by T J Bryan
"Ah Professor Lynn how may I help you?"
"They showed up moments ago. Those isotope traces. The monitors we placed just outside the miners storage depot started singing on my inter-tab. Seems the Miners Guild is sloppy in managing their restricted chemicals."
"And the other monitors. Have they pinged as well. Can you track the passage of the chemicals?" Before Hamza could reply Abel motioned to Bennet.
"Bennet, notify our rapid reaction marines. As soon as I get a location I want them on site and ready. Make sure they have their isotope trackers." Bennet pulled out his vid-com and began ordering the four person marine contingent to begin moving toward the Miners Guild warehouse. "On second thought the chemicals are probably on their way to the dock. Have the marines station themselves at the dock and await further orders."
Hamza gave Abel the coordinates and direction of the stolen chemicals. The Miners Guild warehouse was rather centrally located within the Habitat having been established there 350 years ago when the community was tiny. At that time the warehouse was nowhere near the residences, but now as the community had grown the warehouse was simply in the center of the Habitat. However the miners used only two routes for moving supplies to and from the loading docks and Abel had salted every hatch, airlock, and passageway with isotope detectors. Within minutes Abel saw on his vid-com one after another sensor ping as the stolen materials passed.
Abel stood and advanced to the cupboard above the coffee urn and withdrew his plasma pistola. The telltale was green. He turned and looked at Bennett.
"They are headed to the hatch complex between the Habitat and the public dock. Have the marines take up station just inside the dock at the entry hatch. Bennet come with me. Let's close the door behind those bastards."
Abel and Bennett raced out of the naval wing of the Collegium and across the plaza headed for Founder's Road which at this time of day was crowded. Reaching Founders Road, Abel paused for a moment to look down the roadway toward the hatch complex 500 meters away. There he saw two men with a slider cart headed toward the loading dock. Abel quickly looked about to ensure there were no others engaged in moving or protecting the cart.
Abel motioned to Bennet and they once again began running. They were about 50 meters from the two men with the cart when they saw Abel approaching. One of the men panicked and began to run toward the hatch. The other drew a pistola and fired a wild shot. Bennet dropped to his knees and fired three quick rounds. One blast hit the man in his chest and he crumpled to the street. Abel was annoyed because dead men don't talk, but he realized that Bennet was only performing his duty of protecting the First Admiral of the OCN. Abel continued running toward the hatch and soon passed the dead man. Bennet paused a moment to ensure that the man was indeed down, before following Abel. The running miner reached the hatch complex, entered the first air lock and slammed the gate shut and hit the emergency seal actuator. Abel knew the miner was trapped as the Marines would be on the other side. Now the challenge was how to get the miner out without killing him. Abel wanted desperately to take the man alive.
As Abel thought about how to capture the miner, he used his vid-com to contact EMS and have them send the body of what he presumed was the dead miner to the hospital, and to treat him as if he were still alive. Santiago Knowles, who was on the EMS day watch knew exactly why Abel wanted the dead man to appear as if he had survived. Then Abel sent a message to Dr. Auber to follow up and admit the dead miner to a closed ward for 'treatment and recovery.'
Abel knew that his warrant card would allow the hatch to be forced open, but he did not know if the miner inside was armed. Given the gravity of the crimes of the Sovereignty Alliance the trapped miner might well take his own life rather than face trial and his inevitable execution for multiple murders. Then again the miner might well choose 'death by cop' or simply choose to shoot it out in which case the result was the same; one dead terrorist.
Abel faced two choices; wait him out or immediately go in. Either choice had risk. But as much as Abel wanted to wait him out and perhaps minimize violence, he knew that waiting had its' own risks. The primary risk was suicide.
Abel motioned to Bennet to stand to the left of the hatch as Abel stood to right and pulled out his warrant card. "Bennet if you must shoot, shoot to wound or disarm. Try not to kill the bastard. We need him to talk."
Bennet nodded and raised his pistola. Abel inserted the warrant card into the override slot and hit the actuator. The door slid open. Abel had waited too long. On the floor lay a dead miner his head blown away by a self inflicted wound. Able sighed. There was no way he might fool Arne Thorgaut about this miner surviving. There was simply too much of a mess in the airlock to be hidden.
Abel realized that the rest of his day would be theatre. Theatre intended for Arne Thorgaut and his few remaining thugs. Abel rushed back Founder's Road to the hospital. But not too fast. He wanted the many citizens who had become attracted to the commotion to see him hurrying to the ER. As Abel approached the hospital entrance Stephen Klein, the newscaster, stood at the doorway with a microphone in his hand.
"I'm sorry Stephen," said Abel knowing his words would be broadcast within the hour. "But we have captured a terrorist, only slightly wounded, and I need to interrogate him right now."
Abel rushed through the door to the ER as Stephen shouted out a question that Abel did not hear. The die was cast.
Abel entered the ER and an orderly pointed down the hall. "Don't let anyone in to see the wounded man," shouted Abel as he raced down the hall. Abel looked into several stations, saw nothing, and then proceeded on to the doc-box section of the ER. There he saw Dr. Auber standing next to a doc-box. She looked up at Abel and shook her head.
"He's dead?" asked Abel.
"Yes," replied Dr. Auber. "He bled out, but you probably figured that out."
"Now let's engage in some theatre to catch Thorgaut. Let say he's alive but in intensive care."
"Well," replied the Doctor. "It is not a he. It is a she. And although she is clearly brain dead the doc-box will keep the body alive for some time. I was about to shut it down and let the body die just as you arrived."
Abel paused in thought. "No. Lets keep the body alive. Let the word out that we are working on her."
"Abel," replied Dr. Auber, "That is hardly ethical. The woman is brain dead and keeping the body alive is kind of ghoulish. My ethics training says we should stop all exceptional measures once the brain is gone. And I can assure you that this brain is dead."
Abel responded. " Freydis, listen. We need to capture or kill Thorgaut. He just tried to steal enough bomb making materials to blow up half the Habitat."
"I still don't know Abel. We should let this woman go."
"She is already gone Freydis. It is just that shell that is still working and it can work for us in capturing that madman."
Dr. Auber stood shaking her head and Abel could see that she was unsure as what action to take.
"Freydis, it is hardly ethical to blow up the plaza and kill nine and wound dozens of others. The man uses our morality and ethics against us. Let's turn the tables here, just once and use one of his thugs against him."
Dr. Auber looked resigned to Abel's concerns. "Ok, just this once. Hell, I don't know what I am saying. But I'll go along for a while. Now what do you plan on doing with this body."
"Lets keep the body in the box and apparently alive. Get me some hospital clothing. Like the orderlies wear. I'll get Bennet to dress as an orderly. Bennet will pass in and out of the room as if on rounds. He will leave this room conspicuously empty for predictable periods of time. I'll post some others about as well; worried relatives, other patients, a custodian. I'll put a few camera's in the passageway and here in this room."
Dr. Freydis Auber thought a moment. "All right. But no guns. No guns in the Hospital. Promise me Abel. There will be no shoot out in my ER."
Abel took a breath and lied. "Yes Freydis, no guns."
Two hours later, and well after the first news broadca
st by Stephen Klein, Abel had set his trap in the Hospital. He walked back to his office only one minute away from the ER. Chief of ES Taylor Godfrid sat waiting for Abel as he entered.
Abel walked to the coffee urn. "What do you have Taylor?"
"The woman is Gabriel 'Gabs' Maron. Aged 46, part time miner with a long record of shop lifting, public drunkenness, and other minor crimes."
Abel thought a moment and vaguely remembered the woman. "Related to Pat Maron one of Arne's thugs who killed four council members and their families?"
"Yea. She was his wife. Well part time wife is a better description. I have been checking this out and I think she was not active in the coup. She might well have known what her husband was going to do, but she seemed to play no active part. But when the courts found him guilty of sixteen murders and ordered his execution she seems to have gone off her rocker. I have a number of texts in which she uses threatening language against both the constabulary and the OCN."
"And the other man. The suicide in the air lock?"
"Billy Linford. Another out of work miner which right now is odd in itself since every miner in the Commonwealth is working to keep up with OCN demand. After the coup he seemed to disappear and we have had him on a watch list for months. Somehow he slipped into the Habitat to steal those chemicals with Gabs."
"Anyone else?"
"Not really. The Sovereignty Alliance and Arne are not too popular these days. And if they relied on Gabs to help in the theft they are scraping the bottom of the barrel as it were."
"The dock. Anything on the dock?"
Rob replied, "Yea. We found a runabout sitting in the public dock. It was still warm probably from their arrival. We are checking records now to see if we can determine the direction they came from, but I doubt it will be useful. We found traces of those chemicals in the runabout as well. Probably from the first batch they stole."
"Any other runabouts reported missing or stolen?"
"Abel you know that's an impossible request. Kids are constantly building up and tearing down their runabout projects. To make it worse they swap parts, even shells, all the time. Tracking any runabout is just impossible. But with one of Arne's runabouts blown up back in November and this one captured he must be hurting for transportation."
Chapter Eighty One
Wu System - Holgata Station - Year 3247. August 28 ET: 19:23
Toni sat in her office aboard the Liner Wu Ascending. The liner was docked to the hub of the station to facilitate the work of the construction engineers. Hrist had towed the destroyed old SAR to the Severan portal and placed it about 90,000 kilometres before the entry and then Hrist positioned itself behind the portal along with the Wu Revenue Cutter. The distance was chosen to place the old SAR just outside the kill zone for Dumbbell anti-matter weapons. If the incoming ship were hostile it would move toward the old SAR immediately and close the distance to perhaps 80,000 kilometres before launching a torpedo.
They did not need to wait long.
"Entry from Severan Portal." The comms link to Hrist squealed.
Toni wanted to know more but knew that Captain Baxter would supply all the information he had as quickly as he could gather it. There was no sense in urging him on.
Hrist's comm continued, "It's a probe of some kind."
Toni stood and held her comms mic. "Kill it. Use the plasma cannon to conserve ammunition, but kill it."
Moments later Hrist confirmed the kill.
The OCN had recently adopted the practice of sending a probe through the entry portal prior to having a ship transit to the system. The probe would provide an immediate update about system conditions without having to wait for a full systems scan which could often take hours. If the incoming probe was anything like the ones the OCN used, then Toni could expect entry of a ship through the Severan portal in a few hours.
Five hours passed with nothing. Then six and seven.
"Entry from Severan Portal." Again Hrist comm squawked.
At the fastest speed a SAR could generate within the debris filled system of Wu, she knew that the trip from the Severan entry portal to Wu Station took over 30 hours. Toni also knew from painful experience that Dumbbell ships were slower than SARs but far more powerfully armed.
Hrist continued its' report. "It's a Dumbbell. Preparing to fire on your orders Commodore Hamilton."
Toni counted to three, but before she could give the order for Hrist to fire the Dumbbell launched an anti-matter torpedo toward the old SAR Ragnarök. Upon the launch Hrist opened fire with four sand casters immediately followed by four 'K's. The sand casters were fast and the distance was sufficient for them go gain the speed they needed to be effective. Well before the slow torpedo reached the derelict SAR the anti-matter missile exploded from the impact of hundreds of tiny particles of sand travelling at 60% of the speed of light. From Toni's position on the bridge, and even at a great distance from the explosion, the flash of light was blinding. The liner was not equipped with automatic vid attenuation for sudden brilliant flashes of light and it took time for Toni's eyes to adjust. A secondary explosion followed far brighter than the first. However the result was obvious. Both the Dumbbell and the old SAR Ragnarök had been caught in the Dumbbell's own torpedo's kill zone. Only gas and tiny bits of metal remained.
Toni was not one to cheer, but she did smile. However her arm started to throb in pain.
"Another entry from Severan Portal. It's another Dumbbell."
Toni immediately opened her mic. "Kill the bastard."
Hrist launched casters again followed by 'K's. Tony stood and left the bridge and walked the sort distance to the weapons station on the unfinished Holgata Hub. Moments later the liner Wu Ascending departed for the station to begin evacuation of Wu Station.
Tony entered the tiny command post which consisted of a command chair, a pilot's station, a weapons post, and a defense station. Elliot Weston was seated at weapons and had already initiated the loading of sand casters in Holgata station's few launch tubes. Toni looked at the weapons display. They had 32 'K's and another 32 sand casters. Defense was manned by Gigi Swanson, but since the station was simply uncompleted there really was no defensive capability.
"Mr. Weston. Prepare to fire a brace of casters please. On my mark."
Elliot took a brief look at Toni as she stood in the command post. All Elliot could think of was how cool and collected Commodore Hamilton looked and this gave Elliot comfort as he tried hard to look just as cool and collected. After all Elliot thought, our Commodore has been through this before and even taken out a Dumbbell.
"Wu Station is firing Commodore," said Gigi Swanson almost shouting. Gigi realized too late that she was speaking too loud and consciously now tried to speak at a dull tone of voice and almost in a whisper in the very quiet weapons station of the Holgata. She wanted the Commodore to respect her.
"Mark!" Said Toni and through the vid screen she caught the momentary streak of light that indicated that four casters were on their way to meet the second Dumbbell.
Toni heard Hrist on the comms. "I am alternating casters with 'K's but the Dumbbell seems reluctant to fall for the exploding close-in torpedo trick. I'm switching over to only K's for the next few rounds."
"Give me an impact count Mr. Weston on our volley."
"18 seconds and counting. 17, 16, 15..." Weston began the countdown as Toni called for another round of sand casters from the auto loaders.
"3, 2, 1, impact." Toni strained to see the distant ship on the vid screen but it was simply too far out. Instead she relied on the Hrist's assessment.
Hrist comm squawked again. Your casters are blistering her paint and keeping her from launching torpedoes. We have hit that thing six times out of 16 'K's. Launching another volley now."
"Mark" Toni called out again as another round of casters sped out from the hub toward the Dumbbell.
"Another impact count Mr. Weston."
"Impact in 28 seconds. 27, 26, 25..."
"Load up another rou
nd please Mr. Weston."
Seconds later four casters from Holgata impacted simultaneously with six casters from Wu Station's battery. Shortly there after two 'K's from Hrist impacted on the lower portion of the Dumbbell which held its' Hitti designed dirty engines.
Hrist's comm squawked again. "That's a hard hit. She is venting plasma from her engine section."
Toni keyed the mic. "Keep shooting."
"Mr. Weston, Mark."
Again another volley was launched by Holgata.
Moments later Hrist reported that they had hit the connecting section of the Dumbbell only once, but that she was changing course.
Mr. Weston load 'K's prepare an intercept course for the 'K's at the departure tunnel for Elegy. If she runs that's probably the direction she will take. Notify all stations that she is a runner and is probably headed to the Elegy portal.
"Give me a plot on that thing Mr. Swanson. Assume its on its' way to Elegy."
Two minutes later Gigi Swanson had a plot given the Dumbbell's direction and its' speed. Toni examined the plot and noticed that the Dumbbell was running at about half the speed she had noticed at Fitz. She was hurt.
"Send the plot to Hrist and Wu Station. I want to sprinkle her passage all the way to Elegy with 'K's. At her current speed she will take at least six hours to make it. Let's give them a happy send off. Perhaps all the way to hell."
Soon it became apparent that the damaged Dumbbell was not dodging and jinking to avoid the incoming missiles. An indication of either further damage or a simple panic reaction in a decision to run for it.
"We have six hours. Let's slow the pace of the 'K's. I want us to keep some of our munitions in case another one of those things comes through Severan.
Gigi Swanson notified Hrist which was following the Dumbbell but maintaining a distance needed to avoid the anti-matter torpedo kill zone. Wu Station also received notification and together they coordinated a regular but seemingly random firing order. Every twenty to forty minutes they would fire one, two, or three missiles. On one occasion they fired six. The Dumbbell was at the disadvantage of both being unable to predict when the missiles would be incoming as well as which of three directions the missiles originated.
