by Britt Ringel
“T-Gen on standby, ready to engage,” Holt stated a beat later.
Twist braced himself for the inevitable bilious disorientation that would occur when Pathfinder transitioned into normal space. “Energize as soon as we dive out, Lucy.” He looked around the bridge at a crew focused squarely on their duties. His steady hand reached for the ship’s main channel. Pathfinder’s boatswain’s call sounded through the ship as it did before each of her captain’s announcements.
“Attention, Pathfinder,” Twist began. “In under a minute we will dive into the J-Two star system. Although we do not expect to encounter a significant Parasite presence, the Republic has not had contact with this system for nearly ten years. It’s very possible we could dive right into an entire fleet. Our mission, to right the wrongs of the last decade, begins now.” He terminated the connection and began exhaling slowly.
“Diving in three… two… one.” Fitts’ hands swept over the tunnel drive controls.
The system designated J-2 had not seen a Terran starship since Heskan’s BRS Kite had transited across it in her flight from the Parasites. Pathfinder and the Expeditionary Fleet were tracing her route in reverse, diving from the edge of Brevic space in Skoll into J-3 first and now J-2. J-2’s newest visitor was greeted with a murky bath of light from the system’s distant F2II star.
Twist took shallow breaths to fight off nausea while struggling to focus on a side screen displaying Pathfinder’s status. The command to enter t-stealth had been given just moments after the dive but the ship’s own silicon brain was also battling the shift to normal space. Twist fought through his queasiness to curse the delay in activating the scout ship’s transmittance generator to achieve t-stealth.
Finally, a light blue outline appeared around Pathfinder on the side screen display, causing Twist to swallow his obscenities. Instead of chastisement, he looked at Holt and simply said, “Sensors?”
“Updating,” Holt echoed. Her head was over her panel in a bid to discover Pathfinder’s status inside the new star system.
Seizing the brief window, Fitts announced, “Captain, we have transitioned into n-space inside the J-Two system. Like it’s been since Skathi, I detect no beacons.”
Holt issued her own report. “Coming on the system plot now, Captain. The only contact I have is Pioneer, three light-seconds behind us. No other ships detected out to a twenty light-minute radius.” She turned away from her panel to face Twist. “Both Pathfinder and Pioneer are in t-stealth. The nearest out-system star relative to our position is seven point one light-years from us.”
“It’s not J-Three?” Kirkpatrick asked.
“No, sir,” Holt said while shaking her head. “J-Three is nine point six light-years distant. Maub’s third tunnel point leads to a star that’s closer to us. The light from that star is a much larger factor than J-Three’s K-four.”
“Based on current stellar conditions, what is the effective range of our t-stealth?” Kirkpatrick asked.
Holt’s head dipped, causing chestnut locks to slip from behind her ear. “Given the amount of radiation being emitted behind us compared to what’s coming from in-system, my estimate is about seven point five light-minutes. Our best facing is certainly in-system but that’s no surprise. There aren’t any particularly strong sources of radiation except for the star, unless the captain intends to take us near some of the system’s gas giants.”
“Roger that,” Kirkpatrick noted before looking to his right. “Power down the t-stealth, Captain?”
Twist studied the system plot on Pathfinder’s main wall screen in silence. He was disappointed by what appeared to be a deserted system. Although he had anticipated that Skoll and J-3 would be devoid of their quarry’s presence, he had fully expected the present star system to be Parasite-controlled. Garrett Heskan annihilated a Parasite fleet in this star system before retreating to J-Three. How could the Parasites be so incurious to not position an outpost in the place they lost human contact? His eyes cast over the seven planets orbiting the star. None could even remotely be called habitable. I didn’t think there’d be major Parasite bases here but how could they not even post pickets?
He took his eyes from the system plot. Holt was turning toward him.
“Captain, we have a comm request from Pioneer.”
“That would be Captain Hunter,” Kirkpatrick stated. “Probably wants to know what the plan is.” In what had become standard t-stealth doctrine, only the ranking officer could order the scout ships out of t-stealth after diving into a new system.
Twist sighed loudly. There could be an entire Parasite fleet twenty-one light-minutes from us and we might not be able to see them. On the other hand, we can only keep our transmittance generator running for about twelve hours before we have to take it down for maintenance. He looked to the system plot again. Still empty. We’re not even sure of the sensor capabilities of these things….
“Keep the T-Gen running,” he ordered. “Lucy, tell Captain Hunter to drop a buoy and then dive back to J-Three to advance the fleet up to us. Pathfinder will make way for the Junction tunnel point and send hourly updates to the buoy per mission guidelines.”
“Aye, sir.”
Twist leaned back into his seat. Once deployed, the scouting buoy would refrain from emitting typical navigational signals and, instead, simply collect any pertinent information that Pathfinder relayed as it traversed the system. When the bulk of the Expeditionary Fleet dove into J-2, the nearby beacon would provide almost instant access to Pathfinder’s present situation, or her demise, permitting Admiral Davis to make decisions with the most current information possible.
“Lucas,” Twist ordered, “make way for the Junction tunnel point, set your speed at point two-C.”
“Setting course for the Junction tunnel point, speed point two-C,” Fitts responded confidently. Pathfinder’s blue icon on the system plot rotated slightly and the vector line behind her grew steadily.
The rhythm of the bridge normalized to a steady silence. Twist paid careful attention to Pathfinder’s “stealth screen,” noting every change in radiation that she absorbed and reflected. Commensurate with every deviation, an equal amount was transmitted opposite of its origin. The overall graphic displayed how effectively Pathfinder’s sensor section was maintaining her minimum profile. It was a hypnotic display of cause and effect that ran in real time.
Pioneer’s symbol on the system plot flared brightly as she deactivated her t-stealth.
“Pioneer is charging her tunnel drive, Captain,” Holt noted. “Ten minutes until she dives back to J-Three to let the fleet know it’s safe to sail here.”
Given the power needed to maintain t-stealth, it was technologically impossible to energize both a transmittance generator and a tunnel drive. Twist bit his lip but nodded in acknowledgment.
“She should be okay,” Kirkpatrick predicted. “We’re further in-system than her and we still haven’t detected any Parasites.”
Ten minutes later, Pioneer’s final statement in J-2 was the echo of her tunnel drive ripping open an entrance to t-space.
“I wish that didn’t happen,” Holt mumbled to herself. The disturbances created by tunnel drives could be seen across an entire system.
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Twist stated. “When we finally do dive into a Parasite system, they’re going to see our tunnel disturbance. They’ll know someone’s come through but a fast t-stealth activation keeps them from finding us afterwards.”
“I know, Captain,” Holt stated with a slight acerbity. “We charge the generator in tunnel space, we cue the command before we dive… We can’t help the delay between the actual dive and the time the order is carried out.”
“Nobody likes tunnel dives, Lucy,” Twist placated his sensor officer. “Not even machines.”
* * *
Pathfinder entered her fourteenth hour sailing inside the J-2 system. Twist had carefully chosen a route around the inner part of the star system and ordered the transmittance gene
rator deactivated at the course’s zenith to minimize the odds of detection by a hidden Parasite presence. The maintenance period required after the shutdown had been a mercifully short two hours, consisting mostly of inspections of critical components and replacement of only one refraction oscillator. Nonetheless, the one hundred twenty-three minutes of exposure was nerve-racking for the crew and Twist had been on the bridge an hour past the end of his shift. During that time, he collaborated with Holt to devise the best approach to the Junction tunnel point. The primary consideration had been to determine which vector would eclipse the least amount of radiation as t-stealth had again been activated.
Pathfinder now sailed at .2c toward the Type-A tunnel point, only 15lm away. Breaching 20lm twenty-five minutes ago had been a milestone for the scout ship. When no Parasite ships were detected at that mark, a weight had been removed from the shoulders of every sailor. Even Twist had felt the tension ebb with the news that the tunnel point seemed clear.
Yet he had decided against dropping Pathfinder’s t-stealth, despite the increasing danger of a generator failure and unintentional collapse of the field. There’s almost certainly no Parasite mothership, Twist thought to himself as his eyes bored into the system plot. Those huge super-carriers would be easily detectable by now. However, their attack vessels are only the size of a tiny cutter. There’s still a chance that we might have missed one of them. He, once again, measured time and distance to the tunnel point: seventy-five more minutes. Those minutes stretched out lazily as Pathfinder continued her journey. All he could do was watch and wait.
A faint beep from Holt’s sensor panel broke the calm on the bridge. “Contact!” she called as she jolted out of a slouch. Her hands flew over her console.
A yellow square representing an unidentified starship pulsed into existence on the system plot. Its location was a mere 7ls from the Junction tunnel point.
“Tactical,” Twist ordered quickly.
“Visual on a side screen,” Kirkpatrick commanded beside him.
“Coming.”
The left side screen flickered briefly before revealing a Parasite cutter. The hull of the tiny ship was oddly smooth. Twist could identify no weapon turrets or missile ports. There were no obvious signs of sensor arrays or even hatches. Only the jagged, pencil-like miniature drives that pierced through its stern ruined the featureless sanctity of what would have been an otherwise graceful-looking ship.
“Thirty-one meters long,” Holt stated. “Estimated one thousand tonnes displacement.” She squinted at her panel before turning to face her captain. “No weapons detected.”
The Parasite cutter floated benignly near the tunnel point, inactive and unarmed.
“Energy output?” Kirkpatrick asked.
“Uh,” Holt mumbled while readdressing her console, “I’m getting signs of something. Very low level. I assume I’m looking at the energy signature of a power core, although it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.” She entered a rapid command and her console flashed. “It’s a match for a standard Parasite cutter. At least it matches the energy signatures recorded by Kite. Let me—”
“Lucy,” Twist interrupted, “how is our stealth profile relative to that ship?”
Holt swallowed. “Checking.”
The answer came shortly. “Captain, I would estimate that we are undetected. You took Pathfinder pretty far out-system before tacking directly for the tunnel point. Right now, the star from M-Three-four-two is our greatest factor. Here.” A moment later the stealth screen split into two halves. The lower portion continued to display ongoing stealth adjustments while the top half transformed into a star map. “M-Three-four-two is the final system in the Maub secondary tunnel chain. See how its radiation extends from Maub to almost perfectly backlight us?”
Twist grunted. “Lucas, bring us to relative rest.”
The navigator acknowledged even as the 98,000-tonne ship began her rotation away from her direction of travel. The ship would execute two burns to prevent her drives from directly facing the Parasites. Two minutes and forty-one seconds later, Pathfinder came to relative rest, some 13.4lm from the Parasite ship.
“Still no activity from the ship,” Kirkpatrick pointed out. He leaned toward Twist. “What’s the plan?”
Twist sighed as he brought a hand up to his chin. “Lucy, you’ve scanned the entire region at the tunnel point?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do it again.” He turned to Kirkpatrick. “I don’t think they’ve seen us. Parasite doctrine is to immediately charge any alien ship.”
Kirkpatrick tilted his head and stated, “Isn’t it also their doctrine to attack en masse? What’s a single attack craft doing out here?”
Twist looked upward in frustration. “There’s just so much we don’t know about them. Do you think maybe that ship is disabled and abandoned?”
Kirkpatrick shrugged. “We’re way too far away to try to pick up signs of life but if we creep closer—”
“We risk detection,” Twist finished. He glanced back to the stealth screen. “We have about eight hours before we bump against the maintenance window for the T-Gen.” He looked down at his chair arm console and made some rapid calculations. “That’s about ninety-six light-minutes of travel at point-two-C.” He scratched his chin. “My money is on disabled,” he declared. “It had to pick up our tunnel disturbance ten hours ago and it hasn’t reacted. Our briefings on Parasite tendencies says that it should have investigated.” He pointed at the optical of the silent sloop. “Low power readings and it’s completely alone.” He leaned awkwardly in his chair to get a glimpse at Holt’s panel. “Lucy, anything new on the sensor sweep?”
Holt’s head was deep in her console. “Not yet. Sixty percent completed.”
Twist looked back to Kirkpatrick. “See?”
Kirkpatrick stared into the eyes of his old friend. “Maybe we should wait for the rest of the fleet.”
“I can act without his authority, Commander,” Twist reminded his first officer. “Admiral Davis made it clear that I’m the ultimate authority when we first encounter the Parasites.”
“For as long as he isn’t in-system, sir,” Kirkpatrick amended. He shook his head. “There’s no point in rushing into this. Davis will be here in less than six days.”
Twist grimaced and lowered his voice to a whisper. “A lot can happen in six days, Vix. What if this ship is disabled but in three days an entire fleet of Parasites dives in? We’ll have missed a golden opportunity to examine Parasite tech. You know how badly Intelligence wants a look at the equipment inside that ship.” He made a fist and tapped it on the arm of his chair. “We swoop in, board it, secure it and then pull every piece of tech off that thing before its friends arrive.”
“Captain,” Holt said loudly from her station, “sensor sweep is complete. No further contacts.”
Kirkpatrick raised his eyebrows at Twist in expectation. “You could be right,” he admitted. “If we were able to recover a working force-two nullifier, Davis might postpone this entire operation and let the Republic develop the tech into a new generation of ships. With technology like that, we wouldn’t need the Parasites to defeat the Hollarans… and we’d have parity with the Parasites if they ever attacked us.” He looked at the optical of the sleek ship. It seemed deceptively harmless but he knew better. “What if it’s not really disabled?”
Twist turned to his right. “Mosi, what’s the status of Pathfinder’s weapons?”
Lieutenant Diallo hesitated a moment, taken by surprise at the question. “Uh, they’re all nominal, Captain, but powered down.” His deep voice reverberated off the bridge bulkheads as he brought his hand over a portion of his console. “Do you want me to bring my section up to battle stations, sir?”
“No,” Twist replied. “But in your estimation, can Pathfinder defend herself against that ship?”
Diallo paused again. “Given what we know of them? Yes, sir. Easily. Pathfinder might not be heavily armed but against a single cutter? We c
an definitely take care of that.” The large man looked at his captain, expecting further dialogue.
Twist instead returned to his thoughts. Worst case scenario is it attacks and we destroy it. Plus, we can use this single ship to cut our teeth on the new Asymmetrical Stellar Warfare tactics we’ve trained on for the last month. The risks are small… the rewards, too tempting.
He turned to Kirkpatrick. “Work with Lieutenants Fitts and Holt to chart a minimum-profile course to the Parasite ship.” His thoughts turned toward the wealth of experience he obtained during the Brevic-Hollaran War and the marathon battle he had fought at Sponde. “While we’re working on this, I want section commanders to rotate shifts through their sections to ensure everyone gets at least four hours sleep. That should give us about two hours left in t-stealth before we have to take the generator down.” He looked up at the tactical plot. “We should only need about an hour of it.”
Kirkpatrick nodded determinedly. “Got it, Captain.” He pointed right and left using both hands. “Lucy, Lucas, get your replacements up here and meet me in the briefing room. Are you going to bed, Captain?”
Twist shook his head. “I’ll stay on the bridge until the course has been charted.” He looked at his weapons officer. “Mosi, we’re going to run a couple exercises fighting that ship,” he stated while gesturing toward the optical. “If things turn bad, I want that dead long before it has any chance to ram and board us.”
Kirkpatrick was halfway to the exit when he stuttered to a stop and glanced toward another bridge officer. “Speaking of boarding, Captain, I recommend August brief her Operations crew on the upcoming boarding mission.”
Lieutenant August Quick nodded an acknowledgment before speaking into her mic to alert her chief.
* * *
After a fitful three-hour rest, Twist returned to the bridge. The alien ship had remained passive, either oblivious to its company or unable to react.
Pathfinder’s course during her captain’s rest had initially taken her twenty minutes laterally from her target to take advantage of sensor cover provided by a predicted flare event from J-2’s star. Cruising behind the disturbance masked the ship’s approach for one-sixth of her journey to the tunnel point. The voyage would take another sixty-five minutes even at .2c. Twist monitored the stealth screen, agonizing over every momentary imbalance between the radiation coming in and transmittance going out. Each discrepancy was a window for detection that would only open wider as Pathfinder neared her goal.