Scimitar's Glory: A Swordships Odyssey Novel

by Dietmar Wehr

  The next four jumps found nothing of interest, but MR18 was the system were Javelin would break off from the rest of the Fleet and begin its own journey along the gauntlet path. That mission was almost put in jeopardy when Javelin’s CO and XO both withdrew their request to volunteer for the gauntlet mission. Dejanus was not surprised by the last-minute change of heart. The two Javelin officers had only volunteered after Saratoga’s CO and XO had done it, and Dejanus suspected that even then Javelin’s officers were reluctantly volunteering because they felt pressure to do so. She had some anxious hours worrying about the possibility that no replacement officers would step forward. That would have left her with the difficult decision of whether or not to order someone to fill those empty slots.

  Koenig wondered if Dejanus might order him and Soriya to switch places with Javelin’s top two officers and proceed with the mission, but XOs from two other ships did volunteer, and Dejanus field promoted one of them to take command of Javelin. She transferred Javelin’s CO to take over Reforger, while Javelin’s XO was swapped for one of the last-minute volunteers. Koenig felt sorry for both of the ex-Javelin officers. They would be branded, unfairly in his opinion, as cowards by other officers who had not volunteered either. They would have been better off if they hadn’t volunteered to begin with, but since they had done so, everyone expected them to stick with their decision.

  As Koenig watched Javelin’s icon accelerate away on the tactical display, he was acutely aware of the fact that Excalibur was now the Fleet’s only stealthy and low OAE ship. Any mission that required one or the other of those two capabilities would fall into his lap.

  Chapter Six:

  It was ten jumps and 18 days later when the first hot potato fell into Koenig’s hands. Excalibur was scouting MR28 on its own, with the Fleet expected to catch up sometime in the next 24 hours. Koenig had the duty shift on the Bridge and had fallen asleep. He woke up to the sound of the tactical alert tone.

  “Unidentified object has been detected visually moving at high speed,” said the tactical AI. “Velocity and range indeterminate.”

  “Let’s see it on tactical,” ordered Koenig, now wide awake. The display showed the MR28 sun in the center. Excalibur’s green triangle was at the 4 o’clock position. A yellow line went from the green triangle up and slightly to the left, denoting the bearing of the contact. The object was somewhere along that line, and the further away it was from Excalibur, the faster it had to be moving. Koenig cursed the fact that without another ship to give a second bearing, there was no way to get a precise fix on the object without resorting to active scanning, and given what happened to the alien wing ship, he was reluctant to advertise Excalibur’s position.

  “Let’s see if we can get close enough to make out visual details. Astro, max acceleration along the contact bearing.” After a pause of a few seconds, Koenig decided he wanted Soriya’s input. “Give me inter-craft.”

  “You have inter-craft,” said the com AI.

  “Eriko, please come to the Bridge immediately. Attention all hands. Excalibur is in pursuit of an unknown object moving at high speed. Be ready to go to Battle Stations at a moment’s notice. That’s all for now. Inter-craft off.”

  By the time Soriya entered the Bridge, Koenig knew that this object was a vehicle of some kind. Soriya came up to stand beside the Command Pod.

  “We’ve been chasing that bearing now for almost two minutes,” said Koenig. “Our velocity is increasing rapidly, but look at how fast the angle on the bearing is changing! If we were behind it, the bearing would be constant. Whatever that is, it’s artificial, and it’s moving pretty damn fast!”

  “Astro. Is there any way to get an approximate range or velocity?” asked Soriya.

  “A series of S turns by Excalibur will allow AstroComp to attempt to compute a range of distances and velocities.”

  “Very good, Eriko,” said Koenig. “Astro, initiate a series of S turns and instruct AstroComp to calculate bogey’s position and/or velocity.”

  “In progress,” said the electronic voice.

  Koenig and Soriya watched as Excalibur made a series of turns that were alternately at right angles to each other in order to measure how quickly the object’s bearing continued to change. After the second set of turns, a large, red oval appeared on the display. It represented all the possible position and velocity combinations that would have generated the bearing data. As more and more data was accumulated, the oval simultaneously grew smaller and slowly pivoted in a counter-clockwise direction. It also appeared to be pulling away from Excalibur.

  “Object now appears to be changing its vector,” said the astro AI. The oval was pivoting faster now. Koenig realized what the object was doing.

  “It’s curving around the star,” he said out loud for Soriya’s benefit.

  “Getting lined up for a jump?” she asked.

  “That would be my guess,” he said. “Astro, assume the object is in the center of the oval, estimate its trajectory and put us on an intercept course.”

  “In progress.” The green triangle stopped curving away from the oval and began to swing back the other way.

  “I doubt if we’ll be able to catch it,” said Soriya.

  Koenig nodded. “I don’t think so either, and I’m not really trying to catch up with it. I just want to get its precise vector so that we can estimate where it’s jumping to. With that kind of velocity, I’m inclined to think it’s heading home. The AFC is going to want some idea of what direction home is in.”

  Koenig’s eyes widened as the display now showed the projected intercept trajectory. The object was curving around the sun, and in order to overcome its higher velocity, Excalibur would have to ‘cut the corner’ and get dangerously close to the sun.

  “Are we really going to get that close to the sun?” asked Soriya.

  “No, but we’ll maintain this course for a while longer. I have a hunch that the object is soon going to—”

  “Object has settled down to a steady vector,” interrupted the astro AI. The intercept trajectory now swung away from the sun as the projected point of intercept was recalculated.

  Soriya looked at Koenig with surprise. “How did you know that was going to happen?”

  He gave a quick laugh. “I figured if they were going to curve around the sun much more, then why didn’t they take a short cut? Why curve the long way around? It just seemed like an obvious thing.” Koenig noticed that Soriya looked impressed.

  When the object disappeared less than five minutes later, Koenig shook his head in disbelief. Could an alien ship really have lined up and jumped that quickly?

  “Astro, do we know for sure that the bogey jumped away rather than redirecting the reflected sunlight away from us?”

  “Loss of reflected light due to a ship changing its orientation would typically result in a rapid drop in light intensity. No such drop was detected. Reflected light intensity remained constant until a sudden cessation of all reflected light. This result fits the profile of a ship entering hyperspace.”

  “Can AstroComp calculate the probable jump target system?” asked Koenig. The answer came back after a short delay.

  “There are multiple possible destination systems that the bogey may have tried to reach. The two nearest systems are 13.08 and 21.55 light years away respectively. AstroComp is unable to calculate probabilities between the two nearest systems.”

  Koenig and Soriya looked at each other. Jumping over those distances was not impossible. The Fleet had done it, and Excalibur had done it herself, but not after only five minutes of lining up. If an alien ship had that kind of astrogational capability, then that suggested the possibility that they were ahead on weapons technology too.

  “What do we do now, Wolfe? Head back to MR27 or wait for the Fleet to come here?” asked Soriya.

  Koenig didn’t answer right away. He turned to look at the tactical display which was still showing the bogey’s estimated trajectory from the point when it was first observed. W
hen he spoke, his voice was low.

  “That ship was really moving like it was in a hurry, and I can’t help wondering why. Was it running from something? Had it detected something important enough to get back as fast as possible, and if so, what did it detect? Another alien race perhaps?” Soriya waited while he paused. “Astro, can AstroComp determine which system the bogey jumped from before arriving in this system?” Koenig was expecting the answer to be no but figured it was worth a try.

  “There is a system 5.7 light years away that has a high probability of being the source of the bogey.”

  “What would be the turnaround time for a jump there and back?” asked Koenig quickly. Soriya looked shocked.

  “Fifty-six point two hours, plus whatever time between jumps.”

  “You’re not thinking of jumping the ship there, are you?” asked Soriya.

  “Actually, I am,” said Koenig. “Astro, project our trajectory if we curve around the sun at 1% of jump velocity and line up for a jump.” The display showed a solid green line curve around the star with a shallow upward slope. “How long until we’re lined up and able to accelerate to jump velocity?”

  “Nine point nine hours.”

  “And the probability that at least one ship from the Fleet would arrive in that time?” asked Koenig.

  “Sixty-one point eight percent.”

  “Good. Put the ship on the projected path and velocity and turn on our running lights,” ordered Koenig. Turning to the XO, he said, “At that velocity, it should be easy for one of our ships to contact us by comlaser before we jump. As soon as they do that, I’ll notify them of my intention to make a quick survey of that other system and why. We’ll jump before the AFC has a chance to order us not to,” he said with a mischievous grin.

  Soriya did not grin back. “You’re pushing your luck again, Wolfe,” she said in a serious tone.

  “I know, but I’ve got a hunch that something important just happened and that we have to act fast if we want to figure out what.”

  As it turned out, Koenig could not have timed it better. With Excalibur lined up for the next jump and gradually increasing up to jump velocity, she was hit by a low-powered comlaser from Corregidor asking Koenig why the ship was moving in that direction. Koenig ordered the astro AI to boost acceleration to maximum and recorded a brief verbal message to Dejanus explaining what had happened and his intentions. By the time the message reached her and a reply came back, Excalibur had jumped.

  Koenig was nervous when the ship dropped out of hyperspace into the system that the astro AI had designated as MR28S. The star was a typical yellow sun, slightly larger than Earth’s sun. None of the seven planets looked out of the ordinary. There was no life-bearing planet. During the jump, Koenig had begun to second guess himself over the possibility that the bogey may have encountered something in another system further away, in which case Excalibur would find nothing in MR28S and have no clue where else to look.

  He instructed the astro AI to put the ship in a clockwise orbit around the sun at a velocity that would bring them back to this side in roughly 12 hours. Eighty-nine minutes later, the opticals picked up metallic reflections, and lots of them. From this distance, even at maximum zoom, it was impossible to make out anything definitive except that fact that the reflections were intermittent, which TacComp interpreted as a cluster of objects slowly tumbling. Koenig turned to look at Soriya, who once again was on the Bridge as an observer, and saw that her grim expression reflected his own fears. A cluster of tumbling objects could very well be a debris field after a battle.

  “Take us in slowly and begin active scanning, Astro,” said Koenig in a quiet voice. The returning radar beams confirmed that there was a cluster of metallic objects of various sizes, and sensors also revealed that some of the objects were far warmer than would normally be expected if they had been in space a long time.

  “What do you want to bet that there was a battle here not that long ago and that the bogey we chased was involved in it?” asked Koenig.

  “Or maybe it discovered this debris field just like we’re doing now,” replied Soriya.

  “Maybe,” said Koenig, but he was skeptical of that possibility. His gut was telling him that the bogey had encountered another ship and destroyed it.

  “Radar is picking up another contact further away,” said the tactical AI. The display immediately showed a yellow icon on the other side of the debris field. It was moving at a constant and relatively slow velocity and constant trajectory. The icon began flashing. “Radar contact is becoming intermittent,” said the AI.

  Koenig now found this contact to be strangely familiar, and the hair on the back of his neck started to stand up. “Give the debris field a wide berth, and let’s check out the new contact,” he ordered. As Excalibur got closer, the strange feeling got stronger.

  “It’s not possible,” he whispered.

  “What’s not possible?” asked Soriya.

  The displayed pinged to announce a status change. The flashing yellow icon changed to green denoting a TOSF ship.

  “Radar mapping of new contact ship contours has confirmed that the design matches that of a Javelin-class light cruiser,” announced the tactical AI.

  “My God! It’s Javelin, here! How is that possible?” asked Koenig. Soriya was too shocked to respond.

  “Astro, match velocities with the Javelin-class vessel and approach to shuttle range,” said Koenig quickly. If that really was Javelin, and he had a sinking feeling that it was, then she looked to have been involved in a battle, and if there was anyone still alive on board, they would need help fast. The AI acknowledged the order. Pulling up beside Javelin would take a bit of time since both vessels were moving toward each other. Excalibur had to swing around to the side, come up to Javelin from behind and then match velocities. Koenig turned his attention to Soriya.

  “We need to get our shuttle ready with the med team and supplies and get it over there asap. I want you to take charge of that operation,” he said.

  She nodded, her eyes wide. “Yes, of course. I’ll get right on that.”

  By the time Excalibur had pulled up beside the other ship at a distance of half a kilometer, Koenig was certain that it was Javelin and that she’d been in a fight. At that range, the opticals could see holes in the hull where something had blasted right through. The infrared image was even more revealing. The battle had taken place recently enough that some of the edges around the blast holes were still hot. Javelin was slowly tumbling, which would make docking with it tricky, but the shuttle’s auto-pilot was programmed to handle that maneuver as long as the tumbling wasn’t too fast. Javelin’s hangar deck door was closed. Koenig wondered if Javelin’s computer systems were operational enough to accept a command from Excalibur to open the hatch. He told the com AI to make the attempt. There was no response from Javelin. Either the message wasn’t received or there was no power left to operate the hatch mechanism.

  The shuttle, with the XO in charge, was on its way over. Koenig listened to the audio transmission from the shuttle as Soriya described their progress.

  “Okay, the auto-pilot is beginning the docking maneuver.” Koenig could tell from her voice that the XO was nervous. “Six meters…four meters…two meters…one meter…we’ve made contact! Auto-pilot reports a secure dock. We’re opening up our side! Stand by, Excalibur...” Koenig heard the hiss of background static as he thought about what Soriya was now doing. If Javelin was without power, she and her team would have to rig up a temporary power transfer in order to get Javelin’s docking hatch open.

  “We’ve connected a power line. Shit! The docking panel shows the interior is a complete vacuum! We’ll have to don suits and depressurize the shuttle! This is going to take a few minutes, Excalibur. I’ll have to turn off my mic while I suit up. Stand by.”

  The connection went completely silent, with not even a static hiss. Koenig was now resigned to the probability that there were no survivors. If part of the ship was decompressed and wit
hout power, anybody who survived the combat would have needed to don a spacesuit, and those had limited supplies of oxygen. After what seemed like a long time, the connection came back to life.

  “Okay, we’re suited up and the shuttle is depressurizing.” There was a pause of almost a minute. “Depressurization is complete. We’re opening Javelin’s hatch now. No signs of power or light. I’m leading the team in. My com signal will probably start to…up. No sign…vivors yet. Heading to…….”

  Koenig nodded. Javelin’s hull was designed to stop all forms of electro-magnetic emissions and that meant the XO’s signal was being stopped completely now. He had expected it, but losing her voice was still unnerving.