The Exile: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Omega Taskforce Book 3) Page 4

  Sterling nodded, but he was too breathless to respond verbally. He then squeezed out the remaining few push-ups and held himself in plank. Banks, however, remained seated on his back.

  “You can get off now,” Sterling said, wondering why his first officer was still using him as a bench.

  “That’s only fifty-nine, Captain,” Banks replied, dryly. Sterling couldn’t see her face, but he guessed she was grinning.

  “Are you sure? I definitely counted sixty.” Sterling hit back.

  “Come on, Captain, just one more,” Banks said, oblivious to Sterling’s protests. “Unless, you’ve had enough, of course?”

  Sterling shook his head. He knew he shouldn’t take the bait, but he wasn’t about to let Banks win. Dropping his chest to the deck he then squeezed out a final push up. The effort was excruciating and it felt like his head was going to explode.

  “There, sixty,” said Sterling, triumphant. “Now can you get off?”

  Banks stood up and stepped to the side. Sterling suddenly felt like he was about to float off the deck.

  “Nice work, Captain,” Banks said, giving him a sarcastic-looking hand clap. Sterling pushed himself upright, feeling a little light-headed. Then Banks sniffed the air. “Now you really do need a shower,” she said, smiling.

  “Thank you for that expert assessment, Commander,” Sterling replied, metering out an appropriate amount of sarcasm. “Let me finish up here and I’ll meet you in the wardroom in twenty.” He headed towards his shower cubicle.

  “Aye, Captain,” Banks replied, moving up to the door and pressing the button to open it. She stepped into the threshold then stopped and turned back, looking a little perplexed.

  “Was there something else, Mercedes?” asked Sterling, touching the stream of water from the shower to test if it had gotten hot.

  “You’re not the only one who gets ‘intense’ dreams, you know,” Banks said, meeting Sterling’s eyes.

  Sterling frowned, but didn’t answer. In truth, he didn’t know what to say. However, as it turned out, no response was necessary. In his moment of delay, Banks had already stepped out into the corridor and the door had slid shut behind her.

  Chapter 5

  A brief moment of respite

  Commander Mercedes Banks slid two meal trays onto the table then planted herself firmly into the seat opposite Sterling. He paused, with the remaining half of his grilled ham and cheese in his mouth, staring down at the trays.

  “We’re low on supplies, remember?” Sterling said, after taking a bite of the sandwich. “Don’t you think you can ration yourself to just one breakfast?”

  Banks tore the foil off the first tray, allowing the steam to billow out above a course of sausage and fried potatoes. “I’ve implemented a quota system already,” said Banks, tucking in to the food. “It comes into force tomorrow, though,” she added, with a mouthful of food. “I thought I’d let the crew have one last meal, before they get stuck with commando bars and coffee for breakfast.”

  Sterling smiled. “I’m sensing a little bit of motivated self-interest in that decision, but okay, Commander,” he replied, returning to his own food.

  There was a strident “yip” from beneath the table and Sterling leant over to see Jinx staring up at Commander Banks with big, brown eyes. Banks smiled at the dog then skewered a sausage on a fork and offered it to her. The animal snatched it and devoured it in a matter of seconds.

  “Where the hell is that thing going to do its… you know?” said Sterling, hooking a thumb at the dog.

  “No, I don’t know,” replied Banks, tearing the foil off her second tray and starting on the ham and eggs.

  “You know, it’s ‘business’,” replied Sterling. Then he threw his arms out wide. “Come on, I’m eating, don’t make me be any more descriptive.”

  Banks shoveled some more eggs into her mouth and shrugged. “Well, pretty much wherever she needs to,” she replied, drawing a horrified stare from Sterling. “Outside the door to your quarters is one of her favorite places.”

  Sterling folded his arms. “You know, I’m considering a no dogs policy on this ship,” he said, as Banks fed Jinx a few pieces of bacon. “And also a ‘no Mercedes’ policy.”

  Banks laughed. “Relax, Lucas, Jinx is very well trained,” she said, patting the hound on the head. “She’s an Omega ship’s dog, after all.”

  Sterling rolled his eyes then started grazing on the rest of the food on his tray. It was then he spotted Ensign Keller out of the corner of his eye. He was already holding a meal tray, but instead of sitting down he was standing in the middle of the wardroom, looking like he was lost.

  “Put the kid out of his misery already,” said Banks, wafting her fork, which had a piece of sausage on the end, in the direction of Keller.

  Sterling snorted a laugh then kicked out a chair from under the table. It screeched across the floor, causing Keller – and the other crew in the wardroom – to jerk around, looking for what made the noise.

  “Take a pew, Ensign,” said Sterling, tossing the crusts of his grilled ham and cheese back onto the tray.

  Keller trotted over and slid his tray onto the table. “Thanks, Captain,” the helmsman said, sliding into the chair that Sterling had kicked out. “I’m never sure whether I’m intruding,” he added, while adjusting the position of his meal tray and tucking in his seat. “You know, you two could be discussing secret command-level secrets, for all I know.” The ensign then spotted Jinx underneath the table and reached down to pat the hound on the head.

  Banks dropped an elbow on the table and leant in closer to Ensign Keller, fork still in hand. The sudden closeness of the ship’s first officer clearly made Keller nervous and he pushed himself flat against the back of his chair.

  “Is this a private room, Ensign, or can any officer come in here?” Banks said, locking eyes with the helmsman.

  “Well, all the Invictus’ officers can come in here, right?” said Keller. He sounded uncertain, as if he was worried that Banks was trying to trick him.

  “Don’t answer a question with a question, mister,” Banks replied, skewering another piece of sausage and slotting it into her mouth.

  “Yes, Commander, any officer can come in here,” Keller said, this time with conviction.

  “So, what are the chances that me and the Captain are discussing something that is for command ears only?” Banks continued, chewing on the sausage.

  “Umm, none?” said Keller, again a little uncertain.

  “Right again,” replied Banks. She then lifted her elbow off the table and rested back in her chair. “So next time, just come over and ask to join us, rather than standing in the middle of the room like a kid on his first day at a new school.”

  “Aye, Commander, I’ll do that,” Ensign Keller replied, almost instantly becoming more at ease. The helmsman then tore the foil off his meal tray and grabbed his fork, ready to get stuck in. Banks peered down at his tray with interest. Sterling realized that it was a number thirty – a rarity on the Invictus.

  “Damn it, I was going to have that for lunch,” said Banks, eyeing up the pepperoni pizza slice on Keller’s tray.

  “I’m sure you’ll find something else to eat,” said Sterling, cutting in before Keller politely – and foolishly – offered to give the pizza to his first officer.

  Lieutenant Katreena Razor then strolled over with a meal tray in hand. Her bright white hair and dazzling, augmented eyes were a stark contrast to the austere, military architecture of the wardroom

  “Mind if I join you, Captain, Commander?” she said. Her question was asked with none of the timidity or self-consciousness of Ensign Keller.

  Sterling kicked out another chair. “Be our guest, Lieutenant.”

  Razor scowled at the chair that Sterling had pushed out and navigated to the opposite side of the table. Choosing a different chair she then sat and slid her meal tray out in front of her.

  “Something wrong with that chair, Lieutenant?” asked Sterling, rega
rding his engineer with a quizzical eye.

  “I prefer to sit so that I can see the exit, Captain,” Razor replied, peeling the foil off her tray. Banks glanced at the contents then shook her head.

  “Let me guess, you were going to have that one for dinner?” Sterling said, nodding towards Razor’s tray.

  “Well, I was, actually,” said Banks, huffily.

  “Good choice, Commander,” said Razor, tucking in to the duck cassoulet on the even-rarer number four meal tray. “I was surprised to see this in storage, since they haven’t been available for about a year. I found it right at the bottom of the pile. It took some getting at, I can tell you.”

  Sterling took a sip of coffee then looked over the top of his cup at Banks. “I wonder how it found its way there?” he mused, flashing his eyes at Banks, who just scowled back at him.

  “Since you’re both here,” Razor went on, tossing a piece of duck to Jinx, who caught it in her jaws and wolfed it down in an instant, “an analysis I was running overnight just completed, and I think I’ve figured out how Admiral Griffin intends for us to get back into Fleet space again.”

  Sterling sat up, awaiting Razor’s findings with interest. Ever since they’d disobeyed orders and surged through the aperture in G-sector into the Void, he had been wracking his brains trying to work out how to return again. He knew that the Sa’Nerran invasion force would have already reached G-sector, which Fleet had abandoned, and started constructing its own forward operating base. Although each sector contained many apertures, each leading to new star systems within that same sector, there was only a single aperture that connected one sector to another. Fleet had intentionally engineered it that way precisely for the situation they now found themselves in. For the Sa’Nerra to progress deeper into Fleet space, the alien armada would have to go through F-COP and the Fleet Gatekeeper Odin, along with at least half of the entire war fleet. It also meant that in order for the Invictus to reach F-sector, it would have to go through space that was now occupied by nearly a thousand Sa’Nerran warships. In short, there wasn’t a chance in hell of reaching Fleet space, unless another route could be found.

  “I’m all ears, Lieutenant Razor,” said Sterling, turning his body to face his engineer. “What is the Admiral’s genius plan for getting us home?”

  Razor scrunched up her nose then cocked her head to one side. “Well, technically, I haven’t discovered exactly how to get back into Fleet space,” the engineer said. Her statement deflated Sterling’s excitement like a pin popping a balloon. “What I have found is an encrypted file labelled, ‘Invictus – Return’,” Razor then went on.

  Sterling perked up again. “And that’s what your program just cracked overnight?” he asked, hopefully.

  Razor shook her head. “I’d need the computer resources of an entire COP to crack this file, a least in any reasonable amount of time,” she answered, instantly deflating Sterling’s mood again. “But there was a second file attached to it that was easy to break open. It simply said, ‘Shade is the key’.”

  Sterling flopped back into his chair. “What the hell does that mean?” he said, sighing and rubbing the back of his neck.

  “Does she mean Lieutenant Shade?” asked Keller, dropping the crust of his pizza slice onto his tray. Banks picked it up and began to feed chunks of it to Jinx.

  “I did ask Lieutenant Shade if she had any idea what the message meant, but she said no,” Razor replied, meeting the ensign’s inquisitive eyes. “In fact, that one word is about as much as she’s said to me since I joined, outside of formal communications that is.”

  “Don’t take it personally,” said Commander Banks, brushing the pizza crumbs off her hands. “Shade isn’t really what you’d call a people person”.

  Razor shrugged. “I didn’t take it personally, Commander,” she replied, dryly. “Most of the time, I prefer to be alone too. Then at other times I don’t.”

  Banks frowned back at the engineer, but Sterling understood exactly what she meant. Sometimes, the only place he ever wanted to be was on the bridge, surrounded by his crew in the thick of the action. Then sometimes he just wanted to be in quarters, by himself, shut off from the sights and sounds of the outside world.

  “Thank you, Lieutenant Razor, I’ll pick up the matter with Lieutenant Shade directly,” Sterling said to his chief engineer.

  “Aye, Captain,” Razor replied, with a respectful nod of her head.

  An alert chime then rang out in the wardroom and the computer’s cheerful voice interrupted them.

  “Captain, we are approaching Colony Middle Star,” the ship’s AI said, with its usual breezy charm. “Long-range sensors are detecting three vessels in orbit around the fourth planet. They appear to be adrift and derelict.”

  “Thank you, computer, I’ll be on the bridge presently,” Sterling replied, directing his answer towards the ceiling, where he always imagined the invisible presence of the computer to be located. He met Banks’ eyes in order to gauge her reaction to the news.

  “A possible salvage opportunity?” said Banks, with a slight eyebrow raise. “The fourth planet has been all but abandoned for years.”

  “Maybe,” replied Sterling. “Or it could be a trap. We haven’t seen any sign of that mysterious gen-one destroyer since arriving in the Middle Star system.”

  “If it is a trap then it’s probably better that we deal with this new Marshall sooner rather than later,” Banks said.

  Sterling nodded and sighed before pushing his seat back and standing up. “Breakfast is over people,” he announced. “Return to your stations.”

  Razor and Keller got up without protest and immediately headed out of the wardroom. Banks stood, but unlike the others she didn’t also immediately head for the door. Instead, she leant over the table and picked up the crust of Sterling’s grilled ham and cheese that he’d discarded onto his tray earlier.

  “Waste not, want not,” Banks said. She then pushed the crust into her mouth and dusted off her hands.

  Chapter 6

  Justice versus the law

  Captain Sterling peered out through the viewscreen at the three ships circling the fourth planet of Colony Middle Star. He glanced across to Commander Banks, tapping his finger on the side of his console while he waited for her analysis. The soft bleeps and chirps from her console as she worked were soothing, though he doubted the current serenity on the bridge would last for long.

  “Two of the vessels are light freighters that were first registered decades ago,” said Banks, her eyes still focused down at her console. “They’re typical of the sort of trading vessel that operated in the outer colonies, before the Void was established.” Banks then glanced over to Sterling and raised an eyebrow. “Except that they’ve been extensively modified with thicker armor and Sa’Nerran plasma weapons.”

  Sterling huffed a laugh. It was looking increasingly likely that the ships were merely playing possum, waiting for an unsuspecting ship to pass by and eye them up for salvage.

  “What about the third ship?” Sterling asked, realizing that Banks hadn’t yet mentioned the final vessel in the trio of derelicts.

  Banks flashed her eyes at Sterling – a surefire tell that his first officer had uncovered something of note. “That’s a generation one Fleet Destroyer,” she said, a corner of her lips curling into a smile.

  “Well, that settles it then,” Sterling said, peering out at the ships on the viewscreen.

  “The destroyer has also been extensively modified, so much so that’s its barely recognizable as a Fleet design anymore,” Banks went on, folding her powerful arms across her chest. “The ship’s registry has been wiped, but the energy signature matches the vessel we saw surge ahead of us into this system.”

  Sterling stopped tapping the side of his console and straightened up. “Well, whoever it is has gone to an awful lot of trouble to lure us here,” he said, scowling at the old destroyer on the viewscreen. “We should probably find out why.”

  “We could just as ea
sily just fly on by,” said Banks, with a shrug. “Those ships could never catch us. The Invictus is too fast.”

  Sterling shook his head. “No, that will only postpone the confrontation to another time,” he said, resolute in his decision. “I’d rather have it out with them now and be done with it.”

  Banks nodded. “Aye, Captain. I’ll order Lieutenant Razor to make sure reserve power is allocated to our weapons and armor,” she replied, reaching for her neural interface. The door to the bridge then swooshed open and Razor walked inside.

  “Speak of the devil,” said Sterling, hooking a thumb in the direction of their chief engineer.

  “I’ve diverted all available power, including reserves, to the weapons and regenerative armor,” said Razor. She stepped over to the row of consoles at the rear of the bridge and began to transfer her engineering readouts and controls to them. “We’ll need to find a fuel source soon, though,” she added, working on the new array of consoles. “Otherwise we’ll be running on fumes pretty soon.”

  “That’s strange, I was just about to ask you to do all the things you’ve already done,” said Banks, scowling back at Razor. “I know we can read each other’s minds, but typically we need a neural link to have formed first.”

  The white-haired officer turned to face the command area, pressing her hands to the small of her back.

  “My apologies if my actions were presumptuous, Commander,” Razor replied, though to Sterling’s ear she didn’t sound particularly apologetic.

  “No apology necessary, Lieutenant, I appreciate you taking the initiative,” replied Banks. “Next time, just square it with the bridge first, understood?”

  “Aye, sir,” Razor replied with a respectful nod. “I merely assumed that since we were about to enter into a combat situation it was the prudent course of action.”

  “A warship operates on orders not assumptions,” Sterling chipped in, though secretly he appreciated Razor’s initiative too. Then he thought more about his chief-engineer’s justification and rested back on his console, peering at Razor with a quizzical eye. “What leads you to presume we’re about to enter a combat situation, Lieutenant?” He was genuinely curious to understand how Razor had come to this conclusion when she hadn’t been on the bridge during the tactical analysis.