by John Filcher
© Copyright 2021, John Filcher
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical means, without express written permission from the author or the publisher.
Published by
Fideli Publishing, Inc.
119 W. Morgan St.
Martinsville, IN 46151
www.FideliPublishing.com
Cerberus
Characters
Mark Toft, Capt. – Captain of the Ike
Christine Hansen, Cmdr. – XO of the Ike
William Bryce, Lt. Cmdr. – Engineering, Ike
Amy Baker, Specialist – Engineering, Ike
Felipe Mendez, Lt. – Helm, Ike
Gene Corbyn, Lt. – Science, Ike
Ashley Diving Hawk, Ensign –
Communications, Ike
Travis Harris, Lt. – Assault shuttle pilot, Ike
Juan Sanchez, Gy.Sgt. – Marine, Ike
Ralph Tennyson – Marine Alpha team
Devin Rodman – Marine Alpha team
Sean Colton – Marine Alpha team
Davy Hallard – Marine Alpha team
Jerry Gee – Marine Charlie team
Henry Lee – Marine Charlie team
John Kowalski – Marine Charlie team
Dan Ronin, Capt. – Captain of Cerberus and prior Captain of the Ike
Diane Mueller, Cmdr. – XO of Cerberus
Elvis Lazarus, Lt. Cmdr. – Chief engineer, Cerberus
Pierre Delacroix, Lt. – Sensors, Cerberus
Kristoff Alphonso, Lt. – Fabrication, Cerberus
Matt LeCroy, Lt. – Tactical, Ike and Cerberus
Marcy Anzio, Lt. – Weapons, Ike and Cerberus
Maria Delgado, Lt. – Communications, Cerberus
Hirohito Taketa, Lt. – Medical, Cerberus
Antonio Perez, Lt. – Helm, Cerberus
Kelvin Sunderland, Lt. – Commander Air Group (CAG), Cerberus
Adam Taylor, Deck Chief – Flight Deck, Cerberus
Erin Johnson, Pilot Officer – Bulldog 1 pilot
Hal Patterson, Chief – Bulldog 1 rear-seater
Helmut Meyer, Pilot Officer – Bulldog 2 pilot
Sophie Schmidt, Chief – Bulldog 2 rear-seater
Antonio Russo, Pilot Officer – Bulldog 3 pilot.
Michael Jonsey, Chief – Bulldog 3 rear-seater
Reggie Parsons, Pilot Officer – Bulldog 4 pilot
Terry Gellin, Chief – Bulldog 4 rear-seater
Gary Chanson, Pilot Officer – Bulldog 5 pilot
Akira Nakamura, Chief – Bulldog 5 rear-seater
Greg Lowridge, Pilot Officer – Bulldog 7 pilot
Paul Drayson, Chief – Bulldog 7 rear-seater
Brett Mackey – Marine Bravo team
Ed Wilson – Marine Bravo team
Carlos Guthrey – Marine Bravo team, Force Omega
Terry Allison – Marine Bravo team
Steve Cupper – Marine Bravo team
Ty Jeffries – Marine Bravo team
Toshi Kanagawa – Marine Echo team
Adrian Longman – Marine Echo team, Force Omega
Rhee Lee – Marine Echo team
Han Pak – Marine Echo team, Force Omega
David Danfries – Marine Echo team
Julio Gonzales – Marine Echo team, Force Omega
Nancy Dos – Marine Echo team
Brett Blackwater – Marine Gamma team
Jefferson Langley – Marine Gamma team
Louis Caron – Marine Gamma team
Victor Berger – Marine Gamma team, Force Omega
David Addington – Marine Gamma team
Juan Diaz – Marine Gamma team
Aldo Pena – Marine Gamma team
Jason Priest, – Marine, Cygnus, Force Omega
Dale Dannon, – Marine, Cygnus, Force Omega
Reggy Smith, Capt. – Argo Station
Hu Nagun, Capt. – Captain of the Kitty Hawk
Steve Fisher, Cmdr. – XO of the Kitty Hawk
Mary Benton, Tactical Officer – Kitty Hawk
Ned Thatcher, Helmsman – Kitty Hawk
Michelle Rodgers, Capt. – Captain of Ceres
Tom Chastain, Cmdr. – XO of Ceres
Terry Ignatius, Tactical Officer – Ceres
Alfred Jurgenson, Capt. – Captain of Cygnus
Jessup Rodding, Adm. – Admiral, Wayside Station
Hobson, Col. – Fleet Intelligence
Wellington Harrison – Confederation President
Chapter 1
Sol System Asteroid Belt
The sudden heeling over of his ship unceremoniously dumped Capt. Dan Ronin off the small bunk in his ready room and woke him from an exhausted sleep. He heard the combat alarm sounding loudly over the intercom.
“Action stations, action stations, said the ship’s tactical officer Lt. Matt LeCroy over the repeating blare. “This is no drill! Set Alert One throughout the ship.”
Captain Ronin noticed the time as he scrambled to his feet and scooted out the door onto the bridge. He’d only slept for two hours since he cycled off the bridge to get some rest. I need to have a word with the management of this joint. A guy just can’t get any decent shut-eye around here, he said to himself.
“Captain on the bridge,” announced Cmdr. Mark Toft, glancing over from where he sat on the Captain’s chair. He stood to make way for Ronin. Toft had been Ronin’s second in command for the past three years of combat. By now, the two trusted each other implicitly.
“Sitrep.” Ronin said, asking for a situation report as he quickly took his seat. He hoped the dark circles under his eyes didn’t look too bad. “Did they try to sneak another missile up our pipes?”
“Yes, sir,” Toft said, nodding. “Point defenses got it before impact, but it was still close enough to feel that little love tap anyway. We’re still trying to nail down where they are.”
Ronin looked at the readouts on his screens, which maddeningly showed little progress since he last glanced at them two hours ago. The ship’s sensors continued reporting the same dense clutter of the asteroid belt into which they had chased their quarry before losing them. The ship of the Asiatic Collective fled the earlier fight at Tango Four Two Two, after the enemy formation fell prey to an ambush led by Ronin, which destroyed four out of five ships. They had been hiding in the belt, waiting for the AC formation.
“Ironically, the same belt that gave us ambush cover now hides the surviving, but still unidentified, AC frigate,” Ronin noted aloud to Toft.
Toft nodded, too tired from days of chasing to waste energy on unnecessary speech. The dark circles under his eyes, which matched his hair color, were just as dark as Ronin’s.
“LeCroy, have long range sensors unfuzzed yet?” Ronin asked his tactical officer.
“No, sir, it’s still hashed out from all the junk floating around out there. This extra dusty cloud isn’t helping either,” said LeCroy, speaking over his shoulder from his station in front and to the left of Ronin’s Captain’s chair.
Commander Toft frowned, his brown eyes narrowing at the unchanging situation after days of pursuit. “Maybe we should change tactics and make them think we lost ‘em?”
“Exactly what I’m thinking, Commander Toft,” said Ronin, his green eyes and sandy hair reflecting small glints of the instrument lighting. “Launch some sensor drones and set the Ike to run silent.”
“
Aye, aye, sir,” responded Toft. “Tactical, let’s launch a flight of drones. Helm, engage silent running.”
The Ike shuddered while the drones launched, then the ship began to drift forward as the engines were cut, along with most of the ship’s systems powering down. Ronin looked at LeCroy and said, “I don’t expect much of anything to occur for a few hours. We should keep resting before the show starts. You want the first watch?”
“Yeah, I’ll take first watch,” LeCroy replied. “I can’t sleep after that last missile. We’ll shake you awake if anything starts to happen.”
Ronin half-smiled. “Can you do it gently instead of having enemy ordinance do it instead?”
“Getting finicky with your wake up calls in your old age?” Toft said, laughing.
Ronin just raised his eyebrows and laughed softly with a “ha” before they both rose to leave the bridge.
“Set Alert Two and keep the point defense crews in their nests,” Ronin said to LeCroy, walking out past his station while LeCroy assumed the Captain’s chair.
Ronin’s return trip to his bunk was blissfully short. He walked into his ready room to continue his nap in the small bunk that folded out of the wall next to his desk. I’ll just take a short nap. Two more hours sounds awfully sweet about now, he told himself.
“AI, wake me in two hours,” Ronin said aloud.
“Acknowledged. Wake-up call in two hours,” responded the ship’s AI, right before Ronin fell asleep.
After days of pursuit on top of an eight-hour shift, Ronin started the fight feeling exhausted, and he knew as well as anyone that rest was required to remain sharp. Leading a ship as complicated as the Ike required full command of the crew’s senses. Ronin was no exception.
The Ike was an older warship. Even though she was twenty years old, extensive refits had automated more of the ship and reduced the needed crew to 1,100. But, there was only so much refitting and automation available for a twenty-year-old war bird that stretched over 600 feet in length, and which had more than 20 decks.
* * *
The lights in his ready room suddenly snapped on. “Captain Ronin, it is time to wake up. Captain Ronin, it is time to wake up,” announced the ship AI, rousting Ronin from a deep sleep.
Bleary-eyed, Ronin thought for a second, it has to be a mistake. I just went to sleep minutes ago. Or so he thought, until he asked what time it was.
“Ship’s time is 0300 hours,” said the AI.
The time stunned Ronin into alertness. “Wait, it can’t be 3 am! It was 1900 hours when I laid down for a two-hour nap. Why didn’t you wake me at 2100 hours like I asked?”
The AI promptly replied. “Just before 2100 hours, Commander Toft decided you were too tired and reset the alarm for eight hours as long as all remained quiet. He said to revive you if the drones or sensors detected anything. There have been no contacts since drone launch.”
Ronin’s eyebrows shot up over that response, but he appreciated the update and extra rest.
“AI, is Commander Toft back on the bridge?” asked Ronin.
“Affirmative, he was unable to sleep and returned to the bridge. Sensors indicate his medical readings show it is past time for him to rest,” said the AI.
“OK. Inform him I will return momentarily. I just need a quick shower and change of uniform.”
Ronin rubbed his face with his hands while he sat on the edge of his bed as he tried to wake up. As he did so, it reminded him this was a habit he’d had since he was a child in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He’d seen his father do the same thing before getting up for the day. That memory now came back to him as it often did in the first moments upon waking.
Those were happy days. Ronin enjoyed walking to school on the crisp fall mornings. He had excelled in his coursework and was popular among the other students. There was always something exciting to do in the city, as well as in the surrounding area, which was known for its forested beauty, beaches, and lakes. As an adventurous young man, Ronin was equally at ease fishing and hiking on the Door Peninsula as he was bumping elbows among the busy downtown area and its massive skyscrapers that were home to millions.
Ronin’s sleepy mind continued to wander. At the time of The Fall of Civilization, also known as World War III (WWIII), Green Bay was the center of a mid-sized metro. The war resulted in the collapse of civilization around the world, and the few cities that survived took centuries to fully recover. Green Bay, having managed to avoid total destruction during The Fall, was one of the epicenters of the recovery. Like many of the larger pre-WWIII cities, the ruins of the former large cities were distant memories that were still largely avoided. After graduating from Naval Academy in Green Bay, Ronin had been off-world much of the time since and he still missed the sights of the modern city he loved so much.
Feeling refreshed, Ronin returned to the bridge and approached his chair to relieve Toft. “Thanks for the extra shut-eye. Maybe you should go get some now,” he said to Toft.
Toft yawned as he nodded and replied, “Oh, I plan to grab a few hours now that you’re back in the saddle. See you in a few,” he said, leaving the bridge to return to his quarters.
Ronin settled in and looked over the latest scan reports. Nothing but dust and rocks. They can’t have gone far. To disappear like they did would require killing their engines and coasting to avoid detection. He sipped his coffee. Ah, Kona coffee! Wish they could synthesize the beans so I wouldn’t have to drop so much coin on my own stash. Like most navies in history, the Confederate Navy ran on coffee.
Ronin resolved to let Toft and the primary bridge crew rest for as long as things remained quiet. That resolution did not end when Toft returned to the bridge by 1000 hours, but Dan knew it would be futile to order Toft to go back keep resting.
“Looks like all is still quiet,” commented Toft.
“Yup,” said Ronin, “Since that last missile, we haven’t come across anything more threatening than boredom.”
“Any ideas, skipper?”
Ronin’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Since they can’t have gone far due to the need to go dark and disappear, we have a few things we can try, mainly along the lines of outlasting or outwitting them. I’m tired of trying to outlast them, so maybe we can stir things up a bit. See what shakes out.”
Ronin had Toft’s full attention now. “What are you thinking? Launch all our drones to flush them out?”
Ronin shook his head and said, “Our scans show the dust surrounding this area of the field is heavily concentrated with iron. I was thinking we modify a nuke to create an EMP magnetic resonance field out of it so we can track magnetized iron particle movement, and look for particles getting pushed or pulled by their hull ionization.”
Toft’s eyebrows knitted together as he looked at Ronin like Ronin had lost his mind. “Um, what?! Even out in space, the Treaty of Midway forbids touching off a nuke. We do that, and we’re likely to get jailed or blown out of the sky by both the Collective and our own fleet.”
Ronin, eyebrows raised as he looked up at Toft and shook his head. “No, there wouldn’t be any fission detonation. I try not to be as stupid as I look. I’m thinking we have a barely controlled reaction to release a large amount of energy in the form of magnetic charge. That requires providing power for a sufficiently long duration to give the particles a charge, while not sending out an explosive shock wave that would just foul the sensors. Let’s get Lieutenant Corbyn over here and run this idea past him if you’re not opposed to looking into this.”
After a few quiet moments to consider the proposed scheme, Toft said, “Well, in that case, I’m game. Could be another first for the Ike if it works.”
“Lieutenant Corbyn? Come over here, please,” said Ronin.
“Yes, sir, what can I help with?” asked Lt. Gene Corbyn, the science officer. After hearing Ronin’s idea, Corbyn nodded and said, “I read about that in the bulletin from the fleet
science department. It’s just a theory they had toyed with during a war college debate, but our scientists thought it might be something to look into if the need arises. There hasn’t been time or resources to give it a whirl yet, but the basic theory and mechanics were more straightforward than expected.”
Toft looked at Corbyn and asked, “How long do you think it would take to set this up?”
Corbyn responded, “A few hours. We have the plutonium and necessary parts onboard, and we just happen to have a huge iron dust cloud handy. I just some time to run simulations and cobble the programming instructions together to control the reaction.”
Ronin nodded and told Corbyn to get started immediately. He turned to Toft and said, “Why don’t you take the bridge while I go take care of some paperwork in my quarters?”
Toft nodded, and replied loudly for the bridge crew to hear that Toft is assuming control of the ship, “Roger that. I have assumed command.”
Ronin finally returned to his quarters. He hadn’t been back there in several days since he left to begin the chase. While the Captain’s small ready room was by necessity next to the bridge for quick access, his larger quarters were several levels below it. As he sat at his desk and completed some neglected reports, Ronin’s mind began to wander as he mentally replayed Toft’s warning about nuking iron dust.
Ronin wasn’t surprised by Toft’s strong reaction to lighting off a nuke. In fact, Ronin mused, it was typical among the postwar society that rose from the ashes of WWIII over seven centuries ago.
Commander Toft was a tall, lanky product of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a once rural state that later became a major population center after The Fall of Civilization. Like Green Bay, the now major city of Sioux Falls also benefited greatly by its distance from the twin devastations caused by plague and nuclear destruction that wiped out most large metros that existed before the war. After The Fall, the two became city-states that later joined with other surviving city-states in North America to build civilization anew.
Few historical records from prior to The Fall were in existence because of the ravages of time and the extent of the destruction from the war. Accordingly, the history of what happened had been pieced together from scraps that remained, but they suggested humanity at the time generally belonged to either an Eastern or Western alliance. The Collectivist East was poor, heavily polluted, and its people were merely servants of the Collective. The Democratic West coalition and its citizens were a different animal. The West’s rich economy left the Eastern alliance’s economy in the dust and made the rulers of the East terribly envious and fearful, especially after the West established colonies.
