by David Smith
Ruiz nodded. ‘Sounds like we’ve got it all in order. Ok, so we’re all agreed on this: We head back, keep the civilians occupied and worry about our strategy on the way.’
There were nods of agreement all around the table.
Ruiz smiled. ‘Exellent! Then there’s only one more topic that I need to raise: With immediate effect, I’m reinstating Commander Hollins.’
There were several confused stares around the table. ‘Can you do that?’ asked O’Mara.
He shrugged. ‘Captain B’Stard hasn’t formally filed a charge against him yet. As I’ve been left in command and Commander Hollins is only informally suspended, there’s no reason I can’t reinstate him. Ironically, working for JAG has given me a pretty clear sense of . . . well . . . what I can get away with. Unless Captain B’Stard can get off her damned back and file an official charge, my order stands.’
He looked Dave straight in the eyes: ‘Hollins, you’re back on the team.’
Dave stood up. ‘Thanks Commander Ruiz, I’ll do everything I can to support you . . . ‘
Ruiz held his hand up. ‘You misunderstand me, Hollins. You’re the officer with most relevant knowledge and experience of the ship and our current situation. It would be ridiculous for me to take Command while you’re available. You’ve just been reinstated, which makes you First Officer. Rest assured, I’ll be doing everything I can to support you.’
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The trip back to Todot Hahn was as mentally tough as anything Dave had ever had to endure.
They were still picking up Tana broadcasts, but these were becoming increasingly intermittent as more and more Tana sub-space relay stations were attacked and destroyed.
Even so, there was enough news to show that the situation was getting worse and worse, and Dave knew they couldn’t be far away from all out war.
The Tana were still cheerfully broadcasting everything their fleet did, seemingly oblivious to the tactical advantage this gave to the Sha T’Al.
For their part the Sha T’Al remained silent, but their actions spoke volumes: They were systematically attacking any and every Tana asset with an ability to transmit through sub-space.
Ruiz had tried to inform Captain B’Stard of his plans but all his messages went unanswered and there were no instructions coming back from her either.
That suited both Dave and Ruiz, and they continued back towards Todot Hahn, hoping to intervene before the situation became irreparable.
Dave was impatient to get back, but as good as his word, he sat down with the staff of the Science Department and started reviewing the output of the Tana infotainment services.
It quickly became apparent that the Tana had taken human entertainment forms to heart. Their broadcasts all looked vaguely familiar. It wasn’t long until Dave realised that he’d seen similar stuff before on the Hangar Deck some months back when Chief Money had found that he could keep the rescued crew of a Tana battleship in line by showing them recordings of old twenty-first century television shows.
The Tana had lapped them up, and Chief Money had struck a deal of some sort to supply more shows to the ravenous Tana population.
From what he could see, it seemed the Tana had learned the lesson that the art of such things was making a connection between people, and they’d remade the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) Terran shows with Tana presenters, actors and contestants.
What they hadn’t or couldn’t learn was charisma, charm and talent. For all their efforts, the shows were universally appalling. It took a massive effort of will to sit down and watch hour after hour of rubbish broadcasting.
Aside from the quite obvious lack of quality, the only thing that struck Dave as truly odd about the shows was the demographic of the industry.
It seemed that the vast majority of the casts, audiences and crew seemed to be female. In most of the soap operas, supporting male roles seemed to be exclusively filled by badly made-up females.
He wasn’t sure if there was some kind of social or cultural factor he didn’t understand or if the males of the Tana simply didn’t like the shows, but for every male Tana he could see, there had to be a dozen females.
There were remarkably few children and adolescents too. It was like all programmes were made exclusively by mature females for mature females.
Dave broached the subject with Selassie and L’Amour.
‘Yeah, I noticed that too. Kinda weird really, but they don’t make anything of it. It all seems perfectly normal to them’ shrugged Skye.
Selassie nodded. ‘I noticed the same phenomenon too, but have no reasonable explanation for it. It seems there’s still something we don’t understand about Tana society.‘
Dave groaned. ‘Well, we’d better work out what it is soon: I’d swear my IQ is dropping a few points every time I watch Tana TV.’
Chapter 10
They approached Todot Hahn and Crash took the ship down to warp factor six, taking Tiger back into the realms of normal time and space.
Dave came to the Bridge to find Commander Ruiz in the Captain’s chair, but good as his word, Ruiz vacated the seat and took the ExO’s chair at the rear of the Bridge.
Dave nodded an acknowledgement to him as he passed him and sat in the big chair. ‘What’s the situation Dolplop?’
‘We have arrived approximately two minutes before we left, Commander, the Sha T’Al ships are still in orbit.’
Dave was aware that his Navigator’s use of English was limited by his difficulty in grasping concepts that humans took for granted. His limited spatial and temporal awareness meant it was usually quite difficult to understand him, but in this instance the idea of arriving almost immediately before having left was exactly what they’d been trying to achieve.
Aware that their warp signature might give them away, Dave ordered Crash to drop out of warp, and they coasted into the system on impulse power. By the time they were close enough to use the ship’s optical telescopes to see Todot Hahn and the Sha T’Al Fleet clearly, their previous selves were long gone.
The Sha T’Al fleet were still in orbit, but having destroyed the orbiting Federation communication assets and seen off the Tana battle fleet, it seemed they were about to move away too.
They seemed to be setting a course to head towards Cho-dal-far, but before they moved, the ships stopped and after a short interval, adjusted their course and headed towards Federation space.
‘What are they up to?’ Dave mumbled to himself, just as Dolplop said ‘Commander, I’m detecting a warp-drive signature, inbound from Federation space. The Sha T’Al are setting themselves to intercept.’
Dave held his breath. They hadn’t heard from the Santiago, Auckland or Paul Revere since leaving Todot Hahn several days ago. He then mentally kicked himself as he realised those ships had left only a few minutes ago in real time and would still be high-tailing it to safety. It couldn’t be them inbound from Federation space, so who else could it be?
‘Navigator, plot a course to follow the Sha T’Al. Helm, keep to minimum speed and maximum distance, we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.’
Tiger veered to one side and began to accelerate, the engines audibly whining as she struggled to keep up with the more agile Sha T’Al vessels.
Even the large battleship seemed inordinately quick and within minutes there were a series of relativistic flashes as the Sha T’Al fleet jumped to warp-speed one by one. Dave heard Crash mumble under his breath ‘Damn those ships are fast’ as he pushed Tiger’s reaction drives hard, accelerating the huge cruiser to the point where she could make the transition to supra-light speeds herself.
The stars on the view-screen blurred and became streaks before settling down and streaming past the vessel. ‘Warp factor one, sir. The Sha T’Al fleet is about ten minutes ahead of us, cruising at warp five point eight. I’m matching velocity and holding relative position.’
‘Thanks Crash. Dolplop, O’Mara, any more info on the inbound vessel?’
O’Mara added ‘Initial readings suggest a ship about frigate sized. It’s definitely not one of the courier vessels that were in orbit around Todot Hahn with us.’
‘Comms, have we picked up any broadcast yet?
‘Jus coomin oop naw! Shizeye dent iffying hersell as USS Higgs, sir. She’s brawd castin frenship messajiz on awl freak wencies, liek.’
Dave heard the name USS Higgs somewhere in Shearer’s reply. ‘Higgs? That’s Devon Chamberlain’s new ship. She shouldn’t even have joined the fleet yet. What the hell are they doing out here?’
From the back of the Bridge Ruiz said quietly ‘If I had to guess, I’d say Admiral O’Connor has realised he’s lost comms with Sector 244 and has decided Higgs is a ship he can spare for a reconnaissance mission.’
Dave rubbed his chin. ‘That would make sense. Any response from the Sha T’Al?’
ASBeau had activated the ships passive tactical sensors. ‘They’re manoeuvring to cut her off, sir. They’re shields are going up. Looks like they’re expecting trouble.’
Dave gulped ‘Are they targeting her?’
ASBeau shook his head. ‘Hard to tell at this distance sir. They’ve definitely charged weapons though. I’m reading the same build up of high energy particles that we got when they discharged that fusion cannon at Todot Hahn.’
This was not good. He’d already seen one Federation vessel destroyed when they misjudged an alien vessel’s actions. He just hoped Chamberlain would stay cool and not do anything rash: she was massively out-gunned and probably wouldn’t be able to outrun the smaller Sha T’Al vessels even if she could extricate Higgs from her current position. They had to be ready to assist, but even with Tiger added to the equation it would be a one-sided action if a fight broke out.
Dave made his decision. ‘Crash get us in closer, keep everything shut down, I don’t want them to notice us. ASBeau, prep weapons and shields, but do not lock sensors.’
He pressed a button to call the Engine room. ‘Commander, we might need to go to warp at short notice. Please make preparations for warp-speed.’ Dave paused but thought of his old granny telling him ‘You might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb.’
He re-opened the comm-link to the Engine Room. ‘Commander, please make sure that the Tana drive coils are on line too.’
He waited for a reaction from Commander Ruiz, but nothing was forthcoming and Dave settled down and watched the distances on the tactical display shrink slowly as Tiger crept towards the Sha T’Al vessels at high sub-light speed.
Higgs was still broadcasting friendship messages, but the Sha T’Al ignored these and continued to surround the Federation frigate. Tiger was close enough to detect the status of the enemy ships now, and there was a distinct note of concern in ASBeau’s voice as he noted ‘Sha T’Al vessels are activating tactical sensors. They’re locking onto Higgs, Sir!’
Dave sat up. Higgs was in a near impossible situation. She couldn’t risk locking her tactical sensors on a Sha T’Al vessel for fear of making the situation worse, and couldn’t take evasive action for the same reason. But if she did nothing she’d concede the tactical advantage to a potentially aggressive enemy. She needed help and she needed it now.
‘Dolplop, plot a course to take us in concentric circles, stopping at approximately five thousand click intervals from our current position. Set speed at a suitable warp factor to bring Tiger back into the next position at . . . ‘ Dave checked the clock on the bottom of the view screen ‘ . . . fourteen fifty-eight Todot Hahn local time. Hold position for approximately ten minutes, then complete another circuit to get us to the next position at fourteen fifty-eight again. ASBeau, at fourteen fifty-nine Todot Hahn time, lock all tactical sensors at full power onto a Sha T’Al vessel of your choice.’
There was silence until O’Mara caught on. ‘You’re going to try to outnumber the Sha T’Al??’
Dave smiled ‘We did theorise that this was possible. Time we put that to the test.’
‘How many circuits shall we fly Commander?’ asked the Navigator.
Dave looked at the tactical display. There were still nine Sha T’Al vessels in orbit and it seemed that the missing vessels were the smaller scout types. They definitely needed to outnumber them.
‘An even dozen please, Navigator.’
This was the moment when they tested their supposed tactical advantage and also the nerve of the Sha T’Al Commander when it came to the unknown. The clock ticked over to fourteen fifty-nine and Dave shouted ‘Execute!’
ASBeau activated the ship’s tactical sensors and immediately locked the ship’s weapons on the Sha T’Al flagship.
At the same instant, O’Mara gasped ‘Bugger me!!’ as the tactical screen became illuminated with data and Tiger’s passive sensors suddenly detected the emissions of a dozen other ships with tactical sensors exactly like USS Tiger’s.
More data streamed in as the Sha T’Al ships suddenly ignored the Higgs and began scanning for the new threats. Every shield and sensor on every ship sprang to life, and the ships immediately began to spread out.
ASBeau grinned ‘They’ve gone fully defensive Commander! They know we’re targeting them, but they can’t detect us.’
There was a tense pause. Shearer spoke softly. ‘Wor, that’s a proppa swanky trick! Sha T’Al comm freek wencies huv gon comp leetly mentle liek!’
The stand-off lasted only seconds before the Sha T’Al decided Higgs wasn’t worth the bother. The huge flagship, turned, accelerated sharply and disappeared in a relativistic flash. In quick succession, the other Sha T’Al vessels followed suit, and before long Higgs had the space to herself apart from thirteen different versions of USS Tiger.
Shearer was still monitoring all frequencies. ‘The last version o’ Tiger t’turn up hascon tacted Higgs, Commander.’
‘Neat trick, Commander. Very impressive’ murmured Ruiz. ‘I think you may have been lucky they decided to leave though. I don’t think even thirteen versions of Tiger could have stopped that Fleet.’
‘No luck involved Commander. Our intelligence is that the Sha T’Al ships are very good, but they don’t have that many. I just presumed they wouldn’t be stupid enough to risk the bulk of their fleet in a confrontation with an invisible enemy.’
Well that was the difficult part of the job done, thought Dave. Crash activated the warp drive, and Tiger began flying in ever-increasing circles.
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It took them nearly five hours to complete the dozen circuits. As they arrived back at Todot Hahn at fourteen fifty-eight local time for the last time, ASBeau locked Tiger’s tactical sensors on to yet another different vessel and watched the Sha T’Al armada slink away for the umpteenth time, Dave breathed a sigh of relief.
Most of the Bridge crew had lost interest after the first two circuits, and they’d only got as far as the fourth trip before O’Mara began a debate about what would happen if they abandoned the strategy instead of seeing it through. The arguments got more heated and more scientifically biased until Dave had eventually lost patience and ordered O’Mara and Chief Obote to take it outside.
As peace returned, Dave nodded to Lieutenant Shearer and she hailed USS Higgs.
Commander Devon Chamberlain’s image appeared on the main view-screen. ‘Hollins!? How in the name of . . . Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere near Arcturus?’
Dave smirked ‘It’s a very long story that will take a lot of believing. Suffice to say there have been adventures and mishaps aplenty, but we’ve arrived in the nick of time.’
The tall elegant woman looked genuinely relieved. ‘Well, wherever you’ve been, we’re mighty glad to see you. I thought we were in real trouble there.’
On a tactical display, Dave noticed that the other versions of Tiger were now disappearing as they each began another circuit around Todot Hahn. Chamberlain’s voice brought his attention back to the ma
in view-screen. ‘So why can’t we see you? And who were the other Federation vessels? I know there can’t be anyone from Third Fleet this far out?’
Dave didn’t think it was fair to involve Chamberlain in Tiger’s issues. ‘That was just . . . smoke and mirrors, Commander. It’s just us, and the reason you can’t see us is a part of our very long story.’
Chamberlain realised that Hollins wasn’t going to cough up the story easily and switched to the main reason for Higgs being there in the first place. ‘Ok, have it your way Hollins. What’s the situation with the locals?’
‘Bad and getting worse. The cold war has gone hot, and we’ve lost a Federal runabout and eight of her crew to the Tana. I thought we were going to lose you too for a moment.’
Chamberlain nodded. ’I thought we were too. I really thought I was going to lose the ship.’
Dave sighed. ‘Well we scraped through, but that’s all we seem to be doing. When the Tana arrived at Todot Hahn, I instructed two fleet runabouts and a Revenue Service cutter to high-tail it out, but with the comms network in shreds, I’ve got no way of finding out where they are or even if they’re still safe. I’m hoping they would have followed the skipper of the Santiago and headed back to Hole, but I don’t really have a clue.’
Chamberlain nodded. ‘I’m sure they will have headed for safety. Which does beg the question, why haven’t you?’
Dave fidgeted in the chair. He wasn’t sure how Chamberlain would react to their less-than-regulation behaviour. He thought about trying to dress the issue up, but didn’t have the will-power to try. ‘I won’t lie. We’re pretty much making this up as we go. Our view is that if there’s anything we can do to try to keep the peace, we should do it, and we can’t do that from Federation space.’
Chamberlain thought about this for a few seconds before replying. ‘Yeah, I see that. What can we do to help?’
Dave paused. He couldn’t ask for help. Assisting Tiger to break every rule in JAG’s book would be a potentially career-ending move. ‘Thanks for the offer, Commander, but I really don’t think that would be a smart move on your part. If I ask you anything, it’s only that you take a situation report back to headquarters.’