.png){kind=link}
Beyond Hope
- Chapter 4 - Shockwaves[]
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
Misjump[]
SLS Elizabeth Cameron, CiC
Sol System, Terran Hegemony
2779
Helena thought it would be easier now. Amaris was dead, but nothing had really changed for her. She couldn’t be around Terra. Not now.
“Jump us.” Helena commanded.
“Really? Where to?” Elizabeth said.
“Away. Away from Terra. I can’t be here right now.”
Elizabeth’s remote simply nodded. She knew her sister was right. She could not be First Lord in her current state.
//////////////discontinuity\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Kowloon system, Federated Commonwealth
November 11th, 3053
The emergence wave was preceded by enough EM, Thermal, and Neutrino that it actually tripped 300 year old detectors that stopped working sometime in the 28th century.
Alica Li was awakened by alarms from a rather pleasant dreaming sleep, to what sounded like a mass-jump of military grade warships into Kowloon's outer orbital system.
.png){kind=link}
Alicia Li, Kowloon Coast Guard
"Get telescopes on it!!"
One ship, a Lola III, was hanging near the Nadir.
"******. They're here." she turned to the RTO, "Fast courier a message to the Planet, Her Grace needs to know-there's a Lola III Class Destroyer out there and it's probably the Clans come to call! Then scramble the alert squadrons at our outrider stations and get the one ship we've got ready for action!!"
"Aye mum!!"
!&E@&!!, we're not ready for this!! a Lola III class would EAT a Mako, even when both were NEW.
God doesn't give us more challenge than we can truly handle, if we keep our trust in him, but dammit, god, we're not ready for this!
Main Bridge, SLS Elizabeth Cameron
Helena’s head pounded as she felt like for a brief moment she was part of the deck.
That was when she realized she was on the deck, not in her command couch.
She gingerly got up. It wasn’t long until her comm panel buzzed.
“You okay, Lady Cameron? Are you hurt?” Majery’s voice came over the comms.
“I’m fine. Check on the others.” Helena keyed the panel to respond.
She tapped commands into her station.
“Offline, but core shows intact. Good. There’s that small miracle.” Helena stated.
"Hey…ah…Lady Cameron?" Samantha spoke up from the Comm station, "I'm…getting some damn weird signals here, Ma'am."
“Anything that makes sense?” Helena asked.
"I hear four…five languages, there's a video broadcast…"
“Punch it through.”
On the screen, a small, asian girl stood in front of a wooden desk, leaning on a blueish wooden cane, holding a handgun too big for her hand.
The sprawled body of a man in uniform lay on clear visqueen at her feet, she's taking off safety glasses and wiping her face.
>>"...this concludes this necessary action, Treason against the Commonwealth is punishable by death, abuse of office is Treason, I now so order that the following members of the planetary Assembly be released from captivity, and request that any members of the Assembly not captured by the late Regency, please report to the Capital so we can get on with the necessary business of restoring stable, clean, responsive government…"<< the girl's face swelled in the image as the camera zoomed in, >>"I am Duchess Elizabeth Anne Ngo, and I have claimed my duties from a foreign-born, foreign bred, corrupt regency. We need to get things working again. Thank you for your time ladies and gentlemen and may god bless you all."<<
Creat of the House of Ngo
“I recognize that crest.” Helena said.
"It repeats, Highness…in each language. Date stamp says it happened sometime yesterday evening."
“I want a nav fix. Where the hell are we?” Helena asked.
"This is a presentation of the Kowloon Public Alert System, please do not adjust your sets, normal programming will resume in 11:31:42"
"I think that's a suggestion?"
“Okay that isn’t so bad. If we’re getting a Kowloon broadcast, odds are we’re in Kowloon.” Helena said.
At the nav-com panel, Bertha spoke up, "Binary star system, two rocky planets, two Gas giants with Moon systems…it's the right spectral class for Kowloon, and we're about four weeks from the main habitable world…"
"Four weeks?" Samantha exclaimed.
"Jump points are further out in this place, not that unusual for a Binary like this one. The place we're going to want to be orbits on a 730 day cycle, and telescope confirms a 30 hour rotation." Helena recalled.
Rachel got up from engineering and drifted over to the Nav display. "Ayeh, 'tis Kowloon." she said, "Home I am, see-dat's Hattah."
“Comms. Raise them. “ Helena said as she rubbed her head.
"Jump point emergence, five hundred kilometers off, Ma'am…"
"Visual?"
It was a Mako class Corvette, with a single roundel on the nose, not a Lyran fist, but a Killer Whale.
"Incoming transmission from the bogey…"
<<<"This is Lieutenant Commander Bianh Vu Dao, to unidentified Lola III, stand to, you clanner bastards, we have you bracketed with capital missiles from three sides, and they're tipped with rockbreakers. You done ****** up if you think you're invading us!!">>>
“This is the SLS Elizabeth Cameron, we have misjumped.”
There was a silence on the other end. <<<"Stand by for boarders, resistance will be met with force. Do you copy, over?">>>
“I’m sorry? I am confused. We’re allies.” Helena responded.
"That depends on proof you are who you claim, we know the Clans have the capacity to run false-flag operations, so stand by for a health and welfare inspection, if that goes well, I get to disarm the nukes and have their owners truck them back to storage. Acknowledge please."
“Acknowledged…” Helena looked around at her command crew.
When the Past Meets the Future[]
On the telescope, Helena could see a battered looking Mark VII Small Craft, same Whale roundel, approaching.
Crest of the Kowloon Coast Guard
"They had newer gear than that…we gave them better gear than that."
.PNG){kind=link}
Mark VII Landing Craft
Whoever the pilot was, he was good, the soft-dock was soft.
"Let's go meet our guests…"
At the Airlock to the docking bay, a party of seven in skinsuits with laser rifles-not Mausers, these were…less advanced. Their suits weren't-they resembled a design she'd discussed with Anh Cu'ong not two months ago.
The lock cycled green, and the Marines stepped in on magnetized boots.
<”Holy crap, this stuff, this ship looks new..".>
<”Stow it, Sithers, the Clanners gear looked new too, ask around with the vets and survivors.">
The leader, wearing the chevrons of either a Master Chief, or more likely Gunnery Sgt, lifted their visor. "They don't LOOK like Clanners to me." she said clearly, "Normal people-sized."
.png){kind=link}
Jocob Iron Fletcher
Jakob Irons Fletcher had insisted that Helena stay up on CiC. So it was up to him to meet their guests.
“Welcome aboard, SLS Elizabeth Cameron.” Jakob said flatly.
"RTO, contact the ship, they're not Clan, and they ain't Lyran." the NCO said. "Okay, anyone got communicable diseases, warrants, ahm…****** I don't know how to proceed with this, you're not the threat we were expecting."
"How about you start with a name?" Jakob asked.
"Chief Petty Officer Linda Marie Sithers 201, Kowloon Coast Guard emergency response, only maybe we're not set up for the right emergency this time…is this really the Elizabeth or are you guys cosplaying some spectacularly bad taste?"
“Last I checked this is Elizabeth Cameron.”
"Where did you salvage her? Did you find the bodies?" she asked. "Did you give them proper funerals?"
“Salvage? We’re the crew…” Jakob was now confused.
"That's not possible, the Elizabeth's been MIA since 2781, when she misjumped on the second run at Old Sol. you'd have to be a couple centuries old, and I don't see no grey hairs."
“******.” Jakob cursed. “This is way above my paygrade.”
"Join the club wellwallah." Sithers said, "I gots to call my cappi now, an' git orders." her accent thickened.
“Yeah. This tracks. She had to go on an impromptu vacation and now everything is ****** up.”
"I need to see your logs, find out where you've been since the Amaris war ended." Sithers said, "And I guess my Corpsman's gotta give you all a system entry physical and basic bug-search, in case you're carrying anything you picked up when you picked up the ship."
((”Send them up. They’re real Kowloonese.”)) A voice came from Jakob’s communicator.
“Seems you get to meet the person I answer to.” Jakob said.
"Sehr Gut." Sithers nodded, "We'll find out where she was stashed and maybe end a major mystery in the process…"
"You don't believe we are who we say we are?"
"I believe you might believe it, but I don't believe in magic, so…" Sithers said, "Hopefully whatever mojo's hit you isn't contagious. There are some nasty level zero bugs on some former worlds and sometimes salvagers come back with more than the Lostech."
“Don’t blame you. This is some weird ass shit going on.”
They reached CIC deck after a short time.
Elizabeth’s remote was up and moving finally.
"Huh, dustball special? Your captain's got some weird tastes, but not the weirdest we've run into, at least this one looks like a grown-up. Almost looks familiar."
“Excuse me?” Elizabeth said. “What’s a ‘Dustball Special’?”
"Nice interaction software, must be a custom job…Nghien, Deen, check the Gynoid for explosives or containment devices, please."
“Technically I am a custom job… but I’m still curious what you mean?”
"Ah…you might not want to doo…that?" Rachel warned uneasily.
The two marines held out older-than-hell scanning wands, connected to the displays with cords. "No explosives, no compartments…hell, I'm not seeing-"
"Fine, look, this is all very confusing and weird, but I need Corpsman Chao to give your crew physicals while my RTO finds out what to do-"
Helena stepped into the room, and Sithers mouth just stopped.
Her Eyes went wide and then… "Holy shit, you know you look just like Helena Cameron does in the Holos from the Amaris War?"
“I am Helena Cameron?” Helena said confused.
"I did a check after I powered up, Helena, stellar drift and our position? We're about Two hundred and seventy two years in the future, they think you're dead." Elizabeth Cameron stated, "AND they think I'm a…'dustball special', whatever that is."
“Shit.” Helena said.
Majery looked around the gathered group. “Somebody please tell me this is an elaborate prank. I mean it isn’t funny.”
"Nope, not funny." Sithers said grimly, then, she started to crack up in giggles, "Not funny in the slightest…hooo…" she was back to business. "This is going to take some investigating and I don't have my tools for that. Your core got a charge, or did they leave out the LF batteries?"
“Considering we just misjumped…” Helena said.
'SO…no, not without a survey." Sithers stated, "which is fine, because it means I can check your navcom and do your updates."
"Excuse me?" Elizabeth ruffled.
"COAST GUARD, you suffered a misjump, most misjumps come from old data that hasn't' been patched, I' have patches, I'm a guild certified Navigator-see? she lifted a flap to display a patch, "Pathfinder certed and all, so let me take a look at your charting software and update it, so that when you've got a charge, we can have you park this somewhere that isn't going to make a Merchant shit his pants in fear, okay?"
“Let her do it Elizabeth.” Helena said.
Sithers walked over to the Nav board. "Huh, it all works…nice."
“I’m watching you.” Elizabeth said.
"Ooh, very nice, you're running a Nirasaki Four fifty? How do keep it going…? Huh, clock hours are off."
“Off? Nobody's made parts for one of those since the 28th century, wherever you're getting your spares must be Top-Shelf…and…oh..oh nice…mmm…"
Elizabeth said, "What's this program, 'tide tables'?"
"For the System, so you don't end up sprayed all over hyperspace because you didn't know where the minor wells were." Sithers said, "you know, Gravitational tides. Makes doing the calcs for local transit so much easier, there's also the ferry schedule so you don't cross up with the Ferry Service."
“Are you single? Please tell me you’re single.” Elizabeth said.
“Sis!” Helena scolded.
"Uncontracted." Sithers said, "I'm not due-date for baby making for another five years, ten at the outside, gotta do my damn surface tour next month."
“What? She’s turning me on.” Elizabeth said with a wry smile.
The nav data confirmed Elizabeth's observations about the system, and the date stamps on transmissions.
“Okay now I might not be joking about wanting a good time with our guest…” Elizabeth smiled.
“We are so totally overhauling your core next chance we get.” Helena chided.
The man Sithers kept calling "RTO" spoke up, "Four-fifty, Gunny?"
"That's what I said. Why?"
"That's…that's Caspar gear, gunny." he said, "You're not just talking to a fancy sex-doll there, there's a MIND tied to it, maybe wanna show some decorum before the Bosslady comes over?"
“Now they get it.” Elizabeth rolled her remote’s eyes.
"Oh, shit. God, I'm sorry, Ma'am, I thought you were just an Eliza matrix on a Dustball mannequin!" Sithers said, "listen, if you're being used against your will, I can help you-"
“No, no. I’m with my sister.” Elizabeth shook her head.
“No one is ever separating us again.” Helena warned.
Gunny Sithers presented a different badge, "Look, I have to ask. I'm a bonded officer of the law, and…she's not a slave is she?"
“Are you a slave to the person you care most about?” Elizabeth asked.
"Gunny, calm down." the RTO spoke up, "ahm..ma'am,...Elizabeth, the Gunny here, she's off a surface tour two years ago-she worked special crimes, you know, human trafficking, sex slavery, serial killers. She's worried you may be a victim of it who fits the 'special vulnerability' area, someone who can have, through implants or conditioning, their volition impeded on an extended basis."
“Ah. Yes, well that was done to me before I became this. But the person who did that is long dead. And yes he had those designs on me after my transition to my current state. But again he is dead.”
"After we're done updating your nav software, I'm going to have to take statements." Sithers said, "even a cold case, is still a case, and victims don't stop hurting even after the perp's dancing in the vac."
“I know…” Helena admitted as she clung to Elizabeth’s remote.
Sithers' eyes locked on Helena. "Yeah…we're going to need more counselors."
“It’s okay, Helena. They’re Kowloonese. You said so yourself. You know you’re safe with them.” Elizabeth stroked Helena’s hair.
Forty minutes later, Helena finally met Bianh Vu Dao.
Fate of Family & Allies[]
Bianh Vu Dao was the spitting image of Anh Cu'ong, right down to the shape of her chin, but taller, thinner, and somehow blonde.
.png){kind=link}
Binah Vu Dao
“Anh, no, you’re not Anh if the year is really what everyone says.” Helena started.
"I'm from the Cu'ong-Chambla family, Vu Dao branch." Bianh said, "If you're NOT Helena, you sure as hell sound and look like her-at least, from the holos in the Archive."
“So how does this work?” Helena asked.
"Well, first we're going to shroud your hull with sail material until your drive's charged." Bianh explained, "Because this is the front door for Merchies, and the Clanners are the only people with Lola Threes…and a nasty habit of blowing up merchant shipping when they show up to conquer, so you can imagine it freaking people out if they see you."
“Clanners, not familiar…” Helena stated.
Vu Dao looked at Sithers.
"Their data packs suggest by date-stamp and operating hours they haven't been sitting mothball for two hundred seventy years. All the records on board line up, minus a genetic test we can't do here, I'm going to have to suggest Helena Cameron is, in fact, Helena Cameron. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth."
"Lady Cameron, after your core's inspection is finished and your drive is charged, we'll have you hop to Boojum orbit, in the L1 shadow of Boojum moon number three. After which, I can kick this safely up the chain of command to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, who will take it to Duchess Ngo, who will then have to figure out what to do next, in the meantime, your crew and personnel will be handled in accordance with Guestrite."
“At least the Ngos are still in charge. Small comforts.” Helena nodded.
"BIG comforts." Bianh corrected her, "Elizabeth's the last of the line, after Duke Dinh had his heart attack, his no-good-son let the Fedcom put a corrupt regent in charge, Her Grace returned three days ago and put an end to that son of a bitch…but there's been a lot of damage in the intervening years."
“I’m sorry, I know I made a promise about that and I broke it. I promised you’d be recognized, independent, and protected. It seems you were none of those things.”
"Nope, based on Nav Data, you didn't break it, because breaking a promise requires volition." Sithers drawled, "Now, Kerensky? That traitorous ****** ran off with three fourths of the Star League's army, abandoned his oaths, honor, integrity and nation to a five sided Civil War that's lasted for centuries. Trillions dead, because that old ****** didn't want to do his ****** duty." she spat symbolically into a container.
Helena began to cry.
“I’m sorry, when he was alive he was a kind and honorable man.” Helena said.
"He was alive when he ran off with the ancestors of the Clans." sithers griped, "First he stopped looking for you, then he abandoned all of us."
“Then to me he died when he broke his promises.” Helena said in small voice.
"Wait…what?" Jakob was confused, "What was that again, you guys keep mentioning these 'clans' and now you say they're..what, the SLDF?"
"Deserters." Sithers said ferociously, "Well, the descendants of deserters, the biggest ****** Pirate Kingdom in history, with all the looted knowledge of the Old Star League, come back as invaders."
“****** me.” Jacob cursed.
"They killed Duke David's heir, and his other son." RTO added, "Maybe Duke David himself. Lizzie's the last one…and she's still a teenager."
“Then I have to help her. It’s only right.” Helena proclaimed. “Your people helped me in my hour of need. Now I need to help you.”
"Then we definitely need to get you to Spider Moon first, so you know what happened while you were gone." Bianh commented, "you can't help her if you don't know."
"She's got to do the swearing in next year…Tharkad. That's going to be a fun trip, what with her TDS."
“Oh god, not her too…” Helena immediately panicked.
"It's just TDS, she gets cranky and throws up a lot, 'pack extra flightsickness bags' and hope the navigator knows their business…and hey, at least that rehab place they sent her as a kid cleaned her up."
“I hope you’re right.” Helena nodded. "Wait… rehab?"
"At eleven." RTO gossiped, "Narcotics, I'd blame the parents, they dragged her across half the Commonwealth while neglecting her! It's a shame, if the Old Duke, Duke Dinh hadn't died, he'd have had her in hand and sorted out a long time ago."
“This is starting to sound too familiar. Tranh. He also had TDS, a drug problem, and something worse.” Helena said.
The coasties went silent… "It does run in the family…" the corpsman whispered.
"We keep it quiet." Sithers asserted, "If she wanted the population to know, she'd have released it her self. It could JUST BE TDS!!"
"Mums the word, mum." RTO said, motioning a zipping across his face.
“Yes, pray I’m over-reacting and jumping to conclusions, again.” Helena nodded.
“We have gotten a bit side tracked. I know your ship is a CASPAR and thus doesn’t really need a crew but if you are who you really say you are, why not a larger protection detail?”
“I…I’m just uncomfortable with large groups of people. So I prefer to travel with only a hand picked few. You know how it is as someone important. Someone always wants a moment of my time. So I keep it low key to avoid the hassle.” Helena lied.
"Well, when we get to Spider Moon, you're going to be spending a lot of time in classrooms. A hell of a lot's changed since 2780." Sithers said, "and some of those changes are lethal."
“Was it really trillions?”
"Yes."
Helena felt the need to cry but this time, she fought it.