Badlands

by Randal Sloan

  It didn't take him long to find the locations of the mass drivers, a group of them lined up on asteroids pushed into the Lagrange L4 and L5 points for the planetary-moon system. A couple of well-placed missiles would take care of each of them. But he couldn't find the beam weapon, a weapon he knew from their long distance scans should be there.

  Then something came around in its orbit of the gas giant. It was an artificial construction and at the sight of it, he almost fell out of his chair.

  "Oh my God," he said, his voice betraying his shock. Apparently the aliens had built another weapon in addition to their attack ship.

  Jarra was just as shocked as Gabo when the monster he'd discovered showed up on her console. The instant she saw it, she knew exactly what it was. In that instant their entire mission had changed. Stopping that monster was more important than anything they'd accomplished before this.

  "What is that?" Sara asked in awe and more than just a little fear.

  "It's a planet buster," Jarra answered her. She couldn't help but let her fear of the ramifications of that monster slip into her voice. "Or if you remember some of the old VR vids we watched awhile back, what they called a Death Star."

  Everyone was staring in shock as they thought through what Jarra had told them. Then she made it worse, much worse.

  "We have to do whatever it takes to stop that thing."

  #

  Jarra couldn't completely throw their plans out the window. It might turn out that they needed the fleet they had waiting outside the system. Perhaps with enough missiles they could overwhelm the monster's defenses, although Jarra doubted it. At worst case, they could try to ram it with one or more of the super-dreadnoughts, although that probably wouldn't work either. Targeting a moving target with the gigantic beam she knew the station could fire would be difficult unless it was moving straight toward the station, then it would be easy. Without a doubt it would simply vaporize the entire ship.

  Jarra needed to know more if they were to have any chance. "Gabo, get me all the data you can on that thing. When will it go back behind the planet? Can you tell if it's at full power or is it still under construction? What about their shields? Can you find any vulnerabilities?"

  She sent an implant message to Sara. "Sara, I need an ETA on your deactivation of the mines." She knew Sara was in too deep to hear a verbal command and she didn't want to disturb the girl's concentration.

  "Five minutes," was the quiet reply.

  Gradually, a plan began to come together. Jarra didn't know if it would work but it was the only thing she thought had any chance of success. She sent another implant message to Sara and held her breath until she got an affirmative reply; that prompted a second implant message to Sasha, who looked up in surprise but nodded.

  Jarra had a plan. She didn't have to tell the others that this one was as desperate a plan as she'd ever come up with.

  "Galen, prepare a stealthed com drone to send through as soon as the mines are down. Transmit the message I'm attaching to your com system, priority one. I'm including my command codes to send with it."

  She sat back to wait. In a few minutes, all hell was going to break loose. She just hoped they were all still alive at the end of it. To her, it looked like a toss-up.

  #

  Crown Prince John and Jason had both been nervously awaiting communication from the Katarina on board their respective super-dreadnoughts. Neither liked the idea of the small ship being out there alone and at risk, but there just wasn't another alternative.

  Finally, after what seemed like a very long time but really wasn't that long, a com drone shot into their hiding place. The instant they saw the com's command codes, they both knew something was wrong. As John read the message from his cousin the color drained out of his face, and he had to sit down.

  For Jason, it was even worse. Jarra had attached a private message addressed to him. It took everything he had to keep it together as he listened.

  My dear Jason, we've barely just begun what I hoped was a long life together. I've come up with the only plan that I believe has a possibility of success against this tremendous threat facing the Empire. I know once again I'm placing myself and my ship at great risk. But we have to succeed at our task or die trying.

  I know you will do your duty, just as I will do mine. Please don't despair; perhaps we will be able to see each other once again. Know this, my feelings for you have already become quite strong.

  I love you very much.

  If a tear or two made it out, no one on the Admiral's bridge dared say a word. They too had read their orders. They didn't know them to the detail their leaders did, but they knew it was bad.

  One lucky or unlucky cruiser captain, depending on his interpretation of the circumstances, received orders to deliver a message to warn the Galactic Empire. Because navigating the Badlands was very difficult for com drones, even with Gabo to modify some of theirs, Jarra was insistent that a ship had to get the word out in case the mission for the rest of them was unsuccessful. It was a critical mission, she stressed in her orders when she gave the assignment to Captain Anderson of the Star Fury.

  Jarra had included a precise timetable and only when the timer reached zero did they set out into the battle zone. The formation as proposed by Jason had changed since they had lost one of the cruisers for the mission. Instead, of the two-diamond shape he'd come up with, they were now in a more complex formation with the two super-dreadnoughts in the center, two cruisers above their formation, two below and one on each side. One cruiser followed behind the formation, their stealth systems at max.

  As they entered the system, the stealthed ship slowly slipped behind as they diverted to the center of the minefield. Although inert, the mines still required careful handling and the cruiser's crew hurried to complete their task. Jarra had told them exactly how long they had and it wasn't nearly long enough. Somehow, they completed their task on time, although it was close.

  Compared to the Katarina, the cruiser's stealth systems were quite bad, but the pirates weren't paying any attention to them. They were quite occupied as missiles took out their fixed defenses before they could even start to bring them online and swarms of missiles were on their way toward their ships and their base. They were offered an opportunity for surrender, but no one on the attacking ships expected a reply.

  Not even the outgoing freighter was paying any attention; they had their own set of problems. None of their systems would respond to their attempts at communication and their ship suddenly diverted from its planned course. If they could have activated their external sensors, they would have probably noticed the cruiser as they were headed for a direct rendezvous with the stealthed ship. They did notice when they were suddenly boarded by a fierce onslaught of Marines that quickly commandeered their ship and took the crew captive, including the head pirate's cousin.

  A few of the pirate ships escaped the first onslaught. Most were just lucky; another ship took the missiles aimed at them, the moon temporarily blocked them from the missile's sensors, or just pure chance. A few actually got underway quickly enough to avoid the long distance missile run before the tiny sensors in the missiles could lock onto them.

  It didn't do them any good. They moved directly into the path of the accompanying cruisers which had held their missiles for just such an event and they were immediately targeted. The base on the moon didn't have any better luck. What few areas that weren't destroyed in the first strike received a second dose of missiles. It was all over in moments.

  What none of the pirates realized was that it was all a diversion. Oh, the Empire hated them and wanted them dead, none worse than the Crown Princess, who hated pirates only a little less than traitors, but they were no longer the primary target.

  During the whole event, no one, not even her allies, saw the Katarina. She was operating under full stealth and she moved to occupy a specific position in space at a course and speed that would reach a specific location at the predetermined time Jarra had worked
out from Gabo's scans. On board her ship they all waited for that moment.

  #

  On the alien-built station that orbited the gas giant, George Janson, the late Admiral Janson's brother and the man who'd named himself the Pirate King, was enjoying the luxurious quarters the aliens had built for him. His brother was late reporting in and George was getting more than a little anxious for his return so they could get moving forward with their plans. And they had big plans, big plans indeed.

  With his brother's ships, they would have an invincible navy that would make the Imperial Navy look pathetic, and with this station they would be able to blackmail planets into paying them to be allowed to live a little longer. A few demonstrations of the station's power would take care of that.

  The station didn't work by blowing up the entire planet. No, that was science fiction. What it did was target a weak spot in the planet's crust, causing an explosion of magma from underground reservoirs and producing such a huge volcanic eruption that the planet became uninhabitable. The same result, everyone on the surface of the planet would be dead unless they were in protected bunkers.

  George's reverie was interrupted by one of the aliens who was quite insistent in pinging his implant even though he'd left word he wanted to be undisturbed.

  "King George," the alien said, "Our orbit has just come back around the planet. We're getting many emergency signals from the base and surrounding ships. One of them is from a freighter Captain, who says he's a cousin of yours."

  "Put him on, you fool," George told him. "And find out what's happening with the others. They probably had some big argument amongst themselves."

  "As you wish, sir," the alien told him. Fortunately his voice lacked any emotive ability as did he, so his voice did not betray the total disdain he held for the human. Him and the rest of his biological infestations. Instead he simply put the merchant ship on the com.

  "George, where have you been? We need your help. We've been attacked by a bunch of Imperials and they're making short work of us. We must have gotten hit by some kind of virus they launched at the same time as we have no control of our ship. George, we don't have much time, it took out life support. Please pick us up."

  The message interrupted with a burst of static, then it continued. "They obviously don't know you're here. I want to watch while you blow up their little ships."

  George growled as he understood what his cousin was telling him. He pinged the alien back. "Is the freighter my cousin's on close enough we can pick him up?"

  "They're 2.55 minutes away. We'll pass close enough to them to be able to catch them with our tractor beam and pull them in."

  "What about the Imperial ships? Are you picking up anything on them?"

  "We just discovered they were here moments ago. They have just passed behind the moon, but at their velocity they should reappear in 2.21 minutes."

  "Perfect. Ready the beam weapon. It's time we taught those Imperials their first lesson of many."

  The aliens' logic matrix didn't allow them to think in terms of unlikely coincidences. To them the timing of the two events meant nothing other than that it would be that amount of time before they would have to smell more of the stupid humans and just about the same amount of time that they would be able to kill a bunch of them.

  If George hadn't been so angry, he'd have wondered at the coincidence, but all he could think of was getting his revenge. It wasn't helped by the alien's idiotic method of referring to time intervals with fractions. His human brain couldn't handle the math enough to figure out the times given him by the alien.

  In the approximately two minutes remaining, George rushed forward to the operations center of the station. The stupid aliens didn't call it a bridge, nor did they call this a ship, but in a sense both were true. George had to catch his breath for a few seconds and then he looked up with a smile. The timer the aliens had set up was nearing zero.

  Momentarily confused, he had to ask the alien, "What is the timer for? Reaching the ship or firing the beam?"

  In his usual monotone, the alien answered, "Both."

  George immediately recognized that coincidence had to mean something bad. But it was much too late. The timer hit zero.

  #

  On board the Katarina, they had their own timer counting down. Jarra watched as the monster station came around the bend of the planet. It was even more terrifying up close. She held her breath as the message from the freighter went out and let it back out as a message came back.

  "Freighter, stand by for pickup." The stupid aliens didn't even bother to call the ship by name, but they did just as she had expected they would. After all, the human on board the station would have been calling the shots and he would have wanted to save his cousin. That one had been an extra Jarra hadn't even known about beforehand, but it sure worked to her advantage.

  The counter slowly counted down; the wait was tearing her apart. So much depended on this, their one shot.

  Finally the counter hit zero. Once again, Jarra gave that same command she had used only a few days before. "Fire!"

  As was happening much too regularly on their new ship, once more they found themselves placed in total darkness.

  #

  Jarra had speculated and Gabo had confirmed that the aliens would have to partially lower their shields to fire their beam due to its duration and power level. When the Katarina fired their beam, it was of such limited duration that it was able to pass through their own shields without issue.

  That meant in that instant the shields protecting that base were many times less than normal. In that same instant, the freighter they were pulling into their ship set off the full load of mines that it was carrying. The explosion was powerful enough to knock down the remaining shields in the front of the station for that tiny moment of time.

  In that same instant, the Katarina had arrived at a point of intersection in front of and just slightly above the station and she fired her own beam at near point-blank range. It still would be a near thing. The station was just so huge and the internal systems were protected by multiple levels of the station. The crew of the Katarina had worked extremely hard to get the beam system completely stable in the days prior and then Jarra had made them jerk all of that back out and even had them push the safety levels as far as she dared.

  Katarina's beam was unattenuated by the now downed shields. It passed through multiple levels of the ship as if they were paper, but still they had an effect. The aliens weren't stupid. The massive power systems for the station were many levels deep. Of course, for the Katarina, firing the beam scrammed their reactors once again. With the loss of power at the same instant, the crew couldn't even watch as the beam sliced into the monstrosity in front of them.

  If they had been normal size reactors, they would have been a couple of levels deeper and the beam wouldn't have been enough. But to power that station, its shields and gigantic propulsion systems, not to mention that huge beam, it took an unbelievable amount of power. The Katarina's beam was just strong enough to breach the reactor control room and it did its job.

  Katarina's speed was fast enough that even with their ship now without power for shields and propulsion, she passed just beyond the reach of the tremendous blast from the exploding station, although the shock waves were still strong enough to shake their ship.

  Sitting in the dark, with most of the emergency power rerouted to the beam weapon, that was the only evidence to her tiny crew that the mission had been successful. Still, Jarra breathed a sigh of relief. She wondered just how many more times they could continue to cheat death.

  Perhaps they were done. She should have known better.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  A Call for Help

  One more time, the Katarina crew worked in the near darkness to bring the ship's reactors back on line. They'd had so much practice it didn't take them that long. But still, when they came back up, the first thing they heard on the coms was the equally frantic calls from the Crown Prince an
d Jason, asking them if they were alright.

  Jarra quickly got on the com, connecting to both ships at the same time. "Yes, alright, we're here. We scammed our reactors again." She smiled as the near frantic look on the faces of her cousin and the man she might as well be engaged to turned into huge smiles. "I think we might have cut it a little close, but we only had the one shot and we had to make it count."

  She already knew the answer to her next question, but she wanted to hear it anyway. "I take it the pirates are all dead?"

  Jason answered for them both. "Yes. Your modified version of the attack formation worked perfectly. The few that escaped our first launch of missiles didn't get past the cruisers. The base is gone and you took care of the station."

  He looked her in the eyes. Jarra could see the tears in his eyes that he wasn't trying to hide. "Even for you this was a daring plan, but somehow it worked."

  "We're on our way now. As soon as we get docked, I want some more of that Jason time."

  Before Jason could answer, a com drone popped into the system. Luckily, Gabo had figured out how to modify a standard com drone to function on a limited range within the Badlands. As the message played, Jarra's face turned grey. It looked like her Jason time was going to have to wait after all.

  #

  The message from the com drone was not good. It came from Jarra's friend Amy on board the escort vessel Daring where she was currently stationed as part of their plan to bring the escort ships to safety. It had been a good plan but apparently their plan had backfired.

  We're currently being pursued by a rebel squadron including a second one of those monster monitor ships you described. Normally we would be able to use our speed to escape, but they managed to catch us in one of the areas of the Badlands that has severely limited our speed. Apparently they already know the course through the Badlands, because they haven't deviated from their own course and speed. I estimate they'll be able to engage us in less than one hour.