“I don’t know what to tell you,” Adam answered as he pulled a sheet of vellum from his jacket. “I have orders assigning me to this unit as well.”
Keryn snatched the orders from his hand and reviewed the scrolling information. The orders were legitimate, but it was the date that struck her as odd. Everyone else had been assigned to the unit as soon as Keryn received her communication from the High Council. Adam’s orders, however, were dated the day after, almost as though his assignment was an afterthought. Or a special request, she thought grimly. Looking over her shoulder, she made sure the rest of the team was still sufficiently engaged and not prying into their conversation.
“You want to be part of this team?” she asked.
“Yes, I really do.”
“Then I have to be able to trust you. I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to give me the honest answer. If I think you’re lying, I’ll make sure you’re off this team.”
Adam hesitated before responding. “Ask away.”
“Did Yen put you up to this?”
Adam frowned, but his expression betrayed the answer. Keryn kept her stern gaze and watched as his resolve quickly melted. “Fine, yes. Yen put in a special request to get me reassigned. He thought you could use the help.”
“No,” she answered angrily. “He thought I needed a babysitter.”
“Stop right there,” Adam interrupted, his face suddenly flushed. “Do I look like a babysitter to you? Do I look like I have nothing better to do with my time and all my years of experience than to sit around with you, catering to your every need? I am a soldier, and have been one since before you entered the Academy. I’m good at what I do and I joined your group because you can use me, if you manage to pull your head out of your-”
“I’m sorry,” Keryn said before he could finish his sentence. “I’m just frustrated with the assignment in general.”
“Whether you appreciate it or not,” Adam said as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “this assignment is important. I’ve been around for a while and I’ve never heard of the High Council contacting someone directly about a mission. If they gave you this assignment, it’s for a reason. Don’t take it so lightly.”
Looking over her shoulder once again, she saw a couple of the teammates laughing as they shared prior war stories. A level of camaraderie had already begun between the members, though she was still not included. Instead of spending time with them, like she should have been, she had let herself get distracted by Adam’s arrival.
“We should go rejoin the others,” Adam offered.
“Believe it or not, I’m glad you’re here,” she said as they began walking back to the rest of the team. “It’s just nice to have both you and Penchant here.”
“I’m glad I’m here too,” Adam admitted. “Somehow, the thought of invading Earth scared the hell out of me.”
The rest of the team settled down as Keryn and Adam rejoined them. They had pulled chairs together to better talk, and they now separated them so that everyone could see Keryn as she spoke. Though they still wore a skeptical look, the teammates still looked significantly more relaxed around one another.
“I guess we’re going to be a team of seven after all,” Keryn offered as Adam found a seat.
“So what’s the plan, ma’am?” Keeling asked.
Keryn smiled. “Alright, you can drop the ma’am now. Our plan is simple. Out there, on a backwater little planet called Pteraxis, there is an Oterian smuggler. Not only did he make one of the most spectacular discoveries in recent science when he found the chemical that was used to destroy the Vindicator, he turned around and sold this wonderful new technology to the Terrans. Our mission is to find this bastard and make him tell us where this new weapon came from.”
“And what if he will not tell us?” Cerise said condescendingly.
Keryn reached behind her and unclipped a pouch from her belt. “Well, I was given six of these little cases to make sure he would tell us.” Opening the top of the pouch, she reached in and pulled out a glistening scalpel. Her gaze fell on the scalpel, which she spun lazily in her hand. When she spoke, her voice took on a distant edge, as though fantasizing about the scalpel’s many uses. “Apparently, they’re going to teach us how to use these to the best effect.”
“You know,” Keeling said, “I think I’m going to like this job after all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The briefing room filled quickly with the primary staff of the Revolution. Yen had already assumed his seat near the front of the room, the one traditionally reserved for the Squadron Commander. His assumption of the role had come as a surprise to most, since Keryn had only taken the job a couple months before. Everything about her departure remained veiled in secrecy, with rumors abounding about possible injury or mental illness. Yen didn’t bother correcting them. Sometimes, it was good to have secrets. Secrets held their own power and power was what ensured Yen not getting removed from the job of Squadron Commander any time soon.
But Keryn’s mission wasn’t the only secret Yen had. Yen was eager to see the other secret he knew come to light during this meeting. The expressions of his peers and supervisors would be priceless indeed.
To Yen’s left, Iana had claimed the seat reserved for the Squadron’s second in command. Though Yen had a number of veteran pilots under his command following the last conflict, Iana was not only battle-hardened but someone he could trust. Yen knew the importance of having someone in whom you could confide when need be, and Iana had already proven herself trustworthy.
The room was filled with a multitude of conversations. Many of the leadership positions throughout the ship were now held by people Yen didn’t know. With so many wounded or killed during the last conflict, many Officers and Warrants had been cross-leveled from other vessels in the Fleet to fill voids in the chain of command. Yen didn’t want to be anti-social, but he found little to talk about with the new personnel. Much like he and Iana sitting side by side, many old acquaintances gravitated to one another.
Closing his eyes, Yen folded his hands in front of his face and drowned out the dull roar of people talking over one another. Beneath his feet, Yen could feel the gentle vibrations of the massive engines propelling the Revolution forward. Inhibitors suppressed the pressure of flying at speeds beyond that of light; pressures that would crush a person’s body were the inhibitors inactive. Even at such great speeds, it would be weeks longer before the Fleet even approached its target.
The entire Fleet had departed the Farimas Space Station a few days before, with the Revolution in the lead as its flagship. Over thirty Alliance Cruisers had joined the Revolution, comprising most of the Alliance’s military might. If the assault on Earth were to be successful, it would require the entire might of the Alliance, save the few vessels left behind to protect key infrastructure throughout Alliance occupied space.
More than the might of the Fleet, however, was the timing of their assault. The remaining Terran Fleet, a force larger even than the Alliance Fleet, was on a mission elsewhere in known space, pursuing a false lead released through Alliance spies on Earth. The Terrans would never return in time to stop the assault on Earth, even if they detect the Alliance Fleet. Moreover, the Terrans had no reason to suspect a secret weapon like the warp technology. The Fleet had no intention of getting close enough to Earth to be openly detected by the Empire. By the time the Terrans realized something was amiss, the Squadron would be appearing behind their defenses. At least, that was how it was supposed to work. In theory.
Theory didn’t make Yen very comfortable with the plan. He had watched the successful presentation of the warp technology in the auditorium and was awed, just as everyone else had been. The possibilities for such a technology were virtually boundless. Except that every time Yen pondered the use of wormholes and event horizons, he remembered mutilated and dismembered animals, staring back at him from their jars of preserving chemicals. Those thoughts had ridden a hidden current of fear through the scientist’s mind before he initiated the presentation. It was the stench of fear dominating his thoughts that made Yen uneasy. If the creator of the technology was fearful of its possible results, could Yen truly put himself and his men in danger by using the warp technology?