by Ryk Brown
“They removed the warheads first, right?” he asked, his voice barely audible.
“Yes, sir,” Mister Daviore assured him. “They’re stored in one of the munitions bays, on the far side of the asteroid.”
Lieutenant Tillardi swallowed hard, a wave of relief washing over him. “Of course, I should have known that, shouldn’t I?”
“It’s quite alright, Lieutenant. I know the admiral has you spread over several projects these days.”
“You can say that again,” Tillardi replied. “Jump KKVs, jump missiles, orbital jump comm-drones…”
“Orbital what?” Mister Daviore wondered, unfamiliar with the term.
“A new type of jump comm-drone,” Lieutenant Tillardi explained. “A variant of the mini-jump comm-drones our ships have been using for long-range communications. They fly a set course, jumping between two set worlds, doing a half orbit to turn around and jump back.”
“I thought we were using the old converted Takaran comm-drones for interstellar communications?”
“We were, but the admiral wanted them replaced. Something about them being too bulky and complex, needing a lot of service, and using a lot of propellant. I guess he wanted something more efficient.”
“What is he going to do with the old ones?” Mister Daviore wondered.
“I have no idea,” the lieutenant admitted. “Nor do I care. It’s one less thing for me to deal with, as far as I’m concerned. Are we ready to get started?”
“Yes, sir,” Mister Daviore replied energetically.
“Great.”
“No disrespect intended, sir, but we can handle this without you. Your team already figured out how to do the conversions. We’re just going to be copying what your guys did, and I know how busy you are.”
“I know you can, Markum,” the lieutenant replied. “I think the admiral just wanted me here for the first day, just to make sure things get off to a good start. The two most important things for the Alliance right now are these jump missiles, and the JKKVs. Trust me, as soon as I see things are going smoothly here, I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Understood.”
Lieutenant Tillardi patted Markum Daviore on his shoulder as they headed for the lines. “Shall we get started?”
* * *
“You wanted to see me, Commander?” Jessica asked from the doorway.
“Lieutenant Commander Nash,” Commander Telles said, rising from his office chair. “Yes, but it was not necessary for you to come all the way down to Porto Santo.”
“It was a good excuse to see my parents,” Jessica said, taking a seat across the desk from him, and putting her feet up. “What’s up?”
Commander Telles squinted, irritated by both her casual demeanor and the expression. “I would like to ask for your help.”
“Really?” Jessica giggled. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
“Indeed,” the commander replied stiffly, sitting back down. He was the first to admit that he did not understand the female mind, and the lieutenant commander was even more perplexing than most. “I was hoping that you could help train our men.”
“On what? How to be insubordinate?”
“Hardly. Hand-to-hand combat.”
“I thought you guys were such badasses. What could I teach them?”
“The Ghatazhak methods take considerable time to master. We have attempted to give the men a…how do you say it? A ‘crash course’, but it does not seem to be working. The Ghatazhak methods are very efficient, and they require considerable mental discipline. This is something that cannot easily be taught.”
“So, you think it’s easy to teach someone to fight like me?” Jessica appeared insulted.
“I didn’t mean…”
“Relax, Telles, I’m just playing with you. But in all seriousness, it did take a while to learn to fight the way I fight, as well.”
“Of course. What I meant was, the EDF spec-ops style has a certain…abandon. It is very aggressive.”
“That’s probably more me than it is spec-ops training,” Jessica admitted.
“Nevertheless, I believe it would be a more effective method, given the allotted time. In addition, you are more familiar with the EDF weapons, which we will be using to arm these men.”
“So, what you’re saying, is that I’m more qualified to teach them than you are.” Jessica smiled, appearing quite pleased with herself. “Damn. How could I say no? I get to yell at a thousand marines and tell them what to do…call them names. Sounds like fun. And on top of that, I get out of most of Captain Taylor’s screwy drills. Sign me up, Chief.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way,” Jessica said as she took her feet off the commander’s desk. “How much time do we have?”
“Two weeks.”
Jessica’s eyes widened. “Shit. I guess we’d better get started.” She stood up to leave. “First thing in the morning?”
“That would do nicely,” the commander replied.
“You got it, Chief.”
“I have another favor to ask,” Commander Telles said. “Please don’t call me ‘chief’. I am a commander, not a chief.”
“Right.” Jessica turned to leave.
“Lieutenant Commander Nash?” the commander called after her.
Jessica turned back around, feigning irritation. “Yes?”
“You are dismissed.”
Jessica straightened up and offered a half-hearted salute.
Commander Telles returned her salute, and waited for her to depart before returning to his reports. “A difficult case, that one. Difficult indeed.”
* * *
“God, this is fun,” Loki exclaimed, as he chased Super Eagle Zero One through the skies over the gulf.
“What did you say?” Josh called over the comms.
“I said this is fun!” Loki replied.
“Set your jump range to one thousand meters and follow me,” Josh instructed as he pointed his fighter straight up and went to full power.
Loki rolled the dial on the side of his flight control stick until the jump range indicator on his flight status display read one thousand meters. He pitched up and went to full power as well, coming to vertical just as Super Eagle Zero One disappeared in a blue-white flash of light. He could feel the acceleration pushing him back into his seat, far more so than he had ever felt in the Falcons. He had originally been opposed to the idea of giving up some of the inertial dampening capabilities, but he was enjoying the sensation of power. He felt as if he were sitting at the tip of a ballistic missile, its massive thrust driving it through mach after mach. He pushed the select switch on the top of his flight control stick forward into the jump position, then pressed the trigger. His canopy instantly turned opaque, and when it cleared a second later, Super Eagle Zero One was again in front of him, still climbing straight up.
“You still with me?” Josh wondered aloud.
“You bet,” Loki replied, knowing full well that Josh’s Super Eagle was linked to his own through a tactical data stream.
Josh’s fighter flashed again and disappeared. Loki initiated another jump to follow him, instantly moving another thousand feet higher toward space. He followed Josh, guiding his fighter over to an inverted position, reducing his throttle as his nose came over, eventually settling into an inverted forty-five-degree dive toward the turquoise waters ten kilometers below them. He rolled back upright as he continued his dive, chasing Josh from only thirty meters away and slightly to his starboard side.
“Let’s try a tandem jump,” Josh suggested. “Dialing up five kilometers.”
“Don’t you think we should try the first tandem jump in level flight?” Loki argued.
“Screw that,” Josh replied. “Designating Zero One as lead.”
“Link confirmed,” Loki replied. For a moment, he wondered why he was agreeing to partake in Josh’s antics. He looked at his altitude tape on his flight status display. It read six thousand meters. “Oh, shit,” he exclaimed, his eyes widen
ing. “Josh!”
“Just be ready to pull up, Lok.”
Loki glanced at his jump system readouts, noting that his drive was active and ready, and set to five thousand meters.
“Jumping.”
Loki’s canopy turned opaque again. As it did so, Loki immediately pulled back on his flight control stick, pulling his nose well above the horizon line on his flight status display, as he slammed his throttle forward to full power. When his canopy cleared, he could see Super Eagle Zero One, also at full power, and also struggling to decrease its rate of descent and avoid slamming into the Gulf of Mexico.
For a few tense moments, neither of them spoke. Loki watched as his altitude tape went down to five hundred meters, then four hundred, and finally three hundred, before he finally managed to level off.
“Guns, guns, guns,” Josh said in a near giggle. He snap-rolled into a tight left turn, which Loki instinctively followed. As he rolled out of the turn and back to level, he noticed that his jump drive was still linked to Josh’s, and that the jump range was changing back to one thousand meters.
“Jumping,” Josh announced without warning.
Again, Loki’s canopy turned opaque. When it went clear, Josh’s fighter was executing a hard right turn, right across Loki’s flight path. Loki pushed his nose down slightly to dive under him, and then rolled into a hard right turn to follow.
“Climbing on one four five, at fifty meters per second,” Josh reported.
Loki rolled out onto the same course heading and pulled his nose up while he added power to hold the same rate of climb.
“Selecting range of two kilometers,” Josh continued. “After the jump, turn to three four zero, ten degrees down, at one thousand KPH.”
“Fuck,” Loki mumbled, as his canopy turned opaque momentarily. He executed the next maneuver as instructed, changing course and diving toward the surface at a ten-degree angle at one thousand kilometers per hour. Then he pressed the link override button.
“What are you doing?” Josh asked.
“We’re not here to play games, Josh. We’re here to perform a series of two-element tactical tests.”
“That’s what I was doing.”
“You know what I mean,” Loki said, as he leveled off and turned to a new course.
“Where are you going, Loki?”
“I’m headed for the test range, like we were supposed to do when we first took off. If you don’t want to get another ass chewing from Prechitt, you’ll do the same.”
“All right, all right,” Josh relented as his ship pulled up to Loki’s left and flew alongside him. “Killjoy.”
Loki sighed.
* * *
“Skipper!” Jessica called from down the corridor, as she jogged up to Nathan.
“Lieutenant Commander.”
“I was wondering if I could skip the staff meeting today?” she asked as she fell into step beside him.
“Again?”
“It’s not like I have anything to contribute,” Jessica complained. “All you guys ever talk about these days is repairs and upgrades.”
“That’s not true.”
“Oh, really? What’s on the agenda today?” she asked.
“Uh…repairs and upgrades.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“You going down to Porto Santo again?”
“That’s what I was hoping.”
“You’ve been spending a lot of time down there, lately. Cameron says you’ve missed two training days on the Celestia.”
“Cameron is way too big on training.”
“Are you going to be able to handle the new tactical console?”
“It’s a piece of cake,” Jessica said. “Delaveaga took me through it in less than an hour. In fact, it’s a hell of a lot easier than the old layout.”
“Yeah, he used to complain about it a lot,” Nathan said. “He came up with the new design, you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jessica replied. “And like I said, it’s a lot easier to use, so, no I won’t have any problem with it.”
Nathan sighed in resignation as he reached the door to the command briefing room. “What’s got you so busy down there, anyway?” he wondered. “I thought you were just going to train a few guys how to fight, and then let them train the others?”
“That was the plan. It’s just taking more effort than I expected. I don’t have a lot of time, remember?”
“I know.”
“Once we leave dry dock and get back on the liberation campaign, I’ll barely have time to check in on them once in a while.”
“Then I suppose I don’t have any choice, do I?”
“Not really,” she said with a smile.
Nathan looked her in the eyes. “Just be sure you know how to use that console by the time we leave dry dock,” he insisted, “or I’ll be looking for a new tactical officer.”
“No problem, Skipper,” she said, turning to depart. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure,” he replied, turning to enter the command briefing room. “As you were,” he said, before the guard at the door could call ‘captain on deck’. He despised the formality of having everyone stand when he entered the room, especially since the few people in attendance were all either close friends, or subordinates who he worked with on a regular basis.
Nathan made his way around the table, heading for his usual spot at the end. “You’re up, Vlad,” he said as he took his seat.
“All thirty-two mark one mini-quad plasma turrets are installed,” Vladimir began. “We now have twice the point-defense capabilities as before, without having to worry about running out of slugs.”
“Hardly seems worth it, since we usually jump away from incoming ordnance,” Mister Navashee commented.
“True, but if we ever lose our jump drive again, you’ll be glad we have the extra firepower,” Nathan replied.
“Speaking of jump drives, installation of the second set of field generators should be completed by tomorrow,” Vladimir said. “After that, all we have to do is wire up the second set of energy banks, and we should be in business.”
“Any word on reducing the recharge time?” Lieutenant Yosef wondered.
“Black Lab is still working on it,” Nathan said. “I talked to Tilly the other day, and they’ve made progress, but the prototype is still a few weeks away. Even then, it’s going to have to undergo a lot of testing before they’re going to put them into our ships.”
“How are they going to test them?” the lieutenant asked.
“Once we get enough gunships up and running, they’re taking Scout One out of service to use as a test vessel,” Nathan explained. He turned to Vladimir. “Has the Celestia’s cheng reported any issues with the two-stage jump system?”
“Not yet, but they are still waiting a few minutes between max-range jumps,” Vladimir replied.
“Still, thirty light years in a few minutes is nothing to complain about.”
“If the improved energy banks aren’t going to be ready for a while, maybe we should consider installing another set?” Lieutenant Yosef suggested. “Make it a three-stage system.”
“We don’t have enough room for another set of energy banks,” Vladimir protested. “Not to mention the heat exchange issues.”
“I think we can make do with a thirty light year max-range for now,” Nathan stated, trying to move the meeting along. “How are our shields coming?”
Vladimir glanced at his data pad. “One week.”
“The problem routing around the topside exchangers get solved?” Nathan wondered.
“I made them remove the damaged bulkheads and replace them,” Vladimir answered, a sly grin on his face. “They were not happy.”
“Is that going to set us back?”
“No, I ordered them to make sure it did not. That’s why they were not happy.”
“What about the super-tubes, Master Chief?” Nathan asked.
“Starboard side is going like clockwork, Captain,” Marcus answered. “P
ort side is being a bit of a bitch.” Marcus glanced at Lieutenant Yosef. “Apologies, sir.”
“What’s the problem?” Nathan wondered.
“It was pretty badly damaged. The heat from the plasma generators fused most of the decking around it into the framework below deck. We had to cut it all out and replace every spar at the start of the inboard tunnel.”
“Is it going to be a problem?”
“No, sir,” Marcus insisted. “I’ve got them working double shifts to stay on schedule. Those tubes will be ready by the time we leave dry dock.”
“It’s okay if they aren’t, Master Chief,” Nathan told him. “Better it’s done right, than quick. We can get by with the starboard tubes for a few days, if we must.”
“Don’t worry, Captain. They’ll be done,” Marcus promised.
“How is the training going, Commander?” Nathan asked, turning to Commander Willard, his executive officer.
“Latest reports show that A-shift is fully checked out in the new consoles,” Commander Willard reported. “They’ve scored high nineties in the last few simulations, as well. The emphasis is on B-shift now. Once they’re up to speed, we’ll be running mixed crew simulations.”
“How much longer until our bridge is ready?” Nathan asked.
“Two days,” Vladimir said. “They’re running final systems checks now.”
“I asked them to put the bridge in simulation mode once the checks are completed,” Commander Willard added, “so our crews can practice here, as well as on the Celestia.”
“Good thinking, Commander.” Nathan turned to Lieutenant Yosef. “How are the new long-range sensor arrays working out?”
“The ones on the Celestia are fantastic. Since our new ones are the same design, they should be good as well.”
“Are they completely installed?”
“Yes, sir. I just can’t try them out because we’re deep inside of an asteroid. But I’ve been spending a lot of time at the Celestia’s long-range sensor console, as has Mister Navashee.”
“Sorry you have to pull shifts on the bridge again, Lieutenant, but we’re going to be shorthanded until we get another shift trained.”
“It’s not a problem, Captain.”
“Very well, people. We’ve got nine days left to get this ship ready for action. Let’s get back to work.”