by Andrew Beery
“Time to intercept the relief fleet?”
I checked my board before answering.
“Twenty-three minutes. Assuming our friends out there don’t alter course or speed… which of course is highly unlikely given what’s waiting for them,” I said with a wink.
Deborah smiled. “How long before they run into one of our surprises?”
“They could be running into one or two of them in about twenty minutes,” the Master Gunny responded.
“Perfect,” I said. “I love it when everybody makes it to the party on time.”
“It might be time to let the other party goers know that we’re coming,” the Javan’s captain said.
I turned to face Captain Deborah sitting in my command chair. She looked like she was made for the chair. I’m not sure why, but that disturbed me. Is it bad that I was jealous of somebody sitting in my seat? Am I that petty? The simple answer is yes, and I was OK with that.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” I said. “That chair is only a loaner.”
She caressed the armrest seductively while staring me in the eye.
“I won’t lie. It is a comfortable seat,” she cooed with a wicked grin. But then she turned serious. “Don’t worry Colonel. I’ll be giving it back in just a few moments. Comms open a channel to the approaching fleet.”
“Channel open,” Arquat replied. A holographic image appeared on the bridge of the Defiant. It was the bridge of the Appaloosa. A balding man in his mid-sixties sat in the command chair.
“Relief taskforce, this is Defiant actual. Our taskforce is on an intercept course for your position. ETA roughly twenty minutes.”
“Defiant, this is Admiral Forest,” the balding man said. “Negative intercept. Return your taskforce to parking orbits around Epidamnus. We will join you there.”
“Admiral, we understood there was an emergency requiring assistance on Azul. It was our intention to render aid.”
The admiral sighed. It was obvious to anyone watching that he was tired of having his orders challenged. He didn’t know it yet, but his day was about to get a whole lot worse.
“Captain Deborah, by the time our ships could get there the action will be over. The Mashuta Corporation thanks you for your concern but your place in under my command… following my orders. My orders are to return to a parking orbit around Epidamnus. Please acknowledge your orders.”
“Orders acknowledged, Sir. Sir, you should know this ship has a functional Skip Drive. According to the Founder AI running the ship, we can expand our drive bubble to encompass the entire fleet and execute a jump to Azul. We could be there in under an hour. But only if we are far enough from Menaechmus and its gravity well.”
Of course, that little tidbit was entirely bogus, but our friends would have no way of knowing that. We could say the ship had the ability to vaporize an entire planet while playing the old Earth song called ‘A Bohemian Rhapsody.’ Which reminded me, I really needed to check to see if the Defiant’s library actually included old Earth songs.
Meanwhile, there was the issue of Admiral Forest. He paused a moment to consider what the Captain had said.
“That is excellent news, Captain,” He said slowly. “Nevertheless, your orders stand. I will take personal command of the Defiant once we join you in orbit.”
A new figure walked into view. It was my old buddy, Major Clarkson… only now, he was a Colonel.
“BELAY THAT ORDER CAPTAIN!”
Clarkson gave the Admiral a scathing look. If I were a betting man… and of course I was… I would say the Colonel was not on the bridge when the call from the Defiant had come in. One of the Admiral’s people had likely been bribed to keep the Colonel apprised of significant events on the bridge. What I didn’t know yet was how a mere Colonel could countermand an Admiral. Clarkson had never been the sharpest tool in the shed but even he knew rank structure.
“You will ignore the Admiral’s order and remain on your present course,” Clarkson said, as if he had the authority order it so.
I have to give her credit. Captain Deborah continued to play her part perfectly.
“Respectfully, Colonel, the Admiral outranks you.”
“Captain, for the duration of this mission, I have been placed in command by Mashuta Corporation. I assure you I take this command very seriously.”
That was an unexpected twist. To be honest, I had never heard of such a thing being done. On the other hand, if the major corporations had really made a power grab then they could pretty much write their own rules.
Clarkson appeared to enjoy lording over the Admiral. I could see he was every bit the pompous fool he had been as a major. I was looking forward to taking him down a notch.
The holographic image of the Admiral was replaced with that of my nemesis as he stepped between the Admiral and the holographic pickup.
“Admiral Forest be a good boy and rescind your order,” Clarkson said with his back to the Admiral.
What can I say; my buddy Colonel Clarkson knew how to influence people and make friends. Later when this mission was done, and Clarkson no longer had a corporate writ to hide behind… I saw the Admiral and Clarkson growing into real pals. I could see the Admiral encouraging… nay demanding the Colonel expand his horizons by learning to scrub toilets using nothing more than day-old dental floss.
“The order is… rescinded,” Forest spat.
I couldn’t see his eyes, but I imagined they smoldered with hate. Clarkson was too narcissistic to even notice.
Eight minutes and thirty second later…
***
Eight minutes and thirty seconds later, the lead ship in the Admiral’s armada hit the first of our gravitic mines. There were only a handful deployed but the bad guys didn’t know that. Arquat was carefully maneuvering them so they would be able to snag passing ships. We learned we had successfully caught one of our victims when the Appaloosa began to broadcast a fleet-wide order to slow to a halt.
We were ready with phase two.
“Open a channel to the other taskforce,” Captain Deborah said calmly.
I ticked off in my mind the number of things that could go wrong at this point. In fairness I tended to be a glass half full type of guy. That said I’ve always believed a problem anticipated was a problem avoided. Sadly, nothing I anticipated was even remotely similar to what was to happen in a few minutes.
“Channel open, Captain,” Arquat confirmed.
Admiral Forest was nowhere to be seen. Clarkson seemed to be in control of the bridge. To say he looked angry was an understatement. The next few minutes were among the hardest of my life. What was truly sad was that nobody would ever appreciate the struggle I endured as I fought not to break out in a grin that would have done the grinch who stole Christmas proud.
Captain Deborah leaned forward in her seat so as to be marginally closer to the holographic pickup. “Colonel, you need to order your ships to power down their engines, shields and weapons,” she said with every ounce of sincerity she could muster. I tell you; the woman deserved an Oscar.
“Are you insane Captain?” Clarkson spit. “Why in the world would I do that? We’re in the middle of a damned mind field.”
“Colonel, that is exactly my point. Those mines are drawn to power signatures. If your ships don’t go dark, they are all going to find themselves trapped.”
I watched as Clarkson leaned forward. He looked like a vulture ready to tear into some carrion laying on the side of the road. He wanted the easy meat, but at the same time he was afraid of the onrushing cars.
He was right to be wary. Our intent was to waltz in and put a bunch of holes in a number of his ships. If they were powered down and defenseless our job would be that much simpler. Of course, the key to making this work was to convince our hapless victims into helping us.
“What about the mines that have already attached themselves to the hulls of the Viper and Cobra?” Clarkson asked with suspicion in his voice.
“They can be dealt with by carefully
disarming them. It will require an EVA. One of our engineers, Lieutenant Moore, successfully disarmed one that had been attached to the Javan. He can talk your people through the procedure.”
“Very well, Captain. Have your man begin to work with the Viper and Cobra. I’ll have the Admiral order our ships to go dark.”
Step one complete, I thought to myself. Now it was time for step two.
“Colonel, one other thing. I’ve ordered my taskforce to close ranks on the Defiant. I intend to surround them with the Defiant’s shields. The mines are unable to penetrate her shields even when extended to three or four times their normal volume.
“I would suggest you order your ships to do the same. We’ll make our way to your position and all of us can make the jump to safety… if that plan meets with your approval.”
“Can your shields truly surround seventy ships?”
I watched the Captain pretend to work some numbers on a data pad before answering. When she did, it was another Oscar-worthy performance.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Colonel…”
Right, I thought. Step into my parlor and we’ll discuss dinner said the spider to the fly.
“… it’s going to be close. It will depend on how tightly your ships and mine can close ranks around the Defiant.”
Before Clarkson could answer the turbolift door to the Defiant’s bridge swished open. That’s when things began to go to hell in a handbasket.
Jesús was confused. The drugs he had been given to force him to rest prior to the surgery to replace a damaged lung had worn off too quickly. He, like a lot of the Battleborn, had been conditioned to shrug off such drugs. Unfortunately, fighting your way back to consciousness and negating the mind-altering effects of the drugs were two different things… thus, the confusion.
The ship had been involved in a battle. They might still be in a fight. They might even have been boarded. He had to help. His place was on the bridge; not sickbay. But first he needed to find a weapon.
Chapter 21: The Best Laid Plans…
“Who the hell are you?” Second Lieutenant Jesús Del Torres yelled while brandishing a standard issue Tamber and Wesson handgun. It wasn’t much of a weapon against a person wearing any type of body armor, but it would do a number an otherwise unprotected person… say an unfamiliar captain sitting in the Defiant’s command chair.
“Wooa Jesús,” I said calmly. “You know me. We’re all friends here. Put down the gun.”
Jesús looked at me and then around the small bridge with wild eyes.
“I don’t know any of you,” he said. “What happened to the Colonel?”
Jesús stepped closer to the command chair so he could practically put the gun directly in Captain Deborah’s face. The turbolift door swished shut. That’s when it occurred to me that I was wearing a holographic second skin. Of course, he didn’t recognize me.
To make matters worse, the entire show was being broadcast holographically. There was no way I could let the Lieutenant know who I really was.
I could see the Master Gunny start to stand up. My guess was she would try to rush the Lieutenant. That would be a bad move on a number of fronts. First, it would likely get the Captain or somebody else shot. Second, there was a good chance that Clarkson would recognize her.
The Gunny’s presence on the bridge wasn’t a big issue so long as she stayed off camera. Rushing Jesús would most certainly change all of that.
I tried to covertly look at the Master Gunny and shake my head slightly. It didn’t work. Jesús picked up on the motion. He grabbed the Captain’s chair and swiveled it around as he repositioned himself to continue to cover Deborah and face this new threat.
“What’s going on over there?” Clarkson’s holographic imaged barked.
“Just a moment, Colonel,” the Captain said. Her eyes remained glued on the gun ten centimeters from her face.
I was wondering how things could get worse when fate intervened and answered my question. The turbolift door swished open and out stepped one of the most recognizable faces in the known universe, her Highness Princess Tange Mumba.
Captain Deborah used the distraction to push the gun to one side while delivering a knee kick to the Lieutenant’s family jewels. This allowed Tange to rush forward and place a hypospray on his neck. In a few second,s it was all over and the lieutenant was safely unconscious.
Unfortunately, the damage was done. Clarkson had cut the holographic connection.
“Sir, the enemy is powering back up their main systems.”
I stood up. I noticed Horse’s holographic skin had disappeared. Apparently Arquat had determined it was no longer necessary to maintain the ruse.
I nodded to Captain Deborah.
“I think its time we switched seats.”
Rather than answer, she simply got up and stepped past me to assume my former station. During one of our many repair sessions most of the bridge’s control systems had been modified to closely approximate the standard layouts used by Battleborn ships. I had no worries that she wouldn’t be able to operate her station.
“OK,” I said. “I guess we move on to Plan B.”
“And what’s Plan B?” Horse asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not altogether sure. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”
I was weighing a number of options as I settled on my command chair. I had missed that chair. It was nice to be home. I caressed the armrest and made my decision.
“Helm set course to 1-1-2 mark 7. Increase to full sublight. Let’s see if we can’t catch a few of them while their pants are still down.”
***
At full sublight, the Defiant was quite a bit faster than anything the Empire could field. I think that might have accounted for catching as many of Clarkson’s ships with, as I said before, their metaphorical pants down.
Recycling a fusion reactor was not as simple as flipping a switch. It could be done quickly but not without the risk of seriously damaging the reactor in question. I’m guessing many if not most of the chief engineers thought they had a few more minutes to preheat the cores before bringing them online.
The Defiant ran through their ranks targeting their drive systems. We managed to take out twelve of their ships before any of them managed to bring their shields back online. We nailed ten more of the slowpokes. Sadly, that still left almost thirty ships to contend with.
The Defiant began to shudder as Clarkson’s fleet began to pound us. Our shields were second to none but there was only so much abuse they could take. We had managed to draw his fleet in close to the Appaloosa but that proximately was a double-edged sword.
It made our initial run much more effective. Unfortunately, because of Jesús ill-timed wakeup from his nap we didn’t have quite as much time to lay waste to our enemy as I had hoped. There was another downside to having all of Clarkson’s ships packed together more tightly than normal. They could concentrate their fire.
“Arquat what the status of our cloak?”
“Chief Michaels and I have them back up to ninety-three percent.”
“I’ll take it,” I said. “Master Gunny engage the cloak. Helm bring us about. Let’s have another run at them before they realize they can still barely see us.”
We were halfway through our next run when our luck ran out. As I said before, we had placed a handful of High-Fives along the path we expected the relief fleet to follow. Two of them had already found targets. A third was about to find its own target.
Our railgun put a hole in the butt-end of one of the nearest ships that had been targeting us. At about the same time one of the gravitic mines latched onto the same ship. The sudden gravitational flux combined with a kinetic round crashing through a major power junction was enough to trigger an explosion of the thermonuclear variety.
The Defiant was taking a massive number of simultaneous hits. Being as close as we were to a nuclear explosion was bad news.
The ship rocked violently. The light s flickered but th
en resumed full illumination. I could feel something different. The impacts we were taking seemed a little sharper… a little more intense.
I hit my comms for Engineering.
“Chief, we took a hell of a wallop just then. Give me a damage report.”
It was a brief moment before Michaels answered me.
“I’m still assessing things down here, Sir. We lost shields for a fraction of a second. I know at least two KEWs impacted the ablative armor on the hull. I’ve got a couple of warning lights on secondary systems but nothing major at the moment.”
“Very good Engineer. Keep me informed.”
“Aye Colonel… and Colonel one other thing.”
“Yes?” I prompted.
“The ship feels wrong. I can’t put my finger on it, but something changed when we took that last hit. I think we need to be careful.”
“I felt the same thing Chief,” I said. “And Chief… I’m always careful.”
“Colonel,” Horse interrupted. “The Javan and the rest of her taskforce are entering weapons range.”
“Timing is everything,” I grunted as the ship shook again.
We were definitely feeling the pounding a lot more than we had a few minutes ago. The good news was we had taken out six more of Clarkson’s fleet. The bad news was we still hadn’t gotten a shot at the Appaloosa.
“Arquat good buddy. The Engineer and I both think the ship feels funny. Are you seeing anything on your systems?”
“Affirmative Colonel. I’ve just shared with Chief Michaels that the forward phase discriminators are out of alignment by 0.0002 degrees.”
“How serious is it?”
“The variance reduces power efficiency. If it gets much worse, we may not be able to compensate by feeding more power into the shields.”
“Understood. Do we know what caused the variance?”
There was a pause. I began to grow concerned.
“Arquat? Do we know what caused the variance?” I repeated.