by Adam Gaffen
“Copy,” she answered simply. It was sort of peaceful, actually. Quiet. Just her and space, stretching on and on and on.
Wrong train of thought.
“Hey, Danni.”
“Yeah, Ash?”
“What are you doing after?”
“After? After what?”
“The mission.”
“Oh, I thought maybe you meant the war.”
“No, I’m not thinking quite so far ahead.”
“I’ve got a bunch of letters to write.”
Ashlyn sobered. “Me, too; writing to Wingbat’s mom was tougher than flight school.”
She could almost hear Daniela’s nod. “I understand. And I never thanked you for doing that.”
“She was my pilot.”
“But I killed her.”
“She killed herself by being stupid and stubborn; you just happened to be the tool she used to do it. Tell you what. Catch me in about a minute and we’ll call it even.”
“Sounds good to me. And tonight we have a proper wake for our pilots.”
“Assuming this works. I can’t see you; how far away am I?”
“247 meters and closing.”
“You got a plan to catch me?” Ashlyn had an undeniable edge of nervousness to her voice.
“Yeah, we’re going to let you pass us then catch up to you. Otherwise you’re going to go splat.”
“Yeah, no, splat isn’t on my to-do list.”
“So don’t worry when you sail past; I’m not letting you go Dutchman. Ten seconds.”
“I see you.”
“Still trying to track you, ah, gotcha! Boomer, correct to port.”
The Direwolf slid a couple meters aside.
“Wave as you go past.” Daniela powered up her engines as Ashlyn’s suited figure zipped by. “I’ve got you locked on my scope. Coming to get you.”
“You’d better.”
Using the barest fraction of her thrust Daniela approached Ashlyn. “Closing, 3 MPS. 2 MPS. One half MPS, two seconds, one,” and the nose of the ship slid along parallel to Ashlyn’s body. Daniela reached out her arms and caught hold of Ash’s legs.
“Gotcha!”
“Never doubted you for a moment.”
Ashlyn got herself settled into the rear seat.
“This feels weird.”
“Yeah, well, hold on. Boomer, countdown?”
“Starbuck says he’s holding at ten seconds.”
“Let’s get out of here.” Daniela pushed her throttle forward as far as it would go and they leapt forward.
“You’re clear, Starbuck,” Ashlyn commed.
“Thanks sweetheart. I’ll be seeing you.”
She closed the comm before she could say anything else.
“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED here?”
To Nordstrom’s eyes it appeared there were bodies everywhere. He’d taken the precaution of ordering his Marines to remain suited and he was glad he’d done so. Whatever happened, it looked like it hit people hard but not quickly. The bodies weren’t collapsed in the corridors, more like they’d gotten comfortable before falling asleep.
“They’re alive,” Kidwell confirmed. “Feverish, and I picked up some low-level seizure activity. But they’re all alive.”
“So far.”
Autumn.
They were making their way down towards the headquarters, Layne in the lead, Kidwell checking the fallen at random to get a sample.
Autumn!
Not so loud, came the reply.
“We’re still in time.”
“Captain Nordstrom.”
The different voice over his comm stopped him in his tracks.
“Who’s this?”
“Mike.”
“Mike?”
“I am the Alpha AI assigned to assist Mistress Newling in her revolution,” the voice explained.
“I know who you are; I thought you were, well...”
“Dead?”
“Yes.”
“Not quite, Captain Nordstrom. Merely considering options. I have you located on level 8, section 4B. Please hurry.”
Nordstrom was brought back to his mission by the AI’s dispassionate voice taking on a note of urgency with his final words.
“On our way. We can get there faster if you open up hatches ahead of us.”
“I have already done so, Captain.”
“What happened here?”
Mike told him.
“THEY’RE CLEAR.” MCKNIGHT confirmed as the Direwolves scattered.
“O’Toole, shields to maximum!”
“Aye, Admiral.”
The plate was still more than ten minutes from impact, over 40 kiloklicks, but every simulation Diana had run said the same thing: massive EMP wave, gamma radiation, and an unholy lot of neutrons were about to bombard the habitat.
Then would come the nasty effects: hyperaccelerated chunks of durasteel.
The EM shields should block most of the radiation, at least attenuate it enough for the CeeSea coating and Njord’s hull to handle the remainder. But the neutrons and fragments were another story. Neutrons, by their nature, weren’t affected by the EM shielding and would pass right through. Their hopes rested on the gravitic shield stopping most of the neutrons. Any which passed through the gravitic shield would probably be stopped by the CeeSea as well, due to the density of the material, but would also probably destabilize a large portion of the coating.
McKnight had argued in favor of waiting until the plate’s rotation had brought it around, but the plate would only be a bare 5 kiloklicks away by the time the angle had increased enough to make the maneuver worthwhile. The distance had vetoed the suggestion, because some chunks would be accelerated to cover that distance in seconds and even the gravitic shields wouldn’t do any good.
“Five seconds.”
Starbuck was doing the countdown from the ship, relayed via the Q-Net.
“Four. Three. Two. One.”
The initial flash came and went almost too quickly to be seen, followed by a hemisphere of brilliant blue-white light which expanded rapidly. Then a jet of orange light appeared on the opposite side, spreading outward faster than the eye could follow as the plate was consumed by the heat of the explosion.
An iridescent halo of blue spread away from the plate as the hemisphere changed color, from blue-white to yellow to orange and finally to red before it dissipated.
Aboard Njord, alarms whooped.
“Gamma radiation levels has increased to 82!” shouted Pipher.
“O’Toole, where are those shields!”
“Diverting emergency power!” he answered.
“Neutron count is elevated but not critically,” Munro added.
“What about the plate?”
“Gravitic sensors offline, but my other sensors are clearing, Admiral,” Diana said calmly. “EMP shielding was generally effective but the sensor mechanisms are outside the protected areas of necessity.”
“I need to know as soon as you do. Communications?”
“Standard frequencies are down, Admiral,” Colona reported. Reeve, her usual replacement, was working beside her to cope with the onslaught. “Q-Net is iffy.”
“Check in with all mobile units. If we’re having this much of an issue, I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”
The holotank, which had blurred into a kaleidoscope of colors as certainty was replaced with mere probability, was slowly resolving again. Shreve noticed it first.
“Colonel? Where’s Endeavour?”
CHAPTER NINE
TFS Endeavour; Cislunar Space; Artemis City
Stardate 12009.14
“Shut down those damn alarms!”
The din mercifully abated but didn’t cease.
They were shaken but essentially not the worse for wear. The OMS had run out of propellant after seven minutes of thrust, but by then she’d built up a delta vee of 4.2 KPS and she’d been coasting for another nearly five minutes. So, when Shooting Star’s Direwolf had g
one nuclear they’d been nearly two thousand kilometers distant, well outside the immediate blast range.
The first alarms had activated when the wave of radiation flooded through the crippled ship. Some was reflected by the CeeSea, but much penetrated, shorting out systems which were just starting to come back on-line. Then the wave of neutrons slammed into them but here Kendra’s insistence on adding water tanks in every conceivable cubic centimeter may have saved them. Water is one of the preferred methods of stopping neutrons, after all, and between the CeeSea and the multitude of storage units the neutrons were essentially stopped dead.
Radiation and particle degradation was another issue, and these triggered the second set of alarms.
“Number One!”
“Sensors reporting radiation spikes all along the port side.”
“The side facing the explosion,” said Commander Zihal with a node. “Makes sense. Neutrons impact the CeeSea and either break it down or build it up, depending; either way, you end up with radioactive hull plating.”
“Any threat to our people?” asked Kiri.
“Not immediately,” Zihal answered. “But Seaborgium is an unstable element in isolation, so every atom which is fractured off from the compound will break down. That will produce more neutrons, which will break down more CeeSea, and so on.”
“A chain reaction?”
“Essentially, but nothing near critical mass. I’d have to crunch some numbers, but I’d say we have a week or so before it gets bad enough the interior becomes hazardous.”
“Great. Now, if we can just get in touch with someone to drag us back to Njord we’ll be able to do something about it. Number One, progress on comms?”
“Nothing yet, Ma’am,” Sanzari said. “EM frequencies are hashed, and our Q-Net installation was damaged in the incident.”
“What about a Direwolf?” said Ensign Jadwinski. Her normal post was overseeing the shuttlebay, but her damage control duties brought her to the bridge.
“What?” Sanzari turned around to look at her.
“We have a Direwolf aboard,” Jadwinski explained. “It has independent systems. I can power it up and see if its transmitter functions.”
Sanzari didn’t bother asking Kiri. “Do it.”
“Aye, Ma’am!” She left the bridge, if not at a run then something close to it.
“Okay. Things are looking up.” Kiri allowed herself to relax fractionally.
“Njord, Nymeria Actual, come in.”
Silence from the comms.
“Boomer, can you boost the signal?”
“We’re ten kiloklicks distant; why don’t we simply land?”
“Even I know you don’t land on the base when you don’t know what condition the base is in, ol’ buddy.”
It was hard to tell who was more surprised. Whomever it was, Ashlyn recovered first.
“Starbuck?”
“In the flesh. Well, as close as I’m going to get.”
“Buddy, what are you doing in my circuits?”
“You had all that extra room, what with the upgrade and all, so I figured you wouldn’t mind if I bootstrapped myself in.”
Ashlyn added, “You blew up!”
“Ah, ah, ah. You’re confusing the physical with the, let’s call it the spiritual. Or ephemeral. Me. While I was using a tiny piece of myself to babysit the fusion bottle, the rest of me was copying my programing and uploading it into some unused memory banks in here. Once I pulled the plug it was only a couple dozen nanoseconds to finish the process. Oh, I suppose some version of ‘me’ went up with the ship, but by then I was already here.” He sounded supremely smug.
“And why didn’t you say anything?” Now Ashlyn was furious. She’d just barely started thinking about how to deal with Starbuck’s death and now he was back like it never happened!
“Well, you were a bit busy.”
“And you couldn’t say anything to me?” Boomer demanded. “Since I was apparently providing you with a place to crash.”
“Let’s avoid the c-word, huh?” said Daniela. She was the only one who seemed amused by the turn of events; well, except for Starbuck.
“Like I said, you’ve got plenty of room. Say, Danni.”
“Hmm?” She’d had few direct dealings with Ashlyn’s AI, but she was starting to understand why she tolerated him. He could be quite a charmer when he wanted to be.
“You think we can get Ash into a Mark II for her next bird? These controls are sweet!”
She couldn’t help it; she laughed. “I’ll see what we can do.”
“WE’VE STILL GOT A MISSION to complete!”
“And daughters to find!”
The argument had been going since Daniela had released their Case Theta. Kendra was ready to resume their original mission, while Cass wanted to return to Njord and the girls. It was complicated by the lack of communication with Njord, a situation Kendra had never anticipated.
“...any Direwolf, come in.”
“They’re probably scared out of their minds!”
“Cass, hold on!” Kendra said, raising a hand.
“I will not hold on! These are our daughters, Kendra, and they came way before Starfleet ever did!”
She changed the pitch of her voice, a trick she’d learned while acting. “I’m getting a signal from Njord, maybe, so will you let me listen?”
This penetrated. “Oh.”
“Njord, this is 1314, come in.”
“How read, 1314?”
“Four by three, Njord. I can understand you but I can’t recognize the voice.”
“1314, this is Colona.” Kendra recognized the name of the staffer.
“Courtney. Who’s available? I need an update.”
“Admiral Whitmore’s a bit less ‘chicken-with-her-head-cut-off’ than Colonel McKnight. Hold one.” It was only seconds before another voice came over the channel.
“Kendra?”
“Davie. What’s the situation?”
“We’ve taken some damage, but the systems are recovering. The gravitic shields have held so far, but there’s still a megaton of junk in the vicinity.”
“Endeavour?”
“We had a bit of a scare; she’d managed to move farther than we’d anticipated, and our sensors went right to Sidhe in the blast. They’re outbound at 4 KPS but won’t be a hazard to anyone for a few days; we’ll be able to recover them before then.”
“The ships?”
“D2 and the other Direwolves are still whittling them down.”
She’d avoided the question but couldn’t any longer. “Any casualties, Davie?”
“Nobody’s dead, and Diana’s already checked in on the girls. They didn’t seem bothered by it, and Hecate’s in with them now.”
“Hecate? Are you sure that’s wise? She’s a bit, um, immature.”
Kendra could hear Davie shrug. “She wanted to feel useful. With all the ships out of the bay she really didn’t have much to do. Can’t do any construction or ship repairs, not during a battle, and her bots are semi-autonomous when they’re slaved to damage control. So she said she’d pop in.”
“Thank you, Davie. And thank Hecate for me,” added Cass.
“Will do.”
“So no landings yet?”
“No. All the shields are up.”
“Got it. We’ll check in later. 1314, out.”
“I heard,” said Cass. “I hadn’t even considered the shields.”
Kendra was already yawing towards Luna. “Neither had I. I’m glad the girls are safe, though.”
Cass giggled. “Hecate? Babysitting?”
Kendra shook her head. “I so don’t want to think about it. 1314 to Nymeria Actual.”
“Go ahead, Kendra.”
“We’re heading for Luna, see what support they need.”
“Roger. For what it’s worth, Admiral, I stick to my decision.”
“And for what it’s worth, Commander, you were right.”
“Does that mean no court martial?”
“Not like I’m gonna tell you.”
“Then I guess I’m safe. See you back home.”
“Aye-aye.”
Kendra checked to see they were on course before speaking. “Ready to finish this?”
“Definitely.”
“Then hold on. Brie, max the compensators, I want to get there sooner than soonest.”
“How does seven minutes minus sound?”
“Do it.”
The Direwolf dove for Luna at nearly 750g.
“WHY DID YOU DO IT?” said Stone.
“Do what?”
“Kill the Empress.”
The Marines were at the hatches at either end of the corridor segment they were occupying, on guard for any potential intruders. Nicole and Taylor were sitting and talking quietly, while Mac occupied herself with something on her ‘plant.
That left Stone and Phalkon, sitting against opposite sides of the corridor.
“She was in my way,” was Phalkon’s glib answer.
“Nah, seriously. Why?”
“You really want to know?”
Stone shrugged. “It seems anti-climactic, y’know? We’ve been fighting her since ’18 and you go and bump her off.”
Phalkon nodded. “I see your point. And you really want to know?”
“I’m curious. And no, I won’t turn you over to the UE for her death, even though it’s regicide. I’m sure you could find a lawyer who’d get you off.”
“Even if the UE has jurisdiction. But very well. I believe Artemis, and the Union, should be the ones leading humanity into the stars, not your Federation. Newling’s obsession with you and your starships has spurred us forward into creating our own warp ships, yes, but at what cost? Millions dead, our economy in shambles, and the resource and technological bases we need fled to the Federation.” Her anger was evident at what she saw as Newling’s failings. “It was either kill her or watch Artemis fall, be reduced to a footnote in the annals of history.”
“And the Federation? Why do you object to our mission?”