SG Nova Roma, Chapter 3.19

19 – Skipping Ahead

(Colony World R6 – Arrival Room – Day 211, 0304)

The soldiers cut loose….but their particles bolts did not connect. Instead, they bounced off a force-field around the team. Cinara exchanged a look with Colonel Vale. Then she heard a long and loud stream of curse words, followed by the sound of a door opening. A man in civilian clothing walked into the room.

“Stand down, you military idiots !” The man shouted. “That’s Princess Cinara, as in the heir to the throne !? As in, YOUR BOSS !?” The soldier’s all looked very nervous as they put down their weapon. But the civilian man, whom Cinara figured was probably the governor of R6, kept ranting.

“I don’t know what I did wrong in a past life, but it most have be really bad. Because they send me every moron in the ground forces, space navy and police force. I am Governor Ingram, welcome to R-6,” He paused. “So, what can I do for you, Madam Princess ?”

“These are my shipmates, Colonel Vale and Major Hailey. They are human.” Cinara said, gesturing towards Hailey and Vale.

“Military idiots,” Vale said with a smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“Oh,” Ingram began. “You’re here about…,” He shook his head. “…the others. Sergeant Curtis and Doctor Palmer, I believe ?”

“How do you know about them ?”

“Well, they arrived before I was Governor,” Ingram began. “But this is a really boring Colony World. So I read through a lot of reports to pass the time. And I’m afraid they were held here for a while, before being collected by Order of the Other,” Cinara gave him a look. “And yes, I know that they are considered a myth by many. Hell, I’ve seen the data on them and I barely believed that they were real.”

“So,” Hailey began. “What happens now ?”

“I will give you the information we have on the Order of the Other,” Ingram said. “But I will not go full blown rebel against the Senate. You will be teleported back to the surface and expected to leave by means of the Doorway right away. As for you…,” He looked at the soldiers with an angry look in his eyes. “This….never….happened. They were never here. Unless you want to explain to the Senate that you nearly killed the Heir to the throne,” He paused. “…Is that clear ?”

The soldiers nodded, while Ingram made his way out of the room. Vale got the feeling that it was a good thing that they were about to leave Xivolo space. Because sooner or later, they would run out of luck or end up starting a full blown rebellion. And neither situation would be pretty.

(Spera – Mess Hall – Day 212, 1603)

Spera had left Xivolo space behind. They had successfully activated Eli’s skipping program, so the ship was not just outside Xivolo space. But she was also above the galactic plane. And that meant that most of the displays were empty. The only exceptions were Flight Control One and Science One. Flight Control was tracking their progress and Science was keeping an eye on the shields and the radiation levels. So there were only two people on the bridge, while the rest of the crew was either doing maintenance on the ship or enjoying some down time.

Which was fine with Nikita Aranov, because he had a new puzzle to study. Cinara had provided him with a translation of the information on the Order of Other. When the Xivolo had exiled all their slaves, there had been many whom had considered it a bad idea. These people – some were scientists, some were officials and some religious figures – had bonded together into the Order of the Other. They had taken several Xivolo ships and had left Imperial space. But nobody knew where they had gone. Until now.

The folks on R6 had gotten a good scan of both the visiting Order Starship and the team they had send down to collect Curtis and Palmer. And using the scan of the ship and the courses had flown on – both when it had arrived and when it had left – they had been able crunch the numbers. The end result said that the ship had come from the galaxy FR-2 was in. ~The Far Galaxy, that’s what they called it.~

To the Xivolo, they were currently in the Original Galaxy. And the Berserker Drones and Command Ships were from the Second Galaxy. Both of those galaxies had been nearly completely absorbed into Imperial Space. But the Far Galaxy had only had one cluster on the map. ~The FR-cluster was barely off the grounded when everything went south for the winter.~ But the course and range the R6 people had calculated, put the Order Homeworld inside the cluster. ~But if it is, why didn’t they attack FR-2 ?~ Or blow the whistle on them ? It was something to consider.

And that was not only thing to consider. The scans of the team that had come down included DNA analysis. And some of the team were hybrids. There were no hybrids on FR-2 because the Xivolo had included genetic locks that made cross-breeding impossible. But the Order had apparently found a way to disable them. And from the scans, it appeared that the Order had already collected more Humans. ~But from where ?~ He wondered if this meant that the Vicerant Homeworld was also in the Far Galaxy. Alas, only time would tell. So Aranov made a note and then went to get lunch.

(FR-2 – Epsilon Site – Day 245, 0800)

Colonel Young walked into the Commanding Officer’s Office. Colonel Telford was sitting behind the desk. As part of their deal with the Senate of FR-2, the brass had reassigned Telford’s team to the planet. The Senate had rubber stamped Telford becoming the new CO of the Epsilon Site. Besides the sixteen members of Telford’s team, fourteen of the Lucian Alliance survivors had volunteered to join the program. The remaining sixteen had made it clear that they wanted to return to the remains of the Alliance in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The IOA had not been happy with the Alliance volunteers, but the FR-2 Senate had put its foot down. They were training people for the Epsilon Site, but they needed all the experienced people they could get. As for the base itself, construction work was in full swing. The existing level had been remodeled. Above – because of the retracting doors of the hangar – there was one level. This was the lab level, which also had the briefing room and locker rooms with showers.

As for below the original level, there was room for three levels before the main sewer pipe made further construction impossible. These levels would have all the facilities necessary to make the Epsilon Site a fully functional base. Finally, it had been decided that Epsilon One and Epsilon Two would spend their time parked in orbit. This freed the hangar for construction of the chaser starship they were building for going after Destiny. Which was why Young was here.

“David,” Young said.

“Everett,” Telford said, putting down the folder he had been reading. “Ready to see your new home ?”

“That’s why I am here.”

Telford led the way to the main hangar. Thanks to the codes they had gotten from Alpha One, they had found four wrecks on the planet and eleven in the solar system. The ones on the planet had been useless, having reduced to pancakes by the local atmosphere. But the ones in space had been dragged to orbit and were now being cannibalized by volunteers. Young had seen the equipment the crew were working with and realized that these people were not short on bravery.

They were also not afraid of hard work. This was obvious as soon as they walked onto the balcony that oversaw the main hangar. To their surprise, Nicholas Rush was already on the balcony. Despite the best efforts of both Camille Wray and Tamara Johansson, Rush had only left his house when it had been absolutely necessary. But now, he was looking at the construction going on below. Humans, Nakai, Jynacko and Ursini were all working on building this new vessel.

“My father would have loved this project,” Rush said. “As horrible as the pay was and as long as the hours were, my father was still fond his work.” Rush’s father had worked in the shipyards in Glasgow.

“So,” Young began. “have we picked a name for this wonder yet ?”

“No,” Rush said. “It’s still being debated by the Senate. So, it’s still Bravo Zero-One.”

“Actually,” Chloe Armstrong said as she joined them. “They just made the decision. You are now looking at the Fast Chaser, with Fast standing for Free Alliance Starship. Oh, and they renamed the planet to Freedom Prime,” She paused. “They wanted to call it Liberty Prime, but Eli muttered something about fallout and it already being taken.”

Young smiled and looked at the ship that would become their new home. The name Fast Chaser was fitting, considering what she was being built for. And from what the Colonel was seeing, she would be up for the job and then some.