CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AIDEN
By Monday, Kade’s bruises had progressed from purple to green, and according to him, that was a good sign.
The laceration on his arm, however, was going to take longer to heal.
“You’re going to be on administration duty for the rest of the week,” I told Kade, as we arrived in my office.
“I realise that’s going to be boring as all hell, given that we were supposed to be back on active duty this week, but… ”
Kade shrugged. “These things happen,” he said philosophically. “There’s always next week. Or the week after.”
“Henderson said they still need help cataloguing all the samples we salvaged from that exploration ship, so I’ll get you to head over to the storage rooms. Jai and I will be working on analysing some data from wormhole security, until or unless anything more interesting happens.”
“Yes, sir,” Kade said, heading quickly out the door.
“Okay, Jai,” I said, sitting down at my console and gesturing for him to sit at the spare one by the wall.
He would need his to display the Eumadian script, so even though I needed to show him what we were doing, he would need a different console to work at.
I activated the link between the two, then pulled up the latest report.
“Wormhole security spends a lot of their time focusing on immediate threats, but military intelligence runs regular reviews to see if there are any patterns or anomalies in the flow of traffic coming through the wormhole – whether that traffic is legal or illegal. They also monitor the overall volume of traffic over time.” I spent the next half an hour walking him through the system and highlighting which reports needed to be included in the comparisons.
The work itself was tedious, but the outcome of it could be fascinating.
If we were able to highlight the times when pirates were most likely to make an illegal jump, for example, then that could mean our security forces were ready and waiting for any trespassers, rather than being caught unawares.
By about ten o’clock, Jai had a handle on the system, and I was considering whether I should go and get another cup of coffee.
But before I could made a decision, a siren blared through the complex.
Emergency alert for a critical mission. Fuck.
Twice in one week? I leapt up, calling for Jai to follow me as we sprinted for the transporter bays.
But it wasn’t transporters that were being hastily parked in the wide docking stations. It was space-going fighter jets.
Henderson was in the thick of it, yelling orders and waving to various pilots.
I checked my comm, finding nothing in the way of instructions…
until a new alert suddenly popped up, and beside me, I heard Jai’s comm ping as well.
I muttered a string of curses under my breath as I read the instructions.
A cargo freighter was being attacked by pirates, and there were strong suspicions it was the same group who had attacked the research vessel last week.
The fighters were being deployed to deal with the pirates’ ships, but there was also going to be a boarding party, in case the pirates managed to seize control of the freighter…
which they were almost certainly going to attempt, given the contents of the shipping manifest. It was transporting a significant amount of resenia stone – a rare and highly prized mineral rock that was found on only a handful of planets in the known galaxy.
The freighter had been bringing it here to supply power to some of our more remote terraforming outposts, since the unique crystalline structure meant the stone could be used as a highly powerful and efficient battery, if subjected to the right manipulations.
So we not only had to deal with the potential loss of life of the crew, but the knowledge that our terraforming efforts could be crippled if we didn’t secure possession of that stone.
Not surprisingly, both Jai and myself were assigned to the boarding party.
“This way,” I called to Jai, heading for the armoury at a run.
We were going to need a full kit of weapons designed for close combat, along with pressure suits, for the trip to space, respirators, in case the ship suffered from depressurisation, and emergency beacons, in case – worst case scenario – we were somehow ejected from the ship and found ourselves floating in space.
Wormhole security had a state-of-the-art scanner that was constantly scanning for that exact sort of signal, and since it had been installed, not a single Alliance crew member had ever been lost to the depths of space.
That said, I had no inclination to try testing out the limits of the scanner’s range.
We suited up quickly, donning thin but hardy pressure suits over our military fatigues. They were made from a polymer weave that had originally been designed by the Culrads, but which was now standard space attire across the majority of the known galaxy.
Once I was ready, I sent a quick message to Kade, letting him know where we were going – though he would likely find out soon enough anyway.
Situations like this generally needed plenty of on-base backup, whether that was maintaining open communications, coordinating supply and rescue operations or briefing additional staff who were called in to help out, and Kade would no doubt quickly be assigned to one of those tasks.
I followed the rest of the boarding team into a cramped shuttle, which was going to rendezvous with a larger assault ship once in orbit.
From there, we’d trail behind the main force of fighters, moving on the cargo freighter only once we had confirmation that the ship had been boarded by the pirates.
I strapped myself into one of the hard seats, checking to see that Jai was doing the same.
“All good, sir,” he said, as he saw me keeping an eye on him.
“I don’t take unnecessary risks in combat.
” I’d got the impression over the last couple of days that his attitude towards me had improved significantly, but even so, it was reassuring to know that firstly, Jai was aware that he’d been difficult in the past, and secondly, that regardless of any lingering doubts about my intentions, he was professional enough to focus on making sure we all came back alive, and then deal with any personal issues later.
I nodded, taking his words at face value.
But I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like fighting beside him – not because he had any ill intentions, but simply because this was the first active combat mission we’d be going on together.
It was the first opportunity to get used to each other’s fighting styles, and Jai’s first real test of having to make his own decisions, in the heat of battle.
We’d worked well together on the rescue mission for the research vessel, but that hadn’t involved any fighting.
We’d had the luxury of going slowly and carefully, planning out our actions one step at a time, instead of having to make split second choices that could be a matter of life and death.
I knew most of the more senior soldiers in the cramped space around us, but I could see a handful of newer recruits that I hadn’t met before.
I took the time to take a closer look at the team assignments on my comm, and I was relieved to see that all of the younger and less experienced people had been assigned to teams with strong leaders.
As far as my own team went, it was just me, Jai, Bryce and Lieutenant Doleen Carver, a Denzogal woman who wasn’t far from being promoted to Commander herself.
I had a strong and experienced team at my back, but ironically, that made me more nervous.
Putting four skilled and experienced soldiers on a team together inevitably meant that we’d be sent into tougher situations, expected to gain control of a level of chaos that would overwhelm less experienced people.
Even though this was Jai’s first combat mission with the Alliance, I knew from working with Kade that Jai was far from a green rookie.
On the very first day that I’d met him, Kade had saved my life at least twice and killed a group of our enemies without even breaking a sweat.
The shuttle shuddered and hummed as it was released from the docking clamps and rose into the air.
There were forty of us, crammed into the rear hold.
A series of lights lit up on the ceiling, advising us to activate the compression function of our suits.
The shuttles behaved somewhere between a plane and a rocket, and the g-forces we’d be experiencing on the way to orbit were significant.
I glanced over at Jai again, just in case he wasn’t familiar with the controls, but he nodded at me as he pressed the button, anything he said unable to be heard over the roaring of the engines.
Ten minutes later, we reached orbit and experienced the weightlessness of space.
It got a lot quieter, as well, as the main thrusters cut out and we were left with the much smaller alignment thrusters, adjusting our trajectory in a multitude of tiny bursts as we moved to dock with the large assault ship.
A series of clangs sounded from outside the ship, as we made contact with the docking clamps.
“Standby for pressure equalisation,” a voice announced, and I felt a slight popping sensation in my ears as we connected to the assault ship’s air supply.
It was mild – about the same as we might experience driving down a steep hill – but up here, I paid attention to every subtle variation in the environment; pressure, temperature, gravity, lighting.
An unexpected change could mean anything from a leak in my suit to a ship-wide system failure, and catching problems early could mean the difference between staying alive and suffering a fast but incredibly painful death.