by D. J. Holmes
16th April 2465 AD, HMS Drake, New Stockholm system, previously designated V34
Aboard Drake, James was sitting in his office rereading the first old style novel his uncle had given him. He had finished the last novel months ago on Drake’s return journey to Earth after discovering the Void. Since then he had been too busy to even think of them again. That had all changed once Drake had been posted to New Stockholm. For nearly two months Drake had been circling the system, watching the Swedes begin to set up their colony on the habitable planet. Initially, James had tried to resist the urge to go back and reread the books in case they distracted him from his command. A week ago he had given in. With nothing happening and not even any news coming through from the rest of the Void, he needed a distraction.
As he turned another page, the buzzer on his door went off. With a flick of his wrist he hit the button to allow the door to open and Gupta walked in. James was surprised to find that he was happy to see her. Since their heart to heart and everything that had happened to them after, their relationship had been changing. It was the duty of a ship’s second ranking officer to run the day to day needs of a ship on behalf of its Captain, only bringing problems up the chain of command that warranted attention. Initially, when James had taken over command of Drake, Gupta had used this tradition to freeze him out. She had never come to him with a problem or involved him in the running of the ship. At the time James had been happy with the arrangement as he drowned in his own self-pity. In return he had shut her out of the command decisions that fell on his shoulders.
Since they had come to New Stockholm things had changed. Gupta had begun to consult him when it came to the running of the ship and the crew, he, in turn, had begun to share his thinking and plans with her. Their relationship still wasn’t functioning like the well-oiled machine he had been taught to expect at the academy but it was getting there. James had also been enjoying the closer relationship he had been able to forge with the rest of his crew now Gupta had opened that world up to him. He believed he had earned their respect with everything they had been through so far but now he hoped that in the last couple of months had also begun to earn their friendship.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he motioned for Gupta to take a seat opposite him. “So what can I do for you Lieutenant?”
“Sir,” Gupta started but before she did James interrupted as he raised his hands. “James, you can call me James in private.”
“Yes sir, James I mean. And it would be my pleasure if you call me Georgia. As I was saying, we both know the crew are beginning to get restless. Not only are we stuck here while the war rages on around us. We haven’t heard any news for nearly two months. Worse, being permanently stuck in stealth mode has meant we’ve had to limit our use of non-essential equipment. There is a long waiting list for most of our leisure and entertainment platforms and it’s growing all the time. The virtual reality suit and sports simulators are usually the only things that keep a crew sane during a long commission. I’m not sure I can vouch for their happiness or even willing cooperation if this situation continues much longer.”
As she paused, James took up the conversation. “I’m well aware Georgia but you know we’ve been doing everything we can to distract them. There’s nothing more I can think of. We have tripled the number of combat simulations. We’ve made competitions out of everything we can find and we’ve even allowed those interested to spend some time in other posts to develop new skills. I’m not sure what else we can do.”
“You’re right sir,” Gupta agreed. “I haven’t come with any new ideas but I might have a new approach. I’ve been reviewing our inventories. Our fuel tanks are just above sixty percent but other things are starting to get pretty low. We only have a few weeks of power cells left and we’ve had to change out a number of secondary processor units from the ship’s main computer. We can make do if we run out of either but ideally we need to be resupplied. I know it’s a pretty weak excuse but it might be enough for us to make a quick trip to Excalibur and see if we can locate the supplies we need. I think the break from New Stockholm and some news would do the crew a world of good.”
James was distracted from Gutpa’s ideas by a flashing on his office console. “Hold that thought Georgia.” James intentionally used her first name even though Gupta had slipped back into calling him sir. He was determined to break down the last walls that stood between them. “We might have to make your plan work but for now it looks like we have something to break the monotony. Sensors have just picked up a ship accelerating into the system.”
Both James’ and Gupta’s eyes went to the gravimetric data being displayed on the main holo display as they entered the bridge. It would take hours for any electromagnetic radiation the ship was giving off to reach Drake but the gravimetric disturbances caused by its rapid acceleration give them an instant fix on its location. As they watched the ship disappeared off the display. It reappeared a few seconds later on a new vector ninety degrees to its original course. Then it vanished again only to reappear heading straight out of the system.
Immediately James sprang into action. “That’s the prearranged signal indicating Chinese ships have broken out of the blockade. Sensors, what are the Swedes doing?”
Without a means to transmit messages faster than light, the RSN had developed a simple set of signals a ship could use to communicate with ships deeper in a system. By following a set acceleration pattern other ships could pick up the acceleration via their gravimetric sensors and interpret the signal. The meaning of some of the acceleration patterns had been shared with the Swedish forces. A Chinese break out had been one of them.
Sub Lieutenant O’Rourke, who was manning sensors, only took a few seconds to reply, as the Swedish reaction was swift. “Sir, the Swedish warships are maneuvering. It looks like the two destroyers on picket patrol are heading to meet up with the light cruiser and destroyer that are protecting the colony ship.”
Smart, James thought. Outside the Void, attacks on a system usually came along a set vector, as ships were limited on where they could go because of the dark matter strewn between solar systems. In the Void, the Chinese could attack from any direction and so it didn’t make sense for the Swedish to split their forces.
“Ok,” James spoke to the bridge at large. “Let’s assume that Admiral Cunningham managed to get off this warning before the Chinese ships succeeded in jumping away from V17. That gives us a little bit of time before they get here. Their most likely target is going to be Excalibur but we need to be prepared. Navigation, plot us a course closer to the Swedish squadron. I want to be able to lend our support if we are needed. Take us there at six percent thrust.
*
Two hours later everyone in the New Stockholm system got the answer to the question they were asking. The Chinese had decided to hit New Stockholm. Back during his days at the academy James had loved to gamble. If it hadn’t been inappropriate for a Captain to make bets with his crew, he would have wagered a considerable amount on the Chinese bypassing New Stockholm. Yes, the Chinese had laid claim to the whole Void but they couldn’t expect the UN to let them keep it all. They were already at war with the British; it made no sense to attack another power.
Yet here they were and James had to make the best of it. Almost in silence the bridge watched four ships begin to accelerate into the system. They could only be Chinese as they weren’t altering course to make any of the prearranged signals. When it was clear they were hostiles, the Swedish warships accelerated out of orbit around New Stockholm to meet them. James understood what the Swedish Admiral was thinking. The Chinese goal was to force the Swedish to abandon the system. If they lost their warships, the colony ship and accompanying supply ships would have to return to Earth. The Admiral was offering the Chinese his ships in the hope they would then leave the colonists alone. Brave, but foolish. The Swedish were at least thirty years behind the Chinese in military tech. If the four Chinese ships were anything bigger than frigates they would blo
w their way past the Swedish warships and the colony ship would be at their mercy. RSNI estimated that the Swedish colony ship could hold up to forty thousand colonists.
As the Swedish warships rose to meet the Chinese, Gupta turned to James. “Shall we follow them sir and give them what assistance we can?”
“No,” James answered. “We don’t have the firepower to alter the course of the coming battle. We would just lose this ship for nothing. The Swedish Admiral should have tried to run for it. If they had tried to keep the Chinese at maximum range, they may have managed to take out enough missiles to survive long enough to jump away. If they had tried, we could have added our defensive fire to theirs. But we can’t change the outcome of a missile duel to the death. The colony ship may yet need us so we’ll stay here.”
As Gupta nodded in recognition, James gladly gave the order he knew he should. “Navigation keep us heading towards the colony ship. If they change their orbit or try to break orbit, match their course but don’t exceed ten percent of our maximum thrust.” Helping the Swedish warships was suicide; everything he said to Gupta was true. But it also allowed him to hide his other motives. He wanted to get back to Christine. He loved serving in the navy but he didn’t want to throw his life away for nothing. He had other things that were more important.
*
A deathly silence had descended on the bridge during the three hours it had taken the two groups of ships to enter missile range of each other. In that time Drake had entered orbit around New Stockholm and was slowly creeping up on the colony ship. Not being equipped with military grade sensors it was unlikely the Swedes would detect them.
Suddenly the gravimetric plot erupted as the four Chinese ships opened fire using their superior missile range to hammer the Swedes. Sub Lieutenant Fisher, who had been manning sensors since the Chinese had arrived in system, had managed to identify the four ships as Luda class destroyers. Just before entering missile range they had turned perpendicular to the approaching Swedish ships and presented their broadside missile tubes to them. Twenty new contacts had then appeared on the gravimetric plot as the Chinese opened fire with every missile tube they could bring to bear.
With both groups of ships closing on each other so fast, the Swedish had just been able to get one missile salvo away before the first from the Chinese hit them. As the battle was taking place nearly a light hour from Drake, they could only watch the gravimetric sensors to get a real time indication of what was going on. As the first Chinese salvo crashed into the Swedish their three destroyers disappeared off the plot. The remaining light cruiser fired off another salvo of their own before the second wave of Chinese missiles, already homing in on it, caused it to disappear from Drake’s screens as well. The twenty five missiles the Swedish had managed to get off all closed in on the Chinese destroyers but as they disappeared they didn’t manage to take any ships with them.
Clearly satisfied that Swedish forces had been destroyed three of the destroyers began to decelerate and turn back towards the mass shadow of the system. One however, kept coming.
James couldn’t help but curse aloud. “Those bastards, they’re going for the colony ship!”
Moments later a transmission was broadcast out into the system by the Swedish colony ship. It wasn’t encrypted so Sub Lieutenant Graham put it on the main holo display.
The visual showed an aged man who was visibly trying not to shake with what looked like a mixture of rage and fear. “Chinese vessel. My name is Governor Olsson. I am in charge of this colony ship and the colony being set up on New Stockholm. You have destroyed our warships. I offer you our complete surrender. On my word we will vacate this system and return to Earth. There doesn’t need to be any more bloodshed. Again I repeat. I offer you our complete surrender.”
It would take almost an hour for the message to reach the approaching destroyer so James sat back into his command chair to see how things were going to play out.
Twenty minutes after the destroyer should have received the message it was still accelerating towards the colony ship. Knowing his ship could never stand up against the destroyer James still felt trapped. Everyone on board expected him to help the colony ship. Hell, they probably expected him to find a way to save the day! Yet he knew better, how could Drake come out of this in one piece? They would all die. His dreams for the future would evaporate. As he hesitated he could feel everyone on the bridge watching him. Could he live with the shame of running away? He would have to face a court martial when he got back to Earth. They might find in his favor. Revealing his presence would certainly end in the destruction of his ship. If he fled any inquiry would have to admit that he took the most prudent decision. Yet, the court martial would be a public affair. All of Britain would know he ran away. How could he ever hope to marry Christine then? What choice did he have? He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.
All of a sudden his thoughts turned to the Damang Incident. Captain Turner had not hesitated in charging straight for the Chinese cruisers in order to protect his freighters and he had had no hope of surviving. That was what was expected of a British naval officer. James had gone through the academy knowing that but he had always thought the rule applied to others. He was the heir to a Dukedom. His life was too important to be thrown away so easily. Yet, now he knew it wasn’t so simple. If he ran he would lose everything, Christine and the navy. Neither would look at him the same. He could already feel the questions of the bridge officers. Every one of them had been trained to throw themselves into harm’s way; they would already be questioning his delay. But no matter what way he looked at it he really had no choice.
James struggled with the decision for another two minutes. As every second passed by he could feel the pressure from the bridge crew building. They were waiting for orders. Finally he made the only choice that seemed to offer him any hope of still having a future with Christine, slim as it was.
“COMS, get us a laser link with the colony ship. Tell them not to do anything that might alert the Chinese to our presence and get me Governor Olsson on the line.”
Seconds later the governor’s face appeared on James personal holo display. “Governor, it appears you could use some assistance,” James said putting on a brave face. If he was going to do this no one else needed to know how close he had come to backing down.
Smiling, the governor replied, “I’ve been fighting tooth and nail to keep your RSN ships out of our new system but boy I am glad to see you Commander. How did you get so close to the planet without my warships spotting you? And more importantly can you handle this Chinese destroyer?
“For the first, you know our stealth is good Governor,” James answered. “And for the second I’m afraid not. I command HMS Drake, a survey frigate. We only have a couple of missile tubes so the Chinese Captain can handle anything we throw at him. The best I can offer is that we can add our point defenses to yours. It’s not much but if I guess right the Chinese Captain will not want to waste any more missiles on you than he has to. I suggest you evacuate the two supply ships and put their defenses on automatic. You need to take the colony ship out of orbit and make it look like you are making a run for it. We should be able to match your speed while remaining in stealth. With luck the Chinese ship will only fire one salvo and turn to re-join its buddies. If some of the missiles are targeted at the two supply vessels, we might have a chance of taking out the rest between us. That’s the best I can offer you.”
Nodding, the governor accepted James’ plan, “Very well Commander, I don’t think I have much choice. Don’t think I don’t know you could stay in stealth and avoid any danger. On behalf of my people I want to thank you, whether this works or not.”
*
Forty five minutes later as James and Gupta were reviewing their final plans, Fisher suddenly shouted out excitedly to the rest of the bridge. “Six ships have just begun to accelerate rapidly into the system. It looks like they are coming in under full military power. I recognize the drive harmonics of on
e of them. It’s the medium cruiser Voyager. Wait. The three Chinese destroyers have just gone to full acceleration, they’re trying to get away.”
Switching to look at the gravimetric display, James saw that fortune was on the Chinese’ side. The British ships had jumped into the system several light hours from the point the Chinese ships were heading towards to jump out. At full acceleration the British ships would get the chance to fire off one missile salvo but it would be touch and go as to whether the missiles would actually reach their targets before the Chinese managed to jump away.
A shift drive wouldn’t engage within the mass shadow created by a system’s star. Yet the actual size of the mass shadow was determined by the sensitivity of a ship’s shift drive. As technology advanced, the shift drive continued to be fine-tuned, allowing it to engage further and further into a system, slowly decreasing the mass shadow of any given system. Over the last one hundred years the gains had been negligible yet it did mean that the RSN wasn’t exactly sure how far out from a system’s sun the Chinese could engage their shift drive, if they took all the safeties off. If RSNI data was to be believed the missile salvo from the British warships could catch them in time but it would be close.
The fourth destroyer on the other hand, was in a lot more trouble. Every second it delayed making a break towards the mass shadow it decreased its likelihood of escape. In theory it could continue to charge into the system past the colony ship and head towards the far side of the mass shadow. Outside the Void that would be the logical course of action and it would ensure Drake’s destruction, as the Chinese destroyer would have ample time to fire salvo after salvo at her and the colony ship. Yet, being in the Void meant the perusing British ships could simply make a couple of shift jumps to the other side of the system and lie in wait for the Chinese ship. The Chinese Commander’s best chance of escape would be to fire one salvo at the colony ship and then turn tail and run for the mass shadow at full speed.