by S. H. Jucha
19: Figaro
Above the planet, Ellie received Miriamette’s message that Sargut had spoken to the envoys, who were warning their battleship captains of the impending ship maneuvers.
In turn, Georgette received Taralum’s approval to communicate to the Talusian Tridents the Omnian plan.
Hector did the same for the Omnian fleet’s Tridents.
From around the planet, Tridents convened on specific stations organized by Hector and other SADEs. The SADEs had determined the battleship’s initial contact point and the placement of every ship along the parallel lines. Their calculations maximized the beam power that could be employed against the gigantic vessel as it passed through the gauntlet.
“Problem, Admiral,” Hector said, directing his gaze toward Ellie. The admirals, Hector, and Lydia were assembled on the city-ship’s bridge.
“Why do I hate hearing that?” Adrianna grumbled.
“The evacuation of the Syslerians is progressing slower than we calculated,” Hector explained. “The ship’s exit points are emptying. After the last of the Syslerians exit a hatch, a SADE closes the hatch with the manual levers on his or her side. They continue to knock on those hatches, but, in most cases, Syslerians aren’t responding.”
“How many have we offloaded?” Ellie asked.
“Only about half the crew, according to Captain Tazar,” Lydia replied. The SADE had been tracking the counts boarding the travelers, while Hector organized the gauntlet.
“Are the others dead?” Alphons asked.
“Negative, Admiral,” Lydia replied. “We’ve six hatches that are still producing Syslerian crew members.”
“How many did we have originally?” Ellie asked.
“Thirty-six,” Ellie replied.
“Black space,” Adrianna swore under her breath. “We have one-sixth the exit lanes and possibly half the crew to rescue with time growing short.”
“The SADEs have changed procedures at the active airlocks,” Lydia said. “They’ve taken to hanging outside the airlocks and banging on sections adjacent to the hatches. The Syslerians know that these are their cues to open the hatches and enter the airlocks. Three Syslerians can now fit in the space, whereas, it had only been two.”
“Still, there’s not enough time remaining to rescue half the crew with that few exits,” Adrianna pointed out.
“Suggestions,” Ellie requested, as she regarded Hector and Lydia.
Hector consulted the group of SADEs who had supported the gauntlet’s formation. “Admiral, it’s the SADEs’ consensus that we could slide our lines of Tridents toward the planet. It would gain the rescuers a little more time.”
“How much more?” Ellie inquired.
“Less than half an hour,” Hector replied.
Ellie shook her head. It wasn’t the answer she needed.
Hector and the SADEs immediately modeled the options, and the admirals waited.
“Dangerous to our travelers, Admiral,” Hector said, “but the tactic would aid the battleship’s destruction. Six Tridents could direct their fire at the bow.”
“We’d have to order the loaded travelers to evacuate the area,” Alphons suggested. “The others would have to tuck behind the battleship’s profile to stay clear of debris.”
“The value to us?” Ellie inquired.
“Significant,” Hector replied. “It would be the equivalent of a quarter hour of time in the gauntlet.”
“Use Jacinda’s two squadrons,” Ellie ordered.
Hector transferred the strategy to the Talusian commodore, and the sister’s ships accelerated to get in front of the battleship.
The travelers, which were involved in the rescue and loaded with Syslerians, fled the space. The pilots waiting to load formed six tight lines behind the battleship’s aft end. Controllers were programmed to link each traveler to the ship in front of it.
“I certainly hope the commander, captain, officers, and forward crew managed to make it to the rear of the ship,” Adrianna remarked, as the bridge audience watched Jacinda’s Tridents line up on the battleship’s bow.
The commodore’s Tridents reversed orientation to sail backward. They took up positions as dictated by Hector, and they triggered their beams in a coordinated fire.
The first round of energy vaporized the bow and about five meters of the ship. It would have seemed a good start, except the bow was the battleship’s narrowest section.
“What about the missiles, Hector?” Alphons belatedly asked. Like the other admirals, he’d been focused on rescuing the crew.
“Jacinda’s Tridents will target the hull’s upper decks,” Hector replied. “Our intent is to reduce the ship’s mass, without endangering the travelers. The Tridents will avoid the lowest decks, where the battleship stores and launches its missiles. Although, it’s likely we’ll ignite the ammunition stores of the close-in guns festooning the ship.”
Just as Hector spoke, beams struck a set of close-in guns, which protruded from an upper section of the hull. The resulting explosion tore a five-meter hemisphere out of the battleship.
Nata watched from a distance. Her ship rested alongside other filled travelers. She was worried for her friend. Neffess’s ship was last in line behind those waiting at Figaro’s hatch.
Of the six hatches that had been the last to collect Syslerian crew, two of them were abandoned. Now, great gouts of flame and debris flew from the battleship’s hull, as the Tridents tried desperately to chew the enormous vessel down to size.
In Nata’s mind, the Tridents might well have been insects feeding on the carcass of some giant carnivore.
Ellie approved the action to shift the gauntlet closer to the planet, and she commed Miriamette.
Ellie sent.
“Black space,” Ellie swore quietly, when the call ended. The arbiter role was getting more complicated by the day, and they hadn’t even begun the negotiating process.
“Hector, status?” Ellie requested
“Three hatches still active,” Hector replied. “The number of crew to be removed is unknown. The battleship enters the gauntlet in one-point-seventy-eight hours.”
“Anything we’re missing?” Ellie asked, turning to her rear admirals.
“Could we ask the Syslerian captain, Tazar, to target Zoza’s ship with missiles?” Adrianna asked. She raised her hands and lifted her eyebrows to show that she didn’t truly support the idea but was throwing out the suggestion anyway.
“I’m sure Tazar would refuse, and he’d hate us for suggesting the idea. I know I would,” Alphons replied.
“It wouldn’t help us at this point,” Lydia added. “The missile strikes would spread debris and undetonated armament across a wide swath. Half the battleships in the ring, both the env
oys’ and the Talusians’, would be in harm’s way.”
Neffess watched her line of travelers advance forward ship by ship. There were four ships ahead of her. Across the battleship and down one deck, three travelers waited in line at the only other operational hatch. She couldn’t help focusing on the countdown to the gauntlet. It did help her trepidation when she realized the Tridents and the city-ship had shifted closer to the planet.
To take Neffess’s anxious mind off the chronometer, she connected to Nata. Her friend began the conversation with her concerns, but Neffess interrupted her.
Nata searched for a reply, but her thoughts were muddled. What Neffess said about what she wanted was correct, and she hadn’t given any thought to how Neffess should act with regard to the rescue, as the battleship approached the gauntlet.
While the two friends talked, Neffess kept one eye on the events outside her traveler. Part of her mind noted when the other hatch was drained of Syslerians. The two empty travelers, which had been waiting in that line, slipped in behind her ship.
Not long afterward, the pilot in the traveler in front of Neffess signaled her.
Neffess watched the SADE who rode the line pull herself hand over hand into the traveler. Then Figaro released the line from the battleship’s aft end.
As soon as the traveler cleared Neffess’s path, she guided her ship into position. She confirmed with the SADEs who were aboard that her cockpit and her suit were closed.
When the main cabin was depressurized, a SADE launched himself from the open hatch to sail across the intervening space to the airlock, where he was caught by Figaro. Then the line was tied to the battleship, and the second SADE crawled across the line to the midpoint.
An extended exchange between Figaro and a Syslerian caught Neffess’s eye, and she reviewed the telemetry recording in her implant.
Figaro had pantomimed something to the Syslerian in the open hatchway. The SADE had held up his hand and pointed at each digit. Then he’d indicated the space behind the Syslerian.
The Syslerian had bobbed his head in understanding, looked behind him, and then held up three hands. Each hand displayed six digits, and Figaro nodded in reply.
Immediately, the pilots of the two travelers behind Neffess shot off into the dark. Their trajectory kept them in line with the battleship’s aft end until they could clear the debris field produced by the fire from Jacinda’s Tridents.
Ellie closely monitored the work of Jacinda’s Tridents. The tri-hulls had blasted a deep furrow in the top of the battleship’s hull. The warships could have accomplished more, but time was running out, and the battleship approached the gauntlet.
Hector relayed the positions for the commodore’s ships to occupy, and he eased the city-ship toward the planet to make room for them.
Ellie silently regarded Hector.
It wasn’t difficult for the SADE to surmise what was on the admiral’s mind. It was the final traveler involved in the rescue. Neffess, Queen Nyslara’s heir, was the pilot. To complicate matters, SADEs were involved in the rescue, and Hector knew Figaro well.
Stationed in a remote system responsible for supplying the Confederation with critical minerals, Figaro had witnessed his share of mining accidents. More than once, the SADE had predicted the disasters. Most were due to forgoing equipment maintenance to ensure production schedules were met. Other accidents simply occurred by taking risks that were too great.
Those lost human lives had made an impact on Figaro’s emotional algorithms. When he’d been freed from his box and completed his Méridien indenture, he’d sought out the Omnians, and Hector had swiftly recruited him.
The combination of pilot and SADE involved in the rescue of the final Syslerians meant that Hector and Ellie were dealing with two dedicated stubborn people.
Via the traveler’s sensors, Neffess watched the third group of Syslerians make their way across the line to her ship. That was the third group aboard and three more to go.
SADEs, Neffess thought in wonderment. Figaro never changed his pace. He continually employed subtle shortcuts to accelerate the exit of the Syslerians, but his actions remained steady and comforting to the Syslerians.
Neffess didn’t like what she was hearing. She didn’t want to leave a Syslerian or a SADE behind.
When Neffess didn’t receive an answer, she grew angry. Unfortunately, she realized she couldn’t order the SADE to abandon the Syslerians.
Figaro examined his code. It would take extensive remodeling to be capable of lying to the young Dischnya, and he was of the opinion that he wouldn’t want to live knowing he’d done that. That left only one option — the truth.
Figaro sent,
For a brief moment, Neffess was frustrated and unable to think. It was her tutelage under Pussiro that allowed her to clear her mind, focus on details, and not dwell on emotions.
Figaro heard the emotional shift in Neffess’s thinking.
The SADE heard a growl and interpreted that as a sign of discontent with the present circumstances. He could hardly disagree with that sentiment, as he ushered three Syslerians onto the line. He did urgently flex his fingers forward to encourage the crew members to hurry.
In the Dischnya’s and the SADE’s chronometers, a tiny app appeared, courtesy of Hector. Notations were appended that extended past the deadline. Previously, the countdown had contained
a safety margin. Now there was a mark at seven point five seconds past the deadline that indicated when the battleship would be struck by the beams.
Tellingly, another mark occurred one point eight three seconds later. It was the point when the first Tridents would strike the aft end of the vessel as it passed.
As Neffess’s chronometer hit zero, the portable airlock cycled to vacuum. She realized there was no way the Syslerians could cross the line in the nine plus seconds remaining.
Following Figaro’s cue, Neffess programmed her controller to slide to the port side, staying within the shelter of the battleship’s aft end. The movement would prevent whipping the line. She sent a silent request to the stars, believing that it would be her final thought, but she was interrupted by Figaro’s urgent message.
Neffess signaled the controller, and the traveler slid sidewise. Through her helmet, Neffess witnessed two extraordinary images.
As the behemoth entered the gauntlet, the Tridents opened fire. Beams struck along its length. Soon, a blast from the first Trident in line immolated a section of the aft end near where Neffess’s traveler had waited for the Syslerians to board.
The other unusual image was that of four figures dangling at the far end of the line. Figaro had freed the end of the line and quickly wrapped it around the Syslerians and himself, swiftly tying the loose end. The SADEs aboard the traveler were reeling the foursome toward the waiting hatch.
