Control Center: Tacra Un: L-4 Prime:
Chei led them out into the Kanahto control center and stepped to the side. He knew better than to stop in front of the door where the newbs would trample him. So far, only he, Ian, and Rocky had been in the control center, but even after days of working here, it was still unsettling to enter the chamber to begin a work shift. And the first time they’d seen it, had been mind altering.
When the impact of the immense expanse of stars above them was multiplied by the fact that none of them, except Saffia, had been inside the Tacra Un at all, the shock was overwhelming. The array of sounds that came out of each of them as they first stepped in and froze brought Chei the best laugh he’d had in months.
“Welcome to the shop,” he said once most of them had collected their jaws from the floor. Only three of the twelve that had followed Saf through the door had stumbled over the edge of the 90 degree rollover to the inner surface. That was surprising considering that none of them had experienced one of the floor orientation shifts before either.
“Nu ahn Ian. He’ll get you working so we can keep this all coordinated. Make sure your optics are always on and don’t mess with anything you aren’t sure you understand.”
“Got it,” Ryktoff said, winking. “No feeding the singularity.”
“Exactly,” Chei said, realizing how strange it was to feel like the idiot in the room. “Nuko-un nu che.” Expand your minds, children. He waved them off toward Ian who stood in the center of the array of pits waiting for them.
Chei had spent the last night with Tana’s crew from the Katana, and once he realized that, after only two days of study, any of them were his equal in understanding the language, it was a bit intimidating. The only thing they lacked was experience, and they would get that in massive doses today.
Glancing over, he realized that Saf was still standing beside him. “You aren’t going to dive into a pit with them?”
“I was thinking maybe you and I could try something different,” she said.
“I’m flattered, but aren’t you a married woman?” he said, winking. The doctor had warned him that the pheromones could be dangerous, but he wasn’t much intimidated. At least not yet.
“Minor details, but not what I meant,” she said, grinning. “I’m only a gen-three, so I’m not as adept at the language as they are.”
“I’m a generation zero or whatever it is you call a normal,” he said shrugging. “You’ve still got me beat by miles.”
“You’re not a normal,” she said.
He dismissed her suggestion with a wave of his hand. “What the frag nonsense are you selling?”
“You don’t know?” she asked. “Haven’t you ever wondered why you take to things so much easier than most people around you? Or why your body doesn’t atrophy when you’ve lived most of your life in weightlessness?”
“Just lucky, and a lot of time in the gym,” he said, shrugging.
“Tana told me you were the first crèche augment. The prototype for all of us,” she said.
“I was an orphan. Mom adopted and raised …” He ground to a stop and frowned at her. “That makes no sense. I couldn’t be your prototype. You’ve got to be close to my age.”
She shook her head. “I’m barely thirteen,” she said, grinning as he took a step back. “Don’t panic. Since you were born, things have changed. A crèche augment spends thirty-six months in an artificial womb and is born post-puberty. After we reach full physical development, they arrest the growth acceleration and we age normally. I was almost eighteen physically when I was born, thirteen years ago. That makes me about the same as a thirty-one-year-old normal.”
“Wait, post puberty? That must be a blessing,” he said.
“Nojo. I read about how that works and glad I missed the party,” she said. “Of course we do spend the rest of our lives riding the pheromone rocket.”
“What about school? Education takes time,” he asked.
“I have a neural transducer and I learned artificially,” she said. “The gen-fours and up all have the brain upgrades and learn from the environment like a normal, just a lot faster. There are advantages to both methods though since I can upload a new skill set almost overnight and they have to pick it up the hard way.”
“Fine, but I’m still calling horse eggs,” he said. “I am no augment.”
“Believe what you want, but I can smell it on you,” she grinned. “Pheromones don’t lie.”
He leaned back against the wall beside the door, trying to figure out how to fit this into his reality. It made sense in so many ways, but it didn’t change anything. He’d still fought the same things and walked the same path to get here. Even if he had a bit of an upgraded tool kit. He sighed and nodded.
“Alright maybe,” he said. “It doesn’t make a difference though. We’ve still got a job to do.”
“So what do you say you and I go find that ship?” she said.
“How do you know about that?”
“Try to keep a secret in a room where everybody can hear a whisper at five hundred meters,” she said, winking at him.
“Jeph gave me orders to leave it alone until we get a better understanding of things down here,” he said.
“Oh, come on, you’re an astrophysicist and I’m a pilot. What could possibly go wrong?”
Kitty Hawk: Lunar Orbit:
The moment they broke the lunar horizon, they would be in trouble. The Kitty Hawk attack wing was coming in high and not trying to look aggressive, but anytime more than two multicruisers traveled in space together, it looked like someone was planning to get ugly. Even more so when everybody had their guns hot and their sensors pinging anything that moved.
“Sensors are tracking thirty-six ships C-class and above. All in station-keeping mode,” the sensor tech said. “We’re getting high EM energy levels that might indicate they’re armed and active.”
“We’re being hailed,” the com officer said.
“Put it on,” Captain Franklin said.
This is Commander Drayfus of the Impulse, to the approaching multicruiser group. You are entering a controlled flight zone and are advised to vacate the area. This is your only warning.”
“This is Captain Franklin of the Kitty Hawk. We’re only here to investigate a report of a situation at NHC, and to assist as needed. Our orders are to render humanitarian relief.”
“Kitty Hawk, continue on your way, we’ve got the situation under control.”
“We have resources and can help.”
“Perhaps I wasn’t clear Captain Franklin. You need to continue on your current heading and do not return to this area. If you fail to follow my instructions, we are authorized to use force to maintain jurisdiction in this zone.”
“We do not wish to engage Drayfus, but we can and will defend ourselves if you push it. Our grief isn’t with you. We really are here to render aid.”
“It’s your call Kitty Hawk, but if I see even so much as a puff of exhaust from one of your nozzles, you’re done.”
“Sir, they’re redeploying into what may be an attack formation,” the sensor tech said.
“Are we tracking any response from the ships stationed at Galileo?”
“Negative,” he said. “They’re standing tight.”
“Hopefully, that will keep things from being any messier when we come back through,” her ExO said.
She nodded. “Sensors look sharp. This is our only recon pass so we need to make it count,” she said. “All hands maintain battle status in case they change their minds, and somebody let the admiral know we’re not staying to dance this time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Governor’s Office: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
“Boss, you’ve got a visitor on the way down,” Shona said. “Edison Wentworth just landed and asked for you.”
“Thanks Shona,” Jeph said as he closed the file on his desktop and sighed. What would he be coming down here to talk to me about?
“What can
I do for you Investigator?” Jeph said, standing up as Edison appeared at his door.
“I thought maybe it was time you and I had a talk,” he said, tilting his head at a chair.
“Of course, please sit,” he said. “Is this a social call or am I in trouble again?”
“In trouble? I don’t think so. The Chancellor speaks highly of you in fact,” he said.
Jeph shot him a skeptical eye.
Edison laughed. “Well that’s a lie. She calls you a pain in the ass, but she does respect you.”
“I can live with that,” Jeph said.
“She told me about your first encounter,” he said, reclining in the seat and relaxing. “She said you outmaneuvered them all, and that apparently impressed them enough to not vent you for holding the Armstrong hostage.”
“I figured that was a real possibility,” Jeph said. “Lately, I think they’re all reconsidering it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“They’re getting desperate for us to shut down the quicksand, and I think they’re blaming me for the delay because of how we’re managing things down here.”
“I don’t understand what this quicksand is, but I know it’s got them all in a twist,” he said, nodding. “I don’t think they blame you, but it’s frustrating their ability to make plans for when the ghost fleet arrives.”
“We’re trying, but it’s a lot more complex than I think they realize,” he said.
“Why?”
“Have you ever had to deal with scientists? I don’t mean your run of the mill working in the field type, but the high-chit, one-vision, pure-academic types?”
“Not often, thankfully,” Edison said.
“You’d think they’d be smart enough to know not to mess with things they haven’t been trained to mess with,” he said. “But no. They think they know enough to be above going through the basic training.”
Jeph got up and walked around the desk, the yellow ring followed him on the floor. “See this,” he said, pointing down at the ring. “It’s a gravity gradient. Because I’m an ecto and I’ve got acute osteo-degeneration as a result of compression syndrome, I have to stay inside this personal gravity field. I can wear a PSE, but only for a very limited time.”
“That sounds challenging,” he said.
“Not anymore.” Jeph shrugged. “The problem is that this ring shows we have control over the gravity here. We’re not sure how it works, but Dutch can control it, and it keeps me comfortable and alive.”
“What does this have to do with the scientists?”
“We had one the other day that couldn’t resist trying to hack into a control node and adjust his own gravity. Unfortunately, when we found him he had two broken legs and a crushed spine.” Jeph nodded. “The truth is, he found a button and couldn’t resist pushing it. 3.5-g later … well, you get the idea.”
“That had to hurt,” Edison said, crinkling his face in disgust.
“Imagine what could happen if I turned a swarm of educated idiots like him loose in a playground full of buttons connected to technologies from a civilization with a million years of science behind it?”
“Is that really what you’re sitting on here?”
“Yes. It is literally that,” he said. “The main power plant that keeps this thing operating is a black hole. Think about a civilization that could harness something like that and use it to produce energy. What happens if someone turns the containment field off?”
“I see your point. You’ve got to protect that,” Edison said, letting out a long hissing breath. “And that brings me to why the Chancellor asked me to talk to you.”
“I assumed this wasn’t a social call,” Jeph said, sitting down on the edge of the conference table and crossing his arms in front of him.
“No. They’re forming their defensive strategies up there, and they wanted me to approach you about putting security forces in the colony. In case they can’t hold the ghost fleet off.”
“Figured that was coming,” Jeph said. “I’m going to have to think about it.”
“I don’t think it’s an attempt to take over down here,” Edison said. “I meant it when I said the chancellor respects you, even if you and she don’t always see square-eyed.”
“That helps,” he said. “It isn’t so much worrying about her turning me over her knee as it is that if this would turn ugly, I want people in the chain of command I know won’t be taking orders from someone who doesn’t breathe the same air I do.”
“That seems reasonable,” Edison said. “Should I pass the word?”
“Not just yet. Let me talk this over with my people and I’ll let you know.”
Kitty Hawk: Low Lunar Orbit:
This time when the Kitty Hawk came over the horizon they were low and moving fast. They’d pinged the fleet at Galileo to make sure nobody had moved to reinforce the battle group over New Hope City, and as soon as they confirmed that nothing had changed, they piled on the velocity. They wanted to make sure they had the attention of the Impulse when they got a line of sight.
Fighting in orbit was tricky since gravity worked against them and they’d all be moving in different energy trajectories. Their plan was to blow through and past the enemy battle group in a strafing run. If they were lucky, they’d draw them out of position.
They arced up and away from the surface before they began braking hard to bring them through the enemy in as close to a circular orbit as they could manage.
“Hail the Impulse,” Captain Franklin said over the command com as she sat in her acceleration seat and ground her teeth. The roar of the engines shook the deck plating.
“You’re live and they are receiving you,” the com officer said.
“Drayfus, this is the Kitty Hawk, you have three minutes to withdraw or we will open fire,” she said.
“You got eggs woman,” Drayfus said, sarcasm dripping from his tone. “Bring it on.”
“It doesn’t have to go down this way,” she said. “Withdraw or die. Your choice.”
“They’re moving,” her ExO said. “Looks like they’re spreading out.”
“Perfect. Where’s the Defiant’s group?”
“They should be almost line of sight on the enemy ships. The Pegasus wing will take the clown car. They’re about a minute behind the Defiant and about ten degrees to port.”
“Helm, what’s our position?”
“We’re at 6600 meters per second at 800 klick and descending under power. Weapons range in 180 seconds.”
“We’re about to lose sensor lock to the exhaust plume,” the ExO said, reminding the captain that they were still stern forward.
She nodded, doing quick calculations in her head. The enemy ships were scattered out over almost a hundred kilometers. That meant they’d run end to end through the ghost fleet battle group in forty-five seconds. Adding weapons range to the estimate meant they’d be in the firefight for no more than three minutes. That assumed the enemy didn’t accelerate to give pursuit.
“Com, send the orders to flip and engage. Target at will, and good hunting.”
Impulse: Station-keeping Above New Hope City: Luna:
“They’re really going to do this?” Commander Drayfus stood anchored to the deck and stared at his radar tech’s screen in disbelief. The ConDeck of the converted Hawking class science vessel was over crowded with a combat crew and the latest technology, but it was efficient and everything worked well together. Even his crew.
His ExO nodded. “They’ve stopped braking and are coming over to bring their weapons to bear.”
“Can we project their focus from their trajectory,” Drayfus asked.
“No sir,” the radar tech said. “They spread out and looks like they’re planning a through-and-through.”
“Sixty seconds until they’re in range,” the ExO said.
“Let command know we are about to engage,” the captain said.
“Camden is under fire,” the com officer reported. “They’re maneuvering but taking
damage.”
“Obviously they’ve got better range than we do,” Drayfus said. “Order all ships to position for optimal weapons arcs and close to weapons range. Let’s take that reach advantage away from them.”
“The Blake is down,” one of the other officers hollered across the deck.
“That was quick,” the ExO said, glancing over his shoulder at the captain.
“Camden reporting an engine failure. They’re dead in place but still able to engage.”
“The portside flanking ship will enter our firing arc in forty-five seconds,” the helmsman said. “We should have range on it for two minutes. Should we maneuver to pursue once it’s passed?”
“Just don’t flash them our ass,” the captain said. “Have all ships focus on targeting their reactors. If we can take out their power, they’re unarmed.”
“Sir, the Baileyville is taking fire,” the com officer said, shock obvious in his voice. It sat below and behind them in the formation as far from the approaching ships as possible since it was a lumbering slug. It was the only ship in his fleet further than the Impulse from the approaching multicruisers.
“How is that possible?” the ExO said.
“We’ve got another attack group approaching from below-stern,” the radar tech said.
“Didn’t anyone see it?”
“Negative boss, we’re all facing the Kitty Hawk group,” the tech said. “The new attack group is still almost 1000 klick out so we got no proximity alert.”
“It’s got to be lucky hits at that range,” the ExO said. “Can’t be doing much damage.”
A whistling hiss vibrated through the deck plating a second later, sending his dismissal of damage potential out the airlock. The lights flickered and a warning claxon blared.
“We’re hit,” the engineer said. “HCF-2 is down. We’re venting atmosphere on deck twelve and thirteen. Bulkheads are sealing.”
“Evasive Maneuvers!” Drayfus yelled, spinning and shoving himself toward his acceleration seat. “Full thrust, let’s get some distance!”
“Belay that!” the engineer bellowed, “We’ve also got a main cooling rupture in the number two engine. Hit it and we’re dead.”
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 77