Defiant Order Page 18

  Ranix and had been informed that the ship's communications systems were still not functioning, and there was no chance of getting off another message, and with their jump systems offline, they not in a position to do anything but wait.

  Doctor Ji-Woon had proposed using the ship and travelling around the world solving problems and the like. While the idea of helping people on the planet was certainly something Ranix was interested in, he wanted to ensure that the ship was fully operational first, and that included performing at least one run off world.

  When the ship finally arrived in British Columbia, it was still dark. The SETI team disembarked to spend the night in Doctor Stokes parents’ house while the crew retired to their quarters.

  The Sentinel Commander had deployed his forces around the Stokes property as subtly as possible, which was difficult after several of the neighbours had been awakened by the sound of the Epsilon landing at such an uncommon hour.

  Joe took a final glance at the big robot before heading to find a bed to sleep on. “I hope the President told the Canadians to expect us.” He smiled and walked off. It had been a very intense 48 hours. He needed some sleep.

  57

  By the last week of November it had gotten decidedly colder on Lasqueti, something Joe wasn’t thrilled about, but at least they were isolated and with the protection of the Canadian Armed Forces keeping all non-residents off the island.

  The trail that Joe and Rhea took for their morning jog had them come out of her parent's property and head south on Lake Road until they had to go cross country on a rough trail through the Lasqueti Island Ecological Reserve arriving finally at the southern coast of the island.

  Their morning runs had become a bit of a ritual for the pair. Joe had been using the fitness centre Tohil had set up in Paraguay before their exodus, while Rhea had focused on her running. When they had gone for their first jog together, Joe had found himself considerably outpaced, something he grumbled about to the rest of the team.

  When they hit the beach, the world came alive. The forest of Lasqueti was quiet and peaceful, but the coastline was alive with birds, fish, the occasional whale sighting and the sounds of the water breaking over the rocks and beaches of the peaceful island. A patrol of Canadian soldiers passed by on their routine patrol keeping everyone at bay, including the media. The island had been deemed a restricted area by the Canadian government, and all seagoing traffic was held in check by the Coast Guard, and the airspace was constantly kept clear of aircraft by the Air Force. Other than the locals on the island, travel to the island was highly restricted, making this part of British Columbia harder to get into that Bhutan.

  “Race you!” Rhea announced, ripping off her t-shirt, shorts, trainers and socks as fast as she could, leaving her only in a one-piece drysuit.

  Trying not to get distracted by his girlfriend's figure, Joe pulled off his t-shirt and started to kick off his shoes as he watched Rhea charge down the small sandy beach and into the water, and start the 350 metre swim to Jenkins Island, which lay just south of Lasqueti.

  By the time Joe hit the water Rhea already had a twenty-metre lead, and he knew that she was the stronger swimmer, so he paced himself, allowing the cold water to relax his muscles and help his headache from the previous night's drinking session.

  Joe often wondered about the dangers of open water swimming in the Strait of Georgia, but had been told on numerous occasions that it was completely safe if you stayed away from pods of orcas and any whales, and in the shallow waters they were swimming through the risk was reduced even further.

  Picking his head out of the water, Joe scanned ahead of himself to see that Rhea had already started to walk up the beach and had started doing some crunches in the sand. Pushing his face back in the water, he focused on his swimming and his form. Rolling his shoulders with every pull, and then bringing his lead arm under his body to maintain a trim figure, his pulling hand and just grazing the side of his leg, while Joe increased his kicking pace. The next time he brought his head up he was just five metres from the shoreline, and in shallow enough water to stand.

  “You’re getting better.” Rhea said, sitting cross-legged on the beach, moving her fingers through the sand at her side.

  “It’s too fucking cold for this!” Joe shouted back, walking out of the water.

  “Come get some sun.” Rhea patted the ground next to her.

  She was right; the sun rising in the east did help heat Joe’s body when he sat down on the warm sand.

  “Should be an exciting day.” She said, eyes closed, facing the rising sun. “The representatives from the major space agencies are arriving today. It feels like everything is on track for the launch next week.”

  Joe nodded, shivering a little. “Mars.” He said dryly. “Right,” He stood and started back towards the water. “I’m heading back in.”

  He moved quickly towards the water and just when his shins were becoming submerged, Rhea dashed past him before throwing herself forward in a dive and splashing Joe with the cold, crisp water.

  Stopping, he watched as Rhea breached the surface of the water and started powering away from him. Joe smiled, rolled his head, and then dove in after her. This time, he was going to give her a race.

  58

  There was an almost uncontrollable buzz in the air as the seven members of the SETI team boarded the Epsilon for the ships first off-planet flight. Lisa Lee had decided not to accompany the team, instead choosing to stay on terra-firma and to monitor the ship's progress with the representatives from NASA, the European and Russian Space Agencies.

  Major Hunt, Doctor Stokes, and Doctor Jannsen would occupy the three science stations on the bridge while the other members of the team would monitor a variety of systems from the ships intelligence suite.

  With a full fuel tank of 40,000 litres of fresh water, the Epsilon was capable of travelling 500 light years if its jump systems were fully operational, but for this first flight, it had been decided that a quick trip to Mars and back would be an appropriate start.

  With the hanger doors secured and the pre-flight checklist completed, Rais informed Ranix that the ship was ready for engine startup.

  Ranix nodded and toggled the ships communications system. "Engineering, this is the bridge. We are a go for engine start."

  Master Engineer Sulvan responded quickly. "Bridge. Understood. Initiating engine start."

  Joe, who was sitting at the science station behind the destroyed weapons control station, was able to monitor all the ships systems and data that was being transmitted onto the ships main view screen. With a little help from the ship's artificial intelligence, the humans onboard were all able to have their monitors translated into their respective native languages. The bridge and several other compartments had also been equipped with automated translation systems, allow all parties to understand what was being said.

  There was a slight shudder along the length of the ship as the engines were finally powered on. While the crew and humans were firmly strapped into their seats, Joe felt a single bead of sweat form on his brow, then run down his temple. Brushing it away, he finally realised the magnitude of what they were doing, which was going into space. And if all went according to plan, they would travel farther away from the planet Earth than any other human in history.

  Looking to his left, he noted that Jonas was running his detection sweeps. "How are we looking?" Joe asked.

  "Good. There are several aircraft nearby, but none on our flight path. I currently have no unidentified vessels in Earth orbit, or within range of the ship's systems."

  Joe nodded and looked back to his monitor, and was surprised to note that the ship was already at an altitude of 10,000 metres and climbing quickly. Looking back towards the rear of the bridge, Joe spotted Rhea, engrossed in the information being fed to her monitor.

  "Rhea."

  She took her eyes off the monitor and looked at Joe. "Yes?"

  "Space!" he said with a big grin on his face.

/>   "I know!" she smiled back, and turned her attention back to her monitor, smiling cheek to cheek.

  Joe looked back at his screen and noted that they had already passed through the stratosphere and were going to be passing through the exosphere and exiting Earth's atmosphere in less than a minute.

  "Ranix, what percentage of thrust are we using?" Joe asked.

  "Only around 40 percent. Not that you can feel it, but we are travelling at over 15 kilometres per second."

  Joe shook his head. This old rust bucket was one impressive piece of machinery. As the ship raced farther away from the ground, Joe kept a tab on updates as they appeared on his screen. When the ship had passed the Karman line at the 100-kilometre mark, the ship's computer had automatically activated the ships artificial gravity system, which meant Joe would not get the joy of floating weightless.

  When the ship finally broke Earth orbit, Rais made a ship-wide announcement, before pointing the nose of the craft towards Mars, then contacted the engineering department. "All systems functioning at optimal levels. Master Engineer, request permission to stretch our legs."

  "All systems appear to be functioning properly. You are cleared for run up to one-third light speed." Sulvan replied.

  "Understood." Rais killed the channel before looking at Ranix. "Ready to go to Mars, Sir."

  "Punch it."

  Holding onto his chair for dear life, Joe waited in anticipation of a major jolt when the ship accelerated, but ten seconds later, nothing had happened. He looked over to Jonas who had his eyes locked on his monitor, before looking towards the front of the bridge, and noticed that Ranix was out of the command chair and walked towards the rear of the deck.

  "Is something wrong?" Joe asked.

  "No. We'll be in Mars orbit in just under 40 minutes. I'm going to the engineering department to see how the engines are doing."

  "You mean we're moving?" Joe asked with a surprised look on his face.

  "Yes, at roughly 100,000 kilometres a second."

  Ranix patted Joe lightly on his shoulder and disappeared off the bridge. Joe looked down at his restraints, and hit the release button, allowing him to get out of his seat. Walking to the rear of the compartment, he stopped next to Rhea and bent over and gave her a light kiss on the forehead.

  "I'm going to see how the team is doing on the top deck."

  "Okay." She looked up at him and smiled.

  "Okay, baby. See you in a bit." Joe turned and started walking towards the bridge exit hatch when Jonas hit the ship-wide address system.

  "Jump detected!"

  Joe stopped in his tracks and slowly turned his head to his right, looking back at Rhea, then he turned, and looked at the back of Jonas's station.

  "Confirmed. Jump detected near Ceres."

  Joe spun around and moved to Jonas's station. "Where the hell is Ceres?" He asked.

  "It's in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter." Jonas replied.

  Joe moved to his position and strapped himself in. "Can you identify the ship?"

  "Not with a planetoid in the way."

  While continuing to scan the data that was being transmitted to his monitor, Ranix came flying onto the bridge at a full run. "Status!" He moved past Jonas and took his seat in the Ship Masters command chair.

  "A ship has jumped into the system near the planetoid Ceres." Jonas replied.

  "Any jump signature or comm's traffic?" Ranix asked.

  "Unknown. We need a clear line of sight to gather more information."

  "Understood. Rais, time until Mars orbit?"

  "Ten minutes."

  "We'll reach Mars, then I want you to bring us around the side of it slowly, let Jonas get a better line of sight so we can identify this craft."

  "Understood."

  As the ship continued towards Mars at an incredible rate, there was growing concern that this unidentified vessel could be hostile. The crew of the Epsilon knew that Yuli's unsecured communication could have been intercepted by Coalition forces, a piece of information that had still not yet been shared with the humans.

  When the ship reached Mars orbit, Rais slowed the ship to its patrol speed and gently started to guide the ship around the planet. The red planet offered the Epsilon some cover from the unknown vessel, and unless it had a more advanced surveillance system, it should not have been able to detect the approaching Alliance ship.

  When Ceres came into view on the main screen, Jonas was able to give a full spectrum scan of the moon, and the surrounding asteroid belt.

  "I am detecting trace residue from a jump." He looked at the information that was coming into him. "The computer is analysing it."

  The time it took the artificial intelligence to crunch the numbers, and come up with a solution was like an eternity, with many of those on the bridge on the verge of holding their collective breath.

  "Rancorian Light Raider," Jonas announced. "Probably an older model."

  Joe looked at Jonas. "What the hell is that?" he asked

  "It is a reconnaissance vessel, smaller than ours, but heavily armed, and very manoeuvrable and fast."

  "But whose side is it on?"

  "Not ours."

  Ranix checked his monitors, "Where is she, Jonas?"

  "She has set down on Ceres. Probably refuelling from the ice on the surface."

  "Understood. Bring up the Raider's specs on the primary monitor."

  Within seconds, an image of the Raider was brought up on all the terminals. Joe looked at the information being displayed. The ship was based around a diamond-shaped centre, with two wing-like structures on either side, with two heavy weapons pods at the end of the wings. Weapons included two massive beam cannons, eight light particle disruptors and one long-range missile battery.

  The information provided a quick synopsis of the vessel, which Joe read with keen interest.

  The Rancorian Light Raider is a heavily armed reconnaissance ship based off a design used by Rancorian pirates in the years leading up to the foundation of the Empire. Older model Light Raiders are notoriously unreliable, but newer models are smaller, faster, and more heavily armed than most ships in the reconnaissance class. Most recent intelligence suggests that the Coalition assigns junior Ship Masters to command this vessel.

  Joe sat back and ran his tongue over his lips. He knew the Epsilon had no functional weapons, which put them in a pretty pickle. Unbuckling his seat restraints, he got up and moved to the front of the bridge.

  "What do you think?" He asked Ranix.

  "This is not good. Once they've refuelled, they will perform a sweep of the entire system. They will discover Earth, and there is no telling what they will do once they have."

  "Options?"

  "I am afraid that they are very limited."

  "If we caught them on the ground while they are refuelling, could the Sentinels destroy the ship?" Joe suggested.

  "Yes!" Ranix looked at Rais, "Move us in."

  Without responding, Rais accelerated the ship and started moving into the asteroid belt that separated Mars and Jupiter.

  "Time until target?" Ranix asked.

  "Five minutes."

  "Understood." Ranix toggled the Sentinels command switch. "Sentinel Commander. Prepare for a ground assault on Coalition warship."

  "Confirmed." The booming voice came back over the intercom loud enough to hurt Joe's ears.

  "Is this plan going to work?"

  "If they are still grounded, yes. If they have taken off, no."

  Joe nodded and was about to make a follow-up comment when Rhea tapped him on the shoulder.

  "Can I have a quick word, Joe?"

  Joe looked up at his girlfriend and smiled. "Sure."

  Rhea smiled back nervously and started moving towards the rear of the bridge. Joe watched her go for a second, before following her.

  "What's on your mind?" He asked, giving her hand a light squeeze.

  She blinked a few times, and looked back towards the front of the bridge, before making eye c
ontact with Joe. "How do we know that this is the best course of action?"

  "What do you mean?" Joe looked startled.

  "What I mean is, how do we actually know that the ship that's out there is really the feared enemy and aggressor we've been lead to believe it is. Ever since we first made contact with the crew of this ship, we've been told that the Coalition is the villain in the war they're involved in and not the other way around."

  Joe took a step back and shoved his hands into his pocket. She had a point. What if they had been led astray since day one? It's hard to lose an argument when the other side isn't present to make their case.

  "So what do you want Ranix to do? Giveaway our position and announce ourselves to them? Don't forget that the ship's weapons systems are offline."

  "Joe, if they want our trust, they need to prove to us that they are not the aggressor, and if they attack that ship first, it won't convince me of anything."

  Taking a deep breath, Joe ran a hand through his hair then looked over his shoulder at the main view screen. He knew that Rhea had a point. It would be very hard to refute the claim that the Coalition were the bad guys if they weren't given a chance to be proven wrong. This was one such chance.

  "This is not going to go down well." Joe turned and walked back towards the front of the bridge. He could tell from the main viewer that they were approaching the opposite side of Ceres from where the Coalition vessel was.

  "Ranix, can I have a quick word?" Joe asked, kneeling down next to the command chair.

  Ranix looked at Joe, then back to his side mounted screen, then back to Joe. "Yes."

  "Could we hail that ship without revealing our position?"

  "Yes. Why would we do that? We would lose the element of surprise."

  "Doctor Stokes would like to see some form of evidence that the Coalition is indeed as aggressive and hostile as you have suggested."

  Ranix turned in his seat and looked down the narrow walkway to the rear of the bridge where Rhea was standing. "You want me to jeopardise the safety of everyone on this ship so I can prove to you that the Coalition is what we say they are?" Ranix looked down at the deck, then back at Joe. “I can assure you that we are the defiant order in the galaxy keeping the Coalition threat at bay, but you still want more proof?”