Archaea 2: Janis

by Dain White

  “So I guess that means I better get aft to engineering and start overhauling plasma pumps?”

  “Hah, funny girl. Maybe. We'll see. Right now I want you to go get clean so you aren't stinking up the place. After that, I think it might be best if you mosey on up to the turret compartment and show Gene what a real weapons specialist does for a living. We need those railers operational pronto.”

  “Did Yak make contact?”

  “Well, we're not sure. He did contact someone. You could say he's still in contact with them, I guess. We're on our way right now to go find out, and about 20 clicks away.”

  “Away... from what?”

  “Jane, go get in the shower, drink some water, brush that luscious, soft hair, and make it snappy. We can gossip later. Don't make me raise my eyebrow, it's been getting a good workout lately.”

  “Aye skipper... thank you sir.” I felt tears welling up, and palmed them away furiously, grinding grit into my tired eyes. As soon as we dropped into null-g, I rolled back the crash bars and kicked off for the ring ladder. Every bone in my tired body felt like it was wrapped in agony, my muscles felt like old rubber bands that have gone crusty and weak with age.

  As I kicked down the gun deck, I could hear grinding and cursing coming from above my station, it took every bit of willpower I had to not go up there, I couldn't imagine what a mess Gene was making of things up there. A hot shower first, a cold glass of water second, and then... back to work.

  *****

  I intended to give Shorty five solid minutes of null-g shower, but unfortunately, our target chose that moment to start shooting up the place.

  I was just gearing up to pester Gene a bit more when the collision alarm started blaring, and Janis slammed the hardshell armor shut over the forward port. Before I could ask what happened, my question was answered by the impact of incoming kinetics, slamming into the Archaea, violently shaking the teeth out of my head.

  “Captain, they're shooting at us!” Pauli shrieked.

  “Yep, they do that sometimes son. It's okay, nothing to worry about. Stay cool Pauli, those pop guns won't hardly knock the paint off the Archaea – she's a tough old bird.”

  As I said that, I wondered. Close-range kinetics, little balls of plasma moving upwards of 9000 meters per second.. that's nothing to sneeze at. The Archaea was just getting pounded, and hard, but so far my screens showed green across the board, and nothing to worry about. When we were refitting the Archaea, Gene talked me into using Duron for hull shielding, a regenerative armor that is well suited for planetfall or meteroid strike.

  He had been experimenting with over-charged Duron for tokamak windings when we were in the service, and discovered that when it was energized far beyond spec, it hardened to a point where it was all but indestructible.

  As the Archaea happened to have a mil-spec tokamak, we had more than enough power to achieve the same absolute state for our hull plating. We were putting his little theory to the test now, of course, but so far it looked like we were doing just fine.

  “All hands, please be advised we are currently taking incoming kinetic fire at close range. I am going to put us under acceleration again and move up until I can see the terrified whites of their eyes. If you are not holding on, I would encourage you to do so at this point. Also, Gene... you're fired, time to let a real woman take over.”

  “Sorry Captain, I'm really not having much luck here, I just can't get the geometry right for the loading rail.”

  “No need to apologize Gene, I'm just poking fun. Stop making that face at me, and clean up that compartment as best as you can before the short one gets there, you know how she gets. Meanwhile, I'll be up here, getting shot at. No big deal.”

  A massive blast snapped my head back against the headrest hard enough to leave me seeing stars, and not the pretty kind.

  “Sir, what was that?” Pauli said in a voice painted purple with red stripes of terror.

  “Probably a torp, and a big one... breathe, Pauli... breathe... we're doing just fine, son. What is the current range-to-target?”

  “Range is 8km and climbing sir, they've just lit the fires and are burning pretty hard.”

  “Very well. all hands, I need you all in crash couches immediately, if you are not already. Please let me know when you're in position. Gene, I need maximum power... everything we have, I want it all.”

  I sat and stared at my screens, considering our options, feeling the fine texture of the armrest, and allowed myself a brief, heroic moment of anguish for my poor neglected coffee cup, cold, dusty and dry.

  I noted a talkback from Weapons Control, though it was mostly orange and red. Hopefully Shorty had enough time for a shower, I sure wouldn't want to in a small box full of swirling water while someone pounds on it with a kinetic hammer, but I guess it's better than where we found her. Of course, it's really not that small of a box for her.

  The buzzing hum of the tokamak grew and grew, until it felt like it was vibrating through my soul. It was hard to breathe against it as the deep subsonics choked off my throat. Engineering talkbacks flashed green, we were lit, and burning hot.

  “All hands, stand by for acceleration with high gravities. Janis, please compensate with pseudomass, this is going to be a fast, hot burn. Pauli, let me know when we're within two clicks.”

  I punched it, flank speed: one-hundred-percent.

  The Archaea blazed ahead, falling forward into a deep hole projected by pseudomass, hurtling towards the fleeing ship like a sprinting cat chasing a snail. My eyes started to roll up inside my head and I fought to keep the gray at bay, holding my breath as tightly as I could.

  “Captain... two...”

  I dropped the burn and felt my face grow hot as blood rushed back into my head.

  “Janis, reverse pseudomass to brake, match their vector if you please, smartly now.”

  “Decelerating to match vector, aye.”

  After a brief moment of null-g, I fell backwards into the cushions as Janis focused pseudomass astern of the Archaea, dropping speed in a precision-perfect low-g curve that left us within a kilometer of the target ship. I would love to see the look on their pilot's face right about now.

  They weren't done shooting at us though. We were getting hammered by a nearly solid stream of high-impact kinetics, just pounding into us. It must be terrifying for them to be pouring fire into us and not seeing any effect. To flee at flank speed away from us, and have us reel them in like they weren't even moving, and then now, to have us on station close enough to see us glow from their turret fire, and know nothing they can do will make us go away.

  That's exactly what I wanted, of course. I want every bit of psychological edge I could get, I wanted them to feel terror, uncontrolled fear. Time to give them that brown moment, that moment when the floor seems to drop away from them, where they want to crawl deep inside themselves and give up.

  “Shorty, I need you geared up at the topside lock immediately. Are you up for this?”

  “You're damn right I am, sir. I will be ready in 60 seconds.”

  “Outstanding. Janis, please cut their drive and weapons systems, open their outer lock, and flash ambers on the inner lock. I would also like to have direct access to their 1MC.”

  “Done sir.”

  “Thank you dear.” I took a deep breath.

  “Attention. This is Captain Dak Smith of the Archaea. You have my crew member on board, stand by to be boarded.”

  The comms lit up with an incoming hail, and I thumbed the channel open. “Archaea, this is Americo Ventures AV3425. Your crew member was found to be in collusion with persons known to be complicit in insurrection against the lawful indenture of Americo Ventures. Your crew member is unharmed, but we will hold him hostage for safe passage to our capital ship currently holding position in orbit around Vega 4. Permission denied.”

  Of all the nerve... who did this grommet think he was talking to?

  I am the captain, I don't ask permission.

  ”AV342
5, I wasn't demanding, I wasn't asking, I was telling you what I am going to do. Archaea out.”

  I took my finger off the comms channel. “Janis, please open the inner lock now until pressure reaches 30% then cycle it closed.” I could hear Pauli gasp in shock as I rolled to line their open lock up with our upper lock, and slammed it home as if I was parking by feel.

  “Shorty, would you make entry and collect Yak from that vessel? He will be unconscious. If you happen to knock anyone's teeth out in the process, I wouldn't mind.”

  “You can count on me sir.” she said with a voice that froze my blood.

  *****

  As the inner lock opened in a rush of air, I was hyped to the max with the trigger at half pull, ready to rock in the worst way. These bastards had Yak? Hell, they were already dead as far as I was concerned, nothing they could do would convince me otherwise.

  It smelled like feet in this dank tub, feet and sweat. The lock opened into a crew compartment with crash couches to port and starboard, occupied by geared out mercs, knocked out and twitching.

  Nearest the lock on the starboard side I found Yak, a mountain of mass I wasn't going to move. I tore the black hood off his head, strapped on a breather, and cranked the O2 all the way up.

  As much as it hurt me, deep down, I couldn't wait all day for him to rise and shine. I slapped his cheek once, then again harder. A third slap rocked his head over and his eyes snapped open, glaring at me. I smiled, gave his shoulder a squeeze, and nodded back to the lock. He shook his head a bit to clear it, and took a few moments to look around.

  I whipped out my pride and joy, a razor-sharp antique Fairbairn-Sykes commando knife strapped to my thigh. As much as I wanted to do a little bit of extra cutting with it, with considerable effort I managed to resist the urge, and sheathed it with a sigh after cutting his binders.

  We stood surrounded by some of the nicest guns and gear money could buy, and his look of rampant desire was met by my own. I smiled and nodded, and moved to keep the room covered while he started collecting weapons and gear from the mercs, tossing guns, knives, grenades, and everything else that wasn't bolted to the deck through the lock to the Archaea.

  One merc started to rouse, and Yak socked him on the jaw hard enough to make my toes curl, sending him back to nap time. I kept the trigger at half cock and waited for the moment, but Yak moved fast, and we were back aboard the Archaea before I got the opportunity.

  “Captain, Yak and I are back aboard. We sort of helped ourselves to just about anything that looked like a weapon, I hope you don't mind.”

  “Not at all Shorty, good call. Did you have any trouble?”

  “Negative Captain. Yak got an opportunity to convince someone that they should go to sleep a little longer. But I didn't get any trigger time, sir.”

  “Very well Shorty, great job. Yak, so nice of you to join us, did you have a nice little adventure?”

  “Oh, I would have preferred a different place for R&R, but I'll take it any way I can get it, sir. I was in a pretty tight spot, thanks for recovering me. When the inner lock flashed ambers, I thought we were doomed.”

  “That was what I hoped would happen over there. Janis saved the day, as usual. She kept you on track from launch to orbit, and had you scoped as you burned through the system. Luckily for us, the Archaea is as tough as she is fast, and once we were in range, Janis took over their systems. That reminds me. Janis, what is the current pressure over there?”

  “As you requested sir, I have maintained hypoxic conditions aboard their vessel with pressure at 30% of normal. Would you like me to adjust that level sir?”

  “Well, I can't in good conscience kill them, but I should, by all rights. Taking my crew without my permission... that's damn impolite. In my book, a person without manners isn't a person at all.”

  “Sir, we could burn their core and leave them adrift with basic enviro”, Pauli said.

  Yak and I shared a look as we stowed gear in lockers along the gun deck, as much as I would have wanted to drop the hammer on any one of them that made a move, to leave them to die marooned in the endless dark... that didn't sit well with either of us.

  “Might as well kill them, Pauli... this is a pretty busy system, but they might drift on through without ever being noticed at these speeds... although, that might not be so bad, to give us some time to get clear. Janis, can you lock their distress beacon so they can't activate it?”

  “Absolutely sir. Might I also suggest disabling their waste handler as well?”

  Yak laughed out loud, nearly dropping an armload of grenades.

  “Now we're talking. A few weeks of staring at each other, smelling each other's business. That is punishment to fit the crime. Janis, go ahead and burn their core, burn it solid. Wipe anything that doesn't control enviro or basic necessities. Hardcode the ambient temperature for a few degrees above hypothermic, make them cuddle for warmth. Set their distress beacon to go off in three weeks.”

  “Jane, remind me to never make our captain mad!” Yak said with a grin.

  The thought of those muscle-bound mercs huddled together for warmth in the far corner of that small room. Horrible. There are fates worse than death. Looking at Yak, remembering him bound and bagged... a few weeks of cold and stink is just what they need.

  “Aye sir. Do you want me to recover anything from their storage core before I wipe it?” Janis asked.

  “Yes please Janis, good thinking. Anything interesting over there?”

  “Sir, there is a lot of information related to Americo Ventures, shipping lanes, docking codes, access codes, station locations, frequencies. There is a block of encrypted content appears to contain intel on their security operation on New Turiana, coordinates, dossiers, transcripts and what appears to be time-stamped key blocks used to authenticate and encrypt communications.”

  “Janis, that's a mother-lode of intel. Well done. Can you archive everything over here before you burn their core?”

  “I have already done this sir, it was the first thing I did when we came into range.”

  “Of course you did, dear. I wouldn't expect any less from you. Anything else interesting in their data?”

  “One of the entries is labeled 'Suspected Insurgent Supply' and references coordinates on New Turiana. I am unable to tell if it is the correct location, but it is flagged high priority and tasked for follow up.”

  “Well, that is interesting... and I see you have helpfully plotted a return slipspace route and insertion burn already, thank you dear. Yak and Shorty, let's get everything stowed and get back on station. It's time we set this ship of fools adrift among the stars.”

  Chapter 7

  We came out of slipspace right on the mark, close enough to New Turiana to make me recoil in horror at the sheer lunacy of it all.

  “Janis, my love, do you know how terrifying it is for me to come out of slipspace within 10 kilometers of a parking orbit of a planet?”

  “Captain, my analysis of your reactions to every event since my activation has shown a complete lack of fear. I was under the impression you were incapable of the emotion, sir.”

  I laughed, and then fixed Yak and Pauli with my most commanding authority-class eyebrows as they started to join in. “That's true, Janis, to a point. Although I am unimaginably heroic, I have been known to show fear every so often, though I do try to limit overt displays of terror to less than ten or fifteen times per hour if I can. What really works well for me, is the threat of dire consequences to anyone who calls attention to me sucking my thumb in the corner, crying softly. Dire consequences.” I fixed Yak and Pauli with another stern look.

  “Sir, if you are done crying piteously over there, please be advised we have an incoming hail from NTOC”, Yak said with a smirk.

  “Very well Yak, please put it on speaker.”

  “--NTOC to Archaea... NTOC, calling Archaea, over”

  “This is Archaea, Orbital Control. I copy you five-by-five, over.”

  “Archaea, we show you
currently in the pipe for an insertion burn, is that correct?”

  “Affirmative NTOC.”

  “Archaea, we're not really clear as to where you came from. Our back-track of your course doesn't track very far.”

  I may be half asleep from coffee deprivation, but I was awake enough to know that a little bit of fast talking was in order, or I might have to do some paperwork.

  “NTOC, we arrived in orbit a few moments ago from in-system. Is it possible your scope dropped us as an environmental? We didn't burn for correction on this drop.”

  “Archaea, was that a negative on correction burn?”

  “Affirmative NTOC, we have a pretty accurate navicomp here, and we hit it right on the mark this time.”

  I left out the part where we hurtled in to the start of the pipe at a few times the speed of light. I wasn't sure I wanted to think about that any more than I had to, and I know this poor scope-jockey didn't want to think about it at all.

  “Roger, Archaea. We may have ghosted your track, we'll review and correct for next time. You are cleared for drop, the pipe is clear.”

  “Roger NTOC, copy clear for drop, Archaea out.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief, the last thing I want to do is spend a few hours in some office explaining our... shall we say... innovative navigation methods to some faceless bureaucrat at NTOC, waiting for my ticket to get pulled, or some fine to be assessed. I figured my best defense was just to play dumb. I do that pretty darn well.

  “NTLC, this is the Archaea, on standby for drop to NTP. Please advise pan status, over”

  “Archaea, NTLC. We show you currently on the hard for pan twenty. Please advise, over”

  “NTLC Roger. We were there but burned for orbit on emergency basis during last howler, over.”

  There was a slight pause, while the scope jocks at New Turiana Launch Control tried to decide if that was worthy of a fine. I didn't know if that's what they were doing, but it sure seemed likely. They love money on New Turiana.