by David Smith
On-screen Dave smirked. ‘I remember saying that! I’m you, remember? Five days in my past . . . and that’s about one hour in your future . . . I took Tiger out of orbit and used the warped-drive to go back along the flight path of the Imperial fleet and intercept them a day before they arrived, and then took Tiger back from that point to intercept them another day before that . . . Are you with me?’
Dave hoped that he looked more confident then he felt ‘Uh . . . yes?’
‘Attaboy! Well off you go then, no sense in hanging about’ smiled his other self.
‘How do we stop the other ships? I mean, we’re stealthy and all, but we’re only one vessel . . . ‘
‘You’ll work it out. After all, I did.’
--------------------
It had taken half an hour to get everything back on line and running. They’d departed immediately, leaving ASBeau and his team on Rhino behind as they had nearly seven hundred personnel from the defeated Imperial fleet to control. They’d transfer all the healthy ones down with the Imperial Marines on what the crew now referred to as “Devil’s Island”’
Commander Romanov’s team had got the warp drive systems up and running first and they’d got underway, with a hundred and one other things needing to be repaired on the way.
Janus’ wound had been stitched and Lyle, Shearer and O’Mara were intact. Farnell wasn’t badly injured but had been taken to sick-bay for further treatment and Dave had called in Chief Karen Kosior as Navigator. Karen was one of a handful of ‘true loonies’, people who lived their lives on remote homesteads on Earth’s Moon and didn’t have the luxury of artificial gravity.
Growing up in one-sixth gee had made Karen very tall and slim, and unbelievably weak. Her two meter tall frame massed barely fifty-five kilos and required a cyberneticly operated exo-skeleton for her to be able to move freely in Tiger’s artificial gravity. It was a mark of Karen’s strength of character that she’d conquered her physical frailty to such an extent that she’d been able to gain a place on a Starship.
Karen plotted a course to intercept the Imperial fleet where they would have been one day prior to their encounter, and once they were underway, Dave called the senior staff for a conference in the Officer’s Mess.
It was odd not seeing familiar faces like Crash and ASBeau, but he knew he could rely on the team he had.
‘Ok team. I’m going to go through this slowly as it takes some getting used to. We’re travelling at faster than warp six, so we’re now travelling backwards in time. We’re moving in a huge arc and will intercept the Imperial fleet we defeated today exactly one day ago.’
There was a fair amount of head scratching and shrugging of shoulders, but Dave elected to carry on.
‘As well as the ships we met and defeated earlier, there will be other ships with the fleet, and logically these are the ships we need to attack, because we know we’ll be successful against them.’
More blank looks.
Dave thought he’d best clarify this point.
‘If they didn’t make it as far as the battle near Todot Hahn it must be because they’d already been stopped somewhere else. The best explanation would be that we must have attacked them and put them out of action before they got to Todot Hahn.’
There were a gratifying variety of ‘Oh yeah!’ and ‘Ah, right!’ type responses.
‘Now comes the hard part of this. How do we stop a fleet of ships, whilst inflicting minimum casualties?’
Janus had his eyes closed and was trying to visualize how the engagement would take place. ‘It’ll be like it was when we revisited the test range. If we come in at a warped-speed so we’re still travelling backwards in time, we should see the damaged ships first, because we’ll have hit them before we arrived. Oww! I’ve got headache just thinking about it.’
All eyes turned to O’Mara, who seemed to have a better grasp of these things. ‘Yeah he’s right. If we fire torpedoes, they’ll exist going forwards in time outside our warp-field, but backwards inside our field and intersect at the warp-field boundary.’
It was clear that no-one was any the wiser, but suddenly O’Mara brightened. ‘Hey, we’re over-thinking this!!’
More blank looks.
‘Look, Hollins-from-five-days-in-the-future told us that we needed to go back and intercept some other ships. He’d already done it successfully by the time he caught up with us at Todot Hahn.’
Still blank looks.
O’Mara tried again ‘It really doesn’t matter too much what we try, because we know it worked. Hollins-from-five-days-in-the-future proved that it did, because if it hadn’t, any ships we didn’t stop would have arrived at Todot Hahn along with the five that did. It’s obvious!’
Looking at the sceptical faces around the table, Dave could see that it clearly wasn’t.
Janus voiced his concerns. ‘That’s ridiculous! You’re telling me I could attack a heavy cruiser with a damned haggis, and it would work, because that ship didn’t show up at Todot Hahn?’
O’Mara rolled her eyes. ‘Well, you’re just being silly now. All I’m suggesting is that we do what feels right and it almost certainly will be.’
Dave heard a word that made him feel distinctly uncomfortable ‘Almost?’
O’Mara blushed and quietly added ‘Well there’s no absolute definite proof it’ll work. If we stuff it up somehow we might . . . kind of . . . just possibly . . . create an alternative universe?‘
The whole room erupted.
Janus was still talking about challenging the ships with kitchen utensils and bits of furniture. Romanov was noisily trying to ensure the Susan hadn’t been involved in the scheme. Shearer was very animated about something although Dave couldn’t understand what. O’Mara was trying to ease everyone’s concerns and just making things worse.
Dave sighed and looked at the badly repaired chair that he’d smashed just a few weeks back. He’d come prepared this time and picked up the air-horn he’d left under the desk as a precaution. It was amazing what Chief Money could provide at very short notice.
The strident note was deafening in the small space, but at least it caught everyone’s attention and no chairs were sacrificed in the name of peace and quiet.
‘This is getting us nowhere. Janus, Lyle, sketch out a plan to attack at warp speed with torpedoes. I want a single pass where we get close enough to the Imperial ships that we can place the torpedoes accurately to disable the ships without destroying them. Can we do that?’ Dave said looking pointedly at Janus and Lyle.
They looked at each other, and Janus said ‘Yes, but . . . ‘
Dave didn’t want to get back into it, and interrupted him ‘No buts. Just plan the attack, we’ll execute it at T minus twenty four hours. That should be . . . around . . . 2200 ships time this evening. Dismissed.’
The thoroughly chastened team filed out and Dave turned off the lights and sat rubbing his throbbing temples for a few minutes. He hated time travel.
At least the crew were being pragmatic about it, and he decided that having chastised the phaser crew yesterday, he owed them a vote of thanks for a job well done in the battle near Todot Hahn. He took the lift down to Deck 11 and stepped out into the small lobby between the three phaser banks.
He could hear voices coming from somewhere and stepped closer to the door of the forward phaser compartment where Chief Amiss usually briefed her crew.
Inside he could hear PO Bent’s loud and distinctive voice.
‘Yeah, it was dead fucking romantic! We went out through the back door of the club where all the bins were. It was all softly lit ‘cause some wanker had smashed half the street lights. We kissed and cuddled, and I heard those three little words . . . ‘
‘Aww! That’s so sweet!’ cooed Amiss.
‘ . . . “Fancy a shag?” And it wasn’t just, like, y’know, sex. It was all intimate and loving and . . . just . . . wow! I was so lost in the moment that it wasn’t until we ordered pizza that I remembered to ask if they all played fo
r the same team!’
Mercedes sighed deeply and continued. ‘I’m quite prim and proper about all that shit: I mean, what kind of slapper sleeps around different football teams? That would really fuck-up their team spirit, know what I mean?’
Amiss was temporarily speechless, but managed to ask politely ‘So have you . . . all . . . stayed in contact?’
‘After a fashion’ sighed Mercedes, ‘the clinic needed the names and contact details for all of my sexual partners to head off an epidemic of gonorrhoea . . . ‘
Dave shook his head and opened the door.
‘Good morning team, I thought I’d just pop down and tell you all . . . where’s Holden?’
Chief Amiss blushed slightly ‘She’s knocked off early. She was late on duty this morning and always makes a point of not being late twice in the same day sir.’
Dave sighed, and continued. ‘As I was saying . . . hang on, where’s Staines?’
‘He thinks he’s suffering from “Post Traumatic Stress”, sir. Had to go and have a little lie down’ confided Amiss.
‘PTS?’ whispered Bent ‘more like PMS for that fucking pussy.’
Dave was beginning to wish he’d not bothered. ‘Well anyway, I just came down . . . Walsh isn’t here either, is she?’
‘Up in Sick-bay having her venom-sacks milked!!’ laughed Hart.
Everyone else on the team gawped at her open-mouthed.
‘WHAT??’ growled Hart, before coming clean. She sighed and admitted to Dave ‘Ok, we had . . . a bit of a disagreement, and things got a bit heated and out of hand. But she’ll be down as soon as the medics put her teeth back in!’
Dave scowled at Chief Amiss, who could only shrug meekly and make an excuse. ‘Phaedra did say sorry. And she even helped Karen to find her teeth!’
‘And what’ asked Dave, already knowing he’d regret hearing the answer ‘was the reason for the altercation?’
Hart was in full teenage-sulk mode ‘It was her fault! She was mouthing off as always and just wouldn’t shut up, putting everyone down. I told her that talk was cheap and the stupid bitch said I was too’ grumbled Hart.
Dave actually had something of a soft spot for Hart and raised a questioning eye-brow in her direction.
Phaedra groaned and rolled her eyes in exasperation. She knew the routine only too well: ‘I know, I know . . . I’m on a charge . . . aggravated assault . . . disciplinary hearing to follow.’
She put on a fake smile and asked ‘Shall I skip the hearing and just go straight to the Brig for a week?’
‘What??’ said Dave in mock horror ‘And miss my thirty minute lecture about unacceptable behaviour, anger management, turning the other cheek, and generally . . . well . . . not hitting people?’
She rolled her eyes again ‘Do I really have to?’
‘Yes’ Dave replied very firmly. ‘But if it’s any consolation, Walsh will have to ignore exactly the same sermon.’
‘Gee. Thanks’ she mumbled.
By now Dave just wanted out. He turned and headed out, saying ‘Good job this morning. Keep it up’ just before the door closed behind him.
Chapter 14
At 2130 ship’s time the senior staff gathered on the Bridge. Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara was already there, having spent the last few hours checking and recalibrating the ship’s sensors for the upcoming attack.
As they took their seats, Dave asked ’Ok Janus, what’s the plan?’
Still sceptical, Janus huffily replied ‘We’re going to assume that we’ll attack the frigates to start with. It’ll require a great deal of precision as we need to detonate the torpedoes before they hit the ship. They’ll most likely be running with shields down and, if so, a direct hit with a torpedo might completely destroy the ship. We figure a torpedo detonated under the main hull between the engines will do enough damage to definitely disable the warp engines, but leave the ships systems more or less intact. Even with a top notch crew it’ll probably take them a week to fix the drive and they’ll have to head straight to the nearest Star-base for permanent repairs.’
Dave nodded ‘And you’re happy you can hit the spot?’
‘Yes sir. Me and Lyle talked it through’ said Janus.
Lyle nodded her agreement and then abruptly grabbed the edges of the helm console and began to pant gently.
Sighing, Janus continued. ‘They won’t know we’re there until after it happens, so unless they’re making completely random course corrections, they’ll be moving in a dead straight and very predictable line. Lyle will bring us within a few hundred meters on a parallel course both heading towards Todot Hahn. The fact we’re going backwards in time and they’re going forwards will make us pass each other in an instant. It’ll be down to Susan to launch and detonate the torpedoes as the target window will only be trillionths of a second, but that’s within her capabilities.’
Dave scratched his head. ‘Ok, let’s make it happen’
‘If O’Mara’s theory is right sir, we already did’ grumbled Janus.
--------------------
At 2154, the Tiger’s long range scanners detected the mass signatures of a group of heavy ships that were completely stationary in space.
Lyle checked the data, and seeing it was completely as predicted, turned Tiger onto a parallel course that would pass the other vessels within a few hundred meters and decelerated so that they were travelling as slowly as they could while still travelling backwards in time.
As the range decreased, O’Mara increased sensor resolution and Janus could pick out the signatures of individual vessels. The four cruisers were in a tight diamond formation, with the scout following them but some distance astern. At first she could find no sign of any frigates, but then realised that the scout was in close proximity to two wrecked vessels that showed no signs of power, but then began reversing away from them quickly.
Janus nominated his targets and fed the data into the tactical system ‘Possible targets selected sir. Susan, are you set?’
‘Yes, Lieutenant Janus.’
‘Then fire when ready’ said Janus. Dave noticed he had his fingers crossed as he said it.
There was a pregnant pause of a few seconds and just when Dave was about to ask what was happening, there were two audible thumps as the Bay launched the two torpedoes.
As planned, Lyle accelerated the Tiger and turned away from the Imperial ships.
Janus was watching developments ‘The whole fleet has just gone into warp sir, with an extra pair of frigates travelling with them.
Dave was quite sure what had happened and said ‘Susan, can you replay the engagement in reverse at slow speed please.’
‘Of course Commander’ said the computer sounding disconcertingly smug and distinctly condescending.
On the screen, a group of seven red dots scurried across the display, on an apparent collision course with a single blue dot at the other side of the screen. As the range closed, the display zoomed in and the Bridge crew could pick out the names and types of the individual vessels. On the flat two-dimensional display Tiger’s blue dot seemed to pass right through the formation of red dots. When she was at her closest, two tiny blue crosses appeared in the middle of nowhere, but immediately split into four, two heading towards Tiger’s blue dot and two heading towards a pair of frigates at the rear of the formation of red dots.
The two heading towards Tiger quickly disappeared, but the two heading towards red dots showed a sudden flare and two of the red dots turned grey. Almost immediately, the rest of the red dots dropped out of warp-space and the scout vessel at the rear of the group turned about and went back to assist the stricken frigates whilst the cruisers stood off at a distance, shields and weapons ready.
‘So it all went to plan Susan?’ asked Dave uncertainly.
‘Indeed Commander, exactly as predicted’ replied the ship’s computer.
Janus looked distinctly unimpressed and turned back to his console ignoring the smug and very pointed ‘I told you so‘ look on O’Ma
ra’s face.
Even Shearer seemed happier ‘Hawaay, et al makes sense now! Jus befor we attackt ah intahcepted a message ta ISS Everest. They askter to picoop sahvivaz.’
‘Ok team, excellent work. Now all we have to do is plan another attack that will disable more vessels without raising undue suspicion from the Imperial Commander. And we need to attack at around T minus forty-eight hours . . . ‘
--------------------
Tiger hung in real space, directly in the flight path of the oncoming Imperial fleet.
Janus and Lyle had suggested that they probably hadn’t tried a torpedo attack the day before as there was nothing in the movement of the fleet they’d seen that suggested they were wary of such a possibility.
They’d pondered long and hard what else might have gone before but it wasn’t until Commander Romanov mentioned PO Park’s name in conversation that Dave had a ‘light-bulb’ moment.
They’d over-taken the Imperial fleet and seen unusual movements and events that didn’t make sense at first. The fleet had stood in space for quite some time, before moving off, leaving the largest vessel behind. Once PO Park’s name was mentioned, they’d planned their strategy and found that everything made perfect sense if you knew what you were looking at.
Janus had looked up the standard distress messages of a variety of Federation vessels, but there were only a small number of ships that they definitely knew had equivalents in this universe. These were the vessels they’d already faced at Todot Hahn, the fleet that was currently facing them, the vessels they’d encountered at the Magistrate’s Starbase, and ISS Tiger.
They’d shut everything off and were transmitting ISS Tiger’s distress signals. In the blackness of deep-space, Tiger was completely invisible, a black body in a black space with nothing to give away her position. Except for the transmission of a low-power distress signal.
On Tiger’s Bridge PO Park Si Yung sat next to Lieutenant Shearer, waiting nervously.
The Comms Officer patiently looped the request for assistance. To add depth to their deception, she deliberately added layers of static and interference. Anyone receiving the signal would have to filter this out to be able to hear the signal properly.