14 Days Later. December 7th, 2266. 10:23 St. Mary’s Station – First Fleet Executive Boardroom
The slip tides had calmed down rather significantly once the Waukesha departed the system. John commented it was as if Moses had parted the tides for them. It was an unnaturally calm trip home. So calm that the crew was on edge during the ride home.
John, for his part, was not willing to kick a gift horse in the mouth and just accepted the calm trip. Besides, there was effectively no downtime for him. He’d start a shift and immediately delegate his seat on the bridge and head into his office. Every single day there was paperwork to do.
It took John two days longer to wrap up the non-critical paperwork. He had kicked off several simulations for Eve and the Navy’s standard tactical VIs when he started with his after-action report. The data wasn’t required immediately but he’d rather have it ready when he was able to write more about his recommendations.
The evening before they had jumped back into real space near the planet of Manchester was when his after-action report’s final draft was submitted. Rather annoyingly, he received numerous questions about the draft copy in the previous week and a half. Though that may have taken him from what he wanted to do it ultimately led to a better report.
That also led John directly into the meeting he was now running. John did not experience nervousness the way most normal people feel it. But even in this meeting, he felt his mouth and throat dry up quickly. One hundred and twenty-six admirals were present or linked to the conference line. There was a comma in the number of captains that were listening in on this meeting too.
“I’ve been able to recover only about twenty percent of the scrambled data from my suit. The scientist’s data feed was not as hardened as ours was, so only about five percent of theirs was recovered,” John paused for a moment, “My understanding is that the Research and Development teams have recovered some data, but the initial results appear to be a total overlap in results.”
Rear-Admiral Bucur spoke up, “My teams confirmed that all of the recovered data we’ve been able to extract is within the Lieutenant’s efforts. In fact, his recovery efforts outstripped ours slightly.”
“Unless I’m ordered to do otherwise, I am going to cease any further efforts at trying to make sense of the digital catastrophe that occurred,” John was audibly disappointed, “Unfortunately I believe the data is simply too scrambled and fragmented to do anything with.”
Admiral Dufresne then asked, “Do we have a way to harden our sensory devices to prevent a repeat of this?”
John nodded, “I believe such shielding is possible, but I’m not aware of anything currently available.”
“It is possible to shield our suits and handheld devices. But without another site to test this on the matter remains moot,” Admiral Bucur said, “That being said I’ve already got two teams working on shielding handheld sensor devices and looking into how we can modify the Broadside suits to guard against EM disruption.”
The Fleet Admirals looked at one another on the screen and nodded in near unison. A missed opportunity for sure. But one that no one had thought possible and as such didn’t plan for. All of them had skimmed ahead and that was one of many conclusions John had drawn in his report.
“Onto the good news, is this magnificent piece of technology,” John then shared detailed images on screen, “This Predecessor fusion core is to be frank an amazing technological marvel. Not only is it more efficient than ours, but it is also perfectly clean without any radiological output and would be about sixty-two percent more compact than an equivalent-sized core of ours. That last number is almost hard to believe.”
Admiral Nagy then spoke up, “I speak on behalf of my research teams, but no one has a damn clue how the secondary devices break down the newly fused material back into the original fuel. The catalyst for such a process eludes us at this time. Lieutenant, were there truly no details about that on the screens you saw.”
“Everything I saw is shared here. I saw no mention of any catalysts or enzymes. In fact, there was precious little information about this reclamation system that recreated the fuel.”
“The molecule they used to fuel the core is heavier than ours, so switching to it without the reclamation system wouldn’t increase our efficiency any,” Admiral Bucur said, “Until we crack that part of the code, I’m afraid there isn’t much we’re going to be able to do to recreate this system. With that being said we are looking at adjusting some items in our test core based on seeing this. The computer simulations look almost too good to be true.”
“What about the energy packs for the weapons?” Admiral Dickinson asked, “Is there any news on them?”
“The first one we opened up turned to dust. It’s possibly a safety system built into them. The one we opened in a vacuum responded…” Admiral Nagy sighed loudly, “Violently. No one was harmed but we’re stuck scanning them from the outside and we just can’t pierce the protective layers to find out what the hell is going on with them.”
“It seems like this mission has left us with more questions than answers,” Fleet Admiral Benjamin Karlsson said.
Internally John marveled at the man’s ability to maintain his office. His tenacious grasp at his office was not unlike a cockroach’s ability to exist everywhere. But his comment wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
“Well, that’s also overlooking the Alliance issue we have now. We know that within the sphere of academia, the viewpoints these scientists espoused were in the minority. What’s not clear to me is those scientists that are either employed by the military directly or through a third party of some sort,” John said.
“A detailed and very thorough review of all official and unofficial communications has already begun on all employed scientists,” Director LeCroix said, “We’ve already detected a disturbing number of scientists that will be losing their security clearances in the coming days.”
“Lieutenant, I’d like to skip ahead your one-on-one battle with the Icarus,” Admiral Dickinson said, “One of your findings is that Naval Intelligence ships ought to reexamine their protocols for engagements. But while you suggest that your findings don’t actually state they should have helped.”
John picked up the data slate in front of him and began playing back their fight. It sped up by sixty times. Just over a minute later he began speaking.
“That was what happened. We were tricked into following a drone rigged with hard light emitters. The clever tech can confuse our long-range scanners. Once we get into effective weapons range our shorter range, and much more detailed, scanners can identify what was happening.”
“You admit that you walked into a trap,” Admiral Shin’s brief comment dripped with derision.
“I did, but I was also able to utilize that to our advantage,” John grinned, “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Or in this particular case both. We were able to draw the Icarus near enough to our ideal location. It was surrounded by missiles and torpedoes.”
“Which allowed a cruiser to nearly destroy an old battleship,” Admiral Petrov sighed midway through his comment, “A battleship design that harkens back to the founding of our Confederacy.”
“And a battleship that has been retrofitted with gear and tech that rivals, or in some cases exceeds, our own. Let that statement sink in, they have mil-tech that should only be on our ships,” John said confidently, “Ultimately, I do not believe the captain would have engaged us with reinforcements nearby. It would have helped if they were closer but given that none of the friendly ships that were in the local system had big enough guns, it would be unlikely that any of us score a killing blow.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“You had over a hundred missiles left to launch,” Admiral Dufresne said, “How would that not have destroyed her?”
“Had everything been launched in one wave, their defensive measures would have destroyed more of our missiles and torpedoes. It had to be done in waves. Plus, given what we had seen from her just over a year ago, we presumed her close-in-combat systems were better than they actually were,” John looked down at the table, “I gave them too much credit. I couldn’t risk it all in one wave though. Our doctrine does technically allow surgical strikes, but in doing so we must be able to defend ourselves.”
Admiral Dickinson nodded, “If it fails you put yourself in an untenable scenario where you are relying on other friendly assets to help. Assets that did not confirm they would help you at the beginning of the engagement.”
“We’ve had this discussion multiple times. Our vessels are not meant to be front-line combat ships. If our secrets…”
Admiral Karlsson raised his hand, “Director, we are not here to assign blame. Nor am I keen on changing the status quo. Besides, two of the three captains ultimately ran to aid the Waukesha. I do believe that we need better communication between the Intelligence fleet and the mainline fleet. That is something the Fleet Admirals, you, and I can discuss later.”
“Lieutenant, what of the Predecessors? Your report is light on details on them,” Doctor Abel Fischer asked.
“I don’t have any information that I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. They were a psychic race, that much I’m certain of. The residential section of the colony was eerily identical. Every single home was the same square footage. The lots had the same amount of green space. Each one had the same size garden,” John then showed a wireframe image showing the residential area of the colony, “The residences above the commercial buildings were also the same square footage. Though half as small as the homes.”
“Fascinating, though the why behind that could mean anything.”
“Do you think you could get into another site?”
John shrugged, “When we entered the colony, well it turned on again. In doing so it burned a not insubstantial amount of fuel. Fuel that was at critically low levels already. If we could get into a facility and find some way to transfer fuel into the core then yes, we likely could.”
“That’s a big assumption,” Admiral Dufresne said, “And we don’t have any other sites that we know of that we could do that.”
“The scientists seemed to be of the belief the Alliance knew of several sites on their side of the border,” John added, “No proof of that was ever given.”
“They’ve already demanded we release the scientists back to our chancellor. The civilian government has effectively told them to pound sand,” Admiral Karlsson rubbed his eyes, “All citizens that are in Alliance territory have been told that returning to Confederate territory is recommended, but at a minimum, they need to go to our embassies forthwith.”
Director LeCroix leaned forward in his chair, “None of our citizens or assets have been arrested at this time. We do not believe it will come to that, but we are monitoring this situation closely.”
“The Marines that located the enemy agents, you recommended commendations for them?” General Mizrahi said.
“They went above and beyond in their duty. They executed the planned takeover of the base flawlessly. In addition, they sussed out the Alliance intelligence agent on their own and prevented him from committing suicide,” John chuckled, “Only injuries related to the action were a black eye and broken jaw on the enemy agent.”
“I don’t suppose Intelligence would be willing and able to share any details about the captured agent?” General Mizrahi looked straight at Director LeCroix.
“Your marines captured a very senior agent if our intel is correct. It’s safe to presume that the Alliance is aware we found something, though from the intel we’ve collected we do not believe at this time that they know the details of what was found,” Director LeCroix leaned back in his chair, “Should that change, we will brief the civilian government along with Admiral Karlsson, but at this point, we are not inclined to share anything more.”
Admiral Karlsson then looked at John, “Lieutenant, good work. The loss of the data leaves a poor taste in my mouth, but overall, I’d say the mission was executed as well as it could have. Lieutenant, you are dismissed, but you are not cleared to go on leave until the end of next week. I’m sure there will be some follow-up questions to your report. Those questions will be your priority until your leave comes. But do enjoy the weekend off, you’ve earned it.”
John stood up and saluted. Admiral Karlsson acknowledged his salute gruffly. He then collected his things and left the room. Other topics, which didn’t involve John, were now to be discussed. He was grinning the moment he stepped into the hallway. The mission was done, there were just loose ends to wrap up.
14:30 Residential Wing – John and Alice’s Penthouse
John had finished answering a question that Admiral Dufresne had regarding the battle. His response was brief, but ultimately Eve’s tactical simulation suggested there’d been little to no impact on the outcome given the suggestion.
“Fudging these figures isn’t going to get us any closer to killing the Icarus,” John said to no one in particular, “Hell, the normal VIs suggested even less benefit than Eve did. Curious on that one.”
John stood up, set his data slate on the dinner table, and stretched his arms. It was good to be home once again. He walked out onto the patio and leaned against the railing. A couple of custodians were working on the greenspace in the courtyard below. The unhealthy and dying bush had been replaced with three new and small trees.
“Never thought I’d miss that ugly shrub,” John grinned as he continued to watch the men work.
He was technically still on duty, so drinking on the job would be frowned upon. A cigar would be nice but that would involve going back into the residence. Twenty-five or six steps is all it would likely take. But at that moment, John just wanted to feel and enjoy the warmth of the light shining through the station panels.
“Hey, neighbor! Welcome back,” shouted a man across the courtyard.
John snapped too and waived at the man, “Hey Bob, what’s shakin’?”
“Late lunch, I gotta get back to the grind soon. Saw you out here so I figured I’d welcome you back.”
“All safe and sound thankfully, another successful deployment. Aside from the bloody paperwork,” John grinned.
“Good to have you back, Nancy is planning a little dinner party tomorrow. You two should come over.”
John nodded, “I’ll talk to Alice, she’s a little grumpy though since my leave doesn’t start until next week.”
“Nancy always tells her to not plan her leave so minutely.”
John laughed, “I’m not responding to that.”
“Smart man, you’re learning from other's mistakes at a young age. Nice to have you back and come on over tomorrow!” Bob then took a big bite of his sandwich before turning back to head into his condo.
John waved and smiled. How he enjoyed the brief moments of normalcy. He sincerely doubted that any of his neighbors would talk to him, much less look at him if they knew what he was capable of. That was in part out of necessity, most citizens didn’t have security clearances. The military believed that its citizens don’t need to know everything, and not knowing everything they do makes them rest more easily at night.
But John began wondering about that interaction in more detail. Wearing a mask was something John forced himself to do. That was borne out of the necessity of being a field agent, there were roles he had to play. He grinned when he thought that he wore so many masks that he didn’t know what his true self was.
“Why do I keep telling myself that same lie?” John mused quietly to himself.
No, he knew what he was. And what he was capable of. He was trying to sell himself a false narrative when he questioned if he really knew who he was. John was forged into a super weapon. Every time he was chipped or damaged, he reforged himself into a better weapon. Constant evolution through combat and conflict. He was the most dangerous kind of weapon humanity had ever created.
John grinned as he walked back into his condo. That was enough interpretive thoughts for the day. He walked over to the fridge and noticed it was empty of any proteins. A frown formed as he closed the door.
“Well, time to go to the store. Looks like I’m on cooking duty tonight,” John said as he grabbed his wallet from the table.
He then strode out the door and walked the most direct route to the commercial district. It was a short jaunt of about five to ten minutes depending on how busy the corridors were. His impatient nature wasn’t tested this day thankfully.
Just before he got to the upscale grocery store on the fourth level a hand grabbed his arm. John spun a little to face the individual that had got his attention. While at the same time, his right arm was shooting out to block or grab a weapon. His left arm shook off the other’s arm and grabbed the individual’s shoulder. But none was forthcoming.
“I’m here to deliver a message. The Icarus admits defeat and will not attempt to attack you again,” the diminutive man said.
“Am I correct in presuming you have the ability to contact them?”
The man nodded.
“Then tell Rene, the next time I get a chance to kill him and his ship,” John leaned menacingly down at the man and hissed, “I’m going to take it. Mark my word, the next time we interact one of us of will be dead.”
“Rene feels the same as a matter of fact, though he feels that one ship will die while the other’s captain will be tarnished in reputation. He’s not certain who will survive that encounter though.”
“Then good for me that I know who will,” John let go of the small man, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have dinner to purchase and prepare.”
John walked by the man. He wasn’t lying, the next time John fought the Icarus he was going to use every tactic in the book, while ignoring any moral or ethical concerns, to destroy the enemy. Had the Icarus never attacked them he could have found some way to justify their co-existence, but now? That door was forever shut.