Expeditions of the Mantis

by Jim Henderson

  Ximon asked, “Are the fighter and shuttle already out there?”

  “Nope, it’s completely uncovered right now since we had to do some shuffling and the fighter and shuttle need support. They’ll fly out there with you. When can you leave?”

  Ximon said, “We can leave at 0600 tomorrow. But I’ll meet them at 0500.”

  Gordon smiled, “That’s my way of thinking” and he touched his datapad to send Ximon some data. “Here’s the crew’s contact info and I just sent your ship all their radio contacts and some details about the ships and crew. I’ll send them a message to have their ships ready by 0400 and meet in your docking bay at 0500. “

  Then almost as an afterthought, “Oh, and your ship should now be able to see our ‘blue force tracker’ – a crude depiction of where I and the other assets are located. Your ship will show up on there now as well. I’ll need you to send me a daily summary message and we’ll talk when distance doesn’t make the lag too terrible.”

  “Roger, sir. We’ll do our best, but you know the Mantis isn’t a cruiser or anything, right?”

  “Yep, but you’re what we’ve got. We’ll have your ship fueled and we’ve got some supplies and equipment set aside for you. You can draw some more if you think you need them.”

  “Thanks. We will. One other question – how long are you envisioning us being out there?”

  Gordon smiled, “Well that depends a heck of a lot on what happens, whether we see any pirate activity, whether we get any more help, and so on. Best guess now would be about a month, then we can rotate or something.”

  They shook hands and Ximon left the office. He ordered the crew to report at 0400 to ensure the ship was fueled and ready.

  Then Ximon signaled the fighter and shuttle crews, “This is LCDR Sabo. See you in docking bay GR at 0500. My steward will have breakfast ready for us. We’ll eat and briefly discuss, then launch – wheels up by 0600.”

  Then Ximon contacted Raiza, “Raiza, my dear, have you seen the mission profile that was sent to Mantis?”

  Raiza, “Yes, Ximon, Mantis ensured that both Peter and I are fully briefed.”

  “Good, I need you to do two things. First, please get Peter and retrieve the supplies set aside for us and any additional stores you think we need. To calculate what we need, assume that we’ll be out there for approximately 2 months and we’ll now be feeding ourselves and 4-5 others. Second, please have breakfast ready tomorrow at 0500 for us and the fighter and shuttle crews.”

  “Yes, Ximon. Would you like anything in particular for breakfast?”

  Ximon did a lame half-singing imitation of an ancient song, “Oh, baby, you KNOW what I like.”

  Raiza, “I work to know what you like in many arenas and I hope I deliver adequately to all your desires. Do you have a breakfast preference for tomorrow?”

  More seriously Ximon said, “No, whatever you think would be best for having company over.”

  “Yes, Ximon. We’ll file an updated inventory with supplies received as soon as Peter and I are complete, breakfast will be ready as requested, and I’ll be ready for anything else you’d like later.” She ended with a wink.

  Ximon, “You’re a marvel. That’s why I love you. See you later.”

  Most of the crew assisted in getting everything stowed that evening. They had plenty of food, ammo, parts, and other supplies. They had also been issued 4 additional comm relay cube satellites (cubesats) and 3 more small early-warning cubesats they could deploy. The former would help ensure communications coverage around the gas giant, while the latter would provide more visibility around the gas giant. Gas giants are BIG obstacles with lots of space to cover. They also got some spare missiles and parts for the fighter. Mantis would essentially be acting as a base, resupply point, and hotel for the fighter and shuttle while they were out there.

  The crew was all waiting before 0500 the next morning, though Doyle looked a little rough like he had stayed out late. The fighter and shuttle crews arrived as a group and they clearly knew each other. All of them wore dark gray flight suits of the BSDF though some of the patches were different. Ximon met them at the top of the ramp and the captain and pilot of the shuttle reported for all of them.

  “Sir, Captain ‘Talos’ Wade of the Shuttle Cassius reporting with the crews of the Cassius and Fighter TI-F20.” She then motioned to the others and everyone introduced themselves.

  The shuttle Cassius had 3 people assigned – Capt ‘Talos’ Wade as pilot and ship commander, Jerum ‘Job’ Bethane as their WSO, and ‘Willie’ Bravo as their engineer. Talos was a short, slim and pale woman nearing 40 with short black hair and a professional bearing. Job was relatively dark skinned, mid 20s, and had the build of someone who had spent most of their developmental years is low or zero G. He had long hair, a thin beard, a casual manner and a sing-song accent. Willie, too, had that low-G build and was quite tall and thin. He was 30-ish, nearly bald, and came across as either being very reserved or socially awkward.

  The fighter TI-F20 (aka Tif20) had a crew of 2 – Capt ‘Casim’ Palmer as pilot/crew commander and Jenna Palmer as their WSO. Casim was in his mid-40s, stocky, with short, graying hair. Jenna was a very petite, attractive, and young woman who was Casim’s niece. She looked to barely be 20 and seemed kind of ‘mousy’ but professional. Both Casim and Jenna carried sizable ‘deployment bags’ because there was no room for their gear on the fighter.

  Ximon wasn’t sure this was exactly the ‘a team’, but they were what he had. Talos at least seemed organized, efficient, and professional

  Ximon smiled, introduced himself, and then pointed to his crew members in turn.

  By way of introduction, Ximon offered, “I’m LCDR Ximon Sabo of the Mantis. CAPT Gordon has put me in charge of this gas giant expedition. Happy to be working with you. This is Chief Engineer Elsbeth Petra. Weapon System Operator Ted Doyle. My WIFE and our medical officer/steward Raiza. Peter our loadmaster and mechanic assistant.”

  Then last, he pointed to Mantis’ telepresence bot, “This is ship’s computer Mantis.”

  They ate quietly while Ximon had both Talos and Casim report on the status of their craft. Both were reported as sound but dated.

  Then Ximon explained the plan.

  “We’ll fly out to BruGas as a group. Once there, we’ll enter orbit, select a central coordination point, and start patrols.”

  With the relatively slow speed of the shuttle, it would take them about 20 hours to enter orbit at BruGas. As they neared the planet, Mantis would get data from the satellites currently there and relay any pertinent information to the other ships.

  Ximon went over some general communication arrangements and the like, then had Raiza show them around the ship and to the rooms they’d use when they were docked with the Mantis. The two women, Talos and Jenna would share a cabin, Casim had a room to himself, and Job and Willie shared. In practice it would be rare that all of them would be on the Mantis at the same time, but the cabins gave them a place to store stuff and rest between flights.

  At around 0540 Ximon said, “OK, to your ships. Wheels up by 0600. Then we’ll rejoin and head out.”

  Cassius:

  Type: Class 3 Shuttle

  Displacement:50 tons

  Thrust Rating:2.0G

  Armament: 1 Light Laser Cannon

  Defensive: Chaff throwers, Anti-missile flares

  Crew: 2-4

  Tif20:

  Type: Tiger II Fighter

  Displacement:20 tons

  Thrust Rating:4.1G

  Armament:1 Short Range Light Laser Cannon

  1 “Wasp” Anti-ship missile

  Defensive: Chaff throwers, Anti-missile flares

  4 “BAMM” Anti-Missile Missiles

  Crew: 2

  They took off and formed up quickly and efficiently and then they started the trip to BruGas. Once enroute, Elsbeth joined Ximon and Doyle on the bridge.

  She dove right in, “So, what do you think of those guys?”

  Ximon said,
“They seem fine to me. They were ready on time and had no issues getting off the ground. We’ll know more once they spend more time on the ship. Elsbeth, you and Peter are going to have a lot to do, refueling them, resupplying them if necessary, etc.”

  “Got it. We’ve got the fuel bladder set up in the cargo bay. We can run fuel hoses over to them to refuel them no problem, then we’ll top off the bladder when we skim. They’ll have to hand carry small supplies to their ships, but we’ll probably have to transfer larger things outside the ship, so probable extra-vehicular activity (EVA). If the shooting starts, we’ll also have to EVA to reload that fighter – we’re not really set up as a carrier.”

  “Rog, and if they have maintenance issues, you’ll be involved in that too.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem, though I’ve never worked on fighters.”

  Doyle chimed in, “Job seems cool. Jenna’s cute. Not too sure about the others.”

  Ximon responded, “Let’s just ensure we do our jobs and hope they can all do their jobs because our lives may depend on it.”

  Doyle, “Sure, Cap. Just an observation.”

  Elsbeth left a few minutes later, whispering to Ximon on the way out, “I think a couple of them are kind of cute too.”

  As they approached BruGas, Ximon and Mantis reviewed the data from the early warning and comm relay cubesats already there.

  “Mantis, plot comm traffic on those relays for the past 30 days and highlight anything of interest.”

  Mantis displayed a fairly sparse graph.

  “Captain, the comm relays show activity on an average of every 5.6 days. This activity falls in two primary categories: a) communications between ships and their shuttles while skimming, and b) transmission to or from the ship in question and Brulane Station. Last activity noted was 4.1 days ago, ship-to-shuttle comms.”

  Ximon, “Understood. Nothing too interesting there. Expand that spread to 360 days and look for any distress calls.”

  “Roger, and I’ve cross-checked this with distress call records from the BSDF.”

  The level of activity was stable over the months, with just one or two spikes where several ships were apparently travelling together. Three distress calls were noted. One was from a long distance sunward and just happened to hit the relays. One was from a ship that suffered some manner of damage and needed a tow but was otherwise fine. The final one was from a trader 25 days back who reported being actively scanned and fired upon, but they were able to get away because the range was too long.

  “Captain, please note, that many individual ships may not have any communications to relay while skimming. This is certainly not an accurate representation of traffic to and around BruGas.”

  “Roger, now give me a summary of what you’re seeing in those early warning sensors.”

  “Yes, Captain. As BSDF noted, the constellation of satellites is woefully inadequate for complete coverage. The 3 satellites in question are in geosynchronous orbits and together provide coverage of roughly 18% of the space within the planetary system at any given time. On display 1 you can see a graph of events that triggered the sensors over the last 360 days. The average is something every 7.1 days, but satellites passing at lower altitudes are excluded. Again, please note that the sensors cannot see all of the planetary system, so this is only a partial picture.”

  In some cases, the data showed the complete approach, skimming, and departure for a ship, but more frequently is showed only a portion of a ship’s time at BruGas. There were 44 unique ‘triggering events’, where one or more of the sensors caught some portion of an object’s activity at BruGas. However, several of these were meteors that could be dismissed. Ximon had Mantis categorize the ship events by size and type (where possible). About a third were small intra-system ships – shuttles, tugs, etc. A small handful were larger transport vessels, over 1K tons, while another handful were distorted such that the ship couldn’t be identified. The rest (about 20) were ships between 100 and 800 tons, mostly merchant class vessels, with a few scouts mixed in.

  Mantis further explained, “By extrapolating from this data, I estimate that there will be a vessel within BruGas space every 2.8-3.2 days.”

  “Thank you, Mantis.”

  “You’re welcome captain. I also cross-checked the comm relay and triggering event data with Brulane Station traffic logs. There is a strong correlation 92% of the time. That is, 92% of the vessels established some manner of communication with Brulane Station (though it is not required by law) and 60% either went directly to, or came from, the station.”

  “Ok, thanks. Please send these graphs and a summary to Cassius and Tif20. Oh, and send a copy of the analysis to BDSF Operations and CAPT Gordon.”

  BruGas (Brulane 6):

  Diameter: 63,000 km

  Distance from sun: 7.3 AU

  Atmosphere: Gas Giant, Moderate Density. Hydrogen, Helium, and numerous trace elements

  Gravity: 1.5 G

  Temperature Range: -250 - -150 C

  Magnetic Field: Moderate

  Lifeforms: None detected

  Moons: 35

  When they arrived, they entered a slow orbit of BruGas. Doyle and Elsbeth deployed the missile packs, with an early-warning cubesat near them. Meanwhile, both Cassius and Tif20 docked with Mantis and their crews came on board. Over the next few hours, Elsbeth topped off the fuel of both ships.

  The combined crews huddled up briefly over dinner. Ximon summarized what they’d seen on the data and laid out the plan for the next day. Basically, Mantis would go North to South in their current region, deploying another comm relay and another early warning sat in the process. Tif20 would orbit Eastward in the Northern Hemisphere, while Cassius orbited Westward in the Southern hemisphere, deploying another early warning sat as they did so.

  They discussed the plan for a while, making tweaks to the orbital routes and timing. Then they all just chatted and got to know each other a bit while eating snacks that Raiza kept refilling. Ximon thought they all seemed like fairly nice folks, they seemed to get along with one another, and they seemed fairly competent. He felt they’d be good company whenever they spent time on Mantis.

  After an hour or so, they all turned in to try to get some rest.

  The next morning the ships all separated and they got moving on the planned patrol paths.

  Over a few days, Mantis and Cassius deployed all the satellites. This gave them almost complete comm relay coverage and about 32% sensor coverage around the planet. They also sent a probe on a course that would take it past most of the moons over a period of about a week. Its sensor was a relatively small straw, but it gave them more insight on the moons and around them.

  This was the general plan from then onward, though the directions and latitudes varied. The Tif20 missions were 18-24 hours, while the Cassius missions were 48-96. At the end of each long day, one or both, would generally be docked to Mantis for 8-10 hours.

  Over the first few days they established a general level of activity. Between them, they detected (through the early warning sensors or by one of the ships) a vessel about every other day. It would immediately be hailed and interrogated based on its transponder, such as, “Bravocent, this is the KSS Mantis operating with the BSDF. Identify source, destination, manning, mission, and cargo.”

  Some ships grumbled at this, but most understood the increased tensions and would provide reasonable data. If the ship was flagged in BDSF warnings, had a bad transponder, or otherwise seemed dubious, then the nearest ship would do a flyby and the other ships would move in that direction. In general, it was a slow review of passing shuttles and transports.

  This went on for a few quiet weeks. There was little of interest to report and no reports of interest from either the BSDF or the KSF.

  The crews got along well when they were docked, but Ximon was watching a few things. Ximon thought that Jenna and Job might be ‘hooking up’ when they were both on Mantis. That wasn’t a problem if it didn’t cause issues or contention, but they w
ere obviously getting creative to do it (since they both had roommates).

  One night when Cassius was docked, Doyle and Job got into a fight and had to be broken up by Talos and Peter. Both Ximon and Talos questioned them and they maintained it had been an argument over a bit of gambling. Ximon worried it was something else but couldn’t be sure.

  One morning Ximon noted Willie sneaking out of Elsbeth’s cabin. This surprised him since she had her companion bot, Peter, to keep her company. Since she had long ‘given him crap’ about his relationship with Raiza, he couldn’t resist returning the favor.

  He caught her as she got coffee in the galley, “So, are you and Peter having problems?”

  She rolled her eyes and groaned, “Crap. I guess you saw something, eh? And to answer your question, no, Peter and I are fine, but sometimes a girl needs a little variety, OK?”

  Ximon, “No problem here as long it doesn’t cause drama.”

  “You know me. No drama. You’ll recall that one morning I woke up naked in YOUR cabin and no drama.”

  “True and I applaud you for that. You stole my blanket and left without a word.”

  “See, no drama.”

  Ximon smirked, “Sure, but won’t Peter be jealous?”

  More eye-rolling, “You know that’s not possible. Just some nights I assign him extra work when Willie’s on board. Listen, Willie’s kind of cute and shy. I won’t let it be a problem.”

  “That’s what I like – no problems.”

  Sadly, after 35 days the monotony was harshly broken. Talos reported that they’d just checked with a freighter using 2 shuttles to refuel -- the Falling Prince enroute to Renusa. It was at extreme range and falling over the horizon. Everything checked, everything benign.