Carlisle stopped at this point.
"There's more in here, about the battle itself, but I don't think I have time right now to go over it. This information is exactly what I needed for my dissertation, if I ever get a chance to use it. No wonder Talbot speaks with so much authority, he was a junior engineer on Arthur's ship! More applicable to our situation is the SFN reaction fluid, I know we aren't planning on taking a pulse beam hit, but we'd greatly increase our chances of survival if we could withstand one. Some of the best tactics involve good, old-fashioned common sense, Lieutenant. In a battle situation anything can happen. It pays to be prepared. Hawkins and I saw several stacks of SFN reaction fluid barrels down in the cargo hold near the aft magazines. If all three of us went down there, we could each bring up a barrel of the stuff, get it outside and coat the front of the hull. What do you think?"
"It shouldn't add too much time, but..."
"But what, Lieutenant?" Carlisle wondered if he was about to object to one of her suggestions again.
"We still have to implement your decoy plan."
She turned her head to look at him.
"You've decided to go ahead with that after all, Sir?"
"Yes, if you're still up for it. Hawk and I talked it over after you went to sleep. It's probably the best plan we're likely to come up with."
She felt a slight surge of vindication.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sir. We have to beat these guys if we can. The Veritian Brotherhood was on the opposition side in the Succession War and the current members still haven't given up on the cause. This whole ordeal makes a little more sense now. The bastards make this operation look like a Federation-approved kidnapping with a public execution as the end result and every Muslim planetary government in this quadrant takes opposition. This plot would more than wreck the New Ceylon trade agreement, it would almost certainly start another War! Yes, Lieutenant, you're damned right I'm still up for it!"
Her look was deadly serious.
"It's good to see you back to your old self," said Harris, smiling.
Hawkins came up behind them.
"What's all the fuss bein' about?"
"Carlisle thinks the Veritian Brotherhood wants to start another war and that we can protect the Terrier from a pulse beam hit with a couple cans of reaction fluid."
"Three. Three cans of reaction fluid," Carlisle corrected him.
Hawkins looked justifiably bewildered. He shook his head.
"You two've been busy!"
"Come on, Hawk, get your suit on," said Harris. "We'll tell you all about it while we get ready."
The three defenders quickly donned their suits and headed down to the Terrier's hold. Under weightless conditions, each of them was able to handle one of the hundred kilogram containers of the reaction fluid fairly easily. Hawkins managed to get the outside door to the hold part way open. From there it was an easy trip for each of them to get to the front of the ship. As the others watched, Hawkins removed the top of one of the barrels and inverted it against the hull of the Terrier right behind the nose of the ship. Sure enough, the material began to ooze outward, coating the hull material with a viscous, amber layer about half a centimeter thick. Developed for use in the hellacious environment of a ion drive engine, the reaction fluid was very strange stuff, it didn't volatilize in vacuum, but just flowed eerily and inexorably over the hull surface. Harris moved about ten meters further back with his barrel. Hawkins removed the top and they repeated the process. Again the viscous fluid slowly began coating the hull material. They inverted Carlisle's barrel right on top of the front gun turret and watched again as the material flowed slowly over the turret and down the flanks of the old destroyer. Soon the entire front of the ship was covered.
Then they went to work on the decoy plan. With the Rover I pretty much permanently attached to the Terrier, everything the group did concerning the decoy plan had to be done with the Rover II. They located a suitable spot for Carlisle to hide before beginning her decoy run down the access corridor. There was large cloud of scrap right near the entrance of the corridor that would do nicely.
Onboard the Rover II, hovering near the stern of the Terrier just above the hastily strapped on boosters, Harris described to Carlisle how the boosters operated.
"I wasn't thinking properly when we discussed this the first time," said Harris, with some embarrassment. "As you can see, each booster has a command console in the center. You sit at the console and operate it the same way you do a utility sled. What you probably didn't know is that the boosters can be operated remotely, from either of the Rovers. They can be operated solo or you can slave them together, for really big moving jobs. You use this console over here." He slid a panel up to reveal a set of controls. "This can get really tricky if you get disoriented relative to the booster. It's probably best if you keep it pretty basic. Just keep the booster slightly ahead of you, right side up and well beneath you or well to one side. Believe me, you don't want to get into the exhaust stream from one of these things. Got that?" She nodded in assent and he continued. "Good. Now that you have a better idea of how these things work, how do you want to set this up?
"Do the boosters have a video feeds to this viewscreen?"
"Yes, the screen will come on when we activate the booster. It's really pretty basic, the cameras don't have any pivoting feature, you get a split screen with a one hundred eighty degree view out in front and out the back."
"Well, not having a death wish, I would prefer to park the Rover inside the hold of one of these cruisers. I could use both video feeds, one to control a decoy, the other to keep an eye out for the bad guys and still be out of sight and relatively safe."
"That sounds like a good idea."
They had Carlisle maneuver the boosters from the Terrier into their respective positions, to give her some experience operating them. Like most things they had seen her do that involved piloting skills, she turned out to be a natural. Finding Carlisle's original choice of scrap for a ram to be nearly ideal, they moved the ram into position near the entrance to the corridor where Carlisle could quickly rendezvous with it when the time came. Then they took another hour or so to disguise and arm the boosters with similar-looking scrap. There were several more cranes in the area where Carlisle had found the original.
With the decoy preparations complete, the group headed back to the Terrier. They cycled through the airlock and reboarded the old destroyer.
On their way back to the bridge, Hawkins stopped the two officers to look over the battle armor that their two attackers had been wearing. The defenders had stored the armor, along with the rest of the space suits, in the largest of the unused compartments between the bridge and the airlock. Hawkins had converted the space into a sort of service area for their suits.
"Have either of you ever been wearin' battle armor?" he asked.
"I worked with simulators, back at the academy," said Carlisle, "quite a lot, actually, but neither of those are anywhere near my size. It would be a lot less dangerous for me to just stay in my special suit."
"They had us train in it a few times, just so we'd know what it's like to work with the stuff," said Harris. "I could probably operate it. This equipment looks pretty old though."
"I don't think the basics have changed much over the years, Lieutenant" said Carlisle. "Hawk will be inside the turret, he'll be the best protected of all of us. You might want to try this smaller suit on, Sir. It looks like it's the about the right size. I can help you make the necessary adjustments."
"It's probably worth a try. For what I have to do, mostly working with hand controls, the armor wouldn't hinder me much." Remembering Carlisle's comment earlier about good tactics often starting with common sense, he added: "Might be wise to have the protection."
"Why don't you be takin' it back to the bridge with you?" said Hawkins. "I'll be along as soon as I be gettin' the rest of these air packs serviced and checked out before we be needin' them again."
"Good idea
, Hawk," said Harris.
The two officers took the suit of battle armor and headed for the bridge.
Chapter 41
New Ceylon Orbital Station, Smuggler's Lair, October 9, 2598.
Irene went down the short corridor towards the women's restroom facilities. Two observers had still not returned to report and members of the Resistance were gathered into small groups scattered here and there in the smuggler's lair. Discussions were taking place all over the room and some of them were rather heated. Irene had just left a table where Kresge was leading a small, intense conference on counteroffensive options. After she had finished in the restroom, as she went through the door back into the corridor, she thought she heard something. She stopped and listened more closely. There it was again...the sound of someone sobbing quietly...a woman? Praying? She went closer to the sound, a short distance further down the dark corridor, and called out softly.
"Who's there?" The sound stopped. She took a few more steps towards where the sound had been coming from and called out again. "It's okay, I won't hurt you." She saw a small shape huddled against the wall. A tear-stained face turned upwards.
"You're the woman who just came in a few hours ago, aren't you? Hanna, wasn't it? What's wrong, dear?"
"I don't know if I can tell you. You'll hate me."
"It can't be that bad. Come on, get up and come with me. Let's go somewhere warm where we can talk." Irene held out her hand to the woman and helped her get up. She put an arm around the smaller woman's shoulders as they made their way back to the big room and found an empty table next to the wall between two large shipping crates. The woman was shivering.
"Sit, Hanna." The smaller woman sat. Irene grabbed a blanket from a stack on a nearby table and draped it over the woman's shoulders. "Okay, let's talk. Start at the beginning."
Hanna turned troubled eyes towards Irene and took a ragged breath.
"Have you ever been lied to by someone that you trusted?"
Irene's first thought was that the poor woman was having some kind of man trouble.
"Oh, yes. I think that's happened to everyone, my dear."
"I mean a really big, horrible lie?"
"I don't know about that. In my line of work, I run into people who tell some pretty big lies." Irene couldn't help but think about the very people who had created their sanctuary.
"Have innocent people been killed because you believed the lie?"
Irene was taken aback. She frowned.
"Now, that I can't say. Whatever are you talking about? What is it that has you so upset?"
"How can I get you to trust me? I know...important things. But you must believe me, you must!"
"There, there, calm down. Just let it out. What must I believe?"
"That I'm a good person and I'm not a killer and I want for this nightmare to end without anyone else getting killed."
"You seem to be carrying a lot of weight on your shoulders!"
There was a silence that dragged out for several long moments. Finally Hanna seemed to come to a decision. She looked down at the table.
"Can you get the Commander to come over here? He should hear what I have to say too."
"You're sure it's that important?"
"I'm absolutely sure."
Irene called out softly to the guard on watch standing nearby.
"Fred, can you run and get Oskar? Tell him that it's important."
"Right away, Irene."
Kresge came over to the table a few minutes later.
"Okay, you two, what is it that's so important?"
Hanna drew a ragged breath.
"My name is Hanna Jordan and I am a follower of the Veritian Way. I came here with the invaders that are in control of this station." She bowed her head. "Now maybe you'll kill me...maybe that's all I deserve."
Irene felt like moving away but something made her resist the impulse. This careworn woman had the look of sincerity and though she claimed to be with the enemy, she didn't appear very threatening.
Oskar looked intently at Hanna.
"We don't kill people without good reason. What do you want? What're you doing here?"
The woman looked up at them and the two leaders could see that she was in misery.
"The men who have taken over the station are members of the Veritian Brotherhood," said Hanna.
"The Veritian Brotherhood?" said Oskar. "That explains a lot. Maggie said something about their strange hair just a few hours ago. This isn't good. Those people are absolutely nuts! You say you were with them?"
"You mustn't compare the Veritian Way to the Veritian Brotherhood. This...this abomination that has been set in motion by Ezra and his gang has got to be stopped."
"I couldn't agree more," said Kresge.
"I know what you're thinking, about the hatred and violence, but we aren't like that, not those of us in the Veritian Way. We practice peace and brotherhood. We live simple lives and we follow the commandments. 'Thou shalt not kill' is one of those commandments!"
"What happened?"
"It was Ezra and his group. They came to our village on Heard's World a few weeks ago and asked for our help."
"Is this the same Ezra we keep hearing about, the one that's in charge of this invasion?" asked Kresge.
"Ezra Hellfire Brimstone. Yes, he's the leader of this group of the Devil's servants. Only his real name is Lester Dobbins. He made up his new name when he became the leader of the Brotherhood about a year ago. They told me and my husband, Caleb..." Her face contorted in pain for a couple of seconds and she paused for a moment for the wave of emotion that came over her at the thought of Caleb to pass. "...They told me and Caleb that they needed our help against a band of pirates that were preying on their cargo ships."
"Pirates? How could you help?"
"My husband was an engineer in the Federation Navy for six years. He worked on weapons systems, specializing in beam weapons. They asked me to come along because I have some medical training. They needed him to help install and tend the beam weapons, and me in case anyone got hurt. They also wanted me to help with getting everyone fed."
"So you were recruited for a mission against pirates?"
"That was just the beginning of the string of lies they told us. I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but we never knew what was going on. They kept Caleb and me on separate ships; I suppose they didn't want us comparing notes. I'm really worried about him. I haven't spoken to him since we left home, and that was more than three weeks ago."
"You never knew about any of their plans?"
"No. I wasn't allowed on the bridge of the ship and didn't know anything about what they were really doing. As far as I know, neither did Caleb."
Her expression grew sadder again. "He was on the first ship, the one that went back to the Scrapyard...we haven't heard from them for too long. Something must have happened to them."
"Easy... Finish your story," said Kresge.
Hanna took a deep breath and continued.
"We went through two battles, though from what I know now, I suppose that they were more like unprovoked attacks. I know it's hard to believe, but I didn't know anything about the true nature of their mission until they told me to get off the ship and I discovered that we were on the New Ceylon Orbital Station."
"You're telling me you didn't know those attacks were directed at Federation Naval installations and this orbital station until you got off the ship here?" asked Kresge.
"I know it's a lot to swallow. It's all so confusing. I don't know everything that's happened, but I have been able to piece some things together. Shortly after we got to the station here I overheard them talking and realized what they had done. It was awful, the evil of it! All those innocent people dead and me a part of it! I had to get away from them; I fear for my life! I fear for my very soul!"
"There, there," said Irene.
"I feel absolutely awful!" Hanna began weeping again, softly.
"Hanna, look at me," said Irene. Hanna looked up mi
serably. "Is what you just told us the truth?"
"I swear by the cross of Holy Jesus that I spoke the truth, only..."
"Only, what?"
"I haven't told you everything." If anything she looked even more miserable.
"What haven't you told us?" asked Kresge.
"Please, Ms. Marshall, Commander Kresge, you've been so good and so kind. I had to tell you about my place in all this before I told you more. I know it's hard, but you have to trust me."
"It's okay, Hanna, what else is there?"
"I overheard their plans for the Meridian Ambassador."
Chapter 42
UTFN Reclamation Center, onboard the wreck of FNS Terrier, October 9, 2598.
Back onboard the Terrier, Carlisle helped Harris adjust the battle armor to fit him properly, an activity that brought them into close, even intimate, proximity. Each of them stole a glance at the other several times during the fitting when they thought the other wasn't watching. Carlisle tightened several of the internal support straps and webbings inside the back of the suit while Harris loosened a few others on the front and sides. Harris stretched and wriggled with each adjustment, making sure the suit remained comfortable without being too tight or too loose. When they were both finally satisfied, he removed the armor and hauled it back to the makeshift service compartment. Hawkins looked up from the suit he was working on.
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