by M. D. Cooper
“Traffic may be up, but it’s all to and from Sol. There’s not a lot of ships moving between other systems, with the exception of Alpha Centuari, Sirius, and Tau Ceti,” Trist added. “Certainly nothing through here, and definitely not anything from where we were.”
“No point in speculating further on why they’re here, other than asking them,” Tanis said. “The Intrepid is still weeks away from entering its polar orbit. I think we should continue our plan to loop around the star, and then break away to swing past that little world.”
“Are you sure we should hide ourselves so much?” Trist asked. “I mean, I’m the thief here, but I can’t help wonder if we just announce ourselves maybe we’ll get a warm welcome.”
Tanis leaned back in her chair. Perhaps Trist was right, she had become jaded over the years, expecting everything to be a threat.
“You may be right, Trist, but it’s not a chance I can take. I do promise that I’ll try diplomacy before violence. I’ve had my fill of being shot at.”
The next few days were uneventful as the ship drifted insystem, approaching the star for a slingshot back outsystem. The bridge crew fell silent as the Andromeda skirted past the outer reaches of Kapteyn’s corona and got its first clear look at the space beyond in almost a week.
Scan updated and the holographic projection of the stellar system refreshed, showing the innermost terrestrial planet the mining platform was moving toward, and the platform itself.
Since the Intrepid’s probe had first spotted it, the platform had slowed considerably and was close to entering an orbit around the world. Tanis couldn’t help but wonder why a platform that appeared to be built for asteroid mining was moving toward a world. She voiced the question as she knew it was on all their minds.
“Beats me,” Trist shrugged. “It doesn’t even seem to have a load, although it is a big one—from well fitted too. Definitely not some old scow.
“Is it emitting any sort of ID or call sign?” Tanis asked.
“Nothing,” Trist replied. “Its engines are the only emission, it—.”
“That’s an interesting development,” Tanis mused. “One of these two may be friendly to us—or we could find ourselves in the middle of an unpleasant conflict.”
“That seems like a leap,” Trist commented.
“Anyone following right behind you, but moving faster is pursuing. Especially when the first is not emitting any signals.”
“Do you think they can see us?” Petrov asked.
“If they look right at us, yes,” Tanis replied. “Let’s hope they don’t.”
The Andromeda took thirty minutes to arc around the star and pass behind it again. During the passage, Corsia released a small probe that would gather information and relay it whenever it orbited around the star.
“Now let's check out this other world,” Tanis reviewed Petrov’s burn and vector, approving his calculations, as did Corsia.
“I doubt we’ll find anything there,” Command Brandt said. “My guess is that the platform and whoever is chasing it just got here themselves.”
“That’s my thought as well,” replied Tanis. “But since our trajectory was pretty much set, we may as well be prudent. We’re going to have to arc out a bit to brake anyway.”
In the end, Tanis decided to angle above the dwarf planet and brake slowly, hiding their wash as much as possible. This would allow them to change course more rapidly if the dwarf planet was empty and they needed to get back to the platform in a hurry.
The closer they got, the more apparent it was that the dwarf was barren. A day later their suspicions were confirmed. While the small world held the ruins of some robotic survey machines, there was no sign of any recent activity on the gray and pitted surface.
“Either there is something really well hidden there, or this is what it looks like, an empty planet.”
“Mayday, mayday, this is the Hyperion calling the unknown ship in this system. We caught your shadow once or twice, please be out there, we need your assistance. We have children on board and they plan to kill us!”
Several variations of the message played and then the first repeated. The bridge crew looked to Tanis for a decision. She leaned back into her chair and considered her options—there really weren’t any.
“Petrov, kiss this rock, we need a tight slingshot and maximum v back toward that platform. Trist, once we’re pointed in the right direction, I want a tight-lens comm opened up with the Hyperion. Corsia, have you picked up any blips from the Intrepid?”
“Should give us enough time to sort this out,” Tanis turned to Brandt. “This could get hairy before it gets better.”
The commander nodded. “We’re ready, sir.”
Tanis found that she really liked Brandt. The compact woman was capable and solid—probably because she had spent half a century as a sergeant master before moving to an officer track.
“How are things with the Andromeda’s loadout?”
“As good as we can get them. When we get to Victoria we’ll have upgraded all the rock shooting lasers to ship shooting lasers. The thumpers already have great guidance systems, so all we have to do is make sure we can fire them fast enough. I don’t see that being a problem either.”
“Then I’m going to get a bit of rest,” Tanis rose. “Trist, ping me when you have that tight comm band.”
“Aye, sir!” Trist gave a mock salute and a grin.
“You’re getting there,” Tanis returned the smile. “Eventually I’ll make a real military girl out of you.”
“Ha! Not very likely.”
Tanis lay on the bed in the captain’s quarters—a small cabin just aft of the bridge. Even after all the years on the Intrepid, Tanis still marveled at the fact that a ship the size of the Andromeda, with its own quarters, medical facilities and general ship amenities was just one of a dozen cruisers docked in the colony ship.
It was a significant fleet in its own right—except where the Intrepid was headed, it wasn’t supposed to have needed a fleet—at least not a military fleet. The ships were designed for shooting asteroids and hauling supplies, not fighting off mining platforms or whoever it was that chased them.
Tanis wondered where the platform came from. There didn’t appear to be any industrial base in the system capable of building it. Just the few ancient survey and robotic installations scattered amongst The Kap’s worlds.
Normally a platform would mean some in-system settlement and industry to build and maintain it, as well as ships and infrastructure to refine and move the resultant materials to a system capable of consuming them. The Kapteyn’s system had none of those things.
The only real possibility was that the platform had entered from outsystem.
It was both obvious and highly improbable at the same time
INTERSTELLAR
STELLAR DATE: 3266049 / 01.15.4230 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ISS Andromeda
REGION: Kapteyn’s Star System
“What have we learned?”
It was three hours later and Tanis entered the bridge refreshed and ready, come what may. She intended to give the crew the shift off and man things herself while they rested.
“I was just about to call you,” Trist reported. “The platform has continued to send its mayday and we’re lined up with a tight comm beam. You’re good to transmit whenever you’re ready.”
Tanis nodded and sat in the captain’s chair.
“Hyperion, this is the Andro
meda. We’ve received your mayday and are prepared to assist. Coordinates are included in this transmission. Please reply on a tight beam with more details about your situation.”
She checked the time lag and saw that the round-trip call would take roughly an hour.
“Wrap up what you have going on and take a break. I can cover things here for the next couple of hours,” Tanis instructed the crew.
To pass the time she pulled up the course Petrov had plotted. It had the Andromeda dropping directly into Kapteyn’s Star, building speed up to nearly 0.11c before breakaway and deceleration. The Andromeda would arrive at Victoria with enough v to either brake around the terrestrial world, or continue on to engage with the cruiser pursuing the Hyperion.
The maneuver would use a lot of fuel, but Tanis appreciated the expedient approach. The close passage to the star should allow the Andromeda to scoop up some additional isotopes and recoup most of what they would burn. She hoped they could replenish enough for maneuvering if they had to engage with the Hyperion’s pursuer.
While she couldn’t count on it, she expected that the enemy cruiser would be low on fuel, or, at best, no better off than the Andromeda. She had never heard of a cruiser equipped for interstellar travel—chances were that this one had left its home system in a hurry.
The crew finished their assigned tasks and left the bridge to get some rest. Tanis took a bite of her BLT and settled back in her chair as the Andromeda raced toward The Kap.
A stellar braking maneuver was not much different than a slingshot. Instead of delivering maximum propulsion as the ship passed closest to the star, the Andromeda would fire for maximum braking. As a result, the most force possible would be delivered over the longest distance possible. Afterward they would deploy the ramscoop at its maximum size and use it as a giant reverse sail, slowing the ship further.
Tanis wished she had Joe to double-check the trajectory. This was not the sort of approach ships made as a matter of general practice. A single mistake and the Andromeda would burn up in The Kap’s corona.
Tanis chuckled. Chances are the star would go down in history with that name.
Tanis was surprised. She imagined that AI tried to calculate what organics would do quite often; they were probably better at it than the humans themselves. However, it was not something she expected to cause them much concern, or take up much of their time.
Angela gave a mental laugh, not something she often did.
It was Tanis’s turn to laugh.
Angela conceded.
Angela promised not to bring it up again and Tanis did her best to put it from her mind, yet she couldn’t help reviewing events in her life, wondering which Bob considered lucky.
She couldn’t imagine that anyone would want her life, Toro alone would see to that, but maybe there was something to it. She couldn’t even count the number of times she should have died, but there had been good times too. Spending sixty years with Joe on the Intrepid had made up for a lot of bad. Not a lot of people got over half a century of peace and quiet with someone they love.
She pulled her thoughts back to the task at hand—considering the origin of the platform and the pursuing cruiser. Based on their trajectories, both had braked around the larger terrestrial world in the outer system.
Corsia added the energy expended in their braking maneuver to her origin algorithm. Scopes picked up a few notable elements and the model showed Sirius as a near certainty.
Tanis wasn’t surprised. The aristocracy there had been oppressing their working class for centuries. In Sol their treatment of citizens would have been illegal, but in Sirius it was the norm.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the platform’s reply—her questions would be answered soon enough.
The message included video and Tanis pulled it up on the holo. The face she saw surprised her. The man was old. Not decrepit, but aged, with lines and creases in his skin, gray hair, tired eyes. Tanis had seen few people like this in her life—it was different than Andrew’s aging. The captain was aging, but he still moved like a young man and his skin was clear and smooth. Aging no rejuvination at—naturally—was a great way to get branded as a throwback.
“Thank you for responding to our call, Andromeda. I’m Governor Markus of the Hyperion. We’re refugees escaping from the Sirius system. We didn’t expect the Luminescents to chase us, but they sent a cruiser and intend to make an example of us to other platforms.”
The man glanced at someone standing outside the holo’s view and then turned back to face Tanis and continued.
“We honestly didn’t expect to find anyone here in Kapteyn’s but are glad we have. I hope that you will find it in your heart to help us.”
The transmission also included details of the platform—its loadout, population, defenses and other general specifications. Also included were some specifications on the cruiser pursuing the mining platform.
Tanis studied the cruiser first. It was smaller than the Andromeda at only five hundred meters. But where the Andromeda, was built with peacefully establishing a colony in mind, the Sirius cruiser was built for war.
Tanis whistled softly. The specs showed two forty-centimeter lasers, each capable of delivering 10 megawatts of energy per square centimeter at twenty-thousand kilometers. The Andromeda had no ablative plating; its exterior was only marginally refractive. Its hull wouldn’t last ten seconds under the glare of those beams.
“And lots of it,” Tanis replied out loud.
She pulled up detailed listing
s of all stellar objects near their current trajectory, searching for a comet or asteroid that would serve their purpose.
Angela beat her to it.
Tanis agreed.
PUSHING ICE
STELLAR DATE: 3266050 / 01.16.4230 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid
REGION: Interstellar space near Kapteyn’s Star
The holo tank showed two people this time.
The first was Markus and the second was a woman he had introduced as Katrina. She appeared to be much younger than Markus, but the way they moved and looked at one another implied more than just a platonic relationship.
“I must say again that I cannot believe our luck in finding you here,” Markus said. The statement made Tanis wonder about Bob and his luck theory for a moment.
“It certainly wasn’t something either of us was expecting,” Tanis replied.
Katrina’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to tell us why you’re here in Kapteyn’s, are you?”
Tanis smiled and shook her head. “I know it’s not the best way to start our new friendship, but it’s the way it’s going to be for now. You’re going to have to satisfy yourself with our offer of help.”
“I do find myself wondering whether you’ll remain our friends once you’ve dealt with our pursuers,” Markus said plainly.
“You have nothing but my assurances, and the fact that we’re taking a lot of risk helping you out here, our lives are all going to be on the line alongside yours—more so as we’ll be taking the brunt of the assault.” Tanis knew that it was not the strongest assurance she could offer, but it was the best she was going to give them at present.
A look exchanged between the two and the mic muted while they spoke a few words.