by Saxon Andrew
Kenny shook his head, “RV, you know an Agent’s Armor cannot be worn by anyone but the one imprinted on it.”
RV saw the Colonel’s Rank burned in the Armor and looked Kenny in the eyes, “Why are you a Weapons Officer? Who are you?”
“We’ll talk about this later. Let’s get back to the ship.”
* * *
Arvolo sat in his command chair and looked at Kenny. He remained silent and Kenny knew it was time to tell the truth. “I was offered an Admiral’s Position in Fleet development but I turned it down and requested a Weapon’s Officer’s position.”
“Why, for God’s sake, would you ever do that?”
“I’m not the desk type. The ones that are going to make the difference in humanity’s survival are those on the front lines facing off against those ships coming to kill us. I know my place is with them in the fight.”
“Why didn’t you just take command of a ship?”
“That is not where my talents lie. I’m a pretty good pilot but I’m not up to your ability. I’m considered one of the best at the use of weapons.”
“One of the best?”
“I’m ranked number one.”
“How did you manage to get them to allow you to take this position?”
“The Military Regulations allows any officer to take a rank three levels below their current one and Command must comply with their request. Admiral Garcia was not happy about my decision but he couldn’t prevent me from doing it.”
“Admiral Garcia?”
“I pulled him to safety in Tehran. He thinks highly of my ability.”
Arvolo stared at Kenny and said, “And the weapons console?”
“I have a Doctorate from MIT in advanced electronics. My specialty is in the switching of electrical currents. I rewired my console with a harness I’ve been working on for a year. I believe it will make a difference in our fighting capabilities, but I won’t know until we’re able to test it in combat.”
“That makes me nervous.”
Kenny smiled, “I am ranked number one.”
“I guess my original statement about kicking your butt was a bit premature.”
“I’m also ranked rather high in the Alpha’s self-defense standings.”
“I wondered where those other Marines went.”
“So do they.”
“So what’s our role on this ship?”
“You are the Commander and outrank me. I understand that and so should you. You can’t worry about me second guessing you or you’ll lose your edge in combat.”
“I thought Alphas had their rank for life?”
“They do but he made the mistake of promoting me to Admiral. I took the reduction from that rank. Jeff actually laughed at being tricked.”
“Rule number three; no more name dropping; Knowing the Fleet Admiral doesn’t get you anywhere with me.”
Kenny started laughing and nodded, “Sir, let’s go out and make history.”
“Are you sure you don’t have any Cuban in you?”
“I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
“Anyone who has ever done anything important came from Cuba.”
“What about Christopher Columbus. He was Italian.”
“Yes but he landed on Cuba and was infected.”
“Thomas Jefferson?”
“Infected by a Cuban slave.”
“Abraham Lincoln?”
“Visited the island before he was President.”
“No he didn’t?”
“Prove it.”
“I can see where this is going.”
“You’ve been infected as well. We’ll just have to see how it happened.”
Kenny smiled but was not about to tell Arvolo that he had honey mooned on the island.
Chapter Three
Dolly looked around the table and missed George. She really needed his brilliance to help her make good decisions. She shook her head slightly and also knew that if the new ships were going to be built, he and Meisa were needed more on Dundee. Jeff said, “You miss George.”
She looked at him and wondered how he could see her mind so clearly. Jeff smiled, “It’s an acquired skill.” She laughed and turned back to the table. Chris and Jillian had just returned and shared their findings with the group.
Arnold Gordon said, “It appears George was right about the Predator/Prey relationship being the norm in this universe.”
“Yes it is. Planets have been destroyed multiple times by multiple conquerors. I think that the relationship has been reinforced over millions of years and cannot be easily changed.”
“Chris, I think you’re wrong in that assessment.”
“Why do you say that, Hemon?”
“You can force a change at gun point. You can threaten anyone who would even think about attacking another if you could kill the attacker.”
“That’s not much of a change.”
“No, but given enough time it would take hold.”
Chris shrugged and looked at Dolly, “What’s the plan?”
“We’re going to send a ship out to take on one of their scouts and see what happens.”
“Have you selected the ship?”
“It’s not yours if that’s what you’re leading up to.”
“Then who?”
“We’ve chosen the Havana. It won the recent Fleet Exercises and should be our first choice.”
Chris looked at his computer and said, “What is this about a ‘Crazy Cuban’?”
Jeff smiled, “I put that note in the system. It seems the Captain is Cuban and thinks that anyone who has ever done anything important in our history had to be connected to Cuba in some way.”
Dolly laughed out loud, “He sounds like my kind of people.”
“He’s been in the brig more times than I can count for fighting. It seems he likes to take on six or more Marines at a time.”
“Now I know he’s my kind of people.”
“His Weapons Officer is a personal friend and is a Colonel in the Alphas.”
“How did that happen, Jeff?”
“He tricked me. I promoted him to Admiral and he formally requested the reduction in rank to that position. Regulations forced me to honor his request, Arnold. He is also a wizard at weapon development which is where I wanted him.”
Hemon smiled, “Perhaps combat is where he will learn those things that will help us most. Like I once told the Pharaohs, making a spear is not the same thing as throwing one.”
“It would be a huge loss if he was killed.”
Everyone was silent and Dolly said, “Send the orders.”
Jeff nodded, “Yes, Sir.”
* * *
The Havana was on guard duty at the orbit of Neptune holding position at the edge of the solar system in normal space. Kenny looked up from his panel, “We’ve just been ordered to go into Sierra Space and see if we can find a ship with a specific frequency.”
Arvolo looked over his glasses and raised his eyebrows, “Exactly what type of ship gives off that particular frequency?”
“According to the file attached with the download, it’s a Blue Giant Scout Ship.” Kenny continued to read his panel and said, “It’s about three times our size and heavily armed. I’ve sent a picture to your console.”
Arvolo stared at the image and tilted his head, “That doesn’t sound good. Does the message tell us what to do if we happen to find one of those ships?”
Kenny continued reading and then looked up slowly, “They want us to pick a fight.”
Arvolo leaned back in his chair and put his hands on his large stomach, “They do.”
“Yes.”
“It’s surprising they’re selected us. They know I’m the peaceful sort?”
Kenny was taking a drink from his glass of water and sprayed it out of his nose and mouth.
“Hey, I am.”
Kenny shook his head and snorted, “You’re about as peaceful as a tiger that just had his backside sandpapered. You are constantly looking
for a fight. I’ve had to stop you more times than I care to remember.”
Arvolo shrugged, “Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Our selection makes sense, sort of.”
Kenny snorted again, “Dropping into Sierra Space.”
Arvolo thought about Kenny’s assessment and decided he was only partly right. He didn’t look for a fight on Mondays or Fridays. That’s the days he set aside to recover from the fights he had over the weekend and to rest before the next ones.
“I’ve found four of those frequencies and one of them is pretty close.”
Arvolo sat up straight, “How close?”
“Less than four seconds in Sierra Space from our current position. It just entered normal space.”
“That could be outside the galaxy, how close?”
Kenny looked back at his display, “Fifty light years from Earth.”
“We need to pick one further away to draw them away from this area.
“There’s one five hundred light years away.”
Arvolo tilted his head down and looked through his eyebrows.
Kenny started shaking his head and said, “Switching my board to weapons. You have the ship. Force field and weapons are on line. How do you want to handle this?”
“Let’s be subtle; we’ll enter normal space and hit them with a fusion missile.”
“That’s pretty subtle for you. Are you sure we don’t need to kiss them first?”
“I’ll wait while you do the honors. But I want that missile fired before you get their communications number for a future rendezvous.”
“Why only one missile?”
“I’m sure Fleet wants to know what it’s going to take to handle those ships. We need to give them as much information as possible. If the missile doesn’t work, we’ll hit them with a beam. If that doesn’t work, we’ll use both. Make sure a record of this is being sent to Fleet.”
Kenny nodded and activated the channel, “Just what do you think that ship is going to be doing while we’re playing around with a mix of weapons?”
“Why, finishing their kiss with you. We’re jumping in three seconds. Pucker up.”
The Havana jumped into normal space next to the large ship and fired a fusion missile. It hit the three thousand foot long vessel and exploded before reaching the ship. Arvolo applied thrusters and dodged left as ten beams ripped through the space the Havana had just vacated.
Kenny looked at his display and said, “Three of those beams would have killed us at our current field strength.”
Arvolo jerked the Havana hard right and dodged six missiles homing in on them. “I guess you aren’t that great a kisser, Kenny. I think they expected more” The missiles turned abruptly and homed in on the Havana and hit it on the port side.
The force field flashed brilliant white and stopped the missiles. Arvolo went weightless and zoomed in on the blue colored ship and Kenny fired a beam. It was also stopped on the force field as Arvolo turned ninety degrees and accelerated away as ten beams failed to hit them. “No more Mister Nice Guy. You have full weapons release.”
“Just get me in close. See if you can draw another salvo of beams.”
“Oh, now you’re two timing them. You want me to get close and personal.”
“Not my type. You can have them.”
Arvolo flipped the ship and came back at a hundred and eighty degrees faster than physics allowed. He was thankful for the weightlessness of the Havana. He watched his sensors and saw the beam cannons on the surface of the large ship showing they were drawing power. He had mentally counted the time taken on the previous shots fired at them and he turned ninety degrees an instant before the twenty beams ripped by less than a hundred feet from the Havana’s force field. The force field brightened from the close miss and then disappeared as Kenny directed all three reactors into the main beam and fired immediately after he launched a fusion missile from close range. The beam tore through the Scout’s force field and the fusion missile struck and blew the three thousand foot long ship into fragments.
“Hey, that was a nice move. You may not be a good kisser but you can handle weapons. What now?”
“Get us out of here, RV. Multiple ships are jumping in.”
Arvolo turned the ship and accelerated away from the destroyed ship at light speed. “What do you see?”
“We have eight of those ships just appear at the site of the explosion. They are now giving chase.”
“Going into Sierra Space.”
The Havana dropped into Sierra Space but was immediately hit by the screen of a Scout that was waiting for them. They popped back into normal space and saw that the eight ships had split up with four of them jumping ahead of them through Sierra Space. Kenny looked at Arvolo and said, “We can’t escape. They have more than ten ships scattered in Sierra Space to force us back into normal space as soon as we try to escape.”
“Notify Fleet what’s happening and I’ll let them chase us for a while as Fleet decides what we should do.”
Arvolo changed direction and kept the eight ships chasing them at a distance. “Have they made a decision?”
“Not yet. It looks like we’re on our own.”
“Well, weapons master. What are we going to do?”
Kenny took a deep breath and said, “I’ve not used a program that I’ve designed because I’m uncertain about it working. It looks like we should give it a go.”
“That doesn’t sound good to me. What does it do?”
“I noticed that you have been able to estimate how long the beams on those ships fire after charging. Am I right?”
“Yes, I’ve noticed the interval.”
“Well, my software has that delay scanned in and will automatically switch the reactors from force field to beams when it determines that their beams are not firing. I’ve been able to determine the location of their reactors and if we can fly and take on their beams we can fire in the delay and hit the reactors. That should disable the ship. The program will automatically switch power between our force field and beams.”
Arvolo turned hard right and moved away from the second group of Scouts, “What about fusion missiles?”
“We won’t have time to use them. If my switching works like I’ve designed it, our force field will only be down a hundredth of a second as our beam is fired and will be right back up at full strength using both reactors. If we can disable several of their ships close together one fusion missile could blow them all up.”
“Can our force field handle that many hits?”
“Using both our reactors, it will for a short time. I’ll monitor the strength and when it gets to ten percent I’ll let you know so you can retreat for it to regain power.”
“How are you going to time the beams?”
“I won’t; my software will do it. I have the sensors slaved to the program and the weapons will operate with the readings.”
Arvolo looked at his display with the location of the eight pursuing scouts, “So what’s the best way to do this?”
“Lt. Anders, have you trialed this program you’re describing?”
Arvolo and Kenny jumped at the sudden announcement. Kenny looked at Arvolo and said, “Sir, We’re sending the feed of this fight to Fleet. It appears they are listening to our conversation.” He pressed his board and said, “No, sir, I have not.”
“You’re taking a mighty big risk with a five billion dollar starship.”
“The Blue Giant Scouts will eliminate that as a concern shortly if we don’t do something. Unless you have another idea, we have nothing to lose.”
“Is there no way for you to jump away?”
“Sir, this solar system is the size of a beach ball in Sierra Space. All the Scouts have to do is have a ship above and below it and we’ll be bumped right back into normal space before we can even start to escape. We are forced to fight it out here.”
“I’m considering sending ships to support you.”
“Sir, I don’t think that would be wise.�
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“Why not?”
“I suspect that is exactly what they’re hoping we’ll do. If they can damage one of our ships and examine it they will be able to find our home world and determine our level of technology. I really believe reinforcements for them are very close by. They certainly out number us by the thousands.”
“Do you think this new software will work?”
“It’s the wiring harness that makes it work. The only way to find out is to turn it on and allow Captain Arvolo to do his magic.”
Jeff looked around the table and no one said anything. Jeff keyed his board and said, “Godspeed Sailors.”
Arvolo sighed and took the Havana vertical as eight missiles passed under them, “Let me ask you again; how do we do this?”
“The best possible solution is for you to get in among several ships and allow them to fire at us. If a break in the action happens, even for a micro second, we’ll fire back. I’ll announce the power remaining in the force field and you run when it’s down to ten percent.”
Arvolo looked at his display and said, “I hope you continue to hold your number one ranking. Fire it up. Let me know when the system is on line.”
Arvolo turned ninety degrees and ten missiles couldn’t make the turn with the Havana and sped by over them.
“The system is now in control of my board. The ship is yours.”
Arvolo smiled, “Hold on to your hat.” He hit reverse thrusters and the Havana came to a sudden stop. The four scouts chasing it came roaring up and fired their beams as they blew past. Arvolo hit rear thrusters and the Havana rushed forward into their formation. Two intense, narrow beams fired from the Havana’s hull and two of the Scouts suffered explosions and stopped dead in space. The other two ships fired again at the Havana and Arvolo heard Kenny in the back of his mind, “70 percent, 50 percent, 25 percent, 15 percent….”
When Kenny reached fifteen percent, the Havana fired at the other two ships and they suffered explosions in their reactors and stopped dead in space. Kenny launched a fusion missile at each of the pair of dead ships and they were blown into fragments which scattered from the center of the explosions. “Four in the box; four to go.”
“I’m not so sure it’s going to be just four, RV. Power is back at eighty percent.”