by Ryk Brown
“I don’t know, crack the back door and float some cargo outside temporarily?”
“Not funny.”
“Relax, Dalen,” Captain Tuplo told him. “This is a jump ship, and our next stop is Rama. Three hops at the most. I’m sure nothing will happen during the grueling, thirty-minute flight. After all, you take such wonderful care of all our systems, what could go wrong?”
Captain Tuplo didn’t wait for Dalen to respond, moving quickly through the hatch on his way forward. By now, Neli had seated everyone, so the corridor past the boarding hatch leading to the cockpit would be free of passengers. Captain Tuplo didn’t mind conversing with the various workers at the spaceports, but the passengers…they were always full of questions about what it was like to jump, or how the jump drive worked. For so many, the whole idea of traveling between star systems in a matter of minutes versus months was difficult to believe. Even those who had done so several times still had a hard time wrapping their minds around the concept.
Captain Tuplo entered the forward portion of the ship and moved quickly past the forward passenger cabin. “How are we doing?” he asked Neli as he passed the galley.
“Full house, Cap’n. All of them belted in and ready to go.”
“Excellent. We should be lifting off straight away.”
The captain turned the corner inward and ascended the steps to the cockpit, ducking as he entered the cramped space. He slipped past the engineering station and in between the seats, sliding down into the left seat as usual. “How are we looking, Josh?” the captain asked as he donned his comm-set.
“All systems are good. Preflight is complete, and we’re ready to taxi.”
“Ladila Ground, Seiiki, ready for roll back,” the captain called over the comms.
“Seiiki, Ladila Ground. Stand by.”
“Did you see the girls in four A and B?” Josh asked.
“You know I never look in the passenger cabins, Josh.”
“Yeah, well, you should this time. Trust me. I may have to go back there and stroll through in between jumps, if you know what I mean.”
“It’s a short flight, Josh.”
“You could take a few minutes in between jumps, you know. Help a guy out, and all.”
“The sooner we finish this circuit and get back to Palee, the sooner we get paid,” Captain Tuplo reminded him.
“Seiiki, Ladila Ground. Cleared for roll back to pad four.”
“Seiiki is cleared to roll back to pad four,” the captain replied. “You want to do the honors?”
“Oh boy, can I?” Josh replied sarcastically. He reached out and pushed the execute button, and the ship began to roll backward away from the terminal, controlled by the auto-taxi system required by the busier ports. “Why did you even install this thing?” he wondered as he sat idly, watching the exterior camera display.
“Hey, that thing opened up a lot of new routes for us, Josh, and you know it.”
“Maybe, but between the auto-taxi, the auto-flight, and the auto-jump sequencer, all I ever do is push buttons.”
“That’s what commercial pilots do, Josh,” the captain reminded him.
“It was more fun back before everyone had jump drives and automatic everything. Back when I got to actually fly the ship, instead of giving the computer permission to fly it.”
“Don’t worry, Josh. In a few more years, we’ll have the money we need to complete our overhaul and head deeper out into space. Out where most people haven’t even heard of a jump drive, let alone auto-flight systems.”
“You’ve been saying that for the last two years, Cap’n.”
Captain Tuplo switched comm frequencies. “Ladila Control, Seiiki. Ready for departure on pad four.” Captain Tuplo looked outside, scanning both the ground and the skies above. “I promise, Josh, the next time we do a cargo-only run from a world without a controlled spaceport, I’ll let you hand fly both the landing and departure.”
“Seiiki, Ladila Control. Cleared for liftoff on pad four. One departure, fly heading two five four and climb to the Boraliese sector for jump out.”
“Ladila Control, Seiiki. Lifting off on pad four, on course two five four to Boraliese to jump out.”
“Safe flight, Seiiki,” the controller replied.
“Take us to Rama, Josh.”
Josh pressed the execute button on the auto-flight system. The engines fired, and the thrust slowly increased until the Seiiki rose off the pad and climbed slowly upward. A few seconds later, the auto-flight systems began to angle the ship’s main thrust nozzles downward, causing the ship to move forward, climbing upwards. Once they had cleared the terminal area and reached a high enough altitude, the ship accelerated rapidly, and her nose began to pitch up, her engines going to full power. The ship moved quickly through the broken layer of puffy, white clouds as it entered a slow, constant-rate turn to port onto its assigned departure heading. The climb out went like clockwork, just as it always did when the auto-flight computers controlled the ship. Once again, Josh was relegated to being a well-trained spectator.
“Approaching Boraliese sector,” Captain Tuplo reported.
“Verifying jump sequence,” Josh replied. “Sequencing for Rama is good. Jumping in five seconds……three…”
“Attention all departing ships,” the Ladila controller called over the comms.
“Two…”
“We have an alert…”
“One…”
“What?” Captain Tuplo said. “Wait…”
“Jumping.”
The Seiiki’s windows turned opaque as the ship executed its departure jump.
“Did he say an alert?” Captain Tuplo asked.
“Next jump in thirty seconds,” Josh reported, ignoring his concern.
“Maybe we should wait for the message to catch up to us?” Captain Tuplo suggested.
“It’s probably just another stellar storm warning,” Josh shrugged. “They get them all the time here.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Captain Tuplo agreed.
“Besides, we’ll be long gone by the time it reaches Ladila,” Josh added. “Next jump in ten seconds.”
* * *
“Same as usual,” Admiral Galiardi grumbled as he walked down the corridors of Port Terra on his way to his office.
“Then I take it you did not get the President’s endorsement for your plan to build and deploy more super KKVs?” the admiral’s aide, Commander Macklay, surmised.
“Deploy? Hell, the idiot doesn’t even want me to build them, let alone deploy them.”
The admiral’s aide looked around nervously, checking to see if anyone was within earshot of the admiral. “Sir, it might be better to refrain from calling the President of Earth an idiot, at least not within earshot of others.”
Admiral Galiardi glanced at his aide as they entered the command center. “The president is well aware of my opinion of him, Commander.”
“Of course, sir.”
The admiral looked around the room, which had recently been enlarged to include the adjoining caverns. As the Alliance fleet had grown, so too had the needs of its command center. The old rocky walls of the additional spaces were still in the process of being converted into smooth ones. It was a painstaking process that had happened all over the interior of the old Karuzara asteroid ever since it had been turned over to the Unified Nations of Earth five years ago, and the admiral had been reinstated and put in command of all Alliance forces in the Sol sector. By now, ninety percent of the asteroid had been carved out, adding dozens of factory spaces, hangar bays, dry docks, and living areas. Even the exterior of the Karuzara was barely recognizable. So much had been built out from her rocky surface, one had to look closely to find surfaces that were still undeveloped. The massive rock orbiting the Earth was finally looking less like the Karuzara, and more like Port Terra.
Admiral Galiardi turned and headed into his office, his aide following close behind. “Any update from the Cape Town?”
“She is
due to return to port later today,” the commander replied. “Captain Stettner was quite pleased with the performance of his gun crews this time around. It seems they have worked the bugs out of their independent target tracking systems.”
“Did he indicate a readiness date?”
“No sir, he did not,” the commander replied. “However, he did not indicate that he expected to miss the original deadline, either.”
Admiral Galiardi sat down at his desk. “You tell Buchard he needs to light a fire under his crew. I want that ship ready and on call before the Aurora goes in for overhaul, not after.”
“Yes, sir,” Commander Macklay assured the admiral. “Lieutenant Commander Ganis is waiting to speak with you.”
“Send him in,” the admiral replied as he turned on his view screen.
The commander left the office, replaced a minute later by the lieutenant commander.
“What do you have for me, Ganis?” the admiral asked.
“The second phase of the Sol protection grid passed its operational testing this morning. We now have a total of thirty-two jump missile launchers in operation around the world, which means we can put at least one hundred and twenty-eight missiles into space within two minutes of an alert. That gives us a protection radius of two light years in all directions.”
“How long until we can start deploying the perimeter launch platforms?” the admiral asked. “I want that range doubled.”
“The first twelve platforms will be ready for deployment in thirty-seven days, as scheduled.”
“I hate those words, as scheduled. Just once, I’d like to hear someone say ahead of schedule.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Admiral,” the intercom squawked. “Alert traffic from Mu Cassiopeiae.”
“What is it?” the admiral asked after pressing the intercom button.
“Cobra One Four Seven reports spotting two Jung cruisers four light years outside the system.”
“That’s well within Alliance space,” the lieutenant commander commented.
Admiral Galiardi was already out of his desk chair and heading for the command center just outside his office. “Commander Macklay!” the admiral bellowed as the stepped through the door.
The commander was already anticipating the admiral’s next words. “The closest ship is the Aurora, sir,” the commander informed him promptly.
“I thought she was prepping for overhaul?”
“She starts tomorrow,” the commander replied. “She still has most of her crew and full armaments. However, her fighter wings have already rotated to the surface.”
“What’s the course of those ships?” the admiral asked.
“They’re headed directly for Mu Cassiopeaie, at maximum FTL speed.”
“Alert the Aurora. Have her prepare to get underway. And move the Tanna from Tau Ceti to Eridani. If this is the start of a coordinated attack, there will be more ships coming in from the direction of Patoray.”
“What about the Cape Town?” Commander Macklay wondered.
“She’s only got half her crew, and nowhere near her full armaments.”
“She’s got plenty of energy weapons, Admiral.”
“No, get her back here and get more crew and weapons onto her decks as quickly as possible. We’ve only got one Protector class ship on the line, and she needs to be here, protecting Earth.”
“But we have the surface jump missile launchers now,” Lieutenant Commander Ganis reminded the admiral. “Once detected, we can blow them to hell long before they get into attack range.”
“Assuming we can detect them,” Admiral Galiardi pointed out. “They just managed to get five light years inside our borders before we spotted them, and that’s on an expected ingress route.”
* * *
“All systems are good. We’re go for the last jump into Rama.”
“Set the jump sequencer for one minute,” Captain Tuplo instructed.
“One minute, aye,” Josh replied.
Captain Tuplo keyed the ship-wide intercom. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain. We are about to execute our last jump into the Rama system. As you may know, the government of Assengil does not allow jumps directly into the atmosphere, so we will be entering her atmosphere in the traditional way. Please, do not be alarmed by the red glow you will see outside. It is only the plasma wake caused by our shields hitting the atmosphere and heating up. Our shields will protect us. It may get a bit bumpy on the way in, but our inertial dampening systems should smooth them out nicely.”
“Maybe you should record that for playback,” Josh suggested. “I could add a trigger cue for it in the jump sequencer.”
“I don’t plan to make regular runs into Rama,” Captain Tuplo said.
“Why not?” Josh wondered. “It’s got plenty of traffic these days.”
“Too close to Takara. I don’t like my port fees lining the pockets of nobles,” the captain explained bitterly. “Besides, it’s a waste of propellant flying all the way down to the surface instead of just jumping in. All to keep from disturbing the damned tranquility.”
“Thanks for giving me a few minutes before the last jump,” Josh said.
“Did it help?”
Josh smiled impishly. “I got her contact number,” he replied, his eyebrows bouncing up and down as a lecherous smile formed on his face. He glanced at the jump sequencer. “Five seconds.”
Captain Tuplo smiled back.
“You know, you should troll the ladies in the back once in a while yourself,” Josh said. The windows turned opaque as the Seiiki jumped into the Rama system. “You might want to shave first, though.”
“I like my beard,” Captain Tuplo replied defensively. “It makes me look older, more experienced, more intelligent.”
“And more scary,” Josh added. “Assengil, dead ahead.” He checked their course on his flight display. “Auto-flight is taking us right down the entry corridor.”
“Scary, huh?” Captain Tuplo said.
“Yeah, scary,” Josh replied. “And not like, mean scary. More like, psycho scary. No offense.”
“I guess it could stand a little trimming,” the captain admitted.
“A little?”
Captain Tuplo looked at Josh. “But I rather like the feeling of anonymity it provides.”
“How the hell does it provide anonymity?” Josh wondered. “Everyone recognizes you with that thing. ‘There goes Captain Tuplo, the guy with the psycho, out-of-control beard.’ Try something new, like a goatee or something.”
“I hate goatees,” Captain Tuplo growled as he studied his flight displays. He glanced forward through the window, noting that the planet Assengil was growing larger. “Maybe we should start decelerating?”
“Relax, Cap,” Josh replied, glancing at the auto-flight display. “Auto-flight has it. Decel burn is coming up in two minutes.” He looked over at Captain Tuplo, studying his face for a moment.
Connor felt Josh staring at him, and looked his way. “What?”
“Mutton chops, maybe?”
“You’re joking, right?” the captain replied, his attention returning to his flight displays.
“Maybe with a handlebar mustache?” Josh suggested. “Anything besides the ‘I’ve been hiding in a cave for the last twenty years’ look you’ve got going on now.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Isn’t that why you’ve been avoiding running into passengers?”
“That obvious?”
“Just try trimming it shorter,” Josh urged, trying to find a compromise. “At least make it look like you give a shit.”
“All right, I get your point.”
“And while you’re at it, you might think about doing something with that hair of yours.”
“I am your employer, remember?” Captain Tuplo reminded him.
“Just trying to help you get some action, Cap’n.”
“I don’t need any action,” the captain argued.
“Everybody needs a little action once
in a while,” Josh argued. “Even psycho-looking ship captains.”
“You just never worry about the possible consequences, do you, Josh?”
“Cap, it’s all coming from a place of love, you know that.”
An audible alert beeped several times.
Captain Tuplo looked at the sensor display. “Something is coming over the horizon of Assengil.”
“A ship?” Josh assumed.
“Must be,” the captain agreed. “Assengil doesn’t have any orbital structures to speak of.” The captain’s brow furrowed as he studied the image on the sensor screen. “It’s awfully big to be a ship.”
“The Avendahl, maybe?” Josh said. “I heard she comes out from Darvano now and again, just to remind the nobles that she’s around.”
“Nope. Bigger.”
“Bigger than the Avendahl?”
“Wait,” Captain Tuplo said. “It’s not one ship, it’s two. Two big ones.”
“Takaran ships?”
“They’re not squawking Takaran IDs,” Captain Tuplo replied.
Josh noticed the look of concern on his employer’s face. “Should I go to manual…”
“Attention incoming jump ship,” a voice called over the comms. The caller had an air of authority to his tone, one meant to strike fear in the hearts of those listening. “Identify yourself, and state your intentions.”
“What the…”
“This is the commercial transport ship, Seiiki,” Captain Tuplo replied over the comms. “We are carrying cargo and passengers bound for the Assengil spaceport from Ladila in the Paradar system. We are unarmed.”
“Captain, more contacts,” Josh warned. “Coming from those ships.” He looked at the captain. “I think they’re launching interceptors.”
“Seiiki, you are ordered to rendezvous with the Jar-Dortayo and land on her starboard flight deck.”
“On whose authority?” Captain Tuplo inquired.
“By order of Lord Dusahn, ruler of the Pentaurus cluster.”
“Who the fuck is Lord Dusahn?” Josh wondered.
“I never heard of him,” the captain replied.
“A Takaran noble?”
“I don’t recognize the name.”
Josh looked down at the sensor display again. “Those contacts are closing on us fast, Cap’n.”