by Ryk Brown
“Perhaps,” Nathan replied, still thinking.
“Nathan, you cannot bet the Aurora,” Jessica insisted. “If we lose her, we have nothing. The Dusahn will never be defeated.”
“If we don’t get the tech we need, the Dusahn still won’t be beaten, and there’s a pretty good chance we’ll lose her anyway, and in a real battle.” Nathan replied. “Even worse, the Dusahn will probably wipe out Rakuen, Neramese, and Orswella.”
“Nathan…” she repeated.
Nathan ignored her, having made up his mind. He turned and headed back to Miss Bindi and the others.
“He’s crazy,” Josh declared, grinning. “That’s why I love him.”
“You are not helping,” Jessica snapped at Josh as she took off after Nathan.
“If you win,” Nathan began, as he approached Miss Bindi again, “the Aurora must be used to protect the Rogen and Orswellan systems, until such time as they can protect themselves.”
“Agreed,” Miss Bindi replied, without hesitation.
“And anyone currently serving on the Aurora will be free to leave and will be provided safe passage to a destination of their choice,” he added.
“Also agreed.”
“And just to clarify, if we win, we get everything we think we need to defeat the Dusahn, and SilTek joins our alliance?”
“Agreed.”
Jessica grabbed Nathan by the arm, pulling him around to face her. “You know, technically, I could place you under arrest and assume command.”
“If we were still in the Earth Defense Force, yes,” Nathan agreed. “But even then, you wouldn’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because you trust me,” Nathan stated, “just like I trust you.”
Jessica put both hands on his upper arms, looking him directly in the eyes. “Nathan, this is a bad idea.”
Nathan put his hands on her arms as well. “I have an idea, Jess. I can beat them. You have to trust me on this.”
Jessica stared into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Never before had she seen such confidence in them.
“This is where we beat the Dusahn,” Nathan continued. “Not a month from now in an actual battle, but right here, in this simulator. That’s why I brought you all with me. You’ve got to trust me.”
Jessica studied him, her brow furrowed. “You knew they were going to up the ante, didn’t you?”
“I had a hunch,” he admitted.
Jessica sighed. “If Cam was here, she’d tell you this was the craziest thing you’ve ever done.”
“And she’d be right,” Nathan agreed, “but that doesn’t mean it’s the wrong thing to do.”
“I don’t know,” Jessica admitted.
“You came to me because you needed my leadership,” Nathan told her. “You awakened my memories and ended my life as Connor Tuplo for situations exactly like this. To make the same insane types of decisions that allowed us to beat back the Jung and save Earth seven years ago. This is what I was born to do.”
“You mean reborn, don’t you?” Jessica said, lowering her hands and sighing again.
“Then you trust me?”
“With my life,” Jessica replied. She took a deep breath and added, “let’s go kick some SilTek AI butt, shall we?”
Nathan smiled broadly, then turned back around to face Miss Bindi. “We accept the wager.”
Miss Bindi also smiled, albeit not as broadly.
General Pellot was grinning from ear to ear. “I’m going to enjoy commanding your ship.”
“I punch much harder than he does,” Jessica warned, “and I’m far more volatile.”
“If you would all take your seats,” Inspector Wells instructed, gesturing toward the nearest simulation lounges.
“I don’t believe this,” Josh muttered to Loki as they moved toward the seats.
“Why?” Loki wondered. “This is the same kind of crazy stunt you would pull.”
“Yeah, but I am crazy,” Josh replied. “Are you sure about this, Cap’n?” he asked Nathan.
“Did you two get a chance to practice those maneuvers?” Nathan inquired as Josh and Loki took their seats.
“‘Til the wee hours,” Josh replied.
“Don’t be fooled,” Loki added. “That’s how long it took us to not crash and burn at least one time.”
“You’ll both do fine,” Nathan insisted as one of the android technicians strapped them in and placed the neuro-link headsets on them.
“Uh, why are we being strapped in?” Josh wondered.
“So that you do not fall out of your chair,” the android technician explained as he secured Josh’s wrists to the armrests.
“Why the wrist restraints?”
“So that you do not inadvertently remove your neuro-link headset.”
“Right,” Josh replied.
Nathan turned to Naralena and Kaylah as they also took their places on their respective simulation lounges.
“This should be interesting,” Naralena said, trying to be confident.
Nathan smiled, then looked at Kaylah.
“You’ve got this, Captain,” Kaylah assured him.
“Thanks.”
Nathan took a deep breath and headed for his seat next to Jessica. He sat calmly as the android technician strapped him in and placed the headset on him, watching as General Pellot was strapped in on the opposite side of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Inspector Wells began. “The simulation you are about to enter is a full-depth, virtual reality. If you are injured, you will feel pain. If you die, you will feel it. However, death will end the simulation for you. Since this is a high-stakes contest, there are no premature exit rights. You are in the simulation until your death, or until the contest has been concluded, and a victor has been declared. The victory conditions are the destruction of the Aurora, or the destruction of SilTek’s defense network.” The inspector paused for a moment to let his words sink in. “General Pellot, your participation in the simulation will not begin until the Aurora is detected by SilTek’s defense detection grid. Your starting point will be in your office at SilTek defense command.”
“Understood,” the general replied.
“Captain Scott, your simulation will start with you and your crew at your respective stations, and your ship at a position twenty light years outside of SilTek’s detection grid. Is this acceptable?”
“It is,” Nathan replied.
The inspector looked to the android technician sitting at the central control station, receiving a nod of confirmation. “Let the contest begin.”
Jessica turned her head slightly toward Nathan in the next chair and whispered, “If we lose, Cameron is going to kill you.”
Nathan felt his body suddenly become limp as his vision faded quickly to black. A moment later, he found himself in his command chair on the bridge of the Aurora. He looked to his left, spotting Kaylah, who was holding up her hands and turning them over as she examined them.
“This…is fucking…insane,” Josh exclaimed, rotating in his chair to look at Nathan. “I mean, you said it was realistic and all, but holy crap!” He turned to Loki and pinched him.
“What the hell?” Loki yelped, recoiling from the pinch.
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes, it hurt!”
“Do me!”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“This is incredible,” Kaylah exclaimed. “The amount of computational power that must be required to accomplish this level of realism is…”
“Everyone, check your consoles and displays,” Nathan instructed. “Make sure everything is as you expect it.”
“How do they do this?” Naralena wondered aloud from the comm-station at the back of the bridge.
“Their system reads our minds and uses our memories to c
reate what we expect to see and hear, just as it would in reality,” Jessica explained.
“Man, the fun you could have in such a realistic sim,” Josh declared. “Hey, can you…”
“Keep your mind on task, Josh,” Nathan warned. “Everyone, remember what I told you on the way down.”
“Right.”
“Just forget that this is a simulation and do your jobs,” Nathan insisted. “Loki, what’s our position?”
Loki studied his displays. “Twenty-seven light years from SilTek. Galactic coordinates of one seven four by forty-two, by two twenty. So basically as if we were headed toward SilTek from the Rogen system and had just come out of a jump prior to arrival.”
“Very well,” Nathan replied. “Kaylah, send a recon drone to just outside of SilTek’s defense grid and collect some of the planet’s old light. We need to know which side is facing us at the moment.”
“Aye, sir.”
“How are we looking, Jess?” Nathan asked.
“I’m not finding anything out of line,” Jessica reported as she carefully examined her tactical console. “The missile inventory is down by two, but we knew they would do that.”
“Helm?”
“I’m good too,” Josh assured him.
“Me too, Captain,” Loki added.
“Sensors look normal,” Kaylah reported.
“Comms are normal,” Naralena commented.
Nathan took a breath. “Where is the XO?”
“Her comm-track shows her in her quarters,” Naralena replied. “Or the simulated version of her, anyway.”
“How much jump energy do we have?” Nathan asked Loki.
“Full charge across the board.”
“That’s surprising,” Jessica decided. “It wouldn’t be at full charge if this was real.”
“They probably just decided it wasn’t worth keeping Pellot in the sim for several hours in case we decided to build up a full charge before attacking,” Nathan explained.
“How generous of them,” Jessica commented.
“Recon drone is back,” Kaylah reported. “SilTek headquarters is currently facing us, and it appears to be approximately zero nine hundred local time.”
“They’re expecting us to attack their headquarters first,” Jessica commented.
Nathan tapped his comm-set. “Flight, Captain. I need the first flight of Eagles ready to snap-launch. I also need four Reapers loaded with torpedo cannons on the forward flight apron and ready for launch.”
“Four Reapers spitting fire, aye,” the flight operations officer confirmed over his comm-set.
“I’m assuming you have a plan,” Jessica stated.
“We take out their primary command and control, first,” Nathan replied.
“Do we even know where that is?” Jessica wondered.
“SilTek is big on centralization of control,” Nathan explained, “and their headquarters had many levels below the surface. I’m betting their defense command is located there.”
“They’ll have an off-site backup,” Jessica warned.
“And when it kicks in, the jump in comms traffic should show up on sensors,” Kaylah added.
“What about their spaceborne control stations?” Jessica asked.
“I’m betting they’re not going to send missiles toward their own world,” Nathan replied. “At least not many of them. Besides, I don’t plan on staying in any one place more than ten to twenty seconds at a time or jumping to the same point twice.”
“That’s a lot of jump plotting,” Kaylah warned.
“Loki can handle it,” Nathan assured her.
Loki exchanged a concerned glance with Josh.
“Jess, remind me of our missile inventory,” Nathan asked.
“Seventy-eight missiles total,” she replied. “Thirty single-jump shield busters, half with nukes, half with conventional warheads. Thirty multi-jump shield busters, also loaded half and half. The remaining eighteen in the outboard starboard chute are standard jump missiles without warheads loaded, so we can load them on the fly as needed.”
“What’s our unloaded warhead count and type?”
“Twenty conventional, ten nukes, and two antimatter warheads that we cobbled together from the few reactor cores that survived our attack on the Orswellan ships.”
“Flight reports Reapers are ready for action,” Naralena reported from the comm-station.
“Very well,” Nathan said. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Let’s get this over with. General quarters.”
“General quarters, aye,” Naralena replied.
The bridge trim lighting changed to red as the alert klaxon sounded.
Nathan sat patiently as his simulated crew took action, going to their stations. In reality, he knew the simulation was just waiting an appropriate amount of time based on the countless readiness reports and action drills stored in the Aurora’s database. He was a bit surprised that SilTek’s simulation AIs had even included the background comms chatter that he always heard as department heads all over the ship reported their readiness to his communications officer.
“If Josh is right,” Nathan began, rising from his command chair and strolling to starboard, “they’ll be expecting us to use our multi-jump missiles to attack their main defenses from unexpected angles, hoping that their defenses will be caught off guard.” Nathan stepped up to the next level, coming alongside the tactical station. “So that’s precisely what we’re going to do.”
“Then you expect them to cheat,” Jessica surmised.
“I do.”
“And still you bet the ship,” she muttered.
“Four multi-jumps, each of them targeting the primary defense points around SilTek’s headquarters,” Nathan instructed. “Immediately afterwards, I want shield busters on all six inner system control points, followed by single-jump conventionals to finish them off.”
“I thought you didn’t think they would send missiles toward their own planet,” Jessica reminded him.
“I’d prefer not to have to worry about jumping around the inner system during all of this,” Nathan explained as he slowly approached the tactical station. He paused to whisper something in Jessica’s ear.
Jessica smiled. “Aye, sir. Entering targeting data now.”
Nathan continued his strolling, passing behind Jessica and in front of Naralena as he crossed to the port side of the bridge. “Naralena, instruct flight to send the Reapers after any surface missile launchers whose shields we take out but are still operational.”
“Understood,” Naralena replied, a puzzled look on her face. She had never seen Nathan take a casual stroll around the bridge, especially moments before an attack.
“Once we take out the inner control points and their primary close-in defenses, we’ll simply jump around, launching shield busters at their surface launchers as we take out the ones without working shields,” Nathan continued, stepping down to the command chair level along the port side of the bridge. “I’ll be depending on you to feed easy targets to combat, Kaylah,” he added, as he passed behind her.
“Yes, sir,” Kaylah replied.
“All weapons are fully charged and ready,” Jessica reported. “Threat board is clear.”
“All departments report general quarters,” Naralena added. “XO is in combat; chief of the boat is in damage control.”
Nathan stepped back up to his command chair, facing forward again. “Very well. Helm, attack sequence Scott Alpha One. Execute when ready.”
“Scott Alpha One, aye,” Loki replied, sharing another look with Josh, who of course was smiling like an idiot.
“Let the games begin,” Josh declared, mimicking Inspector Wells.
Loki entered a series of commands into his console, then reported, “Scott Alpha One, loaded and ready. We’ll need two set-up jumps to get to final.�
��
“Show me what you can do, gentlemen,” Nathan instructed, seating himself in his command chair.
“Executing first set-up jump,” Loki reported before the blue-white jump flash washed over the ship.
“Turning to next jump heading,” Josh announced as he began a quick turn to port.
Kaylah turned around, looking at everyone. “Am I the only one who doesn’t know what Scott Alpha One is?”
Nathan did not react.
Josh and Loki were busy.
Jessica smiled.
Naralena shrugged.
Kaylah gave up and turned back to face her console.
“Turn complete,” Josh reported.
“Executing second set-up jump,” Loki announced as the blue-white jump flash washed over the bridge again.
“Executing turn and roll maneuver for final attack jump,” Josh reported, beginning another turn to port.
“Cancel Scott Alpha One,” Nathan instructed calmly. “Execute Scott Alpha Four instead.”
“Scott Alpha Four, aye,” Loki replied.
“Load four single-jump shield busters. Dealer’s choice on targets. Weapons free as soon as we jump in,” Nathan added.
“Four shield busters; dealer’s choice; weapons free, aye,” Jessica replied.
“Scott Alpha Four, ready,” Loki reported.
Nathan pressed the ship-wide button on the comm-panel on his right armrest. “All hands, brace for impact,” he called over the loudspeakers. “Execute Scott Alpha Four,” he instructed Loki.
“Jumping in three……two……one…
Again the jump flash washed over the bridge. The entire ship lurched as it found itself plowing through the atmosphere of SilTek instead of the vacuum of space. The sudden deceleration was almost more than the ship’s inertial dampeners could handle, and Nathan felt himself being pushed forward nearly out of his chair. Had he not been bracing himself, he’d be sprawled across the helm right now.
At the same time, the main view screen shifted from the starry blackness of space to the bright day on SilTek, illuminating the bridge with sunlight. The surface of the planet rose quickly from the bottom of the view screen as the Aurora fell at an alarming rate.
“Holy shit!” Josh exclaimed, as the ship bridge shook violently. “Anyone see where my teeth landed?!”
