Smuggler's Dilemma

by Jamie McFarlane

  "We don’t know," I shook my head in frustration. "I sent something about the same time they dropped the communication disruption weapon."

  "What’s the plan?"

  "I’d like to send the Adela Chen back to Mars. It has no business in a war zone. Whoever goes can relay our combat data stream and try to warn Colony 40. Marny estimates that they should be able to clear the comm dead-zone in ten hours, which would still be a hundred and ten hours before that fleet reaches home."

  "What about the Hotspur?"

  "I want to take it home and look for survivors - do whatever we can to help," I said. "They had two destroyers, it’s not going to be good, Nick. Honestly, I’d like all of you to go back on the tug."

  "We can talk about that, but, did you use the Navy’s comm set?" Nick asked. He was referring to the communications gear the Navy had installed on Sterra’s Gift and that we’d moved over to the Hotspur.

  "Communications are blacked out," I said, knowing that I was missing something.

  "Shouldn’t affect a quantum device," Jake said.

  "I’m not following."

  "It’s a quantum communication device. It will work for the same reason it communicates almost instantly. It’s not sending a wave out from our ship like normal communications. There are crystals in the device that operate on a quantum level. When you stimulate the crystals on this side, their matching crystals get vibrated pretty much wherever they’re located," Jake explained.

  The explanation didn’t do anything for me, but if it shortened our contact by ten hours I didn’t much care. I jumped up, ran to my quarters, pulled the comm set out from the wall and opened the box. I’d wondered why it took up so much space as just about anything digital was always microscopic.

  "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is Hotspur. We’ve just witnessed a large, hostile fleet en route from Baru Manush to Colony 40. Estimated arrival in one hundred twenty six hours." I waited ten seconds and repeated the message. On my fourth iteration a voice broke in.

  "Belcose here. Message received. Please identify yourself," he said.

  "Captain Hoffen," I answered.

  "Captain, there’s a small, clear stick in a pouch on the top of the box lid that this comm device came in. Do you see it?" Belcose asked.

  I looked at the box top and found a sleeve that had a dozen finger-long, clear, thin tubes. I pulled one out. "Roger that, Lieutenant. I’ve extracted one and am holding it."

  "This is going to pinch a little, I need you to remove your glove and poke the sharp end of that into your finger. Once you do that, slide the stick into the small hole on top of the handset you’re holding."

  The rest of the crew was standing in the room watching the exchange. Marny helped me understand by explaining, "It will transmit your identity after doing an analysis."

  I raised my eyebrows at the suggestion. I trusted Belcose to do the right thing for Mars Protectorate, which most often lined up with what I cared about. Sure, he’d spied on us, put us in some bad spots and skimped on the sharing of information, but mostly he was looking out for the greater good. I did as he suggested and stabbed my finger, probably more vigorously than needed. The clear tube turned red and I withdrew it from my finger and slid it into the end of the handset.

  "Thank you, Captain Hoffen. We can’t be too careful with this kind of information. We’re reading that you’re feeling a substantial amount of stress, but we don’t get any indication that you are currently under duress. Are you able to speak freely?" he asked.

  I had difficulty believing that he could tell all that from the phial of blood, but then I suppose the entire box could have been designed to gather information that I didn’t know was getting transmitted. It certainly wouldn't be the first time for this device.

  "I’ve got my crew in here. We’re not currently under duress. We don’t have any mechanism for transmitting a data stream to you, but we got a decent look at the fleet. Any suggestions?"

  "Have your AI repeat the data stream information using a Morse encoded protocol. We’ll have an AI on this side receive and decode it," he instructed.

  I conveyed his instructions to the ship’s AI and it started beeping a monotone signal at high speed. Within three minutes it appeared to be complete.

  "What are your plans now, Captain?" Belcose asked.

  "I’m not sure how secure this channel is Lieutenant, so I won’t be sharing that information," I answered. I looked at Nick who nodded his head in agreement.

  "Look, Liam. I know you have family back there, but you need to stay clear," Belcose said.

  "Understood. Hoffen out," I said.

  "Kuznetsov out," he responded.

  BEACHHEAD

  "I intend to take the Hotspur on to Colony 40. The tug needs to head back to Mars." I wasn’t sure we’d be coming back from this one.

  "I’m in," Nick said, without hesitation.

  "Try to stop me," Marny said.

  "Count me in," Ada answered.

  "You all are nuts," Jake said defensively.

  "That’s the first sane thing I’ve heard," I said to Jake. "I don’t like our odds on this one. I also don’t think it’s safe to just send Jake back alone."

  "Please don’t ask me to go back," Ada said. "You were there when Mom needed you." Ugh, I could see her logic.

  Jake responded, "I can handle the tug as long as I arrange for a master pilot when I get into Mars space."

  "Ada, I can’t change your mind on this?" I asked. "It would be safer for Jake if you went with him."

  "Liam, you can order me to do this. I will respect your position. But if you’re asking, then I’m staying."

  "I won’t order you. Nick, can you punch up orders for Jake so he knows what to do with the cargo upon arriving? Ada, will you head over with Jake and do a systems check and help him lay out a navigation path?"

  "Any stops?" Ada asked.

  "No. Not solo, especially with all the crap that’s going on right now. Jake, you should be safe, mostly because you’re taking off from a random point in space. I doubt anyone could estimate where you’re coming from."

  "Agreed," he said soberly.

  "If we don’t come back or make contact within ninety days, I’m transferring ownership of the Adela Chen to you, Jake," Nick said. "Otherwise, I’m bumping you to a captain’s share for the return leg."

  "That’s more than fair. Good luck to you all," he said.

  Ada followed him to the lift and looked over at me before it dropped. "Don’t even think about locking me out. You gave me your word." The lift dropped out of sight. I thought back to the conversation and didn’t recall giving her my word. But, I wasn’t about to lock her out either.

  Thirty minutes later we were burning hard for Colony 40. We’d burned through quite a bit of fuel scuffling with the frigate and I was thankful we’d topped off in Terrence. As it was, we were going to need every last kilogram of fuel.

  At one hundred fifty hours out - just over six days - the pirate fleet would arrive a day before we would. Whatever resistance the colony put up would be crushed within a couple of hours. I hoped Dad hadn’t decided to make a stand. Colony 40 wouldn’t stand a chance this time with the firepower sailing toward them. My mind raced with the rumors I’d heard about how pirates treated their captives and made it impossible to sleep more than a few hours every twenty four.

  When we were a day out, I knew the fleet would have arrived by now. I was unable to stop my mind from inventing all sorts of awful things that might be occurring. Ada slid into the other pilot’s chair even though it wasn’t her watch.

  "You can’t do that to yourself," she said.

  I wasn’t ready to be honest about my inner turmoil. "What’s that?"

  "I can see it in your face."

  "The waiting is impossible," I said.

  "Let’s think of something more constructive. What’s the plan?" she asked.

  "It depends mostly on what we run into. I’d like to locate our families and get them out safely. We
can’t possibly stand up to these guys," I said.

  "Why’s that?" she asked. "You’ve certainly gone up against bad odds in the past."

  I shook my head in confusion. "You know why. Two destroyers, four frigates. No way could we take on a group of that size."

  "Geez, the way I heard it, you and Marny took out an entire outpost with two blaster rifles and some flash-bangs. And who’s saying you need to stand toe-to-toe? Like you said, we need to find your people and get 'em out. It’s just a bonus if we take out the baddies in the process. Think audaciously, Liam. You’re shutting down because of the stakes. They can only kill us one time and we’ve certainly been up against that before." She smiled at me after delivering her lecture.

  I smiled for the first time in several days. Ada’s attitude was infectious. Oh, I thought she was nuts, but a little swagger at this point was worth a lot. She was right, too. I needed to start thinking like someone who was going to come out on top.

  "The first step is to find our family and I have an idea about that," I said.

  "Great, what’s your idea?"

  "Let’s get Marny and Nick and we’ll talk it through," I said. "And, thanks for the pep talk. I needed it."

  "I was going to kick your ass if that didn’t work, so you’re lucky." She was still smiling. I was shocked, I’d never heard her say anything remotely like cussing.

  Nick and Marny were on the couch with the bridge holo showing what I recognized as the collection of asteroids that made up Colony 40. If you backed off far enough, you saw that the claims around Colony 40 were shaped like a crescent, with P-Zero at the center.

  "Any thoughts?" Nick asked as we approached.

  "I’ve nudged us downward so we’ll end below the ecliptic at ten thousand kilometers as we pass under P-Zero," I said.

  "I think our best shot is to try Big Pete’s claim first. It should be quieter out there. After that we work our way in and try to get whatever information we can. It really depends on how much they’ve spread the fleet out," Nick said.

  "If we can derive anything from their previous occupations, they stay in the area for a maximum of five days," Marny said. "If people outlast them, they should be in the clear."

  "Haven’t they been blowing the stations on the way out?" Nick asked. I understood his concern. His mother Wendy and brother Jack lived on the station, as did Tabby’s dad.

  "From what I can tell, P-Zero is a completely different type of station for them. It’s not a totally man-made structure, but a hollowed out, primarily iron asteroid. They could cause a lot of destruction, but they’d have a hard time completely blowing it up," Marny said.

  "My point is, whoever we don’t find by the time these guys move on will be in immense peril," Nick said.

  "Aye, that is certain. I also think it’s fair to say they’ll focus much of the looting to the station and the refinery," Marny said. "Individual claims probably don’t hold enough value for any specific fleet action."

  "Shouldn’t we try to get to your mom and Jack first?" I asked.

  Marny obviously had something to say but waited for Nick to speak.

  "If Mom and Jack are on station, they’ll already have had to deal with the invasion for twenty hours. It’s not like we’re going to sail up to the station, get out and go look for them. We should start at your dad’s claim. I think the risk is worth it. If your parents are there, it would give us a beachhead - a place to start," Nick said.

  It had taken us an additional five hours to arrive at the outer edge of the colony. It was a sure bet that a hard-burn deceleration would have been picked up by the attacking force, so we’d played it safe. I wished we could just run in, guns blazing, but the destroyers eliminated that as a possibility.

  We changed into armored vac-suits and strapped into our chairs - Marny and Nick at the two bridge stations and Ada and me in the pilot’s chairs. I felt a swell of pride when I thought about the crew and I couldn’t help saying something.

  "I want you guys to know, I couldn’t be prouder than I am right now to be sailing with you all," I said over the comm channel.

  "Aye," Marny replied. It meant a lot to me, coming from her as she’d seen more than her share of combat and was a decorated veteran of the Amazonian war.

  I’d slowed our speed to nearly a crawl, working under the understanding that our ship’s largest signature was the engines.

  "Are you seeing this, Cap?" Marny asked. The forward holo showed our ship approaching the asteroid which held my parent’s claim. A cutter popped onto the display, sailing directly at us. Its current trajectory would take it over us at less than a hundred meters distance.

  Extinguish all light on bridge and cockpit, I directed. We were already running in a low-light environment, but this shut down all of the holographic images and vid-screens. The likelihood of the glow being detected by a ship moving at forty meters a second was very low, but detection would be bad. I held my breath as the ship passed above us. It was a small cutter, one we wouldn’t have much trouble dealing with if we had to. I waited for a count of twenty before restoring our low-light configuration.

  "Frak, that was close. Good catch, Marny. Was that a ship we’ve seen?" I asked.

  "Aye, it’s one of the ten the AI detected."

  "What do you think they’d do if we took it out?" I asked.

  "They’d send a large group out to discover what happened. We should avoid that if we can," she said.

  "That’s what I figured too," I said. "But, I have to say, that was almost too tempting."

  "Provocative actions draw attention," she said.

  Slowly we closed in on the asteroid that my parents had been living on for the last three years. Something was definitely off. There was no equipment to be seen anywhere. It wasn’t that it had been attacked and destroyed, rather, it just wasn’t there. Something else was off, but I couldn’t place it.

  "That’s odd," I said.

  "What?" Ada asked.

  "The asteroid is barren. There should be a habitation dome, generator and an ore-sled or two," Nick answered for me. "Wait. Didn’t you guys dig your domes in? I’m not seeing where that was. Are you sure you have the right asteroid?"

  "Dig in?" Marny asked.

  "That’s it," I said with relief. "He got the message. There’s no reason they’d clean the asteroid off like this unless they’d gotten the message."

  Outline where the habitation dome was originally located. My AI had a perfect recall of how the asteroid had been laid out. My HUD showed a small swale where we’d originally dug into the asteroid to provide protection for our habitation dome.

  "You see that, Nick?" I asked.

  "Yup. There’d be no reason to push rock back into the hollow where your dome had been," Nick answered. I heard the excitement in his voice.

  "Cap. There’s another cutter - another one from the original fleet. I bet they’re trying to find your family’s claim. There’s no other reason for two ships to pass this close." She was right. There were hundreds of thousands of asteroids of all sizes in the ten thousand kilometers that made up the colony. The odds of two ships, or one fifth of their cutters, being in the same area at the same time seemed pretty far out without another reason.

  We were almost on top of the asteroid. If we stayed put, the pirate ship would pass just about as close as the other had. I blacked us out and nudged the Hotspur around so we weren’t on the same side of the asteroid.

  "I’d like to EVA," I said. "I bet they’re dug in and holding those rocks in with a gravity generator. Otherwise why would the rocks be there?"

  "They could be hiding the equipment," Nick said.

  "We’ll never know if I don’t get a good look," I said.

  "Yup, I’ll go with you," he said.

  "That works. Ada and I can play patty cake with the cutters," Marny said. I wasn’t sure how good Ada would be in combat, but I had no doubt about her ship handling skills.

  Nick and I picked up our blaster rifles, still hanging by the c
argo bay, thanks to Marny. Somehow, in the excitement, Filbert had found his way down to the lower level and was sitting by the back door.

  "I’m sorry, little man. You need to stay here." He complained and tried to wriggle free when I picked him up. I took the lift back to the bridge and placed him in the grav-box. We didn’t need the distraction.

  Nick and I entered the cargo bay and exited through the airlock. We’d set the suits to communicate over a very low-power, line-of-site band. We couldn’t afford to have a ship pick up our location.

  The asteroid had no discernable gravity, but we hugged the surface anyway, snaking our way back around to where the habitation dome had been. I saw tell-tale signs of our operation, but nothing that could be identified easily from a ship. Someone had done a masterful job of removing all evidence of a habitation.

  "Take cover!" Nick’s voice exploded in my ear.

  I lit the arc-jets on both my boots and gloves and jumped to the side. Something impacted my shoulder and since I wasn’t in contact with the asteroid, I spun over in an awkward barrel roll. I fought against the induced spin and dove down to the asteroid.

  "I’m pinned down," Nick said.

  "Are you hit?" I asked.

  "No, but there’s fire coming from the swale," he said. I’d found a large boulder and was currently doing okay. But like Nick, I was pinned down by blaster fire. If it hadn’t been for my armored vac-suit I’d likely be dead.

  "I think it’s your parents, Liam. They don’t know who we are," Nick said.

  It made sense but I didn’t have any idea how to get in contact with them. If we transmitted over an open comm channel we’d attract even more attention than the blaster fire. I imagined Dad had decided we were part of the raiding party and was making his last stand.

  "I’m going to have to go on open channel. Those cutters will definitely see the blaster fire," I said.

  "Agreed. It’s a good chance they’ve already picked up on it."

  Establish comm on Hoffen Channel One. I assumed that my parents hadn’t kicked me out of our family’s comm channel.

  "Mom. Dad. Stop shooting. I’m dropping the comm channel, there are hostiles nearby," I said.