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19

Yan knocked on his stateroom door six hours later. It wasn’t a perfect rest, but it was enough. He opened the door and let her in.

“I take it you want to chat,” he said, making his way to his regular chair while she sat at the table again. He poured them both some water and they drank.

“I’ll get right to the point,” Yan said. “There is some questioning among the crew of our pursuit of the Earth Ark. Many think we have been through a harrowing time and fought battles we were never intended to fight. Remember, we had a small crew to begin with and we’ve lost two—”

“We didn’t ‘lose’ Wilcock,” he interrupted, “I executed him.”

Yan paused before continuing. “Agreed, sir. But we are down on personnel and most of the crew is not military trained. They’re techs and scientists and geo survey specialists. If you hadn’t picked up those four middies—”

“Yes, but I did,” he said, interrupting again. “because I knew we might need some military muscle. What’s your point, commander?”

“My point is this is not a gunship, regardless of what this hull used to do in the War of the 5 Suns. It is a prototype FTL ship sent on a science mission to test a revolutionary drive, survey three planets for possible colonization, and then return. Instead we have been involved in several military altercations and it appears you want to involve us in more. Many of the crew want to go home, to their husbands, wives and families, not fight another battle against a far superior enemy,” she said.

Clement contemplated her points. They were all well taken. He had a decision to make.

“And the fact that I will likely be arrested when I return to Kemmerine Station, and be tried as a traitor—do they think I’m delaying our return because of that?” he asked.

“Some do. Most just want us to go home. We’re overdue as it is, so it’s likely DeVore will send an unmanned probe to find out what happened to us soon, if not already.”

“And the fact that many of them will likely be interrogated and possibly charged with treason for following my orders when we get back to Kemmerine Station?”

“I don’t believe that’s a strong consideration, sir. They’re focused on getting home in one piece.” Clement refilled their water glasses and drank again while he thought.

“And what about you, Commander? Where do you stand? Do we find out what that Earth Ark is up to? Or do we turn tail and run home?” he said.

“My heart says we should leave and come back with more force—”

“If we’re not court-martialed. And if we can trust Admiral DeVore, which I don’t believe we can,” he replied.

Yan’s frustration peaked and she stood up to face him. “If you’d let me finish . . . ” she said. He nodded. “My heart says we should cut our losses, but my head knows by the time we get back Trinity may be in the hands of the Earth Ark forces, forever. And that’s not the kind of future I want to leave for the natives, let alone the long-term consequences for the worlds of the 5 Suns. These natives are a good and sweet people, and we need to give them every chance to live their lives as they choose.”

At that Clement stood. “One more thing I need to know, Commander. If I choose to continue pursuit of the Earth Ark, will you be with me and follow my orders?” he said.

She stared at him from across the room.

“I will, Captain. I will follow your orders whatever decision you make, whether I agree with that decision or not,” she said.

He looked back at her, studying her eyes. Her gaze was steady and unwavering. In that moment he had never been more attracted to her. She was becoming a fine officer, but she was also an extraordinary woman.

“Tell the crew I will address them in the cargo bay in five minutes,” he said. She nodded, and then left his cabin. Clement went to his sink and washed up, then wiped his face. His next choice would be decisive, and possibly seal the fate of the Beauregard and her crew. He was ready.

He left his cabin, heading for the cargo bay.


The crew had gathered as he came down the gantry stairs, stopping on the metal landing about ten feet up, overlooking them. Yan stood next to him. The other bridge crew would listen in on the ship-wide com. He looked down at the assembled crew, looked at their faces, seeing them not as his crew, but as men and women who had been exemplary in their loyalty and performance under great duress and personal sacrifice.

He took a deep breath in before beginning.

“Loyal crew of the Beauregard. Commander Yan has done her duty and brought your concerns to my attention. I understand the desire to return home. It has been a long and difficult mission, and not one that you had expected this when you volunteered. I never intended this to become a military mission, but clearly Admiral DeVore did, as she sought out an experienced military captain to command it. I ask you to consider once more the fact that some of us, most likely me, will face charges when we return to 5 Suns Alliance space. I cannot tell you that has not crossed my mind. But I will say that it has not affected my decision-making. I believe we have made the right choices both for our own survival and for the natives we encountered on Bellus. I desire for them to live free, not as slaves to some heartless empire back on Earth that has most likely passed into history already.”

He paused.

“My decision to pursue the Earth Ark is to determine her intent. She may be, for all we know, prepping to exit this system and return home. But the point is, we don’t know. And I think it is vital that we find out why she left Bellus, and what her intent is, whether in this system, or some other. I have ordered a pursuit course to find out what her intentions are, whether we can do anything about it, or if retreat is our best option. I will not attack that ship without further provocation, and I do not want more battle. I had enough of that in the War of the 5 Suns.

“So each of you has a decision to make. Will you stay loyal to me and give me the two or three days I need to catch the Earth Ark and determine her intentions, or will you demand of me that we return home now, and leave this system and her people to an unknown fate? And one last point, although this is not a democracy, and I am not bound to your decision, I will follow what you decide, regardless of the personal cost to me.”

He looked down over the faces of his crew. Seventeen people stared up at him, and besides Nobli, Pomeroy, Tsu and Telco, he didn’t really know any of them. He had left his fate to these people.

“Please let me know your desires by either leaving the deck if you wish to return to Kemmerine, or staying for thirty more seconds if you wish to see out the mission of locating the Earth Ark and determining her intentions.” He held out his hands. “If you wish to return home, you may leave the deck now,” he said.

Two techs quickly departed, and others moved around or shuffled their feet, but they all stayed focused on their captain. Yan watched the time on her watch and then dropped it to her side to indicate the thirty seconds was up. Clement looked to his crew and smiled.

“Thank you for putting your trust in me,” he said, then went up the stairs to his bridge. Behind him, he heard Yan’s voice call out:

“Ship’s company, dismissed!”

He smiled.


Once on the bridge he took an informal poll of Mika, Ivan, and Adebayor. They were all with him. Yan followed him in and took her station.

“Orders, Captain?” she said.

Clement turned to Ensign Adebayor. “Ensign . . . I have to confess I’ve forgotten your first name?” he said.

“It’s Kayla, sir,” she replied with a smile.

“Kayla, what do you have for me on the Earth Ark?”

“Nothing visual, I’m afraid, sir. She’s out of range of our telescope and scanners. But I do have a track for her based on her Ion plasma propulsion emissions. She made first for Camus—the third habitable world and fifth in the system—made multiple orbits there, then left a track as she accelerated away toward a course that would take her between the two gas planets in the outer part of the system.”

“Could that track put her on a vector to escape the system? Do we know if she left any forces on Camus?” Clement asked.

“She is not on an escape vector as far as my analysis shows,” cut in Ivan Massif. “From what I can tell she is heading for a Lagrange point between the two gas planets. The two planets are very close together, the outer one being .015 AU from the larger, inner planet,” said Massif.

“And how far is the inner gas planet from Camus?” asked Clement.

“0.008 AU, Captain.”

“And how far are we here at Bellus from Camus?”

“0.09 AU, sir.”

Clement crossed his arms, thinking. “Add it up for me, Ivan. How much time to each destination?”

“Given the relative positions of the planets—and they do orbit at differing speeds despite their close proximity—I make it sixteen hours to Camus with a 1.25 g burn, sir,” said Massif.

“What if we made it a 1.5 g burn?” he asked.

Mika Ori chimed in here. “I was thinking of the comfort of the crew, sir, but at 1.5 g we could cut that to twelve hours.”

Clement didn’t hesitate. “Let’s do it at 1.5 g. How long will the burn have to be to get to Camus in twelve hours?”

“I’d like to make one more full orbit after this one, sir, to pick up some momentum. The navigator and I will set the vector to Camus, but I’d like to go closer to Bellus to take advantage of her gravity to sling shot us, sir. I make it twenty-eight minutes until our burn, then another nineteen minutes for the 1.5 g burn, sir,” Ori said.

“And then at least two orbits of Camus once we arrive to verify whether the Earth Ark left any forces there,” said Clement, rubbing his chin as he thought.

“Thirty-nine minutes to make an orbit of Camus, sir,” said Ori without Clement even asking.

The captain looked up to Massif.

“Once we establish a vector to the Lagrange point, another twelve-minute burn at 1.5 g to get us out there to .045 AU, sir. Nine hours estimated travel time,” finished Massif.

“That’s assuming she’s still out there,” Clement said. It all added up to about twenty-six hours of maneuvering.

He turned back to Adebayor. “Good work, Ensign Kayla. I’ll be needing long-range scans of Camus well before our arrival to see if they left us any surprises,” Clement said.

“Yes, sir,” she replied enthusiastically.

He turned to Yan. “Inform the crew of our schedule, Commander. Everyone can ride the burn out in their couches if they like. It looks like the best time to get some rest will be during the twelve-hour flight time to Camus. I want to make sure we have at least two of you on the bridge at all times. Oh, and Mika and Ivan, I know how much you like, uh, spending your time off together, but I’ll need one of you on the bridge at all times, for safety’s sake.”

The Beauregard’s pilot gave him a mock pout and then turned back to her station.

Massif just shrugged his shoulders. “Of course, sir,” he said.

“Ensign Kayla,” Clement said to Adebayor, “you’re relived for the next six hours unless called.”

“Aye, sir,” she said.

He turned to Ori. “Mika, once the burns are completed I want you in your quarters as well for six hours. You can relieve your husband at that point. Same for you, Yan, six hours down time, beginning immediately,” Clement ordered.

“And what about you, Captain?” Yan asked.

“You can relieve me at the end of your rest period. I can’t promise I’ll sleep during that time, but I’ll try,” replied Clement. “In the meantime I’ll stay on my bridge. I like it here,” he said. Yan and Adebayor started to exit the bridge, Adebayor yawning as she departed.

Yan lingered for a second, then whispered to Clement, “I’ll have Pomeroy issue you a five-hour-timed sleep pill,” she said.

“You know I hate those things,” he whispered back.

“As your exec, I’m not giving you a choice, Captain,” she finished, then left for her quarters.


Two hours after the burn and acceleration and well into the rest shifts, Clement took a break, leaving Massif alone on the bridge to relieve himself for a few minutes. As he went down the six metal steps to the command cabins, he saw motion at the end of the hall. He had given Lieutenant Pomeroy Captain Wilcock’s old stateroom, and he was surprised to see the back end of Ensign Telco departing her cabin. He watched as they kissed goodbye at the doorway, and Telco left without noticing him in the hall, heading back down the gantry steps to the missile room. Pomeroy, for her part, did see him, and came up to him as if to give an explanation. Clement attempted to wave her off with both hands.

“No explanation needed, Lieutenant,” he said in a low, almost whispered, voice.

She kept coming anyway.

“You deserve to know what’s happening on your ship, sir,” she said in an equally low voice. Clement put his hands behind his back, attentive, but saying nothing.

“Since the sex pond incident on Bellus, sir, Ensign Telco has developed a sort of youthful attachment to me,” she said.

“Anyone can see that, Lieutenant,” replied Clement with a slight smile.

“I have tried repeatedly to discourage him, as you know where my preferences lie in regards to . . . intimate relations,” she said.

“Of course.”

“Well the fact is this crew is mostly men and the other women frankly either don’t share my interests or they just don’t fancy me. So I finally gave in to Ensign Telco’s affections. He’s a very likeable kid, sir. And I’m sure he’s learning a lot,” she said.

Clement smiled broader. “And that’s all to his benefit,” he said. Pomeroy looked at him, then looked away. “Just don’t let him get too attached,” Clement warned.

She nodded. “Duly noted. I just wanted you to know, sir,” she said.

“Thank you, Lieutenant. Carry on.” She smiled and nodded again, then headed back to her cabin.

Clement returned to the bridge. “Ivan,” he said to his navigator, “I think it’s time you had a brief break. Everything is on automatic pilot and I can certainly handle any emergencies from here for a few minutes.”

“That’s very kind of you, sir,” said Massif.

Clement looked down at his console before he spoke again. “I was thinking fifteen minutes, perhaps even twenty, if you think that would be . . . enough time?”

“I do, sir. Twenty minutes should be more than enough. Sir,” Massif said, smiling broadly at his captain’s generosity. He quickly transferred full control to Clement’s console and then rushed down the stairs to his cabin.

Clement shook his head and smiled.


Yan did indeed force him to take the five-hour sleeping pill, and he happily slept, waking on time to clean up and get back to his bridge, which was once again fully manned. He sat down in his seat and pulled his console closer to him. He checked his status board and saw all green on the ship’s systems. He pushed the console aside. “Reports,” he said loudly. His staff turned to face him. He wanted to hear it from them directly, not read it on some com board. “Our position, Lieutenant Ori?”

She turned from her console. Her face was flushed and her hair was slightly mussed from her encounter with her husband, but Clement could tell she was in good spirits. “Decelerating toward the planet Camus, sir. Our vector will put us in an orbit of four hundred sixty-two kilometers above the planet’s surface,” she said. “The navigator did an excellent job,” she said, smiling.

Now Massif turned from his station, also smiling. “Really, sir, the credit goes to the pilot. She executed my instructions and followed my direction perfectly,” he said.

“Well, congratulations to you both for an excellent . . . planetary insertion. Carry on,” Clement said. Yan giggled audibly at that. Clement stood and quickly changed the subject from orbital mechanics.

“Ensign Adebayor, can you report on the course and speed of the Earth Ark?”

Adebayor stood up from her station to address her captain. “Tracing the propulsion track of the Earth Ark I can now say with more certainty that they were here approximately forty-eight hours ago. They made three orbits, then used the planet’s gravity to accelerate on to the next location, the Lagrange point between the two gas planets,” she said.

“Well done, Ensign,” the captain said, then addressed the full bridge crew. “We’ll make three orbits, as they did, then use the planet’s gravity to accelerate away to the Lagrange point. Somewhere in there, we’ll hopefully get a line of sight of them in open space. That will be up to you, Ensign,” he said, nodding to Adebayor. “Your radio telescope will have to find them.”

“Understood, sir,” she said.

Clement addressed Ori again. “Take us into orbit, Pilot,” he said.

“Aye, sir.”

“Commander Yan, conduct a survey of the habitable side of Camus, see if it matches up with the unmanned probe’s observations. And please look for signs of natives,” he said.

“Aye, sir,” replied Yan.


It took another forty minutes for the Beauregard to achieve a stable orbit over Camus, initially on her permanent dark side. The ship came around quickly to the sun-facing side of the tidal-locked planet. Clement examined the 5 Suns Alliance probe’s records on the planet. Camus was approximately fifteen percent larger than her inner neighbor, Bellus, but just as pleasant according to the probe’s records. Her mass was 0.68 of standard, but very close to the 0.62 of Bellus. The principal difference in the worlds was that the main land mass of Camus was in a ring around a large central saltwater ocean, which made it look like an eyeball planet. Several islands, some that almost qualified as minor continents, dotted the ocean. The planet was warm and inviting, and seemed just as bright a prospect for colonization as her two sister worlds.

By the time they made their way to the light side of Camus her large central ocean was a gleaming blue, even in the dim red light of her tiny Trinity sun. Yan’s scans showed Camus had a high oxygen content, higher even than Bellus, with an average planetary temperature of 20.5 Celsius from nearly pole to pole. Not quite as warm as Bellus, but still quite comfortable, and a positively blissful twenty-four Celsius at the equator, where a convenient string of nine large islands/small continents dotted the ocean. The band of central warmth that ran diagonally across the planet was nearly thirty-seven hundred kilometers wide, and the large islands were all comfortably ensconced in that region, both north and south of her equatorial line.

“Good design,” muttered Clement as he read Yan’s report. She heard him, and came to his station.

“There is something else,” she said, with some trepidation.

“Something you didn’t put it in your report? Why not?”

“Because I’m not sure of the scans. Each of those islands showed . . . anomalies.”

Clement shifted in his chair. “Define ‘anomalies,’ Commander.”

“I can’t be certain, but each of those islands had mountains that were . . . highly regular in shape and height. Geometrically regular. Like . . . ” She trailed off and looked away, almost as if she were unable to say it.

“Say it, Commander.”

“Like . . . pyramids, sir.”

“Pyramids? As in . . . constructed objects? Why wouldn’t the previous probes have picked them up?”

“The automated probes were only designed for basic evaluation and survey, not for detailed exploration, sir. Also, the pyramids are offset in such a way as to appear to be a bit more natural. They could have easily escaped the probe’s analysis. Sir, these pyramids, their scale is off the charts. Kilometers high. If they are constructs, no technology known to humanity could have built them,” Yan said.

“What would their purpose be?”

“That I certainly can’t say. But it is a mystery, one worth exploring further, in my opinion.”

Clement thought about that. It was quite possible that DeVore had learned about these pyramids from the previous probe’s telemetry, and he surmised that could be another reason why she wanted control of this system so badly. Possible alien technology . . .

“Lieutenant Ori,” he said. “Can we adjust our orbit on the next pass to fly over the equatorial islands and not disrupt our escape vector?”

“Let me check,” she replied, looking down on her handheld tablet and running quick calculations. “We can do it, yes, sir. It will take a sixty-second thruster burn on our next dark-side pass”—she looked up at the ship’s clock—“in thirteen minutes.”

“Do it,” Clement said. Then he went to Adebayor’s station, trailed by Yan.

“Ensign, we’re going to need full observational scans on each of the equatorial islands. There are some mountains there that Commander Yan wants to take a closer look at. She’ll pass on the coordinates.”

“Aye, sir. What type of scans, Commander?” said Adebayor to Yan.

“Infrared. X-ray. Ground-penetrating radar, if you’ve got it, and high-resolution color photographs. Can we do all that?” asked Yan.

Adebayor nodded. “We can, sir. However, at our current orbital speed it will be difficult to get all nine islands. How many do you need?”

“A minimum of three, but five would be preferable,” replied Yan.

“I can do five, sir. I’ll set up an algorithm to optimize the procedure.”

“Can you have it ready by our next light-side pass?” the captain asked, looking at his watch. “That’s in thirty-six minutes.”

“Can do, sir.”

“Thank you, Ensign.”

Mika Ori executed the thruster maneuver without incident, and they were soon on the light side of Camus again. Adebayor began taking her pictures as Yan monitored them in real-time from her station. Clement watched as a worrying frown came across his first officer’s face. He put it down to her concentrating on the data, rather than her displeasure with what she was seeing. It took about fifteen minutes for Adebayor to complete her scans of the five islands Yan needed to make her assessment, and another twenty for Yan to analyze the results before she looked up at her captain.

“I’d like to consult with you in your cabin, Captain,” she said in a noncommittal tone.

“Of course,” he replied to her, then addressed Ori. “Time to our escape burn, Pilot?”

“From our current position to the initial burn point on the dark side, thirty-eight minutes, Captain,” she said, then added: “It will be a 1.50 g burn, for seven minutes, sir.”

“Set the ship’s clock to count down to that point, Pilot. Navigator, are we still on vector for an escape burn that will take us to the Lagrange point between planets six and seven?”

“We are, sir,” replied Massif.

“Prep the crew for the escape burn. Inform them safety couches are not required but they can be used at their discretion,” said Clement.

“Aye, sir,” said Massif with a nod.

“The commander and I will be in my cabin for the next . . . ten minutes or so?” he said, turning to Yan for confirmation. She nodded. He caught Mika Ori’s eye as Yan passed him to go down the steps to his cabin, and she winked at him. He shook his head and mouthed “no,” letting Ori know this was ship’s business, not playtime.

He entered his cabin and shut the door behind him, joining Yan at his conference table. “You have something to report, Commander?”

“Yes, sir. Sir, those mountains . . . even from the scans that I received, which are not definitive, they are not mountains, sir. They measure almost identical in height, dimensions, square kilometers of their bases, all close enough to identical to make their differences meaningless.” She pulled out her tablet and slid it across the table to Clement. “Scroll through the next five photos,” she said.

Clement looked at the first one, a high-definition shot of the first island. The “mountain” was covered in greenery, the base surrounded by rich vegetation. Out of the top there was a plume of white vapor emerging. He slid to the next photo, which was at a different angle but showed essentially the same thing, without the plume. The next three photos were also similar, with some minor variations. Two of those photos showed the plumes.

“What am I looking at here, Commander?” he said.

She sat back in her chair as he slid the tablet back to her. “Essentially, Captain, these are not natural formations. They are architectural constructs, placed on Camus by some unknown intelligent entities.”

“Human?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Unlikely. From what we’ve seen of Earth technology from the Ark ship they don’t seem to have the scale for it. If we assume Earth technology is approximately equal with the level of the 5 Suns Alliance, then this is beyond them. It’s certainly beyond us.”

“Could this be technology from another Earth colony? One that was established after the 5 Suns Alliance?” he asked. She leaned forward again.

“It’s been four centuries since the 5 Suns Alliance colonies were established. Another colony certainly could have been established somewhere in another star system, but no one who immigrated from the Sol system ever mentioned it. As far as we know, the 5 Suns Alliance is the only colony Earth ever established. And my guess would be that if another colony was founded, they’d have had a very difficult time reaching this level of technology so quickly.”

“You keep referring to it as ‘technology,’ but all I see are very large hills. Artificial, yes, but what are they for?” asked Clement.

“Terraforming,” said Yan. “Those plumes you see are a combination of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and trace organic materials. Whoever made these pyramids is clearly engaged in terraforming, and it appears to be an ongoing process. My studies show the ocean depth between the islands to be somewhere between ten and twenty meters. It is my belief that these ‘islands’ were once part of a single land mass. The ocean levels have risen over time and much of the land mass is now below the waterline.”

“How long would a process like that take?”

“My best guess is about five centuries, but I’m no geologist, though we do have one on board. Should I put that question to him?”

“No,” said Clement. He looked at the tablet pictures again. “What about—”

“Inhabitants? I have found some indication that they are down there, though obviously in a primitive social state, much like Mary and our friends on Bellus,” Yan said.

“Now I can see why Admiral DeVore wants this system so badly. It’s a treasure trove of natural resources and advanced technology, whether that technology is human or . . . otherwise. Let’s keep this between you and me for now, Yan. We won’t be going down to Camus on this trip, that much is certain. I suggest we go back to our bridge and concentrate on our escape burn to the Lagrange point.”

“Yes, sir,” said Yan, taking back her tablet. Right at that moment Clement’s com chimed in. It was Ivan Massif from the bridge.

“Captain, we may have a situation up here,” he said, speaking with urgency in his voice.

“We’ll be right there.”

With that Clement and Yan were up and out of his cabin and heading to the bridge.


“The bogey has been shadowing us for seven minutes now, sir,” said Mika Ori.

Clement looked at his tactical display and found a small black dot tracking their every move. “Where did it come from?”

“After using our telemetry to retrace its track, we picked it up on the last pass over the dark side of Camus. My guess is it was on the surface just waiting for us to pass by overhead,” replied Massif.

“Yes, but was it left here by the Earth Ark or by . . . someone else?” Clement asked.

“Someone else? Who could that be?” asked Ori.

Clement deflected that question with another. “Can we get a shot of it from one of our scanners or cameras, Ensign Adebayor?”

“Trying now, sir,” she replied.

Clement turned back to Ori. “What’s her speed?”

“Matching ours exactly, sir,” replied Ori.

“Distance?”

“Ten thousand kilometers and holding, sir.”

Clement looked up at the ship’s clock; still seventeen minutes to the Beauregard’s escape burn. He called down to Nobli in the reactor room. “Hassan, how much time would you need to prep the LEAP engine for another in-system jump?” he asked.

“To where?” replied Nobli.

“To the Lagrange point between the two outer gas giants.”

Nobli hesitated. “I can warm her now, sir, but I don’t recommend we keep making these short jumps as a matter of course. Is it absolutely necessary?”

“I don’t know that yet, Engineer,” Clement replied.

“Sir,” said Nobli over the com, “these short jumps put an awful lot of stress on the reactor casings. You’re releasing a tremendous amount of energy in a very short time frame. The reactor was designed to run constantly for long durations, like a thirty-four-day journey. It wasn’t designed to be used for microsecond jumps inside star systems, or as a weapon, for that matter.”

“I hear you, Engineer,” said Clement. “Can I trust you to hold her together two or three more times?”

“I can’t guarantee that, sir, in all honesty.”

Clement thought about the situation. Nobli’s honesty gave him pause. They had a little over fifteen minutes to the escape burn, which would almost certainly place them in a hostile environment. The likelihood he would need the weapon again seemed high, but he couldn’t use it on their mysterious pursuer, nor could he use missiles. He’d have to turn the ship for that, and if the bogey attacked, they could get caught in the middle of their turn maneuver.

“Warm the LEAP reactor, Engineer. Coordinate with the navigator on our destination point. We may have to use the LEAP engine to escape the situation we find ourselves in. Prompt me at my command console when she’s ready. If we have to make the jump to the Lagrange point, I’ll need you to keep the reactor up and running in case we have to use the weapon. Understood?”

“Understood, sir. But if she cracks . . . we could lose the ship. Hell, half the solar system. And there’s still the issue of the return trip home.”

“Acknowledged, Nobli. Proceed as ordered,” Clement said, then signed off. “Ensign Adebayor, do we have an analysis of the bogey yet?”

“Just coming up now, sir,” she replied.

“Show me.”

The tactical display lit up with a basic outline of a flat-headed cylinder with a protruding end cap. A simple design, with a high-yield atomic thrust cluster in the back. “Radiation scan?”

“Just coming in now, sir,” said Yan from her station. “Indications of a two-kiloton warhead attached, sir.”

Clement stepped down from his station and looked at the design as it spun on the tactical display in a 3D graphics presentation. “This is a hunter-killer,” he said. “An automated weapon designed to be used to hunt targets stealthily until it unleashes its full power on the target. My guess is she can accelerate to overtake us any time she wants. In such a situation, we’d only have seconds to respond. These kinds of weapons were outlawed in the War of the 5 Suns because the use of AI was considered immoral. But our enemies seem to have no such moral compunction against using them.” He hurried back to his station. The LEAP engine icon was green, indicating the reactor was warm enough to be put into use, albeit in an increasingly dangerous maneuver.

“Pilot, increase speed to 1.25 g,” he called. That was the minimum required for their escape burn.

“1.25 g, aye, sir.”

Clement turned to Yan. “Inform the crew we may be experiencing higher than expected g-force acceleration. Tell them to prep for a possible LEAP jump. Everyone not required to run the reactor to acceleration couches.”

“Aye, sir,” said Yan, then repeated Clement’s instructions on the ship-wide com.

“Report, pilot.”

“Bogey has increased speed to 1.25 g. Now 1.3 gs. Now 1.5. Continuing to accelerate, sir.”

“Thrusters to three gs, pilot,” said Clement, raising his voice.

“Sir, not all the crew has signaled ready,” chimed in Yan.

“No time. They’ll have to rough it out,” Clement responded as Ori hit the thrusters and the weight of three-g acceleration pushed him back in his couch. He watched the tactical display.

“Bogey has increased speed. 3.5 gs and range is closing. Estimate intercept in one hundred forty-one seconds, sir. Bogey speed now 5.25 gs and continuing to accelerate. Should I activate the main burn thruster, sir?” said Ori.

“Negative. Navigator?”

“Vector established for LEAP jump, but not as precise as I’d like,” said Massif, struggling against gravity to get the words out.

“Bogey at six gs, sir,” grunted out Ori. “Seventeeeeeen . . . seconds . . . to . . . inter . . . cept . . . ”

There was no choice now. With difficulty, he pulled his console close with just seconds to spare . . .

Clement woke up on the floor below his station. He’d neglected to strap in before the LEAP engine was activated. He wanted to vomit, and retched for a few seconds before his head stopped spinning and he stabilized. Mika Ori ran past him, holding her hand to her mouth as she ran for her cabin. He lifted a heavy hand to grip his couch and dragged himself up to his station. The tactical telemetry showed him his ship was decelerating at a steady rate, 2.5 gs, 2.4, and so on. He looked to Yan. She was pale and drawn-looking but at least she’d had the sense to strap in. Mika returned to the bridge in about a minute. Massif gave her a comforting hug.

“Status report,” Clement said, his voice cracking. Ori chimed in first.

“Decelerating to one g, Captain. We should be there in about three minutes,” she said. Clement sat more upright in his couch.

“What’s our position, Navigator?”

“We overshot the Lagrange point by 0.000086 AU, sir, about thirteen thousand kilometers. I told you we couldn’t be precise.”

“Acknowledged. Ensign Adebayor, what’s the status of the Earth Ark? Is she at the Lagrange point? Can you find her?”

“Negative, sir. It looks like she pushed on toward the outer gas planet at some point, but her trail is still fresh. Estimate we’re less than eight hours behind her,” said Adebayor. Clement turned his attention back to Ori.

“Set speed at 1.5 g for the duration, Pilot, pursuit course.” Ori hesitated a second before replying, as if reluctant to follow her orders. Finally, she gave an “Aye, sir” and complied. A second later Nobli was chiming in on Clement’s com.

“Report, Engineer.”

“We have a broken reactor, sir,” said Nobli with just a trace of resignation in his voice. “I warned you this could happen. Microfractures in the reactor casing, sir. One or a million of those mini anti-matter universes we annihilate every second could have escaped through the cracks. We got lucky, sir.”

“Better lucky than dead, Engineer. How long until the reactor can be repaired?” said Clement.

“I’m not sure it can be repaired. It will have to be scrapped and replaced when we get back to Kemmerine, sir.”

“We can’t get back to Kemmerine in our lifetimes if it can’t be repaired. Unacceptable, Engineer. Give me an alternative.”

“Oh, I can patch the micro-fissures, if I can find them all, with carbon-fiber nanotubes and the like, but she’s forever fractured, and I can’t guarantee she won’t implode on us if we try to jump like that again. Once she’s patched we can likely run her in a steady-state condition for the trip home, but that’s about all I can promise you.”

“And the weapon?”

“Untenable at this time, Captain,” snapped Nobli with a touch of anger in his voice that the captain would even ask such a thing. Clement thought about that, but not for long. He needed his MAD capability.

“Get to work with Ensign Tsu and borrow any techs you need to patch the casing.”

“That will take many hours, Captain.”

“Understood, Nobli. You have about eight, maybe less. But . . . I may need that reactor to hold on long enough to use the weapon again.”

“I don’t recommend that,” said Nobli flatly.

“Note your protest in the engineer’s log. My orders stand. Prep her for use as a weapon, and make sure she has enough left over to get us home,” snapped Clement, then he cut the line. Like it or not, this had to work. It had too.


Thirty minutes later and Clement was in his cabin, monitoring all the ship’s functions. The hunter-killer had vainly tried to catch the Beauregard and stayed on her intercept course even after the gunship had made her LEAP jump. Telemetry showed it eventually burned through its fuel supply and would now drift through the Trinity system on the same trajectory for eons, no longer a threat to anyone. He noted its location. They could intercept it on a future mission or destroy it outright. But not now. For now it was just flying in a straight line with no more fuel, drifting alone in space.

Scans along the path of the Earth Ark indicated they were closing in on her, but precisely what she was doing out here at the edge of the Trinity system near two uninhabitable planets was uncertain. It was something he wanted to figure out before they made the LEAP home, rather than leave the system undefended. And, if he was honest, he still wanted to disable or destroy the thing, if possible. It was a risk worth taking, in his eyes.

The knock on his door came from Yan, as expected. What she presented to him, though, was not.

“Most of the crew want to go home, now,” she said as she sat across from him at his worktable, her hands clasped together. She was all business. “Rumors have gotten around that the LEAP drive is compromised, but that you still may want to use her as a weapon—”

“Nobli . . . ” started Clement, shaking his head, angry at his engineer. Yan continued talking over her captain.

“It was Ensign Tsu that alerted me, Captain, not Nobli. To continue, most of the crew are now against further conflict. They think you’re risking the ship to get revenge.”

“Revenge? On whom or what would I be taking this revenge?” Clement demanded. He did not like the tone or direction this conversation was taking.

“The Earthers, for killing Daniel. DeVore. The entire 5 Suns Alliance. There are plenty of conspiracy theories going around.” Clement sat back, rocking in his chair briskly as he contemplated her, and the implications of this situation.

“We already had a vote, Commander. They agreed to pursue the Earth Ark until its location and purpose could be determined. We are still on that mission. My hope is that the MAD weapon never has to be used again, but we need it for our own protection, just in case we get into a tactically untenable situation. I still intend to take this ship home, but perhaps not on the crew’s schedule.” He looked at his watch, synchronized with the ship’s clock on the bridge. “In less than six hours we should be able to observe the Earth Ark. She has slowed her speed consistent with decelerating to a destination. What the destination is, I don’t know. But I intend to find out,” he said.

“So you refuse to take us home at this time?”

He nodded. “That’s my decision, and I thought it was the crew’s as well.”

At that Yan got up and went to his cabin door, opening it from the inside. Several crew members, led by Lieutenant Pomeroy, came into the room, some standing outside the doorway, filling the hall. He recognized Telco and Tsu among them, but none of the bridge crew. Pomeroy, Telco and Tsu were armed with cobra pistols.

“So it’s to be a mutiny, Yan?” Clement said, standing but staying as cool as he could under the circumstances. “After you swore your allegiance to me more than once? And now it’s come to this? I overestimated you, Commander, and you’re honesty.”

“I have family in the 5 Suns Alliance, Jared, you know that,” she said.

“All of us do,” added Pomeroy. Yan looked to the deck, then back up at Clement.

“Captain Jared Clement, in the name of the 5 Suns Alliance Navy I am hereby”—she paused here and took a deep breath—“relieving you of command of the 5SN gunship Beauregard under Article Three, Section 5.1a of the Navy Code of Justice. You will remain in this cabin under confinement to quarters until further notice. When we return to Kemmerine Station you will be turned over to the Naval Military Service for your court-martial to be adjudicated. Do you understand this order?” she said, implying her rank was now higher than his.

“I do,” replied Clement. “But may I remind all of you that you swore an oath to follow me, not the 5 Suns Alliance Navy Command, just a few hours ago. All of you will likely stand trial for that action, and whatever justice I receive I’m sure you are likely to receive something similar from the 5SN. So, if you wish to go through with this, just be reminded that the penalty for mutiny under both the 5 Suns Alliance and the old Rim Confederation Code of Justice is death by hanging. If that’s what you wish to risk, I can’t stop you. But the fact is, that I am far more likely to be lenient with you than Admiral DeVore will be. May I remind you she sabotaged this mission by giving us fake nuclear missiles. She gave this ship, and all of your lives, up as a sacrifice just so she could see what kind of threat this Earth Ark presented. If that is the person you wish to follow now, I won’t resist you. But think on this: We have the means and ability to finish off this threat from the Earth Ark, and guarantee this system is free of outside threats to its native peoples. This will give the 5 Suns, and each of your families, a fighting chance to survive for the next hundred years, and beyond. But if we lose this system, we could lose everything, our entire civilization, in our lifetimes. If you wish to follow your current course, then so be it. There’s nothing more I can do.” At this Clement sat down, resigned to his fate.

A second later, things changed. Ensign Telco pointed his pistol at Tsu and then disarmed him, tossing the weapon to Clement, who caught it and trained it on Pomeroy. The ship’s medic also handed her weapon to Telco, who backed up to Clement’s side of the room, and the mutineers began slowly raising their hands.

“There will be no mutiny on my watch,” said Telco. “The captain’s right. I swore loyalty to him and to this mission. And we can’t trust Admiral DeVore, that much is for sure.”

“Thank you, Mr. Telco,” said Clement. “We can’t have this on board the Beauregard. A mutiny, failed or not, cannot stand. We have to trust each other for this to work.” He powered down his cobra pistol and walked over, handing it to Yan. Telco followed his lead, giving his guns back to Tsu and Lieutenant Pomeroy. None of the guns were raised now. Clement hit the com button.

“Engineer Nobli, there are some very concerned people in my cabin who think we should return home to Kemmerine Station immediately. Is that possible?” he said.

“Another few hours of patching the reactor and we could do it, sir,” replied Nobli.

“Fine. Another question, Hassan. Since you’re the only one on board who can operate the reactor, would you activate it if someone besides me was giving you the order to go back home to Kemmerine?”

“Kemmerine was never my home, sir. Argyle is; you know that. And I will follow no one’s orders but yours, sir. You saved my life a dozen times in the Rim Confederation Navy.”

“Thank you, Hassan,” Clement said, then cut the line and turned back to the would-be mutineers. “I think you would find similar sentiments among the pilot, navigator, and obviously your missile-room tech,” he said with a nod toward Telco.

“You stacked the key positions with people loyal to you,” said Pomeroy, angry.

“That’s what every captain does, Lieutenant,” replied Clement. He looked around the room at the faces of his crew. Few of them would meet his gaze. “I understand all of your concerns, believe me. My parents still live on Ceta and the decisions I make here could adversely affect them if I’m wrong. I know you’re worried. So am I. But my suggestion is that we all let his situation play itself out, allow me to go forward with our surveillance of the Earth Ark, which will only be for a few hours more. I will allow Commander Yan and Lieutenant Pomeroy to act as advisors to represent the rest of the crew, if they think I am putting the ship in unnecessary danger, I will give them the power of the veto over my orders. Are these terms acceptable?”

There were mutters of agreement and some negative grumbling, but ultimately no one spoke up in opposition to the proposal. When things settled down again, he said, “Then let’s get back to work, and quite bluntly, forget this incident ever happened.”

At this the crowd started to break up. Pomeroy looked to Yan, who could only hang her head in shame. Telco collected the cobra pistols and they all shuffled back to their assignments, leaving him and Yan alone. Yan looked up to face her commander.

“Captain, I wish to . . . take some time to reflect on my recent actions, in my cabin, sir,” she said.

“Take all the time you need, Commander,” replied Clement. “But don’t be too hard on yourself. This mission has been difficult for all of us, and I still need you functioning as my effective XO.”

Yan nodded without another word and departed his cabin.

Once Yan was gone Clement thanked Telco and ordered him back to the missile room, and to be sure to lock the weapons lockers. With that Clement went back to his bridge and found Massif, Ori, and Adebayor waiting for him. Both Massif and Ori wore holstered sidearms.

“We were never giving command of this ship to mutineers, Captain. We wanted you to know that,” said Massif. Clement nodded.

“Thank you, Ivan.” He turned on the ship-wide com and spoke into it in a calm voice.

“All hands return to your stations and resume your assignments. All is well,” he said. Then he sat down heavily in his command couch, and sighed.


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