Seven days later. 17:30 CNS Marcinko Bridge

“Entering Uranus’ gravity well sir,” Caleb said.

John grinned, “Lacey, get me coms for all rooms except the berths.”

“Aye sir,” Lacey said uneasily.

“Good evening everyone, this is Captain Leif speaking. I wanted to let everyone know that I can see Uranus. That is all.”

Several things happened immediately on the bridge. Andern started laughing, Lieutenant Page was sighing and gritting her teeth. Caleb was fighting the urge to laugh but failing to do so. Lacey rolled her eyes at the immature joke.

“Every god damned one of you does that. Every… last… one… of… you…” Page said gritting her death.

John swiveled his seat to the right, “Oh come on Lieutenant. It’s a rite of passage.”

“Thank you for meeting expectations cadet. I’ll be in my office.” Page stomped off out of the bridge.

“Clearly that wasn’t as funny for her as it was to me,” Andern said.

Lacey noticed that engineering was contacting the bridge, she patched the communications link to the speakers, “Goddammit Lief!” Kevin shouted, “You cost me fifty credits.”

“You actually thought I was mature enough to not do that? Jesus, you’ve been around me long enough to know better.”

“Whatever, sonofabitch, I can feel Thomas humble bragging about this bet,” there was a slamming sound that played just before the link was shut off.

“On that note, Andern, what traffic do we have in the system?”

“Displaying on the main screen.”

John stood up and walked closer to the screen, “Overlay distance, time to intercept, and last time they were visited by a Naval ship please.”

“Cross-checking, give me a moment. I’ll also make any with that have been visited within the previous month transparent.”

“Make it three months,” John said as he turned to look at Andern.

“Refreshing the screen now.”

“No mining ships, thank god,” John said under his breath, “Caleb, calculate a path to intercept the three freighters that haven’t been contacted in over nine months.”

“Not ideal given their distances, but here’s a fairly efficient route.”

“We can get to one in ninety-five minutes. After that, it’s picking your poison. Long burn followed by short burn. Or shorter burn and then a much longer burn.”

“None of the three are heading out of the solar system, though that’s presuming they are following their flight plans,” Caleb said.

“Gotcha. Well, let’s head to intercept the ICS Sleepwalker. Lacey, contact Uranus Control and let them know our plans.”

Caleb and Lacey got to work. Caleb increased the ship's speed and plotted where they could most efficiently intercept the freighter. Lacey began talking to Uranus Control, who thankfully was much more responsive and professional than Pluto ever could hope to be. John walked back to Andern’s station.

“You’re going to be up for inspection duty bud.”

“Roger that. Be nice to stretch my legs. Want Kori or Kevin to come with?”

“Kori, she hasn’t gone on one yet. I’ll have her go with you and a pair of enlisted to the bridge.”

Andern nodded as John walked back to his chair. John sat down and began filling out some paperwork. John was interrupted by Lacey muttering something than hearing her chair squeak as she swiveled it to face John.

“Captain, I received a text message from the Sleepwalker. The text said, ‘Intercept Notification’ but what was weird is that encoded in it was a string of characters.”

“And they were?” John asked as he looked up.

“Tango-Niner-Delta-Four-Six-Alpha-Charlie-Alpha-Seven.”

John looked like he was in thought for a second, then looked down at the small screen connected to his chair. He swapped back to the main screen and entered a screen only captains had access to. The code was familiar to a cipher he had used once several years ago. John entered the code, and it came back as an active cipher.

“Lacey, please send this response back: ‘Pernicious tides, voluminous opportunities.’ Caleb, change our course to parallel them, make it appear like we’re changing to intercept another freighter in their area, keep our speed stable. Andern, you have the bridge.”

John walked into his room leaving three bridge officers thoroughly confused at what had happened. But they followed his orders faithfully. John sat down and logged into Naval Intelligence to investigate the cipher. A couple of minutes later he had his answer, but it didn’t change how it felt odd.

John switched the terminal to communications and sent a request to Naval Intelligence. John tapped his finger impatiently against the countertop. He was aware of his impatient ticks but was helpless to stop them. Then the screen switched to green, and then a familiar face appeared.

“Been awhile Director. How are things?”

Director LeCroix smiled, “It has, I heard you overdid things on Manchester.”

“Sure did, almost died and literally burned my brain out. On the plus side, the radiation weapon that struck me didn’t castrate me so I can still have kids. So, yay to that,” John said nonchalantly.

“Only you could take such life-altering news and seemingly not feel like it matters. What can I help you with?”

“I’m transmitting a cipher to y’all. Can you tell me if the ICS Sleepwalker is one of your assets and if so, was this their proper cipher code to use in Sol?”

LeCroix looked down and was working at his workstation. His face scrunched up momentarily which led John to assume his hunch was right. LeCroix kept working at the workstation. Then he looked up at John.

“Was an asset of ours but hasn’t been one in some time. They never had any ciphers assigned to them in Sol. This is a legitimate cipher though but was assigned to the CNS Baudin. But she’s obviously not a freighter.”

“The game’s afoot…” John drifted off as he spoke, “Well, looks like I walked ass-backward into another mess. I’ll keep y’all apprised of any new developments.”

“We’ll be watching. I’ll have the CNS Topeka rerouted to your location.”

“I’ll try to get some other local assets to join us,” John said as he stood up and closed the communication link.

John walked out of his room and strode onto the bridge, “Yellow alert, all ahead flank. Andern, are there any friendly naval vessels near us?”

“Yeah, a trio of corvettes, assets of Orange squadron which are stationed out here.”

“Lacey, contact them via secure communications, request assistance in the intercept of the ICR Sleepwalker due to unlawful use of an intelligence cipher. We will engage the freighter first, they will be our backup if they get feisty,” John paused, “Andern, I want lances and torpedoes charged, locked, and ready. If they flinch, then they’ll be dead.”

The mood on the bridge got serious very quickly. John was well-known to be a smartass and liked to goof around to a degree while on duty. But everyone had also seen how quickly he could shift to be laser-focused on accomplishing a mission.

Thirty minutes flew by. John stood up and was tapping his foot in the center of the bridge. They were very close to contacting the frigate. They increased their speed when they noticed the Marcinko was intercepting them, but there was no way they would escape the gravity well to jump out of the system.

“Independent Cargo Ship Sleepwalker, kill your engines and prepare to be boarded,” John said sternly.

A moment later two-way communications were connected, “Negative, once again transmitting signal.”

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“Sleepwalker, you can shut your engines down, or I will. Your choice,” John waved his hand in front of his neck to Lacey who muted their line, “Caleb, they have a couple of guns, choose high or low, but not directly behind.”

“Roger sir.”

Andern interjected from the back, “Got a solution on the engines.”

“Red Alert, Lacey unmute them, please. You have ten seconds Sleepwalker.”

“WE ARE WORKING FOR YOU BLOODY IDIOTS, CALL OFF YOUR ATTACK,” yelled a voice from the freighter.

“Five seconds,” John raised his hand.

With one second remaining the engines cut out on the Sleepwalker.

“Prepare to be boarded. If you flinch your dead,” John said as the communications were ended.

“Sir, orders?” Caleb asked.

“Andern, get two worms prepared and launched at them when in range. I want that ship locked down. They likely can fight back against at least one. Lacey, are the boarding troops ready?”

“Chief reports they are just waiting for you.”

Jessica walked onto the bridge.

“Good timing Jessica, I need you to manage the second worm. Until we have the ship locked down on their side, I don’t trust this situation one bit.”

“Understood,” Jessica sat down at the station on the opposite side of the room from Andern.

“Caleb, you have the bridge. If they try to move off, take out their engine.”

“Understood.”

01:45 Main Hangar

John walked out of the bridge and jogged down the hall to the hangar. The Senior Chief and the enlisted gave John some crap for being fashionably late. John hollered back he had a ship to manage. When the reliquary began affixing the armor plates to his suit a message from the bridge was relayed into the hangar.

“Worms are active, they are fighting back but aren’t making any headway. We’ve got a third one ready to launch just in case.”

Senior Chief Stroll walked over to the terminal next to their airlock and pressed a button, “Open the outer airlock.”

“Opening it now,” Jessica said.

“Senior Chief let’s bring over a kinetic barrier just in case they rigged the inner door,” John shouted out the room.

“Will do, Jason, go fetch one.”

The Marcinko’s hangar was a flurry of activity. John grabbed his battle rifle, combat knife, and pistol. He walked to the rest of the boarding party. He slipped his helmet on and let the armor create a seal to protect him from the void.

“Alright, let’s boogie. Keep focused. All their crew are in the forward section of the ship which is where we’re entering. No life signs are detected in the hold. I want them alive, they put up a fight use less than lethal. They use lethal, then we’re putting them down. Understood?”

The crew nodded and shouted in agreement. The inner door closed and sealed behind them. The atmosphere was pulled out of the airlock, then the outer door was opened. The men in power armor engaged their thrusters on their armor to speed the transit between ships. John hit the outer door button to close it behind them.

“Jason, get the barrier up. Andern, kill all the lights inside including the emergency ones, we’ll use night vision.”

“Done and done,” Andern said through the coms.

“Barrier up.”

“Open the inner door.”

When the door opened small arms fire opened up. John dashed out beyond the safety of the shield and punched the closest man in the gut, then spun around and smacked the second man with the back of his right arm. The crew followed suit.

“Get shackles on these idiots. Stick with less than lethal for now. I want two guarding the airlock and these five idiots. Rest of you with me, we’re going to sweep the ship.”

Forty-five minutes later the freighter had been swept, except for the bridge. The last three men were still working feverishly trying to do something. John grabbed his pistol and led the charge. He shot the first man to his right. Jason got the man to the left. Only one was left hiding behind the navigation console.

John jumped over it, turned, and lifted the captain of the vessel up, “What the hell are you hiding.”

“We’re on a bloody mission for intelligence. We’re working for you.”

“No, you’re not,” John tossed the man over the console so that he landed near one of his crew, “Andern, I want lights turned on in all rooms.”

“Done. Corvettes showed up. They are asking if we need assistance.”

“Inform them that we just secured the bridge and the ship’s crew. We’ll be in contact shortly. What’s the ETA on the Topeka?”

“Two hours thirty minutes sir,” Caleb said.

“Drag these idiots back to where the others are,” John said as he magnetized the pistol to his hip.

He walked back to the airlock and asked for two of the crew to come with him to begin searching the cargo hold. They walked to the first door and entered it. There were several containers. They began looking inside. There were guns, ammunition, and armor. None of which were on their manifest.

“Paul, cross-check these serials against the naval database. Where the hell did all this come from?” John was looking confused.

“Yes sir. I might be speaking out of turn, but I do know some bases are lax with their security, but all this though. This is something else,” Paul responded.

“That’s what worries me.”

“Kelsey, with me to the next hold.”

Kelsey nodded and fell into line behind John. He hit the button and the door to the second freight hold opened. The lights were flickering but the outline of what John saw stopped him in his tracks.

“Kelsey, guard the door outside, contact the Senior Chief and get one more guard the door with you. NO ONE is to enter this door.”

“Uh, ok…” Kelsey was interrupted by John stepping into the room fully and hitting the button to close the door behind him.

John pulled his helmet off and hung it to his left hip. He walked closer and scanned the armor plate and engine that were tied down. They were components of a new ship that had been in development for several years, funded and being built for Naval Intelligence.

“How in the fuck did they get parts of that stealth destroyer?” John asked himself as he rubbed his hand against the armor plate.

He shook his head and walked over to a terminal on the wall. From there he opened up the communication subsystem and requested an encrypted line to Naval Intelligence.

The call was picked up sixteen seconds later, almost as if they were waiting for John, “I presume the ship is secure?” Director LeCroix asked.

“Yes. Take a look at what’s behind me,” John pressed some buttons to zoom in and focus on the ship components, “We have small arms, munitions, and armor in the other hangar. I already have the crew checking where the serial numbers originate from.”

“Guard that room, I will have the Topeka expedite their arrival.”

“What about the corvettes we have here?”

LeCroix paused then spoke, “Send them away when they arrive.”

“Understood, I’ll finish a sweep of the holds and report back when the Topeka arrives,” John ended the call then pressed a button on his left forearm, “Andern, let the corvettes know they are free to leave when the Topeka arrives. Thank them for the assistance.”

“Understood. Lieutenant Page wants to know what’s going on over there.”

“Crew is secured. No other comment.”

“Yeah, she wants to know what’s going on though.”

“I’m aware, I have no comment at this time. Contact me when Topeka gets here. Have her captain meet me in the secure hangar when they arrive, Lief out.”

John killed the connection and began searching the other holds. For ninety minutes he went from hangar to hangar. He didn’t do much more than a cursory inspection of each hangar. But he discovered more weapons and munitions. The other engine and several other ship armor plates were also uncovered. Energy-based ship weapons were also found. What troubled John was that the freighter was only transporting part of the ship. That means there were other freighters that had other parts of the vessel or more worryingly that someone had already received those parts.

03:45 Freight Bay 1

“Ma’am, I have been ordered by the captain to deny access to everyone requesting entrance to that freighter section. I don’t know why but he was quite insistent and clear,” Seaman Kelsey Cruz said.

“He’s a bloody cadet, I outrank him,” Page said.

The door opened, which surprised everyone. John walked in and closed the door behind him.

“You may outrank me, but you don’t have clearance to see what’s inside. If you try to go in, I will have you escorted off this ship. This is not up for debate,” John said calmly as he walked into the hangar looking for Paul.

Paul was dragging another crate of weapons out of a red shipping container, “They are from all over the fucking place sir. Three crates from Mars, two from Pluto, one from Manchester, another from Venus, half a dozen from Armstrong Station on Luna.”

“Is the Topeka here?” John asked.

“They are sending their team over. Shit’s that bad in there eh?” Senior Chief Stroll asked.

“Yes, we managed to find ourselves in another fucking quagmire.”

“What can possibly be in there that you can’t talk about it. It makes no sense that a cadet has a security clearance that outranks a lieutenant,” Page exclaimed.

There was laughter from the enlisted crew and Chief Stroll. Page looked around and shrugged. She didn’t understand why she was the butt of the joke.

“You didn’t read his full sheet, did you?” Stroll asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I was with Naval Intelligence for six years, three of which I was a field agent. My security clearance is complicated,” John said as he sat down on the pile of crates Paul had created, “There is something on this freighter that has no business being here. And those men over there just earned a one-way trip to Titan.”

The inner airlock door opened from down the hall. It made an incredibly irritating metallic scratching noise as it opened. Several men came in power armor walked in flanked by an equal number in void sheathes.

“Good morning, I’m First Lieutenant Darren Polter. I’m the captain of the Topeka, First Fleet Naval Intelligence asset.”

“And we finally meet face to face,” Deputy Director Baros said, “Nice seeing you in the flesh cadet.”

John walked forward and shook the men’s hands, “Follow me unto the breach so you can witness the shitshow that we uncovered. You can see from the mess here with the small arms.”

“We’re having a shuttle dock on the port side of the vessel. The crewmen will be taken aboard and transported over to the Topeka. I’ll have my crew fly this ship to Titan under our escort,” Polter said.

“When all your assets are on board, we’ll pull back to the Marcinko and head out. Lieutenant, please stand over there,” John pointed twenty feet behind her.

After she was clear of the door, John escorted his guests into the cargo hold. They were shocked at everything that they had seen in the first room. Each room shattered expectations based on what they were seeing. This amount of ship equipment and other military goods should not have been able to be smuggled away. But yet, here they were. Something was obviously amiss, but how this was happening wasn’t know yet.

05:30 Marcinko Hangar

Andern had come down to the hangar to talk to John about the freighter. John really wanted everyone to shut up and just leave him alone but that didn’t seem possible. Lieutenant Page entered the room three times demanding answers. She left with the same answer. Senior Chief Stroll began reading back the locations of where the small arms were originally registered too.

Virtually every military base in the Solar system, along with a couple in Proxima Centauri and Wolf systems were on the list. John did admit that it was as interesting as it was confounding but again, his immediate concerns were to get out of this bloody power armor.

Eventually, it was just Andern who continued to annoy and delay him. The last armor plate was disengaged from his voidsheath and placed back in the reliquary. It unlocked the Zero-G harness and held it in front of him to take. The component modifications were then powered down, detached, and held in front of him to take as well.

John smirked and wondered why he even had that still. It wasn’t any use to him anymore. He walked over to a rack and locked the harness in place. He grabbed the channeler and placed it on top of a workbench. Andern didn’t say anything because he wasn’t sure what he saw. But he swore under his breath that he saw the light on it flash blue briefly when John was setting it down.

John smiled and slapped his friend in the shoulder, “I’m fucking starved, let’s get some chow.”

Andern shook his head and smiled, “Oh captain, my captain. Lead the way!”