by Dain White
They sure did get over their fear fast – but I guess that's how kids are. They're incredibly resilient. As soon as we hit null-g, it was like all their fears and worry were replaced with fun and excitement. They may have spent their lives walking on concrete, but you wouldn't believe how much they loved flying. We all do, of course, null-g is about as cool as it gets, but these kids... they went completely bonkers for it.
Janis was the ultimate babysitter, she would reconfigure a screen moments before some little hands fired the main gun, or plowed us into an asteroid field, and they were always shooting and flying and saving the galaxy, with Dak leading the way, running them like a crack crew on an admirality flagship.
By the time we got to Vega, he was going to have them either trained to take over for us, or hooked for life on a future career in the stars – and that may have been his goal all along.
Jane and I have been trying to help them get their space legs, to show them how to orient themselves, how to pivot, latch and grab. Good thing too, as fun as it might be to float around and laugh, it's hard to get any work done with kids drifting around all over the place.
Pauli was too strange for the younger kids, but a couple of the older kids just idolized him, and the three of them were soon using Janis to make all sorts of really interesting holo-v games. By the time we hit Vega, they were probably going to be mega-rich in appspace.
“Are you both ready for this transit?” the captain asked behind us. We had the kids all snuggled into their hammocks, and for the first time in a few days, the bridge was quiet... and boring.
“Aye sir”, I said, loading up the gravimetric layer, playing the game I always play, try to spot the hostile target before Janis. I am proud to say I have never won, but that doesn't make it any less fun to play.
“I am good to go, sir” Pauli added. “Are we going to be out of slipspace long?”
“Not if I can help it, Pauli. I want to get these kids to their people as soon as I can, for the sake of the kids, and the survivors of Solis – they need to be together.”
Pauli nodded, and I had to agree with them. As much fun as it was to have this ship loaded to the rafters with kids, it was important to get them home.
“All hands, secure ship for acceleration. We are coming up on our transit, in 3... 2... 1... mark.” Right on the dot, we dropped out of slipspace and stars filled our forward port.
“Targeting, report” the captain asked behind me.
“One target sir... one moment. Gravimetrics show prior classification of Master-two – ranged 4,231km at 18 stationary, same signature as the Starry Dawn... sir, I have a distress beacon!”
“Stationary and a distress beacon? That's interesting. Please hail.”
“Hailing, aye”, I said while Janis flashed screens that I would need to my center holo.
“Starry Dawn, this is Archaea... Starry Dawn, this is Archaea, over”
The hiss of background static was my only answer, the distress beacon warbling a coded signal in the background.
I coded the hail and put it on a loop, spread spectrum in case they were monitoring other channels, and got the same result.
“Sir, I am not getting any response to hail.”
The captain thought a moment, tapping a little abstract rhythm on his armrest, then keyed the 1MC.
“All hands, be advised. We are currently receiving a distress beacon from the Starry Dawn, she is stationary and not responding to hail. I am going to close with her and investigate. Stand by for a short 3g burn.”
I looked across at Pauli, who shrugged. This ship was just shooting at us a few days ago, shooting to kill – and our captain was closing to render assistance as if they were just any old stranded vessel in deep space. It just didn't make sense to me, but if there's one thing I've learned, is that things don't always make sense.
I set my head back into the headrest right as the reac drives punched us in the back and hurled us forward, but only briefly. The captain was bringing us in slowly using a series of low-g boosts, with minor corrections to stay on course. Compared to the normal way we punch holes in the universe, this was like watching paint dry.
“Pauli, as we get closer, please let me know the moment you and Janis are able to establish contact with their network. Yak, please keep an eye on comms, and keep scanning – we may pick up additional signals as we get closer.”
“Sir, what do you think we might be looking at?” Pauli asked.
“Well Pauli, that's hard to say. I really don't know. It might be nothing, they may have taken a meteoric to their comms array, and heaved-to so they could work on it, or, they may be... well, I don't know, really. They could be hulled, I suppose, though I can't imagine what could do that... well, except us of course” he said with a wink.
Pauli didn't ask the question I wanted answered, which was why we were even bothering. I wasn't planning on asking, of course. The captain had made a decision, and one lesson I've learned over the years is to never second-guess a superior officer. It depends on the officer, of course, but Captain Smith – not a chance.
I increased the resolution on the gravimetric layer as far as I could get it to go, and noted Janis had already identified a large amount of very small objects arranged in a small cloud amidships, all classified gray as non-threatening.
“Captain, on max gravimetric resolution, I am seeing a bunch of what looks like particulate objects, under 2 kilos, for the most part. Some larger chunks... but nothing changing vector or threatening, sir”
“Very well Yak... that isn't very encouraging. Keep your eyes open, mister.”
“Aye sir.”
Luckily, the paint was drying, and we were getting closer to the Starry Dawn.
“Weapons Control, please ramp up to nominal levels.”
“Nominal levels, aye” Shorty said. Soon, the familiar phased vibration started rumbling away under my toes.
“Engineering, energize armor”
“Energize armor, aye” Gene said calmly.
“Yak, range-to-target?”
“2,113km and closing at 8km/s”
“Hmm.. that's about five more minutes. Not much time left. Anything new on comms?”
“No sir, just the beacon, no other emissions. Sir, take a look at the gravimetrics, it looks like they sustained damage.”
“Yep, you're right Yak. It looks like they took a few hits from something, right across the top of their stern, and another right on the stern. No wonder they're not moving.”
We sat in silence across the bridge, as the Starry Dawn twinkled like a tiny star in our forward port.
*****
I hated the thought of what might have happened to Les. I can remember him, all freckles and teeth in the academy, just a merciless prankster, and about the most bulletproof. I can still remember the commander's dress whites turning pink in the UV of the rising sun and the look of innocence on his guilty face. Les was a great officer, and a great friend.
The Starry Dawn looked pretty bad. As we approached within visual range, I kicked on our forward arcs and lit her up, and we all gasped involuntarily at the massive damage she had taken. It looked like she had been hit twice, by something big, almost certainly nova-class. Once right through the upper engineering space, right through comms and sensor array, the other shot was right through her bell housings. She wasn't going anywhere without a tug.
Of course, we were a few hundred light-years away from the nearest port, and if they were still breathing over there, I don't think they'd care to hang out in the cold dark for a few hundred years.
“Captain, Janis has established contact.”
“They have a network, Pauli?” I wouldn't have thought so, their nexus core should have been vaporized from the shot through the top of engineering.
“No, not in the normal sense, sir. Janis is hopping peer-to-peer through active handsets, sir.”
“Are these just handsets that are on, or handsets being used?”
“Sorry sir, these are act
ively being used, sir. There are definitely survivors aboard.”
“That's great news son. Can you connect to Captain Scott's handset?”
“Yes sir, it's active... uh... sir, something to consider...”
“Yes Pauli?”
“Well... these are mil-spec handsets, shielded and encrypted. It's trivial for Janis to crack in, but... wouldn't that tip our hand a bit, sir?”
“That's definitely something to think about, Pauli. Let me ask you this... if all you had was a comms set, and a fast system, could you crack their network?”
He thought for a moment. “Sir, I could... theoretically. I mean, I know what sort of process it would take, and of course, I have some insider knowledge, having been in the service and coded many of these sorts of systems... but...”
“Son, I know. It's a little thin – but I think it's a fine story. You are the second-best hacker in the Galaxy, right?”
He laughed and shrugged. “Yep, without a doubt. If anyone could do it, I could...maybe. Possibly.”
“That's close enough for me, Pauli. Let's open a channel to Les's handset.”
As I said the words, a comms panel opened on my forward screen, and I opened the channel.
“Hello Les, this is Dak – looks like you are having a little bit of trouble over there!” I said, as brightly as I could.
“What the--” he paused, probably trying to find the handset he just dropped in shock. “Dak? Where are you, and how are you on comms?”
“Well, I am currently on station about 500 meters off your port beam, mister. As to how, well... we have a technologist aboard who is probably the best hacker you could ever meet. He's ex-service, and probably wrote the crypto you're using. Remember Pauli? You met him on my bridge.”
“Pauli... was that Steven Pauline? The geeklord?”
Pauli and I laughed. “Yes sir, one and the same. There really isn't anything he can't do.” I said, truthfully.
“Well, I guess that explains how – but I am still wondering why... the last I saw of you, you were slipping at speeds I couldn't hope to match straight into the Lights. Apparently you lived, though I can't imagine how.”
“Well, heck Les, you know, I am a pretty decent navigator, and I didn't have many other options at the time. If you recall you were shooting at me.”
“Dak, that wasn't me – the AV capital ship that we were escorting commanded me to fire, but I refused. They lobbed a few shots at you – and I broke off the chase in protest. My charter here doesn't involve killing decent people like you, Dak.”
“Well that's mighty good to hear, Les. Restores my faith in your humanity – but what happened to you? Who shot you up, and how bad is it?”
“After we gave up the chase, we popped the bubble, came about, and then slipped back to our patrol point. I had sent a com drone to fleet command detailing what had happened, when those AV bastards popped in and shot the hell out of us! No warning, nothing. We saw them arrive on station, and I was just gearing up to listen to their captain scream at me a bit, and they just lit us up.”
“Les, that's really hard to believe... AV is a major player, why would they fire on a service vessel?”
“I honestly don't know, Dak. It doesn't make one damn bit of sense to me. Do you think it has anything to do with what you were up to?”
“It could be, Les. That's hard to say, of course. I have a report to make to fleet about all of that as well, but first, we need to see to your situation. How bad is it over there?”
As I spoke this, our forward arcs lit up the depths of the hole through the bell housing of their main drives, it was cavernous, and slagged solid.
“Well, we're doing pretty good, considering, though we lost everyone on watch in engineering, and our top decks are roasted. It's pretty cold over here as you would imagine, and I'm pretty sure we're venting somewhere.”
I could see a number of small jets of what looked like some sort of gas venting into the bell housing.
“You are definitely venting, Les, I can see at least three, maybe four vents in your bell housing.” As I spoke, I realized how desperate their situation was. If we didn't do something, they were going to all die, a horribly slow, agonizingly brutal death in the freezing dark.
“Yeah, I knew it. We have it fairly well contained, we're all forward and have bulks closed amidships, we couldn't secure hatches aft of bulkhead 20, it's just a slagged mess back there.”
“Well, hang tough for a few moments Les.”
“Will do Dak, it's not like I have a choice...”
I had the beginnings of an idea, but it was pretty far out there, bordering on the impossible. Of course, we did impossible things all the time these days.
“Janis, I have a crazy idea, dear.”
“Of course, sir.”
I took a deep breath while Pauli and Yak chuckled softly.
“Now don't you two start...” I warned them, with a brief eyebrow twitch just to make sure they knew I meant business.
“Janis, given our current power output and slipspace gear, can we take the Starry Dawn in tow for a run back to Vega 6?”
“Certainly sir. Our gear and power output are more than adequate for the task.”
“Thanks dear, please plot a course to Vega 6 with enough delta-v to place us into a parking orbit reasonably near New Turiana Orbital Control... and Janis?”
“Yes sir?”
“When I say reasonably close, I don't mean inside of a meter, dear.”
“Of course sir.” she said smoothly, while Yak and Pauli laughed. I waved them into silence with an eyebrow, and opened comms with Les.
“Les, I have a procedure here that is... well, a little unorthodox.”
“Dak, I wouldn't expect anything less from you, mister.”
“Hah, well... this is going to be a little bit beyond the norm, even for me. I am going to take you in tow, and we'll just mosey on over to Vega 6.”
Les kept the channel open while he laughed, just to make sure I know exactly how crazy I sounded. As if I didn't know. I was keenly aware.
“Dak, that's impossible! There's no way you can--”
“I know it sounds a little far-fetched--”
“A little? Good grief man, it's not possible.”
“Well, it's really our only option. Now listen, you'll have to just trust me, we have a little more under the hood here than you might think.”
A brief moment of silence while Les considered his options and realized he had none. I gave him all the time he needed.
“Well, okay Dak, though I can't imagine this will work... what do we need to do?”
“Well, just sit tight, mostly. Cross fingers and toes if you can. Think happy thoughts, and enjoy the ride.”
“Happy thoughts, aye”, he laughed.
I chuckled a bit at the face Gene was about to make, and opened the 1MC.
“All hands, we have made contact with the Starry Dawn, and they are in a pretty bad spot. They have been hulled and don't have power or maneuvering.”
I took a moment to smile.
“And so, I figured we would just... take them in tow and get the back to Vega 6. That is all.”
As I clicked off the 1MC, I realized I was probably missing the end-all be-all face to end all faces from Gene right about now. He was strangely silent... hopefully he was awake back there, I'd sure hate for him to miss this.
I brought up the docking screen and locked on to their amidships dock, rolling the Archaea smartly over and sliding the lock home like a pro. I energized the bolts, and we were ready to go.
“Les, we're locked on, and ready... this will be a pretty fast run – hang in there, okay?”
“Sure thing Dak, we're good to go. You know, we've got a pool going over here on whether or not this will work.”
“Oh yeah? What's the over-under?”
“You don't want to know, Dak.”
“Well, a man could make a lot of money, betting on a sure thing.”
“Are there any sure
things, Dak?”
“Sure enough, Les...”
I energized the stasis field and waited as it built. It was mass-based, and with us bolted on the lock, it should just keep building until it has us in the bubble. In theory, anyway.
“All hands, secure for slipspace” I said on the 1MC as confidently as I knew how, and watched as the field slowly energized. Once it flashed greens, all that remained was the shiny red button marked EXECUTE.
Chapter 16
“NTOC, this is Captain Dak Smith of the independent Archaea, requesting orbital lane on behalf of the Starry Dawn, currently disabled and unable to maneuver or communicate.”
Yak and I stopped completely, we were both looking forward to this. Our arrival on Vega 6 was far less terrifying than our arrival on Solis, but it was a clenching experience nonetheless.
“Archaea, your current vector for high-orbit is clear. Please confirm Starry Dawn?”
“That is affirmative, NTOC. Terran Service destroyer Starry Dawn, under the command of Captain Les Scott. They are disabled, out of power and require immediate aid.”
I looked back at the captain, but try as hard as I might, I couldn't come close to the same eyebrow inclination. He smiled at my attempt.
“NTOC, did you copy my last?”
“Archaea, copy Starry Dawn in need to immediate assistance. Archaea, we are a little confused. Do you have the Starry Dawn in tow?”
“NTOC, that's affirmative, we have her in tow.”
“Archaea... that's... well, that's impressive, sir. Please let them know support vessels are underway to their orbit.”
“NTOC, copy, and thanks.”
The captain took a deep breath, and said across the bridge “Well, that went a lot better than I expected. I guess they're used to us just popping into orbit now?”
An alert flashed on my screen from Janis.