Hidden in Plain Sight

By Fred Hoon

We always suspected that we were not alone in the universe.

The Charter is a collection of alien races that have ruled the galaxy for over a thousand years. For better or for worse, that Charter established contact with Earth and has woven us into their alliance.

Nick Everroot is a new graduate from Charters Academy. Nick expected that he would be assigned to one of the proud fighting ships of the fleet. But you dont always get what you want, and Nick learns that is not always a bad thing.

Nick finds that not everything in the galaxy is as obvious or as orderly as the Charter would have us believe. There are problems to be solved, battles to be fought, and lost things to be found. And if that were not enough, some of the mysteries remain hidden, even in plain sight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984538611

Fred Hoon

Fred Hoon was born in upstate New York. He graduated from West Point and while stationed overseas met his wife in the Middle East. They now live in the Rocky Mountain Region where they spend time with children and grandchildren.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I n a room that bespoke the simple elegance of authority, five beings were seated at a long table, concluding what had been an unusually somber meeting. They were the Edrianne masters of the far-reaching charter that had ruled the galaxy for time and memory. They were tall and willowy with blue skin and large steel-gray eyes. They bore the characteristics of generations of space flight, a lack of manual labor, and low gravitational environments.

These beings each were the undisputed leaders of longstanding houses. Those houses had led and overseen their far-reaching empire for millennia. The meeting had been somber. Each was cognizant of the responsibility for decisions that might save or rend that empire forever.

Toward the close of the meeting, one figure addressed their high leader. Oh, Queen, before we close, I would like to request an exception to our normal procedures for contact.

The queen looked at her admiral and sighed. Admiral, there are channels for contact and its exceptions. Why would you bring such a matter to this council?

Most Honored One, even exceptional channels for contact take time. And time is short as it pertains to this case. The admiral paused and waited.

Their queen drummed her fingers for a significant moment and then said, Proceed.

The admiral continued, The world in question, within the Chi 30 system, will be destroyed if we do not act quickly. The admiral was not speaking to the most important issues that surrounded that case. And everyone sitting at the table knew what he was not saying and why.

The queen looked at her aging fingers. Admiral, I was not aware that the commander of my fleets possessed such great compassion.

Most Honored One, you know that compassion is a luxury I was forced to abandon long ago. However, if we can initiate contact, I could draw enough crews from this new world to possibly stem the tide of the darkness that threatens to engulf us while we explore other options.

The leader of the House of Diplomats spoke, Admiral, even if we initiated contact and this world responded with open arms, you know what danger that would place them in. How will this be any different than the recent Betori debacle?

The admiral responded pointedly, staring at the House of Diplomats leader, We all know the fault of the Betori debacle, as you call it, was shared by many parties. He paused and let the impact of what he did not say descend on the room. Then he continued, In regard to the Chi 30 system, to contact them places them in danger of our war. Not to contact them does not lessen their danger, it merely leaves them ignorant and unequipped for what moves toward them even now. If we initiate contact, they at least have a fighting chance, and we get the benefit of their numbers.

The leader of the House of Diplomats said, They are unready. They might not understand. What if they turn against us with the Darkness?

The admiral looked down for moment. He was a hardened leader but not by nature a cruel one. He spoke wearily, If they turn against us, then we must destroy them even as we seek to destroy the Darkness itself.

The queen slowly drummed her nails in thoughtful consideration. No other house leader spoke. Finally, the queen announced, Premature contact with the Chi 30 system is now authorized. She rose to leave but then turned to her admiral as if in an afterthought and said, Admiral, what do the inhabitants of Chi 30 system call themselves?

The admiral looked up. He replied, Most Honored One, they live on a water planet they call Earth.

1

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Ancient Priestly Texts, Beginning Common Era/Earth

E nsign Nicolas S. Everroot sat on a shuttle bound for Star Base 13. All told, the shuttle held approximately one hundred people of various ranks, mostly from Earth. There were some aliens from other planets. Nick thought that you became used to being around aliens after an education at the academy provided by the Charter’s military branch. Most of the passengers were quiet at that point in their flight. Some of them slept. Some of them read. Nick was thinking.

Much had happened on Earth in a few short years. In his lifetime, a collection of alien races called the Charter had landed on Earth. He smiled when he thought of how they made first contact. Nick could not count how many stories had been written about aliens coming to Earth. Obviously, the Charter had not read those stories.

In an incredibly short time, the Charter’s technology enabled the people of Earth to travel across the galaxy. They had met new races and seen worlds of which they had only dreamed.

But the Charter was involved in a desperate war. The enemies of the Charter had become the enemies of Earth. And those enemies were the Narcians. The Charter frequently referred to their enemies as the Darkness. A shiver ran down his spine. Considering the Narcian reputation for ruthlessness, maybe that wasn’t an overstatement.

Nick was in one of the first classes to graduate from the Charter’s controversial Academy. The academy was controversial because, while people appreciated the technological advances of Charter, they also distrusted the Charter.

From a personal standpoint, Nick did not trust them either. He just wasn’t sure what other choices were out there.

There were agendas buried under more agendas. That was disquieting. The aliens were also not very open to differences of opinions. Every decision seemed surrounded in certainty. For being a confederacy of alien races, there wasn’t much democracy.

Maybe the aliens had everything figured out. He was just uncomfortable with what he didn’t know. And there just seemed to be a lot of things that were never talked about.

Switching gears, he thought back to a letter he had received from home. He smiled quietly. With everything that had changed, who sent letters anymore? Well, he thought, his mother did. She would probably send letters to her dying day. In a strange way, it was comforting.

The letter hadn’t said much. His father had died four years ago. His father and his sister had succumbed to one of the plagues that had spread over Earth in the few short years before the Charter had made first contact.

He had always encouraged Nick as a kid to study the stars and science. In part, what Nick was doing connected him with the memories of his father.

The medical technology of the Charter had made changes for all of Earth. That was one of the reasons the people of Earth received the Charter so quickly. The plagues that began with the failure of antibiotics after nearly a century of protections created widespread panic.

There was that part of Nick that connected with his father’s memory in space. But he had also not wanted to leave his mother alone.

His mother somehow saw that in him and shooed him out the door when Nick’s opportunity came. And she herself was not slowing down. She was that strange combination of tenderness and strength.

In some ways, she was her own quiet force of nature. She was part Native American and part Irish. Bound up with that, he remembered how she always saw things that nobody else saw.

She told him the story of how a stormcrow had sat on the ledge of her hospital room while she was delivering Nick. Who else would remember seeing a bird when they were delivering a child? Nick fingered necklace around his neck she had given him before he had left that he kept under his shirt.

A tone sounded, and the restraint lights came on. They were thirty minutes out from the star base. People began snapping themselves in.

Except Kathryn MacDonald didn’t snap in. She was sitting near the front of the personnel compartment. Nick saw her stand up and start walking toward the back. Technically, she, Lloyd Chaisson, and he had all graduated together.

That description was a slight stretch. While Kathryn MacDonald from Canada had graduated at the top of their class, Nick’s friend, Lloyd, and Nick himself had barely graduated.

Lloyd woke up slightly. His dark Cajun face somehow took the hardest situations and made them something everyone could laugh at. He asked groggily, Are we there yet?

Nick replied with quiet humor, You’ll know when we’re there.

Kathryn was passing by, stepping over people’s feet. She looked over at Nick and Lloyd and said surprised, Everroot, you graduated?

Nick replied grudgingly, Yes, I graduated.

Lloyd laughed. He tried not to.

Nick squirmed at the subject. He said, Hey, it wasn’t that big of a thing.

Lloyd continued laughing and said with emphasis, Hey, buddy, you have a strange sense of humor. The Edrianne superintendent has no sense of humor at all. Bad combination!

Kathryn shook her head at the whole exchange. As she moved away toward the back of the shuttle, she remarked, Everroot, if you want any kind of career in the fleet, you need to check your strangeness at the door. And with that, she moved on.

Lloyd laughed and yelled out to her, Hey, and watch out for the ghosts!

Kathryn glared back at him. Star Base 13 had a reputation for being a strange base. In another time, it might have been called quirky. Actually, one could say it was more than quirky. But the rational and logical Charter had no patience for primitive superstitions. Hence, people talked about it in jokes and quiet side conversations.

Kathryn yelled back, Not funny, Chaisson! Keep it to yourself.

Kathryn stepped over legs and flight bags down the line of figures toward the cargo end of the shuttle where the toilets were.

The actual reason Nick and Lloyd were going to Star Base 13 was that Nick and Lloyd’s class ranking left them fewer choices about assignments. Nick had no idea why Kathryn was going to that star base. She could go anywhere and get an assignment in one of the starship squadrons.

People tended to shy away from Star Base 13, so Nick and Lloyd had signed on for the smaller escort ship squadron at the base. It wasn’t the best of assignments, but you could work your way up into the starship squadron from that point.

The shuttle lurched. Nick wondered, What in space would cause a shuttle to lurch? There was no turbulence. Then he got his answer. The overhead lighting went to combat red, and the alarm sounded.

The loadmaster for the shuttle walked quickly down the aisle. He yelled, Alright, people. Look sharp! We’ve got company! Secure all bags! Charge your weapons. Stun only! Don’t be putting holes in my ship!

Their weapons were the basic M-1 arm-mags. They were the most basic of defense weapons. As far as Nick was concerned, they were like an upgrade of taser technology.

An arm-mag was a metal bracelet that everybody wore. You held up your arm and pointed. It produced a image with circles around your target and you squeezed. It hit whatever was circled out to 20 meters. You couldn’t miss.

As soon as the loadmaster spoke, he went down the aisle and was gone. People were waking up now. Lloyd shifted to a more upright position. Even though he didn’t want to, Nick wondered about Kathryn. Then the shuttle was rocked again.

2

T hey had been hit. Air masks dropped from the panels above. Nick thought quickly. The air masks wouldn’t do any good if they lost hull integrity, but he slipped on his mask anyway.

The emergency air masks looked like a mouthpiece from an old scuba setup, but once you put it between your lips, it spread as a hard transparent plastic shield around your face. It provided the basic oxygen/nitrogen mix humans needed to survive for a short time.

He remembered his mother had spent the early part of his life telling him to keep plastic bags away from his mouth. And here he was with this piece of Charter technology that looked a lot like a plastic bag covering his whole face. This would be one of those stories that didn’t go home.

He looked over at Lloyd, who was now fully awake. Military shuttles were built differently from civilian shuttles. Rather than seating in rows across the shuttle, seating was up and down the sides and in the center to allow for easy conversion for cargo hauling. Nick looked toward the back. He still didn’t see Kathryn.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to see her or not, but he guessed there would be air masks in the cargo area.

He looked back to judge distance. He and Lloyd were about midway in the shuttle. The cargo area was the last third of the shuttle. He really couldn’t see very well to the back in the red light. Then he heard the people around him talking. The star base was under attack by Denari raiders.

The academy had spent precious little time talking about these raiders. He knew they were from a far part of the galaxy. Their weapons were supposedly nonstandard. He wasn’t sure what that meant. Essentially, they were pirates, but they were well-armed pirates.

Nick thought that it was silly if he spent all that time at the academy studying their enemy the Narcians, and then get shot out of the sky in a defenseless shuttle by pirates.

The shuttle lurched again. They had to be close to the star base’s defenses. They were, however, not close enough yet.

Nick unhooked his harness. Lloyd yelled at him through his mask, What are you doing?

Nick yelled back through his mask, Kathryn! then he pointed to the back.

Lloyd shook his head. He yelled back, Worry about yourself. She’s real good at taking care of herself.

Intellectually, Nick knew Lloyd was right. But the thought nagged at him. Nick stood up. The shuttle lurched again. Nick held on to the harness to keep from spinning across the deck. Then he stepped down the aisle to the cargo area.

He tried to keep his breathing steady. He felt like he was breathing in a fish bowl. He was getting ready to make his way through the cargo area when a small group of Denari fighters beamed onboard, in front of him. They were being boarded.

The Denari wore no masks over their faces. They were dressed in a ragged assortment of clothes, and there wasn’t a uniform among them. Nick wondered, How did they breathe? But he only thought that briefly because then the Denari attacked with animal like ferocity.

They wielded long knives and strange guns. For one brief second, Nick wondered, Who uses knives in space?

And their guns weren’t on stun. The Denari immediately started firing and slashing. Green stabs of light reached out from their guns.

The first round of fire hit people all through the shuttle. The Charter soldier next to Nick took a direct hit, and his body turned to ash that collapsed into a small pile.

Nick stumbled to the ground. He hadn’t been hit directly, but his whole left side felt like he’d been stabbed with a hot iron.

His air mask was also torn. He could barely move his left arm, and even though he was gasping, he couldn’t breathe. As he looked up he saw, the few Denari decimate fellow soldiers around Nick. Nick realized quickly that the only reason he probably wasn’t dead was because he was lying on the ground.

There was another problem. Stun shots of the arm-mags didn’t seem to have any effect against the Denari. As far as Nick could see, Nick’s fellow soldiers were collapsing against each other.

Those soldiers closest to the Denari were shot or slashed, and they fell back against the soldiers behind them. Those further back could barely move under the press of fearful humanity.

Nick’s vision started narrowing. For a brief second, he had the strange sensation he was slipping out of his body. And at that moment, he thought, I hate pirates.

Then somebody clamped another air mask over his mouth and put Nick’s hand over his new mask. Nick opened his eyes and saw a face he didn’t recognize. The soldier gave him a brief nod and then turned away to fight the Denari.

As Nick was able to breathe again, his vision opened up. His head began to clear. He could see the soldier standing over him. That soldier had somehow gotten a hold of one of the Denari weapons and was shooting back.

Strangely, with the red combat lighting of the shuttle and the green weapons fire, it looked some kind of New Year’s light show.

The Denari had obviously hoped for a quick takeover, and they had almost gotten that. The soldier that had helped Nick had moved over to a cargo container and was using it for cover as he fired.

Another Denari fighter stepped over Nick where he was lying on the ground to stab the Charter soldier behind him. Nick looked around. There were no weapons, but a tool box had overturned and spilled open. Nick reached into the tools strewn on the floor and grabbed a big wrench. He grabbed the Denari by his legs.

The Denari lost his balance and fell against the side of the ship. He tried to stab Nick, but he was off balance. Nick caught his arm and hit the Denari’s knee with the wrench. The Denari howled.

Nick thought, Great. I’m in a knife fight with aliens, and I get a wrench.

The soldier that had helped Nick turned around. He shot the Denari and then gave Nick a thumbs up. Then he went back to shooting at the remaining attackers. Blood trickled into Nick’s eyes. He tried to wipe it away with his sleeve, but he had a mask on.

Another Denari came around the corner. Nick was still on the ground. He thought about using his arm-mag for the slightest moment but remembered it didn’t work. So he used the wrench again and hit the next Denari in the knee. That pirate also went down with a howl. Then Nick hit him again and picked himself up off the floor.

The decision was made for Nick. They were in low light conditions, fighting a close quarter’s battle. The wrench had worked, so he fought with the wrench. The soldier that had helped him fired at the Denari that were farther away. Nick fought with the Denari that were closer with his combat wrench.

Then as quickly as it started, it was over.

The Denari beamed away and they were gone. The shuttle’s weak shields formed over the holes in the structure. It was like an alien version of a bicycle patch. It wouldn’t last long, but now they were limping into the protective shields of their star base.

The shuttle’s interior looked like a smoking ruin.

Nick noticed that when the Denari left, they took their wounded. Aside from the damaged interior of the shuttle, the only evidence of the battle was the bodies of their own dead and wounded, and piles of ash.

Nick and the Charter soldier that had helped him were left breathing through masks standing side by side. They turned to face each other. Nick extended his hand to the soldier whom he now noticed was about a half foot shorter and had a green tinge to his skin.

The soldier looked at Nick’s hand curiously. Nick had no idea where the soldier was from, but he wasn’t from Earth. Nick reached out tentatively and put the soldier’s hand in his own and shook it.

The surprised soldier said through his mask, You can see?

Nick laughed and said, I can see what? I was stunned. I wasn’t blinded.

The soldier’s face broke out in a rueful smile. Then the pilot yelled desperately over the speaker, Prep for landing!

The ship’s computer provided a much more informative message by intoning emotionlessly after the pilot, Collision imminent.

Nick and the soldier grabbed the two closest seats and buckled themselves in. Moments later, the wounded shuttle skidded into one of the landing bays of the star base.

One of the shuttle’s runners collapsed and broke off. The shuttle spun around, broke through the base’s restraint beams, and took the emergency netting just before the wall. It rocked up on its side and then settled back on the side without a runner at a strange canted off angle.

Emergency crews covered the wounded shuttle in foam and worked to open the doors to get the crew and passengers out as quickly as possible.

Nick climbed out of the shuttle with the other survivors. He found Kathryn and Lloyd outside of the shuttle with the rest of the survivors. Kathryn was carrying one of the Denari weapons she had somehow picked up in the fight.

Kathryn asked laughingly, Was that you fighting with a wrench in there, Everroot?

Nick looked down and said nothing. Lloyd supplied with wry humor, He was trying to rescue you.

Nick denied with embarrassment, Hey!

Kathryn looked at Nick with a smile and a slight spark of interest. She asked, Is that true, Everroot?

Nick tried to change the subject. He said, We’re all safe. Let’s just get out of here and find our assignments.

Kathryn looked at him for a moment longer, then she turned and they all moved toward the processing area for new arrivals.

As they walked in to the base’s processing area, an image of an attractive, perfectly dressed female Charter officer announced, Welcome to Star Base 13! The image went on with professional positivity, We are proud of our base and practice excellence and safety in everything we do. Incoming personnel are reminded …

Lloyd gave Nick a mirthful sideways glance and said wryly, I’m glad we’re safe.

Nick wearily shook his head and replied, And we practice excellence. They moved to the processing area where they were checked medically and debriefed before getting their initial assignments for the base.

Unbeknownst to the survivors, a pair of senior Edrianne officers watched from a view screen as the remaining passengers were herded to the processing area. The senior officer who was the star base commander said to his operations officer with quiet intensity, Turn off that damn welcoming image!

His operations officer acknowledged, Yes, G’gul.

And an unseen presence moved silently around and through the star base. It was unseen and unrecognized.

3

T he base commander muted the view screen and asked, What was the damage report for the attack on the shuttles?

N’tesh, the operations officer, replied as he viewed his information files, Sir, of the three inbound shuttles, one was destroyed, one was heavily damaged.

G’gul said ruefully, Pirates attacking a main operating base. They grow bolder.

N’tesh said, Sir, they smell weakness. We must retain a part of the fleet for our defenses.

G’gul retorted, They smell weakness because we are weak! We couldn’t mobilize even one operational warship for our response. We had to sit and wait until the shuttles made it to our weapons range.

N’tesh suggested, Sir, is it not time to keep some of the starship squadron for our defenses?

G’gul said, No, it is not time! The fleet needs every operational starship it can mobilize. If they fail, we will have more than Denari raiders to deal with in this sector.

G’gul brooded. Then he said, Call the escort squadron commander. He needs to come up with a plan to provide better support for us here at the base.

N’tesh said, But, sir, they are overextended as well.

G’gul said angrily, And why did the escort squadron never respond to our call for reinforcements?

N’tesh replied, Sir, the Denari damaged our communications grid. Secondary communications systems didn’t come on line for several minutes.

G’gul ordered, "Get that communications grid back on line! Get whatever resources you need. That