by M. D. Cooper
The pause was longer than the light lag warranted before the man replied,
A data channel came from the NSTC, and Tangel directed its output to the main display, shaking her head in dismay at what the visual showed.
“Dammit,” she muttered while looking over the object’s trajectory.
Tangel reviewed the admiral’s data on Fortuna, and glanced at Jessica and Sera—both of whom were giving her their own worried looks.
“Well, team?” Tangel asked the two women. “What should we do?”
“ ‘Team’.” Jessica bumped her shoulder against Sera’s. “Just us girls, eh?”
Lieutenant Brennen cleared his throat in the back of the bridge. “And a few Marines, ma’am.”
“Don’t worry, Lieutenant.” Sera winked at Brennen. “You can be an honorary member of ‘the girls’.”
“Plus there are girls in the squad below,” Jessica added.
“No boys or girls, ma’am,” Brennen said with a perfectly straight face. “I only brought Marines along.”
“Focus, you two,” Tangel said, snapping her fingers. “We need to stop that flying planetoid before it smashes the other planetoid filled with the people we want to have as our allies.”
“Oh,” Sera said, glancing back at the forward display. “I thought it was obvious. We can’t shoot it or smash into it, ‘cuz the thing will just break apart, and the bits will still pummel Fiji. So we need to go push it gently.”
“Even better,” Jessica added, “something with that much mass doesn’t just change course on its own and head for the nearest inhabited planet. Something is pushing that rock. Given that Fortuna is accelerating, maybe we can take control and steer it out of the way.”
“Which means,” Brennen said as he stepped forward, “that whoever is behind this may still have a force on that rock to make sure no one does what you’ve proposed.”
“Makes sense,” Jessica nodded, pulling up a view of Fortuna. “The thing is about the size of Ceres back in Sol. If you were going to do this in secret, it may work better to build the engines inside of it, rather than bring a bunch of tugs over to shove it.”
Tangel nodded as she looked over the spheroid world. “This thing isn’t hot like the other proto-planets in the system; it must have predated the star’s formation just like Fiji. If they do have tugs pushing it, then we take the tugs. If not, then we land on Fortuna and take control of the engines.”
“There are just twelve of us Marines,” Brennen said a little nervously. “I don’t know if my squad is enough to pull this off.”
“It’ll be easy,” Jessica said with a laugh. “I can’t imagine what the Sarentons can have that fifteen of us can’t deal with. I’ve taken bigger installations with fewer people.”
Tangel cocked an eyebrow at Jessica. “Stars…we really have sent you on some crazy suicide missions, haven’t we?”
The purple woman shrugged. “I guess we got used to it.”
Satisfied that they had the beginnings of a plan, Tangel reached back out to the NSTC.
“Once more into the breach,” Jessica said with a low chuckle. “We’re going to meet it while it’s still in the clouds, aren’t we?”
“That’s my plan,” Tangel replied as she spun out the ship’s AP drive nozzle and boosted toward the stellar disk. “Meet them before they expect to have any company—and before they can get a clear view of us.”
“Stealth and stasis won’t work in the cloud,” Jessica warned. “Well, stasis shields will, but we might cook from the energy it takes to power them.”
“I can have them ready and on a hair trigger,” Tangel replied. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be going in if I thought it was excessively dangerous.”
Sera glanced at Jessica. “Notice her choice of the word ‘excessively’?”
“Yeah, I picked up on that, too.”
“My squad has switched out to full battle rattle, Admiral,” Brennen said a moment later. “Sergeant Bill has experience as a pilot…. Should I have him come to the bridge while you three get armored up?”
“I like the total lack of subtlety there, Lieutenant,” Jessica said as she glanced at Tangel and Sera. “I may have Mark X skin, but I’m always down for extra ablative plating between me and the enemy.”
“Same here,” Sera said. “Tangel?”
“Of course. At the very least, it’s something to convert to raw energy in a pinch.”
“Showoff,” Sera muttered.
Jessica held up a hand, which glowed brightly as electricity arced between her fingers. “I don’t need to convert my armor to mesons—or whatever you do—to get energy.”
Sera laughed as she led the way off the bridge. “I remember when I was the weird one.”
“Don’t worry,” Tangel said as she followed after. “You’re still weirder than us on the inside.”
“Thanks?”
CHASING FORTUNA
STELLAR DATE: 09.13.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Bridge, ISS Castrorum, approaching Fortuna
REGION: Kali System, Pacifican Alliance
Thirty minutes later, they were back on the bridge, now sharing the space with Sergeant Bill, who sat at the navigation console.
All three of the women had opted for lighter armor than the Marines wore, each preferring mobility over raw stopping power. While gearing up, Sera had commented that they could always hide behind the Marines if needs be—which had elicited a snort from Brennen.
“Ma’ams, Madam President,” the sergeant said as the three re-entered the bridge.
“Just ‘President Sera’, please,” Sera said with a grimace.
Jessica laughed as she settled at the scan console. “Why? Because people might think you run a brothel or something?”
“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” the president muttered.
“Neither of you have a leg to stand on,” Tangel said, chuckling as she reviewed the latest data routing through Fiji.
“Like you’ve never gotten your sexy on for a mission,” Sera said, giving Tangel an accusing look. “I’ve heard some of the stories.”
Tangel forci
bly stopped a flush from rising on her cheeks. “For missions, yeah. I’ve done a lot of things in the line of duty. You two do it for fun, though.”
“That’s how you know it’s amazing,” Jessica said, winking at Tangel. “Doing it for work didn’t ruin the enjoyment.”
“And this is why I make an effort to keep you two apart,” Tangel muttered. “Anyway, looks like the folks at Fiji are certain it’s Fortuna now. The planetoid’s not where it should be, and the bow shock moving through the clouds matches its profile.”
“Twenty minutes from braking,” Sergeant Bill added. “Should I turn the ship to prepare?”
Tangel glanced at the Marine. “I can manage it, Sergeant. I wouldn’t want to keep you from your duties any longer.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Bill was out of his seat and off the bridge so fast, Tangel wondered how he didn’t dent the deck.
“Lit a fire under him,” Jessica said with a laugh.
“Everyone knows that NCOs are allergic to the brass,” Sera said with a laugh. “Being on the bridge with two admirals and a president is like anathema to them.”
Tangel shook her head. “I remember back when I had a brass allergy myself.”
“You went straight into OCS, though, didn’t you?” Jessica asked. “So you were never a working stiff.”
“Seriously?” Tangel cocked an eyebrow at her. “I started out as an ensign on a cargo hauler, taking all the third watch shifts. Worked for years to get my own boat, the Kirby Jones. I have some great memories of that ship. It wasn’t much bigger than this corvette.”
“I get that,” Sera said with a nod. “Sabrina was that first ship for me.”
“I think for me, Andromeda filled that role,” Jessica said. “Though that was always Corsia’s ship. Sabrina became that special ship, but even when I was the captain, it felt like she belonged to Sabrina and Cheeky.”
“Cheeky’s pretty much married to that ship at this point,” Sera said with a laugh. “Heaven forbid anyone try to separate them.”
“That’s why she’s captain now,” Jessica said with a wistful sigh. “Though I’d be lying if I didn’t admit how much I miss it.”
“I never spent as much time as the three of you on her, but I admit that Sabrina feels like a home to me as well,” Tangel said. “But to the task at hand. I can see well enough through the clouds to make out Fortuna.”
“You can?” Jessica asked, peering at Tangel. “Is this with your special sight?”
“Jess, that makes it sound all mystical. I prefer ‘extradimensional vision’.”
Sera snorted and leaned close to Jessica, whispering loudly. “Leave it to her to take cool, magical powers and scientifically rationalize them.”
“That’s because—” Tangel stopped, as the other two women began to grin. “OK, ha ha. Anyway, I think we might have company waiting for us. I can see the ionized energy streams coming off Fortuna—some big engines are pushing that thing. But I can also see smaller streams around it.”
“Can you tell if it’s being pushed by tugs, or engines mounted into the planetoid?” Sera asked
“And are the other streams additional steering engines, or ships?”
“The smaller energy streams aren’t maintaining fixed positions relative to Fortuna, so I think they’re escort ships,” Tangel replied to Jessica before glancing at Sera. “As for the engines, I can’t yet tell if they belong to tugs or not.”
“Mounted,” Tangel replied as Jessica said, “Tugs.”
“Really?” Tangel asked. “But if they’re tugs, they can just run off.”
“And we can catch one, fly it around to a good spot, and then nudge that sucker off course—a lot more effectively than with the Castrorum.”
“My thought is that if they’re mounted engines, then we find the control room, take control, and just steer the thing. No chance of them flying off and leaving us high and dry.”
“Not that your hopes and dreams matter,” Sera said, her tone grim. “Reality will be what it is, regardless of what you’d like it to be.”
“Gee,” Jessica glanced from Sera to Tangel. “I thought the original Sera was the fun Sera.”
“Hey!” she exclaimed. “We’re all still a little weirded out by the cloning business.”
“Uh huh,” Jessica nodded emphatically. “And by making fun of you having clones, I normalize it and make it OK.”
Sera shook her head. “Cheeky has obviously worn off on you.”
“I don’t think there was any wearing involved,” Tangel said. “Jessica’s always been like this.”
“ ‘This’?” Jessica cocked her head to the side, her eyes narrowing.
Tangel snorted. “Sassy.”
“Oh, yeah…sure.”
A few minutes later, Tangel spun the ship, pointing the engines toward Fortuna, and fired the first braking burn. She let the engines run for ten seconds, and then fired maneuvering thrusters, shifting the Castrorum several hundred kilometers before braking again.
“And there goes a slug,” Jessica said, highlighting a kinetic round’s passage through the ship’s prior location.
“Last one we’ll see,” Sera said. “Once they realize we’re not dumb enough to stay on one vector as we approach, they’ll save their ammunition.”
“Two light seconds out,” Tangel announced. “I see engines around us. We’re passing their pickets…shit.”
“ ‘Shit’?” Jessica and Sera asked in unison.
“I’d counted maybe twenty ships escorting Fortuna, but another thirty…make that forty-two…signatures have just lit up. And there’s another twenty-seven.”
“Were they just coasting?” Sera asked.
“Parked on the rock, I bet,” Jessica replied.
Tangel watched more fusion engines shine through the clouds. They were barely visible to the ship’s sensors, but to her eyes, they were plain as stars twinkling in a black sky.
Though she kept jinking the Castrorum, more escort ships came online, until it became abundantly apparent that the enemy had enough vessels to fill all possible approaches with deadly weapons fire.
“Change of plan, ladies,” Tangel announced. “I’m going to line us up with that rock, and then activate the stasis shields.”
“With the cloud this dense?” Jessica asked. “It’s going to be one helluva light show.”
“And we’re not going to be able to brake,” Sera said, giving Tangel a pointed look.
“I’m braking now, as much as I can,” Tangel said as the ship shuddered around them. “Over two hundred gs. But we’re not going to kiss that rock gently, we’re going to hit it like a hammer.”
“Aim here,” Jessica pointed to a section of Fortuna a hundred kilometers from the back of the planetoid. “Records show that it’s a big crater where they dropped slag from mining operations. It should absorb our impact without breaking the thing apart.”
“So much ‘should’,” Sera muttered as she moved to a seat and strapped herself in.
Tangel glanced back at her. “The ship will go solid stasis when we hit.”
“And has this ship—stars, has this class of ship—been tested for something like this?” Sera asked. “Don’t answer. I know it hasn’t, so you’ll forgive me as I strap in.”
Tangel considered the president’s words and then moved to the command seat, pulling its harness into place.
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse,” Jessica said with a nervous laugh. “Oh, you going to let Admiral Delweir know what we’re doing?”
“Just did,” Tangel replied. “I let him know that there are also some four hundred ships coming along with their wandering planet and that he’d better be ready for a fight.”
“Do they still think it’s Sarento?” Sera asked.
“They do. I guess they had some intel that Sarento was up to something, but they didn’t think that it
was anything at this scale.”
“Thoughts on how they pulled it off?” Sera asked.
Tangel blew out a long breath. “Well, I’ll tell you what didn’t happen. They didn’t just fly hundreds of ships in here unnoticed. Either Pacifica has some serious problems with their sensor webs in the Kali System, or whoever is behind this jumped ships in.”
“Or they built them on Fortuna,” Sera supplied. “Because if you can jump ships to turn this planetoid into a hammer, you could jump your ships right on top of Fiji and wipe it out without any of this nonsense.”
“Maybe,” Tangel mused. “But Fiji has some of the strongest shields I’ve ever seen on a planet—which makes sense, given that the thing has to punch through that cloud. I wonder if their enemies thought they wouldn’t get past the world’s protection before the defenders brought their fleets to bear.”
“That’s valid,” Jessica said, then straightened in her seat. “Ninety seconds.”
Tangel shared the plan and the time to impact with Brennen and his Marines, then drew in long, slow breaths, waiting for any sign that the enemy was going attempt to fire on the Castrorum.
The count reached seventy-six before that sign came.
She saw the energy build-ups from the defending fleet before the beams and kinetics came. That warning was all she needed to activate the ship’s stasis shields.
In one instant, the Castrorum went from being a small hull sliding through the clouds, its grav shields keeping it safe from the dust and gas, to an orb shining as brightly as a star; the atoms and molecules in the cloud shedding their energy in brilliant displays.
“And there goes scan,” Jessica said. “Can’t see a thing.”
“I can,” Tangel replied, looking through the ship’s hull at the atoms being shredded against the ship’s shields. She carefully focused and looked through that screen at the enemy fleet and the planetoid beyond. “Impact in thirty seconds. We’re aligned with that gravel pit on the surface.”
“Tugs or engines?” Sera asked. “Can you see them?”
Tangel peered through the haze. “Engines, or they dug holes for the tugs…but it looks like the burners are nestled in a kilometer deep, so even if they tucked the tugs in there, they won’t get them out in a hurry.”