Council (eBook)

Chapter 2

February 8, 6342 Earth Standard
Aboard Frigate 9

An uneasy silence filled the command center; the normal friendly banter of the crew had been replaced by an almost palpable tension. Higgins sat at her station, still in shock at what had just happened, and completely baffled by their orders. She hadn't even realized that three hours had passed until Captain Enler walked into the chamber. She glanced towards him and shook her head, "Nothing to report," she said. He just nodded and continued to the command station.

Higgins got up and walked over to Enler's station, from her last conversation with him she could tell something was very wrong, and that she was being kept in the dark. She looked at him and spoke her voice almost a whisper, "Care to tell me what the Hell is going on?"

"Wish I could," he said quietly. Enler’s head rested on his folded hands as he sat at his station, a look of unmitigated frustration was apparent on his face. "The truth is, that I don't know most of what's going on behind the scenes; and the little bit I do know, I can't talk about."

"But this is absurd," Higgins voice grew beyond the whisper at which it had started, "Security containment protocols like this are used for interdicted criminal vessels, not security frigates; and for that matter I still can't figure out why they decided to recall us."

Enler acquiesced to her to some degree, part of what made her a good officer in investigations was her willingness to press an issue, "All I can tell you is that CIS is calling the shots, they want to do their own investigation, and they don't want any information getting out until it's done."

"In the meantime, the debris is cooling and drifting apart in space." A frustrated look came over Higgins face. “Well, it’s not for us to question Council Security." She said as she turned back toward her station.

Enler could tell from her sarcasm that she didn't believe her last statement any more than he did. With regard to an accident investigation, what CIS was doing was simply stupid; there was no way to reconcile it with reason. However, both he and Higgins knew that openly challenging the authority of the Council to any great degree was likely to make the challenger the target of a special investigation. He turned back toward the forward display.

The orbital defense headquarters complex was now clearly visible without magnification. A massive satellite nearly two hundred kilometers across, it was more akin to an orbital fortress than anything else, and it served as a hub not only for the systems defenses but as a maintenance facility for virtually all military vessels within forty parsecs. It really was ideal for security purposes, from its thousands of bays for small craft to the massive berths for heavy cruisers; all of the points of entry had independent security facilities that could be completely isolated from the rest of the station.

It had been rebuilt and expanded numerous times over the past two millennia to accommodate the newest technological advancements, each time the entire station was almost completely reconstructed section by section and grew significantly; it was doubtful that any of the original components remained. The station's continued prominence was really a testament to the level of paranoia that still permeated the human race in the wake of the Expansion War; in spite of no conflict having risen to anywhere near that level in the millennia since, humanity continued to maintain heavy fortifications around all colony worlds. A final death toll of just over 227 billion, or fifty-one point two percent of the human race, had left that brutal mark which had not been forgotten.

The station slowly grew larger on the display; however, while the rest of the crew seemed to be relaxing slightly as the ship drew closer to more familiar surroundings, Enler grew more uncomfortable. He doubted that the loss of the Horizon was a mere accident, and though he hoped the records would somehow prove him wrong, he had not had a chance to examine them, and if Bannik had his way he never would. If it was more than an accident, then whoever orchestrated it would not want witnesses.

In the back of his mind Enler was concerned that he might be paranoid, while he doubted that anyone would result to something as vulgar as a docking accident to eliminate potential witnesses this was no time to take chances. Enler slowly walked down the steps toward the helm station, he stopped just left of Morris, he stared straight ahead at the display, "Can you perform a manual docking?"

A look of nervous surprise came over Morris as he looked up at Enler, "Sir?"

"Well?" Enler countered, continuing to stare ahead.

"I've simulated it; but I've never actually performed one."

"Here's your opportunity to actually do it, make the necessary preparations." Enler turned and walked away.

"Sir," Morris said as he turned from the helm, "may I ask why we need to dock manually?" He watched as Enler tilted his head slightly, just enough for him to see a chilling glare that nearly made him cringe, Enler normally reserved that look for when he was shooting at something, "Uh, forget I asked."

Enler walked back to his station, there was probably no need for a manual docking, but aside from him, no one else on board knew that; and combined with the level of secrecy demanded by the events of the last few hours no one was going to press him for an answer.

From his station, Enler could see Morris re-check his controls at least three times while they were on approach. Morris was an excellent helmsman; in fact, he had been piloting vessels since before Enler had even been assigned to planetary security, nearly twenty years. Even so, it wasn't surprising that he had never actually performed a manual docking maneuver. It was one of the most complicated precision maneuvers to perform, and as such it was usually left for an A.I. to perform. The A.I.'s mathematical precision lacked a certain flourish, but it removed all of the guesswork from the final approach until the station's docking stabilizers activated.

Morris took a deep breath as the manual controls folded out from the helm, they were one of the only mechanically linked controls left in the command center; the rest were all holographic syntheses. Though he had performed a manual docking many times in a simulator, it could never simulate the rush of actually having over one-million metric tons of ship under his control. He dialed back the local gravity units just enough to feel the motion of the ship as he brought it around the exterior of the station. At this range, the station dominated the view outside of the ship; the hundred and ninety kilometer disk of the main docking area was disrupted only by the immense bays for berthing heavy cruisers and larger ships. Each of them cut a swath nearly twelve kilometers long into the enormous structure. Numerous smaller berths were found along the periphery of that section. Morris remembered three years ago when he had been here for the stations annual defense testing. Ports in many of the apparently seamless hull sections of the station had opened up to reveal its formidable and devastating array of armaments, compared to then, the station now looked almost tranquil.

The final rotation of the ship brought it into alignment with its assigned docking berth. Morris watched as the station grew continuously larger in front of him until it completely eclipsed his view of the stars and the planet below. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the docking stabilizers activate and heard the docking clamps engage at the main airlock.

Enler looked down from his station, "Nice flying." he said with a slight laugh.

Morris turned around, a prideful smile across his face, "Can we make that standard docking procedure?"

"It wouldn't bother me, though I suspect the station's control center would have a few million objections if we did that on a regular basis." Enler jokingly replied. He bit his lip as he turned and activated the ship wide comm., his next order would be anything but a joke, "All hands, report to the main airlock for security containment protocols."

The crew gathered in one of the smaller cargo staging areas just inside of the station, all of the corridors leading into the station had been locked out, except for one secured behind a Class 1 scanning unit. This particular unit was among the most advanced scanners used by planetary security and could register on a molecular or even atomic level. Linked into the planetary database, the scanner could verify someone’s DNA, brainwave patterns, even read the contents of any computers or data storage devices a person may be carrying.

The command crew walked to the front of the chamber, Bannik, flanked by three other guards with council security insignia, awaited them. Enler noticed the scanning unit and winced, if the data card wasn't as good as Kenji had said, the scanning unit could incapacitate...