Blockade

by Chris Hechtl

  They worked on teams to watch out and hopefully prevent accident and injury. Without a partner someone could be injured and not noticed.

  He understood why they wanted some spacers to have safety training. That part was already covered. But forcing them to be retrained yearly for certification? And requiring them to have spacer EVA training? If a tech never went outside a hull, they didn't need it.

  Another requirement, one of implants made a sort of sense. Having a basic ID implant let the controllers in the command center know where they were. The dispatchers could be alerted of a problem … if they could get a signal through the mess of moving metal. That wasn't always the case.

  The other parts of the bill were damn silly. Charging a ship for a gravity assist? That was bullshit.

  Cargo ships target the most efficient ways to save money. One of those methods was to save fuel using a gravity assist. Sometimes the shortest route was not always the best. A freighter would sometimes use a slingshot around a moon or planet and go ballistic. That reduced their fuel consumption though it could draw out the time for the crew and cargo in transit.

  But pirates knew that and could exploit it if they were in the area. Why the charge though? The write-up didn't say. Could it be a throw away? Hopefully, it was. It'd never fly with the merchant houses. It could even doom the bill if it got to him; he'd veto it.

  Another part of the bill dealt with the VR simulator training for operators. He agreed on certification and re-certification standards. Straddle carrier and tug pilots, whether organic or inorganic, needed to be on top of their game at all time. The same for their equipment, which was why they had a maintenance shop in port.

  The last part of the bill dealt with the command center and overtime. They were laying out strict times when a dispatcher or pilot could be in use. That wouldn't go over well with the dispatchers and pilots who were looking for the overtime he knew. Dispatchers kept track of things and dispatched tugs or strads, straddling lift vehicles, to move containers from point A to B. It was all about efficiency and making sure they didn't get in each other's way. Keeping it all straight takes a good computer system. The larger the port the more likely it will need an A.I. to handle the load.

  He shook his head at the provisions in that.

  "Protector, who authored this mess again?"

  "Senators from Bek, Antigua, Pyrax, and Epsilon Triangula. The ET delegation pulled out and refused to sign off on it when some of the provisions on overtime were added. There were anti-union and flat-rate pay provisions in the bill but had been removed earlier."

  The admiral made a puttering sound. "Is this the final version?"

  "Not anymore. Captain Sprite noted that the ET delegation is politicking against it as of this morning."

  "Sprite?"

  "Yes, Admiral?" Sprite said, accessing his office through her usual port. Protector sent her a quick update. "Do you have anything you'd like to add to that bill, Admiral?"

  "Point out the throw-away material. Make it clear I'm not going to sign it with the grav assist charges in place. Some of this is vague. I admit, some of it I already like. Some of it is already on the books. That needs to be looked into obviously."

  "I can point all of that out," she stated.

  "Please do so. There is no point covering old ground. I'd suggest digging up the old material and revising it rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater and trying to start over."

  "Agreed, sir. On another subject we have been working on refining gunnery crews."

  "Oh?"

  "The division of labor for a gun crew was ill defined. Correction, it was there just not used properly. BuSchools is working to correct that with specialized training for gun captains and gun crews."

  "Do they need this?"

  "Formal gun training helps familiarize organics with the process. You'll be getting the request for changes to the budget and school itinerary from BuSchools shortly."

  "Pass me that, whatever you've got. I'd rather look at that than this drivel."

  "Understood. Uploading what I have now. I'm working with the rear admiral and her staff on it now."

  "Ah."

  Chapter 41

  Nuevo Madrid

  Captain Stuart grinned as their ship arrived in the outskirts of the Nuevo Madrid star system. As her ship's hyper wake cleared, her long-range sensors probed the darkness around her.

  The star was a distant thing, not quite a sun. Her people had performed splendidly, even the freaks in the tanks. They had saved enough fuel to get to B-95a3 according to the navigational team … not that she was willing to chance it.

  "Ma'am, we've got the maps synced up. We know where we are. The plot has changed a lot obviously," the sensor tech said. She came over to his side and leaned over to see what he was seeing. She could see it better from her plot or from the main plot but that wasn't the point. The forced intimacy helped build relations with her crew.

  "There are several ships in orbit. The repair yard is gone. There are some unknown structures in orbit. My money is on stations and platforms. There are also platforms squawking radio signals from the gas giant," he said, indicating the gas giant as he zoomed out.

  "We've got more satellites, far more than expected," he said, pointing out a few. "Diaz is still working on processing the signals," he said.

  She nodded. Diaz was his pet name for their computer. It wasn't quite up to the level of an A.I. but it was improving with the work of Raymond and other techs. "Good work, Ray. What else? Can you tell me the class of the ships?"

  "At this distance …," he stopped when he noted two unknowns. "CIC, identify unknown targets at my starboard ninety," he said sharply.

  The captain stiffened as a second lidar ping returned. The signal was faint, but it was clear a ship or pair of ships was coming towards them at roughly two hundred million kilometers out. "A mining ship?"

  "I don't think we got that lucky, ma'am," the tech said grimly. He frowned as a third trace came in. He overlaid them on his plot and then drew a straight edge on the signals to get a back trace. It wasn't perfect, but it pointed in the general direction of the B-95a3 jump point. "They found us," he whispered, sitting back, eyes wide.

  "Frack," the captain muttered, turning. "Officer of the Watch, rig for silent running. We need to get the hell out of this area," she growled.

  "Aye, ma'am, rig the ship for silent running," the officer of the watch said, echoing the command.

  "Helm, use burps to get us out of the general area of our arrival point and away from the unknowns," the captain said.

  "Unknown contacts in a spread coming from the direction of the unknown tangoes," CIC reported a terse minute later. "Target profiles are small, most likely recon drones or small craft launching."

  "Then we're looking at a warship of some sort. Most likely one of their carriers," the XO said as the lights shifted from normal running to red dim lights. The red shift warned the crew instinctively to tread lightly. "Can we get away?"

  "In a perfect galaxy maybe," the captain murmured, coming over to him as she crossed her arms. "I don't like how they knew we were coming."

  He shook his head. "They must have seen where we jumped out and used their damn ansible to call ahead and alert someone," he said. "The question is, is this just the one ship or is there another out there waiting for us? Are we being driven away from the jump point?"

  The captain froze and then cocked her head as she forced herself to consider what he said. She didn't like what he'd said. She had to accept it though.

  There was no way, no way in hell she could play cat and mouse with one or more warships while also refueling and staying on mission. And her ship needed fuel. Not only that but supplies. Her hopes of an easy resupply in Nuevo Madrid had obviously been dashed in one fail swoop.

  She closed her eyes and turned away to hide her pain at her own stupidity. They hadn't had a chance; they never had.

  "Second contact! Unknown ship one hundred million five hu
ndred thousand kilometers two degrees off of our port beam! One point four degrees high," CIC reported. "Heading directly for us."

  "They've made us," the XO said.

  Vanessa forced herself to nod. She turned and went over to the main plot and motioned for the XO and TACO to join her. When the trio were assembled, she touched where they were and then the icons of the two Tangos.

  "Third tango detected. In company with Tango One. Identifying Tango Three," CIC reported. "Neutrino detections confirm all three contacts. Tango Two and Three have weaker signatures and mass."

  "Classifying them as destroyers," the ATO said, looking over to the command team.

  The captain nodded. "Okay, we're here. They've got us boxed. We can't head for the planet. If we do this one," she pointed to Tango 2, "will cut us off and slow us down until the others catch up. If we try to run for the jump point, we're going to run right into their arms here." She pointed to Tango One and Three.

  "No doubt Tango One is a cruiser," the TACO said. "And while we're running that way Tango Two will come up our ass and ream it," he said. "There used to be such a thing as disparity in force size to keep the enemy at bay. Apparently, no one told the feds that though."

  "Ma'am, cyber intrusion attempts detected. Omni broadcasts from all Tangos," a communications rating stated. "I've locked down all communications."

  The captain looked up and turned. "Good to know. Firewall?"

  "Solid, ma'am. Diaz is monitoring it."

  "Good. Keep me posted," she said, turning back to the plot as she rested her fists on it. "We need fuel and supplies."

  "If we can find some quiet time, we might find a wet rock or comet to drill out," the XO offered. "My problem is, are they going to give us that time?"

  "I doubt it," the TACO stated.

  "I need options not doubts," the captain said tersely. "Ideas, Guns?"

  "We can't engage them, not and complete our long-range mission. We can't retreat; we don't have the fuel for it."

  "And they'd be waiting when we do."

  "We need to maneuver and hide. Play for time, ma'am, put as much distance between us and them as we can," he said. He pointed to their ship and its current heading. "We've got too much inertia to bleed off to allow us to backtrack our course. If we go down, we might steer clear of them for some time. I currently see it as our only option. The problem is, from our map of the system the heliopause is pretty sparse in that direction."

  "I'll take what I can get at this point," the captain said. She turned to the navigator. "We need a soft course, mostly ballistic on our down Y axis. Whatever you can do without being seen."

  "Aye aye, ma'am," the navigator said in a doubtful tone of voice.

  "Problems, Ned?"

  "It's just … why bother, ma'am? They've got us dead to rights even with the stealth. We're locked up. We can't break their lock. They are the Feds," he said indicating the plot.

  "But we're damn well going to try and keep trying. Get on it," she said in a stern tone of voice.

  "Of course, ma'am. I mean aye aye, ma'am," he said as he turned back to his station. The captain exchanged a significant look with the others. If senior officers were expressing their doubts of survival that openly then they could just imagine what the rank and file were thinking at the moment.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Lewinsky frowned as Ryu lost a solid lock. The AWAC was out extending the loop to get the lock back however. “Comm, open channel broadcast.”

  “Comm, open channel broadcast, aye, ma'am. On your station.”

  The captain hit the transmit key. “This is Captain Lewinsky of the carrier Ryu. If you insist on playing hide and seek, fine, my people could use the practice I suppose. But you are only delaying the inevitable. We've got you, and even if you run, you are just going to die tired.”

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Stuart pursed her lips. “Will there be a response?”

  “Of course not!” she said with a shake of her head. “That'd give away the game. He's going to have to do better to earn my whoopin’,” she replied.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Three days later Vanessa was a bit more harried and a lot less flippant about the situation. The Feds hadn't nailed them, but they'd dogged them the entire time, blocking them at every turn. She still wasn't sure how they were doing it. Their sensors couldn't be that good!

  Twice she'd thought they'd lost them only for an AWAC ship to be spotted at extreme range.

  “How the hell are they doing that?” she demanded. “I don't care how sensitive their sensors are, they can't be that good.”

  “Our shielding,” Ray said, sounding tired.

  “Explain,” she said, turning to him. He'd had only occasional naps like her. The entire crew was on edge and worn out or near there. Running silent was tough. The three times they'd run ultrasilent had been brutal.

  “It's the only thing that makes sense, ma'am,” Ray said, turning to look at her. She gave an impatient motion for him to continue. “We can see their neutrinos. They can apparently see ours. Not enough to completely nail down our position but enough to know our general direction. If they had one or more ships with detectors on them, they'd get a lock.”

  She grimaced. Okay, so perhaps it was their sensors were better than her own.

  “When we went to ultrasilent, the reactors went down to maintenance levels, and we were on emergency backups. It was enough for us to get out of their basket for a short time.”

  She nodded. “Engineering,” she turned to the engineering tech on her bridge. “Can you do something about that? Add more shielding?”

  “Unfortunately, no, ma'am,” the tech said. “Neutrinos are fickle things, hard to block and shield with on-board equipment and gear. We'd have to try something passive; any active shielding would require power.”

  The captain nodded. “What about running?” she asked, turning back to Ray.

  “The problem is we can't build up too much speed. Each time we do we run the risk of running into something. With our nodes down, the hull will take damage. If we're running too fast, it doesn't matter the size of the rock; it'll screw us up.”

  She frowned thoughtfully; her tired mind couldn't quite grapple with that idea. They had armor after all.

  “The explosion of energy from the kinetic impact, ma'am,” Ray explained quietly. She blinked and then pursed her lips as she parsed that out and then nodded. “No doubt we've hit a few small rocks and given ourselves away. And each impact ablates some of our skin coating. It's not as effective as their coating.”

  She grimaced and nodded. She turned to the navigator. “Do you have a rock in mind?”

  He scratched his head. “Two, ma'am, but we don't know the composition at this distance.”

  She nodded. “Set course for one, do a burn, then we'll shut down and coast for a moment. Then we'll do a secondary burn to alter our trajectory for the second rock and run ultrasilent.”

  Her navigator didn't look happy but then nodded. “It'll take me a moment to run the numbers and plot the course, ma'am.”

  “Get it done,” she ordered. She hoped it would be worthwhile; they were burning fuel each time they tried to maneuver. That rock better be worth it or they were soon going to be dead in the water.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Lewinsky noted the ship movement. It had taken four days but with the knowledge that the enemy ship had to be running on or near fumes he had finally gotten it right. The CAG had AWACs out driving the ship while Ryu and her consorts edged into their jumping-off positions. In another, he checked the clock, hour, no, hour and five minutes, the enemy ship would be in their cross-hairs in the kill box.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  “Damn!” Ray swore viciously, adjusting the gain on his station. He turned as the captain and XO looked up. “We've got a recon drone off our port side. Another on our starboard. They just appeared!”

  “They've got us boxed!” The TACO stated.

  “Gu
ns, fire on the planet,” the captain said, reaching up to a hand hold as she squeezed past her XO to her seat.

  “Ma'am?”

  “Do it. Fire on the planet and anything we saw in orbit. Do it now. Helm, when we go live, we're going to have to run and then shut down and go ballistic, then course change. Prepare for that.”

  “Aye aye, ma'am.”

  “Small craft coming in! I'm getting ghosts on the scope, looks like stealth fields at their max!” Ray warned.

  “Setting up the shot now,” the TACO stated.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Lewinsky wasn't the only one on his bridge to swear when the enemy suddenly fired—not on his ship but for the planet.

  They didn't have the range but that didn't matter. The missiles would accelerate for four million kilometers and then go ballistic, which would make them even harder to see coming in. The war shot from the enemy cruiser's rail guns were already at ballistic the moment they were fired.

  He turned to listen in to the CAG. She was already diverting half the planned strike to the defensive role. The destroyers were also stepping up to defend the planet as a warning winged its way to the planet and the stations, ships, and equipment in orbit. Hopefully, anything in orbit would have jinked before the enemy's fire arrived.

  Any that got through their defenses that was.

  Meanwhile, the CAG had sent the torpedo bombers in without air cover. It was a risk, but one that the CAG and squadron commander were willing to take apparently.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Vanessa's lips pursed in a thin line as she saw the enemy craft sparkle on the long-range plot. Some were diverting to her weapons fire but at least a dozen were still coming at her command.

  “Get our fighters out there and shoot them down. Drive them off, they have to be bombers” she said.

  “Ma'am, our fighters need at least a half hour to warm up. I don't believe we have that sort of time,” the XO said with a shake of his head.

  “Do it. Helm, we need to jink. Bring our drive up. It's obvious they know we are here. All hands,” she turned, voice rising in pitch and volume. “All hands, battle stations,” she said formally.