He Who Dares: Book Two (The Gray Chronicals 2)

by Rob Buckman

  “With due caution.” Pete scratched his chin.

  “Go on, Pete, what are you thinking.”

  “Well, sir. If we have to assume the Sirriens know about this WP, they must have some sort of surveillance system watching it, either a small patrol ship, if they have enough. Or a remote sensor platform.”

  “Point taken. We’ll have to put a drone through first and see what we have.”

  “And then?”

  “Play it by ear when we get there. I’m sure a solution with present itself.” Mike smiled, seeing Pete’s look. “Cheer up, Number One.”

  “If you say so, sir.”

  “Jan, let’s call this, Warp point Zulu and plot me a course to get us there in the minimum of time. But to be on the safe side, let’s make our drop out point two light days short of the Kuiper belt and 25 degrees above the plane of eclipse.”

  Even with the buffer of two light days, their exit point put them smack between the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. Is region of the star system beyond the planets, extending from thirty AU to approximately fifty AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but it is far larger. Twenty times as wide and twenty to two hundred times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies, or remnants from the Solar System's formation. Although some asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles, such as methane, ammonia and water. The Oort cloud on the other hand is a spherical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals that is believed to surround the Sun at a distance up to 50,000 AU, nearly a light-year. It was risky, and there were no guaranty that they would run into celestial debris when exiting. They’d have to exit with their untested shields a maximum and hope they didn’t run into anything bigger than they could handle, like a planetoid. The worse fear of all was exiting in exactly the same place as some existing object. As the physics said, no two objects could occupy the same space at the same time. Mutual annihilation.

  “Aye-aye, sir.” Jan answered after taking a deep breath. She knew as well as Mike the risk they were taking.

  Despite the cool air flowing through the Bridge, there was a sheen of sweat on everyone upper lips and Mike gave the order to proceed with the jump. Not because of the jump itself, as they were all old hands at that by now. No, it was the uncertainty of what lay at the exit point that worried most. Even Mike, who was trying the play the unemotional sphinx, even put his stoic view of life to the test. One wrong decimal point, one wrong number inputted…if that was the dace, it was doubtful they would even know if they interspace with something. The event would be over before the human mind had time to register the fact. Four days after jumping from the Southern jump point from Enders World the exited back into normal space with hardly a jolt. Sensors did register several small objects hitting the shields but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity to threaten them. For a second, it sounded as if a gust of wind swept through the Bridge as everyone let out their pent up breath at the same time.

  “Thank the lord for small mercies.” Janice muttered.

  “Amen to that.” Gable echoed.

  As it turned out, the Sirriens didn’t have a watch on this oddball warp point. Why world they, who’d be crazy enough to jump out in the middle of the Kuiper belt/Oort cloud in the first place. Only mad dogs and Englishmen would do something as craze as that. Even this close, relatively speaking, Mike ordered they proceed with their passive or active sensor at full power, as even at the slow speed they could still run into something their shield couldn’t handle. They ghosted towards the systems primary, and after a week, they entered the upper edge of the Kuiper belt and went to passive sensors only. It was still nerve wracking, and Pete requested they change helmsman on a hourly basis. Mike agreed, seeing the look on Sally Goldman’s face even after a short time. It wasn’t so much about what she could see, but what she couldn’t. The passive sensor array only gave her so much warning before she had to dodge around something larger than the ship’s shields could handle. Eventually, they exited the Kuiper belt with only a few near misses, and Mike brought the ship to a standstill at the Heliopause, its bow pointing towards the GO star, 123 astronomical units away at the system center. With their position above the plane of eclipse, they couldn’t examine much of the systems, but not as well as if they’d come in by the normal WO point above or below the star. There they could have ‘looked’ down, or up, depending on your point of view, at the North or South warp point.

  “Helm - All stop.”

  Aye-aye, sir. All stop.”

  Fast, slow and standstill are all relative tern when speaking of interstellar or intersolar interaction. Even though they were at a standstill relative to their forward motion, the ship was still moving in relationship to the spin of the system. Even at one hundred and eighty-five thousand miles per second, the speed of light, it still took twelve hours before the light, and information arrived at the ships sensors. An active tachyon pulse would have been quicker, with an almost instantaneous return echo, but if the Sirrien sensor tech were on their toes, they would pick it up. Mike considered the risk for a moment.

  “Jan, take a sweep across the system in 30o increments. One low powered ‘ping’ each time.” At this distance it shouldn’t set off any alarms.” Or so he hoped. The passive data was too slow, and by the time it arrive it was woefully out of date, even for the relatively ‘fix’ objects such as the planets. Any ships they saw would be long gone with no way to tell if they had changed course.

  Jan ‘pinged’ six times to get a 180o wide sweep of the system with the long-range tachyon radar, but it did fill in the immediate gaps in the passive sensor reading. It was much as the Voss told them, except for all the warships in system. Somehow, the Suritan had forgotten to tell them about those. This system boasted six planets, including one Jovian, one Mercury type planet and two planets in the ‘Cinderella’ zone. This gave the Sirriens access to a plentiful supply of fuel on one hand, and heavy metals from the Mercury class planet on the other and two nice sunny vacations spots. Like Earth’s system, this one sported a large asteroid belt in an orbit that might at one time have supported an Earth class planet. Occasionally, the sensors registered a tachyon search pulse as it brushed over them, but it didn’t immediately come back, so they probably registered as nothing more than a lump of rock. Their shape helped, as it didn’t conform to any know ship in the Sirrien database, and that was without using Gable’s new cloak system.

  “What do we have Jan?”

  “Bit of a mixed bunch, Skipper. No heavy units above a Battleship, lots of destroyer and frigates, and quite a few inter-systems patrol boats and shuttles.”

  “And the space station?”

  “Typical spinning top configuration and more like a commercial/industrial station than an OWP… oh… wait. I have a space mirror furnace unit coming into view.”

  “Are har! That means they have an orbiting shipyard.” Pete added.

  “Could be, OX. We’ll know more once we have a look on the other of the star.”

  “Helm - give up a hard shove and put us on a ballistic curve to put us well above the plain of eclipse.”

  “Aye-aye, Skipper - a hard shove it is.”

  “Not exactly the proper naval parlance for such a maneuver,” Pete laughed, “but I guess it serves the purpose.” Mike shrugged.

  “I suppose there is a proper naval term for doing that, but I can’t think of it off the top of my head - helm, once we are moving in the right direction, give us a slight spin and a very slow tumble.”

  “Aye-aye, sir, a spin, and a tumble it is.”

  “Jan - set the screens to compensate so we keep looking towards where the station is.”

  “Aye, sir.” He didn’t need to tell her to sing out if anything took any notice of them.

  “So, we make like a wandering rock.”

  “Right. Nothing here of interest, just us rocks wandering through the systems. But we need to get a better look a
t what’s on the other side of the system and fill in the gaps behind the sun and the planets and find out if they have any OWP.”

  “But it’s a bit of a risk,” Pete rubbed the whiskers on he normally clean-shaven chin, “you think there might be an orbital weapons platforms, Skipper?” Pete asked.

  “I don’t know Pete. There seems to be an awful lot of warships and activity in this out of the way system, and I have to ask myself the question of why.”

  They didn’t ping as they went, as tempting as it was for a quick update, but the risk someone would spot it was too great. Mostly, the trip was safe and boring, but Mike wasn’t taking any chances of getting surprised by some Eagle eyed sensor tech. Hopefully, their initial drive flare would be lost against the background of the Oort cloud. In all, it took eleven days to reach the position and fill in the blanks. They weren’t any more surprises hidden behind the sun, or the planets. The only thing added was more information on the huge space station and the orbiting solar mirror. From their new vantage point, they could see a massive complex surrounding the solar furnace, with naval dockyard, finishing docks for both air and space, including several small OWP as well as a good size fleet of war ships on guard and roving picket ships. Between watches, Mike, Pete and Jan gathered in the Wardroom to discuss what they’d seen.

  “Whatever is going on here makes me feel nervous, Mike.”

  “You and me both. This has way too much activity for just a trading station, even with the orbiting dockyards.

  “It’s more like a major ship building program to me.” Jan added.

  “Yes, but to what purpose… unless the Sirriens are planning to go to war.”

  “If that’s the case, who are they going to go to war against?”

  “We know from Naval Intelligence that the Sirriens have at least three major fleets built around a superdreadnaught. We also have additional information that they have several smaller fleets centered around either dreadnaughts, or Battleships.”

  “That’s an awful lot of fire power for a star system supposedly at peace with its neighbors.”

  “True and why go to the bother of stealing fighter craft?” Pete asked.

  “We… the Royal Navy that is, don’t have the corner on light attack craft. The Confederate and the Union Navy of the two American star systems respectively have their own LAC development programs.”

  “That’s not to say the Sirriens didn’t get information on our latest version and wanted a couple to study.”

  “There was one oddity I noted, Skipper, but at the time I didn’t think it worthwhile bring up.”

  “Go on, Jan.”

  “Well, their solar furnace was recycling a lot of old ships, freighter mostly, and a few older version warships.” That sat all three back in their seats as they thought about the implications.

  “Not unusual.” Pete said at length, “but still.” Jan suddenly sat upright in her seat.

  “What?” Mike asked.

  “Mike, remember that lecture we had about England retaining the secret of how to make Ag plates?”

  “Oh my lord! They are recycling those ships for the material.”

  “Yes, then recycling the rest of the ship to make new warships.”

  “Could it be that simple?” Pete looked back and forth between Mike and Jan.

  “Without knowing how the Ag plates are made, they’d either have to buy it from some other race, such as the Voss, of the Breen, or salvage as much as they can from old ships.”

  “Buying it from the Voss or the Breen could be expensive once they knew how desperate the Sirriens are to get their hands on them.”

  “Even knowing all that, it still doesn’t change our mission. We still have to find out where those LAC’s are and either retrieve them, or destroy them.”

  “It's going to be a bitch getting in there, Skipper not matter which way you look at it.” Jan pursed her lips in thought.

  “You’ve got that right, Jan.” Mike nodding in agreement.

  “Christ, even with our shielding, there no way we can hide our drive trail if we go in.” Gable sighed. And then what do we do. We still don’t know if the ships are even on the station. For all we know the Sirriens might have already shipped them off somewhere else.”

  “I don’t think so. They took a hell of a lot of trouble to get them here in secret, and this is a hidden base. I’m betting the ships are still on that station.”

  “So how do we go about finding them, Skipper?”

  Their drive signature was the one weak point in their invisibility shield. It would stand out like a sore thumb to any competent sensor tech. Mike sat there in silence, studying the battle board, formulating and rejecting one plan after another.

  “How about using a shuttle, or ships launch, Skipper, that should be a able to slip though the net?” Gable ventured.

  “It might, but if spotted, there would be no way to rescue it. Besides that, what do you do if you get there?”

  “I’d take that chance, Skipper.”

  “I know you would Jan, but it's too risky, but thanks for the offer.” He sat there, deep in thought, thinking about what his Grandfather taught him, and looked for the obvious. Unconsciously he sat forward as he studied his data pad showing the system, stroking his chin and tapping his front teeth with his fingernail. A germ of an idea formed making his eye squint as his brow pulled into a frown.

  “Let's go back to the Bridge. I want to see the systems on the big screen.” Once they arrived, Jan put an enlargement view of the system on the main screen.

  “Jan, step the view out.” She did, zooming out one-step at the time. “Hold it there.” Everyone on the Bridge looked at the board to see if they could see what the Captain was seeing. One or two looked at each other and shrugged.

  “Zoom in Janice on this point, slowly.” Mike used his consult pointer to indicate a position. Janice zoomed in. Then he smiled and sat back, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. “How are your piloting skills today, Chief?” Mike asked.

  “Piloting?... fine, sir.” Conner answered, looking over his shoulder with a skeptical look on his face, remembering the last time Mike had asked him that. At least this time there were no canyons for him to thread his way through.

  “Excellent,” Mike muttered and turned his attention to his consult for a moment, “drift us to these coordinates, Chief.”

  “Aye-aye, sir.” Conner check the position, then brought the manoeuvring thrusters on line and slowly turn the ship around into a new heading.

  “OK, Skipper, let’s have it.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve sitting there like the cat that just eaten the canary.”

  “Oh, that,” he pointed to the screen, “what’s that, Pete?”

  “That, sir it’s an asteroid belt.”

  “Right. And where does asteroid belts go?”

  “Go?” He thought about it for a moment before answering, thinking it might be a trick question, “all the way round the system usually.”

  “Right.” Then it hit Pete and the others what Mike was talking about. “Right pass the Solar furnace and the construction yards.” They both said together.

  “That right, boys and girls, that’s where they get their construction materials from to feed the solar furnace, and a path right thought their defense ring.” Conner looked over his shoulder at Mike.

  “And I take it you want me to take this ship inside the asteroid belt, don’t you Skipper.” Moreover, he’d just thought that piloting a shuttle through a narrow canyon was hard.

  “Better than that, Chief, I want you to find me a nice safe, cozy asteroid to put her down on, one with a rotation in line with the solar plane if possible.”

  “Good lord! That brilliant, sir.” Conner exclaimed, catching on immediately.

  “Yes, it is quite elegant.” Pete marveled at the brilliance of the plan.

  “Glad you think so, Mr. Standish. Would you care to take the helm to accomplish the manoeuvre?” Conner
offered with a raised eyebrow.

  “Err... nope, don’t think me twelve week piloting course would put me in your class where I would consider putting this ship down on a spinning asteroid, thank you very much.” There was a loud cough from the other side of the Bridge, but underneath Mike could have sworn he heard Janice let out a big chicken squawk.

  “I heard that, Second Leftenant Fletcher!”

  “What!” She asked in outrage. “All I was doing is clearing my throat.” She battered her eyelids at him in mock innocents.

  “Don’t worry, Pete, I’ve seen Mr. Blake put an assault shuttle down inside a cave under a waterfall.” Conner just snorted, and held his piece. “Janice,” Mike said in a stern voice, trying to show his disapproval, not that it works with all the chucking around the Bridge, “try and find us a good size asteroid, nickel-iron if possible, with a slow rotation on her.”