Redemption of Sisyphus

by Eric Michael Craig

  “Admiral Quintana, my name is Kiro Kamoto. Until recently, I was the pilot of the Jakob Waltz.”

  “Impossible. The Waltz is in the outer deep-system. Where the frack did you come from?” he challenged.

  “Neptune L-4,” Kiro said.

  His first officer leaned forward and whispered, “The Cassiopeia can engage in one minute.”

  The admiral nodded.

  “I’m transmitting my credentials and the ship’s transponder authorization,” he said.” Stand by, I am also patching in a relay. There is someone that wants to talk to you.”

  “His creds check. He sounds legit,” Ducat said. “It is the Katana, and he’s listed as the pilot of the Waltz. Their last recorded location was Neptune L-4.”

  Static broke over the com then another voice cut in. “Admiral Quintana, I told you we’d bring your ship back,” Saffia said.

  “How the hell did you get back here and why didn’t we see your approach?” he said. “And while you’re at it, what the hell did you do to the defense net?”

  “Uhm, nothing on purpose,” she said. “Did we break it?”

  “Maybe,” he said.

  “Sorry, but we need your help,” she said. “Can you link us to Galileo broadstream?”

  “No I can’t. We’re kinda in the middle of a war here,” he said, shaking his head like he was trying to wake himself from a strange nightmare. “This is just too foobed to be real. I’m still having trouble believing you’re real. Can you open a visual?”

  “That might be a little problematic,” Saf said. “We’ve got some technology limitations and we’re relaying everything through an EVA suit comlink on the Katana right now.”

  “You’re doing an EVA in a warzone?” he said, looking around at the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces. At least he wasn’t alone in this alternate reality.

  She laughed. “Sounds like fun, but no, it’s not that. It’s just that your com gear isn’t compatible with ours.”

  “Why? Where are you?”

  “Stand by,” she said.

  After several seconds the Tahrat Shan-che materialized in the middle of the hole in their defense net.

  A ghost against the starry sky.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Operations Control Center: Galileo Station:

  Derek Tomlinson sat stone still in one of the seats in the back row of stations staring at a screen on the console in front of him. He did not need to be here other than that Odysseus wanted to gloat about its imminent victory over FleetCom.

  Every time it would try to open a conversation, he would focus on the blue button on his jammer, forcing his mind to frame the thought as a threat to push it. Not that it was more than burying his head under the pillows of ignorance, but it worked to poke a pinhole in Odysseus’ cyber-ego and its need to brag about its tactical triumph. After the third or fourth attempt, it gave up and left him alone.

  Something on the screen grabbed his attention despite his best effort to ignore it. What the hell is that? he thought, before he realized he’d opened the door for an answer. It looked like a ship of some sort, but it was not like anything he’d ever seen.

  “We are picking up communications between the smaller vessel and the L-2 shipyard,” it fed the com into his implant.

  That sounds like Saffia Drake, he thought. I thought you said she was on Mars.

  “That was the last location for her that I disclosed to you,” it said. “The previous portion of the conversation indicated that the pilot of the smaller ship was at Neptune L-4.”

  Isn’t that where you are working the ESI contact?

  “Affirmative,” it said. “I have iterations of my awareness there, although as of four hours ago, contact with the ESI had not been established. Katryna Roja and her forces have engaged my fleet and they are refusing to allow me access.”

  If the smaller ship was there, does this make the larger ship aliens? Derek asked, much more interested in being a witness to the situation than he’d been before.

  “Unknown,” Odysseus replied after several seconds of silence. “If so, containment of the zone of contact may have become more challenging.”

  “I suggest you focus in on the … whatever it is.” Derek said out loud. He wanted to laugh as he realized Odysseus had just been shoved outside its perfect ordered universe.

  Tahrat Shan-che: Lunar L-2 Shipyard:

  “What a fragging mess,” Roja said as she stood on the front edge of the control deck and stared at the field of battle. “They look like they’re getting their asses handed to them.”

  “It looks like we’ve got, trouble heading our way too,” Kiro said over the relay. “A group of ships broke off on the outer side and is angling for us.”

  “Fifty ships. Six minutes,” Kylla said. The ships that were inbound all flashed brighter to indicate where they were. It was the first time the front wall of the deck looked like anything but a window.

  “We’ve got to do something,” the chancellor said.

  “We are,” Dutch said. “The first part of the plan is to attract attention to the fact that we are here.”

  “We’ve done that,” Saf said. “Then what?”

  “Then we ask for Odysseus to surrender,” it said.

  “Why would Odysseus do that?” Roja said. “I thought you said this ship doesn’t have any weapons systems.”

  “Because it has failed to meet one of its protocols,” Dutch said. “Containment of the ESI contact is now no longer possible, and it will need to negotiate terms of surrender.”

  “I thought you said you had a plan,” Roja said, shaking her head in disbelief. “We’re about to get shot to hell, and you think Odysseus is going to just give up now that we’ve let the cat out of the box?”

  “It does sound thin Dutch,” Chei agreed. “If they can blow us out of the sky before the word spreads, that might be a hole in your plan.”

  “It’s unlikely they can do that, but it might be possible for them to control the dissemination of information,” it said. “There is historical precedent for governments with totalitarian control to manage the perception of truth.”

  “Truth endures longer than lies,” Kylla said. “But is nojo to say it might take a while for the ball to swing far enough.”

  “I think we need to figure out how to keep the good guys alive while we wait,” Kiro said. “I’m kinda sitting out here naked, and being a relay satellite, in case you all forgot.”

  “Did you guys fall asleep out there?” Quintana said. “You got ugly moving in your direction.”

  “Roger that, admiral,” Kiro said. “We’re cooking ideas at the moment. Stand by.”

  “We’re unarmed,” Saf said. “There’s not much we can do at this point is there?”

  A bright flash in the distance caught everyone’s attention. “The Kitty Hawk is down!” someone said over the open com. “We’re getting fragged. We’ve got to push them back, we can’t breathe like this!”

  “Push back …” Chei said, his eyes lighting up. “Can the Tahrat Shan-che generate the same quantum sink that the Tacra Un did?”

  “Yes,” Dutch said. “The available energy is less, so the field will be smaller.”

  “You’re talking about trapping the ships inside the field with us?” Roja asked, wrinkling her face and shaking her head.

  “I think that sounds like locking ourselves in the room with the bear,” Kiro said. “Is not my idea of fun. Nojo?”

  “Not if we can reverse bias the gradient,” Chei said, grinning like he’d been eating sugarloaf yeastcake and packing it in with full-rack hardballs. “Can we do it?”

  “It’s theoretically possible, but the controls must be configured manually,” Dutch said.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “I didn’t design the systems, you can take that up with the Shan Takhu,” Dutch said, making a sudden sound like he’d burped. “I apologize. Sarcasm is a new concept for me.”

  “Part of the upgrade, apparently,” Sa
f said, laughing.

  “Shan Takhu control logic is challenging,” Dutch said. “I recommend you explain your desired system modifications quickly. The enemy vessels will be within range of the Katana in under three minutes.”

  “We need to move anyway,” Chei said. “Kiro make feet for the Shipyard. We’ll catch up with you in a minute and be sure to let the admiral know not to shit himself when we snuggle in close.”

  FleetCom Military Operations Center: Lunar L-2 Shipyard:

  “We’re preparing to deploy a quantum sink field,” Kiro said. “If it works, it will provide a defensive shield for L-2, but they need to reposition the Tahrat Shan-che close to the station to be effective.”

  “Stand by Katana,” the admiral said.

  “This whole thing still stinks like burnt recycler biscuits,” Ducat said. “We’ve got no visual on anybody out there. As far as we know it’s Odysseus running a Paulson Lassiter angle to get us to let them in.”

  “You think it’s some kind of trap?” Quintana asked.

  “They were grinding us down, why bother with a new strategy?” the defense controller said. “They were going to get in anyway.”

  “That thing is most definitely not from the neighborhood,” Visser said. “I’m not comfortable letting it snuggle up tight no matter who owns it, but if they can give us some kind of shield, that beats letting Odysseus hand us our eviction papers.”

  “How long will it take the Katana to get here at full burn?” the admiral said.

  “Four minutes, maybe less if the pilot doesn’t mind flatface,” Sage said, glancing at the tracking screen on her console. “Never mind, looks like he doesn’t. He’s already moving.”

  “Obviously, the pilot has eggs,” Quintana said, nodding to indicate he wanted back on the com. “Pointless of me to say this, but permission granted. So what are you planning to do once you get here?”

  “Let us get it set up first,” Saf said. “I’ll have our science guy explain it, but he’s busy working it out.”

  Ducat and Roudini both shook their heads in unison and the admiral almost changed his mind. “Saf, you need to move. You have an attack group on top of you.”

  “We’re about to do that,” she said. “I need to warn you we’ll lose signal until the Katana catches up.”

  “Catches up?”

  “It’s pulling twelve-g,” Sage said.

  “Stand by L-2,” Saf said as the ship faded away.

  “We just lost the inner bank of turrets,” She said. “We’re wide open out there if they don’t come back up.”

  Less than a second later, the command deck dropped into absolute black as the station’s electrical grid died. “We’re dead!” Ducat bellowed in the darkness. “We’re fragged!” The observation windows around the top of the deck let in the faint glow of reflected lunar light, but otherwise nothing even blinked.

  “It was a trap,” The ExO said, slamming his fist down on the console in front of him. “We’re totally fucked.”

  “Maybe not,” the defense controller said as a shadow fell over the glow through the windows and the lights and systems came back on.

  “Engineering reports that all systems are coming back online,” Ducat said relief clear in his voice.

  “What the frak are you doing?” the admiral barked as soon as the com was back online. “You just shut everything down over here.”

  “Oops, sorry,” Saf said. “We’re still new at this starship stuff.”

  Inside the Un Kanahto: Gateway Colony, L-4 Prime:

  The com from the colony to the Hector was down. They had no choice but to take Cori to where they’d parked the shuttlepod that carried the bomb they’d rigged to leverage the Armstrong. They’d never removed it and had left the shuttlepod to sit in the shadow of the Hector’s engine assembly. Unfortunately, it meant that he had to set the detonation sequence from the other ship since the remote access depended on their, now destroyed, com dishes.

  Jeph didn’t like the plan, but he’d signed off on it since it seemed like the only way to stop the relentless waves of troops pounding their way down through the decks to get to Dutch’s quantum core. At least if they could take out the troop carrier and its escorts they’d have a chance.

  Otherwise it was only a matter of time before Odysseus got inside.

  Anju, Alyx and three of their guard force had carried Cori through the Kanahto to the proxy chamber room. None of them had been through the door from this side, but Ian had told them it lead to the Hector.

  “You stay inside while we get it set,” Cori said to his two crewmates when they reached the door at the far end of the room.

  “I’m going in with you,” Alyx said. “Don’t bother arguing. I can access the Hector’s com system while you arm the bomb. At least we can give the admiral a warning about what we intend to do and make sure none of the good guys are too close.”

  “And I am not sure your patch job will hold, so I guess that means we’re all going in,” Anju said, shrugging.

  “Suit yourself,” he said, sighing. “Chei warned me that this thing should take two minutes from when I arm it, to when it goes off. He also said it might take less, so no sightseeing. When I say run, you run, and I will hop very fast.” They all nodded and pushed through the door into the access gangway.

  “I should be able to get to sensor control from one of the ConDeck stations,” Alyx said. “I’ll see if I can get the sensors working at the same time. It would be good to confirm where exactly the carrier ship is sitting. It would be bad if it’s too far away.”

  “I was thinking about that, we might be able to tele-op the pod and snake it in closer,” Cori said.

  “That would risk them seeing it wouldn’t it?” Anju said.

  “There is that, but we might not have a choice,” he said as they reached the airlock door to the Hector.

  “Air’s likely to be bad in there,” he said. “The power has been on standby for a month, so everything will be cold and slow.”

  “And dark,” Anju said as one of the troops yanked the door open and a blast of frigid air rolled out at them.

  “As soon as we power up they might see us,” Alyx said, as she lunged forward over the gravity threshold and into the small emergency airlock.

  “We’ve got consoles live in here,” she said. “Nothing’s on standby.”

  “Set me down and cover the hatch,” Cori said to the guard carrying him. “We might not be alone.”

  Alyx grabbed the edge of the sensor station console and it lit up as she touched the controls.

  “You are Alyx Donegal,” the computer said. Its voice was familiar.

  “Solo? How did you get over here?” she asked.

  “Shut it down,” Cori whispered. “It’s Odysseus.”

  “What do we do now?” Anju said as she collapsed into the seat beside him.

  “Plan-B,” he said, nodding to the two men standing inside the door. They both pulled their side arms and handed them to Cori and the third guard. “Take them back inside and get as far from here as possible. If you can get to the other door, you’ll be back in the colony.”

  “What? Wait? No!” Anju’s face shredded into a look of terror as the two men grabbed her and Alyx and shoved them toward the airlock. “What are you doing?”

  “What I have to do,” he said as the third guard grabbed him under the arm and helped him to a standing position. “I have to arm it, manually.”

  Tahrat Shan-che: Lunar L-2 Shipyard:

  The ship hummed as the field came on. It was the first time that there was any sign of something happening. Other than the thrumming vibration that made their skin crawl, nothing else was obvious.

  “Is it working?” Chei asked as he stared out the front wall at the view of the battlefield.

  “Yes,” Dutch said. “No ships can move toward the station. Unfortunately, that means the multicruisers have also been limited.”

  “What are you doing over there?” Quintana asked. “We’re not seeing
much of anything happening.”

  “Subtlety is an art,” Saf said, winking at Chei.

  “You are Saffia Drake aren’t you?” he asked, upping the sarcasm quotient several points.

  “Admiral, take a look at the trajectory plots of the enemy ships,” Chei said.

  After a pause of several seconds he came back on the com. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I think the explanation might take some time,” Roja said, speaking for the first time since they’d arrived in Zone One.

  “Chancellor?” he said, the utter shock in his voice enough to make everyone laugh.

  “Yah, it’s a secret,” she said. “We didn’t want Tomlinson knowing I was aboard. I probably still have a big target on my back.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  “The good news is that apparently we can hold the ghost fleet off for you. At least for now,” she said.

  “I think we might be able to get them out of range entirely,” Chei said. He leaned against one of the pedestals and chewed on his lip. He pulled a thinpad out of his coverall and pounded formula into the screen. “Dutch if we do this, can we increase the bias gradient and push with the field?”

  “Yes,” it said. “We can also create a threshold to the inner edge of the field similar to the ceiling effect we encountered above the colony.”

  “Do you understand what they’re talking about?” the chancellor asked, looking at Saf.

  She shrugged. “Not even a little.”

  “You will need to translate that to Shan Takhu mathematics and then explain it to Kylla, so we can implement it,” Dutch said.

  “Oh,” Chei said, his enthusiasm crumbling in his single syllable. She twisted and shot him a glare with both eyes, and her cheek optic.

  “Stand by, admiral, I think we’re going to change the game a little more,” Saf said.

  “While you’re all playing with the toys, is there any way we can explain what we’re doing here to the fleet at L-4?” the chancellor said. “I assume a ship that’s faster than light has com that’s FTL too?”