Standish

by Donald B McFarlane

  What had first started as a gentile pitter-patter between two sides feeling each other out had evolved into a full-blown rumble. Looking to the ships around the Laakari, Standish realised that the medical frigate was almost in the middle of the Alpha Star Guards and the over one hundred vessels that they had deployed with. She wasn’t sure if that was a safe or conspicuously dangerous position to be in.

  Watching the nearest ship, a massive combat vessel, she stared in amazement as its laser batteries opened fire on the approaching drones at a blistering rate, and occasionally, a missile would streak away from the ship towards the planet.

  “Rescue Tech’s, be aware, forward shielding in operation.” Another announcement from the bridge.

  Shielding presented a complex and complicated problem for Standish and any other Rescue Tech in the fleet. If a ship had their shields up, passing through them unpowered was not an issue, but if a Tech passed through shielding while using a thruster pack, the pack could, but not always, get fried.

  The benefit of shielding outweighed any cons, and unless an adversary got into a position to fire upon the Laakari from an area behind the ship, any enemy energy-based weapons fire at the ship would be stopped by the forward-facing shielding. Ballistic rounds, however, would pass straight through the shields, and damage anything they hit, which is why all ships were armoured. Missiles, like the thruster packs, would lose propulsion and possibly guidance, after passing through shielding, making them almost useless against ships with their shields up.

  Checking the nose of the ship, Standish could see the occasional energy blast dissipate over the shielding. She couldn’t tell if the shots were coming from drones or the planet, but from where she was standing, it looked like the assault force had things in hand. The tiny insect-like drones from the planet might have been swarming in vast numbers, but the larger, more capable ships that had arrived in orbit, were shredding them with great success.

  “Enemy forces are jumping into the system on the far side of Qera, we are moving with the Alpha Star Guards to intercept.” Another announcement from the bridge.

  The channel cut out as the ship fired up its primary inter-planetary engines, putting a blue light to the rear of the vessel, and started to manoeuvre in tandem with the large formation that it was at the centre of. Standish could see that they were going to slip below Qera, and as the ships started to move, the view of the planet was almost entirely obscured by the vast number of vessels that were providing top-cover.

  As the Laakari continued to slip underneath Qera, towards its southern pole, the fire from the surface appeared to diminish to Standish, and the massive wave of drones that had been flung at the vast invasion fleet seemed to have been completely annihilated, giving Standish a sense of confidence that the day was to be theirs.

  When they came into view of the far side of the planet, Standish saw a scene of utter devastation. The far side of the planet had been assigned to the First Reach Guard and their nearly one-hundred ships, and all that Standish could see to her front were decimated hulls and pieces of what just moments ago had been a combat-ready and very capable formation.

  When she was finally able to get imagery data from the Laakari’s bridge, what she saw waiting for them was terrifying. An enormous formation of ships, roughly two-hundred thousand kilometres from the planet, bracketed by two enormous ships, the likes which she’d never seen before.

  “Jae, what are those?” She asked, her eyes wide inside her helmet. Her AI failed to identify the vessels.

  “Fleet command ships.”

  “Fuck.” Standish said in a low voice.

  “My thoughts exactly.” There was a pause for a second, then Jae issued her final instructions to her small team. “Do your best, and whatever happens, stay alive.”

  Those were the last words Standish heard before the ships ahead of the Laakari opened fire towards the enemy formation. Friendly ships were coming from all directions, streaming towards the Pohjois warships that were frozen in space, almost in perfect stacks and formations facing towards the planet, just waiting for the battle to unfold.

  As the Laakari finally passed the southern edge of the planet floating in space above it, Standish noticed that the ship was pulling alongside a massive dreadnaught which was floating dead in space, heavily damaged, allowing the rest of the formation to carry-on.

  “Tech’s, that’s the flagship of the First Reach Guards, the Prince of Ruylor. I want two of you to board and check for survivors.” The Ship Master ordered over the comms net.

  “Avi, stay here.” Jae was on the net fast. “Standish and I will board the ship and check it out. Be ready to receive any wounded we send out.” There was a brief pause. “Standish, get your drones to follow us up to the ship. Keep them outside but set for retrieval.”

  Standish did as she was told, checking that all the drones that were under her control were currently set to track and follow mode.

  “Take the rear of the ship. Make sure you upload the internal layout from the Laakari before you get out of data-range. Let’s go.” Jae instructed.

  Standish could see that Jae was already powering upwards to the giant ship that was floating in space. There were some lights still visible along the hull, but there was an enormous breach in the side of the ship that ran the entire length of the six-hundred-metre-long vessel.

  Releasing her mag-lock on her boots, Standish slowly powered off from the Laakari, and uploaded the internal layout of the Prince of Ruylor to her heads-up-display and searched for the closest point of entry that wasn’t damaged. Covering the five hundred metre distance to the stricken ship gave her time to check that all her drones were following her as planned. The drones were nothing more than sledges, capable of dragging wounded back to the hospital ship, but the fifteen that were following Standish could help save a lot of lives.

  As she got within fifty meters of the Prince of Ruylor, she decided to access the vessel through an airlock in the engineering department, which was located on all ten levels of the rear portion of the ship. From the schematics she had, the airlock led directly into the engineering crew quarters, and from there she had easy access to the rest of that section of the ship.

  Standish hoped that the personnel locators that all crew members were equipped with were still functional. If the system was still online, and there were crew members alive, and onboard, she’d be able to find them once she tapped into the ship's network.

  Reaching the airlock, Standish used the fleet Rescue Technician access codes to gain entry to the ship. Once the outer hatch was open, she turned around and checked that her drones were lined up in an orderly fashion, ready to enter the vessel on her command. Satisfied, Standish looked into the darkened airlock, then pulled herself inside.

  Inside, she located a datapad on the bulkhead and used the Rescue Tech log-ins to gain access to the operating systems that were still online. When a ships artificial intelligence, or crew, triggered any number of emergency or distress systems, the ship automatically went into a mode that would accept Rescue Tech access to life support, internal lighting, and the opening and closing of hatches. It was all designed to allow a Rescue Tech from another vessel the best chance to render assistance if a ship was heavily damaged or incapacitated.

  “Standish.” It was Jae. “Status?”

  “Made entry, top deck, engineering.”

  “The locators are showing about seventy survivors spread throughout the ship.”

  Once Standish had gained access to the ship's systems which were still barely functioning under backup power, she confirmed the count of seventy survivors and their exact locations throughout the vessel.

  “I see seventy.”

  “How many Emergency Extra-Vessel Transport bags do you have?” Jae asked.

  “Twenty.”

  “Same. We’ll contact the Laakari to send more when they’re needed. Let’s get on it.”

  The channel went dead.

  Looking back at the datapad, Standish
checked that she had the most up to date mapping information on her HUD and verified that the seventy remaining crew members had populated the map. She knew a ship this size would have had a crew of at least several hundred, which meant most of the crew was already dead. Some would have been vented into space, some would have made it to escape pods, and some would still be alive somewhere on the ship. Since they hadn’t heard from the ship’s Rescue Tech team, she assumed that they were among the dead.

  Looking up, Standish closed the outer airlock hatch and pressurised the chamber. Once the room was pressurised, a little green light came on, and she opened the hatch into the ship, slowly, and found that the other side still had an atmosphere, but the ship’s artificial gravity had apparently failed. Debris of various shapes and sizes was floating through the air.

  Lights flickered intermittently in the distance, giving a very eerie feeling to the living quarters she found herself in. The compartment was large, with over fifty bunks stacked four high. Personal belongings were floating about, datapads, articles of clothing all out of place, hovering in the air, and drifting in silence. While there were no crew members bodies in the chamber, it had a sense of panic and trepidation about it.

  Checking her ship-board mapping system, she knew that the next compartment had a wounded crew member in it. Giving her thruster pack a tiny squeeze of power, she moved across the room in a headlong dive towards the hatch at the far end of the billets. Reaching the hatch, she confirmed that the far side was pressurised, then opened the hatch into the space that served as a locker room for the living quarters.

  Using the rudementary torches that were on her armour, Standish quickly spotted an injured crewmember who was floating silently in the otherwise deserted room. Moving forward, Standish reached the crew member and promptly ran a bio-scan on the motionless figure. Focusing on the data that her suit was giving her, she failed to check the rank or species of the wounded crewmember, and without thinking, she pulled out one of her EEVTs, opened it to its full length, then started sliding it around the injured figure, who her suit informed had a concussion plus several internal injuries. Only when she got to the head of the figure did she realise that the crewmember was a female from Nadolo Prime, just like her, although with a slightly different blue tint to her skin, indicating she was from a different continent.

  Refocusing her attention to her duties, Standish finished sealing the bag, which automatically activated the internal life support systems which were suitable for fifteen minutes. Once the bag was online, she summoned her first drone and waited patiently for it to track her course and reach her in the locker room. Once the drone had a secure grip on the bag, it automatically started its return course to the Laakari.

  Checking her mission clock, she realised that the first drone required almost two minutes to reach her, and while this shouldn’t have an impact on the fifteen-minute timer on the EEVT, Standish knew that the only way to cut down the time from putting a patient in a bag until it reached the Laakari’s medical bay’s before it stopped functioning was to call the second drone into the ship at immediately, which she did.

  Once she got confirmation that the second drone was en-route, she went to the hatch of the locker, repeated her safety checks, then opened the door onto a long hallway that ran almost a quarter of the way towards the bow of the ship. Using her optics, Standish could see three bodies floating in the zero-gravity environment, but none of them were showing signs of life. Turning to her left, she found herself looking at a hatch that read Main Engineering, Deck 10.

  Checking the pressure on the other side of the door, her readings detected that the chamber was open to the vacuum of space, and if she attempted to either open or breach the hatch, it could result in those parts of the ship that still had gravity and breathable air being compromised. Turning around, Standish came face to face with her second drone, a small, elementary device small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. It was battery-powered and had six thrusters and had just enough programming to act as a retriever for the medical frigate.

  Shoving the device to the side, Standish checked her map and found that there were three wounded crew members in the first chamber down the hall on her left, the top-deck dining facility. Moving towards the closest hatch, Standish hit the access button and watched the door slide open to reveal a large room bathed in red emergency light and filled with floating debris.

  Activating her mag-lock boots, Standish walked into the room and tried to make sense of the mess. There were significant quantities of liquid and solid foods floating around the room, which was almost twenty metres long. Eating utensils and plates and trays were also floating about, which stuck Standish as odd since the ship should have been rigged for battle when it jumped into the system.

  Pushing the thoughts of why the room was in such disorder out of her mind, Standish checked her scanner for the three wounded crewmembers and detected one under a table at the far end of the room. Releasing her mag-lock, she floated a few centimetres off the deck, then applied a gentle spray of power from the thruster pack, and glided across the room, and in the process, got her armour covered in various forms of consumables.

  While she crossed the room, Standish checked for the other two life-signs and confirmed that they were in a small adjacent room, which her map listed as the galleys kitchen. Focusing back to her front, her heads-up-display gave her an outline of the figure that was cowering under the last table in the corner of the room.

  Reaching the far wall, Standish reactivated her mag-lock and knelt down so she could see under the table, and quickly spotted a male in a cooks assistant uniform with severe burns to his face, clinging to the leg of the table.

  “Can you hear me?” Standish asked, using her helmets external speaker to communicate.

  The figure under the table nodded.

  “Can you see?” She asked.

  This time there was a shake of the head.

  “Put your left arm out.” Standish instructed, and the figure did as he was told after a brief hesitation.

  Reaching out, Standish grabbed the wounded crewmembers arm and gently pulled him out from under the table, which was very easy in the zero-gravity environment. Once the body was floating in the air next to Standish, she rolled the figure over until she could see his face, which was horribly burned, probably by some mishap in the kitchen, she assumed.

  Flipping down her chest-mounted med-kit, she pulled out an anti-burn and anti-infection ointment and rubbed it over the burns. “This should help with the pain and with recovery.” She said in her most caring voice. “I’m going to put you into an EEVT and have you transported to my ship, the Laakari.” She pulled out her second bag and unfolded it. “Put your legs out straight and put your arms down by your side.” She instructed and was able to quickly get the bag around the wounded man. Bringing the zipper almost all the way to the top, she attached the bag to the drone, then wished the wounded figure a safe journey. Zipping up the rest of the bag, she sent the drone on its way, and at the same time called two more drones into the ship.

  Looking around the room, she spotted the door that must have led to the kitchen compartment and walked over to it. Checking her mapping kit, she confirmed that there were still two life-signs on the other side of the hatch, and once she was confident that the room was pressurised, she hit the access button on the pad next to the door, but nothing happened. Tapping the pad again, she waited, and yet nothing happened. Taking a step towards the door, Standish banged on it twice with her fist, then increased the sensitivity in her helmets acoustic systems, and waited for a response.

  She didn’t have to wait long. Less than five seconds after her pounding, a metallic tap came in response. Activating her helmet's speakers, she cranked the volume up.

  “One tap if you can hear me.” She shouted at the door.

  A single tap.

  “Alright. One tap for yes. Two for no.” She paused. “Understood?”

  A single tap.

  “Can
you open the door?” She asked.

  Double-tap.

  “I want to blow the door. Is there somewhere for you and the other crewmember to shelter from the explosion?”

  There was a longer wait for a reply, but Standish was already planning on using one of her two breaching charges on the door. Reaching to the small of her back with her right hand, Standish found her charge and pulled it from its slot in her armour. The spider-charge explosive was designed to be thrown at a door, or wall, and depending on the size of the object, it would extend outwards finger-like spokes that each contained explosives.

  After a considerable delay, a single knock was forthcoming.

  “Good. Take your position. On a count of ten, I will blow the door.” Standish looked down at the disk-shaped object in her hand, then looked around the room for her best piece of cover, which was limited, so she took several paces backwards into an aisle of tables directly across from the door and checked that she was clear to dash to her left when she armed and released the device. Confident that there were no obstructions, Standish mashed the spongy black knob on the top of the bomb, then with extreme precision, tossed the weapon, underhand, towards the door, and started sprinting to her left.

  The second that Standish had armed the weapon, it went ‘smart’. It scanned the room it was in and got its bearings. When Standish had thrown it towards the door, the device quickly detected its target and expanded its tentacles outwards in a manner to perfectly fit the door upon impact. When the device hit the door, it stuck to it for a fraction of a second before detonating. To the naked eye, it would have appeared to have exploded on contact, and when the explosives went off, the device vaporised eighty percent of the door, leaving only the parts touching the frame intact.

  The flash from the explosion briefly lit up the dining room, and when Standish turned around to inspect the work, only a faint cloud of smoke was drifting away in the zero-gravity environment. Walking back towards the door, Standish checked that the two drones she had requested had arrived, and when she reached the doorway, she stuck her head through and took a quick scan of the room.