Ares Centios

The Buffer Zone

NSW Lunar Eclipse

Rear Admiral Ares Centios nodded in greeting to his flag lieutenant as he passed the man, sitting down in his place on the flag bridge, sipping a cup of delicious coffee. His steward always made it just right, warm, sweet and a touch of heavy cream.

He had to admit it provided a good distraction from his job, as much of it as there was. Being the newest flag officer out here at the Buffer Zone, he was put in charge of the small fleet which followed around the repair ship as it serviced the special beacons which marked the edge of the Zone.

The beacons were pretty much old tech now, but the process for making them had always interested him. You couldn't really talk to ships in hyperspace from normal space. Half the reason was that you had to hit a receiver with enough strength to get the message through to the ship in FTL, next you had no way to know where the ship was, for the most part. Most ships these days stayed on predictable straight-line paths between stars, but being able to enter hyper at any angle or anywhere not in a certain range of a celestial body which could hinder it with gravity meant the math to guess the location was next to impossible unless you planned it down to the last centimeter.

You didn't need that for a blanket scream message though. With powerful transmitters, regular service and plentiful power, the beacons could blanket the general area, both normal and hyper, with the warning of what this was, why you shouldn't be here, and what will happen to you if you cross this area. A restricted area, the AI will attempt to murder humanity, so we will destroy you if you continue past these beacons. The sensors which generated breech reports were even more expensive and hard to tune. Being able to sense a ship in FTL might be a godsend, but the power needed to pin down where it was was astronomical. Even Novu Sol couldn't afford that luxury anywhere but here at the Buffer Zone.

Centios sat back, studying the data he had on hand, a large, ungainly repair ship docked beside the massive array they were beside that was bigger than even his ship, giving off a powerful energy signature, and his own small fleet of warships, headed by the new Event-class battlecruisers. Had he not been a Novu Sol ship, his communication system would be swamped by the endlessly repeated warnings, however whenever a ship came out here, they were given codes which muted the message in their own systems and allowed them to move about freely without generated breech reports at the central Buffer Zone station.

He looked around the command deck, his crew hard at work even with the uneventful duty. He could see in the younger officers and enlisted some tension, they stole glances around, tense postures and nervous expressions, but every Novu Sol officer comes out here at least once in their career to see what it was like unless they get dishonorably discharged before then. He had been here before and nothing ever happened, not any more. People use to be curious, pirates or thrillseekers thinking they could 'run the gauntlet,' but Novu Sol had enforced their policies ruthlessly, anyone caught was to be arrested, ship destroyed and the nation reprimanded. If they didn't yield to warship's command to stop, they were completely and utterly destroyed.

Centios eyes then rested on the beacon in the visual display. No one wanted to be the one to open the cage anyways. What if the AI got out of Old Sol? Even now, he felt a knot in his guts at the thought of getting a breech report coming out the zone rather than going in. The AI that's infested Old Sol star system were practically trapped, no hyperdrives to use, they could do sublight journeys but that would take so long they wouldn't even be halfway to the Buffer Zone. Still, those AI had always been extremely aggressive during past scouting missions to Old Sol, there was no doubt that if they got their hands on a ship that they would launch an attack on humanity as soon as possible.

It was why they were here, holding the line against AI that couldn't reach them.

Centios sighed then signed off on another report. He wondered what it would like to not have to do this anymore, to stand a vigilant watch which had only been disturbed by the people they protected, not the ones they guarded against. He pulled up the old data from the last scouting mission, over 100 years ago, reading the brief report and sensor data with a frown. Advanced AI warships all moving around, smaller AI scouts making an aggressive beeline for Novu Sol's scout, the far distant world of Old Sol still circling the star. Compared to the report before that, there were ever more ships than last time. They were multiplying, and seemed to form an impressive battle fleet that would give any Novu Sol war fleet pause.

He wondered if they could actually do it. With enough ships and weapons sheer numbers could overwhelm just about anything, and Novu Sol had the population, the resources, the technology, they had everything.

Now if only the politicians weren't as scared as everyone else. The years had not been kind to the idea of taking back Old Sol. Oh the propaganda was still there and always in full force. Movies being made about mad AI attacking worlds, think tank articles about how things would be different if we hadn't needed to flee the initial murderous rage of the AI, platitudes from politicians that still told the people they would when they were strong enough, when the time was right and the Galaxy was at peace. Centios knew it was all just talk, no one wanted to go back. Because it meant to stay in the same space as the AI, it was not the risk of a single ship, easy to flee, it would be thousands of military personnel, every ship they were at risk of being captured if they did not win and the AI had nothing to lose, while humanity would lose everything.

"Sir."

He startled at a touch on his shoulder and he looked up to see his staff commander, Captain Alixia Pacetto stood to his right looking concerned. "What is wrong Alixia?"

"You looked a little out of it Sir. Did you get enough sleep last night?" She asked and he grinned.

"I don't need you to baby me Captain, just thinking some things over." He answered and Alixia grinned back.

"Thought you agreed you were not allowed to think unless you passed the thoughts to me first."

"Ha," He took another sip of his coffee, "nice try, but it was nothing important." He motioned slightly with his head over the meeting room off the flag bridge. Alixia took the hint and slipped into the room, he followed a few moments later and sat down at the table, Alixia settled into her seat to his right.

"So, what is bothering you Sir?"

"Alixia, do you want to retake Earth?" Centios asked.

The surprise in her expression was obvious. "Of course I do Sir, who doesn't?" The response was instant, almost a reflex.

"No Alixia, I want you to really think about it. Don't parrot the propaganda, if we could summon every ship, every asset we had and go to Earth to fight right now, would you do it?"

She frowned at him, then sat silently in thought, rubbing her chin while her eyes focused on the table. She stayed that way for at least a minute, while Centios waited for her answer.

"I..." Alixia paused and seemed unsettled. "No, I don't think I would want to. If I was ordered? Of course, I am an officer in the Novu Sol Navy and I go where commanded, but if they asked for volunteers... I don't think I could do it Sir."

Centios nodded. "Why?"

She sighed. "It's daunting. During the last scouting mission the amount of ships was impressive, the response was extremely aggressive and undoubtedly since then they have built more and better ships, who knows what kind of improvements to systems they could make. But they are trapped in Old Sol, so why should we risk it? People die in war, but if we were forced to retreat all it would take is one wreckage that didn't get destroyed to give them access to a hyperdrive and well..." She trailed off as she looked back up at him. "I don't think it's worth the risk anymore."

"I thought so Captain. It's been a part of our culture for so long, we are taught as children and hammered into us as young officers that 'One Day We Will Return!' to Old Sol like a triumphant general riding home, that we don't realize we need to focus on other priorities." Centios leaned back in his chair. "That's what I was thinking about Captain. We need to focus on us first, and to be fair, many of these years we have been focusing on ourselves, we are no more going to charge into the Quarantine Zone now as we were when it was first built. However we are still sitting here out at the Buffer Zone, keeping people away from Old Sol while nothing happens inwards. Even now, everyone has learned what happens to people that try to run across the Buffer Zone, they don't do it anymore. The last incident was around 70 years ago and that was a merchant running to the Buffer Zone and our fleet here for protection from the pirates that had chased her so it wasn't even a breech, it was just a civilian running to a guard force for protection."

"Do you think we should stop manning the Buffer Zone?" Alixia asked, he noted she didn't look terribly pleased with the idea and he shook his head.

"No I think we should stay here just in case. The Zone is a place to exercise our fleets, test new officers, and keeping newer ships out of the public eye while we train up the crews to full readiness. It's a valuable place even if it seems pointless for the reason we were out here in the first place for." Centios smiled. "It keeps the smaller nations sober too, knowing we are holding the line for them."

Alixia nodded slowly. "I understand and I have to admit it's weird to think about it. I'm so use to automatically just assuming we will go back some day in the future without realizing it's been so long maybe it's best we don't."

"Thank you for indulging my train of thought Captain." He looked over at the hatch. "Your newer officers are doing well for their first time out here."

"They are all still nervous. I'm just waiting..."

They were interrupted by the chime on the panel. It wasn't high priority and there was no general quarters alarm going off. The two grinned at each other.

"5 credits bet to say it is what you were about to say." Centios offered and Alixia shook her head.

"No I don't take bad bets." She accepted the com call. "This is the Pacetto, go ahead."

"Ma'am, tactical just saw something odd."

"I'll be out in a second." She closed the call and stood as Centios did. "What do you think it is?"

"Glitch in the updates I bet. A bug that wasn't smoothed out." He said before they exited back out onto the flag bridge. "Alright," his voice carried across the bridge, "what is it?"

A young Ensign pointed into a large hologram he shared with a few other flag officers, a small smudge that flickered in an odd way, the system seemed unsure what to label it as ghostly text flickered from word to word next to it. "We got this from the arrays a minute ago, the system doesn't know what to make of it."

Centios frowned thoughtfully. He knew this was a bug in the software because the system almost always slapped an 'unknown' label on things it could sense but not categorize and if it had been a ship actually breaching the zone then the ships would of been getting a breech report and orders to pursue.

"Then what do you make of it Ensign?" Centios asked.

"I don't know." He said, "the system doesn't have any designations for this."

He heard Alixia give a laugh covered up as a cough. He had to keep from laughing himself. Rookie mistake to trust the systems a little too much.

"So then why wouldn't the system know what to make of this?" He prodded as he tried to get the young officer to come to the right conclusion himself. The young man began to look over to the other other officer and Centios quickly shook his head. "I asked you Ensign, not them."

The ensign swallowed nervously and turned back to study the contact. "I... I don't think it's an actual breech. Or else we would have gotten a report." He paused to rub his hands together. "No orders coming in from The Central Buffer Zone Station, no threat level assignments from the system."

Centios saw the realization dawn in the young man's eyes.

"It's a bug in the software, since we are updating the array the ship is working on with both hardware and software, something is causing a problem to report to us that isn't there!" He tapped a command into his station. "Of course it's possible that all the fail safes we have in place have failed and this really is a real contact of some sort, but even if the array we are currently at was seeing something, then at least one other array would catch it and give the system the proper information to label it."

"Good job Ensign!" Alixia said warmly, "Now how do we solve this problem."

"Report it to the repair ship and query the other local arrays and Central Buffer Station to see if it needs to be investigated further?" His confidence faded a little as he looked between his Admiral and Flag Captain.

"That sounds like a solid plan. Get on it, and if it turns out to be something we need to worry about then we can worry about it once we have cleared this up. Remember just because we are the Buffer Zone doesn't mean every single thing the sensors manage to pick up is a problem or even real. It's good to be on alert but if you stay tense and waiting then you will only stress yourself to the point of exhaustion."

The newer officers around him seem to take heart from the impromptu speech and Centios gave a confident nod. "If anything changes, I will be working in my cabin. Captain, hold the fort while I'm gone."

"Aye Sir." She gave an informal salute and turned to supervise the officers as they set about trying to correct the problem.

Even as he turned away he could see the small flickering contact wink out of existence, showing that they already isolated part of the problem and were correcting it. The new people were always worried. He did too the first time he was out here. In fact he'd had pretty much the same problem when he'd been deployed here as a newly promoted Captain.

Centios sat back at his desk, stretched out his arms and winced slightly as a joint cracked in protest of the movement. He had gotten lost in the endless paperwork of running a fleet and looking at the time, it was time to retire to bed.

He wasn't quite tired yet and swiveled the chair to face the painting. An absolutely beautiful painting hung there, a planet that was a marble of green, tans, browns and blues, clouds layered over those rich colors like puffs of candy set atop the dark star-speckled majesty of space. Centurion IV. His homeworld. His eyes traveled across the land masses visible in the painting, landing on a small sea near the equator, most of its coast an odd grayish silver and green, showing where the city of Foundation, the capital of the planet, had once existed.

He felt his thoughts darken at that. Foundation had been a thriving city of over 3.5 billion. It had been his home, the place he had been born and raised.

And it was still a pile of ruble and ash on the edge of evaporated dead dry sea to this day.

Like many others, he wanted to know why Desson had done what she had done. Why had she flattened the city? Why had she betrayed her crew, her nation to run off and play tin god out in sparsely populated regions of space? He wished he could just have them answer, to magically know what excuse would bubble from her lips when she was inevitably locked in a jail cell to await her death.

She had been there, hadn't she? Centios narrowed his eyes. She had been in the Empire, somewhere, maybe not in the capital, but there. He could of had her in chains if only he'd come with a true fleet. Callisas had nothing on Nov Sol, no one had the power to stand against them. It would be so easy to take them out, snuffing out her allies, closing the jaws of a trap the size of human space around her until there was nothing left but her own ship, desperately on the run, slowly starved of food, fuel, and ammunition until she was dead in space, easy prey for the powerful Novu Sol Navy.

But they still coyly avoided that action, as easy as it would be. Politicians fearful of repercussions that would never come, officers afraid to commit to action that would inevitably lead to death of some of their people.

Centios swung back to face his desk. One day, he, or the Navy he served, would hopefully would bring Desson to her knees and eliminate the threat she posed. Right now guarding the Buffer Zone was an exercise in boredom, but one day he would get the news of her capture.

Preferably while his ship sat in front of the wreck of the stolen Ionosphere and a shuttle brought her over to him under arrest.

One day, that dream would be reality.