by Shane Black
Ninety-Three
“I think it would be wise to presume that, from this point forward, we should take nothing we see at face value,” Jason Hunter stated. The silence that hung over the conference table told him the rest of his officers couldn’t argue.
“Given what both commands have faced up to now, and what we just encountered in the engagement with Task Force Poseidon, I expect there are going to be more than a few surprises waiting for us when we get to Barker’s Asteroid,” Commander Teller replied.
“Whoever they are, they have considerable firepower and the ability to put robot ships just about anywhere they want,” Commander Flynn added.
“Who knows what the next robot ship is going to be loaded with? Bridge full of anti-matter? That would make a rather effective missile.” Lieutenant Islington drew more than a few looks from the assembled officers. Her recent fame gave her a bit bigger metaphorical chair at the table.
“We’ve done a good job of playing it by the book up to this point. I don’t see any reason to start second-guessing ourselves,” Jayce Hunter concluded. “We have a capable fleet, and good crews. Argent and her squadrons have performed brilliantly–” her brother nodded appreciatively “– and we have integrated the Strike Force better than I could have hoped in a very short time. Putting a heavy unit in the center position gives us more firepower, but also presents more than a few operational wrinkles which I’m sad to say not many of us have dealt with before.”
“Can’t we just treat her as a bigger version of what we’re already flying?” Commander Harcourt offered.
“If we just want to bring her along, that’s one approach. I’d like to see us take advantage of her standoff capability, especially if the Sentinel is still hostile by the time we arrive,” Jason replied. “If we integrate her weapons systems into our order of battle, it adds a few dimensions to what we can already do, and my personal opinion is she can go toe to toe with the battle station. I think Argent could too, but we don’t have the kind of long-range weaponry unless we launch a fighter strike.”
“Seems to me that would be the most effective strategy, sir,” Teller said.
“If I wanted to kill that gun, I’d be inclined to agree with you, commander. A squadron of paladins would be very effective for such a mission. But I want to capture it. In order to do that, I need to absorb everything it can throw at me long enough to either give the personnel already down there time to get to its control systems, or guide a strike team down there. Kingsblade can do that. She can also take out the leading edge of the minefield. Without a sweeper, she’s the only ship I can risk for that kind of duty. If any of our other vessels go in there and say a cloaked anti-navigation mine goes off–”
“Not so fast, sir. With all due respect, Perseus has a couple of ships with specialized picket duty loadouts. Ajax is built for hunting and anti-missile duty. Minstrel and Rhode Island would make exceptional mine-killers if they had the right electronic counter-counter measures,” Jayce said.
“We looked at this menu once before,” Annora said with a smile. “What if we lashed up a Nemesis and a couple of paladins? Remember?”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “So we could fight our way in there?”
“We could, but this whole thing presumes Dunkerque has failed in her mission. She doesn’t need any of this because she has a transponder that the mines recognize as friendly,” Jayce replied.
“We haven’t heard from Dunkerque, Zony, Yili or Moo in nearly seven hours,” Annora said.
“They might be in over their head,” Jason added. “My instinct tells me we need to get in there and back them up. What’s the best guess on putting our new toy back in the fight?”
“We’ll arrive at point X-Ray Tango in roughly half an hour. Once everything is powered down, we’re going to send Flight One and engineering details two through four across to take out all the automation systems and bring her mains back on-line by the checklist. She’ll be ready for action in four hours,” Master Crew Chief Buckmaster replied.
“At what level of combat readiness?” Jayce asked.
“Better than 90%, ma’am,” Buckmaster replied. “She’s blind aft due to the failure of the battle screen synchronizer amidships. We don’t have the parts for that and we don’t have time to build a substitute. Engine Three is a little temperamental due to a break in the fuel transfer coils on deck 40, but as long as it doesn’t go into the red it should be fine. The rest of the ship is fully operational.”
“Outstanding. That’s a lot of work in a short time,” Jason said.
“I think it will be worth it, sir.” Buckmaster nodded.
“She’ll need a skipper,” Jason concluded. Then he looked directly at Annora. “Won’t she?” Hunter’s XO was once again at a loss for words.
“I’ve never been assigned to command, Jason.”
“You’re my Executive Officer. This ship we’re sitting in right now wouldn’t be half what it is without you.”
Annora’s face paled.
“Commander Doverly, as the flag and the senior officer present, it is my duty to award you a battlefield promotion to the brevet rank of acting Captain. Your orders are to assume command of the heavy battleship Kingsblade and prepare her for strike operations.”
Hunter turned to the opposite side of the table. “Sabrina?” Lieutenant Mallory sat a little straighter in her chair.
“Sir?”
“She’ll need an Exec. I’ve already spoken with Jayce and we agree you’re at the top of the promotion list. I’m awarding you a battlefield promotion to the brevet rank of Lieutenant Commander. You are now Annora’s Executive Officer and I’m assigning you to commanding the crew of the Kingsblade.”
Sabrina Mallory looked as if she had just been asked for her hand in an impromptu proposal.
“Duncan, it seems you have a new boss,” Jason added with a smirk.
“It would seem that way, sir,” Buckmaster replied with a grin.
“Alright folks,” Jason said as he stood and gathered his papers. Everyone at the enormous Argent conference table stood with him. “Let’s be ready to start hacking our way to that base by 0700.”
Ninety-Four
“Landing party to Dunkerque. Come in, Yili. Come in, Moo.” Zony was doing her best to stay quiet, but the commlink she was using wasn’t keyed. The only way she could transmit was by voice.
The temperature aboard the Barker’s Asteroid station had dropped nearly 12 degrees in the hour since the colonel and Chief Engineer had teleported back to the ship. The gas mixture in the air was well within tolerances, but if the temperature continued to drop, Zony had already calculated they had less than an hour left before conditions went from uncomfortable to dangerous.
“Lieutenant?” Austin whispered. “I’m getting strange readings from my environmental sensor.” Commander DeMay checked his, as did the other members of the Dunkerque’s skeleton crew.
“How can this be right? How could the life support systems be mixing sulfuric acid and bromine?”
“Because we have company,” Zony replied. “Those are the same readings we got before we were attacked on board the Dunkerque the first time.”
“What kind of company?”
“The wrong kind. Check those crates and see if there is anything in here we can use to track atmospheric trace elements. If one of those bugs finds us in here, we’re sunk. That blaster pistol isn’t going to be enough.” Zony activated her commlink again. “Dunkerque, this is Zony. We are detecting alien life forms aboard the station. Repeat. There are alien life forms aboard this station. Do not approach Barker’s asteroid! Repeat–”
***
Meanwhile, only 200 yards away, the starship Dunkerque was sliding sideways through space towards the space station’s 175 edge airlock.
“Relative velocity now four feet per second. Manual activation of soft lock in ten.. nine.. eight..” Yili was completely engrossed in her readouts and controls. She didn’t see the movement behind the nearby reac
tor dampening systems. Colonel Moody had arranged to sit in the room on the other side of the hallway, but at the proper angle so he could keep an eye on what was going on in main engineering. Yili was visible only a few yards away through both hatches.
Moo didn’t see the movement either.
***
A control panel suddenly lit up nearly 200 feet below the surface of asteroid Scorpion One Three. Long quiescent circuitry hummed to life and began walking through the checklist to activate the auxiliary power systems built into the same subterranean chamber.
Power poured into the larger systems built under the floor panels of the installation. A terminal display lit up with fast moving schematics of all manner of electronics: Short Range Sensors, Long Range Sensors, Electronic Counter Measures, Missile Tracking, Weapons Capacitance, Targeting Suite, Fusion Reactors.
A transceiver indicator began to blink, notifying the empty chamber there were operational instructions being received from a remote location. Quietly and with silky smooth precision, the entire asteroid began to pivot in space. As it did so, the leading edge of another Sentinel weapon became visible to the tracking sensors of the viper mines surrounding the half-mile-wide jagged rock.
As its passive sensors began gathering information on point X-Ray Tango, the dark shape of a thoroughly alien ship winked into existence only ten miles off its surface. The 150,000-ton warship hovered in space for a moment and then activated her cloak before fading into the blackness, revealing the starfield once again.
Motion sensors snapped to life aboard the abandoned station, and the outline and ship designator of DSS Fury appeared on the installation’s targeting display. Moments later, DSS Constellation also appeared. One by one all the Perseus ships appeared as they approached point X-Ray Tango.
More circuitry activated, and the weapons system began tracking the decreasing range. In twenty seconds, it would acquire lock.
Ninety-Five
“Now we know what technology we’ve been up against all this time.”
The officers of Strike Fleet Perseus had reconvened once Captain Hunter had finally given his tactical and science sections an opportunity to review the data on the events of the past few days. The particulars weren’t entirely clear, but the conclusions he and his other skippers were drawing were rather similar. They had all gathered once again in the relatively luxurious Argent Captain’s conference room. Hunter’s pursers quietly and efficiently circled the spacious table, keeping everyone’s cups filled with customary battleship precision.
“It explains the appearance and disappearance of enemy personnel at Station 19, and, although my engineering section doesn’t buy it, explains the suicide ship attacks against Fury, Constellation and Rhode Island,” Commander Hunter continued. “A matter-energy transmission field can account for the readings, the enemy ships and the enemy personnel.”
“But not teleportation,” Captain Doverly said.
“You can’t teleport living matter. There’s no way to get around the need to destroy it and then reassemble it. It just doesn’t work on a practical level. The energy field these creatures use creates a kind of folded space. We might think of it as an accelerated wormhole. It cuts through space time and connects two widely separated locations for a very short interval of time. If an object is synchronized to travel in the right direction and reach that point at exactly the right moment, it will only need to travel a very short physical distance in its reality to actually cover a very large distance in ours,” Lieutenant Madison replied, speaking for the Argent engineering department.
“Doorways,” Captain Hunter concluded.
“That would account for Atwell in the brig and the advisory we received from Spades,” Annora added. “Although I’m still unsure how Atwell got alien technology in to the brig without us detecting it.”
“It also explains Colonel Moody” Jason said. “They must have used a device like that during the Agamemnon attack to take him out of his quarters and transport him somewhere else. I’d just like to know if we’ve got the equipment to detect this technology or someone using it before they push the button. There’s got to be a way to defend against it.”
“It’s one of those things we call a ‘really hard problem’ sir,” Madison said. “Once we nail down one part, the other two get in our way. If we try to nail down the second part, it breaks the first one. It might just be beyond our abilities at this point.”
“But there is one thing we can do,” Commander Hunter interjected. “Our science teams can learn how to analyze and follow this technology. We have the equipment to study it. We have the personnel to analyze it and help us construct a defense.”
“Agreed,” Commander Teller added. “The more smart minds we put on this, the faster we’ll reach a point where we can at least know when and where we’re being attacked. That will prevent any further sabotage and might even give us an edge ship to ship.”
Captain Hunter sat forward in his chair. “Explain.”
Teller glanced at Jayce out of deference for the fact she was his official C.O., then continued. “I’ve seen the data on the Fury and Rhode Island attacks. There was a localized neutron radiation buildup just before those unidentified ships appeared. Now I don’t have the expertise to run the numbers, but my Science Chief does. He postulates the readings we got were caused by the velocity of the attacking ships as they transited dimensions. He also thinks there will be similar distortions of subspace for any mass that changes location during transit. Think of it as a bow wave from a wet navy vessel. The water would reach its destination before the ship itself. That’s what I think is causing the strange readings, and it’s consistent from event to event.”
“How soon can we make his analysis battlefield ready?” Hunter asked with a familiar competitive gleam in his eyes.
“Permission to defer my answer until I have time to confer, Captain? I don’t want to overpromise.”
“Granted. Gather what you need and run it by Commander Hunter first. If she signs off we’ll all take a look. Status report, Commander?”
“All ships are at full readiness. All personnel accounted for. We still have nine casualties from the fighter engagement. They are all recovering aboard Spruance. Flight Leader Roscoe tells me all squadrons will be at full strength in a day or two.”
“Very well. We will muster the fleet in a standard assault formation with Argent, Fury and Kingsblade anchoring and our battle group on the perimeter. I don’t need to remind anyone here we are facing a hostile minefield and intermittent engagements with the Sentinel Planetary Defense battery at Barker’s Asteroid. Colonel Moody, Yili, Zony and Commander DeMay are all presumably on the asteroid or nearby. My plan is to give them two hours to reconfigure the minefield so we can rendezvous with the Dunkerque. After that, I will have no choice but to order the minefield destroyed in preparation for a full scale surface assault on the Sentinel.”
“With all due respect, sir, that’s likely to provoke a reaction from the fleet between here and the Raleo system,” Jayce cautioned.
“Agreed, Commander, but at this point I have every reason to believe the crews of those vessels are not aboard their ships. This situation has been bugging me since we got here. Empty ship after empty ship, and then we find a top line capital platform abandoned and millions of miles from its escorts. Now either our enemy is completely incompetent or it doesn’t want us to know those dogs have no bark and no bite. Perhaps automation is the best they can do. I’m done checking. This time we call the bet.”
“That’s a big risk, Captain.”
“With Kingsblade, we’ve got the firepower to back my play. If they approach X-Ray Tango, they better bring their ‘A’ game, because if they don’t, we’re going to get the big hammer down off the top shelf and take care of business,” Jason replied with a cold gaze. “They might have the juice. They might not. This time, they’ll have to prove it.”
Ninety-Six
The stories told high and low aboard DSS Exeter about
the “Brittany Incident” had gone from largely accurate accounts of how Lieutenant Hawkins got a chance to meet the sole occupant of Mount Olympus for the first time to fanciful tales of how she had almost sunk the fleet only to be stopped with moments to spare by the direct intervention of the TFC herself.
On the one hand, many of Lieutenant Hawkins’ contemporaries were secretly envious because their chances of even exchanging a greeting with Jayce Hunter were so close to zero as to be virtually immeasurable. On the other hand, the wildfire-like stories had swept through the fleet to the point where Brittany Hawkins was a name almost as recognizable as Hunter’s. Granted, the junior lieutenant’s fame hadn’t come as the result of a medal or a generous promotion, but one way or another, everyone knew the name of the third watch signals specialist. What they thought of her was their own business.
For Hawkins herself, recapturing her reputation as the relatively unknown officer working in one of the less prominent sections on a war destroyer was her top priority. The very last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself or anything near her station. She had made a vow and told only her closest comrades about her plans. From now on, she was determined to treat her day-to-day duties like an infantry assignment. Don’t do anything likely to draw fire, especially from her own side.
It was for that reason the strange readings she was getting were driving her up a bulkhead. Exeter was battle group point right alongside Ajax. As the heaviest non-cruiser in the formation, her job was to focus maximum firepower against incoming birds and, if necessary, block for Ajax in the event hostiles decided to walk up to the front door and knock.
Exeter’s Signals Section was therefore able to operate full spectrum forward of the battle group. Many of the other ships in the formation were unable to use their full sensor and scanner capabilities due to the interference from the other vessel drive fields and any ECM the two capital platforms were generating. For Exeter, space was wide open. She had every radio listening and broadcasting on every possible frequency along with nearly a hundred flavors of motion, temperature, radiation, spectrometry and electromagnetic sensors. There was no need to be stealthy, so the ship was active and pinging away at the asteroid field. The Perseus formation was still outside the maximum range of the mines, fortunately. The Sentinel could still target some of the battle group’s ships, but it hadn’t fired in some time and even if it did attempt a waveform lock, the firing angle from its position on the asteroid would make a clean shot tricky at best.