“Clear them for immediate landing,” Kaufield said to Mary. She nodded in response.
“Shuttles one and three, you are cleared for docking. Please use the forward… repeat forward docking bay to land.”
“Copy that,” Dashboard replied.
Dennis barely heard the routine communications traffic. He was busy watching the expression on Adam’s face as he read Julie’s summary report from their earlier discussion. The helmsman glanced up at the Captain in shock and Dennis nodded in silent agreement.
“This is unbelievable, Captain,” he said, absolutely stunned.
“I’m not releasing that kind of information to the rest of the crew just yet,” Dennis decided. “A delay regarding news of this magnitude would be best until we’re safely away.”
“I agree 100 percent,” said Adam, still stunned by the news.
He was still mentally reviewing their next potential destination possibilities when every alarm in the Command Dome sounded simultaneously. He immediately spun around in his seat, but whatever it was hadn’t yet been put up on the overhead monitors.
“I have a motion sensor contact, Captain. There’s another ship in the area,” Mary reported. “It’s at location 321 bearing 104… a really big ship. I’m adjusting one of the external cameras to put it up on the viewer.”
As she spoke, the overhead image flickered and focused on the darkened hull of the newcomer. The Captain almost had to squint to see it, since there were very few internal lights on the beast. It looked like a really large floating hunk of rectangular metal with gun ports situated everywhere. He couldn’t see any sign of other support vessels, but that certainly didn’t mean there weren’t any. The Pathfinder’s fighter squadron had limited stealth technology, so he was hesitant to rule out the strong possibility that these people might also possess it.
“They can track a ship through PTP transit,” Adam declared with disgust. “They followed our patrol right back to us.”
“Speaking of which, get those shuttles down,” Kaufield said to Mary. “We’re getting the hell out of here.” He tapped a series of keystrokes into the nearest Comm-link. “Glen, get the CAS Drive ready. Pick any emergency transit destination that’s more than 1,000 light years from this area.”
“Roger that, Captain,” was Glen’s quick reply.
“Of course they can track us. It makes perfect sense,” Kaufield said to Adam. “Those buggers have had over forty thousand years to perfect their technology and tactical strategy.” As they continued to watch, a small section of the enemy vessel slowly disengaged from the larger ship. It too was rectangular, and the front edge of it rotated toward the Pathfinder. Before anyone could even open their mouth to speak the smaller ship vanished in a sinister-looking scarlet PTP flash.
“Glen reports that they can see it out their windows down in the Lab wing,” Mary said a moment later, her face whitening with terror. “The smaller vessel short-range transited directly alongside the top of our hangar bay… starboard side.” As she spoke a series of three loud thuds rumbled through the Pathfinder’s hull.
“Glen’s team reports a visual on a series of grappling cables, Captain. The alien shuttle has attached them to our hull and is retracting them, pulling themselves toward us. When they get close enough, they will no doubt board the Pathinder – probably through deck four of the passenger section!”
“Like hell they will,” Kaufield said, moving to the tactical console next to Mary. He activated its work station and watched the new laptop quickly power up from its sleep mode. “Adam, fire up the maneuvering thrusters and move us away from the mother ship, please. And if possible, I’d appreciate it if you would shake that thing next to our hangar bay loose.”
“Aye, sir,” Adam replied.
The Pathfinder’s engines roared to life and the starship swerved sharply to port. The enemy shuttle attached to their starboard side twisted and turned also, but it’s grappling cables held firm. As their course shifted away from the mother ship, the Pathfinder’s motion sensors were finally able to peer behind it. Additional contacts lit up on Mary’s console and she turned to the Captain to let him see four smaller fighters move out of the larger vessel’s shadow. All four accelerated ahead of their command ship and began to close on the Pathfinder.
“Both shuttles are aboard, Captain,” she reported.
“Good,” Kaufield said, his expression becoming more and more intense as the situation escalated. He tapped the Comm-link next to him a second time. “Hangar bay this is the Captain. Launch six fighters out of the port – repeat – port hangar bay,” he ordered. “Have them engage the incoming fighters and… if necessary, the mother vessel. The Pathfinder – again I repeat – the Pathfinder will handle the enemy shuttle that is flanking us to starboard.”
“Acknowledged, Captain,” responded Andy ‘Mad Dog’ Wolf himself from down below. “I’ll alert the launch crews, pronto.” Kaufield waited specifically until he heard his order to launch fighter cover confirmed before switching the Comm-link’s open channel.
“Glen what’s our escape status?” he asked quickly.
“Unpredictable as long as that shuttle is attached,” he said. “We’ve got to get them off of us or they’ll screw up our PTP window. They’ve got some sort of jamming equipment engaged specifically for that purpose. Initiating a transit right now could kill us all.”
“I’m on it,” Kaufield declared angrily, “and I’ll get back to you in just a minute.” The screen in front of him finished powering up and he immediately activated the motion sensor link so that both he and Mary could monitor the situation. Two more of the smaller shuttles were detaching from the mother ship. They no doubt also intended to PTP alongside the Pathfinder and attach to them with grappling cables. Again Kaufield switched his Comm-link. “Colonel Neeland, please get your men together and have them begin evacuating passenger deck four. It’s quite possible that we may get boarded.”
“We’ll be right there Captain,” he heard the Colonel promise.
“Well,” Kaufield said, taking a quick appraisal of Mary’s concerned expression. “This has turned out to be one damned depressing day so far, hasn’t it?”
THE PATHFINDER PROJECT
Chapter XIV: Situation Normal…
Jack Dandridge waited helplessly, standing next to a crowd of concerned civilians and two armed marines. At least twenty other people were tightly crowded together with him in a lift currently rising from passenger level four to the third level above them. The usually quick trip seemed to take an eternity and he wasn’t exactly dealing with the stress too well.
“First I find out this ship has a Chapel built specifically for losers,” he stated snidely. “Then I’m told there’s a Brotherhood undercover agent living next door to me… and now we’re being boarded by an unknown alien species. What the hell else can go wrong on this ship?” He noticed the odd looks from some of the equally scared passengers surrounding him but – as usual – he didn’t care. The door opened and everyone hastily exited onto the third passenger level.
“Out, out, out!” one of the marines shouted. “We’ve got another load of people waiting down below. Move your ass!” He grabbed Dandridge by the collar and shoved him out the door. Jack turned around angrily to give the marine a piece of his mind but suddenly landed flat on his behind as he was unexpectedly bowled over by someone running into the elevator.
“Down!” Thomas Roh shouted, pointing at the floor. “Go down now! I’ve got to get to the Lab wing… the safety of the entire ship depends on it. I swear to God.” One of the marines looked at him with dismay, so Thomas firmly held up the Council patch that he had hastily grabbed on the way out of his quarters.
“You want to go down… there?” Dandridge asked, looking up from the deck with astonishment. He picked himself up and silently watched Thomas in disbelief until the lift doors slid closed, separating him from the young scientist and the pair of marines.
Inside the elevator one of the marines turned
to Thomas. “We’ll take you down but we have orders to evacuate all of the passengers from down there. So if you change your mind and want to come back up you’re going to be out of luck. We can’t wait for you.”
“I’m not coming back up,” said Thomas determinedly. “One way or another, I’m going to get to the Lab wing.”
The instant the door snapped open he and the marines stepped out of the elevator car. The last group of people began moving into it and the two marines watched them carefully, weapons held at the ready. Thomas was already gone – running full speed down the corridor, ignoring the moving sidewalks as he pulled up next to a crowd of marines setting up barricades and taking up concealed positions inside some of the still-open doors to passenger quarters.
“Hey, you can’t go down there!” one of the marines said, grabbing Thomas by the left shoulder. “It’s quite possible there will be enemy troops boarding us any minute.”
“Corporal Henderson… right?” Thomas asked, recognizing him. He watched the man nod and pointed to the distant end of the corridor. “I have information vital to the survival of this ship.” Again he held up his Council ID. “I don’t need any crap from anybody but I do have to get to the Lab wing. I’ll explain everything later but for now please get out of the way!”
Henderson glanced at the man next to him. “Private, you and Jacobs escort this man to the Lab wing immediately. Make sure he gets there safely!”
“Getting there isn’t going to be the problem,” the Private said nervously as he, Jacobs, and Thomas began sprinting down the corridor at top speed. “If we get boarded, coming back here to you guys in one piece is going to be the tough part!”
The Corporal watched them go, reminding himself to smack both of his men on the head later. The kid out-sprinted them easily, leaving them quickly behind as he ran all out. It’s true that the two marines were carrying heavy equipment and watching for signs of armed intrusion, but still… he couldn’t pass on this opportunity to embarrass them at least a little bit.
Thomas continued running, his thoughts returning once more to Glen’s statement about the enemy having ‘jamming capability’ in use against their CAS system. It hadn’t made sense, so he had continued using his Quorum clearance to monitor all critical ship’s communications when suddenly everything had clicked. He knew exactly what to do… all he had to do was get to the Lab wing before disaster struck.
In the Lab wing Glen and the rest of the Laboratory staff were getting ready to reset the CAS system to see if they could reboot and try once more to establish a viable PTP window. He still had all available cameras trained on the sinister alien shuttle lurking right next door, carefully studying the enemy ship as it continued winding its grappling cables tighter and tighter, pulling closer to the Pathfinder with each passing minute.
Through the tiny window ports of the enemy vessel they could see dozens of dark-uniformed troops wearing black helmets. All of them were square-jawed and held huge rifles while waiting patiently until the opportunity to board the starship and wreak havoc arrived. He could see sparks dropping in several of those portholes, indicating that they already held welding torches active. As soon as contact was made with the Pathfinder’s hull, they would begin cutting through.
Glen was still working furiously to prevent that from happening when a beep sounded on the console behind him. Turning, he noticed a large red flash from the E-Note icon on the work station’s screen, indicating that his terminal had just received a top-priority message. It caught his attention because he had never received something flagged with that much security clearance before. Hurriedly, he opened the note and read: Glen… Ship’s CAS difficulty is NOT due to jamming by enemy. Do NOT, repeat, do NOT reset CAS system. On my way down. Stand by… Thomas
P.S. George says hi!
Glen laughed out loud, mostly from absolute frustration and was wondering what to do next when he heard the hatchway behind him opening. Thomas burst through the door followed closely by two armed marines, and he sighed with relief. The young scientist was gasping for breath but immediately pointed at the image of the enemy ship.
“Get clearance from the Captain…” he said, inhaling deeply. “So we can use the CAS arm as a weapon against them!”
Glen thought carefully about Thomas’ statement for five seconds and then realized what the kid was talking about. He nodded with understanding and opened a direct Comm-link to Kaufield. In the background of the sound crackling out of the speaker, he could hear the Captain issuing orders.
“Yes, launch both shuttles!” Kaufield was saying. “Load pilots and gun crews only. Have both ships use their rail guns to provide covering fire for the F-175 squadron.”
“Captain, this is Glen,” Fredericks interrupted, grinning for the first time since the crisis began. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but Thomas is here and has suggested that we use the retractable CAS arm to break the grappling cables on the shuttle next to us. It’s designed to extend a lot farther from the ship than we normally deploy it to keep unpredictable radiation away from the hull during emergency situations.” He shook his head at the complete simplicity of the plan as they continued to watch the enemy drift closer. “I’m certain this will work.”
“Then do it,” the Captain ordered.
“It’s not going to go well for them,” Glen warned. “Our hull is insulated, but the arm itself is hot. Just to let you know, there could be a lot of casualties on their end…”
“Take whatever action is necessary to keep the enemy from boarding the Pathfinder,” commanded Kaufield decisively. “That is an order.”
Glen glanced over at Thomas who was already tapping commands into one of the work stations. “I’ll handle the CAS arm,” he said as he watched the kid type. “I would imagine you’re already working on the instability problem with our PTP window.”
“It’s the dark matter that’s causing the problem,” Thomas said absently as he continued furiously typing commands into his computer. “For some reason there’s a lot more of it in this area than we’ve found in previous locations. We’ve been trying to figure out how to more quickly identify and chart it down in the Observatory without any luck so far. Trust me; the extra mass from the dark matter in this region of space is what’s messing up our computer model, not some sort of jamming field from the enemy ships.”
“Dark matter,” Glen growled. “I really hate that stuff, you know!”
Thomas momentarily stopped typing and took the time to glance at his colleague, smiling widely. “You listened to me! The CAS system is still on-line! An E-Note actually beat me down here for once, didn’t it?”
“There’s a first time for everything,” commented Glen as he began fully unfolding the thin metal arm beneath the Pathfinder’s hangar bay. Normally they kept the arm at minimum safe distance but it quickly extended as soon as Fredericks activated its remote control mechanism. The long arm swiveled out to starboard and suddenly he could see brilliant white flashes on the enemy shuttle’s hull. The white-hot singularity at the tip of the arm continued to burn furiously. “It’s a piece of cake from here,” Glen said, noticing idly that he was talking to himself. He folded the outer length of the arm upward and then raised it between the Pathfinder and the approaching enemy. With that done he swept the arm from ship’s stern toward the bow, all the way along the length of its fuselage. The flickering light from the still active singularity bathed the alien shuttle in a sinister glow, making it appear even more intimidating.
“Surprise, suckers!” he heard Thomas shout.
They both watched the images of the grappling cables on the monitors in front of them snap instantly as the arm continued to move gradually toward the front of the starship and touched them each, one by one. Off the top of his head, Glen could think of at least ten substances that would hold up against the hot jolt of current that currently radiated along the CAS arm. Fortunately for them, the cables were composed of normal metallic ores and thus also functioned as a near-perfect conductor. T
he entire enemy shuttle briefly lit up with white flashes of electricity as each cable split.
“We’re separated, Captain. You can have Adam begin moving us away!”
“Acknowledged,” the Captain replied. At almost the same instant they heard a pair of familiar sounding thuds against the hull.
“Scratch that,” Adam said. “There’s still somebody alive and kicking over there, and they’re not giving up. They’ve just fired two more grapplers at us.”
“Our hull is insulated, you should expect that at least some of theirs would be,” growled Kaufield. “Get that enemy piece of junk off my ship, Glen!”
“Working on it,” he said, adjusting the targeting mechanism on the arm. He swung it back down below the enemy ship and raised it slowly up until it was within inches of touching their hull. The powerful flickering singularity immediately melted through metal while Glen used the control system on his work station to drag the tip of the CAS arm backwards along the bottom of the enemy ship. They watched on their monitors as section after section of the ship depressurized. Several internal explosions rocked the shuttle and he noticed bodies and pieces of glowing debris flying into space. He finished up by repeating the initial maneuver, cutting them loose from the two newly-fired grappling cables. They watched with satisfaction as the enemy ship dipped helplessly forward and began to drift slowly away, completely powerless.
“There’s a very good reason we keep that singularity extended away from our own ship,” grinned Thomas with a nod.
“We’re free again Captain,” he said. “Unless they transit more shuttles next to us, that is. And the next time they’ll try and take the CAS arm out first… that will strand us here.”
The Pathfinder Trilogy Page 24