“Uh, yea. But even if I’d hit them a minute ago, or Jakob did, it would affect doors locks, plasma rifles, Dragons, body armor, clanship navigation …,” he trailed off in thought.
She stared at him, and pulled meaningfully at her lower lip. “And weapons consoles, genius?”
He looked sheepish. “We couldn’t risk allowing Dorkda to reach the Bridge or a weapons console. Besides, we were sitting up here watching him when he was unable to open any doors on the ship, and couldn’t activate that plasma rifle. That’s all we tested.”
She asked Jakob, “What has that clanship done since it went past us?”
“It has not changed direction, although its automatic radar system is still locked on and tracking us in prelaunch mode. Its velocity will take it on an elongated elliptical orbit around Koban unless it applies thrust or it Jumps.”
Her acceleration couch released her on command and she stood up and tapped him on an arm, “There you go, master planner. The modified slugs worked like you thought they would. Replacing the Krall Killer chips with Torki made door lock circuits, which were brought within a hundred twenty two feet of one from the Mark, blocks Olt’kitapi circuits from activating for an untrusted species. You just locked the bastards inside a ship they can no longer control!”
“Not me. I completely missed them. It was probably Jakob that fired the shots that worked.” He ended that statement with a loud Yipe.
“Damn. No wonder Dillon wore a cup around you. That stung.”
“Well, straighten up and get ready for the other two clanships lover. I’ll tell the others we have our next chess move for the Krall to discover.”
****
Demteg, briefed by Telour concerning his last sight of the Koban system as the Krall fleet departed to start the war, relied on his battlefield memory description, and the images that were recorded. They activated radar scans to search nearby space for threats, but her motion sensitive Krall vision quickly spotted one object, a pinprick of reflection actually, moving across the distant visual image of the planet.
Radar tracking was initiated, and a visual screen zoom revealed it was a clanship in a low orbit. If it was Koldok, there should be a radio contact in response to the White Outs. If not her, then some other reaction, hostile or evasive.
Her two companion clanships used line of sight laser com to inform her that the moon had a number of orbiting large human spacecraft, which appeared dead and cold. That was as she was told to expect by Telour. Her console’s wide spectrum electromagnetic sensors still had detected no radio traffic or radar pulses. That matched with readings they made when they paused briefly, three light-days out, to scan for residual communication signals that didn’t belong here.
If this was Koldok’s clanship, and it had suffered battle damage or system failure in its Jump Drive or tachyon Traps, she would still have fusion power for radios and life support. Demteg didn’t know if that other clanship was taken from the salvageable lists of those awaiting repair at Telda Ka, as the four in her command were. However, her own four ships had internal problems.
Hers was the only clanship of the four in her command with any functioning missile launchers. The escaping star hot plasma from ruptured fusion bottles had heated the interiors of all four ships to where some equipment components had melted. Not to mention the stench of the roasted dead crews that was left in place to decay. The other three clanships had carried full loads of mini-tanks, plasma battery carts, and ordinary trucks loaded with rifles and ammunition. At least two fusion bottles had ruptured inside each of them. Her clanship, which still carried its load of ruined heavy armored transports, only had one fusion bottle sabotaged. Because the plasma had been partially contained within a transport located on the lowest deck, not as much damage was done to the upper missile launchers. She had two launchers that worked. That was why she investigated the clanship they found here. It also provided a justification for her retention of the largest share of the status points. Her comrades didn’t know how generous the Tor Gatrol had been.
She approached cautiously at first, to give the other pilot, if it was Koldok, time to respond. She would have White Out alarms set, and could be below attempting repairs or even eating. When no radio call came, she decided to get in behind the other clanship.
She readied for a visual micro Jump to go in several miles behind the silent clanship. Getting a report from Koldok would be useful after her weeks here, but this behavior, despite being non-threatening, was bizarre.
Just as she was about to activate the Jump, her weapons operator issued a warning. “Sub leader. They have fired small metallic objects at us. They appear to be low velocity and very small.”
“Low velocity? We’re too far away even for laser or plasma cannons.”
“True. They would never reach us anyway, climbing from the gravity well. I don’t know their purpose. Too small to be a useful weapon. Perhaps it’s a signal.”
She reconsidered her Jump, reference the spreading objects that would now be falling behind the accelerating clanship. Instead of her exit at about three miles. She manually tapped a point on her navigation console that would White Out closer to the target than those objects would be. Her seat-of-the-pants flight style brought them so close that they were just outside missile warhead arming range.
“They released a large object and they’re accelerating slightly.” That was from Dolbat, her weapons operator. “It’s coasting, but our own acceleration will bring us closer.”
He appeared about to target a plasma cannon at it when he shouted a hasty warning. “It’s a railgun and it’s firing at us.”
Seeing the radar returns of dozens of heavy large slugs, she promptly maneuvered and moved closer to the other clanship, ahead of their path. These rounds sometimes had limited steering capability, so she also dropped lower to be below them. That was when she noted the radar profile of the clanship had altered from a tail-on slim target, to an elongated side view, even though it was still using its reactionless drive to continue to accelerate in the original direction. It had rotated so its bow pointed away from the planet below. With no atmosphere, the ship’s attitude with respect to its direction of travel was irrelevant.
However, what was less irrelevant was the sudden swarm of small metallic objects, which originated from the two open main portals. The ship had never been stealthed, so the open portals had gone unnoticed at a distance. Someone was firing simple small projectile weapons at her clanship. Their low velocity and mass had already been noted by Dolbat, and were clearly too small to damage them. Besides, they were poorly aimed and they would all pass above them. Her acceleration would move them out of their future path.
“Kill them,” she ordered. Whoever they were they didn’t act like Krall, and unlike the humans at Telda Ka, this foe used ineffective projectile weapons. However, they did have tachyon power and possibly energy weapons. Turned sideways, some of those weapons could now fire behind their direction of travel.
Demteg saw Dolbat fire the only plasma cannon of the two that were operational at the oddly positioned ship, and all four lasers were on automatic. However, none of the energy beam weapons ports of the other ship was opened. Their first plasma bolt glanced off a closed cannon port, and the lasers needed more time to penetrate. The other ship started a rapid rotation to disburse the heat, and continued to fire those useless small projectiles. There appeared to be a slug thrower mounted in each portal. She ignored the sleet of useless projectiles.
Demteg had backed off on her own acceleration to let the other clanship pull ahead. The radar missile tracker had a shrinking circle on the target, to indicate exactly when it was at a great enough range for a launched missile to arm its warhead. The circle went to zero radius, and she watched Dolbat tap the weapons console to fire the four missiles he’d selected. To avoid the debris blast, she backed completely off their acceleration, and initiated a vector on the reactionless drive to lower their altitude even more, to pass below the expected spread of
scrap metal.
Except she didn’t feel the vibration of the four missiles launch, but she could hear the faint pings of the metal pellets deflecting from their armored skin. There was also no sensation of the uncompensated inertial forces of her course change.
Dolbat needed no orders to check for error codes for the missile system that had failed to fire, he was doing that, and he tried to resume firing plasma and lasers, to no avail.
Demteg was first to notice they no longer had a nearby target. The radar lock was still tracking the enemy, but the target was streaking away from the planet so violently that it left no doubt as to who was in control of the other craft. No warrior was likely to have survived the internal acceleration, and no Krall operated spacecraft would have permitted such acceleration anyway. Humans definitely knew about this system.
It took longer that it should have for two of them to realize that nothing on the four-position control console would alter its settings or respond for either one of them. With one exception. The radio communications worked at all four control positions. That feature didn’t require a coded key to access.
Demteg ordered one of her other two clanships to follow the enemy but to not engage on its own. The second pilot was ordered to Jump and rendezvous for a docking with them, to let her and Dolbat transfer from this damaged clanship, coasting on a ballistic course that would be many days in returning close to the planet. It was obvious that it had suffered some unsuspected internal computer malfunction at a critical moment. Both clanships would then join in the destruction of the lone enemy craft if it stayed in the system. This rescue of her now meant the other warriors would demand a greater share of her status award. Perhaps she could extract more payment from Telour, when he learned the shocking news that humans at least knew about their future home world. Telour’s own prestige would increase because he had acted on his own to protect their species future home.
She cautioned the remote observer to remain clear of the enemy, and to return to Telda Ka regardless of the outcome here. They had to report that there was at least a limited human presence in this star system.
She and Dolbat would don their armor, stowed below on the lowest deck, for the quick transfer. No docking tube needed to be mated with any of the airlocks. Both clanships would open a main portal, and the two of them would push off to coast through the other ship’s portal, into the artificial gravity once inside its hold.
They found they could also operate the external view screen controls, and observed as the other clanship approach them, and slowly pulled alongside, about two ship lengths away. They went down the stairs at a run, and pulled their armor out of the stowage lockers where it hung.
Their next problem was encountered when they donned their helmets, and they couldn’t activate every suit function. Life support worked, and they would pressure seal, but the visor projection system didn’t activate. They used shoulder mounted com sets to speak to the nearby clanship pilot, who was standing off until they were ready. It was possible to remove the opaque armored covering over the clear face visor, and simply look out through the blank imaging screen without any data being presented there.
She tapped her shoulder com set. “We’re ready. Our suits don’t have normal power assisted movement, sensors, or visor screens, but will pressure seal. Tell us when you are close, and which portal of ours we should use. We’ll open that one and let the atmosphere blow out. We can’t activate the air pump controls to lower internal pressure first. We’ll jump across when we see your open portal.”
The other pilot acknowledged. “I’ve pumped the atmosphere from the hold, and I just opened a portal. I’ll maneuver next to your portal number three. I’ll tell you when we are close enough for the transfer.” It was strange to have to do this, but not particularly difficult,
In moments, they had their notification. “I am two leaps from your hull. Open your portal as I slow my drift towards you.”
Demteg and Dolbat took a firm grip to resist the decompression gusts when the portal would whip up into its storage slot. She pressed the key pad to open the hatch. She pressed it again, and again. It didn’t activate. Dolbat went to the next portal, and it didn’t open either. They were about to try the other hatches when they heard a loud clang and felt a sharp jolt.
The other pilot called. “Sub leader, my reaction thruster control has failed. I collided gently with you, but if you jump before we drift apart, you can still transfer. You need to hurry.”
When none of the portals would open, and the other pilot reported his reactionless drive also would not respond to return them to near proximity, Demteg looked at her clan mate. There was a mutual understanding of their predicament, without a comprehension of how it had happened. They were not getting off this clanship, and even their rescuer was now in need of rescue.
****
Mirikami watched with interest as the two clanships approached slowly, apparently to dock he thought, or to generate a large Jump Hole to take the other ship in tow. With the fourth observer ship safely standing off so far away, it was an extreme long shot to get to that one. However there was one following him in their new wider orbit, and he was watching what happened to the other two, now about a hundred feet apart, he estimated.
Maggi was below, changing ammo belts on the .50 cal guns. She said two belts had a hundred or so rounds, but he told her to switch them all over to new boxes, with fresh thousand round belts. She should have been done by now, but he didn’t want to aggravate her by asking if she needed any help.
Then he saw what he’d been waiting for, and let out a whoop on Comtap for all to hear, with a feeling of satisfaction sent along. “The second ship just lightly banged into the one we disabled, and it’s rebounding, with both doing a bit of a rotation as they part. I’m almost positive the second one is now disabled. The virus infection, or whatever you call it, is also passed from ship to ship, and not just from our infectious little bullets.”
“That’s great cowboy,” Maggi said. “Now how about you boosting us ahead a little bit, along the same exact track we’ve been on, with our trailing coyote following our scent. I want him to keep his metaphorical nose on our trail. I have some droppings I want him to sniff.”
“What are you talking about? You back to western analogies again?”
“My Love, better humor me or get whacked.”
Dillon chimed in. “Speaking from past experience, Tet, she doesn’t bluff.”
“Too late for that warning, so thanks for nothing. I’m letting Jakob gently increase our speed while holding to the same orbital arc. How much of a lead are you talking about? He’s twenty miles behind, and has been back there for ten minutes while we watched these other two get close enough to dance. There has been some encrypted radio traffic, but nothing from the guy behind us.”
“See if you can get him to move up the twenty miles he was behind us when I asked you to boost speed. How about increasing speed twelve hundred miles per hour, but gradual. It won’t take much more than a minute to see if this works at that speed.”
“If what works?”
“Be patient. I didn’t criticize you a while ago when you goofed.”
“Yes you did!”
“That wasn’t for the goof of missing the shots, dear twit. It was for not accepting credit for the goofy plan that disabled the ship.”
“Oh. Gee, that sure makes the sting go away. The twit apologizes for not knowing why he was whacked.”
There was almost a minute of silence, as Mirikami watched the pair of clanships slowly tumble apart, clearly not under pilot control. Several radio calls came from the original ship, and a prompt response came from the ship trailing them this time.
“Jakob, have that Jump I called for ready. I also think the one on our tail was just ordered to do something. Boost by fifty g’s and turn sixty degrees starboard. I don’t want to risk a suicidal intersect from him.”
“Hey,” Maggi complained. “He’s was right where I wanted him.”
“I think we were where he wanted us. I don’t want to be there if he shows up.”
The Mark made a sharp turn and increased speed rapidly.
The enemy continued on the same course, and Maggi, with her visor repeating the navigation presentation, said “Ha. He didn’t Jump, so that turn wasn’t needed.”
“Hmm.” Mirikami thought quickly. “He didn’t react either. Even if he canceled a micro Jump, he’d turn to follow us. Jakob put a radar lock on him and let’s see what he does. Up to now, we’ve not acted like we had any missiles. Activate full stealth.”
The clanship kept going as before.
With no hesitation, Mirikami said “Jakob, Jump.”
Maggi, startled, said “What?” Then was forced to grab onto something as the ship rotated, the machine guns silently blazing in the vacuum, and four missiles trails streaked away. She was at risk of flying out of one of the four opened portals if she hadn’t grabbed a leg of a secured tripod mount.
Less than a mile away there was a blossoming orange ball of a detonating clanship. “Damn. Was that our coyote?” However, Maggi suddenly saw the greatly diminished globe of Koban come into view, as the Mark stabilized its rotation, and the machine guns ceased their flashing.
“You got the observer!” She shouted in understanding.
Her open remark was instantly followed by multiple requests for information, via Comtap, from those watching on Kronos.
Mirikami had to shout them all down, with a mental shout. “Stop! Hold on. Let me talk.”
Instant mental silence, expectant silence.
“I realized the observer clanship was five seconds away in light time. It had just heard the sub leader order the clanship behind us to do something. I don't know what it was told for certain, but whatever it was ordered to do, that observer sure as hell wasn’t Jumping before it saw what happened.
Koban 4: Shattered Worlds Page 93