping across her face again.<br />
Callaghan picked up the slate and reviewed it quietly, his jaw widening slowly as he<br />
read it, and his eyes gradually taking Ballard in with astonishment. “When did you get this?”<br />
he asked.<br />
“About ten minutes before you entered,” she said with a broad smile.<br />
Callaghan‟s cathartic relief showed as he exhaled sharply, an open, almost boyish<br />
smile meeting hers. “The stage seven catalyst?” he asked again, his eyes hopeful for the<br />
first time in months – perhaps even years.<br />
- 157 -
“Works,” she whispered, her stature seeming to grow, proudly. “Every marker, every<br />
gene sequence... Stable. None of the decay is evident, and that‟s from a third generation<br />
control.”<br />
Callaghan looked shocked, and he walked to Ballard quickly as he threw his arms<br />
around her. “You did it,” he rasped, his eyes almost welling with tears.<br />
For years, they had hidden away at the very end of the world, working, hoping for<br />
something that would end the brutality. Thousands had died through what Thecus van der<br />
Weer had wrought in his work, and it had weighed heavily on Anne Ballard‟s soul that she<br />
had not been able to save more. This moment came as a more meaningful step than any<br />
other she had ever taken – and ensured that millions more would live, not just then, but in<br />
the decades that followed. Ballard would not live to see that, and what was more is that she<br />
knew it. But for at least one of those hurt and displaced children in her care, it finally had a<br />
meaning. The cycle could end.<br />
They could go home.<br />
Ballard pulled back from Callaghan, her own eyes starting to well. “Ryan, I know<br />
you‟ve put yourself on the line a few times for this,” she said quietly. “I just want you to know,<br />
I appreciate it.”<br />
The Lieutenant smiled weakly. “I only did what I could, Doctor... I‟m just sorry I<br />
couldn‟t do more.”<br />
Ballard nodded, looking down at the package still in Callaghan‟s hand. “You should<br />
see her,” she said. “I think she‟d like to hear it from you.”<br />
...Samuel Ezard sat in silence at the desk near the end of the darkened room, deep<br />
within Proteus‟s bowels. Few people knew of the secluded office that served as his personal<br />
sanctum aboard the submarine, and those who did knew better than to speak of it. The only<br />
light in the room at that moment came from the soft, warm yellow glow of the desk lamp at<br />
Ezard‟s side, and beyond the thick glass pane behind him the ocean loomed as a great,<br />
infinite black. There was no soft blue reflection from the sub‟s own running lights off its great<br />
hull to spill in to the room, as she didn‟t even have any. For the unassuming officer in front of<br />
the Captain‟s desk, the sight should have been nauseating. The first time he had stood in<br />
front of that desk some years before, the vista of emptiness, impenetrable through the<br />
reflection of Ezard‟s sole desk lamp had sent shivers up his spine. Like staring out of a glass<br />
window on a moonless night – all he was ever met with was his own reflection. The abyss,<br />
as it were, had stood as a monumental unknown that unsettled him every time he stepped in<br />
to the room. It had always been a curiosity that Ezard sat with his back to that window,<br />
although there had been times when the man had entered to find his commander staring in<br />
to the vast beyond.<br />
That had since been lost on the officer – who also, as it happened, wore the tridents<br />
of a navy captain - with the days-on-end that he would deliver his simple report and time<br />
estimates to the senior Captain before him. The soft ticking of an old clock that had kept<br />
Ezard company for so many years didn‟t register to him any longer. He merely stood in<br />
silence, waiting for the man‟s always frank and short appraisal of the delivered report. It had<br />
become an efficient affair with little banter and no pleasantries. Ezard‟s second-in-command<br />
simply delivered the slate, waited for his summary, and then carried out the Captain‟s<br />
instruction.<br />
That day, on Christmas Eve in the year 2030, was very different.<br />
Ezard had re-read the report in his hand three times to be certain, eyeing the man at<br />
the conclusion of each pass as if searching for something that had escaped his notice and<br />
then silently placed the report on his desk before swivelling in his chair to stare out at that<br />
vast window. He sat motionless for several long minutes, and more than a few times, the<br />
officer opened his mouth to speak – silencing himself at the last possible moment. The<br />
Captain sensed this each time as he glimmered the image of the marine in the glass pane in<br />
front of him, and finally let out a long, drawn breath.<br />
- 158 -
“So, Ballard is sure, then.”<br />
The other captain nodded. “I pulled this from her personal files just minutes after it<br />
was logged. I believe she is preparing a more formal report for your review, but it would<br />
appear the science division is ready to proceed to a full stage of augmentation.”<br />
Ezard nodded slowly. “The Doctor is impetuous, and probably expects to keep this<br />
from us until she has contingencies in place,” he mused.<br />
“Likely, Captain,” he nodded slowly.<br />
“...And in your medical opinion?”<br />
The man hesitated. Ballard was a recognised expert in her field, and while his own<br />
knowledge of genetics research had gained him the position he now held at Ezard‟s whim, it<br />
was the first time he had ever been asked to stake his reputation on it. Samuel Ezard was<br />
not a patient man and did not take failure lightly, but it was clear that this is what his years of<br />
efforts had been working to, and time was no longer something he would could treat as a<br />
mere frame of convenient reference.<br />
“...In my opinion, Captain, the final catalyst that the Doctor has completed may be<br />
viable,” he said slowly, measuring each of his words. “But there is no way to tell without a<br />
practical exposure. Previous iterations of the serum have proven terminal in eighty three<br />
percent of cases. The remaining seventeen percent have not recovered, and remain in cryo.”<br />
“So you are certain that an introduction of the agent would stabilize the final<br />
augmentation of the remaining subjects?”<br />
He paused on that question before nodding once, definitively. There could be little<br />
doubt in the findings. “Yes, it would.”<br />
Ezard stared blankly across the room for several long seconds before regarding the<br />
captain coolly. “Then you know what to do.”<br />
Lieutenant Callaghan opened the cell door slowly - a snap-hiss and „clunk‟ as<br />
magnetic locks disengaged doing little to disturb the occupant inside. He‟d done this often<br />
enough, but still stepped in to the maw with a carefully guarded, sidewards step – the bulk of<br />
his weight being balanced on his hind leg. On more than one occasion, Callaghan had been<br />
virtually bowled over as the door was thrown back in his face, a blur of balled fists and wild,<br />
tangled hair just moments behind it as she screamed, clamouring for what was just another<br />
dead-end beyond the ante-room, in the arms of waiting, trunk-armed Marines.<br />
Today, she simply met him with a warm, even welcoming smile and Callaghan did his<br />
best to hide the grin that so desperately wanted to cover his face. Sanaa sat at the table, still<br />
wearing the black UEO-issue jumpsuit he‟d given her just a few days before. It still looked a<br />
size too big on her thin frame, but the brightness in her eyes disarmed him long before he<br />
closed the door in his wake.<br />
She looked healthy now - the long shadows beneath her once-gaunt eyes having<br />
disappeared over much of the last month, replaced only with full, gorgeous cheeks, and a<br />
smile that managed to take the chill out of clinically sterile air.<br />
“Honṙ Groets, Ryan,” she said lithely.<br />
Callaghan frowned, but it was clear from his face that the berating guise was entirely<br />
forced. “Hello, Sanaa,” he said in response, “You know you‟re supposed to speak English...<br />
If Doctor Scheider heard you, he wouldn‟t be very happy.”<br />
Sanaa grinned. “That‟s only because he doesn‟t understand the dialect,” she played<br />
before looking at him mischievously, adding finally, “En vey, tru.”<br />
“Yes, I do,” he replied, pulling aside the second of the chairs to straddle it in front of<br />
the desk before her. He took a moment to look around at the walls, once-white, now covered<br />
in a mosaic of wallpaper that was made entirely of hundreds, if not thousands of drawings<br />
that had been created by the tiny, unassuming hands of the girl in front of him. Each would<br />
not have looked out of place in an art gallery, and Ezard had threatened on multiple<br />
occasions to have them removed and destroyed. It was only the intervention of Doctor<br />
Ballard that had allowed the girl to keep the works, citing only that they provided an<br />
additional avenue of observation and study for the behavioural staff.<br />
- 159 -
“There is a very old tradition where I come from,” he said, showing her the brightly<br />
wrapped box. “Just for the one, same day, every year.”<br />
“Christmas,” she said, her eyes brightening.<br />
Callaghan nodded, being unable to repress his smile. “You know,”<br />
“Of course,” she countered, as if it were obvious. Callaghan looked around the room<br />
again, noting the absence of any clock or calendar, and his smile broadened again.<br />
“You‟re brilliant,” he marvelled.<br />
She didn‟t reply to that, instead choosing to study his eyes intently as he put the<br />
small package down in front of her. “This is for you,” he said quietly. “Don‟t worry, there‟re no<br />
tricks or catches. It‟s yours.”<br />
The corner of her lip curled slightly as this, and she clasped the package in her hand<br />
slowly, examining it as if it were the single most fascinating thing she‟d ever seen. She<br />
smiled at the ribbon, running her fingers over the surface of the box slowly, feeling every<br />
surface. She stared at it intently. “Approximate weight of two hundred and thirty five grams,”<br />
she said scientifically. “Hard, slightly malleable outer casing of twenty one centimetres by<br />
twelve centimetres, and a depth of one point three centimetres,” she mused again.<br />
Callaghan regarded her with astonishment as she turned the package over and ran a<br />
finger down a line of folded wrapping paper. He watched as her eyebrow twitched at the<br />
slight rattle of noise from inside the box, and she paused, eyeing him curiously. “Unfastened<br />
contents of the casing number precisely one dozen objects, arranged crossways.”<br />
The amazed Lieutenant smiled again, this time in resignation as he leaned back on<br />
the chair and sighed. “I don‟t even know why I bothered wrapping it,” he muttered.<br />
The girl giggled, her cheeks flushing for a moment as she ran a finger under the fold<br />
of paper and began to carefully and delicately unwrap it, pausing at each suture of tape to<br />
ensure the colourful paper was not damaged in her endeavour. “I like that you did,” she said,<br />
staring at him with unmatched wonder. The paper fell away as she peeled back the last fold,<br />
and she didn‟t even look at the tin of artist‟s pencils as her eyes found him again with a<br />
smile. “Thank you,” she said.<br />
Ryan grinned again. “You‟re very welcome.”<br />
Sanaa turned the box over, opening the box of watercolours and running her hand<br />
over them lovingly. It dawned on Callaghan at that moment that the simple gift had become<br />
the sole splash of colour in the entire room, with each and every one of the incredible<br />
drawings that adorned the walls being shaded in dull blacks, greys and whites.<br />
“There‟s something else,” Callaghan said more seriously. “Doctor Ballard wanted me<br />
to tell you, she‟s finished synthesizing the final catalyst. Do you understand what that<br />
means?”<br />
Sanaa looked up at him, her eyes now filled with uncertainty. Before Callaghan could<br />
finish explaining, he suddenly realised that her eyes were staring through him, beyond, and<br />
past the massive mirror that looked on to the chamber. He frowned. “What is it?”<br />
The girl said nothing as her hand tensed on the edge of the table, her knuckles<br />
turning white. Only then did Callaghan hear what she did – the sound of raised but muffled<br />
voices beyond the door. An argument, loud, and approaching quickly.<br />
Callaghan stood up just as the door to the room burst open, and six black-clad<br />
soldiers muscled their way in, rifles raised at arms, ahead of an explosion of shouting that<br />
Callaghan recognised as being the voice of Doctor Anne Ballard. The captain entered the<br />
room ahead of her, holding up a hand that tried to silence the enraged scientist in his wake.<br />
“Oh, really!?” Ballard yelled, her hands planted firmly on her hips. “Well then you can<br />
go back to the Captain and you tell him-“<br />
“This is not open to debate, Doctor!” the man hissed. Callaghan noted that the<br />
captain, who was unfamiliar to him, wore a white lab coat over his black Intelligence<br />
jumpsuit, and slowly came to face him fully, deliberately stepping to the left just enough to<br />
put himself between the man, and the girl at his back.<br />
“What‟s going on?” the Lieutenant asked sternly, brazenly overstepping his mark with<br />
the unknown officer.<br />
“Stand aside, Lieutenant. This is not a concern of yours,” said the man grimly.<br />
- 160 -
“I have no idea who you are, sir, but I am making it my concern.”<br />
That stopped both the man and Ballard, who looked at Callaghan incredulously. After<br />
a long, icy stare, the captain nodded. “I am taking control of this project, effective<br />
immediately. Doctor Ballard has been instructed to hand over all of her data, and Captain<br />
Ezard has instructed me to proceed with the introduction of the stage seven catalyst...<br />
immediately.”<br />
Callaghan‟s fists balled, the gorge in his throat rising venomously. Ballard stepped in<br />
front of the intelligence officer, blocking his path. “You can‟t do this.”<br />
The man remained cool. “But I can, Doctor, and I will.”<br />
“We aren‟t ready!” she snapped. “We need to run hundreds more tests, the catalyst<br />
doesn‟t yet work!”<br />
The captain smiled, but it was predatory as he stepped forward slowly. “Respectfully,<br />
Doctor, that‟s not what your logs stated.”<br />
Ballard looked appalled as her shoulders dropped. She‟d just lost, and she knew it.<br />
“...You‟ve been reading my logs?” she whispered in shock.<br />
The man brushed the accusation aside. “You are to be commended on your work,<br />
Doctor Ballard. Your solutions for the stage seven formula were nothing less than a<br />
breakthrough of genetic science. Rest assured, my final, formal report to the Captain will be<br />
favourable.”<br />
“You son of a bitch!” she growled as one of the marines held her back.<br />
Callaghan stepped forward, threatening close to the captain as he approached<br />
Sanaa, and hissed in his ear. “Why now? Do you have absolutely no decency?”<br />
“I have a duty to perform, Lieutenant, as do you.”<br />
The captain pushed past Callaghan towards the girl, who stood defiantly, and made<br />
no attempt to move. Before he walked two paces, Callaghan pulled his shoulder around, and<br />
smashed him across the face. The man sprawled across the floor, and Callaghan lurched<br />
forward just a moment before the watching Marines fell upon him.<br />
The air was crushed from his lungs as two hundred and forty pounds of soldier,<br />
weapon and armour pressed him in to the ground, his arm being wrenched behind his back<br />
painfully. Something cracked in his shoulder, and he stared in rage at the captain who was<br />
staggering to his feet. The Lieutenant sneered as the man went to hold his bloody, displaced<br />
nose, watching as blood poured down his face to stain the pristine white tiles at his feet.<br />
“Enough!” snapped a new voice from the door. Callaghan didn‟t see who it was until<br />
the marine on top of him hauled him to his feet and held him firm, feeling the cool,<br />
uncomfortably familiar brush of metal against his wrists as he was cuffed.<br />
Samuel Ezard stepped in to the room, hands clasped behind his back. “Take the girl,”<br />
he instructed the soldiers calmly.<br />
Callaghan watched silently as two of the marines gripped the girl by the shoulders<br />
and pulled her away from the desk, the distress in her eyes clear as she looked pleadingly<br />
with the Lieutenant. He could hear her cries as she was pulled down the hall, but it wouldn‟t<br />
be the last time they would meet.<br />
“The rest of you, leave the room,” Ezard ordered, looking at Callaghan with cold,<br />
unfeeling eyes. The inference was clear, and the Lieutenant didn‟t move.<br />
Ballard jerked away from the marine who held her by the arm, and marched out of<br />
the room, the soldiers obediently following suit without further word. Ezard waited until the<br />
door had fallen shut again, and then sighed deeply.<br />
“Five years,” the Captain whispered. “That‟s how long you‟ve served this program,<br />
Ryan. In that time, I came to trust you.”<br />
“This isn‟t right,” Callaghan rasped. “You know that just as well as I do.”<br />
Ezard‟s eyes narrowed as he began to walk around the cell, removing one of the<br />
drawings from the wall. He studied it as he spoke. “Right or wrong has little to do with this,<br />
Lieutenant. You‟ve known that from the beginning.”<br />
“Then my only regret, sir, is that I can no longer afford to ignore that distinction. I<br />
won‟t do this anymore.”<br />
- 161 -
Ezard smiled weakly as he looked up from the drawing. “Oh but Lieutenant, you will.<br />
You‟re far too close to this now.”<br />
Callaghan remained silent, daring not to break his gaze with the cold, depthless eyes<br />
before him.<br />
“I have just one question, Lieutenant,” Ezard mused, gesturing to the empty room<br />
around him. “...Has she been worth it?”<br />
An icy rush of contempt filled Callaghan‟s stomach with that question, and he finally<br />
looked away. There had been many times he‟d asked that question, and each time he did,<br />
the answer was edging closer to a part of him he found entirely repulsive. Finally, Callaghan<br />
stared back at the abyss. “...For the price we paid?” he asked in return. “Nothing is worth<br />
that.”<br />
Ezard smiled, perhaps even warmly, for the first time in as long as either of them<br />
could remember. The Captain knocked on the door frame, and a few seconds later the<br />
Marine sergeant who had cuffed him entered the room.<br />
“Hence the expression, Lieutenant... „Every man has his price.‟”<br />
Ezard looked briefly at the marine, and then began walking to the door, not once<br />
looking back at the Lieutenant in his wake. “Sergeant, take him.”<br />
~<br />
...The light in his face burned shadows in to every other corner of the room, masking<br />
the faces of those who held him firmly against the upright gurney in silhouette. Callaghan<br />
fought them, his muscles aching as he tried to tear at the strong grip of the men that pinned<br />
him down. Sweat dripped down his chest as his hands clawed at the sides of the table, the<br />
shadows moving to secure his wrists in leather binds. He felt the calm, sterile touch of<br />
gloved hands against his upper arm as something was daubed there, cold, and wet. He<br />
tensed as he fought the restraints in vain before a face came in to view, a surgical mask<br />
hiding all but their rueful, tired eyes. The voice whispered to him as he began to sense what<br />
they were doing, his breathing becoming sharp and panicked. The needle glinted in the<br />
intense glow of the light above his head, and he tried to look away – finding only those eyes<br />
again.<br />
“I‟m sorry, Ryan...” she whispered.<br />
...Pain.<br />
Intense, burning fire seared through Ryan Callaghan‟s veins as every muscle in his<br />
body contorted and spasmed at the sharp prick inside his elbow. He couldn‟t breathe – the<br />
sounds of their voices growing more distant as the world seemed to close in. Only when the<br />
pressure on his lungs made him feel as though he would burst, did he surrender. Callaghan<br />
opened his mouth, so desperately wanting to scream, and all that could come from his throat<br />
was a hoarse, tortured cry.<br />
But there was something else too as he fell deeper in to that abyss, his mind slowing.<br />
She was there, too. The warmth of her smile, the brilliant intelligence in her eyes, from some<br />
recess in the very back of his mind, something started to fire, and she heard her again.<br />
Sanaa sat alone on the precipice looking back at him. Before her, a vast plain ran out<br />
to an endless horizon as far as the eye could see. “No more questions,” she whispered to<br />
him. “Just one answer.”<br />
A single tear rolled down Ryan Callaghan‟s face, and the world turned to white...<br />
~<br />
- 162 -
VII<br />
A N G E L , G H O S T , H A R P & S W O R D<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 14 th , 2043…<br />
Lauren Hornsby sat stripped to her undershirt on the bench, the black jumpsuit pulled<br />
down to her waist as she stared out from the cell in to the second block of Commonwealth‟s<br />
brig. To some extent or another, she had left room for the possibility of this outcome, but<br />
even she had not expected it to happen so quickly. For nearly twenty four hours, she‟d<br />
stared at the infuriatingly dull bulkhead, waiting for even the smallest hint of news.<br />
It shouldn‟t have taken Mark Ainsley this long to work it out and it was getting to a<br />
point where Hornsby was starting to believe she was being strung out by the bull-headed<br />
Vice Admiral solely for his amusement. Above all other possibilities that bothered the<br />
Aquarius captain however, was that which she had not truly expected at all: the friction<br />
between Ainsley and James Banick was so tense that she doubted neither man could make<br />
any decision without causing problem for the other. This had come to a head when Hornsby<br />
had willingly walked in to the middle of them, and left both men aching to bring her head to<br />
Admiral Riley on a silver platter.<br />
She found it more than slightly ironic that it was the only thing Banick and Ainsley<br />
had agreed on since she arrived. Part of her half-expected Commander Razak or Captain<br />
Stiles to enter and explain what had happened, but that, she had long since decided, was<br />
unlikely. Stiles had his own orders, and Razak was smart enough to keep his head down,<br />
lest he find himself in the exact same position.<br />
Hornsby stood up and walked curiously to the bars as she heard the hatch at the end<br />
of the long corridor crack open with a hiss, shadows playing across the room with the light<br />
from the hallway outside. She saw the two marines on duty there snap to attention as a<br />
figure dismissed them, ordering them to stand outside. Only once they departed did Mark<br />
Ainsley stop outside her cell, his arms folded as he looked her up and down with a shake of<br />
his head. “I didn‟t expect this from you.”<br />
“Christ, Ainsley,” she spat. “This isn‟t what it looks, and you know it.”<br />
The Admiral turned on his heel for a moment and ran a hand over his chin. Hornsby<br />
heard the quiet sound sandpaper, and knew from his eyes that he hadn‟t slept. “Do I?” he<br />
asked impatiently. “Because I keep trying to find out what‟s going on, and no one seems to<br />
want to give me the courtesy of an explanation. That‟s why you‟re in there. If you want to get<br />
out of that cell, maybe you‟d be so kind as to fill me in.”<br />
Hornsby hesitated and folded her arms, feeling the chill of cold air rush up the<br />
corridor from the other end of the cell block. “It‟s complicated,” she said, pursing her lips.<br />
“I have time,” he challenged. “Do you?”<br />
Hornsby stared at him for several long seconds before finally nodding. “You‟ve been<br />
lied to,” she said simply. “The entire fleet, in fact, has been lied to.”<br />
Admiral Ainsley stared at her sceptically for some time before he turned on his heel<br />
again and started walking back towards the door.<br />
“I‟m not finished!” she called, stopping him.<br />
“Then start talking, Lauren, because I am about thirty seconds from drawing you up<br />
and giving you to Banick. And trust me, that‟s very tempting for right now because he‟d<br />
finally get something he wants, and would give me five minutes of peace.”<br />
“You‟ve been given a mission you know is going to fail,” she said, eyeing the hallway<br />
again for a moment. “You know as well as I do that an assault on Pearl is going to fail if it‟s<br />
rushed to the timeline they want.”<br />
Ainsley straightened. Hornsby smiled. Now she had his attention. “How do you know<br />
about that?” Ainsley asked, his eyes narrowing accusingly.<br />
- 163 -
“Like I said, you don‟t know half of what‟s going on. You think I‟ve deserted, run to<br />
the hills and taken up some kind of... mercenary campaign, but it‟s not that simple. I‟ve got<br />
orders too, Ainsley, and we are still on the same side.”<br />
“Who is your commanding officer?” he asked bluntly.<br />
Hornsby hesitated before answering. “...Admiral Jason Hargreaves.”<br />
Ainsley pursed his lips for a brief moment as he again considered walking out before<br />
he realised, grimly, that her eyes were truthful, and he nodded for her to continue. “Go on.”<br />
“...Aquarius has been working with a small group of Intelligence officers, both UEO<br />
and NSC, to combat Section 7. You‟ve already dealt with them, in fact.”<br />
“Keelan,” Ainsley said bluntly.<br />
Hornsby nodded. “Commander Keelan is one of those officers, yes, Admiral. We<br />
don‟t have the resources of a multinational fleet behind us and what we do have is very hard<br />
to replace. I‟m sorry we had to draw you out like this, but it was the only way to make sure<br />
we weren‟t discovered.”<br />
“You keep saying „we‟, Lauren. Are you working for Intelligence now?”<br />
Hornsby looked away and again hesitated. “No, not exactly. My orders do come from<br />
the military chain of command, but... Aquarius no longer has any connection with the Fleet<br />
Command. I would have said that CINCPAC doesn‟t know we exist, but something tells me<br />
you and I wouldn‟t be having this conversation unless you‟d already spoken to Riley.”<br />
Ainsley nodded, but remained silent.<br />
“...And I am also assuming that Riley is hoping to use Aquarius as his ace to try and<br />
take Pearl by the first of August.”<br />
Again the Admiral nodded, and Hornsby‟s eyes turned to plead. “Mark, I can help<br />
you, but Aquarius isn‟t going to be enough. Not if we want to stop the Secretary-General.<br />
Speak to Hargreaves, and-”<br />
Ainsley narrowed his eyes and held up a hand, stopping her mid-sentence, her last<br />
sentence ringing in his head. “Wait, stop. You said stop the Secretary-General... What do<br />
you mean?”<br />
Hornsby did stop, and looked at Ainsley in bafflement, her eyes narrowing as they<br />
studied his. Slowly, her heart sank as she realised what was happening. “Oh Mark... No...”<br />
“Lauren!” he snapped. “Tell me what‟s going on!”<br />
“That son of a bitch,” she whispered, her eyes cold before finally drawing up to meet<br />
his. “Cathgate must have kept it from you, because he knew an attack would fail. I am so<br />
sorry, I should have thought.”<br />
“What does Cathgate have to do with this?” Ainsley urged, stepping closer to the<br />
titanium cage. “What hasn‟t he told me?”<br />
When Hornsby told him, Mark Ainsley wanted to be sick, and without another word,<br />
marched from the cell-block and slammed the door.<br />
~<br />
...The man in the black flight suit stepped off the unmarked personnel shuttle on to<br />
the flight deck of the Commonwealth and looked up at the banners above his head with a<br />
slight smile. The flags of the Rapiers and Dark Angels stirred something nostalgic inside him<br />
that he hadn‟t felt in a while, and a pang of missed opportunity that he knew full well would<br />
never come again.<br />
Several wary eyes meet the man as he walked across the deck, each of them noting<br />
the ghost-shrouded insignia of the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong> with suspicion and muted whispers. His<br />
stripes were those of a Wing Commander, although the rank slides that adorned his uniform<br />
were not the sky-blue that was so common of the fleet command. They were black – a tone<br />
used by only two organizations, the enigmatic, wanted rogue arm of UEO counterintelligence<br />
known only as Section 7, and the mistrusted spooks of Intelligence.<br />
- 164 -
The fact that an intelligence officer would be wearing such rank sparked instant<br />
rumour as to his identity, but while his post and rank were clearly and proudly displayed – his<br />
name was not.<br />
While the rainbow wardrobe that manned the battlecruiser‟s flight deck hesitantly<br />
regarded the man‟s division with malign suspicion, the marines who guarded the ship saw<br />
only the dolphins on his collar, and snapped to attention without so much as a tremor.<br />
The man returned their salutes sharply and with all intended respect, paying no heed<br />
to the crewmen in his wake. Lieutenants Sanjei Kasumiko and Alejandro Chavez of the Dark<br />
Angels were on their way to the flight deck to begin the day‟s second patrol when they both<br />
stopped dead in the hall way, their mouths agape as they watched the man disappear up in<br />
the stairwell. The two officers looked at each other in shock as though a ghost had just<br />
walked straight through them.<br />
The man smiled at that. He remembered them well, and was still deeply indebted to<br />
the Dark Angels and their commander in a way he wasn‟t sure he‟d ever be able to fully<br />
repay. The message had come in a manner none of Aquarius‟ senior staff had been truly<br />
prepared for. A simple message, text only, buried within the carrier signal of a transmission<br />
sent from Commonwealth‟s CIC when James Banick had informed Commander John Razak<br />
that Captain Hornsby had been placed under arrest. The message had contained six words,<br />
and had been signed only with the initials “Q.A.R.” Truthfully, the man was surprised he<br />
hadn‟t received the note earlier when Razak had told him.<br />
He rounded the last corner heading in to the Commonwealth‟s FOC, pausing briefly<br />
as he realised the layout was slightly different from that which he recalled of his previous<br />
posting. Checking the signage of the corridor, he made a quick right and walked head-on in<br />
to the middle of the battlecruiser‟s flight operations centre.<br />
A woman standing at the middle of the chaos with her arms folded tightly shot him an<br />
accusing gaze as he entered the room, suspiciously looking him up and down from head to<br />
toe. He didn‟t know her, although her Commander‟s rank slides and the squadron patch of<br />
the 2 nd Electronic Warfare Squadron gave the man an ample indication as to her position as<br />
Flight Operations Director. He narrowed his eyes as he saw the name „R. Raincastle‟ on the<br />
right breast of her uniform, a flicker of recognition and remembrance of the callsign<br />
„Stormtide‟ crossing his mind.<br />
Her eyes widened slightly as she finally noticed his rank insignia and the badge of<br />
the Aquarius across the left side of his chest. “Something I can help you with, sir?”<br />
“I‟m looking for Wing Commander Corinn Roderick,” he said.<br />
The woman straightened. “Captain Roderick is in her office, sir. Down the hall, third<br />
door on the right.” She picked up a headset and started to dial in a number. “I‟ll see if she‟s<br />
available, Wing Commander...?”<br />
Wing Commander Gavin Mackenzie shook his head, dismissing the suggestion with<br />
a slight wave of his hand. “If you don‟t mind, Commander, keep this one off the channels for<br />
the time being.”<br />
...Corinn Roderick stood silently at the window of the office, staring out across the<br />
vast hangar deck below. She‟d seen every moment of the unmarked shuttle‟s arrival, which<br />
now sat at the holding area being tied down and secured by EVA ground staff. The man who<br />
had exited the craft and disappeared in to the adjacent corridors was too distant to recognise<br />
by face, but his stride and gait were not something she could easily forget. Absentmindedly,<br />
her hand drifted to her own arm, trying to recall something soft and warm that now seemed<br />
so far in the past that it was like trying to reassemble shards of splintered glass. It had only<br />
been nine months prior, she knew, but so much had happened in that time that any shared<br />
ground there counted for little then and there. He‟d made a choice, and it would a long time<br />
before she could reconcile that, and understand why.<br />
She sensed his shadow in the door frame long before he decided to enter the office,<br />
closing her eyes to let out a slow, uneasy breath. She‟d prepared all morning for this,<br />
rehearsing almost every word, mentally preparing herself to take a stand and make an<br />
- 165 -
inflexible, rational position that would force his hand, but the confusion and conflict she felt at<br />
that moment had blown that apart with all the force of a great storm.<br />
“Hello, Quinn,” Mackenzie said, stepping inside quietly before closing the door gently<br />
behind him.<br />
Roderick swallowed a lump in her throat, and continued to stare across the hangar,<br />
her teeth clenching tightly for a moment that dragged on longer than either of them felt<br />
comfortable with. Finally, she turned.<br />
Gavin Mackenzie‟s heart skipped a beat as he saw her again, managing a weak<br />
smile as he saw the gold tridents adorned upon her collar, and the way she stood – still<br />
proud – behind the great oaken desk. This was what he always knew she was meant for,<br />
and it filled him with a silent gratification that she could so then and there, despite what was<br />
going on behind her tortured eyes at that moment. He knew the look well...<br />
Devastation, betrayal... and love.<br />
Roderick finally snapped back to reality, and began to march slowly around the desk<br />
toward him, studying him the whole way before stopping several feet from him – daring not<br />
to approach any further.<br />
“I‟d come to accept that you died a long time ago,” she managed finally.<br />
“Would it be easier if I were?”<br />
She stared at him again. “Part of me wishes that, yes,” she said truthfully. “It would<br />
be easier to accept that you‟d died nine months ago, than to even entertain the possibility<br />
you could have betrayed that uniform.”<br />
Mackenzie‟s jaw tightened. “...You mean to think that I might have betrayed you,” he<br />
corrected.<br />
Roderick wanted to slap him, hard, but that was why she had stopped so short of<br />
him. Opening her mouth, she instead opted to step back silently and take a seat.<br />
“You wanted to speak with me,” Mackenzie suggested finally, folding his hands<br />
behind his back.<br />
“Yes,” she replied bluntly. “I suspect you know what about, too,”<br />
“Quinn,” he said lightly, “I‟d appreciate it if we could get to the point. I doubt you<br />
wanted me to come here just to hear you say you are disappointed in me.”<br />
Roderick straightened - her lip turning. “And I would appreciate it, Commander, if you<br />
would do me the courtesy of using my rank.”<br />
Mackenzie stiffened, nodding slowly. „So,‟ he thought silently to himself. „That‟s the<br />
way it is, then.‟<br />
“Understood.”<br />
“Thank you.”<br />
“So, Captain... What is it you wanted to discuss?”<br />
~<br />
“Tell me you didn‟t know!” snapped Ainsley at the monitor, his hands planted on the<br />
desk like a bull ready to charge, steam billowing from an enraged snout. “Of all the stupid,<br />
brain-dead ideas that moron has tabled, tell me this is one you did not support!”<br />
Fleet Admiral Jack Riley pulled his lips in to a tight, thin line at the outburst, his<br />
cheeks flushing. Few people had the position or cause to scream at the highest ranking<br />
officer of the UEO armed forces, and even fewer would consider such an action a positive<br />
career move, but Ainsley did not care.<br />
The outrage was clear, and Riley – for his part – understood it perfectly. Ainsley<br />
wasn‟t the first officer of his command to voice „displeasure‟ at the plan, and now he almost<br />
certainly wouldn‟t be the last. The revelation had come like a bolt of lightning from a clear<br />
blue sky, and Mark Ainsley was staggered beyond belief that it could have even been<br />
suggested, let alone approved.<br />
“Mark, I‟m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but Cathgate‟s orders were clear on the matter.<br />
My relationship with the Secretary-General is already strained, and I couldn‟t risk it.”<br />
- 166 -
“So instead the bastard wanted to risk my life and the crew of the Commonwealth,”<br />
he drawled bitterly. “How ignoble, and how naive was I.”<br />
Riley stared icily through the monitor. “Remember your place, Vice Admiral,” he<br />
reminded Ainsley coldly. “Whatever you might think of Cathgate, just remember that the<br />
whole reason I wanted you for this assignment is because I do believe you can prosecute<br />
the operation to avoid a catastrophe.”<br />
Ainsley softened, but his annoyance was still clear. “Cathgate knows the odds,” he<br />
said. “This mission is a lip service, and now we both know it. What I can‟t believe is that<br />
Hornsby was right.”<br />
“Hornsby told you?” Riley interjected, his shock slowly becoming apparent.<br />
“I didn‟t believe her, Jack,” he sighed, “but now I‟m beginning to wonder if she was<br />
right about a lot more.”<br />
“I‟m more concerned over how she could have known at all,” the commander-in-chief<br />
speculated. “Did Hornsby tell you anything else?”<br />
Ainsley thought about it for a second. At that moment, it was rapidly becoming<br />
apparent to him that he may have known more than Riley did, and the last thing the supreme<br />
commander of the UEO‟s Pacific Fleet needed was to be any more attached to the scandal<br />
than he already was. There was only one alternative, and they both knew it. “Jack,” he<br />
appealed gently. “You don‟t need this on you and right now I feel like I need every ally I can<br />
get. I can‟t do this without help.”<br />
Riley hesitated for a moment, and then finally nodded his approval. “Alright, so<br />
Hornsby isn‟t in the picture,” he smiled. “Vice Admiral, I need you to understand... I can only<br />
support you to the end of the orders I have given you, and I will do so for as long as I can. I<br />
will do everything I can to keep the Secretary-General on the tether, but if you do this...”<br />
Ainsley nodded gravely, the recourse he was facing himself with becoming clearer<br />
with every passing moment. “I understand, Jack,” he smiled, the weight on his shoulders<br />
amounting to more than his thirty six years of service could ever account to. “For what its<br />
worth... I‟ll get it done.”<br />
“I know you will, Mark,” Riley confided. “And to you to, it might go against everything<br />
you‟ve ever believed but, well...”<br />
The Fleet Admiral couldn‟t bring himself to admit it. But the words „it was the right<br />
decision,‟ seemed to hang between them both, which made Ainsley smile.<br />
“What about Banick?” Riley asked. “If you do this, you and I won‟t be the only ones<br />
on the firing line.”<br />
Ainsley nodded slowly. “Banick‟s a good officer, he just needs a little time to realise it.<br />
I‟ll take care of it.”<br />
~<br />
Ryan grinned at Madeline as she leaned in again and whispered in her ear, which in<br />
turn made her giggle. She leaned in and kissed him slowly, one hand on his waist while the<br />
other – still cradling the champagne – rested lightly behind his neck. “You pirate,” he<br />
managed mischievously in a short break from her lips, putting his own glass down on the<br />
window ceil to run his hand down her side, only stopping at her waist.<br />
“Sweetheart, I‟m only joking,” she said, pulling away lightly.<br />
He raised a quizzical eyebrow. “That‟s not what you said last time.”<br />
Madeline‟s mouth hung open for a moment before she twisted it in to a smile. “You‟re<br />
still not sure they‟re going to work it out, are you?”<br />
Ryan Callaghan exhaled from his nose slowly and swallowed the mouthful of<br />
champagne he still held in his mouth. Madeline looked at him with increasing concern. “I<br />
know that look,” she said.<br />
He looked out the window again, staring across Commonwealth‟s great port side<br />
flanks in to the murky darkness. Her face was pale in the blue glow of the battlecruiser‟s<br />
- 167 -
unning lights outside, her Mediterranean eyes glimmering brilliantly under the shimmering<br />
eddies of light that played across the walls of the XO‟s quarters.<br />
“I‟m trying not to think about it,” he admitted hazily. “But you might have been right,<br />
before. I‟m sorry I snapped like I did...”<br />
She wrapped her hand around his shoulder and cocked her head slightly. “Hey,<br />
you‟ve made your brownie points back.”<br />
He smirked again. “That‟s the champagne talking, darling,”<br />
She shrugged, and kissed him again. “Doesn‟t mean I don‟t mean it.”<br />
There was a sharp rapping from the door to Callaghan‟s quarters, and his he closed<br />
his eyes, head snapping around sharply. “What is it?” he snapped, gently letting go of<br />
Madeline.<br />
No reply came, and Callaghan sighed sharply as he stormed across the room,<br />
leaving Madeline to look back out to the sea. “Yes?” he repeated, pulling the hatch open<br />
impatiently.<br />
His eyes immediately flared and he straightened as he saw the man waiting in the<br />
hall. Admiral Ainsley immediately noticed Hayes behind him, and smiled apologetically.<br />
“Sorry to disturb you, Commander.”<br />
“Admiral, no, please - come in.”<br />
Ainsley hesitated before stepping through the hatch, nodding curtly to Hayes.<br />
“Commander,” he greeted her with a coy smile, noting the piled plates atop the table near<br />
Callaghan‟s small kitchen, pots piled out of the basin. “I‟m sorry,” he flushed. “I didn‟t mean<br />
to intrude,”<br />
“No time is ever going to be ideal around here, sir, I understand.”<br />
Ainsley looked apologetically at her again before eyeing Callaghan with an unsure<br />
gaze. “I‟m truly sorry, Commander Hayes... I need to speak with your husband privately, if<br />
we may?”<br />
She nodded silently, regarding Ryan with a smile as she started walking to the door.<br />
She didn‟t get far before Callaghan stopped her. “No, stay here,” he said. “This way,<br />
Admiral...”<br />
Ainsley entered the small study next to Callaghan‟s quarters setting a data pad down<br />
on the desk, and closed the door behind him before peeling off his jacket. “I‟m sorry again,<br />
for this, Commander, but it‟s not something I could afford to wait on until morning.”<br />
“I understand, Admiral,” he dismissed, settling in to a chair beside the desk.<br />
“I will level with you, Ryan,” he said. “I am fronted with a position that I am not certain<br />
I can win Captain Banick‟s support on.”<br />
Banick‟s XO hesitated. “Admiral, I appreciate your position, but this may not be an<br />
appropriate conversation.”<br />
“I‟m I don‟t have the luxury of courtesy, Commander... I need your help.”<br />
For the next half an hour, Ainsley explained everything, down to the finest detail.<br />
Throughout it all, Callaghan said nothing and simply stared, listening, as the colour gradually<br />
drained from his face. When Ainsley finally explained what he intended to do, Callaghan<br />
simply stood hesitantly, and looked out the window again. The Vice Admiral had just handed<br />
him the fate of his career to do with as he felt necessary and in doing so, had tied<br />
Callaghan‟s to his. Through action, or inaction, they would both damned.<br />
“Why?” Callaghan asked painfully. “Why ask me this?”<br />
Ainsley stood, motionless. “Because you are the one person on this ship who has<br />
any kind of appreciation for what Hornsby is doing, and you know exactly why.”<br />
“You realise what you‟ve just done,” he said flatly.<br />
Ainsley smiled sadly. “My career was over no matter what course of action I chose to<br />
pursue, Commander. What you, however, choose to do with the same information is up to<br />
you.”<br />
Ainsley picked up the data pad he‟d left on the desk and turned to leave before<br />
Callaghan turned from the window. “Sir, I have a question.”<br />
“Anything.”<br />
- 168 -
Callaghan looked down. “If it were not for my apparent history with Section 7... Would<br />
you still have told me this?”<br />
“I don‟t know,” Ainsley admitted. “But there were five million people living in San<br />
Diego who could probably give far better reasons than I ever could. I do not intend to add<br />
five million more to that list for the sake of my own career.”<br />
Ainsley opened the door to the office and had taken only one step before Callaghan<br />
looked up at him again, his eyes cold. “Just one more question, Admiral... how will I know?”<br />
Ainsley looked over his shoulder and smiled. “You will know. That much, I know I can<br />
trust.”<br />
~<br />
The night watch aboard the Commonwealth was one that passed in nearly<br />
unbearable tension for just a handful of officers. James Banick spent the majority of the night<br />
on the bridge, unable to sleep as he absorbed himself with a pile of department reports.<br />
For Corinn Roderick, it was a long walk amongst the rows of terminally damaged or<br />
ruined subfighters that filled the aft of the hangar, her hand running across the nose of each<br />
craft as she read the names of pilots who she would never meet again.<br />
Ryan Callaghan stood at the window of his quarters quietly gazing in to the dark<br />
beyond, his wife Madeline stretched out upon his bed, her arm lying across where he himself<br />
should have been.<br />
For Lauren Hornsby, the sun sat low against the waves, the sea before her glistening<br />
in a far and wide eastern horizon. She basked in its warmth and smiled, gazing out at the<br />
distant city of San Diego before three more suns rose beyond. The city began to fade as a<br />
wall of fire washed over it, her hair beginning to bluster and billow in a summer gale that<br />
blew across the bay from the three giant, dusty-shrouded pillars rising on the horizon,<br />
blocking the sun and casting long, black shadows over the earth below them. She awoke<br />
with a start just moments before the searing shockwave obliterated her and everything for<br />
miles in every direction. Hornsby shivered in the dark of her cell, her breathing quick and<br />
shallow once again as she realised that her „sunrise‟ was in fact the door to the cell block<br />
opening again. The tall, dust-shrouded figure in the darkness threw shadows across the floor<br />
of the block, and she sat up slowly to reach for her uniform jacket.<br />
The figured approached silently, standing outside the cell again, his arms folded in<br />
front of him. Hornsby looked Ainsley over again, noticing the tired, dark lines beneath his<br />
eyes. “Couldn‟t sleep?” she asked him quietly.<br />
“No,” he admitted. “But I can‟t say I‟ve tried very hard. Too much on my mind.”<br />
She sat up against the bulkhead, goosebumps forming on her upper arms as her<br />
bare shoulders met the cold metal. “I can imagine. It‟s... a lot to take in over just one day.”<br />
Ainsley nodded, pulling up a stool from next to the cell to take the load off of his<br />
aching feet, his shins still protesting their exhaustion.<br />
“I take it you spoke with Riley?” she asked.<br />
The Admiral nodded, but said nothing.<br />
“I‟m sorry, Mark,” she said again. “It... wasn‟t an easy decision for me, either.”<br />
Ainsley met her eyes sadly, a slow smile finally starting to show. “You seem to think<br />
I‟ve already made up my mind,” he said.<br />
“You‟re a good man, Mark, and always have been,” Hornsby said quietly. “I wouldn‟t<br />
have come to you if I didn‟t believe that.”<br />
Ainsley was silent again as he leaned back in the small chair, a thousand questions<br />
still spiralling, out of control, through his mind. “I had another question,” he said softly.<br />
“Of course.”<br />
Ainsley already knew the answer before he‟d asked. “Tom Parker,” he said. “Is he<br />
ok?”<br />
Hornsby nodded once. “He is.”<br />
- 169 -
Now the Admiral chuckled, running a hand over his face. “Then Schrader knows,<br />
doesn‟t she... About the Aquarius.”<br />
“She does.”<br />
A long, broken, hoarse and exhausted sigh escaped Ainsley again. His throat choked<br />
up as the news slowly sank in, his eyes welling as months of apprehension finally broke<br />
through the surface of the hard, distanced veneer he had spent decades perfecting. The<br />
news that his son-in-law was alive, after nine months of silence, was bitter sweet. Joy of<br />
course prevailed first, but there was another, deeper and bitterer sense of anger there that<br />
he would not be able to push away for a long time to come.<br />
Parker had run from a wife and child in pursuit of what he believed, evidently what<br />
they both believed, and still he couldn‟t find reason to forgive the act.<br />
“Did you know,” he rasped, fighting back tears, “He has a son?”<br />
Hornsby‟s pained expression was unreadable as Ainsley went on. “My god, Lauren...<br />
Do you have any idea how hard this has been?”<br />
“I‟m not a parent,” Hornsby reminded him gently. “I could never pretend to<br />
understand what you‟re feeling.”<br />
The man took a moment to compose himself, drawing several deep breaths while<br />
wiping his eyes clear. Hornsby looked down, contemplating her next thoughts carefully as<br />
she pulled her jacket over her shoulders. “There‟s a lot more I need to tell you,” she admitted<br />
quietly.<br />
“I know,” he replied, almost laughing in spite of himself at the clear obtuseness of the<br />
statement. Hornsby wasn‟t moved by this, and edged forward.<br />
“Mark, listen to me,” she said sternly. “I know this is going to be hard to take in, but<br />
aren‟t you the least bit curious as to how you found us?”<br />
“I know how the message was decrypted, Lauren,” Ainsley observed dryly. “Now that<br />
I know Schrader is involved, there‟s not much left to know.”<br />
Hornsby shook her head. “You‟re right that the message was meant for you, but we<br />
didn‟t send it,” she said coldly.<br />
Ainsley looked at her, his stare vacant. “What do you mean you didn‟t send it? It<br />
came from a <strong>DSV</strong> – the ciphers can‟t be replicated.”<br />
“It didn‟t come from a <strong>DSV</strong>,” she cut in. “It came from an AI.”<br />
Something uneasy started to stir inside the Admiral as he considered the possibility.<br />
It was outside the bounds of possibility that a full <strong>DSV</strong>‟s Strategic Operations Centre could<br />
be replicated to minutely, the Sentient AIs used aboard the vessels were a different<br />
technology entirely.<br />
“How?” he asked plainly, his impatience clear.<br />
“Nine months ago,” Hornsby explained, “Aquarius suffered a massive systems failure<br />
– very similar in nature to the one you reported on <strong>Atlantis</strong>. The date was August 9 th .”<br />
Ainsley narrowed his eyes. “The day you were reported missing...”<br />
Hornsby nodded again. “The only difference was, it was deliberately triggered, and it<br />
was controlled. Ari was in the middle of doing a sensor analysis of the wreckage of the<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong>, and we were... I guess you could say „spiked‟.”<br />
Ainsley slowly got up, an icy chill running down his spine. “<strong>Atlantis</strong>,” he repeated<br />
coldly. “Hornsby, you‟re making no sense. What does the <strong>Atlantis</strong> have to do with any of<br />
this?”<br />
The captain of the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong> swallowed a lump that had risen in her throat, and<br />
her next words took the air out of Ainsley‟s lungs.<br />
“The message wasn‟t sent by the Aquarius, Admiral. It was sent by Annie... And<br />
she‟s still alive.”<br />
~<br />
- 170 -
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 15 th , 2043…<br />
“We don‟t have much time,” Ainsley said, striding quickly down the starboard corridor<br />
of D-deck, Corinn Roderick close at his side and Gavin Mackenzie just inches behind them.<br />
Roderick wasn‟t convinced by Hornsby‟s claim – and Ainsley didn‟t blame her, despite the<br />
insistence of Mackenzie behind them. “With respect, Admiral, are you sure you want to go<br />
through with this now?” Roderick asked him. “If we simply had time to check Aquarius‟ SOC<br />
records...”<br />
“The longer we wait, Captain, the harder it‟s going to be to do this at all,” Mackenzie<br />
countered sharply. “With any luck, the Ghosts are already wet... They‟ll make sure you get<br />
cover.”<br />
“Ghost stories...” Roderick muttered inwardly to herself, the curiosity of the statement<br />
going unnoticed by her companions.<br />
“I hope that‟s more than just idle conjecture, Mister Mackenzie,” Ainsley snapped<br />
sourly. “Or this is going to be the shortest transit of my career.”<br />
“Standing orders, sir. Captain Hornsby anticipated something like this before she<br />
came aboard. If they aren‟t there, then I‟ll be just as surprised as you.”<br />
“You fill me with warm and fuzzy confidence, Wing Commander,” observed the<br />
Admiral, dryly. “Rest assured, I‟m holding you to it.”<br />
Ainsley didn‟t see the broad grin on Mackenzie‟s face as he rounded the final<br />
intersection and stepped on to the hangar deck, the unmarked shuttle having the last of its<br />
tethers removed by the ground crew before it was moved to the launch ramp.<br />
The group stopped momentarily as Ainsley turned and faced Roderick with a sigh.<br />
Roderick nodded her reassurance. “I‟ll make sure you‟re cleared, sir. By the time the Captain<br />
even realises you‟ve gone, you‟ll be well on your way.”<br />
“What about Hornsby?” Mackenzie asked, frowning. “We can‟t just leave her here. As<br />
soon as Banick realises what‟s going on, this is going to get messy.”<br />
Ainsley smiled confidently. It was a rare outward display that made Roderick grin as<br />
she turned to leave. “I‟ve already taken care of that,” Ainsley assured him. “I just wish I could<br />
give you the same promise.”<br />
“I‟ll bear it in mind,” Mackenzie smirked as he finished pulling on his gloves and<br />
hauled his helmet up under his arm. The shuttle‟s assigned crew chief waved at him as<br />
ground staff in purple jumpsuits unhooked and withdrew the umbilical fuel lines. A small<br />
number of other crewmen were beginning to assemble around the launch ramp, and Ainsley<br />
nodded to Mackenzie sharply.<br />
“Lead on, Commander.”<br />
Roderick entered the FOC with a small smile to Commander Raincastle as she<br />
approached the control deck overlooking the hangar deck below. She felt uneasy about what<br />
Ainsley was doing – but trusted that Mackenzie had taken the appropriate measures of<br />
precaution. The FOC was a buzz of constant radio exchanges for clearance, report and<br />
request. The numerous flight traffic control officers barely registered those around them as<br />
they kept a constant check of their EVA assignments and nothing within twenty miles of the<br />
battlecruiser was permitted to operate in, out or around her without their knowledge. If it did,<br />
then it was treated as hostile without exception.<br />
Rebecca Raincastle‟s job was little more than administration as she watched in total<br />
silence from the raised parapet of computer banks and monitoring consoles behind the<br />
control staff. The vast bulk of operational coordination happened between the FOC officers<br />
in front of her and the two SEWACS craft – at that moment, Warseer and Blackout -<br />
somewhere beyond Commonwealth‟s defence perimeter.<br />
“Commander, I‟ve got an unscheduled departure request from shuttle Eight-two-zerozero-delta,”<br />
one of the control officers reported, pulling off his headset for a moment to face<br />
the Flight Director behind him.<br />
“The launch from Aquarius?” Raincastle clarified with a small frown.<br />
“Aye, ma‟am. They‟ve called it in on Vice Admiral Ainsley‟s personal clearance code.”<br />
- 171 -
Roderick stepped in. “Clear them, and leave it off the log, Petty Officer,” she<br />
instructed sharply.<br />
“Belay that, and tell them to standby,” Raincastle replied with surprise, turning to face<br />
Roderick darkly. “May I have a word, Captain?”<br />
The two officers stepped to the back of the room, beyond earshot of the flight control<br />
deck before Raincastle purposefully sidestepped to block Roderick‟s view of the command<br />
deck, her arms folded tightly in front of her.<br />
“Respectfully, Captain... You‟re out of line.”<br />
“Commander Raincastle, I gave you an order,” Roderick replied coolly.<br />
The Flight Director narrowed her eyes. “Do you at least want to tell me where he<br />
thinks he‟s going?”<br />
Roderick paused and locked eyes with her. “Admiral Ainsley intends to assume<br />
command of the Aquarius,” she said, eliciting a smirk from her counterpart. “And you‟re<br />
going to give him clearance, and you‟re going to leave it off report.”<br />
“You know it won‟t take long for Banick will find out, Quinn,” Raincastle smiled.<br />
“I gave the order, Rebecca,” she whispered. “I‟ll take responsibility.”<br />
There was a long pause and finally Raincastle dropped her arms again - her<br />
shoulders slumping with a long sigh, raising her voice. “Priority clearance for Eight-Two-<br />
Zero-Zero-Delta is granted,” she said crisply. “Secure the log entry, as per Captain<br />
Roderick‟s order.”<br />
“Understood ma‟am... Launch clearance is granted.”<br />
Roderick remained in the FOC for several minutes after the order was given,<br />
watching in apprehensive silence as the sea launch was moved on to the ramp and slowly<br />
lowered in to the hydrosphere below decks. Amber warning beacons flashed amid the din of<br />
commotion elsewhere on the flight deck as the craft disappeared in to the dimly lit shadows<br />
of the moonpool. She continued to watch as the craft slowly sank in to the shaft, its running<br />
lights coming to power to illuminate the waters in a ghostly grey while the pressure doors<br />
above hissed closed with a „thump‟ that was audible through the glass.<br />
Raincastle watched too, although neither officer suspected that the tension they felt<br />
stemmed from the same quiet hopes. Roderick nodded her silent thanks to the Commander<br />
and spun on her heel, quickly heading for her office.<br />
...The sea launch emerged from the massive sea doors quickly and silently – the<br />
great shadow of the battlecruiser Commonwealth hanging above it for long, precarious<br />
seconds as the craft accelerated away in to the darkness of the sea. Gavin Mackenzie<br />
blocked out any thought of the vessel as he focused on putting the shuttle on to a casual but<br />
expedient heading for the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong> that he knew hovered somewhere in the darkness<br />
ahead, illuminated only as a faint outline on his heads-up display.<br />
For Ainsley, seated in the co-pilot‟s position beside him, the trip was made in far<br />
greater tension as his eyes kept marking the navigation plot to watch the activities of the<br />
battlecruiser in their wake. Commonwealth, however, remained silent as the range opened<br />
and the shuttle passed clear in to the abyss and continued downward in to the relative safety<br />
of the narrowing trench. Mackenzie knew that somewhere outside, his Ghosts trailed them<br />
quietly in shadow – none of them daring to break their radio silence. Ainsley prayed he was<br />
correct.<br />
Somewhere on Commonwealth‟s bridge, a small, shrill alert chimed at Ops. The<br />
operator narrowed his eyes at the contact that was slipping away from him, noting its IFF<br />
and ID and then cross-referencing it to the registered EVA traffic that surrounded the carrier.<br />
It came up as a bogey – neither registered nor cleared by the CIC, and he quickly thumbed<br />
his comms. “Ops to Combat,”<br />
“Banick Here.”<br />
“Captain, I‟ve got what looks like an unscheduled departure. IFF shows as a Launch<br />
registered as <strong>DSV</strong>-Eight-Two-Zero-Zero, dash Delta. No matching flight logs with FOC.”<br />
- 172 -
A few moments later and James Banick emerged from the open glass doors of the<br />
CIC to double-time down to the command deck. He looked up at the bank of monitors with<br />
his arms folded as he approached Ops and frowned. “You‟ve confirmed the ID?”<br />
“As best I can, sir. WSKRS has a track now and confirms she‟s the shuttle that<br />
docked last night, but nothing was logged that cleared her for launch.”<br />
Banick leaned over and toggled the radio with a flick of his thumb. “Shuttle Eight-<br />
Two-Zero-Zero-Delta, this is Commonwealth-Actual. Your EVA is not authorized. State your<br />
identification.”<br />
They waited a few seconds before the Chief of Operations shook his head negatively,<br />
and Banick repeated the message, this time ensuring that the channel was guarded to the<br />
CIC.<br />
“No response, Captain,” the Chief confirmed, and Banick sighed.<br />
“Someone get the Admiral up here and launch the Alert-Five,” he ordered. “I want<br />
that launch back here, now.”<br />
“Aye-aye.”<br />
Banick stormed back across the command deck and took his seat at the centre of the<br />
Conn, loosening his collar as he looked across at the tactical stations. Something was very<br />
wrong and before he had even asked the question – he knew that Admiral Ainsley would not<br />
be found, because he knew that he was no longer aboard the ship. It had been a moment<br />
that he had feared since the man had come aboard and now his hand was being forced.<br />
“Lieutenant Pirelli, Sound General Quarters.”<br />
Commander Roberts‟ heart began to pound as soon as the call came in, the order<br />
being underscored just seconds later by the shrill, jarring klaxon of a Red Alert. Buckling her<br />
boots and fastening her gloves, she was out the door of her office a second later when Coyle<br />
appeared from the access corridor and fell in step beside her, his own webbing dangling<br />
loosely from his flight harness. While Roberts would be among the Alert-Five, she‟d noted<br />
the night before that for a reason that no one had dared to discuss or even question, the<br />
Dark Angels, and their Commander, had been rotated from stand-down to take the place of<br />
the Alert-Ten.<br />
Roderick was already moving her pieces, and she started to wonder just how far the<br />
game would go before Banick or Ainsley realised that the rug was slowly and quietly being<br />
pulled out from beneath their feet. “Jane,” Coyle greeted her with muttered enthusiasm.<br />
“Dustin,” she replied, equalling his apparent displeasure.<br />
“I sure hope Quinn knows what she‟s doing,” he said quietly as they continued down<br />
the passage toward the hangar, sidestepping a group of marines that thundered towards<br />
them before turning down a corridor that he knew led to the armouries.<br />
“It‟s not the Captain Roderick I‟m worried about,” said Jane nervously. “Did you brief<br />
the Dark Angels?”<br />
“I briefed the flight leads,” he nodded. “I‟m trying to keep this as close to the chest as<br />
possible.”<br />
They came up to the stairwell that led down to the main hangar access and Coyle<br />
stopped as he realised she wasn‟t taking it. “Jane?” he called from the ledge.<br />
“I‟ll see you down there,” she said gruffly. “I need to take care of something.”<br />
...Roberts rounded the final corner and stepped inside the pilot prep room, finding the<br />
Rapiers gathering the last of their gear. They all snapped to attention as she entered, and<br />
she waved them aside. “You all know what to do,” she said plainly. “I won‟t mess around with<br />
speeches, but just remember we‟re all on the same side, regardless of who we take our<br />
orders from.”<br />
A chorus of nervous acknowledgements met her, and she nodded her approval,<br />
noticing through the corner of her eye the quiet, unsettled way that both Cunningham and<br />
Rogers fidgeted in their flight gear. That was what she had been afraid of. “Good hunting,”<br />
she said curtly.<br />
Roberts waited at the door as the squadron forwarded out and headed to the hangar,<br />
noticing that the two Lieutenants appeared to be delaying in picking up their helmets and<br />
- 173 -
gloves, instead continuing to fiddle with the assortment of buckles and straps that dangled<br />
from their shoulders. When they finally picked up their gear under her watching gaze, she<br />
stopped them both. “A word,” she said, closing the door and barring their exit.<br />
“Ma‟am,” they both snapped.<br />
Roberts‟ eyes softened as she looked at them both. There was sympathy in her gaze,<br />
but also an understanding that what she was asking of them would be one of the defining<br />
moments of their careers. “I know this is probably going to be difficult to understand,” she<br />
started, “but there isn‟t much of a chance that we‟re going to get out of this with a clean<br />
conscience.”<br />
Cunningham swallowed a lump in her throat. “We do understand, ma‟am.”<br />
Roberts shook her head. “I don‟t think you do, Lieutenant. What I‟ve asked of you will<br />
amount to treason if it goes the way I believe it‟s likely to. I am giving you the option now to<br />
sit this one out.”<br />
Cunningham and Rogers looked at each other for a moment before straightening to<br />
attention, both of them locking eyes with the Commander. In perfect unison, they recalled<br />
the squadron‟s creed. “‟One Sword At Least,‟” they snapped.<br />
Nothing else they could have said would have filled Roberts with as much pride as<br />
she felt at that moment, and she saluted them both sharply in respect. “‟Thy Rights Shall<br />
Guard‟,” she finished.<br />
“It would be a privilege.”<br />
Banick‟s stomach turned in anger at the report that was handed to him by the ensign<br />
before looking at Commander Callaghan who walked quickly through the bridge‟s heavy<br />
clam doors just moments before they thumped shut to the sound of wailing bells.<br />
“Admiral Ainsley is no longer aboard the ship, Captain,” his XO reported as he<br />
walked up the short flight of steps to the main command deck. Callaghan stood next to the<br />
Conn with Banick, looking over his shoulder at the main chart display and the highlighted<br />
tactical data that was pouring out next to the holographic shape of the Aquarius, and the<br />
small shuttle that drew ever nearer. By Callaghan‟s estimate, it would be no more than ten<br />
minutes before that shuttle docked. The XO lowered his voice to a whisper. “FOC reports he<br />
boarded a shuttle less than ten minutes ago.”<br />
Banick handed him the slate carelessly and walked back to his chair. “I know,” he<br />
said bluntly.<br />
“Shall I call the Flight Director to the bridge?” Callaghan asked, reading the shuttle‟s<br />
departure clearance and noticing its authorization had been redacted from the log.<br />
“I‟ll find out what happened down there later,” Banick hissed. “Ops, where are my<br />
fighters?”<br />
The chief of operations switched something to his live feed and relayed it to the<br />
command deck monitors. Banick watched the rapid egress of the VF-107 Rapiers and<br />
pursed his lips. “Get me Commander Roberts, direct,” he snapped, pulling the headset from<br />
his shoulders. “...And make sure it‟s an open channel. I want the other fighters – and that<br />
shuttle – to hear me.”<br />
He waited until the Chief gave him a thumbs-up and then walked to the chart table<br />
again, noting the rapidly-closing distance between the lead flight group of the Rapiers and<br />
the shuttle. “Rapier One, this is Commonwealth-Actual.”<br />
“Commonwealth, Rapier One,”<br />
“Commander, your orders are simple... Intercept that shuttle, and force it to return. If<br />
you are unable to achieve a negotiated resolution, then I am authorizing you to treat it as<br />
hostile.”<br />
Callaghan shot Banick a look – one that was shared by several of the bridge officers<br />
who were near enough to hear the order. By the silence that followed on the channel,<br />
Callaghan knew they were not alone in their reservations. Static followed for several, long<br />
moments – the sound of a thumb being held on a radio toggle, but with no words to follow.<br />
“...Commonwealth-Actual, please repeat your last order.”<br />
- 174 -
Callaghan stepped up quickly, lowering his voice to a growling whisper. “Captain,<br />
Admiral Ainsley is aboard that shuttle...”<br />
Banick was flustered, ignoring his first officer. “Rapier One, Commonwealth-Actual. I<br />
say again – you will intercept the launch and force it to return to the Commonwealth. If they<br />
do not heave-to, you are ordered to shoot them down.”<br />
Callaghan‟s heart skipped a beat, his jaw clenching until his teeth started to ache. It<br />
was the reply from Roberts that astonished them both.<br />
“Negative, Commonwealth,” said the voice. “We will not engage.”<br />
Banick‟s mouth was agape as he looked at his first officer in shock. The Captain took<br />
a moment to compose himself. “Rapier Two,” he said, changing tack, “You will relieve<br />
Commander Roberts and assume command of the Rapiers. Do you understand my orders?”<br />
“Your orders are clear, Captain,” replied the pilot confidently. “I am therefore relieving<br />
myself of command.”<br />
Deadly silence followed that message, and Banick removed his headset calmly and<br />
set it down on the plot before sitting down in his chair in silence. He rubbed his face slowly –<br />
the murderous glint in his eye speaking volumes for his unspoken rage. Callaghan stepped<br />
up to the Conn, almost bravely considering the Captain‟s mood, drew his finger across his<br />
throat with a sharp look to the Chief.<br />
Once the chief had nodded, he sighed. “Launch the Alert-Ten,” he ordered.<br />
“Aye sir,” the EVA station reported. “The Angels are launching now... They‟ll be clear<br />
shortly. Intercept should be in about one minute and forty five seconds.”<br />
Banick looked up suddenly, a glint of revelation in his eye. “The Dark Angels?” he<br />
asked curiously. “I thought the Alert-Ten was rostered for the Griffons?”<br />
“It was, sir,” confirmed the EVA station. “The roster was amended last night.”<br />
“Who gave that order?”<br />
“Checking...” the EVA liaison said distantly, pulling up the roster on his screens with a<br />
cursory flick of his hand. “...Signed last night at zero-one-thirty hours by Captain Corinn<br />
Roderick, sir.”<br />
Banick had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he picked up the data slate he‟d been<br />
given at the outset, and re-read the shuttle‟s launch clearance. The authorization had been<br />
redacted by a command-level officer... but the clearance was issued separately by<br />
Commander Raincastle. The Captain picked up his headset again and dialled in an ID<br />
extension before pulling up the flight roster himself.<br />
...Rebecca Raincastle continued to watch the flight deck as the last of the Dark<br />
Angels fighters was pushed in to position on its launch rack. The black, polished hull of this<br />
fighter appeared older than the others that had preceded it – its pilot arriving on the flight line<br />
just as the squadron‟s CO, Dustin Coyle, disappeared in to the drop shaft.<br />
The new pilot received a few coy smiles and respectful nods as they climbed in to the<br />
cockpit of the craft and strapped themselves in with the aid of the ground crew. The phone<br />
beside Raincastle‟s station chirped and she picked up the handset quickly, her eyes not<br />
moving from the scene on the hangar deck. “Raincastle,” she said sharply.<br />
“Commander, this is Banick... I want the Dark Angels pulled from the flight line,<br />
immediately.”<br />
“The Dark Angels have already launched, Captain,”<br />
“Is Captain Roderick with you?”<br />
Raincastle hesitated a moment as she watched the pilot on the deck pull their helmet<br />
on and adjust the last of her instruments before giving the plane captain a quick thumbs up.<br />
“No, Captain, she is not.”<br />
“I want her detained, Commander,” snapped Banick.<br />
Raincastle continued to watch as the pilot on the flight deck prepared the fighter‟s<br />
systems in a final checklist, its engines whining up to power as it prepared for launch.<br />
“I believe she went to brief the Dark Angels before their sortie, Captain,” Raincastle<br />
explained truthfully. “I will notify her as soon as she returns to flight operations.”<br />
- 175 -
“Good. I also want the Griffons readied for launch,” the Captain continued. “...As soon<br />
as you can.”<br />
“Understood.”<br />
“Bridge out.”<br />
Raincastle replaced the handset and nodded to the traffic control officers with a half<br />
smile. “Captain Roderick is cleared for launch,” she said slowly. “Get her wet... She‟s holding<br />
up the flight line.”<br />
...Banick cursed as he took off the headset once more and shot a look at Callaghan<br />
hopelessly. “Get me the Aquarius,” he said finally.<br />
The captain of the Commonwealth paced across the command deck for several long<br />
seconds as the communications officers did their best to raise the massive <strong>DSV</strong>. When they<br />
finally did turn and indicate their success, Banick turned to face the screen squarely, his<br />
arms folded in front of him.<br />
The face that resolved on the main screen of the Commonwealth was one that<br />
James Banick had not seen in over two years. Commander John Razak had served capably<br />
as the <strong>DSV</strong>‟s first officer since the fall of Pearl Harbor in 2041, and to see him in the context<br />
of that situation angered as much as it did pain him. Banick noted the eerily familiar scene of<br />
the Aquarius‟s bridge – a design he associated dearly to that of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> before it, and<br />
saw that Razak still occupied the seat of the first officer. The chair of the captain – that of<br />
Lauren Hornsby – was still noticeably empty and Banick was certain that Razak was using it<br />
as a deliberate statement of his intent.<br />
It was an inference that Banick could not have appreciated less at that moment.<br />
“Commander Razak,” the Captain greeted coldly.<br />
“Captain Banick,” Razak returned – the upbeat inflection of cheer in his tone only<br />
grating at Banick‟s increasingly sour mood. “What can I do for you?”<br />
Banick gritted his teeth for a moment, staying his tongue from lashing out at the<br />
Aquarius XO. They both knew the reason for the call, and to draw out the pleasantries only<br />
served as a delay. “Commander, I need your help. You‟ve no doubt detected the shuttle that<br />
is on an intercept course with the Aquarius.”<br />
“Yes, of course,” Razak noted with a half smile. “That‟s... quite the escort she‟s being<br />
provided with.”<br />
“Indeed,” Banick sneered sourly. “I‟ll do you the courtesy of being frank, Commander.<br />
Admiral Ainsley is on that shuttle, and I intend to detain him. Should you offer him safe<br />
harbour, then I warn you – I will hold you to even account.”<br />
“And what charges will you be laying, Captain?” Razak asked curiously.<br />
Banick frowned. “Gross dereliction of duty occasioning insubordination if he is lucky,”<br />
“Well, we‟ll certainly keep it in mind,” Razak smiled, turning slightly in his chair. “...But<br />
as we‟ve been unable to reach that shuttle, I‟ll have to keep you appraised.”<br />
Banick pointed at Razak. “Don‟t you dare, Commander!”<br />
Razak merely smirked, cutting the Captain off. “Aquarius, out.”<br />
The image of the <strong>DSV</strong>‟s bridge disappeared from the screen to be replaced by the<br />
main tactical plot, and Banick turned desperately to his XO.<br />
“Commander Callaghan, this is untenable,” he muttered.<br />
“That shuttle will dock with Aquarius in less than two minutes, Captain. We aren‟t<br />
going to stop him.”<br />
Banick‟s murderous gaze was short-lived. He knew his XO was correct: without the<br />
Rapiers, they would never stop him. “...Hornsby,” Banick sighed. “Ainsley would not have<br />
done this without reason. I need to know what she told him...”<br />
The XO regarded him sceptically, but before he even voiced his doubt, Banick cut<br />
him off. “And if she can‟t, then she is the best leverage we have, and I suspect Razak will<br />
know that.”<br />
“...You will know. That much, I know I can trust...”<br />
- 176 -
Callaghan‟s gaze drifted off to the far bulkheads for several, long seconds as Banick<br />
continued to explain, the Captain‟s eyes finally finding the distraction in his own. “...Ryan?”<br />
Callaghan nodded sharply. “I understand, sir.”<br />
Banick smirked in spite of himself, slapping him on the shoulder. “Good. You had me<br />
worried for a second. At this rate everyone on this crew is going to be in the brig, and we‟re<br />
going to have to run this ship ourselves.”<br />
The XO smiled and turned to leave. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I know...”<br />
...The Launch broke the surface of the moon pool quickly, the urgency of its arrival<br />
answered by a flurry of ground crew that scrambled across the flight deck to secure it. Water<br />
continued to drip from the craft‟s topsides as the engine turbines whined down from idle.<br />
Inside the shuttle‟s cockpit, Mark Ainsley continued to stare out ahead vacantly as Gavin<br />
Mackenzie ran his hands across the multitude of control consoles in front of them, securing<br />
the transport‟s systems and going through his post-flight checks as quickly as he could<br />
manage.<br />
Ainsley subconsciously unbuckled the five-point harness, barely registering the eerie<br />
hangar deck of the ship outside. Something inside him was deeply unsettled by the<br />
experience, although his mind was moving far too quickly to settle on the possibility that the<br />
sweeping, vaulted walls of the hangar outside were identical to those of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>.<br />
The Admiral paid no heed to the pilot behind him as he climbed his way through the<br />
narrow cockpit hatch to the passenger area and paused before the sealed hatch, hesitantly.<br />
For the first time, the full gravity of what he was doing started to emerge in his head – the<br />
faces and names of those he was leaving behind seeming to leave less of an impression in<br />
the face of the philosophical conundrums which challenged everything that defined him.<br />
Mackenzie emerged from the cockpit a moment later, pausing as he saw the pained<br />
expression across Ainsley‟s face. He stopped short of opening the hatch. “Admiral? Are you<br />
alright?”<br />
Ainsley drew a slow, steady breath. “Lead on, Commander,” he affirmed.<br />
Mackenzie waited for no further invitation as he disarmed the door and hit the release<br />
valve with a closed fist. There was a sharp, snap-hiss of air in the cabin and a whine of<br />
hydraulics as the door swung outwards, water dripping steadily from the rubber seals as the<br />
two occupants stepped out on to the artificial daylight of the hangar deck of the Aquarius<br />
<strong>DSV</strong>.<br />
Only then did the Admiral‟s heart strings twist painfully – every corner, bulkhead and<br />
facing echoing what he had buried literally and figuratively eighteen months prior. It was a<br />
feeling he would never get used to – and one he had felt before. The man who met them<br />
was flanked by two soldiers who wore black, unmarked uniforms and carried non-standard<br />
assault rifles, both heavily modified and significantly stripped down. Neither soldier bore the<br />
eagle globe and anchor of the UEO marine corps, nor did they wear any distinguishing rank<br />
or ID.<br />
Lieutenant Commander Davis Akara had served as the Aquarius‟s chief tactical<br />
officer since the day the great ship had been launched, and Ainsley met him with a cursory<br />
stare that looked him over before finally returning the man‟s sharply-presented salute.<br />
“Admiral Ainsley, welcome aboard the Aquarius.”<br />
The Admiral was already walking for the exit in long stride, paying little attention to<br />
the short-statured man‟s platitudes. “What‟s our status,” he said gruffly.<br />
Akara looked uncomfortable as the trio of officers exited the hangar and stepped<br />
inside the Mag-Lev carriage opposite the main access corridor. “To be frank, sir, it would<br />
have been nice if you‟d let us know you were coming aboard,” he suggested.<br />
“Bridge,” Ainsley ordered.<br />
There was a short lull in the Mag-Lev‟s start up sequence as a polite, female voice<br />
announced over the intercom - “Identity confirmed as Ainsley, Mark Andrew. Bridge access<br />
authority now instated. Welcome aboard, Admiral.”<br />
Ainsley looked momentarily astonished at that, having virtually forgotten the small<br />
nuances and quirks of his old command. He then gripped the hand rail as the carriage<br />
- 177 -
hummed to life and accelerated to a brisk coast down nearly two hundred metres of ducted,<br />
magnetic rail towards the submarine‟s bow. He looked at Akara again sourly. “I‟m short on<br />
time and patience, Commander, I‟d appreciate it if you got to the point quickly.”<br />
Akara was a man known for his cool under fire, and this was no time of exception.<br />
“Our last resupply was over eight weeks ago,” he professed. “Torpedo batteries one through<br />
seven are fully loaded, but our fighter wing has been reduced to nineteen.”<br />
Ainsley closed his eyes as he felt the Mag-Lev carriage begin to slow, and the<br />
sudden desperation of his situation feeling far more apparent. The <strong>Atlantis</strong> class <strong>DSV</strong>s were<br />
the largest ships the UEO had ever built and were supposed to represent floating fortresses<br />
that bristled with torpedo tubes, and contained close to a hundred subfighters each.<br />
Aquarius, however, was quickly proving to be toothless.<br />
“Seven batteries?” Ainsley repeated incredulously. “Out of thirty six?”<br />
Akara shook his head. “As I said, sir... We weren‟t exactly expecting a shootout.”<br />
“What‟s the count on the magazines, then,” Ainsley asked.<br />
“Seventy five warheads accounted for,” Akara confirmed confidently. Ainsley almost<br />
chocked on the figure as he ran through the numbers in his head. Each of the Aquarius‟s<br />
RAFIT batteries contained six torpedo tubes, giving a possible total of two hundred and<br />
sixteen loaded tubes at any one point in time. At that very moment, Aquarius had an arsenal<br />
that barely matched that of a squadron of subfighters – let alone the battlecruiser that now<br />
stared them down just a few miles away.<br />
“Bridge,” the female voice announced again cheerfully, the doors of the darkened<br />
carriage sliding open with a hiss. Ainsley, Akara and Mackenzie had travelled half the length<br />
of the ship in just over twelve seconds, and stepped on to the great submarine‟s command<br />
deck just a few moments after that. The heavy clamshell pressure doors on the bridge‟s port<br />
side remained open, and Razak was still seated on the upper command deck – standing to<br />
attention quickly as he sensed Ainsley‟s approach.<br />
“Admiral on deck!” he snapped.<br />
Uniformly, and with a precision that took Ainsley off guard, every one of the <strong>DSV</strong>‟s<br />
bridge officers stood as one, snapping their heels together sharply to render honours as his<br />
quick step slowed in surprise. The vast command centre of the Aquarius, split over three<br />
decks was nearly identical to that of the <strong>Atlantis</strong>, and it took a conscious effort on the<br />
Admiral‟s part to remind himself that it was not his ship – the wraith-winged angel of the<br />
ship‟s avatar, painted up on to the rear bulkhead by an array of architectural spotlights,<br />
standing as an eerie reminder to that fact.<br />
“As you were,” he said, walking up a short flight of stairs to stand beside the Conn,<br />
just a few feet from Hornsby‟s chair. Razak and Akara both exchanged a look as they noted<br />
the Admiral‟s deliberate avoidance of the chair, Razak himself fighting back a small smile.<br />
“Status, Commander Razak.”<br />
“Captain Banick has ordered that you surrender yourself immediately, Admiral,”<br />
Razak smirked. “Now that I have conveyed that message, I feel it only fair to mention he also<br />
gave the Rapiers orders to shoot you down, if you did not comply.”<br />
“I heard,” the Admiral muttered, looking across the deck to the long-haired brunette<br />
who stood at Ops. “Tactical situation, Lieutenant Mackenzie.”<br />
Ainsley remembered Kathleen Mackenzie well, as he did every other officer sitting on<br />
that bridge. She was the brother of the Wing Commander who stood beside him, and it had<br />
been fate – more than design – that saw them both serving aboard the same command. She<br />
looked surprised at his recollection of her name as she checked the operations board. It<br />
came more as dismay to the Admiral that the news she had did not fill him confidence.<br />
“We‟re returning passive weapons tracks from the Commonwealth and one squadron<br />
of Raptor-class subfighters, identified as Victor-Foxtrot-One-Seven-Three, callsign Griffons.”<br />
Ainsley was silent as Akara returned to his station below the command deck, bringing<br />
up his full tactical layouts. “I‟d recommend we perform an active targeting sweep for all<br />
batteries, Captain. Commonwealth has no way of knowing our current munitions payload.”<br />
- 178 -
Ainsley‟s shoulders slumped with a raised eyebrow, hands planted firmly against the<br />
command deck‟s guard rail. “We were never going to win this by shooting out way out, even<br />
if we were in a position to,” he observed quietly.<br />
Ainsley worked his jaw, his eyes boring a hole in to the deck ahead of him before he<br />
finally straightened his uniform and stood to his full height. “I want each and every one of you<br />
to understand me very clearly,” he called aloud. “Irrespective of their motivations – that ship<br />
out there is still one of ours. They‟re our friends – our blood. You‟ve fought and bled for them<br />
when it mattered, and they in turn have bled for you. You‟re fighting for the same thing; there<br />
are no sides in this. We will take no action that will place their lives in danger, nor will I<br />
endanger yours. I am sorry that circumstance has brought us to this crossroad, but I‟m going<br />
to have to ask you to trust me.”<br />
There were a few smiles and murmurs at that, and Ainsley looked at Mackenzie<br />
again. “Get me Captain Banick,” he ordered.<br />
The Admiral paced across the command deck as the uplink was established, and<br />
then looked at the gaunt, tired reflection of James Banick on the main display. He never<br />
even had a chance to speak before the man stood up and glared at him icily. “Vice Admiral<br />
Ainsley,” he said formally. “I am ordering you to relinquish command of the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong><br />
immediately, and prepare to be boarded.”<br />
Ainsley pursed his lips, his gaze lowering. “Am I to understand I am being arrested,<br />
Captain? On what charge”<br />
“Under article eighty-one of the UEO UCMJ, citing conspiracy to wilfully undermine<br />
the chain of command, to ends in violation of article ninety-two of that same code: dereliction<br />
of duty and failure to observe orders.”<br />
Ainsley raised an eyebrow, folding his arms in front of him. “The penalties for falsely<br />
accusing a staff officer of such a crime, Captain, are severe. I might ask you under what<br />
authority you ordered the Rapiers to fire on an unarmed shuttle, without prior provocation.”<br />
“You know damn well what this is about!” he hissed. “This is your only warning.<br />
You‟ve got two minutes to give me your answer.”<br />
The channel was terminated abruptly leaving Ainsley staring at a bare bulkhead<br />
behind the holographic screen. He inhaled deeply as he continued to stare before a motion<br />
in the corner of his eye drew his attention. Ainsley turned, finding the young woman waiting<br />
silently just inside the bridge‟s great pressure doors. Razak and Mackenzie had walked<br />
down to meet her and exchanged a few words quietly, but Ainsley didn‟t recognise her. Her<br />
uniform, on the other hand, was unmistakeable. A long, black straight-cut tunic, lined in gold<br />
pipping and buttons down the chest below a high collar – the diamond-shaped, buckled<br />
chevrons on her shoulders being those of a Nycarian Captain, although she could not have<br />
been a day over thirty... Not that any UEO logic could have ever been appropriately applied<br />
to age and associated achievement within the Nycarian military.<br />
The Captain looked at the woman curiously as he approached before raising an<br />
eyebrow at Razak. “Commander?”<br />
“Admiral Ainsley, this...”<br />
Razak was cut off abruptly as the Nycarian stepped forward, offering her hand<br />
smartly. The motion seemed to surprise the two UEO commanders beside her, but Ainsley<br />
simply smiled and took it with a slight bow. He remembered that which he‟d been told by the<br />
Nycarian Chancellor nearly two years prior – in contrast to most militaries, for the Nycarians<br />
it was perfectly customary for senior officers to salute the lower ranks. Her grip was firm, and<br />
her fierce, grey eyes didn‟t even blink as they met his.<br />
“...I am Captain Anniel Rhodes, Admiral,” she introduced herself in sharp, flawless<br />
English. “Fleet Viceroy Narius Rhodes sent me to here to assist Captain Hornsby... An offer I<br />
feel would be appropriate to extend to you, in these circumstances.”<br />
Ainsley cracked a half-smile at her name. “Your father.”<br />
“My relationship to the Viceroy is unimportant, Admiral,” she replied curtly, drawing<br />
further surprise from the two commanders. “If you will allow the observation, I do not believe<br />
now is an appropriate time for the customary introductions favoured by the UEO diplomatic<br />
- 179 -
corps. Captain Banick holds a distinct tactical advantage over this vessel, and I believe I<br />
may be able to assist you.”<br />
Razak leaned in to Mackenzie stiffly. “How insightful,” he whispered, unable to avoid<br />
an edge of sarcasm.<br />
Rhodes eyed them both for a moment before choosing to ignore them to straighten<br />
formally in front of Ainsley, her poise being neither bothered nor interrupted by the comment.<br />
“I would like to hail the Commonwealth, if you will permit it, Admiral.”<br />
Razak seemed to regret his comment as he pursed his lips and turned. “Sir, we‟re<br />
wasting time. I can have marines ready to leave in five minutes.”<br />
Ainsley shot Razak a warning glare. “And do what, Commander? Board the<br />
Commonwealth and start shooting our own people?”<br />
Razak‟s lip trembled. “I want my Captain back, sir. And respectfully, nothing Banick<br />
can throw at me will stop me from trying.”<br />
Rhodes continued to ignore Razak as she looked up at Ainsley. “Your marines are<br />
not necessary,” she disagreed with unerring certainty.<br />
Ainsley eyed both of them for several long seconds, his eyes finally coming to rest on<br />
Razak‟s as he slowly turned toward the Nycarian Captain. “Then you have five minutes to<br />
make Banick change his mind.”<br />
Rhodes nodded her gratitude before ascending the small flight of stairs to the upper<br />
bridge deck. Ainsley ordered Lieutenant Mackenzie to hail the Commonwealth as he eyed<br />
the daughter of Narius Rhodes with a curious and apprehensive gaze. The air of authority<br />
that the short, unassuming South African exuded as she stood astutely before the view<br />
screen, hands folded neatly at the small of her back was unquestionable, and made most of<br />
the UEO bridge officers smile inwardly.<br />
As he resolved on the screen before them, Banick‟s face quickly turned from<br />
determination to shock as he recognised the black uniform of the Nycarian officer and stood<br />
from his chair, making an awkward attempt to straighten his own. He was at a loss for words<br />
as Rhodes took a step forward.<br />
“Captain Banick, I presume?” she inquired politely.<br />
“Yes,” he said plainly. “You would appear to have me at a disadvantage.”<br />
Razak smirked at that, but noted quickly that Rhodes failed to see the irony as her<br />
eyes locked squarely with Banick‟s through the screen, undaunted and confident in equal<br />
measure. “My name is Captain Anniel Rhodes. If it would be convenient, I would like to come<br />
aboard your vessel so that we may discuss the terms of a mutually agreeable resolution to<br />
this juncture.”<br />
Ainsley held out a low, warning hand to Razak as he watched in fascination, the<br />
Aquarius First Officer becoming visibly uncomfortable at her suggestion. Banick seemed just<br />
as uncertain. “Captain Rhodes... It has been my experience that the Nycarian Empire does<br />
not choose to involve itself in foreign conflicts. May I ask why you are aboard that vessel?”<br />
Rhodes was succinct. “The Empire is in a state of civil war, Captain. While my<br />
presence aboard this ship should not be interpreted as some form of endorsement of the<br />
United Earth Oceans Organization‟s war against the Macronesian Alliance, we have<br />
accepted that we can no longer continue to ignore it.”<br />
Banick cocked his head. “You said „we‟, Captain. Do I assume you represent the<br />
interests of the Nycarian government in this?”<br />
“I represent the Fleet Viceroy Narius Rhodes, on behalf of the Chancellor, Reisson<br />
Bauer.”<br />
Banick seemed to consider the proposition for a moment before looking offside, his<br />
eyes locking with those of Ainsley who stood on the lower deck. At that moment, it couldn‟t<br />
have been more clear who was making the decisions. “Admiral Ainsley,” he called.<br />
He stepped up next to Rhodes intently. “Captain?”<br />
“I will agree to the Captain‟s terms,” he said. “On the sole condition that you will<br />
accompany her back to the Commonwealth.”<br />
Razak stepped forward. “Absolutely not! Admiral, if you go back...”<br />
- 180 -
“Agreed,” snapped Rhodes, cutting him off sharply much to Ainsley‟s surprise.<br />
“Expect us.”<br />
Rhodes nodded to Lieutenant Mackenzie who quickly terminated the channel before<br />
the Admiral regarded her suspiciously with a silent, raised brow. Rhodes was already<br />
walking for the bridge doors. This made Razak smile before offering a silently bemused<br />
Wing Commander Mackenzie an approving nod. The fighter pilot looked apologetically at<br />
Ainsley and excused himself before disappearing from the bridge as silently as he had<br />
arrived.<br />
Razak sighed. “I‟ve put up with that for six months.”<br />
...Lauren Hornsby paced like a caged animal inside the cell, her heart pounding in<br />
her chest. The shouting of marines as they thundered down the corridors outside and a wail<br />
of alert klaxons had shaken her from her daze. It wasn‟t coincidence that it had only been a<br />
few short hours before that Mark Ainsley had left the brig in a bewildered stupor without<br />
uttering a word. Now, her two watchmen stood alert, their rifles held high and safed across<br />
their flak vests – fingers notably covering the trigger guards. One of the marines stood at the<br />
entrance to the brig, watching the corridor outside with shifting, alert eyes. The other paced<br />
the length of the detention wing, his eyes only occasionally watching her through the bars.<br />
“What‟s going on?” Hornsby asked, hearing the quiet, garbled sound of noise in the<br />
earpiece of the sergeant at the door.<br />
The marine turned to her quietly, unsure of how to treat his charge. Both soldiers had<br />
remained silent during their watch, paying her little attention between their irregular<br />
exchanges of banter. Indeed, Hornsby wasn‟t sure how she would have handled it if the<br />
situation were reversed.<br />
The Sergeant, she noted from his unit patch, was a member of Charlie company of<br />
the First Marine Division‟s 3 rd Battalion. It was the unit commanded by Major Adrian<br />
O‟Shaughnessy, who had formerly been assigned to that same unit aboard the <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>.<br />
It had never even occurred to Hornsby to think that many of <strong>Atlantis</strong>‟s former crew had<br />
probably found their way aboard the Commonwealth – the battlecruiser‟s launch roughly<br />
coinciding with <strong>Atlantis</strong>‟s respective loss some eighteen months prior.<br />
That made the situation even more difficult. The command crisis aboard the<br />
Commonwealth plainly began with Ainsley and Banick but there was no way to tell how the<br />
crew would react.<br />
“Sergeant, I asked you a question,” Hornsby repeated, straightening to face the two<br />
marines through the bars.<br />
The soldier turned, his grip on the rifle loosening just slightly. “Captain Hornsby,<br />
please remain silent,” he said as respectfully as he could manage. “You will find out shortly.”<br />
As it happened, she was not waiting long as a long, gaunt figure stepped through the<br />
door way and exchanged several quiet words with the Sergeant. After a few words, the<br />
Sergeant snapped to attention, and ushered the other marine out in to the corridor, leaving<br />
Commander Ryan Callaghan alone in the dim light of the hall to stare down at Hornsby‟s<br />
cell.<br />
His boot steps echoed lightly off the walls as he approached, his hands folded behind<br />
his back neatly as his eyes peered through the dark to find Hornsby‟s tired gaze. “Is it true?”<br />
he asked quietly.<br />
Hornsby took a step forward. “It is.”<br />
Callaghan made a long sigh. “Ainsley‟s already left for the Aquarius,” he said flatly.<br />
“I‟m not sure he intended for you to join him on this one, Captain,”<br />
“He understands the urgency in this,” she countered sharply. “If he‟s already aboard<br />
the Aquarius, then there really isn‟t anything more I need to do.”<br />
Callaghan‟s head raised an inch, his brow raising as he examined her. “He didn‟t<br />
even try to take this to Banick,” he pointed out curiously. “Why?”<br />
“Because he‟s not stupid,” she spat back. “Banick‟s given Ainsley no reason to think<br />
he could be trusted with what he knows. And given it is you who is standing in front of me,<br />
and not Banick, I can only assume that you were the only one he could trust.”<br />
- 181 -
Now it was Hornsby‟s turn to examine him as she drew up close to the bars, her eyes<br />
narrowing. “But you haven‟t made your decision yet, have you?”<br />
Callaghan‟s PAL chirped from his belt before he could answer. He unclipped it and<br />
keyed the call button. “Callaghan,” he snapped.<br />
“Ryan, it‟s Banick... Bring Captain Hornsby to the wardroom. Ainsley‟s returning...<br />
and he‟s bringing company.”<br />
Callaghan frowned. “Company?”<br />
“Nycarians.”<br />
The XO stopped – a rush mixed of dread and uncertainty flowing through his veins.<br />
For the second time in as many years, it appeared that someone had made the choice for<br />
him, and he sighed. “Sergeant,” he called. “Open the door.”<br />
Hornsby paused to look at him in wonder. “You‟d have done it, wouldn‟t you?”<br />
Callaghan appeared wounded with the presentation of that question. “I‟ve already<br />
been party to the deaths of far too many innocent people, Captain,” he confessed. “I may<br />
have no memory of those actions, but I have no intention of repeating them.”<br />
Callaghan barely registered the small but grateful smile that met his reply as the burly<br />
marine stepped in front of him and released the heavy door locks. The two of them walked<br />
briskly down the cross-corridor, the two marine guards never more than a few feet behind<br />
them as they made their way towards the bridge. All the while, one question burned at<br />
Hornsby‟s mind. “I‟d thank you for releasing me, Callaghan, but you still haven‟t explained<br />
what exactly is going on.”<br />
He grimaced, having already thought of it. “The Admiral asked me to trust him,” he<br />
replied. “I‟m just hoping this is what he meant.”<br />
Dustin Coyle‟s fighter fell in on the wing of Rapier One swiftly and closely, the two<br />
fighters forming the ends of their respective formations. The twenty one fighters of the Dark<br />
Angels and Rapiers had drawn a physical line between the two carriers. Commonwealth and<br />
Aquarius now sat at opposite ends of a killing field that was ten miles wide, nose-to-nose.<br />
The combined hails of the Fall River, Vengeance and Tripoli had gone largely ignored by<br />
both sides, and all of them had uniformly stood down their weapons and signalled their<br />
intentions to take no side in the growing feud.<br />
For Coyle and Roberts, the challenge was trickier as the last of Banick‟s fighters<br />
launched and fell in to formation with the fighters of the VF-173 Griffons. Every attempt the<br />
Dark Angels and Rapiers had made to raise them had been flatly rebuked, and now the<br />
Griffons, too, were forming a long line in front of the Commonwealth.<br />
For the second time in almost as many days, it was Raptor against Raptor, and pilot<br />
against pilot as they spiralled closer and closer to a realm of true stupidity. Roberts thumbed<br />
her radio again desperately. “This is Rapier One to SEWACS Warseer, I say again – we<br />
need instructions.”<br />
Once more, it was silence that met them. It wasn‟t that they weren‟t being ignored,<br />
but the fact that the command sub appeared to have simply disappeared and opted to close<br />
every operating channel. Warseer wasn‟t playing ball, with either group of fighters. It was a<br />
gesture of solidarity that at any other time Roberts might have smiled at. This was not one of<br />
those times as she reminded herself just how many pilots amongst the Griffons she counted<br />
as friends – and how many torpedo tubes the Commonwealth had bearing on each and<br />
every single one of them.<br />
“Rapier One, this is Ghost Leader,” said an unfamiliar voice as cold shadow fell over<br />
her from above. “You are ordered to withdraw to the Aquarius immediately.”<br />
The eerily familiar, yet strangely striking silhouette of a subfighter that blocked out the<br />
sun for just the smallest fraction of a second rattled her cockpit as it pulled ahead and settled<br />
in to the lead position of the staggered line that had been formed by the UEO fighters.<br />
Roberts could scarcely believe her eyes as she checked her sensors and confirmed that<br />
which she already suspected – the fighter didn‟t appear to exist, the pilot‟s chosen callsign<br />
becoming an unsettlingly well-suited identity. The radio IFF returned as „friendly‟ on her<br />
communications monitor, although it possessed no associated squawk ID. Whoever was<br />
- 182 -
flying the mysterious subfighter did not want to be recognised, and she could easily<br />
comprehend why.<br />
In the short moment it had taken the strange craft to overtake her and assume the<br />
lead, she had caught enough of its unmistakeable lines to know it was a Raptor. It was a<br />
type unlike any she had ever seen – longer, wider and sleeker than her own supposedly<br />
„cutting-edge‟ craft – but it conformed in every way that mattered to the iconic UEO<br />
mainstay. Its sharp, hooked nose swept back over two blended canards that quickly<br />
diverged in to a pair of swept wings either side of its tails, its black fuselage appearing to<br />
absorb the light of the surface world above and melt in to the sea around it.<br />
She hit her comms again. “Ghost leader, Rapier One, identify yourself!”<br />
Another voice, this one being unmistakeable in its slurred, sing-song lilt of Captain<br />
Corinn Roderick. “You‟re ordered to withdraw to the Aquarius, Rapier One. Copy on all<br />
Rapier and Dark Angel flights – withdraw to the Aquarius immediately.”<br />
Roberts watched as Roderick‟s Raptor appeared from the same vector as the<br />
strange Ghost and settled in on the alien fighter‟s wing ahead of her. This time her sensors<br />
made a positive return – her ID and callsign lighting up the board prominently.<br />
“Captain Roderick?” Roberts nearly yelped in surprise. “Please confirm your last<br />
order.”<br />
“You heard me, Commander. You are ordered to return to the Aquarius immediately.<br />
We will take it from here.”<br />
Roberts was the last of the UEO fighters to break formation as the remainder of the<br />
Rapiers and Dark Angels obediently broke away by flights and began speeding back<br />
towards the Aquarius. Jane cursed inwardly as she followed them, noting only briefly the<br />
emergence of more shadows from the fog that silently fell in to formation with Roderick and<br />
her mysterious wingman.<br />
A shuttle that appeared on Roberts‟ sonar moments later came as another surprise in<br />
the increasingly intriguing exchange. Slipping away from the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong> silently, the<br />
assault speeder made good pace as it caught up with the mysterious fighters and settled in<br />
on Roderick‟s aft quarter.<br />
“This is Dragon Six-Two-Alpha,” the shuttle‟s pilot reported. “We‟re clear, Archangel.<br />
You are authorized to ingress.”<br />
James Banick‟s patience was at the end of its tether as he watched the high-speed<br />
pursuit shuttle steadily draw away from the <strong>DSV</strong> that was hanging off his bow. His world felt<br />
like it was ready to implode, and he felt impossibly alone on the command deck as he<br />
continued to pace, waiting for word.<br />
Banick had always admired Mark Ainsley, both as a friend, and as an officer. It<br />
saddened Banick however that Commonwealth – and her first Commanding Officer, Captain<br />
Jasper Edsall - had been the things that had taught him that. It seemed to Banick that<br />
Ainsley had done little more than undermine that command ever since he had arrived. Why it<br />
had come to this he couldn‟t yet bring himself to ask.<br />
Banick‟s head shot around like the hammer of a pistol as his communications officer<br />
faced him. “Captain, I have Commander Tannen for you on a secure channel.”<br />
The Captain nodded silently as he pulled the headset back on. Banick had formally<br />
promoted Nathan Tannen to command of the Griffons in the wake of Commander Harker‟s<br />
death, and at the rate they were going, it wouldn‟t be long before he took command of the<br />
entire sea wing. “Killjoy, this is Banick,” he announced, nodding to his ops officers as he<br />
patched the channel through to their station.<br />
“Captain, we‟ve got something strange out here,” Tannen replied, the noise on the<br />
channel causing Banick to press the headphone closer to his ear.<br />
“Time is a luxury you do not have, Commander,” he pressed.<br />
“The shuttle has only one escort,”<br />
Banick looked at the plot, tracking the movement of the speeder as it drew ever<br />
closer – a single Raptor following in its wake.<br />
“It‟s Captain Roderick. The Dark Angels and Rapiers have broken off their escort.”<br />
- 183 -
Banick had already noted the fighter‟s identification. Roderick had a history of<br />
emotional decisions that had come close to costing her more than just her career, but even<br />
this did not strike Banick as the act of a „desperate‟ officer. With unquestioned command of<br />
the Rapiers and Dark Angels, Roderick could have had Tannen‟s own pilots outnumbered by<br />
nearly two to one.<br />
The fact that those two squadrons were worth six of any other unit by themselves just<br />
made her decision to apparently withdraw them even more bizarre. “She‟s not alone,” Banick<br />
said slowly.<br />
“That‟s the problem, sir. Several of the Griffons have reported they‟re being...<br />
followed. No sensor contacts registered, nor any reply from Warseer.”<br />
Banick started pacing again, looking at his operations officer for some kind of<br />
confirmation. The ensign nodded gravely in agreement with Tannen. “No response from<br />
Warseer or Blackout,” he confirmed. “And I can‟t detect any other contacts within six miles of<br />
the Griffons.”<br />
Banick gritted his teeth. “Commander, bring the shuttle in... If Roderick were planning<br />
to shoot something, she would have already done it. But keep your eyes open. We‟ll be<br />
watching.”<br />
“Understood, Commonwealth, we‟ll keep you appraised. Killjoy-out.”<br />
Banick watched the holographic chart table for a few minutes longer in silence, all the<br />
while being painfully aware of the amount of torpedo tubes he had trained on the <strong>DSV</strong> on the<br />
other side of that table. Whatever Ainsley might have thought of him for his decisions that<br />
week, he never once relished the prospect of what now sat in front of him, and the prayer<br />
that repeated in his head for the young Nycarian Captain to defuse the situation wasn‟t<br />
stopping.<br />
“Lieutenant Gillan, you have the bridge... Bring that shuttle in to airlock three – I don‟t<br />
want it anywhere near my flight deck. Have Major O‟Shaughnessy meet them there.”<br />
UEO Headquarters, <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong>, Florida. April 15 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
The headquarters of the United Earth Oceans gleamed against the long Floridan<br />
sunset, its shadow stretching toward a distant horizon. Waves gently swept across the lowlying<br />
docksides as soldiers milled under the shade of rows of well-kept palms. Set against<br />
the great skyline of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong>, the building that stood half way around the world from<br />
the front lines of the war was steadily becoming the front line of a new kind of war; a political<br />
war that broiled and flared between the most influential powers of the UEO.<br />
The days of unquestioned western supremacy had passed. The once-great United<br />
States of America had faded in the shadow of the greatest war that humanity had ever<br />
faced. Devastation that respected neither borders nor innocents, wrought by the use of<br />
nuclear weapons, had given rise to the Confederations. Militaries were dissolved, reformed<br />
and aligned within the framework of the ashes of global economies. The UEO represented a<br />
solution to that fractured, unpredictable upshot – but it was a fool that called it perfect. Intraconfederate<br />
politics still reigned supreme at the highest offices of the General Assembly,<br />
with perhaps the greatest tragedy of all being that it fell to the most honourable of servants to<br />
accept the responsibility of another‟s deluded, ignorant or self-serving actions.<br />
The trio of Naval Intelligence officers that strode down the eastern wing of the<br />
building that day may as well have been the executioners of that notion. One ensign and a<br />
lieutenant commander followed a commander wearing the three-starred deltas of a captain,<br />
a briefcase held closely at her side as they turned down seemingly endless and winding<br />
carpeted corridors guarded by black-clad UEO – and since the appointment of James<br />
Cathgate as Secretary-General – NSC marines.<br />
The trio approached the end of the corridor, and the great wooden double doors that<br />
were guarded by two more soldiers, both of them NSC. They locked eyes with the<br />
- 184 -
intelligence officers before noting the black deltas on their rank insignia and the four stars<br />
upon the captain‟s collar. Without inquiry, the marines snapped to attention as the officers<br />
opened the doors and entered the wardroom.<br />
Secretary-General Cathgate sat at the end of a long table, surrounded by seven<br />
officers of the UEO general staff and looked up at the three new arrivals without much<br />
surprise, cutting off a Vice Admiral with a raised hand.<br />
“Captain, thank you for coming,” he said, rising to his feet quickly and eagerly.<br />
The officers approached the table, the ensign and lieutenant commander remaining<br />
near the lounge area at the far end of the room in respectful silence as their commander set<br />
down her brief case and unlocked it with a key that had been hidden away in her trouser<br />
pocket.<br />
The captain, her blonde hair pulled back in to a tight pony tail at the back of her skull,<br />
said nothing as she pulled out the brown folder, stamped „classified‟ and handed it to the<br />
Secretary-General with a polite nod. Cathgate took it with one hand as he looked around at<br />
the other staff officers. “I‟m sorry, Gentlemen... We‟ll continue this shortly. I need a moment<br />
alone with the Captain.”<br />
The gathered Admirals looked affronted at the instruction to leave in deference to a<br />
lowly intelligence Captain, with more than one of the present Marine Corps Generals looking<br />
at the three intelligence officers in abject disapproval. The lieutenant commander only<br />
offered them an apologetic smile as they left the table to head in to the adjacent ante room.<br />
Cathgate had waited until they had departed to open the folder, looking at the captain<br />
before him with a raised eyebrow. The woman didn‟t wait to be prompted any further. “We<br />
received this report a little over an hour ago,” she said flatly.<br />
The Secretary-General‟s eyes disappeared under a deep frown, his jaw pulling in to a<br />
troubled and nearly twisted scowl. “Through what means?”<br />
The captain paused at presentation of that question. “I‟m afraid, Mister Secretary,<br />
that was not a detail I was briefed on. Compartmentalization, sir. OPSEC.”<br />
Cathgate studied her for a long, silent moment. The captain didn‟t even blink. This<br />
seemed to satisfy the Secretary-General, and he sighed, putting the folder aside before<br />
walking back to the great desk. He dialled in an extension on the intercom. “I need to see<br />
Jack Riley,” he said tersely.<br />
“Mister Secretary, the Fleet Admiral is in a staff briefing at the moment.”<br />
“I didn‟t realise I was asking,” he snapped. “Interrupt him if you need to, and send him<br />
up here. Now.”<br />
It was only ten minutes later when the UEO‟s military commanders-in-chief walked in<br />
to the room. Ten stars between them, Fleet Admirals Jack Riley and Travis Sinclair were the<br />
most senior officers in the military – bar none, tasked with the supreme commands of the<br />
Pacific and Atlantic fleets, respectively.<br />
Cathgate stood at the window at the end of the room, the sun still sitting low against<br />
the western horizon beyond. The intelligence officers still stood patiently in the lounge area<br />
next to him, the captain regarding Riley with an expression that betrayed a ruefulness and<br />
sense of apology. Riley then saw the folder that was clasped behind the Secretary-General‟s<br />
back, and felt a sudden rush of anger.<br />
“Fleet Admiral Riley,” he said in a tone that was perhaps too comfortable for either<br />
officer‟s liking. The intelligence captain squirmed at the motion, and something clicked in<br />
Riley‟s mind. He‟d met her before, almost exactly two years before, when he‟d understood<br />
that she worked for a man who he wished he‟d shot when he still had the chance: Samuel<br />
Eugene Ezard.<br />
Captain Amanda Keelan turned away when she saw the flicker of recognition in the<br />
Admiral‟s eye. This drew a scowl from Sinclair as he started to realise what was happening,<br />
and Cathgate‟s smile evaporated in to a dry, weathered and cynical smirk – a face that Riley<br />
hadn‟t seen since the man was still an Admiral attached to his general staff. It was a<br />
predatory expression; one that Cathgate reserved for when he had a very particular point to<br />
prove. In the view of a junior officer, it would have been „I told you so.‟<br />
- 185 -
“Mister Secretary,” Riley replied courteously without pretension. This in itself pleased<br />
Cathgate – as it meant Riley had his back firmly planted against the wall. “You asked to see<br />
me?”<br />
“Yes,” Cathgate said, sipping tea from a delicate china cup. “I was not expecting you,<br />
however, Admiral Sinclair.”<br />
“It seemed appropriate given the unusual timing of your request, Mister Secretary.<br />
You did interrupt a sitting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”<br />
“Indeed,” the Secretary-General admitted, slapping down the folder he held on to the<br />
great table, and sliding it across with his free hand. “Jack,” he said, almost in inquiry. “You<br />
are welcome to review this in order to offer me an explanation, but I would be just as happy<br />
to accept your resignation now, so as to save the trouble of unwanted embarrassment.”<br />
Jack Riley didn‟t move, but Sinclair‟s curiosity was enough for the Atlantic fleet<br />
commander to take the file from the table slowly, flicking it open casually to review the<br />
contents. It held several print outs of visual sensor data, ostensibly identified as belonging to<br />
the strike cruiser Tripoli, and a full summary of its associated sensor records. The<br />
shadowed, unmistakeable silhouette of an <strong>Atlantis</strong>-class <strong>DSV</strong> dominated each and every<br />
photograph – the sonar logs identifying it without doubt as the Aquarius.<br />
Riley stiffened as Sinclair slowly turned to face him, his expression unreadable<br />
behind a veil of shock. “The Office of Naval Intelligence moves quickly, Captain,” Riley said<br />
dryly to Keelan. “I‟m sure Admiral Hargreaves is impressed.”<br />
Keelan said nothing, and didn‟t need to as Cathgate frowned and took a step in her<br />
direction defensively. “I would appreciate it, Jack, if you‟d direct your comments to me. There<br />
is no need to shoot the messenger.”<br />
Riley continued to stare at Keelan a few moments longer before looking back at<br />
Cathgate. “Mister Secretary, the need for secrecy was – and remains - paramount. I‟ve<br />
known about the Aquarius for less than thirty six hours. As Commander-in-Chief of the<br />
Pacific fleet, it‟s my prerogative to compartmentalize information as I see fit for the ends of<br />
operational security. Aquarius represents a very real chance for Ainsley to achieve the<br />
objective ahead of the deadline. I had to take all possible precautions to ensure that<br />
information remained confidential.”<br />
Cathgate shook his head. “Your reason is accepted, but your motive is not.”<br />
Riley‟s lip twitched at that, feeling a sudden compulsion to plant a sharp right hook in<br />
to his face. “My only motive, Mister Secretary, was to prevent a geopolitical catastrophe.“<br />
Cathgate cut him off quickly, all the while being mindful of the stone-faced Keelan<br />
beside him, and the presence of Sinclair next to Riley. “My instructions to you were clear<br />
enough – I expected daily reports on this operation, and you took it upon yourself to withhold<br />
from me what is likely the most significant development of the war for the last nine months. I<br />
want to know why.”<br />
The Admiral first regarded Keelan coldly before expanding his gaze to her two silent<br />
aids. “You‟re dismissed, Captain.”<br />
James Cathgate could scarcely believe the order. He opened his mouth to<br />
countermand the instruction before catching a knowing glare on Riley‟s face: the recognition<br />
of mutually-assured political destruction. The order hung in the air for a moment before<br />
Sinclair exchanged an apologetic look with Riley and eyed Keelan for good measure.<br />
Silently, Sinclair, Keelan and her company departed the room, all the while Riley continuing<br />
his long, bottomless gaze on the Secretary-General of the UEO.<br />
Riley circled the room, his cap almost dangling from his hand as he neared the<br />
conference table and unfastened his collar to loosen his tie. Throwing the scrambled-eggladen<br />
hat on to the table, he turned his back on Cathgate to uncap a crystal bottle that had<br />
been sitting on the bookshelf behind him, pouring two even measures of bourbon in to a pair<br />
of glasses.<br />
The Admiral sighed heavily, offering the second glass to the Secretary-General.<br />
Cathgate took it as Riley sat in a high-backed chair and sipped his own, feeling it burn<br />
satisfyingly down his throat. “And so here we are,” Riley uttered quietly.<br />
- 186 -
Cathgate turned his back once again to stare out the window at the rapidly<br />
disappearing sun. “Yes we are. This isn‟t easy, Jack,” he admitted, pausing before pushing<br />
back the dark, burning liquor.<br />
“This war has dragged on too long, James,” the Admiral said. “We‟re at a very<br />
dangerous crossroads, and I urge you to consider this carefully. For whatever you might<br />
think of my decision, all I have ever done is to hold this organization to account on that which<br />
it holds most dear – the defence against humanitarian crisis, in all its forms, no matter the<br />
personal or political cost.”<br />
“Then on the basis of that code, you would suggest then, that we surrender to<br />
Alexander Bourne, and allow him to bring about the complete dissolution of the United Earth<br />
Oceans organization?”<br />
Riley sipped his drink again before putting the high-ball glass down on the table<br />
heavily. “What I had hoped, Mister Secretary, is that through my actions I might have given<br />
you a third option... „At any personal cost‟, sir.”<br />
Cathgate slowly started to turn as he realised what Riley had done. The enormity of<br />
the gesture left him almost sorry of the unavoidable outcome. Sitting in the chair, his tie<br />
loose, his cuffs unclasped, and his eyes dark, Jonathan Riley looked frail for the first time in<br />
his career. The war had left the man with just two choices – to surrender, or to plunge the<br />
world in to a firestorm that defeated everything he had ever fought for. Riley had known he<br />
couldn‟t win when faced with the conventional wisdoms of politics, and had instead chosen<br />
an altogether different path – a dead man‟s gambit. That gambit was Mark Ainsley.<br />
James Cathgate saw it differently.<br />
“The scale of infraction, in such instance, seems secondary to the point, Admiral. The<br />
law does not remain silent.”<br />
“Then secondary, and respectfully to your law, sir, I‟m not so certain the alternative<br />
would balance that scale.”<br />
Cathgate stared at him for long seconds before finishing his bourbon in one mouthful.<br />
He set the glass aside, a good foot from Riley‟s. “That was never your decision to make.”<br />
Jack Riley stood slowly, gathering his hat and folding it neatly under his arm. “Then<br />
my conscience is clear.”<br />
The Secretary-General closed his eyes. “Then you have a choice. Your alternative is<br />
that you will immediately order that Admiral Mark Ainsley be placed under arrest on the<br />
charge of conspiracy, and that Captain Banick will escort the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong> back to Fort<br />
Grace for repair and refit.”<br />
Riley stared past Cathgate to the twilight horizon. “Then I have twelve hours to make<br />
a decision?”<br />
The Secretary-General nodded.<br />
“Then you may expect my resignation on your desk, first thing tomorrow.”<br />
Cathgate watched silently as Jack Riley left the conference room for the final time<br />
and let out a long, held breath. His chest had knotted over much of what the man had said,<br />
and his stomach, in equal measure, had turned in disgust. He hit a single button on the<br />
conference phone in the middle of the desk, and thought for a moment. “Please send<br />
Commander Prescott in,” he ordered coolly. “I need to get a message to the<br />
Commonwealth.”<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 15 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
The tension that came with the waiting in Commonwealth‟s briefing room was<br />
palpable, the assembled senior staff anxiously and expectantly keeping an eye on their<br />
Captain at the head of the table. Banick was visibly distracted as he went about a report on a<br />
data slate held casually in front of him, the man so enveloped by his task that the awkward<br />
silence settling around him had apparently not even registered in his mind. Callaghan and<br />
- 187 -
Hornsby stood behind him, never daring to make contact for fear of igniting even the<br />
suggestion of an opinion. To their right, seated immediately next to the captain sat a pensive<br />
Commander Ed Richards, and beside him were the captains of the Fall River and Tripoli –<br />
Sean Barker, and Madeline Hayes.<br />
Richards was a wildcard amongst the UEO officers. Banick had already considered<br />
the possible course of events that may play out if Ainsley forced them to choose sides, and<br />
while he was fairly certain he could count on the support of Hayes, Barker and Callaghan,<br />
Richards had been notoriously difficult to predict. His misgivings about Ainsley‟s mission<br />
were on record, as were his emotional clashes with Roderick. More than anything, it simply<br />
made the man an unstable element in an already fractious equation.<br />
Then there was Roderick: conspicuously absent along with the other fighter<br />
commanders after having apparently sided with Roberts and Coyle in their own decision to<br />
support Ainsley. Her action was something that didn‟t so much surprise Banick as it did<br />
upset him. Roderick was renowned as one of the Subfighter Corps‟ most emotional leaders<br />
just as she was one of the most skilled and celebrated, but the fact that she had allowed that<br />
emotion to guide her so demonstrably represented a monumental failure of command. This<br />
alone unsettled Banick, as it brought with it the very real prospect that he had been partially<br />
to blame – and the infuriating aspect of that was that Ainsley had gone out of his way to<br />
warn him of it long before it had even happened.<br />
Rounding out the officers sat a concerned and nervous group of Alliance military<br />
personnel – General Henry Adamson and his senior staff, including the captain of his<br />
flagship, Captain Thomas Blake. To Banick‟s surprise, the General had been the first of his<br />
„guests‟ to arrive that evening, just minutes after Banick had finished speaking with the<br />
Nycarian captain. Adamson was a visibly patient man, with years of service under the<br />
despotic leadership of Alexander Bourne to temper it. Of the impromptu armada they had<br />
managed to assemble, it was the Reprisal, Banick knew, that was having the most difficult<br />
time of the UEO political intrigue. Literally caught in the middle, the General had been able to<br />
do little more than watch and hope that sense would prevail between the warring UEO<br />
leaderships. Any other man in his position would have simply turned around and sailed away<br />
until the situation had been resolved, but something had kept him there, and that frightened<br />
Banick more than the Aquarius herself ever could. Adamson knew more than he was letting<br />
on, and it was a thought that had lurked in the back of Banick‟s head ever since he had<br />
arrived.<br />
William Stiles was the next to arrive, entering the briefing room quietly and with only a<br />
curt nod to Banick who barely even registered his entry. Stiles was the one Banick distrusted<br />
the most. Puppet or puppeteer; whether or not Stiles was ultimately responsible for the chain<br />
of events behind them was beside the point that this was the man who on two occasions to<br />
that moment had driven the Commonwealth to crisis points. Nonetheless, the NSC captain<br />
took a seat at Banick‟s left side in silence, pausing as he did to straighten his uniform and<br />
pour himself a glass of water.<br />
„You pragmatic, self-assured son of a bitch,‟ thought Banick inwardly as he watched<br />
the man for a few moments. Stiles was well aware of the eyes upon him, but didn‟t dare give<br />
Banick the satisfaction of a response.<br />
It was a few more minutes before Captain Rhodes entered the room with Mark<br />
Ainsley close in tow. Banick saw the unease with which the marines outside reacted then the<br />
pair of them passed, and hesitantly came to his feet. It was a motion that slowly rippled<br />
around the conference table when the Admiral entered, but none on the UEO side appeared<br />
to carry any energy with it. Rhodes was unreadable as Ainsley took a moment to draw a<br />
breath and looked at Banick. “I wish to make one thing clear,” he stated slowly. “I don‟t like<br />
any of this. Each and every one of us has been used, lied to and manipulated.” Ainsley<br />
made each point by looking deliberately at Stiles, Hornsby and then Rhodes. “I don‟t know<br />
what game the NSIS and ONI are up to, but the majority of the people in this room are<br />
soldiers, not spies, and there are no gains in allowing such gross deception to rule our<br />
decisions. That will get people killed, and one way or another, it ends now.”<br />
- 188 -
Banick nodded once silently as Rhodes stepped forward. The Nycarian Captain eyed<br />
Ainsley reassuringly as he sat down. There was a lot to cover, and no one seemed<br />
especially sure on where to begin on the intricate web of intrigue they found themselves<br />
pulled in to. "Six months ago, I received an encoded message," Ainsley explained. "You all<br />
know the nature of that message, and by now you know that that message has brought us<br />
all here for reasons that until a short time ago, were not all that clear. All we knew was that<br />
that it had to have been decoded by the Artificial Intelligence of a <strong>DSV</strong>, and again, we<br />
assumed it had been the Aquarius."<br />
Ainsley continued without much pause. "The problem is that the message also had to<br />
originate from an AI, but nothing we checked to Descartes on the sea<strong>Quest</strong> matched - the<br />
command protocols are nearly three generations apart, using an entirely different base<br />
encryption, nearly identical to that used by the Aquarius herself, but of course... that isn't<br />
possible, is it, Captain Hornsby?"<br />
Hornsby looked up to see Ainsley staring squarely at her. His gaze was piercing, and<br />
all eyes were now turning to her. She drew a breath. "ONI had nothing to do with the<br />
transmission," she confirmed. "We know this because we know exactly when and where it<br />
was sent."<br />
Banick's head slowly turned, his mouth falling agape in disbelief. It wasn't the<br />
statement itself that bewildered him, as it was Ainsley's attitude to something that was<br />
sounding increasingly ridiculous. "<strong>Atlantis</strong>. You want to go after her, don't you?"<br />
"Annie's alive, Banick," Hornsby countered. "She sent that message, and damn near<br />
killed Ari to do it."<br />
James Banick shot back at Hornsby. "You're telling us <strong>Atlantis</strong> is intact, Captain.<br />
That's not possible. The sinking would have crushed her - there is nothing left."<br />
"I promise you, Captain, there's more down there than just a wreck."<br />
"This does nothing to solve the immediate problem. Captain Hornsby, I don't know<br />
what's driven you to this, but it's become an obsession, and does not excuse a conspiracy to<br />
commit mass-desertion. I swear to you that you will both find yourselves in my brig unless I<br />
start hearing answers!"<br />
Rhodes simplified that problem. “Admiral Ainsley is here as my guest,” she said<br />
bluntly. "And unless you wish to detain an official representative of the Nycarian government<br />
with him, then you will be permitted to do no such thing."<br />
Banick was stunned. "Admiral Ainsley is an officer of the UEO fleet, and answers to a<br />
uniform code. I don't frankly care what self-absorbed pretext he's come aboard with. You<br />
said you wanted to discuss the terms of an agreement, and I strongly recommend you move<br />
on to those points."<br />
Rhodes appeared surprised by the hostility, but took it in a calm and eloquent stride.<br />
"I would like to stress that the Nycarian government‟s only interest here is to mediate a<br />
solution that is beneficial to all concerned.”<br />
“So you mentioned, Captain,” Banick replied dourly. “Now what do you propose?”<br />
“Proposition has little to do with the terms of our agreement,” Rhodes countered.<br />
Banick cracked the hint of a small smile as he leaned forward in his chair. For just a<br />
brief moment he believed he had the upper hand. “The term then would be „demands‟?”<br />
“I neither demand nor propose anything, Captain. My sole purpose here this evening<br />
is to inform you – acting as a representative of the UEO Navy - of my position. The Nycarian<br />
Empire considers the current position of the United Earth Oceans government to be<br />
untenable. Within the definitions of our foreign policy, and our formal relationship with your<br />
government, there is currently little ideological distinction between the United Earth Oceans<br />
and the Alliance of Macronesia.”<br />
The gathered UEO officers on Banick‟s side of the table opened their mouths in<br />
shock, and Adamson and Stiles exchanged a look of bafflement. Ainsley remained<br />
completely silent. Banick noted this, and looked over his shoulder at Hornsby before<br />
regarding the Nycarian with an icy stare. “You would appear to know more than I would,<br />
Captain.”<br />
- 189 -
Rhodes turned to Ainsley with a nod. “Admiral, I believe you would be in the most<br />
suitable position to explain.”<br />
Ainsley nodded up at her grimly before looking back at the gathered officers. He was<br />
blunt, and brutally direct. “In the event that the navy is unable to destroy the Atlas missile<br />
battery by a deadline no later than August 1 st , Secretary-General Cathgate has signed an<br />
order authorizing the unrestricted use of nuclear weapons against the Hawaiian Islands, and<br />
every Alliance-occupied command base in the eastern Pacific.”<br />
There was utter silence.<br />
James Banick looked down at first, quickly swallowing a bulge that had suddenly<br />
choked his throat. Adamson and his staff gave no outward reaction, although they all shared<br />
a glimmer of grave consequence in their eyes. For the other UEO officers, save Lauren<br />
Hornsby, there was only unapologetic shock.<br />
“That‟s... an incredible claim, Vice Admiral,” Adamson said after a moment.<br />
“Cathgate wouldn‟t,” Banick seconded, although the hoarse rasp in his voice<br />
immediately betrayed the doubt of his own words.<br />
Ainsley stared past both of them to lock eyes first on Hornsby, and then Stiles. Both<br />
of them hadn‟t reacted to the suggestion in the slightest, which still managed to make the<br />
hairs on Ainsley‟s neck stand uncomfortably on-end. Hornsby closed her eyes and nodded in<br />
admission. "It's true."<br />
Banick stood sharply, beginning to circle the desk towards Ainsley. "For what<br />
possible reason?"<br />
"Because on August 2 nd , that battery goes online," Ainsley continued. "And Bourne<br />
will have the capacity to hit any base or city from Tokyo to San Francisco."<br />
"Irrespective of the outcome, the Nycarian Empire would view such an attack as<br />
unwarranted," Rhodes said with masterful understatement. "As a matter of policy, we hold<br />
that the ends do not justify the means."<br />
"This is an affair internal to the UEO," Banick snapped, turning his head sharply. "I<br />
will not have you dictate policy on this ship. Irrespective of Cathgate's eventual goals, my<br />
orders in this situation are abundantly clear."<br />
"Bullshit," Ainsley returned. "You swore to uphold the same oath as I did. Cathgate's<br />
issued an illegal order, and you know damn well not to follow it."<br />
"And what do you suggest we do, then?"<br />
"If I may, Admiral," Hornsby cut in quietly in the intervening silence. "Captain Banick...<br />
You've assumed this entire time that Aquarius and her crew - myself included - have been<br />
somehow acting outside the chain of command. That's not entirely true."<br />
"ONI?" Banick asked immediately, his eyes widening.<br />
Hornsby shook her head. "ONI is aware of it, but we are outside their command, just<br />
as the navy always has been."<br />
"We answer to the Security Council, and the office of the Secretary-General," Stiles<br />
finally said, breaking his silence.<br />
This time, the look of shock on Banick's face perfectly mirrored Ainsley's beside him.<br />
The other UEO officers' eyes had glazed over long before, with only Richards and Callaghan<br />
maintaining any keen interest in the discussion. "Cathgate?" Ainsley asked incredulously.<br />
Stiles shook his head. "As part of the NSC's agreement to enter this war, there were<br />
conditions set out for the formation of a joint task force, composed equally of UEO and NSC<br />
officers, whose primary objective was the prosecution of the rogue Counter-Intelligence arm<br />
known as Section Seven."<br />
Schrader, Ainsley thought, closing his eyes as the final pieces began to fall together.<br />
"That order was signed by Secretary-General Nathan Hale Bridger, and it is to his<br />
office that we answer to."<br />
"Nathan Bridger is no longer the Secretary-General of the UEO, Captain Stiles,"<br />
Banick pointed out needlessly. "It was Section Seven that shot him."<br />
"And after what I just told you, you're actually surprised?"<br />
- 190 -
"Cathgate would have to know," Ainsley followed. "If that office is the authority, then<br />
you answer to him."<br />
Hornsby smiled. "Bridger understood the need for plausible deniability. Our mandate<br />
is sanctioned, but we are under no obligation or need to brief the Secretary‟s office on our<br />
operations. With <strong>Atlantis</strong> and Aquarius, we can turn the tide, Captain. But you know as well<br />
as I do that Commonwealth stands no chance if you do this alone. There is no point in<br />
throwing your life away."<br />
"This is why you're assigned to the Aquarius, isn't it?" Ainsley asked, looking directly<br />
at Anniel Rhodes. The Nycarian captain nodded.<br />
"Captain Hornsby advised my government of this operation when she contacted us<br />
for help. Although officially, our policy to oppose the use of nuclear weapons must stand, the<br />
need to support alternative measures outweighs any unofficial justification."<br />
Ainsley wasn‟t sure if he entirely trusted the Nycarian motives for involvement,<br />
although it was Ed Richards that took the most vocal exception. “This is insane,” he<br />
snapped. “Black operations, secret orders authorizing the use of nukes on our own soil? Do<br />
you have any proof?”<br />
“I second that,” Banick nodded.<br />
Stiles didn‟t keep them waiting long as he produced a small memory card and set it<br />
on the desk. He ignored the bitter fighter pilot entirely, and pushed it across the desk<br />
towards Banick. “Ari intercepted a message between Cathgate‟s office and Fleet Admiral<br />
Riley‟s flagship, Constellation. It‟s all there.”<br />
Banick took the card and twiddled it in the palm of his hand silently. Richards wasn‟t<br />
done, however, and looked at his captain in disbelief. “If you have the order, why not simply<br />
release it? Force him to back down. It has to be better than what you‟re suggesting.”<br />
Stiles huffed back an unimpressed laugh with folded arms. “Because telling the world<br />
that the UEO is prepared to drop nuclear weapons on its own member states is a fantastic<br />
way of winning hearts and minds. Tell, me, Wing Commander, what do you propose we do<br />
after NORPAC tells us it‟s withdrawing from the treaty? Or when Bourne uses the<br />
information to justify another „San Diego‟?”<br />
Banick looked at the memory card for several long seconds before hesitantly<br />
reaching over the table and handing it gently back to Stiles. The Captain sighed as he<br />
looked at Ainsley, for the first time appreciating the impossible situation he was faced with.<br />
“We‟re soldiers, not spies.” He repeated the Admiral‟s words slowly, mulling on them from a<br />
new perspective. “I need time to think about this.”<br />
The finality to those words got most of the assembled officers to their feet, and they<br />
all quietly shuffled out of the room. Only Ainsley, Rhodes and Hornsby remained.<br />
James Banick‟s shoulders were slumped heavily, a hand held to his mouth as a deep<br />
and troubled frown creased his tired eyes. For a few seconds, the man appeared fifteen<br />
years older, and maybe even a little bit wiser. Ainsley had little sympathy.<br />
“Captain Hornsby,” Banick called after another moment. “You should return to the<br />
Aquarius.”<br />
She hesitated after the invitation, looking with uncertainty at Ainsley opposite her. He<br />
gave an assuring nod, before eyeing Rhodes silently. The inference was clear enough, and<br />
the Nycarian disappeared through the door in Hornsby‟s wake.<br />
Banick and Ainsley were alone in the great conference room, the Captain standing at<br />
the window to stare out at the sea beyond. He eyed the shifting eddies and shimmers of light<br />
that the Commonwealth‟s flood lamps kicked off the hull as if hunting for something through<br />
the fog.<br />
Everything now made sense; perhaps more than either officer had truly wanted. For<br />
Ainsley it had been simple – even easy – to follow his conscience and make a decision. For<br />
Banick, the problem was quickly becoming an effort to ignore that same conscience to do<br />
not what he knew was right, but what he was sworn to. It tugged at his mind that the two<br />
were no longer the same, as he had always managed to convince himself they were.<br />
A moment more and the Captain released a long, laboured sigh. “You could have told<br />
me,” he said quietly.<br />
- 191 -
“Would you have changed your decision if I did?”<br />
“Probably not,” Banick admitted. “But I might have understood yours.”<br />
Ainsley nodded. “And where does this live us?”<br />
Banick smirked and finally turned from the window to plant himself back on the chair<br />
he‟d left. “I would imagine right back where we started,” he admitted again. “Trying to<br />
understand why you did it.”<br />
Ainsley frowned deeply, his face blank and devoid of an answer, and entirely<br />
unknowing of the question.<br />
“My promotions board, nearly two years ago, right before we lost the <strong>Atlantis</strong>,” Banick<br />
reminded him. “You scrubbed me, and for the life of me, I‟ve never been able to understand<br />
why.”<br />
Mark Ainsley closed his eyes as he realised what Banick was talking about and<br />
sighed heavily. They‟d both sharply avoided the subject ever since he‟d arrived, and<br />
Banick‟s hostility was now beginning to make some degree of sense.<br />
“I don‟t know what to tell you,” he said simply. “You weren‟t ready for command. It<br />
was that simple.”<br />
“You kept it from me, Admiral,” Banick continued in a manner that was calmer and<br />
more collected than he‟d been for the entire mission. “Whatever you thought, you hid your<br />
concerns from me. Maybe I was grossly mistaken, but I thought I had your respect. Was I<br />
wrong, Admiral?”<br />
Ainsley sat down slowly as he started to remember. Banick‟s breakdown on the<br />
bridge of the <strong>Atlantis</strong> nearly eighteen months before had gnawed at him ever since: the<br />
culmination of a loss so great that it had driven the man over the edge. He‟d hit rock bottom<br />
when Ainsley had needed him most, on the command deck, just as the great ship slowly<br />
died around them. The look in the Commander‟s eyes that day had been a vacant and<br />
lifeless thousand-mile-stare that Ainsley had witnessed more times during his career than he<br />
cared to recount.<br />
He recalled the doubt he held over Banick‟s well-being even before that penultimate<br />
fall, and how just a few short months prior to that day he‟d been presented with the<br />
endorsement papers from the promotions board in <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong> that carried Banick‟s<br />
name. Not only did he refuse to sign them, but he wrote back to the board and explained<br />
why.<br />
As it happened, his call had been correct. But now that Banick knew, even Ainsley<br />
couldn‟t quite understand why he had never brought those concerns to him. Perhaps it was<br />
the three decades of experience that had taught him the importance of professional<br />
detachment, but even that felt like a pale excuse for the man that had, for the vast majority of<br />
their service together, served with extraordinary capacity and faithfulness as his executive<br />
officer.<br />
“I‟ve always respected you, Banick,” he admitted. “If it‟s a reason you‟re after, then<br />
I‟m not certain I have one that will satisfy you. At the time, you weren‟t ready, and we both<br />
know that.”<br />
“And what about now?” he pressed. “Is that the reason you didn‟t tell me about<br />
Cathgate? That you didn‟t trust me?”<br />
Ainsley shook his head. “It‟s not that simple. You have a responsibility to seven<br />
hundred people on this ship. If it were a decision that affected you alone, then I would have<br />
come to you long before now.” His gaze drifted off, which in turn drew Banick‟s attention<br />
again. “As for my own actions... I can only apologise. I‟m sorry I didn‟t bring my concerns to<br />
you. I‟ve grown far too accustomed to detachment, and I doubt that‟s ever going to change.<br />
But for what it‟s worth, you got to where you are now on your own merits. Captain Edsall had<br />
one hell of an XO, and he‟d be proud of you now. Just as I am.”<br />
Banick was astounded. For two years, all he had ever wanted was an apology, and<br />
had prepared himself for the mother of all battles to get it. Without a fight, Ainsley had given<br />
it unreservedly. The feeling was underwhelming, and the Captain started to wonder if it had<br />
ever meant as much to him as he thought it did. The hostility he‟d shown Ainsley had been<br />
unbecoming and now that they had come to that place, there wasn‟t much left to say.<br />
- 192 -
“What do you plan to do?” Banick asked him.<br />
“Hornsby has never given me any reason not to trust her. If Annie is alive, then there<br />
are still a few things I need answers to, and I hope she can provide me with them.”<br />
“And then?”<br />
Ainsley exhaled the breath he‟d been holding for much of the last sentence. “One<br />
billion people,” he said. “That‟s how many died in the last war. I‟m not going to be the one<br />
who allows that to happen again. One way or another, I‟m doing exactly what Riley ordered<br />
me to. I‟m taking Pearl.”<br />
UEO Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200, the Polynesian Trench. April 15 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
Corinn Roderick wrapped her boots around the ladder next to her subfighter and slid<br />
to the deck. She didn‟t even register the crew chief next to her as she pulled each glove off,<br />
finger at a time before removing her helmet and stuffing them inside. She was running<br />
completely on autopilot as she ran the would-be engagement through her head again.<br />
Untwisting the winding hose of her oxygen mask absentmindedly, she looked up and paused<br />
uneasily when she remembered exactly where she was.<br />
This wasn‟t the flight deck of the UEO Commonwealth. It was a ghost ship she hadn‟t<br />
seen in a long time. Eerily familiar, and strikingly recognisable, her heart skipped a beat as<br />
she caught the ship‟s angel-winged crest emblazoned proudly on the bulkhead at the end of<br />
the hangar, dramatically lit by floodlights cast from the Flight Operations Centre above. The<br />
banner of the Second Carrier Sea Wing still hung proudly beneath that crest, along with the<br />
banners of squadrons she thought lost many months before.<br />
Central among them was the crest that hauntingly echoed that of the ship itself – a<br />
hooded wraith, its wisp-like shroud of winged tendrils draped around a black and red roundel<br />
and set upon a twisted honour roll that read “VF-123”, and a motto: „Until hell calls our<br />
names...‟<br />
Roderick turned on her heel to stare down the flight line. What few members of the<br />
Aquarius‟ ground staff remained working to exhaustion to tie down nearly three dozen<br />
fighters. She overheard several of the mechanics and technicians complaining that they<br />
didn‟t have the supplies or equipment to tend to so many subs at once, and then saw the<br />
man he was voicing it to.<br />
Wing Commander Gavin Mackenzie did his best to placate the flustered crewmen,<br />
but eventually locked eyes with Roderick and simply dismissed them gruffly. Roderick<br />
approached him with a slow, purposeful step as she saw his fighter clearly for the first time.<br />
Substantially sleeker and about twenty percent larger than a Raptor II, the craft was<br />
possessed of the same swooping nose that fell back on to twin canards and wings with four<br />
blended vertical stabilizers, each angled outward at around forty degrees above and below<br />
the fuselage. It lacked the characteristic bulge on the dorsal hull that gave the Raptor II a<br />
sense of „balance‟, but the design lineage and commonality was undeniable. What struck<br />
Roderick as she continued to examine it was the cockpit: hinged back and open, the canopy<br />
wasn‟t any kind of design she was even familiar with. A reinforced titanium-composite<br />
canopy, completely opaque, that was indistinguishable from the materials that composed the<br />
fuselage. As best as she could tell, this fighter had a completely sealed and reinforced<br />
cockpit, with absolutely no view of the world outside.<br />
Behind Mackenzie‟s own craft sat eleven others – identical in all respects – finished<br />
in buffed-down sea-gray and bearing that same haunting wraith motif on their flanks. The<br />
VF-123 Ghosts were very much alive, and in condition that made Roderick‟s own Dark<br />
Angels – and even the Rapiers – look utterly second-rate.<br />
The Wing Commander snapped to attention as she approached, but Roderick‟s gaze<br />
was unbroken from the remarkable craft ahead of her. “At ease,” she said with audible<br />
distraction.<br />
- 193 -
“Not exactly what you‟d call fleet-standard, is she?” Mackenzie teased, turning on his<br />
heel and falling in to step beside her. Roderick cocked her head as she looked up at the<br />
craft, running a bare hand across its smooth, unmarked flanks in practical envy. It was cold<br />
to the touch, but there was something about the material that was entirely unfamiliar –<br />
feeling more like plastic than metal.<br />
“Not exactly a Raptor, you mean,” she replied finally, pausing at the gaping maw of<br />
the fighter‟s starboard intake.<br />
Mackenzie smiled. “Oh she is. Just not the one you know. SF-41/A, Raptor-III.”<br />
Roderick turned in puzzlement. “I thought the fleet wasn‟t going ahead with the<br />
design contract?”<br />
“They aren‟t,” Mackenzie confirmed. “And there have been a few changes since then,<br />
too. Completely stripped out the glass cockpit, improved the combat sensors and up-rated<br />
the engines. Outer hull is even the latest generation of composite stealth tech.”<br />
“...Which would be why we couldn‟t see you,” Roderick muttered.<br />
“They aren‟t specification even by the original tender standards.”<br />
“How many do you have?”<br />
“Nineteen, including ours, and more coming... Although it‟s taking longer than we‟d<br />
like with the design changes. Integration issues are still teething.”<br />
Roderick frowned. “Integration with what?”<br />
They turned as a spray of sea water erupted from the moonpool and covered them<br />
both in a shroud of mist. The launch heaved and surged as it settled on the surface, the<br />
whine of the hydraulic lift below audible as it lifted the shuttle to the deck.<br />
A pair of officers entered the hangar a few moments late as a tractor lashed a tow bar<br />
to the shuttle‟s undercarriage and started to haul it clear. Lieutenant Commander Davis<br />
Akara looked shockingly tired, thought Roderick as he approached, although the second of<br />
the pair she knew only by reputation. Commander John Razak had taken up the post of first<br />
officer well after she‟d transferred to the <strong>Atlantis</strong> and they‟d never personally met in the time<br />
since.<br />
The two officers seemed to notice the fighter pilots and headed for the flight line,<br />
muttering something to each other that was lost amidst the hectic milling of ground staff<br />
around the hangar. They needed to stop three times to let red-jacketed enlisted men hurry<br />
past wheeling trolleys laden with torpedo and cannon munitions. Roderick knew the drill well<br />
– rank meant nothing on a military flight deck. The only thing that truly mattered was the<br />
colour of your uniform. It came with some surprise, however, that the ground staff on the<br />
Aquarius still tended to those duties with purpose and discipline – even having been almost<br />
completely bereft of any subcraft to service for much of the prior six months. Looking around,<br />
it was painfully clear that the Ghosts remained the only full-strength combat unit left on the<br />
ship. The few units that remained of other squadrons littered the hangar in various stages<br />
and degrees of dismantlement or maintenance.<br />
For a quiet, entirely somber moment, Roderick wondered if those fighters even had<br />
any crew left.<br />
Akara smiled broadly as he saw Roderick, Razak maintaining a degree of<br />
pensiveness that the captain found hard to measure. “Job well done, Wing Commander,”<br />
Razak said flatly, looking directly at Mackenzie as if Roderick were not even there.<br />
The Wing Commander shrugged. “No job to speak of, John. Very uneventful.”<br />
Razak cracked a wry smile. “We like uneventful.”<br />
“It‟s been a long time, Captain,” Akara noted, nodding at Roderick‟s oaks and<br />
tridents. She smiled. “How have you been, Davis?”<br />
“Laying low, as always. We owe you one for what you did today. Thanks.”<br />
Roderick nudged Mackenzie gently with an elbow. “What he said. Just doing our<br />
jobs. We‟re on the same side.”<br />
Razak looked uneasy as he looked Roderick up and down. She was shorter than he<br />
expected – barely above five foot – but still every inch the alluring firebrand she was<br />
reckoned as. Despite himself, he smirked, and offered his hand. “Glad to know it,” he said.<br />
“Commander John Razak, XO.”<br />
- 194 -
“Corinn Roderick,” she said flatly, taking his hand without familiarity.<br />
“I hope I‟m not jumping the gun in assuming you‟ll be here a while, Captain,” Razak<br />
observed, his eyes flicking back to the launch that had now settled on the deck as stairs<br />
were moved to the access hatches.<br />
“I honestly can‟t answer that,” she turned, looking back at the shuttle. “That all<br />
depends on what happened aboard the Commonwealth.”<br />
The shuttle‟s airlock finally cracked open silently, the loadmaster‟s helmet emerging<br />
from between the breach to look around the deck and then down at the stairs. Satisfied, he<br />
pulled the door out completely and disappeared back inside ahead first of Anniel Rhodes<br />
and then Lauren Hornsby.<br />
Rhodes waited at the bottom of the stairs as the Captain sauntered on to the flight<br />
deck, her jacket slung over her shoulder across locks of frayed blonde hair. She looked tired,<br />
pausing only briefly to say something to Rhodes before walking across the deck to meet the<br />
small crowd of officers.<br />
At the same time, Roderick noticed Coyle and Roberts making their way from the line<br />
of Dark Angel and Rapier fighters, still wrapped in their flight webbing and their eyes locked<br />
firmly on the mysterious subfighters of the Ghosts. Coyle looked impressed, although<br />
Roberts couldn‟t keep the disdain from her face, her eyes narrowed as she studied the<br />
fighters, and then their pilots. The Ghosts themselves were milling around and under a<br />
fighter bearing the number „001‟, which Roderick knew would have belonged to Mackenzie‟s<br />
second-in-command, Commander Thomas Parker.<br />
The unease between those pilots and her own didn‟t surprise her. As a rule, the pilots<br />
of the Rapiers didn‟t trust anything they didn‟t know – and it had been a largely healthy<br />
discipline that her own Dark Angels had learned to pick up within weeks of arriving on the<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong>. There was a clear but unspoken chemistry between Roberts and Coyle, in many<br />
ways the Dark Angel‟s commander was the proverbial parry to Roberts‟ foil. When they<br />
clashed, there were sparks, and when they saw eye to eye, their pilots quickly knew to fall in<br />
line.<br />
“Mackenzie,” nodded Coyle in a single-word greeting. The Ghost nodded back, and<br />
Roberts said nothing as she looked at Roderick.<br />
“It‟s good to see you both,” Roderick smiled slightly.<br />
“Ma‟am.”<br />
Gavin Mackenzie frowned. “Have I done something to upset you, Commander<br />
Roberts?”<br />
The Rapier commander looked back at him with an unreadable expression, an<br />
intended answer apparently hanging there for a long moment before she lifted her chin<br />
slightly. “It‟s nothing personal, it‟s just a lot to take in and I need time to sort it out.”<br />
“Fair enough.”<br />
Hornsby reached the group of officers, and in time that would have made marines<br />
envious, the four pilots and her two staff snapped to attention and saluted. Their boots<br />
panged loudly off the deck grates in unison which drew eyes from the other squadrons.<br />
“At ease,” the captain breathed. “Your report, Captain Roderick?”<br />
Corinn‟s eyes widened beneath a raised brow and noted the surprise that was<br />
spreading on Mackenzie and Razak‟s face. “All secured, Captain,” she replied. “What<br />
happened over there?”<br />
“An agreement, I hope,” she confirmed, looking at Rhodes beside her.<br />
“Captain Banick understands his position,” the Nycarian explained. “I don‟t believe he<br />
will carry out his indicated actions.”<br />
“What of the Admiral?” Akara asked, flinching uncomfortably as he eyed Hornsby<br />
again.<br />
“He needs to get his affairs in order. This isn‟t an easy decision, but he knows time is<br />
short.”<br />
“Did you tell him?” Razak asked, narrowing his eyes at Rhodes.<br />
The Nycarian hesitated. “I told him what he needed to know.”<br />
- 195 -
Razak looked uneasy with the answer, being consciously aware of the scrutiny that<br />
was upon him from the Commonwealth fighter pilots. Tensions between them were already<br />
high without clouding their mission, and he wouldn‟t be the one to undo what Hornsby and<br />
Rhodes had already achieved. In time, he was certain, Hornsby would tell them the rest.<br />
“Then with your permission, Captain, I‟d like to make preparations to get under way.”<br />
Hornsby nodded her consent before Razak and Akara headed for the doors.<br />
Roderick watched them with uncertainty for a few seconds before looking at Hornsby<br />
expectantly.<br />
“It‟s good to have you back, Quinn,” the Aquarius captain smiled. “Get your pilots<br />
debriefed. I think we‟ve all had enough of the lies.”<br />
Without another word, Hornsby led Rhodes away in silence. Coyle and Roberts<br />
slowly started to circle the Raptor III much as Roderick had done just moments before, with<br />
Roberts pausing behind the sleek craft to peer down through the maw of its gaping turbines.<br />
“So,” the Rapier commander said; her voice a muted echo from inside the sizeable<br />
engine outtakes. “When do we get our hands on these?”<br />
~<br />
- 196 -
VIII<br />
T I T A N D E P T H S<br />
UEO Commonwealth CVBN-110, the Polynesian Trench. April 16 th , 2043…<br />
Banick still clutched the paper printout in his hand tightly as he left the<br />
Commonwealth‟s bridge, his position now even more uncertain than it had been five hours<br />
before. His eyes burned, his bad leg ached, and his mind was still swimming through a<br />
murky cloud of reason and consequence. It was nearly 0300, and his exhaustion had<br />
reached a point that he had long since stopped being tired, and was beginning to feel ill. He<br />
sipped the lukewarm mug of coffee in his off-hand, slapping the call button at the mag-lev<br />
station, all the while running the words on that piece of paper through his head once more.<br />
He wasn‟t really sure what angered him more – the tone of the order, or where it had<br />
come from. Someone, somewhere under his nose, was feeding information to sources that<br />
he had tried very hard to keep out of the loop. The timing of it, too, seemed to only throw a<br />
further shadow over the situation after Ainsley‟s stunning revelations just a few hours before.<br />
The door slid open, but another shadow fell over him before he could step inside the<br />
carriage. Banick turned to find Callaghan, looking no more rested than he, just feet away.<br />
“Captain, may I have a minute?”<br />
Banick nodded, gesturing to the mag-lev as he stepped inside and held the door. His<br />
XO followed him, and the two officers gripped the hand rail above their heads tightly as it<br />
started to accelerate away. “You‟ll need to make this quick, Ryan,” he sighed.<br />
“Is that what I think it is?” Callaghan asked, looking at the page in the Captain‟s hand.<br />
He knew the only communications traffic that still went out on paper was the sort that was<br />
considered too important even for the CIC‟s secretive command protocols. Whoever had<br />
sent it, it was from high office, and of the most sensitive subject.<br />
Banick looked up at the page, still clasped in the hand that was wrapped around the<br />
guard rail. “Even I don‟t know what it is, Ryan,” he said.<br />
“I thought you should know,” the XO continued on pace. “Ainsley came to see me last<br />
night, before he boarded the Aquarius.”<br />
Banick‟s head turned slowly, his eyes dark, and his frown deep. “Halt mag-lev,<br />
authorization Banick-seven-three-six-Canebride,” he said sharply, the carriage lurching to a<br />
stop. He dropped his hand, turning to face the commander fully.<br />
“What?”<br />
Callaghan drew a breath. “He told me everything that he just said in that meeting,<br />
and asked me to help him.”<br />
Banick felt a stab of anger deep within his gut, scarcely believing what he was<br />
hearing. “And you‟re telling me this now... why, Ryan?”<br />
“Because I think he was right, and I wanted you to know before I made my decision.”<br />
“By the sounds of it, you already have. What did he ask you to do?”<br />
“I sent the message to UEO command,” Callaghan admitted. “I told them about<br />
Aquarius.”<br />
The confession hit Banick like a truck. His eyes were cold as he drew a long,<br />
thoughtful breath. “Why?”<br />
“I intend to go with him.”<br />
“That doesn‟t answer my question.”<br />
Callaghan nodded. “Ainsley wanted to keep Intelligence off-balance. The only way he<br />
could do that was by keeping this timeline short. As long as Schrader believed she had time<br />
to orchestrate this, she held all the cards.”<br />
“God damn it, Callaghan!” Banick spat. “How does this at all help me? Or even<br />
Ainsley, for that matter. This has effectively ended his career, and mine‟s hanging by a<br />
thread.”<br />
“It gives you a choice.”<br />
- 197 -
Banick exhaled slowly and swallowed. “Your timing in telling me this couldn‟t have<br />
been more ill-timed,” he muttered through nearly gritted teeth.<br />
“For what it‟s worth, I don‟t regret my decision. I‟m telling you because I feel I owe<br />
you that as a friend.”<br />
“And what do you expect me to do?” snapped Banick, his patience wearing thin.<br />
“Whatever you feel is appropriate,” Callaghan confessed. “I didn‟t decide this for the<br />
Admiral‟s sake, but for my own. There are things I need answers to - things I probably<br />
should have told you about long before now, but I‟m never going to find the answers here.”<br />
“So you‟re trying to rationalize this? You want to get me to say that I understand your<br />
motives?”<br />
“No sir. I only wanted you to know I am prepared to accept responsibility for my<br />
actions.”<br />
Banick huffed. “Alright. You said you were looking for answers... Answers to what?”<br />
Callaghan took an uncertain breath. For the next ten minutes, he detailed every one<br />
of his startling finds aboard the <strong>DSV</strong> Proteus nearly two years before, explaining how every<br />
face, memory, feeling, smell and recollection of his supposed service in the UEO Special<br />
Forces in the year 2031 had been a complete and baffling fabrication of his mind. He told the<br />
most painful truth of all – that he had been, in that year, and perhaps longer, an officer of the<br />
Counter Intelligence organization named Section Seven.<br />
All the while, James Banick stood and listened in silence – unsure of what to think,<br />
say or do, letting every word wash over him. He felt pain with every revelation of what<br />
Callaghan had hidden for so long, to all but one man. Admiral Mark Ainsley.<br />
When Callaghan had finally finished, Banick looked away from the most faithful man<br />
he had ever known, and regretted asking the question.<br />
“I‟m sorry, Jim,” Callaghan sighed.<br />
There was a long and uncomfortable silence before Banick looked back at him.<br />
“Does Madeline know?”<br />
Callaghan nodded. “Not everything, but she knows enough. She understands.”<br />
Banick stepped forward, studying his eyes intently. “Is that enough? That she<br />
understands?”<br />
Ryan Callaghan smiled. “After all this, I have to believe it is, because I don‟t have a<br />
whole lot left.”<br />
“...You‟re on your own now, Mark. I‟ve done all I can.”<br />
Ainsley closed his eyes slowly. Before him on the monitor, Jack Riley was a picture of<br />
exhaustion, the dark lines and dulled glint in his eyes adding another ten years to the man.<br />
The Secretary-General‟s reaction was something they had both expected, but that didn‟t<br />
make it any easier to accept. Riley had ridden the line for his entire career, and had been<br />
praised for those initiatives. Times were changing, as those same actions – decisions he had<br />
once been rewarded for – had now broken him.<br />
Frankly, reflected Ainsley darkly, if the UEO fleet truly had become a political<br />
instrument of the Secretary-General and his agenda then he no longer wanted to be a part of<br />
it.<br />
“How long?” the Vice Admiral asked coolly.<br />
“He expects the letter on his desk in a few hours, and I imagine it will be immediately<br />
effective. I‟m meeting with the Joint Chiefs in a few minutes but I wanted you to know,<br />
privately, you have my support. I‟ve already briefed Andrew, but I wouldn‟t expect much<br />
official endorsement on this one. The JCS have their collective heads down after what<br />
happened last night. Cathgate is cleaning house.”<br />
“I understand,” Ainsley nodded. “But if that‟s the case, then is it wise to keep Admiral<br />
Hayes so close to this?”<br />
“The responsibility lies with me,” Riley affirmed. “Cathgate knows that, and needs<br />
support to keep his decision credible. Hayes knows that as well, and he‟s already assured<br />
- 198 -
me that he‟ll support Cathgate‟s decision – publically, at least. What he thinks privately is<br />
none of the Secretary-General‟s god-damned business.”<br />
Ainsley shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I‟m sorry it‟s come to this, Jack... And I<br />
apologise for what it‟s cost you. Although frankly, I‟m not sure much of what I can say is<br />
going to make it any easier.”<br />
Riley waved a hand dismissively as he sat back in his chair. “Keep your apologies,<br />
Ainsley. I would have been disappointed if you had decided to do anything less.”<br />
“Yes sir.”<br />
“Just do me a favour and keep your head down out there. You can trust Hargreaves,<br />
but the Office of Naval Intelligence has the kind of reputation that gives men in his position a<br />
bad name.”<br />
“I‟ll keep it in mind when next I speak with Schrader,” Ainsley smiled. “And what<br />
about you?”<br />
Riley laughed. “I‟ve got a ranch in Wisconsin. I figure I‟ll lie low for a while until this<br />
whole thing blows over. Lord knows, Emma needs to get away from it all. Don‟t you worry<br />
about me.”<br />
“That sounds outstanding,” Ainsley beamed, smiling approvingly as some of his own<br />
problems momentarily evaporated at the thought. “I wonder if you might do me another<br />
favour and check in on Sam for me... I‟ll tell her what I can, but, she could use the support.”<br />
“I‟ll have Schrader sort out the details, but you have my word, we‟ll take care of her.”<br />
“I appreciate it.”<br />
The two officers stared across the comm. link for several, long moments afterwards.<br />
Ainsley knew full well that it would be the last time he would ever speak with Riley as the<br />
commander of the Pacific fleet – a fact he sorely regretted. Riley then leaned forward.<br />
“I‟ll see you after the war, Mark. I‟ll buy the drinks.”<br />
“I will hold you to that,” Ainsley smirked.<br />
“Riley out.”<br />
The image of the Fleet Admiral evaporated quickly, leaving Ainsley staring blankly at<br />
his own reflection in the monitor. He got up slowly and looked around his now-empty<br />
quarters in silence, seeing the two bags next to the lounge. Something flashed from the<br />
corner of his eye, drawing his head slowly around to find the other officer on the wall staring<br />
back at him. Ainsley narrowed his eyes at the image, examining the form of his own<br />
reflection in the mirror quietly. He couldn‟t remember the last time he‟d ever paid attention to<br />
the „fruit bowl‟ of ribbons adorning the left hand side of his chest, having become something<br />
of an asymmetrical inconvenience that commanded more maintenance than it deserved. At<br />
that moment, he wasn‟t even sure if he deserved them at all. He sighed as he accepted the<br />
inevitability of that, and removed the three stars from his collar to set them gently on the<br />
bench. He held the second set in his hand for a moment longer, feeling the weight and<br />
coolness of the metal before that too, was consigned to the table.<br />
A knock from the door drew him away from that reflection sharply. “Come in.”<br />
James Banick appeared in the hatch way a moment later, pausing at the foot of the<br />
small staircase that led down from the raised corridor outside and pushing it closed with a<br />
solid „thump‟. Like Riley, Banick looked exhausted - his jumpsuit zipped down, his sleeves<br />
rolled up, and his shoulders sagging far below the line of his collar.<br />
“I‟m surprised you‟re awake,” Ainsley said, sipping the glass of water he‟d set neat<br />
his rank pins. “It‟s not exactly top of first watch.”<br />
“I‟m not tired,” Banick truthfully lied. Of course he was tired – he‟d just stopped feeling<br />
it.<br />
“Can I get you something?”<br />
“No.”<br />
The Admiral nodded silently as he removed a small, velvet box from the side of his<br />
bag and opened it to place the two rank pins inside. Banick caught a glimpse of its contents<br />
for only a moment before Ainsley snapped it shut again. He recognised the blue ribbon<br />
inside instantly, hooked up and behind the velvet backing from a wreathed medallion<br />
- 199 -
stamped in the crest of the UEO. The medal of honour – the highest military decoration the<br />
UEO could bestow.<br />
“Fleet Admiral Riley has resigned,” Ainsley said flatly as he tucked the box away in its<br />
pouch. “It will be effective in about six hours.”<br />
Banick took a few, slow steps forward. “Your shuttle should be ready within in the<br />
next few minutes,” the Captain observed. “I imagine you‟ll be leaving soon.”<br />
The Admiral‟s eyes looked Banick up and down for several seconds, his mind made<br />
up but otherwise uncertain of the Captain‟s intent. He sighed, allowing for a small but<br />
defeated smile. “No doubt Secretary-General Cathgate has given you your orders, then.”<br />
Banick was silent, but his face affirmed the estimate well enough before his hand<br />
slowly disappeared in to his pocket to retrieve the folded sheet of paper. “It came in a few<br />
minutes ago, yes.”<br />
“What are you going to do?”<br />
Banick shrugged. “I can‟t go with you.”<br />
Ainsley smiled. He‟d expected that answer, and anything more would have been<br />
hoping for too much. “I would have been surprised if you did,” he admitted.<br />
“I‟m sorry, Admiral,” Banick smirked. “I‟ve spent most of the last two years putting my<br />
life back together and making sense of what I still have. I couldn‟t throw all that away and<br />
I‟ve still got a lot to make up for.”<br />
“It‟s alright,” Ainsley assured him. “You know as well as I do this is still probably a<br />
one-way trip. You‟ve got a crew to think about – and a good one at that.”<br />
The smirk turned in to a smile. “Something tells me we‟ll see each other again,”<br />
Banick told him. “Whether you‟re here or not, my mission hasn‟t changed. For what this is<br />
worth, I‟ll do everything I can to help.”<br />
“Cathgate will ask why you didn‟t arrest me,” Ainsley reminded him cautiously. “What<br />
do you intend to tell him?”<br />
Banick shrugged. “The truth. A Reverence class battlecruiser isn‟t a match for a<br />
<strong>DSV</strong>.”<br />
Ainsley pursed his lips before folding his arms, narrowing his eyes to stare the<br />
Captain down. “You would have fired, wouldn‟t you?”<br />
“Some things will always remain a mystery.”<br />
“Probably for the best.”<br />
Banick nodded slowly as Ainsley extended his hand. It occurred to him that it was the<br />
first time he‟d even tried to offer it since landing, and he was entirely unsure how, or indeed<br />
if, he should accept it. The captain of the Commonwealth stared at the hand for three whole,<br />
long seconds before finally gripping it firmly. He didn‟t say a word as the Admiral gave him<br />
an approving, encouraging nod, drawing a breath.<br />
“Take care of this one,” Ainsley nodded to the ship around him.<br />
Banick grinned. “I intend to.”<br />
~<br />
Madeline Hayes was a rare breed of girl: the kind who would wait until the ends of the<br />
Earth if she felt it right to do so. While her wait at Commonwealth‟s number three starboard<br />
airlock had hardly been apocalyptic, it still felt right as she twiddled the ring around her left<br />
four-finger and continued to look down the main corridor nervously, the nervous habit<br />
appearing to agitate the Nycarian captain behind her.<br />
Rhodes and Hayes were not alone though, with two of the ship‟s marines standing<br />
next to the hatch – their rifles folded neatly in front of them. They seemed relaxed, or even<br />
casual in their watch as a general and renewed sense of purpose had steadily settled on the<br />
ship. It had been a subtle change in the mood of the crew, but Hayes knew exactly where it<br />
had started.<br />
She froze as she saw the three men round the corner at the end of that long corridor,<br />
their pace slow and steady as they strolled up to the airlock. Despite their present juncture,<br />
- 200 -
none of them appeared in any rush. Ainsley and Banick walked side by side, their hands<br />
folded behind them as they chatted quietly with Callaghan keeping pace just a foot from<br />
Ainsley‟s side in silence.<br />
Hayes‟s heart skipped a beat as she saw that and was quickly reminded of his<br />
decision. It occurred to her then just how Banick appeared so relaxed, even erring on the<br />
side of jovial when faced with the loss of his first officer to a man who was about to be<br />
branded a deserter.<br />
Whether there was a perverse joke in there that she had missed, Hayes was<br />
uncertain, but his decision did not surprise her. His eyes met hers as they approached the<br />
junction, a small but wry smile forming at the corners of his mouth. Hayes loved that smile –<br />
cheeky, smug and unquestionably dirty when he wanted it to be, and couldn‟t help but grin in<br />
return. “...Cathgate‟s going to send hell after you, you know,” she heard Banick remark, his<br />
voice rising as they cleared the hall.<br />
“Then I hope a head-start isn‟t too much to ask,” grinned Ainsley back at him.<br />
Banick‟s return smile was insincere, but nonetheless sly. “Your clock started ticking<br />
as soon as I received the orders, Admiral. I wouldn‟t press your luck.”<br />
One of the marines by the airlock, an unlit cigar clenched lightly between his teeth,<br />
stepped forward to greet the officers with a cocky, lazy half-step before removing the stick<br />
from his mouth and eyeing Banick expectantly. Ainsley saw the golden oak leaves beneath<br />
his collar before he saw the man‟s face under the brim of the heavy Kevlar helmet. Major<br />
Adrian O‟Shaughnessy hadn‟t changed much in the time since they‟d last met, his shoulder<br />
still appearing to swing in to every step under the weight of his characteristic Irish chip. The<br />
man‟s rifle was slung lazily over his shoulder, the safety still on and without the magazine<br />
attached. He smiled. “Admiral, your shuttle‟s ready, but your pilot‟s not here. If you like, I‟ll<br />
arrange for one of mine to get you the rest of the way.”<br />
Ainsley smiled at the major before looking around the hall. “We‟re early, I‟ll give him<br />
time.”<br />
“Aye, sir.”<br />
O‟Shaughnessy turned slowly on his heel and nodded dismissively at the second<br />
soldier next to the door. With a return nod, the marine secured his weapon and headed back<br />
down the access corridor towards the barracks, leaving the major to lean against the<br />
bulkhead nonchalantly and check his watch impatiently.<br />
Hayes gently ushered Callaghan aside with an apologetic smile to Banick and<br />
Ainsley before dragging the Commonwealth XO behind a jutting frame at the corner of the<br />
cross junction. The subsequent, heavy and jarring „thump‟ against the bulkhead behind it<br />
was enough to draw their gaze away to the marine major, Banick‟s awkwardly pursed lips<br />
mirroring those of Ainsley beside him.<br />
“Where will you be headed?” Banick asked quickly, his mind caring not to wonder<br />
about what was transpiring just meters to his side as he turned away from the hall to look<br />
squarely at the airlock.<br />
“I‟m not certain,” the Admiral replied, tugging on his cuff. “Hornsby wouldn‟t give me<br />
details, but I have a few ideas. I need to find out just how involved she is with this<br />
Intelligence business before I can make much of a move.”<br />
“Both eyes open,” Banick agreed.<br />
“Mmm,” grunted the Admiral, his eyes still locked on the airlock.<br />
...Hayes pressed herself in to Callaghan deeply, her lips still locked around his as she<br />
inhaled the smell of his aftershave once more with a quiet, pleased moan. He held her tight,<br />
his eyes still closed as he gently pulled away and took a slow, deep breath. “Damn you,” he<br />
whispered under his breath.<br />
“You didn‟t think I‟d make the decision easy, did you?” she returned, her voice low<br />
and husky as she peered up at him with a sultry smile.<br />
“I‟ve already made the decision,” he said, kissing her again lightly as his hand moved<br />
down to her waist. “You‟re just making me regret it.”<br />
“Good,” she said, burying her head in to his chest. “Just tell me you‟re coming home.”<br />
- 201 -
Callaghan‟s hand moved to the side of her face feeling her warm, soft cheeks again<br />
as she gently lifted her head to look her in the eye. “I promise,” he said. “I will come back.”<br />
Hayes‟s smile was forced, the sadness in her eyes betraying her scepticism. “I‟m<br />
holding you to that.”<br />
“Come with me,” he urged her again.<br />
Hayes let go a long, deep breath as she pulled back, her frown deepening with a pout<br />
for good measure. “I can‟t follow you,” she said. “I might not agree with that‟s happening, but<br />
I can‟t give up. Banick needs me, and he needs to know he‟s not alone.”<br />
Callaghan‟s jaw twisted half-way in to a smile of his own. “Just keep him out of<br />
trouble,” he said.<br />
“He will come around, Ryan,” she smiled back. “He just needs time.”<br />
Callaghan leaned in again, kissing her a second time and brushing a loose lock of<br />
deep, brown hair from her eyes. “Don‟t keep me waiting long,” he whispered, his eyes closed<br />
as he inhaled the scent of her perfume.<br />
“I promise, I won‟t.”<br />
“And don‟t keep me waiting, will you, Commander?” asked a new voice as a shadow<br />
fell past them, the long, broken footsteps that so clearly clanked up the grated hall having<br />
never been heard by either of them, so deep had been their distraction.<br />
Callaghan watched the tall, staggering form of Commander Ed Richards slump past<br />
them in to the airlock juncture, the flicker of a smile forming at the corner of the pilot‟s mouth.<br />
Hayes rolled her eyes as she steadily broke away from her husband, her hands slipping<br />
down his arm as she let out one final sigh.<br />
Callaghan, Hayes, Ainsley and Banick all turned to find Richards in full flight gear as<br />
he dropped his duffel bag on the deck and saluted the Admiral sharply. With uncertainty,<br />
Ainsley returned the salute before looking him over slowly. Richards‟ prosthetic left leg<br />
remained hidden behind the fabric of the flight suit and the boot that occupied its end. Banick<br />
saw the flicker of pain in his eyes as the man struggled to remain at attention, but unwilling<br />
to show his weakness. „Minstrel‟ had a ill-earned reputation for too-vocally lamenting<br />
problems, both personal and those that affected his work – but for Banick, there were few<br />
sights as devastating as that of a broken soldier who had lost everything except their pride.<br />
Emotionally, he knew Richards felt a hollowness that could have only been created through<br />
the most traumatic of losses. Material and personal losses could at times be painful, and the<br />
death of a colleague or loved one was a fact of life that everyone who ever lived would have<br />
to face soon enough. Even these „losses‟, however, didn‟t hold a candle to the sort which<br />
Richards had endured – the sort which changed life on a fundamental and core level,<br />
stripping a man bare of his strength, support and will to lay him naked before the world to be<br />
judged.<br />
Ed Richards was a creature whose entire life amounted to fiery independence and<br />
strength of resolve: the ability to stand tall in spite of the beliefs and principles of all others to<br />
back and hold what he believed for himself. He was a warrior of a very rare kind, and all of<br />
that had been turned on its head. Independence became reliance, resolve became doubt,<br />
and pride was left to stand alone on a dusty shelf devoid of and ill-placed with nothing left to<br />
be proud of. This move, Banick knew, was something that could have only come if he had<br />
resigned himself to the truth of his situation: that he could no longer be alone.<br />
“Permission to disembark, Captain?” Richards asked sternly.<br />
“Aren‟t you grounded, Wing Commander?” Banick asked in reply, measuring every<br />
inch of Richards‟ reaction. The pilot betrayed little of the discomfort he felt, trying<br />
unsuccessfully to deter the captain‟s inquisition by straightening to his not-inconsiderable full<br />
height.<br />
“Can‟t say much for my ability to fly stick,” Richards dodged the question. “But I think<br />
I can handle a shuttle.”<br />
His eyes shifted a second time to find Ainsley at the side. “…Assuming you‟ll have<br />
me, sir. There isn‟t much left for me here.”<br />
There was a flicker of a coy smile at the corner of the Admiral‟s mouth as he looked<br />
at Banick. There wasn‟t much to argue – the Rapiers and Dark Angels had gone, taking with<br />
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them Corinn Roderick and a swathe of the fleet‟s most senior pilots. Richards was now a<br />
squadron commander with no one to command, and nothing to fly. For a moment Banick<br />
looked at his own XO, Ryan Callaghan, considering the parallels that he and the fighter pilot<br />
now shared, and finally gave a curt nod.<br />
“You‟d better start moving, Commander… The Admiral is on a tight schedule.”<br />
Richards nodded, offering only a terse, disagreeable glance to the Admiral beside<br />
him before he picked up his bag and stepped through the airlock door in to the cabin of the<br />
shuttle.<br />
The four remaining officers watched him disappear, their silence lasting for some<br />
time after the pilot had disappeared through the maw. “You‟ll have trouble with him,” Banick<br />
warned Ainsley, folding his arms with a long sigh.<br />
“Give him time,” Ainsley mused.<br />
“Admiral, I don‟t want to push, but if we‟re going to leave… We should do it now,”<br />
Callaghan piped up from behind, Hayes still clinging to his heels.<br />
Ainsley seemed to pause at this before looking down at his feet. “Go on,<br />
Commander. I‟d like a moment with the Captain.”<br />
“Aye, sir.”<br />
Hayes stayed with her husband as he walked to the airlock, and bade his final<br />
goodbyes. Major O‟Shaughnessy had disappeared silently in to the shadows of the corridor,<br />
his silhouette still lurking against the backlights of the main junction further down the way.<br />
Ainsley picked up his own duffel bag, swinging it over his shoulder before looking around the<br />
Commonwealth one last time. “Jim, I‟ll do everything I can to see this through, but I‟m going<br />
to need help.”<br />
Banick nodded, his lower lip disappearing behind his teeth. “This needs time to blow<br />
over, Admiral,” he said hesitantly. “I can‟t promise much, but you know I‟ll do what I can.”<br />
Ainsley smiled weakly, the confidence in his own decision taking a final turn for<br />
uncertainty. Nothing he did to assuage those nerves seemed to work, and he doubted it<br />
would get any easier.<br />
“Good hunting, Admiral,” Banick said finally.<br />
The captain of the UEO Commonwealth watched the airlock for several minutes after<br />
the hatch had closed, all the while conscious of Major O‟Shaughnessy and Commander<br />
Madeline Hayes lurking in hall behind him. Only when his PAL buzzed from his belt did he<br />
turn on his heel and head briskly for the bridge. “Banick here.”<br />
“Captain, I have a priority message coming in for you from Fleet Command. It‟s<br />
Admiral Hayes,”<br />
“Make sure the Admiral‟s shuttle is cleared, and I‟ll take the call in my office, Ensign.<br />
I‟ll be there in a few minutes.”<br />
“Aye, Captain.”<br />
…By the time Admiral Hayes had reissued Cathgate‟s instructions to detain Admiral<br />
Mark Ainsley, the shuttle had disappeared. For the next several hours, Andrew Hayes would<br />
come to dwell on the peculiar smile that had covered Banick‟s face when he received his<br />
orders and all that Secretary-General Cathgate would know was that his instructions had<br />
simply reached the battlecruiser too late.<br />
Cathgate‟s legendary tirade to the General Staff of the UEO Fleet that day was well<br />
in to its twentieth minute by the time the Commonwealth had received further orders to come<br />
about and give chase, but it, too, was an order that had been sent long after the dust had<br />
settled: the Aquarius had simply vanished in to the nethers of the Polynesian Trench as<br />
quickly and quietly as she had arrived.<br />
~<br />
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A T H O U S A N D P O I N T S O F S H A D O W<br />
Ninety seven miles off the coast of Sierra Leone, June 8 th , 2031...<br />
It was a peculiar realisation, he decided. That a perfect darkness could have such a<br />
tangible feel and depth to it fascinated him. Holding his hands in front of his face, the world<br />
around him was so completely black that he couldn‟t even see his fingers if they were a<br />
mere inch from his nose. The more his mind turned over this idea, the more detail he could<br />
discern as the empty, infinitely dark room slowly moulded in to shapes and forms of clarity in<br />
his head. It was a particularly beautiful if incomprehensible complexity that offered him a<br />
level of appreciation in that place that he had never experienced before.<br />
„Before‟ was a simple enough word of course, inferring a passage of time, events and<br />
circumstances that didn‟t really seem to matter as much then and there. Fear had long since<br />
given way to questions about that lonely room, and those questions – endless and oddly<br />
unusual – had become, in a quirky sense of the absurd, a welcome company.<br />
That the occupant could assemble these thoughts in his mind in the time it took him<br />
to blink put in to perspective something else that he was far less conscious of – time. How<br />
long had he been in that room? It could have been days, months, or even a year, he just<br />
simply wasn‟t sure – nor did it seem to matter. There were still far too many important<br />
questions in his head to worry about such a trivial detail like time. It meant nothing in that<br />
room.<br />
The air of the room was dry, but smelt of absolutely nothing. Even that was peculiar,<br />
because „nothing‟ was still easier to contemplate and understand than, perhaps, the stink of<br />
oil that could have dripped in to the main vents of an air conditioning plant in some place<br />
unseen. Then there was the silence, also perfect, and devoid of any ambient sound. He<br />
started to consider the possibility that such a place might have been what death felt like – an<br />
absence of sound, light and smell – were it not for the cold feeling of metal beneath his<br />
hands. „Nothing‟ and „nowhere‟ were equally cold to the touch, it appeared, although he had<br />
no recollection of when he had first noticed that fact.<br />
He sat with his legs folded in the corner, his fingers tracing circles on the invisible<br />
floor in front of him, each stroke filling his mind and being translated in his visual memory as<br />
paths of, well, anything he liked, really. He could have painted a perfect replica of the Mon<br />
Lisa and retained it as a mental photograph... until he realised, that is, that he had absolutely<br />
no idea what the Mon Lisa was, or where he even got the name. Nonetheless, the eyes in<br />
that portrait that was burned in to his head were off, somehow. They didn‟t seem to belong to<br />
the woman in the painting – the unfathomably deep, rueful pain being utterly an utter<br />
mismatch to the coy, unreadable smile that covered the painterly lips. The man tried first to<br />
correct the lips to the more proper arrangement in his mind but that too seemed wrong,<br />
making the composition in his head seem even less sensible.<br />
Something echoed distantly, making the occupant of the dark, cubical room look up<br />
and around, the sound reverberating off the masonry just enough to give him a sense of<br />
direction. It had come from the door, of course – the cold, metal door that had gone<br />
unopened in as long as he could recall. Not that he could see the door, he simply knew it<br />
was there. At some unimportant juncture he had explored thoroughly every inch of that<br />
perfect cube of a habitat on his hands and knees over the long, arduous course of several<br />
minutes. One hundred and forty nine seconds, he had reckoned, it took him to case every<br />
inch of the room, absorbing every detail and every wall panel until it simply fell together in his<br />
mind with all the precision of... a square wall panel within a cubical room. It had taken an<br />
eternity to come to that simple conclusion; an eternity lasting one hundred and forty nine<br />
seconds.<br />
The noise was clear now. Footsteps: mid-paced, deliberate and steady, with a pause<br />
before the door. The man got up quietly, taking a few steps forward at the sound of whirring<br />
locks and the tapping of a keypad. His world turned to a blinding, withering pain a moment<br />
later – the lance of an approximated daylight flooding the room. His hands shot up to shield<br />
- 204 -
his face as he stepped back, bracing himself against the cold of the bulkhead with fluid<br />
welling under his eyes. He struggled to squint painfully through the glare at the figure that<br />
entered, silhouetted starkly against the bright light behind him.<br />
“Ryan,” the figure spoke softly, his voice flicking a switch in the occupant‟s head that<br />
made every sense, feeling and recognition snap in to life. He knew now, where he was. He<br />
knew much more, too, although for reasons he was now utterly incapable of explaining.<br />
“Do you know who I am?”<br />
Ryan Callaghan‟s eyes continued to adjust as the man stepped forward. He held a<br />
data padd in his hand, braced on the inner sleeve of his elbow, and wore a long white coat<br />
and the black jumpsuit of the intelligence service. The gold tridents embroidered on to his<br />
collar gave his rank as a naval captain. His face was familiar, a name feeling as though it<br />
were on the very tip of his tongue, but evaporating in to a thousand shards of distant<br />
memory each time he felt the word start to form.<br />
“No,” Ryan Callaghan said to the man. “I don‟t.”<br />
“Do you know why you‟re here?”<br />
Callaghan frowned, a look of frustration beginning to spread over his face at first,<br />
followed by confusion, and then finally anguish. “I can‟t remember...”<br />
“I‟m the captain of this ship,” the stranger said. “You‟re aboard a UEO submarine,<br />
and you‟re safe. You‟re with friends.”<br />
Callaghan narrowed his eyes, his lip curling in near contempt of the confusion he was<br />
now experiencing. “UEO submarine?”<br />
“Yes, that‟s right. A... cruiser if you want to know. The UEO Reunion. Do you<br />
remember your name?”<br />
“Yes,” he replied distantly. “Ryan Callaghan... Lieutenant, UEO Navy Special Forces,<br />
first battalion, third company.”<br />
“Good,” the captain replied as he made a quick note on the padd. “I know this is a lot<br />
to take in, but I need you to concentrate,” he urged, holding out a hand reassuringly. Despite<br />
the motion, there was something irritatingly familiar in the captain‟s face that unsettled him<br />
deeply. “What‟s the last thing you remember?”<br />
Callaghan‟s mind flashed a hundred different images before he winced and held his<br />
side instinctively. He didn‟t know why – only that he recalled the sudden shock of pain, the<br />
smell of IMR, fire and the sounds of screaming. He choked on the vivid, fractured image, and<br />
looked at the man in front of him pleadingly. “I don‟t know,”<br />
“Try!” he whispered in a half hiss.<br />
“I was in combat, against the Alliance. It was... an island. The Philippines?”<br />
“That‟s right. You‟re doing very well, Lieutenant. Tell me more...”<br />
Callaghan felt faint as he tried to push the vague memory in to a clear image, but the<br />
harder he tried, the more his head started to spin. Something felt very wrong. Images and<br />
feelings that weren‟t his own – some far off land, laid waste by decades of war, and the cold<br />
soul-less eyes of a man whose name was...<br />
The pain that flared and seized the insides of his skull was intense, every ray of light<br />
searing like fire against his eyes. Tears rolled down Callaghan‟s face as he looked up at a<br />
woman with long, blonde hair, emerging from that blaze gracefully with a reaching hand. A<br />
name lashed itself to his tongue, inescapably familiar and warm. Artful.<br />
“Sanaa.”<br />
...Anne Ballard frowned and shook her head as she rolled Callaghan on to his back,<br />
his eyes flickering and lolling back in their sockets. She was shocked when she put her hand<br />
to his neck and felt the rapid, erratic pulse. “Jesus,” she said. “He‟s having a seizure.”<br />
“Can‟t you do anything?” the captain behind her asked coldly.<br />
“Get the hell out of my way!” the Doctor bellowed as she unclipped her PAL from her<br />
tunic. “This is Ballard, I need a medical team to isolation, now!”<br />
Samuel Ezard watched in silence on the monitors of the darkened command<br />
chamber, all the while only too aware of the brick-jawed giant of a thug standing just a few<br />
feet behind him, his arms folded high on his chest.<br />
- 205 -
“If this is your idea of „progress‟, Samuel, then you will find me eminently<br />
disappointed,” said the thug in a thick, guttural cant. Raoul Saed. That was his name. It was<br />
the only name that Ezard knew amongst the group of three South African observers standing<br />
in his command centre, and he was the only one that had cared to introduce himself.<br />
Captain Ezard understood and respected that, at least. Within their very particular line of<br />
service, a name was nothing less than a liability and at most the beginning to an indelible<br />
trail of breadcrumbs that could lead the curious to any number of facts or discoveries that<br />
were never intended for their eyes.<br />
Saed had to be given a measure of credit, as he had learned of Ezard‟s name<br />
without even having to ask. The only recourse for him after that was to play the part of the<br />
nonchalant host, being completely unwilling to give Saed just the hint of success. For much<br />
of the last two years, Ezard had quietly hoped that Mbotmi Ngunntini‟s red militia would have<br />
been wiped out by their Nycarian captives after Section Seven had taken the precise and<br />
deliberate measure of leaking information to the test subjects. It had been just enough for<br />
the hapless patients to lead a revolt against their captors and in the ensuing chaos, Ezard<br />
and his colleagues simply melted away in to the shadows never to be seen again. The<br />
Nycarians remained none the wiser, of course, but there were always aspects of a plan that<br />
never quite unfolded as expected. Raoul Saed was just one of those things, because Saed<br />
was not a member of Ngunntini‟s militia – he was a Nycarian.<br />
“Our results are more than that second-rate warlord could have hoped for should he<br />
have had an entire decade to achieve the same,” Ezard retorted. “We got rid of him while<br />
your so-called Government deluded themselves in to an understanding they had won some<br />
kind of victory. Frankly, Saed, I‟m surprised you seem to have forgotten that.”<br />
The tall Nycarian narrowed his eyes for a moment before looking back up at the<br />
screen, and he man who lay sprawled on the floor, tended to by the Section Seven medics.<br />
“Who is he?”<br />
“Someone of incidental consequence who needed guidance,” Ezard mused<br />
carelessly, stroking his stubbled chin. “Selective memory suppression is simple enough, but<br />
the treatments are complicated by previous genetic therapy. Engrammatic association is<br />
difficult when it is linked directly to the memories you‟re trying to suppress, but there are<br />
alternatives.”<br />
“What does any of this have to do with your program?” Saed queried him, fidgeting<br />
impatiently.<br />
Ezard turned, matching the man‟s gaze and appearing completely undaunted by his<br />
virtually intimidating gait. “Knowledge of the human brain, and how it processes and stores<br />
information is critical when dealing with genetic modification,” he said. “That same<br />
knowledge base is applicable to this kind of rehabilitation. You would be surprised how many<br />
uses it has.”<br />
“A sideshow, nothing more,” Saed sneered. “Playing with the mind something even a<br />
capable psychologist can do. You‟ve had two years.”<br />
“Yes, I have,” Ezard agreed, turning back to the monitor.<br />
A few moments passed before a man wearing a coat entered the room, a slate<br />
tucked neatly under his arm as he walked past the Nycarian officers and stopped short of<br />
Ezard. The captain that had tended quietly to Callaghan for much of the preceding six<br />
months paid the visitors no heed as he handed the slate over to Ezard. “I‟ve completed my<br />
study,” he said simply. “Without the complete introduction of the stage seven strain, the<br />
Lieutenant‟s condition will remain unworkable.”<br />
“Based on the sample introduction?”<br />
The captain shrugged. “Samples aren‟t sufficient. There was improvement in neural<br />
stability with the introduction of those controls, of course, but without a sufficient dosage, the<br />
immune system will eventually destroy the strain.”<br />
Ezard nodded. This had been Ballard‟s theory as well. The first six generations of<br />
augmentation brought the neural pathways of the patient dangerously close to a state of<br />
complete depolarization. Generational decay would set in with only five of the catalysts, and<br />
it was that barrier that had prevented Ballard‟s predecessor, Thecus van der Weer, from<br />
- 206 -
ever continuing his work further. Nearly 90% of the Nycarus test subjects were generation<br />
five patients, and while most of them survived, the instability of that gene would eventually<br />
work its way through successive generations of procreation to a point where they would<br />
simply die out. It was a flawed, yet beautiful evolution of a species that suited Ezard‟s goals<br />
perfectly. Only a handful of patients – including Callaghan – had survived the introduction of<br />
a sixth catalyst, and that was solely thanks to the one result: One statistical anomaly that<br />
had developed more by chance than design, allowing a single test to survive, adapt to and<br />
become that elusive seventh generation, representing the very pinnacle of their<br />
achievements to that day. Patient One: Sanaa Vuender-Weist-Hezuin.<br />
“And what if you introduced the endgame?” Ezard asked quietly.<br />
“Then the fifth and sixth sequences would stabilize, just as they did in Patient One. In<br />
effect sir, it‟s our missing link.”<br />
Ezard smiled. A missing link, at the very end of a chain. Perfect.<br />
“Saed,” he said confidently. “I think it‟s time for you to meet our results.”<br />
The five of them walked for some time down the corridors of the Proteus in silence,<br />
Ezard and his captain saying little as they past several vast vaults of cryogenic storage tanks<br />
that went unexplained, and simply assumed. The <strong>DSV</strong> was a ship nearly a thousand feet<br />
long, and Raoul Saed and his companions had little idea just how many of those storage<br />
facilities could have existed within the labyrinth of its bulk. Hundreds, thousands, or perhaps<br />
even tens of thousands, hidden in every possible hold, void and laboratory of the ship like an<br />
over-extended morgue. Proteus was a floating necropolis and an atrocity, of that Ezard had<br />
very little question, but it was something he was comfortable to live with considering the<br />
grand and unimaginable implications of all that it had achieved.<br />
Proteus was more than a tomb – it was a monument.<br />
Marines, scientists and medical officers stepped aside as they walked line abreast<br />
down the central corridor of C-Deck directly to the forward laboratories. As they moved,<br />
Ezard signalled several of the troops to fall in behind them, eventually amassing nearly a<br />
dozen of the black-clad soldiers before stopping at the cross junction of the science wing.<br />
Ezard ushered the troops forward and in to the room before following them in.<br />
The officers paused inside the threshold, the Nycarians taking several seconds to<br />
gaze around the vast chamber that, by design, been a missile room. Hundreds of monitors,<br />
desks, glass-walled labs and computers lined the decks above and below them – the centre<br />
dominated by a large command centre that was ringed with consoles, command stations and<br />
a single, large desk. Saed was unmoved by this, although it was not the reason Ezard had<br />
brought them there.<br />
“Do it,” he instructed the captain beside him simply, and then led the three Nycarians<br />
across the catwalk to the port wing. The entire room started to get very loud.<br />
Obediently, the captain issued his orders to the marines, and the soldiers went to<br />
work – gathering disks, files and data slates. They hadn‟t been working long when one of the<br />
senior scientists burst out of his office and demanded an explanation. He was very quickly<br />
taken aside, and scientists could do little as their work was first confiscated, and their<br />
systems destroyed.<br />
...Sanaa sat with her eyes closed at the centre of the room, unmoving even as the<br />
door burst open and Samuel Ezard strode in. Saed was only a few paces behind him, his<br />
eyes firmly locked on the girl as his bulky frame slipped through the door way.<br />
“This is her?” he asked.<br />
Ezard nodded. “She is the only example of a seventh generation patient,” he<br />
confirmed.<br />
Saed smiled, but the grin was cruel and calculating. Sanaa stood casually, taking the<br />
time to straighten her jumpsuit as she turned on the ball of her foot and eyed the massive<br />
Nycarian unimpressively. Her eyes bore in to him with a fire that managed to unsettle Saed,<br />
and he took a step forward. Sanaa didn‟t blink, simply continuing to watch him as he<br />
- 207 -
approached and slowly started to circle. The girl didn‟t even register Ezard as her eyes<br />
shifted with the visitor and slowly followed his path.<br />
“You‟re different,” she said calmly. “You think you‟re like me, but you‟re not.”<br />
“Am I supposed to be afraid, little girl?” Saed growled.<br />
“You fear what you don‟t understand, just like them,” she continued. “But no, you<br />
don‟t fear me. I know you... You‟re one of the Fives.”<br />
Saed looked at Ezard. “You told her about me.”<br />
“No, I did not,” he said. “She is intuitive, nothing more.”<br />
Sanaa smiled at Ezard. “But I am something more.”<br />
Ezard stepped forward, his hands clasped behind his back and slowly smiled in<br />
return. “Yes, you are.”<br />
Doctor Ballard came ahead of the gurney upon which lay Ryan Callaghan, tended to<br />
by several corpsman. They all up short of the lab in shock to find the captain standing at the<br />
guard rail, watching the marines dismantled the room, computer by computer, and console<br />
by console. Ballard and her team gaped at the scene, disbelieving of the brutality at which<br />
the soldiers went about the task and glowered at the man before her. “What the hell is going<br />
on!?”<br />
The nameless captain turned in surprise, checking over his shoulder again before<br />
hurrying over to meet her. “Anne, you need to get out of here,” he whispered.<br />
“What? What are you talking about! What are they doing!?”<br />
“Endgame,” he glared at her before looking past at the gurney, and the unconscious<br />
Lieutenant. “Get them out of here. All of them.”<br />
“Endgame?” she repeated. “What is that supposed to...”<br />
The captain‟s face, pale, told her everything she needed to know. Ballard spun on<br />
her heel, her coat tails flying out behind her and was already hissing at the corpsman to<br />
move. “Launch bay, now.”<br />
“Captain, this is Ezard,” hissed the PAL from the man‟s belt as he watched them<br />
leave. He unclipped it, eyeing the soldiers as they loaded up palettes of gear as others<br />
herded the science staff in to one of the side officers.<br />
“Go ahead.”<br />
“Secure the bridge, I will meet you there.”<br />
He took a sharp breath at the order and was already on his way back out the door<br />
when he replied. “Understood.”<br />
...Ezard returned to the main command centre with Saed close by his side. Looking<br />
around the chamber, he called over a squad of marines.<br />
“Progress, Sergeant?”<br />
“Most records have been accounted for,” the soldier replied. “We have the science<br />
staff in Doctor Gelding‟s office... they‟re refusing to cooperate.”<br />
Ezard nodded. “No matter. We have what we came for.”<br />
The two other Nycarian militiamen appeared from the corridor a moment later, the girl<br />
walking quietly between them – offering no resistance as she kept good pace, her hands<br />
clasped gently in front of her. Sanaa gazed around the command centre in fascination,<br />
seemingly oblivious to the rampant dismantlement occurring around it. The sergeant was<br />
astonished by this, his gaze drifting past Ezard for a moment to lock eyes with the girl.<br />
“...Is there a problem, sergeant?” Ezard asked.<br />
“No sir.”<br />
“Good. Take these men to Cryo N-2. They will assist you once you arrive.”<br />
The marine nervously looked up at the two Nycarians, and then back at the<br />
unassuming woman between them who stared straight back at him intensely, her eyes<br />
studying every facet of him as she cocked her head. “Yes sir.”<br />
Ezard and Saed watched as Patient One and the two Nycarians were escorted away<br />
by the marine, waiting until they had left the command wing before making their own way<br />
over to the office that was being guarded by half a dozen of the sergeant‟s troops. One of<br />
- 208 -
the doctors, Gelding, Ezard assumed, stepped out of the huddled group and curled his lip.<br />
“Ezard, what‟s the meaning of this?”<br />
“Where is Doctor Ballard?” he asked, ignoring the question.<br />
Gelding frowned. “What? We haven‟t seen her in hours. What‟s going on? Why have<br />
you confiscated our work?”<br />
Ezard raised an eyebrow before leaning over to a corporal, eyeing him and the<br />
private standing adjacent. “Find her,” he instructed.<br />
The marines disappeared promptly before Ezard, too, left the command centre.<br />
Outside, a second squad of soldiers – this time led by one of his own officers – were on their<br />
way in. He stopped the lieutenant sharply. His instruction was cold, and simple.<br />
“No evidence.”<br />
Ezard and Saed continued on to the bridge without second thought, the sounds of<br />
gunfire from the lab behind them - short, perhaps no more than a dozen rounds - carried no<br />
further than the cross junction. Only silence followed them.<br />
...The dart-like speeder accelerated away from the Proteus quickly, its engines<br />
roaring up from idle to a high pitched whine as it shot away in to the darkness. The craft ran<br />
without lights, its slippery, organic form melting in to the deep fog of the South Atlantic.<br />
Where it was headed, most of its occupants had no idea, and they would never know before<br />
it had changed pilots at least three times, rendezvoused at five different waypoints, and been<br />
diverted to a UEO carrier off the coast of South America, nearly sixteen hundred miles away.<br />
None of the twenty two people on board had knowledge of what was then transpiring<br />
in their wake, although more than a few of the senior members of that crew had several, very<br />
dark ideas.<br />
Anne Ballard was one of them, sitting silently next to a bed that had been hastily<br />
assembled from a stowage bench in the speeder‟s passenger compartment. Ryan Callaghan<br />
lay restlessly in front of her, sweat beading on his brow as his eyes darted to and fro behind<br />
closed lids. The corpsman opposite her looked concerned as he continued to run tests and<br />
diagnoses and simply gave her an unknowing shrug. Ballard shook her head and slipped a<br />
notebook from her rucksack, thumbing through a few pages before jotting down notes. The<br />
human mind was a robust and amazing thing, capable of operations and functions that<br />
defied common comprehension.<br />
After five years of working with that extraordinary organ in ways that would have<br />
appalled the science community, Ballard knew more about it than anyone else, and still they<br />
had barely scratched the surface of what could be achieved. For one Samuel Ezard, Doctor<br />
Ballard retained a special kind of loathing. For all Ballard had done to care for the Nycarus<br />
patients, Ezard been callously professional during the most unspeakable acts. Certainly she<br />
was not blameless in the affair, and had agreed to things that made her own stomach turn;<br />
monstrous, inhuman atrocities that would wake her in a cold sweat for the rest of her life.<br />
What troubled Ballard is that she doubted Ezard felt anything at all – and that he never<br />
would.<br />
He recalled the cold, lifeless brilliance in his grey eyes the first time he had<br />
admonished her on the drive for results, stressing in his orders the need to embrace<br />
techniques and methods whose only virtue was that of plausible deniability. Some of the<br />
abominations that had come from those methods didn‟t seem to even register to the man as<br />
he issued casual passing grades to those who, in Ballard‟s opinion, were making „promising‟<br />
recoveries and ordered them separated those whose only consolation was that it would all<br />
end soon.<br />
...Although not soon enough. These were the ones who truly died painfully – devoid<br />
of comfort or even simple and decent company as the captain‟s unnamed men in black<br />
uniforms and white coats continued to perform „augmentations‟ that made Ballard‟s own staff<br />
weep in the middle of the night. What happened to them after they were moved to that wing<br />
of the operation, she never found out.<br />
There was some light to this story, at least. There were many who had survived and<br />
adapted well to those earlier phases of the program, those „Nycarians‟, as they were<br />
- 209 -
dubbed, being spared the traumas and trials of the genetic modification regime‟s final<br />
stages. The awful truth of their existence aside, they would achieve great things in their time,<br />
and had given Ballard an unparalleled insight in to the human psyche that would continue to<br />
serve the UEO, in its own, very particular way for years to come. Perhaps more importantly,<br />
it was their early sacrifices that meant, in spite of the horrors, many thousands more<br />
Nycarians – perhaps even tens of thousands - had eventually returned home.<br />
What Ezard had gone to South Africa to achieve five years before she was for the<br />
most part unsure, but one thing seemed certain: that the Nycarians would change the course<br />
of history, and Ballard felt an ugly, foreboding sense of inevitability that the change would<br />
come at serious cost to the moral fabric of the world‟s great powers. For her part, knowing<br />
what it had cost, Ballard hoped never to see it.<br />
She wouldn‟t. For whatever wrongs and crimes she had committed, Anne Ballard<br />
would be remembered and celebrated as one of the greatest neuro-geneticists that the UEO,<br />
or the world, had ever seen – her most public and crowning achievement was destined to<br />
take on an irony that most of the world would never be aware. Just four short months from<br />
that day, the UEO authorized the development of their next generation of Deep<br />
Submergence Vehicles – a program within which Ballard would hold the greatest of<br />
influence, ensuring a legacy that would live on long after she was gone.<br />
On September 15 th , 2040, two months before her greatest work was finished, Doctor<br />
Anne Ballard died of an incurable neurological disorder that had steadily shut down the<br />
synapses of her cerebral cortex over the long, hard course of the last fifteen years. The final<br />
days were painful before she could endure no more, and slipped in to a coma from which<br />
she would never wake.<br />
...That Ballard would achiever at least one more great work even after she died, was<br />
perhaps the most ironic legacy of all.<br />
Samuel Ezard walked on to the bridge of the Proteus just as its command staff<br />
tended to the final tasks of securing its vital systems. Soon, her usefulness at an end, the<br />
great submarine would be consigned permanently to time and the abyssal plains of the<br />
African coast. It seemed a colossal waste of resources that a vessel of such size and power<br />
could no longer serve in the role for which her predecessors had been designed. The void<br />
left by sea<strong>Quest</strong>‟s disappearance certainly would have given Proteus an undeniable appeal<br />
with the navy, but Ezard‟s orders were clear enough.<br />
There could be no evidence.<br />
The ship‟s captain, still wearing his coat, sat silently in the command chair locking<br />
down what was left of the submarine‟s systems, encoding its log data and erasing that which<br />
was too sensitive to leave.<br />
Ezard and Saed stood silently, watching as the bridge crew continued their hurried<br />
work as one by one, the main command systems displays winked out. “The reactor safeties<br />
have been engaged,” the captain said, not turning from his work. “The ship will be locked<br />
down within the next ten minutes.”<br />
“What are you doing?” Saed asked Ezard curiously as he watched the Section Seven<br />
staff do their work.<br />
Ezard glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “This ship was designed to become<br />
an annex for our work,” he admitted. “A safeguard.”<br />
“I would have destroyed it,” Saed returned.<br />
“And destroy everything we‟ve achieved?” Ezard looked at him in surprise. “The UEO<br />
doesn‟t even know that this ship exists, and that which doesn‟t exist cannot easily be found.”<br />
“All the same, I will ensure it is monitored,” Saed growled. “We cannot afford the<br />
daughter of Neureon to fall in to their hands.”<br />
Ezard hesitated for a moment as if thinking over another possibility, and then nodded<br />
his agreement. “Very well.”<br />
Ezard stepped forward to do a small and brief circuit around the bridge‟s upper<br />
command deck, pausing to look around the room almost fondly. “Have we located Doctor<br />
Ballard?” he asked idly.<br />
- 210 -
The captain looked up from the command chair, his hand pausing over the console.<br />
“She has been evacuated with the rest of our critical staff,” he admitted. “They should be<br />
clear of the border in the few minutes.”<br />
This seemed to answer Ezard‟s question as he nodded, and started to walk slowly for<br />
the clamshell doors. Saed continued to stare at the captain for several moments longer<br />
before he, too, fell in behind Ezard. The Section Seven duty officers had finished their own<br />
work, with the last of them disappearing in to the hall.<br />
“I‟ll join you as soon as I‟m done,” the captain said.<br />
Ezard broke stride as he reached the aft end of the command deck, his gait slumping<br />
to that of a very distinct realization. Saed watched as Ezard‟s hand slipped to his waist and<br />
withdrew the 9mm service pistol from its holster to level it at the back of the captain‟s chair.<br />
The man said nothing, nor did he even blink as his gloved hand squeezed the trigger.<br />
The only kindness in the act was that the captain never saw the round coming. The<br />
head rest of the command chair offered little protection as the bullet smashed through his<br />
skull and demolished his spinal column before exiting between his eyes. The head slumped<br />
forward, his hand falling loosely from the console to hang limply down the side of the chair.<br />
Saed looked at Ezard, a pall of smoke still rising from the barrel of the pistol, and<br />
then back at the corpse in the centre chair. “Was that necessary?”<br />
“He made a choice,” Ezard said simply as he holstered the weapon. “And he knew<br />
the cost.”<br />
His PAL chirped noisily from his belt, and he unclipped it before thumbing the<br />
receiver. “Go ahead.”<br />
„Captain, the last of our assets are aboard. Proteus is secure and we are ready to<br />
depart.‟<br />
“Very good, ensign. I‟ll meet you shortly. Prepare to clear moorings as soon as we<br />
are aboard.”<br />
„Understood, sir.‟<br />
Ezard replaced the communicator on his belt and he looked around the bridge for<br />
one final time as something deep within the ship‟s bowels started to groan. His stomach felt<br />
the gradual but unmistakeable slide as the ship began its final plunge. There was no more<br />
time, and he turned back to Saed. “Our work here is done.”<br />
“That‟s it?” the Nycarian asked.<br />
Ezard nodded. “For now, it‟s finished.”<br />
UEO Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong>-8200, the Polynesian Trench. April 16 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
Several hours had past hours since the Aquarius parted company with the<br />
Commonwealth in the shallower waters of the shoals surrounding French Polynesia. The<br />
great <strong>DSV</strong> now ploughed steadily through the deeper parts of the western trench that led<br />
deeper within Alliance waters – well beyond the range of UEO patrols and monitoring.<br />
Now the ship was in its element, silently manoeuvring her way through the trench at<br />
a modest speed of one hundred and ten knots, at depth of almost twenty two thousand feet.<br />
Precious few vessels could reach such a depth, let alone comfortably, and Aquarius could<br />
stay down there for months without ever coming up. She was untouchable.<br />
And that was entirely the point.<br />
Lauren Hornsby looked serene as she looked out on to the infinite black before her,<br />
the six-inch-thick transparent alloys of the observation lounge‟s windows giving her a frontrow<br />
seat to the world outside, not that there was much to see. Aquarius‟s flood lights,<br />
somewhere on the hull behind her, did little more than cast blue shadows on the fog ahead<br />
of the ship, peering just far enough in to the darkness to allow the small, swirling specs of<br />
plankton and sediment to come in to view before being spiralled in to the oblivion of the<br />
- 211 -
submarine‟s massive bow wake. It was a spectacular, if surreal, show as the hundreds of<br />
specs of reflective dust zipped past so quickly that they appeared like streaks of light.<br />
Staring in to the immeasurable darkness, those small, brief and brilliant dots of light provided<br />
the only measure of Aquarius‟s true speed for lack of any other visual reference.<br />
The room was deathly silent. This far forward, just meters from the ship‟s prow, the<br />
characteristic, subtle and soothing hum of the ship‟s engines nearly half a kilometre behind<br />
her couldn‟t be felt through the deck. The thirty bulkheads between her and engineering that<br />
were lined in anechoic tiles and acoustic baffling made that impossible. Even at this speed,<br />
the bioskin was outwardly making the ship as silent as the proverbial grave. Every inch of<br />
the skin was covered in tens of thousands of perfectly-formed microscopic nodules that<br />
ripped the water away in patterns of small vortices, allowing Aquarius to slip through the<br />
water with all the ease of a white pointer. That was hardly surprising considering that was<br />
exactly why the skin had been engineered, although even this knowledge didn‟t do anything<br />
to make the experience less surreal.<br />
The silent opening of the door then came relatively as loudly as a torpedo hitting the<br />
bulkhead in front of her. Hornsby had no concept of how long she‟d been standing there, the<br />
cup of tea in her hand being at least the third refill of the morning as she slowly stepped back<br />
at sight of the reflection in the window.<br />
Admiral Mark Ainsley didn‟t look so rested; his eyes long and drawn, despite the twoday-old<br />
stubble having disappeared from his chin. His uniform was fresh at least, but his<br />
shoulders – normally high and proud – were slumped and defeated. Hornsby didn‟t<br />
especially blame him – she had been through the experience nine months before when<br />
she‟d made the same decision, and hadn‟t gotten more than six hours in three days.<br />
Of course, Hornsby had only herself to worry about and Ainsley had a family.<br />
“Good morning,” she said quietly, pouring out a second mug from the teapot on the<br />
bench.<br />
The Admiral walked up to the window quietly, staring out at the fog before taking the<br />
offered mug from Hornsby. “Have you spoken to him?” she asked.<br />
A lopsided, stubborn smile crept on to Ainsley‟s face. It had been something he had<br />
avoided since he‟d learned what Aquarius had been doing, and in truth, he wasn‟t sure he<br />
wanted to know Thomas Parker‟s reasons. “Lauren, there isn‟t much to say to him.”<br />
That was a lie, of course, but the captain of the Aquarius knew better than to call him<br />
on it. Sooner or later, Ainsley would have to face up to Parker, it was simply a matter of time<br />
and opportunity. What bothered Hornsby was that she knew how much he had invested of<br />
himself, emotionally, in to that question and she was partly responsible.<br />
“Mark, I‟m sorry,” she said. “If I had known, then he would never have come with us.”<br />
The man‟s eyes narrowed. “So instead, you dragged them along without telling them<br />
what you were doing? Is that it?”<br />
Hornsby was hurt by that suggestion. It was certainly true that Intelligence had<br />
withheld a vast amount of information from her, but she had never intended – nor tried – to<br />
deceive her crew of what they were out to achieve. “Of course not,” she replied softly.<br />
“Everyone on this ship made a decision. They knew full well what they were agreeing to do.<br />
None of us want to see what happened to San Diego again, Mark. Most of this crew had<br />
family there, and if they didn‟t... they most certainly knew someone who did. Including Tom.”<br />
“Mackenzie...” muttered Ainsley, vividly recalling how the commander of the Ghosts,<br />
and now Wing Commander of the entire sea wing, had lost his wife and child when the<br />
Alliance had dropped orbital weapons on the city two years prior.<br />
It had been the darkest day of the war without exception, threatening to push the<br />
conflict over the edge in to an abyss from which there could have been no return. Back then,<br />
Aquarius had called San Diego her home port, and it had been a burden that the crew had<br />
carried with them ever since. Secretary-General Bridger had been a moderate, bringing a<br />
balanced, realist‟s hand to a dispute that would have seen Australia reduced to ash. It was<br />
not a virtue that his successor James Cathgate shared.<br />
“Don‟t judge him too harshly, Mark,” pleaded Hornsby. “You made the same decision<br />
he did.”<br />
- 212 -
He looked at her warily. “...That doesn‟t mean I need to like it.”<br />
The captain smiled, nursing her mug with both hands as she paced slowly around the<br />
great, ornamental wooden ship‟s wheel that was mounted to a glass frame at the centre of<br />
the room. Ainsley had noted on his way in how the decoration had been notched carefully<br />
with hundreds, if not thousands of names, each burned intricately and with loving care in to<br />
the spoked handles that ringed its outer circumference. He didn‟t know who they belonged<br />
to, and there was no real pattern to their inlay.<br />
“I‟m surprised Banick isn‟t here,” Hornsby remarked, quickly changing tack.<br />
Ainsley raised an eyebrow, sipping his tea. “I can‟t say I‟m surprised at all,” he<br />
countered.<br />
Hornsby‟s face turned to a peculiar, unreadable smile. “Somehow I expected him to<br />
come around, as if he were... I don‟t know... Looking for an excuse?”<br />
Now it was his turn to smile. “I think I‟m the one who was looking for an excuse,<br />
Lauren. James Banick is one of the finest first officers I‟ve ever had, and he will make an<br />
even better captain given enough time. I couldn‟t ask him to throw his career away.”<br />
“Callaghan didn‟t seem to have the same problem,” Hornsby returned. “What did you<br />
say to him?”<br />
“The truth,” Ainsley shrugged. “Banick needs stability in his life... But Ryan needs<br />
answers a lot more. All I asked him to do was advise Fleet Command and then report it to<br />
Banick. He did the rest by himself.”<br />
~<br />
Stripped to the waist, wearing only her undershirt, Sarah Cunningham sat with her<br />
left boot hiked up on the bench opposite her, massaging the aching tendons beneath her<br />
knee with a firm hand as she watched the screen hanging from the wall intently. Sam Rogers<br />
was somewhere behind her rattling about in his temporary locker none the wiser.<br />
Fleet Admiral Jack Riley was standing behind a lectern at UEO headquarters, his<br />
well-cut and groomed figure betrayed by a particular tiredness in his eyes that Cunningham<br />
had recognised immediately. Despite that, the man stood firmly and proudly as he set his<br />
notes out upon the dais and eyed the reporters off-screen.<br />
“...Sam,” she called, her eyes not breaking from the monitor. “You should really see<br />
this.”<br />
Riley cleared his throat, making a light-hearted observation to another journalist with<br />
a broad, confident smile before looking back over the unseen crowd. “Good morning, and<br />
thank you all for coming. I realise this is short notice, but I‟ll endeavour to keep this brief. I<br />
will spend a few moments discussing the situation, and will then take questions.”<br />
Rogers ran his hands through his hair as he reached for his uniform shirt, frowning<br />
with a sneer. “You know what he‟s going to say,” Rogers snapped. “...Something about<br />
„meeting objectives‟ and paying token tributes to the grunts. Turn it off.”<br />
Cunningham glared at him silently before turning back to the monitor.<br />
...Riley had taken a moment to compose himself, sniffing the air as he read and then<br />
re-read the first few lines of his notes, and then pushed his glasses back on to the bridge of<br />
his nose. “Yesterday evening at a combined sitting of the UEO Joint Chiefs of Staff, a review<br />
of the current and ongoing operations of the navy highlighted several areas of strategic<br />
policy that the United Earth Oceans Security Council believes require adjustment. Of the<br />
policies reviewed, one of the most critical has been the previous defensive postures that<br />
were adopted by the Joint Chiefs under my direction in the staged withdrawal of combat<br />
areas in the far-west, and the central Pacific basin.”<br />
Riley paused again. “That policy was one that I took personal responsibility for as the<br />
Commander-in-Chief of the United Earth Oceans Pacific Fleet, and upon review of this<br />
decision, it has been found that of several possible alternatives, my choice to withdraw from<br />
the Hawaiian Islands on the date of May sixth, two thousand and forty one, was contrary and<br />
- 213 -
undermining to the progressive execution of this conflict, to the ends of a resolution that will<br />
see the continued maintenance of UEO peacekeeping operations across the globe.”<br />
Cunningham sighed as she realised what was happening, and Rogers uttered a<br />
silent curse under his breath as Riley paused once again amid the din of snapping cameras.<br />
“To be clear,” Riley reiterated, “As the commanding officer of the combined UEO<br />
military, any oversight or failure to anticipate the changing needs and nature of this conflict<br />
rests with me, and after direct, meaningful and courteous consultation with the Secretary-<br />
General, I have decided that it is inappropriate for me to continue to serve in my present<br />
role, as Commander in Chief of the United Earth Oceans Navy.”<br />
The flash and click of cameras surged at that, and Cunningham felt her stomach turn.<br />
“Commensurate with this decision, and having advised the offices of the Joint Chiefs<br />
of Staff, Naval Intelligence and our allied partners in the North Pacific Confederation and<br />
North Sea Confederation, I have tendered my resignation from all active duties to the Office<br />
of the Secretary-General, effective immediately.”<br />
“I would just like to say,” Riley said, removing his glasses and addressing the crowd<br />
more directly, “The United Earth Oceans Organization represents and upholds the best of<br />
human ideals and rights of expression, and it is has been with great belief and trust in that<br />
charter that I have served with equally great pride... to the very best of my ability.”<br />
“I leave this post secure in the knowledge that we are defended, selflessly and most<br />
capably, by the finest group of servicemen in the world, who even now lay down their lives in<br />
defence of our continued freedoms of their own volition, for wherever we may hail as home,<br />
and for the betterment of all. I would ask only that you continue to support them as they<br />
continue in their great task, and seek to bring about the next, peaceful chapter in this<br />
organization‟s history. Thank you. I will now take your questions.”<br />
Predictably, the floor erupted, and Riley surveyed the crowed before pointing at one<br />
of the nearer rows. “Anthony?”<br />
“Anthony Wilder, WNN... Admiral, was this your decision?”<br />
Riley nodded. “The decision was made after consultation with the Secretary-General,<br />
and it was mutually recognised to be the most appropriate outcome, yes.”<br />
Riley pointed at another.<br />
“Sir, having worked with him as Chief of Staff of the NSC fleet, would you<br />
characterize your relationship with Secretary-General Cathgate as „strained‟ since he took<br />
office?”<br />
Riley smiled. “Let me just say as a general observation - No post of high martial<br />
office can effectively serve an administration without a respect for its position and I have<br />
nothing but respect for the office of the Secretary-General and any person who should hold<br />
that office.” Riley looked at another reporter. “Yes?”<br />
“Admiral, Leah Scott from Williams-Leong Securities. Recent UEO fleet movements<br />
have suggested that the General Staff might have implemented a change in theatre<br />
strategy... Has this affected the timing of this decision?”<br />
The Admiral handled that question carefully, smiling nonchalantly and shrugging<br />
gently. “Miss Scott, you of all people in this room should know that as a policy, I do not<br />
comment on any questions relating to military strategy. Next question.”<br />
Cunningham slumped forward in the chair. “Fuck.”<br />
“That son of a bitch burned him,” muttered Rogers icily.<br />
Cunningham removed her boot from the desk and got up to turn the screen off with a<br />
slap of her hand and then slumped against the bulkhead. “Wouldn‟t be the first time<br />
Cathgate‟s fucked someone over for his own hide.”<br />
She said it coldly, remembering well the fate of the <strong>Atlantis</strong>, and what that had meant<br />
for then-Captain Ainsley. It had effectively ended his career, and this was no different.<br />
Publically, Riley had been permitted to say anything he liked – but privately, she knew it<br />
would have been a very different story.<br />
Rogers and Cunningham continued to stand in silence for a few moments longer<br />
before Sarah finally pulled off her shirt and reached in to her pack for a fresh one. Rogers<br />
- 214 -
kicked one of the lockers with his boot before throwing the rest of his gear inside and<br />
shutting it with a rueful sigh.<br />
Both pilots turned when Commander Roberts rounded the corner just a few seconds<br />
behind the sound of her footsteps clicking across the tiles of the ante room. The Rapier<br />
squadron leader eyed them both quickly before looking around the otherwise empty locker<br />
room. “Stones, Birds, briefing room in five minutes. Roderick wants a word.”<br />
Ed Richards walked the length of the D-deck port access corridor alone, the few<br />
members of the <strong>DSV</strong>‟s ground staff he passed paying him little attention as they hustled to<br />
assignments elsewhere in the sprawling maze of the ship‟s extensive EVA decks. Every now<br />
and then, an officer would catch his gaze through the corner of their eye, offering curt nods<br />
and the occasional salute with his passage.<br />
He returned their tips casually as he neared the cross catwalk leading to the ship‟s<br />
main flight operations command centre. Looking out the viewports of the bridge-like cross<br />
corridor, he could see the hangar decks spread out far below the suspended gantry catwalks<br />
where dozens of plane crews and maintenance staff continued to marshal fighters, bombers<br />
and shuttles to and from the flight line.<br />
It was with some curiosity that he noted the strange mix of tail pennants that were<br />
being lined up behind the drop shafts. Rapier, Dark Angel and Ghost call numbers all sat<br />
side by side, with Roberts and Coyle‟s fighters at the head of the respective formations. If<br />
Roderick were planning mixed sorties as a way of encouraging integration, then he wouldn‟t<br />
be surprised.<br />
Of course, he thought with a smile, it would be a hard sell with Gavin Mackenzie who<br />
would argue that his own pilots were being put at a disadvantage with their stealthy Raptor<br />
IIIs being forced to operate alongside the comparatively noisy Mark IIs in joint efforts. This in<br />
turn led him to another thought as it occurred to him that the move might have been a<br />
deliberate measure for Roderick to pitch her case on the rapid delivery of more of the Mark<br />
IIIs. The longer they were forced to wait, the longer the entire sea wing would be put at risk.<br />
Richards smiled as he ran the inevitable argument between Mackenzie and Roderick<br />
through his head, „like a bickering husband and wife‟, he thought with some amusement.<br />
„Whose turn is it to take the kids to school?‟<br />
In their time aboard the Ticonderoga, rumours of a relationship between Roderick<br />
and Mackenzie had at times been rampant on the mill. They shared a close friendship in a<br />
high-pressure profession, and few even stopped to think that Mackenzie had been happily<br />
married at the time. That, too, had changed with San Diego – his wife and most of his family<br />
burned in to shadows across the ground. It had put paid to the rumours, of course, but it had<br />
driven home a powerful message to the crew of Aquarius, and one that they had evidently<br />
embraced cleanly.<br />
Richards, however, had no family and those he perhaps once did care enough to find<br />
counsel in were no more interested in his problems than he was in theirs. This war had taken<br />
a dangerous turn no thanks to Section Seven, having cost everyone something, no matter<br />
how small or large, and whether they realised it or not. Everyone had problems, and they<br />
needed to learn how to deal with them. Still, this nagged at Richards - going against every<br />
facet of his training as a fighter pilot, in those revered, tightly held creeds of 'brotherhood'<br />
and camaraderie. It was a strange position of limbo, brought on in no small part due to his<br />
'condition'. Nothing they could do would help him overcome that, and that was where the<br />
notion fell apart. One way or another, he would fight his war alone, and re-enter theirs in his<br />
own way, of his own accord, when he was ready.<br />
Richards paused at the entrance to the briefing room, drawing a sharp breath as he<br />
stared down at his aching leg. Three other pilots entered the room ahead of him, giving him<br />
a quizzical glance that went unseen as he closed his eyes and tried to block out the pain in<br />
his toes... Toes that were no longer there. 'That's odd,' he thought as he registered the<br />
sensation, and came to realise that where his leg ended at the knee there was only<br />
numbness.<br />
- 215 -
Exhaling slowly and pushing the pain to the back of his mind, he stepped in to the<br />
briefing room to find the other 73 pilots of the rag-tag sea wing already in their seats. The<br />
Aquarius pilots - those that were left of the Thunderbolts, Crusaders, Widowmakers and<br />
Banshees, dominated the front rows. Richards ran his eyes over them twice to be certain he<br />
hadn't made a mistake, but moving between the sea of squadron patches, he didn't see a<br />
single member of the 97th Fighter Squadron, the Cobras, anywhere in the crowd. His heart<br />
sank with this realisation, recalling the two, lonely and canopy-less Raptor IIIs that were<br />
tucked away in a quiet corner of the hangar when he had arrived, the battered iconography<br />
of a coiled snake still visible amidst the shattered tail fins. A quick run of the numbers<br />
present, compared to the numbers of squadrons on the Aquarius flight deck painted an even<br />
more desperate picture. Of the forty eight possible members of the four squadrons, just<br />
twenty one were present. Making up the rest of the numbers behind them sat the twelve<br />
pilots of the Ghosts, with Dark Angels and Rapiers sitting uncomfortably at the rear. How<br />
Mackenzie's group had escaped without losses like those present throughout the rest of the<br />
room, he didn't know.<br />
Corinn Roderick entered the briefing room through a door that directly adjoined the<br />
Wing Commander's office at the side of the auditorium. Shuffling without much enthusiasm,<br />
the pilots all stood as she took her place behind the lectern and eyed the pilots in the front<br />
rows. Her eyes appeared to soften as she noted their numbers, just as Richards had, and<br />
she cleared her throat.<br />
"Good morning," she said simply.<br />
There was a chorus of unenthused replies which she didn't fuss over as she laid out<br />
her notes. "Be seated..."<br />
Richards still stood at the back of the room, leaning against the back wall next to the<br />
stairs as a shadow fell in beside him. He turned to find Gavin Mackenzie give him an<br />
encouraging smile with an extended hand. Despite his own, decidedly non-altruistic<br />
inclinations at that moment, he couldn't help but give a half smile to the man as he took the<br />
offered hand. He could no more begrudge Mackenzie than he could Roderick... Someone<br />
they both, incidentally, held very dear. "Good to see you, Ed."<br />
...Ticonderoga stank of death. Richards was reached the hangar deck as the last of<br />
the stores were loaded into his Raptor. All around him were the sounds of technicians<br />
turning fighters around, making them as ready as possible to dive into hell once again. He<br />
couldn‟t help but notice the amount of holding bays that were conspicuously empty. As<br />
usual, the ground crews scurried about in a state of organized chaos; preparing what little<br />
remained of the ship‟s fighter group for combat against what everyone knew was now a<br />
vastly superior enemy. He shuddered at the thought of how many pilots had already been<br />
lost, and how many more were likely to be dead by the time the Chaodai finished with them.<br />
He turned around as he heard footsteps coming across the EVA deck. Kate Stephenson<br />
stood in her flight suit with her helmet tucked under one arm, and returned his smile – albeit<br />
a forced one. Richards saw through it.<br />
“…Ed,” she began, and then faltered.<br />
“I know, Kate. Save me the water works.” He shrugged helplessly. “I feel sorrier for<br />
the Commander…” he said, referring to Mackenzie.<br />
Stephenson nodded. “Yeah. Brother-in-law.” She choked up again. Richards was a<br />
stone, and felt little. The loss had hit him hard, but he knew this wasn‟t the time to grieve. He<br />
wrapped an arm around her shoulder and felt her lean into his chest, and the tears that she<br />
had been holding back for several hours flowed. Richards just held her. He looked up as the<br />
sound of something rumbling across the gratings reached his ears. He smiled weakly as<br />
Commander Gavin Mackenzie rolled to a stop next to him and Stephenson.<br />
“Sir,” he said simply.<br />
“Ed…” Mackenzie said, looking round, like Richards had, at the empty bays of the<br />
hangar. “Good work out there. Thanks for staying alive.”<br />
Richards nodded. “Seemed to be the popular idea...”<br />
- 216 -
Mackenzie stood up from his wheelchair, and in the light, Richards realised just how<br />
gaunt his CO‟s face looked. He looked at Stephenson, still in his arms, but leaning against<br />
him only lightly now and saw the same look in her face. 'Goddamn this fucking war, he<br />
thought suddenly. Too high a price to pay. Too high a price for anyone, ever. We don‟t<br />
deserve this. Nobody deserves this. Damn Bourne, damn him to all the hells on this godforsaken<br />
earth.'<br />
He didn‟t voice a thing, but Mackenzie could read his mind. “It‟s okay, Ed,” he said.<br />
“We‟ll get through this...”<br />
Richards snapped back from his vivid recall of the darkest day of his career to find<br />
the older, harsher face of Mackenzie still staring at him. It had been just over two years since<br />
their old unit, the 111 th Fighter Squadron, the Rangers, had been all but obliterated at the<br />
Battle of Ryukyu Trench. The survivors of that squadron, and another, the Peacemakers<br />
now sat before them as the aptly-named VF-123 Ghosts. Mackenzie still bore the emotional<br />
scars of that day... it had been his squadron, and they'd lost too many friends to let the pain<br />
fade.<br />
Roderick had already been talking for several minutes, most of what she had said in<br />
opening having completely gone in one of Richards' ears, and out the other.<br />
The Captain paused for a minute, going almost completely off-brief. "I clearly can‟t<br />
speak for those of you who had already made this decision... But I'll be honest," she said<br />
distantly. "This has been one of the hardest choices I have ever had to make, and it's not<br />
one I've taken lightly, because I‟ve been struggling to find a reason for what we‟re really<br />
doing out here."<br />
For a moment, Roderick began to see other faces in the crowd, long gone, but hardly<br />
forgotten. There were a few smiles amongst those lost names, Miles, Anderson, Toussaint,<br />
but with all of them came an irrational sense of guilt. She held them closer to her heart than<br />
any other pilot under her command, having given their lives in defence of an ideal that was<br />
being steadily forgotten by the tyrants of the UEO Command. It occurred to her that it was an<br />
ideal she was now prepared to turn her back on. "We've all made sacrifices to be here, and<br />
for many of us, we may never be able to return to the lives we've left behind.”<br />
Roderick leaned on to the lectern casually, smiling back at invisibly at the absent<br />
names in the crowd. It was a disarming expression for some, most notably Mackenzie and<br />
Dustin Coyle, who felt as if they'd just instantly witnessed ten years melt from her face. "I've<br />
spent most of the last hour trying to think of something meaningful to say to you all," she<br />
admitted. "But then I remembered how it was being amongst you all about two years ago,<br />
listening to another pilot give us a spiel about how we drew strength from each other," she<br />
said lightly, her smile still carrying her thoughts. "Gabriel Hitchcock must have looked every<br />
single one us in the eye when he said it, and I still remember virtually every word. I won't<br />
insult the wisdom of his thoughts now by trying to reinterpret them, so instead I'll simply<br />
remind you."<br />
Roderick looked down briefly before unfolding a sheet of paper from inside her jacket<br />
pocket, setting it down on top of her notes before locking eyes with each of the Dark Angels.<br />
"...'I can tell you that I will be with you every step of the way through this coming battle,'"<br />
Roderick read aloud. "We‟ve been up against the best they can throw at us before, and<br />
we‟ve knocked them down each time. We‟ve learnt from our mistakes, and we‟ve mourned<br />
our losses. So all we can do today is fly as we always have and if we can do that, then we<br />
may walk away from this alive, and the world will be a better place for it."<br />
Roderick paused again, remembering the way Hitchcock had said it. "Look around at<br />
every other pilot here, and on their faces you will see no trace of fear, no nervous<br />
apprehension, but simple confidence. Their confidence comes from you, and I want you to<br />
take heart in that. They will be there to watch your backs, just as they know you will be there<br />
to watch theirs.'"<br />
Roderick held up the note and shrugged at the gathered pilots. "I remembered<br />
almost every word of that," she admitted again. "Lately I've been asking myself why I'm here,<br />
and I believe that those words have given me an answer. We aren't out here for the UEO,<br />
- 217 -
and we never were. At some point, each of us in this room have shed blood for another, be it<br />
our own or that of the enemy, and we are the lucky ones to be able to sit here now and talk<br />
about it. If you ask a dozen people in this room why they are here, then you will probably get<br />
a dozen different answers... So instead, I want you to ask yourself not why you're here, but<br />
what it is you've chosen to fight for, and on that, let me be the first to say that my answer is<br />
that it's for each of you, and every other pilot who has ever sat in those chairs, for those who<br />
never came home, and for those we left behind."<br />
Richards felt uncomfortable as he saw Roderick‟s eyes come to rest on him, but still<br />
brought himself to straighten before the unspoken inquisition.<br />
Roderick continued. “We‟re fighting a war against an enemy that is patient, deliberate<br />
and calculating, and what‟s more, we‟re losing. That ends today, but the outcome of this war<br />
should be determined by how we fight it.”<br />
~<br />
Ryan Callaghan stalked the bridge of the Aquarius <strong>DSV</strong> in silence, its officers and<br />
senior staff tending to their duties with quiet proficiency and skill. Hornsby had kept a tight<br />
ship, despite her separation from the UEO fleet, and it surprised him how everything still felt<br />
so familiar. More than that, he felt out of place and maybe even unneeded as he looked<br />
across the middle deck area to the tactical operations post manned by Lieutenant<br />
Commander Akara and his staff. Callaghan was an XO without a captain, and a weapons<br />
officer without a post, stuck in limbo.<br />
Commander Razak appeared uncomfortable with his presence on the ship‟s bridge,<br />
having said little since his arrival just a short hour before. Occasionally, Callaghan would<br />
stand near one of the bridge stations, gathering what small pieces of information he could<br />
about the ship‟s position and status, and each time he did, Razak looked as if he would<br />
explode from his chair drag him off the command deck by his collar.<br />
Callaghan had not seen either Hornsby or Ainsley since they had arrived, and from<br />
Razak‟s discomfort, neither had he. The distinct feeling of friction between Ainsley‟s ragtag<br />
entourage and the crew of the Aquarius seemed palpable – but for one of those officers at<br />
least, they could not stand it any longer.<br />
Razak signed off on an unseen report upon his side console and steadily got up,<br />
stretching once or twice with a wince before straightening his uniform. Callaghan had no<br />
idea how long the XO had been sitting in that chair, only knowing that he had not once got<br />
up from the seat in the entire time he‟d been standing on the command deck. Whether it was<br />
curiosity or the need to simply stretch his legs, the XO finally trotted down the short flight of<br />
stairs to meet Callaghan near the weapons station.<br />
At first, Razak paid him no attention as he looked straight past, his eyes coming to<br />
rest on Akara at the centre console. “We should be at the marker in the next few minutes.<br />
Any word?”<br />
The weapons chief shook his head. “Nothing yet. I‟ve had Kat send the WSKRS<br />
ahead… Knowing them, they‟re probably playing it safe until they know it‟s clear.”<br />
“Keep me updated,” Razak said, his eyes shifting to Callaghan. “Eerie, isn‟t it,<br />
Commander Callaghan?”<br />
Ryan looked across at Aquarius‟ XO, doing his best to repress his surprise. “I‟m<br />
sorry?”<br />
“No one expects this to be easy - Being on this bridge,” Razak looked around the<br />
command deck.<br />
Callaghan smiled. “It‟s just a ship, Commander.”<br />
Callaghan was, of course, lying. He felt the discomfort of it just as readily as any<br />
other member of <strong>Atlantis</strong>‟s former crew. The eerie familiarity of the place and seeing another<br />
crew at those stations seemed like a part of him had been abandoned and forgotten. Razak<br />
- 218 -
was right, and even though it wasn‟t <strong>Atlantis</strong>, the place still carried a palpable sense of<br />
entitlement.<br />
“You still haven‟t told any of us where we‟re headed, Commander,” Callaghan noted<br />
after a few moment‟s silence.<br />
Razak‟s head turned slowly, a small smile curling at the corner of his mouth. “Sorry,”<br />
he said. “Hornsby‟s orders.”<br />
Callaghan folded his arms, raising his eyebrow in feigned surprise. “Interesting. I was<br />
under the impression Admiral Ainsley was in command.”<br />
Razak‟s smile vanished. “We have higher orders.”<br />
Davis Akara shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the two Commanders appeared to<br />
settle themselves in for a territorial stoush. Callaghan knew a losing fight when he saw it,<br />
and continued to purse his lips – at the very least, Razak had tipped him off to something<br />
Hornsby hadn‟t thought to explain. Aquarius was acting on the orders of someone much<br />
higher in the chain of command, superseding even Ainsley‟s authority. Few offices had<br />
stripes over the rank of Mark Ainsley, and the options were few – perhaps ultimately coming<br />
down to the heads of the NSIS and ONI, Admirals Anise Schrader and Jason Hargreaves.<br />
Callaghan smirked inwardly. It was hardly his first dealing with the UEO‟s intelligence<br />
services, with both offices having put their noses in to Ainsley‟s affairs on multiple occasions<br />
before then. A move that would ultimately keep him on a shorter, controlled leash at the<br />
helm of the Aquarius had just the right ring of selective oversight to it to point the finger at<br />
Schrader.<br />
Callaghan raised an eyebrow. “So, why did you do it?” he asked the XO bluntly.<br />
“Do what?” Razak looked back.<br />
“Disappeared, cut off communications to the fleet, fought a private war... I need to<br />
spell it out?”<br />
“I don‟t think we had much of a choice, do you?”<br />
“The world thinks you‟re dead, Commander. I don‟t think it was as simple as that.”<br />
Razak took a slow, almost overbearing step forward. “I‟ll say this only once,<br />
Commander, and I strongly suggest that if you wish to remain in Captain Hornsby‟s good<br />
graces you do not ask her the same question,” he said, the gutteral edge of bitter resentment<br />
growling in his throat, “There was nothing simple for this crew in watching their families die in<br />
‟41. We aren‟t going to stand by and be made to watch as that moron of a Secretary-General<br />
in <strong>New</strong> <strong>Cape</strong> <strong>Quest</strong> does it all over again, and that, I can promise you was a simple<br />
decision.”<br />
He continued to stare at Razak for several moments, the rueful twinge of pain quite<br />
visibly glinting in his eyes before he added “and what about you?”<br />
Callaghan didn‟t get a chance to answer as he felt the subtle thump beneath his feet<br />
while the air popped with a change of pressure. Warning bells rang nosily as the massive<br />
clam-shell pressure doors at the control deck‟s port side cracked open under the heavy<br />
whine of hydraulics. Lauren Hornsby was flanked by Mark Ainsley and Anniel Rhodes as she<br />
stepped through the breach and headed straight for the command deck, the Admiral beside<br />
her casting a pale and familiar gaze over the bridge before him, the track of his eyes pausing<br />
as they came to rest on the ghostly avatar of the ship‟s seal on the bulkhead behind the<br />
command chair.<br />
Callaghan and Razak rounded the lower control deck in opposite directions as they<br />
made for the adjacent staircases up to the command level. Aquarius‟s bridge, just like<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong>, was split across three levels with the lower control deck containing helm, tactical,<br />
weapons and navigation being ringed behind and at the sides by the operations deck, which<br />
held EVA, the OOD, communications, sonar, and ops. Above both decks, sitting directly<br />
above and behind the primary weapons stations they had just been attending was the<br />
command deck. The Captain‟s view of the bridge from that position was extensive, with clear<br />
lines of sight down past an adjacent navigational plot and several banks of command<br />
consoles. Hornsby stood behind the balustrades at the end of that precipice, exchanging<br />
quiet words with Rhodes as Razak approached from around the chart table. Callaghan fell in<br />
- 219 -
next to Ainsley, his brow curving upward in silent inquiry that drew only an unknowing shake<br />
of the head.<br />
“Ari,” Hornsby ordered, looking down at the small pedestal beside the main chart<br />
table.<br />
A hazy shimmer of blue light illuminated the command deck as the little hologram<br />
materialized in to a solid form. Ainsley felt a slight chill in the air as he recognised her – a<br />
woman, black haired, and wearing the uniform of a navy commander. Ari‟s eyes had an<br />
especially brilliant fire to them as she looked up at Hornsby with a coy smile, her hands<br />
folded neatly behind her back. “Good morning, Captain,” she said lightly.<br />
“How are you?” Hornsby smiled back.<br />
“...Better,” Ari said distractedly with an approving nod. “It‟s taking me a while to get<br />
used to the changes, but, I think I‟ll live.”<br />
Ainsley regarded the AI suspiciously. Visually, she was nearly identical to Annie, the<br />
black hair notwithstanding, but something in her demeanour – normally professional, polite<br />
and confident – had changed. Ari was different. If Ainsley had to use a word to describe it,<br />
the word would have been „coy.‟<br />
“Hello again, Admiral,” the AI said again, turning to face Ainsley with a curt nod. “It‟s<br />
been quite some time. Welcome aboard.”<br />
“Hello, Ari,” he replied, unable to remove the suspicion from his tone. This seemed to<br />
amuse the AI, and she smiled wryly before looking back at Hornsby. “We‟ve reached the<br />
outer perimeter of the facility, captain, holding steady at a depth of sixteen thousand three<br />
hundred and fifteen feet.”<br />
“Hail the base. Secure channel through the SOC, low band only.”<br />
Ari nodded once. “Done.”<br />
Hornsby smiled. “Davis, send our flash ID and hold at one mile. Set WSKRS forward<br />
for eyes-on, then stand by.”<br />
The captain turned on her heel. “Mark, will you join me here, please?”<br />
Ainsley took a breath as he stepped up to the conn beside Hornsby, and the captain<br />
lowered her voice. “There is a lot more you need to be told, Mark,” she said with an inflection<br />
of apology. “Ari? Put her up.”<br />
Hornsby looked back at the main screen at the front of the bridge as it switched from<br />
the bank of sensor feeds to the heads-up-display of a WSKRS probe somewhere ahead of<br />
the ship. At first there was little more than murky, light-stained fog as the comm. feed was<br />
directed straight to the probe‟s forward gun camera, its flood lights refracting hopelessly off<br />
the gloom as plankton, debris and silt flew by. Akara quickly switched to the satellite‟s<br />
hypersonar overlay, and it became a very different picture.<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong> loomed out of the darkness, her bow jutting from the rock precipice like a<br />
dagger thrust through bone, resting against a shelf along the trench wall where she had<br />
fallen so many months before. The silt, rock and sleet that had fallen on to her flanks in that<br />
time had practically buried the great ship‟s wings, and she was covered in a field of heavy,<br />
ungainly debris.<br />
...Ainsley looked closer at the image, re-examining the supposed „debris‟. He then<br />
saw the flood lights that ran in perfect lines next to the ungainly striations that were littered<br />
over the submarine‟s massive bulk, literally planted on to its superstructure in a prefabricated<br />
spider‟s web of connecting bridge-tunnels, pressure domes, scaffolds and control<br />
towers. It wasn‟t a debris field so much as an encampment. Dozens of structures – a vast<br />
majority occupying the precipice, with many more embedded in to the sheer rock walls<br />
above and below the sheer cliffs of the trench – dotted the seascape. Tiny worker minisubs<br />
darted, ducked and hovered over the monstrous <strong>DSV</strong> at the centre as a small patrol of<br />
fighters shot through the trench below before rapidly disappearing behind a rocky outcrop.<br />
The Admiral shuffled forward on Aquarius‟s command deck towards the balustrade,<br />
planting his hands on the railing with his jaw agape. For all Hornsby had told him, nothing<br />
even came close to preparing him for what lay before him. <strong>Atlantis</strong>‟s upper hull was an ugly,<br />
smashed mess of scaffold, ruined bulkheads and calloused, mal-formed bioskin that<br />
extended from her forward missile tubes to the top of her engineering hull. In some places, it<br />
- 220 -
was clear that the bioskin had regrown and sealed certain sections, but the mammoth<br />
amount of construction equipment that surrounded her painted the real picture clearly –<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong> was a ruin.<br />
But more than that, she was intact.<br />
Deep within Ainsley‟s heart and mind, a fiery and irrational spark of hope began to<br />
burn. How she had survived the 4.9-mile plunge to the bottom of that trench, he had little<br />
clue, but for all the questions he now had, there was one, single overriding sense of<br />
undeniable purpose with which to work.<br />
“How is this possible?” he asked, his voice coming only as a shocked whisper.<br />
“Six, long, determined months,” Hornsby replied, a smile beaming on her face. “She‟s<br />
a very long way from seaworthy, Mark. It‟s taken us this long just to get the facilities.”<br />
“She shouldn‟t have survived,” Ainsley said again, shaking his head.<br />
“Evidently, Admiral... she did,” Rhodes added.<br />
Hornsby was still smiling as Ainsley‟s face steadily dissolved in to a broken, lopsided<br />
smile, his heart thumping in his chest as his knuckles gripped the railing.<br />
Hornsby took a step back and to the side, pulling up next to the Admiral to lean in<br />
gently. “Would you like to see her?”<br />
Mark Ainsley grinned.<br />
“Don‟t keep me waiting, Lauren... We‟ve got a lot of work to do.”<br />
~<br />
- 221 -
EPILOGUE<br />
C O G I T O E R G O S UM<br />
UEO <strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>-8100, ONI ‘Lazarus’ Base, the Polynesian Trench. April 17 th ,<br />
2043…<br />
Aquarius had made her moorings at the ONI facility less than an hour after she had<br />
arrived, moving in to position alongside a massive, makeshift pier that had been suspended<br />
from the canyon walls. The enormous base, dubbed „Lazarus‟ by its Naval Intelligence staff,<br />
spanned two square miles of seafloor, half embedded in to the rock face, and half sprawled<br />
across the trench precipice along with the <strong>Atlantis</strong> herself. Aquarius, as if a faithful, loving<br />
sister, hung over the salvage site proudly, her bows casting a long, protective shadow over<br />
her wounded sister below - her ventral flood lamps occasionally tracking maintenance subs<br />
and heavy lifting craft that moved through the gloom below that dared to approach without<br />
stated intention.<br />
Aquarius‟s return to the site came almost with a sort of fanfare. Docking procedures<br />
were straightforward, but the feeling of anticipation amongst her senior staff – most notably<br />
Ainsley and his own entourage – was reaching a fever pitch by the time the final umbilical<br />
gantries and airlocks were extende. Much of the afternoon of the 16 th of April was spent in<br />
briefings and updates as Ainsley, Callaghan and Roderick met with members of the UEO<br />
Office of Naval Intelligence and the NSIS where the true scope of the operation was finally<br />
explained. Much as Callaghan had expected, and although she was not present, it became<br />
clear to them that Schrader was very much involved, and even if he had no direct control<br />
over the operation, Jason Hargreaves was at least aware of its existence.<br />
That so much was so brazenly and so comprehensively being kept from the highest<br />
offices of the UEO military command rocked Corinn Roderick and Ryan Callaghan to their<br />
cores, but for Ainsley, there was only the foreboding and jaded realisation of that which had<br />
suspected for a very long time. After thirty six years in the military, he had come to hold a<br />
very unique and very well-founded mistrust of the fleet‟s intelligence services. There was at<br />
some level a truth to the idea that they would only answer to their own self serving sense of<br />
ideology. By Ainsley‟s estimation, intelligence services the world over were filled with two<br />
types of people: those who were naive, stupid or ignorant enough to simply accept a given<br />
scenario or proposition without question, and those who understood that the service came<br />
with an expectation and understanding that some of their ideals would have to be sacrificed<br />
on occasion for the betterment of the whole.<br />
That was, simply put, the personal cost of a life in the intelligence service, and the<br />
UEO was founded on concepts that made their secretive creeds and mandates the very<br />
objects of sensational public political scrutiny.<br />
Ainsley reminded himself that it was that very special and select group who could live<br />
with that understanding and carry on regardless that included some of his oldest friends, and<br />
bitterest of separations. Schrader had used his known, often vocal idealisms and played him<br />
accordingly.<br />
And, for better or worse, he could live with it.<br />
It took Aquarius several hours to finally secure the watch. Ammunition, fuel and<br />
maintenance stores began to arrive aboard small transports from the ONI base, marines<br />
were assigned to sentry duties and a good number of the crew were rotated to the base for<br />
what could only barely begin to be described as „shore leave‟. The few ONI staff that had<br />
come aboard when the <strong>DSV</strong> secured her moorings appeared to have a keen interest in<br />
watching virtually everyone as they moved to and from the base, whether their business was<br />
official or not.<br />
By 0800 the following morning, Aquarius‟s own minor repair duties were well in hand,<br />
and there had been few reports of note for any of her senior staff to contend with. Admiral<br />
Ainsley disembarked the ship without ceremony or much formal notice a little after ten-past,<br />
- 222 -
and had quickly headed for the base transit hub which eventually led him to the main gantry<br />
that served as the direct accessway to <strong>Atlantis</strong>. When the elevator doors finally opened at<br />
the bottom of that facility, the view that met him was nothing less than astonishing.<br />
The observation tower at the top of the gantry looked out directly over the ruined hull<br />
of the <strong>DSV</strong>, its six-inch-thick view ports offering an expansive view of the upper most<br />
reconstruction works. For several long minutes, he had simply stood at the portal and<br />
watched in silence, studying the work that had already been done to the ship. Vast sections<br />
of the outer hull‟s plate work that had been destroyed by the detonation of the subduction<br />
warheads had been stripped away, and huge clamps and feeder tanks were hooked in to the<br />
thick, flesh-like bioskin which had been cut back and pulled away. Even under the<br />
illumination of the twelve titanic light towers above, it was hard to make out much in the way<br />
of detail through the gloom.<br />
The entire operation felt surreally like a giant operating theatre, the patient covered in<br />
frames, lights, clamps and coverings that concealed the rest of her towering flanks. Robotic<br />
drones worked efficiently through the mess of damaged and rebuilt support frames, loading<br />
and unloading cargo pallets from a constant and steady stream of DSRVs that hovered<br />
around the site. Most impressive of all was the single, massive crane that had been erected<br />
over the ship‟s shelter decks, supported by a temporary and ungainly set of hefty<br />
construction scaffolds which were used to hoist and manoeuvre the larger sections of hull<br />
that were being replaced.<br />
Ainsley moved on, slowly strolling through the boarding tunnel that adjoined with the<br />
ship somewhere forward of the main hangar bays, all the while reflecting on those dark<br />
moments that had reduced the great ship to this.<br />
...He stopped in surprise as he looked around at where he then stood. Plainly, it was<br />
one of the starboard cross-corridors on <strong>Atlantis</strong>, but he had never even remembered walking<br />
through an airlock. It took him several moments to realise, as he turned and looked back up<br />
his path, that the gantry had been physically built in to the ship‟s internal decks, and the only<br />
reason he didn‟t even notice was that the deck he now stood on had been completely rebuilt.<br />
He ran his hand across the cool metal of the bulkhead as he read the frame code: D-<br />
Deck, frame seven, starboard cross-junction. There was a sobering moment of silence as he<br />
paused in his walk and drew a breath, smelling the stale air. It smelt rank of oils, fuel and<br />
industrial lubricants. The air was still, too, the long and dim passages that extended in to the<br />
bowels of the ship before him ringing dully of the distant sound of generators, twisting metal<br />
and tools.<br />
Ainsley reminded himself sorely that five hundred and eighty three people had died in<br />
those halls. Many had perished instantly in the moment that the Alliance missiles struck the<br />
ship, ripping open her hull like claws through an animal. Others had died in the fires that had<br />
washed through the corridor he now stood in, and many more like it. He didn‟t have to walk<br />
far before he rounded a corner and was stopped by a transverse bulkhead, the corridor<br />
abruptly ending at a tightly sealed pressure door. Ainsley had no way of knowing what was<br />
behind that bulkhead, whether it was simply an unsecured and damaged section of the ship,<br />
or a complete hull breach with seven thousand pounds per square inch of pressure behind it.<br />
The stairwell next to that bulkhead, however, seemed intact.<br />
The flight deck was traditionally the busiest part of any warship, be it a surface<br />
aircraft carrier like those that for so long defined traditional naval powers, or modern<br />
subcarriers like <strong>Atlantis</strong> or Commonwealth. No matter the time of day or night, ground crews<br />
would work around the clock to keep fighters maintained, armed, fuelled and returned to<br />
flight lines for deployments that could be ordered with as little as five minute‟s notice... or<br />
even less.<br />
Few things, then, were as genuinely spooky as an abandoned flight deck hangar,<br />
and absolutely none were as large as the one which sat in the bowels of <strong>Atlantis</strong>. The flight<br />
deck of the <strong>DSV</strong> was so massive that one could probably fill it with grandstands and still<br />
have an area large enough to play a game of professional football. Two hundred meters<br />
long, eighty meters wide, the operational decks alone spanned six decks, and that didn‟t<br />
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even account for the service decks on C and D decks, or the launch bays deep within the<br />
ship‟s belly.<br />
Of course, those launch bays were now buried four-decks-deep in mud, silt and rock,<br />
which made the entire hangar bay little more than an eerie tomb for the few, shattered hulks<br />
of ruined fighters that still littered the main flight deck.<br />
Ainsley stood alone at the centre of that place, booting a loose chunk of baffling that<br />
had fallen from some place high in the rafters and cross beams across the deck to hear it<br />
echo in the darkness of the maintenance bays. The giant catwalk gantry that once hung high<br />
from the ceiling seven decks above his head now dominated the flight deck, its shattered<br />
mass of girders having crushed several old Raptor subfighters that remained where they had<br />
died, their hooked noses twisting upwards from under the frames, lying in pools of their own,<br />
semi-dried lubricants and fluids.<br />
How any of it had survived truly astonished the Admiral. The hangar should have<br />
been crushed like an eggshell when the sea doors gave way during the ship‟s descent, but<br />
even that he found surprising. Despite the incredible damage the ship has sustained, those<br />
doors had remained closed, locked and sealed, protecting virtually all of her habitable decks<br />
and spaces. Her ruined ballast tanks notwithstanding – a powerful force of will had exerted<br />
great effort to keep the hull intact, and Ainsley was determined to find out how, and perhaps<br />
more importantly, why.<br />
He stared up at the great trident that still hung from the forward bulkhead, barely<br />
illuminated by the work lights that had been strung from the upper decks by the crews who<br />
still worked to bring the ship back to life. He had noticed a few of those crews working on the<br />
upper decks of the hangar - welders and torches occasionally flaring up with an<br />
accompanying echo of inaudible chatter amongst the engineers. Ainsley had no idea what<br />
was going on deeper within those upper decks, but it was clear that the hangar – with all its<br />
abandoned and inaccessible utility – was about the lowest of their priorities.<br />
“She told me I‟d find you here,” said the pilot as he stepped through the hangar doors<br />
and trotted steadily down the stairs.<br />
Ainsley turned sharply, finding the man‟s approach slowing with deliberate hesitation.<br />
“Hornsby?”<br />
Thomas Parker smiled. “She was going to give you a tour of the upper levels,” Parker<br />
noted, looking up at the roof and the engineers who continued to pay them little attention.<br />
“They opened up C-deck between the eighth and tenth frames again for the first time last<br />
week, but there really isn‟t much left down here.”<br />
“Just mess,” Ainsley recalled quietly, looking back at the smashed Raptors. “Like I<br />
said, a lot of work to do...”<br />
“I‟d be surprised if you found anything down here at all,” Parker nodded.<br />
Ainsley smirked inwardly before looking at Parker. “I found you didn‟t I?”<br />
After that, Ainsley seemed to ignore him for long, awkward seconds before Parker<br />
took another step forward and raised his head, trying to make a measure of the Admiral‟s<br />
reason. In the entire time since Aquarius had met Commonwealth, Ainsley had not made a<br />
single attempt to speak to Parker, and while he was fairly certain he understood why, it<br />
hadn‟t made their personal positions any easier.<br />
“I‟m not sure what you want me to say, Mark,” Parker said, straining a deep sigh. “It<br />
wasn‟t an easy choice.”<br />
Ainsley turned. “It intrigues me, Thomas, that you believed you even had one,” he<br />
sneered. “Jessica needed you, and you left her. From where I am standing, that‟s all there is<br />
to it.”<br />
“You‟re a father, too,” Parker snapped. “You‟ve made the same decisions.”<br />
“I never left Sam - not like this!” Ainsley hissed, marching toward him. “We thought<br />
you were dead, and frankly, it might be easier if you were.”<br />
Parker straightened, his jaw tightening. “You would have had me just walk away?” he<br />
asked. “What if it were your family that were blown away in San Diego, Mark? Would you<br />
have walked away too?”<br />
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“Don‟t you play this game with me,” he said, drawing up close to the pilot. “She‟s my<br />
daughter, and Michael is your son. If you want to talk about family - what about them? I<br />
understand your loss, Tom, but don‟t throw them away too.”<br />
Parker‟s lip quivered at that. “I love her,” he said simply. “But more than that, I made<br />
a promise to protect her. If we don‟t stand up here and now, and tell Cathgate that we aren‟t<br />
going to let him burn five million people to satisfy a political convenience, then I will have<br />
failed her in that promise. Do you seriously think it will end at Pearl, Mark? That that will be<br />
the end of it?”<br />
“It‟s not your fight,” Ainsley said, shaking his head again.<br />
“And it‟s not yours either!” Parker shot back, his lip curling. “Let me ask you a<br />
question. If we hadn‟t done this, what‟s to say I didn‟t end up with the Ark Royal? There were<br />
eighty seven other pilots on that carrier who would probably have a hell of a lot more to say<br />
about „choice‟ than you can. They died because of an order that you know, as well as I do,<br />
may as well have been an execution. You and I made the same choice, so don‟t get pious<br />
with me and tell me it was the wrong one!”<br />
The Admiral‟s fist connected cleanly with Parker‟s jaw without warning, sending the<br />
pilot sprawling across the deck. Ainsley seethed, almost short of breath as he flexed his<br />
hand and stared down at him. His rage evaporated quickly as Parker looked up, an ugly red<br />
line split across his upper lip as he worked his jaw and struggled to get up.<br />
Ainsley turned away, looking off in to the distant shadows of the hangar as if<br />
expecting to find an answer that he knew would never come. The ghosts who watched him<br />
from those dark places knew it as well as he did.<br />
Parker let out a long breath as he wiped the blood from the back of his hand. “With a<br />
temper like that, I can see why Banick lost,” he winced.<br />
Ainsley closed his eyes. “I‟m sorry,” he rasped.<br />
Parker pulled a tissue from his uniform pocket and smiled lopsidedly. “I‟ll let you have<br />
that one.”<br />
ONI ‘Lazarus’ Base, the Polynesian Trench. June 9 th , 2043…<br />
~<br />
Anniel Rhodes rolled down the deck on her wheeled chair again, snatching the data<br />
padd from the edge of the bench before swiftly turning and pushing her boot off the table leg<br />
to coast back to her desk. Her hand reached for the steaming mug of tea before she‟d even<br />
stopped, and the handle appeared to crest gently in to her palm as the chair came to a stop<br />
before taking a mouthful of the brew.<br />
Her lab facility in the makeshift UEO base was crude by Nycarian standards and<br />
small compared to those available on the Aquarius. Regardless, her work required an<br />
element of stability and dedication – qualities she did not associate with a warship that had<br />
since surrounded its dedicated research labs with emergency wards.<br />
Her cheeks remained puffed around the mouthful of tea for a moment as she read<br />
the data pad again and swallowed slowly with a frown. The core sample‟s she‟d taken from<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong>‟s ostensibly „Human‟ AI computer core earlier that morning were just the latest in a<br />
series of that had left her struggling to comprehend the complexities of the UEO system.<br />
Credit where it was due, she thought, the so-called “AI” was the closest thing she‟d<br />
ever seen to a genuine, sentient artificial life form in her entire life, and made the vast<br />
majority of Nycarian systems look nearly archaic. In that, perhaps, was the problem.<br />
“ANNIE”, as the UEO officers had called her, had more in common with a human brain than<br />
a conventional optical fibre core – her central „systems‟ being a delicate weave of genetically<br />
engineered, synthetic neural fibres and gels that invasively ran across the entire length of<br />
the ship like a nervous system.<br />
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For much of the prior three months, Rhodes had found it difficult to separate the<br />
biochemical damage inflicted on the network by the Alliance weapon from that caused by the<br />
genetic virus. Her latest core samples were a change in direction, and her areas of study<br />
had finally been refined down to the most basic of patterns – Annie‟s genome itself.<br />
It had taken time, but she had finally managed to reverse-engineer the radically<br />
altered DNA down in to its base origin. That had been the relatively simple part once the<br />
bureaucratic Office of Naval Intelligence finally relented and sent her the recorded DNA<br />
profile of Doctor Anne Ballard; the geneticist who had provided the DNA profile for Annie‟s<br />
development to begin with.<br />
The hard part had been to synthesize an appropriate catalyst from which to identify<br />
the rogue DNA that had so voraciously invaded Annie‟s system. In truth, the extent of that<br />
„infection‟ was so great that she doubted she would ever be able to completely reverse the<br />
damage that had been done, as so little of the original donor‟s DNA remained, but at the<br />
very least, she may have been able to stabilize the rampant affliction to a point where Annie<br />
might yet wake from her apparent „coma‟.<br />
...What would remain of her mind after that, of course, was anyone‟s guess.<br />
The ONI aid who had been assigned to her entered the office a few minutes later,<br />
carrying another data pad that he held out in his hand. Matt Hurst was part of the UEO‟s<br />
medical corps, as best she could tell from his cream-coloured division insignia, and wore a<br />
lab coat over his uniform jumpsuit. She had never thought to ask, and it had never really<br />
seemed important. He was capable enough, but after just a few days of working with him<br />
she had quickly learned to find ways of occupying his attention on other tasks that... As<br />
clever as he was by „normal‟ standards, he was slow to think compared to the Nycarian and<br />
always seemed to be a few steps behind the ball.<br />
It wasn‟t his fault, of course, and Rhodes had made every effort to be polite to the<br />
boy, but after nearly three months of this pattern it was becoming clear to him that much of<br />
Rhodes‟ thought processes remained completely unspoken. He‟d never complained about it,<br />
but the intermittent pauses that followed once he had delivered a report always seem to<br />
suggest the question that he had never brought himself to ask.<br />
Today was a little different.<br />
“This came in for you through the Aquarius,” he said as she took the offered slate.<br />
“Secured through the SOC. Is this what we were waiting on?”<br />
Rhodes smiled as she flicked through the pages on the tablet screen and slaved it to<br />
her workstation. “Yes, it is.”<br />
“I noticed the sender,” Hurst nodded, sitting himself backwards on one of the spare<br />
seats near the desk, his arms folded over the backrest. “He‟s your father, isn‟t he?”<br />
It was a statement more than a question, and Rhodes brushed it aside. “Yes, I had a<br />
hunch,” she said. “I‟m hoping this information will match up with the latest set of lab results.”<br />
Rhodes spun in the chair and put the pad aside before loading the information on to<br />
her main computer. Her fingers flew over the keys quickly, plugging in a formula so complex<br />
and so quickly that Hurst‟s eyes barely had time to read it before she entered the command.<br />
“What was it he sent you?” Hurst asked, watching as the computer tabulated the<br />
results.<br />
“A sample Nycarian genetic history. I recognised a few of the markers in Annie‟s<br />
DNA.”<br />
Hurst gawked at her. “That‟s an outstanding hunch,” he muttered.<br />
Rhodes smirked. “What can I say, I‟m an outstanding girl.”<br />
Hurst was left to smile at that as Rhodes disappeared around then other side of the<br />
lab and sat in front of a diagnostics display, quickly plugging in a series of commands that<br />
brought up a comparison of the two genetic profiles.<br />
A rush of excitement washed over Rhodes at first as she compared to the two<br />
genomes, sharing an 83% correlation across all the key markers, before the exhilaration of<br />
discovery and success gave way to a far more troubling shadow of revelation.<br />
- 226 -
Rhodes swallowed again, writing down a few quite notes with her stylus as Hurst<br />
struggled yet again to keep up. “What?” he asked, noticing the ashen look upon her face.<br />
“What does it mean?”<br />
“There‟s nearly a perfect correlation between the major base pairings,” she said.<br />
“Accounting for the modifications to the AI‟s code, that would suggest the two controls are<br />
related.”<br />
“Rhodes, slow down,” Hurst frowned. “Are you trying to tell me that that Nycarian<br />
DNA shares the same base augment modifications to the virus that is killing Annie?”<br />
Rhodes exhaled slowly. “It‟s not a virus,” she started to realise. “It‟s... a catalyst. The<br />
same one they used to create me... us. The Nycarians.”<br />
Rhodes‟ mind clicked in to gear, pushing aside the startling realisation and<br />
categorically, rapidly eliminating the implausible formulas before resuming her work. In the<br />
time she had spent with Annie, unknowingly studying the very same genetic code that<br />
coursed through her own veins, she had begun to see patterns of generational change.<br />
Annie, by any rational definition, was a human brain that had been engineered and<br />
hardwired to artificial systems built by human hands. She was not governed by the same<br />
cycles of decay and renewal that so defined a biological existence.<br />
83%, Rhodes reminded herself, was still a significant margin of error when dealing<br />
with something so exacting as genetics. There were few ways to explain away the changes,<br />
and she began pulling up a comparison of the three genomes.<br />
The catalyst, the AI, and the Nycarian.<br />
All linked, and none the same.<br />
Annie did not age. A human did.<br />
A human could reproduce. Annie could not.<br />
The only common link they held was that simple, genetic augment that had changed<br />
them both, and Rhodes‟ fingers swiftly flew over the keyboard, linking the common base<br />
pairs.<br />
Rhodes‟ stomach turned as she saw the final outcome – the two lines, superimposed<br />
on the graph, largely in equilibrium before a projection continued a steady but inescapable<br />
divergence that disappeared from the chart. She slumped back in to her chair, her breathing<br />
shallow, and her mind aflutter.<br />
“That‟s not right,” Hurst said, studying the graph as he slowly caught up with Rhodes‟<br />
work. “A genetic catalyst needs to remain neutral for a genome to be stable. There‟s a<br />
generational change here. How did you project this?”<br />
“I asked the computer to simulate what would happen if two instances of the same<br />
catalyst were used to produce a second generation of the DNA.”<br />
“Then you‟ve made a mistake,” Hurst reasoned. “A catalyst that was deliberately<br />
designed to change physiology over the course of multiple generations would destroy itself.”<br />
“There‟s no mistake,” Rhodes sighed. “Annie isn‟t being killed. She‟s being changed.”<br />
Hurst smiled. “But that‟s good, right?”<br />
Anniel Rhodes closed her eyes. “I can slow the decay and stabilize the base pairs<br />
that are causing the breakdowns, yes,” she confirmed.<br />
“Where did this „genetic history‟ come from? Who‟s DNA is it?”<br />
Rhodes swallowed. “It‟s mine.”<br />
Hurst stopped. “But... if that formula is accurate.”<br />
“It is.”<br />
The ONI officer‟s mouth fell agape, his voice falling to a hoarse whisper. “Anniel...<br />
how did this happen?”<br />
She sniffed back a tear as she looked back at the chart. “That doesn‟t really matter,<br />
does it? The entire Nycarian race... We‟re all dying.”<br />
~<br />
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<strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>: “Crossfire”<br />
Written by James Ward<br />
Copyright 2011<br />
‘sea<strong>Quest</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>’, ‘sea<strong>Quest</strong> 2032’ and their respective themes are copyrights of Universal/Amblin<br />
Entertainment. No Infringement is intended.<br />
Special thanks to Daniel Watson, Nathan Leong, Keith Carpenter & Daniel G. Williams<br />
<strong>Atlantis</strong> <strong>DSV</strong>: “Full Fathom Five” excerpt written by Nicholas Frankpitt<br />
http://atlantisdsv.newcapequest.com<br />
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