by Shane Black
“Our visitors have been pinned on deck 34 for several hours. Doctor Doverly has assured me they will not be permanently harmed by the introduction of a narcotic compound through the life support systems. Lieutenant Simpkins has been instructed to give them another 30 minutes.”
“What are they holding out for, sir?” Moo asked, genuinely interested in why a dozen men would barricade themselves on someone else’s ship and still expect to prevail.
“That falls into our other subject of discussion. Apparently, there’s a little more going on out here than an overdue ship.”
“A lot more,” Annora added.
“Colonel Atwell hasn’t been very helpful yet. Although his stories about deadman switches and tons of explosives were certainly entertaining, they didn’t give us much in the way of clues regarding his involvement.”
Yili was drawing little imaginary circles on the table. Her posture made her look like a teenage girl listening to her parents lecture her about getting a job. “We should have listened to the doctor, sir.”
Hunter stopped and considered his lieutenant’s words. “Go ahead, Engineer. I called this meeting for opinions.”
“We knew sabotage was a clear threat. We didn’t do enough to prepare. It cost me two men and it just about cost us the ship.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Yili,” Annora said gently.
“I’m not trying assign or avoid blame here, ma’am. I’m just pointing out we all got caught flat-footed. I don’t know the ship’s systems well enough. That cost us critical time that put more people in danger.”
“They were one step ahead of us the entire time,” Moo said. “Even the colonel and his stories about poison gas and the fake light show in Skywatch got me to at least think about striking a deal to save whatever was left.”
“It was my fault,” Zony said. “We froze down communications too soon. By the time we realized the whole thing was going sideways it was too late to restore our emergency channels, and then the bridge got cut off and I--”
Hunter held up his hand. Zony quieted down and shrank back into her seat.
“If there’s any blame to be laid here, it’s mine and mine alone. I’m the Captain of this ship. I’m responsible for the lives of every man and woman aboard and I’m responsible for the safety and survival of this vessel. Yili?”
The Engineer looked up, recognizing that peculiar tone Jason Hunter was capable of that told her he was about to say something heartfelt and important.
“We lost two men in Engineering, but you saved almost a thousand lives by your quick thinking. The best way we can honor the memory of those two men is to avoid making the same mistake twice.”
Yili nodded.
“And to go pay our friends a little visit,” Moo added.
“I’ve got a couple of ideas in that department, colonel,” Hunter replied. Moo looked up with a shocked expression. The Captain tossed him a medal box and he fumbled it before catching it with both hands.
“Orders came through right after we hit the Gitairn jump gate. Skywatch Command moved you up after I requested you for Argent. Congratulations.”
“I-- I don’t know what to say, sir.”
“Tell me what you think about promoting our Chief Engineer soon.” Hunter said. “I think something should be done to recognize her.. shall we say, innovative approach to command?” Hunter grinned and Yili smiled a little despite herself.
“What action’s been taken?” the Captain asked, reclining in his tall leather chair.
“I’ve ordered the CSW to maintain full combat space patrols until further ordered. Wildcat squadrons are rotating three by one to a range of ten megaclicks,” Doverly reported. “I have a Paladin Strike Force on a ten minute alert off rails twelve and thirteen and a T-Hawk Strike Force standing by off rails one and two. Senior Chief Buckmaster has assured me Zony’s plan code-named ‘Jackrabbit’ isn’t just something to add to the dinner menu.”
“Tell me about that, lieutenant.”
“Well sir, it’s part of a thing me and my friend Louis were working on at CATS right before I got my civvie assignment. We had this old Gen-One Jack hull parked in storage. Louis was spending all his spare time tinkering with the jump engines and the drive field generators and that left me standing there with nothing to do except listen to his stories about horse racing.”
“Oh for the love of Mike, not those stories,” Yili said.
“Yeah, those stories.” Zony rolled her eyes. “Anyway, just for fun I took apart the subspace transmitters and the radio amps and since the hull didn’t have any weapons I plugged them in to the empty bays and I noticed something.”
“I think I know where you’re going with this, Zony,” Hunter said with a twinkle in his eye. “Go on.”
“Well, sir, you know how the old Bearcats used to have those enormous shielded magnets bolted to the undercarriage of the wiring harness?”
“They dumped that whole assembly when the Wildcats replaced it with the carbon lattice circuitry, didn’t they?” Annora asked.
“Exactly,” Hunter said.
“Yeah, and that left this big hole because the Wildcat hull is just a Bearcat hull without the external capsule reactor mounts. So I took a broken EW package from the spare parts depot, mounted a really crappy battlecomp component on it and wired it up with those amps and ran some frequency tests on it and I think I invented a new ship.”
“So it’s a fighter with all radios and no weapons?” Moo asked.
“It would be if it weren’t for the Two-Gen datalink,” Zony said, almost bouncing in her chair and trying to contain her excitement. “Normally if you just fly the thing out there it’s a Nemesis without the really advanced gear. But a Nemesis can’t lash up with a Yellowjacket datalink because--”
“Because it would give away their position,” Yili said nonchalantly, still drawing little imaginary designs on the table with her finger.
“Right!” Zony exclaimed.
“So what happens when you put this ship of yours in a squadron datanet?” Annora asked.
“You get a whole squadron of nasty little flying point defense emplacements with exactly the same fire control circuitry as an anti-missile frigate,” the Signals Officer replied proudly. “Right down to the model numbers on the components.”
“Interesting...” Moo exhaled.
“Are you suggesting we convert a battle squadron of fighters to missile defense?” Hunter asked, bringing the conversation back down to Earth.
“No sir, you don’t have to do anything that drastic,” Zony replied. “All you have to do is add the radio ship to the formation and let them pick their own targets. They don’t have to stop being fighters. They get advanced missile defense capability without losing a thing.”
“And that means we could put three ‘anti missile frigates’ on our perimeter as part of our combat space patrol,” Annora said. “Not exactly a battle group, but impressively close.”
“What do we call this thing again?” Hunter asked.
“A Jackrabbit, sir!” Zony announced, clearly just as excited about the name as she was about the invention itself.
“Alllllright, have Buckmaster modify one Yellowjacket for each squadron with your circuitry.”
Zony beamed.
“Where does that leave us on OOB, commander?”
“We can put 54 Wildcats and 23 Yellowjackets in space at your command. If we raid parts storage Buckmaster assures me he can field 19 T-Hawks with full weapons loadouts.”
“Outstanding. What about ground forces, colonel?”
“Second Airborne has 21 Paladins on ready alert. Seventh Air-Ground Task Force has 18 Heavy Paladins. I can have a mechanized battalion planetside in twelve minutes.”
“Sounds awfully violent to me, colonel,” Hunter said with a smirk.
“If we can’t eat it or kiss it we’ll kill it, sir.”
“Commander?”
“Damage control has restored all operations on deck 11. Hull breaches have been secured,” A
nnora replied. “Argent Search and Rescue is fully operational.”
“What did you come up with?”
“Whoever did the final equipment checks before Argent launched forgot to tell me about the corvette situation. We’ve all been so busy talking about fighters, T-Hawks and Paladins nobody bothered to check up on our support craft.”
“We were in kind of a hurry,” Zony said with a grin.
“I know we’ve got launch facilities set aside for at least four vessels,” Moo said.
“We have five as it turns out. We’ve got Tranquility Three, which is a specialized medical corvette. There are three evac rescue lifters and get this, a brand new Nightwing SAR Patrol Flyer. I think we stole the medical boat. Someone painted over her designation.”
“That or we stole the Nightwing too,” Hunter quipped.
“Never heard of those ships, Doctor. What have they got?” Zony asked.
“Well, it’s pretty much a Nemesis built around a hospital trauma unit,” Annora replied. “Nice and agile with lots of remote probes, a couple of heavy look-bots and four Angel recovery craft.”
“I saw one of those Angels in action at the last flight demo at CATS before I left,” Zony said. “Incredible what they can do.”
“Autonomous search and recovery,” Doverly said. “Like your mother’s arms. One of those things could fish you out of a suitcase buried under a mountain at the bottom of the ocean and fly you home with a little umbrella drink in your hand. They’re like Saint Bernards with anti-grav.”
“Ha!” Zony said brightly. Moo chuckled.
“Very good. Alright Jacks, listen up, because we’re not looking for missing Admirals any more,” Hunter said.
Everyone quieted down.
“Hughes is off the reservation, and speaking only for myself, I can understand his concerns. Atwell’s story checks out, at least for now. I ordered launch of a long-range probe into Gitairn Sector Nine right after we secured the bridge and I got the results right before this meeting. It picked up gravitic reactions from at least sixteen vessels on the opposite side of the Reach. Five were heavies.”
“Sounds like a war looking for a place to start,” Moo said.
“That’s a task force one four-hour jump from three populated systems, boys and girls. And the only Skywatch vessel standing between them has a name that starts with ‘A.’ That’s the situation, plain and simple.”
“Any word from command?” Annora asked.
“I’ve formulated and rejected at least three different strategies for calling home, all of which end with what I’m sure will be us ordered back to base. Then there’s the Barker’s Asteroid situation.”
“There’s more?” Zony asked, eyes wide.
“Oh, it gets better and better,” Hunter replied. “The ‘Admiral’ and his gang of cowboys dropped a Sentinel emplacement on the asteroid field side of that deserted rock. That combined with the colonel’s now confirmed minefield gives the former crew of the Dunkerque a way to present the enemy formation with a Hobson’s choice: brave the minefield or get carved up like a roasted turkey by long-range proximity bursts from that gun.”
“We ran the transponders from his monitoring stations,” Annora added. “Those mines are the big boys. He’s got anti-missile, anti-stealth, anti-ship, X-ray, anti-matter and clusterpacks. Every one of them is equipped with a maneuvering ring and at least half the field is cloaked. It would take a squadron of minesweepers a month to fly the length of a football field in that salvage yard.”
“And Barker’s Asteroid is parked right in the center of it. There’s no way to get at the Sentinel without flying through at least half those mines. Now we could probably clear it with rail casters, but if we open up we’ll draw the attention of both the Sentinel and the enemy task force, so I’ve got a plan.”
“I figured you might,” Zony said with a grin.
The display behind Hunter switched to a view of the Rho Theta system. In the center of the display was a formation of nine Skywatch warships, with DSS Fury at their center.
“It just so happens I’ve got my own task force,” Hunter announced proudly.
“Perseus, huh?” Moo said. “That’s Jayce Hunter’s outfit, isn’t it?”
“The same.” Hunter switched the large display back to Gitairn Eight with Argent at the center and the asteroid field at the upper edge.
“With all due respect, sir, isn’t this just the Hunter family doing what we’re about to blame the Admiral for?” Yili asked without looking up.
“It would be if I had plans to attack. My orders are to get out of this system with the crew of the Dunkerque safe. If that means I have to take the Admiral into custody, then so be it. If I’m about to do Jutland in space, I don’t have the tonnage with Argent solo. But if my darling sister joins my command, we become Strike Fleet Perseus and punch in a much higher weight class.”
“Argent and Fury with the Perseus battle group can sure bring the lumber, sir. No doubt about that,” Moo said.
“I’d be happier with more muscle and less finesse, but with our datalink and advanced battlespace controls, we can at least make it a running fight back to Core’s edge if it comes to that. Commander Hunter reports Fury and her battle group will rendezvous with Argent in six hours.”
“Well, it looks like we’ve planned ahead this time,” Annora said.
“Sir? What is that system upper left on the display?” Zony asked. “It looks like tactical isn’t quite sure how far it is from the enemy contacts.”
Hunter swiveled in his chair and scanned the screen. “Up there?”
The lieutenant got out of her chair. Annora and the others watched. “This up here,” she said, pointing at a small planet on the outer edge of the Gitairn companion star’s system. “Isn’t this one of the Raleo system’s planets?”
“Looks like it but those planets are just volcano-covered wastelands. The Raleo system is brand new in cosmic terms. I recall astrometrics thinks it might have been formed from the remains of the Gitairn nebula. Too young for much,” Doverly replied.
“What’s on your mind, lieutenant?” Hunter asked, his intuitive antenna buzzing.
“Well, sir, I just notice how the minefield, the gun and the enemy ships are all set up right between the Core and the Raleo primary. I mean, the colonel’s story about the big bad enemy fleet coming to kill everybody sounds appropriately scary and all, but if that gun were pointed in our direction and trying to stop us from getting to the Raleo system, it would be a textbook interdiction strategy.”
“I’ll be a--” Moo said.
“Don’t have to remind anyone here we’ve got no reason to trust the colonel,” Yili said. “Leaving aside for the moment he put a gun to my head, his story about rigging the ship to blow up turned out to be a hoax.”
Something dark and ominous tugged at Hunter’s insides. Both versions of events sounded perfectly reasonable, but so far he had been hit with impossible-to-believe revelations about a Skywatch flag officer’s involvement in unsanctioned operations and now the only evidence he had things were as they seemed was the word of a man who had already been demonstrated to be a liar at least once. Then there was the fact Argent had been sabotaged and fired on.
Hunter made the decision and keyed his commlink. “Hunter to bridge.”
“Bridge, Walls.”
“Ensign, I want you to listen to me very carefully. Patch me to the pilot’s station nice and easy. Don’t panic and don’t make it look like you’re doing anything unusual. Stay on the channel and tie in CIC and Skywatch.”
“Aye sir,” Walls replied with an impressively calm tone. “You’re on.”
“Hunter to pilot, acknowledge.” the Captain said quietly.
“Helm, Lieutenant McInerney.”
“Status report.”
“Argent at station keeping per your orders, sir. No navigational hazards reported. CSP maintaining standard perimeter. We are space clear for all flight modes.”
“Very well, lieutenant
. Maneuvering thrusters only. Back us off from Barker’s Asteroid nice and slow. Five meters per second SNS, shields nominal.”
“Aye, sir. Helm answering. All engines back one percent. Aft velocity now 5 MPS course one eight zero mark zero heading one eight zero relative.”
“Sir?” Zony asked. Hunter held up a hand as if waiting for something. The lieutenant noticed he was gripping the arm of his chair a little harder than normal.
“CIC to bridge, something or someone just went active inside the Gitairn spacefield, Sector Ten.”
“Hunter to Nemesis Eight. Analysis. Quickly.”
“Compiling, sir. Battlecomp is inconclusive. Navicomp thinks it’s some kind of ILS beacon. Do we have traffic out there?”
“Negative, Nemesis.”
“ILS Beacon? We’re not active, are we!?” Yili asked with an edge of urgency in her voice.
“Negative, aside from the ECM we’ve had no active sensors or scanners since we got here,” Annora replied.
“Then they’re piggybacking a targeting sweep in an ILS harmonic!”
“Nemesis Eight, give me a position for that contact.”
“Bearing Zero Two One mark 28 range 0.4 megaclicks and stationary.”
“Plot it!” Hunter switched the display to pick up the Nemesis tracking telemetry.
A red dot glowed to life near the asteroid field only one light-minute from Barker’s Asteroid.
“Battlecomp just lit up, sir! Argent is being targeted for range!” The Nemesis Signals Officer shouted and the audio signal spiked, distorting his voice. “Permission to jam the channel!”
“Blast it! Walls! Full power astern!”
A painfully bright weapons impact overturned the conference table and all the chairs at once just before the lights flickered then went dark.
Twenty-Four
Ensign Walls cursed through gritted teeth. He meant to secure himself at the conn, but he was doing his best to help the other crew members maintain contact with the elusive sensor readings at the edge of Gitairn Sector Ten. The weapons impact threw him at least twelve feet. He landed flat with a painful grunt and all the air was driven from his lungs.
The Officer of the Watch reached way down and somehow found the strength to keep from passing out. His hearing cleared gradually, and the reddish glow of the battle alert had replaced the soothing lights of the spacious Argent bridge with a storm of sound and urgency. He climbed to his feet with the help of the center chair.