by Randal Sloan
Walking beside him, Sara Colson wondered once more what she had gotten herself into. She felt a little sorry for Gabo, who while walking with her to their assignment kept tending to wander and she had to keep pulling him back on course. Or maybe, he was lucky. Sara had hacked the District Admin AI enough to know quite a bit more about their assignment than she wanted to know. Like, either someone hates all of us, or we’re someone’s grand experiment. No way this disparate bunch will ever work together.
Sara knew that part of that reaction was just her own feelings. Orphaned at a very young age, Sara had bounced from foster home to foster home until one day at school she had been introduced to implant-based control of AI systems. At twelve she’d hacked her first AI system for profit and she’d never looked back since. At least, until she encountered her current setback. Sara still managed to keep her skills up-to-date, although she was keeping a low profile for the moment.
The thing that bothered her the most, she still hadn’t been able to find out anything about her commanding officer. Sara grumbled to herself, No one should have been so hard to find out about as that young lieutenant. Even part of her time at OCS was sealed. Just who the heck is she? What did she do in OCS to get sealed? It couldn’t be anything bad or she wouldn’t be out here.
All of her speculation about the team was about to be moot, since if her implant was right, their destination was just around the corner.
#
Jarra had finished setting up her interface to the ship’s AI, which in the tradition of the Empire was named after the ship, so it was called Aeres too. That was one thing already. She was going to have to upgrade the AI if she was going to serve aboard this ship; it was barely as powerful as her personal AI and a lot less personable. She instructed Aeres to greet the two approaching the ship and invite them to meet with the rest of the team in the galley. Since her implant told her they were just around the corner, she headed on down to the galley herself to wait.
Galen had indeed procured her a cup of coffee, so Jarra accepted it with thanks. She sat sipping it, thinking about what she wanted to say. The truth, at least the version she could give them. She would also have to answer some of the questions that she suspected Sara would already have. The other two didn’t know the details to ask those questions yet, but they would have their own questions that only time would answer.
Aeres pinged her to tell her the two missing crew members had arrived. Time to get down to business.
Jarra stood as the two entered the galley, drawing a stand at attention and salute from the two newcomers. Of course, Gabo was about a half second behind Sara, his normal state of distraction getting him as usual.
“At ease. Now that’s over with, that’s the last time I expect to see that here onboard ship except when we’re on inspection. We’re all young adults and we don’t need that kind of stuff onboard ship. I expect everyone to go by first names, and that includes me. I’m Jarra and the rest of you already know each other.
“Yes, I’m the much too young lieutenant in command of a highly experimental ship with the three most unusual graduates of the latest Rim Patrol training class, all of them the best we have in their particular area of expertise. Galen, the expert at fixing stuff and a particularly strong whiz at navigation; Gabo, the one who figures out how things work and improves on them; and Sara, the best hacker on this end of the galaxy. We each function on a different plane from much of the rest of humanity.”
She stared at them a moment. “For this to work, we’ve got to get our planes aligned. If we do that, with this ship to support us, we can accomplish a lot during our service together.
“You don’t know me, and I’m indeed young just like you, but you would never have made it in the toe-the-line life onboard a Rim cruiser. You would end up stuck in some out-of-the-way place and your talents would be wasted. I can’t give you my background, and yes, Sara, I know you tried to hack it,” she smiled at Sara’s reaction, “but I’ve had a lot of exposure to the right way to run a command and I intend to follow that pattern.
“We’ve got a lot to do, so I promise you this is the longest speech you’ll ever hear from me. I was given instructions from Commander Crusoe that we would have the ship worked up by the end of next week,” she grinned at their reaction, “and my intention is that we make that deadline. We won’t be in space the first few days, but I intend for us to all stay aboard ship during that time.”
Jarra held her hand up at the even stronger reaction to that statement. Even with just the four of them, the ship was going to be tight quarters. “We’re not here to have fun, guys; you can do that when you’re on leave. Each of you will be able to go home long enough to get your kit and the few personal effects you’re allowed onboard ship. Other than that, if you need any help acquiring something you need to do your job, let me know. If it’s something you really need, I’ll make it happen.”
She laughed when she saw the reaction in Sara’s eyes. “No, Sara, I can’t get you new implants at this time. We don’t have the time for you to be out of action for the week. But anything reasonable, assuming you can justify it, is still on the table.”
She smiled at the three of them. “It’s going to take us some time, but I know this team is going to be the best. The rest of the Rim Patrol doesn’t know what’s coming, but they’ll find out.”
#
The frigate Sasha was traveling on finally reached its first port of call; if you could call the poor system of Gidare 976 a proper port. She wasn’t offered shore leave on the orbital station with the rest of the crew, but she didn’t mind; her data mining had already told her there was nothing to see other than a series of bars, each designed to separate money from those sailors unfortunate enough to come aboard the station.
However, Sasha was entirely unhappy to discover that the poor system had absolutely zero useful data to mine. But the discovery that pushed her over the edge was when she queried the ship’s systems she found that they would be stuck there for the next 36 hours while the ship’s maintenance crew replaced a defective hyperspace coil. She couldn’t stand the thought of another minute in that tiny little room.
To pass the time, Sasha slipped into the empty CICS, the backup to the bridge that all Imperial Navy ships were required to have. Since they were docked, it was entirely unused for the moment. Designed to assume control if the bridge was disabled or destroyed, the CICS had all the systems the bridge would have; just not with the same amount of space to facilitate their use. On a frigate, the CICS was downright cramped, but Sasha was alone, so it didn’t matter.
Luckily, Sasha’s command codes from Imperial Intelligence still gave her access. At least the stupid Admiral hadn’t taken those away. Those command codes let her into all the ship’s systems, allowing Sasha to greatly enhance her understanding of how those systems worked and look at the data coming into the ship. Once again, she was entirely unimpressed with the frigate. She’d seen better sensor suites on a freighter.
Of course, the freighter had belonged to her father, the man who was still extremely disappointed that she had joined Imperial Intelligence to serve the Empire. Her father had been expecting that one day she would take over his job when he was ready to step down — like that was happening anytime soon anyway. What her dad didn’t understand was that she would go crazy working aboard a freighter as it slowly crawled from system to system. It would be nearly as bad as this stupid frigate.
Because of the fact she was watching through the ship’s systems, Sasha was immediately aware when a rather unusual event occurred. An entire squadron of Imperial Navy ships dropped out of hyper at the edge of the system, probably the largest collection of ships that had ever visited this remote system. What was a squadron of Imperial ships doing here in this nowhere system? Sasha stared in disbelief when she saw the IDent codes on the ship leading the squadron — Dauntless — the flagship of the Imperial Navy! What in the galaxy was going on?
As Sasha continued to watch, a fast attack shut
tle shot out from Dauntless and headed in-system at an insanely fast speed. At the same time, orders came into their ship from the flagship. Sent with only standard encryption, Sasha’s command codes allowed her to see those orders at her station and she quickly decrypted them.
Sometimes it’s still an advantage to be an Intelligence weenie! Then Sasha glanced at the orders and her mouth dropped open.
“By Order of Crown Prince John Dansi Von Hasson, your ship is hereby required to provide expedited access to the incoming Imperial shuttle. Sub-Lieutenant Sasha Alexandrai is to be transferred to this command and your full cooperation is expected to complete this transfer. Upon arrival, Marine Master Sergeant Gibbons will be provided all assistance necessary in the extraction of his charge.”
What in the galaxy was going on? Why would the Crown Prince himself send a ship after her? The only possibility was somehow her report had been discovered and sent up to the Imperial government. It all kinda freaked her out, but maybe, just maybe, she would be in time to do something with that report; she really did need the feed from Rigelus. While she was still contemplating the turn of events, Sasha received accompanying orders addressed to her specifically.
“Sub-Lieutenant Sasha Alexandrai, you are hereby ordered to make haste to join the incoming Marine shuttle en route to your ship. Remove all kit and personal items; you will not be returning to your current station.”
Sasha couldn’t resist a bitter laugh at that. She hadn’t been given that basic privilege before she’d been dropped onto this horrible ship. She had absolutely nothing to carry with her. Quickly querying the ship’s AI, Sasha determined the shuttle bay designated for the arrival of the incoming shuttle. It looked like maybe her luck was turning after all.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Mission
Lieutenant Jarra stared at the board in front of her, clinching her hands together, something that she had always done when under stress. Luckily they’d cut the power to the control room lights to get just a little more to the shields, so her team couldn’t see her stressing in the semi-darkness that was left lit only by the control panels of each station.
It didn’t look good for her ship. The pirate ship had come out from behind a moon and hit them before they knew what was happening, no chance to raise shields or take evasive action. The attacking ship had launched a brutal assault against them and only due to the tremendous capability of her ship and crew were they still alive.
The attacker had been beaten off and was nursing its wounds, but their own ship was also badly damaged and it looked like the bad guy had friends on the way.
“They’ll be here in just under five minutes. Four minutes and forty-nine seconds,” Galen said, the ever exact navigator.
Jarra merely nodded. Her own implant had pretty much told her the same thing, just not as accurately as that. It didn’t matter. If they didn’t do something, in five minutes they’d be dead.
“What’s this over here?” she asked her team.
“It’s some kind of nebula,” Gabo answered, rapidly working his scanners. “High ice content too, and a few metals.”
“Could we hide in it?” Jarra asked.
“I believe we could,” Gabo said excitedly. He continued to pour over his instruments.
“We’ll never get there in time,” Galen answered. “Not with the damage to our engines.”
Jarra smiled. “No, not in a direct line. But what if we did a slingshot around the moon? Would that do it?”
“Maybe. We still will come under fire before we can reach the nebula and with our damaged shields, I don’t know if we can take it.”
“Galen, give me a course pronto.” It was there before she finished speaking and she started moving their ship along the course. “Bring us a little closer to the moon, Galen. I can hold it there long enough.”
“Sara, I need you to hack the fire controls systems of our enemies. Don’t try to take full control of them, but we just need enough to spoof their first attack.”
“That I can do. I got a pretty good read off the first one in his last attack.” Sara concentrated, her body going completely still as she used her implants to work her magic. Sara had put everything she had into buying the best implants she could afford and she was still amazed at what she could do with them. At least until she tried to take a “peep” at Jarra’s implants. She could have sworn Jarra’s implants were nearly as powerful as an AI. That was impossible, wasn’t it? She quickly backed off, but she saw the slight smile cross Jarra’s face.
Sara had known she was caught. That girl was still a complete enigma to her, but there was no question about her abilities as a ship commander. Her little trick just might work to buy them the amount of time they needed. She concentrated on the opposing ships’ sensors. They just might be the weak link in the chain and the quickest to hack.
Their ship quickly moved along Galen’s course. They would definitely be able to reach the moon before their pursuers. Galen had to constantly tweak the course to handle the offset from the now poorly aligned engines and Jarra was already having to fight the controls to keep it steady. She knew it was going to get a lot worse, but she had to shave off those few seconds or it wouldn’t matter.
Although the controls were a lot to handle, it was mostly instinctive reactions, so Jarra had time to reflect on what had gotten them here. Only a week ago, they had completed their first sim together and it had been a total disaster. The individuals on the team really were each the best in their area. Jarra knew because she had hacked into the Rim Patrol training class they’d just graduated from. But as a team they pulled in opposite directions at times and she knew they didn’t really trust her. The result had been crash and burn. To make it worse, each had been blaming the others and particularly her for the failure.
Jarra had talked to them afterward, but she still hadn’t been able to get through to them. That had all changed that evening when she got a frantic call from Sara for help. While Jarra had the privilege of getting her belongings delivered to the ship, the others didn’t, so they’d left to get their kits. Jarra had wondered what was taking them all so long. Sara’s call answered that.
“Commander, we need your help. Galen and Gabo wanted to stop by the bar we often visited while in class. ‘Just to grab a quick drink,’ they said. But they let themselves be persuaded to join a card game and they just had to play a few rounds. You don’t know him, but Lieutenant Greg Resault was in the game.”
“Oh, I know who he is,” Jarra told her.
That made Sara’s explanation easier. “Galen just accused Greg of cheating and I’m afraid there’s going to be a fight.”
Jarra was already out the door and on her way. “Try to delay them for a couple of minutes. I have your coordinates and I’ll be there shortly.”
By the time Jarra arrived, the situation was about to get out of hand. It appeared Galen had bet beyond his means, certain he had the winning hand and Greg was not only denying he had cheated, he was demanding Galen pay up. Two of Greg’s friends were on either side of Galen threatening to escalate everything. Sara was still trying to talk them down, but she wasn’t making any headway.
“How much is his payout?” Jarra demanded, throwing a credit chip onto the table.
Greg started to argue, but when he saw the amount of the chip, he smiled. As son of the District Governor, he had access to ample funds, but he’d never seen a chip that size. “This should about cover it,” he said, greedily snatching it off the table.
“By the way,” Jarra told him, “He’s right. You did cheat.” She pointed to the middle card of his royal flush, flipping it over to indicate the back which had a subtle difference between it and the others. “That card is from a different deck.”
“Let’s go, team,” Jarra told them, turning around to walk toward the door. For a moment, everyone stared at her back, but wisely her team turned to follow her and none of the card players tried to stop them. Later Galen would try to insist on paying her back, but Jarra t
old him not to worry about it.
From that moment on, her team supported her and they’d gradually learned to work together. Which was a good thing, because the situation looked pretty hopeless at the moment.
Gabo sent Jarra a request that brought her abruptly back to the present. He wanted her permission for a weapons release against the moon’s surface. “You want to do what?” she asked him. “That’s crazy.”
Gabo sent her his projected results. It just might work. She had to ask, “Can you pull it off? It will take pinpoint accuracy. If you’re off by just the tiniest amount, it’ll be our duck in the soup.”
Gabo smiled back. “I can do it. I can’t hit the broadside of a barn with a laser pistol, but give me something like a ship’s boards, I won’t miss.”
“Do it. Try to take out the one on the right. That’s the one Sara’s having the most trouble with.” Jarra smiled as Sara raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t argue with that statement.
Jarra didn’t have any more time to speculate as all her concentration was on their flight as they began to enter the slight atmosphere of the moon, making the ship vibrate and try to pull her off her course. But she held it, Gabo firing his missile just as they passed the closest point to the moon. The missile struck with a tremendous blast and threw ice and debris just behind them and right into the path of the ships closing on them, especially the one on the right, which had to adjust its course to compensate and still managed to take damage.
Their battered little ship shot out from the moon in their slingshot to the nebula. The enemies were still closing due to their angle, except for the one that had failed to dodge Gabo’s sneak attack. “It’s now or never, Sara,” Jarra whispered.
“Got it,” Sara answered in a voice thick with relief. “They should be firing in just a moment at a ghost image two degrees to the right. Whatever you do, don’t deviate from our course.”
“Defensive missiles ready, Gabo. They could still get off a lucky shot even though we’ve helped their aim.”