New Frontiers- The Complete Series Read online

  EXCELSIOR

  (3rd Edition)

  by Jasper T. Scott

  www.JasperTscott.com

  Copyright © 2016 by Jasper T. Scott

  THE AUTHOR RETAINS ALL RIGHTS

  FOR THIS BOOK

  Reproduction or transmission of this book, in whole or in part, by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by any other means is strictly prohibited, except with prior written permission from the author. You may direct your inquiries to [email protected]

  Cover design by Tom Edwards TomEdwardsDesign.com

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, places, and incidents described are products of the writer’s imagination and any resemblance to real people or life events is purely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  A big thank you to my wife for her support, and to my fans, who've read and reviewed my previous books. Thanks go out to my editor, Aaron Sikes, and to my volunteer editor, Dave Cantrell. Their feedback was crucial to polishing this book. Also special credit goes to William Schmidt for reading through an early draft at an inhumanly fast pace, and to Ian F. Jedlica (pen name, Dani J. Caile), who has eyes like an eagle when it comes to typos. Oh—and the cover—that delicious piece of art is thanks to Tom Edwards. He took my concept and made it better than I had imagined. Really amazing work.

  Finally, thank you to all of my beta readers who read and gave me feedback on the advance reader copy of this book—Betty Hoffner, Bill Gassoway, Bob Carciofini, Damon Trent, Daniel Eloff, Dave Topan, David Smith, Davis Shellabarger, Dwight Hall, Gage Linville, Gary Watts, Gregg, Gregor Hinckley, Henry Clerval, H. Huyler, Ian Seccombe, Iain Gold, Jay Gehringer, Jeff Moore, Jeff Morris, Jim Meinen, Jim Thrash, Joe Kane, John H. Kuhl, KB Jolley, Paul Burch, Rob Dobozy, Rose Getch, Tony Wilsenham, Wade Whitaker, and William Schmidt—your feedback was crucial to the final stages of editing. As always, I am in your debt.

  Thank you, all of you!

  Dedication

  For my wife and all the other women who have shared Catalina’s struggles. And for all the veterans and the soldiers on active duty who know what it is to leave loved ones behind to fight a war you hate for a country that you love.

  Dramatis Personae

  The Crew of the Lincoln

  Bridge Crew (White Deck)

  O-6 CAPT - Captain Alexander de Leon

  O-5 CDR - Commander Sirena Korbin

  Ship's Executive Officer (XO)/Mission Counselor/Medic

  O-4 LCDR - Lieutenant Commander Eduardo Stone

  Starfighter and Drone Command/Mission Geologist/Head of Security

  O-3 LT - Lieutenant Rogelio Williams

  Sensor Operator/Mission Meteorologist/Quartermaster

  O-3 LT - Lieutenant Luis Hayes

  Comms Operator/Mission Technical Specialist/Senior Information Systems Techician

  O-3 LT - Lieutenant David Davorian

  Helmsman/Mission Astrophysicist

  O-3 LT - Lieutenant Guillermo Cardinal

  Weapons Chief/Mission Botanist

  O-2 LTJG - Junior Lieutenant Viviana McAdams

  Chief Engineer/Mission Biologist

  O-2 LTJG - Junior Lieutenant Sofia Vasquez

  Other Crew

  O-4 LCDR - Lieutenant Commander Dr. Diego Crespin

  Head of Ship's Medical Corps (Blue Deck)/Mission Microbiologist and Pathologist

  O-3 LT - Lieutenant Seth Ryder

  CAG, Commander of the 61st Rapier Squadron

  O-3 LT - Lieutenant Julio Fernandez

  Executive Officer of the 61st Rapier Squadron

  Enlisted

  E-6 PO1 - Petty Officer First Class Pedro Suarez

  E-5 PO2 - Petty Officer Second Class Carlos Ramos

  Civilian

  Ambassador Maximillian Carter

  Mission First Contact Specialist/Mission Documentarian/Minister Plenipotentiary

  Alliance Leaders

  President Ryan Baker

  O-11 FADM - Fleet Admiral John Wilson

  O-9 VADM - Vice Admiral Gaulle

  O-8 RADM - Rear Admiral Leona Flores

  Confederate Leaders

  Chancellor Wang Ping

  Minister Wang Jun

  Admiral Chiangul

  Admiral Zhang

  Civilian Characters on Earth

  Catalina de Leon

  David Porras

  Dorian Porras

  PART ONE: OPERATION ALICE

  “Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.”

  —Voltaire

  CHAPTER 1

  “Don’t go, Alex.”

  “I don’t have a choice, Caty. I go where they send me, remember? That was the deal. Move up North and pay for our upgrades with two terms of service.”

  “But you’re almost done! Ten years was the deal. They can’t ask you to serve longer than that!”

  “We’re at war.”

  “It’s a cold war. No one’s shooting at you up there.”

  “Fleet Command doesn’t see the difference.”

  “It isn’t fair.” Caty wiped her eyes and shook her head. She looked away, out to Anchor Station’s launch platform. Alexander followed her gaze. One of the climber cars sat waiting on the platform, big enough to be a skyscraper. Two more just like it could be seen rising one below the other on the opposite side of the elevator ribbon. The higher of the two was a mere glinting speck against the broad blue sky.

  Alexander turned back to his wife. Her lower lip was trembling. As he watched, a tear ran down her cheek and landed on her lips. He leaned in and kissed it away.

  “Don’t cry,” he whispered.

  “How can you ask me not to cry? I don’t even know when you’re coming back—or if.”

  “Shhh.” Alexander pressed his forehead against hers. “I will come back. Do you hear me? I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Alex.”

  “I don’t, Caty, you know that. I promised I’d get us out of the South, and I did. Life’s better now.”

  “No, it’s not. Not if I don’t have you. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. You signed up for the oceanic navy, then they transferred you to space, and now they’re sending you away indefinitely! They won’t tell me how long you’ll be gone, or where you’re going… They tricked us, Alex! They’re sending you because your service is almost up. They don’t want to let you go.”

  “Caty…”

  “We should have stayed in the South.”

  Alexander shook his head. “No. Even if I don’t come back, at least I was able to save you.”

  “For what? So that I’ll live long enough to die alone when World War III breaks out?”

  “That won’t happen. Neither the Alliance nor the Confederacy is that stupid. It’s all just posturing.” Alexander took a few steps forward and cupped Caty’s beautiful face in his hands. “Listen to me. Time is nothing to us now. If anything we’ve got too much of it. If you can wait for me, I’ll find you. The maximum period they can send me away for is another ten years. That’s how long I would have been on reserve.”

  Caty shook her head. “I’m only twenty-nine. Ten years is a third of my life! That’s not nothing.”

  “Maybe not yet, but it will be.”

  “You really think we can last that long without seeing each other? How do I know you’ll wait for me?”

  “I can. I will. I’ll message you every day. It might take a long time for the messages to reach you, but they will. Count on it.”

  Caty gave him a pleading look. “What about children, Alex? We said we’d have three. A girl and two boys. We even had names picked out!”

&nb
sp; “None of that has changed! It’s just delayed, and you don’t have to worry about your biological clock anymore.”

  “That’s not the point. I don’t want you to leave me a widow, Alex!”

  He shook his head. “I won’t.” He felt a knot forming in his throat, tied so tight he could barely speak. “I love you, Caty.”

  Her face crumpled, and she broke down in tears. She rushed in for a hug and he held her, stroking her head, and offering more empty reassurances. Ten minutes went by like that and then came the final boarding call, booming out from the launch platform.

  A pair of petty officers walked up to them, their spotless black uniforms shining indigo in the sun. One of them cleared his throat and stepped forward. He snapped to attention and saluted. “Captain de Leon! By your leave, sir… we are at T-minus thirty minutes and counting.”

  Alexander nodded and kissed his wife goodbye.

  “Wait, I have something for you…” Caty said, reaching into her pocket.

  Alexander watched as she produced a shiny golden locket on a chain and handed it to him. There was an engraving on one side that read—

  “Time is an illusion.”

  -Albert Einstein

  —and another engraving on the other side that read—

  “Love is the only truth. Let mine be yours.”

  -Caty

  Alexander’s mouth curved into a sad smile, and his eyes grew warm and blurry as he turned the locket over and over in his hand.

  “Aren’t you going to open it?”

  He looked up and nodded quickly, blinking away tears. He depressed the catch at the top of the locket and it sprang open, revealing that it was actually an old mechanical pocket watch with a real photograph—not a hologram—of him and Caty on the inside front of the case. It was all so anachronistic, a kind of physical proof for Einstein’s side of the watch—Time is an illusion. The kiss Caty was planting on his cheek in that photograph was the proof of her side—Love is the only truth. Let mine be yours.

  “I can’t believe you did this,” he said, shaking his head. More tears fell as he stared at her gift.

  “It was hard to find a mechanical watch that had the date as well as the time. I thought you might like to count the days or something.”

  Alexander looked up, feeling suddenly miserable. “I didn’t think to get you anything.”

  “That’s okay. Maybe you’ll find a souvenir to bring back for me from wherever you’re going.”

  Alexander nodded and shut the watch. He slipped it into his pocket and leaned in for another kiss. It went on and on, but not nearly long enough.

  A tap on his shoulder interrupted them. “Sir, we’re out of time…”

  Alexander broke away reluctantly. “Don’t forget to message me,” he said while their fingertips were still touching, one hand slipping away from the other.

  “Don’t you forget either,” Caty sniffed.

  Alexander shook his head and waved as he walked away, smiling reassuringly as he went. “Every day. I’ll be back before you know it!” he called out.

  “Don’t make me wait forever!”

  “I won’t.”

  * * *

  Forty minutes later, Captain Alexander de Leon sat in the front row of the climber car’s viewing gallery, watching as Earth fell away below the bubble-shaped canopy. The giant equatorial anchor at the base of the elevator had been reduced to a thumb-sized speck. All around, the ocean shone a deep, stunning blue in the morning sun. Hundreds of small gray dots floated there—cargo ships and warships alike. The Alliance wasn’t in a state of open war, but it would be foolhardy to leave their space elevator undefended. Far off in the hazy distance, he thought he saw the island of Curaçao, the Southern State closest to Anchor Station.

  Alexander reached into his pocket and withdrew the gift Caty had given him. He read the engravings once more, opened the watch, stared at the photo of him and his wife, and remembered the past month he’d spent with her. The prospect of being apart for as much as a decade weighed heavy on his mind. Even immortals could get tired of waiting, and he and Caty had grown apart as it was. Bi-annual leave wasn’t nearly enough to keep a marriage alive. Staying together had always been the plan, but his primary goal had been to save her, and he’d already done that.

  Life in the Southern States was a death sentence. Alexander remembered learning about it in school. In the South people were born naturally and they died naturally. Mother nature at its best. The circle of death. They were the so-called degenerates or natural-born humans.

  Up North, medical science had found ways around old age and dying. People were genetically-engineered from birth to live forever and never to age. Geners all looked and acted just as perfect as their parents could make them, but all of that engineering came at a price, and that kind of money… you were either born with it or you weren’t. Most people down South weren’t, so they stayed down there and they died down there.

  Alexander’s family was no different. His parents struggled just to pay rent and put food on the table, let alone pay for over a hundred thousand sols of implants and genetic treatments for their son to become immortal.

  Fortunately, there was another way. The war with the Confederacy meant that the Alliance needed soldiers, and the wealthy members of its population were all already immortal, so they would never willingly risk their lives in war. The poor, however, could be easily persuaded. One five-year term of service would save a life. Two terms would save two lives. Alexander had served his two already, saving both his wife and himself.

  At the time, joining the navy had seemed like an easy way to get out of the South and escape the human condition. But he and Caty hadn’t counted on the navy choosing him for Operation Alice.

  From what he’d been allowed to know of it, Operation Alice was a mission to another planet, code-named Wonderland. Mission planners believed it could be another Earth. Alexander didn’t know where it was, or how the Alliance proposed traveling there when manned missions had yet to make it beyond the solar system. Maybe the Alliance had finally developed a working FTL drive? Either way, the mission would keep him away from Earth for an indefinite period of time, so he’d been sent down to the surface to say goodbye to his loved ones.

  Alexander sighed and reclined his chair. He felt restless and heart-sore, but despite the former condition, he was also intensely curious about the mission. He had a feeling he was going to lose a lot of sleep guessing about it over the next two days of travel from Anchor Station to Orbital One, the Alliance’s counter-weighting space station at the top end of the elevator.

  As the climber car continued racing up, Alexander came to eye level with a thin golden crust of cirrus clouds. They gleamed bright on the horizon, slowly baking to a crisp in the heat of the rising equatorial sun. Then, all of a few minutes later, Alexander was staring at a deep indigo sky with a multitude of stars pricking through.

  He was leaving terra firma behind, and this time, he was going to be gone a lot longer than six months. Alexander blew out another sigh. He had the war to thank for that. People erroneously thought if they could just get away from Earth, then they could leave its problems behind, too. Operation Alice was just the latest initiative in a race to colonize the stars. There were already colonies on the Moon, Mars, Titan, and Europa, but that wasn’t good enough. The panacea would be to find another planet like Earth, and according to the mission planners, Wonderland was it.

  Alexander shook his head. It was ridiculous that space exploration and extra-terrestrial colonization had been fueled by the threat of self-extinction, but at the same time, it made a sick kind of sense. The human race had always been its own worst enemy. Problem is you can’t run from yourself.

  There came a sharp intake of air, followed by a young woman’s voice: “Captain de Leon!”

  Alexander saw a woman come skidding to a stop in front of him, blocking his view. She stood at attention and saluted. The single silver bar she wore marked her as a lieutenant junior gra
de, while the glowing white stripe below it indicated she was a member of the bridge crew of a starship.

  A junior lieutenant made bridge crew? Alexander wondered, looking her up and down carefully. The woman was not ugly by any means, and not all natural-borns were, but something about the lieutenant set him off. Her eyes were a rare turquoise; her hair looked like liquid gold, not one strand out of place; her complexion was too perfect, and her bosom—Alexander stopped his analysis there.

  It was rare to find a gener in the navy—or in any other branch of the service, for that matter—but not impossible; he’d met a few of them warming seats in OCS. They had their own government incentives, financial ones to match the cost of what the navy offered to natural-borns. Maybe this lieutenant had been born a gener child, but then her family had run out of money and she’d signed up to save someone else. A baby, perhaps…?

  No, he decided. Northerners had implants to prevent pregnancy, and giving birth to degenerates was illegal in the Northern States. She must have had other reasons for joining the service.

  “Something on your mind, Lieutenant?” Alexander asked, frowning up at her.

  “Sir, Junior Lieutenant McAdams, reporting for duty, sir!”

  Alexander’s frown deepened. “You’re assigned to the W.A.S. Lincoln?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “I know my entire crew from White Deck to Blue, and I don’t recognize you.”

  “I’m a recent transfer, sir. I have my orders if you’d like to see them.”

  “Please.”

  The young woman held out her arm. Her sleeve rode up, revealing her comm band. She used her other hand to activate the holo display and then navigated by touching holographic buttons and making gestures. Once she found the right document, she made a circle in the air with her finger, and the display rotated to face him. He scanned her orders. Everything checked out. McAdams was to replace Lieutenant Ramirez as the Lincoln’s chief engineer.