SWNOVELS Chapter 3
ABOARD THE JUSTIFIER, SOL GOVERNANCE’S SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT SOLAR CRAFT; ORBITING NEREID, MOON OF NEPTUNE…
Joden Modune was still in the process of writing up his list of projects for his crew on his terminal when he had gotten a call from headquarters.He was already running late—his medium-size special operations team was finished running tests and drills and were waiting for Joden’s next orders.But the fact that he was being called from HQ, versus receiving a message informing him of an upcoming call, there was no doubt that it was something important!
“Jaimee, I’ve got a comm coming from Pacificalis,” Joden informed his second-in-command.“I’m going to need you to get everyone geared up.”
“Right, boss,” she punched out over the line.
The chiming from communications was not even registering with Joden.His mind started to wander off into various scenarios what headquarters wanted this time around…
“Modune, Ma’am,” he finally said to Admiral Reshma Shan.She wasn’t even impatient with him about how long it took for Joden to answer.
“Joe, we’ve got some problems going on around the Pluto area and it looks like it’s heading your way,” she shot out.The admiral’s eyes were periodically bouncing up and down and off to the side from various screens that were out of the line of sight on the broadcast, Joden noticed.“For some reason no one in the system can get in contact with Pluto, Watch 7, and, now, Watch 6…”
Joden froze in his chair.She was right:The Justifier was next in line!The admiral continued.
“We’ve already notified Watcher 5—no sense in telling the other stations until necessary.They have enough to worry about…Director Nadeem is sending over a squadron from 5 to join up with you all, Joe.By that time, based on the timing that we’ve lost communications with everyone so far, you and Director Nadeem should be in a position to carry out whatever tactics and strategies you need to do to confront whatever it is.”
“Ma’am,” Joden asked with a snap of his head toward his monitor.
“Honestly, Joe, we don’t know.”The admiral finally sat back; looking at Joden straight in the eyes—as it were—over her monitor, her head shaking for bewilderment.“Cadet Grainger was the last to talk with Director Furth before Watcher 6 went down…Grainger lost total contact with 6!”
All that the admiral could do at that time was shrug.Joden silently nodded in confirmation.
“Good luck, Joe,” Admiral Shan said with seemingly sincerity.“Keep me updated…I’ll let you know if there are any developments.”
“Understood, Ma’am.”
The admiral cut the line; leaving a blank space where the projected holographic image once levitated.Joden, his dark-set eyes unblinking, stared at that spot for several more seconds.The thirty-something captain of the “undeclared class” solar ship had a passing thought.
“Sentient, give me a map of the solar region, depicting Uranus and all the way to the Oort cloud…also, input symbols for all Watcher bases, space stations, and ships in the area in real time, please.”
In the middle of Captain Modune’s cabin appeared a large, holographic “textured map.”The region of space that the captain requested was shown in slightly stylized details with touch-capabilities for the user to easily move any images depicted.The map also showed The Justifier’s location within the representation.Captain Modune’s crew was orbiting just outside of Nereid; between it and Neptune—which filled most of the vista of the ship’s windows and monitors displaying the near-space in Justifier’s neighborhood.
Modune maneuvered the room-sized map with the movement of his hands so that the map showed a close-up of Sol’s region with Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort cloud…all were iconofied, but realistic enough to get which planets and moons were at play.He, then, walked up to the portion of the hologram that displayed a large swath of the Oort and Kuiper sections—for it seemed whatever was coming its way to Neptune had originated from there.If not, then passed through, perhaps.
Modune thought on the various articles and media reports he’d read or watched about some of the scientific projects in both the Belt and the Cloud.He could not think of any current research project going on in those regions at that time.Nevertheless…He addressed his ‘Sentient’ once again.
“Sentient, search for any scientific research, for any military operations, or any natural, known occurrences going on in this region of space—“Captain Modune drew a large, irregular box that framed most of the space depicting the region.
The Justifier’s computer system took a little longer than usual before it super-imposed images of boxes, floating telemetry, and its female voice responded.
“There are currently no activities of scientific research, or military operations, nor any natural occurrences transpiring at this time that are outside the usual cycles and schedules.”
“Then what’s that blip you have there,” Modune refuted, as he walked up to a portion of the holographic map.“Here—around the 10 to the fourth power AU?”Modune touched the irregular-shaped beacon, but no information emitted from the floating shape.
“That, Captain, is one of the Governance’s distance-markers,” the computer responded; somewhat condescendingly.
“Damn it, Sentient, I’ve flown the Sol for years.I know what and where our distance-markers are!I don’t remember that one in particular.”
“Shall I notify Watcher 5’s squadron captains of this apparent anomaly, Captain Modune?”
“Please…while you’re at it, tell the crew to get situated and then fly us out to those coordinates.”
“Yes, Captain.And what of the crews of Pluto State and station Watchers 7 and 6?”
Modune paused in his tracks; getting his travel gear ready.“That squadron from Watcher 5 should catch up with us by the time we get to Pluto, right?”
“Correct, Captain.But we will by-pass station Watcher 6 and Pluto’s crew on the course you’ve given…with all the event anomalies going on in the Pluto-area recently, should we not stop to check on them?”
By this time, Captain Modune had finished donning his activity jumpsuit.“I figured the ships from Watcher 5’s squadron should fly over to Watcher 6 and check on Pluto.They have enough crew to divide up the task between the base on Pluto and the Watch station on Charon…How does that compute?Is my logic sound, Sentient?”
“Indeed.But, may I ask, Captain, why you feel The Justifier should take on the task of seeking out this apparent anomaly at distance-marker 10 to the fourth power?”
Now, Modune was holding his personal space-helmet and standing next to the door to his suite.“First of all, Sentient, Justifier’s crew is a nondeclared operation—since that anomaly is unknown as well as the status of all the stations in the Pluto-area, it would be better for ourteam to take it on instead of Watcher 5’s squadron…should the situation out there turn out to be dire, Justifier’s crew should quietly inform Headquarters.
“Secondly, I don’t think that’s a distance-marker.I think it’s a Trojan Horse!”