New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1) (10 page)

“Go ahead, Ensign,” she said.

“
Ma’am, I just received word from the Icarus … an Ushin formation has appeared in the system
,” her OPS officer said. “
From what Commander Barrett was able to gather, they weren’t invited. He told me that CENTCOM has been locking down communications to and from the other ships in orbit trying to keep a lid on it
.”

“Where are you?” Celesta was moving against the rush of people all coming down to get a look at the
Dreadnought
-class ship.

“
In billeting
,” Accari said. “
I can no longer raise the Icarus from my personal comlink either
.”

“Stand by until I send word, but be ready to move,” Celesta said. “Don’t draw any attention to yourself, though. Just put on the uniform of the day, and when I tell you, move your ass with all due haste to
where
I tell you. Wright out.” She flipped through a couple of menus before selecting a code she thought looked most promising and tried to open a channel.

“
You reconsider my closet offer, Captain? I’m a little pressed for time at the moment but I could
—”

“I need to get back to my ship,” Celesta said.

“
Ah, look, Celesta … there have been some
—”

“I know what’s happening and I know they’re locking down the station. I want you to find a way to put me on the
Icarus
,” she pressed.

“
Couldn’t you ask for a simpler favor?
” Pike asked plaintively and it sounded like he was trying to keep his voice muffled. She could barely make out other voices in the background, most shouting excitedly.

“Damnit, Pike! If you—”

“
Lower your voice!
” Pike hissed. “
I’m not even supposed to be here right now. Listen … get down to Maintenance Dock Delta-Delta-Four and go to auxiliary airlock hatch six-oh-two.
”

“Delta-Delta-Four, six-oh-two,” Celesta repeated back.

“
Enter alpha-nine-one-seven into the keypad to get into the airlock
,” Pike continued. “
I’m sending a scan code to your comlink; just hold the display up to the hatch once you’re in the airlock
.”

“Is this to what I think it is?” Celesta asked. “I’m assuming it won’t just let me take off even if I knew how.”

“
I’m sending it instructions now
,” Pike said. “
It’ll take you to the Icarus and then make its way back here for me. This one is a bit different than the gen-one. You really only have to tell it what to do; there’s not much in the way of actual controls. Look, I can’t talk right now … just follow my instructions and tell it what you want. It really is that easy
.” The channel went dead and Celesta wasted no time forwarding the information to Accari before pulling up the map of the station again to figure out where the hell the maintenance docks were. 

Thankfully, they were just two lift rides away; down eleven decks and about half a kilometer of walking and she was there. She was shocked that Accari was already waiting there, looking slightly winded.

“You made good time, Ensign,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Accari breathed. “There’s a cargo lift that runs the entire span of the platform, from the maintenance docks all the way to the com center at the top. I asked another ensign that worked in Logistics if I could use it.”

“A word of advice, Ensign Accari,” Celesta said as she keyed in the code to open the airlock’s inner hatch. “An admiral’s aide is not the type of person you want holding a personal vendetta … unless you like assignments to the listening posts they’re putting up all along the ESA border systems.” Accari looked like he was going to protest, thought better of it, and then just nodded.

“Understood, ma’am,” he said simply. “Although the ensign in Logistics approached me—”

“That was not an invitation to discuss your love life, Ensign,” Celesta said sharply, rolling her eyes as the hatch opened with a sharp
pop.
“Now get in before someone sees us.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Accari said again, this time his cheeks flaming red. Celesta just shook her head as she stepped into the small chamber and resealed the airlock door after her.

“Is this what I think it is?” Accari asked as he walked around the smallish main area of the ship.

“Yes,” Celesta said distractedly. “You’re standing in the main cabin of a Tsuyo Corporation Broadhead II, one of only three known to be in existence.” The original Broadheads were small, stealthy ships that the Tsuyo Corp had made available to certain governmental agencies as well as a few well-placed and extraordinarily wealthy civilian clients. It had packed a lot of speed, sensor capability and a modest arsenal in a miniscule package. Agent Pike had been assigned one of those original ships and Celesta had heard a rumor that his had logged more flight hours than any of the other Broadhead hulls combined by over a factor of ten.

Now, apparently, his connections with the new incoming President gave him access to Tsuyo’s latest and greatest, and Celesta had to admit, she was impressed. She slid into the luxurious pilot’s seat and gave the minimalist instrument panel the onceover. The ship had accepted the scan code Pike had provided and an animated icon floated across one of the displays, letting her know it was ready to accept commands.

“Activate interface,” Celesta commanded. Instantly the terminals winked on and began shuffling pertinent information around the enormous, one-piece curved glass display. She reached out and began shuffling the individual readouts to where she wanted them.

“Find the
TCS
Icarus
,” she said. “She’ll be in orbit near DeLonges.”

“
TFS Icarus located
,” the ship responded in a pleasant baritone, correcting her on the fact the destroyer was now a Terran
Federation
Ship and the Confederacy no longer owned her. Celesta had half expected the voice to be young and female knowing Pike the way she did.

“Can you bypass the system-wide com lockdown and get me a direct channel to the bridge?”

“
Affirmative. Shall I initiate ship-to-ship channel now?
”

“If you please,” Celesta said politely.

“
This is the Terran Federation Warship
,
Icarus. Please identify yourself and state your intentions.
” Lieutenant Ellison’s voice came over the speakers after a bit of a lag.

“This is Captain Wright, please patch me through to Commander Barrett,” Celesta said, waiting for the fifteen-minute com lag again.

“Good thing the orbits put the two at their closest point,” Accari said as he sat in the other chair on the small bridge. “Otherwise the com lag would be nearly an hour.”

“Indeed,” Celesta agreed.

“
This is Barrett, Captain
,” Barrett’s voice came back. “
We’re currently in a holding orbit over DeLonges in formation with ten other ships, only two of them Fleet warships. The Icarus is FMC and we’ve even been replenished in flight: fuel, propellant, and replacement missiles were flown in from Bespitd Depot. Ready to receive orders, ma’am
.”

Celesta smiled. Instead of wasting time with idle back and forth with such a long com lag, Barrett had supplied her with their position, ship status, and that they were ready if she needed them. Once again she patted herself on the back for insisting that the former tactical officer be promoted and assigned as her XO.

“Very good, Commander,” Celesta said as her hands danced over the display. “I’m sending you a set of coordinates that will put you beyond the orbit of the fourth planet. Take the
Icarus
there, hold position and go silent. Anti-collision beacon only, no Fleet transponder codes for now. I’m on my way to you. Wright out.”

“We’re flying this thing out there, ma’am?” Accari asked.

“We’re certainly not sitting in this cramped ship for our own amusement, Ensign,” Celesta said. “Ship, calculate a flight plan to the coordinates I just sent over the ship-to-ship channel and prepare us for departure.”

“
Flight plan calculated and ready to execute
,” the ship said. “
Powerplant online, main engines online, navigation sensors online. When do you wish to depart?”

“Immediately,” Celesta said, wishing every piece of Tsuyo tech was so agreeable. “Then prepare to dock with a
Starwolf
-class destroyer when we reach our destination.”

“
Understood
,” the ship said. “
Beginning decoupling procedure. New Sierra security has locked down all departures. Would you like to bypass normal security protocols?
”

“Affirmative,” Celesta said, hoping that everyone was indeed too busy to look too closely at where she might have disappeared to.

“
Stand by
,” the ship said. “
Security bypass successful. Decoupling and engaging main drive on new course
.”

There were some bumps and bangs that reverberated through the small ship as it disengaged the mooring locks holding it to the station. Celesta watched as they drifted downward relative to the enormous platform on small puffs of gas from the attitude jets. Once they’d drifted down enough to clear the other docking complex that had been dead ahead and a small antenna cluster off their port side there was a smooth, deep hum and the ship surged away from the New Sierra Platform.

“I’ll be damned,” she said. “Reactionless drive … and one that actually works.”

****

“
Icarus
, arriving,” the computer intoned over the shipwide intercom when Celesta stepped through the hatchway of the auxiliary starboard airlock followed by Ensign Accari.

“Is Agent Pike with you, ma’am?” Commander Barrett asked after Celesta had returned his offered salute.

“No, he was nice enough to let me borrow his ship though since they locked down New Sierra,” Celesta said. “Are we secure here?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Then let’s go to CIC and you’re going to show me what’s been going on in this system while I was stuck playing politics,” she said, marching away so quickly her two officers had to rush to catch up. “Not you, Ensign,” she said over her shoulder. “Go to the bridge and keep an eye out at OPS. We’ll have an overview brief for the bridge crew later.”

“Aye aye, ma’am,” Accari said, peeling away and heading for the lifts.

When Celesta walked into the CIC, which was actually called the Combat Operations Center but oddly referred to by the different acronym, she was pleased that it was a hive of activity and her crew was well on top of the new situation.

“Captain on deck!” a senior chief bellowed when he looked up from where he was looking over a spacer first class’s terminal.

“As you were!” Celesta barked before the others could extricate themselves from behind their stations.

“Officer of the watch! Front and center,” Barrett spoke as he walked into the dimly lit room.

“Lieutenant Commander Washburn, CIC Operations Officer, sir,” a tall, graceful officer with ebony skin said as she came around from behind the enormous tabletop holographic display. Celesta smiled briefly at the memory of Captain Wolfe, who had helped finalize the design for the
Starwolf
-class ships, digging in firmly and refusing to allow holographic displays to be installed. But unlike her predecessor, who had thought them an unnecessary and distracting gimmick, Celesta was delighted by the detail the holographic displays could provide in three dimensions and promptly had them installed in all the Ninth Squadron ships when she’d been promoted.

“Double watch, Lieutenant Commander?” Barrett asked with a slight smile.

“I wasn’t comfortable leaving with the captain absent and alien ships coming uninvited into a Terran system, sir,” Washburn said. Celesta nodded her approval and gestured to the display.

“Can you catch me up on what’s been happening?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Washburn nodded and walked back to where she’d been manipulating the display.

“At 1724 ship’s time we received word from the boundary patrols that five unknown contacts had transitioned in deep within the system and had then disappeared. At 1732, this call came out on the unsecure intrasystem channel—” She reached over and pressed an icon on her display.

“
We greet our Terrans friends and severely apologize for this breach of protocol
,” the modulated voice came over the speaker, once again giving Celesta a chill down her spine. “
There is a large emergency and we must make accelerate our negotiations. We will hold position until we receive word
.”

“—and once it was over our com system was overridden by CENTCOM and we’ve only been able to receive general navigation data and instructions direct from New Sierra to hold fast,” Washburn said.

“That’s why we were so surprised when you were able to break through and order us out of orbit,” Barrett said. “We’d been trying to get in touch with you or Ensign Accari, and then when that didn’t work began sending requests directly to New Sierra Platform to have them at least forward you a message.”

“What are our new friends doing?” Celesta asked.

“From what we can tell out here, just sitting there, ma’am,” Washburn continued her briefing. “They’ve activated a position beacon and we can detect com traffic to and from their formation, but the encryption isn’t something our com section is able to crack, at least they don’t have the actual decryption routines. I wasn’t going to order them to try and forcefully break it without your permission.”

“Let’s leave that alone for now,” Celesta said. “Where are we in relation to their formation?”

“They’re parked in a heliocentric trailing orbit behind the sixth planet … here,” Washburn said as the display winked out and then came back up with a representation of the DeLonges System, complete with ranging data. “We’re here”—a green spot winked on deeper in the system from the flashing red dot of the alien formation—“just over two point six billion kilometers away. Their ships are also emitting a bright, rotating laser strobe that we assume is meant to broadcast their position in conjunction with the RF beacon. We’re tracking them with the
Icarus’s
optical sensors as well as the passive detection grid.”

“And so far no Fleet ships have moved out to meet them?” Celesta asked.

“No, ma’am,” Washburn said. “At least none that we can detect with our passive sensors.”

Celesta drummed her fingers on the edge of the tabletop display, lost in thought for a moment. “Commander Barrett, call the bridge and go dark,” she said after a moment. “I want the
Icarus
under strict EMSEC protocols, no light pollution, no RF emissions.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Barrett said and stepped away from the table while pulling his comlink.

“Do you think they’re really friendly, Captain?” Washburn said.

“They claim to be, Lieutenant Commander,” Celesta said, resisting the urge to shrug helplessly. “But we know the Darshik sure as hell aren’t and I would bet a year’s pay that this unexpected visit has something to do with them. What I’m more worried about is how the Ushin just happen to show up so deep in Terran controlled space, exactly at the new capital world just as the new government is being ratified.”

“They had to have tracked the
Amsterdam
and
John Arden
back from the meeting point,” Barrett said as he walked back up to the table. “Which means they have active trackers they attached to the hulls that are capable of superluminal transmissions or they have a way to track ships while in warp.”

“We know those are at least theoretically possible,” Celesta said. “The Vruahn were able to track us in warp
and
they had superluminal coms. The Darshik didn’t strike me as that advanced but I know less than nothing about the Ushin other than what CENTCOM has decided I need to know to do my job.”

“I wonder how much they know,” Barrett mused aloud. Celesta resisted the urge to mention what Marcum had divulged along with what Pike had asked her about a certain black project he was trying to track down.

“All idle speculation right now,” she said. “XO, you remain here for a bit and coordinate the flow of data up to the bridge. Lieutenant Commander Washburn, excellent job managing CIC while I was absent. Please call up a relief so that you can get some rest while we’re all just staring at each other across billions of kilometers … if it gets any more interesting than that, I’ll need you fresh and ready.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Washburn sounded relieved that she would be able to go and get some rest.

“I’ll be on the bridge,” Celesta continued. “We’ll maintain split watches for now and maintain our current state of readiness. We won’t go any higher until the Ushin move, we get word from CENTCOM, or the Darshik make a surprise appearance.”

“You think that’s coming, Captain?” Barrett asked.

“Something chased the Ushin all the way to the DeLonges System, Commander.” This time she did shrug. “I doubt it was overwhelming desire to talk to humans again.”

****

“OPS, status,” Celesta said as she walked onto the bridge.