Badlands

by Randal Sloan

  Still, Jarra smiled when she thought of Lieutenant Commander Jason Cauldwell. She'd really enjoyed that evening with him, notwithstanding the efforts of the two fathers. I wonder what Jason's up to. It would be nice to see him again sometime.

  After taking a sip of her coffee, she looked up to see all of them looking at her expectantly. "Sorry, guys," she told them with a smile and she quickly opened a 3D VR window against the galley wall.

  "We have a new mission," she told everyone as a wide spacial view of the South Basil Rim District appeared. "We are going to the Basil District. We have pirates to hunt down and an admiral that needs us to show to the galaxy he's the traitor we know he is. Admiral Conrad Janson, the Empire's highest representative in charge of the naval forces in the District. Oh, and while we're at it, expose any rebels that are working with him, and find the pirate base."

  She smiled at their reactions. "Nobody ever said our job was going to be easy. But I've come up with a plan. We're going undercover."

  That caught them all by surprise. "Two separate undercover operations. I will be going undercover in the Imperial Navy and the rest of you will be going after the pirates, undercover as a merchant vessel. Neither job is going to be easy, but I believe we can do it."

  Master Sergeant Gibbons interrupted before she could go any farther. He gave her a fierce look. "No way we're sending you off alone, Your Highness. I have very specific orders regarding that."

  "I know, Master Sergeant," Jarra told him softly. "I would never put you in that position. Unfortunately, I can't take the whole squad; you know that. It would set off too many flags. Prior to the mission, you and I will choose two Marines to go with me. We'll easily be able to fake their transfers to the admiral's ship at the same time as my transfer."

  "So I assume it will be your mission to go after Admiral Janson?" the Master Sergeant asked.

  "Yes, Sasha's evidence is more than enough information to convince me. We just need the evidence to prove that to the rest of the galaxy.

  "But we digress. Sasha will assume command of the Katarina and she'll be flying under the disguise of a merchant ship traveling slightly off the main ship-lane." For the moment, she ignored Sasha's reaction. "We're going to let it out that she's carrying hi-end AI components, something we expect our friends will find much too tempting to resist.

  "Yes, Sasha, I know you don't believe you can handle being in command, but I know you can. You're also the only one of us brought up in the merchant business and so you know how to fly the Katarina as if she's a merchant ship instead of a warship."

  "Sara and Gabo, the two of you will be responsible for coming up with a disguise for the ship that will defeat all but a close inspection. Sara, if you get the EW signature right, they won't look very closely anyway. They'll see what they expect to see unless we give them something to make them think otherwise."

  She grew serious as she looked over the group. "I've been warned that this mission is going to be much more difficult than it appears to be on the surface. There's a good chance we won't all return safely, if any of us do. I must ask, knowing that, does anyone wish to sit this one out?"

  She looked across the group. Not a one appeared to even consider her offer, not that she was surprised. Just like her, they would all do their duty, no matter the risk. She wished she could protect them all.

  "Somehow I knew you all would react that way. Very well, besides the Master Sergeant's very valid concern, what do you see will be a problem and what can we do to resolve it?"

  Before anyone could say anything, Greg blurted out, "I need to be one of the Marines going with you, Your Highness."

  Beside him, Maze jumped in, "If he goes, I'm going too. Despite the fact he can still kick my butt at everything we've tried, he's too young to be out on his own like that. He'll need someone to look after him."

  Jarra frowned, but she turned it into a crooked smile. "You're both actually right. You would be the two easiest to sell as transfers. It's a shame you didn't make the grade for the squad, Corporal Sarbensky." The last she said with a twinkle in her eyes, telling him she wasn't serious. "Let me talk it over with the Master Sergeant, and we'll let the two of you know."

  "What else, guys?"

  Galen was quick to get into the game. He'd already been thinking through how he needed to do his part of the mission. "You're planning to get them to lead us to their pirate lair, aren't you? I assume you're going to have a few stealth Imperial ships following us?"

  "Yes, that's correct. Although obviously our ship could handle a single attacker, we want to catch the lot of them and we'll need help to do that. They're still putting a squadron together for that, but you can assume that we'll have help for that part of the mission."

  "We're going to have to find a way to disguise the signature of our reactor," Gabo told her. "Our power curve is much too high."

  "Yes, and there's several other things you'll have to do to pull it off. But I know this team can do it."

  When there weren't any other questions, everyone just looking thoughtful as he or she considered their part in the mission, Jarra went on, "Good. We still have to work through it all, so I'm sure some of the details will change. We need to be ready to go in one week, so that's your deadline unless you run into some major snag."

  Jarra gave them a wicked smile. "Just to let you know, we're going to be testing your work against my cousin's squadron, so make sure you get it right. I can't wait to see the expression on his face when he escorts the little merchant ship into his protection."

  "Dismissed everyone. Master Sergeant, let's you and I get that discussion of ours over with now. In my stateroom, I believe, where it would be safer away from the listening ears around here."

  Jarra's stateroom being next door, she led the way in. That was the one advantage of a small ship.

  "You're going to be the death of me," the team heard the Master Sergeant say rather vehemently as the door closed. As one, they were all glad they weren't involved in that conversation.

  #

  Jarra smiled at her team as they prepared to test their camouflage as a merchant ship against the High Imperial Squadron accompanying Prince John. Everyone agreed that they were ready; Jarra believed them as she'd watched every step of their preparations. She was already anticipating the surprise when she flashed a missile lock on her cousin's super-dreadnought.

  Her team wasn't quite as confident as Jarra, but they had also all done their homework. Each had done his or her part to put together the systems to pull it off.

  Gabo had been responsible for all the physical changes needed. From additional shielding on the reactors to hide their extremely powerful signature to the cladding they added to the hull to make it look more like a merchant ship, he had been involved in detail. Other systems required minor tweaks such as disguises to hide their weapon ports. Those were designed as a one time use item, since if they had to resort to weapons, there was no point in planning to maintain a disguise. The space cat would be out of the bag, he pointed out.

  Sara was responsible for their electronic signature. In addition to the shields Gabo had completed to hide their power signature, Sara added electronic warfare signature modifications to hide them to other ships' sensors. Such a signature was probably 95 percent of the game.

  Sasha was able to draw from her merchant experience growing up to help Sara make the EW signature more accurate. She was able to take advantage of all the time she'd spent learning from her father, something she'd thought she'd never use, but she showed Sara all the tricks she knew.

  At first Galen had thought he would get off easy on this job, but he soon realized he had a daunting challenge too. Their ship movements were much too precise for a merchant ship, which to him seemed to be terribly bad in their movements, almost wallowing along. He finally resorted to an AI overlay that would generate the appropriate level of reaction to a course change. That way, he could drop the behavior in an instant if necessary.

  "It's time," Jarra an
nounced. "Everyone to their station."

  She turned to smile at her team. "There's a bonus for each of you if you get us all the way to my cousin's super-dreadnought without detection and we're able to obtain missile lock."

  Sasha couldn't help but gasp at that. She shook her head. "You're crazy!" she blurted out. "No way we can do it."

  "Have faith, Sasha. I believe we can and will," Jarra told her.

  "But the odds are huge against us, you've got to know that."

  Jarra looked at her newest team member with a smile. "This is the one time your amazing ability to analyze data will let you down," she told her. "It doesn't take into account this very special ship or the even more special team that operates it."

  She smiled at Sasha. "I tell you what. Let's you and I make a side bet. Just in private, the winner gets to ask the loser one question and she has to answer it truthfully."

  Sasha just looked at her a moment. She suspected she knew what the question to her would be. Nevertheless, she was in it too deep to back down, although she still thought she was right. So she nervously answered, "Sure, I'll take your bet, Princess."

  "Done," Jarra answered. She looked around the group. They all had eager looks on their faces. Good. "Alright, let's get this show on the road."

  Turning back around to her station, she sent her plot to Galen. "Galen, we need to be in this position just ahead of the Imperial Navy ships, say in five minutes."

  "Already prepped," Galen answered as he sent the plotted course to her. He had obviously anticipated her request.

  They had been shadowing her cousin's squadron for the last few hours, running in their newly improved stealth mode. Gabo swore there was no way they could detect them and Jarra believed him. So far, in every test their stealth systems had worked perfectly, even at full speed. They could have used that ability in the past, Jarra knew. Some of their close calls wouldn't have been so close.

  Jarra sent the new course to the AI and told it to execute it. She was still getting used to that, always wanting to get hands on, but she'd quickly realized by letting the AI do those menial tasks, it freed her up to do more important things. Such as looking at everything from a slightly more removed viewpoint.

  She knew her little side bet with Sasha was a bit much in some ways, but she'd let her competitiveness get the better of her. But in hindsight, it was the perfect choice, giving the team just a little more incentive to make the impossible happen.

  "Gabo, as soon as we reach our position, be prepared to drop our speed to the agreed level and switch everything from stealth mode to camouflage mode. We'll be just at the edge of their sensors a few seconds later and we wouldn't want them to get a clear view of us, not even for a single second."

  Gabo smiled. "Already done. It will switch automatically, something I just finished setting up last night."

  "Why am I not surprised?" Jarra murmured in response. "Do what you said," she told him.

  She switched her attention to the AI next, "AI, broadcast message 'Merchant Distress Call Alpha' as soon as we are hailed by the Imperial Squadron." She paused, then clarified her order. AI's were so literal. It would have responded instantly, blowing their cover to start with. "Make that ten seconds after receiving the message. Don't want to appear to be too eager."

  Sasha couldn't help but smile at that. She had worked with Jarra to come up with those fake messages, using her experience from working with her father to fine tune those messages. Wouldn't want to give it away on "Hello"; no that wouldn't do at all.

  Dang, Sasha thought. I actually hope I lose this bet. It would be payback for a lot of hard work. Besides, it's not like John and I are trying to keep it a secret. I should have just come clean with Jarra. I could use her help, I suspect. Although I know he's very special, John is also a very complex man.

  Sasha's musing was interrupted as they reached the target coordinates and a lot of things started happening at once. As Gabo said, the ship switched from stealth to camouflage mode automatically. Sasha immediately began actively monitoring their EW signature, making sure it was looking like it should. Everything was perfect but she'd watch it closely nevertheless.

  As Jarra expected, a hail came a couple of seconds later. Whoever was in charge of John's squadron sensor screen was good; they were quick to detect their ship and send a challenge hail. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the content of the hail.

  "Merchant ship. This is Imperial Squadron Gamma 31. Please identify yourself. Your rate of speed indicates possible distress, so please provide us with a status of your situation."

  Jarra had a variety of options displayed for her reply, but she left the standard reply the AI had been given. "Imperial squadron. Merchant ship Kominado here. Are we glad to see you. We are suffering from a weak hyperspace coil and could use your help. We're carrying perishable supplies for the Epsilon Delta colony and they're desperately in need of them."

  Everyone held their breath for the reply. If the squadron determined the situation didn't warrant their squadron slowing to the Katarina's speed, the whole thing would be for naught. Finally, the message came in.

  "Kominado, maintain your current speed. Come to the following course and we will send a team to assist you."

  The second critical component of their plan came to the forefront. Galen initiated the course they wanted, using the merchant overlay on his systems with a little extra help. Their ship made its course change as requested, but it did it slowly and appeared to miss the requested course. Then they had it overcompensate, bringing them closer to the Imperial squadron. Their hope was that the sensor tech would just laugh at the pitiful merchantman and not demand they improve their course.

  With their new sensor system, they had to get within sight of the Dauntless but not what was normally considered missile range. After the first seconds passed without an additional challenge, Galen initiated the second planned course. Basically, they wallowed back and forth on their course, momentarily moving further away and then back a little closer.

  "Nearly there," Gabo announced. "One more oscillation should do it."

  "Kominado, please correct your course," suddenly dashed their hopes for the simple solution.

  Jarra waited a couple of seconds and sent the reply they had anticipated might be needed. "Sorry, my son was on the Con. I thought the slow speed was a good time for him to learn. Please forgive us. He's only nine." They'd inserted a pause as if he hadn't intended to leave the com on, with the AI speaking just a little lower as if he'd leaned away from the pickup. "Fix your course, son. We don't want an Imperial unhappy with us—"

  Only then did Jarra cut the connection and Galen initiated the last planned course change. Basically, they wanted it to look like the boy panicked and sent them the wrong direction.

  "Almost there," Gabo whispered. "Just a little more."

  "Kominado, this is your last warning. If you don't come to the requested course, we will be forced to take action—"

  The man never got to finish his sentence. Gabo yelled excitedly, "Got him! Dropping camouflage and initiating one second missile lock."

  To the astonishment of the super-dreadnought Dauntless, the flagship of the Imperial Navy and the current transport of the Crown Prince John Dansi Von Hasson, they suddenly found themselves looking at not a merchant ship, but a fully armed warship glistening with missile ports and they had them locked up in full missile lock, setting off all kinds of alarms. Katarina held their lock only that split second.

  Jarra smiled at Sara. "Best get them right quick on the com. After all, we don't want them shooting back!"

  #

  John had been just about to call his cousin to check on her when alarms started going off on board the Dauntless. Someone had just hit them with a missile lock. It only took a second for it to register what had happened. That sneaky little devil!

  The Katarina had left earlier that morning for another run. Jarra had that look on her face that told him she was up to something when she c
alled him to say they were going back out to test their systems. That should have had him paying better attention, but he had been rather preoccupied trying to figure out how they were going to complete their part of the upcoming mission.

  Somehow, John had to slip his squadron of ships into the Basil District without letting anyone know that they were there. Yet he knew his cousin. He needed to stay close enough to her ship to reach her when she found the trouble she always seemed to find.

  Luckily, John was already on the bridge, so that saved him the embarrassment of having to rush there when the alarms went off. He was embarrassed enough as it was. Looking around the bridge, he could easily spot the ones that were smart enough to figure out what had happened. They were the ones with a look of chagrin on their faces instead of fear or anger.

  "I have a call from Crown Princess Jarra," the com officer told him.

  "Cancel the alert," he told him. "Connect me with the Katarina. She's done it again; once more getting the best of me. This time you lot get to enjoy it with me."

  He smiled as he saw the look pass across the bridge as the ones that hadn't caught on before began to realize what had happened. "We might as well get this over with," he told them.

  #

  Sara didn't have any problem getting a quick connection to the Dauntless. After all, she had Jarra's Imperial codes. "You have them on the com," she told Jarra.

  Jarra smiled into the VR pickup. "Crown Princess Jarraosa Christinee Von Hasson here, on Imperial ship Katarina. I believe you owe me a drink, dear cousin."

  It was a few seconds before John came on the com. He had quite a look of chagrin on his face. "Dang it, Jarra. You scared us all half to death. I take it you've got your new camouflage working? For goodness sakes, come aboard. I've got a few officers that are going to have to eat crow and I don't know anyone better than you to feed it to them."