Ep.#2 - No Risk Too Great Read online

  Table Of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Frontiers Saga Part 3: Fringe Worlds

  Episode #2: No Risk Too Great

  Copyright © 2022 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Nathan stood at the top of the hill, overlooking the crash site. From this vantage point, he could see the entire Aurora, as well as the scar she had carved into the surface during her belly-landing. His ship, only a few days old, already looked like hell. Overall, she was surprisingly intact. Most of the exterior damage was superficial, with various hull plates and emitters having been torn away, mostly along the sides and undersides of the ship, and mostly on the forward section. Vladimir’s efforts to ensure that the Expedition-class ships were over-built had paid off. He doubted that an XK, as tough as they were, would have survived such a landing.

  Landing. The thought made him laugh. No one would call that a landing, let alone a good one.

  “Any landing you can walk away from,” Cameron stated as she came up the hill.

  Nathan smiled. “I suppose so,” he agreed. “Although I doubt they’ll ever add that approach to the flight manual.”

  “Vlad has deemed the ship safe,” she told him. “His people are starting their damage assessment now.”

  “Any word from the Dragons?” Nathan wondered.

  “Not yet, but it should take them a few hours to search the entire planet.”

  “I’ll feel better once we know whether or not we can expect any visitors,” Nathan said.

  “Still set on not contacting the Alliance?”

  “We can’t take the chance. Not until we at least know where and when we are. For all we know, the Alliance might no longer exist. God knows who would respond to our distress call.”

  “We can use the Dragons to do some deep space recon,” Cameron suggested.

  “Not until we know where we stand, here and now. First order of business is survival. Once we get things under control here, then we can peek out into the galaxy and see what’s going on.”

  “Laza has been trying to calculate how far forward we may have traveled in time, but so far she doesn’t have enough data to make a solid estimate.”

  “Does she have ball park?”

  “I asked,” Cameron said. “I had to press. Jung don’t like to guess. She said maybe two hundred years.”

  “Vlad guessed two fifty,” Nathan sighed.

  Cameron looked at him. “It wasn’t your fault, Nathan. There’s no way you could’ve known…”

  “I should have seen it,” Nathan insisted. “It was all too easy. They let us waltz in there. They were tracking us the entire time. They used Jessica to play me. They knew I would come for her.”

  “Yeah, Jessica is beating herself up over this just as much as you are.”

  “I’m responsible for this,” he said, pointing to the crash site. “All of these people have lost everything…their lives, their families, their careers…because I fucked up.”

  “I would’ve done the same thing.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have,” Nathan insisted. “You wouldn’t have risked your ship and crew for one person, not even for a friend.”

  “Like I took the Aurora on an illegal mission to support your fight against the Dusahn?”

  “That was different,” Nathan argued.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Cameron countered. “I risked my ship and my crew, and without hesitation.”

  “You gave your crew a choice,” Nathan explained. “I didn’t.”

  “You didn’t have time, and you weren’t acting outside of your authority as captain. I was, which is why I gave my crew a choice. Apples and oranges, Nathan.”

  Nathan chuckled.

  “Besides, it’s all in the past, now.”

  “About two hundred years in the past,” Nathan corrected.

  “Neli has turned the Mirai’s cargo bay into a makeshift galley. She’s serving emergency rations and hot coffee.”

  “I think at this point, I’d rather just take a nap. It’s been a long day.” Nathan turned to head back down the hill. “Let me know if the Dragons find anything.”

  “Comm-sets are still down,” Cameron reminded him. “Where will I find you?

  “Where else?” Nathan replied. “In my ready room.”

  * * *

  “I am detecting low-level energy signals at bearing one four seven, eighty-seven kilometers,” Talisha’s AI reported.

  “What kind of energy?” Talisha wondered.

  “Thermal energy, most likely from fire, low-level radio waves, and electro-magnetic fields similar to those created by small, portable fusion generators.”

  “Sounds like people,” Talisha concluded.

  “That would be my guess,” her AI agreed.

  Talisha looked to her right at her wingman. “Niko, I’ve got a possible surface contact at one-four seven, eighty-seven clicks.”

  “I’ve got it,” Nikolas confirmed.

  “We’ll overfly at angels twenty, but at sub-mach. That way, they shouldn’t notice us.

  “Recon pattern?” Nikolas assumed.

  “A-firm. Ten click spacing should do it.”

  “You got it,” Nikolas replied as his Dragon fighter rolled right, turning away from Talisha. “Turning to one-four seven. See ya on the other side.”

  * * *

  “What news would you like first?” Cameron asked as she entered the captain’s ready room. “Good or bad?”

  “Let’s end on a good note,” Nathan replied, downing the last of his coffee.

  “Well, this ship isn’t flying again any time soon. Every grav-lift emitter needs to be replaced, as do half of our jump-field emitters.”

  “What about shields?”

  “Most of them are fine,” Cameron replied. “We lost a few in battle, but not so many that we can’t fill in the gaps. Of course, the shields won’t be back to full strength until the damaged emitters are replaced.”

  “Well, at least they should keep native intruders away.”

  “ZPEDs are still down, but since we’re not flying, the backup fusion reactor should suffice.”

  “Did Vlad get it back on line?”

  “He’s working on it now. He thinks he can have it up before nightfall.”

  “Good. We have no idea what the nights are like here. Any clue where we are yet?”

  “None. For that, we’ll need to get back into space.”

  “So far, things don’t seem that bad,” Nathan decided.

  “Well, I’ll refrain from reading the preliminary damage report. Better you peruse that at your leisure, since it’s quite lengthy.”

  “I see.
”

  “We’re also looking at a raw materials problem.”

  “I thought we departed with full load?”

  “A full-load isn’t enough to fix this much damage,” Cameron explained. “We don’t even have enough Aramenium to fabricate half of the blown-out grav-lift emitters. If we’re ever going to get this ship back into space, we’ll need to find resources.”

  “Not until we know more about where and when we are, and what the current state of the galaxy is.”

  “You really are concerned about that, aren’t you?”

  “It’s not that I’m concerned,” Nathan explained. “I just don’t want to make any assumptions. Not while we’re this vulnerable.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Is it time for the good news yet?” Nathan wondered.

  “Let’s see…” Cameron scanned her data pad, forwarding through several pages.

  “That long, huh?”

  Cameron continued forward, eventually reaching the final page of her report. “Ah, Doctor Chen reports that Chief Calis is stable. However, he is still considered critical.”

  “How many people did we lose?”

  “Eighteen total,” Cameron replied solemnly. “Four from the Selles, and fourteen of our own.”

  That news hit Nathan hard. He had lost people under his command before, but it had been years ago. For him, this was the worst part of being in command.

  “Doc has them in cold storage, in case it turns out we’re able to get their bodies back to Earth.”

  “Is that it?” Nathan wondered. “Is that all the good news?”

  “Well, the ship is structurally intact, so we have good shelter, and we have at least a month’s worth of food and water, which we can stretch to two. Oh, and we still have seventy-six percent of our propellant, so we can use the Dragons and shuttles quite a lot before we’ll start running low.”

  “We should plan on keeping twenty-five percent as a reserve for when we do get this ship flying again.”

  “That’s still an if at this point.”

  “Optimism, Cam,” Nathan urged. “Optimism.”

  “XO, Base,” Ensign Dass called over Cameron’s comm-set.

  “Go ahead,” Cameron answered.

  “Comm-sets are up?” Nathan wondered.

  “Dragon One reports a surface contact. They’re over the target now at angels twenty. We’re getting their sensor feed.”

  “Can you send it to my data pad?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “How’d you get the comm-sets back up?” Nathan asked.

  “Ensign Dass has set up a comms station in the Mirai,” Cameron explained as she studied her data pad. “All our comm-sets are currently tuned into her comms-net. She goes by Aurora Base.” Cameron offered her data pad to Nathan. “It seems we’re not alone on this world.”

  Nathan studied the data pad for a moment. “Looks like a small settlement of some kind,” he said as he handed the data pad back to her.

  Cameron studied the data pad a bit more. “Looks like maybe a thousand people. There’s a fusion reactor on site, so they have some technology. A lot of thermal signatures from fires, probably for cooking.”

  “So, not too much technology, then.” Nathan rose from the couch. “I guess we should check them out.”

  “Maybe we should wait,” Cameron suggested. “I mean, from the looks of this, they don’t have anything that could help us, so why risk contact?”

  “To get intel,” Nathan said. “Where are we, when are we, and what’s the state of the galaxy…”

  “You can’t just go in there and ask such questions,” Cameron insisted. “They’ll think you’re nuts.”

  “I’ll be subtle,” Nathan promised.

  “Don’t tell them that we crashed. If they’re stranded and desperate, they might attack us to steal what we have.”

  “I’ll take the Seiiki, and we’ll go as civilians,” Nathan told her.

  “And don’t tell them who you are, for God’s sake…”

  “Cam, relax. I know how to be covert. I’ll go as Conner Tuplo.”

  “And take Jessica,” Cameron added.

  “Like I have a choice,” Nathan chuckled as he headed out.

  * * *

  The Aurora had ended up relatively level, with a slight list to port, making moving around inside of her not too difficult. However, she was still a big ship, and she was bellied down, which made getting in and out of her a challenge.

  Luckily, one of Vladimir’s first accomplishments had been getting the port cargo hatch opened and a makeshift ramp set up. The ramp went from the hatch to the berm that the Aurora had plowed up during her crash-landing. From there, it was a short hike down the uneven berm to open ground.

  The Seiiki and the Mirai were positioned to the Aurora’s port side. Most of the crew were inside the Aurora, conducting damage inspections.

  Nathan came down the berm toward the Seiiki, immediately spotting Jessica, Kit, Marcus and Neli, all gathered at the base of the shuttle’s cargo ramp. “Aren’t we a motley looking bunch,” he commented, noting their civilian attire. “Where’d you get the civies?”

  “Well, half your crew are civilians, so it wasn’t hard,” Jessica explained. “We got some for you, too,” she added, tossing him a shirt and jacket.

  “Why are we here?” Neli asked.

  “If I’m going to be Conner Tuplo, then I need Marcus and Neli on my crew,” Nathan told her. “Besides, you two look the least military of all of us, and we want them to think we’re just a small privateer.”

  “There are plenty of civilians aboard who could’ve come,” Marcus pointed out.

  “Are you complaining?” Nathan wondered.

  “Me? Never. Just sayin’.”

  “Besides, everyone likes Neli,” Nathan added, putting his arm around her. “She’s our ice-breaker.”

  Jessica handed Nathan a gun belt.

  “Is this necessary?” Nathan wondered.

  “Did you wear one when you were a privateer?” Jessica asked.

  Nathan took the gun belt and headed up the ramp. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  * * *

  Robert had not had any time to spend with their three passengers since escaping the Ilyan. He and his crew had spent most of their time helping Vladimir and his team assess the damage to the Aurora. While the air was breathable, they had no idea what the weather patterns held in store for them. The sooner they could all get back inside the Aurora, the better off they’d all be.

  Now that the initial inspection was over, Robert had returned to his task of seeing after their three passengers.

  Martina had been easy. The Aurora had sailed with minimal medical staffing. Martina’s previous med-tech training was proving invaluable in the ship’s medical department. Hanna had also required no effort on his part. She was more than happy to pass the time studying the last thousand years of Earth history.

  Erica, on the other hand, had been a bit more of a challenge. In fact, he had spent the last hour trying to locate her, finally finding her sitting by herself on a small rise in the distance off the downed Aurora’s port side.

  “What are you doing way out here by your lonesome?” Robert asked as he approached.

  “Just enjoying the view,” she replied.

  Robert could tell by her expression that there was more going on. “She’s a mighty fine ship,” Robert said as he sat on the hill next to her, facing the distant ship. “This was her first mission, you know.”

  Erica looked at him. “Seriously?”

  “Yup. First of her class, in fact. She wasn’t even scheduled to depart until two days from now.”

  “Hell of a first flight,” she commented.

  “It kind of goes with her name,” Robert chuckled, “as well as her captain.”


  Erica looked at him, confused.

  “The original Aurora was also pressed into service ahead of schedule, and suffered a similar catastrophic event.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yup. That’s how Captain Scott ended up in command. He was just a scrub lieutenant, fresh out of the academy at the time.”

  “I know how that feels,” Erica said. “The Lokken was only my second actual flight.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup. I only graduated flight school about a year… Wait, I guess that would be like, a thousand years ago?”

  “We’re guessing closer to twelve hundred, at this point.”

  Erica sighed. “All I wanted was to get on the crew of an outbound colony mission. Now I wish I was back on McFallon.”

  “You’re from McFallon?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Nice world. Why’d you want to leave?”

  “You’ve been there?” she wondered.

  “Several times.”

  “And you thought it was nice?”

  “Well, I was there about a thousand years after you left, so I’m sure a lot had changed.”

  “It was just a fringe world in my day,” Erica explained. “A few hundred thousand people at the most. Cargo ships only stopped by a few times a year, at best.”

  “And they still had a flight academy?”

  “Actually, it was just one instructor with a really nice simulator that he’d built himself. He was fully certified by the INA, though.”

  “I’m sure he taught you well.”

  “How many people lived on McFallon when you were there?”

  “A few million, at least,” Robert replied. “Fully industrialized and self-sufficient, as best I could tell. She was a member of the Sol Alliance.”

  Erica rolled her eyes. “Then I was right by leaving.”

  “What do you mean?”

  McFallon was becoming controlled by the Core Systems Alliance. That’s why I left. I wanted to be someplace truly free.”

  “Well, in a roundabout way, you may have succeeded,” Robert admitted.

  “Maybe,” Erica chuckled, her attention turning back to the Aurora. “You think she’ll fly again?”

  “If she holds true to her namesake, she will.”