Benjamin Gold
Location: Portalling
He had no idea how the dozens of ships who needed to get to the Launcher were faring. They might all be space dust for all he knew. He pushed their fate to the back of his mind. He couldn’t help them, but he could find out what the hell was going on.
The hair on the back of his neck tingled as he shouldered past two security guards flanking the armored hatch to the flag bridge. As always, its space was controlled chaos. Communication was flowing back and forth, not only from the Midas’s captain, but the other captains in the fleet. In the center of the madness should be the Commodore, but George Zahn was standing off to the side in the tactical department. On the command dais, his hands flying across screens suspended around him, was Ben’s father, Thomas Gold.
Whatever was happening, his father was completely engrossed in it, and before he got into it with his dad in front of everyone, Ben wanted to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. He marched around the periphery of the bridge and approached the CDRE. Judging by the look on Zahn’s face, he wasn’t happy to be where he was.
“What’s going on?” Ben kept his voice down. “Why aren’t we at Alpha Centauri?”
“Hell if I know,” Zahn spit back, with no intention of keeping his emotions in check. “Your old man marched right onto my flag bridge and relieved me. He didn’t ask to take over, or say to keep close so I could advise him, he just kicked me right out of my command chair. Kid, your dad is rich and smart, but he can be a giant asshole.”
People in the tactical department started edging away as Zahn continued his rant. No one wanted to be in eye shot if Mr. Gold returned fire.
Ben just sighed at the whole situation and headed for the command dais. “Dad,” he announced when he stood just outside the floating holo-screens.
Nothing happened. “Dad!” he repeated a bit louder, and ran a hand through something that looked important.
“What?” Thomas Gold yelled as the screen disappeared in a tidal wave of pixels.
Ben might have backed down at one point, but that point was a long time ago. “What the hell is going on?” he countered, stepping fully onto the platform and towering over his smaller father. “We’re supposed to be in Alpha Centauri dropping off these refugees before heading back to Earth.”
“We’re not going back to Earth,” Thomas scoffed, and waved his hand through the air like he was clearing a bad smell.
“What?”
“Did I stutter?” Thomas stepped into Ben’s personal space, but Ben didn’t budge. “Earth is gone, lost. You saw what those aliens did to Second Fleet. First Fleet was battered and bleeding. The Motherworld Fleet got blasted into a skeleton fleet, and the Euros were fleeing with their tails between their legs. There is no fight to be had there, only failure and defeat.”
Ben just stood there open-mouthed.
“I am doing what is best for my family, this ship, this carrier group, and this company. We’re heading for Aurum to consolidate our forces.” He dismissed Ben with a wave of his hand, but Ben didn’t move.
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“You’re abandoning Earth.”
“I know a bad deal when I see one,” Thomas’s eyes drilled into Ben with sharp disappointment.
“You just invoked family a second ago. Dillion and Lillian are still there. You’re not trying to save your family; you’re leaving them to die.” Ben had never liked Dillion, but he shouldn’t be left at the mercy of some rampaging alien.
Thomas spun back around with unbridled rage in his eyes. For a second, Ben thought he was going to hit him, but the smaller titan of industry restrained himself. You could hear a pin drop on the normally hectic bridge.
“I’m making a calculated decision to save as many people as possible. As many of my people as possible,” his response was calculated and politician. He had enough situational awareness to remember who was around him. “The communications around Sol System are cut off. Nothing is coming in and nothing is going out. For all we know, the entire Commonwealth could be under attack. I’ve spent the last year and a half pouring money into research, development, and infrastructure. Our security fleet is bigger than ever before because I knew something like this was going to happen. The first day those Twigs showed up in our space, I knew we were going to get hit by something. Their Hegemony is a thinly veiled construct to give reassurance to the masses. The only thing that matters to them is strength. Right now, the Commonwealth is a wounded animal. Blood is in the water, and the sharks are circling.”
There was a zealotry in his father’s eyes that Ben hadn’t seen in a long time. His father was used to playing and winning the games of intergalactic trade, commerce, and politics. Finally, he was playing something new, and from the glint in his eye, the old man was enjoying it. More than that, it seemed the aliens weren’t the only ones to sense blood in the water.
“This carrier group will return and protect Aurum,” he projected his voice so everyone could hear. “We will consolidate with other groups, and reinforce our key systems. There is safety in numbers. Everyone here knows our ships were built from the keel up with new technology. Our infrastructure has been updated with the latest in tech gained from the Hegemony,” he scanned the bridge, looking for any hesitation or dissatisfaction. “Our merchant marine is doing the same. Until we know this invasion has passed, we will hold what is ours.”
“We’re all citizens of the Commonwealth. Earth is what’s ours. Mars was ours,” Ben pleaded, but his response fell on deaf ears.
“And we saved what we could,” his father expertly pivoted around Ben’s point. “These refugees, who just lost everything, will be given food, shelter and work on our planets. Our citizens, the employees of Gold Technologies will not fall like Earth. For too long their arrogance has spread like a cancer, rotting away at the core of the Commonwealth. There are no PHA’s on my planets. Everyone prospers. There is work to be done as long as people have the fortitude and drive to do it, and with what’s happening, that will only increase.”
Ben turned to scan the gathered officers and chiefs, and saw many heads nodding in agreement.
“You are a man of principal, Benjamin,” Ben turned back as his father addressed him. “You’ve served in the Commonwealth Fleet faithfully; despite everything their entrenched bureaucracy did to stifle your career. You prevented thousands of needless deaths in New Lancashire, and your deeds in the retaking of Harper’s Junction are known by too few.” He stepped closer to place a hand on his shoulder. “You’re here as a representative of that fleet, one you so faithfully served, but you must realize I pulled you off that battleship out of love. A father’s love for his son, because he doesn’t want his own flesh and blood’s life thrown casually away on a battle that can’t be won.”
Ben stared at his father in confusion, but he didn’t see love in the old man’s eyes, he saw calculation.
“Please return to your quarters. I don’t want you to be forced to choose between family and country. Go back to the loving arms of your beautiful fiancé. This will all be over soon.” He dismissed Ben by turning his back on him. Ben didn’t even notice the two security goons at his side before they prodded him in the back to get him moving.
His father was talking to the assembled spacers now, and as Ben was escorted from the bridge, he heard the speech piping from the 1MC, and likely was heard by the entire carrier group. With each corridor he passed it sounded more and more like a political stump speech.
When he finally entered his quarters, he saw a confused Jacobi sitting next to his scowling mother. “What the hell is going on?” Jacobi asked, as she embraced him.
“Your father is making his move,” Miranda stated flatly, as she opened a bottle of expensive liquor. “He sees opportunity and is seizing it with both hands.”
“At the expense of earth and the billions still trapped there,” Ben muttered, as he accepted a glass and drained it.
They’d go through a few more bottles before the day was over.