OK! A year after finishing "Intersecting Orbits" I'm finally posting the beginning of the follow up story. I had a serious last year of university, no internet in my apartment, and really didn't have time to write even if I did. But in the time I wrote a sentence here, another there, and finally got at least a prologue and a follow up chapter (to be posted soon). It's nowhere near what I would like for a finished, published product...but as I don't make any money on this, I'm not going to worry myself too much. I'll do perfect when I get paid!
Anyways...onward in the story. And don't worry, I'm as much of a believer in the First Season as just about anybody else, but I'm choosing not to go alternate timeline/universe or anything. Don't worry, it will not all be military and I already have ideas to keep stuff going (whether you want me to or not!) in a scientific aspect too.
The rating is going to be at "M" to make it easy. There will be words, there will be violence, and while I would have read this when I was 12, I don't want someone yelling at me for improper rating. Thank you.
2022
Brisbane, Australia
Far below the penthouse apartment, the city of Brisbane slept, only the occasional taxi delivering intoxicated patrons safely back home, or the brief wail of a police or fire siren, stirred the streets. Inside the apartment all was dark except for the lights filtering in from other high-rise buildings across the street. Curtains stirred against the hardwood floors as a gentle breeze came through an open sliding door that led to a balcony. Within the single bedroom, the two occupants sharing the large bed slept deep, tangled amongst the sheets. What peace there was ended as the vidlink rang.
"Let it ring." Mars LeConte said groggily as she rolled away from the sudden intruding light of the nightstand lamp.
"When you are Deputy Prime Minister, you tell me if you would dismiss an emergency call." Alexander Bourne grabbed a robe from a chair to cover himself before putting the call through.
"Sir, I'm so sorry for the interruption. The Prime Minister has called an immediate meeting of the defense cabinet. And sir, NASA has a jet waiting for Ms. LeConte at the base, the American government is requesting her presence in Washington D.C. She's to be there within the hour." The night administrative assistant looked scared, although whether it was because she feared her boss's anger at the one in the morning call or because there was a sense of something disastrous having occurred if such a call was being made.
Mars pushed herself up on her elbows staring at the screen as it went blank, almost revealing herself to the assistant as the sheet slid from her chest.
"What the frak is going on?"
"Whatever it is, if your dear friends from the U.S. Government are sending a plane it must be serious." Alexander stood dressing.
"I don't have U.S. government friends, only lowly Deputy Prime Ministers in far away countries as lovers." She pushed herself out of bed to press herself against Bourne in a deep kiss before heading for a quick shower and the elevator down to the military escort already waiting below.
At the Air Force base Mars found not a passenger jet, but a two-man fighter jet waiting with an American pilot ready. They suited her up, briefed her on procedure, handed her a barf bag, and in a roar of engines, were off. The pilot was amiable on the flight, but even he didn't know what the need for the sudden departure was. He had merely been the only pilot capable of flying directly from Australia to D.C. at that hour in the morning. They weren't even landing on any of the numerous islands to refuel and stretch, they were to meet with a fuel plane in the sky and hope they didn't need a bathroom.
When Mars was driven to the Pentagon, she didn't even know what time it was anymore. All she knew was chaos had erupted and she figured they had lost the International Space Station, the only thing manned in the sky at that moment. Either that or the UFO freaks were about to get their dream come true. Whatever it was, to give her clearance once again into the inner sanctum of the U.S. military had to be important.
"What the hell is going on?!" Mars asked as the director of NASA himself shoved a cup of coffee in her hands and led her to a NASA make shift office that had been taken from some poor lower ranking soldier.
"The SeaQuest is gone." Director Andrews stated bluntly, chugging a handful of Advil and half a cup of coffee.
Mars sat there processing the words, trying to make sense of what she just heard. "Wait, what? How do you lose a thousand foot boat?"
"The SeaQuest went off all scopes twelve hours ago. Nothing is picking her up. No ships, nothing on land, no satellites. Nothing. We've got every person from the President to Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of the UEO, screaming at us to find what happened. There's not even wreckage!"
"So why am I here? Last time I checked just about everyone you listed doesn't like me plus the SeaQuest is a sub, we deal with spaceships remember?"
"They're bringing in anyone and everyone. And quite frankly I called you in because I want you by my side to explain to these guys that it wasn't some rogue nation blowing their ship up."
" And how do we know it wasn't a rogue nation?"
"We don't, but if it had been, pretty sure there would have been something, a boom on sonar or something. I need my best analyzing all of the data we have from our eyes in the sky. We have a meeting with the President in ten minutes."
"What do we know?" Mars grabbed the stack of papers filled with newly printed data on the director's desk.
"All we know is that the SeaQuest suddenly deviated from her course to a deep ocean trench. No communications, no emergency distress, no other ships in the area. We also know that our satellites in the sky over that part of the ocean went dark for a few minutes. We think it may have been a solar flare that just messed with them, but of course the military guys are saying it's proof of malicious intent. Satellites were only down a couple minutes, not long enough to blow her up, clean her up, and leave. I want you looking at any possible engineering projects that have been occurring, see if maybe someone out there has something they can hide this boat in. Course then we also have Jane over at S.E.T.I saying that while our scopes were down her dishes picked up something far out, an echo she says, but she swears there was something farther out then what they normally hear and not coming from us." The director looked like the Space Station crashing to Earth would have been easier to deal with.
Mars grabbed the bottle of Advil, she was going to need it too.
"Thousand foot subs and two-hundred souls do not just go missing. She's somewhere, just need time to find her, but she's there. Jesus, even Jane should know to keep quiet right now. The last thing I'm going to do is go in front of the President and Joint Chiefs and tell them the best guess we have right now is that aliens may have abducted the SeaQuest."
2022
Three months since SeaQuest reported missing
"Anything new today?" Robert Bridger asked his partner as he stepped into their secure location, pulling goggles over his Boston Red Sox hat and trying to wipe away as much dust from his face as he could.
"Nah man, same shit, different day. At least it looks like people are starting to take their fingers off the triggers though. Pretty much everyone has come to the consensus it wasn't any government." The other man said, trying to keep the dust from the blowing storm out of his work area.
"Well it ain't any of our dear old pals. Absolutely no one from the Gulf to India is making a sound. And if any money was flowing from the oil states to fund whoever did this, they did a good job hiding it. I'm starting to think the Bermuda Triangle is more likely the culprit." Bobby sat down, sighing heavily.
"Too bad they were nowhere near the Triangle." The man said, turning back to his computers.
"No shit man."
"Sorry dude, it's got to be hard. You had one more year and you could have gone back to the land of the living, still can you know."
"Ya, but go back to what? My mom died, my dad is MIA, no other real family around."
"What are you going to do here though? We took out the big bad wolf eleven years ago and Al Qaeda hasn't had any muscle in a good six years. Course now we may have ourselves a new player on the block if it was a terrorist group to grab your dad's ship. You know what you should do? Go find a cute little wife and have babies, not be still playing around in the sandbox here."
"What's your excuse?"
"Who says I haven't found myself a cute little Peace Corp volunteer waiting to be shown the world?"
There was a long silence as the two men sat in the small room, only a couple bare bulbs lighting the interior along with the electronic glow of a bank of computer screens.
"Oh there was something though you might be interested in. Two weeks ago one of NASA's experts walked off the search, a Doctor LeConte. Some UEO captain said he was going to start combing every inch of the ocean with long-range transport subs, she told him he was wasting his fraking time, that they all were. Just upped and left while everyone else is still making speeches about doing their best to find the boat."
"Mars?" Robert asked suddenly interested.
"Ya. You know her?
"Sort of. Did she say why she thought they were wasting their time?
"Nope. From what one of our guys said, she just walked into the search offices one morning, grabbed her stuff and walked out. Think your friend knows something?"
"I met her once, hardly a friend. Where is she?" Bobby sat up in his seat, turning to a computer and bringing up any intelligence his agency could on the missing woman.
"No one knows. She flew to Australia. I can track her bank records for a few days after that, but then nothing. No one has seen her."
"What do you mean no one has seen her?"
"She landed in Australia and that was it. Checked into it, apparently she's been known to have…a relationship with the Deputy Prime Minister, but even he hasn't been seen with her."
"I doubt Mars has anything on the SeaQuest. Probably just the first person to come to terms with the fact we may never know what happened and went on vacation."
"Got it. But back to the original topic, I'm telling you, you need to get out of the company while you can. Go find yourself a nice little wife, have some kids, buy a ranch house in the burbs."
"I'll think about it ok." Bobby gave the man a lopsided grin then leaned back in his chair thinking about the past few months.
"In the mean time you want me to have the guys keep an ear out for that Doc of yours?"
"If it keeps you busy and shuts your mouth for a few minutes, then by all means."
2032
General Conference of World Leaders
President Bourne was yelling about something again, trying to convince the rest of the world his aggression was really the fault of the UEO, his actions only a reaction against the UEO to protect the independence of Macronesian interests. Same shit, different day Mars LeConte thought. She was standing above the entire conference room, a full view of all in front of her. Tugging at her dress uniform collar she desperately wished for the conference to end so she could go back to at least combat uniform if not civies.
Mars leaned against the wall, tucking herself into the shadows, and closed her eyes. Then suddenly she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise and a shiver ran down her spine. She kept her eyes closed and breathed in deep and slow…one, two, three….then she heard the gasps below her. Four, five. Mars opened her eyes to find her former husband and current Commander in Chief standing probably for the first time in his life speechless along with the Secretary General of the UEO, staring at a soaking wet looking kid in civilian clothes staggering out onto the floor. The room fell completely silent.
Slowly though, people began to recover, talking to aids, making calls to governments, talking amongst themselves. Silence turned to a low buzz of voices then to a cacophony as the identity of the person lying prone on the floor became known. The cacophony became a question, what did this mean? People began to leave their seats, aids rushing about, as the young man unconscious below was carried off. Mars LeConte watched the security leave then looked at President Bourne who locked eyes with her and tilted his head towards the exit. Meeting the President in the corridor leading to the private shuttle they waited until aboard to speak.
"I would suggest restraint against any movement on Nexus." Mars said quietly, undoing the top button of her dress uniform and tilting her neck from side to side as Bourne sat down glaring.
"The SeaQuest is back!" He thundered, hitting his fist on the top of the desk he sat behind.
"Lucas Wolenczak is back. And even if the boat does reappear, it does not mean the UEO will convince Captain Bridger to move against us. They have been gone for ten years Alex. I think Bridger will be far more hesitant to rush his boat and his people into a conflict he knows nothing about. We take Nexus too early and we risk mistakes."
"We don't take it soon enough and we risk Captain Bridger being in our way."
"Too much has happened in ten years for Nathan Bridger to get caught up on it all in three months. Hell, they'll probably still have him in some boardroom trying to figure out where they all have been. Three months Alex, that's all we need and Nexus is ours. And again, they haven't found the SeaQuest yet."
"And if the SeaQuest does show up and the UEO has someone like Captain Hudson put in command instead of Bridger?"
"The SeaQuest is Bridger's boat, not Hudson's. Wait Alex, as planned. Let us see what Bridger makes of this new world. He never really was one with top UEO brass, and I doubt that will change now. Use this to our advantage and let us prepare while the UEO scrambles about in the chaos that this is sure to bring."
Alexander Bourne said nothing.
Ten hours later a messenger brought word at dinner that the SeaQuest was back in the water. Two days after that and three months before planned, Macronesia moved on the Nexus Colony.