Beyond Light

Project: BLACKCAT.

President O’Donnell presented John to both PFSR leaders. They didn’t look impressed at him. Ivan Turgenev looked as if he didn’t want to be there, while Cheng Jiang appeared curious yet bored.

They were certainly not as cantankerous as the two agents warned him about, but that could change at any time. Admiral Hopkins always remained vexed.

“Well, son,” spoke President O’Donnell. “the guys from the ISI and the URB must have acquainted you about the situation already, but I’ll give you a brief resume: the Eternity of Return got attacked on the other side by at least eight unidentified vessels. Captain Cortez tried to fight back, but the ships survived the direct fire of six Hydra Cannons and fought back. They penetrated the hull and inflicted a good number. Our people then managed to take down at least five of those ships, but three of them survived. That’s it. We lost all connections after that.”

“Yeah, I saw it myself,” responded John. “Agents Brown and Piang showed me the recordings.”

“I don’t think he should have watched that classified material, Mister President,” complained Hopkins. “You know that security might be—”

“Admiral, this man is not any non-commissioned officer carrying a simple mission,” interrupted Malcolm. “He is going to travel to Hawking-616a and find out what happened to our most renowned and expensive ship.”

John wanted to swirl his eyes, but the Fleet Admiral would have surely mounted a scene if he noticed his deprecating mannerism. “The agents also told me that those ships don’t belong to any design seen before. Do you have any ideas of who they could be?”

“No,” responded the President. He grabbed a holopad from the table and extended it to John. “that’s why Project: BLACKCAT was created. There you have the detailed expedient and what you ought to do.”

John read the first lines, then swept over the screen, and then swept again in one second. It was an extensive document that would take at least 30 minutes to read.

“You might read it later,” said the President. “I’ll send it to you under encryption.”

John returned the device to him. “Sir, when I asked you about what those ships could be, I meant if you have any hypotheses. Could it be that, maybe, we are facing for the first time—”

“Old wives’ tales,” interrupted Admiral Hopkins. “You should not be making that many questions, Lieutenant. You are supposed to follow orders, not question them.”

“He is going to make his own orders and question them once on the other side, Admiral Hopkins,” argued Admiral Frost “If we wanted a mindless robot for this operation we could have sent one of your people from the 6th fleet.”

Everyone looked in discrete awe at the Royal Admiral. Their rivalry hadn't died. The 6th fleet was one of the biggest points of pride of Admiral Hopkins, as it was the one that was at his complete command. He stared at William with black eyes of irritation and took a step closer to him.

“Admiral Frost, I briefly remind you that the 6th fleet has the biggest number of decorations and battle insignias than the next two fleets combined. When was the last time your 2nd and 5th fleet went through a flawless record for more than three Earth periods?”

Admiral Frost didn’t respond. He stared at the eyes of the pink-faced man, not deviating his a bit.

“O’Donnell,” spoke the accented President Turgenev. “behave your dogs. Enough is that you treat your spotlight man like one of your pals.”

“...President Turgenev,” Malcolm looked at the holoprojector. “let me remind you that we are in my territory, my installations, and my office. I’ll treat him how I like. And you two,” he looked at the Admirals. “Behave now. That’s an order.”

Both Admirals separated from each other. Even If President O’Donnell stopped looking at the hologram, he was sure the Russian man glared at him in the same irritating way as he did on Ceres.

The presence of Hopkins made John feel dragged down, just as if bitter stress moved through his veins. Was the man that splenetic, or did he just dislike him? He did his best to not care. As far as he was aware, he was not going to be under the Fleet Admiral's command.

“Now, to respond to your question, John,” continued President O’Donnell. “at first, we thought it was the PFSR who attacked the Eternity of Return, but we have disclaimed that theory. We have no other suspects, so…”

“Maybe there’s the possibility that they fought someone else,” responded John. “Something that’s not human.”

Admiral Hopkins rolled his eyes. Both presidents from the PFSR looked even more annoyed. Admiral Suyuza yawned deep. Only Weigh and Frost didn’t seem to shun the idea. The old Weigh nodded at him with a grin, while Admiral Frost reflected at the floor.

“...It could be,” responded Malcolm. “It could be. But that doesn’t give us any specific suspects, and our dreadnought is still stranded. That’s why we created BLACKCAT.”

“Go to the point, O’Donnell,” said President Jiang. “you’ve had your time to speculate.”

Malcolm swirled his eyes but continued. “Read the expedient later when you have time, as it is long and complicated. I’ll give you a resume about your mission. But before we progress, we need you to sign for it,” he straightened up and cleared his throat. “Lieutenant Commander John Star, do you agree to work under the terms of this operation, and the directive of this committee, and only under this committee for the undefined, designated service time of this operation?

A square terminal raised from the edge of the table right before John. There was a digital pannel screen with the green image of an extended hand. John didn’t doubt it. He had a mission to accomplish.

“Yes sir. I accept,” he engulfed the drawing with his fingers. The device beeped before contracting down into the table again.

“Very well,” President O’Donnell nodded. “Now, as per the power I was granted when I was given the highest rank in the Independent Nations Space Union, I concede you the rank of Commander, as per the Independent Nations Navy directive, article 06 under section 04. Congratulations.”

Commander? John felt light goosebumps rushing through his calves and spine. A grin formed on his face. Really? There were at least three years before he could applicate for a promotion, and that day he had just ascended!

The last thing he expected was that pleasant surprise. He was going to make it count. Not only for him, but also for Blair, and everyone who needed his assistance on Vita Nova.

“Thank you, sir,” John straightened up and saluted. "I shall not fail."

President O’Donnell returned the salute with a grin. “Now, let’s continue. Your mission is going to be simple, although that doesn't mean it's gonna be easy. Your objective: to travel more than 8096 light-years to the Hawking-616a system in the Perseus constellation, and find out what happened to the INN Eternity of Return. We need to know if they are still alive and if they need assistance or repairs.”

“Understood,” John nodded. “What about the unidentified vessels?”

“It’s not in your priority to engage in combat, as we don’t have enough information about them to confidently strike. However, we have something for you that’s going to be your main tool and weapon on the other side.”

He pressed a series of keys in the holographic keyboard of the table. The projection of a spaceship slowly raised up, rotating above the screen: it was a broad, triangular design of wide and thick wings that extended from the nose of the ship to the end of the main body, where a thin and long tail was located. All of its shapes and angles were smoothly blended and round, giving it an elegant, furtive design.

John remembered some of the aircraft figures he used to own as a kid. If he had to compare that ship to something, it would be to an archaic Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, except that rounder, and without the ugly faceted angles.

“This is the pinnacle of Project: BLACKCAT,” continued explaining President O'Donnell. “the SF-01, or the INN Beyond Light. Thank the presidents next to us for allowing us to keep the INN designation,” both PFSR leaders looked arrogantly at the spinning 3D model.

“It looks… Incredible. It must have cost a fortune,” John slowly nodded, looking in amusement at the projection. He could not erase the grin on his face, but he tried his best to mitigate it due to respect for the chain of command.

“Heck it did son,” responded President O’Donnell. “A good part of the budget was destined on it, so we expect you to outperform our expectations.”

“I highly doubt he will,” Admiral Hopkins disdainfully growled.

“To describe it,” President O’Donnell continued. “Some classify the Beyond Light as a frigate, although it doesn’t fit the criteria. We are before the start of a new category of spaceships. Some want to call them stealthers. A very fitting name for what they do, although it sounds stupid if you ask me.”

“Please explain the role of the ship to the commander, Mister President,” said Admiral Weigh. “you can’t just send him to the other side without him knowing how our new toy works.”

“Ah, yes. As per the name stealther, the Beyond Light is a vessel highly specialized in stealth operations, such as information gathering, scouting, reconnaissance, spying, combat monitoring, network jamming, and the deployment of discretion mines, battle drones, and nuclear devices. It’s armed with a small A1 Nebula-Nova Cannon, based in the same technology as the godmelter in the Eternity of Return if you heard of it.”

“Wow...” John slowly nodded. “It surely can smack a good punch. I heard that thing accelerates projectiles at a fraction of the speed of light.”

“Pretty much,” confirmed President O’Donnell. “It’s also armed with Helldragon-142 Focus Laser Cannons and Volkov missiles, courtesy of the PFSR. However, you are better off reserving those only for defensive maneuvers, or if you are daring enough for hit-and-run attacks. The strength of the Beyond Light is her stealth capabilities. She is a girl, by the way, we decided it in that way. Dreadnoughts are boys, battleships girls, carriers boys, blablablah. Let’s not deviate. She is equipped with last-gen technology radiation inhibitors, radar-sensor refractors, and heat dissipators. You can basically become invisible, in a way that the only form of being able to detect you would be to be close enough and spot you through the window.”

“...If only the Eternity of Return had this technology,” said John.

“If only…” President O’Donnell raised one eyebrow, squeezing his lips. “But It would be expensive as heck to install those systems in a ship of his size. It would not be practical to maintain them with such thick armoring, and energy shielding systems interfere with those stealth systems."

"So, this ship doesn't count with shields?" asked John, feeling as if he was about to be aboard a glass cannon.

"Well, it does. The Beyond Light possesses light shields, but if they are activated, you’ll become visible. So only do so if you don’t have any other options. And speaking of shieldings, the vessel only counts with light hull armor, as a defense. And her speed, of course. This is not a ship designed for direct combat. Keep that in mind and you'll be good.”

John could not put his eyes apart from the rotating model. He had just been promoted of rank and issued one of the most advanced spaceships ever built!

He would almost believe that he was dreaming, but he knew deep inside that he was going to need them. The mission he was going to carry only gave him the gut feeling that nothing good would be found on the other side.

“Well, I am sure that the engineers will later give you a more detailed report about it,” the President continued. “Now, it’s time for you to go and meet your ship, as well as your crew. They’ve been eager to know you, you know? You’re soon going to be surrounded by quite some eccentric figures, Commander Star.”