Dimension

Chapter 12

Hello! I'm back, and welcome to chapter 12!

Sorry about the hiatus. Finals happened and then I had an essay and some quizzes and we started on a big presentation and to top it all of, I've had writers block for the last couple weeks. I was trying to write through all of that, but nothing really clicked and I was too stressed to really sink much time into it. It sucks, and I'm really sorry. I just got onto Thanksgiving break, so I should (fingers crossed and everything) find time to write and get back to a semi-regular schedule.

This is also a shorter chapter than usual. I felt like it would be better to publish a shorter chapter then take even more time than I already have to publish a longer one. The next chapter will be normal length.

We also broke 320! Thanks, everybody!

Here goes nothing!

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The Rockefeller was one of 15 patrol destroyers assigned as couriers between all of Compression Industries' deep space research outposts. The vessels themselves were once a component of the Caroki Star Union's navy, now removed from front line service for several years and relegated to backwater patrol routes and mundane pirate hunting. She was 1.1 kilometers long, dwarfing any other destroyer ever produced, proudly presenting a pair of heavy duty railguns and rows of menacing point-defense cannons. And yet, despite her powerful appearance, the Rockefeller would fall quickly to even the most basic Republic frigate, something the Union was very much aware of. Their entire fleet was emblematic of the Union's astonishing level of technological stagnation, and the power of the Union Federal Navy was propped up through propaganda and staged battles more than anything else.

Carson didn't care how effective the Rockefeller was as a warship. She was fast, among the fastest in the Union's arsenal, and she could defend herself if she had to. Which made the Rockefeller an excellent candidate for a courier ship, something which Compression Industries desperately needed.

Berth 22, attached on the western side of the Symbos III research station, was just large enough to fit the Rockefeller without any complications. A pair of hydraulic clamps secured the patrol destroyer in the dock and a gangway extended from the berth's waiting room, magnetically sealing to the Rockerfeller's airlock and raising a pair of guardrails on either side.

An armored brute of a man stepped past Carson, wielding a huge rifle that chambered depleted uranium shells. One of the elite Union Shock Troops- genetically engineered behemoths which were the only truly threatening force in the entire Union military. A detachment of 12 had been assigned to the Symbos III station. As if they were doing any good here- if an attack came, it would be decided in the vastness of space, not in the titanium confines of the research station.

The huge rifle's safety clicked off and the shock trooper raised the weapon against his shoulder into a firing position, ready to pulverize anyone who wasn't authorized to walk through the airlock.

A light flashed green and the airlock hissed, equalizing with Berth 22, and a man stepped out, only to immediately stumble backwards as he came face-to-face with the shock trooper and his massive gun.

"Stand down." Carson ordered. "He's with me."

The shock trooper reluctantly lowered his rifle and the man scrambled to his feet, carefully making his way around the bulk of the trooper, eyeing the rifle the entire way.

"Calm down. If he wanted to shoot you, you would be dead."

"It's still fucking terrifying. Why do you have these guys?"

"Ask the council. I didn't want them." 

The glass doors to Berth 22's waiting room slid open and the two men stepped through, greeted by Carson's standard security detail who now seemed entirely insignificant compared to the shock trooper who stomped through a few seconds later.

"I assume you did not come here to complain about my security, Saj'ish."

"No, no. Of course not."

"Well then. I," Carson said, checking his watch, "have something to do in about 10 minutes."

A set of bulkheads sealed the only exit from the waiting room. Huge, three-foot thick blocks of steel, void of magnetics or gravity manipulation and rather crudely forced shut with ten titanium deadbolts. Hydraulics sputtered as the deadbolts retracted and the doors creaked open, revealing a pair of shock troopers and a long hallway, the end of which held a similar set of bulkheads.

"Keep up, unless you want to get caught in the detox." 

Saj'ish picked up the pace as the bulkhead sealed behind him and a klaxon screamed, venting the atmosphere of the waiting room into space. 

"Sorry for the delay." Saj'ish said as he followed Carson into an extravagant office. 

"I'm used to it." Carson slammed a tinted faceplate over his eyes and set the office lights to a medium setting. His eyes couldn't process bright lights without assistance- hence the dimmed red lights which doused the rest of the station.

"We've actually made some progress."

Carson raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Station 15's report." Saj'ish placed a holopad on Carson's desk. "They jumped a frigate five lightseconds."

"How?" Carson exclaimed, running through the holopad.

"I don't know. It's in the report. Something about capacitors and the SIM."

After a few moments of silence, Carson stood from his chair. "Guard!" he shouted, to which a shock trooper responded. "Find Isa and tell her to report to the lounge immediately."   

"What's going on?" Saj'ish questioned.

"That," Carson said, glancing down at the holopad, "is none of your concern." 

Carson brushed past Saj'ish and left his office, pocketing the holopad as the double doors sealed behind him.