Tiana’s problem was, of course, different. As Wizzy had advised, there were two cargo ships in orbit above Ledo. The problem was, which one had the hostages? She read about the action at this very location weeks ago and decided to do something similar. She did not have the IR capability that Argos had to scan the two ships. However, Wizzy had supplied fireflies to Dreng, so Tiana got as close to the two unsuspecting cargo ships as possible and released a bunch of them toward each ship, seeking a way into each. The sneaky little things always found a way in.
It took about thirty minutes before Tiana could see images inside each of the ships. The hostage ship was apparent almost immediately with a video of its teaming brig full of prisoners/hostages. The other ship had nothing but crew, and not many of them. But how to deal with each ship? It would be impossible to board both, and if her ship opened fire, she ran the risk of hurting the hostages and/or causing both ships to flee back toward Tye, where there was help. Then she remembered the mantis drones reprogrammed at the last minute by Wizzy. She let them both go, one to each ship.
Fortunately, she was right. In fifteen minutes, power systems on both ships began to fail, and normal lights went out. Tiana had to assume that weapons were also down. If she was wrong, it might mean the end of Dreng. But it was a logical choice and one she had to take.
With Dreng’s weapons powered up and trained on both cargo ships, Tiana launched a shuttle to board the hostage ship to free and gather the hostages back to Dreng. The Dreng’s training paid off, and the boarders were able to incapacitate the ship’s crew, who were caught completely by surprise. It was not without bloodshed, however. Several of Tiana’s boarders were wounded or killed. But, in her mind, well worth the price to get the leaders back. She breathed her first sign of relief with the boarding team leader’s report that they were starting to load the first of the refugees. Her heart nearly stopped when a sensor alarm went off on the bridge.
“What is it?” she asked, her heart racing.
“Inbound contacts, Captain. I count two, no three, ships closing fast,” reported her sensor officer.
“Shields up. What kind of ships, and what is the time of arrival?”
“The energy signatures and size suggest three gunboats, Captain. They are coming fast. Maybe three minutes out.”
That was a significant enemy force against the Dreng, which was a sitting duck with her shuttle on the other ship.
“It’s a trap! Communications, tell the boarding team to get in the shuttle and back here, NOW. Enemy gunboats approaching fast.”
Less than a minute later, “I told the leader, Captain, and he says they only have a few of the hostages.”
“It doesn’t matter. Abort the mission now! Pilot, place Dreng between the shuttle and the gunboats. Weapons, open fire when in range.”
Tiana’s heart now beat so much that she thought it might jump out of her chest.
“Taking fire, Captain.” But the report wasn’t necessary, as the whole ship shook and rattled with hits from all three gunboats. She could also feel the rumble of her own laser fire.
“Lock on with the plasma cannon.”
“But it hasn’t been tested yet,” the weapons officer yelled with concern.
“Then this is our test!”
This time it was a different feeling when the cannon fired. Less like a rumble and more like a low-frequency vibration.
“We missed!”
“Correct and fire again! Where is the shuttle?” Tiana asked nobody in particular.
“She is approaching the lower cargo bay, but to open the doors, we have to drop the shields on that side.”
“Do it. Inform me immediately when she is safe onboard and then raise the shields again.”
Several more low-frequency vibrations followed as the plasma cannon fired again.
“A hit, Captain. One gunboat down,” cried out the weapons officer.
“Shuttle on board, shields up.”
“How many of the hostages did we get?”
“Only four, Captain.”
Tiana wanted them all. She planned to rescue all. This was an agonizing failure. She now had to protect what she had.
“Pilot, get us out of here.”
Larona sat in the command chair of the small, unarmed cargo ship that had been sitting stealthily off Ledo. She engaged its engines and began following Dreng as she departed. It was Larona that alerted the gunboats. In fact, this was Larona’s plan entirely, and the crooked smile on her face showed she was enjoying success. She didn’t care about the Resistance leaders. They were just the bait in the trap. She let the Dreng rescue a few because she had planted tracking devices on all the members. The rest of them would be Gurko’s to do with as he pleased. There might have been a pinch of regret in her actions, given that she had lived among these people for a while. But her life was in the balance, and that’s what counted. Even when Dreng engaged stealth, she was able to continue tracking.
Chapter 22
Aboard Storage Hulk 1, a party was in full force at Fort Apache. This was a planned celebration for all the workers at the fort. It had nothing to do with the expected rescue of the hostages, although the failure took a little of the life out of it. Maintenance and conversion work had been halted for people, letting the bots do their thing on their own. This was the first true celebration the group had experienced out here, and it was long overdue. The various workers, crews, and staffs had been head down, working long hours to build the Resistance navy in preparation for taking back their planet and getting rid of Gurko and his forces.
I was standing in a corner of the big, but now empty, storage room being used for the celebration. Somebody gave me a bottle of what they called beer, and I was enjoying it. I didn’t see Tiana silently walk up to me on my right side.
“Having fun?”
I almost spilled my beer in surprise. I recovered, though.
“Yes. It’s good to see everyone enjoying themselves for once. They have all done a great job.” That was about all I could say at the moment. Tiana was dressed in a clinging blue dress that did not cover all of her bold stripes, especially in areas I can’t describe and keep this description fit for general audiences. I didn’t have words for how alluring she could look when all cleaned up and in party mode. I was pretty much tongue-tied and afraid to speak.
“None of us have had a party like this in years. I just wish all the hostages could have been here. I felt bad at first not getting them all, but that changed to anger, which I’ll release in the right direction later. We owe a lot to you and your crew.”
I knew what she meant. As for the help the Argos gave, the old saw, “Just doin’ our job, ma’am” ran through my mind, but I yelled at myself not to say it.
“Just doin’ our job.” What a blockhead I am.
“Remind me, what is your job?”
She had me there. I couldn’t tell her what my job was without giving away who we actually were. Sure, my trust level had grown, but in my view, neither the Resistance nor Tiana were ready yet to learn that Argos was part of a much bigger organization, lest they think the Consortium had plans for taking over everything. Plus, as I mentioned before, too many people equated intelligence gathering to spying, and I didn’t want anyone here to think of us as spies, which we were not. That might cut off the help we were getting in addition to making enemies out of friends. Not to mention, we had stepped way past what we were ordered to do. That made me wonder the same thing. What were we doing? I didn’t have a good answer, even for myself.
“We started looking for trade and got caught up in this whole mess. I guess the answer is we’re trying to do the right thing. However, I wonder sometimes if we have made things worse for you and your people.”
I must have said the right thing because Tiana looked straight into my eyes, leaned in, kissed me on the cheek, and said, “Don’t say that. You and your
crew are the best thing to ever happen to us — and to me.
I think I blushed. I know my cheeks felt hot. And, I couldn’t help but notice Amini staring at us with a not-so-friendly look on her face. What’s up with that? I asked myself.
Before things could go farther, however, the spell was broken.
“Captain Nick, we have a problem,” Wizzy’s annoying and unwanted voice screamed from my implant.”
“Not now, Wizzy. Can’t you see I’m busy?” I answered through the same communications channel.
“Oh, I see plenty. So does everybody else, Romeo. But I’m not interested in your romantic life. We have a real problem you need to hear right now.”
I looked at my watch, then up at Tiana. “Tiana, my apologies, but I’m late for a status update from Wizzy. I’ll be back soon.”
Tiana’s stripes faded a little as she gave a nod of understanding, coated with just a hint of ice. I stepped into a nearby maintenance room to hear what the pesky AI thought was a big problem.
“What’s so important I have to leave the only real social event I’ve been to since we’ve been in this miserable sector?”
“Gurko knows where we are. He knows about Fort Apache.”
That was so much of a shock that I couldn’t say anything at first.
“Did you hear me, Nicky?”
“You just said Gurko knows where we are. How do you know that?”
“Umm, my medical bots found tracking devices on the hostages we brought in. They were discovered in the medical examinations.”
“And you didn’t know about that until just now? I thought you knew everything.”
“Well, heh, heh, I had no reason to look for such devices. It was my bots that found them. Of course, the bots are my design, and I programmed them to look for things like this. So, I’m really the hero here.”
“That’s debatable. How long have they been working?”
“Um, how long was the flight here?”
“Are you saying Dreng was followed here?”
“Possibly. Umm, probably. Almost certainly. I would say yes with a probability of 97.78 percent.”
This news made my head swim. If Gurko knew about Fort Apache, which was now likely, it would only be a matter of time until he reached here with ships to destroy everything, including Argos. We had to evacuate now! But where could we go? Then it struck me, the place we called Base 1. If we were in luck, it would be abandoned after our destruction of the communications center. At the very least, we knew the coordinates of the base and could head in that direction. One of our ships could recon the base to see if it was safe to approach and possibly use it as an interim replacement for Fort Apache. The party had to end, and evacuation begin.
Within two hours, Dreng led nearly all of the ships toward Base 1. Nearly all because one of the conversion ship’s engine controls were disconnected, and it couldn’t fly. The crew and whatever they could carry were transferred to other ships before the flotilla departed. Two other ships left behind were the now empty cargo ships we had been using as storage containers for parts. The third such ship still had parts and was uncoupled from the center triangle of Fort Apache and sent off with the rest under her own power. The last remaining ship was Argos. We stayed behind for two reasons. First, we decided to use Argos to destroy the three ships left behind. We didn’t want anyone to be able to use them against us. Second, Argos would be the rear guard. After destroying the useless ships, we would remain to distract the enemy ships that were certainly on the way. What we wanted was to provide a delaying action and to damage as many ships as possible before we also departed. We didn’t have long to wait.
Dreng and her flock of ships had barely been gone for two hours before Gurko’s ships appeared. I can only imagine their surprise and disappointment to find only debris at the location they expected to be full of off-guard ships. I was happy our forces got away when they did because the force that appeared from stealth was impressive. First, six, armed cargo ships appeared, quickly disbursing in the area to look for targets. Then came the warships. A frigate appeared first, followed by a destroyer. They alone would have wiped out the whole Resistance force. The armed cargo ships were, as one of my uncles used to say, gravy. Meaning they were more than required but made everything taste better.
I had Argos standing off at a distance while we assessed the situation.
“What do you think, Wizzy?” I asked.
“I think you should be glad all the ships got away. These ships would have caused significant damage, especially the destroyer and the frigate. By the way, that is the same frigate we encountered in the failed trap we set. I recognize her engine signature and the relative newness of her hull. The destroyer, on the other hand, is an old one. Probably pre-war variety. She still packs a punch, but age and poor maintenance have probably made her more fragile than the frigate.”
“Can you get to the warships’ AIs?”
“No. I just tried. They both have the same updated protections that I encountered with the last corvette.
The choices I was facing were four. First, do nothing and fly away. Second, attack just the cargo ships. Third, go after one of the warships. Couldn’t do all of those and be successful. The fourth choice was to launch the Falcon or not.
Unlike the last attack we made on those three cargo ships in formation, these cargo ships were disbursed looking for targets of their own. We might get two, but I was sure that when we attacked the first one, all the others would engage stealth and disappear. Even if we launched Falcon, the most I believed we could get were two.
That left the warships. I already knew that the frigate was commanded by a smart and capable commander. She was also relatively new. That combination ruled out a successful attack on her. The destroyer, on the other hand, was older and more vulnerable. I also hoped that its commander would not be as capable as the frigate captain. The destroyer was it. If I was wrong and we failed, then the fleeing Resistance force would be at imminent risk of destruction from a fully capable force. No time to worry about that now. Instead, I momentarily pondered keeping the Falcon integrated or not. Against this size of ship, even in poor condition, I felt keeping the Falcon integrated was best. More overall power, and when we had to leave, we wouldn’t have to go through the integration process. Decisions made and done.
“Amini, take us into a firing position behind the destroyer. No closer than three thousand yards. Sif, on my mark, pour everything we have into her.”
“A wise choice, Captain Nick,” responded Sif with his typical toothy smile. “All the ships have shields up.” That was expected from this force.
Amini had no problem maneuvering behind the destroyer. As she closed, she called out the distance.
“Six thousand yards. Five thousand. Four thousand…”
“Fire!” I called out before reaching the three thousand mark.
In his typical enthusiastic compliance, Sif fired everything, plasma cannon, lasers, rail gun, and missiles. As he continued to fire, we were forced to slip back away from the old destroyer due to the debris that flew from her hull. But I couldn’t let this continuous fire go on too long. It would be a dead giveaway to our position.
“Cease fire! Amini, break right then make a left turn to come in from her starboard side.”
“Roger, Nick. I know what you want.” And she did.
My estimate was that we would get only one or two more runs before the other ships descended on our location. All those ships could fire a broad pattern and have a high probability of scoring damaging hits on us even in our stealth mode. As luck would have it, we could only make the one added run on the destroyer’s starboard side. The random fire from the destroyer and the now engaged frigate was brutal as we started taking hits, shaking our ship, and rattling our teeth and bones. When the cargo ships got organized, it would be too much.
We fired at four thous
and yards but curtailed the attack as we passed three thousand. It was time to get out.
“Cease fire! Amini, break off, turn, and get us out of here. Wizzy, do you have a small drone available to do battle damage assessment?”
“Ready to launch, Nicky.”
“Launch.” We left the area as the drone took sensor readings and video images of the damage to the destroyer. After it completed its mission and transmitted, it self-destructed.
Once we were safely away, I wanted to know the result.
“Wizzy put the BDA on the forward screen.”
The first words spoken came from Amini.
“Ouch, that had to hurt.”
Even Doc shook his head before speaking. “Will it fly again?”
What we all saw was a ship DIW or better said, DIS for Dead in Space. She had no stealth in operation, or it was down as the frigate did a visual inspection. Drone sensors, however, reported it just plain wasn’t working. Shields must have been damaged because there were blackened hull plates in her aft section as well as visible holes through the hull. All that probably came from our first attack. Energy output was low, leading us to believe she had damaged engines. Finally, on her starboard side, there was a surprisingly long, black-stained gash running fore and aft. Light could be seen creeping out from between the damaged hull plates.
Wizzy summed up the damage.
“She will fly again, but not until serious repairs are made. One engine is up and running, which is enough to get her home slowly. The other engine will have to be replaced. The bad news for us is that virtually all her weapons are still functional. Can’t say as much for her crew, however. Depending on how fast their repair facilities can work, she will be a threat again. In that regard, I do not know with certainty how long that will be. My guess is at least four weeks. Perhaps longer, say eight weeks, depending on the damage we cannot assess.”
Crucible: Records of the Argos Page 22