Jupiter's Halo Book One: The Lies

Chapter Four "The Admiral"

Itona stepped from the trans-terminal and into the Admiral’s antechamber, where his personal assistant greeted her with a perfunctory smile.

“The Admiral requested me.” She said simply.

The Admiral's aide continued to smile. The expression looked fixed and fake, as if she'd set her features at the start of the day and would keep them in place until the next rest cycle. Itona was sure it was meant to be pleasant but to her it was too reminiscent of the high-grade domestic robots back on Luna.

The woman indicated a low couch with a flick of her eyes and Itona nodded, understanding the non-verbal signal to sit and wait.

Taking orders from a junior rank, albeit with the authority of the Admiral, always grated on her. She swallowed her grievance and sat, staring straight ahead where a large view screen filled the opposite wall from floor to ceiling.

The view it currently showed was of the upper hull of the Pride and the speckled darkness of space beyond. She cast her eyes across to the second view screen to see the same picture, from a slightly different angle, on display.

They made it seem like the void was just metres away, when in reality she knew the Admiral's chambers were buried deep within the superstructure of the great warship.

The antechamber was almost diamond-shaped; the entry from the terminal leading in at one point and the Admiral’s private office directly ahead at the other. To the left and right of the trans-terminal doors were the couch she sat on and it’s twin, both angled to point across the small room to the view screens. To the left was the entrance to the Admiral’s quarters; locked to all but the master of the Pride and to the right his personal armoury.

Dead centre, bisecting the room like a last bastion of defence, was the thin desk of the Admiral’s assistant. Her name was Gadansk, Leslin Gadansk and despite the multitude of times they had spoken since her promotion to captain, Itona couldn’t recall a single thing she knew about the woman, save for her constant smiling facade and the clipped, professional tone she used for every interaction they’d shared.

Itona watched her for a moment as she waited on the Admiral’s pleasure and found herself wondering if the woman was actually doing anything, or if her bent head and busy hands were simply actions to give the impression of work being undertaken.

She was tempted to ask outright, but a low chime stopped the mischievous thought from going any further as Gadansk looked up.

“The Admiral will see you now.” She said, still smiling.

Itona nodded again and raised herself, straightening the lines of her uniform before making her way past Gadansk’s desk and to the office door.

As she stepped close it slid aside silently, revealing the sight of Admiral Avarro DeMarchek, standing behind his own ample desk, leaning hard on balled fists. She could see the whiteness of his knuckles, the grimness of his expression.

Her mind raced as she imagined the cause of his displeasure. Was it Aitkin? Had he learned of the relationship somehow and taken a dim view of their fraternization? What they were doing was not strictly against regulation, but she was well aware that the Admiral could consider it a conflict of interest and subsequently order her to end it.

If that were the case then duty would come first. She cared for Aitkin, cared for him a great deal, but she’d worked hard for her position, her career. Love was not a concept she held any particular fervency for. It was soft, distracting. It was a luxury afforded to the people she fought for, but not to her. Her duty came first. Her duty would always come first.

She stepped into the office and saluted at full attention, her handheld rigid in front of her face, two fingers raised side-on between her eyes in the Deorum salute.

“Reporting as ordered, Admiral.” She fixed her eyes on the wall of books behind him, letting her focus settle on the spine of a faded red volume.

“At ease, Captain.” Admiral DeMarchek said, flicking a distracted reply to her salute.

Itona dropped her hand and relaxed her stance.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" She said.

“Actually, Captain, I wanted to see you.”

Itona turned at the voice, seeing she had walked in on a conversation partway through. Behind her, the Admiral's view screen filled the wall beside the door to the antechamber. Its picture was of another Admiral. Five stars glinted on the high, crisp collar of her bright grey uniform. She was Board level.

Itona turned on the spot and snapped another rigid salute.

“My apologies, Board Admiral,” she said as her eyes focused on the stars. “I was not aware of your presence.”

The Board Admiral narrowed her eyes slightly.

“And here was Admiral DeMarchek just telling me of your combat prowess and superb situational awareness.” She finished with a little tutting noise, but Itona couldn’t tell if it meant the comment was in jest or a more serious rebuke.

"However, now you are aware of my presence," her imperious tone wiped all thought of her previous comment containing any humour from Itona's mind. "There is a situation you need to be briefed on. It concerns Earth."

This clearly wasn’t about her relationship with Aitkin.

A small part of her was glad of that and she was surprised at just how happy she felt. She pushed the emotion to one side. Now wasn’t the time to examine the depth of her feelings.

She remained silent, knowing better than to speak when she had not been asked to. The Board Admiral raised an eyebrow.

“I am impressed with your composure, Captain. Admiral DeMarchek had mentioned your tendency to be somewhat… outspoken,” she looked past Itona to where DeMarchek leaned. “Clearly you are aware of this failing and have taken measures to control your base impulses.”

It was a barb, dressed up like a compliment, but delivered like a knife. Itona felt her dislike for the Board Admiral growing. The woman was stiff, unbending. She looked down on them from the viewscreen as if their interaction was a distasteful burden she had been forced to undertake and could not wait to be finished with.

“Thank you, Board Admiral.” Itona ground out the words.

The face on the viewscreen took on an expression that clearly said she felt no reply was necessary and was even now revising her opinion.

Itona breathed to calm her quickly rising ire and reminded herself this was a Board level Admiral. A Board Admiral. Five stars. Dealing with people of this level was what she had aspired to. It was the reason for all her hard work, all her sacrifices. A woman like this should be her idol, the very ideal of the status she aimed to attain for herself.

She tried to put her personal dislike of the Board Admiral aside and concentrate. Whatever was going on was important. Important enough for a Board Admiral to talk directly to a marine captain. It wasn’t an opportunity that came up often, if ever. Thinking in terms of like and dislike was childish. If she continued to act like that she deserved every bit of disdain the Board Admiral offered. She was a soldier, a marine and she was damn well going to act the part.

“Admiral DeMarchek,” The voice from the view screen spoke, “Please brief the Captain as you have been instructed.”

Itona could feel DeMarchek’s anger at being addressed in such a way. She was about to turn to face him when she realised it was another trap. She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead.

The Board Admiral’s lip twitched as if she was about to smile. She returned the salute she had left Itona holding.

“You may stand at ease, Captain.” She said.

Itona dropped her aching hand, trying to keep the relief from showing on her face and clasped it behind her back. She still didn’t turn. The Board Admiral had to release her, if she turned before that happened the show of disrespect was unforgivable. She knew she was being tested; evaluated at every step and she felt her admiration grow in place of her anger.

The Board Admiral waited a moment longer, while behind her Itona felt DeMarchek’s impatience build. The Admiral was not accustomed to being made to wait upon the decks of his own ship.

“You may address the Admiral, Captain.”

Itona saluted again before turning to face DeMarchek. The Board Admiral didn’t bother to return it.

DeMarchek looked ready to commit murder so Itona waited for him to speak. He glanced at the viewscreen and then back to her.

“Captain, as the Board Admiral says, we have a situation.” DeMarchek lifted a hand and pressed at the holographic display hovering above his desk. Itona felt the tiny vibration of data transfer to her comm-link and pictures blossomed before her eyes.

There was a space station; an old-style build of cylinders and concentric rings, personnel cards showing a young woman, a pair of men and another older female.

“This is GS-114.” DeMarchek started, “It’s an old supply station in orbit of Earth.”

Itona waited for the point.

“And we believe it may have been attacked.” DeMarchek finished.

Itona tried to keep the look from her face but she knew her features were betraying her. What was important enough about an old supply station to warrant the Board Admiral’s involvement? It wasn’t like it could even be used that much anymore, not with Luna so comparatively close.

She wanted to ask Admiral DeMarchek what the issue was, but she was aware of the continued observation from behind her. Everything she did was being weighed and measured so she had to conduct herself accordingly.

“Do we know the nature of the attackers, sir?” She asked. “Do you suspect the Martians?”

Had it just been DeMarchek there she would have waited for further information, or more likely made some quip. With the scrutiny of the Board Admiral weighing on her, she felt moved to contribute in a more meaningful way.

“We do not yet know if there has been an attack.” The voice from the view screen cut in. “But scans of the area are clear of any known craft and relations with the Martians, although somewhat frosty, are stable at present. We have no reason to believe they would risk that at this time.”

Itona noted the words and the ones that weren’t said. No ‘known craft’ she’d said, did that mean unknown craft had been spotted or something else. As for the comments about the Martians…

Itona got the feeling there was already information about this station she was not being made a party to.

DeMarchek sucked in his breath.

"Thank you, Board Admiral. As I said, Captain, we believe there may have been an attack on the station, but we are currently unable to confirm this.”

Itona thought about his words, his tone. He was nervous and angry, about what she didn’t know, but she guessed the stony face looking over her shoulder had a lot to do with it.

"A wideband distress signal was picked up by the Ramafor thirty-seven minutes ago, but all attempts at contact since have been unsuccessful.” DeMarchek continued. “The station appears to be receiving but there is no answer.”

“Or no one to answer.” Itona mused. “Did the signal include a data packet from the station’s CT?”

DeMarchek shook his head.

“There’s no caretaker program on board. The station is old, Captain. Pre-Luna old.”

Itona was taken aback at that. She knew there were plenty of objects around that pre-dated the rise of Luna and the Deorum, but to think one of them was still in working condition, let alone being actively used would never have occurred to her.

“Before you ask anything else you need to rethink everything you know about station design and management. There’s no standard fusion core and no CT. Just one trans-terminal, several sets of link stairs and a whole lot of space to navigate.”

Itona tried to wrap her head around the concept. It explained the way the station was built at least. Every ship, every station in space, no matter how small or large, was built along the same lines. It started with the fusion core, creating power and it’s own gravitational field, then each deck spiralled outward from the centre, turning so the floors remained parallel to the core, to keep ‘down' where humans had always been accustomed to it.

GS-114 wasn't built like that. The image she saw was portrait in aspect, the top of the station a small circular hub atop a long tube that reached to what she had to think of as the bottom. Just below the hub two rings stretched out, the second larger than the first and then some distance below them was a large barrel of silvery grey.

Right at the bottom of the station was another smaller cylinder. It was set at the far end of the connecting tube and seemed different in design than the rest; newer looking, less battered by the debris of space.

“Has the Ramafor completed a local sweep for visual confirmation of any disturbance, sir?” She questioned.

DeMarchek paused as he was about to answer and his eyes flicked to the viewscreen behind her.

“The Ramafor is returning to Luna.” He said slowly.

Itona was lost. What was this station? Who were the people and why the hell was a Board Admiral involved? She decided to let go of her caution.

“Sir, I have to ask, what’s going on here? Why is an old supply station so important?”

DeMarchek's eyes bounced back to the viewscreen again. He straightened up, his fingertips resting lightly on his desk.

“Captain,” He paused and again his eyes made their way from her to the screen and back. “This is somewhat delicate. GS-114 is, as I said, an old supply station. However, it’s use has been somewhat…“ He wiggled his fingers making a gentle tapping sound on the polished wood. “Modified.”

“Modified, sir?” She didn’t feel any more enlightened.

DeMarchek opened his mouth to speak.

“Admiral.” The warning tone in the voice of the Board Admiral was clear.

DeMarchek closed his mouth with a sigh.

“There are things I can tell you, Captain and things I cannot. The first thing I can’t tell you is exactly how the station is being used.” He looked uncomfortable withholding the information. “The second thing I can’t tell you is the standing orders of the LSS unit currently stationed on board, or in fact anything about the work being carried out by the scientific research team you have received personnel files for.”

Itona let the words sink in. An LSS unit was a surprise. LSS were covert. Black ops. Their deployments were secret and from the rumours Itona had heard often pretty bloody. To hear a unit of them was stationed on GS-114 was strange. Really strange.

She thought for a moment longer, still aware of the Board Admiral silently watching on. If she was there it meant the First Company, her company, was being deployed. That meant there was a mission, a target, an objective. The thought gave her focus. If she was taking her marines into action she needed to know everything she could about the situation. Their lives might depend on it.

She raised her head, fixed DeMarchek with her gaze.

“I understand, sir.” She said levelly. “The First Company is ready for action. Just tell us what you need and we’ll deliver.”

She saw the look of pride in DeMarchek’s eyes and felt like she’d passed some sort of hidden test. If this was what the first captaincy needed, if what they wanted from her was blind obedience then she wasn’t about to disappoint them. Not to their faces at least.

The mission, the station, some damned LSS team. It might all be shrouded in secrecy, but that didn’t change the facts. The First was needed and the First was hers.

“I’ll brief you on everything you need to brief your Lieutenants,” DeMarchek replied.

He turned his eyes up to the viewscreen.

“Is there anything else you wish to add before I continue, Board Admiral?”

Itona fought the impulse to turn and look at that imperious face.

“No, I don’t think so, Admiral.” Came the reply. “I trust I can leave the minutiae to you. Be sure not to betray that trust.”

Itona heard the warning in the words. The threat. DeMarchek nodded and raised his right hand in salute. Itona turned and followed suit, seeing those judging eyes stare down on her for a moment before the Board Admiral severed the connection and the viewscreen went blank.

She turned back to DeMarchek and saw how he visibly relaxed. He exhaled deeply and leaned forward again, his palms flat on the surface of his desk.

Itona stepped forward and placed her own hands down.

“I don’t know what’s going on, sir,” she said as he looked up into her eyes. “But I know it’s something big. I’m not going to walk my marines into the unknown. I won’t do that to them.”

“I know, I know.” DeMarchek waved a conciliatory hand.

 “Good,” Itona said straightening up. “That’s good, sir. Now, are you just going to tell me what I need to brief my Lieutenants, or are you going to tell me what I need to know?”