by Jay Allan
“Yes, Sir.”
She nodded and stepped over to the Helm Station. Rodriguez had heard the exchange and was already vacating his station.
As soon as Tanaka sat down, Shiloh said. “The XO has the Con.”
With the rest of the Bridge personnel now clear as to who was actually running the ship itself, Shiloh turned his attention to the displays that monitored the status of the fighters still in Defiant’s Hangar Bay. Most were showing the green light of ready-to-launch status. The Hangar Bay was in the process of depressurizing. All personnel there had already donned pressure suits.
“Iceman to CAG.”
The sudden voice made Shiloh jump.
“Make it fast, Iceman. I’m kinda busy now,” said Shiloh.
“Ah, roger that, CAG. If there’s more than one bogey out there, we’ll have a better chance of finding them if we launch more recon drones. Request permission to take Cobra Flight out for that purpose.”
Shiloh wasn’t ready to make that call yet. He needed more information first.
“I’ll take that under advisement, Iceman. Standby.”
The 90 seconds should be just about up by now, thought Shiloh. Sure enough, the data, relayed by Maverick from his drone to Defiant, showed that the bogey was almost six million kilometers away from the drone, and due to the geometry of Defiant’s relative position to the drone, the range to Defiant was just over nine million kilometers. The ship’s tactical computer took the range data, the drone’s position relative to Defiant, and displayed the tactical situation on the main display. Shiloh looked at it carefully. Nine million kilometers sounded like a lot, but compared to the size of your average star system, it was relatively close. It was the vectors that were going to complicate things. Defiant was on a vector that would cross the gas giant’s orbit while at the same time angle up from below the system’s ecliptic. The bogey was heading ‘downward’ and off to one side of Defiant’s vector. Defiant had enough speed left over from the jump to make it difficult to intercept the bogey or even just slide in behind it on a parallel vector. As Shiloh continued to evaluate his tactical options, he noticed that the contact status indicator beside the bogey’s icon on the Tactical display changed from ‘constant’ to ‘intermittent’. A beep from his console drew his attention to a smaller screen where Maverick had transmitted a text message.
[Sunlight reflection gone. Continuing to track bogey with laser. Active scanning?]
If the bogey were adjusting its attitude by rotating on its axis, that would change the angle of the reflected sunlight, and it would explain the loss of that contact. Maverick was asking for permission to order the drone to actively scan with radar, which would give them a clear picture of its course, speed, and any companions but also alert it to the human presence. Not yet, thought Shiloh. He transmitted the negative response to Maverick.
Turning to the Astrogation Station, he said, “Astrogator. Can you determine what system they’re lining up for, if any?”
The reply came seconds later.
“As far as we can tell with this triangulation, they’re most likely heading for Green4, Sir.”
Shiloh called up the 3D star charts for the immediate environment. Green4 had two gas giants, and from there the bogey could pick from one of two paths containing star systems that formed what looked like rivers of stars with empty gaps in between. One path led to the Nimitz Base, which was also in the same star system as the Avalon colony. The other path led to more heavily populated colony worlds deeper in Human Space.
“I need a projected course change for a jump to Green4. I also need to see how much fuel we’d have upon arrival for various transit times.”
“Okay, Sir. I’ll have that for you shortly.”
Why Green4, Shiloh thought to himself? It’s not that far away. The bogey’s vector seemed to indicate that it was leaving the vicinity of this system’s gas giant, which suggested that it had refueled here. Even an Exploration Frigate had enough fuel to jump to Green4 and then jump again without refueling. Suddenly Shiloh knew the answer. The aliens might have survey data on all human-explored star systems, but they couldn’t be sure if they’d encounter any human ships in these systems. So the safe thing to do would be to make a series of small jumps, refuel whenever possible, and if they encountered Human ships, they could always jump back the way they came. Far less risky than making long jumps into enemy held systems and not being able to refuel or jump away. So then the next question was, is this just one ship, which would suggest a recon mission of some kind, or are we seeing just one of a whole fleet of ships on a strike mission? The only way to answer that question without tipping his hand would be to arrive at Green4 first, ring both gas giants there with recon drones, and see what showed up. He’d have to wait for the astrogator’s data on the jump to Green4 before he could answer that question, but there were other questions, too.
He had to get a warning back, but that was easier said than done, and there were several options. One was to send a message drone back to Bradley Base. They could then boost another drone to high speed for a direct jump back to Omaha Base, which was further back and where Shiloh knew that Admiral Howard was in the process of building up a Task Force of combat frigates. They were to be used to intercept any mass incursion that the early warning network might identify. Another option was to send a high speed message drone directly to Omaha Base from here, or they could send a high speed drone to Sol. Sending a message drone back to Bradley and from there to Sol, would be easy but not quick. High speed drones sent to either Sol or Omaha would be quick IF they could boost the drone fast enough before it entered Jumpspace. That IF depended on multiple factors that Shiloh couldn’t even begin to evaluate. Before he could get any further in his thinking, the Astrogator put the requested data on the main display. Just as Shiloh had suspected. It would take so much fuel to bring Defiant’s current high speed vector over to the right heading, that they’d arrive at Green4 with dangerously low fuel reserves and with a lead time that might or might not let them refuel safely before the bogey arrived. But if Defiant refueled here, the delay would mean that they’d never be able to beat the bogey to Green4. He needed to get help in identifying options.
“Iceman, I’m going to ask the XO and Astrogator to step over to my station for a strategy conference. I want you to listen in. Feel free to offer suggestions.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG.”
Both Tanaka and the Astrogator heard him and were already standing nearby.
“Okay, here’s the problem. Our number one priority is to track this bogey or bogeys so that we find out where they’re likely to penetrate our space. Getting to Green4 far enough ahead of them to refuel first will be highly risky. Refueling here first means there’s a good chance we’ll lose contact with them by the time we get to Green4. We also have to send a warning to friendly forces as soon as the situation allows. A high speed, boosted message drone directly to either Sol or Omaha Base would be ideal, but would put at risk whatever fighters are tasked with that mission due to potential fuel exhaustion. I’m looking for options.”
Before either the XO or Astrogator could speak, Iceman jumped in.
“Green4 has two gas giants which now are almost at right angles to each other relative to the system’s sun. If we get there first and station fighter sentries at both giants, they can pinpoint which one the enemy will use to refuel and Defiant can then refuel at the other one, using microjumps to get to it. After refueling, the contact fighter can relay the enemy’s new jump vector, and Defiant will have enough fuel to boost to a high enough speed to arrive at the next system with plenty of lead time. While Defiant is boosting away from the Green4 GG, it can deploy a fully fueled fighter, which will then have enough fuel to send a message drone directly to Omaha Base and still make it back to the GG to refuel itself. Here’s what that would look like.”
Shiloh, the XO and the Astrogator turned to looked at the main display, which now showed a tactical representation of Green4 system with
the projected arrival point for Defiant and two alternate paths to the gas giants depending on which one the enemy chose to refuel at. Shiloh turned to his Astrogator.
“What do you think, Martin?”
The Astrogator chuckled. “I think Iceman wants to put me out of a job! Without checking the numbers, I can’t be sure of course, but it looks doable, and I’m sure Iceman has calculated it down to the final decimal.”
Before Iceman had a chance to reply, Shiloh said, “XO?”
She sighed. “It sure beats my idea all to hell, Sir.”
It did look good, thought Shiloh. Damn good in fact, and Iceman came up with it FAST! Maybe A.I.s should be used as Astrogators.
There were still unknowns of course. If there was only one bogey, then one of the two gas giants would be free for Defiant’s use, but if there was more than one, and Shiloh was willing to bet there was, then it was conceivable that the enemy force might split up when it reached Green4 and refuel at both gas giants. Splitting up your force in potential enemy territory was not something that Shiloh would have done, but these were aliens after all, and who knew for certain how they thought? On the other hand, if the enemy force did split up, then Defiant’s remaining fighters stood a good chance of kicking the crap out of one group before the other group could come to its aid. That might convince the other group to abort the mission. They might suspect that these intervening systems were being monitored. Keeping that fact a secret, while nice in theory, was not an absolute priority, and an aborted attack would give Humanity more time to complete the network and beef up defenses. There was one more problem.
“How do we know when they’ll be arriving at Green4?” asked Shiloh to no one in particular.
Naturally Iceman spoke up first. “I have the answer, but I’ll let the Astrogator field this one if he wants to.”
Shiloh’s eyebrows went up. What a tactful way of letting Martin save some face. You continue to astonish me, Iceman. He could see from Martin’s expression that Iceman’s gesture wasn’t lost on him either.
“Thanks, Iceman. It’s actually simple, Sir. We line Defiant up for Green4, all the while keeping track of the bogey’s speed. When the bogey jumps, we’ll know exactly how fast it entered Jumpspace, and that will tell us when it’ll arrive at Green4. We then accelerate to a higher speed which will get us there first, with enough time to deploy sentry fighters and recon drones near both gas giants.”
“Very good. That’s what we’ll do. XO, bring the ship to a jump vector for Green4. Iceman, you contact Maverick and Hunter. Tell them what they need to do to keep tracking the bogey, and also make sure that the DCAG is informed as well. Both fighters will stay in Blue2 after the bogey jumps away, as per the original mission. Any questions?” No one had any. “Good. Carry on then.”
It took almost an hour for Defiant to swing around to a heading that it could use to jump to Green4. It and the bogey were now on parallel vectors, and while the bogey was further ahead, Defiant at this point was still traveling faster and was therefore catching up. At its closest point, the distance between them would still be more than a million kilometers. Defiant didn’t have to get close in order to beat the bogey to Green4. During that time, the half dozen recon drones controlled by Maverick and Hunter used a rapidly repeating series of rangefinder laser pulses to track the bogey. With Defiant now on the precise vector for the jump to Green4, it resumed acceleration. The bogey disappeared into Jumpspace 89 minutes later, and since Defiant’s speed was already greater, it jumped three minutes after that.
CHAPTER 19: Time To Roll The Dice
That extra speed enabled Defiant to emerge 22 hours later into the Green4 star system, 3 hours ahead of the bogey. Time enough to deploy recon drones and a pair of jump detection equipped fighters around each of the two gas giants, while remaining more or less equidistant from both. The drones would passively search for reflected sunlight contacts, while the fighters would attempt to pinpoint the exact location—and number—of ships emerging from Jumpspace. Deploying only two fighters near each gas giant was a calculated risk. A single fighter’s detection gear could only cover a limited area, and if the bogey happened to emerge from Jumpspace outside that detection range, the equipment wouldn’t see them. The space around each gas giant was so large that even if Shiloh had deployed all of his fighters among the two gas giants, it still wouldn’t have guaranteed detection, AND recovering his fighters from both planets would prevent Defiant from being able to jump ahead of the bogey to their next destination. The time to the bogey’s expected arrival in Green4 came and went. Because Defiant’s distance from either gas giant was measured in millions of kilometers, ordinary light speed communication by tight beam laser was too slow. The only way for a sentry fighter to get word to Defiant quickly enough was to launch a message drone. It microjumped to the area where Defiant drifted, and less than a minute after the arrival time, the ship picked up a text message from a message drone sent from one of the fighters monitoring the gas giant that Shiloh had designated as Green4A.
[55 ships detected emerging from Jumpspace. No visual contact yet]
The text message was followed by a data stream, containing the precise coordinates. Shiloh was stunned. Fifty-five ships! This was no recon mission. It was clearly a major attack. The lack of reflected sunlight contact was very bad news. Without some idea of where at least one of those ships was, the recon drones would have no way of knowing where to point their laser rangefinders and therefore couldn’t determine where those ships were heading, or how fast they were going. Using active radar scanning would tip the aliens off to the fact that humans were aware of their presence. At least the lack of contact reports of any kind from Green4B suggested—but did not prove—that the aliens were not intending to use it to refuel. Whatever else Defiant might do, it had to refuel from Green4B as quickly as possible, otherwise its options would be severely limited.
Shiloh was about to order Tanaka to microjump the ship to Green4B to refuel, when the Bridge faded from his field of vision, and he saw himself standing in front of Admiral Howard. But this vision was different. Instead of the usual crystal clear image, this image was blurry, almost as if he were looking at the scene through distorted lens. Howard’s voice sounded strange too. The pitch was not quite right, and the words didn’t seem to be synchronized with Howard’s mouth.
“I congratulate you on your decision to remain at the star system where you detected the enemy fleet. If you had continued to track them, you would not have been able to detect the much larger force that was following in their wake, and we wouldn’t have been able to gather enough strength in time to stop it. For your brilliant strategy, I’m promoting you to the next higher level of rank.”
As Shiloh listened to Howard’s words, which were said in a calm, almost monotone voice, he noticed that Howard was repeatedly jabbing his pointed right hand in Shiloh’s direction and the expression on Howard’s face did not look particularly pleased. If he’d been watching this scene without any sound at all, he would have interpreted Howard’s body language as indicating anger. The dissonance between the visual and auditory impressions was striking.
What is going on, he asked himself. He looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. No one was. Tanaka was conning the ship from the Helm Station again. Falkenberg was down in the Hangar Bay supervising the fighters and their support teams. There was something not right about this vision, but Shiloh couldn’t put his finger on it, and he didn’t have time to analyze it further. Decisions had to be made. The fighter at Green4A would be following previously given instructions and maneuvering his drones under the assumption that the fleet would head for the nearest gas giant. Even if the drones didn’t detect any reflected sunlight from any of the alien ships before they reached the gas giant, those ships would agitate the planet’s atmosphere enough with friction and turbulence that their presence would be detected if the drones were close enough. The drones would then attempt to pinpoint the enemy’s exact locations and vect
ors using the range finding lasers as the ships emerged from the planet’s atmosphere. In theory it should work, but it had never been tried before, so no one really knew.
What Shiloh had to decide now was whether Defiant would proceed to Green4B, as planned, to refuel so that it could boost a high speed message drone, and also beat the enemy fleet to their next destination. But if the vision was correct about an even larger follow-on fleet, then staying right where they were would be the best option. On the other hand, if the vision were wrong somehow, then perhaps there was a third option that he hadn’t considered yet. His visions so far had all involved a change of plans from what he otherwise would have done. If he applied that parameter to this situation, he would proceed to refuel at Green4B. The mere fact that he was having some kind of vision to begin with, strongly suggested that refueling to boost to the next destination was NOT the optimal strategy, but staying in Green4 and doing nothing just didn’t sit well with him. The only other strategy he could think of was to attack that fleet before they could jump away. He needed to confer with his senior officers and to his mind that included Iceman as well. Falkenberg could join the discussion by video intercom, as could Iceman. Tanaka and Rodriguez could step over to his station as they had done before.
When all four were present, either electronically or physically, Shiloh said, “Valkyrie has detected 55 ships emerging from Jumpspace near Green4A. He’ll try to pick up their precise locations and vectors as they refuel. I now have to decide what our response will be. For reasons that I do not want to go into now, I’m having doubts that our plan to refuel at Green4B and then jump ahead of the enemy fleet is still our best option. I want to hear assessments from all of you on an alternative strategy to attack the fleet here in this system, and if you have a completely different idea, I’d like to hear that too. You first, Brad.”