Command Decisions (Book 3 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  That’s when they did something completely unexpected. The first destroyer accelerated at maximum and the other one turned and began boosting in the opposite direction.

  He figured out what they were doing just as the third ship flipped into the system almost in his face. It wasn’t Spear. It was a Rebel Empire destroyer.

  Jared acted even before the Fleet destroyers opened fire, locking onto the enemy vessel with his active scanners and firing both his anti-ship missiles. He followed up with his stun beam, but he knew the other ship’s screens would block their effectiveness if they got them up in time. His hope was that the missiles would knock the screens down just long enough for him to have a chance.

  At that ridiculously short range, the other ship never had a chance to fire its defensive weapons. The two missiles slammed into its screens and almost took them down, but not quite. Jared made a last second decision and altered course, slamming his fighter to maximum acceleration and triggering his emergency ejection system.

  The fighter cockpit opened like a flower and an incredibly small grav drive blasted him straight up. He was facing just the right direction to watch his fighter smash into the central section of the destroyer. The weakened screens did nothing to stop the impact and kinetic energy did the rest.

  He expected the ship to incinerate him, but it only tumbled away from the flip point. It still looked like it had power, but it wasn’t firing. It seemed dead.

  Of course, he was in much the same condition. Clad only in his flight suit, he shot away from the flip point and toward infinity.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Kelsey watched the unfolding disaster from Courageous’ bridge. Everything seemed to be going so well, right up to the point where it went down the toilet. Their probe gave them enough information to know their plan was blown and then Jared’s fighter smashed into the enemy ship.

  “Get us in there right now!” she shouted.

  Graves took Courageous to battle stations as it leapt to maximum acceleration. Their ETA was far too long to make any difference in the unfolding situation at all. She could only pray her brother ejected before he hit that ship.

  “I’m picking up a distress beacon from the captain’s flight suit,” Zia said, relief flooding her voice. “It’s shooting past the Rebel Empire destroyer. We’re also being signaled by New York.”

  “On screen,” Graves said. Kelsey stepped up behind him as the tactical schematic vanished and the destroyer’s captain appeared. Graves inclined his head. “Captain Kaiser. Are you going to object to our help?”

  The short woman allowed a hint of a smile to grace her lips. “I doubt you were sending that little ship over to help me, were you? Well, we have to work out our differences right now. The destroyer looks like it’s out of action, but it still has power. It could fire right now, but it’s just floating there. And that isn’t the worst news.”

  Kelsey put her hand on the back of Graves’ chair. “That thing came out of the system ahead. Where’s Spear?”

  “Highness. There were three of those things. They popped out of a flip point we hadn’t found yet. Spear was too far into the system to escape. Captain Breckenridge ordered Ginnie Dare to retreat while he slowed the enemy down.”

  “That didn’t work,” Kelsey said with certainty.

  “No, ma’am. The three of them shot Spear up pretty bad. One of them came after Ginnie Dare. The other two have Spear. Ma’am, we can take them.”

  Kelsey raised an eyebrow. “We? I thought you had objections to my command authority.”

  The other woman straightened. “I followed the orders of my superior officer. Circumstances have changed.”

  “Yes, they have. It’s possible that Courageous might be able to take two of those things, but the first thing you need to do is send a cutter after Captain Mertz.” She felt her lips thinning. “And let me be clear. If you try to take him prisoner, this will not end well for you.”

  “Understood. I promise to return him to you at once. Kaiser out.”

  They watched a cutter depart to retrieve her brother. With his built up speed, it would take a while for the small craft to catch up with him. The enemy ship took no action while Courageous closed in.

  Kelsey headed for the lift. “I’m scrambling the marines. We have to board that ship before they get their act together.” She held up a finger when Graves opened his mouth. “Do not argue with me, Commander. Those destroyers have eighty marines each and I’m the only person we have that can wear powered armor.”

  Graves deflated a little. “I can see why Jared drinks. Be careful, Kelsey.”

  He must’ve called ahead, because the marines were gearing up as she came in. Lieutenant Reese came over, still strapping on his unpowered armor. “The target ship is just like the destroyer we captured?”

  “It looks like it from the outside. Jared hit something important. It has power, but it’s not maneuvering or firing weapons. Hell, it’s still inside the flip point. Why hasn’t it flipped back? He broke it. We need to get what we can while we can. If the computer core is still intact, we might get priceless intelligence on the Rebel Empire, Harrison’s World, and Boxer Station.”

  She changed into her skinsuit and slid into her armor. It came to life at her command. She linked it into Courageous’ systems. The enemy destroyer was still just drifting there. The cutter had almost caught up with Jared.

  Courageous had launched a probe through the flip point and they were waiting for it to come back. She watched the countdown timer as everyone loaded onto the marine pinnaces. When it popped back, she drew the data straight into her implants.

  “We have data from the other system,” she said. “There’s no sign of ships close to the flip point. Unless they’re sneaking up on it, they stayed with Spear.”

  “Or went to call for support,” Reese said.

  Commander Graves came over the marine command channel. “The boarding action is a go. At the first sign of overwhelming resistance, you are to break off and we’ll take it down with missiles. The Fleet destroyers have withdrawn from the area around the flip point. Remember, we’re after information, not capturing the ship.”

  “Aye, sir,” Reese said. “We’re loaded up and ready to launch.”

  “Good hunting. Come back safe. Princess, try not to get killed.”

  “That’s my plan every morning. Wish me luck.”

  The pinnace detached and began a high speed run at the enemy destroyer. Kelsey tensed, waiting for targeting systems to light them up, but the ship didn’t seem to know they were there.”

  As they got closer, Kelsey noticed something odd. “Do you see that? There are no small craft in the docks. The one we captured had a couple of marine pinnaces and some cutters. Did they eject any of them while we weren’t watching?”

  “No small craft in detection range,” Reese said. “They must not have had any attached when they flipped into this system.”

  “That’s weird,” Talbot muttered. “It’s like a ghost ship. How would they bring prisoners aboard?”

  “Good question,” Kelsey said. “Let’s go find out. If they haven’t shot us, why don’t we use one of the marine docks to try to gain access?”

  “Maybe we should signal them we’re coming, too.” Reese snorted. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. If they’re expecting us and heavily armed, we won’t push. Get ready.”

  “I might be able to use the ship’s systems to see what’s waiting for us once we’re locked on.” Kelsey knew the pinnace locks had the capability. If the enemy wasn’t expecting them, she might get a reading before they locked her out.

  The pinnace came in fast and hard, braking only at the last moment and docking with an impact that would have sent them tumbling if not for their restraints.

  Kelsey probed the dock as soon as the connection went live. No one was waiting for them on the marine side. In fact, it was dark. Not even emergency lights.

  “Something’s off,” she said. “It’s pitch black in there.�
�

  Talbot threw off his restraints and stood. “It might be an ambush.”

  She probed the other side in more detail. “I think…not. There’s no atmosphere and the ambient temperature is almost absolute zero. It wouldn’t have had time to lose that much heat. It was already cold when this ship flipped into the system.”

  “Let’s go and find out what’s going on,” Reese said.

  They entered the destroyer ready to deal death to anyone who opposed them, but marine country was empty. Literally stripped of all furnishings. No weapons in the armory, no bedding on the bunks, and no sign that humans had occupied it at any time in recent memory.

  The ship proper was in the same condition. No lights, no heat, no atmosphere. No gravity, either. In one improvement from boarding Courageous, there were also no bodies. Since they were so close, they went to engineering first.

  The hatch stood open and not a single light gleamed inside. No consoles were active. She could feel a gentle vibration in the deck that spoke of power. She floated over to the one of the consoles and pinged it with her implants. It didn’t respond to her connection request. Not even to reject it.

  “No joy with direct interface.” She touched the console and it came to life. She didn’t have the codes to unlock it, but it showed the ship’s status. After the trick that Commander Baxter had pulled on her when she first came on board Athena, she’d made it her business to know what the most general screens of data looked like in engineering. Enough to grasp what she was seeing, anyway.

  “All systems green except for the main computer. I think Jared killed this thing’s brain.”

  Reese linked back to Courageous and passed the information along.

  Graves’ image popped up in the corner of her vision as he responded. “I won’t believe it until you poke into every area of the ship. Verify the computer is dead and that no one else is aboard.”

  The teams spread out over the ship. It only took a few minutes to tell the computer was gone, nothing but a hole in the ship remained where it used to be. Since the ship had no active life support, the isolation hatches hadn’t deployed.

  The bridge was just as empty as the rest of the ship. Kelsey floated there shaking her head. This made no sense at all. Why send a ship with nothing but automated controls? What if something broke down?

  The ship had a plaque by the lift just as Courageous did. It had the ship’s name, system of origin, date of construction, and the names of the first senior officers. Dart. Built ten years before the Fall at Boxer Station.

  “I found something,” Talbot said. “Come to the main cafeteria.”

  Kelsey led the marines with her down to the cafeteria. Only it wasn’t a cafeteria. The massive chamber before her encompassed a good section of the crew housing space. Racks stretched out to the distant bulkheads. They held machines that looked like mini grav cars. Heavily armed and armored mini grav cars. There were a lot of them.

  “What the hell are these things?” Talbot said as he peered into a rack. “Autonomous weapons platforms?”

  Reese slapped Talbot’s hand as he reached for it. “The ship’s computer probably controlled them, but let’s not tempt fate. They look capable of extravehicular activities, too. There’s a hatch for them in the hull. These things can probably come swarming out of a ship at close range. They won’t have as much speed as a cutter, but their weaponry is close range, too. Flechettes, stunners, and plasma. These are this ship’s marines. And, look at those folding arms. They can carry things.”

  “The other destroyer we caught didn’t have these. Hell, the AIs didn’t have these, according to the records on Courageous and the captured AI.”

  “An unpleasant development, yes,” Reese said. “And another mystery. One thing that I will point out is how well made these things are.”

  She examined the one closest to her again. “So?”

  “Have you seen anything the AIs built that sported these kind of lines? These have curves and rounded edges. The lines of the weapons aren’t just functional; someone designed them to look menacing. That’s a human trait, to make weapons and vehicles look dangerous or fast. You could almost paint some kind of logo on the side and a mouthful of teeth up here. This was designed by human beings.”

  Kelsey nodded slowly. “I can see that now. That doesn’t fit with the modifications done to this area, either. They cut the walls down and left stumps. Whoever built the outer hatch had an eye for functionality, but it’s ugly. These weapons came from somewhere else, but the AIs installed them. They retrofitted this ship to be unmanned. They control an empire full of humans. Why do this?”

  “One more question to be answered.”

  Jared’s face popped up on her feed. He was still dressed in his armored flight suit. “Kelsey, I’m aboard New York. What’s your status?”

  “I’m fine. Are they holding you prisoner? If so, I can—”

  “Nothing like that. Captain Kaiser has been a model host. I can leave whenever I like. I just wanted to let you know we sent a probe deeper into the other system. I want your team back on Courageous as soon as possible. We’re going after Spear.”

  “We’ll pack up as soon as we can. We have some equipment we need to salvage first.”

  He nodded. “I’m going back over with one of the destroyers. Follow as soon as you can. Mertz out.”

  She turned to Reese. “We need one of these to take back with us. We need to know about any weak spots because we might be fighting these things before too long.”

  “Perfect,” Reese muttered. “Just when you think you’ve hit rock bottom, the bad guys drill under you.” He gestured to Talbot. “Get one out. We’re taking it home with us.”

  “Can I name it?” Talbot asked. “I want to name it.”

  Kelsey covered her faceplate with her hands and sighed.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  With the probes showing the flip point clear, Jared brought Courageous and New York over and maintained position in the flip point as their passive scanners pulled in data. There were no ships close to them under grav drive.

  The probe he’d sent across earlier had made the trip to Spear. The damaged cruiser had only a single enemy destroyer near it. The other one was gone, perhaps returned to Boxer Station to bring more ships. Time was very short to effect a rescue.

  It was now far too late to keep their presence under wraps and though the new Terran Empire was far away, a determined search would eventually find them. Breckenridge had done exactly the worst thing possible.

  Courageous had enough missiles left to take out the destroyer, but that was about it. The battlecruiser was almost empty. They would get one chance at this and they needed an edge.

  “I’m going to make a high speed pass on that ship. When Kelsey gets over here, she’ll take the remaining fighter and we’ll get moving.”

  Graves didn’t look convinced. “That didn’t work out so well for you last time, sir.”

  “It depends on how you look at it.”

  “You got lucky,” Graves corrected. “And you had to ram it with your fighter. Maybe those things are more capable in swarms, but not by themselves.”

  “One took out a destroyer. That seems like a pretty good tradeoff to me. In any case, we don’t exactly have a choice. If they can get information from our people, or worse, our computers, the Empire is in deep trouble. A bunch of those destroyers could conquer us in a few months. We have to recover the prisoners and destroy that ship, no matter the cost.”

  Zia turned in her chair. “Ginnie Dare just flipped into the system. They’ve launched the princess’ pinnace. ETA five minutes.”

  “Send her down to the flight deck. She’s about to get a crash course in fighter operations.”

  Graves winced. “Perhaps you might pick a different adjective. She did crash a pinnace.”

  “She just happened to be on board when it crashed. She wasn’t flying it.”

  “Have you seen some of the risks she takes?” Graves sighed. “I
have a creeping sensation of doom.”

  Jared had his fighter ready by the time Kelsey entered the flight deck. “Go get changed. Your flight suit is hanging up in the ready room. I’m doing a preflight on your bird now.”

  “Shouldn’t I do that?”

  “Maybe next time. Right up until the engagement, I’m going to have your fighter slaved to mine.”

  It only took her a few minutes to change. The black flight suit made her look even smaller than she was. She stepped over beside him. “Do you have the manual uploaded to your implants?”

  He sent it over to her. “There you go. Your bird is good to go. They have them configured for anti-ship operations, so no stunner. We each have eight anti-ship missiles. Between the two of us, we should be able to take out a destroyer. If we get lucky.

  “We’ll launch, accelerate as hard as we safely can, and go ballistic. You’ll have the final control as we come in, but you should only need to fire as we fly past.”

  “What do we do if more enemy ships come in?”

  He smiled wryly. “We don’t ram them, if that’s what you’re asking. We pass by. Hopefully, they won’t see us.”

  Jared helped her into her fighter and made sure she strapped down correctly. The ejection system was nothing to take lightly. “You access the fighter like you do your armor. The weapons target in much the same way. Flying, that’s a little more complex. You could probably manage simple course changes, but when the shooting starts, you might lose control. I’ll send last minute flight instructions to your autopilot. The only thing the computer cannot do is fire the weapons.”

  “Couldn’t you do that remotely?”

  He shook his head. “No. The Old Empire seemed to have firm ideas about a human in the ship firing the weapons. That’s the only reason I’m bringing you along. Let’s button up and get going. We can talk as we boost.”