Beyond Light

Tension and Doubts.

Compared to Admiral Hopkins’ office, one would expect President O’Donnell’s to be more relaxed due to the man's cool temperament, but it soon demonstrated to be all the contrary.

All connections with the Eternity of Return were lost, and a public scandal would have occurred if they had lost them any earlier. Fleet Admiral Hopkins didn’t wait to explode. He insulted and yelled at the communication technician in the control center, saying things like if he was on the Earth at that moment, he would smash his head against the screen if he didn’t keep attempting to reestablish connections.

President O’Donnell and Admiral Frost had to intervene, and William would have taken all the insults if it weren’t for the intervention of the president.

“I say this is all the work of the PFSR! Is not it goddamn obvious already?” cursed Hopkins.

He expanded the holographic screen on the President’s desk and reproduced the transmission recorded through the Eternity of Return’s drones. He stopped the image at the moment when the mysterious ships that attacked them were visible enough to discern.

“Those ships aren’t like anything I’ve seen before. PFSR? what do you mean?” asked President O’Donnell. The situation was tense in the room, and not even he had taken a seat. He and the admirals stood before the desk.

“Look at those systems of deployable wings mounted on the main wings of the vessels,” explained Admiral Hopkins. “they resemble a lot the ones on those corvettes that we confiscated from them during the Uranian Crysis of the ‘21 when New Prague fell.”

The Uranian Crysis. An important and rather dark event in human history; especially for Hopkins. William understood it. The Fleet Admiral was still hurt and resentful about the two consecutive defeats he suffered in that war, which led to the floating city of New Prague plummeting to the crushing core of the ice giant.

The Uranian Crysis —also colloquially known as the Deuterium Wars— was a short yet bloody conflict that affected the Uranian system for two years, when a terrorist group led an attack on a Chinese hydrogen refinery. Said group was supposedly discovered to be supported by the Japanese, who already had enough tensions with the Chinese and the PFSR.

The Chinese didn’t await negotiations; they destroyed a Japanese methane processing plant on the other side of the planet. From there, a whole conflict rose between the two nations, each supported by the INSU and the PFSR, respectively. The results were the two cities of New Burma and New Prague being destroyed. At least six power plants and four refineries more got destroyed or damaged as well, and the death toll overpassed the five million deaths.

The conflict ended when both factions initiated negotiations and reached the Yamamoto-Chernov treaty, which ended up affecting more the PFSR than the INSU. Relationships were re-established shortly after, albeit more unstable and colder than ever.

William only participated indirectly, but Admiral Hopkins lost a whole fleet of three heavy cruisers and a battleship when Admiral Boris Chernov from the PFSR —who died two years after the war— outsmarted him in a play that was still heavily studied in naval tactics, where he used the planet’s magnetic field and storms to confuse Admiral Hopkins.

It was now obvious that the Fleet Admiral wanted to get his revenge somehow. He would not retire —and much less die— without making the navy that humiliated him with only a battlecruiser and a light cruiser in the Uranian cyan skies pay.

“There is also that red color brushed all over the tips of their structures,” continued explaining Admiral Hopkins. His red face didn’t chill out a little bit. “the PFSR loves to paint their vessels in that way.”

President O’Donnell had his permanent warm eyes and printed grin erased from his face. All he did was look down reflectively. He then raised his eyes and looked at William, Admiral Jacob Weigh, Doctor Weiber, and Admiral Rin Suzuya, who had remained invisible during Admiral Frost’s transmission.

“What do you think, gentlemen?” asked him. “I need your advice. what’s the best thing we should do?”

“We can’t just wait!” Admiral Hopkins raised his voice once again. “those bastards can’t get away with—”

President O’Donnel extended his hand to the admiral’s chest, making him keep quiet. The red-faced man glared at his pals with the tiny, black eyes of a flea.

William was the first to express his thoughts. “Well, we don’t have enough proofs that those ships are indeed part of the PFSR.”

“Then, who is it?” Admiral Hopkins spoke again. “who else could it be? we are the only ones with the resources to build an EPAL. It’s impossible those ships were just some Sunday aficionados making a homebuilt one. use your head. The PFSR is the only thing besides us capable of creating an EPAL. They were obviously waiting for us on the other side.”

“It’s a valid option,” said Admiral Suzuya. “I would not discard the possibility of an attack from the federation.”

“Eh, I am skeptical,” the old Weigh spoke. “I’ve been in this business for 62 years. I can say that it’s unlikely that the PFSR would act like that.”

Everyone stared at him. Hopkins was about to open his mouth once again, but President O’Donnell made him stop.

“Think about it,” continued Admiral Weigh, scratching his thin white hair. “Those ships are diminutive and are no match for the firepower of the Eternity of Return. Why would the PFSR use such a suicide tactic and lose their expensive EPALs and all their personnel aboard? It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he leaned his arms and waist on the desk. “Besides, you know they love propaganda. More than us. They would have announced everywhere that they beat the INSU on the Faster-Than-Light race. But they haven’t announced anything at all.”

Except for Admiral Hopkins, who could not hold his glare, everyone traded looks and nodded in agreement. The PFSR attacking the Eternity of Return didn’t make any sense no matter how they looked at it. Relationships between both entities weren’t at their best, but both factions had been working for the last two decades on their FTL technologies and other projects to want a conflict at that moment.

But people like Hopkins were always eager for war; thought William. War was their business. And sometimes, more than for economical or political influence, people like him developed personal reasons to keep spilling blood.

“So, if it was not them,” inquired Admiral Hopkins. President O’Donnell let him speak this time. “then who? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well,” spoke Doctor Weiber. He didn’t look any more relaxed than the Fleet Admiral, but he was trying to keep himself collected. “it might be that we made contact for the first time with—”

“Oh, Doctor,” interrupted Hopkins. “don’t tell me that someone like you thinks that nonsense. You’re telling me that—”

But President O’Donnell insisted again with his arm. If he was not his superior, then Admiral Hopkins would have already yelled him the worse insults the English language possessed.

“That’s a valid option, now that I think about it,” the president said, nodding at the Doctor. “but it’s only that. An option. Let’s keep ourselves rational and skeptical. We can’t just accuse directly the PFSR of the attack. We can neither let the voice run-up. If the general public realizes, well…”

“...I am sure they are already more than deluded enough, just like everyone in this room,” Doctor Weiber cynically said. “but meh. I advised you about ALL the things that could have gone wrong. It’s a miracle that the dreadnought’s EPAL didn’t collapse at such point, but what can be done… You do you,” he crossed his arms and disapproved with the head.

“But what can we do, then? sit and wait?” asked Admiral Suzuya. The man wore the eyebags of someone who had not slept in 48 hours.

“Those buoys are fried up, mister president,” said William. “you heard the technician. It’s impossible to repair them at such a long distance. We aren’t going to hear about Captain Cortez or his crew again. They might be under fire at this moment.”

President O'Donnell also had his arms crossed, rubbing his chin with his fingers, and his eyes pessimistic and lost.

“You are right,” he raised his head. “we can’t just stand here and do nothing. But we can’t discard the possibility of a PFSR attack. I will contact their high command. I shall request a meeting assembly as soon as possible. I’ll be in the holographic call room. Hold on.”

He got up, straightened up, and walked to the door, crossing through its disinfection web. The sliding doors opened and closed as he got out.

“Ah,” complained Admiral Weigh, hunching his back. “I swear the older you get the more everything hurts. I’ll be on the balcony,” he walked to the other side of the room, where a glass door stood. There was a small balcony outside that looked into an artificial garden built in the space station.

“I will company you, Admiral. See you in short,” Suzuya followed the old man behind.

“...I hope we could crush those bastards this time,” Admiral Hopkins mumbled to himself. He went outside through the same door President O’Donnell used to get out.

Only Doctor Weiber and Admiral Frost remained inside. At the petition of William, who had lots of questions about the safety issues of the Eternity of Return’s first leap, both walked together to the second balcony, where the other two admirals could not hear them. They shared a cigarette at its green views and fresh air.

“Meh,” the Doctor finished his first cigarette and turned on another one. “lies. Bunch of lies. Of course, I had to say everything was safe and they were going to arrive happily at Vita Nova,” he pessimistically said.

“I remember,” said William. “Doctor, you said that you didn’t have time to run simulations, yet you told everyone in the solar system that your team executed them accordingly...”

“Bullshit. Almost all I told you was bullshit. That EPAL running on 80 Vega-Mako’s was only designed to travel 1900 light-years at such the short time they used to travel 8000. That cipher would be even less for a ship of such ridiculous large dimensions like that dreadnought. The bigger the mass of a ship, the harder it is to move it with an EPAL. Ad-Infinitum was an error from the beginning.”

“Well, they arrived alive to Vita Nova. I think that’s a win already, don't you think?” William tried to sound optimistic.

“If you want to look at it that way, huh,” Doctor Weiber cynically chuckled and hit deep his cigarette. “I don’t know how many times I’ve said it, but it’s a miracle they didn’t get obliterated. Even if the engine didn’t collapse, it does not count with the necessary cooling systems or decay-conducts to eliminate all that heat and waste. The engineers must be having it pretty rough in there.”

Both got alerted on their wristcoms that President O’Donnell had returned to his office. Everyone returned inside. William could detect the slight odor of alcohol coming from Admiral Hopkins. President O’Donnell didn’t show any particular emotion. Did he have good or bad news? he spoke before his admirals got more anxious.

“One week. I did my best. I’ve arranged a meeting with the PFSR’s High-Command. They will see us in one week, on Ceres, the asteroid belt.”

Neutral Territory. At least they would feel the false security of both factions being the least biased possible, William thought.

•••

It was a cold night, and it would be also a long one of 15 Earth days, as nights on the tidally locked Titan lasted the same time it took for the moon to make an orbit around Saturn. John laid tucked on the higher part of the bunk bed. His actual place was on the bottom, but Mike had gotten so drunk that it had been impossible for him to climb up to the taller bed.

It had been a good day. Everyone celebrated, drank beer, and music and parties resonated in most places of the moon and the solar system. Mike almost got up in a fight with the local man that called them idiots, but John managed to stop him. They could have won in seconds, but John had learned in a bad way that it was for the best if you didn’t pick unnecessary fights, especially in places where you didn’t belong.

But there was something he wanted to do before falling asleep and waking up in the long night; he had received a message directly coming from Blair, at 8096 light-years away. Excited, he pressed the video on his holographic pad, and the brown-haired figure of his older brother, wearing the ceremonial white uniform expanded.

“John? Man, this is amazing!. I just wanted you to know that we have arrived at the Vita Nova system. Alive! Not dead, because if I was dead right now, I would not be able of making this call. But you most likely already know that, since I bet you are watching Admiral Frost’s transmission. There have been some problems, but I can’t speak about them through this due to the confidentiality code. But I am fine and that’s what matters. I hope you are having a good time too! This also goes for you brother. I owe you part of this. If only mom and dad were alive to see us… Well, I must go now. I’m required on the Bridge. I’m the Vice-Captain, you know? I send you a big hug! I will keep you informed when I have the opportunity. Goodbye, John!” he waved his hand and the transmission ended.

John smiled. Knowing about Blair made him feel a relief rush through his chest. Didn’t he say problems? well, they were sure nothing big, as it would be rare to be exempt from problems when making such a trip for the first time in history. He closed his Holopad and closed his eyes. It had been one heck of a day...