"Where do you work out?" Tabby asked with interest.
"You passed right under it when you came in the hold. Marny set up a ring for boxing and it has a cardio bike and running track," I said.
"I'll go. I've got two hours before my shift, and I've got some exercises I need to work on. I could even use your help," she said.
"Great, I'm in," I said.
We cleaned up the dishes and started to head back toward the hold.
"Xie, if you want to come along, you can. As long as one of us is accompanying you, you won't get stopped at the back door," I said.
A tiny smile showed on her face. I wasn't quite sure how to interpret it, but I wasn't willing to think dark thoughts this soon after having had Marny's cinnamon rolls.
The four of us trooped into the hold and I pointed at the three meter wide square attached to what we considered to be the ceiling.
"Local gravity up there is .6g. It extends for most of the ceiling. If you climb the wall, you'll find the flip-over point at three meters off the ceiling," I explained.
Before I could say anymore, Tabby arc-jetted upward and neatly rotated just before impacting the ring.
"We'll have to climb," I said. I'd made the climb dozens of times, so I just pulled myself up along the rib of the ship that sat exposed in the hold. "Do you still do yoga?" I asked looking at Xie.
"Not for a long while," she said.
As expected, my workout hit muscle groups I'd neglected while we'd been on Mars. I'd swear that Marny had some sort of spyware that plotted my activity and found the most trying activities.
Tabby had an entire routine of exercises she was to work through. We weren't able to get through many of them, as her muscle tone had been badly compromised by lying around in the hospital bed. At the end of two hours we were all a sweaty mess and ready to be done with it.
"Is it always like that?" Tabby asked after we were out of earshot of Marny.
"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't Marny's favorite activity," I said.
Over the long trip, Xie slowly started to come out of her shell. She was nowhere near the confident thug I'd met on Colony 40, but she was taking a more active role in ship life. I knew her to be an expert at hand to hand combat and as she regained her strength and agility we started working out together more and more. It was good to work out with Marny, but our fighting styles were considerably different. Most of my finesse moves were lost when used against Marny's much larger mass and superior strength. With Xie, however, I was able to practice more subtle offensive moves that relied less on brute strength. Before I knew it, we had fallen back into a comfortable pattern of training.
"You're much stronger and faster than you were," Xie admitted after one particularly exhausting session.
"You've regained your speed," I returned. We'd had to remove her restraints while working out because they punished her for moving too quickly.
"You're a strange person, Liam Hoffen. I don't know why you're treating me so well," she commented.
"Maybe that's just the world I want to live in," I replied.
"Maybe…"
PLAN B
In the main asteroid belt, the farther away from the Sun you got, the more spread out the asteroids were. The Hildas region of the belt was about as far out as you could go without actually crossing the orbital path of Jupiter (which I was disappointed we weren't even remotely close to). This feature made mining in these sparsely populated regions a very expensive proposition.
We were approaching a cluster of asteroids that could be contained in a box no more than a hundred kilometers on a side - about a tenth the size of Colony 40's original claim. In my mind, I thought there was a better than fifty percent chance that Xie was lying to us and had no idea where the dreadnaught would be located. I'd never sufficiently discovered how high up in the Red Houzi command chain she'd been, so I had no good way to judge the value of her information.
For the last four days we'd crept forward in stealth mode, our passive sensors not picking up any local activity. I'd decided to play it safe and not arrive too close, the Houzi would no doubt have sensors to warn them of enemy approach. That is, if they were actually there.
On the fifth day, we'd come close enough to tell that there was, indeed, no ship, no base, nothing.
"There's nothing here," Nick declared.
We were seated at the table on the bridge. For the last few hours, it had become increasingly clear that something large had been here, given the amount of garbage. Whatever it had been, it no longer remained.
"How about it, Xie. Was this just a wild goose chase? Or did Red Houzi just move on?" I tried to keep the anger out of my voice. This woman had betrayed me the last time we'd sailed together. My mind, naturally, ran through the different reasons she might be doing it again.
"No. They're supposed to be here. Don't get too close, though. We always left traps behind. The alarms will let Red Houzi know that someone has found one of their abandoned bases," she said.
"So what? We're done? Twenty-four days of sailing and nothing?" I asked.
"They had to move somewhere," she said.
"You're out of the loop. This mission is a bust," Nick said.
She took a breath. "Wait. There's another spot."
"Why should we believe you," Nick asked.
She placed her hand on his arm and Marny visibly stiffened. I could see this going very badly in a short period of time.
"You're right, Nick. I used you and Liam. I know trust needs to be built and I haven't done that. If it means anything to you, I'm sorry for how I behaved - for using you, shooting you, and for trying to take your ship. I'm not expecting forgiveness - you have no reason to forgive me. I just needed to say that."
"This feels manipulative," Marny said.
"No, I get it," Xie said, retracting her hand from Nick's arm. "Let me put this out there though. The other location isn't that far, another eight days, plus a stealth approach. I'd bet you have enough fuel to try one more location. What's the harm?"
Nick slid a pad over to her, "Give me the location."
"Thank you," Xie said.
"I didn't say we were going."
Xie nodded demurely. I was just paranoid enough to feel like she was playing Nick perfectly. I caught Marny's eye and saw that she was thinking the same thing.
"We'd only just have enough fuel. If we got into any combat, it'd be a long ride home," he said. He was referencing a well-known idiom and romantic theme in space travel. The 'long ride home' being a reference to using your last small amount of fuel to send you back home, even though you'd run out of O2 and food well before you got there.
"You can't trust her, Nick," Marny said.
"The Navy will be interested in this site, either way," I said.
"True," Marny agreed.
"It's another week. If she'd wanted to pull us into a trap, she didn't need to bring us here first," Nick said.
"You're right, of course," Xie said. "I've not been trustworthy. It's also possible there won't be anything there, but we were developing the location. It wasn't supposed to be up and going for another year."
"We'll look," Nick said.
"Thank you," she replied.
Four days later at the midpoint, I decided that I'd give Sterra a heads up. I'd been assured that the quantum crystals were untraceable and the Navy had been expecting some word from us.
"Belcose, come in, are you there?" I said into the handheld receiver that actually had a cord connecting it to the main comm device. I repeated this call once a minute for ten, which was our protocol.
"Belcose here, what's your status, Hotspur?" he asked. It was interesting that he specifically knew it was me, given I hadn't identified myself.
"Negative contact. But we're headed to a second site," I said.
"Coordinates?" he asked.
"Not yet. We'll check it out and once we're clear of the area, I'll share. We did, however, find an abandoned base. Our prisoner assures us it was rec
ently active," I said.
"Status in system has changed. There's been another attack," he said.
"Did our target show up?"
"Negative."
"How long ago?"
"Eighteen days. When will you know about your second site?"
"No more than a week. We're not that hopeful, though."
"Understood. Anything else?"
"No. Hoffen out," I turned the set off and placed it back in its box.
It was easy to slip back into our normal routines, but with a growing sense of apprehension. We'd seen the enemy's lair and it was reasonable to expect they were in the area. Xie had grown withdrawn, nervous even, and that added to my own sense of foreboding.
Finally, we arrived near enough to a new group of asteroids still in the Hildas region of the main belt. The navigation plan called for us to creep in the final four days using our stealth capabilities. Each day we got closer, we further limited the use of anything that might generate a signal.
"Liam, you need to see this," Tabby said. She was on watch and I was back in the hold working out with Marny. Out of a need to release our frustration, we'd been sparring more and more as the days wore on.
Show on HUD, I told my AI.
Our passive sensors were finally able to resolve the thirty kilometer ring of asteroids. More importantly, I was able to just make out what I believed was the dreadnaught. If we turned on our active sensors, we'd know for sure, but the consequences could be dire.
"Tabby, slow our approach and bring us to a Zero Delta-V," I said.
"Aye, slowing approach with maximum stealth, to Zero Delta-V," she responded. Repeating commands apparently was something they taught at the Academy because it was something she frequently did.
"Xie was right. We're needed on the bridge," I said to Marny.
On the way past Xie's bunk room I knocked. She spent most of her time in her room, only joining us for our one common meal of the day. She opened the door and looked up at me, her face was drawn with worry.
"You were right. We found it," I said.
Unexpectedly she jumped and hugged me. She'd startled me and I almost treated her hug like a grapple. At the last moment, I accepted it. She felt my response and pulled back suddenly.
"I'm sorry. That wasn't appropriate. You've taken a big risk on me," she said.
"Nick is the one who approved this leg of the trip."
"We both know that's not a hundred percent of it. If you hadn't advocated for me, this would have gone the other way."
"Let's talk on the bridge."
Tabby projected the asteroid field onto the small holo sitting on top of the bridge table. The passive sensors were constantly refining the image. There was no doubt we were looking at the dreadnaught. It was nestled next to three rectangular structures, which were in turn attached by long catwalks.
"Have we seen any other ships?" I asked.
"We're too far out. The only reason we're able to see the dreadnaught is because there is so much external work being done on it. The AI is filling in details for us, making guesses. We'd have to get closer to detect anything smaller than a destroyer," Nick said.
"So, that's good news," I said.
Everyone looked at me, mystified.
It made sense to me. "There aren't any destroyers."
"We don't really know that for sure," Nick said.
"What are we waiting for? Why aren't we just calling the Navy so they can come out and get these guys?" Tabby said.
"Good question. Nick?" I said.
Nick raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side. It was his, 'that's probably what we should do,' look.
"Marny?" I asked.
"Aye. It's a sound idea," she said.
I looked to Xie. She looked like she was busting to say something, but to her credit, she was keeping it to herself.
"Xie. You have something?" I asked.
"It's stupid," she said.
"What?"
"Where's the fleet?" she asked.
"Their fleet got destroyed by the Navy on Colony 40," I said.
"Yes. That was their first fleet. They have two fleets though, where's that fleet. It should be here, protecting that dreadnaught," she said.
"About three weeks ago the Braryth colony was sacked by a pirate fleet," I said. I hadn't shared that information with Xie.
"Don't you see it? They're vulnerable," she said.
"What could we do against a dreadnaught? Even more, what if we got it, what would we do with it?" Tabby asked.
Nick was on it. Just like he always was. "Leverage. The Navy's got us over a barrel. If we had control of that ship, we'd have leverage."
"Are you nuts?" Tabby asked looking first to Nick then to me to get my support.
"It takes a lot of people to man a ship that size," I said.
"If they lost their first fleet, they're already short of manpower. There can't be anything more than a skeleton crew on that dreadnaught and most of those workers are press-gang and won't provide any real resistance. The key is getting control of the bridge. Red Houzi Captains are afraid of the crew and as a result the bridge controls everything. The only problem is, it's also the most heavily armored part of the ship," Xie said.
My mind spun with options. We could escape right now, Tabby would get her arm replaced and we'd get the Navy off of our backs. The target was tantalizing, though. What Xie was saying was easy to understand and believe. Unfortunately, those were hallmarks of a good deception.
"How do you propose we get command control?" Nick asked. Straight to the point. If we couldn't sail the ship, then all was for naught.
"We bluff. I bet I outrank anyone on that station," Xie said.
It was almost too ridiculous even for me. "You want me to believe we could walk in there and just take it?"
"No. It wouldn't go that way," she said. "Whoever the captain is, he won't be giving control to anyone of any rank. But if we can get to him, I'll get the command turned over to you."
"Let me guess, you'd need to be in charge? What'd stop you from just turning on us once we're inside?" Marny asked.
"What if I could get us on the ship? Could you get us to be recognized as friendlies for long enough to make it to the bridge?" I asked.
Xie was having trouble with that. "How would you do that?"
"They can't possibly have patched that thing up entirely. When we saw it last, there were three hundred square meter sections of missing armor. We could just sail in."
"That'd never work. They'd see us coming," Tabby said and she pointed at the holo. "And this ship looks patched up."
"No, that's just the AI filling in details. The missing sections wouldn't really light up that well. I'm with Liam on this. We could probably get on board," Nick said.
"There's no way to know if their systems will recognize me," Xie said.
"I'm not sure if they need to. We're talking about pirates here," Marny said. "How much inter-factional fighting is there?"
"Competition between the franchises is pretty fierce," Xie said.
"Fierce enough that you might see a power play while the fleet's away?" Marny asked.
"Of course," Xie answered.
Marny gave us a frightening smile. "I've got a plan,"
Like most of our plans, this one wasn't particularly complex. The first part was simple. We had to get close enough to see if we could actually land the Hotspur inside the big ship.
Xie knelt on the stairs between the two pilot's chairs. It gave her a good look through the glass in front of us, which was all we'd have since we were totally blacked out.
"They'll have a lot of defensive guns. You don't have to worry about them, though, because if they see the ship, we'll be dust before we know it," she said. I didn't find the comment to be overly helpful.
I held my breath as we passed the outer ring of asteroids. If our armor was leaking energy we'd know it shortly. We were strapped in and prepared for a combat burn, but I agreed with Xie on this. We'd
have to be extremely lucky not to get tagged by their defensive systems if they saw us.
I breathed more easily as we sailed, apparently unseen, beyond the outer ring and approached the dreadnaught. Then, my heart fell as we passed along the flank of the giant ship. Somehow, they'd reskinned the missing sections of armor. It wasn't armor, but it might as well have been, because there wouldn't be any stealth landing.
"I'm backing off," I said. Everyone was listening intently on the crew's comm channel.
"I think we're down to Plan-B," Marny said.
I released a breath. "I've always been a big proponent of Plan-B."
BLITZKRIEG
"I hate this," Tabby said.
"Of course you do," I said. "You're a warrior at heart. The thing is, there are a lot of lives that are counting on the Navy knowing where this base is. If we're unsuccessful, you have to make that call. People are depending on you."
I gave her a lingering kiss and made my way down to the hold. Marny and Nick had already powered up their mechanized suits and Xie, tiny in her armored vac-suit, stood next to them holding a blaster rifle. I hopped into my mech-suit, still dormant in its crate. I think I'd always known it would come down to this.
I thought back to a couple of weeks ago when I'd first been introduced to the suit and how difficult it had been to even stand up. It didn't feel like a second skin yet, but I was more comfortable with it than I had been. I raised easily to my feet and did a few turns to make sure everything was limber.
"Cap, run through the checklist I just sent you," Marny said. I ran through the mostly familiar list that Big Pete had taught us. Marny had added a few additional ones that included the weaponry.
She continued, "I'm setting you both on three shot for your primary weapon and you'll have door breaching grenades as secondary. I've programmed that as Alpha. Beta setting is auto fire and heavy grenade loads. Be careful with that. You can run out of ammo pretty quickly that way."
"Roger that," I said. I cycled through the weapons interface. It was a little overwhelming.
Beta, I said. I heard a positive chime and noticed the HUD's indicator showed AUTO where previously there'd been three bullets.
Smuggler's Dilemma Page 27