14 Days Later. December 31st, 2267. 09:40 St. Mary’s Station – Military Arrivals
The trip home had taken just under a week less than the trip to Vosture Prime. That was welcome news to John. He returned home on a Confederate corvette that was reassigned the moment she made entry into the Vosture system. John had effectively been placed in quarantine by Naval Intelligence.
A quarantine he was more than willing to ignore. The CNS Falcon’s commanding officer, on the other hand, was not as willing to be flippant to the orders he received. As such, John was effectively under house arrest and wasn’t allowed to leave his small room. Thirteen days and twenty hours of being stuck in the same shabby room.
John made use of his time to finish his report for Naval Intelligence. The Navy likely would never see an unredacted copy of this report. He would also assuredly receive orders from Director LeCroix that he was not to speak of anything contained in the report. That was a point that made him genuinely curious about how much they would allow the Navy to see.
The biggest issue, and the thing that pissed him off the most, was that he was still not given authorization to speak to his wife. John knew Alice was going to be pissed off. Mostly at command for the cloak-and-dagger nature of it, but a portion of that anger was going to be directed at him.
That percentage appeared to be higher than John initially expected when she was not waiting for him in the common area. Or for that matter in the secure zone of the station, she did have access to go there. John walked over to one of the military terminals and confirmed that Alice was at the station and that she was currently at work.
“Well, shit,” John said to himself as he hoisted his rucksack over his shoulder, “Hopefully I haven’t been replaced.”
John walked straight to his condo at the station. To his surprise and delight, his biomarker was still in the station scanner as one of the residents and owners of the unit. That was a good sign.
In a perfect world the condo would be full of decorations and a surprise party would be thrown for his return. That was not the case. The condo was quiet. Two of the rooms were painted different colors and some new decorations were adorning their walls. John set the sack down on the ground near the entryway’s closet and looked around the unit.
Beyond the obvious changes, not much else was altered. After a few minutes of going into each room, it was clear that his stuff wasn’t thrown out and Alice hadn’t taken in a lover or new roommate. Or husband. He then confirmed that he was still married as no divorce proceedings had been filed through the station’s office of the magistrate.
“Ok, we’re not out of the woods yet,” John said as was leaning over the terminal, “Let’s see if Dipshit McGee gave her the message.”
John switched the terminal over to the communications screen and dialed Andern. It blinked for two minutes, which felt like an eternity for the perpetually impatient John to pass, but then it connected. Andern’s stupid face smiled when he saw his friend.
“First off, it’s good to see that you’re still alive. But dude, what in the fuck were you thinking having a kid hit me in the nuts?” Andern spoke with excitement in his voice.
“It was the best plan I could come up with on such short notice.”
“The kid literally hit my dick square. It hurt for a day.”
John grinned and then worked at pulling up the security footage of that day. When John found it, he had Eve clip the different angles and send it to Andern. The look on his face was priceless.
“You are a dick, you know that, right?”
“Please tell me you found that chip in there and gave it to Alice.”
“On that day? No, I didn’t. Sorry… We all knew something was up when we couldn’t find a record of a John Lief in active service. First Fleet Command did a good job of obfuscating your history. The only word she got back is that you were fine,” Andern shrugged, “I did find the message you dictated to her when Kristin and I were going on a vacation in July. I listened to the first quarter of it and then immediately forwarded it to her.”
“How pissed is she?”
Andern shook his head, “Fuck you, you had a kid hit me in the dick,” his expression shifted to a grin, “Good luck, unfortunately, I need to get back to work. Catch ya later.”
John shook his head as the communication ended, “Nice to see you too brother, useless as ever.”
John then smiled and walked into the kitchen. The fridge was pretty empty. John made notes of what was needed. Then he tried to generate some goodwill by going to the grocery store to pick up food.
His new goal was to make one of Alice’s favorite meals, chicken parmesan. He sighed as he left their condo, he didn’t want to leave. But he needed to do something to get on her good side. However, if she didn’t come home for lunch and she found out he made chicken parmesan for lunch, that would only dig his grave deeper.
He shrugged as he suspected this plan was worth it. Thirty-five minutes would go by, along with about two hundred credits, before John got back to their condo. Then John got to work by putting everything away and starting a major mess in the kitchen.
It took about an hour to get nearly finished cooking. But six frying pans and three saucepans were used and now each was very filthy. Three cutting boards, several knives, and numerous cutoffs of the different vegetables and chicken were on the other side of the kitchen island. John was beginning the clean-up process and had just finished cleaning the bevy of knives when the door opened.
He smiled and got excited as he saw Alice walk into the kitchen. She stopped and observed her husband cooking. She put a finger up to shush him as she noticed that John was about to speak. That was a good first sign all things considered, there was more annoyance in her body language than anger or hate.
“You are probably going to tell me that you can’t tell me that you were sent off on a mission. Why didn’t you try sending me a message through that backdoor process you were so confident of?” Alice said as she crossed her arms, “And don’t go all ‘Hi Honey’ on me.”
“I did try and get you a message on the down-low. I was being followed by a pair of really douchey agents that were ensuring I got on the Starliner to the world without talking to anyone.”
“Which is where you got Andern hit in the balls.”
John smiled, “You gotta admit, that was funny. Unfortunately, the humor in it didn’t lead to the immediate results I was looking for. He is a bit of an idiot, though he did get you that message eventually.”
“And the backdoor system?”
“Well, when I boarded the ship I had work to do. I lost track of time and by the time I remembered about it, we were effectively in the system. The enemy had found a rather interesting means of blocking or severely limiting communications,” John sighed, “Yes, I lost track of time but that was because I was under orders and I wanted to ensure I lived and came home. Had I used more official means, using the military channels, they would’ve intercepted the messages.”
“I am so pissed off.”
John nodded, “Don’t blame you. I would be too.”
“I’m mad at you too, but I’m madder that our fleet decided to ship you off someplace to do this work,” Alice sighed loudly, “That does smell good though.”
“Right? It’s…”
Alice quickly interrupted her husband, “You are still in the doghouse.”
“This helps though, right?”
“Unlike you, my stomach isn’t the end-all or a cure-all.”
“Yeah,” John said nodding, “But it helps right?”
“Maybe a little,” Alice smiled as she closed her eyes, “You can’t tell me what happened can you?”
John shook his head gently, “Unfortunately not. Nothing good though, that’s for sure. Came out of it mostly unscathed.”
“Mostly?”
“I’ve already got the treatments scheduled for next week.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Alice took a deep breath in, “Is it ready?”
John nodded eagerly.
“John my dear, I love you. But I can’t go through that again.”
John opened the oven and carefully brought out the saucepan with the fried chicken in it. He had another pan with some melted cheese in it, which looked like a white oily but highly delicious mess. With a pair of forks, he moved over some of the cheese to the top of one of the fried chicken portions. The larger of the two portions, and the majority of the cheese, he put on the serving for himself.
John continued to dish the meal up carefully as he spoke, “I can’t honestly sit here and tell you that I’m never going to be asked to go undercover again. I’m too good at what I do. But it’s never happening again unless you’re informed. I’ll torpedo my career before I agree to a mission like that again.”
John then poured his freshly made marina sauce over the chicken and noodles. Alice noted the difference in portion sizes and smirked. She didn’t say anything about it. She had mixed emotions, she loved seeing him again. And if she was honest with herself, she wouldn’t be mad at him, just the situation with his rapid and frustrating disappearance.
She wasn’t going to tell him how excited she was to see him. Not yet anyway. Though it was seriously unlikely to see her husband squirm, she wanted him to sweat a bit. The meal was making it difficult to do though, the food was really good. However, the mess that he was half-heartedly cleaning was a bit frustrating to eat in front of.
The couple enjoyed a relaxing lunch. They caught up as much as they could in such a brief amount of time. Unfortunately for John, Alice had to go back to work to finish her shift. And to rub salt in the wound, she wouldn’t be available until the next morning due to her responsibilities at the psychiatric facilities on station.
John was left by his lonesome shortly thereafter. It was a frustrating irony; he was forced to be by himself for the past six or seven months. Now that he was home, he was forced once again to be home because of work schedules.
He tried to be the dutiful husband and cleaned up the kitchen and everything he used after Alice left. It was quiet and very boring so now was the best time to do that. Besides, he ran the very real risk of not cleaning up after himself if he didn’t do it right then and there. That would only lengthen his stay in the doghouse.
Making matters worse was the date. Somehow, some way he managed to get home on New Year's Eve. Well, using the Earth's standard time. That meant there were lots of parties going on around the station. John was just not in much of a mood to be jovial.
Most of the afternoon he spent enjoying cigars and drinking scotch in quiet contemplation. Dinner was a quiet and personal affair. The evening was more cigars and scotch. But he was home, and that was the most important thing. Well, the second most important thing, Alice hadn’t replaced him and seemed to enjoy seeing him. That was truly the most important thing to happen to him today.
January 1st, 2268. 10:30 St. Mary’s Station – First Fleet Command Secure Conference Room 2A
John was more than slightly annoyed to be called into a meeting this morning. Hangovers were rare for him, but the three bottles of cask-strength scotch that he had the previous night made for a rough morning. He had to do a debriefing regarding his actions on Vosture Prime. Or at least some debriefing, Naval Intelligence had redacted all of his actions on the planet.
“Commander, the local militia measured the ship. Five point six kilometers, nearly a kilometer at the widest and three hundred tall,” Director LeCroix said, “And yet you managed to somehow blow it up. Do you mind explaining to us how you did that?”
John nodded, “Gladly. I removed the safety measures that limit the explosion size on our torpedoes. Which by the way, we will want maximum yield if push comes to shove against these ships.”
The director and Admiral Dufresne were joining on a holographic link. Both looked as if they were seated at opposite ends of the table. Rear Admiral Kasey Thames was sitting in front of John taking notes. Two attaches from Fleet Command were sitting next to Kasey, John didn’t recognize either of the captains. There were also three Naval Intelligence operatives in the room.
“With that removed I figured the best course of action was to hide them on the Xenuian’s shuttle and let them bring it home,” John stretched his neck briefly, “I rigged them to blow after a short countdown after they lost connection to an encrypted signal I was sending around the world.”
“The video feed was quite impressive,” one of the agents said.
“It’s less impressive than you think. We were lucky. The explosion shouldn’t have crippled the vessel so completely. It should have survived if not for a large secondary explosion caused by multiple fusion reactor units being stored in the hangar bay.”
Admiral Dufresne leaned forward with his head tilted a bit, “You didn’t think that would be enough to kill it?”
“I had some time to research their metallurgy and found it to be superior to ours. I just didn’t know how well it would handle the brunt of a full-bore blast. It did far less damage to the armor plates than expected something the science nerds have no doubt told you.”
“That they have. The wreck is being thoroughly investigated. At least what’s left of it,” Director LeCroix said, “What can you tell me of the ring they created.”
“How read in is everyone here?” John asked curiously.
Admiral Thames scrunched her face up a bit, “Why do you ask?”
“Because my answer depends on what I’m allowed to speak on the matter,” John answered bluntly.
“They may not know all of your exploits visiting the ruins, but consider it kosher to tell them anything you feel is necessary,” Director LeCroix said with a sigh.
“Aliens exist, or at least existed, they are long extinct. They bridged the long distances between the void primarily through faster-than-light travel not unlike how we do. It’s unknown if they used a different dimension than we do, but I’m convinced that they had a system of relays in the worlds that were preternaturally calm in slip space.”
“A slip gate? That monstrosity is a slip gate?” Admiral Dufresne rubbed his nose slightly as the horror of what that could mean washed over him.
John nodded, “Imagine the problem we’d have if they sent a fleet worth of ships through that portal. And a several week or months journey took hours or days.”
“A beachhead, clever. Unfortunately for them, we had you on-site to stop them,” one of the captains said.
“I’m not convinced that they are as much of a threat as we suspect them to be though. True, their ships are both works of art and technologically superior to ours. But their society just doesn’t have the numbers to put up a real fight against us. Hell, I’m not sure they’d fare well against the Mercantilists.”
“Nevertheless, we will need to watch for that. I’ve recommended to Admiral Dickinson that any engagement with Xenuian craft be with overwhelming force,” Admiral Dufresne said, “I suspect you’d concur with that recommendation Commander?”
“I would.”
Admiral Thames then leaned forward, “I would like to know more about any damages you incurred or created during your time there.”
“Well as to damages incurred, I was stabbed in the arm and shot once. Neither felt all that good,” John said, “On that note, I did schedule a dermal rejuvenation treatment to begin early next week. I’ve lost some mobility in my triceps but should recover fully after a few treatments.”
“I was referring to civilian casualties.”
“I’m not at liberty to discuss that information. Naval Intelligence has seen fit to redact that information,” John couldn’t hide the smirk on his face as he spoke.
Director LeCroix shook his head as he rolled his eyes, “A curious take given most of that was self-redacted by you. Admiral Thames, while my disagreement with the Commander’s past actions is well known, and I don’t agree with everything he did on the surface,” the director paused, “Naval Intelligence does not have any concerns over the loss of life that occurred and the individuals that were jailed for his acts. We did agree with his recommendation for certain reparations to be made to those that were innocent.”
“I would like more details related to those incidents…” Admiral Thames was interrupted rather curtly by the Director.
“As the Director of Naval Intelligence, I am declining that request. What needed to be done to complete the mission was done. Commander Lief executed the mission better than any team of agents I could have sent there. In fact, the only damning thing I have against him is that he only captured a lone individual. But since we sent him by himself an expectation for him to capture the whole team was unrealistic,” Director LeCroix stated firmly, “I believe we are done here, no?”
Admiral Dufresne didn’t seem to give any overt concern over what John did on the planet. He didn’t have to use much of his imagination to assume what John did. He had killed some people. Then again, his orders were about as open as they could be, and the streets didn’t flood with blood. Perhaps the nascent officer had matured some as he aged.
Admiral Thames on the other hand looked angry. She wanted to know exactly what he had done and wasn’t happy with the answer. But as the Naval Intelligence and Fleet command people filed out of the room there wasn’t much more that she could do. What was about to happen next annoyed her to no end.
“Now then John, I suppose you’ll be wanting the Waukesha back,” Admiral Dufresne said.
“Or on upgrade, but that’s unlikely, I’d be overjoyed to get the old girl back.”
“There won’t be an upgrade for you,” Admiral Thames said, “The overhaul has largely been finished. They think it will only be another month.”
John grew a big smile, “That is fantastic news. I’ll take a look at the officers available for transfer and compile a list to see who’d be interested in transfers.”
Admiral Dufresne’s face looked a bit pained. John noticed the body language and instantly knew something was up. A smirk on Admiral Thames’ face didn’t make him feel great about his options.
“We’ve already got most of the junior officer pool for your ship. We’ll have your command crew moved over to you by the end of the month. In the meantime, you’ll be able to connect with the junior officers next week when they start arriving,” Admiral Thames said.
“With respect Admirals, it is the captain’s prerogative to create their command structure. Something I’ve been denied every time I’ve been in command of a ship. I believe it to be inappropriate to disallow me from selecting my division chiefs at a bare minimum.”
Admiral Dufresne smiled and nodded, “Make your list. I can’t guarantee you will get every name though. Have some backups.”
“Will do, sir,” John said with a smile.
“Good work and welcome home,” Admiral Dufresne said, “In the future, we won’t keep your spouse in the dark. Besides, it doesn’t seem to have worked as you still managed to get a message to her.”
“It wasn’t fair to do that to her, sir.”
Admiral Thames shook her head, “That isn’t for you to decide.”
“Whether I’m allowed to decide that or not is immaterial, ma’am, I know right from wrong. As ironic as that may sound coming from a dyed-in-the-wool killer that I am. The Navy did her, an officer and doctor, a great disservice by keeping her in the dark.”
Admiral Dufresne then spoke to stop Kasey from saying anything, “I agree, and we won’t do that again. Once again Commander, good work. You’re dismissed. You’ll return to active duty on the sixth. And please, do not beat the hell out of that poor ship again like the last time you did.”
John grinned, “I will endeavor to treat her kindly, sirs.”
John saluted the two admirals and left the room. His ship was his once again. It was almost ready to set sail into the great void. The journey wouldn’t matter to John, he had his ship again. He would get to do what he so desperately wanted to do for many years to come. Command his ship. But what journeys would await him? What hurdles would he have to overcome? Weights to lift or move? He couldn’t know those answers, but he looked forward to facing them with the same gusto as he always did.