“Why is she so dangerous, Doc?” Jason asked.
“She’s really the linchpin to the whole operation. She’s not necessarily the most brilliant scientist in the program, but she is the best at organizing the research across disciplines and keeping the project on track. Losing her will set them back years.” Doc looked at the picture wistfully for just a split second. It wasn’t much, but it didn’t escape Jason’s notice.
“And if this facility is left online you’re saying it poses a grave and immediate danger to a large number of people?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I can’t overstate the risk in letting them continue this operation.” Doc fell silent and stood at the head of the table, waiting.
“Well... I’m not completely sold, but I’m not saying no either,” Jason said carefully. “Let’s go ahead and start planning for a tactical strike on the facility and we’ll launch out shortly after. Once we’re there, if it doesn’t seem right, or even possible at all, I’m pulling the plug and we’re bugging out.”
“I can’t ask for more than that, Commander. Thank you,” Doc said with a slight nod.
They adjourned the meeting and Jason dismissed them to individually prepare for their role in the upcoming festivities. He had his own preparations to make, but first he followed Doc back to the infirmary to have a word with him while he was away from the others. “I know we’ve beat this to death, but you’re one-hundred percent certain this needs to be done? If it’s such a risk, why not just alert the authorities?”
“Authorities,” Doc snorted with disgust. “You think I haven’t tried that? I left an anonymous tip that led to an exhaustive investigation of the place. They found nothing that led to a single arrest or indictment despite the very specific information I had provided. Bondrass suspected I had notified the Confed Investigative Services and took it out on both me and my sister.” He shuddered involuntarily as he recalled that particular horror.
“So what is this place, exactly? You have to give me something, Doc, you’re asking us to risk a lot on faith. The others are all trusting you to be on the level about this,” Jason said, trying a different tact.
“They’re following you, Jason. Their decision has little to do with me. I wish I could answer your question in a way that would satisfy you, and I’m not being mysterious just for the sake of keeping secrets, but what you don’t know you can’t be forced to divulge if the law, or our enemies, ever catch up with us.” Doc’s answer left a cold lump in Jason’s gut.
“Give me the broad strokes then,” he said.
“It’s a genetics research and production facility, the first of many planned. All I will say is that the work there could change the balance of power in this part of the galaxy in a profound way,” Doc said as he leaned back against the medical bed. “Bondrass is a facilitator in this instance, he’s the front for other interested parties that can’t actively be associated with this sort of work as it’s highly illegal.”
“You’re talking about a conspiracy, and that usually means government,” Jason said.
“Very good, Commander. More than one, in this case. Or more accurately, interested parties within certain governments. That’s as much as I feel I should tell you, Jason. Again, I’m asking for this leap of faith from you with the purest of intentions. If it makes it easier for you, not even a remote, underdeveloped planet like Earth would be completely safe if these people get to continue unabated.” While Jason was good at reading body language, his inexperience with Doc’s species made it impossible for him to tell if he was being played.
“So what’s their ultimate goal?” Jason asked.
“The usual,” Doc shrugged. “Power and control. As happens from time to time there are some that feel the great unwashed masses exist only to support the few elite, and once in a great while these people are in an actionable position to try and make it a reality.”
“Well,” Jason began slowly, “my decision hasn’t changed; I’m willing to put it on the line again if this is really that serious, but I’m not sure I’m willing to ask the others to do the same.” He turned and walked towards the when Doc spoke up again.
“It is that serious, Jason. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.” Jason simply nodded , walked out and headed back to the bridge. If they were going to be rushing headlong into another fight he had better get his shit together when it came to flying the ship.
Chapter 18
Much to Jason’s relief, and delight, the ship had a simulation mode that allowed him to get some real seat-time at the helm. It literally turned the gunship's bridge into a full-motion simulator with a level of fidelity simulator engineers on Earth could only dream about. The grav-plating of the deck, the projection displays on the canopy, and all the controls and instruments were utilized by the computer to create an experience that was impossible to distinguish from actually flying. The beauty of it was that it allowed for all the bridge crew to participate in the same training scenario. His first instinct was to have Crusher fly in the copilot seat and operate the sensors and weapons, but the big warrior had almost no finesse and even less patience when it came to operating the ship's systems. He had also made it clear he had no interest in participating in the simulator training, with no genuine danger he simply didn't see the point.
So with Crusher taking himself out of the running, Jason went a completely different direction and put Kage in the copilot seat. This ended up being a much better fit, the smaller alien was not only a natural at manipulating the controls, but his own set of unique neural implants allowed him to meld with the ship in a way that none of the others could. This solidified the crewing decisions he needed to make before they attempted their next mission; he, Kage and Doc would be on the bridge (unless there was a medical emergency), Twingo would be in engineering, and Crusher and Lucky would be in full kit in the armory in case they needed boots on the ground.
Even with Jason's ability to have information pumped into his brain via the neural implant, the training wasn't all smooth sailing. He struggled to pilot the ship as the unfamiliar information he had injected in his head clashed with his instincts developed from what he knew about flying airplanes on Earth. Twingo had been on the bridge trying to help him over the rough patch, but even his patience was wearing thin. After a particularly miserable effort in which Jason had, yet again, crashed the ship, the short alien rubbed his head and squinted at the ceiling in frustration.
"Maybe if you understood more about how the ship actually flew it would help," he said.
"You think so?" Jason asked.
"It certainly couldn't hurt," Twingo muttered. "Okay, you keep trying to fly this as if it was an atmospheric aircraft with lift surfaces. You need to unlearn that, this ship moves by manipulating gravity. Let's start with the basics... What is gravity?"
"The force an object exerts on another in space," Jason said, feeling like a child being lectured.
"Incorrect. Gravity is the effect an object in space has on space itself. Think of space-time as a large bed sheet. Now drop a large ball in the middle, and a smaller ball near the edge, and what happens? The smaller ball rolls towards the larger, right? Why is that?" Twingo seemed to be struggling to find analogies the human could relate to.
"The smaller ball rolls down the impression on the sheet left by the larger one," Jason said.
"Exactly. It isn't because the smaller ball is attracted to the larger ball as if it were magnetic. Now, that's how the gravimetric engines of a starship work; they create localized gravity distortions that can be used to propel the ship. By changing the nature of the distortion we can change the speed and attitude of the ship at will, it's like the ship is gliding down a perpetual slope, but we continually change the pitch and direction of the slope."
"Then why have such large main engines as well?" Jason asked.
"Grav-drives are fantastic, but fickle. Their fields can be interrupted by gravimetric projectors, other drive fields, or natural occurrences in space. On some
thing like that cargo hauler we stole, that isn't a huge deal. But on a ship like this, being left powerless isn't an option. So, Jepsen also fitted her with some of the biggest thrusting motors I've ever seen." Twingo had moved over to lean against the console during his impromptu class. After having a bit more depth of knowledge in the ship's operations the rest of Jason's training time seemed to be much more productive. He got to where he rarely killed them all during simulations and was starting to get the hang of transitioning the ship from void flying to flying in an atmosphere.
Their last day on the moon Jason ran them through a specially developed training sim that was as close as he could make to what they would actually face based on Doc's information. They ran through it three times with no major hang-ups and a successful outcome each session, Jason was especially pleased, and somewhat surprised, at how well the crew was meshing. The personality differences seemed to compliment each other rather than be a source of conflict and each member went about his job without complaint. As they all sat in the galley that evening Jason allowed himself a small sliver of hope that they would not only take out their target, but live to hoist a beer afterwards.
After the evening meal, Jason went outside to inspect the hull with Twingo to see where the damage control bots had repaired the impact damage they had sustained fleeing The Vault. As bad as it had initially looked, the damage proved to be mostly superficial and was easily erased by the small automated repair crew. After that, they performed a full checkout on the ship's power plant, engines, and weaponry; everything was full mission capable, so Jason saw no point in delaying.
They lifted off from the moon's surface as the primary star was just setting on the horizon. Jason flew them on a lazy arc out of orbit towards the edge of the system before engaging the slip-drive and sending them hurtling towards their objective. Once safely in slip-space, he left Lucky on the bridge for the nightly watch and went to bed with the rest of the crew, the next couple days would likely be long and arduous.
Chapter 19
The gunship emerged into real-space just outside the heliopause of the Kaldsh system approximately seventeen hours after they left the safety of the moon they'd been camped on. Jason waited for Kage to let him know if they'd damaged anything during the flight; he'd pushed the ship pretty hard to try and make up the time they'd lost sitting on the moon affecting repairs and training. "We're still FMC, Commander," Kage said evenly, "you're clear to begin maneuvering." FMC stood for Fully Mission Capable, it was an acronym from Jason's time in the USAF that he used out of habit that the rest of the crew had begun to pick up on and work into their own lexicon.
"Understood," he said. "grav-drive coming online and turning on course for the fourth planet." They were following a commercial shipping lane in-system, so they weren't concerned about the gravity drive's signature being detected. Jason was keeping the reactor power down low enough that it wouldn't raise the suspicion of anyone who happened to be looking. "We're less than two hours out, team," he said over the ship's PA, "everyone stay loose."
The gunship slid through the system unchallenged before achieving a high parking orbit that would be common for a cargo vessel that was waiting on clearance to make landfall. They made three complete orbits around the planet, a green, lush looking world with lots of surface water, mapping the ground with their sensors on each pass. Kage easily deflected inquiries by the planet's ground controllers by claiming they were a courier ship that was repairing a flakey drive before attempting a landing.
Doc and Kage spotted the facility fairly quickly thanks to the intel they already had, otherwise it may have been impossible to find. It was a non-descript series of buildings that were on the outskirts of an industrial district outside one of the planet's smaller cities, but it also had employed a dampening field that hid its power signature from orbital sensors. Doc was able to penetrate the field by knowing the frequency and modulation of the ground emitters. The picture wasn't very clear, but it was enough for them to get target locks on specific areas of the compound.
"You still sure about everything down there, Doc?" Jason asked, standing over the doctor's shoulder and looking at the display. He was acutely aware he was about to launch an unprovoked attack on a civilian target, in a populated area, without any warning or formal declaration of intent.
"It's exactly as I left it. I would have assumed once I disappeared they would have began shutting this place down, or at least started moving everything, but I don't see any unusual activity down there," he said looking back at Jason. "We're clear to engage, Commander."
"Ok," he said, walking back to his seat. "Begin feeding target coordinates to Kage, Doc." He addressed the rest of the crew over the PA, "It's almost showtime, boys. Everyone switch coms over to open channel and get ready to commence operations."
"Engineering, checking in," said Twingo.
"Ground assault, ready to go," Crusher checked if for himself and Lucky.
Jason took a couple of slow breaths to steady himself and tried to tamp down the adrenaline spike he felt as the ship crossed the terminator and into daylight. "Ten seconds," he told his crew. He nodded to Kage who armed the ship's offensive and defensive systems. This was the point of no return, the power surge of their weapons coming online would easily be spotted by the ground control sensors. The lights on the bridge dimmed and red light pipes glowed on the floor, illuminating the walkways.
"TacCon Delta," Kage reported, telling Jason that the gunship was now in tactical condition "Delta", meaning all weapons were powered and armed and shields were at full power. He could see on his com board that the planet's ground controllers were trying to hail them, he muted them and ignored the flashing alert. He tensed up and waited for the countdown on his center display to reach zero.
When the countdown timer disappeared Jason shoved the nose hard over and dove towards the planet. He crossed through a transfer orbit, narrowly missing an oversized, underpowered cargo hauler that was laboring out of the planet's well, and pushed on into the upper atmosphere. He leveled out within the mesosphere and banked onto a northerly course that would take them over the target, the waves of gravitational distortion from the engines clearly visible as the ship plowed through the upper layers of the atmosphere.
"Weapons release in two," Kage said, never looking up from his displays as his four hands deftly manipulated the ship's controls. Two seconds later a weapons bay opened in the ship's belly and six missiles were spit out and sent on their way. Active telemetry began to come in from the missiles to Kage's terminal as they accelerated to hypersonic velocity and tracked for the target. Jason nudged the DL7 into a pursuit course and followed the missiles down towards the surface, the ship shuddering slightly as it muscled through the increasingly heavy atmosphere.
"Status," Jason said.
"We're still clean, no surface launches. All missiles tracking," Kage said. It was eleven seconds later when the missiles slammed straight down into the ground all around the compound, kicking up six impressive plumes of dirt and rock. The missiles had been programmed to penetrate deep into the ground before the warheads detonated; their targets were the extensive underground facilities Doc knew were there. One missile malfunctioned and only five exploded, but the combined concussive force was sufficient to collapse large sections the facility, the ground seemed to swallow up whole sections of the complex as if it were built over a sinkhole.
The gunship screamed over the city, decelerating violently as it came within range of the now smoking compound. The damage from the missiles was impressive, but they were taking no chances. Kage brought the ship's powerful main guns to bear and let loose a salvo of high energy plasma that vaporized whole sections of the compound in a frightening display of destructive power, what wasn't destroyed instantly was flattened as the shockwave of superheated air the plasma blasts slammed into it. Kage fired the main guns three more times before they overflew the site and Jason wrapped the big ship into a tight right-hand turn. The ship groaned in protest
as vapor poured off the wings from the sudden compression of the humid air during the high G maneuver, but the effect on the crew was nullified by the artificial gravity generated by the deck plating. He angled his turn up slightly to gain some altitude and give them a better perspective for their second strafing run.
Although badly battered, the facility still had some teeth; three heavy particle beams lanced out from rooftop emplacements and impacted the ship's shields with spectacular results. Sparks exploded around the outside of the ship and alarms sounded as the shields fought to dissipate the energy from the beams. Jason aborted their run and yanked the ship into a vertical climb and went to full power. Even as the ship thundered into the sky Kage was already targeting the beam emitters for their next run.
Jason kicked the ship into a left-handed hammerhead turn and put their nose back on the target. "Targets acquired and locked," Kage said. Jason accelerated savagely into a descending bank that would allow him to put their guns on target before coming into range of the particle cannons. Kage let loose with a full salvo from all the forward-facing weapons, resulting in an explosion that ripped the remaining buildings off their foundations and sent a massive plume of flame and debris right into their flight path.
"Shit!" Jason exclaimed, knowing it was too late to avoid it even as the DL7 plunged through the raining debris. some of the impacts felt quite heavy as it shot out the other side and into the clear.
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