Trillion Dollar Family (contest) - 9. Chapter 9

“Hey JB,” Kode said as Jared walked into his day-cabin. The marine who had escorted him there saluted, and then closed the door with himself on the other side.

“You wanted to talk?” Jared asked softly. This conversation had been coming for the better part of a week now, and both of them had been avoiding it. Jared had to deal with his sons, and Kode had to deal with his superiors less-than-pleased reactions to getting the Federation into a shooting war with the US. So far neither side had actually done anything about the state of war, but everyone knew it had to happen sooner or later.

Fortunately, Starfleet Command had decided that it didn't want Jared anywhere near the planet right at this moment. And by sending him, and his sons, to a deep-space research station, it bought lots of time to maneuver, to try and avoid outright war.

“Yes,” Kode said, moving behind the desk and retrieving a bottle. “I did.” Grabbing a pair of glasses, he filled both of them with a generous shot of the amber liquid, then cracked open a pair of soda cans and filled the glasses to the brim.

“You remembered,” Jared said with a smile, lifting the drink to his lips.

“How could I forget?” Kode laughed. “Rum and coke, now that's a normal drink,” he laughed.

Jared took a sip, and enjoyed the spicy tang of the rum inside the sweet taste of root beer. “I'm sure there are other people with stranger tastes,” he answered. “But probably not many,” he added with a laugh.

“Sit down JB, please,” Kode said, gesturing to a couch, then promptly sitting across from it. “We have... a lot to talk about.”

“I know, the question is-”

“Wait, please,” Kode said, pained. “I didn't know that bitch was raping you,” he said slowly. “But... I suspected, hell I knew something wasn't quite right.”

“I'm going to listen to what you have to say... all of it,” Jared said firmly, placing a hand on Kode's knee. “And I won't judge.”

“In many ways, you always were the more... forgiving of the two of us,” Kode said, tears in his eyes. “But what I have to say...”

“Codey said... I mean, Shrimpster said-”

“We generally call him Eric, these days,” Kode broke in.

“Eric, then, said that you were still... prickly where I was concerned,” Jared said softly. “I've been thinking about it, and... if you had any idea what was happening...”

“Pride,” Kode confirmed. “I couldn't go back to you on my knees and beg forgiveness, so I...” Kode started sobbing, and downed his drink. “I need more alcohol.”

“You weren't angry at me, you were guilty as hell, weren't you?” Jared asked.

“Yes,” Kode said, drinking the rum straight from the bottle.

“That's enough of that,” Jared said firmly as he took the bottle away, “what if something happens?”

“I got the doctor to give me debooze pills,” Kode said as he tried to reclaim the bottle.

“Those still take time to take effect,” Jared said, “and you are the Captain of this vessel!”

“I need to be drunk to have this conversation, and we need to have this conversation,” Kode said angrily.

“Captain to the bridge! Flash one alert! Captain to the bridge!” Kode paled at the voice coming over the com, and quickly downed some pills he fished out of a drawer in his desk.

“On my way!” he said, pressing a button on the com panel. “We'll have to have this talk later, JB,” he added as he moved to the door. “Guard, get Mr. Warren to his family, now!” Kodey ordered as he ran out.

“This way, sir!” the marine sentry outside the door took Jared politely, but firmly by the arm.

“What's a flash one alert?” Jared asked, and the marine stumbled.

“What's wrong?” Jared asked.

“Flash one alerts are... they're reserved for declarations of war,” the marine said.

“Fuck.”

“Agreed, sir,” the marine said. There wasn't a trace of anger in his voice... at least not directed at Jared. And on some level, Jared couldn't help but feel that there should have been. After all, the war was probably over the Federation's refusal to return the 'war criminal' and 'mass murderer' Jared Brent Warren, or the two 'children kidnapped from their families to serve as a cover'.

It was pure BS, but it would have played well in the forum of international opinion if the US weren't regarded with the same distrust one would give any rat. That it was considered 'fact' that the current President was behind the death of the last President was just the tip of the iceberg these days: nobody trusted him, and as a result nobody trusted the US. Rumors of internal rebellions only made the matter worse.

“Dad!” Cody shouted, jumping to the door of their 'spacious' living quarters. Which, on board a war ship, meant that there was enough room that Codey actually had to leap out, rather than just up, to reach Jared.

“How ya doin, kiddo?” Jared asked.

“OK,” Cody smiled. “Davey's upset again.”

“Oh? Another spell?” Jared asked. Cody just nodded.

“Well, hopefully they'll stop soon,” Jared said. He still remembered the 'good doctor's' response to his telling her where the data chip was stored, how it was retrieved, and what it contained. The fact that the chip contained exactly what he said it did had just been the icing on the cake, as far as she was concerned. She was a kind, loving, gentle woman... but she also loved to poke and prod at mysteries. And since she was trying to figure out ways to help Davey out, Jared could hardly complain!

A knock at the door was the only warning before a marine stuck his head in. “Sir, your presence is requested on the bridge ASAP,” he said.

“Cody, I'll be right back,” Jared said.

“OK Dad!” Cody said with a smile.

Jared didn't wonder what was up. A full scale declaration of war would put everything out of joint. But given the explicit orders from Starfleet Command that he was not, under any circumstances, to be allowed near 'mission critical' sections of the ship (which essentially put him under house arrest given the number of 'mission critical' areas), taking him to the bridge suggested that something big was up.

The bridge was... unexpected. Jared wasn't quite sure what he'd expected, but the relatively roomy room was not it. It was cramped, but because of the space needs of some of the equipment at least the overhead was higher. Jared wasn't exactly bumping his head on the ceiling when he walked around the ship, but the overhead was short enough to make him want to hunch over.

“Mr. Warren, welcome to the bridge,” Kode said, not bothering to conceal the edge in his voice. Woops! Catching his mistake, Jared reminded himself to think of the Captain as Mathews for the moment, not Kode.

“Hello Captain,” Jared said courteously.

“The flash one alert was just the first part of the barrage of messages from command,” Mathews said tersely. “The US not only declared war on the Federation, it has succeeded in engaging and destroying a number of Federation installations and ships.”

“What?!” Jared screeched. “That's impossible!”

“Command demands that you turn over any information you possess with regards to US space power, weapons, tactics, organization, or other military subjects,” Mathews said flatly. “Comply.”

“I don't have any information on how the US could attack space targets,” Jared insisted. “And what I know about their ground tactics is pretty much public knowledge.”

“Public knowledge or not, command really wants the information,” Mathews said. “Starting with what do you know about the Q-ships they've deployed?”

“Q-ships?” Jared asked, confused.

“Ships designed to look like a civilian transport, but armed with military capacity. It looks like somewhere around a god-damned third of the US space merchant marine is armed!” Mathews said, incensed.

Jared blinked, shocked. Space military power was strictly banned by dozens of solemn treaties, limited solely to the Federation since almost the beginning. It had been the one real 'stick' the Federation had possessed from the get go, though as space became more important to earthly economies it had gained more.

And now the US had warships. In space.

“I know nothing of any use,” Jared said softly. “Any such development routine would have been compartmentalized beyond anything I can imagine, and classified way over my head. Until this moment, I didn't know the US had any ability to project military power into space.”

“Yeah, well, Command isn't going to believe that!” Mathews said.

“Sir!” one of the bridge officers broke in. “Our com link to Command just went dead, and it looks like jamming!”

“Jamming?” Mathews asked, shocked.

“Yes sir, I'm trying to-”

“Contact! Bearing 195 by 24, at about five light seconds!” someone called. “No transponder detected, and- Vampire! I say again, vampire!”

For half a second everyone was frozen in shock. “Sound battle stations!” Mathews shouted. “Close point defense up on auto now! Timeframe!”

“Missile impact in four minutes! Point defense acquiring now!”

“Check those numbers!” someone snapped.

“Those things are accelerating at five thousand G's!”

Jared didn't understand half of what was being discussed, but he did clearly understand the computerized voice blaring over the loud speaker. “Battle stations, battle stations, all hands to battle stations! Set condition zulu throughout the ship!”

The Nova Maria was under attack.

“Captain, my sons?” he begged.

Mathews frowned, then hit a com device. “Corporal Winston, bring the Warren boys to the bridge, and find life suits for all three of them, now!”

“Aye aye sir!” came the response.

“The bridge is one of the best protected places on board the ship,” Mathews explained. “It's the best I can do.”

“Thank you,” Jared said softly as a large cube in the middle of the bridge suddenly turned on. “My God!”

“It's called a holotank, and it lets me view the combat in full 3D. Pretty cool, huh?” Kode commented before returning to his battle.

Jared wasn't equipped to understand what was going on, or half of the information displayed on the holotank, but some of what he saw was pretty obvious. The two oblongs where ships, and the oblong on the edge of the screen was the enemy. After all, Mathew hadn't ordered any missiles of his own fired, and those tiny dots had to be the missiles that were on their way.

“Dad!” Cody cried out, running across the bridge with his brother a step behind them.

“Please, sir, over here,” a rating asked politely as he pulled them to a 'safe' place to sit.

“Return fire! All batteries at maximum rate cycle!” Mathews ordered. “Point defense, start tracking ASAP! Those things are going to be coming in fast!”

“The on-site computers are rejecting the solutions sir!”

“Override the blasted things!”

“Dad, it doesn't sound good,” Cody said softly.

“No, it doesn't,” Jared agreed.

“It's not quite as bad as it sounds,” someone told them.

“Lieutenant Benton!” Jared smiled. “Don't you have a duty station?”

“Yes, you guys,” the Lieutenant smiled. “Captain wanted to make sure you guys would be alright if anything happens. There's a work detail on their way with- Ah, over here Jackson!”

A work party came up with three... things in their arms, just as individuals in the form-fitting space suits called 'skin suits' swarmed onto the bridge and started manning various stations. “The fit isn't going to be perfect, but you need something to protect you from vacuum. Just in case the bridge loses atmosphere at some point.”

“Understood,” Jared frowned. Then his eyes bulged as all around the bridge people started stripping down. “What the hell?!” he swore, covering his kid's eyes.

The Lieutenant's mouth twitched. “Skin suits are called that not only because they are so close fitting, but because that's what you have to wear under them if they're going to work properly,” he explained. “If nothing else, the plumbing connections are... difficult to make through clothing.”

“Plumbing connections?” Jared asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah, the same ones you're going to have to make, so get those pants off,” the Lieutenant ordered. “You'll probably want to get rid of your shirt, too, but you don't absolutely have to.”

“This is absurd... obscene!” Jared complained as he and his kids were 'helped' into their suits.

“It's better than dying in vacuum,” Lieutenant Benton said, shrugging. “Now in you go!”

“Can you at least tell me what's going on?” Jared asked, ignoring the distinct discomfort as the plumbing connections were made for him. The less of a fuss he made about it, the less of a fuss his kids would. And they wouldn't know how to apply the tubes anymore than he did!

“Someone got a ship into weapons range without us picking it up,” the Lieutenant said tersely. Their missiles have an acceleration almost five times our own, which means that not only do their missiles arrive going more than twice as fast as ours do, they take half as long to get here. So that's giving our default tracking programs fits because they just aren't programmed to deal with that high an acceleration. Good news is their range appears to be shorter than ours, so they don't have as much time to accelerate, so their actual speed isn't that much larger than we can deal with-”

“I only understand about half of that, but it sounded like you contradicted yourself in there,” Jared said, annoyed. “First you said their missiles are faster than yours, then you said they weren't!”

“Sorry, Sir, I'll try to explain more... simply,” the Lieutenant frowned. “Their missiles behave differently than our own, and those differences are causing problems with our software. Because they got into such close range of our ship, the range advantage of our missiles doesn't really matter. It's the reverse with beam weapons; combat shows their weapons have a reach almost half again our own despite less than half the throughput on a per-mount basis.”

“So their weapons are just different, not better or worse, but they've managed to maneuver the situation into one where their differences are purely advantageous?” Jared tried to translate.

“Precisely,” the Lieutenant said. “It's not the best of situations, but the fact that that's a Q-ship and not a real warship is a huge advantage. They just don't have the number or weapons, or point defense mounts, that we carry.”

“So we're gonna be fine?” Jared asked, and received his answer when the Lieutenant just looked away.

The battle stretched on for endless minutes as the two ships hurled missiles at each other. Jared didn't understand the words of the conversation going on around him, but he could clearly recognize the cautious optimism that was slowly creeping into their tones. The Nova Maria's missiles were already most of the way to the target, and so far the enemy's missiles had yet to break into the 'inner defense zone'.

Of course, all things were subject to change...

“Missile hit! We've got a clean hit!” someone shouted, and everyone cheered as the enemy vessel stopped firing.

“Keep on the ball, people! They've still got missiles in flight to deal with!” Mathews ordered as he smiled.

“We've won,” Lieutenant Benton sighed. “Without shipboard guidance, the odds of any of those missiles getting close enough to the ship to do us any harm-”

“Never tell me the odds,” Jared said, laughing. “Sooner or later, the universe always breaks them!”

“True, but I doubt-”

Suddenly the entire ship seemed to pitch sideways. Alarms blared as the blast doors on the bridge slammed shut and the lighting dimmed. “Direct hit on forward engineering!” someone shouted.

“What the hell happened?” Mathews shouted as the ship bucked again before the engines cut out, leaving the ship in zero-G.

“Point defense continuing on automatic, I don't think we're going to get any more leakers!” someone called out.

“What happened?” Mathews shouted. “Talk to me people!”

“It looks like Engineering got hit by an energy weapon of some kind, Sir!”

“Impossible, they're still at four LS!” someone shouted back.

“Damage report is clear, sir, it had the punch-through effect of a laser, not the blasting of a nuke!”

“A laser warhead...” Benton whispered. “Sir, I think I know what it was!”

“What?” Mathews snapped.

“We don't use them, but it's possible to use a nuclear detonation to power a laser of immense power. It doesn't survive very long because it's at the heart of a nuclear explosion, but it has a lot of power over that time frame. And, beyond that, it can reach out a lot further than an explosion. With nukes, you practically have to bring them into contact with the hull to do any good. With the bomb pumped lasers, you don't have to get half so close,” Benton said quickly. “Just keep them out of the inner defense zone, and we'll be fine... I think.”

“You heard the man!” Mathews shouted. “Get back on your PD stations and make damned sure that nothing else leaks through!”

It only took another few minutes for the last of the enemy missiles to cross the void between the two vessels, and in that time the enemy ship was smashed out of existence by the follow-up salvos the Nova Maria had already sent her way. Mathews had declined to terminate the missiles, on the grounds that the enemy missiles were still coming on.

“Just this last salvo left, and then we're free and clear!” Benton whispered to Jared.

“Good, I'd hate-” The ship again shuddered and shook under an impact. “Direct hit, aft engineering this time sir! Looks like the drives section is completely scrapped!”

“Well, that's a horrible loss,” Benton laughed.

“What's so funny?” Jared asked.

“It's a long story, and classified to boot, but-”

Suddenly a buzzer began to go off. “Ah hell!” someone shouted. “Looks like that hit short-circuited something, drives are online and initiating jump cycle!”

“Oh fuck!” Benton whispered.

“What does that mean?” Jared asked as the computer counted down from five.

“Hold on to your hats!”

Suddenly reality lost all meaning around them, dissolving into random chaos.

***

“And that concludes this briefing, Sir,” the engineer sighed.

Jared barely suppressed the urge to make a crude quip of some sort. They were completely and royally fucked. It had been the better part of a week since the attack, and everyone -- himself included -- had worked around the clock to manage basic repairs to the ship, with only the supplies and resources to be found on board. Half the ship was still decompressed, and there wasn't any chance of getting air to pump into those compartments.

The Federation had been completely silent on the topic of equipping warships with jump capable drives, and now Jared knew why. While the full up Ericson Jump Drive that the public knew about was impossible to scale down enough to fit into a warship, there was another approach called the Tsukiko Jump Drive. Essentially, it would allow warships to 'piggyback' on any vessel using the Ericson approach. Theoretically, it would also be possible to use it to make relatively small hops independently, but that was completely impractical because it was impossible to control the direction or the distance of the 'hop'... but the capacity was retained because it could be used to 'vent' an otherwise lethal power surge in the system. After all, the maximum theoretical 'hop' you could get from a normal power surge would be less than twenty light-minutes, well inside the normal cruising range of such a vessel.

All told, they were now four light months from Earth, further than any manned vessel had ever gone. They had enough food to last six months at current consumption, air and water could be recycled for up to two years before equipment broke down, and they had enough fuel for up to three years flight.

They didn't have the EM shielding that protected the ship from micrometeorites, the engines necessary to actually use the available fuel, or any of a hundred other necessities, and all the best minds on the ship couldn't come up with a solution.

“I'm sorry, JB,” Kode said softly. “I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for your kids.”

“I understand,” Jared said, equally softly. “You did your best.”

“I now have to decide...” Kode swallowed. “I now have to decide how we go about...”

“I'm going to take what time I can with my children,” Jared said softly.

“I know. And I don't intend to cut life any shorter than we have to,” Kode said. “But the question is, do we really want to starve to death? I can... if I cut the air, flood it with certain chemicals, I can make it quick. Easy.”

“And shave weeks off our lives,” Jared answered the unspoken thought.

The pure hell of starvation, or three weeks of life? Jared wasn't looking forward to the answer either way.

“I'm glad I'm not the Captain,” Jared said at last.

“Alright, gentlemen, thank you for coming,” Kode said. “I'll... I'll announce any decisions I reach at a latter date. For now, take a break. XO, I want minimal watches for the next three days, just enough people to keep the ship from blowing up under us.”

“Aye aye sir!” the room thundered as they accepted their dismissal.

“Jared, stay... we need to finish that talk we were going to have earlier,” Kode said softly.

“Is this really-” Jared began.

“I'd rather get it off my chest before I meet Saint Peter, if it's all the same to you,” Kode begged.

“Alright then,” Jared said, closing the door behind the last of the departing officers. “Lets get back to our discussion.”

“Captain to the bridge, Captain to the bridge!” a voice rang over the PA.

“I swear,” Kode growled, “if there isn't a damned good reason for this!”

“Captain to the bridge, unknown vessel on approach!” the PA added.

Jared and Kode's eyes met, and both stared at the other in shock before rushing for the bridge.

“Get me a visual!” Captain Mathews snapped the second he was on board. “Who the hell is it?”

“Unknown sir! They're about five light seconds out, and holding steady, transmitting a signal that I can't decipher.”

“Five light seconds? How did they get so close?” the Captain asked, angered.

“I don't know sir, one second they weren't there, the next... they were!”

“Sir, you aren't going to believe this,” someone said, shocked. “I recognize that signal format -- it's a standard civilian transmission protocol in use back on Earth.”

“Civilian transmission protocol?” Captain Mathews asked softly.

“Yes sir... they're hailing us!”

Jared stared at the ring shaped vessel in front of them. Without anything to give him scale, he couldn't tell how big it was... but he knew damned well that it wasn't anything built on Earth. With the exception of those vessels whose missions required specialized shapes, such as mining and construction vessels, all Earth vessels were spheroidal in form, like giant eggs with the enlarged 'base' facing towards the rear. This vessel was a giant ring, like some kind of portal to drive through.

“Can you decipher it?” Mathews asked.

“It'll only take a moment, Sir... thankfully, I have a copy of the protocol in my personal database for some of the classes I was taking.”

“On screen then!” Mathews ordered.

“Aye aye... putting her on screen... now!”

“I repeat, Nova Maria, can you receive this signal? This is the Enlightened Profit, hailing the Nova Maria, can you receive? I repeat, Nova Maria...” the voice came over the speakers.

But what was even stranger than that oddly mechanical voice was the visual that came with it. Purple skinned, hair that looked more like a porcupine's quills, three eyes, and jaws that worked sideways as it talked, the speaker was anything but human.

“My God, first contact!” someone whispered.

“Can we transmit?” Mathews asked.

“Just give the word, Sir,” the tech responded.

“This is the Nova Maria to the... Enlightened Profit, we receive. Can you understand me?” Mathews asked. For a moment the repeating message continued, then broke off as the screen changed.

“This is the Enlightened Profit, Nova Maria, please stand by. I am connecting you to the Captain,” the alien said.

“This is Captain Quelforus, of the Enlightened Profit. You seem to be in a little bit of difficulty, Captain, could you use some assistance?” the alien asked. The vocals were clearly out of line with the actual motion of the being's mouth, suggesting that translation software was being used, but the software was good enough that it translated the slightly amused tone very clearly. The alien captain was making a joke.

“Under the circumstances, I'm in no position to say no,” Mathews laughed. “Though, given the name of your ship, I have to wonder what the price is!”

“No price,” the alien said, “simply being good neighbors. After all, humanity is preparing to enter the stars! The Esorahsusian Confederation would like to build good relations from the get go. It's... something of a tradition.”

Jared blinked. Esorahsusian? Esorahsus? “Excuse me, but are your people called the Esorahsus?” Jared found himself asking.

“It's traditional to stay out of conversations between Captains, Mr. Warren,” Captain Mathews reminded him.

“Actually he had good reason to interrupt. And in case you're wondering, Sergeant Major Jared Brent Warren, yes we are that Esorahsus. Plan B is very pleased to meet you.”

Jared smiled over at Kode, and knew that things had just made a very big turn for the better. He and his sons were safe, and he had another chance with the man he loved.

What could possibly go wrong?

Realizing what he'd just thought, Jared surreptitiously looked for some wood to knock on... and didn't find any. Oh well.