A Simple Mission

by Daniel Gibbs

  And he couldn't say any more. So many thoughts filled his mind, thoughts that kindled the despair, and the consideration returned. If there was no future, what was the point of continuing, a burden to his parents, a disgrace to everyone he knew and loved?

  Seeing the pain in his parents' faces was too much for him. Henry muttered, "Excuse me," and retreated to his room. He sat in the chair at his old desk, rickety old things built and rebuilt with love, and stared blankly through the window at the empty sky, thinking of the void beyond that he'd been banished from.

  7

  Shadow Wolf

  Open Space

  18 April 2559

  * * *

  With two jumps behind them and still no pursuit, Henry decided to check on their unexpected passenger. Reva Sharma was in the infirmary, severely injured but stable after Oskar's extensive work on stabilizing her condition. Oskar hovered over her like a hen over an egg, checking her status and her wound. "I thank you, Captain," she said in a low tone. "My arrogance led me astray. I miscalculated to understate Hrik'ma's rivals so. You might have been killed had their aim been better."

  "What makes you think I was the target?" he asked. "It might have been you."

  "Killing me wouldn't stop the shipment. It would just anger Hrik'ma and turn the rest of the Yan'katar Business Council against them for being so overt." Sharma sighed. "I will have to go back on another vessel at some point, I suppose."

  "It will be a more comfortable one, I'd imagine," Henry replied with some amusement. "I'm sure you're not used to traveling on a cargo transport."

  A wry look came to her. "You would be surprised," she said. "I dress up well to fit a part, Captain. In truth, I was born in the slums of Mavelikara. My parents were from fallen families and still had standards, so I was raised to do whatever I had to do to reclaim wealth and dignity for the family. Mister Lou has been an understanding employer, as you might imagine." She gave him a curious look. "You are former Coalition, but I do not recall reading where you are from."

  "New Virginia," Henry replied. "Tylerville."

  "I am not very familiar with your world, so I suspect we have similar backgrounds."

  "Lower middle class family going through hard times, and that's all you need to know," Henry said.

  "I see. Then when I mentioned the Laffey… my apologies." The last was quickly spoken after seeing the stony look return to Henry's face. "I suppose you are close to what my mother was like before I was born," Sharma said wistfully. "Your entire life was ruined, and you seek to rebuild it however you can."

  "Pretty much" was the only answer he was willing to give. He motioned to Oskar to follow before stepping out into the ship’s corridor. Oskar followed and, noticing his look, closed the door. "What do you think of her wound?"

  "A close call," Oskar said. "The damage was consistent with a charged particle weapon, with the torn flesh and burn damage around the area of the heart and lung, but nothing directly on either organ. Had she been hit a few centimeters toward her head or sternum, she wouldn’t be alive."

  Henry pondered his words. "I see. Alright, do what you can for her. But there's another matter. About our other, vitally-challenged passenger."

  "The dead Jalm'tar," Oskar said. "What is your concern?"

  "An autopsy.”

  Shadow Wolf

  Open Space

  18 April 2559

  * * *

  Days passed after the departure from Yan'katar, then a week, with the crew on alert status throughout the run waiting for an attack. Henry was having a quiet lunch in the galley when Yanik took a seat nearby. "You are troubled," he rumbled, his voice a slight hiss from the shape of the Saurian mouth. "Lou's agent has upset you. Certainly, she is not complaining about her current living arrangements?"

  "She's not," Henry replied. "She's lived in worse, apparently, than an independent ship's medical bay."

  Yanik nodded slightly and took a bite from his food.

  Recognizing the cue for what it was, Henry went on. "She thinks she knows what happened on the Laffey," Henry said. "Like a lot of people."

  "You do not usually allow such ignorance to afflict you, Captain," Yanik said. "I have observed this. But now you seem… sensitive, even weak, to the memory."

  Henry leveled a look at him before nodding in understanding. "Right," he said. "Saurian years are longer than ours."

  "They are, but I am afraid I do not see the relevance."

  "The anniversary of what happened to the Laffey passed recently," Henry remarked. "Thirteen damn years."

  Yanik's tongue flicked out of his mouth for a moment. "Ah, I see. I did not account for the Human dating. I understand your feelings now, Captain." He slipped what passed for a fork into the pile of meat chunks in his soup-like meal. After devouring the meat in a couple of big bites, he added, “I have always understood your anger. I know my own.”

  Henry nodded in understanding. "We've seen our people fail to live up to standards. And we've paid for it." After considering that remark, and what he knew of Yanik's past, he asked, "Do you ever miss Sauria?"

  For a moment, the big reptilian went silent. His eyes blinked, not as a gesture but simply to moisten them, a common physiological action for Saurians in Human-standard atmospheres. "Sometimes," he confessed. "I miss the sounds of the kreelpak in the forest. The smell of the kiktik. The taste of passak freshly killed."

  Henry considered some of the things he missed about home. He could imagine the mountain air at his Uncle Charlie's prized cabin, the cool waters of the nearby stream.

  A tone sounded over the ship’s intercom before he could speak further. "Captain to the Bridge, I repeat, Captain to the Bridge," said Piper. "We have possible bogeys."

  Yanik stood as Henry did. "It would appear that our foes have indeed pursued us," he began. "I shall be prepared for boarders."

  "Hopefully, it won't get that far," Henry said as he went for the door. "But this job's become one big charlie foxtrot, so I won't rule anything out. "His brisk walk turned into a jog, then nearly a run as he rushed to the bow of the ship and the command center. It was fully occupied already, with Tia, Piper, and Cera present. Piper vacated the command seat and moved for the station to the left of it. Cera was at the helm and Tia to the command seat's right in the First Mate's chair.

  Henry settled into his chair and checked the holotank between him and Tia. Red dots played over his face from the holoviewer display. Six in total, approaching from different vectors. "They just appeared," Piper said. "No neutrino spike."

  "They were waiting for us under low power running and passive scan," Henry said. "Typical pirate strategy. Although they must have gotten really lucky to guess our return course." He glanced to Tia, who shared the glance with the same concern in her eyes. "How long until our next jump?"

  "At least two hours," she noted. "Pieter's got the drive on cool down due to a heat spike on the last jump."

  "We wouldn't last two hours against three ships, let alone six," Piper said.

  "Not normally." Henry gave Tia a knowing look.

  She returned it. "Khánh does good work. And our tests went well."

  A cackle came from the helm. "Ah, you're thinkin' of usin' our new toy?" Cera asked.

  "I am. Let's…" He stopped speaking at seeing the new red dots on the holo-tank. He checked the reading before asking, "Fighters?"

  "Looks like it," Piper said. "They've hit max acceleration. They'll be in combat range in five minutes."

  Henry hit the switch on his seat for the intercom. "All hands, prepare for pirate attack. Incoming fighters. Man all guns. Ms. Sharma, please find a landing seat and secure yourself with the harness. This could get bumpy." That order would send some of the others—Felix, Vidia, Brigitte, and Oskar—to the four anti-fighter gun mounts on the Shadow Wolf. The quad-mount pulse guns were good for shooting up fighters and incoming projectiles, if not full-sized ships.

  Tia was busy calculating a course. "Given their courses, if we use our surpris
e, we have a potential window to avoid all but one."

  "We can't avoid them all?"

  "No," Piper said as she stared at the enemy on the holotank. "They're spaced out too well, and even with our fusion drive acceleration, we'll have at least one in weapons range."

  "Still, one on one is better than six on one," Cera said. "An' I can fly circles around th' pirate sassenach."

  "You probably could. The problem is those fighters," Henry said. He hit the intercom again. "We'll have five minutes to dispose of those fighters, everyone. Let them have it."

  "I'm bringing the plasma cannons and auto-turrets online," Piper said from her station. To her side, a small holo-viewer came up with a reticle in it. "I probably won't get any hits with the cannons, but I can keep them busy on attack runs."

  "Do what you can, Piper." Left unsaid between the two was that the single gun auto-turrets, magnetic accelerators, were better suited for fighters, although their primary use was against incoming missiles. They had automated targeting instead of the manual systems used for the quad turrets.

  "One of these days, we really should get automated targeting controls on the quads," Piper said.

  "Not now."

  "We've got a signal from the ships," said Tia. "Putting them on."

  The being that appeared was visibly a Jalm'tar. "Alien captain, the pireem herbs are what we seek. Jettison them into space and you will be permitted to leave with your ship intact. Disobey and we will take everything you have."

  Henry reacted by hitting a switch on his chair arm, killing the signal.

  "Ah. Hangin' up on the pirates." Cera laughed darkly. "That's sure to put them in a pleasant mood, sir."

  "I don't give a damn about their mood." Henry checked his safety harness. "Time to fighter intercept?"

  "Ninety seconds."

  Henry provided a mental countdown to their approach. Coming in from three vectors gave the fighters the advantage of preventing the gun mounts from focusing on them. When they fired, it was with brief flashes of violet from the chin-mounted weapons of their triangle-shaped craft.

  "Xaser fire," Piper noted. "The deflectors absorbed it."

  X-ray lasers. Impressive for pirate fighters. Good thing they aren't packing neutron cannons. "Keep an eye on deflector cohesion. Helm, stay steady, stand by for strong maneuvers." There was little point in trying to evade fighters with a ship the size of the Shadow Wolf, but a sharp evasive turn might be called for against a missile attack.

  The four quad mounts were mounted to be on "top" and "bottom," the bottom weapons closer to the port and starboard sides to be clear of the holds. Each was fully manned given their quick response to the fighters entering weapons range. Bolts of sapphire light tore through the empty void around the ship, streaking along the attackers' paths.

  Meanwhile, the auto-turrets' fire wasn't visible outside of mag-scanners, which would show the magnetic fields generated to propel the slivers of alloyed material meant for shredding their targets. One of the attacking fighters took a hit from one of the auto-turrets and had one side ripped to pieces. The craft moved on, its agility reduced from the loss of maneuvering thrusters until it ran through a barrage of fire from the dorsal port quad-mount. The blue bolts tore through the wounds and tore the fighter apart from within. A plume of released fusion plasma blew the craft to pieces.

  Repeated bolts of violet light played against the deep blue shield encasing the Shadow Wolf. "Deflectors are still coherent," Piper said. She triggered the plasma cannons. The purple energy, generated by the exotic blend of gases energized into a plasma state, shot through space, but her target evaded at the last minute.

  "Karnon isn't cheap," Tia said sharply, referring to the Tal'mayan-made gas used in the plasma cannons made by the same species that were fitted to the ship.

  "Captain said keep them honest," Piper retorted. A moment later, a tone sounded. "Missile inbound!"

  Henry tensed at the projectile fired by one of the enemy fighters. He relaxed a moment later when it vanished from the tactical view, along with the craft that launched it.

  "Two for one!" Brigitte crowed over the intercom.

  "We'll count scores later," Felix said, his voice in the same scolding tone he might use on an unruly cadet if he were back in the CDF.

  A moment later, Henry noted another fighter disappear.

  "I don't think they were expecting us to put up this much of a fight," Tia said.

  "Or they're just trying to wear us down for the big ships." As he spoke, Henry watched one of the fighters move in front of them. Its rear seemed to disintegrate as if hit by a shotgun, the result of being hit by a round from the auto-turrets. Moments later, a purple bolt from the main plasma cannon turret blew it to pieces. He checked his timer. "Ninety seconds until we burn." His finger found the button for the dedicated line to Engineering. "Pieter, everything ready?"

  "Yes, sir. Would be easier if I still had an engineer's mate or two…" Pieter seemed to catch himself complaining. "Ready down here."

  The ship shook hard under them. "Missile hit, port quarter," Tia said. "Deflector cohesion to port is down."

  "Everyone watch the port side," Henry said. "They'll concentrate there."

  The chance to hammer the Shadow Wolf was too great for them to miss it, even with Henry's crew adjusting. The mounts that could track did so, spraying pulse fire and penetrator flechettes into the area the fighters were moving toward. The Shadow Wolf rotated and turned in space, desperately trying to keep the attackers off the weakened arc. A few seconds passed, and more of the dots disappeared from the holotank despite their maneuvering.

  But Henry could already see it wasn't enough. Six enemy fighters remained. Their speed and agility meant they could keep up with the Shadow Wolf's maneuvers, and if they each fired a torpedo, the deflectors would fail. It was time to throw their aim off. "Cera, it's time," he said. "Engage fusion drives."

  "With pleasure, Captain.”

  "All hands, prepare for high burn," Henry said into the ship’s intercom.

  Inside the rear two holds of the Shadow Wolf, condensed deuterium and helium-3 were drawn from their storage tanks into a reactor vessel. Within moments, the elements in question began the fusion process, generating neutrons and plasma and heat. Magnetic fields drew the plasma through reinforced cabling to the engine ports to create thrust.

  A lot of thrust.

  The Shadow Wolf's acceleration nearly doubled over four seconds. The enemy fighters fired missiles to see their predictor models wildly alter from the sudden, unexpected change in acceleration. Warheads that would’ve hit their target were now complete misses.

  For the crew of the Shadow Wolf, the sudden acceleration strained their ship's inertia compensators immediately. Even the reinforced systems couldn't absorb it all. "Inertial force now at 1.5 Gs," said Tia. "Wait, make that 1.75. Now approaching 2. Now past 2..."

  There were limits to how many sustained Gs a Human could endure. Henry kept a careful watch on the status screen during the continued acceleration. Years of training for potential high-G maneuvers helped him maintain focus. In this case, it let him observe as they quickly opened the space between the Shadow Wolf and the fighters. Their course would also carry them away from the intercepting ships. Guesswork and numbers went through his head until he called out, "Reduce thrust to sixty percent, now!"

  Cera did so. Out of all of them, she was taking the increased G-forces the best. Now she dialed back on the thrust from the fusion drives. The G forces declined.

  "It's still more than the field can take," Tia said, taking in a breath. "We're at 1.18Gs."

  "Better than 2Gs," Piper replied, relief in her tone.

  Henry was already looking at the tracking system. The fighters were well behind them. "They did us a favor by going for our weakened side," he began. "They maneuvered themselves away from the engines. And it looks like they're still after us."

  "I'm crunching the numbers on that." Piper spent several more moments before Henr
y heard a sigh come from her, one of relief. "They're burning hard after us, but if we go back to high thrust in ten minutes and sustain for at least three, I don't think they can catch us before we jump out. And only one of the big ships is going to be in a position to intercept us."

  "Even if we sustain full burn with the fusion drives?"

  "You could keep them on until the Wolf flies apart, but they've got the position on us to intercept any course that doesn't put us in interception range of the others."

  Tia nodded from her seat. "She's right. We've got a fight ahead."

  "Yeah, but we've still got an ace up our sleeve," Henry noted. He flipped his intercom on. "Everyone to standby. We're going to hit max burn again in ten minutes, three minute duration. Ms. Sharma, stay in that landing chair."

  The following ten minutes was the kind of time annoying to anyone in a critical situation, the "hurry up and wait" phase where all you could do was wait for what had to be done next. Henry spent the time with his eyes glued to the holotank, watching the approaching plots, including the pirate fighters growing ever so closer. Piper's calculations were, if anything, a little too fair to the pirate fighters, as the ten-minute mark approached and it was clear they weren’t going to manage an intercept for another five. Regardless, he gave the order and steeled himself.

  The next three minutes were the kind of thing the CDF trained for, if a ship had to go on high-intensity maneuvers with inertial compensator damage. They maxed out at an intense 2.78Gs, which wasn’t a comforting experience. Henry breathed easier when Cera ended the burn.

  Piper quickly crunched numbers and shook her head. "The fighters won't be able to catch up, but the ship ahead is already adjusting. They're still going to intercept us before we can jump."

  "Then we'll make them regret it," Henry said. "Cera, when they start to get into weapons range, I want every effort made to have our bow on them."

  "An intercept course, then?"

  "No." Henry shook his head. "Then they'll expect something. Make it look like we're going for the stern chase."