by M. D. Cooper
“You all seem to be in a much better mood than you were when I left,” she observed.
“It may have had something to do with you and Sarah kicking some serious ass out there,” James said. “I hear you did some crazy heroics to save the day.”
“Everyone did crazy heroics,” Katrina said. “Mine just got my ankle broken is all.”
“We also got a ping off the destroyer,” Markus said. “It’s still several light minutes out and will take another couple of hours to match velocities with us. The patrol craft has pulled away and for the moment we’re in the clear.”
“Do we have a plan for the destroyer?” Katrina asked. “They’re going to be a lot harder to fight off than the district patrol guys.”
Markus looked to Dmitry who set his coffee down and brought up a system map on the main holo tank.
“We’re here, almost past the inner dust belt and Vishnu’s orbit. From there we’re going to increase our burn as we fall faster into Sirius’s gravity well. It’s going to extend our lead on the destroyer, and if we can hold together as we pull around the star we’ll be out of their reach—unless they want to hit an outsystem velocity with no worlds to break around.”
Katrina couldn’t help but notice that Dmitry used the pre-colonization name for Sirius’s innermost world. Luminescent society had renamed all of the planets, but the Noctus resented the renaming. They viewed it as another piece of their heritage that had been suppressed.
“Bold, but it looks like it will work,” Katrina nodded.
The command crew fell to reviewing the status of the last few upgrades that Dmitry’s engineers were making and re-checking the removal of Luminescent command codes from the computer systems.
Katrina was reviewing a report from Sarah on the incarceration of the Luminescent soldiers from the assault craft as well as those garrisoned on the platform. The plan was to release them in a cargo hauler after the gravity assist maneuver around Sirius was complete.
She enjoyed the physical act of reading so often required on Noctus platforms. In Luminescent society so much information was directly inserted into one’s mind over the Link. Little thought was given to the act of absorbing the information and internalizing it. Looking over the words of Sarah’s report was refreshing.
Her reading was disrupted by an alarm’s wail. She turned to look at the main board and let out a small cry of surprise.
Markus was on the comm verifying the information.
“Are you certain? Do you have visual confirmation?” He all but yelled into the microphone.
“I can see it from here,” the voice came over the room’s overhead speakers. “It’s attached just above the east yard’s main hatch. I don’t know how long it’s been there other than it wasn’t fifteen minutes ago.”
“Fifteen minutes!” Katrina exclaimed. “They could be anywhere by now.”
She had to grant a modicum of respect for the assault force’s commander. He must have slipped this assault away from the destroyer and brought it straight up the Hyperion’s wake to avoid detection. Between the engines and the east yard there were few external port holes and significant sensor gaps. His men would likely need treatment for the rads they picked up though.
“Sarah’s reporting in,” Markus called out. “She has her militia moving into position. It looks like the enemy has spread all over the sector.”
“Are there many crew in there?” Katrina asked, worried the soldiers had already begun cleansing the platform.
“A few hundred, Sarah reports that she’s working on evacuating them and protecting the positions of the ones working on the final engine prep.”
Katrina struggled to stand. “I should get down there, I can help with tactics and pull a trigger if necessary.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Markus put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back into her seat. “Do you really think you’d be more of a help than a hindrance?”
Katrina sighed. “Very well, the battle would likely be over by the time I got down there anyway.” She brought up the station’s schematics, and worked with the comm officer to map out the positions of the enemy soldiers and provide guidance to the militia.
Reports poured in from the sector, the fighting was fierce and the ship’s militia was taking heavy losses. Corridor-by-corridor they were being pushed back by the elite Lumin troops. From what Katrina could tell there were fewer than thirty enemy soldiers, but their superior armor, weapons, and tactics were crafted for just this sort of situation.
She looked to James for information on the layout of a particular intersection, but he wasn’t at his station.
“Markus, where did James go?”
Markus looked up from the main holo tank, his brow furrowing. “I don’t know, he was here a moment ago. Maybe he needed to visit the head.”
Katrina switched her terminal to his personal comm. “James, do you copy? I need your advice on a corridor?”
For a moment there was no response, and then James’s response came over her headset. “Yeah. Sure. Where?” His voice was hoarse and he sounded out of breath.
“Where are you? What’s going on?”
“Just ran to the head if you must know, which intersection?”
Katrina felt a slight blush. “Sector 5A, deck 17, the 5A-7E intersection.”
“Ah, that one. It’s a mess, there are several bio-waste stacks that run through there and some life support. They sit right out in the walkway and you have to almost squeeze past them.”
Katrina nodded. “Thanks, that’s what I hoped.” I’m going to use it as a choke-point and set up a barricade there. I have Sarah sealing off a number of other routes to funnel the shorts through there.”
“Good idea, I’ll be back in a bit to help.”
Katrina returned her focus to the plan she was architecting when a warning flashed on her terminal indicating that a ship was exiting the main bay. It was one of the mining tugs.
“Tug Bravo, this is operations,” the comm officer radioed out. “What are you doing? Get that ship back in the bay!”
“Negative, operations, I advise that you clear everyone out of decks twelve through twenty-one east of corridor 7E.”
Markus grabbed a mike, his brow furrowing, “What’s going on James. You’re not…”
“I sure as hell am, it’ll be a quick shot, nice and surgical.”
“James, stop! They’ll shoot you down.”
“I can sneak around and do it just as I pop up over the east yard. They’ll never see it coming.”
“They’re all through the sector though,” Dmitry called out, “What are you going to do, fire at the platform?”
Markus glanced over at Dmitry, his eyes deadly serious.
“Wait, no, we have people in there,” Dmitry said.
“I’ll fire east of Sarah’s choke point. We don’t have people there anymore…”
Dmitry’s eyes grew dark and he slumped in his chair.
Katrina looked to Markus who nodded slowly.
She adjusted her headset, “James, they’ll be able to track you before you come around the ship. They likely have dropped probes around the ship in case of an external attack, you’re going to need to come aft of their craft and then swing overtop fast to get your shot off.”
“Over top? Don’t they have a nice big turret on top of those things?” James asked.
Katrina nodded as she spoke, “they do, James.”
Operations was silent for several long moments before James responded.
“OK, guide me in.”
The traffic control officer, comm, and James worked to slip the tug amongst the shadows on the south side of the station, working their way through the lower access into the east yard.
The yard was mostly clear of the usual rocks, cargo and other detritus which usually filled it. The slingshot around the star would tear nets right out of their moorings. Anything that could not be bolted down in the platform had been jettisoned.
James w
as forced to maneuver between the struts of an asteroid cradle for cover. It was a long slow process, which was made worse by the constant reports pouring in of the shorts wiping out any last pockets of resistance in the east yard sector and the frantic updates from Sarah as she lost more and more militia at the choke points she had established.
“I’m a hundred meters away,” James called in. “I’m going to boost in hard, thrust up above them, brake and fire. With luck I can do the whole maneuver in fifteen seconds and be gone before that turret can take a shot.”
Markus took a deep breath before speaking. “You have a go.”
Every screen in Operations was tracking James’s progress and a view the east yard filled the main holo tank.
“There!” the comm officer called out as James brought the tug out of the shadows and boosted toward the assault craft. The craft was attached to the station by an umbilical coming out of the bottom of the ship. James swooped through the yard in a delicate arch that appeared to be a collision course with the assault craft’s engines. At the last moment he fired his thrusters and slipped up, and then over the enemy vessel. He pivoted the tug far more gracefully than Katrina would have thought possible and fired the engines against the direction of travel to stop right over the assault craft.
The events appeared to unfold in slow motion. The MDC emitter on the nose of the shuttle sparked to life, as the enemy’s turret pivoted, tracking toward the tug.
The MDC fired, its wave of molecular disruption energy washing out across the assault craft and station. Katrina cringed as she thought of what would happen to any humans caught in its field of effect.
Used to break apart asteroids, an MDC wave weakened the bonds between molecules and broke objects down into their constituent parts. James had fired the tug’s decoupling wave on low power, and it would do minimal damage to the ship and station, but the weaker chemical bonds in organics would not retain their integrity.
Humans would quite simply melt.
Sarah’s teams fell back and readings showed they had reached a safe distance. From what Katrina could tell, all of the enemy soldiers were within the fatal range of the field.
Katrina glanced at the holo and saw that James hadn’t kept the tug moving, it still hovered over the assault craft.
“James, move!” she cried out into her comm, but it was too late. The MDC had damaged the craft’s turret and the pilots would be dead, but automated defenses kicked in. Two small missiles snaked out from forward tubes, looped around and flew back into the tug before James could respond.
The tug exploded in a brilliant show of steel and plasma.
There were several cries of dismay and horror in operations. Katrina’s looked at Markus’s; she saw his jaw clench and eyes moisten, but a moment later his posture straightened and he turned to his command crew.
“What James did, his sacrifice, has saved untold numbers of our people. His name will be written on the bulkheads in places of honor, as will the names of all who died today.”
The room was filled with nodding heads and the sounds of a few choking back tears. Katrina watched Markus survey the room, briefly making eye contact with people as he put a reassuring hand on the comm officer’s shoulder. A woman that Katrina was relatively certain had begun to date James recently.
“But we will have time to mourn the dead soon enough, I need you to put your grief away. Instead, let it strengthen your actions, not weaken you. Never before have our people been so close to tasting freedom.”
He turned to Dmitry, “let me know as soon as you have assessed any damage. All resources are at your disposal. We must make our gravity assist burn.”
Dmitry nodded and ran from the room, several of his engineers following him.
Markus turned back to the holo tank and the room began to fill with soft conversation, a few sobs and hoarse coughs punctuating the murmuring voices.
Katrina rose and ungracefully pulled her crutches under her arms. She stopped at his side, staring forward, not looking him in the eyes. This was a key moment for him. She must appear to approach him on a professional basis and not offer him emotional support.
Some of the crew behind her would likely form a negative opinion of her—or a more negative opinion—likely already thinking of her as an ice queen. It did not matter. This moment was for Markus and a hand, a soft look, any sympathy would make him appear weaker in front of his people.
The years ahead would be long and hard; many would doubt, after the losses they suffered today. He would need all the strength he could muster.
GROWING OLD TOGETHER
STELLAR DATE: 3265669 / 12.31.4228 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid
REGION: Interstellar space near Kapteyn’s Star
Tanis let out a long breath and leaned back in her chair.
It creaked slightly and she once again thought that perhaps it was time to pull her first wood turning project apart and improve the joinery—it was fifty years old after all.
She thought of how different this chair was than most she had used in her life. No carbon nano-reinforced polymers here. Just wood from trees she had felled and milled herself. It was a far cry from her other chair. It sat a few kilometers above and several more toward the bow of the ship—near the bridge. It was, without a doubt, more comfortable, but she had not seen it in over thirty years, though she would again before long.
But for now she would enjoy her last few weeks with her wooden furniture. Improved versions of the chair sat nearby, encircling the dining room table; but this one was special and sat in a place of honor before the fireplace.
Tanis hadn’t built anything from wood in over a decade, but the itch was starting in her again—now that she had satisfied her urge to make her own pigments and paint her masterpiece.
It hung over the fireplace, an image of a ship passing close to a dim red star, alone in the dark and desperate to survive.
At least that was how she saw it, hopefully so would any others who ever laid eyes upon it.
She stood as Joe strolled into the cabin, dirty and wearing his trademark grin.
“How’s the garden doing?” Tanis asked.
“A little worse for my working in it,” Joe chuckled.
Tanis doubted his statement. Over the last few decades Joe had become a consummate gardener, able to grow anything he wanted without bots or nano of any sort.
“Things ready for the party tonight?” He asked.
“Yup, spic and span and ready for our guests,” Tanis replied, closing in for a kiss and an embrace.
“It occurred to me that we’re having this celebration on the wrong day.” Joe said.
“Wrong day? It’s New Year’s Eve,” Tanis replied.
“Yeah, but no one really celebrates that anymore, you just found it in some book from when people used the Gregorian calendar.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, if we were measuring in Sol standard years, four years ago was the one-hundredth anniversary of our leaving the Sol system.”
“Really?” Tanis thought for a moment. “I guess you’re right. Well, then there was just the two of us awake. Now we have enough for an actual shindig.”
With the Intrepid finally drawing near to Kapteyn’s Star, a skeleton crew was now out of stasis. After spending over six decades alone on the ship with just Joe, Angela, and Bob; even the few dozen people rattling around the ship felt like enough for the party of a lifetime.
Ouri had been a bit surprised to find her home occupied by new owners. She was also surprised to find her cabin enlarged enough that it had several spare bedrooms. She promptly moved back in.
Terry Chang and Jessica decided that rather than work alone in the SOC they would take up residence in the cabin as well.
Tanis was certain that a part of their decision related to how dark and empty the ship felt above them. Hundreds of square kilometers of the Intrepid were cold and silent. It didn’t make for a comfortable working environment.
By comparison the cylinders were still alive and vibrant, the long sun that ran through each carried its own internal power and would run for centuries. The choice of where to live was a simple one.
In addition to learning a variety of new leisure skills, Tanis had spent much of the past sixty years pouring over every detail of every colonist on the Intrepid; as well as the history of every nut, bolt, and panel; looking for the common thread.
All she had now were a thousand threads.
The problem was that many things did stand out as anomalous—though that was expected. However, following up on leads from a hundred and eight years ago while seven light years away from Sol was no simple task.
Especially since the Intrepid didn’t want to announce that it was off course and behind schedule. Tanis and Bob had made discrete requests of trusted sources back in Sol, looking to get information that could lead them to find out who was behind all of the Intrepid’s continued problems.
One thing they did know was that after the Intrepid left the Sol system, Myrrdan had never been seen or heard from again. They were certain that he was on the ship, though no sign of any other saboteurs or sabotage had appeared in the years since the annihilator explosion.
Tanis was positive that he would not have been behind the near-crash into LHS 1565, unless Collins had been Myrrdan. It was possible, but Tanis felt like Hilda’s actions meant he was still on board. There were also a hundred possible ways to link the STR on Jupiter to Myrrdan, but none of them felt right to Tanis.
Everything she knew about the criminal mastermind told her that he liked to watch, he enjoyed toying with people, making them jump through hoops for his amusement.
Granted, Hilda could have been a failsafe for the anti-picotech group, or the knowledge of the forbidden technology had bothered her enough that she had taken matters into her own hands.
After coming out of stasis, Jessica had spent several weeks in near isolation re-examining the data Tanis had received from Earth, looking over every lead, trying to discover the clue that would tell them who or where Myrrdan was. She had not come any closer unearthing any conclusive evidence.