"What's the problem? Can't handle an admiring puppy?"
"That's not it." Stark frowned, his gaze fixed on the floor as if the surface held some sort of intriguing but confusing picture. "Kate Stein died a long time ago, Vic. No matter how much that damn battle on Patterson's Knoll torments me, I know she's gone. But here's her brother all the sudden, and every time I look at his face or watch him do somethin', he reminds me of her. It don't feel right. The dead oughta stay buried."
"Yes," she agreed gently, "they should. I can send Grant Stein to some assignment where he'll be out of sight and unable to visit here."
"No. Why punish him 'cause I can't handle this? But I don't need a ghost sittin' there at the table when I'm try in' to unwind. Verdad?"
"Verdad. Comprendo." Vic stood up, reaching for Stark's hand. "Come on, soldier. Let's get out of this gilded cage and hang out with some people."
"Sounds good. Don't forget about that dinner."
"I won't. But it'll take a few days to set up."
"A few days? When's that third shuttle exchange scheduled for?"
Vic winced, then checked her palmtop. "Cheryl says one week from today."
"Cheryl? You mean Sarafina?"
"Who else would I mean?"
Stark grinned wickedly. "On a first-name basis, huh? You friends with a civ, Vic?"
She feigned indignation. "Ms. Sarafina has rendered us a great deal of assistance."
"Can't argue with that," Stark agreed, still grinning. "I'll be glad to get rid of the last of the officers and the Third Division types who didn't want to join with us. One more week? Can't think of anything that might screw up the exchange between now and then."
"Stark! Commander Stark!"
He halted in midstride, unable to miss the urgency in the call. Guess that late lunch I was heading for is gonna be a little later. "Here. That you, Jill?"
"Yes," Sergeant Tanaka agreed hurriedly. "Yes, sir. Got a real mess. We need you in the Command Center fast."
"What is it?" Stark had begun moving again even as he asked the question, threading through startled groups of soldiers. "Another attack?"
"No. I don't think so. It's the Navy."
"The Navy?" Warships had guarded the Colony since its founding, tangling with enemy warships, trying to blockade other colonies and the enemy armed forces. Since Stark's troops had rebelled, the Navy ships had blockaded the Colony instead, though at a distance rendered respectful by the Colony's surface defenses. "They're not attacking?"
"I don't think so. I don't know."
"Is Reynolds there?"
"No. I'll call her right now."
Stark accelerated a little more, trying to look urgent, but not worried, as other soldiers watched him pass. Okay, so your boss has to get somewhere fast, but that's nothing to worry about. Right? He took the time to look up and smile briefly at several soldiers, earning grins and salutes in return. When I was a squad commander I only had to worry about keeping twelve guys calm. Now I gotta worry about thousands. It's like living in a fish bowl almost full-time. For the first time, he realized just how seductively attractive the restricted access of the headquarters complex could be. It would be easier if these guys couldn't see me, except when I felt like it. But usually something that looks easier is also wrong. I want these apes to see me, and I wanta see them, and so what if it makes my job a little tougher? It's still my job.
Inside headquarters, he walked down corridors growing grander with every step until he confronted the wood-paneled access to the Command Center. Inside, the watch standers twisted in their chairs to eye him with confusion and worry. On the main display, which normally portrayed a section of the front on the lunar surface, a weird image twisted in 3-D. Its glowing symbology moved in patterns with no reference to the ground, intertwining and spinning like fireflies in a vast empty arena instead of following the flow of terrain. As the display shifted slightly to follow the action, a huge arc appeared to one side, glowing with hazard markers and threat symbols.
Stark eyed the display suspiciously. "What the hell is this?"
Tanaka ran a pointer around the display, highlighting different symbols. "These are Navy warships. Our Navy. The size of the symbology is tied to the size of the ship."
"So big symbol means big ship."
"Right."
"What's the real big thing?"
"That? Us. The Moon."
Suddenly things made a sort of sense. Stark tried to recall the approach to the Moon during the period before the first assault, long ago now, but still vivid in the way unique memories remain. Yeah. We were out there in the troopship, and the Moon looked like that when we started getting close. "What's going on?"
"There's a group of ships calling us. These two, over here."
Stark squinted. "They're being shot at."
"Right again. Shot at by this bigger group of warships."
"Why is one group of Navy ships being shot at by another group of Navy warships? Vic," he called as she entered, blinking away the effects of an afternoon catnap, "you understand this Navy stuff?"
"Hell, no. Do I look like a damn sailor?" She studied the unfamiliar symbology distrustfully. "Why are those ships shooting at each other?"
"I dunno. Neither does Tanaka. They're trying to call us, though."
"Then answer up! Aren't you the guy who wants to understand what's going on?"
"Yeah, but. . ." Stark waved toward the display. "I don't get this Navy stuff. There's no front and no rear."
"And no up or down. I know. It's weird."
Tanaka raised an urgent hand. "They're calling again, and they insist on talking to you, Commander Stark."
"They know me by name?"
Sergeant Tanaka flushed slightly. "I informed them you were in command when they asked."
"That's okay. It ain't a secret. I just wanted to know where they heard it. Okay. Link me in." The vid flickered once, then steadied into a view of a woman inside a room that shuddered and moved. She focused on Stark.
"You Stark?"
"Yeah." Enlisted, obviously, though Stark couldn't see any rank markings from this angle. "Who're you?"
"Chief Petty Officer Wiseman. Alex Wiseman. No jokes about the name, okay? We need your help." The room around her jerked suddenly, triggering a cascade of alarms.
"We?" Stark tried to concentrate over the unfamiliar scene and events. "Who's we?"
"Enlisted on these two ships. We got the Subic Bay and the Guantanamo Bay"
"Whatdayya mean you got 'em?"
Wiseman glared angrily, her expression changing to worry as another series of shudders yanked around the sailors to the cries of more alarms. "This is the Subic Bay. We took it over. The enlisted on the Guantanamo Bay did the same. Right now, the other ships out here are attacking us, and we're trying to defend ourselves without shooting back."
"Don't look like that's working very well."
"No, it's not. We need protection. Can you give it to us?"
"Vic?" Stark wondered. "Can we?"
"I doubt it," she came back.
Wiseman glared again. "You got real strong surface defenses. If we can get inside the range of those, the other ships won't be able to come after us."
"Commander Stark!" Tanaka seemed to be whispering in his ear, but from Wiseman's lack of reaction she couldn't hear this transmission. "If we let those ships inside our defenses they could do a huge amount of damage before we took them out."
Wiseman fidgeted, snapping a command unheard by the soldiers before turning back to address them. "We're taking hits. Nothing critical so far, but I haven't got a lot of time, here. You mud-crawlers gonna help us or not?"
"How do we know you're for real?" Stark demanded. "How do we know this isn't a trick so your ships can get in close and then open up on us?"
"Can't you tell we're in real combat?" Wiseman shouted.
"No. I see your room shaking. I hear alarms. I don't understand any of it. I'm a ground soldier."
Wiseman star
ed, then nodded rapidly, holding up her hands. "Okay, okay, I understand. I'm on the Bridge. The, uh, Command Center for the ship. We're maneuvering to avoid weapons being fired at us. Torpedoes. That's some of the shaking. Some of the torpedoes are getting too close for comfort when they explode. That's other shaking and the alarms."
"You could fake that."
"Yeah." Wiseman looked down for a moment, then over to the side as someone shouted a suggestion. "Hey, that's right. I'm opening my ship's systems to you. Take a look. You'll see we're taking real damage."
Tanaka's voice whispered in Stark's ear again. "If they open their systems to us we can take them over."
"So they either trust us or they're desperate," Stark noted back over the same private channel. "Do it. Whatdayya see?"
"Just a min . . . yeah. Got some systems down. Looks real to me."
"Okay." Stark focused back on Chief Wiseman, sitting tensely as her figure rocked to the ship's movement and the hammer blows of torpedoes. "What happened? Just tell me quick why you're being shot at."
"Because of you, I guess! We don't know much about the situation down there. Something about you enlisted taking charge. All the senior enlisted on the ships have been locked down for weeks. No explanation, but we figured the officers on our ships were worried about mutiny."
"Sounds like they knew what they were doing."
"I guess they had to be right once. But nothing probably would have happened if they hadn't tried to do our jobs themselves. Anyway, they couldn't run things right. Our Captain finally killed a half-dozen sailors in one of the machinery rooms by giving bonehead orders and causing an explosion. That's when the junior enlisted let us out of lockdown. The officers panicked at that point and tried to break out the small arms, so we locked them down in self-defense. It'll still look like mutiny to any court-martial, though."
"Makes sense," Vic said over her circuit. "Can we let them under our defensive umbrella?"
"How would I know? Does anybody know anything about Navy stuff?" Stark called over the circuit. "Anything?"
"I know enough to say they can't bring those big ships in close," Sergeant Gordasa in Supply offered.
"Huh? How come?"
" 'Cause I know logistics. Navy ships burn a lot of fuel when they're trying to hold a position near the lunar surface. We've had to do emergency refuels a few times out of our stocks. If those big ships try to fix themselves over the Colony, they'll run out of fuel in no time."
"Wiseman." Stark waited until the Chief looked directly at him, her expression grim. "My people say you can't bring those big ships inside our defenses and keep them there. It's a fuel issue."
"Fuel? Damn!" Chief Wiseman slammed her fist against her leg, glaring angrily offscreen. "Damn right you shoulda brought that up before now!" she barked at someone. "Snipes," she muttered. "That's Engineers to you guys. Okay, there's nowhere else to run, so that means we only got two choices. We either fight, or we abandon ship. You guys ready to shoot at other Americans?"
Stark paused, thinking for a moment, even though his instincts had instantly provided the answer. "No. Not if we got any choice at all."
"Didn't think so. Then we leave."
"You got enough, uh, life rafts and stuff?"
Wiseman responded with a tense grin to Stark's stumbling terminology. "We got lifeboats. And armed shuttles. Two on each ship. We'll bring 'em all."
Vic broke in again, this time speaking directly to the Chief. "What about your ships?"
"Guess our former shipmates will blow them into little pieces to make sure we don't put 'em on auto and keep 'em fighting. Good riddance. I won't have to worry about patching together worn-out equipment any longer."
"And your officers?"
"Like I said, locked down."
"So they'll get blown away, too?"
Wiseman smiled humorlessly. "Oh, well."
Stark shook his head. "We don't do business that way. We keep our hands clean."
"I let those officers free, and they'll open fire on the lifeboats!"
"Can't you disable everything? Wreck the ship?"
"Scuttle?" Chief Wiseman glanced sideways, then nodded. "Yeah. We'll set it in motion, then release the officers on our way out and leave them a coupla lifeboats so they can get away. That satisfy your tender little heart, mud-crawler?"
"Yeah, squid." Another alarm began sounding behind Wiseman, squawking with belligerent urgency. "Sounds like you better get going."
"For once, I agree with a soldier. I'll call you from a shuttle."
"Roger." Stark broke the connection, focusing back on the symbols looping over the huge arc of lunar surface. It made a little more sense now, the smallest threat symbols obviously representing the torpedoes battering the two ships. "How'd they survive so long? They're outnumbered six-to-one."
"At a guess?" Vic offered. "The other ships are being fought with their senior enlisted still locked down, and the officers can't do the job very well without them."
"That's right," Tanaka nodded. "But you've got another problem now, Commander."
"Great. Now what?"
"Those armed shuttles. They've got some serious weapons, since they're designed for things like commerce raiding and supporting their mother ship in combat. Are we going to let them land on our spaceport?"
"Have we got a choice?"
"What happens if they start shooting? It could still be a trick."
Stark watched the display wordlessly, then pointed as one of the large symbols glowed with sudden critical damage markers, before being replaced by a grim image indicating destruction. "They just blew up a ship. That's a damn expensive trick."
"There goes the other," Vic added. "Did the lifeboats and shuttles get away?"
"Yeah," one of the watch-standers piped up. "See those things?" A cluster of bright symbols swam out from the markers designating the deaths of two ships. "Lifeboats are made to show up real easy on scans."
"They're trying to get away in somethin' that's easy to see?" Stark asked, appalled.
"You're not supposed to shoot at life rafts," the watch-stander added worriedly.
"You're not supposed to shoot at your own ships, either," Vic pointed out. "Can they get to us safe?"
"I think so." Several symbols were suddenly highlighted. "Maybe not. These ships are heading after them."
"Are they trying to catch 'em or kill 'em?" Stark wondered aloud.
"Can't tell. Not until they get within weapons range."
"Torpedoes, you mean? Anybody know what the difference is between a missile and a torpedo?"
"They're pretty much the same thing," another watch-stander advised, "but aircraft or ground installations fire missiles while space warships fire torpedoes."
"What? Why?"
"I dunno, Commander. It's a Navy thing."
Stark glared over at Vic. "With all my other problems, now I gotta try to understand how the Navy thinks."
"Don't ask me. I've never figured them out."
"But we have to let those lifeboats come down. They're counting on us."
"No argument here." Vic favored Stark with a sidelong look. "But, what about the shuttles? Are you going to let them come down, too?"
"Damn, Vic, what the hell else can I do?" He waved wordlessly at the display, where a half-dozen large symbols lunged after the lifeboats and their escorting shuttles. More symbology flashed to life, tracing the paths of defensive weaponry fired by the shuttles to slow their pursuers, seeding a temporary minefield to drift far above as the Moon turned below it. "Mines?" Stark asked, recognizing the threat symbols by their similarity to those used for land mines. "How long do those space mines last?" Blank looks met his question.
"It can't be long," Vic noted. "They'd drift right into commercial space in no time."
"Variable lifespan," Tanaka shouted from a terminal as her fingers danced over the tactical database screen. "Maximum thirty minutes."
"Not long," Stark muttered. "But those other ships are almost into
them. Wait. What're they doing?"
Symbology flared, marking short-range fire from the Navy ships as they targeted the minefield. Mines burst into premature death as the Navy ships braked short of the minefield to give them time to blast a channel through the threat area. "I guess those ships could track our own mines, but that still bought the lifeboats some time," Vic approved.
"Not enough time," Tanaka announced grimly. "Here's the projected intercept plot." Long arcs curved across the display suddenly. "You see? Those big ships have a lot more mass than the shuttles, but they've got much bigger drives to push it all, and the lifeboats don't look like they're designed for speed. It'll be close. Real close."
Stark's Command Page 16