by M. D. Cooper
Ouri nearly choked on her drink and had to frantically gasp for breath as Joe handed her a napkin.
“Oh my god, Tanis, that has got to be the funniest thing you’ve ever said.”
Tanis scowled. “I’ll have you know I am funny all the time.”
“I gotta admit,” Joe said to Amanda. “I didn’t expect to see you here…I didn’t realize you could leave your…er…post.”
“No pun intended,” Ouri smiled.
“I was on shift for a bit longer than planned—Priscilla had a few problems adapting to the interface, but the plan is a ninety days on, ninety days off rotation between us. As much as I like Bob, I really do need this time to remember who I am.”
“I have to admit, it is weird to hear your voice with my ears. I’m used to it being in my head,” Amy Lee said.
“You and me both.” Amanda laughed.
“Hey.” Tanis spotted someone across the crowd. “Isn’t that Lieutenant Collins of the GSS?”
“Yeah.” Ouri looked over her shoulder where Tanis pointed. “Slimy guy, isn’t he?”
“As the day is long,” Tanis replied. “But what’s he doing here? I thought he wasn’t mission.”
“He wasn’t, but he requested crew status just before we left Cho. There were a couple of last-minute abdications, so he got in no problem. A few other people in his department got crew positions as well,” Joe said.
“Damn,” Tanis said. “I really don’t like him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way.”
“He’s a rubber all right. But let’s talk about happy things. Collins’ll sour my mood real fast.” Ouri reached for the bottle of wine and poured herself another glass.
No one said anything for a moment and then they all burst out laughing at once—except for Ouri who looked perplexed.
“What did I say?”
They steered the conversation elsewhere and the light chatter continued through the meal. As the dinner was drawing to a close Captain Andrews rose from his place at the head table.
“Greetings to you all,” he said to the assembled crowd. “I’m certain that all of you feel as pleased and excited as I do that we’re finally underway. For those of you who haven’t checked the latest stellar vector,” he gestured to the screens behind him, “we are achieving better than expected performance from both our engines and our ramscoop. I’m certain you are as happy as I and are very grateful to Earnest, Abby, and their teams for an amazing job in constructing this truly magnificent vessel.”
Applause thundered as everyone clapped enthusiastically for the Reddings and their teams.
The captain raised his hands for silence and the applause died away.
“We are currently falling toward the sun at a rate that will cause our breakaway velocity to be 0.09c. We will continue to increase this speed through our interstellar burn to 0.12c. Because of this, we will alter our approach to LHS 1565 and overall we’ll shorten our trip by seventeen years.”
This statement was met with more applause and cheering from the assembled mission crew and colonists. People were smiling and patting one another on the back. Tanis was certain that she even saw a smile crease the face of Abby Redding at the head table.
“Suited and strapped in.”
“Huh, and here we thought you were all relaxed,” Ouri smiled at Tanis. “Still thinking about all the possibilities I see.”
“Ladies and gentlemen.” Captain Andrews was still standing, and his face betrayed no emotion other than calm. “We appear to have a potential issue affecting our exit of this system. All duty personnel, report to your assigned stations. Everyone else, check your local access points for any assignments, otherwise follow the general emergency plan.”
With that he left the table and strode toward the closest tube that ran to the bridge. Several others including Terrance, the Reddings and Admiral Sanderson went with him; Tanis and Joe worked their way through the crowds to catch up with Amanda trailing just behind them.
Joe analyzed the data Priscilla was streaming to them. “They appear to be some sort of fast intercept craft. Most likely a deployment type that will drop fighters…either that or they’re missiles.”
“I don’t know which I prefer,” Tanis said.
“Missiles,” Joe said as they caught the tube that slid in after the command crew had left. “Lower levels of programming on those. No human or AI onboard—fighters always have either…or both.”
A moment later the tube disgorged them onto the command deck. The short access corridor led them into the main foyer, where Priscilla was working to ensure that all sections were covered and that everyone was where they were supposed to be. She didn’t look much different than Amanda, though Tanis could see some slight physical traits that didn’t match. She looked up and nodded at the two officers as they ran past her.
“Good luck, keep us in one piece,” she said.
“Don’t we always?” Joe smiled in return.
The bridge was a study in energetic order. Everyone was doing something, but they were doing it with precision and calm. Every single person was in the upper echelons of their field. Moreover, Captain Andrews had worked them hard. The result was a cohesive team built from what otherwise would have just been a group of people good at disparate things.
Tanis and Joe exchanged tokens with the bridge net and updates flooded in.
Scan showed nine large cylindrical objects headed toward the Intrepid at 0.5c. Their point of origin appeared to be from the Thermis asteroids, a region owned by several mining groups. Tanis saw ties to the STR—a major purchaser of their raw materials.
Readings and statistics on the incoming objects flowed in and Joe sat at a duty station seat where he updated the main holo with information and projections. Tanis stood near the rear of the bridge. While she was a competent pilot, Joe didn’t need her telling him how to do his job.
“I believe they are carrier vessels,” Joe said aloud and Captain Andrews turned his command chair to look at him. Terrance was standing beside Tanis and swore softly. The Reddings were already at consoles, most likely preparing repair crews and readying the ES shields and laser turrets—Earnest had no reaction, but Abby shook her head.
“I would expect three to five fighters to deploy from each once they are in range. I have event ETAs up on the net and holo. We’re most likely looking at a Theta Class fighter, they hit hard and do the job fast. They’re usually equipped with three dozen five-megaton fusion warheads.” Joe updated the bridge net with his data.
“Well, that would get the job done fast,” Captain Andrews replied. “You realize that works out to about 1620 five-megaton devices.”
“I do, sir. Tactical scenarios predict that we should be able to neutralize ninety percent of them, but that still leaves around 160, several times what it would take to cripple the Intrepid.”
Andrews turned to one of the bridge crew. “What can we expect our ES shields to deflect?”
“It’ll depend on how staggered they are, sir. We could survive every one of them given enough time between the impacts, but the magnetic conductors are going to heat up moving all of that radiation down the vanes and away from the ship. If we blow them then we’ll be delaying this trip.”
“Fire control.” Captain Andrews turned to a
nother crewman. “At what maximum range can you engage the enemy with without bleed-off from the lasers risking our fighters?”
“Based on the specs that Commander Evans has up on the command net, I’d say we’re looking at seven thousand kilometers.”
“Then they’re going to have to work real hard to hit us.” The captain nodded. “Keep your fighters under that range after their initial salvo. It should help us even things out. What is the ETA on yellow getting out there as well?”
“Twenty minutes, sir.”
“I doubt this will last that long.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Deployment,” the woman at scan called out. “Looks like specs were bang on. We’ve got forty-five inbound fighters.”
“Blue Wing is engaging,” Joe said.
The main holo lit up with the feed from the battle. The attackers were doing their best to simply punch through the Intrepid’s defenses. With their v they were unable to perform any drastic maneuvers; the velocity that had allowed them to get in range so quickly now became a hindrance.
“We’ve got some unexpected issues,” Joe said. “Our fighters’ targeting systems don’t have the processing power to handle this much time dilation.”
Realization dawned on Tanis. Though notable time dilation from traveling too close to the speed of light didn’t occur under 0.6c, any time the fighters were flying directly toward or away from another their relative velocity was easily in that range. A quick change of direction and time expanded: trajectories, velocities, targeting, and shields all had to instantly adjust; sometimes they had to adjust several seconds ago.
The conditions the pilots were enduring were at the edge of a human’s abilities. It took over an hour just to get into the special suit for handling the gee forces, and the fighters’ cockpits were full of gel to absorb motion. Drug cocktails were continually being pumped through the pilots to keep them conscious as a latticework of support webbing inside their brains kept the grey matter from being smeared inside their skulls. Combat like this was going to take weeks for them to recover from.
Despite those factors, the Blue Wing took out three of the attackers within the first moments of combat. It was a testament to the pilots’ training that they were managing to hit anything at all.
“Vectors are too extreme,” Joe said as his fingers raced across a holo UI. “Onboard systems are overheating trying to provide accurate calculations. The pilots are also having neural cooling problems.”
“Didn’t really plan for a suicide run,” Captain Andrews muttered. “Priscilla, do you have enough bandwidth available to offload calculations from the fighters?”
“I can for some of them,” Priscilla’s voice said over the bridge’s speakers. “Signal isn’t strong enough to assist all of them.”
“I’m jacked in.” Amanda stood near the entrance to the bridge with her hood off. Her cowl was pulled down and antennae hair waved above her as she accessed the bandwidth reserved for her and Priscilla.
“Do it,” Andrews said. “Co-ord it with Commander Evans—we need our people to take those bastards out.”
“I’m in range,” the crewman at fire control announced.
“Fire at will; be sure your patterns are available to Commander Evans and the ladies,” Captain Andrews said.
“This isn’t working well,” Amanda said as another fighter in Blue Wing was destroyed. “The AI link on the fighters is too primitive and it’s slowing things down too much. With the time lag and the interface chokepoint we can’t be effective. I need to perform a partial transference.”
Andrews glanced back at her, his expression sharp. “That’s a very dangerous proposal. We could lose you.”
“You’ll have Priscilla if I get in trouble.”
“How long will it take?”
“Moments. I do need something, though. I need access to the mind of someone who has flown a fighter and understands the tactics.”
“Use me,” Joe said. “I’ll guide you.”
“No good,” Captain Andrews said. “You won’t be able to do your job with her subsuming your mind.”
“Use me.” Tanis spoke up. “I’m rated and have over ten thousand hours flight time.”
“You sure about this?” Andrews turned to look at her. “It’s not an exact science.”
Joe shot a pained look in Tanis’s direction, but didn’t say a word.
“It’s more exact than it used to be,” Amanda said; a living example of the neural advances.
“Just do it.” Tanis took a deep breath. “Before I change my mind and before one of those warheads hits us.”
Nothing prepared her; no warning was given. One moment Tanis was sharing her mind with Angela, and the next a massive presence pushed inside of her. She felt herself swelling; even Angela seemed taken aback by the will and power of Amanda’s mind.
There was a pause. Amanda said after several moments.
Her mind expanded over the tightbands to the Blue Wing. Angela and Amanda guided her through the fighter’s neural nets and she felt a portion of herself shift to reside in them. From there she reached out and established a Link with each and every one of the pilots.
Angela and Amanda gave assistance once they knew her scheme. It was bold and daring and impossible to grasp without their integration with her mind.
The Blue Wing ships were forming a cube of death. What would normally create a crossfire, where the fighters would suffer considerable friendly fire, was instead a killing field where only the enemy died. Fighters deployed relativistic chaff; beams and projectiles; creating a death zone that took out thirty-one of the enemy. All told, there were now only five attackers left.
On the colony ship, the shields and sheer mass of the vessel absorbed most of the energy, but the same could not be said for the fighters. Tanis was lucky that the moment Amanda detected the EMF spike she yanked the major’s mind back into her body. If she
hadn’t, the parts of Tanis spread across the tightbands would have been torn from her forever.
“Sweet Venus,” Tanis moaned, falling to the floor. “I feel like my brain has been torn in two.”
“Priscilla,” Captain Andrews said. “We need medics now.”
“Already on their way,” she replied audibly. “I sent for them as soon as we made the merge.”
“Very good.” Andrews nodded. “Commander Evans, did any of our fighters survive?”
“Four are in communication, ten are structurally impaired with no chance of survival, the rest are somewhere in between, but with no comm..”
“Get recovery craft out there as soon as possible.”
“Aye, sir.”
The joy of survival was tempered by the near total loss of Blue Wing. Even amongst the four in communication, considerable damage had been sustained by both craft and pilot. No one was coming back in unscathed.
“Yellow is outbound. They’ll do some nudging and correct trajectories for the tugs,” Joseph said.
“Keep me apprised,” Captain Andrews replied. He surveyed his bridge and looked over the damage reports that were scrolling on the main holo as well as the bridge net, finally determining that nothing needed his direct intervention. Only then did he allow himself to turn and look at the woman who had just risked being a mindless husk for the rest of her life. Who may still face that fate.
Tanis lay in a fetal position; shaking slightly with the odd spasm tearing through her body. Joe was holding her, a look of helplessness on his face. Andrews knelt at her side.
“Tanis, can you hear me?”
“Aye, sir…all seven thousand of you. Do you all have to yell?” Tanis whispered between ragged breaths, tears streaming from her eyes.
“Sorry,” he replied softly. “You’re going to be all right. The medics are on the way. I imagine you’ll be taking a bit of a nap though.”
“Sounds good, sir.” Tanis closed her eyes tight, but a small smile played at the edges of her mouth. “Try to keep the ship in one piece while I’m out.”
CHAPTER 35