by Ryk Brown
“Is she well enough to do some interviews?” Nathan asked.
“As long as they are done close to the hospital, so she can easily return to her room if she tires, which I suspect she will quite easily, at least for a few more weeks.”
“Very well. Tug, forward your application lists to Cameron for review. She’s still the XO on this ship, and I want her to pick the crew.”
“As you wish.”
“How are your other patients, Doctor?”
“What other patients?” Doctor Chen stated. “The Corinairans took care of all of them. The worst cases were taken down to the surface, and the rest were treated on board by Corinairan medical staff. The ones on the surface may be out of action for awhile, but the twelve treated on board will be ready to return to duty in a few days.”
“What about Josh?”
“He was treated on board as well. He’ll be ready to rub everyone the wrong way again in another day or two.”
“That’s good to hear, Doc.” Nathan turned his attention to Jalea, the next person seated on that side of the table. “Jalea?”
“Six Karuzari have reported in so far.”
“How many do you think are on Corinair?” Nathan inquired.
“There is no way of knowing,” she warned. “I know of at least that many who escaped the attack on Taroa. There were at least a dozen more that were already on Corinair at the time of the Yamaro’s attack. If they survived, we may yet hear from them. The situation on Corinair is still somewhat chaotic in most places. I should also point out, Captain, that one of the Karuzari that reported in stated that he heard there may be a dozen more in the Savoy system. Apparently one of our recruiters passed through this system on his way to Savoy several months ago. If he made it to Ancot, the Savoy system’s only inhabited world, then there could be additional volunteers there as well.”
“Understood.”
“Captain,” Ensign Willard interrupted again, “the Yamaro was due to arrive in the Savoy system in about forty standard days. We were scheduled to pick up a batch of inductees before we returned to Takara to complete our patrol.”
“And if the Yamaro doesn’t show up as scheduled?” Nathan asked.
“Once the Yamaro is at least a few days overdue, the local military commander will either send out a patrol in search of the Yamaro, if any are available, or send word to the home world that they are overdue, which would also result in some type of action.”
“What’s the flight time between Savoy and Darvano?” Nathan wondered.
“About thirty of your days, if I am making the conversion properly. I still do not fully understand your method of time measurement,” Ensign Willard admitted.
“So if there is a ship in the Savoy system when the Yamaro becomes overdue,” Nathan said, “it would take them a month to reach us, if they had reason to fly directly here.”
“Correct. As our standard patrol route took us quite close to the Darvano system, it would be logical to look here, in case we had problems and had to make port in the Darvano system.”
“So, we’ve got about seventy days before another Takaran ship comes snooping around,” Nathan concluded.
“I would be more worried about the comm-drone on its way to Takara, Captain,” Ensign Willard reminded.
“What comm-drone?” Jessica asked.
“I told Ensign Mendez about all of this,” Ensign Willard assured them. “Sergeant Weatherly was there as well.”
“Why am I only hearing about this now?” Nathan asked as he shot a glare Jessica’s way.
“I’m sorry, Captain,” Jessica said. “Sergeant Weatherly was pretty shaken up by what happened. Those were some ugly firefights, and he and Enrique had gotten pretty chummy in the last couple of weeks. I hadn’t gotten around to debriefing him yet.”
“Not good enough, Ensign,” Nathan told her. “Tell the sergeant to suck it up. Nobody sits on intel, understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell me more about the comm-drone,” Nathan told Ensign Willard.
“We intercepted it as we were passing the system. It was carrying word of your presence in the Darvano system back to Takara. When the message reaches command, they will dispatch a battle group.”
“And how long will it take for the battle group to reach us?” Nathan asked. He didn’t much care for the direction the conversation was headed.
“It depends on where the battle group is located,” he explained. “Command keeps a battle group wandering the cluster at all times. Only the admiralty knows its route. If the battle group is nearby, it could take as little as thirty days. If not, it could take much longer. If the battle group is too distant, they will send ships directly from Takara, which would take about one hundred and sixty days.”
“Ensign Nash, I want this man fully debriefed as soon as this meeting is over. I want us to know everything he knows.”
“Yes, sir,” Jessica answered.
“I’m assuming we can count on your cooperation, Ensign Willard?”
“Of course, Captain.”
“Sir, if I may?” Jessica interrupted.
It was not like Jessica to ask permission to speak. Nathan knew that his own more formal demeanor was the cause of her behavior. “Go ahead.”
“No offense to Ensign Willard,” she began, nodding politely at him, “but I would advise not taking information from any source without independent verification.”
“A wise precaution,” Nathan admitted, turning to Tug. “How much help can you provide in that area, Mister Tugwell?”
“Some,” Tug admitted, “such as travel times, ship strengths, common patrol routes; all these things we have known for some time now. However, much of the information that Ensign Willard provides will be unverifiable by any means currently available to us.”
“Very well. Do what you can.”
“Of course.”
“Ensign Kamenetskiy,” Nathan said, turning to Vladimir sitting to his right, “how bad off are we?”
“It is not so good, I am afraid. We have one good reactor. The other three will be online within a few days. So power is no problem. Maneuvering is online, but many systems are not at one hundred percent. Response will be sluggish, and she will fly, but like a turtle. We also have problems with life support, gravity plating, and the hangar bay is a mess from the firefight—not to mention the burn by that crazy medevac pilot. He nearly melted the bulkheads.”
“What’s wrong with life support?” Nathan inquired.
“I do not yet know. Some intermittent problem with CO2 scrubbers. I have not yet checked. The worst news is that we cannot jump, as there are at least six emitters that are damaged or gone. And of course, do not forget about the big hole in our bow.”
“But this is all repairable, is it not?” Nathan wondered.
“Mostly, yes, but it will take time. And I do not know about the emitters. I do not think I have the parts to assemble replacements. Our fabrication facilities were not yet installed when we left Earth.”
“How much time are we talking?”
“If I can replace or repair all parts, maybe two to three months, if we have more technicians. With what we have now, maybe a year or more.”
“Captain,” Ensign Willard interrupted, “you could use the Yamaro’s fabricators.”
“Come again?” Nathan said. Ensign Willard just stared at him, confused. “What fabricators?” Nathan added, prompting the confused Ensign for a more detailed explanation.
“All Ta’Akar ships carry fabricators in order to create replacement parts while on patrol. We are usually a long way from support and have to be very self-sufficient. If given the correct specifications and raw materials, the fabricators can produce just about any component you might need.”
“How many of them does the Yamaro have?”
“Four. Two for large components, and two for smaller ones.”
“Can you operate them?”
“Unfortunately, no. The officer in charge of the fabri
cators was one of the nobles that assaulted the Yamaro. He was killed. However, I’m sure the Corinairans could figure out how to use them in no time.”
“I thought their technology was less advanced than the Ta’Akar,” Nathan said.
“Their technology, yes,” Tug explained, “but not their knowledge. There were restrictions on what technologies they could possess, but there were no restrictions on what they could know or understand. I am sure that Ensign Willard is correct in his assertions. The Corinairans should be able to utilize the Takaran fabricators quite easily. In fact, if they can be used to build additional fabricators, then it could greatly diminish the time needed to complete your repairs. Furthermore, all the raw materials you might need are available throughout the Darvano system, especially in the asteroid belt. That is why it was so heavily mined. It is also one of the reasons the Ta’Akar seized control of this system in the first place.”
Nathan thought for a moment before speaking. “Ensign Willard, earlier you stated that the Yamaro intercepted a comm-drone from the Darvano system on its way to Takara. How exactly did you intercept it?”
“Whenever a Ta’Akar warship is going to cross a known comm-drone route, it first broadcasts a signal to alert any drones in their area that they wish to exchange messages. When a comm-drone detects this signal, it drops out of FTL and decelerates enough to allow the exchange of messages. By piggybacking our own messages onto the inter-system drones, we reduce the use of our own drones.”
“Then it’s possible to intercept that drone,” Nathan exclaimed, “to stop it from reaching Takara.”
“Theoretically, yes.”
“No one has ever tried,” Tug interrupted, obviously intrigued.
“Why not?” Nathan couldn’t help but ask.
“Comm-drones are the fastest thing in space,” Tug explained. “At least they were until you came along.”
“Then it is possible for us to catch it. We could jump ahead of it and broadcast that signal.”
“Actually, you would have to jump behind it first,” Abby interjected. “You can’t see an object traveling faster than light when it is coming toward you. The object would arrive before its light, until the very last second that is. By that time it would be too late. Once it passes you, it would already be traveling faster than the stop signal, so you would then have to jump ahead of it in order to transmit a stop signal.”
“But once it passes us, we could see it,” Nathan said, seeking clarification.
“Yes. Its light would be red-shifted, of course, but we would see it.”
“So we find it, calculate its exact course and speed, then jump just ahead of it. Then we transmit the stop signal so we can target it and kill it.” Nathan looked at everyone in the room, expecting them to be as excited about the idea as he was. “It could work, right?”
“Theoretically, yes,” Abby conceded.
“You’re talking about a really small target traveling extremely fast,” Jessica warned. “I don’t think the rail guns could track it accurately enough.”
“Can we tell it to slow down?”
“Once the drone drops out of FTL, it will automatically reduce its subluminal velocity by at least ten percent in order to facilitate signal exchange. If it had to reduce its velocity much more than that, it would expend too much energy during re-acceleration and would be unable to decelerate once it arrived at its final destination,” Ensign Willard explained.
“Shoot at it head on,” Abby suggested.
“What?” Jessica asked.
“If you take your shot from head on, the target’s only motion is toward you, which means it’s essentially no longer a moving target.”
“Oh yes it is,” Jessica objected. “It’s moving toward you at ninety percent the speed of light!”
“You just have to be ready to move out of the way in case you miss,” Abby told them.
“Problem is, at that velocity, there wouldn’t be enough time to fire and maneuver out of its path,” Nathan explained. “And the accuracy of our rail guns drops significantly as the range to target increases, so firing from behind won’t work either. Besides, we don’t have any ammo for them. We’d get about a two second burst, which would only be a few hundred rounds, and we’d have to fire blind.”
“We could use my interceptor,” Tug suggested. “It has energy weapons, it is more maneuverable, and it is faster. Also, as the interceptor uses energy weapons, I could fire continuously without fear of running out of ammunition. It would just be a matter of slipping into position behind the drone just after it passes by and opening fire.”
“You would only have a limited window of opportunity, Captain,” Ensign Willard warned. “The drone will automatically return to FTL and continue on at top speed after five minutes.”
“So,” Nathan stated, “we’ve got five minutes to hit a drone the size of a bus, traveling at nearly the speed of light, with a laser cannon mounted on an interceptor.” Nathan shrugged his shoulders. “Piece of cake. Question is: is it worth the risk?”
“What risk?” Jessica wondered. “It’s not like the drone will be shooting back at us.”
“Three spacecraft traveling at near relativistic speeds, all within close proximity to each other,” Nathan said. “Trust me, there’s risk.”
“Destroying the drone would keep the Ta’Akar from becoming aware that anything is amiss in the Darvano system,” Ensign Willard pointed out. “It could provide you with weeks or even months of additional time in which to prepare a defense.”
“We will need the help of the Corinairans,” Tug reminded him.
“Leave that to me,” Nathan assured him. “They love me down there.”
“As you wish, Captain.”
“Does anyone else have any immediate concerns to discuss?” Nathan looked around the table. “Very well. Doctor Sorenson, I will need to meet with you later. I have some questions regarding physics and relativity I need answered.”
“Whenever you like, Captain,” Abby responded.
“Nash, Kamenetskiy, you two remain seated. Ensign Willard, if you’ll wait outside with the guards, Ensign Nash will be out to take you for your debriefing shortly.”
“Of course.”
“Everyone else, thank you. You’re dismissed.”
Nathan leaned back in his chair, watching the others exit, waiting until the room was clear before speaking. He couldn’t help but feel like a secondary school administrator about to punish a couple of unruly teens. It was an amusing thought, as in the past he was usually the one doing the misbehaving.
Although he wasn’t looking directly at them, he could see Jessica and Vladimir exchange glances. Neither of them appeared to have any idea why they had been asked to stay behind. Jessica, however, appeared as calm as ever, confident that she could do no wrong. That was her strength, and Nathan knew it. But at times it was also her weakness, and he wondered if she was aware of that side of her personality.
Vladimir was a different story altogether: excitable, emotional, outspoken, but generally a nice, dependable guy. On Haven, in fact, he had also proven himself quite reliable under fire. If he had any real fault, it was that he worked too hard. The man refused to sleep unless everything was working, sometimes falling asleep on his console in engineering with a tool in his hand. The Aurora had been in need of repair since they first jumped away from Earth, so it was reasonable to assume that Vladimir had gotten very little sleep over the last two weeks.
Two weeks, Nathan thought. It seemed like only a few days ago. Everything had been happening so fast. At other times it felt like months since he had looked down on the familiar sight of the Earth slowly rotating below them. That view had been comforting, but he hadn’t realized just how comforting it had been until now.
Tug was the last to exit the briefing room, casting a knowing look Nathan's way as he closed the hatch behind him. Nathan stared at the hatch as he thought about how to best proceed. He didn’t relish the idea of having to admonish his friends. Th
ey had been through a lot together. The events of the last two weeks had been hard on everyone, but they had also brought them closer together. They were rapidly becoming comrades in arms, family. Unfortunately, the behavior of his friends was disrupting the operations of his ship, and as captain he could not tolerate it.
“It has come to my attention that the two of you have been casting blame on one another for the most recent attempted assault on this ship. Is that correct?”
“I never said it was his fault,” Jessica began.
“Oh, please. Why do you lie?” Vladimir objected.
“I didn’t say it was your fault. I said that you should have…”
“Enough!” Nathan warned sternly, his earlier soft spoken tone having vanished. “Listen to you two. You’re like a couple of teenagers…”
“If he had just taken the time to check…”
“Time? What time? If she had done her job to begin with…”
“Zip it!” Nathan said even louder. “It’s not your fault,” he told Vladimir, “and it’s not yours either, Jess. The fault is mine. I’m the captain. I should have made damned sure that the ship was secure before I went down to the surface. Hell, I probably shouldn’t have gone down to the surface at all, for that matter. But I was more worried about my injured friend than my ship. I should have given clear instructions to both of you. So the fault is mine and mine alone, got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Da.”
“I’ve got to stop being everyone’s friend and start being the captain of this ship,” he said, more to himself than to his friends. He turned to look at them again. “And that also means you two have to start treating me like the captain as well. No more 'Nathan this' or 'Nathan that'. It’s either ‘Captain’ or ‘sir’. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Jessica answered.
Nathan looked at Vladimir. His lips were pursed as if he were about to explode into laughter. Nathan swung out his foot under the table and kicked Vladimir in the shin.