“That’s scary efficient. They don’t need to keep ships here, because people like us never know when a whole battle group will just drop in. There are probably a bunch of ships nearby too,” Hot Chow said.
Minh-Chu guided his fighter into the open, watching for anything the ships may have left behind. “Fury, you guys all right?”
“Still here, found their hyper transmitter, actually,” he said. “They tucked it into orbit around the second moon.”
“Sticky?”
“Nerves are rattled. A destroyer passed within ten thousand kilometres of us. If we didn’t use our uniform’s stealth systems, I’m sure we would have been caught,” she replied. “Longest twenty minutes of my life.”
“You’re not the only one,” Minh-Chu said. “New plan; we’re getting more distance between us and this show. We’ll keep watch while we’re close to cover. I have to relay everything we learned.”
“Aye, retreating to better cover,” Sticky replied.
“We’ll stay here, it’s far back and we’re pretty close to the Revenge. I could relay the data if you want,” Fury said.
“My group have to switch our ships up, don’t worry about it,” Minh-Chu replied. The pieces of the plan were coming together, but there were more variables than he expected. Anything could jump into the system while they were sneaking around in high orbit, but if they managed to sneak teams in using the containers, they would avoid much bigger risks. Then again, if another battlecruiser and its escort showed or worse… “I’m glad I’m not making this decision alone,” Minh-Chu said to his wingmen.
“The Captain is running this operation, isn’t he?” Carnie asked.
“Sure, but he likes seeing which way his Commanders lean when he has time to consider their opinions,” Minh-Chu said.
“Which way are you leaning, Ronin?” Hot Chow asked. “Stealth, or the strike and fade thing we have as our first plan?”
“Honestly?” Minh-Chu answered, guiding his ship around a large asteroid. “Whatever will have a better chance of us getting back in one piece.”
“He’s not sure yet,” Carnie said.
“I got that,” said Hot Chow.
Nineteen
An Important Delivery
* * *
When their combat shuttle touched down on one of the Everin Building’s emergency landing pads, staff from Haven Shore Medical were ready. Alice knew that the building was the medical facility’s temporary base, they were waiting for the completion of Hab Three, which was almost finished, standing high on a reinforced cliff top nearly a kilometre away. It’s graceful single, leaning curve reached over the ocean, while pointing to the sky.
With surprising efficiency, the staff of doctors, medical technicians and androids accepted the delivery of nine children and were on a transit car that would take them directly to the treatment centre. “Thank you, Lieutenant, we’ve got it from here,” said a Nafalli doctor as he carefully accepted the pod and the newborn within. They could drop that pod off the edge of the landing platform, and it would protect the baby perfectly, but that was no reason to treat it like luggage. Everyone felt protective of the children they saved. Some of them didn’t succumb to the calm inducing systems inside the pod, which didn’t use medication. The boy Knut saved was a perfect example. He was soothed to sleep at first, but awoke a few minutes later, fully oxygenated, with rising energy thanks to the basic recovery medication that was flowing into his system.
The large soldier’s hand was joined with the toddler’s through the glove built into the emergency sleeve until he was in the hands of a Haven Shore technician who greeted him with a smile. “Hello, Nathan. I’m Gemma, I see you’ve made a new friend today,” she said to the toddler, nodding at Knut. “You can see him later, but I’m going to take you inside where we can eat some pudding and drink some hot chocolate, how does that sound?”
With practiced grace, Gemma’s hand slipped into the glove built into the emergency sleeve and took the place of Knut’s big hand. “Come visit later?” she asked him in a whisper.
Knut nodded and waved at the boy through the transparent top of the emergency sleeve. “See you soon, buddy.”
“Hey, Nathan,” Gemma said, trying to keep the boy’s attention as they pushed him away on a gurney. “What’s your favourite flavour of pudding?”
“Vanilla,” said a little muffled voice through the sleeve.
“Oh, we’ve got a lot of that. Do you like hot or cold pudding?”
They were out of earshot, so Alice couldn’t hear the answer, but Knud was stuck to the spot, watching the Medical staff load their patients into a waiting transit car. Alice touched his arm. “He’s going to be fine. You did a great job.”
“His parents are gone, he’ll be alone,” Knud replied in a whisper.
“No he won’t, not here,” Alice said. “Everyone here knows what it’s like to lose someone, so he’ll find a lot of company and no end of help. Besides, you’ll be visiting later, right?”
“Nothing could stop me,” he said, turning and stepping back into the shuttle.
They were sky bound minutes later, and she could see her team were emotionally drained. “We’re going right back into the queue,” Alice said. “And I’m having trouble putting what we saw aside too, so let’s take a minute. Let’s take stock.”
“Are we stopping at the Harbour Saint for supplies? We’ve got six juvenile emergency sleeves and two pods left,” asked Luu.
“No, Fleet is putting us back into the queue without. I don’t think we’ll be doing any more runs like that today.”
“The adults sacrificed themselves for the children on that sky bus. Made sure they had enough air for the trip once they realized they couldn’t all survive based on what they had,” Beck said. “And the med tech starts talking about pudding, of all things,” she added, disgusted.
“You’ve gotta start somewhere, open a bloody dialogue,” Regan snapped. “What was she supposed to say to that kid? ‘Hey! I hear your parents are dead! That sucks, but we have medication and therapy that’ll get you through it, so you can remember the good times and not live with the image of them suffocating to death!’ Yeah, I’d start easy too, talk about pudding, or cartoons, or whatever else the kid’s into.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just… I don’t think everyone understands the sacrifice that happened on that ship, how sad it is, and I don’t get how any of us can just talk about it for a moment and move on,” Beck replied. “I mean, to decide to send all the good air away for you so a few kids can survive, I’ve never heard of that. I didn’t think people were capable, and I look at you guys and you’re all dry eyes and stone faces, especially her,” she looked directly at Alice.
Alice double checked the scans and of the transit ship they found the children on and confirmed that the air recycling system was completely burned out. She made sure that was part of her after action report, added the bare facts of the event and filed it. Her duty complete, and the record correct, Alice was able to deal with the only member of her team that was falling apart. Why Yawen wasn’t handling her, Alice didn’t know. That was one of Yawen’s main duties, to handle her squad.
“Is that actually what happened? Did those people actually sacrifice themselves? I assume you were double checking just now,” Beck said.
“The air recycling system burned out, so someone on that bus was smart enough to know what would happen if they didn’t prioritize the children and cut the supply off to the main compartment, but not quite smart enough to fix it. So, yes, what we just saw was a grim example of the bravest people I have ever seen.”
“Too bad they were all dead,” Tran added with a shrug.
“All right,” Alice said, taking a deep breath and letting it out instead of saying something she might regret. Knud slapped him in the back of the helmet hard enough for him to rock forward and take a step. “All right,” Alice started again, holding her hand up. “Everyone did a great job. There was absolutely nothing we could do t
o save the adults on that ship. We got those kids off that bus in under five minutes even though most of us only had rudimentary emergency medical training. We got them to Haven Shore Medical in less than ten and most of them wouldn’t have survived at all unless we did our jobs well, which we did. I invite everyone to visit those orphans in your off-time, I know that’s what I’ll be doing. For now, we can pack that away as a success, we saved lives and made sure the sacrifice the rest of those passengers made mattered. Now it’s time to clear the deck,” she pointed at her head, “and get ready for the next emergency. I’ve got chatter in my ear telling me that the last of the ships are coming. Many of them are from what remains of the Cefa System’s defensive fleet, rebel ships that have taken a beating, so we will be needed.”
“Just pack it all away?” Tulsa asked. “Forget what we just saw?”
“Yawen,” Alice said. “Sort her out or relieve her.”
“You’re a robot,” Tulsa said, pointing at Alice. “When they remade you they forgot your soul.”
“Never mind,” Alice told Yawen. “You’re not going to get over this in time, Private Tulsa Beck, so you are dismissed. Get into one of those bunks back there, and calm down.”
“Is that an order, Lieutenant?” Tulsa screeched.
“It is,” Alice barked. She looked to Regan. “Go with her, and once someone from command is in her ear, talking her down, come back. Make sure she’s calming down first.”
“Holm knows her better,” Regan suggested quietly.
“If you think that’s the best thing, then send Holm instead. As long as she calms down and doesn’t pose a risk to herself.”
Regan and Tulsa retreated to the rear of the shuttle and disappeared into a compartment that was outfitted for passengers. “We’re meeting people on the worst day of their lives, and we have the opportunity to make it a little better, or at least survivable,” Alice said with much more sympathy. “I understand if what we’re seeing or doing reminds you of your own past trauma, or is just a lot to take in. This work isn’t for everyone. If it’s any solace, you can remind yourself that Special Operations will be involved in a wide variety of missions, these are just our first, so it won’t be all tragedy and tension.”
“But isn’t that where we can do the most good?” Yawen asked.
In a flash, Alice recalled the opportunities on Iora, the people there waiting to be saved, and her most recent encounter with Edxi warriors on the surface of her father’s ship. She wished Noah Lucas had a team like hers come down and help him, and that she was so well trained and equipped when she met the Edxi, an encounter that cost lives. “There are a lot of situations ahead of us where we’ll be doing some of the most important work in the Fleet, but for now, I think you’re right. Today we are here to stop misfortune from becoming tragedy.”
“I’ll stick around for that,” Jessen said, elbowing Knut, who nodded his agreement.
“We’re heading into close maneuvers,” announced the pilot over the intercom.
Everyone in the compartment looked through the transparent side of the hull and were rewarded with the sight of a six hundred thirty meter long destroyer that looked like it was from centuries before. Many of its transparent metal portholes were dark, scorch marks from heat damage and breaches from shells littered the hull, and one of the main engines at the rear was gone, as though beam weapons carved it loose. “The Lady Lisa,” Yawen said. “It reminds me of a few of the Irish ships; old warriors that we upgraded as best as we could before pushing them into the fight. They should have been turned into museums instead.”
A glint of something beneath the ship caught Alice’s eye before the shuttle rotated so it was out of view. She opened a channel to the cockpit. “Can you rotate thirty degrees clockwise? I thought I saw something under that ship.”
The shuttle rotated as instructed, and everyone looked with her for several seconds. “I see it!” Luu exclaimed, pointing at a space beneath the old warship.
“Yeah, looks like there’s a cloaked ship with a damaged projector,” Yawen said.
“Just enough for us to make it out. No one scan it. If they sense a tight beam scan, they’ll know we suspect they’re there.” She sent a short encrypted burst communication to Command and waited. Her gaze didn’t wander form the wavering patch of stars beneath the Lady Lisa. “That’s definitely an enemy ship, probably here to spy on us, see what our response to this is like.”
“Or to attack?” Tran asked.
Alice caught herself before scoffing, but Knud scoffed so loud it almost sounded like a sneeze. “That’s foolish, they’d need a lot more firepower.”
The orders from Command came back as short, crystal clear instructions that used iconographic code. “We’re going for a walk. Do we have a hull puncher?” Alice asked.
“No, sorry. Not in the shuttle’s inventory,” Yawen replied.
“Then we’ll plant some really loud beacons right where we want our backup to make a hole,” Alice said, doing her best to ignore the tingle of excitement running up and down her spine.
“Finally, we get to shoot something,” Yawen said.
Twenty
“Good work, guys,” Minh-Chu said as his trio of skitter bots climbed back into the top storage hatch of his Uriel fighter. They installed filter and rapid cooling systems on the end of all his thrusters. The new additions would burn off if he had to thrust hard, but it was a huge part of making his ship stealthier. Hot Chow was still hesitant to fly Minh-Chu’s Uriel, but it had the best carrier system, the others were damaged or wouldn’t clamp to the personnel pod that attached underneath.
They also only had time to coat the surface of one of their Uriels with an active stealth layer that would make it invisible to all but a direct high powered scan. “Are you sure I’m the guy for this?” Hot Chow asked him, putting his helmet on.
“You have the most experience hauling oddly shaped cargo around, and your three dimensional thinking is up there with the best. You know the mission, it’s the easy part; drop your passengers off when you get the go ahead,” Minh-Chu said.
“Then get out of there as fast as these thruster caps will let me without getting caught,” Hot Chow finished. “Why aren’t you flying this mission again?”
“I’ll be with Carnie on the Pursuer. Stop questioning your orders or I’ll have you signed up as an Academy Cadet the second we get back.”
“Aye-aye, Wing Commander,” Hot Chow said.
Minh-Chu turned away and accepted his ground kit belt from Carnie. It had his sidearm, enhanced medical systems, tools and a few other things he hoped he didn’t need. “He has moments where you can tell he’s used to taking orders from idiots. You should hear some of his stories about hauling freight. Most of his bosses wouldn’t know what a flight stick looked like.”
“It’s come up more than once when there’s no time for questions,” Minh-Chu said. “They’re always intelligent questions, but I am signing him up for the fast track when we get back.”
“You’re serious, he’s going to be a trainee?” Carnie asked quietly, surprised.
“The training he gets there will save his life, trust me.”
“What about me? I’ve never been through boot camp, or hell week, or to any flight school.”
“Look at curriculum E3, that’s the fast track. If you think there’s something there for you to learn, I’ll get you in. It’s only two weeks if you pass most of the qualifiers in advance.”
“Oh, so I pass the quals in advance, then do exercises and physical training to finish the course?”
“Among other things. It’s made to round out your experience, knowledge and prepare you to become an officer in the fleet. Makes it easier to promote you if you deserve it. The Qualification tests take the longest, so it’s a good thing you can do all the academic ones before you even sign up,” Minh-Chu said as he boarded the Pursuer.
The ship had taken a great deal of damage and been repaired by hundreds of skitters. It had an active ste
alth layer, but anything that damaged the hull would ruin most of its covert abilities. Despite the obvious weathering on the hull, the missing heavy weapons package on the inside, Minh-Chu liked the ship. “Let’s start our checks. We only have about ten minutes to get out there.”
“Aye,” Carnie said.
“Oh, and Noah,” Minh-Chu said. “It might sound like I’m singling Hot Chow out, but a third of our squad is getting shipped off to training when we get back. He’s not the only one who has to learn to work within the military.”
“Ah, gotcha. Do you think I should join them?” Carnie asked. “Really.”
“You learned how to survive on your own before you joined the fleet, Noah. I don’t think you’d learn as much as Hal, but you’d probably have some real fun in tactical training. Especially the part where you learn all about our new guns and the shooting practice that goes with it.”
“That could be fun,” Carnie admitted with a chuckle.
Captain Valent couldn’t help but chuckle a little as the twenty one soldiers, him included, that couldn’t fit inside the troop carrier module that was affixed to the bottom of the Uriel, spread out on a narrow platform that was welded to the back of the fighter. It was a quick solution, but the platform would hold through re-entry and most other stresses.
The thing that tickled him the most was that the platform looked like two very long ladders. “Sir,” Remmy said as he settled in on his stomach beside him. With the number of people they could bring cut in half, Jake chose his squad as the second one to come along. “Have you ever done anything like this?”
“I’ve done it to other people,” Jake said, remembering the traitors he frightened by strapping them to the front of his ship for re-entry. “They were strapped to the front though. I’ve done the preparation sim for flight in this armour though.”
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11 Page 11