by Dietmar Wehr
The 21 day trip was the longest hyper-space voyage that Strider had taken, and it seemed to him to have lasted even longer than three weeks . He noticed that his heart was beating faster than normal when the ship dropped out of hyper-space in the outskirts of the Tubal star system. Two quick micro-jumps brought Savannah to the edge of Tubal’s no-jump zone, and from there it traveled through normal space until it was able to land on Tubal’s moon.
Strider had stayed on the Bridge the entire time since leaving hyper-space. “Any radio or radar emissions?”
“Nothing, sir,” said the com technician. Jaeger was standing next to Strider’s Command Station chair.
“We’ll have to watch the planet carefully around the clock, Karl. If we use our radar, we’ll just give ourselves away. Make sure the Bridge crews stay alert.”
“Yes, sir. I can take the Bridge now if you like.”
Strider got up and stretched. “Fine. If we see or hear anything at all, call me. The XO has the con,” he said for the benefit of the Bridge personnel as he headed for the exit.
As the days passed with no sign of the raiders, Strider couldn’t help but wonder if his idea was just plain wrong. The seemingly endless watching and listening by the Bridge crews and the lack of having anything to do by the rest of the crew was putting a strain on everyone. Even the drills ordered by Jaeger, which the crews normally complained about, were now a welcome change from the boredom.
With less than 48 hours to go until the relief ships arrived, Strider got a call from the Bridge during his sleep cycle.
“Strider here. What’s happening?”
“We’re picking up radar signals, Commander,” said Jaeger in a lower than normal voice. “No visual detection yet.”
“I’ll be on the Bridge shortly. Maintain the status quo, Karl.”
“Understood. Bridge out.”
Strider could definitely feel the tension in the air when he entered the Bridge. Jaeger had sent the ship to Alert Stations as a precaution. He got up in preparation for surrendering the Command Station to Strider who waved him back down.
“Keep the con for now, Karl. I just want to assess the situation. Can we tell where the radar signals are coming from yet?”
Jaeger turned to look at the Tactical Station. “Tactical?”
The Tactical Officer on duty, who Strider saw was an AF officer, looked up from his console. “We have a bearing but not a range.”
“Let’s see it on the main display, Lieutenant,” said Strider in as calm a voice as he could manage. One thing he had learned from Corso was that the CO had to remain calm at all times, no matter what.
The main display, which had been showing the zoomed-in optical image of the planet, now split down the middle with the right side showing the tactical situation. A green octagon in the middle represented the moon, a larger blue octagon up to the left represented the planet, and there was a red line that headed from the green icon down and to the left. Strider stood and watched the line carefully. If it was coming from a ship, then the angle of the line should start to change as the ship got closer to the planet. Within seconds, it was clear that the bearing was changing. The red line was starting to swing up towards the planet.
“Can they detect us, Lieutenant?” asked Strider.
“I don’t believe that the signal is strong enough to differentiate the ship from the moon’s background and still make it back to the sending ship, sir.”
“At least they can’t see us,” murmured Strider. Jaeger nodded. With the sun more or less behind the moon, the near side—where Savannah was—was now in the moon’s shadow.
“There she is!” said the Astrogation Officer pointing to the visual image. The ship’s opticals had detected a new light source and had automatically zoomed in. It was clearly a sunlight reflection off a spherical hull.
“Range?” asked Jaeger.
“One hundred forty-four thousand klicks,” said the Tactical Officer. Before Strider could say anything, the visual image shifted and zoomed out a bit to show reflection off a second hull.
“Two ships. Well, that’s just wonderful,” said Strider in disgust. He turned to look at Jaeger. “We’re not going to try to take on two ships. As long as they don’t detect us, we’ll just keep observing.”
“Let’s hope they don’t see the relief ships when they arrive,” said Jaeger.
Strider nodded but said nothing. He hoped that neither relief ship would use radar during their approach. If they did, the raiders might detect them and investigate.
It took 18 more minutes before the two mystery ships reached the planet and dropped down into its atmosphere. It looked like they were intending to land near the ruined city and its partially overgrown starport.
“The radar signals have stopped,” said the Tactical Officer with obvious relief.
“I’m starting to get radio transmissions,” said the com technician. “They’re very faint, and there’s lots of static. Can’t make out what they’re saying, but my guess would be that the two ships are talking to each other.”
“Make sure we’re recording everything,” said Jaeger. “Our analysts back home might be able to make out what they’re saying.”
“Karl, get the other com technicians to go over these recordings when they’re off duty. If we can figure out a word here and a word there, we may be able to piece together something useful. If nothing else, it’ll give them something to do.”
When it was obvious from the lack of visible movement that the ships had landed, Strider returned to his quarters and tried to go back to sleep. He finally did.
Over the next two days, the com technicians were driven almost to the point of exhaustion trying to pull comprehensible language from the faint, drifting radio signals coming from the raider ships and ground sources.
“Because they’re communicating over short distances, they don’t need to use a lot of power, and the only reason we’re getting anything at all is the sometimes favorable atmospherics,” said Jaeger to Strider on the second day.
“Have we learned anything about what they’re doing down there?” asked Strider.
“We can say with a high degree of confidence that they’re beginning to set up a base of operations. They’ve drafted local labor at gunpoint to do a lot of the menial work of clearlng the rubble and overgrowth. Apparently, they brought some heavy equipment. One of our com techs has decided that one of their ships is a freighter, not an armed raider, but the others aren’t so sure of that. We’ve also picked up two references to something that sounds like mjolnir. That word comes from Norse mythology and it refers to Thor’s hammer. What it means to the raiders is anybody’s guess. It could be a weapon, the name of a ship or a planet, or a pet animal belonging to the raider ship’s captain.”
Strider shook his head in frustration. “God, I wish we weren’t being relieved in a few hours.” He looked at Jaeger with raised eyebrows. “Suppose both those ships are armed ships. Do you think Savannah and Ajax could take them on if we had the element of surprise?”
Jaeger was clearly taken aback by the question. “Ah, well…if you’re asking me if we could vaporize both ships with atomic warhead missiles while they were still on the ground, I’d have to say yes, but that would cause a hell of a lot of collateral damage and kill a lot of the locals. If you’re asking me if we could knock them down if we let them get into orbit first, my answer would be probably not.”
“Okay,” said a clearly deflated Strider. He chided himself for not thinking the idea all the way through. “Let me know as soon as the relief ships show up.”
That happened five hours later. Thankfully, both relief ships had made the decision to operate without radar or radio transmissions just in case there were raiders in the vicinity. Their reflections were detected visually, and Jaeger ordered the com technician to use a tight-beam comlaser to send a brief update to both ships. With the near side of the moon once again in shadow, both ships were able to land near Savannah without being seen from the
planet. The relief crew came over by shuttles, which would take Strider and his crew back to their respective ships. Strider greeted Corso as he stepped off the shuttle.
“Welcome aboard, Jonas. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I wish you and the others hadn’t come for a while longer.”
Corso smiled and offered his hand. “Glad to be aboard, Richard. I know how you feel. I almost wish we hadn’t come for a while too. You’ve handed me a hot potato, and quite frankly, I’m not sure what to do with it.”
“Does Ajax’s CO have any flexibility in his orders?” asked Strider as he shook Corso’s hand.
Corso looked at him with a bemused expression. “You mean like joining Savannah in an attack on the raider base? That kind of flexibility, Richard?”
Strider laughed. “Not very subtle, am I?”
“No, not very. I doubt if he does, and for his sake, I hope he doesn’t. A light cruiser would be seriously outmatched against anything like what we know raider ships to be like. Have your com people made copies of all the recordings to take back?”
“We have. Two sets actually. One set will go with Ajax and the other with Haven’s Enterprise, just to make sure the data isn’t lost somehow.”
Corso was about to respond when the shuttle’s pilot came up to the two men. “Your people have finished unloading their gear, Commander Corso. Commander Strider, you and your people can begin loading yours.”
“Why do I get the impression that the lieutenant is in a hurry to leave this system?” asked Strider as he and Corso watched the pilot climb back inside the shuttle.
“Because he is,” said Corso. “I’ll get my people up to the Bridge to relieve yours so that we don’t keep the poor lieutenant waiting any longer than necessary.”
It didn’t take long for Strider’s crew to be completely relieved of duties and gathered in the shuttle bay. Corso and Strider went through a short ritual to officially transfer control of the ship from Strider to Corso. Strider personally thought the ritual was a bit silly, but the Haven Navy loved to do these kinds of things. They said their good-byes, and several hours later, Ajax and Haven’s Enterprise were heading out of the Tubal star system on different headings. Strider couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that something bad was going to happen to his friend, Jonas Corso.
Chapter Seventeen
The four and half weeks of leave on New Caledon went quickly. Strider didn’t enjoy it as much as he expected to, because he still had that nagging feeling that there would be bad news waiting for him when he returned to Haven. He was right.
Janacek’s expression was a grim one when Strider entered his office. Janacek did not get up to greet him, nor did he offer to shake his hand after exchanging salutes.
“Have a seat, Commander.” Janacek’s tone was subdued.
“Thank you, sir. I take it that you have bad news to tell me.”
Janacek nodded. “You’re very perceptive, Strider. And I don’t just have bad news, I have LOTS of bad news. Savannah is seriously overdue. Corso had orders to be back here seven days ago. I can’t even imagine what might have happened that would cause him to ignore those orders. What I can imagine is that he’s unable to obey them because his ship has been either severely damaged or destroyed. That would be bad enough by itself, but there’s more.
“The cruiser Redstone found another planet that has hyper-jump capabilities. She crossed paths with one of their ships at another colonized planet, and both ships initially thought the other was a raider. Luckily, Redstone’s commander kept his wits about him and managed to avoid an exchange of missiles. He then accompanied the other ship back to its home world, called Valhalla, where the reception was not particularly friendly. The Valhallan Head of State seems to have delusions of grandeur. When Redstone’s CO mentioned New Caledon and how it’s only now working to build jump-capable ships, the Valhallan Supreme Leader—that’s what he calls himself—suddenly became very interested in finding out your planet’s location. He made a point of telling us that the Royal Haven Navy had better not get in his Navy’s way. He dismissed out of hand the idea of co-operation against the raiders. The man is obviously a loose cannon, and he may try to conquer your home world.”
Strider was shocked. His friend Jonas might be dead, and his planet now seemed to be in danger from a second threat. “Did Haven’s Enterprise carry a warning for my government when they came to pick us up?”
Janacek shook his head. “No, she was already on her way to New Caledon by the time Redstone returned with the bad news. We’re prepared to send you and your team back home right now. Without Savannah, there’s no ship for your team to take possession of. Tomonaga and his team will re-join Redstone as planned. If Valhalla sends a ship or squadron to attack New Caledon, then you and your people should be there to help in its defense.”
“Yes, thank you, Admiral. I agree with that sentiment completely. When can we leave?”
“No, the question should be, how quickly can you and your people be ready to leave? Why are you still sitting here, Commander Strider? Go help defend your planet.” Strider was in such a hurry to leave the Admiral’s office that he forgot to salute.
The crew of Haven’s Enterprise had just learned the bad news themselves, and they weren’t happy about having to take the New Caledon people back right away when they had been expecting to enjoy some down time before the next trip. But they didn’t blame Strider or his people, and for that Strider was grateful. The trip back would have been even more stressful if they had.
When the ship arrived at New Caledon, Strider was relieved to learn that no one had attacked the planet. He informed Terrington by two-way video communication even before the ship entered orbit. The AF was now warned at least. Terrington offered the ship’s company New Caledon’s hospitality for a day or two, but her CO respectfully declined and explained that he and his crew wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Strider learned later that Terrington hadn’t made the offer just to be polite. He wanted the ship to stay long enough to carry back some kind of Government response, and he knew that a decision on what that response might be could not be made within an hour or two.
Because he hadn’t been expected back so soon and under such circumstances, there was nothing immediately available for Strider to do other than stay home. He had left messages for Terrington offering to take on any assignment where he could be helpful, but he hadn’t heard back from the General.
Eight days after his return, Strider was taking a nap on the sofa in the middle of the afternoon. Samantha was at a friend’s place to sell some new kind of plastic container to a bunch of other friends, and Troy was at school. Strider found himself dreaming about napping on the sofa when attack warning sirens sounded. He suddenly woke up and realized that he hadn’t imagined the sirens. He could clearly hear them off in the distance. As he leaped up and started running for the newly-installed videophone, it rang. It was Terrington calling.
“Richard! Long range radar has picked up a ship approaching at slow speed! We think it might be waiting for at least one more ship to rendezvous! Get down here right now! The normal speed restrictions on your air car have been lifted! Don’t bother getting changed, just come as you are!” The line went dead as did the image. He quickly wrote a note that he hoped Samantha would be able to read and ran for his air car.
He got to the Base in record time and was escorted down to the command center where Terrington was watching the large tactical display.
“A second ship has arrived,” said Terrington calmly when he noticed Strider entering the room. “PDC has declared a planet-wide state of emergency. All defense forces are on full alert. The light cruiser Dauntless is just about ready to lift off and join Fearless and the other two. That’ll make the odds four to two if that’s all we’re facing.”
By this time, Strider had come over to where Terrington was standing. “Without collapsed-matter armor, those light cruisers won’t last very long if the shooting starts,” said Strider in a low voice, knowin
g that Terrington was well aware of that already.
The General shrugged. “We have to play the hand we’ve been dealt.” He turned to look at Strider. “I wish you were in command up there, but sending you up by shuttle would take too long. You might be caught out in the open if they begin firing. PDC is calling the shots. Hanson is commanding Fearless. Do you know him?”
“Not well, but we have met a few times.”
“The feeling at PDC is that he’s too inexperienced to be given command of all four ships. That’s why they’ve retained tactical command down here.”
Since it wasn’t a question, Strider didn’t feel the need to respond. The tactical display was showing the second ship approaching the first, which had now slowed down to a stop. Strider jumped in surprise when he heard a voice come over the loudspeakers.