Badlands

by Randal Sloan

  At first the two had to fight the same resentment they'd faced on the Relentless, but by the time they'd finished the third ship the talk across the squadrons had reached the point where they were welcomed with open arms. The result of all this work was that with the help of their implants they were able to complete a detailed work plan to send back to Imperial HQ. As ships came in for maintenance, they would receive the upgrades. Jarra insisted the pieces of the work that were key to the technology be kept top secret. She wanted to keep that from their enemies as long as possible.

  While that was going on, she had Sara and Sasha working to gather all the data available on the Badlands and compile it into a single data stream. Added to that were the scans the Katarina had done of the areas they had flown across. When everything came together, it allowed Sasha to work through the patterns to produce a surprising complete overview of the entire area.

  The key to Jarra's idea on how to find the pirate base was that there were a limited number of entry points into the Badlands that were safe for travel by the pirates. Although the aliens had superior standard shields so as to not be at risk for destruction by the complex hyper flows within the Badlands, they still didn't have the technological breakthrough Katarina had discovered. They could use the delta band to travel but nothing above that. Those paths had to be what they had given to the pirates and not all of them would work because the pirate ships had much lower shields.

  Sasha hadn't believed she could do it, but before they were finished she knew the Princess was right, as usual. Buried within the Badlands was a tiny little planetary system that to call it inhospitable was generous. Most of the planets that had originally orbited the tiny red dwarf had been shredded by the violent environment except for one gas giant that was still there. Orbiting that gas giant was a single small moon that happened to fall within the region protected by the giant's electromagnetic field. It wasn't habitable but a base could survive there with domes for protection. But all the data patterns pointed to that system and that tiny moon was the only possible location for the pirate base.

  Jarra had the Katarina make a quick mission under stealth into the Badlands to scan that system, with the stipulation they were not to attempt to enter the system or to do anything to give themselves away. Gabo had his job cut out for him as he operated the scanners. He had to depend primarily on passive sensors, although he was able to slip a few active scans in all the background noise of the Badlands. Those scans told him a lot, enough to tell everyone Jarra was right.

  Only prep work remained. Jarra's plan was beginning to come together.

  #

  Now that she was able to get around on her own, Jarra had a visit to make. She went to see her boys in the medical rejuvenation center, usually called the "tanks" because of the huge tanks that the patients were placed in while their new limbs were regrown.

  Most of the time the patients were kept sedated because, although the procedure was not painful, the process of fast-growing a missing limb was not a pleasant experience. Jarra asked the medical techs to awaken the two for a few moments.

  Both young men immediately gave her nervous smiles. Neither had kept hidden the admiration and respect they had for their Princess, and it was extremely difficult to be trapped in the tanks so that they couldn't offer the bow they normally would deliver.

  "I'm so sorry you have to be here," Jarra told them with a sad smile. "But know that I very much appreciate what the two of you did to protect the others during the accident. Without a doubt some, if not all of them, wouldn't be here but for you."

  "I'm also putting you both in for the Medal of Valor," she smiled at their reactions, knowing they would both want to claim that they didn't deserve it. To prevent that discussion, she immediately continued, "which we all know you deserve, so I expect no argument."

  "Your Highness, we were only doing our duty," Maze had to try anyway. "It is the duty of Marines to always protect others," he told her, quoting from the book.

  Jarra's smile grew bigger. She had them now. "Yes, it is, but your duty does not include throwing yourselves in front of a crashing shuttle. Nevertheless, I know you only did what you had to do, which is why the medal is so appropriate. It represents who you are now as shown by what you did without thought for yourselves.

  "I'm also here to offer you each the opportunity to receive a medical retirement with full pay after your rejuvenation is complete. Included in that is a full pardon for the crimes which each of you originally committed to face mandatory enlistment."

  She smiled again at their reactions. Neither of them had known of the other's past. She wasn't going to reveal it here, but she suspected they would now both want to share that.

  Both tried to speak at once, but finally Maze, as the senior of the two, spoke. "No, ma'am, that will not be necessary. The Corp is now my home and I still owe you my best at trying to repay you for accepting and helping me."

  Greg nodded. "I feel the same way, and I know how much I owe you." He smiled at his friend. "Besides, who'd be there to look out for this knucklehead and keep him out of trouble?"

  Maze smiled back at him, "He's got it backwards, I need to be there to watch out for him, but his point is valid. We're a team, a team dedicated to serving the Crown and our Princess, as long as you'll have us."

  Jarra just shook her head. "I knew the both of you would say that, but I had to offer it. If you do change your minds, just let me know. For now, I just want the two of you to concentrate on getting better."

  "We thank you for your concern, Your Highness," Maze told her. "We'll be out of here in a couple of weeks, and then we have rehab, but we'll be back to you as soon as we can."

  Jarra smiled. "You'd better work hard," she told them. "We never did finish that match I had with the two of you. I've still got a couple of butts to kick."

  "We'll be ready for you, Your Highness. Although, someday you just watch out for it, we're going to get you." Maze laughed. He quickly went on, "By get you, I only mean we'll find a way to score a point on you. We'll never beat you."

  Jarra laughed with him. "Lucky for me, you're in there." She pointed to the equipment she still had to carry around with her. "Otherwise, you'd probably score that point today."

  She turned to leave. "Just get well, and know we all miss you," she told them. She had to hurry out, lest they see her tears.

  #

  When all the prep work was finished, Jarra called what she considered the core group together on Prince John's super-dreadnought. She limited it to her team, which now included Jason and Amy, Crown Prince John, his squadron commodore and the captains of the two super-dreadnoughts. Still not one hundred percent, she was pretty much her normal self again and knew it was time to finish it.

  She smiled at the group as they all settled in at the table in John's briefing room. She'd already made herself a coffee and had a few sips, so she was ready to go.

  "Thank you all for coming. This is a working meeting so I expect none of that 'Your Highness' nonsense and I demand you give me your brutally honest opinions." She looked specifically at the two Captains, who nodded.

  "First, I want to thank my team for all their hard work. We believe we've pinpointed the location of the pirate base," she pointed to the moon in the 3D VR display she'd already opened, "and although it won't be easy, I believe we can take them all out."

  Smiling as everyone stared in disbelief at the insane display in front of them, she went on, "I'll let you all look over it a moment before I try to answer all your questions."

  Galen was the first to speak up. This was the first time he'd seen the full detailed plot and he knew he would be the one trying to navigate their ships into the area. "Isn't that a black hole in front of the main entrance to the system from hyperspace?"

  "Yes, it is and the other primary entry point is partially blocked by a neutron star. I suspect that the second entry is what the pirates use and it's probably mined."

  "Then how can anyone possibly get in there
? Not even I can navigate through a black hole and without the codes, the minefield will be impassible. The neutron star will make it bad enough."

  "Yes, although eventually we could probably capture one of the pirates and get the codes, that would take too long. No, there's a third entry point." She highlighted it in red.

  Galen stared at it for several moments. It was severely limited but it was barely passible. "I can probably get the Katarina in there, but not the rest of the ships. What's your plan here?"

  "You're exactly right. Our whole plan is contingent on Katarina making her way under stealth through the third entryway, disabling the minefield and any other fixed defenses they have. Once we've done that, we'll bring in the rest of the ships. Amy should be able to navigate the rest of the squadron through the second entry point. Piece of cake for her." She smiled at her friend.

  "Before I go any further, I need to know if the rest of you think we can pull it off." She looked at the group. She believed they could do it but she had to know if they believed it too. She also needed their pool of knowledge.

  "I assume you want me to hack the minefield?" Sara asked her. She highlighted the section of space near the neutron star. "Based on the EM traffic, the control center has to be in orbit around the neutron star, although they would have to have a couple of transmission relays in orbit to handle the minefield while the control center's orbit takes it behind the neutron star. If you can get me close enough, I can hack it, easy enough."

  Galen quickly answered for Jarra. "That shouldn't be a problem for us. Once we're out of hyper, as long as we don't have to get near either the black hole or neutron star, navigation should be easy."

  Gabo had his own set of questions. "Based on the energy signatures, I expect their fixed defenses include missile launchers, mass drivers and probably another one of the alien beam weapons. Nothing we haven't seen before. The problem is once we get close to the base, I'll have to use passive only sensors and I'll never find all of their defenses without active sensors."

  Sasha smiled. She had this one. "What if you use the pulsar flash from the neutron star? It should be amplified by the hyperspace features around it. That should give you plenty of scan capability."

  Gabo smiled. As usual, Sasha saw the thing the rest of them missed. "Yes, I should be able to use that..." He trailed off as his brain started working through the ramifications of her idea. Yes, he should be able to make that work for this, but he wondered if there was a way to adapt it for more general use? There was always a lot of energy flying around in hyperspace.

  Jarra knew she'd lost Gabo, but it was more important to let him work on the problem without interruption. She moved on to the next item on her agenda.

  "Commodore Simmons, Captains Arkwright and Barrett, what are your thoughts on this?"

  Commodore Simmons shook his head. "I'll leave it up to the captains to discuss the needs of their ships. My primary job is to keep you and the Crown Prince out of trouble, and I've already failed at that."

  Jarra smiled at him. "Sorry, I know you're right but this seems to be the task before us. We all know that if we wait, most of the pirates will escape to raise havoc elsewhere."

  Commodore Simmons shook his head. "I was warned before I took this assignment the Crown Prince was trouble. What they didn't warn me about was you or the fact that you're the one that's trouble, trouble with a capital T."

  "Unfortunately, it does seem that trouble finds me quite often, but you should know by now I don't seek it. I just won't run from it either." Jarra gave him a smile before she turned to the other two. "What about your ships, Captains?"

  Captain Arkwright was more comfortable with Jarra than the other captain, so he was first to speak up. After all she'd served on his ship. "I'm not entirely happy about bringing our heavies in without their escorts. We saw the results of that from our departed Admiral's scheme to get Relentless alone. Without the Katarina, we wouldn't have survived that attack."

  Jarra nodded. "You're right. There's a reason why that's been SOP for centuries and you have to decide if it's worth the risk. Two things: you'll have the Katarina, who can do the job of multiple escorts, and the congested navigation channels will negate most of the advantage the pirates will have in speed and navigability."

  Jason spoke up. "I have an idea to help mitigate that even more. As you say, there's a rather limited navigation channel and we don't have to cover our rear. I propose we align the eight cruisers we have available as four to each super-dreadnaught in a diamond formation, one above, one below, and one to each side."

  Captain Arkwright nodded. "That should work. I'm not worried that much about the pirates anyway, but the idea of one of those beam weapons terrifies me, especially if it's built on a moon where they can give it even more power."

  It was Jarra's turn to nod. "I think we can both agree how difficult it is to face that weapon. That will be one of the most important tasks the Katarina must do. We must identify and take out any of their beam weapons before we begin battle."

  Jarra shook her head. "I'm more worried about leaving our escort ships unprotected for such a long time. They're much too vulnerable without the heavy ships for protection, but I don't see a way around it. They just can't navigate the Badlands."

  Amy smiled at her. "I believe I could help with that. You don't need me to bring the big ships in. As you know, Commander Ashford on the Relentless could do that task just as well as I. Instead, put me in charge of navigation on those ships. We can't bring them all the way in because they would be unable to navigate in the space around the pirate base without the pre-identified courses the aliens obviously gave the pirates, but I should be able to navigate that section of the Badlands enough to bring the group in to safely anchor them in this large nebula." She indicated an area a relatively short distance from the pirate base.

  Jarra sighed. She didn't like the idea of her friend being away on her own in this crazy mixed-up place, but she had a good point. "You're probably right. Let's you and I discuss this after the meeting."

  Jarra looked at the other attendee, the only one who hadn't spoken to this point, "Captain Barrett, what are your thoughts?"

  The meeting would go on for some time with a number of points raised by the various parties, but in the end they all agreed to go along with Jarra's plan. There just wasn't any choice; the job had to be done.

  Jarra mostly was worried about what she might have missed. She was right to be worried.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Another Challenge

  The mission began easily enough, although Jarra hated parting with Amy. She kept up a brave face, but she worried about her newfound friend. There was something about it that didn't feel right, but she didn't see a better way. If something does go wrong, I'll just have to make sure we get there in time to protect her. Whatever that means.

  Jarra felt something click into place when she made that vow. So be it. She would protect her friend, no matter what.

  It was good to be back in the command chair of her ship. Sasha had done a most excellent job while in the command position and Jarra had made a note of that in her service file, but Jarra cared too much about her ship and team to not want to be there with them.

  Galen was in his element, flying their ship as much on instinct as by skill alone. They had eased the ship up to the epsilon band to bypass the worst of the hyperspace turbulence, but they were still going rather slowly, a sound idea as the several sudden course changes Galen had to make at the last second demonstrated. As Galen said, no other ship had a chance to make that journey and it wasn't easy for them.

  That turned out to be an understatement. As they neared the end of their journey, it got much worse. At one point, Galen had stopped their forward motion, letting the ship drift along with the hyperspace current until finally he found an opening. The next moment they shot forward so fast that even the ship's systems couldn't completely compensate for the motion, the crew all being shoved back into their seats.


  "Sorry about that," Galen told them as he slowed the ship back down to a more sedate pace. "Fast was the only way we were going to get through there. Any slower and the friction of our new shields would have slowed us to a stop. But I think it'll be better for a bit until the exit point. That's going to be quite fun."

  He pointed to the scan of the path in front of them. The exit point was coming in sight, the last section flagged as a high speed rapids run. Navigators had their own jargon, but Jarra knew exactly what it was telling them and she couldn't help but cringe. She was glad she wasn't the one driving, that was for sure.

  She shouldn't have been worried. Galen deftly steered them into those rapids and they moved swiftly along carried by the current, dodging the obstacles that appeared in front of them. Jarra could tell he was having a lot of fun, one of those things that differentiated her from her specialist. Maybe she could have pulled it off, but it would have been a near thing for her and she wouldn't have considered it the least bit fun. No, not at all.

  Suddenly they shot out of the mouth of the rapids into what for the Badlands was relative calm.

  "We're here," Galen announced unnecessarily. That brought out a smile or two.

  Gabo was already at work. The modifications he'd made to his scanners at Sasha's suggestion were already paying off. He quickly found the control center for the minefield, sending the info to Sara so she could send a directional beam to make her remote connection faster.

  The pirate base was in plain sight with a number of ships orbiting around it. At first, Gabo was surprised to see a couple of freighter ships orbiting with the pirate ships, but as he thought about it, it made sense. One of them was getting underway even as he watched. They had to have some method of getting the pilfered goods to a market and since the pirate ships returned here from their missions, the only way to do that was to use freighters. Shaking his head at the irony of that, the pirates using their own merchant ships, Gabo got on about his work.