“Calm down, Sub-Lieutenant. Keep going.”
Blinking back tears, he said, “We decided we couldn’t hold the station. Just a few missiles on board, a fighter, nothing we could use. Not long-term. Worked out their missile lasers when they took down the Science Relay.” He looked up, then said, “It was hopeless, damn it. Hopeless. Abandoned the station. Two shuttles, twenty-four, squeezed them in, the rest of us to hold them off.”
“We’ve found six bodies,” Harper said.
Looking across at her, he replied, “You’re going to find more. They hit us through four airlocks, hit us hard, while we were still trying to hold them off. They had boarding shuttles, tore through the hull like paper down on the lower spoke.”
“We never checked the damage in that area,” Carpenter said. “Good place to come in, down in the zero-gravity section.”
“Ten minutes and it was all over. Ten damn minutes. I was up in Weapons Control, wanted to fight to the last, but main power failed. Then, I...I hid.” He looked down at the deck, then said, “My friends were fighting, dying and I crawled into a bunker and hid, damn it. I should have died with them.”
“You didn’t,” Orlova said. “You can tell us what happened. What happened to the two shuttles?”
“They launched after them, atmospheric fighters I guess, went down into the murk. That place has just enough atmosphere to be annoying, like Mars but with more dust, more damn stinking dust. That whole planet reeks of death.”
Carpenter looked at Orlova, who said, “Where, Sub-Lieutenant? We can’t get them back if we don’t know where they are.”
“We called it the Fisura del Diablo. Near the northern ice cap. It’s marked on the charts. There they could go down deep enough to be safe.” He looked up, the tears streaming now. “Those fighters did their job. The shuttles crashed. They’re dead. They must be.”
“Not necessarily, Sub-Lieutenant,” Orlova said. “There’s still a chance they survived, and if they did, I’ll bring them home. That’s a promise.”
Chapter 9
The senior staff filed into the briefing room, taking their assigned places at the table. Caine, Grant and Quinn down the left-hand side, Nelyubov and Race on the right, Cunningham taking a seat at the far end, facing him. Orlova’s chair was empty, but Marshall had her words on a datapad in his hand, and knew that over on the station, she would be anxiously waiting for his signal.
“First of all,” he said, “Mr. Quinn, ship status.”
With his newly-trademarked frown, he said, “The only damage is to the radiators, and under the current conditions, there’s nothing I can do about them.”
“Surely that’s a simple repair,” Grant said.
“One that will involve my engineers being half a mile from the ship for several hours,” Quinn said. “Should Alamo have to maneuver, they’d be left behind. Unless you can guarantee me at least seven hours in free orbit, I will not expose my people to such risks.” He looked defiantly at Marshall, who nodded.
“We’re just going to have to do without the lasers, then. Deadeye, what’s your tactical assessment of the enemy ship?”
“From what we’ve gathered from the records on the station as well as our own encounter, the only weapons they possess are those laser missiles.”
“That’s enough, isn’t it,” Race said.
“They don’t seem to be able to change course quickly enough to avoid intercept, but can fire the lasers at any time. Each one is almost as powerful as our own cannon, and they have six of them. We haven’t a clue what their recharge time is, but we know that they can reload.”
“For all we know, they’ve only got a few left,” Nelyubov said. “Though we can’t count on that. So far all we have to show for our hacking attempts is an increased vocabulary of swear words in six languages, and I’m not optimistic that will change in the near future.”
“And in another battle against them?”
“Without our laser, we have a tactical disadvantage. We can mitigate that by fighting the battle at a time and place of our choosing, and having some missile salvos already in the air. That and some careful maneuvering should give us a good chance.”
“They’ll know that,” Cunningham said. “I doubt they’ll let us get that chance.” Looking at Quinn, he replied, “I recommend taking the risk and repairing the laser.”
“I’d lose ten of my best people if we had to fight,” Quinn said. “I’m not willing to take that risk.”
“We can mitigate that by moving closer to the station. If we hold position at a distance of, say, fifteen hundred meters, they can make that easily on their suit thrusters. Or we could have a shuttlecraft standing by to pick them up and break for the surface.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Nor do I,” Marshall said, “but I’m ordering it. As soon as this meeting is concluded, we’ll move closer to the station and commence the repairs to the radiators. Make sure that everyone involved is fully briefed on what to do should any attack take place.”
“Yes, sir,” Quinn said, his eyes boring into Marshall. “I would like it entered into the record that I oppose this action.”
Caine looked at him, and asked, “What the hell, Jack?”
“So noted,” Marshall said. “Now for the major business, and there are two points, as far as I can see. Maggie’s report indicates that the station will be straightforward to salvage, and she suggests that an eight-man repair crew should be able to get it back into fighting condition in twenty-four hours.”
“I’ve looked over her reports,” Cunningham said, “and I concur. That’s another six missile tubes we can throw into a fight, and it isn’t much of a risk.”
“Easy to say, when my people are the ones taking it,” Quinn said.
“That’s enough, Lieutenant,” Marshall snapped. “As far as I’m concerned this is an easy call. Pick a team, and get it sent over to the station as soon as we’ve completed our maneuver. Lieutenant Nelyubov, you will take command over there for the present.” Raising a hand, he added, “Don’t worry, this isn’t permanent.”
“I certainly hope not,” he replied. “All of this is preliminary, though. What about Maggie’s plan?”
“I wondered if she’d sent it to anyone else,” Marshall replied with a smile. “Short version is this. We know where the crew of the station went down. Our sensors have picked up a crash site, though whether there were any survivors is unclear.”
“We have to rescue them,” Nelyubov said.
“In principle, I agree,” Cunningham said, “though I am rather less than convinced about our capability to pull this off.”
“The idea is to launch the rescue mission from the station. In three and a half hours, they’ll be in a position to be reached in about twelve minutes in a full-speed burn from orbit.” Nelyubov looked around the room, then said, “The return will be direct to Alamo, once we’ve retrieved the survivors. Four-man team, two on each shuttle.”
“Commanded by Orlova, no doubt,” Quinn said.
“She’s the best choice for the job, and is already over on the station,” Nelyubov said. “More to the point, this was her idea. She deserves a chance to carry it out.”
“We know that the enemy ship has fighters with an atmospheric capability,” Race noted.
“Not lower atmosphere. From what we saw from the records, they can’t go below thirty thousand feet.”
“In theory. They could have been faking it,” Cunningham said.
“No,” Quinn said, shaking his head. “We got some good images of those craft. No way they could go any deeper, not and come back up again.”
“I would point out that our first encounter with them demonstrated their willingness to give up their lives for the cause,” Race said. “We can’t be sure of the safety of the shuttles.”
“We’d have to distract them,” Grant replied,
leaning forward. “Tanner and I can launch to engage their sentry satellites in high orbit. If we take one each…”
“Splitting yourselves up and becoming vulnerable,” Cunningham interrupted.
Pressing on, Grant said, “Then we have an excellent chance of drawing them out. Captain, I don’t think there is much that our fighters can do here. At least we can contribute to the rescue of the survivors on the surface.”
“If there are any. There is no evidence of that,” said Cunningham. “Also, we’re not talking about a snatch and grab here. The landing team will have to find them, and that will leave them exposed on the surface.” Looking at Marshall, he asked, “What’s the urgency? They were expecting to be down there for a month. I’m sure they can wait for a couple of days until we’ve beaten back that ship.”
Caine glanced at Marshall, then said, “I’m not quite as optimistic as you are that we can beat them. At best, I think we can probably even the odds.” Looking around the room, she said, “Long-term, the smart play is to wait out the five days and break clear of the system. If we time it properly, we should be able to reach the hendecaspace point without coming under fire, and then we can return with reinforcements later on.”
“And if they followed us to Ragnarok?” Nelyubov asked.
“Then they’d run into us, Hunter Station and its two fighter squadrons, and six lasersats. I don’t think there would be much left of them when they tried,” Caine replied. “We don’t need to win this battle today.”
“We don’t even know why we’re fighting this battle,” Race said. “They attacked, and we don’t know why.”
“If they had a good reason, something that we would listen to, they would have told us already,” Cunningham said. “Turning and retreating sends a bad message to them.”
“Getting blown up would be considerably worse,” Quinn said. “One of our duties must be to warn the Confederation of this threat to the borders of our territory.”
“This system is strategically important,” Nelyubov began.
Interrupting him, Quinn said, “Potentially. It isn’t worth the loss of life, not at the moment. Hell, if an alien race wants to smash the Cabal to bits for us, I’ll sit on the sidelines and cheer, and we can corral them in that direction with our defenses in adjacent systems.” Turning back to Marshall, he said, “This isn’t that important a mission, sir.”
Nodding, Marshall said, “He’s right, but I have no intention of leaving anyone behind if we have to leave. It could be months before we return.”
“Conceivably, it might be never,” Caine said. “The Fleet is spread damn thin at the moment. I’m not sure the Admiralty will commit the reserves to the job, and I’m certain that the Senate won’t want to start another war.” She looked up at Marshall, nodded, and said, “My opinion is that we launch the rescue attempt, and leave the system if we can do so without facing attack. If we find a weak spot, then it might be another matter.”
“I agree,” Quinn said. “Though I still think going down to the surface is an unjustifiable risk unless we are certain there are survivors down there.”
“Noted.”
“I’d take them on,” Nelyubov said. “After we’ve rescued the survivors. It seems wrong to pull out of the system without a fight.”
“You’ve been hanging around with Maggie too long,” Race said. “I’m with Quinn and Caine, by the way.”
“For the record, this is not a democracy,” Marshall said. He glanced across at Cunningham, then said, “Keep working to find a weak spot in their defenses. Anything we can exploit. I’d rather not leave them in possession of the system unless we don’t have any choice. At least we need to find out why they are here.”
Nodding, Caine said, “Aye, sir.”
“Mr. Quinn, I want you to take a look at our fighters. See if you can…”
“Give them at least a limited atmospheric capability,” he replied. “I think so, sir, but they’ll need a full servicing when they come back. We won’t be able to use them again for a while.”
“Mr. Grant, better brush up on your atmospheric flying. We’re not doing the decoy mission, I want you to fly escort for the shuttles. Alamo can take care of itself.” He looked at Caine, then said, “Work out a defensive plan, and as far as I’m concerned, you can spend missiles like water.”
“We’re going ahead, then?” Nelyubov said.
“That we are,” Marshall replied. “Just out of idle curiosity, is there any point to me ordering you to remain on the station during this operation?”
“Probably not, sir.”
“Then I wish you and Maggie the best of luck. You can ferry over the engineering team at the same time, and I want plenty of communications chatter about it. Keep the real mission a secret as long as you can, no point spreading it around too widely.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll speak to Doctor Duquesne, get her to recommend a paramedic.”
“We’d better get sickbay on standby,” Cunningham said. “And accelerate the shift change so that we’ve got fresh hands on duty for the operation. Frank, alert Mr. Kibaki that Gamma Watch will be coming on duty in two hours.”
“Will do, sir.”
“Any questions?” Marshall asked. “No? Then dismissed, everyone. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next few hours.”
The officers stood, saluted, and walked out of the room, Nelyubov taking the lead in eager steps. Cunningham stopped at the door, turned, then sat down in Orlova’s seat, waiting for the last one to leave.
“Let me guess,” Marshall said. “You don’t think I’m being aggressive enough.”
“It isn’t that,” he replied. “Yes, I think you are getting a little gun-shy, but I’m not sure that’s a problem. Hell, if our roles were reversed I’d almost certainly be doing exactly the same. I’m not overjoyed at the rescue mission, but we can’t leave our own people stranded on the surface.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The composition of the station team. Frank will be going down with Maggie, there is nothing so certain. Orders or no, he won’t sit around and wait, and I can’t blame him.”
“Neither can I. Frankly, having two senior officers down there wouldn’t be a bad idea in any case. One of the shuttles could easily have to abort.”
“Or get shot down. There’s a realistic chance of that.”
“Which is why we limit it to four people. I’ll leave it to Maggie to select the fourth hand, preferably someone who knows how to use a gun.” He paused, then said, “Make sure there are four plasma rifles on those shuttles. We might as well get some use on them.”
“Will do,” he replied. “Look, we’re going to have to send another officer over with the engineering team, someone to take command.”
“Lieutenant Carpenter is already over there.”
Breaking into a smile, Cunningham said, “You know her better than me. Where is she going to be sitting when those shuttles launch?”
“Next to Orlova,” he replied after a moment. “If there are any answers to be found in this system about the enemy’s motivations, the surface is a good place to start looking.”
“Which means that Harper is the senior crewman over on the station, and I really don’t think that’s a very good idea, do you?”
Nodding, Marshall said, “I don’t want to send one of the watch officers. We’re short-handed enough if we have to fight a battle without Maggie or Frank. To think I thought we were over-manned a few days ago. It’ll have to be one of the midshipmen.”
“I agree. Salazar.”
Marshall’s face darkened, and he replied, “Not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t trust him. Not after his performance on the bridge.”
“Then this is the perfect job for him. Look, right now he’s down on the sensor decks doing makework. We can spare him.”
“And if he screws up a third time?”
“Then nothing much is lost. Getting the station back on-line is a nice extra, but it isn’t really mission-critical at this point. We’ve got Harper going through the databanks sending everything she can find across, but that will be finished in a matter of hours. We can certainly use six more missile banks, but if we’re leaving the system anyway, then we’d probably have to scuttle the station before we go.”
“I’m not sure,” Marshall said.
“Either we give him a chance to redeem himself, or you give him a down-check right here and now. I agree we can’t put him back on the bridge, and this seems to me like a good compromise.”
After a moment, he replied, “Very well. Have a word with him before he leaves, though. Make sure he knows what is expected on him. If he performs well, then I will reconsider the bridge duty roster.” Shaking his head, he continued, “There’s something in him worth looking for, but he’s only got one more chance to find it. In any case, we’ve got bigger problems.”
“Damn right,” Cunningham replied, tapping a control on the desk, flashing a holographic image of the enemy ship into the air. “I don’t think they’re going to just let us leave the system.”
“Neither do I,” Marshall said. “I guess we’re going to have to fight our way out, whether we want to or not.”
Chapter 10
“Watch it, Ben, that damn board’s live!” Salazar yelled, his hand recoiling from the exposed circuitry he was about to remove.
Shaking his head, Bartlett replied, “Looks like we’ve found the fault. The malfunction detector’s broken. According to the readings, that whole section is dark.”
With a sigh, Salazar ran a greasy hand across his forehead, then said, “Log it, and we can move onto the next one. How many more today?”
Battlecruiser Alamo: Aces High Page 8