Book of the Guardian 3: The Last Mission (12 page)

––––––––

"L
ieutenant, set course for Onaris 9. We need to be invisible the whole trip, full stealth," John ordered.

"Yes Sir, if I may, Sir, wait to go stealth until we make orbit. Everyone saw us land, they should see us take off." Carmichael replied.

"Good thinking, do it," John said, and nodded to her.

The lieutenant dealt with flying the craft, since the ship comms were locked down and John trusted her to handle it. Chloe had sat down at the navigator's station and plugged in a course for Carmichael to follow until the jump. Once they jumped, then the waiting would begin. Onaris 9 was technically in Tammerain space, but was one of the contested border worlds that was in one of the systems that defined the border.

On his own terminal, John had brought up a map of the planet they were going to. Using his own memories of the fighting here, he located the place where Holly died, and marked it. John would make damn sure his friend's ashes were as close to that spot as he could get them.

John looked up at the viewer and watched as they left the atmosphere. He still didn't know what the secondary mission was, since those orders would not become available to them until they departed Onaris 9. He did know that Mark considered them to be suicidal. Well, he and Chloe had something important to come back to, so he knew he would do everything in his power to make damn sure they got back.

"John?" Chloe asked, interrupting his daydreaming.

"Yeah, sorry, I was dreaming there for a minute," John grinned.

"I said we're on course and we'll be jumping in an hour. I set our course through the Badlands, so transit should only take a week," Chloe reported. The Badlands were a non-system cluster of asteroids that were just floating in space. That is if you consider a 'cluster' to be a something measured in light weeks and months. Astronomers believed it to be the remains of a small nova or perhaps it had been ejecta from a stellar nursery, the bottom line was, no one knew how to explain it, but none the less it was still there.

John nodded. Jumping 'over' the Badlands would save time, but there was more risk, there were too many moving objects of mass in the area to accurately track and plot them all, so normally a ship would bypass the whole area. Chloe knew what the computers on the Flyer could do, and jumping the Badlands had worked for them the last time that they had come this way. 

"Sounds like a plan," John replied. "There's some stuff I want to work on. If you don't mind, I think I'm gonna stay here for a while."

Chloe kissed his check. "Okay hon, I'll see ya in the morning,"

"Ah, then I take it you haven't found the little surprise Gabby and Minister Gadfries left for you?" John asked.

"Uh, no, what did they leave me?" Chloe asked grinning.

"Log in under your personal account, and you should see the messages from them. I got a few things to occupy my time during the trip, and a request from the Minister to file a report on my findings once we return," John explained. "I'm sure they left something similar for you. Oh, and by the way, they had to move our quarters to make room for a power something or other."

"A power sync. The
Flyer
uses them to shed excess energy," Chloe said. "So where did they move them too?"

John hiked a thumb over his shoulder. "Just tell the lift 'Command Quarters', and it'll take you there. One of the kids had to get my permission to take our gear to it."

"They built the 'sky box' didn't they?" Chloe asked excitedly.

"The what?" John asked. "I have no idea, I haven't been there myself yet."

"When I helped draft some changes to the ship, one of the suggestions I made was to move the command quarters to the top of the ship - basically above the mess hall, but aft of the forward missile magazine," Chloe explained and headed for the lift.

Once the lift doors closed, John muttered to himself. "Great, like sleeping next to one nuclear firecracker isn't enough!"

At the helm, Lieutenant Carmichael had a sudden coughing fit.

––––––––

"O
rbital insertion in twenty minutes, John," Carmichael said via her comm. "Other than a couple of Tammerain freighters, the screens are clear."

Once John got a look at his and Chloe's new quarters, he was amazed. For a starship as small as
Flyer
was, these were huge. They were almost the same as a standard, single-bedroom apartment you would find on almost any planet in the Kingdom. It had a big bedroom with a king-plus sized bed. A private bath complete with an actual bathtub! A small private kitchen, a small dining area, and an office/living room that the lift opened onto. Living here made him feel guilty considering the size of the rest of the quarters on the ship - some of which were shared.

John had been working on translating the ancient Promethean files Minister Gadfries had sent, when Lieutenant Carmichael called to let him know they were in orbit.

"Understood, Tami. Have you located the spot I wanted?" John asked.

"I think so, Sir, it looks like it's on the edge of a farm of some kind. There is a snow-covered field we can set down in practically on top of it," the navigator replied.

"Okay, we'll be down in a few minutes," John said, and closed the channel. Chloe was enjoying a long soak in their bathtub, so he thought he should go warn her they were going to land.

––––––––

T
ami Carmichael was just about to call her commanders again when they arrived on the bridge dressed in their formal dress uniforms. "I'll take over, Tami. You can go change," Chloe said sadly.

"Yes, Ma'am," Tami replied. "How's he doing?"

"An hour ago, he reported to the medical unit, and pulled his controller out of the network," John replied. "When I checked on him, he was smiling. He said Holly had told him he should go to medical and get ready. I told the medical computer to sedate him and disable his combat systems."

Chloe looked back at John. "He wasn't offended?"

John shook his head. "No, he had already disabled them on his own when he began hallucinating. He told me it was really strange because it was like he was getting a comm from her. He said he thought perhaps his controller was having difficulties dealing with his grief. He said he had the computer do a complete work up on him, and he'd recorded his observations for Mary."

"Once we're down, the locals are going to know we're there," Chloe said. "There is a small village less than a kilometer away."

"That shouldn't be a problem, if they want to know what's going on, I'll tell them we are only here to say good bye to a friend," John replied. "Just set us down, Chloe."

Tami ran from the bridge to change and felt the ship maneuver for landing. John input his command code on his terminal and felt the
Flyer
's far more powerful comm system open to him. "Mark, it's time."

"Okay, John. Leave the channel open for now, I'll join you shortly," Mark replied.

John didn't need to reply, he just left the channel connected to Mark and made sure there was a holographic drone available so Mark could leave the ship with them. Seeing that they had landed, John nodded to Chloe. "I'll get Will; we'll meet you at the rear hatch."

Chloe nodded as she stood and got out of the pilot's station.

John walked back through the ship to the medical section to find his longtime friend dressed in simple coveralls and waiting for him. "I really appreciate all of you doing this for me. You know, we could have done this from orbit."

John shook his head. "No, Holly is down here. I promised I would bring you back to her, and I have."

Will handed John the remote diagnostic panel for the terminal that was now acting as Will's controller. "Shall we?"

John and Will walked calmly back to the rear equipment ramp and saw that it was lined with the Marines that had accompanied them. All were dressed in formal uniforms and at attention. When Will and John arrived, Chloe ordered them to salute. Will smiled, nodded, and walked down the ramp. When they got to the bottom, Chloe ordered most of them to fall in behind John and Will, and the troop followed them.

At the very edge of the field a bank led down to a stream that had not yet frozen over. "This is the place my friend,"

"I almost don't recognize it," Will said. "But I think you're right, this is the place."

Dressed in the full regalia of the King, Mark joined them as a hologram. "I'm really sorry I couldn't be there in person, Will. But there is no way the guards would have allowed it."

"The fact that you are here at all honors us, Marcus. Just remember, charging in blindly isn't always the right thing to do," Will said.

"I'll remember my friend," Mark said.

Will turned to face the gathered Marines, came to attention, and saluted them. "Guard our people well!"

As the Marines returned the salute, Will nodded to John. "Now, John. Set me free."

John touched the appropriate controls and Will Curran simply fell to the ground. In moments, his body burst into flame and cremated his remains.

"Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust, may you always walk in the light. Good-bye my friend," John said softly.

"He asked me not to do the whole day of mourning as is the norm, but instead, he asked for a day of celebration. So I will grant his request. From this day forward, let it be known as Holly Curran day. A day of celebration and remembrance of all those that have given everything for our freedom," Mark declared. He turned to John, "Your mission files are now unlocked. Please don't make this day one of remembrance for all of you."

"We won't, Sire, we'll be back." John replied.

"I wish I could believe you, my friend. I really do," Mark said as he faded out, and John felt the channel close and the comm system lock back up.

"Take as long as each of you need, but keep in mind that we need to get going, and this is a hostile planet," John said, as he took position at the foot of the rear ramp. He would not board himself until everyone else had gotten aboard; he was the commander, he would be the last to say good-bye to yet another friend.

––––––––

A
fter everyone had said their own good-byes to Will, and they were all back on board, John closed the ramp and returned to the bridge. "Get us out of here, Tami. Just head out for Tammerain space. Maintain stealth profile and comms lock. I'll give you a destination once I get a look at our orders."

"Will do, Boss." Tami replied, and began lift-off procedures. She had already changed back into her duty coveralls and had been waiting on the bridge.

John turned to Chloe, "Let's get changed, and I'll look over the orders Mark has for us."

Chloe nodded. "All this cloak and dagger shit has given me the willies, I get the feeling this isn't going to be a very fun mission."

"Considering your definition of 'fun', then you must think this'll be boring duty!" John replied as they left the bridge, and a grinning Tami.

As soon as the lift doors closed, Chloe looked at him. "Now that we're alone, I really don't have a good feeling about this John. Just how deep are we going into Tammerain Space? You do realize that by doing this we're declaring war on the Tammerain on behalf of the Kingdom, right?"

John shrugged, "Just coming here for Will was an act of war according to that treaty. Besides, the Tammerain have already declared war. Twenty-eight heavily armed naval fleets crossing the border isn't very subtle."

"I know, but still... this just doesn't feel right to me."

John scoffed. "Honey, we don't even know what the mission is yet!"

"I know, and that scares me even more."

They had arrived at their cabin, and changed clothes. Just before she was about to head back down to the bridge, John stopped Chloe.

"Relax, Sweetheart, this is probably nothing more than a recon mission for Mark. You know how anal he is about gathering intel."

Chloe nodded. "If it's a simple recon mission, why did he look like he was sending us out to die?"

"He looks like that every time we leave the Palace!" John countered. "Look, all I'm saying is don't read so much into this okay?"

"Let me get back to the bridge. You find out what we're doing out here. Then we'll know, and I can quit stressing over it." She ended the conversation by closing the lift doors, leaving John to open the file.

––––––––

T
wenty minutes later, John called down to the Bridge. "Chloe, I've input our course. Please have Tami load 'Promethean Prime' and execute immediately. As soon as we're clear of the jump, call everyone to the mess, Tami too."

"What's up? Was I right?" Chloe asked.

"Yes and no, I'll be down in a few minutes to tell everyone what's going on. Just execute that nav program and head for the mess cabin," John replied.

On the Bridge, Tami had overheard him, and had loaded the program John had ordered. Since she'd been assigned to the
Flyer
as its pilot - some eighty years ago, Tami had never seen John handle anything related to navigation. However, she knew he had the ability, but hyperspace navigation was one of those skills you had to keep using. As far as Tami knew, John hadn't plotted a course in more than eighty years.

She was nervous as she instructed the helm to load the program. She wavered over the execute command and looked back at Chloe. "Ma'am, I know you guys are like the best at everything, but, I've never even heard of General Aster plotting a hyperspace jump before. Should we at least double check it before we jump?"

Chloe smiled at her. "Tami, I understand your unease - hell, I feel it too, but my issues are about the mission, not our course. John taught me how to navigate. I'd be willing to bet that the people that programmed that navigational computer learned how to do so from something John had a hand in creating. Even if the computer gives you an error, never doubt John's plot; there is a good chance the computer is actually wrong. Just hit the button, and let's go. We'll find out what's going on soon enough."