Connor's Gambit

by Z Gottlieb

Fernando swiped through the instructions and transferred the program to the vehicle. “I can handle this. What’s a checkerboard?”

  “Never mind the checkerboard, just scatter the shielding around the vehicle’s atmospheric structures,” Brad answered in a hurry as he raced through preflight check. Pressing his lips together, he closed his eyes and thought as hard and as loud as he could.

  “Shinny, please hear me. I will depart at maximum speed. Because we need to shield the vehicle, I will not be able to shield the exhaust. The air expelled from the vehicle’s ion engine will be super-heated. Prepare to shield. I love you. I’ll be back.”

  “I heard you loud and clear. Now would be a good time for the cavalry, since it appears as if I’m the only one with a shield. See you soon. Love you.”

  Shinny’s private message gave him hope she would survive. “Fernando, if everyone is buckled in, give our passengers a countdown of ten.” Again focusing on communicating with Shinny and matching Fernando’s countdown, he thought, “Shinny, prepare to shield, counting down from ten: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, blastoff.” Brad gestured for the vehicle to thrust forward at maximum speed through the Transportation Room, through the Kisskalu’s diaphragm into space toward the Zuonopy.

  As the vehicle rushed toward the Zuonopy, he transformed the platter from the shape of an airplane to something resembling a dirigible, evenly distributing the mass around the engine to increase its speed through space. He stared at the sensors. “Fernando, looking at the number of Vipers in the process of launching—it looks like the Aneplé were waiting for our departure. Continue to create the patches of shielding. Ensure the patches are balanced around the platform’s diameters.”

  Chapter 33

  Griken ordered the Zuonopy to pursue the Kisskalu at full speed, hoping to catch up. Now that the Zuonopy and its squadrons’ weapons were fully loaded, he was confident of overwhelming the Kisskalu in combat. He watched the Kisskalu moving away toward the transit gate and tensed thinking about his orders limiting his area of operation. It would be unfortunate if the Kisskalu went through the Pertutinn Gate, since his orders only allowed him to transit to and remain in this nexus. Otherwise, he would be subjected to the Rule of Three. The Rule of Three required the agreement of three Flag Officers or admirals for his orders to be amended. CIG Fleet threw the amendment in at the last moment to place a limit on Admiral N’Klaftin’s area of control now that he had returned as Connor. Although, Griken was pleased to see N’Klaftin return and was looking forward to a positive change in the conflict, not all the Flags viewed his return as positive.

  Griken was anxious. Even at full speed, it didn’t appear as if he would be able to confront the Kisskalu before it exited the nexus. Saying something to Connor on the unlikelihood of retrieving his daughter and son from the Kisskalu would be equal to rubbing salt into a wound. Connor was standing behind the bridge, and could interpret the tactical issues as well as anyone else.

  “Admiral, a vehicle has just exited the Kisskalu at maximum speed.”

  “Helmsman, provide a visual and a full report,” ordered Griken. He was speechless, staring at the vehicle on the screen speeding toward them. What in the universe was it? And while the clarity of the object was still limited because of the distance, if he had to guess, the orange dots scattered throughout the strange looking vehicle looked like Neslins.

  “Admiral, it is Pilot Johnson. He is piloting a transfer vehicle from the Zuonopy and requesting an armed escort. The vehicle’s signature is verified and Johnson is using the correct encryption signals.” The helmsman looked at the sensors and streaming video. “The Aneplé have launched a number of Vipers, and they are in pursuit of the transfer vehicle.”

  “Communications, forward the following orders to the air commander on duty. Assign two Viper and two Defender Squadrons immediately to engage all Aneplé vehicles within range and escort the transfer vehicle back to the Zuonopy.”

  Fernando watched Brad gesturing madly across the dashboard. “Johnson what are you doing?”

  “Once the Aneplé start firing, I will maneuver the vehicle so they hit the heavily shielded areas you scattered, but after that I won’t be fast enough to respond if there are more than a couple of direct hits. But it’s necessary until the program Shinny built is completely downloaded into the vehicle’s system to rotate and move with the weapons fire to ensure the patches of shielding are hit. Warn the Little Mothers the turbulence will be extreme.”

  Fernando nodded. “Smart planning on her part. I regret leaving your mate. It was unfortunate, but necessary. At that time, I could see no other alternatives.”

  Brad’s voice was quiet, laced with pain, “Shinny understood. She believed it was the right thing to do.”

  Fernando did not respond. He didn’t want to add to Johnson’s loss. He sent a message to Yancurve on his tablet, “Warn the Little Mothers it will be a rough ride. How is Wesgwidy?” He passed Yancurve’s message to Brad. “Yancurve says Wesgwidy is fine and resting.”

  “Thanks, I hope she has a speedy recovery and is better soon.” Brad made minor adjustments to the configuration, increasing their speed slightly. Looking at the sensors, he saw a kinetic weapon was due to hit in thirty seconds and another three seconds later, followed by laser bursts. He turned the vehicle sharply to the left. The vehicle shuddered from the missile hitting the shield. He quickly tipped the vehicle downward and let out the breath he was holding as the vehicle shook violently from the second missile hitting another shield patch.

  “Direct hits. Nice flying. I’m going to have a difficult time explaining this to my peers when I try to explain how you were flying to purposely have the vehicle hit,” Fernando said, shaking his head.

  “Not much choice. The vehicle isn’t fast enough to avoid the weapons fire. It’s that or destruction,” Brad responded as he maneuvered again to the left for another direct hit. “This won’t last much longer. The Zuonopy launched four squadrons.” He put his hands on his lap. There wasn’t much for him to do but pray the executed programming was successful as the vehicle kept jerking back and forth and up and down to allow the shields to absorb the impacts from the weapons fire. He would have been more confident if it had been Shinny who programmed the shields, and also directed the placement of the shields at will rather than leaving them static, but he didn’t have enough information on Fernando’s background to trust that he had the ability to do that. It didn’t matter, though; this was working, at least so far. Just a few more minutes, he told himself, as his seat responded to the jerking, holding him in place.

  Fernando narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the Swarm Defenders coming up to them. “What is on the tails of those Defenders?”

  Brad choked at the sight of his Fairy-like illustration of Shinny with wings in a Fleet uniform on the tails of the Swarm Defenders passing them. “Uh it’s Swarm Defender Squadron 262, my squadron. It looks like they decided to make my mate their mascot.” Brad was overwhelmed with their message welcoming him home. It would have been perfect if Shinny were sitting next to him.

  “Interesting, I don’t think anyone ever thought of designs other than camouflages,” remarked Fernando.

  “It was just an idea I had. I wasn’t sure if I could persuade Commander Deznoic to consider it, but it appears as if they integrated the concept. They need to come up with a different mascot. I’m not sure Shinny will be too happy when she sees it.” Brad breathed a sigh of relief as they approached the Zuonopy. While he was curious how the squadrons were doing, he focused solely on bringing his passengers in so he could turn around and retrieve Shinny. “Warn the Little Mothers I will be changing the configuration to dock in the Zuonopy as soon as I’m given clearance.”

  Chapter 34

  Brad turned off the transfer vehicle’s engines and rested his head on his arms on the dashboard, ignoring the cheering coming from above him in the platter section. He was exhausted physically. Mentally, he was a wreck, questioning the decisio
n to leave Shinny behind to battle the Aneplé Security Forces by herself. He needed to pull himself together and focus on launching an immediate rescue of Shinny. They owed her their lives and he still needed to discuss a rescue with Connor and Admiral Griken. He hadn’t communicated Shinny’s disposition in an effort to protect her, especially since he was looking at her download from the Kisskalu and found five Aneplé spies on the Zuonopy. He didn’t know who they were but he had their signatures and was tracking them on his tablet.

  Fernando grabbed Johnson’s shoulders in exuberance. “You did it. The colony is safe. I need to join the others and will be back to help.”

  Brad stared down at the floorboard. “Okay, I’ll be out soon. I just need to collect myself for the moment.” If only he had understood the dream, he could have changed the outcome. Feeling guilty and powerless wasn’t helping, but he needed to organize his thoughts before he talked to the admirals. He wasn’t sure how Connor would take the news he had left his daughter behind. If he were in Connor’s shoes, he wouldn’t take the news well. Taking deep breaths to compose himself, he thought about how he could exit the vehicle and strip the contaminated hood and uniform off so he could search for Connor and Griken. He needed to find them as soon as possible. He stood and walked to the ladder behind the seats and climbed upward. Reaching the empty passenger area, he looked out of the vehicle’s formed platter and saw both Connor and Griken and a few other Fleet personnel he didn’t recognize standing on the catwalk next to the platform waiting for him. He walked out and down the ramp to the platform and carefully undressed, folding the contaminated suit so he would not be affected by any of the pollen that remained on it.

  Griken watched Johnson undress, thinking he was going to owe the kid a case of his favorite beer. “Connor, if I hadn’t seen it myself, I would never have believed your son would return, and with a Neslin colony, no less. Once they learn he’s your son, your reputation with the Neslins will go from well-regarded to legendary,” Griken teased his friend.

  “I’ll just have to remind them it’s coincidental, not genetic,” he said, pacing anxiously, eagerly waiting, for his daughter to also disembark. He had faith his son and daughter would find a way off the Kisskalu. However, he never expected they would also rescue a colony of Neslins.

  “Why is he undressing?”

  “Don’t know. I’m sure there is a good reason for it.”

  Brad finished stripping off the layers of protection, leaving the second uniform on. He carefully removed the hood and folded it in. Thankfully most of the pollen had fallen off during the flight, though he carried some of the smell. The smell wasn’t strong enough to cause him to throw up, but he wanted to move away as fast as possible. He quickly jogged toward Connor and Griken.

  Connor watched Brad approach them alone. He furrowed his eyebrows as he kept staring behind Brad at the vehicle anxiously looking for his daughter. He walked to meet Brad and gave him a bear hug. “Welcome back! You did a fantastic job bringing the Neslins back with you.” He looked at the grim expression on Brad’s face and knew there was an issue. “Is Shinny still on the vehicle? Is everything all right?”

  “She didn’t make it onto the vehicle. The Aneplé security forces stumbled on our escape and engaged us while we were running to the vehicle. She volunteered to hold back the Aneplé so we could escape.” He took a heavy breath before he started again. “We need to go back to the ship and rescue her.” Brad looked at Connor and Griken standing stiffly not responding, just staring at him as if the universe had fallen apart. “Is there a problem? How long would it take to launch a rescue?”

  “Johnson, the Kisskalu just went through the Pertutinn Transit Gate. My orders do not allow me to pursue it beyond the nexus if the transit gate leads away from recognized CIG territories.”

  Brad stood in front of them, blown away by Griken’s words. He turned to Connor and spoke to him in English. “Couldn’t you order him to pursue the Kisskalu through the gate?” Recognizing the hurt expression on Connor’s face, Brad panicked. “You could order him, right?”

  Responding in English, Connor answered, “I can’t. This is his ship. Griken’s orders include a provision requiring a ‘Rule of Three’ to amend the orders. The Rule of Three requires three Flag Officers on site to make the change.”

  “This has to be a joke. She’s your daughter. You have to be able to do something. We can’t just leave her on the ship. Either they will find her and kill her or she will travel with them to Connor’s Gambit.”

  “What are you talking about?” Connor asked.

  “The Aneplé have decided that Connor’s Gambit is a shortened transit to their home systems.”

  Connor shook his head in disbelief. “How did the Aneplé derive their wrong-headed conclusion? The dark hole had just been discovered—information on it’s been publicized in open sources. It’s typical of the insanity that comes out of the Aneplé Fleet.” Connor closed his eyes momentarily and inhaled deeply. “Brad, we can’t do anything at this time. Admiral Yespeth will be here soon. I will request Admiral Yespeth’s support to pursue the Kisskalu when she arrives.”

  Brad was dumbfounded by Connor’s response. “CIG Fleet is worthless! We can’t wait. If we leave Shinny on the ship, she won’t survive.” Brad glared at Connor. “I think you don’t want to do anything.”

  “You can’t seriously believe that? If Griken and I act on it alone, we will be pushed out of the Fleet. Any changes we just convinced the Fleet to make will be cancelled, leaving Earth in imminent danger.”

  “Actually, I do believe that. No skin off your back, you already have your replacement children and a new wife. Where does that leave Dane and me?” Brad snapped in desperation as he pushed Connor aside.

  Connor moved aside with the push, “Brad, it will take a while, but both Dane and you will survive over time.”

  Although Commander Rontue did not have the complete download for the language being spoken between Connor and the pilot, she could parse out a few words. The discussion became more heated, with the pilot becoming angrier. She was astonished when the pilot pushed Connor. Seeing the pilot walk away, she stepped in front of him. “Pilot Johnson, I would like for you to provide the Intelligence Division a debriefing of your time on the Kisskalu.”

  Brad had no idea who the officer standing in his way was and had his own agenda. Looking at the Aneplé signals on his tablet, he grimaced at their meaning. He pulled Shinny’s tablet from his waist and slapped it on the commander’s belt as Shinny had done to him. “Debrief this. I’m going to kill the bastard.” He brushed her aside with his shoulder as he walked away from them and jogged toward Shinny’s battalion.

  Not recognizing the word from her downloaded lexicon, Tipaly turned to Griken, “What is the meaning of bastard?”

  “It isn’t as important as trying to figure out who he intends to kill. Where is he going?”

  Tipaly, tracking the pilot, “He is heading toward the Special Combat Troop training area.”

  Chapter 35

  Leevaal stood in his exercise uniform observing his squad practicing hand-to-hand combat, while Colonel T’Lentic and Major Ukpres inspected anything they could think of to distract the troops. As soon as word spread around the Cruiser that Pilot Johnson and Major N’Klaftin were returning from the Aneplé ship, the two of them did everything they could think of to keep the battalion too busy to watch the fighter vehicles escort the transfer vehicle back to the cruiser. He was irked with the unprofessionalism they displayed in doing everything they could to stand in Major N’Klaftin’s way, making her short time on the Zuonopy difficult. His memory of the first time Ukpres threw N’Klaftin across the room as an example of an unprepared soldier and each time after she repeated similar stunts, still grated on him.

  He spied Pilot Johnson, the trainee he encountered during the Evasion Exercise, staring directly at Colonel T’Lentic from the entrance with an enraged expression. Leevaal knew exactly what the pilot had on his mind. More than once, h
e had been ready to kill the colonel himself. But thinking about it and doing it were two different things.

  Brad ran toward the Colonel, ready to punch him. Just as he was going to swing, someone held his arm and pulled him back. Still facing the colonel, he yelled, “Traitor, you just killed my mate.” He tried to pull away from whatever had a clamp on his arm. Turning around he saw the oversized sergeant holding onto his arm. “Let go.”

  The colonel stepped up to Brad. “What are you talking about?”

  “You sent my mate to the Aneplé. When we were on the Kisskalu, they were looking for her. Only three people knew she was on the Defender with me, traveling to the transfer platform. I’m excusing Connor and Griken, which leaves you. I can smell the Aneplé stink all over you,” Brad snarled, ignoring the queasiness in his stomach.

  Connor and Griken arrived. Connor stepped up next to Brad, facing T’Lentic. “Is it true?”

  “I am not a traitor. It’s true that I despise you and your family for the loss of my brother. I agreed to Operation P’Nic, thinking that would be the end of the major. It never occurred to me it would be as widely successful as it was. I have no connections with the Aneplé. As far as I’m concerned, having them show up was just as much of a surprise to me as it was to others on this ship,” explained T’Lentic, red-faced at Brad’s allegation.

  “The Aneplé stink that was all over the Kisskalu is now all over you. Not as strong but it’s on you. By the way, your brother was on the Kisskalu.”

  “My brother was on the Kisskalu?” T’Lentic repeated in shock. “My family wants him back but not if he is a traitor.”

  “Don’t worry, he is just one of the many drug addicts on the ship. He’s probably too addled to be a traitor,” responded Brad in frustration.

  T’Lentic, clearly incensed, stood there fuming from Brad’s accusations. “Major Ukpres, come here—I want you to submit a Disrespect Report on this pilot.”