“On course, zero-four-five by one-two-eight degrees,” the helmsman said quietly confirming Invincible’s heading.
“Aye, aye,” Bishop said and began punching her keys to comply.
“Aye, Skipper,” Lieutenant Davin said and his voice boomed throughout the ship. “Now hear this: Secure from battle stations, secure from battle stations. That is all.”
“Very good,” Monroe said rolling her shoulders trying to free herself of the tension that had set up shop in her. “We seem to have come through unscathed. Let’s try to keep our record clean shall we?”
Everyone sighed and chuckled, all except Commander Hamilton who kept her eyes glued to her screens tracking her targets. That was as it should be. Fleet didn’t like taking chances and neither did Monroe.
10 ~ Visitors
Aboard ASN Canada, inner asteroid belt, Shan system
Anya Ivanova leaned way back in Canada’s command station and stretched. She groaned as her vertebrae shifted and popped. She sighed and sat up straight again. At 0200, it was hard to keep alert. Sitting in one place was not helping.
“I’m going for a quick walk around the deck, Steph.” Anya said, but Second Lieutenant Stephanie Mills did not answer. “Steph?”
Stephanie looked up from the plot with a frown. “Something has the Shan stirred up, ma’am. I have four heavies converging on one of the light cruisers. I don’t know what to make of it.”
“Hmmm,” Anya joined Steph at the consol. “Might be part of the exercise they’re running…” she broke off as she stared at the data being displayed. “Huh. That’s no training exercise.”
“That’s what I thought ma’am. See here?”
Anya frowned at the icons Steph pointed out. “Yes… Where was the cruiser when you first noticed this? Did you record it?”
“Yes ma’am, of course. The Skipper was very insistent.”
Anya smiled. The Captain had been very thorough about recording everything they observed about the Shan. He would have made a good teacher, she often thought. He held weekly lectures for the crew about what he had learned from his studies.
“Replay your scan on the main viewer would you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Anya took her place at the command station again and watched the recording. “Advance it to the point where the light cruiser breaks off.”
The picture blurred as it raced forward then cleared as it resumed playback at normal speed. The light cruiser was on the edge of a formation of six light cruisers, itself the vanguard of the Shan fleet. An opposing force of eight heavies fled the pursuers, but suddenly the cruiser veered away without warning.
“That’s it ma’am.”
“Hmmm,” Anya pursed her lips and leaned forward as she plotted the ship’s courses in her head. “There was nothing to warrant this?”
“Nothing on my visual scan, no ma’am.”
“Peculiar… peculiar to say the least.”
Anya frowned, going over all the possibilities and ticking them off in her mind. Ship malfunction... a possibility but unlikely. The ships were not slowing to rendezvous to give aid to a stricken vessel. Collision avoidance? A very good possibility out there near the asteroid belt, but why not come back on course and rejoin the main body once immediate danger had been avoided? Why would the other ships leave formation to join the first ship? That left one thing she could think of, a dangerous thing but perhaps not unexpected considering where they were and the mission.
“Back it up again would you?”
Stephanie worked her controls, and the light cruiser appeared to reverse course.
“Overlay the scan with your system grid,” Anya said and Steph did that. “Display location of the outer belt.” There was something about the course change that suggested the outer belt was of interest to the Shan light cruiser. The schematic appeared and Anya knew at once that her conjecture was correct. The Shan were definitely interested in the outer belt and she knew why, or thought she did. “Scan for a jump signature, please”
“Ma’am?” Steph said puzzled.
“There might be traces of the translation.”
“What trans… yes ma’am.”
Anya knew what it had to be, but the Skipper would want hard data. While Lieutenant Mills scanned for the jump signature, Anya woke the captain.
Bee-beep, bee-beep.
Colgan groaned. It never failed. Whenever he retired late, something always came up that was guaranteed to wake him early. He slapped a hand down on the damn cut-off and blinked blearily into the viewer.
“Colgan.”
“Sorry to wake you, sir,” Anya said. “I have something you need to see. The Shan are all riled up, I think we might have company out here real soon.”
“You think?” Colgan said rolling out of his bunk and reaching for his uniform. “What do you mean, you think?”
“Steph is running another scan now, but I thought you would like to be up here when the data came in.”
“You thought right, Lieutenant. I’ll be there shortly. Have Baz rustle me up a cup of something hot.”
Anya grinned. “Black coffee coming up, sir.”
Colgan broke the connection and yawned widely. He should have gone to bed early, but the Shan were so fascinating! How could anyone sleep when there was so much to learn?
An hour later, he was sitting at his command station nursing his second cup of coffee and frowning at the scan data. He could see why Anya was suspicious—he was too, but definitive evidence was proving in short supply.
“How is that sweep coming?” he said, turning to Stephanie. “Anything?”
“Something definitely came in, Skipper, but the traces are too vague to pinpoint the mass. It could have been one of ours, but I can’t tell from the scan.”
“Hmmm.” That was about what he expected. “Helm, take us up slow. I want to take a peek over the top of my rock.”
Janice grinned. “Aye, aye, sir. Z plus two thousand metres.”
Colgan watched the asteroid they were hiding behind slowly drift down below them on his number two repeater display. “Keep a sharp eye on your scan, Lieutenant.”
“Aye, aye, Skip.”
Janice slowed the ship and Canada was finally able to bring all her instruments to bear. The emergence was confirmed almost straight away, but the culprit was still illusive. The last traces of drive activation were still dispersing and would be gone very soon. No scan tech ever born would have been able to tell what came in system from so little data.
“Concentrate your scan upon Alpha-One, Lieutenant. Let the cruiser lead you to them.”
“Aye, sir.”
Colgan waited and sipped his coffee. He glanced aside at the ship’s chrono. A-shift would be on soon. “Steph, I want you to stay on this. Commander Groves will be up shortly. Bring her up to speed ASAP.”
“Aye, Skip,” Steph said happily. She wanted to stay and see this thing to its conclusion.
Shift change came and went with no sign that anything remotely like an intruder had ever entered the system. The Shan fleet turned back to its normal operations leaving the original light cruiser, designated Alpha-One, to its search. Sometime later, Stephanie and Francis were still whispering together as they puzzled over the master plot of the system they had displayed at their station. Neither woman had found what the Shan were looking for. Francis was exceptional at scan, and Steph was no slouch either. Whatever the intruder was, it was damn tricky.
“What do we know about that ship, Francis?” Colgan said and highlighted Alpha-One on the main viewer with his control wand.
“Not much, sir. Alpha-one: Shan ship in the light cruiser range. It was patrolling the zone when we came in. Since then, it has led two of their training ops with distinction. I would like to go aboard and meet her captain. I like his moves.”
“Let’s hope we get the opportunity.”
“Sir?”
“What is it, Steph?” Colgan went to join her at Scan. He leaned upon the master p
lot’s table dispay, reading the data absently “What have you found?”
“Could be nothing, Skipper, but see this?” Mills punched up another view. The current view cleared to be replaced by another sector of the Shan system. “Watch gamma-eight-niner, sir.”
Colgan frowned. “I don’t see anything—”
“There, sir. That’s it.”
For just an instant, something flickered into being. Vectors and velocity painted the target, but then it disappeared as it had come with no explanation. Canada’s computer must have been as puzzled as Colgan felt because after a second’s hesitation it deleted the data. Normally, if a target was lost from the scan, the computer would update the plot and paint the data yellow to designate a lost or stealthed target’s presumed heading. It did neither of those things.
“A glitch?”
“I don’t think so, Skipper,” Mills said uncertainly. “It’s as if the computer had picked up a ship with a faulty I.F.F”
Colgan frowned. “I don’t follow.”
“See, if I was a captain of say… a cruiser entering a possibly hostile system, I wouldn’t want the Shan to find me.”
“Obviously.”
“Yes, sir,” Mills agreed. “I.F.F might give the game away and it might not. Probably it would, but I wouldn’t want to risk it either way, but what if I had to meet someone in that system?”
“Us?” Colgan noted the computer deleting another instance of the phantom target. “You think he’s dicking about with his signature?”
“Yes sir, I do. It would be really easy to make our computer think it had a glitch. I know I could do it.”
“From the inside,” Colgan agreed. He could think of two ways right off. “But from outside?”
“Yes sir. I could do it.”
“Hmmm.” He wasn’t sure he liked that, but now wasn’t the time to think about it. Colgan went back to his station. “Run a plot and extrapolate the phantom’s probable entry point into the inner belt.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Janice?”
“Sir?”
“As soon as Steph gives you a course, I want you to take us there. Keep us down to five percent of max. That should keep the Shan ignorant of our movements.”
“Aye sir.”
Aboard ASN Invincible, approaching Shan inner belt
“Slow to one tenth,” Captain Monroe said and swivelled her station. “Anything yet?”
“Nothing, Skipper,” Commander Hamilton said. “They might have been detected and had to jump out.”
“I doubt it. The Shan couldn’t find us. If Colgan was careful, he should have remained undetected. What’s that Shan cruiser doing now?”
“Still patrolling the belt skip.”
“That’s good.” She turned to Martin at communications. “Keep transmitting.”
“Aye, aye ma’am,” Lieutenant Davin said.
It had taken them days to sneak away from the outer belt. The Shan had taken it upon themselves to run a training op of some kind almost in their laps. It had taken some skilful ship handling by Keith Hadden to extricate them. Now all they had to do was find Canada and her mission would be successfully completed.
“The report said that Colgan was using the inner belt to survey the system. Where the hell is he?”
“Could be anywhere by now, Skip. He’s been here almost a year—” Kersten began without looking up from her plot, but then her eyes sharpened. “Contact! Target designate Charlie-one—Alliance survey vessel.” She looked up and grinned. “It’s Canada, Captain.”
Cynthia smiled in satisfaction. “Helm, intercept course.”
“Aye, aye. Coming to new heading three-four-six by zero-zero-two degrees,” Lieutenant Hadden said, making the course correction and Invincible swung to port.
“Get me Canada as soon as we’re in range, Martin. I want to say hello.”
Davin nodded. “Yes ma’am!”
Aboard ASN Canada, Shan inner belt
James stepped off the shuttle and into Canada’s number two boat-bay. Brenda stopped beside him and took his hand. He smiled down at her, but she didn’t see. She was looking around the bay with interest. The others whispered among themselves while half dozen of Canada’s crew trotted by and up the ramp to retrieve their belongings from the shuttle. Standing in a line ahead of the contact team was their reception committee.
Captain Monroe went to greet Canada’s captain. James nudged Brenda gently and they tagged along.
“—my first officer Commander Groves. This is Lieutenant Ricks, my comm officer. Mark is the reason we’re all here.”
Ricks demurred. “It could have been anyone, sir. It was blind luck that I was on duty at the right time.”
“Lucky for all of us,” Captain Colgan said.
Monroe shook hands with Colgan’s officers and introduced her Exec before turning to Janice. “This is Professor Bristow, Jeff. She heads up the contact team. I will let her introduce you to the others.”
“I am glad to know you Professor—” Colgan began.
“Call me Janice, please.”
“As you wish, Janice. I am pleased to welcome you and your team aboard. I will have your things sent to your quarters. If you need anything, please let me know.”
“Thank you, Captain, but the only thing we need is a place to work, and access to your computer and database. Let me first introduce you to the others.” Janice said turning to James. “Professor James Wilder, history.”
James smiled and shook the captain’s hand. “Nice to meet you, sir. I’m looking forward to seeing what you have learned.”
Colgan inclined his head. “Welcome aboard, Professor.”
“Professor Brenda Lane, xenology and exobiology.”
“Welcome Professor. I look forward to hearing your views on the Shan.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Brenda said and shook hands.
“Professor Bernard Franks, cultural studies.”
“Cultural studies?” Colgan said in puzzlement. “What do you study?”
“Rather it is whom do I study, Captain. I specialise in the Merkiaari. The President thought I would be useful.”
Colgan raised an eyebrow at that. “I see. Welcome aboard, Professor.”
“Professor David Harrison, biology,” Janice said.
“Nice to meet you, Professor.”
“Likewise, sir,” David said. “You have a very fine ship here. I know quite a bit about the Fleet and—”
Janice interrupted with a gentle squeeze of David’s shoulder. “Please, David. Leave that for later if you would.”
“Sorry, Captain.”
“Not at all, Professor. I am very proud of her. We’ll find time to talk later.”
“I look forward to it, sir.”
“Sheryl Linden, physics and engineering design,” Janice went on, and motioned Sheryl forward.
“I have heard of you, Professor,” Colgan said pumping Sheryl’s hand with enthusiasm. “If I’m not mistaken, you pioneered the development of the skip capable drive.”
Sheryl shook her head. “You are mistaken captain. The ability is inherent within all fold space drives.”
“Yes, but you made it possible to actually use it. Before your research, two out of three ships smeared themselves all over the quadrant whenever they tried it.”
“It was simply a matter of proper calibration—” Sheryl began but stopped herself. “Forgive me, Bindar. That was rude of me.”
“There is nothing to forgive, Professor Linden,” Bindar Singh murmured quietly. “I am sure your achievements are more than worthy.”
“Captain Colgan, this is Professor Singh. He is our linguistics expert,” Sheryl said, introducing her colleague herself by way of an apology.
“Honoured, sir,” Bindar said with a small bow.
“The honour is mine, Professor Singh. I have a lot to show you. We have been recording everything since the day we arrived. Much of it is verbal communication. Mark has been working on it, but he’s not r
eally trained in your field I’m afraid.”
“I will start at once!” Bindar said eagerly.
“No hurry, Bindar,” Janice said, and laughed gently at his downcast expression. “Let us get settled in at least. I’ll call a meeting first thing tomorrow… have you a place for us to work, Captain?”
“You can have the briefing room whenever you need it, and all the labs are open to you of course.”
“Thank you.”
Colgan turned to Ricks. “Show our guests to their cabins please, Mark. Make sure they know how to use our equipment and can find their way around.”
“Aye sir. If you will follow me, please?”
Janice nodded and led the team after the lieutenant.
11 ~ Discovered
Aboard Chakra, on extended patrol, Shan system
Tei’Varyk, commander of the light fang Chakra, was perplexed. It was unlike Tarjei to be wrong about something like this, but if she was not, where was the target? It had been long orbits since the Murderers of Harmony had destroyed the Harmony of Shan, but that made his people more vigilant not less. The Fleet had never been so strong, and it would get stronger still as new construction was added.
The Twin Worlds of the race had lived in peace for many hundreds of orbits, but then had come the war. War, he mused, a strange word that had no place in the mouth of any Shan. It even sounded alien, which of course it was. The race had no word for this thing that the Murderers called war, and so they used the alien word rather than foul the language of the race by adding one more harmonious. The elders were wise in this. How could something without harmony be given a harmonious word? It was much better to use the harsh sounding alien one to remind everyone what it meant.
Tei’Varyk glanced at the repeater display on his right side. It was displaying a schematic of the outer asteroid belt with mining operations and other information blinking in the blue of known targets.
“Jakinda, come about to a new heading of… zero-zero-zero by zero-two-seven.”
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