Beyond The Frontier Read online

  Endeavor’s survivors must have taken one too many stims.

  Followed by Ubu and Chen they crashed into the horde that pinned Lee. He lay still. They wouldn’t be able to beat the armored troopers, but they did give him some breathing room. He blinked his suit a command to hit him with a stim as well. His vision cleared. Control returned to his limbs.

  He stood. The troopers had tossed the survivors away and battled with Ubu and Chen. Plasma blades whirred as the marines carved through the troopers. He looked over and saw Dawes motionless.

  Just beyond, another group of ten stared him down.

  Another sonic boom filled the air. Probably another enemy fighter. The Commander was busy upstairs, possibly dead. Flaps was gone, there was no one left.

  The goons didn’t attack. They seemed unsure? The craft had come around. They stared at it.

  Lee squinted.

  Star Runner

  ***

  Aaron fired the braking thrusters. The tactical board showed Lee, Ubu and Chen facing off with more than a dozen ORA troopers. The lieutenant and the marines had made them pay for every inch. Troopers littered the field—lifeless. Dawes was down too.

  Aaron was about to incinerate the rest of those ORA bastards.

  He turned control of the craft over to the computer. It kept station above Lee’s position. He slid down the ladder and into the cargo bay. It was in the far side weapons locker, where Lee had left it. He opened the locker and grabbed it.

  Aaron snatched the cargo harness used to load heavy equipment. It had a strong cable attached to the bulkhead. He strapped in.

  The cable would move to coincide with any weight pulling it. He ran to the cargo bay ramp and slammed the control.

  The ramp lowered, he moved onto it. At an acute angle, he stared down on the battlefield. He activated his external suit speakers and blasted his voice over the area.

  “Lee! I brought the pain!”

  Lee didn’t hesitate, shoved away the group he grappled with and jumped on Ubu and Chen.

  Aaron pulled the trigger and the pulse mini-gun blasted dozens of heavy pulse blasts into the troopers. They scampered, but with the targeting assist on the mini-gun, Aaron blasted them all to a smoldering ruin.

  He dropped the mini-gun and triggered a command on his handheld. Star Runner lowered to the surface.

  Aaron leapt off. Lee was at the base of the ramp.

  “Forty-five survivors, Commander.”

  “Get them in. I’ll get Dawes.”

  Ubu and Chen limped by ushering the survivors up the ramp. Aaron sloshed over to Dawes. The marine was on his stomach. He rolled him. He was alive.

  Barely.

  His face was smashed. His left cheekbone protruded. He hefted the marine and brought him to Star Runner. He laid him on the cargo deck and went back to the base of the ramp.

  One by one the survivors scuttled up the ramp. They looked like death. Aaron saw Endeavor’s executive officer, she was carrying Avery.

  He put a hand on her shoulder. “O’Brian?”

  “He’s in bad shape, Commander.”

  “Get aboard. The universe isn’t finished with Avery Alvarez yet.”

  He assisted her and they rested Vee on the deck. The others were in and most collapsed with fatigue. Lee lingered outside the ramp.

  “Lee, we’ve got to leave,” Aaron said. “That dreadnought is down and out for now, but there’s no telling when it’ll restore power. It isn’t finished with us yet.”

  “I couldn’t save him, Aaron.” Lee said.

  Aaron understood. The lieutenant no longer had his helmet. Without it, Lee couldn’t see Yuri’s beacon.

  Aaron grinned. “Lee . . . you feel how I’ve felt a thousand times over for Trident. Get aboard, let’s go get Flaps and get to the wormhole.”

  Lee looked at him wide-eyed but stood rigid.

  Aaron pulled the disbelieving Lee inside. “Yes, Flaps is alive.”

  Aaron scaled the ladder and flopped behind the helm and lifted off. Lee took the station next to him.

  Aaron piloted Star Runner to the downed pilot’s signal. As they got closer, the optical sensors tracked Flaps.

  The comm crackled. “Zane calling Rayne.” There was definite panic in his tone. “That dreadnought is slowly powering up, whatever we hit, they’ve fixed it. It seems they know you’ve won the battle on the planet. They’ve maneuvered into orbit and commenced firing.”

  Sure enough an alarm blared. Fireballs of plasma rained down. But Star Runner was quick.

  “Lee,” Aaron said. “I can give you a few seconds at most, we can’t land. If we’re going to do this, we have to do it your way!” He pointed at Lee’s grappler. “You’ll need this.” Aaron handed him a helmet.

  Lee bolted for the cargo deck.

  ***

  Star Runner’s ramp was open. Hails of fire continued streaming from orbit as ordnance breached the atmosphere. Lee slipped on the helmet.

  On his HUD, Lee could see Flaps in the distance. Farther along he could see the smoldering remains of Hammerhead’s escape shell.

  He only had a few seconds to make the grab. Good thing Yuri was scrawny and near weightless. Lee gripped a rail on the bulkhead with his flesh arm and fired the grappler into the far side bulkhead with his bionic and tugged on it. It was solid. The craft shook violently from the sudden deceleration.

  This was it.

  He stepped off the ramp. Using his thumb, he controlled the speed of the descent.

  He hit the ground. Flaps was there.

  “Grab me tight, Yuri!”

  Flaps wrapped his feet and legs around Lee. Lee held Flaps around his back with his other arm. He triggered the grappler and they ascended. When they got below the lip of the ramp, Lee pushed Flaps up and over, and scrambled in. Star Runner accelerated again. O’Brian hit the control for the ramp.

  Lee gasped for breath nodding his thanks to O’Brian.

  “You see the trouble we go to for you, Flaps?”

  Flaps laughed. It sounded strained. He must be hurt.

  “That’s what big brothers are for.”

  Lee gave him a half smile. “You know, Flaps, you weigh so little, I’m sure if you jumped, you could have made it without my help.”

  Flaps dropped his head on the deck. “True, but then you wouldn’t get to tell another great story at my expense.”

  “There’s going to be plenty more opportunities for that in the future.”

  Chapter 32 – They’re Ours Now

  “They’re ours now, Commander” - Malcolm Lee

  Star Runner

  The dreadnought cut off their egress for Phoenix. Fine with him. There was another ship near the orbital structure.

  Aaron landed Star Runner on Endeavor’s hangar deck.

  “Lee?”

  Lee slipped on the helmet again. “Forty heat signatures have arrived on the deck. From the positions they’ve taken up, I’m guessing military. They’re armed with pulse weapons, pulse grenades. Wearing heavy armor too. That’s it, rest of the ship is clear.”

  Aaron sighed. Not the kind of choices he liked making. But he couldn’t risk a prolonged fight with the ORA defenders. It would jeopardize everything—not to mention if they somehow lost.

  He took out his handheld and input some commands. He watched the result on the optic feeds.

  The hangar doors opened again depressurizing the deck. The ORA troopers probably felt smug having activated their mag-lock boots. Other than discomfort from the exploding atmosphere, once it was past, they would still be there. He input some more commands and demagnetized the deck. The troopers were gone with the wind. He triggered the doors shut and re-pressurized the bay.

  Lee shrugged. “That worked well.”

  They disembarked Star Runner. O’Brian and Lee accompanied him to the bridge. Endeavor’s crew was spent. They remained lying on the courier’s cargo deck. Dawes and the marines were taking care of them.

  On the bridge, Aaron assessed the ship’s stat
us. The auto repair systems had sealed the hull breaches and repaired the worst of the damage Endeavor sustained in her battle with the ORA. Enough to make the ship operational. They had sixty percent of full power. It would be enough.

  They were on the far side now. Away from the dreadnought’s scanners. The micro-jump drive had a full charge. And this ship had a full complement of ordnance.

  Aaron slid in behind the helm. Lee took tactical. O’Brian was there in spirit but she wasn’t in much condition to help, she dropped into the command chair.

  “Lee?”

  “Powering weapons systems now, Commander. Sixty havoc heavy missiles. Railgun magazines full. Polarizing the armor plating.”

  “I’m making the jump now,” Aaron said. “Based on the last known location, speed and vector of the dreadnought, we should be anywhere between fifty to a hundred thousand kilometers off its stern.” He looked back at the lieutenant. “Don’t wait for the order, Lee. Weapons free.”

  Lee nodded.

  Endeavor jumped.

  Ayres had kept Phoenix away from the dreadnought—not bad, considering she only had the self-professed combat amateur Zane, to help her.

  “Firing,” Lee said.

  Aaron adjusted course to give Lee maximum effective firing solutions from all the railguns. Just when the ORA captain figured he’d caught a break, Aaron was there again to remind both he and the ORA they’d fu—

  “Get some!”

  Aaron smirked at the sudden outburst from Lee. Only becoming aware the tactical officer had fired havocs, when explosions rippled along the dreadnought. Lee spared nothing.

  Aaron rolled the ship and exposed the ventral missile batteries while the others reloaded. More explosions ripped at the dreadnought’s super structure. He angled Endeavor around in a wide arc around the behemoth.

  “They’re ours now, Commander.”

  Aaron didn’t know what Lee meant. He focused on the helm. No time to absorb the tactical read out. He didn’t want to get cocky and get in too close. A dying beast was most dangerous when cornered.

  “He’s got heavy structural damage here.” Lee swiped his readings to Aaron’s station.

  Aaron glanced at them. The structure of the dreadnought was severely compromised from the beating he’d given it before, and the beating they’d just given it again. Amidships was ready to crack. It wouldn’t hold.

  Everything was reloaded, Aaron continued his course. The railguns thundered, the havocs launched. All targeted amidships the dreadnought.

  Explosion rippled along the dreadnought’s superstructure, tungsten rounds ripped through and through. The ship peeled apart in the center. Slowly at first, then the first half drifted away from the second half. The drive sections on the rear half propelled it into the forward half.

  “I’m setting a course for the heliopause. We’re out of here.”

  He signaled Ayres to follow. They would sort out who was where later. Now it was time to head for the hills.

  ***

  Phoenix

  The next three days they focused on caring for Endeavor’s crew and repairing both ships best they could. The repair drones and nanites had done an admirable job on both ships.

  Endeavor was in decent shape. While the ship sat in orbit with ORA techs aboard her baffled by the system lockouts, the ship seamlessly repaired its worst damage.

  It would need components and spare parts made by the fabricators to effect full repairs. But the ship wasn’t in the disabled state it had been when the antimatter mine struck.

  With regard to Phoenix, there wasn’t enough time to do anything about the lack of starboard point defense. But Garrett restored the starboard power matrix and full power was available.

  Only a few more hours to the wormhole. Finally, he had time. If he hadn’t wanted to finish it before, he certainly didn’t now. If it was written by anyone else, he might not have.

  Aaron began where he’d left off reading the letter.

  The answer to what we would do with forever was soon answered. Unable to find purpose after already lived multiple lifetimes, the Society began to militarize. Seeds of propaganda and dissent were spread. The people of the Outer Rim were indoctrinated. Current generations . . . future generations. The message? Earth was evil.

  A movement within our secret Society took full control of the Outer Rim. They spun a tale of how Earth banished all of us who dwelled there. We were the losers in some great war, and we must re-take our home.

  Everything was done with one purpose. Build. Equip. Revenge. The worlds of the Outer Rim evolved into three castes. The Administrative—they created the propaganda, fueled the hate. The social engineering of hate.

  The Military Caste. From the age of six, all were trained in the ways of war. The Engineering and Research Caste—they built the Outer Rim’s technology and weapons of war and the Outer Rim Alliance was born. Unknown to its original inhabitants, they were led by Immortals.

  Lazarus and I and many others from the Old Ones as we are called, grew disenfranchised. This new Society was about one goal: Earth.

  Even Lazarus’ influence declined. Soon he was ousted by a popular leader among us: Rylar Kane. They had the transfer tech. Lazarus was no longer needed. A private war erupted among the Immortals, those who still wished to follow Lazarus and those who wanted revenge like Kane.

  Some of the Old Ones decided to leave. We’d seen life as a so-called Immortal. We wanted the thrill of living again. Of not having enough time. The euphoria of danger.

  We don’t know who prevailed among the Immortals, whether the Old Ones or Ryler Kane. We left the society in 2441. You, my son, were born a year later. I do not expect you to understand our choices. We made them when even by your standards we were young and giddy.

  We . . . like millions others were thrilled at the idea of ever-lasting life. We were young pups.

  We still believe we made the right decision to leave the Society and live one final life. Perhaps people should have the freedom to choose for themselves. Perhaps it wasn’t anyone else’s right to determine that the Lazarus Society couldn’t choose the path they did. But they did and thus the Existential War.

  The war had only one positive outcome. It united Earth. History has shown us they still had great struggles, and all wasn’t fixed overnight.

  But from that unification, the United Star Systems was born.

  The comm buzzed. “Commander, Zane here. Remember that little side project I’ve been working on? I have something I think you’ll want to see.”

  ***

  Aaron stepped onto the bridge to find Zane hunched over his console. The scientist looked up. “Commander, take a look.”

  Aaron saw the console displaying a swirling image of the wormhole and some other graphs he couldn’t make sense of.

  “I did it, Commander.”

  Aaron gave him a puzzled look.

  “I’ve found a way to transmit a secure comm burst on the gravity waves through the wormhole. It’s open and it’s stable now. I can’t take all the credit…” He shrugged sheepishly. “I had some help from Avery these past two days.”

  “I can’t tell you, Zane. You’ve just saved us. Shepherd has no idea what to expect from this side. And I have a feeling we’re going to need some help getting through. This is . . . you might have just saved us all.”

  Zane was smiling ear to ear. If he’d felt unappreciated during his time aboard, he was sure to feel like the hero now.

  “Herman, I want you to send this message immediately.” Aaron flipped it to the scientist’s console from his handheld.

  As Aaron walked away, he was sure his message puzzled the scientist.

  Sir, we’ll be there soon. Bring the pain.

  ***

  Lee made his way to the medbay. Sergeant Dawes had taken a nasty blow to the face from an ORA rifle-wielding goon. When last he saw him, the sergeant’s cheekbones protruded.

  Doctor Tanner was leaning over Dawes.

  “Not giving you
any trouble is he, Doctor?”

  Tanner looked around.

  “Not at all,” he said. “I even asked him if he wanted to keep the bone-sticking-out-look, you know how you soldiering folks like your scars.”

  Dawes laughed.

  “Your Maxy boy here has quite the wit, Lieutenant,” he said. “He must be a marine doctor.”

  “Indeed,” Lee said.

  Lee leaned in to see the wound. The bone had been repaired. The doctor was just sealing the flesh around it now.

  “You’re lucky,” Doctor Tanner said. “This would have left you looking uglier than the Commander. Fortunately for you, modern medicine can fix that.”

  Lee shook his head. “I wonder if the Commander’s ears itch frequently when it comes to you, Doctor Tanner.”

  The doctor looked up and grinned. A menacing tooth-baring grin.

  “If his ears really itched when people spoke about him, he’d have scratched them off by now.”

  Dawes interjected. “When can I get back to my duties, Maxy-boy?”

  “Soon. Even if just because I can’t stand you calling me that all the time. What are you in a hurry to do, anyway? Stick your little gun out a ship window and shoot it at the enemy? It’s the space ship boy’s show from here.”

  The marine looked thrilled. “There’re windows I can stick my gun out of?”

  Lee stifled a laugh. He had to admit. Dawes had really grown on him. A kindred spirit.

  Doctor Tanner fixed Dawes with a stone-cold glare. “Still waiting to hear what you need to get on duty to do.”

  “Well,” Dawes said. “I think the Commander likes having me on the bridge, standing there looking all royal and all. I’m moral support.”

  The doctor laughed. “The ship already has a mascot. Me. I’m the useless crewman on the bridge in times of battle. There’s only room for me.”

  Dawes leaned back looking thoughtful. “You know, once I had a cat named Maxy-boy. You remind me of him—miserable wretch that little feline.”

  The irate physician rolled his eyes. “A cat . . . I remind you of a cat. What happened to this cat?”