Seville continued, “Are you preparing to head to the surface, Minister?”
“Yes, Admiral, I am. Have you reconsidered joining me on the initial shuttle down to Canaan? The Saurian delegation has requested your presence again.”
“I don’t think it’s wise for me to join you, Minister. I represent fear and terror to these people. I came in the night with my fleet of a thousand ships twenty-seven years ago. I took their invincibility away from them along with their safety.” Seville paused and pursed his lips. “They need to see someone new—a man of peace, such as you. From there, we can work toward a common goal to end this senseless slaughter. I will come down on another shuttle once you’ve begun your important work.”
“Of course, Admiral.” Jenner glanced toward the shuttle as the last of his team boarded. “I will take my leave of you now, then, and see you shortly.”
“Good luck, Minister.”
“Same to you, Admiral.”
Both of them quickly made the salute of the League—a closed fist pressed to the chest—as Jenner turned on his heel to depart. Seville watched Jenner as he entered the shuttle and the hatch closed behind him. Once it was securely shut and the shuttle began to depart, Seville glanced at Strappi.
“That is a pity. I actually like him.”
“I worry he suspects.”
Seville fought down the desire to openly sneer at Strappi. “Of course he doesn’t suspect. He believes we all want a just peace. You worry far too much, Colonel.”
“That is my duty, Admiral.”
“Of course. Now, run along and check up on the crew’s morale then join me on the bridge to watch the Terran Coalition’s death throes.”
29
Striding onto the bridge, Sheila made a beeline for the CO’s chair. Ruth had been standing watch as the command duty officer.
“I have the conn, Lieutenant Goldberg,” she said curtly.
“Major Tompson has the conn, aye,” Ruth stated formally as she stood and retook the tactical station.
Sheila announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation. Master Chief, signal an intruder alert to the master-at-arms, but do not trigger the general alarm.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tinetariro replied. “I’ll have security deployed outside all sensitive areas. Are we looking for something or someone specific?”
“Captain Adriana Barrigo.”
Tinetariro’s eyebrows shot up. “XO, with respect, what aren’t you telling us?”
“Colonel Cohen believes that the captain is possibly under League influence. She assaulted medical bay staff and has disappeared.”
A dark cloud descended over the bridge. Sheila and Ruth exchanged glances.
“We have to find her now and sort out what’s going on,” Sheila said. “TAO, can you calibrate the internal sensors to look specifically for Barrigo?”
“Yes, ma’am. Give me a moment to cross-reference her unique signature to our internal sensors.” While she spoke, Ruth pulled the proper file out of the ship’s main security library and plugged it into the internal sensor module. “XO, she’s not anywhere on our internal sensor profile.”
“You can’t just disappear on this ship.” Sheila was dumbfounded at how the woman could have pulled the escape off, and her opinion of the situation quickly moved to mirror David’s. “TAO, run a diagnostic on all weapons systems, specifically looking for sabotage.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ruth said, and her mouth remained open in shock. Working through the various weapon systems, she called out the status of all systems. “So far, no sabotage to the manual systems or autoloading systems. Energy capacitors all report green. Remote gunnery…”
“Lieutenant?” Sheila prodded.
“Ma’am, I’m seeing a remote access to our point-defense system. It’s not from one of the auxiliary control stations, engineering, or the secondary bridge. Whoever is doing this has set up a wireless connection that is being redirected over an entire section of the ship. This is incredibly skilled hacking.”
“Kick them out now, Lieutenant.”
“I’m trying, ma’am.” Ruth worked through several different commands and security codes before slamming the console with her hands. “Whoever it is is using a high-level override that I can’t defeat.” Ruth turned to face Sheila. “Who the hell is doing this, XO?”
Ignoring Ruth, Sheila brought her personal communicator up to her mouth. “Thompson to Cohen.”
After a pause, David’s voice crackled through the device. “Go ahead, XO.”
“Sir, we’ve identified an unauthorized access to the remote gunnery system.”
“I’m assuming you’ve tried to lock them out without success.”
“Correct, sir. They’re using a high-level override.”
“Wait one, XO.”
David kept the communications link active while he attempted to use his own lockout sequence. “Computer, this is Colonel Cohen. Authorization Code Alpha, Tango, November, Bravo, Three, Niner, One. Terminate all remote gunnery-system access.”
The computer’s reply was immediate. “Function cannot be performed. Gold-level command override in place on existing connection.”
Sheila was stunned by the revelation. How the heck did she get her hands on those?
David interrupted her thoughts. “XO, we’d need a flag officer to override those codes. I can’t cut it off. Can you tell me where the access is coming from? We can get security units there to stop Captain Barrigo.”
“Wait one, sir,” Sheila responded and muted the communications channel. “Got any aces up your sleeve, TAO?”
“Ma’am, that signal is being bounced off eighteen different wireless access points. She’s using our ship’s dispersed control capabilities against us. I’ve narrowed it down to a section of the starboard side, above the flight deck. Decks ten through fourteen, sections twenty through thirty.”
Sheila unmuted the channel and relayed the information to David.
Obviously frustrated, David responded, “XO, that’s a lot of space to cover. Is there any other way to narrow it down? I doubt we have a lot of time here.”
Sheila pursed her lips, trying to run ways to find the elusive woman. “Wait a minute, sir. Some of the compartments that house the long-range sensor arrays are completely encased in dampening elements so that we don’t receive false positive readings. That’s where she is.” She pulled up a schematic of the starboard-side section on the monitor above the CO’s chair. Zeroing in on the shielded compartments, Sheila brought up her communicator once more. “Sir, there’re three separate compartments she might be in. D11S22, D11S28, and D13SS25.”
“Understood, XO. I’ll take it from here.”
As David’s communications link ended, Sheila looked at Ruth. “TAO, stand by to disable the remote gunnery system as soon as control is restored.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
* * *
On the bridge of the Destruction, Seville stared quietly at a clock. Strappi was nearby, still seeming nervous.
An officer reported, “Minister Jenner’s shuttle is away, sir.”
“Well, it won’t be long now,” Seville said with satisfaction. “Put the crew on silent alert. Just in case we have... unforeseen complications.”
* * *
“Sergeant…” David gestured to one of the security teams. “Take Section D11S22.” Addressing the other team, he continued, “Corporal, take Section D11S28. I’ll handle D13SS25. Remember, Captain Barrigo is one of our own. Use nonlethal force, if at all possible. Move out!”
David ran to his section. It took him several minutes to cover the distance. After he found the right passageway then quickly located the service panel, which opened to reveal a very narrow engineering space, he crawled through, pulling out his energy-pulse sidearm and pointing it forward. After what seemed like an eternity of crawling through the bowels of the ship, he sighted a small workspace area directly ahead. Taking pains to be quiet but still move quickly, he saw Barrigo staring at a
control screen.
* * *
Back on the bridge, Ruth called out in alarm, “Conn, TAO. Forward point-defense batteries are coming online under remote control.” She watched in horror as a targeting display came alive. “Ma’am, they’re targeting Minister Jenner’s shuttle!”
Sheila stood. “Lock down those weapons, TAO,” she barked.
Ruth shook her head. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I have no control.”
* * *
Meanwhile, David was trying to slip into position to ambush Barrigo when his communicator activated. Sheila’s panicked voice came through. “Colonel! She’s trying to blow up the League’s shuttle!”
This day just keeps getting better. David jumped into the area where Barrigo was set up. Noticing that Barrigo had a small tablet device plugged into one of the ship’s data lines, with crosshairs on top of a shuttle showing on its screen, he wasted no time. “Captain Barrigo!” he shouted. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but put that control down now.”
Barrigo gave him a blank stare. “I must fire the guns,” she said as she turned back to her screen and brought her fingers up to it.
David quickly brought up his sidearm and fired a shot into her shoulder. Barrigo cried out in pain, dropping the device to the floor. “I must fire the guns! I must do what my father says!”
David turned up the power to his weapon as she reached down to pick the tablet back up. He fired again. The blast hit the tablet and incinerated it as well as part of her hand. Screaming, Barrigo fell to the floor, holding her charred hand.
* * *
On the bridge, Ruth’s targeting screen suddenly went black. “Conn, TAO. I’ve got gunnery control back.” After quickly disarming the point-defense systems, she powered down and secured the Lion’s weapons suite. “System secure, ma’am.”
“Conn, Communications. The Destruction is warning us to shut down our weapons immediately and explain what’s going on,” Taylor said.
Sheila allowed herself a sigh of relief. “Communications, tell them we had a problem when running a diagnostic, but everything has returned to normal.”
* * *
Back in the crawlspace, David knelt beside Barrigo. Quickly checking her vitals, he found her pulse to be strong and the wound on her, hand cauterized because of the heat of the energy pulse.
He pulled his communicator to his lips. “I need a medical team to D13S25, the lateral access space, now!”
David did what he could to make her comfortable as she whimpered in pain. “Barrigo, I need to know who told you to do this.” he said as nonthreateningly as he could.
Her eyes looked as if they were staring right by him to a point hundreds of miles away. “I must do what my father says!” she cried. “I must be a good girl!”
David tried consoling her instead. “Barrigo, your father is waiting for you. Just a little while longer.”
“No!” she cried out again. “He won’t let me come home if I don’t do what he says. He says to fire the guns! Fire the guns! I must fire the guns!”
30
A few minutes after the medical team arrived to tend to Barrigo, David exited the gravlift to the passageway leading to the bridge. Exchanging a quick salute with the two Marines guarding the bridge door, he made his way through the hatch and onto the bridge. He had requested that Amir and Calvin join him there to discuss the situation. He was happy to see they’d made it there ahead of him, as time was a very precious commodity.
Master Chief Tinetariro announced, “Colonel on the bridge.”
David said curtly, “As you were.” He motioned Sheila, Amir, and Calvin over to the main holographic projector in the middle of the bridge. “XO, Colonels.”
Sheila was the first to speak. “I’m not sure where to start, sir.”
“We’ll start with the obvious. This peace deal was a farce possibly designed to turn the rest of the galaxy against us or at least give the League a pretext to fire on Canaan.”
Calvin made a face. “We should never have trusted those Leaguer bastards. The only good Leaguer is a dead Leaguer, sir.”
Sheila’s face clouded over at Calvin’s words, while Amir looked eager for a fight. David, though, shared Sheila’s concerns. “Colonel Demood, I sense that at the very least, Minister Jenner was sincere. That doesn’t change what we need to do here, but it’s something we should remember.”
Sheila picked up where David left off. “We also need to remember that almost all the people on those League ships are conscripts, and if they won’t fight, they and their families are executed for treason.”
David cleared his throat as Amir’s face twisted. “Be that as it may, we’ve got a job to do here. Colonel, do we have enough Marines on this ship to secure the POW transport and save our people? We know they’re aboard thanks to Intergalactic Red Cross visits on the way to Canaan.”
Calvin nodded. “I’ve got three hundred Marines on this ship, Colonel. I’ll get them home or die trying. You’ve got my word on it.”
David cracked a smile. “I’m much more interested in you making the other guys die for their country, Colonel,” he said, referencing the comments made at the dinner with the League.
“Agreed, sir.”
“Amir, do we have enough stores to outfit your wing for anti-capital ship strikes?”
Amir set his jaw. “Yes, sir. What we lack in numbers, we make up with fighting spirit. And there’re plenty of anti-ship missiles. I’ll have our entire bomber force set up to engage capital ships, and we will stand by on ready five for your order to engage.”
David nodded. “I hope I’m wrong, folks. I hope the Destruction simply stays in orbit, and this was all some kind of giant misunderstanding or a plot by only a few of the League’s officers. But my gut says that very shortly, our friends over there will go weapons hot and start shooting. So we’re going to be prepared. Sheila, take us to material condition two, get our damage control teams up and running, and make sure those contractors know we’re in a possible combat situation. I want the right groups in the right places to help with repairs, should we need them.”
Sheila spoke up. “I hope you’re wrong, too, sir.”
“Let’s get to it.”
The rest acknowledged him. Calvin and Amir left the bridge quickly. David and Sheila took their posts in the CO’s and XO’s chairs.
During the next couple of minutes, David closed his eyes and bowed his head in silent prayer. God, I’ve never asked you for victory, but today, I ask you to give us peace, if that is Your will. Whatever happens, please spare the lives of those under my command and return them safely to their families.
* * *
On the bridge of the Destruction, the ship was still running at battle stations. Seville could plainly see its crew whispering about what was going on. He realized Barrigo had been discovered and stopped or that the programming hadn’t worked. I’m not leaving empty handed. Not after all this time. Twenty-seven years ago, I lost my eye here. Today, they pay. No League warship had been so close to Canaan since the aborted invasion nearly thirty years ago. He gestured for Colonel Strappi to come closer.
“Colonel, the plan has failed,” Seville said bluntly.
“That’s impossible. We just have to give it more time,” Strappi trilled back.
Seville fought down his utter contempt for Strappi, staring at him. “Colonel, we have to adapt. We are so close to the enemy. We haven’t been this close in many years. We can strike fear into the hearts of their civilian population centers.”
“But the State Security Committee—”
“Is not here, Colonel. Think of the medals that will be pinned on your chest by the chairman himself.” Seville smiled thinly. “Let us be bold and decisive.”
In truth, Seville had only given the ruse they had played a fifty percent chance of success. An orbital strike against the major population centers of Canaan had always been his backup plan.
Strappi cleared his throat. The man was nothing if not predictab
le. The idea of a medal from the chairman would always motivate the man. “All right, Admiral. I’ll go along. Show these religious fanatics that only the embrace of the League of Sol will save them.”
Seville leaned back in his chair. Useful idiots like Strappi came in handy, at least until he had won the war against the Terran Coalition. Seville looked down toward his flag captain. “Captain Antonov, bring all of our weaponry online. Get a firing solution on the largest cities currently in range of our weapons.”
Antonov looked up at Seville with something approaching sadness in his eyes. “Aye, aye, Admiral.”
* * *
The sensors aboard the Lion of Judah picked up the League ship’s actions seconds later. “Conn, TAO. Aspect change, Master One. Master One is powering its main weapons, sir,” Ruth announced.
David sat up just a little bit straighter. “Damn,” he said under his breath toward Sheila while he punched a button on his console for 1MC. “General quarters. General quarters. This is the commanding officer. Man your battle stations. I say again, man your battle stations. Set material condition one throughout the ship. This is not a drill.” As he uttered the words, the general-quarters alarm klaxon sounded throughout the vessel, and the lights on the bridge dimmed and turned blue.
“Conn, TAO. Aspect change, Master One. Master One is changing course and heading toward the capital.”
David sucked in a breath. “Navigation, put us between Master One and Canaan. TAO, bring all weapons online and charge the energy-weapon capacitor. Raise shields and activate the automated point-defense system.”
Hammond deftly maneuvered the Lion of Judah between the Destruction and the planet, making use of the superior sublight engines on the Lion and her tactical thruster system. “Conn, Navigation. Holding steady on course two-one-six. Master One is directly off our starboard quarter.”
Coalition Defense Force Boxed Set: First to Fight Page 43