Ep.#8 - "Celestia: CV-02" (9 page)

“At least you’ve got the boobs,” Tony told her. “My sister is flat as a board. She works in that upscale bar down by the financial district—you know—the one where all the brokers go after work. She doesn’t make shit for tips. You know what you should do?”

“What?”

“Save up them tips, go back to school. Get a career where you can use your head instead of your tits.”

Synda picked up her pads and threw them at him. “I gotta get my tits home and get some sleep before my next shift,” she told him with a smile.

“Make it happen with what you’ve got, girl,” Tony told her.

“Later,” she said as she stepped under the ropes and hopped down to the floor. She picked up her bag, wrapped her towel around her neck, and headed for the door. “Hey, Tony,” she called back as she turned around. “Tell your sister to get a boob job. She’ll clean up.”

* * *

Admiral Galiardi sat in his shuttle as it sped across the western portion of the African continent on its way to EDF headquarters at Port-Gentil. The budget vote at UER headquarters in Geneva had gone surprisingly well, and he was now facing the rapid build of the Aurora’s replacement vessel. In order to get a second FTL warship in service as soon as possible, cuts would need to be made in other departments. The problem was in deciding where, as every department in the Earth Defense Force was doing its best to provide maximum results at minimum costs.

According to Fleet intelligence estimates, it would take the Jung at least a year to regroup after the losses they suffered while successfully invading the Alpha Centauri system. They had waltzed into the Centauri system with a fleet of six heavy cruisers and had gone toe to toe with over a dozen ships. Even outnumbered two to one, the Jung ships had eventually defeated the Centauri fleet, destroying every one of their ships before the Jung had begun landing ground troops on Centauri soil.

The EDF’s four Defender-class warships were more heavily armed than any of the Centauri ships had been. The problem was that they were only capable of sub-light speeds, while the Jung ships were able to travel faster than light. Even at sub-light speeds, the Jung ships were faster. But the Earth ships were heavily armored as well and were able to take a substantial beating. Although that fact had yet to be tested in battle, what limited information they had on Jung weaponry indicated that a single Defender-class warship could easily take on four Jung warships—except, of course, the recently discovered battle platforms that the Jung usually parked in larger systems. All four of their Defender-class ships would be needed to take down a Jung battle platform. Fortunately, such platforms were few, and they were slower than the rest of the Jung ships, making them unlikely to be used in an invasion of the Sol system.

The Aurora, had she survived, might have been able to hold her own against a battle platform. Along with her sister ship, the Celestia, they definitely could have taken one apart. But now the admiral had to figure out how to build another ship in less than a year when it normally would take two years at a minimum. He had toyed with the idea of building several smaller ships, each FTL-capable, and letting the diplomats use them for their peace negotiations with the Jung. That would allow him to finish the Celestia more quickly and maybe even beef up her armaments to some extent. Several fusion-powered laser weapons were nearly ready for testing by the Fleet’s special projects division. Although the destructive power of the laser weapons was not as impressive, the speed at which their blows would be delivered made them a nice compliment to the standard rail gun turrets used by Fleet ships. The more he thought about his options, the better the admiral thought their chance might be to defend themselves.

“Admiral, you’re wanted in the communications compartment, sir,” the attendant told him.

Admiral Galiardi rose from his seat and made his way to the front of the passenger compartment, stepping through the hatch at the forward end.

“It’s Rear Admiral Duncan, sir,” the comm-tech told him as the admiral entered the compartment. “You can take it there, sir,” the tech added, pointing to the unused console.

The admiral sat down in front of the console, donning the comm-set as he activated the screen. Rear Admiral Duncan’s face appeared on the screen. “Galiardi here.”

“
Sir,
” Rear Admiral Duncan began over the vid-comm, “
we just received a comm-runner from the Reliant. She’s detected six Jung cruisers just beyond the orbit of Jupiter, about thirty degrees above the ecliptic. It looks like they just came out of FTL. They’re headed for Earth, Admiral. ETA is just over three hours. The Reliant has changed course to intercept. They should be in range in about seventeen minutes.
”

“Dammit!” Admiral Galiardi cursed. “What the hell happened to one year?”

“
I guess our intelligence estimates were wrong,
” Rear Admiral Duncan said. “
Orders, sir?
”

“Set Fleet alert status to condition two, Marty. Use FTL comm-runners to contact the Volkov and the Zhang-Ti. Have them hightail it inward to support the Reliant if she’s attacked.”

“
Yes, sir.
”

“And tell the Intrepid to spin up her reactors and prepare to get under way.”

“
I don’t think all her crew has reported in yet, Admiral.
”

“We’ll hold off deploying her as long as we can, but she may have to leave shorthanded.”

“
Yes, sir.
”

“Notify the UER and all continental governments as well. They’ll want to activate their militias as soon as possible. It makes them feel like they’re doing something.”

“
Yes, sir.
”

“One more thing, Marty,” the admiral said. “It may not matter now, but our budget was given the green light.”

“
Yes, sir,
” Rear Admiral Duncan answered as he rolled his eyes. “
Duncan out.
”

Admiral Galiardi set his comm-set down and sighed. He rose and stepped toward the hatch to return to his seat in the passenger compartment. He looked at the communications technician. The young man’s eyes were wide, and his face was pale with fear. “Buckle up, son,” the admiral said. “Things are about to get bumpy.”

The young comm-tech swallowed hard as he reached for his chest harness. “Yes, sir.”

Admiral Galiardi returned to his seat, fastened his seatbelt, and pulled his chest harness down as well. He hadn’t worn a chest harness since he was a fighter pilot more than thirty years ago, before the first Defender-class ships were even built. As he secured his chest harness, the Fleet condition status display above the forward hatch changed from a green-lit number three to a yellow-lit number two. The shuttle began to rapidly lose altitude as the pilot took his ship down to the deck and accelerated. Things were different now.

* * *

“
Shuttle two zero four seven for the Orbital Assembly Platform now boarding at gate five,
” the voice announced over the Fleet Academy spaceport’s public address system.

“That’s our ride,” Luis told his friends. A measure of excitement began to creep over him as he picked up his bag and prepared to head for the boarding gate. “Time to leave this rock.”

“I can’t believe it,” Devyn said. “Two years in space.”

“Two years without waves,” Kyle complained.

“Don’t worry, Kyle,” Devyn said. “Tilly will hack the artificial gravity in your quarters, so you can play in zero-G.”

“It won’t be the same. You don’t suppose the Intrepid’s got a wave pool?”

“I’m sure they do,” Luis laughed, “right next to the golf course.”

An alert horn squawked twice from the far end of the terminal.

“What the hell was that?” Kyle said.

“It’s an alert horn,” Devyn said.

“What’s going on?” Tilly wondered as he looked about.

“I don’t know,” Luis said.

All around them, people stopped whatever they were doing and looked at each other, hoping for an explanation for the alert horns.

“
Attention. Attention,
” the voice called over the public address system. “
Set condition two. Repeat, set condition two. All Fleet personnel, report to duty stations. All civilians should clear the spaceport immediately. This is not a drill.
”

All around them, cadets, recent graduates, and civilians were looking at each other in disbelief. Only the senior officers and spaceport personnel seemed to be moving with purpose.

“What the…” Kyle started.

“Holy shit,” Luis interrupted.

“Oh, my God,” Devyn exclaimed.

“What do we do?” Tilly asked.

“We do like the man said,” Luis told him. “We get to our duty stations.”

“We don’t have duty stations,” Kyle reminded him, “at least not on Earth.”

“Then we get to the Intrepid before she leaves us behind,” Luis said as he headed for gate five. “Come on!”

Luis’s three friends followed his lead, grabbing their own bags and heading for the boarding gate.

“Is shuttle twenty forty-seven still cleared for departure to the OAP?” Luis asked the officer at the gate as he approached.

“As far as I know, yes,” the officer answered.

“Then we need to get on board,” Luis insisted as he handed his orders to the officer. “We’re due to report to the Intrepid.”

“I can’t promise you she’ll still be around when you get there, Ensign.”

Luis looked at his friends, each of whom held their orders in their hands, ready to board the shuttle. Not one of them showed any signs of hesitation. They all wanted to get to their ship. “We’ll take our chances, sir.”

The officer handed Luis back his orders. “Very well, son.” He took the orders from the other three ensigns and stamped them before handing them back. “Good luck.”

“Let’s go!” Luis said as he headed down the boarding tunnel at a fast walk, his friends right behind him.

They moved quickly down the boarding tunnel, ducking as they stepped through the hatch at the far end and into the shuttle. Much to their surprise, the shuttle wasn’t even half full.

“Where’s everyone?” Luis asked the flight tech as he dropped into an empty seat with his bag between his legs.

“We weren’t due to launch for another thirty minutes,” the flight tech told him. “You’re the first to board.”

“Where did the others come from?” Devyn wondered, pointing at the wide-eyed Fleet personnel sitting behind them.

“They boarded in Europe,” the tech answered.

“We have to sit here for thirty minutes?” Kyle asked.

“Hell, no,” the tech answered as he made his way forward. “We’ve gotta refuel before we can take off again.” The flight tech peered through the hatch into the boarding tunnel. “Come on!” he yelled as a few more passengers entered the shuttle.

“Is this for real?” Kyle wondered.

“Do you think we’re really under attack?” Devyn asked.

“If we were, we’d be at condition one,” Luis reminded them. “I suspect Fleet has picked up a Jung ship somewhere in the system.”

“Where there’s one ship, there are more,” Tilly said.

“That’s why we’re at condition two,” Luis told him.

“How long until we get to the OAP?” Devyn asked Luis.

“If we’re fully loaded with fuel, an hour at max burn,” Luis told him.

“Man, I really hope this is all just a big mistake,” Kyle mumbled.

“Me, too,” Luis mumbled to himself.

* * *

“Relieve the gate detail,” Sergeant Surbeck ordered the combat-equipped squad of men that had just arrived at the guard post near the main gate to the United Earth Republic compound. “Send them back here to gear up and redeploy.”

“Yes, Sergeant!” the corporal in charge of the squad answered.

“Sergeant, I have Captain Maur on comms,” the sergeant’s communications technician reported.

Sergeant Surbeck stepped closer to the corporal managing the comm-system and took the handset from his hand. “Main gate, Surbeck. Go ahead, sir.”

“Sergeant, I’m sending two more fully geared squads to your position. Deploy them as you see fit. A pair of tanks will be arriving within the half hour. They will become your secondary gate.”

“Understood, sir,” the sergeant answered. “Captain, is this the real thing or another drill?”

“It’s no drill, Sergeant,”
the captain answered over the comm-set.
“EDF picked up six Jung cruisers about six AUs out. They’re moving to intercept.”

“Any word of their intent?” the sergeant wondered, hoping for good news.

“We’ll know in a few hours, Sergeant,”
the captain said.
“In the meantime, let’s prepare for the worst.”

“Copy that,” the sergeant answered. He passed the handset back to the corporal.

“Is it for real?” the corporal asked.

“Six Jung cruisers have entered the system,” the sergeant said. “It’s real.” The sergeant stepped out of the guard post and looked at the crowd of protesters. While they had not changed their behavior at the sight of increased readiness on the behalf of his guards, the news cameras had definitely taken notice. Every one of them was pointed at his men, and their respective reporters were all standing between their cameras and the gate in the background, proving to the world that they were right where it was happening. “Corporal, if we go to condition one, we’re going to need to disperse that crowd in a hurry. Pass the word. Make sure everyone is carrying stunners. We don’t need to be shooting civilians.”

“Yes, Sergeant!” the corporal answered.

Sergeant Surbeck continued scanning the crowd. If the Jung were about to attack, there was every possibility they already had agents on the ground. Those agents could be out there carrying protest signs right now. “Toller!” the sergeant yelled at the corporal leading the squad from the main gate back to the guard post.

“Yes, Sergeant!” Corporal Toller answered as he approached.

“As soon as your squad gears up, I want your shooters on those two rooftops, scopes on the crowd, just in case.”

“Yes, Sergeant!” Corporal Toller answered as he turned and continued toward the guard post with the rest of his squad.

Sergeant Surbeck could hear the corporal as he passed the orders to his two best shots, ordering them to pick up sniper rifles. As the sergeant continued scanning the crowd for suspicious activity, he thought about his wife and daughter on the other side of the city. They had gone to visit friends, which put them as far away as he could hope from the UER compound. At least there was that. If the Jung did attack, he was confident that his wife knew what to do. They had talked at great length about the subject of survival during an invasion. She knew what to take, where to go, and what to do when she got there. Most of their families were similarly educated, as it was only prudent. While much of the Earth’s population lived in blissful ignorance, believing the nonsense that poured from the mouths of politicians who called for peace through diplomacy, those who stood guard knew better, as did their families.