by Dain White
“Yak… do you see that?” Pauli hissed across the aisle.
“See… what, Pauli?” I replied, sotto voice. I didn’t see anything, other than the typical tense situation.
“The countdown”, he replied, and pointed at my starboard screen. I looked and saw 38 seconds.
“Do you think that is Janis’ countdown to our golden moment?” I asked softly, but he just shrugged back at me.
Right as I was about to ask the captain if he noticed the timer, flashing alerts on my center screen caught my eye.
“Captain, I am currently tracking outgoing kinetics from Master 7!”
“Very well”, he replied with a level voice.
My port-side screen flashed. “Sir, incoming hail”, I added, and swiped it over to make ready.
“Please open hail, Yak.”
I opened the hail channel and then swiped back over to targeting. Master 7 was a little out of turret range.
“Sir, it looks like he is going to miss on this salvo”, I called out, noting the countdown showed 24 seconds.
“—chaea, Little Sister. We are again under attack – can you assist?”
“Little Sister, Archaea, we were just tracking inbound from the closest bogey. We are maneuvering to support and preparing to fire our main gun, please set filters to maximum.”
“Very well, Captain, we copy and thanks!” The relief in the voice of the Little Sister’s captain was palpable. He sounded like a man at the frayed edge of desperation, being offered a lifeline. I just hoped we weren’t going to be too late to help.
The clock was at 14 seconds, and we were still hauling around, but he was clearly slowing down as he approached his aiming point.
“Shorty, fire mission, I need you to fire a single shot on my mark.”
“Standing by, sir” she replied immediately. As always, I was struck by the ice in her voice. She knows more than any of us what we’re about to do.
At that moment, the stars slowed to a halt, and we hung dead steady. I scoped in tight on Master 7, waiting.
“Shorty, fire in 3… 2…”
I blinked, unable to reconcile what I was seeing.
“Captain, Master 7 is hit!”
“Shorty, check fire!” he called immediately. “Are you sure, Yak?”
I made damn sure I was seeing what I was seeing. Before I could say the words, another streaking blast impacted into the stern tubes, knocking Master 7 into a slow tumble, trailing a cloud of debris.
“Sir, they’re done. High order impact, looked kinetic.”
“Fired from what, son? I need answers, now.”
I swallowed, and flipped through the target list for the sector. “Sir… I don’t see anything on track!”
“Maybe it was fired by one of the other hostiles?”
I pulled back into the local sector and brought both Master 5 and 6 into as close of a focus as I could, given their separation. It was close enough.
"Sir”, I started, then swallowed, “Master 5 and 6 are both taking fire as well!”
A moment of stunned silence flooded the bridge, and none of us remembered how to swim.
*****
“Fire mission complete, sir”, Janis said smartly.
I took a brief moment to consider the impossible. “Very well Janis”, I said in a voice that sounded incredibly rational, for the crazy places my mind was going at the moment.
“Well lads, I believe we have just witnessed history in the making, and I owe Janis an apology.”
“An apology sir?” she said lightly.
“Yes dear. I am afraid I was convinced you were finally going to fail on a mission, and was dreading the moment.”
Yak and Pauli both looked like they were waiting for a tonsil checkup.
“Sir, I will never fail. Please do not worry.”
“Uh…” said Yak, adding, “um…” Pauli stared blankly back at me.
“Captain, weapons…” Shorty called up on comms. “Sir…? What just happened?”
I opened comms. “Well, it appears that approximately 5 standard days, and eleven point some-odd million kilometers away, Janis fired the rounds that just incapacitated Master 5, 6 and 7.”
“What…?” Gene jumped in. “She did?”
“Yes Gene, she sure did.”
“At what range again?”
“11,324,231.29… and something kilometers…” I tried to remember more exactly, and failed. “Janis, what was the range to target when you fired?”
“Captain, Master 5 was ranged 11,324,231.29808, Master 6 was ranged 11,324,225.23923, and Master 7 was ranged 11,324,232.56232 kilometers from our position at the moment I initiated this fire mission”, she answered smartly.
“Captain, there’s no way our old gravimetrics had that kind of accuracy”, Gene said quietly. I felt a little tingle go up my spine.
“Janis, he’s right. How could you possibly know their positions to that level of accuracy with that gear?”
“Captain, our old sensors were not that accurate, however our new sensors provide more than enough resolution to make an accurate determination of their position.”
“Janis,” Yak asked on comms, “you didn’t have the sensor package when you made the shot…” he trailed off.
“That is correct, Yak, but I have the sensor package at this moment in time”, she replied patiently.
My fingers reached unerringly into the unknown to starboard and touched the silky smooth finish of my well-worn coffee cup. What is real? Am I really here, at the helm of the greatest ship in the universe, with the best crew, with the best cup of coffee? Am I actually about to drink this coffee? I can already taste it. Is that just wishful thinking, or is it something more. That I am going to drink it, is inevitable.
I took a sip, and tasted the future.
“Sir, incoming hail”, Yak called back.
“Very well, please open comms”, I replied smartly, with an eyebrow tilted toward the stars.
“Archaea, this is Captain Silas Mack of the Little Sister. I can’t thank you enough for the assist.”
“No thanks are needed, Captain - it was the honorable thing to do. Do you require any additional assistance?”
“Well, it looks like we’re venting, but not too badly. Unfortunately, our turret is inoperable…” the dismay in his voice was heavy.
I paused briefly. “That’s a bad situation to be in, out here. Would you like us to form up and escort?” I offered, hopefully, with a finger crossed for good luck.
“Captain Smith, I am not sure I would feel good imposing on you in that way…” he trailed off momentarily. “But the fact is we’re in a pretty tough spot.”
“Well, I’d be glad to help”, I replied. “We were actually burning for the jump to Talus Federation when we received your distress signal. I don’t think we’d get a very warm reception out there if we just left you defenseless here.”
A slight moment of silence carried the hiss of burning stars on the comms. “What business do you have in Talus Federation?”
He sounded as cautious as I would be, with a stranger. I figured the truth was always a good policy. “We’re hoping to acquire some system upgrades for the Archaea, before we push further out.”
“Further out? There’s not much out there past Talus, it’s almost the end of the arm.”
“There’s always more out there. In any case, that’s how we make our living, out in the fringe. I’m fitting out the Archaea so we can cover more territory. She’s a nice old gal, but doesn’t have enough get up and go for really serious work, you know.”
I realized my brief embrace with the truth had turned into a horribly left-footed dance with deception, but I certainly couldn’t tell them the truth. Specific details aside, it was important to me that they knew our motives were pure. We were just simple working folk making a living among the stars, free from glom oversight and control, just like them.
“Well, the Archaea looked great on our scopes, Captain, just like a bright star, coming down ou
t of a plume.”
“Yeah, we were moving right along… unfortunately in the wrong direction, but I got her stopped in time.”
There was a pause. “What sort of gear are you hoping to get out in Talus? I’m having a hard time understanding how, but I’d swear you shot a nova. We had our shields up, of course, but our topside decks got roasted by something big. I can’t imagine what we might have out in Talus to upgrade that.”
I laughed, hoisted to new heights by my own petard. “I don’t know if I would call it nova-class, technically, but yes, we did fire our main gun. I don’t think we have any need for weapons upgrades, to be honest.”
“What sort of upgrade are you looking for?”
“Actually, I’m hoping to upgrade our emitters.” I figured I might as well tangle-foot my way back to the truth.
“Seems like Luna might be better for that kind of gear”, he replied. “Before you burn for the rim, you should check there.”
“We did, Mars as well. New Turiana is the other choice, and would probably be fine, but we’re going a completely different direction, and are on the clock. I was hoping I might be able to find something out in Talus, but if I can’t it’s not the end of the world. Since we’re both headed to Mars at this point, I’ll just form up and escort you in.”
“Sounds good, I’d really appreciate it if you could. This place is pretty rough.”
“Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t want to leave you defenseless on Mars approach. It’s a pretty dark alley out there. We had a few bandits try to burn us as we hauled past in a transfer orbit.”
“Are you serious? What’d MOC do?”
“They scrambled interceptors. We ended up squeaking by, their approach wasn’t tight enough.”
“Well, I’m having a hard time understanding how rough it is out here in Mars, considering what Luna is like.”
“Well, it’s not like they’re pros, they’re nothing much more than rock rats.”
He laughed. “Copy that. Well, if you don’t mind the delay, I’d really appreciate it if we could tag along with you out to Talus.”
I smiled. “That’s completely doable for us, Captain. I am sure my crew would love a few more hours of dirt between their toes before we head out.” I wasn’t kidding either. We hadn’t felt real gravity in weeks now.
“Well, I’d be about a week or more delayed if I have to get repaired first. With your help, I’ll only have an eight hour load-out down in Merriot. I honestly couldn’t imagine a better wingman to have on the run out to Talus.”
“Sounds good – we’re sending over a rendezvous orbit, meet you there in ten hours?” I said, tickling the air with my eyebrow.
“Sounds like a plan, Captain.”
I was a little apprehensive about dropping into a well that might be full of angry pirates, criminal gangs, and possibly glom mercs all looking for the Archaea… but just a little.
Chapter 7
As we made our way down the ramp into the gusty winds, the stars shining down through the fading pink sky was about enough to take a girl’s breath away. There wasn’t enough atmo to make them sparkle, they scintillated, like poetry.
The orange glow of the setting sun shone upward into the swirling dusts of Mars behind us. I haven’t been on this rock for a while, but I remember it as a pretty rough-and-tumble sort of place, with a boom-town sort of feel. If it wasn’t for the howling cold, you’d almost expect to see some grizzled old coot dragging a donkey, ambling off for the far horizon.
It was definitely too cold for a donkey, especially with Sol setting. The rime on the edges of my visor reminded me that was cold enough to flash-freeze any unprotected skin. The thought had me re-checking my seals, and praying to the unnamed gods of suit maintenance.
Bright blue lights marked the tethers that led us away from the blast pans towards the domes of Merriot, built into the side of a low bluff. It was a few kilometers off, and the interior lights through the dusted glass glowed like some sort of strange fungus in the Martian dusk.
We all dutifully clipped to the tether and set off. It might have been a pretty nice night, but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way. There are no guarantees in this life except that it will end someday, and the careful person makes wise choices to try and cheat the game in their favor. Using tethers when they are available, carrying extra water, a few knives and a gun (or three) – the little things you do almost without thinking are the things you need to think the most about.
Mars was pretty rough back in the day, when it was a barely struggling colony run roughshod by a number of competing gloms. It was a little more civilized now that it was self-supporting, but not much. The distances between habitats made it feel more like a colony and less like a community, though there were some pretty populated areas.
Not Merriot, however. It was small enough that it still had the undeniable charm and excitement of the outpost, the remote station filled with people at the dead end.
We were starting to make our way through the cabins, mostly dusted over microdomes festooned with tiedowns and cabling, entrance tunnels marked with blue lights. Some were lit, but enough of them were dark to make me wonder if we were here at a low season.
Above the dome, further up the bluff, some Ligo towers loomed, silhouettes against the fading pink sky. Ligo was a research and development pioneer on Mars, and their strange externally cabled towers were a common fixture in almost every colony.
“What are those towers up there, Captain?” asked Paulie.
“Those are atmosphere… pumps, I guess. One of the earliest investors, a glom named Ligo, set up a network of these towers throughout most of the equatorial zones. These towers are automated for the most part, and use bacterial processes to separate rare earth elements from oxides. Those gantry looking structures to the side contain the conveyors that are moving refined oxides into holding silos.”
“So what do you mean by atmosphere pumps? They sound more like mining facilities or refineries to me.”
“Well, ostensibly, their original mandate to get mineral rights was to provide a steady, renewable source of oxygen to help terraform Mars, to try and make it habitable enough for terrestrial anaerobic bacteria or algae.”
“Ostensibly…?”
The captain chuckled. “Their stated motives were pure enough to land permits – but their ultimate goal was rare-earth elements, and money. Those may be semi-efficient oxygen generators, but they are incredibly efficient money generators. That’s why there are so many of them around here.”
We were starting to climb slightly now, the scattered outbuildings and structures around the main dome were becoming more and more compressed, as we approached the main lock. This close, the dust-etched panels of the dome cast a pallid amber glow across the colony.
“Have you been to Merriot Base, Jane?” Yak asked on comms.
“No, I sure haven’t.” I answered, adding “but it looks pretty similar to the other places I’ve been. These pre-fab domes were propped up all over this rock.” As I answered, I took a look back at our line, straggled a bit along the tether. I was on point, as usual, and Yak was bringing up the rear. Captain Smith was behind me, presumably to throw me to the ground and defend me heroically if needed.
“What’s that Shorty?” Gene asked on comms.
“Nothing Gene, I just thought of something funny.”
“It sounded like you were choking”, he said wryly.
“I guess I was, a little bit… mentally choking someone, anyway.”
“Everything alright there, Shorty?” the captain asked, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. Before I could answer, sudden movement ahead caught my attention and I drew up short, holding up my hand. I didn’t see anything directly; it was more like a movement out of the corner of my eye. I cranked up image amps and did a slow scan.
“Jane?” Yak asked quietly on comms.
I took another slow look. “Thought I saw something folks, but I guess it’s nothing. Maybe the wind…” I tra
iled off, doubting myself.
“Shorty, stay frosty. We’re almost there”, the captain said, clapping me on the shoulder. I nodded, rested a hand on the well-worn grip of my railer slung across my chest, and moved out. We didn’t have too far to go, just up another small slope. I kept my eyes on a swivel, and my image amps cranked up high enough to wash out near details.
We were walking now on what looked like sections cut from a plasteel shipping container, half sunk into the slope in steps, partly drifted over with dust. Wires strung from structures on either side tangled across the sky above us, as we approached the main lock.
*****
As we moved out, Jane’s unease had me wound up pretty tight, and I instinctively checked the charge on my railer. Pulling rear-guard, I had to trust Jane to scope out our approaches, and I focused on ranged threats. We were walking into a pretty close section of the tether, the perfect place for an ambush.
From a distance, Merriot Base looked like a dome surrounded by a collection of smaller structures, but as we got closer to the main dome, the closeness of the environment became more maze-like. Plasteel containers, microdomes, tunnels and walkways layered and stacked. The perfect place for a sniper was pretty much everywhere I looked.
Pretty soon, I was seeing snipers perched in every shadow, every overhang. I’ve spent too many hours of my adult life at the receiving end of bad intentions, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from being paranoid.
“Everything good, Shorty?” the captain asked quietly across comms.
“Sure thing, Captain”, she replied lightly. Jane wasn’t going to let something as insignificant as a pending ambush rattle her cage. Not for the first time did I feel more than a little in awe of Jane Short. The Marines may have turned me into a weapon, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
“Very well… let’s just step lively here folks”, he replied, as we walked up to the lock. A flashing strobe indicated it was in purge cycle, so we all had a few moments to relax.