Chapter One

WAR BEGINS

ABOARD THE JOHN GLENN
Derreck Farb

 

Scrambled to a Top Security boat, data uploading from all angles, can't process previous revs while current revs loading. My bundle's embossed Derrick Farb Lieutenant, 34th Terran Space Fleet Assault Battalion--least I know who I am.

 

I know who they are.

 

They are the High Brass, the Supreme of the Supreme, save Supremo, which is a compute. When it comes to Organic Life Forms, this boat has the prime. At least, what Supremo marks as prime this day in July--think it's July--2496. I haven't been on a mudball so long I forgot how time processes.
For me, out here, Space day is a Stand chopped into 36 piece. An Earth day I know is 24...

 

"Can we believe them?" Captain Shuman's overly refoed face matches a Buy holo, swiveling tween Expert and Brass.

 

Bursting like a pressure pot; "Of course you can believe them!" The woice is Professor Jarufsky. She be The Authority on ZerShaz Culture.

 

"ZerShaziemn of rank as eKhain uReglimi would not lie. Lying under these circumstances is cowardice of the first order."

 

Who was keying adjectives?

 

The Zerks had Monster and Monster was fortune. Which of what five Zee boats held him was for data dogs, not hunters as me and my Squaddies. I'd have yawned if four grams less Brass parked in the Ready room. There were more Admirals around this table than non-Admirals, meaning this was serious top level confab.

 

My Squadron had been snatched from the 5th Sector, to Situation Mega here, on the TSF John Glenn in the 2nd. No one scoped if we were dizzy, quizzy or smacked.

 

So they upload the data; The Firestone, a Class Eight Battlestar, was vanqed by The Pirate. Dead in Space, surrounded by Zerk warships. Monster, who'd been in the Brig--(and I'm not pious why)--deserted.

 

Key is Monster.

 

"So you maintain this eKhain would allow Commander eDapktchoy to simply walk off his ship?" Captain Pullson snorted.

 

Couldn't lid it; "Captain, he didn't walk off--"

 

"I appreciate that Lieutenant Farb!" He barks at me.

 

I enjoyed goading. He had a short fuse, lots of emotional baggage. How he copped Captaincy ticked debate as he didn't have the balance. Some posed blood in high veins, others that he hacked Supreme Military Command. A few got below the waist.  

 

I wouldn't pluck him to maintain my flyer.

 

Admiral Barrington raised his hand; "Observors have been recalled from all vessels, both ours and theirs, am I correct?"

 

That's an empty bunk for sure.

 

"Affirmative, Sir--" Captain Shuman oiled. Though the question gigoed, Admirals are. You don't have five of their snoopers on a Boat when you're thinking about war against them; and don't leave five of us behind for Sunday dinner.

 

And here's another one that shouldn't be allowed out without a nurse:

 

"Would it be the same--uReglimi, who was an Observer aboard the Invincible--" Admiral Cerasceu from the Joint Chiefs.

 

"Affirmative Sir." Shuman cut.

 

Me, nobody Lieutenant, thinking;

                      why do we let the Zerks shove five Observors aboard a Class Ten

                 and never check with Jaruf or clone whether the Zerk we
                      classify as Lieutenant actually matches Admiral?

 

Mentioning Admiral here's another lost link;

 

"The identity of the Pirate?" Heflen, Chairman of Space Intelligence.

 

"Still unknown, Sir." Gives Commander Maltzman, the Data Dog.

 

This quiz kid hasn't removed his orbs from his com screen and his fingers haven't stopped tapping. I don't know whose posterity he was recording. Everything had played already.

 

The Firestone vanqed, Zee boats screening, the Pirate offing our flyers--save two which collided--something we, in the Live It Hard Squadron, would never match: Monster trained us. John Burns trained them.  Which is why a pus like Eldridge Dwight had wanted into the 34th but drew Burn's defunctuary.

 

"Where's the doctor--" Asks the Professor.

 

"She's just been brought aboard and is waiting in the anteroom, shall I call her?" Outputs Maltzman, not looking up from his screen.

 

I can't line why the Doctor of the Firestone has an in to this confab, but then, I haven't prended from enter. Orders came, we reported. Question times question on Commander eDapktchoy, the Monster; or Honcho as he held it in the Up and Out. When they probe Loueys for their impression of a Commander, it's got to be Mega.

 

Monster was best beyond best, cutting his wake was heavy credit. To probe his personality, (assuming a Zerk has a personality or is a person) is dele; Monster had nothing happening outside of Commander.

 

Jarufsky, having given Maltzman her glom, maybe waiting for him to disconnect eyeball from monitor checks he can't so replies to the side of his head: "Not yet." as if it's her call who gets called.
Then she clears her throat to lecture.

 

"Gentlemen," She begins in her rabbity way, as if we'd never scoped a Zerk, "you must understand the ZerShaz; they are preemptive. They are masters in the game of Chess as they are always six moves advanced. This eKhain uReglimi is a brilliant player of the game, quite a formidable leader."

 

So she had him for tea, right? How she maps he plays chess? Unless--but if they'd penned uReglimi's status he'd not have been aboard any of our boats.

 

Though rules weren't stone writ, Observors, (ours and theirs) were to be tween Ensign and Commander, (oRain or umRain in their system). eKhain was not a rank above Captain, it matched ruler of a mudball state! So why does this uReglimi log as Observor unless he's spy. Jarruf knew his rank... now...maybe they didn't know his rank yesterday?

 

I can't match the bytes, and now Jarufsky was on her dais. I can scope why asking her a yeah or nay took 2+ hours and wasn't choice one.

 

"Take it as given the ZerShaz Cosmic Forces were aware the TSF Franklyn, which collected the Firestone crew, was a semi-obsolete troop carrier. Take it as given the five vessels of ZCF's 'Priority' Class appeared to prevent any attempt at defense. Accept their erssavis flew towards the Eighth Sector to imped our ability to track them."

 

She looked around the table as if unsure they followed her path.

 

"Accept that each hour that passed took them light years closer to their goal, which, despite the apparent course is the Seventh Sector, KeyTash. Clearly, the time we spend attempting to track five vessels, to ascertain which vessel is the uMerickya and attempting to contact it, being informed Commander eDapktchoy was not aboard that ship... gave them more than sufficient time to cross into ZerShaz space."

 

As if we couldn't read the grid and pen that they were on their side of the truce.

 

"Whether the Commander of his own volition departed the erssavi he was on can be argued without resolution." She put, though no one touched that side of debate.

 

Diplomacy does that. Gets you wasting time in minor so what you want to avert gets happened. I can't believe the Brass spent Real Time minutes trying to hail a Zerk boat, finally getting the response: 'he's not here,' so now sit and argue if it's true.

 

And Heflen dumps: "Do you think eDapktchoy betrayed the VX?"

 

"I am not acquainted with eDapktchoy." Jaruf snipped, then turned her sour old face on the Admiral who busied himself with papers.

 

I guessed googals of requests by her to study Monster, even when he was a min and I sample they were countered.

 

Now that's a prog that should have never played.

 

We bombed Zechia, found one survivor. Instead of vanqing or boxing him, an Army cabbage takes him home as son. Takes him home, raises him, then unleashes him as a Space Cadet, so that plus twenty years he's Commander in the Terran Space Fleet and we can debate if he deserted.

 

"I have nothing to go on." Sniffs the Professor as if anyone cares what works in a monograph. "I do not understand why he did not return with the Firestone crew."

 

Then, she noticed the eye ballets.

 

"Is there anything you have not told me?" She asks.

 

"Astute, Professor, yes." Nodded Pullson, who'd been Captain of the defunct Firestone. "He tore Lieutenant Burns apart."

 

"What do you mean exactly?"
"I mean he tore John Burns into four pieces. Physically--tore him apart."

 

"You did not inform me he had a mate!"

 

"Not to our knowledge. Commander eDapktchoy? Never--I mean-"

 

Then they gaped at us, his squadron; Lucy Davidson, Hector Mock Yee, Sigidi Biko, Serge D'amoto, and I, Derrick Farb. We'd been carving night with Monster for an E.Y. and the input gigoed.
Mate? Like in female? Like married? Him? Fleege. He'd never been off base, never out of eyeball, accounted for a decade.

 

"ZerShaz do not lose their tempers as we define. They don't have that kind of violent reaction unless it is personal outrage. Not personal, meaning done directly to them--done to their mate--or someone they have bonded with--."

 

"Lieutenant Burns--no, he didn't do anything to a woman--a ZerShaz woman? Was there one aboard the uMerickya? Summon the Doctor--maybe she can enlighten us." Pullson ordered.

 

In all the AU I'd flown with Monster, I never knew him to show emotion. Never angry, happy, nothing. I scoped the report on Johnny's death. It was crisp. Monster walked into the cargo bay where the Firestone crew were held. He went to Burns and pulled him apart matching a rotten biscuit.

 

I was scoping my squaddies, who were scoping me, nothing matched this grid. We'd always penned a computer had more feelings than Monster.

 

The doctor entered; an ignorable woman from a minor colony.

 

"Jillian!" Smiled the Professor.

 

"Professor Jarufsky!"

 

The antecedents canvassed, while we made eye and face signs.

 

Honcho only made word sound when it was orders. Seen only getting in or out of a flyer. Though squaddies co-mingle, and Leaders turn into Papas, it didn't happen with him. It always gigoed when he remembered I was Lieutenant Farb on two feet, Nimble in fly.

 

Honcho never screened anyone. The only living bod ever tapping his door was that Looey, Eldrige Dwight, who was plopped at the long table as extra sauce. Why was he here? I gave him a good glom he didn't pick.

 

Lucy made a hum. Early days Lucy, having skibbied the batch, fronted Monster. He'd penned it insubordination, had her busted. She squirmed she'd been drunk, which copped her more cuts, but cleaned her to remain part of the Live it Hard Squadron; that and a written apology.

 

And they're outputting Honcho had a wife?

 

I'm mindplaying Honcho, how he screened, still can't scope why he was in the Firestone Brig --then I pen his murder of Johnny a pious reason why deserting best choice.

 

The Prof asks Doctor how she be and she outputs; "I'm tired, drained and confused. I was aboard the uMerickya, transferred to the ezRomiyan, and now-- here I am."

 

"Would you require a short adjournment to compose yourself?"

 

"I require a double watch of sleep, to compose myself."

 

Little vinegar in this one I perq, happy to see we aren't all oiled so as not to squeak.

 

"I'm sorry doctor, we can give you a stimulant if--" Shuman stated.

 

"I have already given myself a stimulant."

 

The Professor interposed herself; "Jillian, explain, I have a report that eDapktchoy tore a Lieutenant Burns apart--the typical ZerShaz male's reaction to molestation of his mate--"

 

"Yes, Professor. That is true." The doctor admitted.

 

"Doctor--" pushes Maltzman, no doubt needing to close a file; "May

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 26.09.2021
ISBN: 978-3-7487-9579-7

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