by M. D. Cooper
“Too bad we can’t just have the three cargo containers they’ve packed up there sent to us and just leave from here.” Terrance sighed.
“Not feasible,” Captain Andrews agreed. “It’s a complicated slingshot maneuver we’re doing. Without using Jupiter as our launching point we won’t have achieved enough velocity when we reach Sol. The decreased breakaway velocity will cause significant increase in travel time.”
“That and we need to be moving toward the sun at the correct speed and correct time to gather the isotopes we need for our fuel. If we don’t do that it will take thirteen percent longer to reach our max speed.” Earnest Redding seemed very anxious about the notion. “Also, if we have them ship those containers here, we’ll miss both the Jovian and Marsian windows and have to wait another nine months for the next one.”
“That’s all the time the Dakota will need to be able to contest our claim to New Eden and tie this colonization up in committee and courts for a decade. Which is exactly what Strang wants.” Tanis spoke for the first time since the meeting had started.
“I guess that rules that out,” Terrance said.
“I propose that I take Grenwald’s Marines in advance to Callisto and ensure that everything is secure. We need to make sure that the cargo and the rendezvous point are safe. We can also have a wing on patrol in Jovian space ready to escort the Intrepid in,” Tanis said. No point in wallowing forever. Plenty of work was still waiting to be done.
“Do you think we’ll be safe here?” Terrance asked. “Your work has proven instrumental in keeping us on track. In fact, Abby tells me that your alterations have actually accelerated the schedule.”
Tanis forced a smile. “You hired me to do a job, sir. I am glad I have been able to perform it to your satisfaction.” She brought up a holo showing various levels of activity on the station; 3D graphs and charts displayed periods of higher and lower threat to the Intrepid. The data showed that after the capture of Trent the threat levels were significantly lower.
“You’ll see, sirs, that all of the models show that no significant threats are impending. The bounty on me has actually been withdrawn and the four merc organizations that had been active locally have all left the Mars Protectorate. I’m guessing that they’re feeling the heat and their last payments probably didn’t show up. I’m not saying that everything is sunshine and daisies, but I do believe that the next big threat lies at Callisto and not here at Mars. I have every confidence that Commander Ouri can keep things under control here while I’m gone. Lieutenant Forsythe will be keeping his platoon here while I take Grenwald’s with me to Callisto.”
“And Commander Evans?” Captain Andrews’ eye had a twinkle to it.
The fewer complications, the better. “He’ll be staying on the Intrepid, sir. I believe his assistance will be key in organizing patrols and guarding the ship during transit.”
“I see no reason to not follow your plan.” Sanderson looked at Tanis sternly and at the others around the table who nodded. “You have my permission to proceed. I expect a full work-up of your plan within the day.”
“Aye, sir.” Tanis stood. “Sirs.” She nodded and left. They hadn’t asked her exactly how she got the information from Trent. She hadn’t volunteered it either.
CERES
STELLAR DATE: 3227 301 / 12.14.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Ceres Transfer Station, Ceres
REGION: InnerSol, Sol Space Federation
“Well boys and girls, here we are, lovely Ceres, just the place for a day’s layover.” Private Perez gestured magnanimously at the unadorned debarkation lobby.
“Shut it, Perez,” Williams said as he walked by. “Marines, hump your gear to the TSF Argonaut and stow it. We have a tactical analysis of our mission at 2100 hours station time in briefing room 2A, deck 16, quadrant 3.”
“You want us to do what to our gear, Staff Sergeant?”
Williams chose to ignore the remark and hoisted his pack over his left shoulder.
They were in the TSF zone on Ceres, one of the main hubs of stellar commerce and travel in the solar system. It was doubly busy since Mars was nearing Jupiter at a time when Ceres was between them. Earth was on the far side of the sun, but a direct path between it and Jupiter also passed through Ceres for the current Sol month. The end result was that nearly all of the traffic between the InnerSol and OuterSol was currently flowing through Ceres.
Williams wasn’t worried about security, not in the TSF zone at least. With the hundred or so navy ships—ranging from patrol craft to Orion-class cruisers and Constellation-class carriers—all docked at this quadrant, not only was security tight, but it was backed up by a million or so TSF personnel that were, quite literally, everywhere. Anyone trying anything wouldn’t make it more than ten meters after doing it.
Being around men and women he could rely on always made Williams feel at home, and he walked easily down the corridor. That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t wary, but he was as relaxed as he got.
Being little more than a small planetoid, Ceres naturally only generated .03g at its surface, far less than most of the larger moons in the Sol system. It had been augmented by a GE Artificial Grav system, a fancy term for a mini black hole that was placed within the core of the world and spun up to create 0.51g on the world’s surface.
Ceres had a massive superstructure built around it, the main docking ring being four hundred kilometers above the world. Capable of docking over seven hundred thousand ships at once, the outer reaches operated in 0g, allowing an easier transfer of heavy materials.
Small ships like the transport that the Marines had taken from the MOS docked on the inside of the ring about seventy kilometers above the surface, which rotated enough to create just under a half a g.
Perez was taking advantage of that and tossing his pack in the air like it was some sort of ball.
Just like on Mars 1’s top level, the view was astounding. Even people who worked on the station could be caught looking up at the sight of the small planet wrapped in the massive docks. Since the planet was only about eight hundred kilometers in diameter, and the docks were much closer than most planetary halos, the effect was more like a sphere captured in a glistening ring of steel rather than a ring around a planet. In fact, without taking into account the GE AG system, the docks had more mass than Ceres itself.
Williams caught himself looking up for longer than he expected and Kowalski nudged him.
“Not your first time here is it?” he asked.
“No, but it’s one of the few times where the sun is shining from behind. It really lights the whole thing up nicely, doesn’t it?”
“You getting all sentimental, Staff Sergeant?”
Williams cast a baleful eye on Kowalski. “I have as much sentimentality in me as you have taste in women.”
Kowalski chuckled. “Sure thing, Staff Sergeant.”
Williams glanced back up at the sight; it was a lot smaller than Mars 1, but he found it far more pleasant. He could spot the Tannen Docking Array R3D where the Argonaut was berthed along the arc, visible even though it was seven hundred kilometers away. He started moving again and ran through the platoon’s status to be certain that everyone was still keeping up, more or less. Since the officers had been in first class, they were ahead a few hundred meters, but they were making poorer time without a sergeant’s glare to help part the crowds.
Williams eased up his pace. He liked his officers, but he also liked peace and quiet, something that a certain lieutenant trying to look cool to Trist while simultaneously trying to impress the major just wouldn’t provide.
They passed out of the TSF zone and into a general civilian section. There were three military zones on the docks, but due to a combination of lease times and weight distribution, they wer
en’t all adjacent to one another.
The central boulevard changed as they walked. Gone were the plain bulkheads with their colored bars indicating location and purpose, as well as the spartan offices and facilities. In their place were the boutiques and restaurants that catered to the transient tourists that passed through the station.
While the population of both Ceres and its docking network was in the range of only three hundred million or so, at any given moment over a billion people were passing through. The place had rivers of credit flowing across its nets, generating more money than most planets.
Besides the aforementioned stores selling frivolities and food, frontages advertising time in the company of a beautiful man, woman, or…whatever abounded—everything from vanilla humans to things that didn’t even look like homo sapiens. A trend that seemed to be more and more common as the years passed.
It was probably to please many of the visitors. A lot of the spacers that passed through a place like Ceres spent a good bit of their time alone in the black. It seemed that they were the most unusual, almost as though they had decided that since they spent so much time away from the general human population they should become something other than human.
Even though he had slowed his pace, Williams saw that he was still catching up with the officers and Trist. He resigned himself to taking the rest of the route to the maglev in their company and allowed himself to catch up.
“About time you boots caught up. We were starting to wonder if you stayed back to finish an in-flight vid or something,” Trist said.
“We did,” Williams growled. “It was called NCOs and the Moronic Civilians They Saved Through the Ages. It warmed my heart.”
Trist shot Williams a shocked look while Tanis let out a laugh.
“You do realize that no one but a Marine can needle a Marine staff sergeant and escape unscathed,” Tanis said.
“And most of them lose at least a finger or two,” Williams grunted.
Trist opened her mouth to say something in response, but appeared to think better of the notion and subsided into silence. Just the way Williams preferred it.
He had mixed feelings about her coming along to Callisto, especially mixed feelings about her being privy to the details of the mission, but Major Richards seemed to trust the girl and had made a strong case that she had a knowledge of Cho that none of them did. Her web of contacts could end up proving to be very useful.
Still, it was a gamble taking her back. The Jovian government still had a warrant out for her arrest, despite the fact that a federal SolGov court had granted her immunity in exchange for her testimony against Trent.
Luckily the fact that a lot of Trist’s body was made out of biological silicon meant her DNA no longer matched what was on record. Even better was the fact that she could subtly alter her underlying physical features making a legal identification of Trist virtually impossible.
The group arrived at the maglev train and the platoon filed into several cars. The ride anti-spin to the Argonaut was relatively quick and before long the gear was stowed and the Marines were enjoying some downtime before the briefing. Their shuttle to Callisto left at 0900 the next morning, and it was currently 1400, giving them several hours to sample all the docks had to offer. Williams was certain that they would.
As for himself, Williams took the time to look over the plan passed down to him from the officers. He could tell that it was Tanis’s scheme with a few minor details taken care of by the LT. Tanis tended to skip the chain a bit, though it was hard to say if it annoyed Grenwald or not. Getting firsthand experience with a renowned tactician like Major Richards was probably worth the consternation.
The general operation was pretty straightforward. There would be a company of MCSF Marines tasked with general security and a company of Marine engineers that was tasked with inspecting the cargo pods. Not a job Williams envied. Those pods were each well over a cubic kilometer filled with equipment and cargo. The engineers would only be able to do a cursory examination at best, but it was better than nothing.
The Intrepid would carry ten pods total, and seven were already in place. When the Intrepid arrived at Callisto in a month, the remaining pods would be loaded up and the ship would begin its acceleration toward the Sun, on its slingshot approach to gather additional velocity for their outbound trip.
Williams was somewhat saddened by the thought. Over the last few months the ship had become something of a home to him and the platoon. He’d overheard a few of the Marines talking about requesting to go out with the ship, but he was certain that none of them would; they were all too dedicated to the job, all of them being somewhat addicted to the action. Where the Intrepid was going, there would be no action, just a quiet, boring colonization project and then the slow crawl to old age.
For just a moment, the notion appealed to Williams, but he pushed it from his mind. The corps was his life, that wasn’t going to change.
“Good of you all to make it.” Grenwald addressed the last few Marines who arrived only four minutes early for the briefing.
“We were held up,” Taylor said.
“Yeah, Taylor was having trouble convincing the bartender he was old enough to drink,” Perez grinned.
“Belay that excuse,” Williams said.
“Sorry, Staff Sergeant.” Perez had the good grace to look a bit sheepish.
All eyes turned to Major Richards as she stood and activated the holo system.
“This is dock BX9-R on ring 19C of the Callisto station. For those of you who have never been there, it’ll be quite the sight. You’re on the corps’ time the whole time we’re there. No wandering off and seeing what there is to see.” She cast a look at Perez. “Or fondle what there is to fondle. There is a barracks on the ring, and I don’t want to hear of anyone being anywhere other than there or on duty…what?” Tanis looked at Perez.
“Will there at least be, er…beverages?”
“Yes, there’s an enlisted cantina in the barracks where I believe they serve over ten thousand types of alcohol. Don’t abuse it.” Her look told them all what danger they’d be in if they imbibed excessively more than any threat could have.
“Once we debark at Callisto, our job will be to ensure that the STR is hamstrung. It’s entirely possible that SolGov will take no direct action against the instigator of this bit of excitement we’ve been having lately, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t make their lives miserable—and believe me ladies and gentlemen, we will.”
She surveyed the room and found that everyone’s eyes showed that they shared the same sentiment as she did.
“We have a certain level of autonomy here, but honestly if I don’t piss off Admiral Sanderson by the time we’re done, then I won’t feel like I’ve done my job. What that translates to for you is that we may actually get to have some fun.”
The Marines all looked at one another and smiled; they were well-versed in what Tanis’s version of fun was.
“I’ve put each squad’s objectives on the tactical net. I expect you all to review them and be prepared when we arrive. We do have a two-day flight, and I want to see tactical sims drawn up and run during that time.”
She nodded and Grenwald addressed Williams. “Staff Sergeant, dismiss the men.”
“Platoon, get some sacktime, I want you assembled on the deck in front of the Argonaut at 0530. Dismissed!”
The men saluted the officers and filed out.
INTEL
STELLAR DATE: 3227307 / 12.20.4123 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: District BX9, Ring 19C, Callisto Orbital Habitat (Cho)
REGION: Jovian Combine, Sol Space Federation
“How are things looking, Commander?” Tanis addressed the Marine who was bent over a readout.
“As well as can be expected, sir. We’ve got the 701st engineers combing every inch of those cubes as well as the other general cargo destined for the Intrepid upon its arrival and let me say, it’s going to be a slow burn.”
�
�I understand, Yau.” Tanis couldn’t agree more. “Be on the lookout for…something—I don’t know that this is over yet.”
“You’re expecting the enemy to make a move against us?”
“I don’t know for sure. I’ve been studying this Arlen Strang. He’s never been one to give up on something when he sets his mind to it. I imagine that he has made certain promises and with the Dakota taking second place to the Intrepid I’m thinking he has some egg on his face.”
“I’ll see that we are suitably cautious, sir.”
“Good to hear, Commander.”
Tanis turned and signaled one/three to follow her. She had a meeting with a certain informant and it involved going down to ring 5 and into an area not known to be friendly to strangers. She was probably being overly cautious, but having a couple of Marines along never hurt when trying to keep one’s head attached to one’s body.
She and the Marines were all in civilian attire, though she didn’t expect it to fool anyone who had an eye for military bearing. The light body armor they wore under their clothing didn’t help make their movements any more natural.
The ride down the tubes was relatively quick. Since they were going to inner rings the feeling was actually more of an up since the centripetal force was pulling them the opposite direction. She did miss the type of construction that Mars 1 and Ceres had, where you could see the planet above. Word was that the reason why they hadn’t done that here was because having Jupiter looming in the background was disconcerting to too many people, especially since it had been ignited several hundred years ago and now looked much more ominous than it once had.
Even if the moon were visible the view would have been uninspiring. Callisto wasn’t terraformed, its surface housing waste management and purification systems for the habitat above.