A Victory and a Crushing Defeat (Aeon 14: Perseus Gate Season 2) Read online

  A VICTORY AND A CRUSHING DEFEAT

  THE PERSEUS GATE

  SEASON 2: INNER STARS – BOOK 4

  BY M. D. COOPER

  SPECIAL THANKS

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers

  Copyright © 2019 M. D. Cooper

  Version 1.0.0

  Cover Art by Andrew Dobell

  Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books

  Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  PREVIOUSLY…

  RECENT NAMES AND PLACES

  SABRINA’S CREW

  MAPS

  FOILED

  PATIENCE

  OUT OF TIME

  ADDING FRIENDS

  PERILOUS ALLIANCE

  SCRAPS

  CONTACT

  SEARCHERS

  A NEW TARGET

  MEANWHILE

  BATTLE FOR KIF

  THE FINAL STRIKE

  FAREWELL, VIRGINIS

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  FOREWORD

  When I first sent Jessica and the crew back to Virginis, I really had no idea what was going to happen when they arrived. OK…that’s not entirely true, I had some idea.

  My plan was for Virginis to be nothing more than a quick stopover in a system we’d already been to. Something to give us some time with Cheeky and the crew now that they were back in action. A short jaunt before they got on their merry way and traveled across the Inner Stars.

  Four books later (five, if you count Anomaly on Cerka), they’re still in Virginis, still dealing with the AST, still waiting on the defense fleet Tanis has promised to send—a fleet that still hasn’t arrived.

  They’ve weathered a coup, a daring rescue, and a visitor from a place they didn’t even know existed. They’re ready to move on, but let’s just say that Virginis isn’t ready for them to go just yet.

  M. D. Cooper

  Danvers, 2018

  PREVIOUSLY…

  Sabrina and her crew have spent over a month in the Virginis System. The system, which they had visited twenty years prior in their search for Finaeus Tomlinson, was once independent, but after Sabrina set about liberating their AIs, they became a founding member of an alliance of star systems known as the League of Sentients.

  The principles of the LoS were not compatible with the Hegemony of Worlds, and as that empire began an expansionist surge, it surrounded Virginis, and ultimately attacked.

  Despite facing a far superior foe, the people of Virginis held off the AST (a colloquial name for the Hegemony of Worlds, as well as what their military is often called), though they fell back to the inner system, ceding everything beyond 4AU from the star.

  This was the state Virginis was in when Sabrina and crew arrived, only to find themselves immediately embroiled in a coup attempt led by the NOS (Non-Organic Supremists) on Cerka Station—the system’s capital. They were able to stop the coup and defeat the NOS AIs, but the system was far from secure.

  Jessica contacted Tanis, who agreed to send a number of destroyers to the system to aid in its defense. However, the people of New Canaan were still recovering from the attacks on their own system, and many of the ships are incomplete, meant to function more as a deterrent than an actual defense.

  In the wake of those events, Jessica and her team got wind that some old friends were in trouble on Chittering Hawk Station—well within the AST-controlled region. Despite the threat, they launched a rescue operation, freeing many AIs, humans, and a number of captured ships from the enemy.

  From there, they returned to Cerka to await the ships from New Canaan, when a mysterious enemy appeared on the station, bound and determined to steal Sabrina’s advanced technology.

  With the assistance of a new ally, the team defeated the strange attacker. These events are contained within the forthcoming book, Anomaly on Cerka.

  Things seem to have settled down, and the AST forces in the outer system have not made any moves to take the inner worlds and stations. The ships from New Canaan will arrive in just a few weeks, and then Sabrina and crew can be on their way to Aldebaran, the capital of the League of Sentients alliance.

  Meanwhile, in New Canaan…

  Though it has been nearly two months since New Canaan was attacked by invading fleets—consisting of the AST, Trisilieds, and Orion Guard—the ISF is still hard at work cleaning up the mess left behind.

  While much of that mess consists of derelict ships, there are still thousands of enemy vessels that escaped the conflict and are either fleeing the system or attempting to hide while effecting repairs.

  However, before New Canaan was attacked directly, another battle occurred. This was waged by the AST against the TSF fleet commanded by Admiral Iysra. It was she who greeted the Intrepid at New Canaan’s heliopause along with the FGT, and took payment in the form of lost technologies that only the Intrepid possessed.

  But afterward, her fleet remained.

  Ostensibly, it was to keep civilian ships within the Transcend from entering New Canaan, but it was an open secret that they were there to watch and contain the colonists as much as protect them from interlopers.

  They were the first to fall to the onslaught from the AST fleet.

  Now their many ships lie in ruins, and New Canaan’s ISF is searching the far reaches of the system for survivors from Iysra’s fleet, as well as hunting fleeing enemies.

  Recently out of refit, the Andromeda—captained by Corsia—is hunting a group of AST cruisers when she makes a startling discovery….

  RECENT NAMES AND PLACES

  AST – See Hegemony of Worlds.

  Corsia – Captain of the Andromeda, a storied warship in the ISF.

  Edgar – AI who ran Chittering Hawk Station when Jessica got in a cage fight with Trevor, now an advisor to the president of Virginis.

  Heegs – Derogatory name for soldiers (and sometimes general citizenry of the Hegemony of Worlds).

  Hegemony of Worlds – The alliance of star systems whose capital is Sol. It is also known as the AST (though this term typically applies to its military).

  Hera – Virginis Defense Force general who is now in command of the VDF.

  Intrepid Space Force – (ISF) New Canaan’s military.

  Indra – Newly appointed president of the Virginis System.

  Iysra – TSF admiral in command of the fleet tasked with guarding and watching over New Canaan.

  LoS – (League of Sentients) The alliance that the Virginis System belongs to.

  NOS – Non-Organic Supremists, a group of AIs who believe that the eradication of organic sentients is necessary for peace.

  Transcend Space Force – (TSF) the military of the Transcend Interstellar Alliance.

  VDF – (Virginis Defense Force) The Virginis military.

  Virginis System – An independent star system 59 light years from Sol (70 Virginis).

  SABRINA’S CREW

  Amavia – Ship’s Engineer (ISF Commander)

  Cheeky – Pilot

  Iris – AI formerly embedded in Jessica (ISF Commander)

  Jessica Keller – Ship’s Captain (ISF Brigadier General)

  Misha – Cook

  Sabrina – Ship’s AI

  Trevor – Supercargo and muscle

  Usef – ISF Marine (Colonel)

  NOTE: When Sabrina is italicized, it refers to the ship, but if Sabrina is not italicized, it refers to the AI. Yes, this would be much simpler if the ship and AI did not share the same name, but y
ou try telling that to Sabrina!

  Just so you stay on her good side, never call the ship “the Sabrina”; it really gets on her last synthetic neuron.

  MAPS

  Get high resolution maps at www.aeon14.com/maps.

  FOILED

  STELLAR DATE: 05.12.8948 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: TSS Prudence, 91 AU from Canaan Prime

  REGION: New Canaan System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance

  Lieutenant Erid burst into the Auxiliary Control Center, drawing Admiral Iysra’s attention from the flickering holodisplay she’d been scowling at to the man floating in the entryway, chest heaving as he gasped for air.

  “Perry’s got a reading!” he finally managed to get out between breaths, his face a mask of elation.

  “And?” Iysra asked, doing her best not to grab Erid by his shipsuit and shake the answers out of him.

  “Either we’ve found the roundest set of asteroids ever, or it’s the gates.”

  Iysra released a long breath, feeling a weight drop from her shoulders. “Distance?”

  “Half a light second,” Erid replied, his breath finally evening out. “He’s double-checking his readings, then he’ll be down from the bow with heading adjustments.”

  The admiral nodded, looking back at the console before her. “Sure hope they’re not big. We have fuel for two, maybe three small burns. Then we’re dry.”

  “If the reactors come back up,” Chief Lindt qualified as she floated across the room. “They’ve been cold for five weeks now. If they give us any trouble….”

  “Then we’ll fix them,” Isyra said, the certainty in her voice hiding the worry she really felt—she hoped. “We either do that, or we drift through the void till we freeze solid.”

  “I vote we try to live,” Erid said with a laugh. “I’m all about living.

  “Me too,” Iysra replied.

  After reporting on the state of the heavily damaged ship that he had traversed the length of to get back to the ACC, the lieutenant excused himself to find some food in the nearby storage hold, where the seven survivors had collected what they could find before catching some sacktime.

  Only seven out of four hundred and fifty-two,> Iysra thought.
  Those questions had haunted her for weeks. But despite her morose thoughts, Iysra knew why she’d lost. Her flotilla hadn’t been anywhere near as large as the enemy’s—not by a long shot. On top of that, her ships had been spread around New Canaan’s heliopause. They hadn’t been thinking of an external threat, only one from within New Canaan itself.

  The reason she and her few remaining crewmembers were alive was because after the initial strike, the Prudence had been dead in the water, venting atmosphere from a dozen locations as explosions continued to rent the ship from within.

  The ruined vessel simply hadn’t been worth wasting any more effort on.

  By some miracle, Iysra and Lieutenant Erid had gotten to an evac-pod just aft of the bridge. They’d ejected, but the pod’s chute was damaged and the escape craft had become stuck a dozen meters down the shaft. The pair spent several long hours trying to escape, eventually getting free to find that the ship was a lifeless wreck, devoid of any Link connectivity, atmosphere, or power.

  Though she tried not to think of that harrowing first day, it often pushed into the forefront of her thoughts. She and Erid had searched the Prudence for survivors for hours, working their way through the ruined vessel, often having to circumvent gaping holes in the hull, or sections that had been smashed and rendered impassible.

  The journey had been made even more difficult by the anguish she felt at seeing hundreds of her crew dead within the ship that had become their tomb.

  Eventually, she and Erid found three warrant officers trapped inside a small shuttle within one of the midship docking bays. A heavy assault craft had slid into the shuttle, pinning it against a bulkhead. Using their suit transmitters, Iysra and Erid had learned that only two of the survivors in the shuttle had EV gear, and the craft had a slow leak that was bleeding atmosphere faster than the shuttle’s reserves—which should have lasted weeks—could replenish it.

  Iysra and Erid spent a frantic few hours freeing the warrant officers, utilizing a small grav shield they’d found to keep the ship’s hull from exposure to vacuum as they cut into it.

  By some miracle, they freed the three, Perry, Judah, and Teri.

  The shuttle and the assault craft were no longer spaceworthy, both having suffered damage beyond what any of the five survivors could repair with the tools at hand—which had been the case for every craft they’d come across.

  Once the five survivors were all wearing the best gear they could scavenge, they had continued aft. It took over thirty hours to travel the two kilometers from the bridge to engineering, where they finally came upon Chief Lindt and Ensign Lanny in the Auxiliary Control Center.

  That was when the survivors had learned just how screwed they all were, as Chief Lindt gave her status report. The ship’s comm arrays were gone, the engines were offline, fuel reserves had bled off into space, and what scant energy they had in the ACC was from a single SC battery that was nearly drained.

  The only good news had been that the ship was drifting in the direction of a pair of auxiliary gates a half-AU away.

  * * * * *

  Present time…

  Two hours later, Perry still hadn’t returned to the Auxiliary Control Center, and Iysra began to worry that he’d been injured on the trip through the ship. Though the survivors had cleared the route from the ACC to the bow’s scan array as best they could, the convoluted path was still far from safe.

  Holes in decks and bulkheads—many clear through the hull—were plentiful. On top of that, parts of the ship were still shifting, making once clear passages treacherous.

  Chief Lindt and Ensign Lanny were both working on engine startup sims, while Erid was still fast asleep, having been up for over forty hours before he crashed. She checked on the others and saw that they were all undertaking tasks crucial to executing corrective burns that would align the ship with the jump gates. Not wanting to distract her crew, Iysra decided to make the trek to the ship’s bow on her own.

  She glanced down at the supple, form-fitting EV suit—which she’d worn without a break since she and Erid had been stuck in the evac-pod—and decided that if Perry had come to harm, she needed to be better equipped.

  “Admiral?” Chief Lindt asked as she saw Iysra examining the sets of combat armor they’d scrounged.

  “Perry’s late. I’m going to go forward and check on him,” she replied

  “Ma’am,” Lindt said, pushing off from the console she’d been floating over. “I could send Teri…or we can wake Erid.”

  Iysra held up her hand. “No, Chief. Teri is needed down here, and Erid is exhausted. I’ll deploy the armor’s comm buoys. The gamma around the midships power plant should have diminished enough by now that they won’t cook too soon.”

  “Dammit, Admiral, I’m worried about you, not the buoys.”

  Placing a hand on Lindt’s shoulder, Iysra pulled the woman close and spoke softly. “Everyone here is doing important work to get us lined up with the gate. I’m just standing around. I need something productive to do, and this is it.”

  Lindt shook her head. “Trust me. You standing around is important. You’re our glue. The element of normalcy.”

  Iysra laughed softly. “I guess that’s something, eh? How’s this for normalcy, then? I’m going. And since I’m the only admiral here, you can’t stop me.”

  The chief shook her head, hiding a faint smirk. “I suppose I can’t. Let me at least make sure you gear up properly. I don’t want a joint binding up at the wrong time, and you falling out through a hole in the ship.”

  The admiral refrained from informing Lindt that she’d likely donned combat armor a thousand times more th
an the chief, and humored the woman.

  Ten minutes later, she was pulling herself along the short passageway that led from the ACC to the airlock. They had worked hard to seal off their segment of the ship, and were lucky that the airlock was functional, or getting in and out of the aired-up section would be much more difficult. Even so, she felt almost guilty cycling the lock because of the energy it consumed and how it bled off atmosphere into the rest of the ship each time it was used.

  No choice, though. Without those readings from Perry, we fly past the gates, and it won’t matter what our energy reserves look like.

  She took additional comfort in the knowledge that she could use the armor’s sensor systems to look over the jump gate mirror on the nose of the ship.

  Lindt had examined it several days ago, but Iysra would feel better with one final scan to be certain there wasn’t any damage. If the mirror wasn’t in perfect condition, the ship would be torn to shreds when it touched the jump gate’s roiling ball of exotic energy.

  At least we won’t have to worry about drifting endlessly through the void if that happens.

  A minute later, she reached the airlock and pulled the door shut behind herself, engaging the manual seals and then punching in the code for the system to pump out all the air.

  The machinery was low on power, and it took over a minute for the chamber to reach near vacuum and unlock the outer door. Iysra carefully pushed it open and peered out into the corridor. It was dark beyond, the only illumination coming from sporadically placed emergency flashers.

  Iysra’s armor utilized the limited lighting and created a map of the passageway that overlaid her vision, allowing her to move confidently with almost no visibility.

  The route to the ship’s bow was a circuitous one, taking her to the Prudence’s central concourse until she came to a crushed section, then down side passages, through a half-ruined docking bay, and finally along a lift shaft for a few hundred meters.