The colonel opened a comm. “Lieutenant, see if Mr. Romero is available. If so, have him come immediately to my office.”
Harris crossed his arms. “While we wait, let me fill you in on the Banshee. It flies and performs like a dream—has an issue with the wormhole generator not working at the moment, but is otherwise in good shape. We still need to do some real-world testing, such as firing the railgun. And I’d like to send a low power plasma round or two it’s way to see how it handles them.”
“Has analysis been done as to how tough she’ll be in battle?”
Harris nodded. “Designs say she should be as rugged, if not more-so, than the Bangor. She has a single railgun that’s equal in power. Her plasma protection should be slightly better. She could use an upgrade to military level sensors, though.”
“And she’s here now?”
“Tawn wants to fly it for a short bit. After that we turn it over to you for use as a freighter escort. We have two more of those hulls in the works. How’s the dome plating coming?”
The colonel smiled. “Finishing up today. That freighter coming in should have a thousand of those shield boxes on it. We get those powered up and running on the dome and we won’t have to worry about any ground-based weapon bothering her. Our engineers say another five thousand units and we can take an assault by an Earther warship. I’ve placed the order. We’ll have to see if budgets allow it.”
Harris sighed. “I never imagined we’d be building something like this. We had an impressive war-chest to begin with, but things have spiraled out of control. And Mr. Morgan is getting pushback from his friends as well. Our next load of titanium plates will have to be shipped back to Domicile and sold.
“Which brings up a question: With the freighter we have, how many shipments will it take to build a warship?”
The colonel rocked his head slowly back and forth as he worked for an answer. “Mmm, I’d say one for a destroyer and two for a cruiser.”
“What about the smaller gunboats that attacked the freighter last time?”
“Maybe a half dozen or so. Why?”
Harris shrugged. “Just curious.”
Fritz Romero came into the room. The colonel gestured toward an empty chair and Fritz took a seat.
“You wanted to see me?”
The colonel nodded. “We did. What would it take to get the Jebwa colony in order for a group of twenty thousand settlers?”
Fritz replied, “She was designed for twenty-five. I’d say we could have that up and running in a month—if you can give me the workers.”
“How many do you need?” the colonel asked.
Fritz rubbed his chin. “Five hundred to a thousand maybe? Mostly for checking out systems and cleaning it up. It’s been empty for six months now. That also relies on the Earthers not having come back and trashed the place since we closed the well.”
The colonel sat forward, placing his hands on his desk. “Come up with your list of five hundred, Mr. Romero. We’ll want to get started on this immediately.”
“Who are you planning to move out there?”
The colonel shook his head. “Would rather not say at this time.”
Fritz returned a sly smile. “Only one colony group I know of that numbers twenty thousand, Colonel. My guess is you are planning to convince them they need to move. And Jebwa might be an ideal colony for them. No real strategic value to anyone, decent climate, and only a handful of green valleys to settle in. The pacifists might be much happier there.”
The colonel let out a deep breath. “Let’s hope so, Mr. Romero. And not a word of this to anyone. If the Earthers find out, they will make every attempt to scuttle our plans.”
Fritz stood. “I’ll get moving on this straight away.”
A comm came in from Tawn. “I’m on my way in with the freighter. And I took the liberty of firing the railgun. Didn’t have a real target so I took aim at Eden’s sun. First two rounds went out smoothly. On burst mode it got all jammed up after a half dozen rounds went through. Trish has some work to do on this autofeeder.”
“Did you try to un-jam it?” asked Harris.
Tawn nodded. “I did. And it worked for a couple rounds before doing the same thing. Maybe the feed alignment is off slightly or something. She’ll have to figure that out.”
“You have confidence in the manual feed?”
Tawn half frowned. “It seems to have worked OK, but my testing was minimal, so I don’t know that I would rely on it.”
The colonel cut in: “Bring her in. I’ll have one of my pilots take it out to escort the freighter as it leaves. They can follow the freighter through to Domicile for Miss Boleman to check out.”
Harris said, “We’re in the colonel’s office when you get here.”
Tawn nodded as she reached to cut off the comm. “Be there in five.”
Harris moved over a chair as Tawn came in the door. She said, “Expect a comm from the pilot you had waiting.”
After several seconds of thought, the colonel stood. “I didn’t have anyone waiting.”
Tawn sprinted toward the door, yelling, “Someone just stole it!”
Harris and the colonel were fast behind her. A hard run had them standing in the docking bay looking out into the brightness of the Eden day and the intense heat of the desert.
Tawn growled. “Crap. Can’t believe that just happened.”
Harris grabbed her shoulder. “Come on, you can be my gunner. They can’t jump, so they aren’t going anywhere. Let’s hope that railgun stays jammed.”
Tawn hurried after Harris, hopping up into a waiting Bangor. Farker leaped in behind them, skidding to a stop on the deck. Harris slammed himself down in the pilot seat, cinching up his lap belt. Tawn did the same.
“I cleared the jam when I landed. Still set to auto, so maybe it will jam right up again.”
Harris powered up the systems. The Bangor lifted from the ground, slipping out into the daylight from the overhang before rocketing skyward.
“We have better sensors. And I have more practice flying. Use the nav system to assist with targeting.”
Tawn scowled. “I know how to use a weapon. You just get me close enough to have a decent shot and I’ll take him out. Little rat was all pleasant and chummy when he came up to me as the cockpit opened. I can’t believe I just gave it over to him.”
Harris shrugged. “You couldn’t have known. You just talked to us a couple minutes before. For all you knew the colonel did send him out.”
Tawn said, “I have a contact on the nav display. Glad we can match him for speed.”
“I never understood why all drives in space top out at the same maximum velocity. Anyone ever explain that to you?”
Tawn shook her head. “No. And can’t say I ever cared. It is what it is. Advantage is had by how quickly you can get there. In that, the Banshee has us beat. We should look at updating this ship if we have the chance.”
Harris sighed. “Nothing else fits in the drive bay. We’d have to split her hull and reconfigure half her systems. Not worth the effort.”
Tawn said, “He’s turning back toward us. I’m guessing he just figured out he can’t jump.”
“Just get that gun ready. First shooter might be the winner in this race.”
“I’m ready. Thirty four seconds to firing range. It’s been an honor riding with you, Harris. You’re like the brother I never had.”
Harris chuckled. “Please don’t start with the defeatist talk. We’re gonna win this little battle. Guy probably doesn’t know his port from his starboard.”
Tawn gave a sarcastic look. “And right now that matters, why?”
Harris jerked hard port as a half dozen tungsten rounds zipped past their location. “You can fire any time you like now.”
Tawn replied, “Five seconds… burst away. Going with a spiral pattern.”
Harris turned hard starboard. “He just went past us… heading toward the planet.”
Tawn glanced toward her friend and pilot.
“You might want to catch him. If he makes it to that dome with that same burst, there won’t be anyone left alive inside.”
“I’m aware of that fact. Remind me to have Trish and Gandy add a lockout system to any new ships.”
Harris opened a general comm. “Listen. I know you can hear me. Give us the ship back and we’ll let you walk.”
A voice came back with a laugh. “Yeah, when has that ever happened? You people have been meddling in our business out here long enough. I’m either gonna expose you for having a gunship or I’m gonna die taking out your little illegal city down there. Whichever happens is a win for me.”
Harris huffed. “Or you’re gonna die a horrible death and no one will see it, hear it, or care.”
The Banshee performed a hundred-eighty degree spin, firing its railgun in continuous mode. Harris pushed the stick hard down, straightening out seconds later. Tawn unleashed another spiral burst, this time clipping the fuselage of the hardened fighter. A rumble from the impact was heard over the comm.
“More of that coming your way,” said Tawn. “As we just said, turn the ship over and we let you walk.”
Another blast of pellets came in their direction. Harris maneuvered the Bangor out of harm’s way. Tawn enabled the second rail.
“Let’s see how he does with a double.”
Harris said, “We’re gonna be getting a bit of buffeting as we head into this atmosphere.”
“Won’t matter.”
She pressed the trigger. The ship vibrated as two streams of pellets left the Bangor. The much lighter Rage turned hard to port, dodging the tungsten spray pattern before spinning to face the oncoming ship. No rounds left his rails.
Tawn grinned. “We got him. That gun just jammed.”
Tawn spoke into the comm. “Sorry, Bob. You just lost your weapon. But I’m still feeling generous. Turn her over and we’ll let you go home. We’ll even give you a ride over to the Rumford Mine.”
The thief replied, “Ever wonder what a small ship like this would do to one of those domes if it hit it while at full throttle?”
“Take him out, Tawn. We’ve got almost four thousand people down there depending on us.”
Tawn took a deep breath. “You’ve got seconds to put us at an angle. Otherwise our own fire will be raining down on Fireburg.”
Harris moved the Bangor off a straight line. “Make ‘em count. This will be our only shot.”
Friction fire raged across the Bangor’s surfaces as the boxy ship raced after the Banshee. Tawn Freely made several motions as if to pull the trigger, withholding her shot each time as the small ship in front of them dodged and weaved.
Harris yelled, “Do it!”
Tawn held fast.
Harris glared. “We’re coming in too hot to stop ourselves! Pull that trigger!”
The vibrations of the twin railguns could be felt through the buffeting from the atmosphere. As the eighth set of rounds left the rails, the port wing of the Banshee exploded, sending the remainder of the fuselage into a violent spin.
Harris pulled back hard on the controls as the remains of the centuries-old fighter slammed into the rock of the desert a half kilometer away from the dome. Harris gritted his teeth as Tawn tightly gripped the console in front of her. The image on the cockpit display showed the planet’s surface rushing up to meet them.
The two Biomarines were rocked in their chairs as a last second maneuver by Harris sent them into the top of an immense dune. Shards of black glass sprayed outward as the Zwicker class hull rapidly came to a rest.
Harris opened an eye, looking around at the still intact cabin as Tawn continued to grimace.
“I think we made it.”
Tawn opened her eyes as she let out a breath. “Couldn’t cut that any closer?”
The colonel came over the comm. “You two still with us?”
Tawn answered. “Physically yes. Mentally? No.”
Robert Thomas’s image showed on the cockpit display. “Hang tight. We have a team coming out there.”
Harris asked, “How’s the dome?”
“Debris missed us. We’re still solid.”
Chapter 13
_______________________
The cleanup from the encounter with the Banshee took several hours. The Bangor was moved into the open docking bay where it was inspected. Half the ion inhibitor boxes on its underside were damaged. Spares were brought out from the stock at the dome and repairs begun. Harris and Tawn sat in the colonel’s office.
Harris said, “We almost killed the lot of you. He could have destroyed this place when he first took off. And we were seconds from losing him and having him slam into the dome with that craft.”
The colonel replied, “But you didn’t lose him and we’re not dead. We lost the Banshee. It can be replaced. As far as I’m concerned you couldn’t have done better out there than what you did.”
Harris frowned. “Maybe.”
Tawn said, “We should think about defenses for this dome. Nothing to stop the Earthers from sending down a handful of suicide missions from above. And we have nothing to stop them.”
Harris sat up. “What if we could get Mr. Morgan to build us a half dozen rail cannons to place on or around this building?”
Tawn shook her head. “The pacies won’t allow that.”
“One more reason we need to get control of this planet.”
An officer came over the comm. “Colonel, we have a shuttle coming down through the atmosphere. It’s Mr. Morgan’s.”
The colonel replied, “Have him escorted to my office when he arrives.”
The colonel looked up at Tawn and Harris. “You can ask him about your cannons.”
Harris said, “Didn’t think he was due to come out here. Any idea why?”
The colonel shook his head. “We’ll find out in a few minutes. Last time was just for an inspection to satisfy his curiosity as to how things were running.”
Several minutes later, Bannis Morgan entered the room. Pleasantries were exchanged. He remained standing.
“Gentleman, Miss Freely, we have a problem. My consortium of associates is disbanding. And it’s not because of financials as I feared. It’s from political pressure. Most of us have contracts with the military. Certain politicians got wind of our efforts out here and immediately got to work in an attempt to sour the well, so to speak. Veiled threats were made, and as a result the others, as well as myself, have to pull all official support.”
“So that’s it?” said Harris. “You’re done?”
Morgan returned a pursed smile. “I said official. I’ve set up several shell corporations under my cousin’s name and authority. Now, the others haven’t agreed to this yet, but I plan on pushing this as a clandestine operation. We will give what stealth support we can, without getting directly involved in any way.”
Tawn asked, “What’s this mean for our ship production?”
“I’ve asked my teams at the warehouse if they would be willing to be transferred to the new company. They would. Our funding through that entity will be significantly less, but we’ll have to make do. As to the shipyard and freighters we’re in the process of building, those efforts will continue. They have civilian uses and are therefore not an issue. As I’ve said before, the claimed purpose for building them is to increase trade with the Earthers. The politicians are all for that prospect.”
Harris said, “We’ve had some bad news here this morning. The Banshee was stolen right after we landed. We had to go up and destroy it. Thankfully, some key technical problems allowed it.”
Bannis replied, “I didn’t receive any reports of issues.”
“The wormhole generator has problems. That one didn’t matter because with that ship on escort duty there’s no need to jump. A bigger issue was the railgun feed jammed. Might be something as simple as an alignment issue. Trish can fix that on the next one. I think a bigger issue is that we had no security lockout system in place. Anyone could hop in and fly it away.”
&nb
sp; Bannis nodded. “I see. An oversight with our design. I’ll see to it that is corrected when I return. As well as the other issues. How goes it with the mining operation?”
The colonel replied, “Excellent. All production lines in this facility are fully operational. Stacks of titanium plates are rolling off the lines.”
“Has thorough testing been performed on those plates?”
“Yes. And the results say they are high quality.”
“Excellent. I could see as I came in… the second dome is nearing completion?”
“Just the dome itself,” said Harris. “The environmental systems should be up and cooling it in a couple days. After that, we start on the housing for the workers. We’re nearing capacity here, so the timing should be perfect.”
Tawn added, “We’re already breaking ground for the third and fourth units. The colonel here has been managing a crack team and keeping it all rolling.”
Robert Thomas held up a hand. “You can thank Mr. Romero for that. Most of the management and coordination efforts here are coming directly from him and his team. They’re tireless workers. And I’d like to add one more item: the recruits he’s bringing in from Earth are highly skilled and motivated. We are paying them well. And the pace doesn’t seem to be an issue.”
Tawn said, “They’re probably excited to be working on a project of this scale. Building this dome city and a mine could easily be replicated on a dozen of the outer colony worlds. We’ve managed to build something special here.”
Harris laughed. “Yeah, well, if we’re done congratulating ourselves I’d like to get back to my ship to make sure the repairs are moving forward as planned. We still have freighters to escort.”
Tawn asked, “Mr. Morgan, you have any other news for us? Otherwise I’m going with my partner.”
Bannis Morgan shook his head. “Other than our political struggles, everything is running as smoothly as it could.”
***
Harris slid under the hull to look over one of the ion box repairs. “Looks like a solid job. Welds are smooth.”
A tech stood at his feet. “That would be Roger Tillman’s work. Everyone is envious of his welds.”
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