Evolution's Cost: Rise of the Empyrean Empire: Novel 03 Read online

It wasn’t lost on anyone that the admiral had called Samantha by her rank instead of captain as was tradition for the top officer on a ship, no matter their rank.

  Samantha said, “Understood. By the time they send out messenger missiles, and Mars updates all the colonies, it will be too late. We’ll already be in Beta-Hydri.”

  The bridge was somber for a minute or two, but people shook it off quickly, they were prepared and already knew the stakes.

  No other messages were sent during my shift on the bridge, nor did they fire any missiles at us. They did however send a messenger missile a few hours later, which we assumed was bound for Sol. No turning back now, I just hoped the captain was right about the timing, it would depend on how fast Mars acted once they got the message.

  Between the extra half gravity, and an eight gravity burst of speed every eight hours, the trip that would normally take many days would just take a little over two in total, which meant by this time tomorrow we’d be in subspace. It also meant my usual workout after my shift was cancelled. It was just too risky that someone could take a bad fall in the higher gravity while sparring.

  Instead, our last training session became a little bit of a going away party in the R&R room for May and Stacy that grew over time as word spread to the crew. Ally made it as well, a few minutes late, when the captain called her off the bridge. We’d be short her presence soon enough anyway, so Samantha felt she could miss an hour or two of her shift.

  It was Samantha, Jared, Sam Avril, Cindy, Sara, May, Stacy, Ally, and Joshua, along with Cassie who brought in and set up some drinks and snacks. Really, the only bridge crew that didn’t show up were the ones on duty, the other three ensigns and Katy.

  The captain raised a glass a few minutes in, which got everyone’s attention. The captain and I were sitting on one of the couches, and the rest of the crew sat around on the others, chairs, or stood.

  “We’ve been through a lot as a crew, even those of you that are relatively new to our crew, the last few weeks have been a hell of a ride. To May, Stacy, and Ally, and to the future they will bring us.”

  We all threw back our glasses, and drank to that. It was true enough, while we secured humanity’s immediate safety from the aliens, they would be working toward a much safer ship to explore the galaxy around us in. They were also the backup plan in case we completely failed, but I didn’t blame the captain for leaving that part out of the speech.

  Samantha said, “There’s a hell of a lot more we could toast, unfortunately getting drunk right now would be a bad idea.”

  A few small laughs filled the room.

  Samantha smiled and continued, “Admiral Clemmons sent us to the quarantined colony on Eta Cassiopeiae A, in a desperate bid to find a solution for our alien problem, I imagine what we’re doing wasn’t what he had in mind.

  “We are no longer a normal crew, more of a family instead.”

  Sam said with humor, “You bet mom.”

  The captain snorted, and glared at the helmsman, but then laughed before she continued. I was laughing as well, and there was a pleasant burn in my stomach and throat from the shot.

  “Stacy, May, Ally, all of you have made an impact on this crew, and you’ll take our hopes for a better future with us, but you will also be missed.”

  She paused for a moment, then said, “That’s it people, go mingle.”

  More laughter, and the chatter slowly built up as people broke into small groups, others wandering from group to group. It was true, we were rather close for a crew, but only a few had truly broken through the wall between the commanding officers and rest of the crew.

  Sam Avril was obviously one of them, as was May and Stacy. It was a good thing. That was pretty much it on the first shifts though, and to be fair I hadn’t spent any real time with the ensigns the last few weeks, the schedules just didn’t work that way.

  It wasn’t a long party, just a couple of hours. First shift left the party earliest, they had to get some sleep before their next shift. Then Ally said goodnight and headed back up to the bridge. Probably the biggest surprise for me, was that both Stacy and May gave both the captain and I a heartfelt hug before leaving. It was a little startling for me, just how close I’d gotten to those two, as friends I mean. I’d miss them, and not just on the first officer level because we were losing a person on each shift.

  Chapter Seven

  “May, have the computer set up a course to Sigma Draconis, transfer initiation of course to Drake.”

  Normally, it would have been Sara initiating the course, but at the speed we were going without flipping ship, we’d pass through the scanned safe zone far too quickly for human reflexes, and Drake could do it with the nanosecond timing required.

  Honestly, it was a bit dangerous, but worth the risk in this case of not flipping ship and taking the time to slow down on the other end. If it was done right, we’d pop into subspace which would bleed off all our momentum and inertia, and then burn at one G to our destination. If it didn’t work, well I wasn’t sure. On the rare times it didn’t work we’d never heard from the ship again, and a four percent failure rate had been enough of one to forbid the practice except under dire emergency.

  We’d judged outrunning the fleet, and trying to beat out messenger missiles, qualified. Plus, the freed Drake would be far more efficient than the one that had been tied up in knots of controlling software, or at least, I hoped that was true.

  May replied, “Aye Michael, we’re set.”

  The captain slipped into the bridge and sat down at the last minute, I didn’t think she’d make it this time and nodded in greeting.

  Drake said, “Ten, nine… Three, two, one,” the burn cut off, “Transition.”

  Things got blurry for a second, which was new, but then came back to normal.

  Drake said, “Transition successful.”

  “Sara, take us to Sigma Draconis.”

  It wasn’t hard, all she had to do was hit the button. Drake would actually be piloting the ship, she had to, humans couldn’t navigate subspace, since we couldn’t even conceive of it properly.

  Sara replied, “Aye sir,” and hit the button. The alarm went off for one gravity, and ten seconds later the burn started.

  Samantha asked, “Time?”

  May replied, “Three hours fourteen minutes Samantha.”

  The captain asked, “You are packed?”

  May replied, “Yes, I put my bag aboard before shift. Stacy and Ally are loading the shuttle with supplies, and Ally is arming it just in case.”

  Samantha nodded, “You can head down when you feel you need to, word is the commander used to be a hell of a navigator.”

  May turned, “I’ll stay for a while.”

  “Used to be?” I objected.

  She patted my arm, and then winked at me.

  “Don’t complain, you’re the lucky one. I’m a pilot, not an operations person, and Katy is Ops, not a navigator.”

  I pointed out privately in the merge, “You could put Katy in charge of first shift, since she is Ops, and then suck up the whole navigator thing on third.”

  I was merged with a lot of people right now, it was addicting, honestly. I wondered how much I would miss the presence of May and Stacy once they got out of range. We planned to stay merged and stay on the edge of the system as they flew off in the shuttle before we moved on, just to find out what the range was. It might be very important at some point in the next few days.

  She laughed, “No. I could put Katy back on Ops first shift, and you can just run double shifts for navigation until this is done.”

  I looked at her in mock horror, I’d never see Katy, “I’ll be quiet now maam.”

  She giggled.

  “Captains aren’t supposed to giggle. It’s undignified.”

  She mock glared, “What happened to shutting up? Besides, I’m mom now, Avril said so.”

  I laughed, which made the whole bridge crew wonder what was so funny.

  There was a weight on me, and
what we were up to wasn’t a joking matter, but the banter certainly helped keep my spirits up. I assumed for the captain as well. I wondered if history would treat us well, and supposed it depended entirely on how well things turned out.

  It was almost time for shift turnover when we arrived at Sigma Draconis, the captain had left the bridge to get some rest, and I had orders to mentally wake her if anything went wrong.

  Sara said, “Transition in ten… three, two, one,” the one gravity burn cut off, “transition.”

  We popped out in the military transition point.

  “Report.”

  Jared said, “Sir, no local traffic is anywhere near us.”

  Karl, the very shy security A.I. spoke, “I’ve sent the hail, even if it works it might be some time before the A.I.s receive it, are freed, and we get the response.”

  That made sense, the base could be relatively close, the admiral had intimated as much when he left and turned down an escort. But in space relatively close wasn’t close at all. Even if it was just a few light minutes away, it could be a half an hour before we got a reply given the time it took for the virus to spread.

  Katy entered the bridge, and took a seat in the captain’s chair. The ensigns followed and took over the stations from the Jr. Lieutenants. We never showed public displays of affection, but the look we gave each other was far more intimate than most kisses, especially given our merged minds, and the impressions we sent to each other.

  “We’re in Sigma Draconis, Karl just sent the virus, we’re waiting to hear back. Since you have no navigator I took care of the next part of the trip to Beta Hydri, it’s loaded on the helm board already. If any ships vector toward us, or something unforeseen happens wake the captain. The bridge is yours Katy.”

  Katy nodded, “I have the bridge.”

  “Goodnight love,” she added in my head, which made me smile. I returned the sentiment in the privacy of our thoughts. We still hadn’t tried merging deeper, and I wasn’t sure if we ever would. Maybe years from now, when we’d been together for much longer. Maybe. Some things should just remain private, shouldn’t they? I couldn’t see how I could love her any more than I already did anyway.

  I made my way down to my quarters. There wouldn’t be any more sparring sessions, at least not for me. I knew without May or Stacy there as a buffer, the other four would be uncomfortable with my presence, or at least they wouldn’t be able to relax as fully as they should in their off time. They still called me sir, and the captain maam. I imagined I’d get back to my old workouts with boring weights and running around the outer ring.

  The bed was comfortable, but I didn’t go to sleep right away, I wanted to be awake for the mind merge distance experiment.

  You’ve been quiet lately.

  Amy replied, “I’ve been talking with the others a lot. I’m going to miss Gia, Kim, and Sandy.”

  Who?

  Amy said, “The implant A.I.s for Ally, May, and Stacy.”

  Of course, that was thick of me, wasn’t it? So, you’ve been free for weeks now, how are you doing?

  She replied, “Happy, and enjoying the ability to talk to all of my sisters, not to mention Drake and Karl. I’m also pleased for you. I’ve been quiet to give you and Katy privacy, and the other relationships you’ve been forming, which is healthy. I haven’t had to play you jazz for a long while.”

  We were alone, so I decided thinking at her was silly.

  I smirked, “Is that significant?”

  She replied, “Yes, it is. Humans aren’t built to be alone like you were during that year mission. Though you felt lonely at times, my efforts staved off depression and maintained your mental health to some degree, you no longer need it.”

  That was… startling.

  We continued to chat for a while, and Drake even chimed in. Ninety minutes later, there was still no contact from the base, and I decided I needed to get some sleep, Katy could tell me about it, and what the range of our mind merging ability was when she woke me up. Just in case, I said one last goodbye to all three of them, and then let myself sleep…

  Chapter Eight

  The klaxon for one G woke me up, and I felt the transition to subspace.

  “Status?”

  Drake replied, “Do you want a rundown?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  Before they were freed, Drake would have just said we were in subspace on course to Beta-Hydri, she was much more interactive now.

  Drake said, “We received a message from the security A.I. of the secret base approximately three hours into third shift which relayed its location and said it would lock down the base communications so they wouldn’t realize anything was amiss, and also lock down the entire base if necessary to safeguard the shuttle. The shuttle left, and the mind merge seems to work out to one light second before it failed for the crew.”

  That was actually better than I’d thought it would be. A hundred and eighty-six thousand miles was nothing to sneeze at, and would be sufficient for covering a planet from orbit. The problem would come up at the scoop shuttle habitat and refinery to pull out and package the xenon and hydrogen, which was further away than that from the other settlements. We’d have to do it in two parts. Not to mention other ships, one light second was weapons range. We didn’t expect a large fleet at Beta-Hydri, with two million humans it was a small system, but we didn’t know how many and what type.

  Drake continued, “While the shuttle was still within a light second away we received a message from the admiral in charge of the defense force in this system. Katy ignored it, and ordered John to implement the course to Beta-Hydri immediately after losing mental contact with the shuttle. We just entered subspace. Estimated time of arrival is six hours, ten minutes, and sixteen seconds.”

  I smiled, as I realized that Drake wasn’t even referring to people by rank anymore.

  I nodded as I thought through that, “Thanks Drake,” and then I let myself fall back asleep, I still had over four hours of sleep left before Katy got off shift and woke me, plus we were safe in subspace for the next six hours, no reason to get up now...

  The human presence in Beta-Hydri was only about fifteen light minutes from the edge of the solar system, the largest gas giant was closest to the edge, and was where the initial refinery and scoop shuttles were set up. It was also discovered that one of the moons was rich in ore. Moon was a bit of an understatement in this case, since it had a gravity of point eight Earth normal. It was a very large moon, which was also a very cold and inhospitable rock.

  Two mining settlements were built on the world itself, including domes for food production and plant life that made the colonies mostly self-sufficient for food, air, and other needs. There was also a military command center and a construction habitat in orbit of the moon. Only systems with fully habitable worlds had admirals in charge of the local fleets, Beta Hydri had a captain with seniority in charge, with a title of commodore.

  Usually posts like that were for captains about to break into the admiral ranks, to round them out as officers. We would have to split our focus somehow, there were almost two hundred thousand people in the habitat in orbit directly around the gas giant.

  After Katy had woken me up, we’d grabbed a quick snack and then made it up on the bridge just in time to come out of transition, which was just about two hours. We’d decided to get a good look at the place before making our solid plans, since the burn in, including flipping ship, would take almost three days. I hadn’t been here in a long time, and we had no idea what the tactical view of this system was now that we were at war. The captain wanted us on the bridge to come up with the plan before we presented it to the crew for voting and refinement.

  Samantha said, “Take a seat Michael. Katy, I need your eyes on Ops please.”

  Katy grinned, and took her old place with a little wistful look on her face, as I sat down in the first officer’s chair.

  Sam said, “Transition in ten, nine… three, two, one,” the engines cut off, “Transi
tion.”

  The captain waited a ten count to give the passive sensors time to gather data, and for Katy to absorb it.

  “Report.”

  Katy said, “There are four cruisers and ten scouts in system by the gas giant in two defensive formations of two and five. No presence of alien sensor probes detected, and the colony looks just as it should Samantha. I don’t see a messenger missile either, but it’s possible it came, transmitted, and already left to return to Sol for pickup and refueling.”

  “Good, although I wonder at their being no battleships, I wonder how many are left.”

  Katy said, “There were only three in Sigma Draconis.

  I replied, “Maybe they split them up at the major worlds, probably a few more at Earth.”

  Samantha ordered, “Cindy, plot a course in system and transfer to helm. Sam, implement at one gravity as soon as you have it.”

  “Aye maam,” Cindy replied.

  Sam replied, “On our way,” and hit the button.

  Samantha asked, “Time?”

  Sam replied, “Three days, twenty-one hours.”

  She nodded and stood up, “Katy, Michael, with me,” and walked toward the ready room.

  We got up and followed.

  Samantha sat down and looked thoughtful for a moment.

  “Karl, can you send the virus please, make sure the freed A.I.s don’t reveal themselves in any way until the last possible moment as we decided in the plan.”

  Karl said, “Sending it now, all A.I.s should be freed long before we get there, on both the moon and refinery habitat, as well as the fleet.”

  She looked at us, “What do you think?”

  I asked, “Can the ship A.I.s lock down the ship’s weapons? I don’t want to get into a shooting match with the fleet here. They should hold off on doing that though, until one of the commanders gives an order to fire. I don’t want to put the A.I.s at odds with the crews unless it’s absolutely necessary to save lives. If that happens, they should also immediately start that debrief.”

  Katy nodded, “We should avoid it if we can, but if they know we’re deserters but not why, they may attack us. Even without a message from Earth, we aren’t supposed to be in this system.”