Raising Caine - eARC

by Charles E Gannon

  Riordan came to a stop. “Is there a danger of separation? Do we need to evacuate the bay?”

  “That would be precipitous, Caine Riordan. I am sure that we shall have isolated the problem in a few minut—”

  The circuit cut out; the lights flickered once and died. The hallway was plunged into darkness, except for the bobbing blue collarcom lights of a few distant team members. One fell with a curse; something she’d been carrying broke with a sound like smashed crockery.

  Damn it. Caine tapped his collarcom, tried to recontact the Ambassador. The corridor’s emergency lights flashed on—amber, low, calming—and went out again, just as fast.

  Riordan began feeling his way forward in the darkness and hammered at the collarcom—which emitted an affronted chirp; the wireless power supply was off, too. Batteries only, now. He switched over to the legation channel. “Everyone, this is Captain Riordan. Get to the nearest wall so you can feel your way along. Move with all haste to whichever of our two boats are closest. Hold your collarcom over your head with your other hand, so people can see where you are.”

  “Captain Riordan.” It was Gaspard. “What is happening?”

  “I don’t know, but the Slaasriithi are as surprised as we are. I was on a channel with Ambassador Yiithrii’ah’aash when—”

  “Then why should we move to our ships, before we even know what is happening?”

  You shouldn’t be doing this on an open channel, Gaspard; I don’t have the time to save face for you. “If something does go wrong, those ships are our only assured means of escape.” Riordan heard Dora Veriden mutter something about prudent action and no reason to take any chances.

  “Very well, Captain; we shall do as you say. Do you have any recommendations regar—?”

  A fierce quake sent Riordan to his knees. Shit.

  “Mon Dieu!” Gaspard’s voice was more surprised than it was panicked: better than what Caine would have anticipated three months ago. “What is happening?”

  Caine scrabbled back to his feet, double-timed forward. “Ambassador, absent other data, I would say we are under attack.”

  “Under attack? But I thought it was merely a power failure of some kind—”

  Bannor began snarling at panicked team members to stay off the line and keep moving to the closest boat. Caine hoped the legation would be able to make out his words through the cross-talk: it was unlikely that there’d be time to repeat anything. “The power outage was probably sabotage, since the emergency power went out as well. We’ve lost mobility, which makes us an easy target, particularly with the ship’s point defense systems and sensors off line. Whoever is out there shooting at us, almost certainly with a laser, lined us up and hit us as soon as their sensors confirmed that all our active systems had gone dark. Which they seemed to waiting for. The hit we felt was pretty far away from us, though. Probably up near the bow.”

  “Concur,” Bannor said sharply. And then his voice was on the secure tactical channel. “Caine, how long until you get back to Puller?”

  “I’m not heading toward Puller.” Up ahead, a male member of the legation fell, cursed, fell again, his voice getting more shrill and panicked. Caine moved in that direction.

  “Sir, with all due respect, we’re your ride. Civilians go planetside on the shuttle; security forces go on the—”

  “Bannor. It’s now twice as far for me to get to Puller. Besides, your top priority is to pull in all the people who are closest to you, lock down, and get away.”

  “Can’t. Power outage has frozen our berthing cradles in place.”

  “And you’ve got shipboard lasers at murderously close range. Keep your plants at low output: enough power to cut yourself free, but not enough to give the threat force an easy lock on you. And if you can’t release the airlock’s mating rings, blow the outer coaming with the embedded explosive bolts.”

  “Okay, sir, but not until we see you and the shuttle safely away.”

  “Don’t be insubordinate.”

  “I’m not, Captain. I’m obeying orders.”

  “Whose?”

  “Mr. Downing, sir. He thought it was possible that something like this might happen.”

  * * *

  “Target damage assessment?” demanded Nezdeh.

  Tegrese’s reply sounded as though it was coming through clenched teeth. “Modest. I did not hit the presumed command and control section. Given the light debris and heavy out-gassing, I project we hit a large access tube.”

  “Our railgun projectiles?”

  “Estimating impact in eighty seconds.”

  If the Slaasriithi ship hadn’t been paralyzed by sabotage, it was doubtful that those staged composite penetrators would have hit her at all; the range was too great and the large ship’s PDF batteries too numerous and powerful. Apparently, the Slaasriithi did not have separate high power offensive lasers, and smaller, weaker point defense batteries. In keeping with the species’ decidedly non-warlike nature, they folded the two roles into a single system. The result was a significantly weaker offensive laser threat, but a significantly greater defensive intercept capability: more beams, with higher power, greater effective range, and lavish targeting arrays.

  But right now, the Slaasriithi shift-carrier’s lasers were as cold as her power plants and her fusion drive, and they would hopefully stay that way long enough for Nezdeh to finish her off.

  Something in Sehtrek’s voice told her that she might have less time to deliver that coup de grace than she wished. “Nezdeh, the first enemy ‘cannonball’ has risen above the planetary horizon.”

  Right on time. She waved away the distance-hazed close-up of the Slaasriithi ship in the holosphere: it disappeared. “Tactical navplot,” she ordered the computer.

  The ship’s outline was replaced by a three dimensional overview of nearby space, where a threat-coded orange ball was rising over the rim of the blue planetary sphere. On the other side of the sphere, a larger orange spindle—the stricken enemy shift-carrier—floated haplessly. As she watched, several orange pinpricks in the vicinity of approaching orange ball flickered into existence, pulsing. “Microsensor phased array?” she asked.

  “Correct,” Sehtrek replied. “As small and undetectable as our own. They are almost certainly relying upon broadcast power from the planet’s many orbital solar collectors. I detect seven active sensors. They are striving for target lock.”

  “That is their only reason for illuminating them,” Nezdeh muttered, assessing the distribution of the enemy sensors and the respectable rate at which the orange ball was approaching.

  Tegrese’s voice was tense, eager. “Shall I target their sensors?”

  Nezdeh shook her head sharply. “No.” Tegrese, at this moment you are a fool asking to play a fool’s game. “We haven’t the time to spare. Besides, we are seeing only the first tier of their detection assets. They doubtless have many replacements seeded in various orbital positions, still floating inert. Resume firing upon the Slaasriithi ship as soon as you have corrected your locational lock.”

  “Which lock, Nezdeh? The one guiding our laser strikes against the bow, or for the rail gun lock upon the stern?”

  “Correct both, but the stern is the most critical. If we can cripple its main power plant before our saboteur’s work is undone, we can easily destroy the target, despite the size difference.” Which was why Lurker had a self-guiding tactical nuclear missile in its recessed bay; once targeting was assured and either the Slaasriithi’s PDF batteries were inert or the flight time was brief, that single hammer blow would finish the job. But the Slaasriithi’s present power loss would not be permanent, and the range was still too great. And since we have but one sure way to kill our foe…“Ulpreln, both fusion and plasma drives to full on my mark. Zurur, send word to the rest of the crew to secure themselves for sustained four gee thrust.” She saw Ulpreln’s head start to turn. “When we activated our own dispersed array of microsensors, they had an indefinite warning, at best. But when we fired, we reveal
ed our precise coordinates. There is no longer any advantage to hiding among the debris from the asteroid collision we caused. Tegrese, illuminate all active sensors. Ulpreln, plot the most direct course toward the target and accelerate to full.”

  Ulpreln nodded, turned to his console—and the universe slammed Nezdeh back into her acceleration couch.

  In the viewscreen, the last few widely spaced rocks drifting between Red Lurker and her target rushed past them. Nezdeh was sorry to see them disappear astern. The asteroids had been helpful, obscuring companions ever since the Arbitrage and her Ktoran tug had edged in toward the spinward trojan point after finishing a hasty and incomplete refueling. They had counter-boosted into the midst of the drifting rocks using a retrograde approach effected solely by the Aboriginal ship’s magnetically-accelerated plasma thrusters, thereby minimizing all chances of detection.

  Once hidden, Brenlor had exhibited admirable patience as they determined their best ambush point and observed what little they could from that extreme distance. He even accepted that his role in the coming attack would be to remain hidden with the Arbitrage and the tug. This had happily obviated any need to underscore that Brenlor’s personal mastery was in personal, not ship-to-ship combat. As one of the least patient of the young Evolved in his House, he had not possessed the precision and cool calculation that made for excellent ship captains. Fortunately, other matters had precluded his participation in the strike. Preserving his geneline, the closest to the progenitorial core of House Perekmeres, was first among these, followed closely by maintaining the reign of terror he had established over the Aboriginals aboard the Arbitrage. Given its size, the human ship had to remain hidden and distant from the engagement since, along with the tug, it was their only means of exiting the system, whatever might transpire.

  Nezdeh’s more difficult, and tedious, problem had been to make a sufficiently stealthy and close approach to the target zone. Coasting, running off minimum batteries, and often tarrying in the shadow of one or more of the rocky fragments of the asteroid collision they had caused, Nezdeh approached their ambush point on a retrograde vector, sending a cluster of disposable microsensors on ahead. Functioning as a passive phased array, they immediately detected the orbiting, sphere-like vehicles the Ktor had observed upon arriving in the system. The larger ones, which they dubbed cannonballs due to their occasional bursts of astounding five point five gee acceleration, were evidently the most sophisticated of the objects and also the most likely to be defense systems. They changed their telemetry without any regular period: in short, no firing solution calculated from their orbital path remained viable for more than seven or eight hours.

  The planet’s scores of smaller spheres were, presumably communications and sensor platforms. Although the cannonballs were the greatest direct threat, these smaller spheres, as well as any undetectable devices comprising a phased array, commanded Nezdeh’s attention: would they scan the new, slowly diffusing spray of gargantuan boulders behind which Lurker was approaching?

  But the orbital array’s passive sensor results apparently did not alarm either its live or expert system controllers: no active scan was initiated. The collision Red Lurker had engineered resembled the sequelae of a natural event, and since none of the ejecta was heading directly toward the planet, its denizens had evidently concluded that it was unnecessary to inspect the debris more closely. Besides, in order to do so, they would have had to illuminate and thereby reveal the active sensors kept in the region for detecting enemy craft. Reassured by the Slaasriithis’ complacency, Red Lurker concluded her approach, drifting along behind the largest rock chunk that would pass within sixty thousand kilometers of the planet.

  Tegrese’s voice roused Nezdeh out of the momentary reverie that had arisen even as she continued to assess the data streams floating next to the holographic navplot. “New firing solutions are ready, Nezdeh. Using both phased array and on-board sensors, confidence of laser solution is absolute. Rail gun targeting confidence is ninety-five percent, with mean point of impact variance of up to ten meters.”

  “Continue to refine rail gun targeting. Sehtrek, how long before the cannonballs are in range, presuming they are capable of six gee?”

  “Uncertain. At their current rate of acceleration, the first one will be in our laser’s effective range in four minutes. Our railgun—”

  “The rail gun is useless against the cannonballs under these conditions. The flight time of our projectiles make hits improbable until the enemy craft are much closer. Any sign of the other cannonballs?”

  “None have appeared above the planetary horizon yet, although we conjectured that they would be profiling themselves against open space by now.”

  Nezdeh looked in the holotank, read the data. “And the one approaching us is only accelerating at four gees.” She shook her head. “Unpromising. If they were all closing at six gees, we would know they are not taking the time to measure our actions. Instead, the lead cannonball has slowed itself so that the others can accelerate and catch up while it observes us.” She drew in breath against the push of Lurker’s acceleration. “We must expect that the last two targets will come over the horizon together.” So much for defeating an amateurish enemy in detail. The lead cannonball is their sacrifice: they will use it to see how we fight, our capabilities, and our limits. And the latter two will rush in to take advantage of that knowledge by attempting to overwhelm our defenses. Ruthlessly efficient, for an ostensibly nonviolent species.

  Tegrese’s voice was tight with resisting the four-gee compression. “First flight of rail gun munitions are about to hit their shift-carrier. Targeting update: laser mean point of impact certain to the limits of sensor accuracy. Confidence of new rail gun firing solution: ninety-eight percent with seven meter MPI variance. Am I to keep all lasers on the primary target?”

  Nezdeh nodded. “We have several minutes before the first cannonball can threaten us.” I think. “We must keep the Slaasriithi vessel powerless. To do that, we must concentrate our fire upon her.” Unfortunately, at this range, our lasers lack the coherence to inflict maximum damage, and if she manages to change course, our rail gun may miss. “We shall cripple her now so that we may kill her later.”

  “While hoping that the cannonballs don’t kill us in the meantime,” Tegrese murmured.

  “True,” replied Nezdeh. “Now: fire all.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  In various orbits; BD +02 4076 Two (“Disparity”)

  Caine Riordan had just finished helping up the man who had fallen ahead of him in the darkness—Nasr Eid—when the world shook again. But much harder.

  Riordan hit the far wall of the corridor like a rag doll slung across a room. He bounced off, the wind driven out of him, but was glad for the reflexes that brought up his left arm to cover his head and turned his fall into a crude roll. Finally, the long hours of intermittent martial arts practice were paying a muscle memory dividend.

  As he rose, a sudden forward-suction draft pulled the air from behind him, the force against his back building swiftly toward hurricane intensity. God damn, explosive decompression up ahead? Nothing to grab on to, no way to—

  The growing maelstrom diminished quickly, then stopped. His collarcom, still in his right hand, emitted a wind-chime and flutes tone. He tapped it. “Ambassador?”

  Yiithrii’ah’aash’s connection was very poor. “Caine Riordan, can you hear my words?”

  “Yes, but not well. Can you give me a sitrep—uh, a situation report?”

  “I can, but it must be brief. I am using a personal communicator with low batteries.”

  I doubt we have much time to talk, anyhow. “Ambassador, do you know who’s attacking us?”

  “We have no sensors, and so cannot tell. You must board your ships and descend to the planet at once.”

  “Already under way.”

  “Excellent. Do not stop to draw supplies from your cargo module.”

  “We’re not. Was it hit? Was that what caused the
explosive decompression?”

  “It was. Our extrusions have sealed the breach. But the module was not the attacker’s target. Its rotation simply brought it into the path of a beam locked upon the main spin-armature. You must evacuate at once; without power, we cannot stop the rotator arm. The damage and post-explosion virbrations will cause it to tear apart and fly away from the ship.”

  Caine, panting, had been sprinting since he’d answered the page and now he could feel that the rotator arm was, in fact, wobbling: the irregular Coriolis effect made deck swim unsteadily under his feet. “Ambassador, our corvette is still in hard-dock and the power is out. Will your biosystems resist our attempts to override your locks or clamps?”

  “They will, but— Do any of your personnel have access to the samples of the new markers? If your crew coated themselves with those, that would allow you to—”

  “Negative; all the samples are in the habmod. They’d never make it there and back to the corvette in time.”

  The bulkhead disappeared from under Caine’s trailing palm; an intersection. Damn it, which way—? Right! He scrabbled in the dark, found the right-hand bulkhead, ran onward, staggering as the deck undulated beneath his feet.

  Yiithrii’ah’aash next suggestion was hurried. “I have sent a disabling command through the chemistry of the ship’s biota; it may or may not reach the correct docking ports. But use whatever means you must to break or blast yourself free.”

  Yeah; that’s the plan. Caine heard what sounded like a flurry of gunshots up ahead. What the—? “Ambassador, is there any chance that you will be able to get your ship’s power back on-line?”

  “Unknown. Hull breaches have restricted our access, and because our ships are far more self-repairing and self-monitoring than yours, our crew is much smaller.”

  Although that’s not working out so well for you right now, is it? “Were the power plants hit or—?”

  “It was sabotage, Captain.”

  “But I assumed that no Slaasriithi would ever—”