Ep.#11 - A Rock and a Hard Place (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “I’m not wound up about it,” Cameron argued. “I’m just not crazy about giving Josh the trigger to so much firepower.”

  “I’ve flown with him for five years, Cam. I trust him with my life.”

  “And with everyone else’s?”

  “It’s not like he can pull the trigger any time he wants,” Nathan pointed out. “Tactical still has to arm the tubes and pass fire control to the helm, and it will increase the speed at which we can bring fixed weapons onto targets during multi-ship engagements.”

  “I know, that’s why I signed off on it,” Cameron replied, “but that doesn’t mean I like it.”

  “You would think you’d have a little more faith in the guy, after all he’s done for us.”

  “He’s just a wild card, Nathan, and I don’t like unpredictable people.”

  “Like me.”

  “Actually, you’re fairly predictable,” Cameron insisted. “You always do exactly what you think is right, regardless of how risky it may be.”

  “I’ll try harder to surprise you in the future,” Nathan promised.

  “For example, Lord Dusahn,” Cameron pointed out. “I have no doubt you’ll fight him.”

  “Hey, even I haven’t made up my mind about that,” Nathan insisted.

  “You’ll fight him.”

  “Have you seen the video of him in action?”

  “I have,” she replied. “He’s good, but not better than any Ghatazhak.”

  “I don’t know,” Nathan argued. “Even Telles was impressed.”

  “Yet, you’ve been training everyday for the last three days.”

  “Just in case.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Have I ever told you how annoying you can be?” Nathan said.

  “Numerous times,” Cameron replied, smiling, “and I take great pride in it.”

  “I figured as much,” Nathan said, smiling as he continued eating his dinner.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Vladimir’s eyes were fixed on the view screen above his console in the main engineering compartment. It was littered with more than a dozen camera views from the four crawlers installing the first long-range jump emitter array on the hull of the Aurora.

  “Are you sure these things will fit in the original sockets?” one of the technicians questioned over comms. “They look bigger.”

  “The base is the same size,” Vladimir assured him. “Only the emitters, themselves, are bigger. They will fit.”

  “The ship’s going to look like it has an acne problem,” another technician joked.

  “As long as they allow us to jump a few hundred light years at a time, I don’t care what we look like,” Vladimir insisted.

  “I’ve got mine in,” a technician announced. “It’s definitely bigger, but it fits.”

  “You doubted me?”

  “Of course not, Chief,” someone joked.

  “We’re probably going to have problems with a few of them,” a technician warned. “Mostly around the heat exchangers. There’s not a whole lot of room around there.”

  “We can pull a few ribs off the heat exchangers if we need to,” Vladimir said.

  Vladimir noticed crawler three was not moving. “Crenna, why aren’t you moving?”

  “This thing is acting up again,” he complained.

  “I thought you fixed it?” Vladimir questioned.

  “I thought I did, too!” Crenna defended. “It’s like I keep losing the connection between my controls and the crawler’s motion systems.”

  “Do you need to abort?”

  “Negative,” Crenna replied. “As long as tapping the housing keeps working, I can continue. Besides, I’m almost at the installation site.”

  “Very well,” Vladimir agreed, “but if you have any problems with the manipulators, you’re aborting and heading for maintenance airlock seven.”

  “Understood,” Crenna agreed.

  “We should have waited another day or two, just to be sure,” Vladimir’s assistant said.

  “The attack is already two days late,” Vladimir reminded him. “We’re already two days behind. For all we know, there is no attack coming, and the Dusahn are just trying to slow us down.”

  “That’s crazy, Chief.”

  “That’s what I said when Lieutenant Commander Nash suggested it.”

  * * *

  “Banzi Sector Control, Konay One, point one four one, two inbound, returning from patrol,” Isanu called over comms from Konay One’s back seat.

  “Konay One, Banzi Control, welcome home. Jump to point two five one, and contact Gunyoki Approach.”

  “Jump to two five one and contact approach, for Konay One,” Isanu acknowledged.

  “I’ll be so glad to get out of this cockpit,” the pilot of Konay Two exclaimed. “Eight hours is more than my butt can handle.”

  “I just want a shower,” Alayna added. “You got a plot, Isanu?”

  “Plotted and loaded,” her systems officer replied.

  “When are the others going to start taking patrols?” Ronny asked from Konay Two.

  “A couple more days and these long patrols will be a thing of the past,” Alayna assured him. “Let’s jump home, shall we?”

  “Lead the way,” Ronny agreed.

  * * *

  “Sorry I’m late, sir,” Loki apologized as he passed Cameron in the command chair. “It took a little longer to get the algorithms loaded than we thought.”

  “I trust everything is in order,” Cameron said.

  “Validation should be complete in a few minutes,” he replied as he stepped up to his station. “Sorry,” he told the ensign manning his station.

  “No problem,” the ensign responded as he vacated his chair.

  “As soon as the validation is complete, Josh and I will put the ship through a few basic attitude maneuvers to ensure everything is working.”

  “Where’s Josh?” Cameron wondered.

  “He’ll be here in a few minutes. He needed to stop by his quarters to change. We’ve been working on the algorithm since last night.”

  “I hope your wife isn’t angry,” Cameron said.

  “No more so than usual,” Loki replied, “but thank you for asking.”

  “How is she taking to life on Rakuen?” Cameron asked, rising from the command chair to stretch her legs.

  “She loves Rakuen,” Loki replied. “She’s not one for being closed up inside an artificial environment for long periods.”

  “I hope her accent isn’t causing her too many problems,” Cameron said. “I was talking to Doran Montrose the other day, and he was telling me that no one on Rakuen can understand anything his wife says.”

  “Misses Montrose is originally from the Keller province, on the eastern side of Corinair’s main continent. Their accents are very heavy,” Loki explained.

  “They talk like they have rocks in their mouths,” Josh said as he walked onto the bridge. “Sorry I’m late, sir, but I really needed a fresh pair of…”

  “I don’t need to know, Mister Hayes,” Cameron interrupted. “Just take your station, and verify those algorithms are working. I want to be damned sure they aren’t going to cause us any problems.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Mister Sheehan, you have the conn,” Cameron said.

  Loki looked surprised. “Where’s the captain?”

  “He’s in the intel shack with Jessica and General Telles,” she replied.

  “What if the Dusahn show up?”

  “If the Dusahn ever do show up, sound general quarters, the captain will be here in short order,” she snapped.

  “Yes, sir,” Loki replied.

  Josh kept his eyes on his console, waiting for Cameron to leave the bridge before speaking. “What’s eating her?”

  “Th
ree days of standing ready for another attack, I suppose,” Loki replied.

  “It’s hard for her,” Kaylah said, overhearing their conversation. “Understaffed, with the ship undergoing major emergency repairs, the upgrades, and keeping the crew ready for an impending attack… In her heart, it’s still her ship and her crew. She worries about both.”

  “It’s not like we’re not all in the same boat,” Josh said.

  “We’re not,” Kaylah insisted. “She still second-guesses her decision to bring her ship and her crew here, putting them in harm’s way. Every member of the crew who dies, she sees as her fault.”

  “That’s crazy,” Josh said.

  “That’s being in command,” Kaylah told him.

  “That’s why I don’t ever want to be in command,” Josh replied. “Too much responsibility.”

  Kaylah just shook her head.

  * * *

  “Two new contacts,” the sensor officer at Rogen Defense Command announced. “Point two five one.”

  “Probably Konay One and Two coming back from patrol,” the officer of the watch surmised. “Two five one is the entry point for the Banzi One approach to the Gunyoki platform.”

  “Isn’t Approach Control supposed to notify us when they clear traffic to jump into the middle of the system?” a junior officer wondered.

  “Probably trainees,” the officer of the watch replied. “They forgot to warn us of the last two returning patrols, as well.”

  “Should we write them up?” the junior officer wondered.

  “No need to give them formal writs,” the officer of the watch said. “I’ll contact the senior approach controller and gently remind her to keep a closer eye on her trainees.”

  “I’m sure she’ll love that.”

  “Oh, I’ll hear about it later, trust me,” the officer of the watch commented as he headed toward the back of the room to make the call.

  The junior officer looked confused.

  “The senior approach controller for the Gunyoki platform is his wife,” the sensor officer explained. The sensor display beeped, demanding the sensor officer’s attention. “Two new contacts,” the sensor officer reported. His eyes suddenly widened as the system identified the contacts. “Alert one! Alert one! Two hostiles! One one five, elevation two seven! Two hundred thousand kilometers and closing fast!”

  “Target IDs?” the officer of the watch barked from the back of the room.

  “Dusahn frigates headed for Rakuen orbit!” the sensor officer replied.

  “Action officers!” the officer of the watch ordered. “Confirm the targets!”

  Two officers, one from Rakuen and one from Neramese, stepped up to the sensor officer’s station, looking over his shoulder.

  “Rakuen confirms the targets as hostile,” the Rakuen officer announced.

  “Neramese confirms the targets as hostile,” the Neramesean officer confirmed.

  “Weapons officer!” the officer of the watch barked. “Activate Rakuen’s planetary defenses!”

  “Targets are jumping!” the sensor officer reported.

  “Reacquire!”

  Engineer Crenna adjusted his crawler’s manipulator arm controls as he struggled to get the new emitter into its socket. “Come on, you little bastard, get in the hole!”

  A blue-white flash of light filled his tiny cockpit, causing him to flinch as he instinctively brought his left hand up to cover his eyes. His right hand jerked at the same time, causing the manipulator arm to push the emitter forward, forcing it into the socket that had refused to accept it for the last few minutes. “What the hell?”

  With the flash now gone, he opened his eyes again and saw that the emitter was in position. His smile did not last long.

  “Jesus!” one of the other crawler operators exclaimed. “Two Dusahn frigates just jumped in, right on top of us!”

  “You don’t think that seat carries responsibility?” Loki asked Josh.

  “It’s not the same,” Josh insisted. “It’s flying. They tell me what to do, and I do it. Hell, I don’t even…”

  “New contacts!” Kaylah interrupted. “Two Dusahn frigates! Two clicks astern! One up!”

  “Sound general quarters!” Loki barked as he jumped up from his station and dashed aft to get to the tactical console.

  “General quarters, general quarters,” Naralena called over the ship’s loudspeakers as the bridge trim lighting changed to red, and the klaxons sounded. “All hands to battle stations!”

  “What are you doing?” Josh asked, turning to watch Loki.

  “I’m making sure the shields come up!”

  “Don’t they come up automatically the moment general quarters is called?” Josh asked.

  “You want to rely on that?” Loki snapped back as he examined the tactical console.

  “Flash traffic!” Naralena announced. “Rogen Defense Command has gone to alert and has activated the planetary defense grid.”

  “Shields are up, thank God,” Loki said.

  “What grid?” Josh laughed. “They’ve got like four launchers, right?”

  “Konay One, Command,” the controller called over comms. “Flash traffic. Intercept two Dusahn frigates at one one five, elevation two one, four hundred kilometers. Weapons free.”

  “Oh, shit,” Isanu exclaimed. “That’s the Aurora’s position.”

  “Command, Konay One and Two vectoring for intercept,” Alayna replied over comms. “Weapons free.” She quickly adjusted her flight controls, changing course toward Rakuen. “Ronny, I’ll jump in high and attract their point-defenses. You go low and attack their weapons compartments so they can’t attack Rakuen.”

  “Got it,” the pilot of Konay Two replied.

  “We don’t have the fuel for this,” Isanu warned from the back seat.

  “We only have to hang for a few minutes, until help arrives,” Alayna replied. “I’m jumping in to attack.”

  The trim lighting that constantly displayed the ship’s current condition ran throughout the Aurora, even in the engineering department where Vladimir was monitoring his four crawler operators while they installed the first of the long-range jump emitters. The sudden change of that lighting to red, and the sound of the alert klaxons, came as no surprise since they had occurred only a few seconds after one of his crawler operators had reported the presence of the Dusahn frigates overhead.

  “If you haven’t got them installed, don’t bother securing them,” Vladimir instructed. “Just get to the nearest maintenance airlock as quick as you can. The energy bleed from weapons impacts against our shields might affect your systems.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice, Chief,” one of the crawler operators assured him.

  A single jump flash appeared in the vicinity of the newly-arrived Dusahn frigates, above and a few kilometers to their starboard side. The frigates immediately turned their point-defense weapons toward the inbound Gunyoki fighter, opening fire within seconds.

  As the frigates defended themselves, their dorsal weapons bay doors slid open, and orbital-to-surface ordnance began to fall from the open bays. The departing weapons powered up and streaked away, turning in different directions as they angled toward the surface of Rakuen.

  Another flash appeared, this one below and behind the enemy frigates. The second Gunyoki fighter immediately fired the bulk of its missile pods, sending more than fifty snub missiles slamming into the closest frigate’s dorsal shielding.

  Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.

  “Report!” Nathan barked as he and Jessica walked briskly onto the Aurora’s bridge and headed to their stations.

  “Two Dusahn frigates jumped in a minute ago,” Loki reported.

  “Both targets are launching orbit-to-surface ordnance,” Kaylah reported from the sensor station.

  “Rogen Defense Command has s
crambled the Gunyoki and activated planetary defenses,” Naralena added.

  “Shields are up, point-defenses are active,” Jessica reported as she stepped up to her tactical console. “All departments report general quarters.”

  “XO is in combat,” Naralena added. “Chief of the boat is in damage control.”

  “Target positions?” Nathan inquired as he took his seat in the command chair.

  “Close in aft,” Jessica reported. “Bringing all plasma turrets onto the targets.”

  “Fire at will,” Nathan ordered. “Have they…”

  The Aurora rocked violently as energy weapons slammed into their aft shields.

  “…That answers that question,” Nathan surmised.

  “Returning fire,” Jessica reported.

  “Comms, order the Weatherly and the Glendanon to engage the targets,” Nathan ordered.

  “We’ve got flash traffic from command,” Chief Mando reported from Orochi Three’s systems and comms station. “Rakuen is under attack.”

  “Any launch orders?” Aiden asked.

  “Negative,” the chief replied. “They just want us to jump in closer and be ready to snap-launch.”

  Aiden tapped his intercom button. “Ledge, Ali, get up here! We’re on alert!” he called as he began plotting the jump.

  The door to Loki’s apartment burst open, and Terris Montrose rushed inside. “Lael! Lael!” she hollered frantically.

  Lael came out of the back room in a hurry, recognizing her neighbor’s voice, as well as the sound of fear in it. “Terris? What is it?”

  A flash of light filled the living room. Both women instinctively looked toward the picture windows that faced the shoreline. In the distance, a ball of red-orange light swelled up from the horizon.

  “Is that Pellen Isle?” Lael wondered, her eyes wide.

  A realization suddenly hit Terris. “Get down!” she shouted, hitting the floor.

  Lael instinctively turned around to head back into the bedroom as the picture windows imploded into the room. Shards of broken glass and a wave of high-pressure air swept across the room, knocking her into the door frame. As her eyes went dark, she could feel a thousand tiny pieces of glass tearing through her clothing and skin.