When Debra came back up to the control room, Will showed her the message. “Looks like you were right,” he said.
She smiled. “As if there was ever any doubt. I wonder who sent the message.”
“Has to be someone on the cruiser that picked up the escape pods,” guessed Will. “Since the cruiser was in this section of space, I’d think they would have been involved in any trap.”
“Makes sense,” said Debra. “But a single person on a ship we may or may not run into again isn’t really going to be much help.”
“No,” agreed Will, “but it does show that not everyone is blindly following Grandle. There may be others waiting for an opportunity to act.” He gestured at the computer. “Who knows? Maybe there’s something in the data we recovered that will provide them that opportunity.”
“I hope you’re right,” answered Debra.
“We’re entering the Quelton system,” said Will flipping some switches and looking up at the viewscreen. “Check sensors to see if there’s any ships in the system.”
Debra bent over the scanner. “No sign of any.” She pressed a button and a schematic of the system appeared on the viewscreen. “Doesn’t look very hospitable. The inner planets are too close to the sun to support life and the outer planets are all gas giants bigger than Jupiter.”
Will nodded. “No habitable planets, but plenty of moons. We’ll find one to land on so we can start going through the data without being disturbed.”
Debra looked back at the scanner. “I recommend heading for the fifth planet. It has several larger moons we could land on.”
“Got it,” answered Will as he tilted the control stick and set course for the system’s fifth planet. It was a swirling mass of gas which was about fifty percent larger than Jupiter. It has dozens of moons and nearly a hundred smaller bodied which had been captured by its gravity. As they approached, Debra began scanning its moons.
“This one looks good,” she suggested bringing up a picture of a rocky moon covered in craters on the viewscreen. “It’s within the planet’s magnetic field which would help hide us from sensors scans.”
Will nodded. “Sounds good.” He set course with a shudder going through the ship as it entered the planet’s gravity field. Will activated the ship’s shields to protect it from the dust and rubble surrounding the planet.
It wasn’t easy, but they finally achieved orbit around the moon. Finding a suitably large flat area inside one of the moon’s many craters, he brought the ship down. As its fins settled onto the moon’s surface, the engines stopped firing.
“Okay,” called Debra unstrapping herself from her seat. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”
She brought up the list of files she’d downloaded from the cruiser on the viewscreen and began scrolling through them. There were hundreds of them whose names were just numerical sequences which seemed related to date and time. She shook her head. “Looks like we’ll have to go through every to see what it contains,” sighed Debra.
“Let’s start with files from a week or so before the invasion of Celentus,” suggested Will. “If Grandle was issuing orders, that’s probably when he would have started.
“Okay,” replied Debra as she down selected the files from a week before the invasion forward. It was still an imposing list. She selected the first file. It was just standard ship status reports being sent back to Earth with nothing of interest to Will and Debra. Several days of messages were just more of the same. Finally they found something different.
“Come in Ralston,” came a woman’s voice from the computer’s speaker. “This is Alpha Control, come in.”
“Ralston here,” answered a man’s voice.
“You are to proceed to the following encrypted coordinates. Further orders will be provided on your arrival.”
“Acknowledged. Ralston out.” The speaker went silent.
“What’s Alpha Control?” asked Debra.
Will shook his head. “I don’t know. Usually orders come from Earth Defense.” He looked at the message and began typing. “Let’s see if I can decode these coordinates.” He kept trying and finally shook his head in frustration. “Looks like they’re using a non-standard encryption scheme.”
Based on the time stamps on the transmission records, there were no further messages for the next thirty-six hours. “They sure are being careful,” noted Will. “First encrypted coordinates and now radio silence.”
“Well,” declared Will leaning back and stretching, “at least we know that the cruiser on Omega-245 was the Ralston.”
Debra let out a frustrated scream. “Who cares about the name? And all this secrecy is annoying.”
Will shook his head. “It’s also standard operating procedure during military operations.” He looked at her and smiled. “Have you forgotten all your military training?”
“Only stuff like standard operating procedures,” she said with a laugh. “It’s not like I have much need for them anymore.” She played the next message.
“Ralston, this is the Kreller, come in.”
“This is the Ralston, go ahead.”
“Prepare to receive encrypted orders along with additional personnel and supplies.”
“Understood. Ralston out.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Will tried to decipher the set of orders sent to the Ralston, but as was the case with the earlier set of coordinates, he had no luck.
The next set of messages were primarily between the Ralston and various shuttles as supplies and soldiers were transferred between the cruisers. Mixed in with those messages were the occasional messages between the cruisers to coordinate their position in the fleet as additional cruisers showed up. Will and Debra spent another couple of hours listening to them and learned nothing new.
After a message from a shuttle asking clearance to land on the Ralston to deliver weapons, Debra turned off the audio. “I need a break. Everything’s just blurring together.”
Will stretched his arms and let out a yawn. “Not the most exciting stuff for sure. But we’ve got to go through if we’re going to find what we’re looking for.”
“Assuming it’s there,” sighed Debra in a defeated tone.
“With the precautions they’re taking it’s not looking likely,” agreed Will.
“Why don’t we get some sleep then,” he suggested. “The ship’s safe so we can both get some rest and start fresh in the morning.”
Debra nodded. “Okay.” She got up and climbed down the ladder in silence.
Will leaned back and closed his eyes intending to head down after she’d got to her quarters. The sound of footsteps on the ladder awakened him. Looking over, he saw Debra’s head emerging from the opening in the floor.
“I thought you were going to bed,” said Will.
She shook her head. “I did. It’s been almost seven hours.”
Will grinned sheepishly. “Guess I fell asleep in my chair again.”
Debra bent over and put her arms around Will’s neck. “I may just have to start putting you to bed myself,” she whispered into his ear.
“Umm,” stammered Will as his face turned red. “We should probably get to work.”
“Whatever you say,” replied Debra slowly releasing her hold on him and sitting in her chair.
And so once again they started going through the messages they’d recovered from the cruiser. For the first hour or so it was essentially a repeat of what they’d listened to the day before. However, they finally heard a message which made them sit up and take notice.
“Commander Harrison to all ships,” came a voice over the speaker which Will and Debra immediately recognized.
The commander of the weapons ship,” muttered Debra as he continued speaking.
“Begin operations in three hours. Harrison out.”
Will shook his head. “How could I be so stupid,” he muttered slamming the arm of his chair with a fist.
“What do you mean?”
“Standard operating procedure,” he grumbled. “All orders come through the command ship. The only person we’ll ever hear giving orders is Harrison.”
“So this was all a waste of time?” asked Debra, frustration in her voice.
Will thought for a moment. “We won’t get any evidence of Grandle ordering the invasion. However, there’s always the chance we might discover something that can be of use.”
Debra shook her head and looked over at him. “Considering what we went through to get this, I sure hope so.”
She queued up the next set of messages. They were mostly about preparations for the ships to move out. As before there was no mention of coordinates or even Celentus in the messages. Finally, there came a message ordering the ships to activate their engines and set out.
Will nodded. “Excellent planning,” he muttered.
“Well you seem impressed,” declared Debra in a sarcastic tone.
“No,” he answered grimly. “It’s just a well-planned operation. All critical information is encrypted and all voice communication is low level ship to ship. Nothing’s been left to chance.”
Debra started playing the recorded transmissions again. It was just standard communications between ships in a convoy about maintaining speed and spacing. They continued listening, but the transmissions were just more of the same. However, based on the transmission time stamps, that all changed after about seven hours of flight.
“Harrison to fleet,” came from the computer speaker. “The enemy fleet has been neutralized. Begin operation. Harrison out.”
“Neutralized?” snapped Debra angrily looking over at Will. “Certainly sounds better than destroyed, doesn’t it.”
Next came a flurry of transmissions as the cruisers achieved orbit around the planet and began sending down shuttles filled with troops. Most of the following transmissions were coordination between the troops on the ground and the cruisers in orbit as the troops moved on the capital and jerlinium mining facilities. There were reports of those killed and injured and requests for assistance.
The Ralston was one of several cruisers which entered the atmosphere and fired on the capital which was putting up a strong resistance to the invading troops. Having seen the destruction caused by the attacks, Will and Debra’s anger grew.
Based on the transmissions, it was clear that without their fleet, Celentus was overmatched. Reports of successful engagements flooded in although the fighting in the capital continued. However, even that subsided once reports were broadcast that King Raphul had been captured.
Debra turned off the payback and shook her head. “Efficient and ruthless. The perfect military operation,” she said sarcastically.
The transmissions covering the invasion of Celentus filled Will with a combination of anger and shame. Most of the resistance had come from civilians defending their homes, but the soldiers seemed to have no qualms about ordering cruisers to come down and blast them into submission.
He looked over at Debra. There was anger in his voice as he spoke. “Oh it certainly was efficient and I’m sure whoever planned it will get a medal. However, it goes against everything I was taught at the academy and against everything your father believed in. I’ll never understand how Grandle was able to convince the military to be a party to this.”
He looked over at Debra, and spoke in a discouraged tone. “Do you think it’s worth listening to any more of this?”
Debra sat there quietly and began to shake her head, but stopped. She tilted her head in thought. “Maybe we could listen to the messages immediately after the ship was destroyed. Perhaps in the excitement, people might forget about proper procedures.”
“It’s worth a shot,” replied Will trying to sound enthusiastic.
Debra went through the transmissions until she found the ones in the right time range. She gave a hopeful smile. “Looks like quite a few transmissions over a short period of time. We might be in luck.” She pressed a button and they began playing.
“Kreller to fleet,” blared from the speaker. “Make preparations to evacuate troops from the planet and leave orbit.”
Next came a series of messages between the Ralston and its troops on the ground to get to their shuttles. This went on for nearly fifteen minutes.
“Kreller to fleet,” came another message. “Enemy fleet has entered the system. Begin evacuating troops and set course for the following coordinates.” A set of encrypted coordinates appeared on the screen.
Will began typing and shook his head. “Still can’t decipher them, but they have to be for Omega-245.”
There were more messages, now between the shuttles leaving the ground and the cruiser, to coordinate getting them back on board.
“Kreller to fleet. New orders from Alpha Control. Due to presence of enemy ships, set course for the following coordinates.” A new set of encrypted coordinates appeared.
Will looked at them and smiled. He started typing for several minutes and then flipped a switch. The computer whirred for several more minutes before the two sets of encrypted coordinates transformed into readable numbers.
Debra stared at him. “How’d you do that?”
“Because we know the second set of coordinates has to be for Omega-245,” he explained with a smile. “Using that information, the computer was able to back out the new encryption scheme.”
Debra pressed a button and the star chart appeared and zoomed in on a seven planet system. “The coordinates are for the Audril system,” read Debra from the display. “There’s no information about the system in the database. I wonder why they’d want to go there?”
“Don’t know,” answered Will. “However, there’s only one way to find out,” he continued with a smile. “Strap yourself in because our next stop is the Audril system.”