Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades

by Randolph Lalonde

  “Don’t worry about that,” Stephanie Vega said as icons representing three of her boarding team members appeared in the fighter launch area of the ship. “I’m giving you a few of mine to cover the bridge and forward weapons’ sections of the ship. Leave the last of your dual duty people with their other departments so they can assist with combat operations.”

  “Your boarding team is short now,” Alice retorted.

  “I didn’t think there would be a traitor on board, everyone we have is screened, but it looks like I was wrong. You shouldn’t have to deal with my mistake, so I’m giving you the people I can afford to do without.”

  “So this was supposed to be a fluff position,” Alice said as she assigned the new security guards to their positions.

  “There are no nonessential commands,” Jake said. “Would I be strapped to a Uriel fighter waiting to launch if I didn’t think you could handle my ship’s security?”

  “Good point,” Alice said. “Speaking of which, I’m linking all the bots on the ship with my security tracker. I want to know who hid their weapons.” She started the forensic playback and was surprised to see that the results were inconclusive. Whoever dumped the pistol had an obfuscator that blurred security recordings of them. “Wow, okay, whoever this is, they’re crafty. Also, we should watch for recording defects in the future.”

  “Jake, I’m changing my team’s strategy, I’ll operate under plan three,” Stephanie said over the boarding crew channel.

  “Good,” Jake replied over the high priority communications channel. “My team will continue as planned.”

  She had a fairly good grasp of what Stephanie and her father were talking about. The initial plan was to board the Barricade, the heavy destroyer, using quick, brute force. Stephanie’s team was to head aft while Jake’s would rush the bridge, remaining visible, using an arsenal of weaponry and shielding technology that even Alice found stunning. If Stephanie was switching her team to their tertiary tactic, that meant her group would be using stealth instead, leaving her father’s boarding team with all the attention. Alice didn’t doubt his ability to terrify the skeleton crew aboard the Barricade, but she still worried for him.

  “Sir, we have three shadows on our scans,” Kadri reported to Frost, “stationary relative to the navigational buoy, marking them on tactical.”

  The tactical scanner noise lighting up the map of the area faded, leaving less than two dozen minor objects that were scanned in high detail on the hologram at the front of the bridge. The largest objects were three asteroids that had emergency supplies and a small unmanned repair depot on them. There were a number of small drifting inert objects that were passing though the area, and the faintest readings were those three shadows. “All right,” Frost said, “Those shadows are all the same shape.”

  “Almost exactly the same shape, Sir,” Kadri said.

  “Do we have enough data to match them with a class of Order ship?”

  “Yes, but our database is not coming up with a match. They have a gravity footprint close to a twenty metre short-range customs ship, but the shape is all wrong.”

  “Competition, maybe? Other pirates?” Ashley asked from the helm.

  Alice watched her station as the guards she sent to different parts of the ship arrived at their stations. The silence on the bridge extended for so long that she had to look at Frost, who was staring at the details of the three shadows. The cloaking systems of the ships were extremely good, only a slight gravity shadow surrounded the vessels.

  “I don’t think so. We don’t have enough information to figure this out properly,” Frost said. “Never heard of a cloaking device that could trick every spectrum, hide energy, and fail at masking gravity. This is new.”

  Before she realized she was doing anything, Alice was bringing up an encounter database that most travellers disregarded as a hoax. Keeping one eye on the security systems, she ran the shadow’s profile against the sketchy records of Edxian ships and was startled by an immediate positive result. Half the bridge turned towards her beeping console.

  “What do you have there?” Frost asked.

  “The shape of the shadow matches a group of ships that attacked Dorminy Colony nineteen years ago,” Alice replied. “The transmissions from the colony are distorted, but it’s definitely the same type of ship.”

  “Edxian,” Frost said. “You hearing this, Captain?”

  “Yes,” Captain Valent replied. “Monitor the area for them. Alice, does the report from Dorminy tell us anything about what those ships were capable of?”

  “The colony was attacked by hundreds. A rescue team that arrived after the action reported that everyone was captured or killed within an hour. From what they could determine, the ships attacked as closely coordinated groups. They used some kind of antimatter cannons, and no one could figure out what type of faster-than-light travel they used. The colony shot several down, but the rescue team didn’t find any wrecks. The Edxi must have taken them with them when the left.”

  “All right, our targets emerge in three minutes,” Captain Valent said. “If these Edxi ships attack, we’ll hit them with everything we have and capture whatever’s left. We’ll only change our mission if we have to.”

  “Sergeant,” Nesh said through the security comm. Alice almost didn’t pay attention, unaccustomed to her new rank. “Yes?” she acknowledged.

  “I’m in position at the main aft corridor intersection for deck three, but I don’t think I’ll see anything helpful here. There are a lot of crew who have to move through this section, our suspect could blend in pretty easy.”

  Alice looked at where she’d posted her people and realized that moving any of them could be a mistake. “Yeah, you need another set of eyes further down the hallway. I’m on my way,” she replied. Alice was half out of her seat when she stopped and looked at Frost. “Don’t need me on the bridge, do you?”

  “Lead Security Officer can move however they like around the ship,” Frost replied. “One of the rights of the post. Just make sure you listen in on the boarding and command comm channels, in case you have something else to add to our conversations,”

  “Aye, aye,” Alice said, checking her sidearm and the rest of her security kit. The warning from Doctor Messana about her and her father’s addictive personalities came back to her as she connected directly with the ship’s systems using the comm node in her skull. The stream of data from the ship’s internal, external, and information collection systems filled her mind for a moment before she enforced a balance between it and her own thoughts. It really was a rush, to be connected to so much at once, and she was thankful that the Warlord’s internal systems were all locked behind data safeties. She could find ways to bypass them, or use codes she had to manipulate the systems directly, but those safeties were there so she wasn’t in immediate control of the ship’s functions, which was a relief.

  She could feel her father in the machine as well; he was watching, sending messages to the bridge staff sparingly. They had it under control, and for the first time since she boarded the Warlord, she could see a pattern in how her father was communicating with the ship.

  He was training an entirely new crew through experience and example while trying to learn about Moira McFadden and her methods. For most of their recent voyage, Alice’s father had been absent, and she hadn’t figured out what he was spending a large chunk of his time on. The logs revealed the truth: he’d been with Moira in simulations, learning about Order of Eden ships, how to capture them, destroy them, and command them. He spent many hours running through simulations with her and select crewmembers, most of them boarding team members. While Jacob Valent was learning about McFadden, she was auditioning senior crewmembers from a pool of newer recruits.

  There was so much going on aboard the Warlord, and so many things happening in Jacob Valent’s virtual world, that it was no wonder she didn’t see her father much. To Alice’s surprise, Ashley had been in on much of the boarding and training exercises, trai
ning to be a stealthed boarder and saboteur. In most of the simulations, it was her job to intentionally stray away from the primary incursion team so they could get to a control hub aboard the enemy ship, where Ashley would take control of the helm at the most opportune time. She wasn’t alone; there were two other shadow pilots in training with her.

  “Focus,” Alice told herself as she realized that she’d barely made it three steps from her station on the bridge since she connected to the Warlord.

  “Are you okay?” Finn asked her quietly.

  “Yeah, just got a brain full there,” Alice said. “I should either use my neural datacomm a lot more, or not at all. Takes some adjusting if you leave it off for too long.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Finn replied.

  Alice saw the counter to the emergence of the enemy ships reach one minute. “All right, sealing the bridge behind me until this is all over. Happy hunting.” She took the few steps left between her and the hatch then sent a mental command for all bridge entrances to seal. Only senior officers would be able to unlock them.

  CHAPTER 42

  Prepped

  “Release all launch safeties,” Alice overheard Minh-Chu order. Clamps holding fast to all seven of the Samurai Squadron fighters to the top of their short launch rails released, a sound that could be heard across the upper levels of the ship.

  Alice’s mind raced as she observed major events across the ship, kept track of her security team, and eliminated suspects from a pool of people who were most likely the person who built a pistol and a grenade then hid them. There was something special about the way the Warlord’s computer shared information with her; it made it more difficult to be aware of her surroundings in the physical world, but she could sense her location and observe what she was doing so well from the outside, it was as though she didn’t need her own senses anymore.

  It was obvious that her father had tweaked every piece of software himself, and she was starting to understand why he seemed so far away when he wasn’t talking to someone directly. Why stay in the moment, observing everything through biological eyes, when the ship’s sensors were so much keener? The problem was, there was so much information that if Alice didn’t focus, she knew she would miss things, important things, that could cost someone their life.

  At long last, Alice arrived at her post, in the perfect position to observe the person who operated aboard with a secret agenda. With one of the industrial lifts behind her, two narrow rampways leading to the decks above and below, and the intersection of four corridors, it was a key point to catching their suspect. She cloaked and waited, ordering several of her security team to cloak as well.

  The data stream passing through her mind informed her that the Warlord’s prey were about to emerge from their wormholes. Hard clanging beneath her feet announced what she was already aware of – Frost had ordered the release of their tactical mines, a set of twenty-eight autonomous cloaked mines, each made for a specific purpose. Some of them featured racks of miniature seeker missiles, others were hull-breaching antimatter bombs, and a few carried paired particle accelerator beams.

  Loading teams made sure that the big bore launchers were made ready to fire electromagnetic pulse mines. These had stealth technology, but didn’t have the same level of cloaking as the previous load. Technicians observed the loading procedure, making sure that the new, safer systems were performing well. After days of drilling and refining, only two launchers needed extra care. The munitions team leapt into action and within seconds the self-propelled electromagnetic pulse weapons were loaded. As soon as the work was finished, one of the technicians left his post.

  Alice realised then that she wasn’t observing the operations down there by chance the ship had guided her to focus on the most suspicious crewmember it recognized. In a flash, she could see that there was something off in the records regarding one crewmember.

  Ensign Donny Porter, an electrician assigned to maintenance and damage control, reported a minor injury using his comm unit and left the munitions compartment. Alice used his suit to scan him and found nothing wrong. She didn’t modify his injury report, so he could go on with the assumption that he hadn’t been noticed. “We found our man,” she said over the security band. “Watch him.”

  “What? Him?” asked Ensign Timmerman. “He’s not qualified to touch munitions, the computer will howl if he even gets too close.”

  Alice checked the system and discovered that Porter tried to pass the munitions technician qualifier five times since he boarded the Warlord, the course that would allow him to get his hands on ship-to-ship weapons. He failed each time. “Trust me, it’s him. Keep your eyes open for accomplices.”

  “He’s headed aft,” Nesh Samo said. “What’s back there on that level besides escape shuttles?”

  The thought donned on Alice the moment Nesh finished speaking. The Order of Eden had no way to detect them while they were cloaked. All signals were blocked in by the hull unless they were transmitted using the exterior antennae, and they were effectively invisible on most scanners. An escape shuttle could be hotwired for launch, and then their position would be revealed. Alice bumped into a medical tech, knocking him down as she broke into a dead run towards the aft of the ship. “He’s going to launch a shuttle so the Barricade can see us as soon as they come out of the wormhole,” she announced as she mentally sent orders to half her security team to meet her near the lower aft shuttle service compartment.

  “That’s a pretty good plan,” Nesh replied. “How’d we miss it?”

  Alice decloaked so people in the corridors could see her coming and ran as fast as she could down ramps and hallways, jumping over a startled group of skitter bots that chirped, blinking red and yellow at her swift approach warning her that they were there.

  Through ship sensors, Alice saw Officer Erin Shin shout, “Hold it!” as Porter entered the compartment.

  Alice wasn’t quite there, and continued to observe as best as she could while she was running. Donny Porter backed out of the room and Alice came around the corner just as he turned, about to run. Nesh Samo was right behind her, and they almost had their hands on him, but he whirled back into the shuttle compartment, free of their grasp.

  He looked left, where Erin Shin had her weapon trained on him, then right, where Alice and Nesh were coming through the heavy compartment hatch, closing it behind them. “Nowhere to go, Donny,” Alice said, retracting her headgear. “Why did you abandon your post? My scans tell me there’s nothing medically wrong with you.”

  “I’m nervous,” he said, stepping back from them. The shuttle service space was dormant, with well-organized boxes of parts secured to the floor and walls. There was one shuttle ready for emergency departure in the room, small by most standards, but it would fit eight crewmembers in a pinch. “Who wants to be inside a loading compartment as a ship this size goes up against a destroyer? I’m a bloody electrician, I can be useful anywhere, why did they assign me to that death trap? It’s stupid. You people are insane. I’m getting to an escape shuttle in advance, so I’m ready when this goes all pear shaped.”

  Alice noticed two more people from the upper deck on their way to the same place. They were Milford Forthman and Orson Smi, a pair from the damage control teams on the uppermost deck. Alice marked them on the tactical map and regarded Donny. “How many others are turning traitor with you?”

  “Turning traitor? I’m just abandoning ship, there’s a difference, I’d think,” Donny protested.

  “No, there isn’t,” Alice said, drawing her sidearm and taking aim at Donny’s head. “Traitors get shot. How many others?”

  “Two!”

  “Only two?”

  “Two! I swear!”

  As though summoned, the pair from damage control opened the hatch and started to come in. They took in the scene ahead and tried to retreat but Nesh Samo caught them both by the collars. “Nope, inside if you please,” she said as she dragged both of them through the door.

  “We h
ave something, Sergeant,” reported one of her officers posted near the main waste processing centre. “Juno Lathi is almost here.”

  “You all have thirty seconds to return to your posts,” Alice told the abandoners. “And if you don’t impress your commanders, we’ll put you off the ship before we make port, understand?”

  Orson clearly didn’t understand and looked at Milford who whispered, “they’ll space us,” and then he looked far more alarmed. “Oh, aye, we’ll get back to our posts.”

  Alice didn’t bother holstering her weapon, but mentally sent a short report about the incident to the bridge then led her security people from the room. All the while, she kept tabs on the three crew members who attempted escape, to make sure they were heading back to their posts with all haste.

  The ship shuddered as the fighter launch systems activated, sending seven Uriel fighters and the boarding teams they carried into space. The biggest fight the ship had seen so far was beginning, and she was chasing down a dangerous traitor. The records for Juno Lathi revealed that she was one of only five ship’s stewards. Her job was to direct the bots in cleaning the ship and to assist in the galley.

  “Let her into the recycling compartment,” Alice said. She was just around the corner from Juno, and she signalled for the two officers behind her to slow down. She watched through ship scanners as Juno activated a tiny surveillance scrambler.

  Alice rushed the compartment, signalling the two officers she had inside to reveal themselves and stop whatever the woman was doing. When Alice came through the hatch, followed by two of her officers, Juno was backing away from the pair of guards who were already there. The recycling centre was dormant, with piles of scrap metal and a few bins of waste organized in line for the industrial processors.

  Juno reached into one of the bins, where she’d stashed a small but powerful cutter used for hull plating. She pressed the activation button, flaring the small white emitter on the end as if to warn them. Her gaze flicked from one soldier to the next, coming to rest on Alice with scorn. “I’m not going to be stopped by a child.”